“But... He’s white!” Guin said, looking between them, trying to change reality so she didn’t have to be quite so thoroughly embarrassed. “Ibraxis is white! How can Ibraxis be your brother... that’s... that’s...”
Confusion written across her face, BronzePaw pointed. “He dyes himself darker colors to blend in a bit more. White garule stand out; they are special, you see—but he is a pure sutak through and through, so it just makes everyday life a bit easier.”
“Leave it!” Ibraxis snapped, his orange eyes wide as Guin gaped at him.
“Testy, testy,” BronzePaw said dryly. “I don’t know why you’re acting so ashamed of it. You don’t even care that much.”
“I care right now,” Ibraxis told her, his voice rising as he switched from his bird-like speech to Isoli-Valkyrian.
“Why?”
“Because it’s not something for you to say anything about!”
“You definitely woke up on the wrong side of the nest this morning.”
“Bahena!” Ibraxis shouted, and as he did, Guin registered familiar tones in his voice.
“You... liar...” Guin managed to say before turning to Bahena. “This jerk is your brother? This guy that is usually gray?”
“Yes?” BronzePaw said, now clearly more concerned with Guin’s reaction. “I mean, he is kind of being an idiot right now, but... I am picking on him, and that usually frustrates him, so—Guin—”
“I didn’t realize your roommates would end up being your pets,” Ibraxis grumbled, resigned now, it seemed, the fact that Guin would know he wasn’t just a random guy she met in-game. “Figures that you’d find... trouble.”
“Excuse me?” Guin spat. He flinched at her glare as she raged. “And here I was, thinking that you were a little bit cool for a garule—apparently in game and out. Now I know that what you really are is a lying jackass!”
He rose a single brow at her. “...thought I was…? In and out…?” he repeated in a voice that she only heard because of her amplified hearing. “Doesn’t matter,” Ibraxis said then, shaking his head. “I’ll just kill you both if I have to.”
“Oh?” BronzePaw rose her own brow in response. “Are you so intent on harming Guin that you would start a fight with me? Really? You’ve never won a fight against me, brother mine. Do you really want to go there?”
He twitched. “What do I need to do to have you stay out of this?”
“And miss such a delicious opportunity?” BronzePaw smirked. “I think not.”
The white garule licked his lips. “Fine,” he said. “You’re right. I’ve never beaten you hand to hand,” he told her, taking up his stick again. Guin gripped her spear, fear and anger taking equal turns ebbing through her, leaving her to want to fight him as much as she wanted to run away from him. “But,” he said, pointing at BronzePaw with one of his bones. “You’ve never fought me as an Undying before.”
The smile on BronzePaw’s face faded. “You wouldn’t dare,” she growled, entering into an attack stance. Guin re-cast her buffs.
“I’m sure I’ll deal with the consequences later,” he replied gruffly, then began to play.
BronzePaw leaped toward him, crashing into the skulls with a well-executed [Earthquake], shattering the area of Ibraxis’s feet. The action took him by surprise, his eyes widening as he jumped back, bells and bones ringing in the midst of the tinkling of shattered skull shards.
“Magic?” Guin heard him mutter. “Really?” he called out with an amused voice. “You, sister? Do you really want to push at that thin line of what is and isn’t acceptable? I don’t think you’d handle the life of a sutak very well, let me be honest with you.”
BronzePaw chuckled. “I’ll take my chances.”
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
Vaguely annoyed that the situation had devolved into something more or less resemblant of a sibling sparring match, Guin shadow stepped behind Ibraxis with a backstab, but her blade caught in his bracer. He pushed her away with a grunt and a grin.
“I’m not gonna lie,” Ibraxis said in his heavily accented, parrot-like English. “That ability of yours is annoying.”
“Liar!” she spat. Rage filled her as the familiar sound of his voice echoed through her ears. “Let me guess, you were never level 14, or 16, or whatever, were you?”
“I admit, I have a cloaking ability on my gear and stats,” he told her. “But so do you, so...”
“I knew your gear was too good,” she growled.
“But, that was the only lie I told,” Ibraxis frowned. “The rest that you believe to be ‘lies,’ I think, were all just assumptions you made based on the lenses through which you viewed them. That is not my fault.”
Though she couldn’t say that he was wrong, she hated every bit of it.
“If I did assume,” she said through clenched teeth. “You knew and let me make those assumptions—and that’s almost worse!” Lunging at him, she tried to get her spear through to his cloth armor, but he lazily caught the shaft with one hand and pulled her hard, causing her to fall to her knees.
“Your stances are still sloppy,” he told her, jumping back and landing on the head of one of the monks just before BronzePaw landed with another [Earthquake] spell. Guin heard him start to chant.
The bronze garule cursed as she looked at the white one with contempt. “He’s toying with us,” she growled, clenching her fists. “Just wait till I get my hands around that little neck of his...”
Guin and BronzePaw took off, rushing him at the same time. If I could just get close enough to trip him... If they could keep interrupting his casting, they might have had a chance. But with a loud series of cracks and crashes, Guin felt all the hope drain out of her.
“Wah—!” she cried, suddenly feeling a tug from behind her. Ibraxis had a very smug look on his face. BronzePaw let out a series of curses as they were lifted from the ground. Guin kicked as she dangled in the air. Furiously struggling and looking around for what was responsible, she saw that a great, thick, leafy vine had grown behind her, with one grasping her by the tail. Other vines began to sprout and grow, running over her waist and legs. It, and several others, had sprouted amidst the path of skulls below.
“This is cheap ability!” Guin heard BronzePaw shriek. The bronze garule was also wrapped up with a vine; Guin could see her struggle from the corner of her eye. “I hate plants!”
Other vines began to sprout and grow up, running over her arms and legs. “God—Damn—Plants—” Guin muttered, trying to hack away at the vines—but they were too thick for her light blades to cut through. Eventually, the vines wrapped around her arms and held them tight to her body.
“Are you two done?” Ibraxis started, looking at his claws. “You guys are at least forty levels short of being able to break those vines.”
“Heh!” Guin laughed as they helplessly hung, blood rushing to her head. “At least—I’m— not a—l-liar! Damn—Garule...”
Ibraxis shrugged. “Take it as you like. This time, though,” the garule said, bowing. “It’s my win.”
“Don’t you dare—Sathuren!” BronzePaw cried.
The vines around Guin began to tighten as Ibraxis began to chant again. Shit, shit, shit! Guin couldn’t breathe as it was, but she couldn’t help but cry out as the vines wrapped around her neck and body like some kind of constricting snake. The fear she had worked so hard to overcome began settling within her once again.
“Goodbye, Miss Guin,” Ibraxis said, and Guin’s life ended for the first time since she had started playing TheirWorld.
***
Dassah ripped the headset off. “God, damn it!” she cried, her eyes burning with tears. Feeling like a fool, she sniffled as she tried to hold them back. “What the hell is his problem?” she yelled at nothing, working at taking off her gear, trying not to break it as she angrily stripped it off.
Ibraxis hadn’t just reminded her of Sathuren. He was Sathuren—and he had betrayed every ounce of trust and goodwill she had managed to build up toward him.
Was this what she got for trusting the garule?
No, she told herself, taking deep breaths. Bahena was still there. Bahena still defended her. And Tea, too. Tea was innocent. If she hated anyone, she told herself, it had to be him and him alone.
Now that she knew it was him.
From that day on the train to the apartment to her training session at the dojo—Ibraxis knew everything yet still treated her the way he had in-game. Had it ended with a mystery solved, it would have been over—but what the hell was he doing, fighting them? Even his sister! After everything they’d been through, and for what?
And what the hell is a sutak, and why do they get so pissed about it? Guin’s brow furrowed. There could only be one answer to the mystery, and that was Ibraxis and Sathuren. Grinding her teeth, Guin opened up a web browser and typed in the term she had been putting off: Sutak.
[End Book Two]