As one, the group turned to stare, wide-eyed, at Key. He shifted nervously under all the attention, but raised his chin, nonetheless.
⸂What did you just say?⸃ Rin asked, as though they had collectively misheard the boy’s words.
For a moment, Key looked like he might try to take his suggestion back—like he might be trying to come up with some reasonable excuse for what he said, or some different combination of words that they may have mistaken for the insanity he had just spouted. Then, he straightened. Gone was the naive, somewhat timid Enclave boy who had yet to see much of the world. Instead, the boy he had been in the lake cavern was back; confident and sure—a child who would grow to run his family one day, assuming they didn’t all die here, anyways.
⸂I said, I’ll go find V and the kids.⸃
Rin looked about ready to bark at him, her energy beginning to vibrate through the aether with such ferocity that the people closest to her took a step back. ⸂No,⸃ she said instead, her voice so sharp Emilia wouldn’t have been surprised if it left a mark across the aether.
⸂Yes,⸃ Key said simply, chin tilting up in challenge.
⸂You might die.⸃
⸂We all might.⸃
⸂I’m supposed to protect you.⸃
⸂Why?⸃
Rin hesitated, the aether around her vibrating with unsaid words that, Emilia abruptly realized, she could read. Was that normal? She knew she could read private conversations with her upgraded ability to hear locals, but could she really read cut off thoughts?
Actually, why could locals cut off thoughts that were at least partially formed without anyone hearing them when she couldn’t!? Why had this never been mentioned to her as a potential way to control her aethervoice!?
Emilia grumbled to herself as she looked down, unwilling to even entertain the idea of reading her friend’s internal thoughts when she was clearly struggling with where her allegiance lay and what her obligations to the Risen Guard, the Enclave and the Stringers—as well as Emilia and the world itself—were.
She hadn’t been able to entirely ignore the girl’s thoughts when she’d been looking directly at her, okay!? The most she could do was look away now and try to pretend she hadn’t seen the thoughts trying to bubble out of Rin.
⸂Because you’re my friend,⸃ Rin finally said, a light red dusting over her usually expressionless face.
⸂So is Emilia,⸃ Key pointed out, levelling an amused look at his friend—were they friends now? Rin had always been Harmony’s friend, from what Emilia knew. Rin and Key knew each other, but they certainly hadn’t been friends when they’d last seen each other, weeks earlier.
Rin rolled her eyes—actually rolled them! ⸂Yes, but she’s going with the other, terrifying visitor, and she can’t actually die… maybe.⸃
Emilia let out a long-suffering sigh while Phlostra frowned and Conrad laughed.
⸂I was under the assumption that visitors return to their world when they die here?⸃ the Clarity woman asked, eyes shifting to Conrad when he began to explain that it was a common issue in raids.
⸂Sometimes, it doesn’t matter how often we tell locals that we can’t actually die: they just won’t believe it. I’ve been in raids where I’ve died a handful of times, come back dozens of years later. Nope. Doesn’t matter. No one’ll believe I come from another world and can’t be harmed… ah…⸃ He trailed off, and Emilia knew what he was thinking: that with whatever was happening with the heartcores, they could be hurt now, at least in a way.
Emilia really, really hoped that the heartcore corruption wasn’t permanent or far-reaching. Hopefully, it was limited to this raid alone and… and she didn’t know. It wasn’t like she could report the issue to Hail and hope they didn’t just contact the company running this raid platform to let them know it needed to be purged; that would mean all the people within this world would die.
Granted, by the time anyone could purge the system, it was likely everyone she knew in this world would be dead—except maybe Zach’s daughter and—
“Oh!” she gasped, thinking back to her meeting with Zach and the memories he had given her. Waving off the looks everyone had turned on her, she left Rin and Key to their argument—Key seemed to be winning, especially since everyone else was now backing him up—as she turned her attention to her visitor system—or more specifically, to her inventory.
Back when she’d met Zach, she’d been entrusted with the memories his mother had hoped to get to his father—to Remy. Emilia had been carrying the little orb around with her since she’d acquired it, moving it from bag to bag, and honestly, she was rather amazed that in everything that had happened it had been neither broken nor lost. Yet, there it was, stored in her inventory under the innocuous name [FHFR].
Emilia had no idea what that could stand for—which is why she hadn’t even realized it was the memory orb when she’d first stored it away—but when she called the item out of her inventory, the orb appearing in her hand, it was the memories.
Conrad watched—apparently uninterested in listening to Key and Rin argue over whether he would be an effective and safe babysitter for Emilia or not, which, rude!? She did not need a babysitter!—as she pulled the memories back into her inventory and began to look through all the settings.
From listening to her friends, she knew that some raids had an option to bring items back to the real world. Sometimes, they became data—many people converted them into items that could be used in Censor or Virtuosi rooms—while other times, the data could be exchanged for real-world items. A few companies even ran auction houses, where people could sell the items they brought back to the real world or transferred to other raids.
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⸂Looking for something?⸃ Conrad whispered into her, her increasingly annoyed expression clearly giving away her frustration.
She side eyed him before whispering her problem to him. “Basically, this guy who was the child of a visitor gave me some memories? I said I’d try to get them to his dad, assuming I can even find him in the real world or get the memories there.”
Humming, Conrad placed a hand to the back of her neck, his slithery energy sliding into her, cool darkness beginning to fill her vision. Had this been the real world—or anyone else—she would have panicked. People didn’t touch the Censors of others without permission—not unless they were hacking them, anyways. It was just too… intimate, dangerous, threatening.
The fact that Conrad wasn’t touching her real Censor definitely helped, but in his strange way, Conrad wasn’t threatening, either—not to her, anyways. Perhaps it was the things they had shared between them, or his energy still keeping her aethervoice suppressed because even though she could try using her aethervoice upgrade to silence her internal thoughts, there was just something settling about his energy always being with her. Like an older sibling, always watching out for the younger one, even when they were far from each other, even though Emilia wasn’t even sure if his energy could do more than continue suppressing her aethervoice, if she were in danger.
Her friend—because at this point, they had to be friends, right?—pressed his way through her inventory, switching them through screen after screen until Emilia was convinced he didn’t know what he was looking for any more than she did. Why he was looking and experimenting in her interface, rather than his own, was beyond her until suddenly a screen popped up, asking if she’d like to transfer an item into her real-world inventory.
It had been… very buried. So buried, that even though she’d mostly been paying attention, she couldn’t imagine trying to get back to it.
“Thank you…” she breathed out as she read over the dialog boxes that popped up, explaining the procedure to her. Essentially, once she sent an item to her real-world inventory, it would be inaccessible within the raid. There was no undo, so she better be pretty fucking sure whatever she was sending wasn’t something she’d need at a later date.
There were also some notes about rare items that could be exchanged for real-world items, but she’d only learn what those items were once she was back in her real body. Some items—most notably blood weapons—couldn’t be moved to the real world, either—something about proprietary technology.
“That was oddly difficult to find,” she noted as she confirmed that she wanted to send the item along.
Conrad snorted, telling her many raid platforms treated transfers like a secret, burying them behind so many clicks that most people would never find them without luck, stupidity or someone else leading the way.
Cocking her head at him, Emilia asked how he had found it so easily—it wasn’t like he’d had his visitor system access very long.
⸂Because I spent a few days inside that time stop going over the system?⸃
Emilia blinked at him. “Days?”
Conrad frowned at her. ⸂How long did you take?⸃
“I dunno? Twenty, thirty minutes?”
The other visitor frowned down at her before shaking his head and muttering, ⸂Amateurs.⸃
“Hey!” Emilia gasped. “That’s not very nice!” Was it fair? Yes, but the man didn’t need to point it out!
Across from them, Rin and Key had finally stopped arguing while Boundary and Phlostra discussed logistics of some sort. From what she had overheard during the argument and could glean from the current discussion, Phlostra had sent for another rebel Clarity member to accompany Key—something that Rin was incredibly unhappy with, the girl muttering about stupid men as they waited.
“So…” Emilia sighed, turning her attention to Key, “unless I missed it, in all that arguing you didn’t actually say why you’re so insistent on trying and find V and the kids?”
The two locals had mostly argued over whether Key was stupid and Conrad an acceptable babysitter. Emilia wasn’t about to say it, but she would rather Key not be with her and Conrad when they fought his niece and nephew. The fact that none of them could really die, and would therefore be more willing to risk their lives fighting would be helpful to them, unhelpful if a local were with them. As much as she didn’t actually like the idea of Key going off alone, being left with a random Clarity member as his only protection, something told her he wouldn’t make it out of a battle with Conrad’s family.
⸂Those two kids deserve a chance to get out of here. If you two fail, or one of the other visitors decides to activate that weapon during their fight…⸃ The boy shook himself, telling them that he thought the kids deserved to at least have someone coming for them, even if getting to them in time was a game of luck. ⸂Plus, I know we need all the help we can get. V and that other visitor girl could help us… maybe.⸃
Rin looked like she wanted to tell him he was stupid again, but seemed to swallow down her words. Obviously, she was worried for her friend, but Emilia understood the mean words that could be spit between people who loved one another when one of them was doing something potentially stupid—she’d been on both the giving and receiving side of such hateful words.
“They might be able to,” Emilia agreed, before Rin could say something she couldn’t take back—something more, considering she’d already effectively told Key he was an idiot during their first argument. “But you’re right. The other two are the priority, so…” she hesitated, knowing that what she was asking wasn’t fair for Key or the rebel Clarity man who had finally appeared to help lead him, “so if you find them, get them out of here.”
Key froze. ⸂Emilia, I can’t—⸃
“You said it yourself: they deserve a chance to get out or here. So if you find them, let V and Astra go—tell them what’s going on—and then get the kids out of here. Don’t think I forgot you have a personal landing pad back at home.” Stepping forward, she snatched up the boy’s—and he truly seemed a boy at the moment—hands in her own. Giving them a gentle squeeze, she smiled. “Get the kids and yourself out of here. Go and make sure all three of you live the lives you deserve. Make sure they’re safe. Make sure all the kids the Risen Guard are dealing with are safe.” A smile cracked across her face as she laughingly told him that maybe he could have his family offer them a little help with the kids—stars knew they needed it.
Key’s hands tightened around hers. ⸂If we don’t see each other again…⸃ He cut off, looking away, trying to find his words.
“I’ll miss you,” Emilia finished. “I’m glad I got to be your friend. I might have hated a lot of things here, but I never regretted meeting you… well, except that your sister and Sk’lar kinda suck.”
Key laughed, a smile pulling at his face even as he blinked liquid eyes back at her. ⸂Go and live a great life.⸃ He leaned in, pressing their foreheads together as they just breathed together for a moment.
“Tell the kids I love them” Emilia breathed out, choosing to believe this sweet boy would find them and keep them safe—that all three of them would be safe and happy, “and that I’m sorry for everything and that I don’t get to see them again.” She might have been crying, her voice cracking with pain for the little kids she had grown to love in their too short time together.
⸂I will,⸃ Key said, his own voice strained, and when he finally pulled back, some of his own tears had spilled over. He lifted a hand, wiping away some of her own tears with his thumb. ⸂Goodbye.⸃