by Oliver Mayes
13
Serving the ‘Byam’
Lillian had divided her party to head for the quest. She knew if they all left together it would attract more attention. She also had to ensure any single group would be able to deal with what was thrown at it. Of course, any single group would have a hard time dealing with the entirety of the Carlisle-Elite. However, their smaller group was better coordinated, which meant splitting up would buy them time compared to being a single clump of nine players.
It was quite the puzzle. Lillian needed to ensure as best as she could that all the players arrived at their destination. She had no way of knowing how many enemies would leave in pursuit of each group. Maybe they’d all go after the first group? Maybe they’d wait for the guild leaders to show themselves? Not only did she have to give everyone the best chance of success, she also had to consider interpersonal relationships so that group members wouldn’t jeopardize the plan by falling out with each other, or have bad ability synergy.
Aetherius, Legolias and Trinytea left first, but not together. That would be an automatic fail. Lillian was tired, but she wasn’t stupid. Each departed from a different gate. They were all competent solo players, with either great evasion or superior movement speed in addition to their combat skills. Grouping them with other players would only slow them down and wasn’t the best way to utilize them in this scenario. Lillian could only imagine the bounty on each of their heads within Magnitude’s guild. They’d appear vulnerable, and by using them separately they’d siphon off as many of the enemy waiting for her party to move outside the city walls as possible. Meanwhile, the rest of the party waited within the sanctuary of their room at the inn, hidden from prying eyes.
It worked. The trio had been outside the city walls for two minutes when they started reporting pursuers. Aetherius had the most, which was probably for the best. If anyone was capable of giving them the slip, it would be him. She’d sent him through the East Gate, closest to the dim light and abundant cover of the Hourglass Plateau, with the express purpose that he could use it most effectively to escape. He’d need more help than the other two, since he’d be relying on his undisclosed stealth ability and his Blink rather than pure agility to give his enemies the slip. Legolias had a forest out in front of him to the west, which provided him with his ideal working environment. Trinytea took the South Gate, the gate through which they’d initially entered Glastonbury, and would be relying on her absurd movement speed to shake her enemies and return to the party.
After ten minutes, the remaining members of Lillian’s party headed through the North Gate, the only one unused and the one closest to their objective. Lillian had decided she’d bite the bullet, insofar as interpersonal relationships went, by traveling with Hammertime. So long as he kept his unwanted opinions to himself, she wouldn’t clobber him. He’d already had his say in private, hopefully he wouldn’t have anything further to add among company. Lillian was still lining up her response to his chastisement in her head, although she was a little busy to give it her full attention.
With extravagant support magic at their disposal, the two guild leaders together would be able to look after all the slow casters if there were any Carlisle-Elites left who hadn’t pursued her diversions. They made their way across the rolling hills and scattered woodlands until they reached the shores of Avalon.
It was technically a lake, although it was pushing for status as an inland sea. The visible portion of it was vast. While the cerulean water was shrouded in a thick layer of fog, the shoreline stretched out far on either side, with tiny waves lapping against a modest beach of pebbles before it gave away again to the viridian grass at their feet.
There was no sign of a ‘byam’, or anything else of interest for that matter. The whole area was devoid of life. Aside from the gentle wash of the waves, it was eerily quiet. The sun was setting far off to the west, still a ways off from touching the top of the hills in the distance. They were running out of time and had no leads. Yet there were no obvious options available.
They all pored over the riddle, without success. The dodgy spelling, the cryptic nature and unnecessary rhyming scheme were all points of consternation to the party, especially Lillian. She preferred her problems out in the open, where they could be measured, confronted and beaten down. Riddles were not her idea of a good time. Much less when the stakes were high and three members of her party were putting themselves at risk while it was being solved.
Sabrina was the first to think outside the box.
“The quest will be out there in the water, right? Why don’t we just swim?”
Hammertime grunted and shook his head.
“It’s probably not a good idea. If there’s a quest for this, there’ll be something preventing you from doing that. As your guild leader, I forbid it.”
Lillian was already bitter, and this assertion of Hammertime’s authority over a member of her party, who’d approached the problem from another angle and immediately been chided for it, set her off.
“Nice of you to bring the problems with Sabrina’s idea to our attention and shut that whole train of thought down. Do you have anything useful you’d like to share?”
“Actually, yes, I do. I’ve done some searches and the rhyme appears to be in a dead language called ‘Middle English’.”
“And?”
“The second stanza is the important one, so I’ve been focusing on that. The third and fourth lines are where we’re at now. We need to find the ‘byam’, which is actually a ‘beam’, as the rhyming scheme suggested. The fourth line is about the time frame. So we need to figure out what the beam is.”
Lillian grumpily sat down. Served her right, she supposed. She was well aware of her own temper at the best of times, let alone when confronted with exhaustion, high-handed criticism and Ye Olde Englishe cryptic messages. Mr. Healy sprung to cover up the awkward silence.
“So what kind of beam? Like a wooden beam, yeah? Maybe we should chop down some trees and float on them into the water?”
When Hammertime did not grace this suggestion with a response, OhHolyLight chimed in.
“If it was that easy, we could simply build a boat and sail it into the water. The time of day wouldn’t matter.”
“It might! Maybe the quest is only accessible during this time, but we need to build a boat and sail out to find it.”
Lillian appreciated the gesture, but was starting to see this Hammertime’s way. This conjecture was silly and taking them further from the solution, not closer. It was already approaching 19:30. Whatever the answer was, it probably didn’t involve a boat.
“Mr. Healy, that’s not a bad idea, logically, but Hammertime’s right. There’s nothing logical about this. There’ll be some stupid play on words, or some hidden meaning that whoever authored it thought made them really witty when they’re actually a pretentious twat.”
Blessed, uncomfortable silence. But not productive. If nothing else was being done, she’d better check the status of the three diversionary units. She turned to the party chat.
Lillian: Status report on diversionary units.
Aetherius: Shook them, omw. ETA 15 minutes.
Legolias: Lost them in the trees. On my way. ETA 10 minutes.
No reply from Trinytea. Either she was in trouble or Godhammer guild’s discipline was lacking with regards to communications. As much as Lillian wanted a reason to rag on Hammertime, she doubted his basic communication training was lacking. Although Trinytea was extremely agile, besides her speed she had little in the way of abilities to shake enemies. She’d been the best choice for that path by a long margin, but was probably the weak link of the three.
“Hammertime, Trinytea might be in trouble. She’s not replying in the party chat. Please contact her privately if you can.”
While Hammertime moved away to talk to his errant guild-mate, Lillian continued messaging in the party chat to ask her own absent team members if they had any input. It was mainly Andrew’s wisdom she sought, but m
essaging through the party chat avoided asking for his help directly.
Lillian: Do either of you have any ideas about the quest?
Legolias: Aren’t you there already?
Lillian: We’re here, no joy. Looking for the ‘byam’, or beam.
Aetherius: When I get there I can make one for us, don’t think we’ll find passage along it to anything except death timers though.
Lillian: Serious, HELPFUL replies only p—
She stopped typing and frowned. She looked up at the sun which was continuing to descend, indifferent to their plight. The whole quest was tied to it. Once it set, the passage would be gone. The answer was in plain sight. It wasn’t a wooden beam. It was much closer to what Aetherius had flippantly offered.
It was a light beam. Lillian tracked the sun to the nearest edge of the water. They were in the wrong place.
“Everybody up! We’re moving to the west shore of the lake. Now!”
She set off at a run with the keyboard still in front of her as she typed into the party chat.
Lillian: Change course to the west shore. Marking it on the map now.
Aetherius: Omw, ETA 20 minutes.
Legolias: Omw, ETA 5 minutes.
While she’d been typing, Hammertime had caught up with her.
“Why are we running to the west shore?”
“Because that’s where the passage will be.”
“Are you sure?”
What kind of question was that? Of course she wasn’t sure. She ignored it in favor of the more pressing issue.
“Where’s Trinytea?”
“She’s on her way, but she didn’t shake the party following her. She’s having trouble.”
“Where?”
“About twenty minutes away, to the south. Following your plan.”
That meant the enemies she was pulling with her would wind up in Aetherius’s way, since he was out to the east.
“Tell her to track west first, through the forest Legolias was in. Get her to shake the enemies, then head north.”
“Why?”
“Because I said so. End of discussion.”
They ran onward, the slower casters setting the pace for the rest of the group as they followed the waterline. Legolias was already waiting for them at the most westerly point of the lake when they got there fifteen minutes later. Only ten minutes until complete sunset.
“What now, Lillian?”
She ignored Hammertime and looked out over the water. There was a clear reflection of the sun’s light on its surface, which disappeared out into the mist at the lake’s center. She strode up to it purposefully and stuck her armor-plated foot on top of it. Her foot immediately dropped through the water and sank into the mud. Lillian’s tolerance for riddles was already low without feeling as though she’d answered one correctly without reward.
“It should be right here! I figured we needed to travel on the light beam, and this is where it should be!”
She kicked the surface of the water, scattering the light that flickered tauntingly over its surface and achieving exactly nothing. Even Hammertime was sympathetic as he gently wrested control from her, which irritated Lillian even more.
“That was a good theory. It’s a shame it didn’t work out, but it was better than doing nothing. We can regroup, find an area outside of town to make camp at so we don’t have to dodge players tomorrow, and try—”
As he spoke, the edge of the sun had dipped just below the edge of the horizon. The light on the water was glowing noticeably brighter. Lillian placed her foot over it again. It tapped down and rested above the waves. The surface of the water was solid.
She went immediately from elation to panic. Aetherius and Trinytea weren’t there yet. There was no time for text messages, the rest of the group would just have to deal with it. She threw her hand up to one ear to activate the party comms.
“Andr—Aetherius, the passageway is here! Where are you?”
“I’m closing in, should be there in five minutes.”
“Not good enough! Use your Blink whenever it’s off cooldown, we need you here right now!”
“I’d do that, but there’s a large group out in front of me. I think they’re following Trinytea. Didn’t she tell you?”
Lillian’s blood ran ice cold. She wheeled around to face Hammertime.
“You didn’t relay my instruction to Trinytea, did you? She just kept on following our path. Now she’s here, with all her pursuers in tow.”
Hammertime folded his arms and shrugged.
“And it’s a good thing I didn’t, because otherwise she wouldn’t have made it in time.”
“No, it’s not a good thing. She brought all the people following her, Aetherius is stuck behind them! I gave you a simple order—”
“We needed Aetherius to get through the wall but from here on he’s a liability, like I said. You think I didn’t understand why you wanted Trinytea to circle around? Not only have I removed her from danger, I’ve also saved us the trouble of bringing Aetherius on the quest, and I’ve done so in such a way that you don’t need to take the blame. You’re welcome.”
He shook his head at her, then attempted to walk past her. He bounced off when Lillian activated her Divine Might and pushed back. Then staggered and crashed to the floor when she punched him clean in the side of his head. She stood over him and raised him up by the breastplate, her other hand raised up threateningly.
“Not your decision to make. If you’d done as you were told, everyone would be safe.”
Another punch, keeping Hammertime pliant as the micro-stun persisted.
“I don’t punish players for following my orders, regardless of who they are. That goes just as much for Trinytea as it does for Aetherius.”
She deactivated Divine Might and let Hammertime drop, then strode back along the riverside, her sword and the new shield Andrew had procured for her from Damien’s inventory settling into her grip. Her hand rose to her ear.
“Aetherius, we’ll hold them off but you have to Blink and stealth through. Can you do that?”
“I’ll do my best.”
She turned to the rest of the players at her back and spoke without using party comms, so Trinytea and Aetherius wouldn’t have to worry about the group falling apart while they were already under stress.
“Rising Tide players, with me. We’re saving Aetherius, or dying. Or both. Godhammer is formally relieved of duty. Remove yourselves from my party. It’s clear you won’t do as I tell you and I won’t rely on anyone who has their own plans, but I won’t abandon anyone following me.”
The members of Rising Tide immediately, unquestioningly, moved to stand with Lillian. She gave Hammertime a last stare, with all the disgust she could muster, then lined up her guild-mates behind her. Trinytea was running around the lakeside. Not at full speed, but comfortably ahead of the players pursuing her. She was still a long way out when she staggered forward, almost falling, then turned and began to run backward. Achingly slowly. Lillian focused and saw. An arrow was sticking out of the back of her leg, and more were landing all around her as she hopped left and right to avoid them.
She was leaving a trail of blood in her wake. She’d been pipped with a bleeding arrow in the final stretch, and couldn’t go faster without losing incrementally more health. Her armaments were not long range and there was no way she could retaliate without moving into close proximity. That would be suicide, as there were more than ten players following her. A score of Carlisle-Elites hunting a single target. Cowards.
Lillian watched as Trinytea raised a health potion to her lips, trying to offset the damage inflicted by the bleed while she kept dodging. The party pursuing her drew closer and she diverted to full evasive maneuvers, reducing her straight-line speed even more.
She wasn’t going to make it.
Unacceptable.
Lillian ran forward at full speed. Her guild-mates following behind. When that wasn’t fast enough, she activated Divine Might and ran faster still,
draining both mana and stamina to leave everyone in the dust. Her investment in the ‘Swift Justice’ trait at level 10, which increased her agility by 50% of her strength, was the best she’d ever made. It still wouldn’t be enough for all of them to make it out alive.
What she’d do when she got there, she had no idea. Her resources would be mostly drained, and even with full mana she wasn’t sure she could take on ten players who had advance warning of her arrival. That was besides the point. She’d always intended for everyone to make it. The only way to prove that now was by making sure that if anyone died, she was the first to go. She preferred it that way.
It was fine. They’d solved the riddle, Lillian would respawn in the inn tomorrow and go again. Alone, ideally, if everyone else made it. At least it would be less complicated.
Lillian was as close to Trinytea on one side as her pursuers were on the other when the thundering of feet caught up to her. There was a slight blur and a rush of air as Hammertime Charged past. He’d been Phase Shifted by Sabrina, turning him into a translucent bullet train. Trinytea peeled off to the right, away from the water, drawing the attention of her pursuers from the veiled incoming danger. They were still focused on finishing her off before Lillian got there when Hammertime appeared in their midst, his Charge-imbued hammer already embedded in a front-runner’s ribcage.
They were woefully unprepared. The best defense against a behemoth is distance. The second-best defenses are roots and movement-speed-reducing abilities, preferably from a distance. The third-best defense is raw damage, applied over as short a time frame as possible. The Carlisle-Elite players who’d participated in Trinytea’s marathon were all short on stamina already. None of these options were available to them. Hammertime lay waste. Lillian joined him shortly afterwards, mopping up the would-be escapees.
Lillian looked up at the sun. It was already halfway below the horizon. Aetherius was visible, but a long way out. She raised her hand to her ear.
“Everyone back and over the pathway, now! Andrew, the way is clear, Blink and use all your stamina to get to me.”
