Adelynn and Starla rode into Moonsorrow early in the morning. The journey had taken another two days and they were both somewhat road-weary. Adelynn looked around at the architecture. Moonsorrow seemed to be divided into two sections, a more rustic outer ring and a more modern city in the center with tall sparkling spires that could resemble a real-world city like New York, but less busy, noisy and dirty.

The elves in Moonsorrow had some items that would have been at home in the modern world. Adelynn saw thin tablets that resembled old fashioned smart phones and glasses on a few that looked like an augmented reality headset. Adelynn couldn’t determine if it was steampunk or future punk; to her it seemed like rustic-tech-magic-punk, or some weird amalgam of those things.

“This place is not what I expected.” Said Adelynn.

“Mythticle has some neat benefits for becoming an elf, like access to their magitech, but you lose a good relation with the dwarves.” Explained Starla.

“Why’s that?”

“It’s part of the quest line here, do you want it spoiled?”

“Maybe?” replied Adelynn, “I’m getting some weird looks from some people.”

Starla laughed. “You’re a human wearing elf ears in an elf city. Since you’re cosplaying an elf, you’re bound to get a weird look or two.”

Adelynn put her hands over her ears. “Should I take them off?”

“You don’t have to; they won’t talk to you differently and a few of the NPCs actually comment on your commitment to becoming an elf.”

Adelynn relaxed a little. “Where do we get started?”

“Lodging first.” Said Starla. “I want a nice room.” Starla led them through the outer city homes to the inner city. Outer city was all wood, brass, and copper on the buildings, which usually sported an antenna array of some sort with a glowing crystal at the tip. As they travelled inward, wood was replaced with glassy, smooth brick and then metallic siding and concrete. There were elves everywhere with varying skin colors; pale, tan, gray and jet black were the most common.

“Wow. Lots of variation huh?” said Adelynn.

“Yes, but most of the dark elves are just other players who are being edgy.”

“Oh.”

“The real population of dark elves live in the inverse of Moonsorrow. We’ll be granted access to the other side when you get to that point in the quest line.” Explained Starla. Adelynn wondered if the inverse of Moonsorrow was Sunhappy, but kept that thought to herself.

Starla stopped at a larger building and hopped off her broom. “Here’s good.” She walked in with Adelynn behind her and stopped at the counter. The elf there put his hand on his chest and made a little bow. “Welcome back Lady Starla.” He said. “Would you care for your regular arrangements?”

Starla held up a hand. “Unfortunately, my companion has yet to be granted access to the undercity, so we’ll be staying above ground.

“Very good.” He said consulting what looked like an old-fashioned tablet. “The Spire-side suite is available.”

“That’ll be fine.” Said Starla handing over a nice purse of coins. “We’ll probably be here for a bit, barring any emergencies.”

“Of course.” Said the elf handing Starla a set of two black, credit card sized keys.

Starla took Adelynn on a lift in the lobby and they went to the top floor. The room wrapped around the center column of the building and gave them a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree view of the entire city from the balcony.

“Wow.” Said Adelynn. “This is pretty high up. It reminds me of the last time I went to a big city.”

“Did they have those?” she asked pointing to a tall structure that started on the ground, stopped halfway up and then continued to a floating platform.

“Of course not. Magic isn’t real.” Said Adelynn.

Starla sighed. “It’d be fun if it was.”

Adelynn shrugged. “If we suddenly had magic in our world, it would be an apocalyptic event. Can you imagine what the crazies would do with it? Like the Gremorians or some other group of fanatics?”

Starla shrugged. The Gremorians just took the place of other ‘weirdo cults’ that celebrities joined up every few years. Their stated goal is to make everyone as beautiful as possible, but there are some strange allegations made every year that make it sound insane to normal people. “Yeah, okay. I’m just dreaming anyway.”

“Right. Where do we get started with the quest line?”

“Oh.” Said Starla, “A farmer on the edge of town is having issues with his cattle. That’s where it starts.”

“Alright. Let’s get started.”

A short trip to the edge of Moonsorrow and after one somewhat turned around jaunt into the woods because Starla swore that he was right over here, when he turned out to be ‘right over there’, Adelynn was listening to the farmer tell her the story about how some of his cows are being mutilated at night and he blames the dwarves. Adelynn said she’d investigate it and find the real culprit behind the cattle mutilations.

Stalking around the farm at night got a few encounters with some stray cats, a drunk goblin who was fishing and ran away when spooked, and an angry bunny monster who wasn’t much of a challenge.

“What are we looking for out here?” asked Adelynn, “We’ve been out here for hours.”

“There’s a random chance that we’ll encounter the thing that’s killing cows.” Said Starla. “It took me a few days to find it.”

“Argh!” said Adelynn. “Right, I’m exhausted. Do we want to camp for the night?”

Starla shrugged. “Up to you really.”

“I can’t wait for home sweet hole in the ground.” Said Adelynn, “Help me out with it?”

Starla chuckled and chose a spot outside of the farmer’s fields near a river. They were on bedrock, so Starla’s campsite spell only went down five or so feet. She surrounded the rest of it in a dome that was clear on the inside and looked like rock on the outside.

“One bed or two?” said Starla as she plopped down a cast iron stove in a corner.

“One will take up less space, right?” said Adelynn.

“Sure?” said Starla plopping down a king-sized bed with mosquito netting. She then put out a round, lush rug that just fit inside the circle and put out a desk just to fill in the remaining space.

“We can go through the bubble but nothing else, right?” said Adelynn.

“Yes, it might rain tonight, or so sayeth the weather forecaster.” Said Starla tapping on the earring that she used to contact Avara. This should be cozy. I’ll make dinner if you want.”

“Sure. What’re we having?”

“Same thing I’m having in meat-space.” Said Starla pulling out a pan and pouring out some butter. “Maybe I should eat before I eat here.”

“I’m not that hungry right now, so why don’t you?” said Adelynn. “I can log out for a bit too.”

“Alright, be back in an hour or so.” Said Starla opening a door to Headspace. Adelynn followed her out and went to her private room. There wasn’t much there, four white walls and an old desk that had a lot of sharp angles and was flat brown with no texture. The chair was much the same. She selected them and deleted the items from her inventory and went looking for some new furniture. She found a prefab décor scheme and bought it and applied it to her space. Suddenly she had multiple rooms, a nice bed, a nice desk, a nice holoprojector and all sorts of things. She wandered around her new space ooh-ing and ahhh-ing at everything and then sat down at the desk and poked the holoprojector.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“Hi.” She said, “Can you show me some Starla Starfall videos?” she asked. The search engine popped up and showed a slew of recordings. “How about the one with TK YEET?” she asked. A video popped up and she was suddenly in the stands looking down on the arena she’d never visited, but always thought would be dusty.

A knight in shining armor was holding a sword that crackled with electricity and a shield that was glowing green. Starla wasn’t holding her fancy staff, but she was wearing her silvery, prismatic space hooker outfit. She pulled out a much shorter silvery wand and a metal rod.

“I see you’re giving me a sporting chance!” yelled the knight. “Not just dropping a meteor on my head.”

“Do you want a meteor?” asked Starla. “Because I can oblige if you’d like.”

“Nay!” yelled the knight. He charged forward much faster than it seemed would be possible in heavy gear.

“Ohhh, he’s fast. I need to be faster.” Said Adelynn. Indeed, Starla was also faster than him. Several versions of her dodged the attack and confused the knight. The knight looked around to see where the real Starla was and found her on the other end of the arena.

“Sneaky!” he yelled.

“Every mage worth their salt knows that one. Can you not see through it?”

Apparently, he could not. He charged the new Starla who held up the rod to catch his attack, but his sword only banged off the concrete wall of the arena as that illusion vanished.

“I told you to practice PVP fights Guiledar.” Said Starla. “What did you say?” her voice seemed to come from everywhere.

The knight looked around for her and didn’t see her.

Starla did her best impression of a muppet while answering her own question. “’I don’t need to Starla, I’ll just play it by ear.’ Isn’t’ that what you said?”

“No need to be a bitch about it.” Said Guiledar. “Show yourself.”

“Sure.” Starla said a few words the video didn’t make out and finished with “Titan Punch!” Starla appeared right in front of him as her hand, covered in magic, slammed into Guiledar. He was thrown into the far wall and left a dent. The crowd didn’t know what to do, some cheered, some boo’d, most did nothing.

He slowly peeled himself out of the hole and slumped.

“No more dirty tricks!” he shouted.

“Don’t you know?” said Starla, “According to everyone, I’m nothing but dirty tricks.”

Guiledar took a step forward and dropped his shield to put his other hand on his sword. “Algonzar!” he yelled, “Maximum power!” His sparking sword crackled and sparked and thrashed with electricity. He swung it level with the ground and a bolt of lighting swept the arena.

The pipe that Starla had been holding had grown a glowing beam sabre and she caught the blast of electricity and it spun up around the blade. The entire arena went quiet.

“Algonzar has a terrible weakness.” Said Starla. “You’d know that if you listened to my advice.”

“Your advice was that I wasn’t ready and should skip this tournament.”

“Was I wrong?”

“This is only the first round!” screamed Guiledar. “And you’re the worst person to face early on.”

“True, but I also wasn’t wrong.” Starla flicked her electrified beam sabre in his direction and since he didn’t have Algonzar in a defensive position, the lightning ball hit him and exploded. He screamed as he hit the wall again, going a bit deeper into the concrete. Again, he pulled himself out of the wall and downed a healing potion. His breastplate had cracked and fell away from his body as he fell into a full sprint toward Starla.

“Just yield already.” She said as she winked out and returned in many places in the arena.

“I’m going to hit you at least once!” he shouted charging the nearest Starla. His sword passed through the illusion and it faded.

“Probably not.” Came Starla’s voice from everywhere. “I could finish you with a meteor, but you haven’t earned that yet.”

“What?” he said as he cut through another phantom Starla.

“Do you know what the first spell some mages learn is?” came her voice. “I’ll tell you. It’s Magic Stick. It’s such a dumb spell that most people use it for a level or two and abandon it forever.”

“So?” he said cutting down Starla illusion three and four. Only three left now, one had to be real.

“Well, one night I got very drunk and I started buying the augment material for Magic Stick off the auction house. I got every single one, even when the price started getting crazy. I augmented Magic Stick beyond what anyone had ever done with Magic Stick.”

“Why?” said Guiledar swinging Algonzar through illusion number five.

“I was drunk and in a silly mood.”

“Sounds like a dumb idea.” He said.

“Here’s my power, it’s quite a trick. Fear now my Magic Stick!”

“What!?” Said Guiledar as illusion number six pulled out a very beefy stick that was shining like the sun. She swung at him and he parried with Algonzar. Algonzar didn’t stand a chance and it shattered into many pieces as the Magic Stick carried through and clonked him on the head, knocking him off his feet into the dust. Many in the crowd laughed at the spectacle, there weren’t any boos.

The stick winked out and Starla looked down at him. “Yield?”

“No!”

“Here’s my power, it’s quite a trick. Fear now my Magic Stick!” She brought the stick down on him with a mighty force and he rebounded off the ground a bit. He lay on the ground for a moment and rolled away and stood up.

“Yield?”

“No!”

“Here’s my power, it’s quite a trick. Fear now my Magic Stick!” This time she threw it at him and for a moment it became a glowing disk. He got knocked away again and spun through the air before crashing to the ground.

“This barely does any damage you know!” he shouted.

Starla nodded. “Yes, you’re taking ten or so damage with each hit. They look painful, but I know you’re not really that battered. Interesting thing about Magic Stick though, it has a really low critical hit chance, but when it does, you’re going to feel it. So, yield yet?”

“Nay!” he said picking up his shield.

“That won’t help you.” Said Starla. “Put it down before you have to repair another bit of expensive gear.”

“You just want to trick me, I have a defense now against your stupid stick.”

Starla sighed. “Here’s my power, it’s quite a trick. Fear now my Magic Stick!” The stick in her hand flashed and whirled with a myriad of colors. “Oh! Next hit is gonna sting.” Said Starla as she walked up to him.

“Wait!? It tells you that you are scoring a crit before you even swing it?”

Starla smiled. “I augmented the spell two hundred and thirty-six times; it’d better do something good.” When she was about twenty feet away, she swung the Magic Stick with both hands. It elongated into a thirty-foot-long wooden flagpole and left a glowing prismatic trail in the air. She struck Guiledar in the shield and it shattered and the stick continued into him. He was thrown into another part of the arena wall and crashed along it, his armor flying away in a tornado of metal. Adelynn and the crowd collectively gasped.

He skidded to a stop and lay still for a moment. He hadn’t winked out, so he wasn’t at zero hit points. Starla figured he needed a moment. She’d never actually hit another player with Magic Stick like that, but she knew it could break rocks. Indeed, there was a deep gash in the side of the arena and Starla could see daylight through it.

“Yield already you twit.”

“Nah.” He said pushing himself up to a sitting position.

“You can barely move.”

“I’m not giving up.” He said.

“Look, you know the rules. Yield, ring out or death, so just yield already.”

“You’ll have to kill me.” He replied.

Starla shook her head. “Fine. Here’s a spell to take you off your feet, Ready, set, TK YEET!”

Guiledar had a moment to say “Wha-“ and he was gone. Launched high overhead. Adelynn put her hand to her mouth to cover the smile from seeing the look on his face. The video ended with Starla being declared the victor of that round and a footnote from the person who posted the video.

Guiledar landed in the Froth Sea three hundred and sixty miles away. Mythticle players know that the cushioning bubbles from the froth greatly reduce falling damage. It’s not known if Starla intended to throw him into the Froth Sea or not.

“Did anyone ask her?” said Adelynn. She looked up at the time, she was running a little late, but all she needed to do was step through a doorway and she was back in Mythticle. Starla had made an omelet for her and was almost done.

“Hey! Welcome back!” she said looking up.

“Thanks!” said Adelynn sitting down with her omelet. “I watched the fight with Guiledar.”

Starla stopped for a moment and resumed finishing preparation on her own omelet. “What did you think?”

“You were really mean to him.”

“I was.” Said Starla. “He’s still a friend, but I told him that he didn’t know what he was getting into, repeatedly. I told him to do research and figure out what magic items he’d need to have and he completely ignored me. I don’t really offer him any advice anymore, he learned he needed to do research on his own.”

“Oh.” Said Adelynn as she took another forkful of omelet. “This is really good.”

“It’s one of the few things I actually cook.” Said Starla.

“What do you normally eat?”

“You know, the long-lasting energy bar things, but I have to eat real food every so often or my guts shrivel up and get sad.”

“You really shouldn’t eat those too often.” Said Adelynn.

Starla shrugged and plopped her omelet on her plate. The ingredients and cookware vanished into inventory and she sat down with Adelynn. “Thanks.”

“For?”

Starla squirmed a bit. “For caring? I guess. It’s been a while since someone chastised my eating habits.”

“I didn’t mean it like that.”

“It’s fine, I’m not mad. I’m actually happy that someone out there is worried about me.” She finished off the omelet in a few bites. “Not as good when you just had one.” She said. “Let’s get to sleep. Maybe we can find the critter tomorrow.”

“Alright.” Said Adelynn. She sat down on her side of the bed and blushed to herself because she had a side of the bed. Starla slipped under the covers and Adelynn squirmed over and tucked herself up against her. Starla didn’t seem to notice; she was staring at the sky. A flash outlined the clouds and the rumble of thunder soon followed. Starla smiled as the rain began pouring down, plinking off the dome with a nice sound.

“I love the sound of rain in Mythticle.” She said.

“It sounds like this in reality too.”

“Oh.” Replied Starla. “I just never get to hear it where I live.”

Adelynn thought for a moment about saying something like ‘maybe you’ll have to visit’ but couldn’t find the correct words. She pondered on what to say for too long because she heard Starla begin to breathe deeply as she drifted off to sleep. Adelynn felt silly for even thinking such things, but quickly drifted off on her own.