Milly positioned herself in front of the entrance to the lobby, its glass doors still sealed by the magics of the CEOs’ six Bodyguards. Rain, Calista and Elmer stood a few paces behind her. The cries of pain and sorrow from the Freelancers drove them forward. They needed a place of safety, and there was only one such place in this world.
She watched through the glass as Jacob Stone and Judy Brass retreated to the elevators, granting the surviving Freelancers one final glance before the doors closed. There was no regret on their faces. Only cold calculation.
They had left their Bodyguards behind to keep the Freelancers out. Milly watched as a bead of sweat dripped off of Joseph’s nose and struck the glass floor below. The Chief Bodyguard stood perfectly still, focused on joining his magic together with others to reinforce the barricade.
Milly stared into Joseph’s eyes and pointed her palms towards the barrier.
“You can do it, Milly!” encouraged Calista. “I believe in you.”
“Me too, Milly,” added Rain. “You are the strongest person I know.”
“Get it done, witch,” continued Elmer. “We need to get these people to safety.”
Milly took a deep breath and began.
A wave of flame erupted from her palms, crashing against the Bodyguards’ barrier. Milly’s bright orange flames met their red barrier in an exquisite collision of opposing magics. The heat from the assault rolled across the beach, and the Rain, Calista, and Elmer had to quicky retreat a dozen paces behind them keep from getting singed.
The metal of the lobby’s frame began to expand in the heat, weakening the glass. The red barrier flickered, but it held firm, resisting Milly’s onslaught. Joseph gave Milly a triumphant grin.
That was a mistake.
Milly dug deep, gathering up every remaining ounce of Salem’s Fury’s power within her. The power to fight against those who would harm others. Those who would harm the people she loved.
She let the anger in. How many of the Freelancers would still be alive if it had not been for these six Bodyguard? If it had not been for Jacob Stone and Judy Brass? How many had died for their ambitions?
For the briefest of instances, Milly’s bright orange flames turned to pale violent, and the resulting heat scorched even the sand beneath her. It cascaded over the lobby roof. Frame creaked and glass cracked, and metal began to melt under the intense heat.
Joseph’s eyes grew wide in panic, and the barrier of the bodyguards shattered against Milly’s fury.
As their barrier fell, Milly’s flames collided with the unprotected glass. The entranceway shattered in an explosion of hot glass and metal that sprayed into the lobby. The six Bodyguards were thrown violently backwards across the lobby, landing hard. The blast echoed across the terrains and to every corner of the Castle of Glass, and to every player that cowered within. Thick cracks appeared in every piece of glass within thirty feet of the entrance, ceiling panes falling and shattering against the lobby floor.
Salem’s Fury finally disappeared from Milly’s grasp, its power exhausted and dormant once more. Milly collapsed to her knees from immense exhaustion, feeling hollowed out inside. Calista dashed to her side and knelt beside Milly, draping her arm protectively around her shoulder.
Elmer pressed forward into the lobby, and Rain and every Freelancer capable of standing rushed inside behind him, carrying wounded on their backs. Elmer ran until he reached Joseph, who was crawling towards the elevators in desperation, his leg twisted at an unnatural angle.
“Elmer, buddy, you know me,” Joseph pleaded as he crawled forward. “We’ve been on projects together. We sat in the same meetings. This is not what you think it is.”
Elmer stalked forward, a vicious scowl on his face. Blood still flowed down the injured arm that hung uselessly at his side, tiny droplets of blood leaving a trail on the glass below. He reached for Joseph.
“We were just following orders,” Joseph shrieked desperately as Elmer grabbed him by the collar. “We needed to keep everyone in the Tower safe. For thirty minutes. If you had not been so stubborn and just did what the CEOs ordered, you would all be safe too. You…”
Elmer’s uninjured fist collided with Joseph’s mouth, and whatever he was about to say next was lost in a gurgle of broken teeth. Elmer struck again and again, until Joseph’s face was an unrecognizable mass. Elmer wound up again, ready to finish it, until Rain put a soft hand on Elmer’s shoulder.
“That’s enough, Elmer,” Rain said softly, trying to calm him. “They will hear your message louder if you do not go all the way.”
Elmer looked into Joseph’s swollen, terrified eyes, desperately wanting to end him. For a moment Rain thought he would, but then Elmer released his collar and Joseph collapsed to the floor. Joseph coughed, blood and loose teeth spattering on the floor beside him.
“You are lucky that Rain is here, Joseph. You may not be so lucky the next time we cross paths. Remember that,” Elmer said coldly.
He turned towards the other five bodyguards, who were standing in stunned, terrified silence. “Give that message to Stone and Brass,” Elmer announced, pointing down at the beaten man, “and tell this to all the cowards in Tower One. You betrayed your co-workers today. You bowed down to those who would murder us for personal gain. You left us to die. We will not forget that.”
Elmer paused for emphasis. “And remember this. Despite all odds, we triumphed. Do not forget that we are stronger than you. Remember that the next time Stone and Brass tell you to betray us.”
Elmer finished and walked away from Joseph’s unconscious body. The other five bodyguards stumbled forward, grabbed his body, and were gone the moment an elevator arrived.
“Nice speech,” Calista said, supporting Milly as they both limped forward across the lobby. “Could have used more fire and brimstone.”
“I’m hoping it scares the cowards enough to keep them hiding in Tower One for a few hours,” Elmer said. watching the injured carried in from the beach. “There are so few of us left who can fight. I don’t think we have the strength to stop Stone and Brass if they arrived to finish us off. We need to move quickly.”
Calista nodded in agreement. “We need more healers. Ying and Phillis are exhausted, and Milly’s tapped out. Rain and I are no better. But we all got a bonus level as a reward for completing the event. Tell anyone who received a talent point from it to take Healer’s Touch. We need as many healers as we can get.”
“I will focus on getting that done,” Elmer said, “You three find us somewhere safe to stay.” Elmer dashed over to the Freelancers, bellowing orders.
“He’s right. We cannot stay in the lobby,” Rain said to Calista and Milly. “Stone and Brass will be down here the moment they realize that we have so few players who can fight. They have over six hundred people in Tower One. They would overwhelm us in an instant.”
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“Well, it is not safe outside the Tower. We’d be sitting ducks for the next event. So there is only one real option. Two, three or four?” Calista asked.
Milly lifted her head, gazing over at the Tutoria Emporia, and the abandoned glass tower that rose above it.
“Tower Three,” Milly said weakly.
* * *
Milly leaned against the glass, gazing out at the open prairie and jungle canopy as Calista and Rain explored the penthouse floor. Except for the two washrooms, a storage closet, a massive executive office suite, and a surprisingly large kitchen, the top floor of Tower Three was a wide-open space, devoid of offices, cubicles, and furniture, except for six tattered chairs and two stained folding tables from the 1990s that the final occupants of Tower Three had left behind years ago.
A crack across the inner panel of glass obscured Milly’s view out of the tower. She had circled the floor and found such cracks in twenty-seven of the forty windows, though only one was significant enough to let water through. The thin carpet, a boring grey and black pattern that had ample coffee stains across its surface, had not been cleaned in more than a decade, giving the floor a strong musty scent. It was desolate, but functional.
It reminded Milly of her rundown apartment. It reminded her of home.
“Ah, here it is!” Rain announced with triumph, reaching into the storage closet and lifting the latch of the electrical panel. The lights on the floor flickered to life.
“Great Rain,” Calista wheezed, lowering herself to the floor to catch her breath. “Now we have a better view of the stains.”
“Oh, quiet you,” Rain teased from the storage closet, flicking on each breaker. “It is perfect. We can see everything from up here. We can even get to the roof though the balcony off the executive suite.”
Milly knelt beside Rain, listening to her ragged breath. “How are you feeling?” she whispered with concern.
“I will be alright,” Calista whispered back. “It just hurts.”
Milly’s hands flashed blue, “A tiny bit of my magic has come back. I could…”
Calista held Milly’s hand gently on her lap. “Save it, Milly. Someone downstairs needs it more than I do.”
Milly’s healing glow faded, but Calista did not release Milly’s hand. She felt herself blushing, looking down at Calista’s lap. “Milly,” Calista said softly, “I need to…”
“I think the main breaker for the elevators is in the maintenance room on the roof. Should we head out and…oh,” Rain said, closing the closet with a sharp click and turning towards Milly and Calista.
Milly quickly stood, pulling her hands away from Calista’s. “Let…let’s go turn it on then. There are people waiting in the lobby.” Milly stood and marched quickly towards the executive suite, trying to hide her blush.
Rain grimaced and silently mouthed “I’m so sorry” to the crestfallen Calista as Milly opened the creaky door to the roof and stepped outside.
The door closed behind Milly with a sharp click. She sighed as she felt the heat in her cheeks. “Why did I wrench my hands away like that?” she scolded herself. “Stupid, stupid, stupid.”
The strong prairie wind blew across the roof, ruffling through Milly’s hair and across her blood-soaked gown. The sun was low in the sky to the west, the last of the prairie heat fading from the air and the coolness of night taking over. It felt eerily quiet.
The world lay stretched out before her and far beyond the horizon. Someday, she might be able to enjoy the view. But not today. Milly could see the funeral pyre below them, its embers still smoldering from yesterday’s fire. How many Freelancers would be added to it from today?
During the battle, Milly had kept her sorrow at bay through intense anger and sheer adrenaline. Both had faded now, and the sight of the pyre far below broke the last of her emotional defenses. She leaned back against the tower wall and let herself slide down until she was clutching her knees to her chest, and she allowed her silent tears to fall.
The door opened and Calista and Rain stepped onto the rooftop. “Milly did you find…” Calista stopped, seeing Milly with her head buried in her knees. “Milly,” Calista whispered, kneeling beside her.
Calista did not say anything. She did not tell Milly things would work out. That everyone would be safe. She simply wrapped her arms around Milly and pulled her close. She felt her own tears flow. Rain sat next to them, and Milly threw an arm around her, dragging her into the hug. They held each other for a while, letting the sorrow in, if only for a moment.
A flock of sparrows settled onto the rooftop of the maintenance shed, settling into their nests for the night. “We…we should get going,” Milly whispered, wiping away her salty tears, “It is not over yet. There are still people who need us.”
They walked over to the maintenance shed, and soon the whirl of the elevator could be heard within Tower Three, ready to deliver the Freelancers to their new home.
* * *
Milly watched the doors of the elevator close as the last of the injured ascended to the penthouse. An uncomfortable silence settled over the lobby, and Milly felt her mind begin to wander. Of the sixty Freelancers who had fought on the beach, only five – the healers Ying and Phillis and the archers Naomi, Aaron, and Mohammad - had escaped injury.
Everyone else was in rough shape. Elmer’s shoulder would take days to recover. The tailor, Harriot, had lost a hand when the wild swing of a goblin spear severed it at the wrist. Billy still had trouble sitting up despite Ying’s efforts, joining the dozen others who had similar wounds from the arrows that had cut through their ranks. Five Freelancers were still in critical condition, a coalition of fifteen new healers struggling to keep them alive. No one knew if they would make it to morning.
Twenty-three Freelancers, over a third of their number, had lost their lives on the sands of Tower Beach. Their bodies now lay beside Tower Three in the usual place, awaiting the funeral pyre that would be held once the survivors were healthy enough to attend. It would take them days to recover, even with constant healing, and those who could not make the journey downstairs would watch from the roof.
Milly walked around the lobby to keep her thoughts occupied, trying not to think about the lives lost. She did not want to be upstairs. She had used what little magic she had recovered already, and now there was nothing more she could do to help. It made her feel useless.
The darkness of the night had started to settle across the world outside the lobby walls, the salty sea air flowing in from the hole Milly had blasted through the beach entrance. Eventually, she grew tired of pacing and collapsed into one of the leather couches, absentmindedly watching the line of Tutorias waiting for the elevator.
Diwata, a young Filipino woman who had worked as a marketer at EnergyWave, had discovered that the Emporia had a furniture catalogue, and the Freelancers had pooled their gold to outfit their new home. Dozens of Tutorias, dressed in identical blue and black delivery uniforms, carried wooden tables, leather chairs, bedframes, mattresses, and even a large black refrigerator to the sixteenth floor of Tower Three for delivery. It had been expensive – each bedframe was five hundred gold - but no one was in the mood to sleep on the dirty floor.
Milly should have been pleased with the touch of luxury. She had partnered with Rain and Calista to buy a bed of their own that they could share. But all she could think about were the screams on the battlefield, and the crushing panic she had felt when she had seen the arrow in Calista’s chest. She had almost lost her again. And it had shaken her to her core.
The cushion beside her moved, and Milly turned to see Calista sitting next to her.
“Some day, huh?” Calista said, not knowing what to say.
“Yah,” Milly responded, feeling Calista’s thigh pressed up against hers. It made her heart flutter, cutting through the emptiness she had been feeling.
They sat in awkward silence, watching the final rays of sunlight sink beyond the horizon, until Rain walked over with a mischievous grin on her face, her hands behind her back.
“What are you up to?” Calista said suspiciously.
“Hygiene,” Rain answered, and swung her arms around to reveal two fluffy white towels. “From the Emporia. Catch.”
She tossed a towel into each of their laps. “It cost a pretty penny, but it is worth it. You are both filthy, and you will ruin our new bed if you get into it without a bath.”
Milly looked down at her dress, encrusted with blood and sand. “I guess you are right,” she sighed.
“I usually am,” Rain said confidently, grabbing each of them by the wrist and hauling them to their feet. “Why not head to that gentle ocean bay you found the day you two went exploring. That would be the perfect place.” Rain looked at Calista knowingly, and Calista’s eyes grew wide with understanding and a touch of panic.
Milly nodded, oblivious to their silent conversation. “Well, it was gorgeous there, and I could use a bath.” She squeezed the fluffy towel, and a soft smile made its way through the layers of sorrow and exhaustion. “And a distraction.”
“Oh, I expect it will be very distracting,” Rain agreed, smiling. “You two have fun!” Rain started to walk towards Rain on my Parade, pulling her own towel from her inventory.
“Wait, aren’t you joining us?” Milly asked, as she and Calista started walking towards the beach.
“Nope,” Rain said bluntly, “I will wash in the shop. It will just be you and Calista. All alone. With no one to bother you.”
Rain looked back with a twinkle in her eye and gave Calista a wink, then ducked into her shop and closed the door.
“She gets stranger every day,” Milly whispered to Calista.
Calista smiled. “Yes, but she is a wonderful friend. Shall we go, my beautiful witch?” she asked, eyes twinkling.
Milly smiled back, and they strolled out into the starry night, retracing their steps from their first day together.
As they walked, Milly stared up at the night sky.
And wondered why she felt so nervous.
* * *