Last Bastion

by Rachel Aaron

  Leaving Frank to kick his feet up on the table like a boss, Tina went in search of the East Bastion Trade Company guild leader. Fortunately, Assets was easy to find. The dapper elf had taken over a large stone building in the rear of the complex and stuffed it full of supplies. A train of Trade Company players, all of whom were somehow now wearing green-and-gold tabards, streamed in and out constantly as they filled requests. Assets himself was standing on top of a tall crate in the middle, wearing what looked like a brand-new Armani suit and checking each order against the list on his improvised clipboard.

  Tina came over with a raised eyebrow. "Where'd you get the new duds?"

  "Hello to you too, Roxxy," Assets replied without looking up. "The East Bastion Trade Company has several players with maximum Tailoring skill. When all this is over, I'd love to start a fashion revolution on the side. Robes! Pssh! We can do so much better than that. Spell-casters the world over will want to wear my collections."

  "Well, just don't waste too much magical cloth."

  "That's my line," the golden elf said, frowning down at her. "You are being extremely liberal with our very limited supplies. At this rate of consumption, we won't last long."

  Tina shrugged. "Bricks of metal don't win wars unless we make them into swords. Think of it as an investment in our army."

  "An army that has sworn no loyalty and is not formally assembled," Assets snapped, brandishing his clipboard at her. "These people can leave with their shiny new gear any time they like while we're left holding the empty bag."

  "And where are they going to go?" Tina asked. "We're the only show in town."

  "Never expect a population to act rationally, Roxxy. That's the crux of modern economics." He sighed. "But that's not why you came here, is it?"

  "Nope," she said, handing him her own "quest." "I need to fix my armor, or I'll be no good on the front lines."

  Assets' perfectly trim eyebrows shot up as he looked at her list. "These are some very expensive ingredients. Also rare. I'm not even sure if we have some of them."

  Looking at the incredibly detailed list on his clipboard, Tina found that hard to believe. "This is mission critical. I'm the only tank here who can handle anything above a level eighty four-skull. Frank would be the other, but he's still too green to handle a serious threat on his own. I don't feel it's bragging to say that my gear is a strategically important asset. If it cracks, we're fucked."

  "Fair enough," the elf said with a sigh, checking things off his list. "We only have enough for one round of repairs, though. You'll have to make it last."

  "I'll do my best," Tina promised.

  Assets snapped his fingers, and a crew of Trade Company workers loaded Tina up with a portable magic anvil and three crates of shining metal that smelled like warm sunlight. She thanked Assets and, arms piled high, trotted off to the north side of the island.

  It was a surprisingly nice place to set up shop. To the north, a waterfall poured down the green mountains into the high foothills before tumbling into the city, where it flowed south, eventually splitting around Camp Comeback's hill. The swiftly running water had been clear and blue last night, but the wind must have shifted, because today the flow was murky with ash. Tina saw dozens of players, not to be discouraged in their quests, spread out along the river's banks. Armed with makeshift fishing poles, they doggedly tried to fill their quest sacks with as many fish as possible.

  It was a bright, idyllic scene. The fires must be burning themselves out at last, because the haze of smoke was no longer blocking the sky, leaving the noonday sun to shine bright and warm as she sat down in the thick grass to begin removing her armor.

  It took some doing. The silver elven runes that held her suit together were hidden in hard-to-reach places. She had to bend herself into a pretzel, but eventually she got her chest plate, leg plates, and so on to unlock.

  As each piece came off, Tina sighed in relief. It hadn't felt like it, but she'd been in this suit for days now. Other than her boots, she hadn't removed any of it since before the transition. When all dozen or so pieces were removed, her whole body felt as light as a feather. Even with the strength the armor gave her, there was no denying how murderously heavy the stuff was, or how disgusting. The inside looked worse than the outside.

  Apologizing to her precious suit, Tina knelt in the grass by the river and started scrubbing each piece of her gear with the large brush from the blacksmithing crate Assets had given her. When it was all clean and lying in the sun behind her, Tina looked down to discover that she was every bit as gross.

  Since clothes provided no ability bonuses, Tina had never bothered equipping Roxxy with a shirt or pants. She didn't even have underwear, though on closer inspection, she found she didn't need it. Her stone body had none of the things underwear was designed to cover: no nipples or orifices of any sort other than her mouth. Everything else was just smooth curved stone, like a statue.

  Noticing that creeped Tina out more than anything else had so far. Even her diet of magical rocks didn't feel as weird and dehumanizing as discovering there was literally nothing between her legs. Now that she thought about it, she realized she hadn't had to pee since the transition. She drank water, but it was like topping off the fluids in a car. She was just replacing what she'd lost to evaporation and blood loss, not keeping cells alive.

  None of this should have surprised her since stonekin were magical amalgams created by the Bedrock Kings to fight the undead, but knowing that you were a magical rock monster was very different from actually seeing the proof. Tina must have stood on the riverbank for a good five minutes, poking and prodding her stone body, which, since she was naked by human standards, definitely got her some weird looks from the nearby fishers. But though she could feel the sun's warmth on every inch of her, Tina didn't feel exposed. She just felt like a rock. A super cut rock.

  "Damn," she said, running a hand over her literally chiseled abs. Her legs and arms were blocks of muscle as well, which made sense considering she wore six hundred pounds of plate armor all day every day. She still didn't understand why a stonekin needed boobs or shapely hips or a perky butt, but it was comforting to know she still had something human left. Ironically, Roxxy's sexless statuesque body actually had more curves than Tina's real one, which was just unfair. Especially since she no longer seemed to care if anyone noticed.

  Sighing at that depressing thought, Tina dunked herself into the water. As expected from a mountain river, the Heraldsford was shockingly cold, but other than a mental preference for warmth, her stonekin body didn't seem to care about temperature. She scrubbed her granite skin with the same coarse brush she'd used on her armor, taking advantage of her newly discovered ability to hold her breath for crazy-long periods of time to dunk her head and wash each of her copper dreadlocks one by one.

  When she was clean from head to toe, Tina hauled herself out of the river and got out the enchanted anvil, a freestanding hunk of fire-enchanted iron the size of a car engine, and put her battered breastplate on it. She wasn't entirely sure how the thing worked, but just like her Knight class abilities, the knowledge from her max-level blacksmithing skill came the moment she reached for it. A few test hits with the hammer, and she was quickly removing dents and warped bits like a pro. When she reached for the box of sun-metal, though, all she could say was, "Ooo."

  While not a lore buff like SilentBlayde and James, Tina still knew that sun-metal was primal stuff. The ancient celestial elves had had a method for capturing the first rays of the Sun every morning and turning them solid. That primordial light had been made into many things, metal being just one of them. But while that knowledge was long lost, there were still elves alive--or at least, there had been in the game--who could make sun-metal using alchemical contraptions, which was probably where this box had come from.

  Even with that, though, the metal was super rare and expensive. And pretty. Oh, so pretty. It felt like steel, but it shone the same yellow-white as the sun did the very first moment it c
ame over the horizon. It was warm to the touch and had an inner light that gleamed even in total blackness. It was a real shame she had to alloy it with earth-imbued steel, but her blacksmithing skills told her that pure sun-metal was vulnerable to cold and cold-based attacks. Sighing in disappointment, Tina beat the metals together with her magical hammer, turning the lovely golden bricks into much more sturdy yellow-tinged steel. When it came time to beat it into her breastplate, though, that was when Tina finally came to understand what "forged by the gods" really meant.

  As a top-level blacksmith, she could make some amazing armor, but none of it compared to this. She didn't understand how the layers of alloys could be so thin or so numerous or how the wave pattern on the inside worked at all. Maybe it reinforced kinetic distribution. She had no idea. The armor she'd won from the Dead Mountain was advanced far beyond her understanding, ringing under her blows with literal divine harmony.

  Wiping her brow, Tina looked up at the sun gleaming in the sky. Anders had told her once that he could feel the presence of the divine Sun whenever he cast spells. She'd thought it was just his nerves at the time, but when she hammered the holy metal, Tina could have sworn she could feel divine eyes looking down on her, guiding the metal as it bent and re-formed itself beneath her hammer until, not fifteen minutes later, she proudly held up her whole, flawless breastplate.

  It gleamed beautifully in the sunlight, making her yearn to brush and polish it even more. Her precious armor deserved no less, but she was getting worried about Frank, so she sighed and picked up the next piece, her poor mangled arm guard.

  After that, she fell into a sort of divine meditative state as she worked. With the Sun guiding her hammer, her mind was free to worry about SilentBlayde. For the millionth time, she kicked herself for letting him go alone. She should have sent a team, should have turned the whole goddamn raid around. If she'd been wiser, less cocky, he'd be here with her.

  She missed him. She missed his cheerfulness and the way he could always make her laugh. She missed his constant comforting presence in her shadow. She even missed his bad puns. Most of all, though, Tina missed having someone to talk to. She didn't really have any other real friends here. David was dead, Neko was a pain, DarkKnight was Frank now, and the other four Roughneck healers were all B-string raiders she saw once a week at best. She didn't know any of them half as well as they knew each other, and when they did speak to her, it was always as their raid leader, not as her.

  Good and depressed, Tina pounded her hammer on a particularly large dent in her shield. Caught up in her work and her moping, she didn't notice the fisher-players pointing at the city until Killbox's shout made her jump. When she whirled around, one of the Roughnecks' kill patrols was running across Camp Comeback's northern bridge with their weapons drawn. On the other side, a rag-covered NPC was sprinting out of the city straight toward the incoming players. He didn't look like much of a threat to Tina, who was gearless anyway, so she just stood there and watched as Killbox's patrol moved in to intercept.

  But Killbox didn't swing at the beggar. He and the other Roughnecks ran right past him, sprinting off the bridge toward the pack of Royal Knights who were chasing right on the beggar's heels.

  Swearing loudly, Tina grabbed her weapons off the grass and ran in to cut the beggar off herself. Killbox and the others were still pursuing the knights, who'd turned right back around and started sprinting in the other direction the moment they saw the players, but she wasn't about to let some random NPC use her patrols as cover to sneak into her camp. She'd almost made it to the bridge when the fleeing NPC tore off his ratty cloak, revealing long golden hair and a dirty, tired elven face. It was the same face as a dozen other elves in the camp behind her, but Tina recognized the way he looked at her instantly, even without his mask.

  "Blayde!"

  Her sword and shield hit the ground as she sprinted forward, and she snatched him up in a huge bear hug. "I'm so glad you're alive!" she cried, burying her face in his sooty hair. "I was so worried!"

  SB patted his hands against her shoulders, softly at first, then harder, his chest spasming as he choked. "Mercy, Roxxy! Mercy!"

  She let go at once, and he dropped to the ground gracefully. But though she'd only been squeezing him for a few seconds, his face was still beet red, and he was panting hard.

  "I'm so sorry," she said, kneeling down so she could look at his face. "Did I hurt you?"

  SilentBlayde shook his head and looked determinedly at his feet. "I'm not... that is..." His face got even redder. "What happened to your clothes?"

  Tina blinked and looked down, realizing far too late that she was still naked. She paused, waiting for the mortification to kick in, but just like earlier when she'd noticed the players gawking at her by the river, it didn't come.

  That was slightly alarming. Just a few days ago, the thought of being naked in front of SB would have had her climbing the walls. Now it barely even fazed her. She was far more concerned with how pale he was around the blush, how tired and bloody and wounded.

  "Oh shit, dude," she said, reaching out to steady him. "You need heals! What happened?"

  "It's a long story," he said weakly. "But I... I couldn't get James. I'm so sorry."

  Tina's breath caught, and then she shook her head. "It'll be what it'll be," she said firmly. "He's the one who decided to run. He can fend for himself for a bit. I'm just happy you're alive, and speaking of."

  She grabbed a low-level Cleric--who had been fishing nearby--and ordered him to dump as much healing as he could spare into SB. It wasn't enough to get him back to full, but he still looked worlds better when it was over. The healing euphoria left him weaving drunkenly, so Tina helped him down the hill to the grassy stretch by the river where she'd been working.

  "Sit," she ordered.

  SB flopped down in the grass by her anvil, leaning toward the magically warmed steel as if it were a cozy fire. Tina sat down beside him, smiling like an idiot when their hands met seemingly of their own accord.

  "I really missed you," she said, squeezing his fingers gently so she wouldn't hurt him again. "I can't say how happy I am that you're back safe."

  "I missed you, too, Tina," he whispered, leaning his head against her shoulder.

  Tina breathed in deeply. Even when it was sweaty and dirty, she could still smell the scent of the clear sky drifting up from his golden-yellow hair. The scent fogged her brain and sent it spinning. Her body remained annoyingly inert, but it was so nice to feel something, Tina didn't even care that it was turning her into an idiot.

  "It wasn't the same around here without you," she said when she regained the ability to use words. "No puns at all."

  He chuckled weakly. "Things too square, then?"

  "More like a rhombus of insanity," she tossed back.

  "Good thing I'm back. I've got an angle on the problem."

  "I appreciate your acute help."

  "I take it everyone else has been obtuse?"

  Tina couldn't take it anymore. She threw her head back with a groan that turned into a laugh. SilentBlayde joined her, both of them falling backward to lie on their backs in the warm grass.

  "God, I missed you," she said, sighing, and smiled at the blue sky. "It's been awful not having you around. I was a wreck. You don't even know."

  He wiggled happily at her words. "You seem to have done all right for a supposed wreck," he said, pushing up on his elbow to look around at the busy base. "This place is incredible! I can't believe you slapped all of this together in one night and a morning."

  "Never underestimate the power of players in large numbers," Tina told him proudly. "And I didn't do it alone. We've got a multi-guild coalition thing going with the East Bastion Trade Company and Red Sands. CincoDeMurder in particular has been super useful. And surprisingly politic."

  SB's blue eyes flashed with an emotion Tina didn't recognize. For a stupid, crazy moment, she hoped it was jealousy. Whatever it was, it vanished instantly, replaced by polite interest.r />
  "Cinco's here?" he said casually. "I'm not surprised he survived. That guy is a combat monster in game and out. I used to merc for Red Sands whenever they were short for guild-versus-guild battles. They're good players." He tilted his head at her. "How did you end up working together?"

  She told him the story of what had happened after she'd sent him after James. As she talked, SB stretched back out in the grass beside her, which only made everything better. She couldn't remember being happier than she was right now, lying in the sun while SilentBlayde rested next to her, their arms touching. Then he tilted his head to rest it on her shoulder, and things got even better. The surge of joy she felt was so strong, she got lost in the middle of explaining of the quest system, which was fine since SB didn't seem to be listening anymore, anyway. He just lay there beside her, staring at the sky, breathing slowly, like he wanted to stretch each breath out.

  Since he wasn't looking at her, Tina took the rare opportunity to study him. For all the changes being trapped in FFO had brought, SB had always been her constant. She'd only ever known him as the elf Assassin, SilentBlayde, and other than things being real now, he didn't look or act any differently now than he had before the transition. If anything, being sucked into FFO had just made him feel even more... him.

  Tina took a moment to consider that. Before she'd stupidly sent him after her idiot brother, Blayde had said he couldn't give her anything of Haruto, his real self. His secrets had always been a huge problem--not because she was worried about what he was hiding but because he was hiding them from her. No matter how close they got or how much she let him in, he'd never trusted her enough to do the same, which kind of made any hopes she had for a long-term relationship back home impossible. Now, though, Tina had to wonder if she really needed to know. They were here, in another world, together. Whatever he was hiding back home couldn't reach them in this place. Maybe she should just let her worries go and grab the happiness that was in front of her. Everyone else in camp seemed to be doing so with reckless abandon. Why not them?