Ryuk wipes his mouth. He looks to FeeTwix, who has his arm around Zaena and a stupid grin on his face.
Hiccup tugs on his sleeve and Ryuk bends to him. “Before you ask,” he whispers, “It’s a drinking game called Boaster Toaster. Someone starts the toast, and whoever is around has to also make a toast until everyone has done so, that, or the one of the people drinking passes out, whichever comes first.”
“I see.”
“The only other way to lose is to not drink or pass out. If you don’t drink, you are forced to take all the shots for the next round, and by forced I mean someone will cram a bottle of drorikh up your ass and hold you upside down until it’s all gone. You see that guy over there?” Hiccup uses his nose to point to a bucculent mimbo with manboobs. He sits at the very last bar stool, swaying like the top of a palm in a light breeze. “Fatty’s our guy; he’s just about sauced enough to let his words spill easy.”
“You think he knows something?” Ryuk asks. FeeTwix steps around him, off to carry shots to the druids in the far booth.
Hiccup switches to instant message system.
Hiccup: Do you see the griffin logo on his back? That’s the emblem of the Aramis Solid Waste Management and Abatement Service.
Ryuk: How do you know all this?
Hiccup: Are you setting me up to say, I drink and I know things? Because if you are, I’m not saying it. Just because I’m short, of questionable character and indifferent hygiene, yet somehow one of the most important characters in this shared narrative of ours doesn’t mean you should compare me to Tyrion Lannister. And seriously, can’t the commoners in Tritania get some other fantasy references?
Ryuk: I have no idea what you’re talking about.
Hiccup: Sure ya don’t, kiddo. Any fickin’hoo, that’s our mark. He’ll tell us where in the Guild District the Shinigami are staying. Mark my words.
The bard takes a small Ocarina flute from a string around his neck. He blows into producing a single, mid-range note, takes a deep breath, and begins:
“For I’m a jolly good fellow,
For he’s a jolly good fellow,
For we are jolly good fellows,
That no drunkard can deny!
That no drunkard can deny!
That no drunkard can deny!
We are jolly good fellows,
We are jolly good fellows,
We are jolly good fellows,
That no drunkard can deny!
Aye! Aye! Aye!”
“Aye, aye, aye!”
Ryuk gives Hiccup a queasy look. He’s gotten wasted in Tritania before and oddly enough, it gave him a splitting headache when he logged out.
“Tie your shoe, Marbles.”
“My what?”
“Shoes.”
“They don’t have laces. I’m wearing boots.”
“Bend forward, you idiot.” Hiccup hisses. Ryuk bends over and the goblin swiftly palms his shot, throws it back, and places the empty shot glass back in his hand. He claps Ryuk on the back. “Don’t say I never did nothing for you.”
A shot glass smashes on the floor, the shards of which bounce off Ryuk’s feet.
“Another round!” Zaena announces, a single finger held high.
Cid the bartender starts pouring out another round and as he does, the mark Hiccup pointed out earlier begins to wobble. He drops his head onto the bar, picks it up, rolls his neck back all in an attempt to keep from falling.
Hiccup claps his hands together. “Fick yeah, Ryuk, it looks like we’re just one shot away from scoring bigly.”
As FeeTwix hands more shots to the barbarians and druids in the back, Hiccup again climbs the bar stool and quickly speaks to Cid. The bartender nods, points to the private room in the back, and returns to pouring shots.
“Good to go,” the goblin tells Ryuk once he rejoins him. “Keep your toast short, Liz. We got places to go and people to interrogate.”
Zaena raises her shot glass and cries out in a throaty, melodic trill. Her throat turns red as she continues to warble. A quick glance around and Ryuk sees that several of the burlier men in the bar now openly shed tears. He looks to Hiccup to find him holding his hand over his heart. The Thulean continues for just a moment longer, stops, and bows.
“Takha bae bitakh novlaa rakh Aya Bortaetae;
Huborakha, Polonkhya, Hutamae Dulekh.”
The goblin says without looking away. “It’s an ode to the three floating continents of Tritania.”
Zaena raises her shot glass to her lips and before she throws it back she cries, “Aye! Aye! Aye!” in a high pitched voice.
“Aye! Aye! Aye!” Everyone tosses back their shot, including Ryuk who is so swept up in the strangely magical moment that he doesn’t see Hiccup’s patsy slide off his barstool and crack his noggin on the floor.
Everyone cheers at the sight of the fallen man and as quickly as it started, the drinking game known as Boaster Toaster is over.
Chapter 18: A tendril of white magic
Zaena and Ryuk exit Barfly’s, both a bit tipsy. The Mitherfickers have the info they need, mostly through Hiccup’s ingenious yet pricy strategy of interrogating the drunk by offering him an off-world bottle of Jack Daniel’s.
It’s the Hour of the Pig, and the moon is hardly visible tonight. A slight moisture in the air signals an overnight shower to come, the vibrant buzz a sign that nightlife has begun. The streets of Bar Row are crowded with revelers of all classes, their universal struggle with dipsomania playing out in a few of the more absonant tipplers, most of whom are NPCs.
“You sure they’ll be all right?” Zaena asks.
Ryuk pulls his black hood over his head and shields his eyes. “Hiccup said that the bards were just paid. In my country, payday is one of the more popular days for drinking; many lose enough money that they are forced to borrow from EZ-PWNED payday loan sharks to make it to the next payday.”
Zaena snickers. “It doesn’t sound too different from here in that regard.”
“It really isn’t. I told myself I’d trust Hiccup, so we’ll see if that’s a mistake or not. What we have to do is … a lot more challenging.”
He feels something land on his shoulder. He turns to see Zaena a few meters away.
Known as ‘konoshlo’ in Thulean, he slowly removes her ghost limb, feeling for the first time that the end of the limb is very similar to a bird’s talon. Why do they call them limbs when they clearly have talons? It shrinks away before he can examine it any longer.
“How do they work anyway?” Ryuk has never been to clear on the Thulean’s ghost limbs aside from their origins.
“You really don’t know?” she stares at him suspiciously for a moment. “Come here, I’ll show you.”
As he approaches, she turns her back to him. They are still in the alley that leads to Barfly’s and he can see the Croc the doorman watching them from his stool next to the door.
“Are you sure?”
“Touch them.”
The chainmail armor on her back has two slits woven into it. Jutting out of the two slits are two small stumps that are completely invisible.
“Interesting,” he says as his hand cross moves across the relatively smooth surface. The stump on the left comes to life, forming three talons as it extends out of her back.
“And they can go three times the length of your body?”
Her short bob of orange hair bounces as she nods.
“What about their strength?”
They land onto Ryuk’s shoulder and lift him about a meter into the air.
“Whoa!” They quickly drop him back to the ground. “Very, um, interesting.”
“They can get in the way sometimes,” Zaena admits as she takes the lead, “but only if I let them.”
The two exit the alley and follow the horseshoe all the way to the end of the Bar Row. Avoiding drunks, thugs, muggers, stragglers, and thieves is the name of the game, and they do so by moving quickly, keeping their heads up and their weapons at the ready. Ryuk still
hasn’t used his marble gun in battle, but he has a feeling this will come very soon.
He first had the idea back in the bar, when they were again rehashing tonight’s plan over another round of fermented dragon’s milk, this one courtesy of the house after Hiccup forked over a quarter of their net worth for the off-world bottle of Jack.
Rescue Tamana tonight, was his thought, and now, as they move towards the Guild District, Ryuk feels emboldened by the idea, no matter how dangerous it may be and regardless of the fact that the alcohol has lowered his inhibitions and boosted his courage.
We need to do this tonight.
It is the only way forward, and even though his plan is no more elaborate than ‘rescue Tamana,’ it feels like the right thing to do. He just needs to figure out how to propose it to Zaena.
“There’s the back entrance for the Guild District,” Zaena says, after they’ve made their way down the long and winding road that leads to the trees on the city’s perimeter. “Hiccup said that the Mondegreen Hostel is along the Bonsor River, east of the back entrance.”
With his hood over his head, Ryuk suddenly feels bigger and more intimidating than he has ever felt before. Even his dream armor goes around it, allowing for the hood to peek out of the top. Which reminds him – if FeeTwix and Hiccup can actually come out ahead tonight, he’ll need to get a helm, as much as he hates wearing them. Or he could just keep to the back, and let his guildmates man the frontlines.
Maybe I’ll just do that after all, a slingshot is supposed to be used with some range.
Zaena’s ghost limb brushes against his shoulder. “Something’s on your mind, isn’t it?”
“That’s a pretty accurate way to put it.” He stops in front of a guildhall with a door that opens to the street. A pair of bracket-mounted crystal balls glow with thaumaturgic energy, illuminating the guild’s nameplate. “The drorikh is clouding my thoughts.”
“Tell me anyway, what are you thinking about?”
“If I tell you, will you promise to actually consider it before telling me ‘no’?”
She chuckles. “Yeah, of course. Any time the quietest one in any group speaks, I tend to listen more carefully. It’s something my tutor always said to do. What’s up? What’s on your mind?” She settles her orange slit eyes on him.
Ryuk bites his lip for a moment and feels the confidence spread through him as he says, “You and I will rescue Tamana tonight, alone.”
(0)__(0)
Ryuk sits down onto his bed and takes out the three magazines he still needs to load with marbles. The four-story Mondegreen Hostel is run by an immiNPC named Jim. Their room is on the first floor, a secret room with an entrance through a bookcase in the lobby. The hostel was otherwise full, and Jim offered it to them at the low, low price of double.
He presses black marbles into the magazine, watching as Zaena equips a few blades and lays them out on her bed.
“We should tell them.” A belt studded with small sheaths forms around her waist and she loads it with throwing knives. “It’s the right thing to do.”
“If we tell them, FeeTwix and Hiccup will rush over here and join us. I’m not saying we don’t need them, but we will completely lose the element of surprise with those two around. Look – I’m a former ninja and you’re an assassin; who better to infiltrate a guildhall? Think about it.”
“I did, and like I told you, I’m in.” A wolfish smile lifts Zaena’s pointed ears.
Ryuk finishes loading black marbles into the magazine, returns it to his inventory list, and takes an empty magazine, which he also loads with black marbles. He returns it to his list and grabs the last magazines, which he alternates with black and knife marbles.
Dory the Weaponsmith suggested that rather than wear the magazines on his belt, it’s best to put them at the bottom of his inventory list so he doesn’t have to worry about scrolling to equip them when a magazine runs out. Most players can access their lists in the blink of an eye, so he’ll be able to replace the magazines ultra-fast.
“Let’s go.” Only once he is at the door does he turn back to Zaena. “I’m serious, and if you aren’t up to it, that’s fine by me too, but I have to rescue her tonight. I just feel like it’s the right thing to do.”
Zaena raises an eyebrow at him. “Are you doing this because you love her?”
He clears his throat. “That’s not how I’d describe it. Tamana and I have been friends for a very long time, but romantically, we’ve never been linked.” Ryuk quickly remembers how he failed to ask her out and cringes at himself. “We’ve never dated.”
“Why not?”
“Because of all this – this world,” he halfway lies. “We were always having such a damn good time here that it really never came up.”
“So you do love her then?” Zaena’s eyes soften.
“What do you want me to say to that?”
She stands and approaches him. Her ghost limbs grab him by the front of his armor and pull him the rest of the way to her. “I want you to say that you love her, then I’ll help you,” she says with a mischievous grin.
“Are you … drunk or something?”
“I had the same number of shots as you. So maybe.” She laughs, but she doesn’t release him. “Consider it part of leveling up: come to grips with who you really are and how you really feel. Come to think of it, I think I had more shots than you. I saw Hiccup taking your shots for you.”
Ryuk is suddenly embarrassed. His face flushes red as he says, “Fine, I do love her then. Happy?”
She releases him immediately. “Good, let’s get going.”
They exit through the bookcase into the hostel’s entry way. Jim, the owner, stands immediately and walks around to the other side of the counter. He places his hands behind his back and asks, “Is there anything the lady and my young lord will be needing this evening?”
“Thanks, but we’re fine.” Ryuk returns his hood to his head. “We’re going out; if our guildmates, a blond-haired commoner and a cranky goblin come, please show them to the room.”
“Very well,” Jim calls after them.
The door slams shut and the two step into the streets.
“We’re actually not very far from their guildhall. Hiccup said that it would be this way,” she turns left, “and that it’s surrounded by the largest stone wall in the district. Lucky for us, I have ghost limbs.”
The Guild District is relatively quiet aside from the occasional conversation carried by the wind. Smoke from the chimney of a nearby blacksmith guild tickles his nostrils. It is by no means a cold night – it is rarely cold on the floating continent of Hyberborea, other than in the Klin Mountains – but he feels a chill anyway, possibly an effect of the alcohol leaving his system.
“That must be it,” Zaena whispers as they turn down a lane that leads away from the Bonsor River. A guildhall sheltered by walls that are at least three meters high is situated at the end of the cobblestone road. The rented guildhall is a bad choice if one wishes to maintain a low profile. It’s big, suspiciously imposing, and the alley that separates it from other guilds makes it easier to approach unnoticed.
Just to be sure, Ryuk checks the building stats and finds out that it is indeed the home of the Shinigami’s alias – the Ripazu – just like the fat guy told Hiccup.
“To the left,” Zaena says, “follow my lead.”
“Got it.”
Ryuk brings his marble gun up holds it ready. He’s not sure of how this is going to play out, and try as he might, his Extreme Focus skill just isn’t coming online. They reach the alley separating the guildhall and keep as far from the scattered lanterns lighting the lane as they can.
Using her ghost limbs, Zaena lifts herself to the top of the wall and crouches in the shadow of a spike-shaped merlon.
Zaena: Face the wall. I’ll grab you, but you’ll still have to help climb.
Ryuk: Got it.
She catches him under the arms like a nanny lifting a toddler, and he rappels up the wall. He c
rouches next to another spike and covers the courtyard below.
Zaena: It’s awfully quiet.
Ryuk: There.
He senses the two NPC sentries before they actually step into an arc of light behind the main gate. His hand goes to his marble gun, but he decides on his slingshot instead. He palms two knife marbles, loads one in the pouch and holds the other one tight with his pinkie and ring finger.
Zaena: Are you sure?
Ryuk breathes in, lets half out and waits for the first guard to turn to the entrance. He lets loose and the knife marble strikes the guard square in the throat.
Tonsil shot! Instakill!
The other guard goes down with Ryuk’s second shot.
Tonsil shot! Instakill!
Skill level up! +3 LUCK!
Skill: Tonsil Shot
Level Two: 1 in 11 chance of connecting.
Damage: 24% if enemy is less than level 30; 12% if enemy is greater than level 30.
Odds of instakill: 10%
Requirements for instakill: LUCK > 7
EXP comes but he swipes it away. Zaena gives him the thumbs up. “Amazing shots.” With that, she slowly lets herself down into the courtyard. Ryuk waits for her to settle and keeps his eye on the front door of the Shinigami’s rented guild quarters.
Zaena: Do you feel my ghost limb? Use it to slide down.
As before, he feels a small jolt of electricity as he touches it with his bare hands. As soon as his feet hit the ground, he crouches and closes his eyes. He concentrates on his breathing for a moment, and as he does, the inside of his eyelids begin to populate with the world in front of him.
His Extreme Focus and Magic Eye skills working in tandem, Ryuk keeps his eyes closed for a moment, taking in as much detail as he possibly can. A faint green energy appears at the center of the guild. He opens his eyes and it disappears, closes them and it appears again.
Skill level up!
Skill: Magic Eye
Level Four: A colored glow indicates that magical properties are present. Higher levels allow for more detail and access to the Wikipedia of arcane knowledge. A red outline signals that a hidden enemy is near. A yellow outline signals that an object is enchanted. A dark blue outline signals that necrotic magic is being used. A green outline signals that algomagic is being used.
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