He left the first mate to get the ship on its way and returned to his cabin. The girls were sitting at the table chatting and Luna was napping on the bed, her giant form taking up the entire thing. He briefly thought about telling her to shrink down but decided to let the cat sleep.
“What did you talk to Colette about?” Mika asked.
“I think we’ve found an island to trap Damian on,” he told them and both girls perked up. “A place called Demon’s Grin. It’s some remote island about a week from here.”
“Sounds ominous,” Diana said.
“Colette says it's cursed,” he told them. “She’s spooked by it.”
“We’re going to a cursed island?” Mika excitedly. “What kind of curse?”
Diana rolled her eyes at the enthusiastic girl across from her. She turned to Jace. “Are you sure that’s wise? Going to a cursed island for this plan of yours?”
Jace shrugged. “She said it’s not on any maps that she knows of and the sailors who do know about it don't want to go there. That works in our favor.”
“Unless it really is cursed,” Diana said. She stopped and scratched her head. “What does cursed even mean in the game?”
“Something bad happened there,” Mika answered. “The ground becomes barren and sometimes the inhabitants become disfigured.”
Jace looked at her curiously.
Mika smiled. “I did a quest to lift a curse from a village.”
“Same here,” Jace smiled. “A few of them.”
“So, it’s safe?” Diana asked.
Jace and Mika exchanged looks. Her look told him she’d had a similar experience with cursed quests. In his first curse quest, the villagers had burned a gypsy they suspected of being a witch. She had cursed the village with her dying breath.
When he’d come upon the village, it was in shambles. The crops had failed and the game had all run off, so the villagers were starving. Jace had agreed to help, only to find out that night that the villagers themselves were cursed.
When the sun had fallen, the villagers had all become rotting zombies. Jace had killed three of them who attacked him before realizing that killing five or more of them would cause the quest to fail. Unable to fight them, the other zombies had chased him to the outskirts of the village. Luckily, they’d stopped at the edge of the village, unwilling or unable to actually leave.
He’d gone back in the morning and none of the villagers had remembered anything of the previous night. Jace quickly learned that if he wanted to finish the quest and break the curse, he’d need to stay out of the village at night and investigate it during the day.
Of course, since he worked during the day, he ended up having to wait until the weekend to work on the quest and even then, barely survived and barely completed the quest. He’d learned one important lesson from that first curse quest: Cursed villages did not have bind points while they were cursed.
Given how close he’d come to dying throughout the quest and the handicap it put on him by not being able to kill the villager zombies, he would say that no, curses were definitely not safe.
“No, I wouldn’t say that,” he told the older woman. “But we’re not going there to do a quest. We’re going to lure Damian there, trap him and then get back to Nynymmost.”
Diana looked between Mika and Jace several times before finally letting out an exasperated breath. “Fine! Fine! Let’s go to this cursed island and fight flesh eating zombies!”
“In my quest it was there were no flesh eating zombies,” Mika offered brightly. “There were carnivorous baboons!”
Diana shook her head as she massaged her temples, under her breath, Jace heard her mutter, “Carnivorous baboons…”
Chapter 48
It was late afternoon on Friendsday, or Friday in the real world, when they arrived back in Nynymmost. Jace spoke to Colette about keeping a low profile. Damian would have received their ears by now and would have known where they were. If he did some digging, he might know the name of Jace’s ship and have players or NPCs looking for them.
After speaking with his first mate, Jace learned that the pirate ship knew some seedy thieves guild members in the gnomish capital worked for the harbor authority and would keep their arrival a secret - for a price. Knowing he had no choice, he handed over 1,000 gold to Colette to make the necessary bribes.
Next, he had the first mate pick her most reliable sailor to deliver to act as an errand boy. Since they were going through the trouble of hiding their ship, it didn’t make sense for him and the girls to walk into town and expose themselves to assassins. Better to have someone else send a raven message to his real self. At least, he hoped that would work.
After giving specific instructions to the sailor, a dog-kin with a black nose and pointy ears like a Doberman, they sent the crewman on his way to send the message. The crew was anxious to get off the ship and began murmuring when Colette announced no one else was leaving the ship.
Not wanting a mutiny, Jace had the first mate reach out to her thieves guild contacts and had barrels of ale brought to the ship. It was easy enough to get done. All he had to do was offer three times their normal price. Once the ale was brought aboard, the crew’s morale increased instantly, and he was toasted many times.
An hour later, his messenger returned to the ship and informed him the message had been sent. Jace thanked him, let him keep the change and sent him off to drink with friends.
“Very cloak and dagger,” Colette murmured as the crewmen walked over to the barrels of ale. She had filled her own mug with ale and took a long sip. “Even for a privateer.”
“I don’t want to take any chances,” he replied, glancing around the deck.
The first mate looked him up and down. “I’ve seen you fight the raiders and the ninjen. You are a skilled warrior. If you are afraid of this dark elf, then so am I.”
Colette looked up and down the dock, her dark eyes looking for trouble. She took another sip of her ale. “He must really want you dead to go through all this trouble.”
“He already thought he killed me once,” Jace told her, thinking back to the car accident.
He couldn’t explain all the details to her since she was an NPC. Either her programming would make her ignore his non-game talk or she would think he was mad. He had to keep it in terms she understood. “I know the details of his operations. He can’t afford to let me live.”
The first mate gave him an understanding nod and took a sip. “What do we do now?”
“We’re taking on two people who are going to help with our plan.”
“What kind of people?”
“One’s an elf,” he replied and then turned to face the woman so he could gauge her next reaction. “The other’s a vampyre.”
Colette had raised her mug to her mouth and had been about to take a sip when she froze. The first mate lowered her mug and stared hard at him. “You are bringing a vampyre onto this ship?”
“Half-vampyre,” Jace corrected. “And don’t worry. He’d my… half-brother.”
That surprised the first mate, and she didn’t even try to hide it. “You have a half-brother who is a vampyre?”
“On my dad’s side,” Jace grinned. He’d already pretended to be his real self’s twin. He saw no harm carrying it over into the game. It wasn’t like anyone could prove otherwise.
“And your half-brother won’t be biting any necks?” she asked with narrowed eyes.
“None,” he replied. “I promise.”
“You’d better,” she retorted. “Or you may have a full scale mutiny on your hands.”
Jace nodded. “Don’t worry. He’ll be on his best behavior.”
“This elf you were talking about,” she frowned. “Is it a dark elf like the one who is after you?”
“No.” He shook his head. “She’s a wood elf.”
“Good.” She smiled. “I don’t trust those dark elves. They are always plotting something.”
He nodded. “Let me know when they arr
ive.”
“Sure thing, captain,” she replied and then stalked off to refill her mug.
Jace returned to the captain’s quarters and found Diana sulking in the captain’s chair behind the desk. Mika was sitting on the bed, stroking Luna. Shutting the door, he dropped into one of the chairs at the table and looked from Mika to Diana. “What’s going on?”
Mika opened her mouth, but Diana answered first. “I don’t understand why we can’t go out for a little bit. Just to a tavern or inn for some real food.”
Jace let out a breath and turned towards the older woman. He checked his watch. It was 5pm in-game and that meant it was 5pm on the east coast in the real world. Damian would be leaving work soon and would be home in thirty minutes. “None of us can go out right now. Damian will just have gotten off work. He’ll be logged in any time. If assassins find any of us, he’ll get the ears in a few minutes and know we’re here. It’s too risky.”
“I don’t have to go far,” she protested. “I can find a tavern on the docks.”
Jace shook his head. “It’s too dangerous right now. I’m sorry.”
He knew how the woman felt. All they ate on the ship were dried fish and they got really old, really quickly. But he was telling the truth. If Damian found out they were in the city, he might be able to track them down in no time. All he had to do was offer a very generous reward and the Colette’s thieves guild acquaintances would most likely sell her out.
“What about,” he told her as an idea popped into his head, “take out?”
Both women perked up. Diana tilted her head and looked at him. “Is that a thing in the game?”
“Who knows.” He shrugged. “But I can have one of the crew go out and get something. They’re not on his radar, so they won’t pose any risk.”
The girls began chatting about what they wanted and soon Jace had an order to give to the dog-kin. Because of the earlier tip, the crewman, whose name was Ravel, was eager to go on another errand.
Just over an hour later, Ravel returned with their food wrapped in cloth napkins. The girls immediately attacked the food and were just finishing up with a knock on the door made them all look up.
“Your guests are here,” said Colette’s muffled voice.
He exchanged looks with the girls, finished off the fried fish he’d been eating and wiped his hands on the cloth napkin. Walking over to the door, Jace opened it to reveal Colette.
“I see the family resemblance,” she winked and moved out of the way, revealing Mordred and Charlena.
They entered, holding hands, and Colette shut the door behind them. Mordred’s eyes darted around the captain’s quarters and he smiled. “Nice ship.”
“Thanks. Have a seat,” he replied and motioned for them to sit down at the table.
Mordred and Charlena sat down and Jace was once again struck with the strange sensation of looking at the vampyre character he’d played for so long, only from the outside now. As he looked at Mordred, he realized Colette was right. Their characters did look alike.
Both avatars were based on Jace’s DNA, so it made sense they’d look alike. The main difference was the vampyre template that had been applied to Mordred. He was slimmer and had finer features than Jace’s human avatar. Mordred was also paler and looked a bit younger because of the vampyre template. Still, they could be brothers.
“What’s that about family resemblance?” Mordred asked as he sat down.
Jace smirked. “I told her you were my half-brother and wouldn’t be eating any of them.”
“You mean…” Mordred smiled. “I’m not allowed to eat these men?”
Jace rolled his eyes. “No eating the crew. They’ll probably give you indigestion. Besides, it’s time to get down to business.”
Mordred and Charlena exchanged incredulous looks. “You have the money for the scroll already?”
“And then some,” Jace replied and set the two large gems on the table.
“Holy smokes,” Charlena gasped.
Mordred reached out and picked one up, examining it. He looked to Jace. “These things have got to be worth a fortune. How the heck did you get them?”
“From a really mean stone golem who was using them as eyes,” he replied.
“Golem? You’ll have to tell me that story later,” Mordred said, picking up one of the large rubies. “You know, this is way more than we need to buy the scroll.”
Jace nodded. “I figured you can sell them both, buy the scroll and then use the rest of the money for living expenses.”
Almost comically, both Charlena’s and Mordred’s mouth jaws dropped at the same time. Jace chuckled.
“But…” Mordred started but Jace held up his hand.
“No objections. You’re in the real world. You need money. You can exchange the gold for real currency and use that to pay for your expenses.”
“I… I can’t,” Mordred stuttered.
“Sure you can.” Jace smiled. “We’re brothers, right? Twins.”
Mordred nodded. “About that. I’ve been doing a bit of hacking.”
“Hack?” Jace raised an eyebrow at his other self.
“I’ve left a few pieces of a trail for you,” Mordred replied. “A few social media profiles, some memberships, that sort of thing. It’s not much, but it’s something. You know, if they look.”
Jace didn’t know what to say. If he thought about it, he realized he would have done the same thing. He smiled. It was nice to have a brother, even if it was really just a copy of him. Or, rather, he was a copy of Mordred. “Thanks!”
“I don’t know how much it will hold up to scrutiny.” Mordred shook his head. “But it’s something at least.”
For the first time since learning he was just a copy of his real self, Jace actually had hope that he might make it out of the situation alive.
“So then, what’s the plan?” Mordred asked.
“Go sell the gems, buy the scroll, send Damian a message that we want to talk and to meet us at the island, then come back here and do an auto-follow,” Jace told him. “Bring back the remainder of the first gem. We’ll need that to buy a title. Transfer the gold from the second gem to your account.”
“Transfer the gold?! I can’t…” Mordred started to protest.
“Of course, you can…” Jace started but Mordred shook his head.
“No,” his real self said and shook his head. “I literally can’t. I have no account. Like everything else, it’s gone.”
Jace swore. He’d forgotten about that.
“You can put it in my account,” Charlena offered. She gave Mordred a smile. “If you trust me.”
Mordred returned her smile and Jace could tell his real self was smitten with the redhead. “Of course, I trust you.”
“Then give the money to me,” Charlena said, “and I can transfer it into my account. I can take it out and give you the cash.”
“Don’t forget to set aside money for taxes,” Jace told her.
“What?!” Charlena asked, turning towards him. “What do you mean?”
“Money going into the game doesn’t get taxed,” Mordred said, facepalming himself.
“But money coming out of the game does,” Jace finished.
Charlena screwed up her face. “That’s not fair.”
Jace and Mordred shrugged at the same time. “That’s the government.”
Charlena looked at the gems and then from Jace to Mordred. “So how much money are we talking about?”
“We just need two million gold to get a royal title for the gnomish parliament,” Jace said. “The scroll’s about two million. That should leave you guys about four million gold.”
Mordred and Charlena’s eyes went wide, their mouths hanging open. “That’s…. That’s…”
Jace nodded. “Almost a half million in real money.”
It took a few minutes for Mordred and Charlena got over their shock. The group talked for a few minutes more before Jace and Charlena went to sell the gems, send the raven messa
ge and buy the scroll from the auction house.
By ten o’clock, the two of them had returned and set themselves to auto-follow Jace. They promised to check in once a day but Jace was still recovering and couldn’t spend long in the pod. Apparently, he was mostly sleeping nowadays, despite having been in a coma for months.
“You have the scroll?” Jace asked.
Mordred brought out an ivory scroll case and started to hand it to Jace but he held up his hand. “You keep it. You’re the only one who can use it.”
It was true. The imprisonment scroll was level 95. The only one in their group who could use it was Mordred. His other self-nodded and the scroll disappeared back into his inventory.
“What about the message?” Jace asked.
“I sent the Raven message telling him to meet us next Sunday at the coordinates you gave me,” Mordred replied. “And then I got out of there as quickly as possible.”
“Good,” Jace nodded. The plan was set in motion.
“We’re going to log off now,” Charlena said. “You want me to auto-follow you like before?”
“Yes,” Jace replied. “Both of you.”
Auto-follow would keep their avatars in the game even after the two of them logged off. The game would make the avatars follow Jace around, though they couldn’t react, attack or defend to anything.
“We’ll log in at least once each day,” Jace told him. “Oh, I gave the money to Charlena and walked her through transferring to her account. It’ll take a couple of days, but we should get it. Thanks again.”
“Sure.” Jace smiled.
Charlena and Mordred both logged off, leaving behind their avatars in auto-follow mode, just as Colette and the crew got the ship underway.
“That’s creepy,” Diana said, watching the two vacant eyed avatars following Jace. They didn’t move much in the cabin, but wherever he was in the room, they did turn towards him. “Really creepy.”
“Yeah,” Jace agreed, looking at his old avatar staring blankly at him. He remembered how much fun he’d had as Mordred. How much fun he’d had playing the game. And now, the game was his life. He smirked to himself. Life was strange.
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