The trip back down to the main hall and back towards the elevator was shorter than Ma’Z remembered. Some of the members he had met last night were scattered across the fraternity halls, noses buried in their tablets.

Not one of them so much as looked up as they passed, and as they turned the corner, they were greeted by what looked to be an honest to goodness lobby, complete with a bellhop and receptionist.

The receptionist was a Helios Child. It wore a female chassis adorned in a metallic looking formal overcoat and, he assumed, pants. Her eyes burned a shining yellow which made her chipper smile look really off-putting, considering she otherwise looked human. Her hair, that she wore in a princess braid tied into a ponytail over her shoulder, had a stiffness, indicating it was synthetic.

Despite that, she looked rather pretty. She was in the middle of treating a guest when he arrived, and Heaven had to push him ahead to keep him from staring.

“We’re a mercenary group as well as one of the most highly regarded artisans in the city. We get clientele of all stripes here, and while players often put in requests through the online boards, the Tears prefer to do things in person. That particular Tear is Vera Gies’Lan. He’s kind of a kip, but he’s one of our more lucrative customers. And before you ask, his attitude is worse than Oraria’s. You’re better off steering clear of him,” Heaven explained.

Ma’Z chanced a glance at the aging fellow, noting the shorter pointy ears and extravagantly golden-clawed finger ring hidden under what he assumed to be an expensive suit. It looked more like something he’d expect to see on a Shinto priest. The biggest differences being the deep V-neck and slightly shorter sleeves. He also wore a shit eating grin that nearly reached his earlobes. Ma’Z had to jerk his attention away just as the man looked up in his direction. Heaven was right, though, he looked every bit like someone he should avoid.

Passing into another hallway, they came up on the restroom, where Heaven pushed open the restroom doors and gestured for him to come in after. Ma’Z quickly looked to his left and his right trying to figure out if he was missing something. “No one really cares here. Women have stalls. Dudes have urinals. You can’t see anything. So, nobody really cares.”

“And children?”

“Due to the nature of our business, children aren’t really allowed in here, but the short answer is unless you have express permission to be interacting with them, you don’t.”

“Good rule.”

He went inside and finished his business, noting the polished marble, ivory, and dark wood theme extended all the way inside.

On their way back, Ma’Z saw Oraria standing in the lounge with her newly restored hand on her hip, staring in their direction. Upon seeing him, her eyes went wide with surprise, and then smoldering rage, before she took a deep breath to calm herself.

She looked like she wanted to say something but bit her lip. The other woman, Tera’Lese, not too kindly elbowed her in the ribs, but otherwise said nothing. Oraria winced, turning her anger towards the woman and was about to say something, but quickly thought better of it. Instead she turned her head back towards Ma’Z and after a long moment, mumbled, “Um Suwwy.”

Ma’Z understood her just fine but felt somewhat incredulous that it took that much effort for her to make a simple apology. “Oh, for falsh’s sake,” Heaven said exasperated. “Ma’Z, just tell this woman how you got here, so she can get the falsh over herself already. I really don’t want to shoot her legs out.”

Oraria looked genuinely confused at that, but also had a moment of panic at hearing she might have her legs blown off. Even he looked at Heaven sideways at the casual threat.

“I mean ok, but I don’t understand why knowing that is going to make her less of a bitch towards me,” he replied.

“That’s my point. She’s too stupid to understand that you don’t understand. She thinks I’ve spent hours grooming you on everything you need to do once you log in so you can just waltz up in here all hyper beefed out, when she knows that’s not even remotely how it works.”

“What ‘cause of the learning curve?”

“Exactly!”

“But I feel like I’m still missing something.”

“I’ll explain that later, but for now, just humor me and tell her.”

“But my food,” Ma’Z muttered under his breath.

Oraria eyed Heaven questioningly. The veins on her neck began to bulge as she resisted with everything she had, the urge to scream.

“After.”

Ma’Z looked at Heaven for a moment with a question of his own, but just shrugged and recounted everything from the beginning. By the time he was done, Brigand and Lillith had made their way over. Brigand whistled, giving Ma’Z a nod of respect.

Lillith – who Ma’Z was surprised to see was more of a mature looking woman in her early forties – looked a bit more dubious, looking him up and down before giving a nod of her own.

“That was JDT’s raid, wasn’t it?” Brigand asked. The bass in the man’s voice could make the floor shake if he spoke loud enough. Lillith’s nod was the only response. She then took a glance at her watch, then patted Brigand on the shoulder as she turned to leave.

Tera’Lese watched the whole exchange in eerie silence. She never left Oraria’s side, however, and Ma’Z was starting to feel uncomfortable in her presence.

“Ok. Fine. Sorry. Ok? I shouldn’t… Whatever. What’s done is done.” Oraria blurted. She paused for a moment as if considering, then said, “Tell you what, let me know when you need a real gun ok? Heaven’s little toys are cute, but they don’t pack the same power mine do. Consider it my apology.”

“Uhh,” Ma’Z started. Heaven rolled her eyes and started to make her way upstairs. Tera’Lese continued to stare in silence. “Yup, definitely not getting in the middle of this,” he said as he followed her up the stairs. About halfway up he called back, “I’ll come by your shop though. I’ll consider it a do over.”

“Call it whatever you want. I’ll show little princess there how real women hold a shaft.”

“Oh, dear god,” he said to himself. Catching up to Heaven, he said, “She’s got a real hard on for you, I see.”

Heaven snorted in response.

Once they were back inside, Heaven threw Ma’Z onto the bed as she started stripping. Ma’Z sat stunned, unsure of what to do as she got started on him next. “I uhh… a little worked up, are we?” Ma’Z stuttered.

Heaven didn’t say anything in response, instead wasting no time getting to work on getting him up. Ma’Z understood at once and shifted his weight as he threw her on her back. Heaven yelped in surprise, struggling to get from his grip on her wrists. She was almost feral in her thrashing, but Ma’Z held her firm, waiting for her to come down.

It wasn’t until she was nearly pacified that he finished what she started. The moans that followed were more than enough to keep him excited, and once he was done, he said, “Remember that once we log out, ‘cause I’m getting me some of that.”

A pleased moan was her only response. As he laid there, catching his breath another thought occurred to him. “Can you get pregnant?” He felt somewhat silly, but now he was really curious.

“Haven’t heard of it, and I want to say no, but I’ve never had any chance to find out either.”

“Well ok then.”

“Ha ha.”

“So, we going to talk about it?”

Heaven rolled onto her side to face him. She had a dour look on her face as she traced invisible circles into the sheets. After a moment she simply shrugged, unsure of what to say.

“Well don’t get shy on me. She’s over here walking around like you broke her heart or something. Y’all used to date or something?”

“Ugh. Don’t even joke about that. Nothing like that happened,” she said punching him in the arm.

“But something happened!”

“Not like that though. We never dated. Yeah, I flirted for a while, but that was when I treated everything like it was a game. I was just goofing around, not expecting anything out of it.”

“Not her.”

“I thought she was just goofing around too. Then at some point, the tone changed, and I had to tell her that was never going to happen. I told her, unlike her, when I log out, I got someone at home that I love and will never jeopardize that falshing around in a game.”

“You made out though.”

“How could you even-“

“Ah, so you did.”

Heaven turned beat red at the accusation, but Ma’Z could tell it was more from embarrassment than anger.

“Ok. Fine. Yeah, I did,” she admitted, but clarified saying, “But I didn’t initiate it, and that’s all it ever amounted to. I told her about us right after.”

Ma’Z sat up but didn’t say anything.

Heaven sat up beside him, tentatively putting a hand on his back. When he didn’t pull away, she assumed he was ok, but had to ask anyway. “Are you mad?”

Ma’Z let out a long sigh and shrugged, “I probably should be, but not really. I mean, if I’m being honest, I’ve been here less than twenty-four hours and have had to fight myself from getting sucked in to how realistic everything is. Everything from the UI to the sense of weight and tactile feedback feels natural and like it belongs. That aside, I already smashed twice, so I got the leg up on this little love triangle.”

“Ugh. Don’t even talk like that,” she said pushing him. “I’m not proud of it, and I’d understand if you were upset, but that was never real to me. This is. You are.”

Ma’Z turned just enough so that he could see Heaven out of the corner of his eye. Her eyes were focused on a spot on his back he couldn’t see. He could tell she was purposely avoiding his gaze. Pulling her into his chest, he sat there for a solid minute, just breathing. Just holding her.

“What’s done is done. In these past few hours, I’ve become keenly aware of how much I’ve let our relationship lapse over the years, and I take full responsibility for that. So, let’s let bygones and all that, and go from here and now?”

He felt her nod in his chest and leaned down to kiss her forehead. “Now, you were saying something about me not understanding something?” he asked.

Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

“Oh right!” Heaven perked up, all too happy to change the subject. She jumped up, nearly headbutting Ma’Z in the jaw, and started putting her clothes back on. She grabbed her StoCar, and with a flick of her wrist, a mirror appeared on the wall. “Come here,” she commanded.

Ma’Z stood and started to get dressed as well when she interrupted him saying, “Actually it’s better with no clothes.”

Ma’Z raised an eyebrow but did was she said. Standing in front of the mirror, Ma’Z immediately understood. “Wait, what the hell? Ok, I knew I changed, but I didn’t think it was that drastic!”

“That’s the point. I looked it up while you were crafting all of those spells. When an I’Lu advances, their bodies undergo a kind of metamorphosis. I doubt Oraria or the others noticed because they had only seen you for a few minutes last night, but I’ve actually been up under you, so I definitely saw the differences immediately. Did you notice anything different when you got up?”

“Uh, not really?”

“Seriously?”

“I mean, I started off in my Erzelis, and otherwise walked straight to bed. I hadn’t exactly been in this body long enough to notice?”

“Ah, you’re so annoying,” Heaven groaned. She put the mirror back into her card, gesturing that he was ok to get dressed, while she said, “Anyway, generally after you’ve allocated your physical stats, your body changes to compensate. The tradeoff is that instead of going to the gym to build muscles and stamina, we typically go to the gym to get used to our bodies again. We literally lose fine motor control and need to get used to them again.”

“Yeah, I remember you talking about that.”

“You’re going to love it when you see what you can suddenly do.”

“I’m looking forward to it.”

“Great! Now, you ready to go get some lunch?”

The rising squeal coming from Ma’Z was enough of a confirmation to let her know he was ready to get going. Shaking her head, she went for the door and said, “Let’s eat.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

A few minutes later they were at a restaurant called the Theseus. Ma’Z could tell on sight that it was a player run establishment. During their drive up, Ma’Z quickly noticed that every building had a mark under the address placard of a given establishment. All the player run establishments were written in blue, while the native marks were written in white. Of course, Theseus was also a dead giveaway.

The two disembarked their vehicles and made their way up the flight of steps leading to the restaurant. Ma’Z was once again taken aback by the constant bustle of activity and scenery packed into and between each sky scraping building. While the three towers seemed to serve as the centerpiece of the city, all of the others looked to be built in deference, as if bowing to their masters.

They continued the crystalline motif of the towers, but with flourishes of exotic shimmering metals he’d never seen before.

The city itself seemed to be built into an enormous valley of rolling hills. Ma’Z hadn’t quite noticed the first time he entered the city how much of winding path they had taken to get to the fraternity. The hill Heaven had taken him to had only been a few miles in from the border between the city and the militarized zone.

On their way from the fraternity, Ma’Z was now able to peel his eyes away from the collection of buildings long enough to actually look at the terrain and vistas that presented themselves every time they crested a new hill.

Down towards the center of the valley, where the towers stood sentinel, they utterly dwarfed the next tallest building. So much so, that he had nearly forgotten that the entire space was held inside an impossibly large dome some fifteen miles across.

Walking up the steps towards the Theseus, the greeter recognized Heaven immediately and ushered the two of them to a private table on the second floor.

The first floor was arranged in a figure eight, with nearly a hundred chairs arranged around an enormous eight-shaped grill that spanned the entire room. Motes of light illuminated the room in a cascade of shiny dots that brightened and dimmed in a wave across the polished wooden walls in time to a soft melody that thrummed throughout the building from all sides.

All the while, chefs in garbs representing every cooking style from earth, were busy doing hibachi-style party tricks for their guests as food was brought up through the floor on a constantly shifting table behind them. The whole affair was such a lively event that Ma’Z felt somewhat disappointed that they weren’t being seated amongst the regular guests.

When he reached the upper floor. The tonal shift almost gave him a bit of whiplash. The moment he crested the top of the stairs, he saw a projection of a ship whose parts were constantly shifting and being replaced with new pieces until it became a new ship entirely. The only constant was the Theseus insignia on the side of the ship the kept its same font, no matter what piece or shape the ship took on.

Rooms ran all along the walls, each sporting their own motif and designation. The followed one of the walls around until they came upon a room with a familiar insignia that Ma’Z suddenly realized was the symbol of their fraternity.

“This way Master Oya and Master Olarun,” the greeter said with a bow.

“Uh, thanks mister,” Ma’Z said as the two walked into the dimly lit room. Before he could say anything else, the door closed before they even took their seats, and the room went completely dark.

“Is this normal?” he asked.

“Just give it a second,” Heaven laughed.

Ma’Z could hear a sound like falling sand all around them, and after a moment the lights returned, and what he saw took his breath away.

“Is this… our kitchen?” Ma’Z asked.

“Yup. A little slice of home. Everything down to the last detail, based on our collective recollection.”

“This is- this is crazy. Everything feels like home too. Omg, look! It even has the notch in the table from when you dropped my hot knife. You damn near put a hole in my foot.”

“Oh, don’t be such a baby. You still got all your toes. What about this, huh? Who do you think it was who put this hole in the wall when they thought they cleared the chamber on their little prototype, and damn near nicked my arm!?”

“Eh, safety first ain’t exactly that high on our priorities, huh?”

“You mean your priorities. Yes, I dropped the knife, but that was an honest to God accident. You had no business handling a gun in the house like that.”

“What? Our workshop is right in the garage.”

“Yes, dummy. In the garage. Not in the actual house!”

“Don’t you literally tinker with military drones in your office?”

Heaven paused.

“Shit. You right.”

“A street racer and a spec marine isn’t exactly a glowing representation of the typical blue collar family.”

“I’m a martial arts instructor now, thank you very much.”

Ma’Z gave her a pointed look.

“Ok, I definitely gravitate towards violence,” she admitted. “But you literally stream fabricating weapons.”

“I never claimed to be normal.”

“Neither did I?”

“No, but you did try to claim that you were the ‘safe’ one.”

“Agh, fine. You got me. So want do you want to eat?”

“What? Right here?”

“I mean it is technically our kitchen, but it’s also still inside a 4-star restaurant. Got the menu and everything,” she said pulling up a menu and sending it to his Vision.

“I still haven’t quite gotten used to using this Vision yet? Is all I got to do is think about it, and it comes up?”

“To a degree. Mainly it requires you to know what you’re looking for. If you don’t, you can navigate some menus until you find it, but once you do, you can call it up directly. Of course, it works at the speed of thought, so it’s pretty quick unless you quite literally have no idea what you’re looking for.”

“Ah, so it’ll basically just come to me naturally as I continue to experience the world.”

“Yeah. Pretty much.”

“Cool, so how’s this Gratia Ribeye sound?”

Heaven froze.

“Babe?”

“Yeah. Uh- yeah, it’s delicious,” she managed to say.

“Something wrong?”

“Uh. No, it’s just a poached animal is all.”

“Oh damn. Didn’t expect that. Ok, I’ll just get something else then.”

“What? No, it’s ok. You can get it if you want.”

“Why? You just said it was a poached animal. I’m not going to support that.”

“No. I’m- Sorry, Ma’Z. They’re not- I mean they are, but. I had to kill one yesterday, and I guess I’m still a little worked up about it.”

“Hunting for sport instead of food?” Ma’Z prodded.

“No. They’re actually used for a variety of stuff. The adults are used for various ceramics needed to make armors, but the children are the true delicacy.”

“Can’t eat the adults?”

“You can, actually. In fact, that’s the normal practice when it’s in season, but the children are said to be on a whole other level.”

“So you had to kill the children, and that’s why you’re upset?”

“The opposite. I killed the parent, but I realized the contract was a cover to kill the young, and for some reason that just didn’t sit right with me.”

“So what’d you do?”

“I reported it to the fraternity and then we stopped them.”

“Ah, that’s cool then.”

“Yeah. So, anyway, if you want to eat it, it’s fine. I mean it. Theseus dry ages their meats for the express purpose of heightening the flavor and so they can sell them out of season. It’s really delicious.”

“Yeah, but you’re still upset. So, I’ll just take a raincheck until another time.”

“Don’t do that.”

“Heaven. Look at me,” Ma’Z commanded.

She looked.

“I understand how you feel, but this is my choice, ok? You’re upset, and I’m basically in a lose/lose. So I’m going to abstain this time around and try it another time. I’m completely ok with that. And I’m sorry you had to be apart of someone’s dirty dealings, but you say it all the time, ‘What’s done is done.’ So, if you would be so kind. Dear. Could you please help a rank amateur pick out something to make a ravenous carnivore a happy happy customer?”

Heaven listened as Ma’Z gave her an out. She breathed a sigh of relief, letting the guilt leave her system, before putting on her most endearing smile. She knew the menu like the back of her hand and ordered a Samba Chick and Marion Tater’s au Gratin, which was essentially a stuffed chicken breast and sliced potatoes covered in cheese and bread dust.

Unlike the food downstairs, theirs arrived almost instantly. Cooking had become a novelty that the Tears had come to greatly appreciate since most of their food could be fabricated on the spot. Very few knew how to cook anymore, so a bit of a competition sparked almost immediately when the players started opening restaurants and the Tears had to show them the right way to prepare their ethnic dishes while also acquiring the techniques from Earth.

Heaven smile warmly as Ma’Z freaked at the speed with which the food arrived before he contented himself on the meal. She remembered old times when she would cook him a meal while he was busying away on some project and lost track of the time.

He was here now, in her world, and she couldn’t remember a time he looked so happy or that she had felt as such. She was so glad he had finally agreed to come.

She picked her way through her own meal, an ensemble of nigiri and sashimi, which Ma’Z immediately took a few pieces of before going back to his meal.

“Should I order you one of your own, ya glutton?”

“Thinking about it. That tasted fucking fantastic. Home team brought their A game.”

“That was actually a Tears contribution. They prepare their fish a bit differently than we do.”

“Oh. Well way to go away team!”

“That would still be our team.”

“Ah shit. You right.”

“By the Goddess, you’re a fool sometimes,” Heaven laughed.

Ma’Z began to laugh in response, which only made Heaven laugh even harder.

She really did miss this. She wondered where they messed up. Where she messed up. Seeing his laugh, however, she put those thoughts behind him and got back to the present and said, “So when are you going to show me?”

“What? I thought I showed you twice already?” he grinned.

“Not that, yautshi. I meant your spells. You didn’t think I wasn’t going to ask, did you?”

“I thought I could surprise you out on a quest or something?”

“That’s fair. Can I get a hint, at least?”

“Ah, I don’t see why not. I only made two combat spells anyway.”

A moment later, Ma’Z shared the two spells to her vision.

“Oh, so you went for lightning too, huh?”

“Most def. When you got the chance to be the lord of lightning, making it rain electric death becomes mandatory,” he winked.

“No arguments there,” Heaven agreed, sending him her version.

“Hmm,” Ma’Z said, looking over the spell. “Crowd control?”

“Yup. Helps me keep my engagements as close to one on one as possible.”

“Ah. I guess that makes sense. Got something to do with being a Civilian?”

“Yeah, we’re restricted on the upper limits of what spells and abilities we can pull off. I can still compete now, but come next tier, all of that starts to fall off and limiting in what kind of engagements I can participate in.”

“I’m assuming you knew that though. Was it worth it?”

“Babe, when you see my shop and the kind of gear that I can pump out, you won’t be wondering why I chose to be a Civilian over a Sentinel.”

“Ha. Got me there.”

“Oh man, you should see some of the stuff I’m currently working on. It’s going to blow your m-… hold on.”

Ma’Z perked up as Heaven’s eyes suddenly became distant. He recognized they did that when interacting with her Vision. He imagined he probably had a similar expression.

He waited while she checked on whatever cut her off. After a moment she blinked, looked at him and said, “That was Striga. A contract’s come through. Assuming you still wanted to test out that new body of yours, you want in? It’s a good 14,000 takes on a 4. But I told him I wanted to take it, just the two of us.”

“A 14,000 what?”

“Oh. It’s a kind of math here. It’s a 4-way split on $14,000 cyn.”

“Oh, we’re getting paid?”

“Yeah, it’s not a big job, but I’m betting Striga offered it with you in mind.”

“How considerate.”

“So what do you say? You in?”

“Does green still mean go?”

“You’ve seen the traffic lights, dummy. You already know the answer.”

“Then fuck yeah, I’m in!”