Magic came in many forms.
It wasn’t always a fanciful illusion, an unexpected sleight of hand, nor even a mysterious power that defied expectation.
Sometimes it could just be life. A state of mind, really.
I stood outside the small cottage surrounded by steep rocky slopes and looked out to the woodland beyond the pathway out of this safe haven. Dew still clung to the verdant grass. Birdsong graced the shadowed canopy of the treeline ahead, where muted browns and a variety of greens painted the landscape. Rising above it was a deep blue sky, clear of any clouds.
Such peace was a harsh juxtaposition to how our previous day was spent. In this way, it was magical.
But that wasn’t the only thing…
“What are you thinking about, trickster?”
I turned my head and smiled at the elf. She had her radiant blonde hair tied up, the only piece of her pastel blue magician's outfit missing being the hat that usually covered it. While fighting the titan zombie had been exhausting for us all, there was a renewed energy behind her piercing blue eyes.
“Mostly just glad to be alive, I suppose.” I put my arm around her and she leaned her head on my shoulder. “Didn’t even break my head open this time. No Trauma status for a change.”
“Dickbag. I saw you fall from the roof and crack your head open. If it weren’t for your feign death skill, you’d have made me a widow already.”
I snorted and adjusted my top hat, something near glued to me - it matched the sparkling purple suit perfectly, so it was only natural. Ren and I were neither married nor properly engaged, but a post-zombie-apocalypse exchange of rings had further officiated the next step in our relationship.
From behind us, the lumbering form of a giant grizzly bear squeezed his way out of the cottage and into the open.
“Morning, Wolf.” I gestured over to the remnants of last night’s campfire. “Want me to get breakfast started?”
He grinned and ran his tongue around his lips. “I could certainly eat. Some fruit would be nice, not just meat.”
I gave him a bow and released my grasp of our ranger slash healer. Was difficult to stow her away into a normal Class designation now that we had procured a sniper rifle from one of our enemies. It helped that I—of all people—was an expert in suspending my disbelief, plus we knew for a fact that one of the worlds the System drew people from had higher tech than this baseline fantasy malarky, but even so…
For some reason, a talking bear made more sense than a firearm. But, then again, that wasn’t even the most interesting thing about her recent power spike either. She’d gained the ability to copy some of my skills after killing the necromancer and absorbing his Guardian power. I was itching to see her in action, since she was being coy about showing it off.
Hadn’t even been a whole day, and I was chewing at reality for a taste of another dire situation to fight our way through.
“Quinn wasn’t on the couch…” Ren stepped over to help start the fire up again. “Do you think…?”
“No.” I furrowed my brow and looked back at the quiet cottage. “I mean, maybe. But…” Wouldn’t judge it, if there was anything going on between them. I wanted them to both be happy.
Tanya had still been coming to terms with possibly being lost to her family on Earth forever, with no way to escape this world. Quinn had cooled his apparent need to woo anything with a heartbeat, and the pair had come to get along rather well.
“I think it would be good for them both, if true.” Ren stood back up straight to look through her Inventory as the fire bloomed into life. “They kind of ground each other.”
“Like we do?”
Wolf huffed an interjection. “More like the opposite.” With a big stretch, he laid down beside the growing campfire. “Since meeting you both, you’ve become equally overt and dangerous.”
I smiled and raised an eyebrow at the elf. “Is that so?”
The bear closed his eyes. “Not that it’s a bad thing. Now that you have both sorted through your various dysfunctions, it should make the rest of our doomed adventure more bearable.”
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Ren rolled her eyes. “Enough with the gloom, Wolf. You don’t want your stage outfit to become mandatory, do you?”
“...No.”
The cottage door opened up once more to reveal Quinn. In his usual garish yellow shirt with leather chest piece, his shoulder-length black hair had been tied up for a change. He covered his bearded mouth as he yawned and then took to rubbing at his eyepatch as he made his way over to us.
I let Ren take over the breakfast preparations and stood to greet our fixer. “Morning, Quinn. How are you?”
“Not terrible, Max.” He grimaced. “Some minor nightmares of grasping hands and baleful yellow eyes in the shadows… but I believe I am starting to get used to the constant terrors you drag us through.”
“Perfect. I’ll have to think up some worse things, then.” I smiled, but he didn’t seem to appreciate the humor. “Tanya on the way?”
He shrugged, and his eye went up to his Inventory to find his chair. “Might still be sleeping. She was pretty exhausted last night after all the activities of the day.”
I tried to ignore Ren giving me eyes in my peripheral. Clearly he just meant the whole killing a zombie horde and taking down a key member of the Lady in Red’s followers.
“Why do you ask? Keen to get us into the fray once more?”
“Not… exactly.” I exhaled through my nose, but before I could give a vague answer, I was relieved to see the fateweaver exit the cottage.
Tanya’s hair was dark and loose, so it was worth assuming that she had just had a quick bath, which is why her exit was delayed. Why Quinn wouldn’t have known that wasn’t something I cared to question right now. In her somber clothing and metal breastplate, it seemed as though she knew that the day was unlikely to be one of rest.
With the Lady up near Candlekeep now on the back foot, there was a temptation to go full speed ahead and try to crush her once and for all… but ultimately it was too dangerous with how little we knew about her current capabilities. With all her gang—the Crimson Shadow—falling back to bolster her attempts to take over the city, we could be walking into an army.
So we’d have to start building our own. We’d made some oddball allies along the way… not quite enough to call it a traveling circus, but soon we were to make more.
“Morning,” she said, giving us all a nod. “Looks like you’re raring to go get some experience and Power Tokens.”
“Almost,” I said, and gestured for her to come sit. “I received a message earlier this morning.”
“Oh?”
I let the suspense hang for a bit as we all got situated. Wolf kept one eye open while the rest of us sat in a rough circle by the low fire. Apprehension on their faces which was warranted. After a day like yesterday, it would be nice to have a whole week off - but reality didn’t often play by the narrative you desired.
“The lovely chap from the Eternal Wardens sent me a message,” I began.
Tanya nodded. “Great. They heard we killed Tyler, so now we are ‘allowed’ to go meet with them and discuss this…” she waved a hand between Ren and I, “…Guardian bullshit.”
“Not quite.” I gave them a reassuring smile that was maybe twenty percent effective. “They’re being attacked by something and would like us to come help.”
“Something other than the Crimson Shadow?” Quinn put his hand up to his chin. “Surely it cannot be anywhere as vital or dangerous as them?”
All I could offer in response was a shrug. Normally I would have been more likely to tell the Wardens to kick rocks, and it served them right for snubbing us for so long. But we needed allies.
“They wouldn’t even say what,” Ren added. “Which makes me not want to care.”
“Worries me a little.” I looked out to the quiet woodlands and exhaled through my nose. “Something that isn’t tied to the Lady or a Guardian but is enough trouble for one of the few Guilds in the area…”
I wasn’t too keen on having to add a third party to our drab, conflict-laden lives. After killing our way through the starter island and first area of Othea, we had allowed the System to bring in new Players that weren’t troubled lunatics. Knocking through the ramshackle fort of the Crimson Shadow, we had found the second area just a steeped with those aligned to the Lady’s cause.
Somehow survived ambushes, a kidnapping, attacks from Monsters and strange Players… and now were apparently heroes to some degree. An unlikely romance and a few newly settled friends, and this was us. Two magicians and a supporting cast, ready to take a grand show on the road to dazzle and destroy all that opposed us.
Ren must have clocked that my mind had started to wander, as she circled the wagons back around the crux of the matter - her personal thoughts aside. “We could use a few more fans, though. The Wardens might not be the best audience, but it sounds like they’re desperate for our show in particular.”
“It’s a detour,” Tanya added. “You’re making a name for yourselves, so it’s really up to you where you choose to blaze a trail. The southwest does have a decent Dungeon so we can get you up to Fifteen, but I haven’t completed it before. Have you, Quinn?”
He shook his head. “I’ve heard it’s quite the challenge, but the rewards are worth the effort spent. Should we be successful, of course.”
“And we will be.” I gave them a grin. How could we not? Ren and I were now a pair of the most powerful people - certainly for the quarantined section of the world we were forced to live in. It was hard to imagine we’d be undone by a Dungeon, when you considered the list of our past achievements.
“Don’t count your chickens just yet.” Ren kicked off her boots—which vanished rather than dropping to the grass—and swung around to put her feet up on my legs. “Just because we believe the Lady and what remains of her followers are all northwest, doesn’t mean we will have it easy.”
She was right. Days where we had no conflict were few and far between. After knocking down the fort, we had earned a few days' break from it all, but with our destiny starting to circle the drain, I saw no opportunity for us to sit idle without regretting it.
“Assuming we don’t run into anything interesting or injurious,” Tanya began. “We’ll reach the Eternal Wardens before dusk. Hopefully, whatever ails them likes to attack in the morning and not night - so we’ll have a chance to settle.”
“Better not be vampires,” Ren murmured. A random and concerning hope to speak out loud and tempt fate.
“Let’s get some coffee and we’ll make a move then,” I decided, to their nods of acknowledgement. Still so much to do and learn in this world.
But, the show must go on.