“You're really something, you know?” Rachel said to me with a pleased look on her face. We were sitting across from each other at a cafe near our respective houses, finishing up a lunch before we had to go home. A Valentine's Lunch to be precise. Of course, it was the Saturday after that day because of all the rehearsals we have going on for our spring musical, but hey.

“I try,” I smiled back warmly. She returned to admiring the promise ring that I had gotten for her; it had been hard to actually go and get it, but somehow I had managed to do so without anyone knowing what I was up to.

“Now they'll definitely have to stop the harem rumors!” she grinned.

“Ugh,” I sighed. “I think they actually increased...”

“Hmm? Oh, that's right,” she said with a wry face. “Mary and Anhe left you cards.” a faint smile came to her features, and she lightly rolled her eyes.

“Hrrmm...” I breathed out tiredly as a look of consternation came to my own face.

“I'm not worried, honest; I kinda figured at least Mary would.” Rachel told me.

“I know you're not worried, but what am I gonna do about that...” I wondered, looking out of the window as I pondered the little quandary.

“They probably don't want you to do anything.” Rachel told me. I looked back at her; she was smiling. “They know we're serious. It's probably just for friendship's sake, you know? I got one from them too by the way,” she reminded me, and I blinked.

“Did you tell me that earlier?” I asked her.

“I did, but you were spaced out from getting yours.” she said with a bemused smile.

“Ahh...”

“It's fine!”

“W-well, if you say so,” I replied, and she giggled, taking my hand.

“When is it gonna be the real thing?” she slyly asked, batting her eyelashes at me.

“Ahh...”

“Don't do it too fast, though. We have a lot of life to get through before we think about that, you know?” she said in a more serious tone.

“I know that,” I nodded back, smiling at her.

“Good!” Rachel smiled back. “So we're doing that quest in Panarena tonight, right??” she then asked me.

“Definitely,” I said.

“Then we should finish up here and head home, huh?”

“Eh, we can; but let's... you know, take a scenic way home?” I suggested, and she gave a smile as my face reddened.

“Let's do that. You have the imager, right?” she replied.

“Hm? Oh, yeah, right here,” I tapped the little satchel I had with me.

“Yay! Let's swing by one of the parks for sure then!” Rachel said, and I nodded back in agreement as we got ready to leave the cafe.

After we spent a few hours walking around town, seeing some of the sights, taking a few commemorative photos (a lot, really), and talking about what was ahead for us as we moved through life together, I escorted Rachel to her residence before we reluctantly parted, and then made my way home. Then, after a brief round of twenty-questions and dinner, I made my escape to that wondrous world of Panarena.

***

“Too. Many. Questions.” I sighed in exasperation as I loaded up in Cloverbell.

“Worse than Lizzy the other day at lunch?” Ariana grinned mischievously as she came into the room.

“Eh... toss-up.” I shrugged, and she laughed.

At school several days ago, Ellie had given me a long rant at lunch in response to ditching her twice over on a certain Saturday night (technically a Sunday morning, I guess). I didn't help myself much by mentioning that our quest had gone over perfectly. That only added fuel to the fire of why-didn't-you-just-come-with-us-and-help-then argument that was the final point of her lecture. After promising to do so the next time we were all on together, she was mollified, but we hadn't yet managed to coordinate getting on again as a group since then.

“But for now...” I said, holding up my left hand with the Band of Unity on it.

“We're gonna try this quest for sure!” Ari nodded, holding hers up as well.

There was apparently a special quest during the Valentine's Event in Panarena for players like us who had either already married in game or who had an equivalent status of being coupled, such as the benefit our rings gave us. It would bequeath a set of rings like we had to players who did not have them, but for us, the reward would be an upgraded version. The quest itself was in the region of Thessalia; Derwydd and Heali had already done it a couple nights ago, but they had not given us any hints or spoilers.

“You'll figure it out,” Andrea had told us at lunch yesterday.

Back in the present, Ariana and I wayported to one of the towns we had been to in Thessalia a while back, and began making our way to the village where the quest started.

“It's called Agapeolis,” I read from the map as we walked along the rustic pathway.

“That word sounds kind of familiar,” Ari remarked.

“Well I know part of it sounds like 'polis', as in 'acropolis',” I said.

“'Polis' more or less means city, and 'acro' basically means height, so 'acropolis' pretty much means 'city on a hill'.” she told me.

“When did you learn Greek?” I wondered with interest.

“I didn't, but Joshy did! I picked up a tiny bit from him,” she replied with a smile.

“Your brother is ten different kinds of cool, you know?” I said.

“Isn't he?” she nodded. “Hope that girl he met last fall starts realizing what a catch she lost,” she sighed, and I smiled. “But the first five letters sound familiar too... I can't place it, though.”

“Hmm.” I wondered, suddenly thinking to myself that I also was having a sensation of familiarity with the first half of that word.

Getting there rang no bells. At least, not the memory kind. There were, however, literal bells being rung for what looked like an evening benediction for the shepherds and farmers who were coming in from the pastures and fields. The two of us waited patiently behind the small crowd until the speaker, a priestess, had finished blessing them, and then approached her. She smiled at us.

“Welcome, travellers! I am Thaliya, Priestess of the Divines here in Agapeolis! I see thee are wearing the Bands of Unity, the sacred rings of sworn lovers; do ye wish to undertake a ritual that will strengthen these rings and so strengthen your love?” she asked us.

“We do,” the two of us replied, and she smiled, lightly bowing.

“Follow me, my guests,” she then said, and led us to a small temple not far from the village. “I serve all the Divines, but Ayra, Lady of Beauty, Love, and Passion is my purview; here is her likeness,” Thaliya told us as we entered, gesturing towards an elegant statue of the divine in question. “Thee must pray at this altar to receive the trial before you; but first, thee must be cleansed. There is a bath below us; partake of it, and then wear the garments I lay out for thee.”

“Of course,” Ariana bowed her head, as did I, and we made our way down to do so.

We spent several minutes in the bath below the temple, and then after we had gotten out and dried ourselves off we found two simple, sleeveless dress-tunics that came down just below our knees, both of them red in color. Returning upstairs to the main hall of the temple, we then knelt before the statue, bowing our heads and folding our hands.

Hahh... leave it to a video game to make me feel actually spiritual about something... I quipped internally, waiting for the quest to advance. At that moment my quest log did indeed update, as did Ari's.

“It wants us to go up to the top of a mountain and retrieve a special urn, and then to go to the top of another mountain with a sacred spring, bring it down without spilling it, and use it to cleanse a defiled Shrine of Ayra southeast of this city,” I summarized as I quickly read over it.

“And the catch: we can't use our weapons and we must be 'harmonious at all times', it says here,” Ariana added as she pointed to the passage in question. I read over it myself again, slowly nodding.

“That seems simple enough,” I noted.

“For us, definitely!” she smiled.

“What the heck would we even use our weapons for?” I wondered quietly as we got up to head out.

“You have had the revelation, I see,” the priestess said as she smiled at us. “Go with Ayra's favor; but beware the one-eye and his minions, they will try to stop you!”

“We'll be careful,” I assured her, and she bowed her head as we departed the temple. “Come to think of it I guess we'll have to do the quest like this,” I noted.

“The only thing we have equipped besides these red dresses are the Bands of Unity.” Ari added.

“Seems like it's a huge test of basic skills, then... come to think of it, if Der and Heali got this kind of quest, I can see how they would just breeze through it,” I remarked.

“Oh for sure,” Ariana nodded in agreement. “What do you think a one-eye is anyway?”

“Hmm...”

“That one puzzled you too, huh?”

“I mean, if I thought about it enough I could prob--!!” I started, and then suddenly it came to me.

“What is it?” she asked me.

“Ari... what's a one-eyed creature from Greek Mythology?”

“Hm? I guess the most obvious one would be the cy-- clops...” she replied, our dilemma suddenly dawning on her as well. “Oh my!”

“This might be rougher than I thought... I bet Der just entangled him with a vine or two...”

“I don't have any -- oh, I could blind him, though, if we had to.”

“Even without your staff?”

“It's an amplifier, not a catalyst.”

“Oh right!”

“Hmm... but I wonder if that would fail us somehow...” Ariana pondered as we made our way along the path that would take us to the first mountain.

“Ohh, being harmonious at all times... it's not just about us, but about everything around us,” I said as I snapped my fingers.

“Ooh, good catch.” my partner nodded. “In that case I wonder if a peace-spell would work...”

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

“I wonder if he'll pop a quest for a peace offering instead...”

“There you go! Or a peace talk, even,” Ari suggested.

“Oh, true,” I agreed.

We discussed the potential scenarios and the possible outcomes of meeting the one-eye as we continued on our way, reaching the mountain with the urn at its top just as the sun had gone down. Carefully we made our ascent, Ariana activating a hover-light to help us see in the dark as we picked our way up the faded mountain-path. There were some wild animals around, but we were too high of a level for them to consider dealing with us or even threatening us, so we passed by them in peace. Several times we found a spot where the pathway was either broken or blocked off, and we spent several minutes each time working to find a way around the obstacle or to overcome it and continue our ascent.

Eventually we got to the summit, where we found a small shrine housing the urn, placed carefully upon a pedestal. Ariana was about to take it, but I quickly stopped her, pointing to a mechanism near the pedestal.

“It looks like it's designed to release a trap of some kind if we just pick it up,” I told her, and she stepped back with a nod. The two of us looked over it intently, trying to discern what we could do to overcome the mechanism.

“Heali and Der got past this; we can definitely get it in one go.” she remarked.

“We just need to be smart about it,” I nodded back. “Oh I see; there's two sets of pressure plates here. I bet if we only step on one, the trap activates, but if we step on both of them to get the urn...”

“Then we won't set off the trap!” Ariana smiled at me. We carefully stepped up to the shrine, and, at the same time, stepped on to the plates. Nothing happened. We breathed sighs of relief, and Ariana took the urn. The two of us stepped off quickly, but still nothing happened.

“Well that went well.” I said happily.

“Def!” my partner nodded, and we carefully picked our way down the mountain this time--which was definitely harder than getting up it in the first place.

We got to the bottom sometime after the synchronous midnight, and rested for a few minutes, Ariana with her head in my lap as I sat in a side-sitting position, gently running my fingers through her hair. The crickets and frogs were chirping peacefully, undisturbed by the two of us.

“We should do this for real sometime,” she murmured softly.

“Definitely.” I agreed. At that moment, I noted that the peacefully singing critters were starting to quiet down. I patted Ari on the shoulder, and we got up slowly.

“You noticed that too, huh?” she whispered.

“Something's coming. I bet it's the one-eye.” I whispered back as we looked around.

“I think so too,” Ari said quietly.

We looked around for several moments, seeing nothing. The sounds of chirping and chirruping began to regain its volume and steady rhythm, but the two of us did not relax. Quietly, Ariana picked up the urn again, and we softly made our way to the next mountain, straining our ears to listen for any further sounds or lack thereof as we walked. A few minutes later, I heard the sound of a “neigh”. I looked around, and put a hand on Ari's shoulder, barely containing a gasp at what I saw. She turned, and opened her mouth in wonder as her face lit up.

“A pegasus!” she breathed with excitement.

“Do you think we can ride it to the mountain?”

“Even if we can't, I want to go and pet it!”

“Right?” I agreed, and we headed up to it cautiously, hoping it wouldn't run.

It stood there grazing away under the night sky, and upon reaching it the two of us fawned over it, patting its head or stroking its neck and back as we stood with it under the night sky. It neighed contentedly as we did so, and I went to pluck a few apples from a nearby tree to try and feed it. The pegasus accepted these with interest, and we smiled as it daintily devoured them. After several minutes like this, it made a noise as if trying to tell us something, setting itself down to allow us on its back.

“We want to go to the mountain of the sacred spring; do you know about it?” Ariana asked. The pegasus gave a nod of its head, and she stroked its ears encouragingly as we got on. It then stood back up, and started off at a trot before picking up to a gallop and then launching itself into the air.

The two of us had been flying before, of course: the wyverns during the Garth-Queens War, and Dracuoatlax, obviously. But this somehow felt more magical and surreal than those experiences. Probably because it was nighttime in-game and we were on a romantic quest. As if to play up to the cliché, we saw a lunar rainbow in the distance, and I took a screen-grab of the moment to show the others later. Ariana took one of us on the pegasus, and when she smiled back at me I drew her close for a kiss, which she happily returned.

After about an hour of subjective time, the pegasus landed at the top of a certain mountain, and when we had gotten off its back it came over to nuzzle us before heading off into the night once more.

“Aww,” Ariana sighed, a note of glumness in her voice.

“Right?” I agreed, a wry smile on my face. “Well, I guess it would've been hard to keep the urn steady while flying...” I remarked, rubbing the back of my neck.

“Hmm... that's not untrue, I guess.” she nodded. “Oh well! There's the spring, anyway,” she then said, and we headed over to it. We drew the water together, just in case, and then she let me carry it for a change. “Your strength stat is higher,” she mischievously grinned as I noted she was letting me carry the full jar as opposed to the empty one.

“You're right.” I grinned back, giggling. She giggled as well, and we began our descent down the mountain, being even more cautious since we hadn't walked up it to begin with.

“It didn't seem so bad from the air,” Ari sighed as we carefully maneuvered the urn over a break in the pathway.

“I guess it was still too dark to tell for sure; it still kind of is, though,” I said as I got a hold of it again and carefully set it down so I could help her across.

“Whew! Thanks!” she smiled, and I smiled back as I picked up the urn again.

“Def!” I replied.

Bit by bit, we worked our way down without incident. Ariana checked the map; the shrine southeast of Agapeolis was at least a two-hour walk from our current position. We took out a snack from our inventory to refresh ourselves, and then resumed the journey. I was starting to think about how splendidly simple the quest had been so far when we heard the sound of large footfalls coming closer. On our left, a great wooden club with a spiked tip in its right hand, was the one-eye.

“Oh boy.” I said with a sinking feeling. It halted before us, gazing with a quiet hostility.

“You have the sacred water, I see.” it said to us.

“Yes?” Ariana replied.

“That ridiculous priestess and her devotion to a lazy divine; my father Poseis is a better master, and Arars the Lord of War likewise. What say you, mortals? Will you surrender the water to me and my cause? I can give you a better offer than some slovenly wench idling in a bath!” the one-eye demanded of us.

“Only if you can find the answer to our riddle,” I said, an idea springing to mind.

“I can answer many riddles, mortal!” it spat back in derision.

“Yes, but can you find the answer is what I want to know.” I retorted.

“Ahh; you want me to actually bring the answer to you, I see!” it replied with interest. “Interesting! Give me your riddle, and I will bring you your answer!” the one-eye grinned wickedly.

“Ahem!” I coughed. “It soars through the air, but gallops like thunder; only the bravest or purest can find it.” I then said. The one-eye's single eye narrowed in thought, and it stalked off with a snort to go and solve my riddle.

“I can't believe you did that.” Ariana watched it go with a nonplussed look on her face.

“Come on, let's hurry as fast as we can!” I whispered back, and we set off at a brisk walk, taking care not to spill the water.

“But what's the answer to the--oh!!” Ari realized, smiling at me. “He'll never catch it, will he?”

“Nope,” I grinned back. “That's why I want to hurry before he puts it together.”

“How did you know to do that?”

“Ehh, didn't Odysseus do something similar?”

“Not quite, but I see where you're coming from.”

“Heh.” I sighed, and she giggled.

Somehow, we made it to the defiled shrine by dawn without encountering the one-eye again. Together, we hoisted the urn above the statue of Ayra, and turned it to let the water flow over and cleanse it; seconds later it was sparkling like new, practically radiant in the morning light. Ari took a screen-grab of the scene, and our quest log updated.

Return to Thaliya for a reward! Do not lose or break the urn!

“That was easy,” I said, and Ariana nodded.

“But it's still going to be trying until we actually finish it,” she noted.

“True...” I said. “Hrrmm... I wonder if our 'friend' gave up and is coming after us... though now that we've used the water I wouldn't see the point...”

“Agree. But he might attack us for spite.” my partner replied.

“Right. At least we can go faster now,” I said, picking up the urn again to set off at a brisk jog for our return to Agapeolis.

“Definitely!” Ariana said as she joined me, the two of us keeping an eye out for anything that might trip or otherwise hinder us.

It was just as we were in sight of the village and its temple that the one-eye came into our field of vision again, and this time, he had brought friends. Ari and I exchanged a brief glance, and the two of us took off running at full speed. The one-eyes were faster, however, and were soon tailing us. But just when our “friend” was about to catch up, the pegasus from before suddenly landed in front of them, causing them to halt in a brief panic before regrouping. It was just enough time for us to get the urn into the temple. We heard curses and grumblings outside as we caught our breath, and Priestess Thaliya received the urn from us with grace.

“My thanks, dear heroines, for your efforts. The Shrine of Ayra shines anew, and her blessing is yours. Raise your ring hands!” she said, and when we had done so there was a brief flash of light. She smiled, and then nodded as she returned to her duties as a priestess. We bowed our heads, and took our leave, heading out of the temple. Over in the distance we could see the dejected one-eyes stomping off, while the pegasus seemed to be waiting for us.

“Let's go for another ride!” Ariana smiled.

“For sure!” I agreed.

Moments later, we were in the air again, flying through the skies of Thessalia. As Ari sat before me, enjoying the sensation of the wind through her hair, I smiled, and checked on the Band of Unity that I wore. Its stat bonuses were now fifteen to Charisma and Vitality by default, and the health regeneration was now forty-percent. The shared effect made the stats thirty, adding an additional ten-percent to the regeneration and a fifteen percent shielding effect as long as we were in forty-five meters of each other. Also, there was now a diamond in mine. I blinked, and then took Ari's left hand to look at hers; it had a diamond also.

“Hm? Oh!” she exclaimed in surprise as she noticed this.

“And the stats and effect they have increased as well, along with the distance we can be apart from each other,” I told her.

“Neat!” she remarked as she looked for herself. “Hmm... a diamond ring now, huh? Will you get me one for real one day?” she asked, winking back at me.

“Ah--! I mean, one day, yeah,” I managed to reply with a gentle smile, and she smiled back as she leaned onto me.

“Honestly, I don't mind if it has a diamond or not. Just so long as you mean it.” Ariana said to me as I wrapped my arms around her.

“You know I do.” I whispered back, and she smiled, nodding in reply.

***

“So how'd you like the quest?” Healina asked as we met her and Derwydd later that game day. Belle and Lysandra had done a similar one in Hollydale, and had also come to join us.

“It was super fun! And relaxing,” Ariana smiled back.

“Well, mostly relaxing,” I said, and she giggled to me.

“Hmm? Belle and I had a rougher go of it.” Lysandra said.

“I'll say!” the pixie-girl remarked. “That last boss was rude!”

“For sure,” her partner nodded.

“Note to self, don't do romance quests in Hollydale,” Derwydd quipped, and we laughed. “How did you get past the cyclops anyway? Ahh, it's a one-eye in the game, isn't it... but anyway, how'd you work that out?” he asked the two of us as he took a long sip of his drink.

“A one-eye, huh?” Belle wondered with interest.

“This I have to hear.” Lysandra smirked.

“Lana gave it a riddle that it had to solve by bringing the item in question to us.” Ariana shrugged, and Der did a spit-take off to the side while Healina's eyes widened at us.

“Huh?!”

“You can do that!?” the two of them exclaimed in disbelief while the older two cackled with laughter.

“Apparently,” I shrugged.

“I had to tangle it up with vines three times,” the werebear-druid sighed.

“And I had to help by distracting it with bell-fairies,” Healina groaned. “We barely made it to the shrine!” she told us. Ariana and I exchanged a goofy grin with each other.

“As expected of the Silvernight Twins.” Belle nodded wisely. “You two can't do anything without it being a complete and utter shock to everyone else!”

“Ah-heh-heh-heh,” I laughed back wryly.

“That does seem true!” Ariana giggled.

“By the way, did you catch the pun in that town's name?” Healina then said to us with a smile.

“I thought it was some kind of pun, but no, I didn't get it.” Ariana replied.

“The word 'agape' in Greek is sometimes regarded as a word referring to the highest form of love.” Healina explained.

“Oh!” the two of us said at once, and Derwydd nodded.

“The City of Greatest Love.” he said.

“Definitely cool,” Ariana remarked.

“For sure.” I agreed.

“Cute!” Belle nodded.

“We'll have to visit that one sometime,” Lysandra said. “Anything besides those one-eyes around there?” she asked us.

“I didn't notice anything, no,” Healina shook her head. “What about you two?”

“You mean you didn't see it?” I asked in reply.

“See what?” Derwydd wondered. Ariana then pulled up the screenshot she had taken, and the other four looked at it with wonder and awe.

“Why you lucky brats,” Belle quipped, smiling at us.

“I bet it's because you already had your rings.” Healina smirked.

“Oh, maybe,” I suddenly realized.

“You two never stop amazing me.” Derwydd grinned.

“For sure.” Lysandra nodded. A second round of drinks was then delivered to our table, and we toasted to our success in the Valentine's Quest for this year.