Jace had not logged off.
{I’m giving you 15 more minutes, and then I’m unplugging you whether you are ready for it or not,} Gracie said. {I’m hungry, and I have things to do tonight.} While it was after midnight in the game, the realms ran on GMT, and it was just past 7 in Chicago.
Jace sighed. “I understand, but I want to be sure she’s okay.”
It had taken longer than Jace had wanted to wrap up the Constitution module. They still had to work to fix the broken wall even though the fight was over. The module wouldn’t trigger the ending until that box was checked. Wallace had insisted on rooting through the dead bodies, looking for rare items to sell. She played the game for money, and Jace didn’t want to criticize her methods. He had expected Gromphy to help her, as the goblin crafter was a bit of a pack rat, but he had never moved from the beach, staring out over the sea. When it had been over an hour since the mountain giant had thrown Adam, Jace knew the golem wouldn’t be walking back.
They eventually left the module down two companions, and as bad as Jace felt about Gromphy, he just wanted to get back to his stronghold to find Esther and ensure she was alive. But she wasn’t at home. At first, Jace thought she might have been resurrected and then left again. He knew she often spent her nights out and about, but he talked to Topper and Trixna, and neither of the full-time stronghold residents had seen her. Besides, Draya had all her equipment. She would be defenseless if she wandered off.
Psycho was the first to suggest she wasn’t here because she might have woken somewhere else in the realms. Sleeping in your bed established your spawn point, and the elf didn’t think Esther spent the night at home often. Jace could see from Draya’s expression that the ranger was probably correct, but he didn’t push the point with the young woman, not wanting her to violate Esther’s trust.
So Jace had stalled. He spent much longer than usual tidying up his stronghold, putting away items they had earned, checking in with the gnomes to ensure everything was okay in the mine, and double-checking that Draya had all her homework finished for her next day at school.
The rest of his party went to bed, but Jace sat at the table in Esther’s room waiting. All her equipment sat beside him, and he kept his eyes fixed on the window above the bathtub that led out to the lakeside beach the gnomes had created.
{Ten minutes,} Gracie said. {You better get back to your room. I don’t want to fry your brain when I . . .}
Esther slinked in through the window. It was pitch black in the room, but the female vampire had excellent night vision, and Jace watched her freeze as she recognized his hulking form sitting at the table. “Welcome back,” he said. He waved his arm and dispensed mana into the room’s lights to turn them on. His orc night vision was adequate, but he wanted to be able to read Esther’s expressions and ensure she was okay.
“Thanks. Good to see you.” She climbed onto her bed and sat on the edge. “I assume everything went okay after I . . . uh . . . after I left. You know. Killed the bad guy, got the loot, and all that good stuff.”
Jace nodded. “We lost Adam for the moment, but everything else went fine. It wouldn’t have worked if you hadn’t done what you did. Thank you. You know that was never part of my plan.”
“Oh, it was nothing,” she tried to laugh it off but failed. “Didn’t even hurt, really, just a little headache afterward. I’ll be fine in the morning.” They stared at each other for a few uncomfortable seconds. “Actually,” she faked a yawn. “It’s pretty late. I should probably . . .”
“If there is anything you need,” Jace said, “please don’t hesitate to ask. I know we come from different worlds – quite literally, actually – and we see those worlds very differently, but I want to ensure you are happy here. I don’t . . . I don’t want to lose you.”
Another fake laugh. “What are you talking about, boss? I love it here. I love Draya and Trixna, and even Psycho and Gromphy aren’t too bad.” She paused. “Who told you I want to leave?”
Jace shook his head. “No one. But . . . I mean . . . you didn’t wake up here. Is this home not enough? Do you need . . .”
“Oh,” she interrupted, and Jace could see her mind racing to create a story. “That is what you are worried about. Did Draya say something? Don’t believe her. Last night, I spent the night with one of her professors to ‘convince’ him she needs a good grade.” Another fake laugh. “You should have seen the look on his wife’s face when I resurrected in their bed. She had been with her sick mother last night. So, of course, I had to pretend to be a vampire summoned from the pits of hell by a rival professor. I think she bought it. We’ll see when Draya gets her grades. But . . . like I said . . . I’m tired.”
Jace remained deadpanned through the made-up story and waited for her to finish.
{Her relationship score with you is down to 80, by the way,} Gracie informed him. {I’m pretty sure it was at 85 when you logged in earlier today.}
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Jace made no outward show that heard what she said. All his other companions were at 95 or 100, but Esther was difficult. Once it got to 75, another player could lure her away if they gave her a good enough offer. Once it got to 50, she could leave on her own. If it ever got to 25, Jace would be forced to sleep with his door locked. Cultivating this relationship was critical.
“I don’t care what it is,” Jace said. “I don’t care what you need. I want you to know that you can talk to me about anything. Absolutely anything, and I won’t judge you.”
Esther gave him a half smile. “I know that.” It looked like she wanted to say more but was hesitating. “It’s nothing, really. It can wait till morning.”
“I won’t be here in the morning,” Jace said. “I don’t know when I will be logging in again. It might be a few days.”
Esther bit her lip and looked as if she was going to cry. “I found them,” she finally said. “Well, uh, he found them. I mean, we found them.” She paused to gather her thoughts. “I know where my sisters are.”
Jace took a moment to understand that she meant the lieutenants she had worked with at the Gilded Swan. Jace knew it was under new management and that none of the original women worked there anymore, but he hadn’t given it much thought beyond that. “Are they okay?”
Esther shook her head, again looking like she might cry.
“What can I do?”
Esther burst out like a dam had broken, spilling everything Vithium had told her. She did it in her scatterbrained style, made worse by the fact that she still had Resurrection Sickness and was legitimately tired. Jace had to ask her to slow down and back up several times. He heard Gracie furiously typing as Esther mentioned locations, NPCs, and other information the operator wasn’t familiar with. Several times the operator butted in and have Jace ask for more details.
When Esther finally finished, she looked exhausted. Jace got a liquor bottle from a magically chilled ice box and poured her a glass of amber liquid. He set it on the bedside table and sat back on his chair, ten feet from her.
“And this . . . friend . . . who found out this information,” Jace started, “he doesn’t know how to rescue your sisters or what other people have tried?”
Esther shook her head as she took a drink from her cold beverage. It seemed to give her strength. “He sees everyone in the realm. All kinds of people come to talk with him, and they never tell him answers, only information. He doesn’t have the money or influence to get anything valuable. But I’ve told you enough, right? You can come up with a plan to rescue them, right?”
Jace shrugged. “It’s not that simple. You might be able to move around freely in the game, but I can’t. I can’t always go off on every adventure I want. I work for a special division of my government, and even my character in this realm doesn’t really belong to me.”
“What does that even mean?” she asked, rising to her feet and slamming her glass on the table. “What kind of government controls you like that?”
“It’s complicated,” Jace replied, thinking now was not the best time to talk about the inner workings of the CIA.
“Complicated?” Esther was close to shouting. “Let me guess, Wallace comes to you and says she needs another Constitution point, so you take our whole crew and hers and go up against hundreds of deadly monsters. I’m killed, Adam is lost, and your government is okay with that, but I ask you to help three people who are in danger, and it’s not okay? We battled that lava monster to save four other kidnapped players, and they were all losers. Just because my sisters aren’t ‘players’ doesn’t mean they aren’t valuable too!”
Actually, Jace thought. They aren’t even real people.
{Relationship status is down to 75, by the way.}
Jace wisely kept his thoughts to himself. “The module we did today is different,” Jace tried to explain. “Thousands of people have played it without dying, and we have detailed walkthroughs, so we know exactly what to expect. My bosses approve it because they think it is safe. If they knew how dangerous it really was, they probably wouldn’t let me do them. But the missions you outlined aren’t even modules. They are organic situations Gandhi created when I freed you that no one has even attempted before. The parameters are wide open, and there are way too many unknowns.”
“What does any of that mean?” she cried. “Walkthroughs? Modules? Parameters? I’m talking about three women in trouble who are important to me. Don’t try to confuse me with words I don’t understand. I hate feeling stupid!”
{Down to 70.}
Jace sighed and stood up, walking toward the frustrated and weeping woman. He hugged her, and she calmed down. “I can’t promise anything,” he said, “other than I will try. What you’ve told me is good information. Gracie and I will study it and come up with a plan. Please don’t do anything rash in the meantime. Don’t try to rescue them yourselves.” He pushed her away for a moment to look in her eyes. “I will fight for you, I promise.”
Jace’s calming words had the desired effect; her agitation popped like a bubble, and she collapsed back to the bed. “You are right. You need your sleep. I probably won’t be here when you wake up, but I promise to return soon.” He eased her into bed and, with his massive orc hands, helped tuck her beneath the sheets. He wanted to kiss her goodnight on the forehead but knew his tusks would get in the way.
Instead, he dismissed the lights, returned to his room, and went to his favorite recliner to log off. Within a minute, Jason Hawthorne was sitting back up in a chair in the basement of their new safe house in Chicago. Gracie was beside him. “What do you think?” he asked. “Any chance our bosses will approve this?”
Gracie shrugged. “I’ll have to pour over the information she gave us with our team in DC and see what we can do. Maybe it won’t be that dangerous. Maybe we can tie it to other nefarious activity. I don’t know, but I am late for a dinner reservation and must go. You can let yourself out.”
Jason was still working the cramps out of his back and neck as he watched the woman run up the stairs and heard her leave the house. They had changed locations after their first mission, feeling unsafe at an address that Dresher had found. Jason was hungry too but would probably heat a pizza upstairs before returning to his apartment.
Esther was too valuable to what he did in the game to let her slip away. The heads of the CIA needed to see that. Jason didn’t even want to think about playing the game without her. He and Gracie would have to find a way to sanction the quests to free her friends.