The Fruit City town board showed all quests, including level restricted, secret, and player-limited. She selected the secret EDM Emu quest. It was one of the better quests in the area and on the way to Hicto. Though the acceptance button was gone and no gold arrow or spotted trail formed, but it added a marker to her maps app. Guess the objective guide was another training wheel added on by the game, but it didn’t matter as long as she knew where to go.

“Where you headed?” Fawkes asked falling in step behind her.

“North.” She knew he saw what quest she selected and didn’t want to give more than that. She pushed through tall grass as they exited the city.

“Ah, the Outlands are that way. Was it the Mage Outlaws who invited you?”

“Nunya.”

“Ouch, and after all I’ve done for you.”

“Do we need to go over the lsit of things you’ve done for me again today?”

“Yes, as we added new items. Number one, I saved your life. Number two, provided you with numerous gifts including food just now. Number three—”

“Oh. My. God.” She enunciated each word with enough annoyance to cut through steel. “I don’t have time for your BS!”

He raised an eyebrow like he wanted to ask what she needed the time for.

“Just stop following me.” She said it as sternly as she could and stalked ahead. She only made it a few paces before he caught up to her.

“Nah, I’m going to stick around and make sure you don’t get yourself killed.”

She steamed but kept it bottled. If the quest went sideways, it’d be nice to have backup, even his deluded kind. Her health had recovered, but her ankle ached with a phantom pain. She winced at the idea of the emus kicking another hole in the same spot.

“You took the EDM Emu quest, right? Sure you want to go there? I have loons if that’s what you need.”

“Take your stupid down money and shove it up your stupid–“

“Calm dooooown, dude. We’re not enemies here.” He jogged in front of her and stopped, forcing her to stop. “Look there was a tear there a few weeks ago. I don’t know if it’s closed up yet or not. If it’s still open, there might be a Glitch nearby. They’re gravitating around tears.”

“If the quest is back on the board, it means it scarred up.” She walked past him while shoulder bumping him out of her way. “It’s fine.”

“I’m sure you said the same thing about the dead zone, yea?”

Ignoring him, she continued forward, and he crunched the grass behind her. But his words ate at her.

Did she really have what it took to do this? To find Mom and this key, or even be in a Brink guild at all? She thought she did, that she’d be strong and kick serious ass just like in the regular game. But this wasn’t actually a game anymore. It wasn’t just for fun and a potential career, and she had no way to log out to protect herself if something went sideways again.

She checked her phone again to make sure. No change. No log out option. Based on the way that Vidar guy talked to Mom, he at least thought they could. Finally a use for Fawkes. “Why don’t you log out and go bug your family instead.”

“Ah, but that isn’t as fun.”

“What? Don’t know how to log out?”

He rolled his eyes. “Is this some not so subtle way to figure out how to log out yourself? Here. I’ll show you.” He pulled out his phone and navigated a few options. “Uh.”

“What?”

“Nothing.”

“Can’t log out either, huh?” At least she knew it wasn’t just her now. It likely affected everyone who traveled through the Gate App. Did Ben cause it through the Glitch event, or what it related to the deterioration? At least it wasn’t because she let Ben hack into their home and devices.

The tall grass parted to a purple flower covered heathland with a warehouse standing in the middle of a small lake. Sadie boarded over to the warehouse and stopped at the door. Deep breaths, in-out, in-out. Get in, dance for the eggs without triggering a freaking war, and get out. Easy.

When she was grinding this quest last year, she didn’t even bother with the dancing. She just charged in, slaughtered some emus, and stole the nest. Her first time she took the quest in-game she messed up, got trapped, and had to beat an emu named Kevin wearing chainmail and rainbow neon sunglasses with a trash can lid before he kicked her to death. Each jade egg fetched ten thousand loons with brink traders, but today she’d settle for one to play it safe.

She pushed the door open and EDM music blasted her in the face. Emus decked out in rave attire danced on the floor under strobing lights. All the emus stood twice as tall as her and thanks to cyber magic-logic were able to hold plastic cubs in their wings as if they had thumbs.

At the center of the dance stage was an elevated platform holding jade emu eggs that glistened underneath a disco ball. In the darkest corner, a scar ripped through the air. Even closed, it sucked in the light around it.

“Looks like it closed up nicely, so no worries,” Fawkes whispered behind her.

A chill ran down her spine. “Don’t sneak up on people.”

“Come on. Would you like to join the dance?” Sadie turned to see Kevin the Emu and gulped. She braced ready for him to attack, but he did nothing. “It will help us send off the unhatched eggs back to circuit for them to try again.” Unlike last time, he appeared cheery and carried glow stick necklaces.

In all the times she took this quest, she never stopped to speak to the emus. She never even wondered why they threw raves or gave away their eggs to people in the quest.

Kevin the Emu broke a glow stick and offered it to her. “Once the ritual is complete and the souls reconnected to circuit, you may have one of the eggs yourself.” The wind picked up outside. “The lake current will develop soon and begin the flow. If you want to only observe, that is okay too.”

Sadie nodded in thanks and took the glow stick. It was actually nice talking to the emus instead of breaking in and blazing through the quest. A pang of guilt twisted in her stomach. She wondered if the jade eggs she stole ever finished their ritual.

“The emus,” she asked softly to Fawkes, “What happened to them while the tear was open?”

“Nothing.”

“Is this a you nothing or a real nothing?”

“I’m offended.” He fake pouted at her. “A real nothing. Pirates and raiders assigned members to guard tears and make sure players stay away and don’t strain the world anymore while it heals up. And to make sure no one goes through. It takes a few hours to close a tear enough for the emus or anything else to come back.”

She remembered the rumors about people losing data. “What happens if someone goes through?”

Fawkes shrugged. “Don’t know. Only a couple of people from Brinkhave gone through. None ever came back.”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

Were they dead then? Or just somewhere else in cyberspace? Or transformed into something else? She wanted to ask more about players straining the world, but the music started up again. Sadie climbed up the steps to the dance floor for the quest.

Fawkes followed behind her.

“Can you not?”

“If I participate, you get an extra egg.”

“But then you’d be watching me dance which will screw me up.” He gestured around showing he’d be able to see her from anywhere. She signed. “At least go to the edges where the shadows can hide you.”

“Didn’t take you for someone with stage fright but alright.” He skipped merrily across the platform and down to a table of emus in tie-dye tank tops and colorful wigs chugging drinks.

She breathed out and in a few more times. Dancing was so not her thing, but she picked up the beat and kind of followed along with the crowd. Sort of. God, she hoped Fawkes couldn’t see her.

Sweat trickled down her forehead, and any nerves about the emus lashing out eased away as they danced with her and hyped her up. She couldn’t believe how callous she’d been before. She couldn’t have been a bigger asshole if she tried, all because she just didn’t want to talk to anyone or be a little uncomfortable dancing. In hindsight, Kevin rightfully nearly kicked her to death.

These emus felt, spoke, and acted like real people. It was hard to believe they were only NPCs or even advanced AI. If she existed in Evarus, could exist within cyber space and not just the game, maybe they did too.

The music stopped as the DJ took a breather. “It was different in the game,” Gate said, as though she could read her thoughts.

“When I was completing the quests before?” Sadie asked to clarify.

“The game of Evarus takes a copy of Evarus residents and makes them into NPCs for quests. You were interreacting with NPCs, not the real Emus. The game Evarus Falls is like an old save file, an instance in time that operates separately but parallel to Evarus. Now you are in the present Evarus. Game quests still show when their events would naturally occur, but it’s the real Evarians now.”

She looked around at the emus drinking and laughing, recognized others from the last time she was here. “It traps people in moment.” Her chest tightened. Even if the emus in those quests were only copies of the real deal, they still had real reactions. Who’s to say those copies weren’t as real as her and the emus in front of her?

“Should the game even exist?” Sadie whispered. Sure, it was fun—a lot of fun—but what if players were hurting real people. Were the tears evidence of that hurt too, just on the world itself?

“Many in Brink ask the same question.”

The lights cut, and Sadie moved back to the floor as black enveloped them.

“Don’t trust Fawkes,” Gate said, barely audible over the music blasting again.

A gunshot fired, and Sadie’s heart raced into a panic. Was a regular player here? She scrambled towards the eggs ready to help the emus protect the eggs until the ritual completed. The lights cut back on, and Sadie readied her hand to call the club.

A grappling hook tethered itself to a disco ball handing from the center ceiling, and a girl in a cowboy outfit—complete with vest, pink boots, and a bright yellow shirt—swung down to the stage, black wavy hair billowing behind her beneath her cowboy hat. The girl landed in a superhero stance and hit a button on her pistol causing the grapple hook to retract. She was east Asian and about the same height and age. When she looked up, she smiled and pointed a finger at Sadie.

Sadie looked around confused as she did not want to fight this girl who could definitely kick her butt in her current state. Her club looked like soggy bread in comparison to that grapple hook pistol.

“We have a dance offffff!” the emu MC roared from the DJ stand. The crowd roared with him as other dancers moved to the sides to surround them.

“Oh, no, no, no.” Sadie waved her hands in front of her. Or have that level of attention on her crappy dancing. “I don’t want to complete.” The words came out flustered, and heat rose to her cheeks.

The girl laughed, flashing a brilliant smile. It reminded her of her ex’s the way it made slight dimples form. “Relax. It helps the ritual complete faster.”

Sadie wasn’t sure if she was relieved the girl was only interested in the eggs like herself or disappointed. “Gotcha, I guess. So we…?”

“Just follow my lead.” The girl started some dance that was obviously choreographed and looked like it came out of a music video. She glided across the floor, and Sadie attempted to follow suit but mostly watched her feet to make sure she didn’t trip.

The girl stopped, and the crowed looked her. Sadie blanked, and the only dance she could think of was the thriller because Mom showed it to her last week. The girl raised her eyebrow then laughed and follow along.

After another minute, the girl grabbed her arm and whispered, “Look.”

Sadie froze at her touch but then turned to the center stage where she pointed. The eggs glowed white. The emus continued to dance, and the flowing intensified until a light shot out from one. The crowd stopped, and the lights cut off. Each egg burst out in its own beam of light. With every egg joined in, the lights swiveled and danced off each other as they became their own disco ball. After a few minutes, the lights from each egg joined into one pointed towards the sky. The beam lifted from each egg into the air and shot straight up leaving the room in darkness again.

Clapping and stomping thundered across the room as the lights cut back on.

Kevin brought over four eggs. “Bravo, bravo. Best light show in ages.”

The girls took two eggs each. “Don’t you want to keep them?” Sadie asked.

Keven laughed and shook his head no. “I appreciate the concern, but—“ He knocked on the egg. It sounded empty. “After the ritual, they are essentially pretty rocks. The important part, the soul, has moved on to try again. We’re happy to give them out to those who want them, especially after such a fine performance. What was that interesting dance called?”

“Uh, the thriller?”

Kevin clapped his hand-wings. “You have to come back again.”

Sadie wasn’t so sure that performance was fine or that she should ever do it again as she probably butchered the dance.

The girl nudged her. “I’ll buy both yours for fourteen thousand.”

“Fourteen!” Sadie huffed. “That’s six less than I’d get myself.”

She shrugged. “Convenience fee. Plus you would have only had one by yourself.” She stuck out her hand for a deal.

Sadie wrinkled her nose at the girl’s audacity… but she had a point. Fruit City merchants refused to buy the eggs because they considered it bad juju. She could buy boosters from them though, with some left over for a decent weapon at Hicto, and be off. A deal now meant no going out of her way to sell the eggs, no dealing with other players, and ditching Fawkes all the sooner.

“Fine.” Sadie shook her hand. “Deal.”

They made the exchange and the girl ran off as quickly as she entered. What a crappy deal, but whatever. She got something out of it too. She dashed for the exit and made it all the way into the sunshine before she saw Fawkes sitting on a rock by the bridge to get off the lake.

“Trying to leave without me?” he smirked.

Sadie bottled up a scream. “God, you’re so annoying!”

“I try.”

Sadie paced back and forth kicking at dirt. “Why are you so insistent on coming with me? Are you capable of being honest for once?”

He looked her up and down, measuring what to say. “You wanted to join the Pirates, right?”

“PirateQueen’s crew, yeah.”

“Well so did I, a crew I mean.”

Sadie squinted at him. “You said you didn’t want to be a pirate.”

“I don’t. I’m in the assassin guild, but I want to do raids with those skills. That means being on a pirate crew. They take other guild members all the time, especially the big crews.”

“Okay… And?”

“And I don’t know any pirates. Well, one, but I’m not asking him for help. And when I heard a rumor the pirates were interested in you, I looked at the tracker I put on you and waited around for you in Talaria.”

“You put a tracker on me?” She practically screamed in his face.

“Simmer down. It was a tiny, innocent tracker.”

“I hate you.”

“All love.” He chuckled which did not help her simmer down. “I figured you would get an invite after the way you handled the Glitch, so I made my way to Rudi Flats.”

“Why do you think I would help you? You got me suspended!”

He burst out laughing and slapped his knee. “Oh, yeah. I nearly forgot about that. You still got the invite though.”

“If we were in the game right now, I’d kill you.” And she was never, ever helping him.

“Come on. I know how good of a player you are. I wouldn’t have done it if I thought you sucked. That’d be no fun. But that’s why I wanted to stick with you. I figure they’d give you some trial missions for newbies, and maybe I can prove myself too, you know? Have you put in a good word for me.”

“No.”

“What if I bat my eyelashes too?” He did so, and she frowned at him. “Cooked you food? Everyone likes food.” He elbowed her jokingly in the side, and he seemed like he was telling the truth. It’s exactly the kind of nonsense he’d pull.

But she still didn’t trust him, and not just because of the pranks. Something was off even if she couldn’t out a finger on what, and Gate’s warning echoed in her mind.

“Besides, with your mentor not here, I can teach you a few things. Provide protection and all that until they get back. You have a first mission, right? I can help.”

She stared him down, and he grinned innocently at her.

“Okay, we’ll stick together. For now.”

Fawkes fist pumped into the air and began chattering about party tactics as they backtracked to Fruit City for boosters and then boarded north towards Hitco.

He knew more about Evarus than her. He knew about surviving here and had at least a month of training on her, and maybe he’d pull his tricks on others for once. Any crew right now was better than being alone and risking a higher chance of death.

Besides he’d follow her anyway. And if this crew member kinda sucked as an individual? She’d deal until she could ditch him for real.