{-Myr-}
“Hey, remind me what [Pickpocket] does, again?” Zetai asked, looking over her shoulder at Myr.
It was largely a near-forgotten instinct that led her to dutifully state, “[Pickpocket: The character is more likely to get away with stealing items from shopkeepers and running away from battles.]” More casually, she added, “That doesn’t include locked doors. There’s probably not even a room on the other side of it.”
“Then why is the door here?”
Myr shrugged.
“There should be a couple more unlocked rooms,” Zetai sighed. “They’re not as fun but I guess we should do what we’re supposed to.”
“Do you think Llewel and Reynneak have gotten one of their artifacts, too?” Myr prompted.
“Probably.” Zetai pushed open the door and gestured for Myr to follow her. “But probably not as far as we are. Reynneak likes taking his sweet time with everything.”
“I hope Llewel’s not too worried.”
“We’re still in the same building and you’ve got me with you. There’s not really a lot to worry about.”
“Try convincing him that, after what’s happened the past few days.”
“Fair point.” Zetai looked around and, when she didn’t immediately see anything, went on to move stuff. “I’ve been meaning to ask you about it, actually—your headaches. You’ve gotten a couple since we met you but they definitely weren’t as close together as the last two were.”
Myr kept herself busy by also looking through some things. She didn’t really expect what they were looking for to be hidden behind stacks of papers, but she still tried. “Yeah, that’s kind of new. I’d say it had to do with actually traveling and leaving Nafrius, but there wasn’t any more than usual in Anthalas.”
“Do you really have no idea what causes them?”
“Duuzlo probably knows something, but neither of us have asked and he hasn’t told us. It’s kind of far down on the ‘stuff we should definitely know’ list.”
“Well, what about what Tinath suggested? I know it sounds weird, but her guess might just be better than anyone else’s.”
“You heard David: it’s like being allergic to rain. Which is stupid.” Myr shrunk a little, though pretended like it didn’t make a difference. “Besides, it doesn’t happen when I’m around the runes Reynneak and Tinath use. And there couldn’t be runes everywhere that only bother me once.”
“He said that there were different types of them.” Zetai, after making sure there really was nothing in the room, walked back out and towards the next one. Myr trailed behind her. “I’m pretty sure my brother mentioned something about them growing and being able to be harvested at different times, too. I think he said that the shopkeeper in Anseshara would trade them for rare stuff. For all we know, they grew and then some players harvested them.”
Myr sighed. “Does it really matter if we know what causes it or not? We’re not going to be able to avoid it.”
Zetai seemed to notice what Myr really meant to say yet, carefully, continued. “Anything’s possible. I figured since Tinath’s closer to the developers than any of us, she’d have a better idea at what it might be.”
“The same developers that want to get rid of us for reasons we don’t really understand.”
“I guess neither of you have good feelings about her, then?”
“It’s… weirdly familiar—the way she’s not saying a lot. Like there was someone else who did that but the memory of who it is or what they did hasn’t quite come back yet.”
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“Yeah, I can’t say I have too many positive thoughts about her, either. But she hasn’t done anything bad yet, so she deserves the benefit of the doubt. And just like she’s given us no reason to distrust her, she hasn’t really given a lot of reasons to trust her, either.”
Myr slowly nodded. When they both walked into the next room, she swore she saw something in the corner of her eye. She partially closed the door behind them and said, “I’m pretty sure I just saw hawk feathers.”
“And maybe you did,” Zetai said casually, “but ignore them. We’re almost done here—there’s only two more rooms and one of them is probably locked. Then we’ll head back to the others, get the last artifact, and leave.”
“Are you sure we can’t just find Llewel and Reynneak and leave now..?” Myr glanced around the room and back towards the hallway, seeing nothing; even if it seemed they were alone, there was a feeling she couldn’t quite shake.
Zetai was trying to be as reassuring as possible, but whether she realized it or not, it just seemed to be dismissive. “You don’t know what you saw or if it’s anything bad. It could’ve just been Tinath deciding she was done waiting outside with Kadol and coming to join us.”
Myr instinctively pulled the coat closer to her. All she could hope for at this point was to get this all done and over with as soon as possible.
Thankfully, Zetai victoriously grabbed something in front of her. “This is the other artifact. Let’s go meet up with the boys. Maybe go help them out if they’re really taking that long and we’re allowed to do that.”
She led the way back out and towards the end of the hallway. Myr stayed right behind her, regretting looking back—one of the locked doors was opened.
And there were people on the other side of the door they were just about to pass.
“Oh, Tabby!”
“Mom, please stop calling me that.” It was Tinath’s voice.
Both Zetai and Myr froze, conflicted between wondering what was going on and knowing they should probably find the boys.
“Sorry, am I—ah, what did you call it?—’breaking your character?’ You know I don’t understand that stuff.” A pause. “Wait, aren’t you supposed to be driving your sister to her game? You were there when she was told the bus couldn’t pick her up! This is the last game of her senior year. Don’t tell me she’s sitting in her room.”
“Relax. Dad said he’d bring her.”
“I don’t suppose you have any intentions of watching it?”
“It’s probably halfway over by now. I’ll watch it when they put the recording on the website.”
“She wanted you to see it. I don’t think you’ve left the house in weeks. I don’t think she’s seen you in weeks. You only come up in the middle of the night to ‘restock’ your mini fridge. When was the last time—”
“Believe it or not, Mom, I’m not here to listen to the same rant you tell me every other time you see me. Is Mr. Mair here?”
“They saw Cassidy nearby and he went to talk to her. She needs to be as far away from all of this as we can make her. I’m sure I can contact him and let you two have some time alone, if that’s what you want.”
“I don’t think what you’re planning to do is going to work. I’m not really sure what it does, but it’s not all that you think it is.”
There was a longer pause; mumbling, meaning there were more people in the room. Another voice asked the question, “One of them, at least?”
“It does what you want with the younger. But the other… it doesn’t seem to do anything. It might actually make him stronger—when we were in that room, he’d gotten his before I did and I’d already started.”
“You’ve said it yourself that they were close to each other. They’re not going to willingly leave each other… even still, better to have one than none.”
“I don’t know how I feel about this,” Tinath’s mom mumbled. “They’re just children. There isn’t any other way we can take care of them..?”
“I’m pretty sure Mr. Mair would’ve gotten them by now if there was,” Tinath pointed out. She sighed. “I said what I needed, just deliver the message and we’ll see how this goes. I’m getting out of here before they finish and realize I’m not there.”
Of course, she was greeted with quite the surprise when she opened the door.
“You’ve got about three seconds to explain what all of that was,” Zetai remarked.
“What do you think it was?” Tinath returned without much sign of hesitation.
“I was willing to believe that you weren’t just here because they wanted you to be.”
“That was your own fault.”
A woman—Tinath’s mom, confirmed by having the same voice—looked at them and frowned. “I thought Jacob was supposed to keep players from coming here.”
“Doesn’t matter now.” The owner of the other voice stepped closer to Myr, grabbing her shoulder with one hand and pulling down her hood with the other. “That’s what I thought. Rachel, get Jacob and tell him to find the other one. Tabby, watch the player and make sure she doesn’t do anything stupid. We’ll question her involvement in all of this later.”