Chapter 62: …I was Nobody

Oh, Avalon! You shining beacon of what is true in Esem. You alone know the travails of the early players, as yours was the first of the seven worlds to be created! It was your soil and your water which humans first trod and tasted after the great failing of imagination that was the early continuation. Though now you are seen as a poor and backwater place where players only go for quests, us historians know the truth! Avalon is the egg from which emerged all the lands of the worlds below AIONs seat of creation.

-Introduction of the book ‘Mythical Avalon’ by Chuster Mags circa SD445

It took Meredith several moments to calm Seb down. The boy seemed to want to run away and hide under the blanket and could not make up his mind. He took a step out of bed and then flung the blanket tightly about himself, which caused him to trip and fall beside the bed and the wall. Meredith tried to catch him but as she was on the opposite side of the bed ending up falling on top of the bed with her hand barely grabbing his arm.

“Let me go!” Shouted Seb, thrashing beside his bed, the covers tangling his limbs and making his desperate departure impossible.

“Seb, relax. SEB! I said relax,” insisted Meredith. “He isn’t the one who hurt you, right? Why are you so scared of him?”

“It’s him,” hissed Seb desperately. “Keep him away from me!”

“Seb!”

Finally the boy calmed down and Meredith got him standing and then to lay back down upon the bed. He was breathing hard and wouldn’t take his eyes off Chase though he avoided his eyes. He only kept looking at his chest and then the dagger which Chase had his hand upon.

Chase dropped his hand and tried to sound reassuring.

“Seb, I don’t know what you are talking about. Could you please calm down and tell us what happened at the shrine?”

The boy didn’t speak for a moment, but between his slowing breaths and Meredith gently stroking his hair, Seb finally managed to get to a place where he could make coherent sentences. He nodded his head and took a big gulp.

“I’ll try,” said Seb.

“Why don’t you start at why you were at the shrine,” said Meredith. “Can you do that?”

“I was just walking around, trying to find something to steal is all,” Seb recounted, his breathing beginning to slow down. “My level is the lowest in the guild and so I thought Birchtown would be a good place to nick a thing or two. Anyway, I walked to the end of the town and found that little shrine. No one was around and so I looked inside. There wasn’t much, just some fruit and some flowers in the offering plate.”

“Did you take anything?” Asked Chase. Meredith cast him a stern look.

“No,” said Seb, shrugging. He seemed to want to sink into the mattress every time Chase spoke.

“Let him finish,” said Meredith. “Go on, Seb. How did you get tied to that rock?”

“Thomas,” said Seb, suddenly frowning. “I was feeling a bit tired because I didn’t get a lot of sleep the night before. So I saw a rock outside the shrine and leaned against it for a while. The sun felt so nice and I closed my eyes. I guess I ended up falling asleep because when I awoke I saw Thomas grinning at me. I thought he was gonna attack me.”

“So it was Thomas,” seethed Meredith.

“No,” said Seb, shaking his head. “I tried to get up but couldn’t. He had tied me to the rock. Then he laughed at me and confessed he was the one who had dropped that stink bomb and had thrown my clothes out back on the island.”

“Fine, and then? Did he just leave? How did you get beat up?”

“Then he joked around as though he were gonna pee on me or something, which I knew he wouldn’t because I know he can’t go when anyone else is around. I yelled at him some, and then he just got bored and left me there.”

“I knew Thomas didn’t hurt him,” said Chase with some relief.

“Yeah, yeah,” said Meredith, waving her hand in annoyance. “Seb, the bruises. You were knocked out when we found you.”

Seb grew white as a sheet but continued speaking.

“I guess they came after an hour. I couldn’t get out of the rope, and so just sat there waiting for one of you to find me. Eventually I heard some footsteps behind me. I tried to turn around but couldn’t because of the rope.” Now Seb just stared in the corner of the room as memories of what took place flashed through his mind. His eyes reminded Chase of older players after intense periods of warfare. “I called your name again, hoping it was you. But when they came around the rock I saw it was four or five players wearing masks.”

“Masks?” Said Chase, unable to contain himself. “What kind of masks?”

“Wooden ones,” answered Seb. “They were painted different colors but I didn’t get a good look at them all. The only one I remember was this one guy. His mask was painted black, but around the eyes were swirls of gold. He told me some things…”

“Seb?” Meredith gently shook the boys shoulder. “If you are tired we can continue this later.”

He continued speaking as though he had not heard her.

“That one—the one with the black mask—leaned towards me and asked if I were the thief of the Seven Banes.”

The thief of the Seven Banes? Thought Chase. Were they looking for Thomas?

“I just told him no, which didn’t make him happy. I…I think he hit me…or maybe one of the others. I just remember my head snapping to the side. And then he asked me if I was lying and that he would kill me if I lied. I told him that I wasn’t apart of the seven banes, that I had my own guild. Then he checked my contract mark and said I was lying, that I was a thief.”

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His eyes grew wide and Meredith tried to offer him some water from a skin. Seb grabbed the water skin and drank greedily. When the skin was drained he handed it back to Meredith.

“He hit me a few more times, and I could taste blood in my mouth. When he was done he said ‘if you’re not the thief from the Banes then who the hell are you?’.”

“What did you say?” Asked Chase.

Seb shrugged his shoulders.

“I told him I was nobody.”

“Nobody?” Said Meredith.

“Yeah.” Seb nodded his head furiously. “Nobody. And they all started laughing. One of them said, ‘he must be one of us!’ And then…and then…” Seb fell back against the pillow and just stared at the ceiling. Telling the story seemed to have drained him and he could barely keep his eyes open. Soon his eyes shut and he started to breathe gently.

“He’s sound asleep,” said Chase. He took a seat on the bed next to Seb. “What do you make of that story?”

Meredith was quiet for a moment. She seemed lost in thought as she stared with concern at Seb. Finally she sighed.

“Only two things, really,” said Meredith. She looked at Chase with worry. “Whoever did this is not above beating little children, and they are also after your guild.”

“Sounds that way,” said Chase, unsure what to say.

“Chase, why would they be after your guild?”

“I don’t—.”

“Don’t lie to me, Chase!” Said Meredith. Her face now matched her hair as she burned with fury. “You just heard Seb. He said they were looking for Thomas. Now unless Thomas managed to piss off several grown players, your guild did something. Now fess us.” She pointed at Seb accusingly. “This has already gotten one of mine hurt. You owe me an explanation.”

Chase looked into her green eyes and saw more than just anger. She was deeply troubled about the attack on Seb. Despite the pitiful state the attack had left him in, Chase remembered how the boy had acted on the island towards Thomas. He never thought he could care much for Seb, but, he was still just a child, and what had been done to him was terrible. Meredith was owed an explanation, but he had to be careful to leave out certain details.

“Fine, I’ll tell you what happened. A few days again we were coming towards Birchtown. We had just left Outpost Topaz…”

Meredith listened intently, barely making a sound. Chase told her of the inn, and the cast of characters they had met within. When he mentioned Xemnara she raised an eyebrow but allowed him to continue, keeping her thoughts to herself. By the end of the tale when he had finally reached waking up upon the ground with no inn around, and only his Advisor and he conscious to speak with the owner of the inn, she finally sighed and leaned back, unable to contain her shock.

“Let me get this straight…you ran in with not only the Antagonista, but also AION himself?”

“I guess so,” said Chase, shrugging his shoulders. He tried to sound just as awestruck as only a new player should be. “Quite an amazing experience.”

“So that article about the missing players being found and the Antagonista being officially announced by the AION post,” she continued. “The guild which saved all those players…that was you and the Seven Banes?”

“Yes,” said Chase. This time he did not need to pretend to look upset. Out of all the things that had happened since leavening the fort, that article had been the most frustrating. He had hoped that the reporting on the incident would be minimal, and it was not like he had been interviewed by the AION Post, either. But somhow just enough details had escaped that now the world was aware of a small guild which had defeated the Antagonista. “Look, as far as I know you are the only one who knows the guild mentioned in the Post was my own. Can you please keep it tor yourself?”

“You think that’s why these people, the ones who attacked Seb,” she looked at him with worry once again. “They are being sent by the Antagonista…Xemnara, right?”

“We just called her Xem, but yes,” said Chase. “She must have some hard feelings about what happened.”

“Well then you need to leave!” Said Meredith suddenly. “Why are you waiting around Birchtown? Take Thomas and Amelie and the rest and get out of here!”

“You don’t think I tried?” Said Chase, shaking his head. “They told me they would rather remain for the contract tournament, than turn tail and run.”

Meredith just stared at him.

“Chase, you aren’t their friend, you are the guild leader. It doesn’t matter what they want.”

Chase threw his hands in the air.

“I know, Meredith, I know. But honestly I don’t think the road will be safer than around here, anyway. Once the tournament is over we will leave but for now I will go along with what they want.”

Chase had the distinct feeling that, somewhere, Solomon was grounding his fist into the heel of his palm in anger.

“Have it your way,” said Meredith. “Look, I’ll keep to myself some of the things that you have told me, but I will be telling my guild to remain in the inn when the tournament is not going on.”

“I told mine the same,” said Chase, nodding his head.

“Good, as of this moment we need to have a cooperation,” said Meredith. She stuck out her hand. “While in Birchtown both our guilds will be allies, agreed? We look out for one another and watch each others backs. This group that attacked Seb will be back, and once that happens we need to promise to work together.”

“Agreed,” said Chase, taking her hand. She squeezed his grip and then pulled him in close. “This means you don’t hide anything from me, Chase. Not concerning my guild, got it?”

“Yeah, of course,” he said.

“I can be very vengeful when it comes to my guild.”

“Me too.”

She dropped his hand.

“Then tell me this,” she said, pointing at Seb. “Why is it when Seb saw you he kept saying, ‘it’s him, it’s him!’.”

“He did?”

“Chase!” She hissed. “You just agreed not to lie to me!”

But Chase was stumped. He thought back to when he entered the room, and even to his few interactions with Seb on training island, but could think of no reason Seb might have said that.

“I really don’t know, Meredith,” Chase said genuinely. “When he wakes up just ask him. Maybe he confused me for one of his attackers, is all.”

Meredith narrowed her eyes but seemed to accept his explanation. They sat in silence for a while, watching Seb sleep. Occasionally he would twitch and mutter, to which Meredith would bite her lip.

“For some reason I feel more responsible for Seb than the others,” said Meredith. “He’s just a child, after all. Without adults around him he might have been all alone in Esem. Is that how you feel about Thomas?”

“Of course,” said Chase, thinking about his own thief. “AION does the children no favors by allowing them to spawn so young. Despite what the advisors told us on the island Esem is a hard place, even for adults. A child alone in this world is not something anyone wants to see.”

“You should have asked him that when you saw him—AION, I mean.”

“I am sure I know what he would have said,” chuckled Chase. “Something about the need for the strong to survive or some such nonsense.”

Meredith winced, but then smiled fondly at him.

“You aren’t afraid of upsetting him, are you? I am sure he knows what you just said about him.”

“Who cares,” said Chase, looking out the window. “Until he get’s around to explaining where we all came from and why we are here then I don’t have to be polite, do I? He’s always been like that, anyway.”

Meredith frowned at his words.

“What do you mean ‘always’?”

“From what I have read,” said Chase quickly. “I read a couple books about AION talking directly to players like he did to us. I think the Old Guard themselves even had a run in or two with him. From what I’ve read, at least,” he repeated, lamely.

Meredith opened her mouth to speak when a loud knock at the door interrupted her. The door opened and Clark, bleary eyed and smelling of booze poked his head in.

“Meredith, when you are quite done romancing the enemy you should like to know that the tournament is about to—Hey!”

Clark barely dodged a knife that his leader threw at him. The knife embedded itself in the door where his head had just been, quivering in the wood. He had shut the door just in time and retreated back down the hallway.

“That lousy…” muttered Meredith, along with some choice words about his drinking. “It’s barely afternoon and he’s already wasted. I tried to get him to drink more last night but he said he wanted to stay sharp for today…what is it with some men?”

Chase chuckled and stood up.

“I don’t know, but if the tournament is continuing then I must be on my way. Guess you don’t have a competitor for the female fighter brackets, do you?”

“You know we don’t, Chase,” said Meredith. She kept her focus on Seb but Chase thought her face was unusually red as she did so. “Too bad there is no archery component for us Hunters, huh?”

“You and I could always get some practice in, if you want,” offered Chase.

“Really?” Meredith lifted her head, eyes bright. “It is true that ever since the Triple Fives I have wanted to shoot against you again.”

“So have I,” said Chase. “Tell you what, after the matches today, we will make sure our guilds are safely tucked away with some food and drinks downstairs. Then the two of us can go outback besides the stables and have a friendly match.”

“That would be nice,” said Meredith with a sly smile. “You’re on, Chase.”

Chase left her alone with Seb and found his way to the staircase. As he descended he found his guild eagerly awaiting his return. At least, he thought they were excited to be off, but when he drew near he saw that one of them looked panicked to the point of nausea.

“You okay, Claire?” Said Chase. “Fight’s only minutes away.”

“I can’t do it,” said Claire, desperately. Brent placed an arm around her but even that was unable to calm her down. “I want to withdraw my name, Chase. Please, I can’t fight today!”