“Well, with that it looks like we’ve safely arrived. I have to thank you all, I would certainly not have made it here on my own.” Lucelan began after we had pulled the wagon behind the building the guard had indicated.
“Don’t worry about it. We were helped too and you are paying us, so it’s not like we were doing this as charity.”
“Haha, that’s true. Speaking of which,” Lucelan materialized a bag of money, “here’s the agreed on pay for getting me here. I feel like it’s less than you probably could have gotten from other, more wealthy merchants…”
I shrugged. “Maybe, but I would have had to stay in disguise the whole time, and taking the job at all was more of a whim anyway. Like you, we’re not really seeking to become the wealthiest. We’re just looking to… um… actually we don’t really have a goal yet. I suppose we’ll have to figure that out once we get our whole group together.”
“Out of curiousity, what are you guys going to do now? You mentioned you were coming to meet with the Nomads, but you’ve got a couple days until then.”
“I need to sign out a bit and call Ash- er, Simona.” Horvath said. “I’ll probably be off for a while, so you’ll be tankless.”
“Hmm, I guess I’ll explore the city for now, then. How about you?” I asked, turning back to Lucelan.
“First, I’m going to try to find people to buy some of my merchandise. I am a merchant, after all. Also I want to lighten my load before meeting with the Nomads.”
“I see, I suppose this is where we part then. Good luck. Feel free to contact us if you ever need help with something. We’d be glad to help if we can.”
“Thanks. Likewise, if you find you need anything from me, all you need to do is ask. Hopefully, we’ll cross paths again eventually.”
With that, Lucelan turned and started toward what looked like a large bazaar, with numerous people buying and selling at a number of small booths. After Horvath signed out, I turned toward the twins.
“What do you two want to do? Like I said, I’m just going to explore the city for a while. I need to find places with low traffic and poor guard presence, as well as anything interesting to spend the next couple days doing.”
Celeste looked at me questioningly. “I’m pretty sure I already know the answer, but why are you looking for empty, unguarded places?”
I just smiled. “A girl’s gotta eat, you know. And for me, that’s a lot easier in places like that.”
“... Isn’t it safer to feed off us?” I was actually surprised Aurora brought it up. I figured she’d be avoiding it whenever she could after the rather embarrassing time in the goblin cave.
“While that’s true, I doubt you want to go through that any more than you have to. In a city like this I can usually find a meal pretty easily, so you can serve as a last resort.”
“... but if you get caught, you’ll be hunted and killed, right. It would be better in a private inn room. Besides, unlike in dungeons and on the road, you can use your mind control to stop the side effects, so it should be alright.”
Oh, I had forgotten we could do that since there was no risk. Not that I’ll admit that of course.
“You forgot you could do that, didn’t you?” Celeste asked with a grin.
Dang it. “No, not at all. I totally didn’t forget that there’s a harmless and safe way for me to feed in town and there was no reason for me to risk getting into trouble. Yep. I totally remembered.”
Celeste sighed. “Sure. Anyway, we’ll be feeding you in private later, than. I’m kinda curious how the mind control thing works on players, since the game can’t manipulate them like it does with the NPCs.”
“True, I haven’t tried that yet. Still, I’m kinda surprised you were still alright with that arrangement, even after finding out I’m actually a guy.”
She shrugged. “Ah, that. Honestly since we’ve never met you as a guy, it still doesn’t feel real. I tend to forget when I don’t think about it.” Aurora beside her nodded in agreement. “Besides, we’ve known you long enough to know you won’t try to do anything funny. Although that’s a strange thing to say, since we only met yesterday in reality. This time dilation thing is kinda weird.”
I suppose that makes sense. These two only know me as Lilith, so it would be hard to separate that from the unknown person they don’t know controlling her.
“Actually, that reminds me. There’s something I was hoping I could get you two to help with it.”
“Hmm, sure. What do you need?”
---
A while later, we set forth again into the town. This time, my hair was done in a nice braid that hung down over my shoulder. Coincidentally, it actually looked similar to the style Samantha had worn back in Eridell.
The favor I had asked for, was that they do my hair for me. After all, I’ve always kept my hair short in reality, so I never learned to do all those fancy hair style things that women do. Well some women. It turns out Celeste keeps her hair short offline too, so it was mostly Aurora fixing mine for me. It actually took a while, as they experimented with various styles before settling on this one for now. They were pretty clear that this was only a temporary style, and that they would be changing it again regularly from here on. I might come to regret asking them to do this for me.
Anyway, we were now wandering around town. Since I no longer needed to look for places to hide while I fed, we were now just wandering aimlessly. We did occasionally stop and look at shops for new ingredients and cooking equipment for Aurora, but for the most part we were just walking with no objective in particular.
Al Omand was considerably less organized than Eridell had been. The roads were often winding and it would be very easy to get lost in the back alleys. Rather than having distinct districts where different types of goods could be obtained, there were a number of bazaars throughout the city, where all manner of items were sold at small booths. Nearly all of the buildings in the city were similar in appearance, being made of the same hardened dirt and sand. However, the city avoided being extremely drab by decorating everything with colorful flags and awnings. Overall, it gave the city an almost festive feeling.
Adding to the festiveness of the city was the general air of excitement over the approaching arrival of the Nomads. It seems that the few days they would be camped near the city were sort of like a holiday. While most merchants would be attempting to trade with them both around their encampment and here in the city, many other businesses would be closed. Nearly everyone intended to spend at least some time visiting their traders.
Around evening, we returned to the area we had split up with Lucelan and Horvath at in the morning. We intended to base ourselves in this area while we were staying here, since it was conveniently located near the place where we could find work. Plus, Horvath should be coming back online soon, and we figured we could get a room at one of the inns near there while we waited for him. Besides, I was about due for a meal.
Aurora, whose turn it was to feed me, sat in a chair opposite me. Celeste looked on curiously from the side.
Stolen story; please report.
“Alright, I’m going to use my ability and put you under mind control. I need you to look at my eyes.”
Aurora nodded and locked her eyes on mine. I was a little concerned that her willpower might be high enough to resist, but it seemed that wasn’t the case and I was able to properly use my ability, leaving her sitting limply staring at me. I then took her hands and activated Life Drain while talking with Celeste.
“This could be interesting. I don’t know her stats, but I imagine her willpower is decently high. I know that robe gives her a nice boost to it as well. There’s a very real possibility she’ll regain control before I’m finished.”
The duration of my Seduce skill is dependant on both my Charisma and my target's Willpower. Luckily, by now Charisma was actually my highest stat, especially when combined with my title that gives be a bonus to the stat. Still, I better keep an eye on Aurora just in case.
“Hmm, that could be interesting. I don’t think she’ll be as upset as the first time, though. I think a big part of that was embarrassment. At most, she might struggle with eye contact for a bit again.”
In the end, we didn’t need to worry too much about it. My satiety bar reached full and I cut off the life drain. Not long afterward, Seduce wore off, though. I wouldn’t have been able to have her fight, then drain her completely like I did with the bandits on the way here. Clearly her willpower is a good bit higher than theirs was.
“Oh, you’re back. How was the mind control?” Celeste asked, seeing Aurora regain her faculties.
“... Strange. It was like I could see, but I couldn’t recognize anything. Everything was just a blur. I could hear you talking, but the only thing I understood was when Lilith told me to put my hands in hers. Even then, I had no control over my body. It moved itself, I was only aware that it was doing as it was told.”
“Hmm, that actually sounds pretty unpleasant. Maybe I should put some points into willpower to protect from it.”
“... Yeah. I wouldn’t want this to happen normally. Feeding Lilith is one thing, but anything else I don’t want to lose control.”
I just shrugged. “Well, don’t invest too many points or I won’t be able to do it either and you’ll be stuck feeding me without the mind control. I think this is preferable for everyone involved.” Both girls agreed with that.
Glancing at my friends list, I noticed Horvath had signed in while I was feeding. I sent him a quick message to let him know where we were, than we headed out to meet with him.
“So, how’s Simona doing?” I asked once we were back together.
“She’s doing fine. Actually, it sounds like she’s doing well for being stuck figuring most things out on her own.”
“That’s good. I was honestly a little concerned.”
“Yeah, me too.” Horvath’s expression became troubled. “Unfortunately, she’s also taken up her old hobby in the game as well.”
I couldn’t help but start laughing at that. The twins looked at me curiously, so I had to explain. “Simona is a prolific knitter. Every winter in school, Horvath was wearing a new, hand made scarf or hat. One year she went all out and made an entire sweater for him. Unfortunately for him, while they were warm these were generally not the most stylish winter apparel available. She’s good at creating them, but not so good at coming up with attractive designs. But he wore them anyway, albeit a bit reluctantly. He wisely decided it would be better to look a bit goofy than to upset his girlfriend. And now that’s going to continue in SWO.” After my explanation, the twins both started giggling as well.
“Oh come on, it’s not that funny is it?”
“Yes, it absolutely is. I’m just imagining you now, but in an oversized sweater. This is great, she’s going to make a fantastic addition to our dysfunctional little group, and I didn’t even need to influence her at all.”
Horvath just sighed. “Anyway, she’s looking forward to meeting up with us in a few days, but what should we do until then?”
After discussing it for a while, we decided to take a job hunting monsters near the city, and planned to go to the western road to see the spectacle the guard had mentioned. We didn’t really need the job, but it was a way to spend the time productively while waiting.
The monsters we were hunting were a type of large scorpion that was native to the desert. They weren’t especially strong, but could poison someone if we weren’t careful. Luckily, Aurora’s wand gave her a spell to remove that, so we weren’t in any real danger. Interestingly, when defeated these scorpions usually only dropped their shells, but occasionally we would also get the venom gland. While we could probably sell them, I was somewhat curious what else could be done with them, so I planned to keep a few much to Horvath’s objection.
Like that, we passed our second day and night in Al Omand, and finally in the morning we headed over to the western side of the city. There was already a small crowd gathered, made up of both NPCs and players like us who had been told something interesting would happen. Thanks to Horvath’s size, we were able to push into the crowd to get a position with a clear view.
In the distance there was something coming out of the desert toward the city. Looking carefully, it seemed to be a man on the back of a large beast. While it was hard to make out any details, the man appeared to be wearing a bright red cloth hood, with what was probably leather armor on his body.
The beast he was riding wasn’t anything I had seen before, and was certainly not around in the real world. It was similar to a horse in some aspects, but the head was hunched forward. Much of its body was covered in armor, with several armored spikes protruding from the muscular neck. The saddle that the man was seated in seemed to be decorated in a number of very colorful cloths, much like the city was. For some reason, decorations like that seemed to be common in this region.
After a while, the rider came closer and I could see he was indeed wearing a leather chestpiece, with baggy clothes covering his body underneath. He also wore a facemask to keep the sand out of his mouth while he rode, leaving only his eyes visible. As he approached, two guards from the town marched out to meet him. They both wore clean, freshly pressed uniforms. Clearly, they were only there to greet this visitor. The man approached them, then brought his beast to a halt.
“I bring a message from my lord Jamal, the present leader of the Caravan of the Grand Desert. I seek an audience with the lord of this city.” He said this loudly enough that the entire crowd could hear it, and bowed respectfully toward the two guards before him.
The guards returned the bow, and spoke just as loudly as the messenger had. “We welcome you, messenger of the Caravan. Please wait while the Governor is summoned.”
I leaned toward Horvath, who was next to me. “Wouldn’t they usually just bring the messenger to the governor’s mansion? It seems odd to summon him to the outskirts.”
An older man who was near us chuckled. “First time here, eh missy. They go through this every time. It’s true they would usually deliver the message to the mansion, but in this case they make a big show of it to drum up excitement for the nomads arrival. It’s all for show, after all.”
Ah, that makes sense. That also explains the oddly loud conversation between the guards and the messenger.
A short while later, a man I could only assume was the governor arrived, surrounded by a large number of guards. After working their way through the crowd, the guards fanned out, allowing the governor to approach the messenger while they were positioned around the whole proceeding.
“Greetings, messenger of the Caravan. I am Governor Tarrik of Al Omand. What is this message which you have been dispatched to deliver?”
“My thanks, lord Tarrik. In accordance with our laws which have been handed down for generations within the caravan, I have been sent today to request your permission to encamp ourselves near your city for a short while. We will be pleased to freely trade with your people while we are here, and would seek to enrich both ourselves and this city which you govern.”
“I understand. I hereby grant your Caravan permission to encamp themselves in this area, where we now stand. May our dealings be fruitful and profitable to both sides. Should you and your people require aid while you are here, you are free to request it, as you are hereby guests of this city until you decide to continue on your journey.”
“My thanks for your kind words. We of the Caravan of the Grand Desert have long learned to be self sufficient, and take great pride in that. Thus, please do not be offended if we do not come to you for aid. I shall now return to my lord Jamal with your permission. In about a day’s time, expect the arrival of our Caravan to this area.”
As the crowd began to cheer, the messenger bowed again, then turned his mount around and rode back into the desert. After seeing him off, the Governor also turned back toward the city, his guards closing around him once more to escort him back to his mansion.
The older man from earlier chuckled. “Hehe, it’s the same every time, but it’s still fun to see. The governor always offers them aid, and they always turn it down. Is this the first time you folks see the nomads, missy?”
I nodded. “We’re all a group of newcomers, so this is the first opportunity we’ve had.”
“I see, I see. Well, you’re in for quite a treat. These nomads are an interesting bunch, and their caravan is unlike anything else you’ll ever see. And if you need anything at all, chances are you’ll be able to buy it off of them.”
Thanking the man, I looked back at the empty desert outside the city. Tomorrow this would be the encampment for the Caravan, and we would gain another party member. Then once Amber got here, we would be ready to really get out into the world.