She had decided to let them keep the name. Tribe of the Bloody Foot was fine so long as they knew who was in charge.
She had made them take her back to their lair. Marching through the valleys and hills, Vevic had used what little magic she had left and summoned a mist to conceal her. She still did not trust this new place. Trees and hills and caves and mountains were all new to her.
They were a pitiable race. Small, green, greedy, savage. They smelled bad. Their version of building something was usually to take sticks and tie them together. They had no agriculture to speak of and most of their herd animals were stolen. There were a few experienced dog trainers in their mix. Goblin dogs were as bad as their owners, smelly, treacherous, and ill-tempered, though the goblins somehow managed to train the beasts well enough they could ride on them.
When they arrived at the little village, the goblins had introduced her to a small cave at the foot of a hill. As it was the only way to get her magic back, she laid down inside to rest under the watchful eyes of her new companions. Just as she felt herself drifting off to sleep, a feminine voice floated in from above her.
“Interesting …”
At the voice, Vevic looked up. Floating in the air before her was a blonde woman in a red and gold uniform. Briefly, Vevic considered eating her but then noticed the woman was actually a specter.
“… You’re not actually supposed to be here. It shows me here that we made an exception for you. You were on the bubble with our test audience. Apparently, everyone thought you were an artificial intelligence. A lot of fan theories about that.”
Vevic narrowed her eyes, “What is the meaning of this? I am too busy to bandy about with nonsense from ghosts.”
The specter suddenly had a tired expression. “Wait one. We’ll begin your upload immediately.”
A torrent of information blasted into Vevic’s mind. She had been transported to a new world. It was a game in which she was a player now. There was an audience. People would be watching. Wraath. Sable Unlimited. Concept. She understood.
“There,” the blonde woman gave a sigh of relief. “I’m afraid you’ll have to forgive me. I’m a bit behind this morning, and so we’ve hardwired the bulk of the orientation in with your memory upload. Really, it’s a been a nice break. You don’t know how exhausting it is explaining the same things over and over to people every time.” She tapped her pen as she studied her clipboard for a moment. “Moving on. You may call me the Attendant. I’m here to ensure you’ve been given proper orientation as to why you’re here and what your purpose is in this game. Now that you have the basics, are there any questions?”
Vevic considered this. The information had changed little for her. She was still a dragon. So far as she knew and understood, she had always been a dragon and would continue to be so. This was good. However, perhaps this Attendant can tell me things I do not know.
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“What do you mean that people thought I was an artificial intelligence?”
“They weren’t sure what you were doing in that dungeon. One of our test audiences had been hand picked to monitor the delver and the mage who infiltrated the place on the eve of the Upload and everyone was surprised you were there. We had known about Severin and his medusa, your alleged mother, as we’d seen them coming in and out of the place, but no one had anticipated an actual dragon, let alone two. Sadly, we seem to have misplaced the other one.”
“You mean my sister?” Vevic asked. “What has happened to Xhen?”
The Attendant cocked her head, “We’re not entirely sure. That one of the reasons I was reading the notes. The last we saw of her, she was talking to one of the paintings.”
Lady Miranda, Vevic remembered. She had known her step-father’s dungeon inside and out. She made a note of this. “And what is this about me? Why was I selected?”
The Attendant crossed her legs as she set her clipboard on her knee. She had a serious expression as she leaned forward. “There is only so much I can tell you as all knowledge of your previous life is strictly classified. However, I will say that your little sister had been voted on ahead of you and so when she disappeared, you were brought to their attention. By that time, our Auditors had uncovered the truth of your unfortunate presence in the dungeon. Apparently, your physical body had been taken and then permanently jacked into the game. You were, in a sense, Severin’s prisoner.”
Vevic let out a breath of purple flame. “I have no memory of this.”
“You won’t. As I said, all memories of your previous life have been classified. We do this to save time in your adjustment to your new life. Saves time in the grieving process, if you can understand that. In your case, once this revelation was presented to our test audience, you were given a re-vote that found a ninety-two-point-seven-nine-three approval rating, which is one of the highest we’ve seen for a character of your alignment. You have a bright future ahead of you Miss Vevic, or should I call you Again.”
Vevic let out a puff of smoke. It pleased her to be called by her dragon name, but she did not want to let this ghost woman know that. A dragon had to be careful with her feelings. “I have another question for you, Attendant.”
“You may ask away, Again.”
“Where am I?” She asked.
“As your orientation stated,” the Attendant began, “you are on the planet Wraath …”
“No,” Vevic growled. “Where in Wraath are we located now?”
“Oh,” the Attendant flipped through a few pages. “Don’t worry, I know the answer, I’m just looking to make sure I’m allowed to tell you. It’s different for everyone, I’m afraid.” She flipped another page. “There, I see. Well, in that case … You are in Sommerdale, one of the easier zones of the game. If you’re looking for something to do, there are numerous villages and settlements along the river for you to harass. The local lich hasn’t been living up to his billing lately and so things have been getting fairly cozy on this side of the map.”
“I have not heard of this before. What do you mean there’s a lich?” Vevic asked.
“Ah, well that’s when a spell caster loves himself very, very much, so much in fact that he sells his soul to an underworld being so that he can live on as an undead with all of his power. Have a tendency to regenerate when you kill them, so they’re nice to keep around as villains. This one, I’m afraid, has gotten a bit complacent as we haven’t had a new class of adventurers in quite a while.”
“Complacent how?”
“For one, he doesn’t pay his minions very well and so a lot of them have simply wandered off to form their own raiding parties. Gone into business for themselves, if you will. For another, he just doesn’t seem interested in raiding and pillaging the local logging villages.”
Vevic began to understand perfectly well what was going on. “Say no more.”
“As you wish,” the Attendant bowed. “Like I’ve always said, give a young dragon a goal and you’ll keep them busy for at least a good half-century. Now, before I take off, there is one more matter we need to attend to. Being you have been granted an empowered character here in Sable Unlimited, you are not only allowed to begin as a dragon, but you are also allowed to choose a class to go along with it. You should now notice a notification has populated. Once you select that, you should be given a list of options.”
Vevic did so. She was not familiar with this portion of the game and so there was a lot of reading. One by one she scrolled through the list, carefully taking into account not only her current situation, but the potential power scaling of each class. When she was done, the window disappeared, leaving her alone with the Attendant.
“And with that I must now conclude your orientation. It’s not often I get to work with a player who has been graced with so many advantages up front. So, it has been an honor and pleasure working with you. Best of luck, Again.”
The image of the blonde woman in the uniform shimmered and disappeared.