Gromphy arrived at the broken window as the glass was still falling. At first, he hoped this wasn’t Esther’s attempt to gain him access to the house, but after the shower of glass had ceased, he found one of her knives on the ground and knew this was her. The sound of the shattering window from inside the hall wasn’t what the goblin would consider stealthy, and he waited several moments to see if a body or two would come hurtling down as well, but all was relatively quiet from above, and he could only hope that Esther had it under control. While he didn’t respect many of her choices, Gromphy had to admit the rogue was resourceful, and this was the only entrance he could see.
Still invisible, Gromphy removed a grappling hook from his inventory and took a few deep breaths. He looked up at the window, seeing a section of the sill clear of glass. The hook had bonuses to find its target, and one of the few combat traits he had given points to was his throwing ability since bombs were his most common attack method. With no discernable activity above, and no one poking their head out the window, he launched the grappling hook fifteen feet in the air. It caught the ledge on the first try, and he tugged to ensure it was tight.
After retrieving Esther’s dagger, he hoisted himself up the taught line and paused only when he reached the top. Listening for voices or combat or some indication that all was not right, all he heard was the ambient sounds of music playing, glasses clinking, and people talking. Gromphy pulled himself up the last few feet and dropped inside the window.
The light in the room canceled his invisibility spell, and he scampered behind a potted plant standing next to the broken window. Glass covered the floor, and each step made a crunching sound, but nobody turned to look at him. Gromphy searched for Esther and finally saw her and Thom in the company of two others. The crafter exercised his skills to determine the class and level of her new friends and saw she was talking with a level 18 fighter. He was a vampire.
Gromphy downed another perception-boosting potion to listen into their conversation. He was also granted the ability to identify her condition. Esther was Shocked, an actual game condition that gave her a -10 penalty against anything the vampire did to her, and the fighter was laying the charm on thick. Gromphy couldn’t comprehend everything the man said, but it was clear to the goblin that they had a history together, and Esther was confused.
Soon the characters were too far away, with several other guests blocking his view, and Gromphy focused on his position. Part of him wanted to go after the woman, feeling she was in trouble, but there was little he could do. As soon as he left the cover of the plant, he would be seen, and while he was dressed for the occasion, he was the only small creature in the room and would stick out.
But he also couldn’t stay here forever. The guests avoided the shattered glass on the floor, but he spotted two servants approaching, discussing methods for cleaning up the mess and fixing the window. Gromphy looked to his right and left and saw the double doors fifteen feet away. They weren’t completely closed. The crafter smiled. He could see the damaged hinge and knew someone like Imani would keep his home in perfect working order. That was the way Esther wanted him to go.
Gromphy took a deep breath and bolted for the doors, his ears pricked for any indication he was seen. He made it through the double doors and sighed as they swung closed behind him.
The hallway was empty, and he saw the stairs ahead. Rooms lined both sides of the hall, and he scampered past the first one on the right, groans and moans coming from the slightly ajar door. The goblin nearly jumped out of his skin when the middle door on the left opened. It revealed a naked woman briefly before she adjusted the angle so only her head and neck showed. She did a double take at the goblin but then saw his attire and shrugged her bare shoulders.
“Do you work here?” she asked in a hushed tone.
Gromphy had no other choice. “I do.”
“Good,” she said. “We need an Athletic potion, a tower shield, and a frost arrow.” A gruff male voice said something from further in the room. “Oh yes,” she continued, “and a few more chickens.”
“More chickens?” Gromphy clarified.
“Yeah,” she said. “The first few didn’t last long.”
The goblin didn’t want to know. He considered apologizing to the woman that he was busy but didn’t want her to cause a stir or report him to anyone. And it just so happened that he had all those things. He popped his chest out of his inventory and produced the first three requests in seconds. The chickens took some work, and he would definitely have to restock his animal supply, but after a bit of mana, three birds waddled into the room through the cracked door.
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“Thanks,” she said, “and you are the cutest thing ever, by the way.” Another comment from deeper inside the room came to Gromphy’s sensitive ears. She turned to respond. “A goblin in a top hat,” she said. The voice said something else. She shrugged again, “I’ll ask.” She turned back to look at the crafter. “You wouldn’t want to join us, would you?”
Gromphy grew suddenly pale and shook his head. The woman chuckled. “Just thought I’d ask.” She closed the door, and the goblin breathed a sigh of relief. He returned his trunk to his inventory and ran the rest of the way toward the stairs.
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Atrax led Esther out of the hall and to the large patio on the south side of the estate bordering the ocean. Outside, a dozen people gathered, drinking and talking, while a few swam in the large pool and relaxed in a steaming bath. The sky was overcast, but sunlight lit the ocean a few dozen feet past the shore. It was a peaceful setting, and Esther focused on the gentle waves to calm her raging mind.
Her new friend, who she now remembered was an old friend, kept the conversation light, commenting on several of the other guests, the generosity of their host, and how beautiful Esther looked. She barely heard any of it as memories of him, whom she used to be, and what had happened since flooded through her.
When Jace had changed her back in the Gilded Swan, she had undergone a similar experience as every player character she had ever been with simultaneously uploaded into her mind. However, those experiences followed a similar pattern and were more easily assimilated. Now she had visions of heaven, vague memories of other friends, adventures she had participated in, and bursts of knowledge about her new companion.
“It is beautiful, isn’t it,” Atrax said, looking out over the water. He leaned against a high railing, and Esther mimicked his pose. “I don’t get to look at sunshine often. My skin has this terrible burning reaction.” He chuckled. “Beautiful but deadly. Sort of like someone I know.”
Esther managed a weak smile at the compliment, something that Jace would never say to her.
“Imani hires one of the city’s shamans,” he said, pointing toward a man standing on a high balcony off the backside of the house. The shaman was surrounded by totems and stood with his arms raised to the sky. “He keeps the sun away,” Atrax clarified, pointing to the swirl of dark clouds centered over the magic user. “Most of us wouldn’t last a minute out here without him. But I understand you don’t have that problem anymore. What has happened to you?”
“I am with Jace Thorne,” she said slowly, focusing on the one constant she could rely on. “He rescued me.”
“Rescued you from what?”
Esther shook her head in confusion. “I . . . I am not sure. I have these memories of . . . before. Of us. And before that. And then there was this period of . . . I don’t know. Like everything before disappeared, and I became this . . . thing. This autonomous being who did things and said things off a script. Then Jace came and freed me from that, and I became alive. At the time, it felt like I was free for the first time, but now I remember a time before all that when I had even more.”
Atrax nodded. “Do you know what triggered these memories?"
She turned from the horizon to look him in the eyes. “You did. I mean, what you said back there about me. About who I was.”
“That you are a fallen angel of Decus Gemma?” Atrax didn’t need confirmation as he saw a wave of emotion cross her face, and she struggled to keep her focus. Esther could only nod mutely.
“I believe a spell was cast on you to erase everything before from your mind. I would like to help you remember if you will let me.”
Esther still hadn’t figured out how she felt about this man, this vampire, this character from her past. She felt calm when she looked at his face, but she wasn’t naïve enough to realize that it might be a spell. She had done the same thing to countless others. But she wanted calm right now. Outside of his handsome face was confusion and turmoil.
“I want to remember,” she said.
“Do you know the name Kai Morte?”
Esther hesitated. There was something at the edge of her mind that seemed familiar, but she couldn’t nail it down.
“Kai Morte,” Atrax repeated. “A fallen angel of Dignatio.”
The flood resumed. Memories washed over her of a knight with a handsome face and long black hair. He protected her, looked after her. Did he love her? Did she love him? Or was that Atrax? The vampire’s face superimposed over the knight, and she couldn’t tell them apart. Esther’s knees became weak, and her arms tried to brace against the railing, but she felt herself slipping.
Atrax caught her. “I can see this is going to be a difficult process,” he said, hoisting her up beside him. “We might need a little help.” The vampire looked over Esther’s shoulder and saw his tiefling friend, Stemenia. She and Thom were canoodling several feet away. The human had a dazed look in his eyes and had his hands all over the shorter female.
“Stemi,” Atrax scolded. “Not now. I need a drink.”
The tiefling looked confused.
“Not for me,” he clarified, “for her. One of your special drinks.”
The woman nodded and propped her new plaything against the railing. Thom almost fell, but the tiefling whispered something into his ear, and he grabbed onto the wood as if his life depended on it. She kissed him on the cheek and went looking for a waiter.
Esther didn’t see any of that and allowed herself to be cradled by her new friend. Despite being a vampire, Atrax’s embrace felt warm and comforting. It reminded her of a time when she craved his embrace, when Atrax was all she ever wanted and needed. Then . . . what had happened? Had they been separated? Had this Kai Morte come into their lives? Did he rescue her, or was he hunting Atrax? Or both?
Esther shook her head in frustration, unable to nail anything down as her mind struggled to settle on a reliable timeline. Atrax held her, and, for now, she trusted him. She felt he knew the truth of her past and would help her find out what she needed. So when he pushed a glass to her lips, she didn’t hesitate and drank the wine. Her mind was at peace within moments, and she let herself fall entirely into the vampire’s embrace.