Sen wrung her hands in front of her looking at a loss. Amelia slowly got up from her throne and gestured to it with a hand. Sen, uncomprehendingly, stared at her with shallow ocean green eyes.
“Some people do better from sitting. Frankly, I’m ready to stand.” Amelia stated.
“I can’t sit there!” Sen exclaimed, looking terrified by the thought. “I’m not Empress!”
“It’s just a chair.” Amelia scoffed and moved Sen with her hands toward the throne, pushing her lightly down on it. She was amused when Sen recoiled when her butt hit the seat, like she thought she was seriously going to get penalized for sitting. When nothing awful happened she straightened slightly.
“Alright. Spill. I’ve tolerated your skulking in the back. Let’s hear it.”
“Skulking?” Sen pinched her eyes together, looking nervous. “I wasn’t skulking!”
“Story, story, story.” Amelia chanted. She grinned at the suddenly surprised and happy face Sen gave her. Apparently, Amelia was less intimidating when she was pretending to be childish.
“Hey, Amelia. Do you know any heroes?” She asked shyly. “I mean, real heroes?”
Amelia stilled, coming to stand in front of Sen with almost stone-like solemnity.
For a long moment she didn’t move. In her mind flashed the images of Aidan, Forsythe, and Raven. More than that were all those she had met who had fought against impossible odds when they knew they would likely be the targets of discrimination and anger should the world really end. They had stood with her through it all. The song of the final battle of Last Sojourn that Raven sung to them over the seas on their way to fight the visage drifted gently in memory, and still had the power to make her throat clench.
“I know a few.” Amelia whispered softly, unexpectedly taken by powerful emotion.
“Ah. I only know one.” Sen smiled, and her gaze lost Amelia for a long moment.
She was staring back toward the room and after a brief moment of searching behind her Amelia realized she was looking at Shade. “Shade is a hero. Maybe not the kind you know but a hero in his own right. So it made me really happy when he said he’d play the game with me. It’s not really his thing. He’s always pretending to know what I’m talking about. I think he only cares at all because I care. You see?”
“Pretty heroic.” Amelia admitted, smiling slightly. She had immediately recognized the look on Sen’s face. Sen loved Shade fiercely, though for now it was just an immature love. Amelia guessed that the two of them hadn’t sorted out their relationship yet.
“Yeah, but that’s not what makes him a hero.” Sen shuddered slightly. “I’m a cripple.”
Amelia eyed her character for a moment before making the association that Sen must be referring to the real world. “I’m sorry.”
“No. I mean. Thank you.” Sen laughed hesitantly. “I was studying dance. I was only 19 and Shade is an old friend from back home. I mean he’s always been so intense! I never knew what to think about him. No matter what I wanted to do there he was. So I was 19…” Sen paused, unsure how to continue.
“Young,” Amelia agreed softly.
“Right!” Sen’s eyes came up, suddenly full of steel. “I was thinking that you know, it was an infatuation. He liked me and I really liked him, but we just did stuff together. He never pushed me. I don’t have a very good relationship with most guys. Most of them want to… you know…” She shrugged with embarrassment.
“Yeah. There are a lot of those. Women too to be fair.” Amelia agreed, not sure where this was heading.
“So, I’m in college. A dance prodigy, is what they were calling me. Really, maybe I was too full of myself.” She paused for a moment, and after a few swallows and a thoughtful expression she continued. “Shade didn’t get it. He’s so… intense.” Sen sighed. “But… He… I… I decided I was going to be courageous. So even though he isn’t outdoorsy or adventurous and I am, when I told him I wanted to go trek through the mountains he agreed. It was his favorite thing, he said.”
Sen snickered. “Like he even cared about it. He wanted to be with me. It was nice. So I plan this really long week in the mountains. We’re from Europe and there are still some places that… well some places that you can be far away from everyone else. My mother went with my father before they were married and I thought…” She shrugged again, helplessly.
“You thought you’d figure out your feelings for him.” Amelia suggested tentatively. It wasn’t exactly like Amelia was a huge authority on how relationships worked. Amelia worked with Aidan and that always seemed like a huge fluke that the universe allowed because it didn’t want them to set fire to things.
“Right! I mean I was attracted. His intensity for me always made me feel a little off. How could a guy just… like me so much? He listened so sweetly, and did things for me, and never pushed.” Sen sighed and when her voice came again it was only whisper. “So we’re in the mountains. Things are going well but there isn’t much to talk about. I’m struck by how different we are. Not bad different, just different. Still, I have to say that’s when I figured out I was really in love with the idiot.” Sen grinned, but then her expression hardened as she continued. “It’s day five, maybe six? There’s a storm. Like an idiot I ignored him when he said we should just hunker down. Snow isn’t a huge deal when you have the thermal gear we did. Like an idiot he agreed with me when I insisted that during daylight we should make some progress back down the mountain.” Sen froze, looking lost. “So the storm wasn’t so bad during the day, but I slipped. I don’t remember much of it. I just remember the falling. You know? I don’t remember the pain. I think now, that was a bad sign.”
“The first rock I hit, I felt a warmth and then nothing. That should have hurt. Then the second. The third. Nothing. I’m falling and hitting things and falling and falling and when I finally hit the ground and slide to a stop it’s almost a relief. Like, finally, I can get up and figure out if I’m hurt. Only I don’t get up. Nothing seems to work right and I’m having trouble. There’s this warm feeling in my whole body but it’s a far away feeling. Now, I know it’s a dying feeling.”
Amelia didn’t know what to say. She hadn’t expected this kind of story. She felt her mouth open slightly and then close. What could she have said?
“I’m a mess. Like really bad. I realize this the second I wake up. I’m on his back. He’s carrying me. I try to say stuff and he talks back like he can’t understand me. I realize it’s because he actually can’t understand me because I can’t form words. Pretty soon I give up but he keeps talking. He’s telling me about the mountain and about all the things we’ll do when we get back down on the ground. I hear the first edge of hysteria in his voice then but I don’t get it. I’m just glad he’s talking to me.” Sen fidgeted with her hands, and slowly closed her eyes.
“I saw pictures of myself, later, when I was in the hospital. Eyes completely blackened with blood. Face so disfigured that it took days for the swelling to go down. I didn’t even look like a human being. I don’t know how he did it. How he carried… that thing down. It took him two days, is what I think they said. I don’t remember him ever stopping. Not even at night. We didn’t even get terminal reception up there. We were ‘roughing’ it so we left all the terminals and cells home except for an emergency sat phone in my pack. It got crushed when I fell.”
Amelia was truly silent now. She couldn’t imagine that sort of grief or pain, let alone what it had taken to walk down that mountain with someone you loved so hurt on your back. She got winded carrying groceries from the public transportation unit to her front door. To walk for more than two days was… unreal. She shivered suddenly at the thought of Aidan being hurt somewhere there was no help. A coldness swept through her heart.
“The worst was when I started to wake up and the doctors were saying that I wouldn’t walk again without a series of surgeries. It would take years. They said that because of the fact he’d carried me any chance I’d had to walk sooner was ruined. I saw his face and it was just... broken. I’m lucky because I never blamed him. No one would have even known we were in trouble for a few days so the fact he carried me down saved my life. Still, there were some in my family who thought if he’d just waited and stayed with me the rescuers would have found us. I told him again and again that it wasn’t his fault.” Sen shivered. “Then he left.”
“Left?” Amelia cast a confused look. It was strange enough that she felt the need for clarification. From what she had heard Shade wouldn’t have done that. Not the Shade from this story.
“Yeah.” Sen barked a short laugh. “I thought he left because he couldn’t bear to look at me. Then a month later he returned. He was going to be an engineer for a pharmaceutical company. I’m going to sheepishly admit I don’t know what he does really. They gave him a huge advance. He’s really smart,” Sen added.
Sen was silent and then after a moment seemed to gather her courage. “He blew it all on a crazy idea. He had people go into those mountains and set down red balloons. More than 30. Then he hired an eco copter and went around trying to find them. He had no idea where they were, but he used the rough route we’d given the travel guide place as a starter. He said that after a month he had only found 2 balloons. He came and knelt by my bed and he held my hand, and he cried. The first time I ever saw him cry. He said that he was a bad person because he felt so relieved. He was so relieved that he’d proven that he made the right call, even though I couldn’t walk. Those rescuers never would have found us in time. He proved it statistically. I don’t even know how much it cost him financially.” Sen sighed. “He made this bike with his dad. It was old, antique, purred like a dream even with the water cells instead of that old petroleum that the antiques usually run on. I never saw it again and he never spoke of it.”
Amelia was frozen. The pain she felt in her stomach was worse than any she had known in a long time. She hadn’t felt this terrible since Raven, Forsythe, and Aidan had told her about Last Sojourn.
“Then I made him leave.” Sen’s gaze finally found Amelia. She was once again struck by the steel she saw behind those eyes. “I was a cripple. That man deserved better. Even with our awesome technology and medical know-how, the best he could hope for was to push around this stupid little girl who hadn’t even realized she was in love with him for the rest of his life. Or to spend years working like a dog while I went through surgery after surgery.”
“That didn’t take?” Amelia asked gently.
“No. He kept coming. I had to have my family start sending him away. The hospital wouldn’t admit him. He sent me a letter every day, and even sent it to my terminal ebox. He would tell me how things were going, how he was looking forward to seeing me, asking if I would see him. Every day for a year.” Sen sighed. “A year is a long time you know? I was getting worn down, lonely, and I really wanted to see him too. I couldn’t think of a way to broach the subject.”
Sen fidgeted in her seat, wringing her hands and looking very young. “Then an opportunity came. I was never a VRMMO person but the hospital got a shipment of the dive gear from Centra Holdings. Experimental therapy for people with… uhh... “ Sen smiled bitterly. “...traumatic experiences. It was supposed to get you looking forward to going out again.”
Sen laughed bitterly as well as smiled now. “AAO was free if you signed up for the therapy. So I did. I was so relieved when I started walking around in AAO. So relieved. So a month ago I mailed him for the first time in a year and I asked him, do you know about AAO?” Sen laughed. “Of course I know, he said. What a liar. I asked him to come play with me. He agreed on the condition that I leave special care and leave the hospital. He would take care of everything. Well, I couldn’t let him take care of everything! I couldn’t do that!” Sen laughed again. “So I’m home with my family and he moved nearby. He’s still taking classes and commuting to a sister-company of his main company where he works. He doesn’t know anything about this game.” Sen shook her head, blonde curls bouncing slightly. “He doesn’t know about you. But I do.”
Amelia tilted her head, unsure as to what she had to do with anything.
“I watched all the old AAO story from MKC Online when I started getting into this game. I saw all the amazing adventures. I was really excited.” Sen smiled sheepishly. “I have a lot of free time so I’ve probably seen more than most.” Sen shrugged. “Anyway. Then, today, when I was going to see him for the first time in a year… there he was, carrying you along behind him. Do you know what I felt?’ Sen peered at her.
“Dizzy?” Amelia guessed. That was usually how Amelia felt when Aidan and Raven got on with their crazy. She had realized, belatedly, that she had slowly adapted to that sort of crazy and had the same effect on people.
“No.” Sen smiled. “I realized that my hero had carried me down a mountain again. He had brought these… people who had helped me through dark times with their adventures right to me. Without thinking, without knowing, just like he always seemed to do when I really needed him. So. You know. I don’t know many heroes, not the story book heroes Amelia, but I do know one. That’s my story.” Sen straightened on the throne, her face going suddenly blank. “Wow, I always thought that your friends were exaggerating when they described your face.”
“Hmm?” Amelia blinked, and then realized with a start she was grinning. That crazy, unrealistic, creepy grin that caused her no end to grief. Despite her best efforts she couldn’t stop grinning. Her hands went up even and tried to get the creepy smile to go away. To no avail, it just stretched wider despite her best efforts. “I’m so sorry I just…” Amelia laughed helplessly, feeling terrible even as the exhilaration of hearing a truly incredible story rampaged through her.
“No, it’s okay. I like that smile. It’s not creepy at all. It’s… resolute and kind of fun. Intense, like Shade.” Sen stared at her. “Is that going in your book?’
“Yes.” Amelia said with authority. “I’ll modify it so it’s an in game story though, if that’s alright with you?”
“Yes.” Sen nodded. “There should be a record of how great Shade is.”
“You know…” Amelia started to say, then stopped.
“What?” Sen peered up at her curiously.
“AAO and the new dive gear was designed by an incredible person. I don’t know much about her, but I do know she spent decades of her life in… without the ability to live like most people do in the real world. I think it would have made her happy that her game was being played by you.” Amelia said simply, shrugging.
“Thank you.” Sen whispered. She blinked and jumped up, reaching for her face. When she was satisfied she wasn’t crying, which you still couldn’t do in this game, she laughed shakily. Very gently she embraced Amelia and whispered into her ear. “I’m going to go mingle now. I’d love to join your guild.”
“Just tell Hunter. You need an armband.” Amelia gestured to her own after holding Sen in the embrace for a long moment. A white band with a long shadow cast by a setting sun.
“Sweet.” Sen grinned. “Does it give bonuses too?”
Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.
“Bonuses?” Amelia blinked.
“Yeah, high level tailors can make accessories give small bonuses.” Sen tilted her head, and then an understanding look came. “Oh wow. You have been gone for a bit. Might consider having it looked into. Tradecraft has advanced a lot now. You guys really avoided all the news, huh?”
“Really?” Amelia frowned. “As someone who watched the game when I played it, can you explain to me how different it is?”
An impish smile started to break out on Sen’s face like she couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “Wow, you guys are getting kinda old, huh? Sure, let me explain it to you grandma.”
Amelia blinked rapidly and then just started laughing. Laughing so unexpectedly startled her and all she could do for the moment was finish laughing and shaking. “Just tell me you brat.”
“Sure.” Sen thought about it for a moment. “Grandmaster was the highest achievable Trade and Craft Job rank you guys discovered at the time. Now though, there’s Legendary Grandmaster and Heavenly Grandmaster. I’ve also heard that the sculptor, Pluto, discovered a job rank beyond those but I’m fuzzy on the details.”
“Pluto.” Amelia shuddered. “Dad. Of course.”
“Dad?” Sen froze.
“Oh. Yeah, Pluto and Hysteria are my parents.” Amelia shuddered. “They aren’t a head of a kingdom are they? I promised them I’d go to war with them if they ever became tyrants or dictators.”
Sen smiled awkwardly and when Amelia didn’t smile back she finally realized that she wasn’t kidding.
“No.” Sen whined. She was staring helplessly at Amelia again in that worshipful sort of way. “Do you think maybe you could introduce me? I’m a huge sculpture fan and I just started out…”
“Sure.” Amelia blinked, agreeing immediately. She didn’t know what else to say and watched for a moment as Sen got up awkwardly, after a moment ducking her head and moving passed her with a muttered thanks.
“War.” Amelia immediately said over the party channel. “What’s your tailoring at?”
“After the world of Wurlandia, which we left to come here, I’m a Heavenly Grandmaster Tailor.” War immediately replied.
“Can you make accessories with beneficial stats?” Amelia asked.
“Yes,” War didn’t make it a question. Just a simple answer.
Amelia sighed. She really was out of touch. “Hunter, I was thinking we should have someone like War remake our guild armbands with some sort of special stat boost. If we’re going to wear them they might as well have nice stats too, right?”
“That’s a good idea.” Hunter said after a minute. “I didn’t realize small cloth accessories gave stat boosts.” Hunter admitted a moment later. In AA worn gear and armor offered beneficial stat boosts in armor or offensive capability. Because gear was so infrequently upgraded and the stat differences between sets was minute it was generally better to get a piece of gear early on and just wear it with the [Growth] stat attached. The armor or gear would be chosen based on the player’s visual choice and then level up appropriately as the player got stronger. One of the nice features of the game was you could wear any outfit that made you feel cool and powerful and eventually the stat bonuses would increase to match with current level gear. Accessories included many things from scarves to hats to armbands as far as Tailoring went, but they were largely cosmetic excepting a few quest rewards that might boost Job stats. Fishing hats, for example, gave small bonuses to fishing duration.
At least, that was how it all used to be? The game had outgrown her understanding at some point.
“How come no one from Shadow Fall talked about this in any of the guild channels?” Amelia whined.
“Good idea.” Aidan finally said, already seeing the benefit.
“Sen’s idea.” Amelia said ruefully.
“Wow. Good catch. Good guild member get!” Raven exclaimed. “Hey War, I want an armband that lets me jump really high in the air!”
“Impossible.” War said, and then after a moment added. “But there are probably agility bonuses so… small jumps higher? You’re never going to wear an armband that’s going to make a huge difference.”
“Whatever! Hurry up and become a god crafter or something so I can leap small buildings in a single bound!” Raven exclaimed.
“I can leap small buildings. If they are short.” Forsythe interjected.
“Not the point.” Raven sighed. “You really don’t get it do you Fours?”
They were interrupted by trumpets from the front. They actually frightened Amelia, as she didn’t realize there would be trumpeteers manning the gates for important guests. This was, after all, her first true hall meeting in the palace of Blutonsi.
Technically it was Elairdrin’s hall, so she had never tried to enter it or set up shop. Additionally, she had never had the urge to go sit in all that pomp and circumstance. Tonight she had simply moved here because she expected a great turnout. Shadow Fall had been super excited by their return and wanted to party. The palace was one of the few meeting places where they could all meet up relatively undisturbed.
“Announcing, their royal highnesses, Queen Catherine and Queen Skyline!” Came a loud voice. Amazingly the room stilled. Many people had never seen the elusive Queen Skyline. The leader of the Winter Silf was incredibly reclusive. Immediately a small row of Silf warriors entered the room and lined a small path. Queen Catherine, resplendent in her woodland garb, was accompanied by a tall Silf who Amelia didn’t recognize. Probably a consort or a captain of the guard then? She smiled beautifully to each side, pointing and calling out names as she saw people. Shadow Fall was certainly affected. They smiled back, sheepish and helpless grins forming on faces as everyone called out in a friendly manner. Moments later another Silf woman walked in. Contrasting her mother, Queen Skyline wore a shimmering silver blue gown. Her entrance was nothing less than spectacular. She was one of the most beautiful Residents Amelia had ever seen, and her wintery wardrobe did nothing but add to her splendor with calm and quiet dignity.
“Strength, and long-life to Empress Amelia of Elysium.” Queen Catherine had moved through the incredible number of Shadow Fall with her daughter Skyline. The Transients had parted gently in her wake and then followed her forward. Skyline smiled as well, looking a bit shy. Elairdrin had appeared near her shoulder and was doing his best to stand up straight. Both Skyline and Elairdrin were standing comfortably close but not looking at each other. Amelia blinked a few times, wondering at that sort of closeness and their relationship. It had never occurred to her before now that in AA there could be a royal wedding crossing factions.
“It’s good to see you, friend Catherine.” Amelia immediately took a page from Victoria’s book. She turned and looked at Skyline. “Princess, no, Queen Skyline. I walked through your forests on the way here. They are truly beautiful. You have done so incredibly well in such a short amount of time. Your mother must be very proud of you.”
Skyline jolted, standing immediately upright and gauging Amelia for the first time. She smiled again and nodded. “Thank you. Had it been known to me that you walked amongst our trees I would have sent an escort.” She bowed her head, looking flustered.
Catherine interrupted gently. “Amelia?”
“Yes?” Amelia blinked, turning her head. She wasn’t exactly sure what she should do. Amelia hadn’t been prepared for royalty. She had just meant to have a party with her guild and friends.
“Will Forsythe be cooking?” Catherine prompted, just as gently.
“Forsythe,” Amelia called. “I need you.”
Forsythe moved through the throng easily. He didn’t look the least bit concerned as he approached. He nodded stiffly once to both the Queens and Elairdrin. “What?” He demanded with brusqueness. Amelia felt bad for a second. He had probably been getting the opinions on Shadow Fall concerning some of the liquors he had been brewing and didn’t like the interruption.
“I think you have a fan. Are you going to cook tonight?” Amelia asked. She raised an eyebrow. She didn’t really care one way or the other. Forsythe could do whatever he wanted.
“No way!” Forsythe immediately rejected. “I haven’t had the time nor the forethought.” Seeing the dejected look of Catherine and the surprised expression of Skyline at his immediate refusal he sighed. “I will however set out dessert. Ice cream?”
“Ice cream?!” Raven pushed her way forward, staring at him dangerously. “The ice cream you made on that snow world that you wouldn’t let us have? You made so much! Why can’t I have any!”
“You can have some now.” Forsythe said magnanimously, “...as recompense for the campaign poison vial I stole from you!”
Raven’s mouth dropped open and her expression became fierce. It was an obvious internal war. She wanted the ice cream but she would have to admit that Forsythe had managed to ‘take’ the fictional poison from her earlier.
Amelia shook her head and closed her eyes. It wasn’t even an actual item!
Reluctantly, as if it were being strangled out of her, Raven quietly muttered, “oh no, where is my extremely deadly stoppered poison. Some sort of mastermind must have lifted it off me. I hope he unstoppers it thinking it is something else and it kills him and his whole family.”
“Hey!” Elisha lifted her head nearby.
“Some of his family,” Raven grit her teeth.
“Eh?” Hunter was looking a little miffed now too.
“Just himself!” Raven threw her hands up and walked off amidst cunning smiles from Elisha, Hunter, and Forsythe.
“Snow world?” Skyline questioned softly.
Elairdrin and Catherine were both shaking with laughter beside her. Skyline had never partaken of a Forsythe feast, nor had she ever attended a Shadow Fall function. The fact that everyone was crowded around her so close and so amiably, even if they were arguing, seemed to be a little overwhelming to the Winter Silf. It was probably the first time the ingame Resident had ever been in a setting where she was absolutely not the center of attention.
“Yes. It’s a world full of snow.” Forsythe explained easily. Skyline’s eyes widened, as if she couldn’t believe he was so gently explaining something to her that was so obvious. “Ice cream, then.”
“Forget the food.” Amelia sighed. “Let’s just do ice cream. I can’t wait now.”
“Skip the food?” Skyline’s eyes were truly pinched. She didn’t understand at all.
“I should so love to have your ice cream.” Her mother, Queen of the Silf, appeared beside Forsythe and hooked her arm through his. She took a small step inward and pressed intimately against him. Immediately Hunter was there, looking pissed. She gently pulled Forsythe away, laughing lightly even as her eyes narrowed dangerously at Catherine.
“I’ll make sure he gets you some, my queen.” Hunter’s back was straight. Catherine and Hunter stared at each other suddenly ferocious. You could practically feel the invisible pitched battle they waged with only their eyes. Poor Queen Skyline’s eyes were wide.
“Come, wife.” Forsythe very gently disengaged himself from Queen Catherine, who suddenly looked entirely too crestfallen. Hunter stared over her shoulder with a triumphant smirk as they moved away. She put her hand at the small of his back as he led her away and rubbed with an open palm. Catherine’s eyes actually narrowed.
“Uggh.” Amelia felt tired. If there was one thing she didn’t miss about being around people it was how all the women seemed to gravitate toward Forsythe in a manner that made Hunter immediately set things on fire. They had actually almost had a guild meeting about it. The meeting had been entitled ‘don’t let Hunter near sharp things or flammable objects’.
“Ice cream is a precious treasure?” Victoria asked quietly.
“Probably.” Amelia admitted calmly. “His skill is something to be revered after all.”
“Indeed. If only there were treasures and rewards great enough to make friend Forsythe come and be the personal chef for the Half.” Victoria lamented mournfully.
“I don’t know I…” Amelia broke off, turning askance and staring suspiciously at Victoria. “You snuck in!”
“I surely did not! Keristrazly and I were announced.” Victoria said indignantly. She straightened and even raised an eyebrow as if she were almost offended by the accusation. She was wearing a festival gown of green with accents of silver. The dark haired warrior grinned at Amelia. “Hello again, friend Amelia. I see you.”
“Victoria.” Amelia couldn’t help it. She knelt down and embraced the Half. Of all the races and Residents that Amelia knew, Victoria was closest to her heart. Victoria gracefully allowed the hug to continue even after an indignant harumph was heard nearby.
“You are as outlandish as I recall.” Keristrazly was in his Half form, resplendent in a ruby red festival suit. It complemented his red skin quite magnificently. His dark eyes narrowed as he watched Amelia rock Victoria back and forth in her embrace. “Have respect for Queen Victoria.”
Amelia snickered and released Victoria. Keristrazly widened his eyes in surprise at how quickly she had done so, and moments later narrowed them again when he found himself in the very same situation. There was a lot of harrumphing after that but Amelia did detect the slightest bit of softening in the small Keristrazly. “I have missed you terribly.”
“You, I have not missed at all.” He retorted. He decided that the hug had gone on long enough and pushed her away indignantly. “Stop touching me.”
“Touch…” Amelia reached out and pinched his cheek.
Keristrazly blinked rapidly and started to open his mouth when Victoria simply leaned over and kissed his cheek. It was like she had disarmed him. All the fury and fight in his eyes faded as if it never was. He harrumphed again, but now it seemed it was only on principle.
Keristrazly was saved from further humiliation because even as Amelia started to grin and formulate a new way to heckle the small version of her friend she caught sight of Forsythe scooping ice cream. It might have seemed strange to anyone who was watching who didn’t understand the way AA worked. He scooped ice cream from a small container he held moving from one table to the next, depositing a circle of white airy ice cream perfection from one small silver plate to the next. While in the real world he would have needed container after container to serve the entirety of Shadow Fall, guests, and royal entourage, here he just kept serving as if it were perfectly natural that the container he was holding held enough for everyone.
When at last he came to a halt at the last table with Skyline, Catherine, Elairdrin, Keristrazly, Amelia, and friend Victoria he paused and made a magnanimous gesture and said roughly in a commanding tone. “Eat.”
By some bizarre mob mentality everyone had been waiting for him to finish serving before they had dared to even lift a spoon. All except Raven. She had already finished her plate and was pushing her spoon around with eyes full of regret. Forsythe straightened as if sensing her displeasure and turned around with a blank face, returning to her table and doling her out another helping.
“This is…” Skyline’s face had visibly changed to astonishment after her first bite.
“What manner of foolishness is this?” Keristrazly immediately seconded the incredulity
Skyline’s voice had held.
“Ahh… Dessert is ruined. You have ruined dessert. I do not know that I may call you friend ever again Forsythe. Foul.” Victoria had her spoon in her mouth and was talking around it, her eyes drenched in horror and treachery. She took another bite and looked even more depressed. “Foul. Foul. Most foul.”
The negative reactions continued down the line, earning wide-eyed disbelief from Amelia. Even Forsythe was taken aback; immediately, much to a protesting Raven who had the luck of being the one he stole a bite from, leaned down and took a bite. His expression immediately turned to one of dismay. Moments later he was looking around the room with extreme displeasure. “I am so sorry. This is terrible.”
Unable to stand the suspense for another moment Amelia picked up her spoon and scooped a big bite, immediately and without hesitation sticking it in her mouth. For a fraction of a second she wondered what the big deal was. Then the violins started. Then the room phased around her as if she and everyone in it had been transported to a snowy mountain plateau. Then the taste exploded in her mouth. She could never have identified the flavors but they were exquisite.
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Waltz of the Sprite - Food Heavenly Grandmaster Ice Cream.
From the first bite to the last you have never once in your life imagined that dessert could taste so good. Beauty surrounds you in the form of a snowscape from a world left largely untouched by the feet of both Transient and Resident. Made from the purest crystallized form of snow dew atop a mountain so sacred that no living creature before had dared walk there.
Effect: Music, Entertainment, and Beauty.
Effect: Satiation maxed. There will be no need to eat for 21 days. It is possible that your body will reject all food that is not Waltz of the Sprite during this duration. Note: You can have as much as you want and you won’t get fat.
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Wind picked up in the room and the snow that was appearing on the ground around Amelia began to swirl as if alive. Humanoid shapes, barely discernible, bowed to each other and began dancing together in a beautiful waltz around the room. Everyone around Amelia began to look up and watch as they ate, mixed expressions on their faces. No one had ever seen an effect like this. It was possible that no one would ever see it again. Amelia immediately understood why the Residents had reacted so poorly. They had fully realized that they might never again eat dessert so good in their entire lives.
“Why are you unhappy Forsythe? It’s amazing.” Amelia whispered.
“No. It is not. No one will be able to eat for almost a month. This is terrible. Terrible, terrible, I am so sorry.” Forsythe sat down miserably in Raven’s seat after she had sprung up from it and grabbed her plate away from him, holding it dangerously out of his reach and growling at him. Hunter didn’t seem like she could read his mood. She immediately took his hand and pulled him to an open space on the floor. After a moment of staring at her his expression lightened imperceptibly and he accepted her invitation to dance.
One after another the silent members of Shadow Fall, guests, and even Keristrazly and Victoria, Elairdrin and Skyline, Catherine and her escort, all rose and joined them. Amelia smirked and started to finish her ice cream. She didn’t know what the hurry was. At least until Aidan was there, urging her out of her chair.
“It’s too good to let melt,” She complained.
“I would bet that he has another batch of it. Though we’ll have to hold him down and torture it out of him later.” Aidan said, not to be deterred by her reluctance.
“But I wanna…” Amelia tried again.
“Dance! Dance with me, my Empress.” Aidan smiled.
“Go dance with him.” Sen was being led past her and smirked, obviously swept up in the mood as Shade dipped her near the table.
Amelia made a face at Aidan, and then she did.