“Ugh, sorry,” I said with embarrassment, catching myself and then reaching for the length of leather in Constantine’s hands, trying to replay the last few seconds and coming up blank.
“Damn it, Lyr. We’ve all told you that you’ve been working yourself too hard!” Constantine exclaimed in a soft tone, keeping his voice down but still trying to convey the message. “If you’re that tired, you need to rest! The rest of us could have checked in here on our own!”
“I know,” I replied quietly, bringing my horse to a stop as I rubbed my eyes with a free hand. “But I felt I needed to be here, to shake hands and greet them, if nothing else. We’re not exactly bringing good news.”
“You feel the need to be everywhere, Lyr,” Sierra added from my other side, her tone matching Constantine’s perfectly. “Which is fine if you’re rested, but not when you’re so tired that you nearly fall off your horse!”
I sighed in response to both of my friends’ words, knowing all too well they were right. It hadn’t been completely necessary for me to have made the trek all the way out here with Sierra, Constantine and the other two scouts, but I had been stubborn enough to insist on coming anyway, just to meet the Hallowguarde guild in person.
Great job, Marc, I berated myself as I made to dismount from my horse, realizing that during my almost imperceptible nap, we had drawn close enough to the advancing wave of people that there was no chance that they hadn’t noticed my momentary slip-up. Your first impression with them is going to forever be nearly falling off your horse because you were too tired to stay awake.
With a huff of resignation, I pushed the thought out of my mind and moved to catch up with Bax and Natasha as they approached the group walking towards us, the pair clearly recognizing them as they approached. Slowing down, I forced my mind back into full awareness as our two groups closed in on one another, inspecting the three men before us carefully, having never had a chance to formally meet anyone from the guild before they had left Aldford.
The lead man, a tall and powerfully built Eberian in the center of the trio, caught my attention first, muscles rippling underneath his leather armor as he walked, hinting at him having chosen a melee oriented class, a suggestion somewhat confirmed by his completely clean-shaven head and the large axe hanging at his waist.
On the man’s left, walked a grey-haired half-elf, dressed in a similar style of leather armor as his companion. Though instead of an axe, the man carried a large greatbow that stretched nearly as long as he was tall, a feat made all the more impressive given that he was at least a head taller than I was. From this distance, I could already see his eyes scanning each of us, attempting to determine if we were a threat.
Lastly, on the other side of the lead man, was another Eberian, bearing plain if almost forgettable features. In fact, the man was so decidedly average I found myself doing a double take just because of it, trying to pinpoint something about him that stood out, but ended up coming short. Dressed in a plain linen shirt with dark pants, the brown-haired man stared at us blankly, no emotion visible on his face as we approached. As far as I could tell, the man didn’t even seem to have a weapon on him, something that I found to be rather peculiar given our proximity to the wild.
“Cassius!” Bax called, waving in greeting to the lead man in the group. “It looks like you’re all doing pretty well out here!”
“Is that you, Bax?” The man’s voice sounded both relieved and happy to see a friendly face, his posture immediately relaxing as his bright blue eyes swept over us. “Ah, Natasha! You came too! What do we owe the pleasure?”
“Just passing through,” Bax replied as he motioned his head towards me. “We have some news that you should all know about.”
“News?” Cassius asked with a raised eyebrow as he looked at me, his two other companions, doing the same. “What kind of news needs the Guildmaster of Virtus to deliver it?”
“Bad news, I’m afraid,” I answered in a heavy voice, having long since gotten over the fact that people recognized me by sight. “We’ve had a bit of trouble in the area, and we were wondering if you had seen anything.”
“What kind of trouble?” the half-elf asked, causing all our attention to shift to him.
“A few days ago, we were attacked by another group of Adventurers out in the wild,” I said. “Some of them belonged to the Grey Devils, others…we knew from another incident—”
“Carver or Graves?” The brown-haired man asked, his head cocking to the side as he posed the question.
“Carver,” I replied, taken aback by the man’s question. “How did—”
“We watched your feed very carefully before we came out here,” he explained not waiting for me to finish. “And as far as I know, that was the only other incident that happened out here. Plus, if it was anyone else…you wouldn’t have come here in person.”
There was a moment of silence as I stared at the brown-haired man blankly, my brain having skipped a beat at the man’s eerily accurate insight.
“Damn it, Berwyn. Knock that shit off in front of guests!” Cassius growled in exasperation, casting a glance at the man. “Bad enough you interrupt me all the time!”
“Can’t help that you’re so slow,” Berwyn replied with a dismissive shrug as Cassius took a step forward towards me, his hand outstretched in greeting.
“Nice to see that things are still in good spirits here,” Bax commented with a smirk.
“Don’t encourage him,” Cassius chastened the scout as we shook hands, turning his head towards me as he did so. “By the way, if you didn’t catch it, my name is Cassius Hart.”
“Lyrian Rastler,” I replied, my exhaustion making me momentarily forget that they likely all already knew my name. Panicking as I moved to cover my own faux pas, I gave the man a nod and pressed forward. “Nice to meet you formally this time around. I know we didn’t get a chance before you guys set out on your own.”
Smooth, I told myself sarcastically while simultaneously resolving to get through this meeting without a third slip up of some sort.
“Oh, don’t worry about that. There’s always too much to do when running your own settlement, though I’m sure you know that better than most,” Cassius said understandingly before he inclined his head towards his companions and continued introductions. “You’ve already had the pleasure of meeting Berwyn here, so I’ll just jump straight to the surly elf on the other side of me, Kilgore. The three of us make up the main council of the Hallowguarde guild and by extension our settlement here, Shadows Fall.”
“You sure are building fast out here,” I commented while Sierra and Constantine stepped forward to introduce themselves, taking the opportunity to look at the buildings in the distance a second time, realizing that I hadn’t noticed that the settlement was on the edge of a rather large lake. The thick and wild tree line had partially blocked the body of water in the distance from my earlier vantage point, save for a small section that I could now see through.
Looking at the settlement, I could see several people moving about as they continued about their day, the majority of their attention being focused on a large ditch that was slowly being dug around the growing hamlet.
“Hope you don’t mind us copying your idea for the ditch,” Cassius said after the introductions were over, noticing where my attention had drifted to. “But as Berwyn said earlier, we watched your feeds and saw firsthand on how well that particular defense worked out for you guys.”
“No problems here,” I replied, feeling quite impressed on how prepared Cassius and his guild were. I couldn’t help but wish once again that they had chosen to stay in Aldford, instead of settling out on their own. But I also understood their desire to be independent. “I was actually going to suggest the same if you hadn’t already started.”
One of Cassius’s eyebrow rose at that statement, followed by inquiring looks from Berwyn and Kilgore.
“What’s exactly going on, Lyrian?” Cassius asked. “You think Carver or someone is going to t
ry attacking us out here?”
“I don’t know…” I began with a sigh, before launching into my explanation of Carver’s attack and our belief that he had allied himself with a tribe of Orcs, relying on more than one occasion for Sierra or Constantine to fill in any gaps that I missed. “We haven’t seen or heard anything from him since our skirmish.”
“Well, we haven’t seen any orcs out here.” Kilgore was the first to answer after my explanation. “Nor any Adventurers we couldn’t account for either, though our hunting parties have largely ranged to the north and west.”
“The land breaks up something bad about a day to the east from here too, becoming broken scree and nearly barren,” Cassius added somewhat hesitantly. “We’ve been meaning to explore the area one day…but the creatures we’ve spotted out that way are in their mid-twenties level-wise, if not higher.”
“The Orcs are more than likely not out that way then,” I said, catching on to Cassius’s reservation in revealing a high-level hunting spot, not that any of us would survive against a creature more than ten levels higher than us. “And don’t worry, we won’t come poking around your area without an invitation, as you can probably tell our hands are pretty full already.”
“We’ll definitely keep an eye out if we catch sight of any orcs or Adventurers,” Cassius replied graciously while nodding in both understanding and appreciation. “Honestly, keeping you in the loop is the least we can do, and it costs nothing to send a message. On the other hand, Carver raiding each and every caravan that tries to make its way out here hurts all of us. The sooner we can put him and his group down for good, the better.”
“No argument there,” Sierra added. “Carver already had a lot to answer for, and it seems that his list keeps on growing.”
Everyone chorused in agreement at the red-haired woman’s statement, the three Hallowguarde members exchanging looks between one another and then focusing their attention back towards me.
“We’re still in the middle of working for the day, but we can offer you guys a place to stay for the night if you’re looking to wait until tomorrow to go back to Aldford,” Cassius offered. “I know it had to be a long trek, even with horses.”
“We appreciate the offer,” I said with a shake of my head as I moved to take a heavy pack off my horse. “But we’re going to have to keep moving; we just wanted to visit in person to let you know what was going on and to drop something off…”
I held out the pack in my hand towards Cassius, seeing Sierra and Constantine holding similar packages meant for Kilgore and Berwyn.
“It can be rough out here,” I said as Cassius took the pack from me and looked inside, his eyes widening as he scanned through the contents of the bag. “And we want you to know that Aldford, and Virtus, are around to help if you need it.”
“This is too much.” Cassius shook his head as he glanced at the other bags that my friends were holding. “We’re managing decently on our end here; we don’t need anything.”
“Think of it as a housewarming gift then. Plus, you might find yourself needing it later,” Sierra countered from beside me. “There’s no telling where any of this stuff with Carver might lead to. A bit of extra food and tools never goes wrong either.”
“Especially when it makes us stronger to fight Carver or the orcs if we need to,” Berwyn said pointedly, having already figured out one of the main reasons for our support.
“If it comes to that,” Constantine acknowledged with a nod. “But also, because we know all too well how the wild can be here. It’s the least we can do to help.”
“Well, if that’s the case, we certainly appreciate it,” Cassius said, throwing the pack over his shoulder and sticking his hand out towards me a second time to shake my hand. “And we’ll keep the sentiment in mind if we can ever repay the favor.”
“Finding Carver or his base would be more than enough,” Natasha chimed in, having been content to listen in for the majority of the meeting. “The sooner we can put him out of our minds, the better.”
“Amen to that,” Cassius echoed with a nod as our meeting drew to a close. “We’ll be in touch if we find or hear of anything. Safe travels in the meantime.”
“Safe travels,” I repeated as we all turned away from the group, Sierra and Constantine having passed along their packages to Berwyn and Kilgore. Moving silently without another word, the five of us mounted our horses and turned away from Shadows Fall, ready to begin the trek back to Aldford.
But before we could make it further than a dozen feet, Sierra and Constantine cut their horses in front of me, their expressions a mixture of annoyance and concern.
“There, Lyr,” Sierra began. “You made it to the meeting; there was no news of note. Like we expected there wouldn’t be. It’s time for you to take a break.”
“We just barely left,” I grunted in confusion. “It’s going to take us hours to get back to Aldford.”
“That’s right; it’s going to take us hours to get back to Aldford,” Constantine said. “In the meantime, you’re going to log off and get some rest. All of our play cycles are due for reset tonight anyway, so you can get a nice head start and maybe get more than three hours of sleep tonight.”
“Come on, guys, I can hold out until we can get back,” I protested, noticing that Bax and Natasha were completely ignoring the conversation, thanks to the filters the game world set in place to keep NPCs from reacting to out of character conversations.
Damn it, I cursed, my immersion breaking as I reminded myself that neither of the pair was truly real. For a split second, I had forgotten that all of this was a game, something that I found was happening more and more often the longer I played.
“No, you can’t, Marc,” Sierra countered waving a hand at me sharply. “You’re working yourself so hard that even Amaranth declined to come out with us today, and when the hell does he ever avoid going out for a run?”
“Uh,” I stalled, vaguely recalling my familiar mentioning that all he had in mind for the day was sleeping in the sun and that he would bite me if I tried to wake him. “He was tired.”
“He is tired because you’re tired,” Constantine shot back. “Amaranth is a lot more in sync with you than you think. If he’s worn out, it’s because you’re worn out!”
“That’s not how—” I began to say before sighing in defeat.
My friends were right. I was beyond tired, even more than I was willing to admit to myself. Ever since Carver had reappeared, I had been running at full speed, trying to do everything I possibly could to simultaneously prepare for our inevitable rematch and to make sure that Aldford was adequately protected.
At the cost of my own health and sanity.
“Everyone has their limits, Marc,” Sierra said gently, sensing that my protests were coming to an end. “You are dangerously close to the end of yours. This game is fun and all, but you’re taking it a bit too seriously. You need to rest or you’re going to burn out.”
“I never expected for us to end up in charge of everything,” I admitted, feeling built up stress seep out of me as I said the words. “At least nothing as big as Aldford, or Virtus.”
“Oh, please,” Constantine snorted. “You’re a workaholic, Marc. We all are in our own way. There was no question that we’d end up in charge of something, one way or another. But Misha is right. You really need to dial it back for a couple days and take a break. This next week is going to be busy enough, even if Carver doesn’t throw a wrench into our plans. Especially once we get that ruin open. We’re all going to need to be at the top of our game going forward.”
“I know,” I said rubbing my face as I remembered that we still had the Ley Line to deal with. “Okay, guys; you win. I’ll knock off for the night. Are you sure you’re going to be okay to get my body back?”
“Don’t worry about that; we’ll take care of it,” Sierra stated. “You go get yourself some food and unwind a bit. Go to bed even.”
“We’ll be fine, Lyr,” Constantine said confi
dently before he started shooing me away from him. “Go and take a break, we’ll catch up later.”
“Thanks, guys,” I said as I mentally brought up the logout menu. “I’ll catch you guys on the other side.”
“Goodnight, Marc,” Sierra added, giving me a wave.
I paused for a moment to look at my two friends, their faces watching me carefully as they waited for me to follow through on my promise. Without another word, I nodded to them before I triggered the logout process, watching the world gradually fade to black.
In what seemed like a blink of an eye later, I found myself back in Reality, the pod that I had been lying in opening as it slid out from the wall, a soft chime sounding once it was safe for me to climb out. Blinking repeatedly, I reached up to rub my face as my brain slowly readjusted itself back to the real world.
Logging out of Ascend Online had been a jarring process at first, the disconnect between the game world and reality often taking several minutes before one was ready to start moving around, but as with anything, it was something the body eventually got used to the more often it was experienced.
With a grunt of strong, yet largely unused muscles, I pushed myself out of the pod and into the deathly quiet apartment, my feet padding softly along the floor as I made a beeline to the bathroom. The first stop almost everyone had after any extended stay in virtual reality.
Pausing for a moment as I passed by the mirror, I couldn’t help but notice once more that the last week and a half had served to further enhance the sharp lines on my face as I continued to lose weight, all thanks to the ‘VR Diet’ and its side-effects. I was fairly confident that this was the thinnest I had ever been in my life, a feeling that was made all the stranger considering that I also felt quite a bit stronger and fitter too.
I suppose it beats the alternative, I thought tiredly as I slowly stripped and stepped into the shower, turning the water to as hot as I could bear it, waiting patiently for the temperature to rise. If I had to choose between losing a bit of weight to muscular atrophy…
Legacy of the Fallen (Ascend Online Book 2) Page 36
