Fel Dungeon. Day 08.
Pain radiated behind Sinnamon's eyes, wrapping around her brain like a belt cinched too tight. She was in a cave. Weaver, Sparrow, AnnaLee, JonJon, Halzy, Singapura, and Hogweed Le Burn were lying beside her on the ground. Though someone had taken them off the cold, hard stone and placed them on blankets and pillows.
The woman who Sinnamon had seen casting that spell before she'd fainted looked up and turned towards her.
“Ah, you're the first one awake. You might want to drink this.” The woman spoke with a slight lisp made apparent by the way the scar on the side of her face dragged at her upper lip. She held a flask with tinted blue liquid inside it.
Sinnamon studied the woman. She had a scar on the right side of her face that ran from her eye to her lip. Her character page didn't list a name, but showed she was a level forty Elementalist.
Aliyah must have mistook Sinnamon’s looking over her stats as hesitance, because she quickly added, “You expended a lot of mana. This should help with that.”
Sinnamon sipped from the flask and immediately her mana bar began to rise and her headache receded. “Thank you! It felt like someone scrambled my brains with an egg beater. I'm Sinnamon, by the way.”
The woman laughed. “That is one of the more descriptive ways I've heard mana storm described. I'm Aliyah. The ones tending to your friends are my daughters, Alyx and Lynn.”
Something in those names stirred a memory in Sinnamon’s head, though she was still too groggy to grasp the full thought. Instead, she decided to ask, “Where are we? How long were we out?”
The way Aliyah’s warm smile cooled for just the briefest moment forced Sinnamon to hide a wince.
“You’re better off asking Logan.” Aliyah answered tersely, gesturing in the direction of an older man at the far end of the cave. “You lost the better part of a day. I've never seen anyone that resistant to receiving mana.”
“What do you mean?” Sinnamon asked.
“I am a Master mage. Though you rank above me, I can still sense your reservoir of mana. It is significant. My daughters and I spent nearly a day feeding you all mana, but nothing we did filled your reserves. It was as though you were actively using it as we replenished it.”
“An entire day,” Sinnamon whispered softly to herself. She brought up her system menus and heads up display. Its date and time confirmed that it was a little less than a day and a half after she and the others had found the Archivist. It was actually late in the evening.
Sinnaon immediately opened her friend list to let Orbnus know what had happened to her, but when she mentally tapped on her friend's name to open her profile, a message appeared saying Orbnus was unavailable. The same was true of everyone except those in the cave with her.
When Aliyah rested a hand on Sinnamon’s shoulder, she realized the healer had been speaking to her.
“I'm sorry, could you—” Sinnamon started, but was interrupted.
“Aliyah, you’re alive?” Halzy groaned as he stood, patting the heads of the two girls who had swarmed him when he had begun stirring.
Aliyah shot her head at Halzy. “Where is Tyressa?”
The twin emotions of anger and worry was plainly visible on Aliyah’s own face. That worry was mirrored on the faces of her daughters.
“She's safe in Pella,” Halzy answered quickly. “We thought all of you had died in the fires around the farm.”
The instant relief the twins showed nearly broke Sinnamon’s heart as the puzzle pieces quickly slotted together. The attack on Pella had happened nearly five days ago. Sinnamon had treated a weak and weary Tyressa that Halzy had brought into the makeshift hospital in the village’s library as the fighting inside the walls waned. He had told Sinnamon that Tyressa’s family had died when their house had burned in the player-started inferno that had raged across the wildlands. And they had in turn believed her dead. For five whole days.
Sinnamon's eyes fell on Sparrow, who was still slowly stirring. The little girl of only thirteen had seen the killing of her twin brother, JonJon, by a pack of goblins on their first day in this world. That same relief on Aliyah and her daughter's faces had been on Sparrow’s face... Was still on Sparrow’s face when she looked at her twin when she thought no one else was looking.
All of the kids in this cave were being forced to grow up far too quickly. How many other kids out there were facing the same?
Sinnamon was suddenly pulled out of her thoughts when the conversation between Halzy and Aliyah had gotten heated.
She'd missed portions of it, but saw Halzy giving a grave, mournful smile. “I did. I'm also a veteran of war. A long one that lasted nearly twenty years. A significant time when those where I’m from have a lifespan of only eighty. I lost many friends in the time I served. Many who I'd forgotten about due to the disease that claimed my memories. I understood what Tyressa was going through and why she needed to see her team. I understood too well. And you're right: I should not have done it. It was selfish of the both of us and it needlessly risked her health. But I promise you I will let her know you and your kids are safe.”
Aliyah ran up to Halzy, a sphere of wind encasing the two, followed by a barrier of stone rising from the ground. The moving winds blocked the sound of their conversation as the stone hid them.
“I guess they don’t want us listening in.” Weaver said, slipping his hand through Sinnamon’s and sitting beside her.
“Guess not,” Sinnamon replied. “Your friends list not working?”
Weaver’s eyes grew distant for a moment as he accessed his menus. “Nope. Everyone not here with us says they're unavailable.”
Sparrow let out a long yawn. “That's the same thing that happened when we tried to talk to you when you guys went into the basement.”
“No messages, no fast travel. I guess we're on our own here,” Sinnamon said.
Gavriel and Yentel awoke a moment later and both immediately looked at Logan.
“I hoped we would find you alive and well,” Yentel said, walking over to Logan.
“Alive, yes. Well… That is up for debate.” Logan looked from the stone wall hiding Aliyah and Halzy back towards Sinnamon and the other Guardians.
Yentel answered his unasked question. “They've spoken with the Archivist. Reylynn is gone. We need to get them to Fel.”
Logan shook his head. “We won’t make it through this waystone—”
“Waiting the days or weeks until we can return through this waystone and find another isn't an option. Seven days since the Guardians were brought here is already a lot of time lost. A lot of time that whatever had initiated their return in the absence of Reylynn could already be posing a serious threat,” Yentel replied.
Gavriel pulled a book from his bag, flipped to the last page, and handed it to Logan. “Regis is gone and so is his key. The time to act is now.”
“That old…” Logan’s words trailed off. He held the same look of pain that had been in Gavriel and Yentel’s eyes when they'd found Regis’ note in which he said he didn't think he was long for the world and sent his book and key to Logan. “But I never received his book or key. I never knew it was coming or that he was ill.”
Sinnamon wondered what kind of a man Regis had been that he commanded such respect from these three. A part of her wished she could have met the man.
Logan forced himself to continue, pain replaced by resolution. “We need to get Aliyah and her daughters home. Then, maybe with the help of the Guardians, we can traverse the passages to Fel. It's just too dangerous to take them with us.”
The barrier of wind and earth encasing Aliyah and Halzy suddenly dropped as Aliyah looked in Logan’s direction. “What is the fastest way back to Pella?”
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“The safest way is waiting—” Logan started.
“I did not ask for the safest, I asked for the fastest.” Aliyah interrupted.
“Finding another waystone or going to Fel.” Logan answered. “But it's too—”
“And which one is faster?”
Apparently Logan had given up trying to argue with Aliyah. “Going to Fel.”
“Then you are going to take us there. And Logan,” Aliyah’s expression darkened and her voice chilled the air around Sinnamon, “you will hold nothing back when it comes to protecting my daughters. And I mean nothing.”
“You have my word, Aliyah.”
“Your word means very little.” Aliyah replied coldly.
Sinnamon looked from Logan to Halzy, who only shook his head sadly.
Weaver pulled everyone out of the awkwardly silent moment by asking, “What makes this route so dangerous?”
“There are,” Aliyah paused and pointedly didn't glance at her daughters. “There are things beyond this room. I can sense their movements through the earth.”
“Goblins. But not the goblins you've seen roaming the wildlands that occasionally swarm and attack villages and farms. These are worse. Just beyond that tunnel, there is a ledge where you can watch them occasionally gather. We are safe up here, they cannot reach it. I scouted the area when we arrived here several days ago. They're stronger than Gavriel, Yentel, and myself…” Logan paused, his eyes flowing across everyone in the room. “But not stronger than Halzy and his friends. If we take things slow, we should be able to make our way to Fel. I know the route from here. But it's late, we should get some rest and be off in the morning. It is a long walk to Fel.”
Sinnamon didn't feel tired, having slept away an entire day. Evidently Weaver and the three kids felt the same way. They passed the time by playing word games over the mental voice chat. Sinnamon stayed in the call, but muted it. Though she was unsure what the tooltip meant by saying she'd only be notified if mentioned by name in this context.
Really, all Sinnamon wanted was a moment to herself. A week had passed since she and everyone else had been brought to this world. And in that week it felt like she’d been rushed from one bit of adventure or problem to another without any time to process any of it. She still wasn’t quite sure none of this was just a dream.
The ledge Logan had mentioned beyond the short tunnel overlooked an underground lake with black sand speckled with white on the opposite side from her. Directly below her was a sheer drop of about fifty feet into the lake. The water was still, yet too dark to see how deep it went even with the illumination of one of Sinnamon’s light spells. There were three tunnels on the cave wall leading up from the beach spaced equidistant from each other.
Sinnamon listened to the hushed conversations coming from the cave, their words too faint for her to make out. But she knew Halzy, Singapura, and Hogweed were going over strategy with Logan, Gavriel, and Yentel.
Settling in and using her robes as a makeshift pillow, she took a book from her bag. Reading, particularly academic reading, had always been Sinnamon’s way of dealing with stress. Perhaps that was why she had so completely engrossed herself in the library with Malikela. It was a puzzle she could use to distract herself with.
The book in her hands was one of Malikela’s own that she’d let Sinnamon borrow, A Scientific Treatise on Mages. The book delved into the history of magic as those in this world understood it. She had hoped it might provide some context for the content of the Archive, but it hadn’t really helped.
It revealed the nonplayers didn’t recognize magic the same way players did. Where players saw levels and experience, the book described four tiers as a broad range; Initiate, Apprentice, Adept, and Master. Aliyah had called herself a Master mage, yet she was only level forty. It was another puzzle for her to distract herself with: Why were NPCs capped at level forty except for Gavriel and Yentel? What made those two different? And why were players capped at level 100 prior to being brought here? What changed to have the level cap removed?
Sinnamon wasn’t so sure the answers would be found in this book and she could always ask Gavriel and Yentel themselves, which she eventually would. For now, just having the distraction as a means of escape was a boon.
“You’re a reader?” A soft voice asked, making Sinnamon jump.
She didn’t know how long she’d become engrossed in her book. Long enough that the mental voice call had been disbanded with her as its only remaining member.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.” Aliyah held up a book of her own, A Scientific Treatise on Mages, Volume 3. “I have the second volume if you want to read it next.”
“I would love to,” Sinnamon replied.
Aliyah set the book beside Sinnamon and when she reached for it, the woman pulled it back. “I wanted to talk to you, if that was alright.”
Sinnamon placed her own book in her bag, curious as to where this was going. “About what?”
“Halzy told me a little of the place you are from. Of himself and how he used to suffer from an illness that robbed him of his memories in his old age. Memories of his family and his grandson who introduced him to our home. And how his new body cured him of that when his mind was put into it.”
It sounded like Aliyah was describing Alzheimer’s disease. A grandson, though? Sinnamon had gotten the impression Halzy was an older man, but hadn’t realized he was that old.
Sinnamon nodded, encouraging Aliyah to continue.
“He isn't who he seems, none of you are who I always thought you were. And though I am mad at him for taking Tyressa when she should have stayed in bed, I see the way he acts around my daughters and the way they act with him.” Aliyah paused. “Tyressa is a loving mother, and though she tries to be, Halzy’s the first real father figure they've had.”
Sinnamon recognized the invitation to ask and took it. “What happened to their father?”
It took Aliyah a moment to compose herself. Sinnamon waited quietly while the mother beside her dealt with the reopened wounds of love and loss.
“Just before Alyx and Lynn were born, we; Tyressa, Rhoda, Logan, Lucien, and I were part of an adventuring party. We were exploring a mundane dungeon tucked away in some old ruins Lucien had discovered. At the lowest level of the dungeon, we found a waystone! In a mundane dungeon of all places! Lucien and I had the mana to overcome its seal, we wanted to see where it led.” Aliyah’s eyes went glassy and tears streamed down her cheeks. “Logan was against it. But Lucien and I would hear nothing of it. Neither would Tyressa and Rhoda.
“Lucien and I activated the waystone. We expected it to open to hidden treasure, but it was warded with a trap none of us detected. Dozens of cave scorpions, large ones, began pouring from the waystone. I was stung and paralyzed.” Aliyah pointed to the scar that ran from her eye to her lip. “Rhoda and Tyressa dragged me out of the cave while Lucien held off the scorpions. And Logan… And Logan did nothing!”
Sinnamon couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “He really just stood by and watched you all get attacked?”
Aliyah shook her head. “No, he fought. But… You need to understand the mana it takes to charge a waystone is immense. Lucien and I wouldn’t have been able to do it individually. Yet Logan powered the one that brought us to this cave by himself. He hid that power for as long as I’ve known him. Power that could have saved Lucien.”
Gavriel and Yentel had hidden their real identities and the fact that they were above the NPC level cap. And though Sinnamon hadn’t seen Logan’s level, he had grouped himself with those two when talking about how strong the monsters in this dungeon were.
Sinnamon had once been accused of not doing enough to save a patient who had died of a stroke in her ambulance on the way to the hospital. She and her team really had done everything they could, but she still felt guilt. But to know someone truly held back and allowed someone to die when they could have prevented it. She understood Aliyah’s anger towards Logan now.
And Sinnamon understood that Aliyah had been hiding the emotions over the reopening of such an old wound for however long they’d been in this cave. But not just that, but also for the worry she felt for her wife and not knowing whether she was okay. It must have been a torment, having no one to turn to but also having to keep up an appearance of strength in front of her daughters.
Sinnamon didn’t offer the grieving woman any words, but gave her the shoulder to cry on that she had so desperately needed.
“When I saw you and your friends appear on the ground, I saw the way… the man with the muscles and long black hair…” Aliyah laughed at her description of Weaver and Sinnamon couldn’t help but join in.
“Weaver.” Sinnamon offered.
“Yes, Weaver. You really care for each other, too? You're a family. Not just here, I mean, but where you are from.”
“Yes, yes we do,” Sinnamon nodded, recalling the memory of when she and Weaver had first met when she was in eighth grade and he was in seventh. The discussion of marriage after college had come up several times.
“And I’ve been around my daughters long enough to know those three…” Aliyah paused as though searching for something.
“AnnaLee, Sparrow, and JonJon,” Sinnamon supplied.
“Yes. They are kids, too. Not much older than Alyx and Lynn. Kids who have been forced to grow up when they should still be allowed to be kids.” Aliyah continued.
“You're right. AnnaLee is fourteen, Sparrow and JonJon are thirteen.” It was eerie how close Aliyah had come to mirroring Sinnamon’s own earlier thoughts.
“But your children don't have to worry about losing their parents. You will be reborn upon death. I cannot trust Logan ever again. But I see I can trust you. It was my hope, from one mother to another, that if something happened to myself or Tyressa, you and Weaver might look after my daughters.”
Sinnamon’s face grew warm with embarrassment. Aliyah thought she, Weaver, and the three kids were a family.
“I’m not… I…” Sinnamon stammered. “I… Sparrow, JonJon, and AnnaLee aren't our children! I’m not a mother!”
Aliyah’s face reddened with her own embarrassment. “I'm sorry, I thought with the way you—”
“No, it's alright. Upon waking up here, Sparrow asked me to join them in a goblin hunt. I initially refused, I was still trying to find Weaver. But then… I met them at the guildhall.” Sinnamon explained how Sparrow had watched her brother die when they'd gone out to kill some goblins. It had been a gruesome, bloody affair that wasn't masked by Annwyn Online’s whimsical art and PG13 game elements. They, no one, really, had yet understood the nature of being brought here. That they might die for good.
Fortunately that wasn't the case, but it didn't mean Sparrow wasn't still traumatized by the experience. Seeing her look at her brother with that haunted look had been the moment when Sinnamon had decided she wouldn’t leave these three kids alone.
And Aliyah and her family would be reunited.