Chapter 10 — South of Skyldr II

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Liquin

Human Peasant

Healthy

Able

Pure

Unbound

Melchagar Rauch

Elf Explorer

Healthy

Invigorated

Infused

Unbound

Larali Dahlquist

Human Peasant

Healthy

Able

Pure

Unbound

Ketra Zutis

Elf Peasant

Healthy

Able

Pure

Unbound

Phoenixia Fireheart

Elf Peasant

Healthy

Able

Cloudy

Unbound

Avalynn Sylvela

Sesylf Sylfara

Valensyl

Melyn

Dektola

Maladec sel nara Sylvec

  Ketra picked up the pace, but Lily grabbed her by the hand before she could get too far. A spark of energy jumped between them—like an electric shock on Lily's skin. Ketra blinked and turned to look at her. She didn't let go.

  "...Don't say anything yet," said Lily.

  "What?"

  "I mean… Okay," said Lily, glancing at the departing forest-green cloak that marked Avalynn. "Tell me if I'm wrong, but you outrank her in Masnas, yeah?"

  Ketra nodded slowly.

  "And that's why she's been doing everything you tell her to do."

  "And why she'll cast Message when I ask," said Ketra.

  Lily shook her head. "No offense, but she clearly doesn't like you."

  Ketra smirked. "I noticed."

  "Yeah, she's an idiot. You're amazing," said Lily, surprising herself. Ketra blushed, but Lily kept talking before it became a thing. "If we're going to confront the crazy assassin, I'd like to do it with some backup."

  "She's not going to fight us," said Ketra doubtfully.

  "In case you forgot, we're trapped in here right now…" Lily shook her head. "I don't want to tell her we know, then have her slip away before we can get her to Michael and have him send the message."

  Ketra hesitated. "...Okay."

  She seemed hurt, somehow. Lily wasn't sure what to read into it. "Okay?"

  "Yes." Ketra turned to start walking again—but didn't let go of Lily's hand. I guess that's a good sign… What did I say? "We should meet up with the others."

  The wind whipped at them as they walked, crashing across the cliffs in invisible waves that sent Ketra's hair fluttering. She pulled on her hood tighter to try and hold it back, but the wind would catch it every so often and blow it off. After the third or fourth failed attempt, Lily couldn't hold back another laugh.

  "What?" asked Ketra, glancing over at her.

  "It's never going to work," Lily chuckled. "That's the curse of long hair."

  "I've never had long hair before," she muttered. "It keeps blowing in my face."

  Lily grinned. "I used to. I've got a trick—here, sit down a sec."

  She stopped walking, and had Ketra sit down on a small pile of rocks nearby. A shadow passed over the sun, and then another. Ketra glanced up as Lily dug through the little pouch for something she'd spotted in the farmhouse. "Clouds are coming in."

  "Hmm," said Lily noncommittally. She dug out a small cloth wrap, one she'd found in a drawer near the bed. Good thing I grab up every single thing that seems remotely useful in games. "Gotcha."

  "...What are you doing, exactly?" said Ketra.

  Lily smiled. "Don't complain, this is gonna make your day a whole lot better." She sat up and gestured at Ketra with a finger. "Now turn around."

  Ketra did, looking distinctly uncomfortable. "What are you doing?"

  "Giving you a crown."

  Lily set to work, braiding Ketra's hair as fast as she could. She'd found a simple style that still looked pretty good even with just five minutes and a single band—invaluable when she had to get to a sponsorship or a tournament straight from practice. Most of the time, a single elastic band was the best she could do. The cloth she found wasn't elastic, but it was thin and strong enough to tie up and probably stay in place.

  "...There."

  Ketra felt around the back of her head, where Lily had tugged the two braids together. Her hair was still blowing around, but at least it was out of her face. She glanced up at Lily. "How does it look?"

  "Honestly? Real-me would kill for your hair," said Lily, smiling.

  Not really—I cut my hair short for a reason… Too much work and too uncomfortable in the Riposte equipment. But if I didn't have to worry about that…

  "Now come on." She held out her hand, and Ketra pulled herself back up.

  A faint rushing sound began to fill their ears as they hurried along the cliff. Avalynn was now just a speck in the distance—along with a whole group of other specks, seven in all. They were already heading down the slope into the wide valley beyond. Above, thick puffy clouds were rolling in, threatening to overwhelm the pleasant sky Lily had been enjoying all morning.

  Ketra noticed as well, and picked up the pace. They hurried on in silence, gaining on Avalynn little by little. While the other elf was certainly nimble and undeniably skilled at sneaking around, she wasn't quite as fast as the rest. By the time they finally reached the rest of the group, Avalynn was only a few steps ahead. Ketra let go of Lily's hand as they got close—to her mixed surprise and disappointment. Lily did her best to shrug it off, but it stung a little.

  Of course, Ketra's huge friend with the broadsword wasn't about to let that stop her. "Where did you two get off to?" asked Larali, beaming with smugness.

  Ketra shook her head. "We got split up after you decided to steal half of the goods in Skyldr."

  "We were hungry!" said Phoenixia indignantly. "And everything there was way overpriced."

  Larali shrugged. "Worked out okay, didn't it?"

  "Well, Ketra got shot," said Lily, rolling her eyes.

  "You did?" asked Larali.

  Ketra shrugged. "I got careless."

  "I don't see any blood..." said Michael, peering at them curiously.

  Ketra blushed, but Lily was ready for it. She stepped in, trying to deflect attention. "I healed her. And by the way—what the hell was that 'learning spells' effect? I felt like my head was gonna explode."

  "Oh," said Michael, wincing. To Lily's relief, everyone's attention shifted straight back to him. "Yeah, I forgot how much I turned it up. I kinda got used to it, so I kept pushing the effect up every couple of tests… Too much?"

  Lily was about to retort when Avalynn cut her off, pointing at the sky. "It will rain soon," she said shortly.

  "...Ugh," said Shirogane. "Best we get movin'. Don't wanna get caught."

  Kevin smirked at him, his hand playing idly with the rapier at his belt. "Afraid to get wet, Shiro?"

  "You ever been stuck in a rainstorm, kid?"

  He shrugged. "Wasn't so bad."

  Michael shook his head. "Simon, this isn't like back home. It's way less humid, and the rain's a lot more pure. No acid rains either." He smiled. "You could even drink it, if you want."

  Shirogane frowned. "Whatever, Mike. Let's just get goin'."

  ***

  As Avalynn predicted, it started raining as soon as they reached the bridge across the river, just south of the cliffs. The humans among them—Requiant, Manifold, Larali and Shirogane—pulled on hoods, but all of the elves basked in the rain like it was still bright and sunny out. Lily, seeing Susanoo stare up into the curtain of rain with a wide grin on his face, stubbornly refused to put on her own hood.

  It wasn't exactly pleasant, but Lily did feel a bit refreshed by the downpour. After the day she'd had so far, it was nice to have something that filled up every sensation at once, from the cool drops on her skin to the constant rushing sound of the impacts on the grass and the wooden bridge. The river beneath was flowing fast and hard, as it crashed from the waterfall on the cliffs above and took a route south, presumably to the sea. Lily wasn't sure if there was a sea, but after what she'd seen, she didn't doubt it.

  They didn't slow down their pace, though, as the group crossed over the bridge and started toward the fort Lily had spotted. It stood tall over the small farms and fields surrounding, and she could even see a proper muddy road dug into the opposite side, leading out into the southeast. It looked like proper civilization at last, compared to the thick forests of the Haalfwood or the cramped and haphazard village of Skyldr.

  To her surprise, though, Avalynn steered them away, into a thick copse of trees that gave them cover from the fort. As they took cover from the thickening deluge, Avalynn took Ketra aside. The others found spots under trees, and Lily took the opportunity to drag her brother aside for some questioning.

  "What's up?" he asked, after she'd pulled him out to the edge of the woods and triple-checked with him that nobody could overhear them.

  "Well, first off," said Lily, "you should know that Avalynn can cast Message. We could use her to get in contact with your coworker."

  Michael nodded. "Ketra already let me know."

  "She did?" Lily raised an eyebrow. "...When, exactly? I was right next to her the whole time."

  "Party whisper," said Michael.

  "Do what now?"

  He grinned. "You really gotta keep up, Lily. You're falling behind here."

  "Bet I can still kick your ass."

  Michael winced. "Yeah, yeah. Anyway, Whisper is another spell like Message. Way more people know that one. It's still not easy, but it lets you talk privately to one party member. Nobody can hear you." He glanced over his shoulder toward the group. "On that note… we should probably use it."

  "I don't know how," said Lily pointedly. "And there's a few times where that would've been really nice, you know."

  "Oh?"

  She blushed. "Just teach me the spell already."

  Michael grinned. He dug into his pocket and pulled out a little leather book—frayed at the edges with uneven parchment paper stuck into it, but still reasonably intact. He licked a finger and started flipping through it, landing on a page with odd looping writing that flowed between every letter, like cursive but with more apparent individual letters than she remembered. More importantly… she couldn't read a word.

  "What do I do now?"

  "Just try to read it." Michael shrugged. "It should just work."

  Lily shook her head, but bent in and let her eyes drift across the words anyway. As she did, the same thing happened as before—her mind seemed to fling itself straight out of her head at a million kilometers an hour, before crashing back in again with all the force of a gunshot. She swung back and forth in place a few times, blood pumping wildly through her veins. A few deep breaths and she stabilized, but it was still a huge rush.

  "Any better?" Michael asked, curious.

  She raised her eyebrows. "Yeah, no, that's still way over the top. But at least I know how to cast that stupid spell now."

  He winced. "I'll cast it this time, if that makes it any better." Michael made a couple gestures in midair, then made a snatching motion at his lips—as if taking something from his mouth. When he spoke next, his voice had a strange echo to it, like a faint reverb despite the thick forest and crashing rain around them. "Hear me?"

  "Unfortunately."

  Michael grinned. "Okay, so what did you want to talk about?"

  "Well, for starters…" Lily trailed off. Avalynn, Ketra, or the supposed invasion that's coming? Or… man, I'm getting distracted. I need to get back home, that's what I need. "How does the content director for the game not know how to cast spells in his own game?"

  He laughed. "Because I never learned them. The spell coding team implemented them, and the lore gurus make sure they fit with existing worldbuilding. I want to live here too, so I play by the same rules as everybody else."

  "But you already know where everything is, don't you?"

  "Doesn't matter." He shrugged. "Don't worry, Lily. I'm sure we'll figure something out."

  Lily sighed. "I know, I just…"

  "Aren't you having fun here?" He glanced over his shoulder at the group. "I mean, I can't blame you if you don't like everybody."

  "You invited my ex," Lily snapped, startling herself.

  Michael's face fell. He turned back around, eyes wide and softening fast. "...I didn't know," he muttered.

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  "You didn't hear the rumors?"

  He shook his head. "I thought you guys were just friends or something. I knew you were rivals, but…"

  Lily sighed. "Honest mistake, Michael?"

  Michael nodded. "Seriously. I'm sorry." He shook his head. "I picked him because I figured having two of the biggest names in esports would help sell this. I would never have invited him if I knew. You want me to make him—"

  "No," said Lily quickly. "I can handle Kevin. But… just, don't bring it up, okay? I don't want anybody to know."

  "Never," he replied, nodding. "...Can I ask you something, though?"

  Here it comes… Lily took a seat against the nook of the tree, breathing in the thick pine scent and the petrichor from the rain still pouring down around them. "What?"

  Michael sat down next to her, concern still thick in his expression. "You okay?"

  "Huh?"

  "You just seem really off right now, Lily," he continued. "Is it because of Kevin?"

  Lily shrugged. "Partly, I guess."

  She glanced over at the group again. Ketra and Avalynn were watching the fort in silence, while the other six had managed to start a little fire. Phoenixia danced around it with glee while Larali and Shirogane talked, seated on an overturned log. Further away, Susanoo was demonstrating something with his rapier to Requiant and Manifold—no doubt showing off his technique. He can never stop showing off.

  "How long does this whisper thing last?"

  "As long as I hold the spell open," said Michael.

  "Doesn't that hurt?"

  "No, but I use the other method." He pointed at his eyes—and sure enough, there were even more tinges of strange coloration flickering through his eyes, like a multi-colored fog within the orb. "I like to keep myself floating around the 'infused' level, so that some of my spells are more powerful."

  Lily frowned. "What does that mean, exactly?"

  "Means the world can shift in and out of view for me, for one." Michael grinned. "It's really trippy, since I get to see the aetherworld sometimes instead."

  "The what now?"

  "Basically, the inverted, corrupt version of Avo. It's where corrupt souls go to die, lore-wise." He shrugged. "In gameplay terms, it's just where corruption-based magic gets its energy."

  "And if you go too far?" Lily asked. "Do you just… die?"

  "Nah, that's too easy." Michael smirked. "You start getting serious penalties to other things, especially physical abilities. If you wanted to be a spellsword, for instance, you definitely wouldn't want to use corrupt magic."

  A brief vision of herself—sword and dagger in hand, blasting aside enemies with gusts of wind and setting up her moves with magic—flashed through Lily's mind. "Spellsword sounds fun," she smiled. Plus, that means I can do useful magic like Message and healing stuff, too… Maybe even hear Ketra giggle again. That's definitely worth it.

  "Yeah, you're already on the right path for that," said Michael. "You learned two spells already, and if you want, I can teach you a couple more." He grinned. "You'd be pretty awesome at it."

  "You think?" Lily said, smirking.

  Michael laughed. "We should probably get moving soon."

  "Hang on…" said Lily, stopping him before he could get up. I really need to bounce this off somebody before it gets into my head at the wrong moment, and he's the only person around who I can bear to talk to. "Real talk."

  His expression hardened. They never used the phrase 'real talk' unless it was something personal. Michael nodded. "What's up?"

  Lily took a deep breath, blinking a few times to clear her eyes from some rainwater that had dripped down onto her face. "...Have you ever heard of people in your game… dating?"

  Michael raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, a few times. I mean, I don't really look into it, but I'd guess it happens as often as anything." He frowned. "Why?"

  "But… like, as characters, or as people?"

  He shrugged. "I don't really see the distinction, to be honest."

  "But—" Lily shook her head. "That's crazy. Isn't it basically lying that way, if they're acting as characters but still going out?"

  Michael glanced over at her. "This character's just an extension of you, same as how you present yourself in a date. They're all just different sides of the real you, one way or another. It's not like anybody in here assumes you're being totally honest. They think you're playing a character, so you are. I say let people do what they want, and hope something good comes out of it." He sighed. "Of course, we get a fair amount of harassment support requests from people trying to get rid of stalking exes, so…"

  She winced. "So it's a bad idea."

  Michael shrugged. "I went out with a girl I met through Avo. I didn't think it was a bad idea."

  Lily cocked her head to the side. "Seriously? Who?"

  He grinned nervously. "You remember Hilary?"

  "Oh man! No wonder she was so weird!"

  "Hey!" Michael snapped indignantly. "She was cool."

  Lily laughed. "Yeah, she was. Mom really didn't agree though."

  "Mom's just annoyed she's probably never getting grandkids," said Michael with another shrug. "I'm already older than she was when she had you, and you made it pretty clear you weren't interested."

  She sighed. "Yeah…" And she looked so disappointed… ugh.

  "Back on topic, though," said Michael, glancing back to his sister. A bit of the inquisitive eye was back in his expression. "It's none of my business, and feel free to tell me to screw off, but… you were talking about somebody else in the group here, right?"

  "...How'd you know?"

  Michael rolled his eyes. "Because the only other game you play is a one-on-one fighting game without any characters. Come on, Lily, I'm not that stupid."

  "Okay, fine."

  Another wave of heat billowed up into her cheeks, and Lily glanced away again. Unfortunately, her eyes fell right onto Ketra—far across the clearing, watching the fort with her bow tucked under her arm. Her hair was soaked and shiny, but the little crown braid Lily put together was still firmly in place, and the bare skin of her arms glistened with rainwater. Lily felt her heartbeat double-up as she watched—and Michael didn't miss it.

  "...Oh," he said dumbly.

  "What?" Lily asked, snapping back to her brother as the fire burning inside her skull doubled over in intensity.

  "I didn't—" He gulped. "I didn't know you were…"

  Lily sighed. Well, ten years of keeping that secret and it all gets tossed out by one badly-timed glance at another girl. "Okay, seriously, don't tell anyone?"

  "Of course not," said Michael. "But… just to be clear, you are—"

  "Bisexual. Kind of," Lily finished impatiently. "Can we move on, please?"

  "I mean, you brought it up…"

  Lily rolled her eyes. "Says the guy who included sex settings in his VR game."

  Michael smiled cautiously. "We didn't really mean to make that possible, but…"

  "But the neural thing makes it real and all that, yeah." Lily shook her head. "You know what the press is gonna say when they get ahold of that?"

  "It's almost the twenty-second century," said Michael with a shrug. "This shouldn't be a big deal anymore."

  "Say that again live online," said Lily. "Think of the children, bro." She frowned. "Speaking of which… Phoenixia…"

  "Is eighteen," said Michael. "Seriously."

  "But she acts like—"

  "She's a special case. Not that kind of special," he added, seeing Lily's expression. "I'm sworn to secrecy about everybody, but… I promise. Mentally, she's a one-hundred-percent typical eighteen year old."

  "...Okay," said Lily. "I believe you."

  "So…" said Michael, after a short pause. "Have you told Ketra?"

  Lily winced. "...Yeah. Kind-of."

  "What does 'kind-of' mean?"

  She looked away, pointedly in the opposite direction from Ketra this time. "Means that your stupid white fog barrier thing completely ruined the moment."

  "...Ouch."

  Lily jerked back around, too indignant to be embarrassed. "Seriously?"

  Michael smiled. "Relax, sestra."

  "Relax?" Lily shook her head. "I was having a really great time alone with a really cool girl, then I finally work up the courage to go for a kiss and I got blocked by my brother's crappy software."

  "Manifold's, actually," said Michael, shrugging. "I wanted to let people do whatever they liked, but he made a pretty good point about balancing freedom with just how abusive that could get. He implemented that system."

  "But…" Lily hesitated. "Yeah, okay, that's a good point, but still—"

  "Ketra's smart, Lily," said Michael. "If she likes you anywhere near as much as you're hot for her," he added with a smirk, "you'll get another shot."

  Lily sighed. "I just want to get out of this and go home already."

  "Working on it," said Michael. "Avalynn said Luciy is offline, so we've gotta wait til she's checked in. She usually logs in around ten A.M., after doing all the morning rounds and handling daily maintenance stuff."

  "So what happens if the server goes down while we're logged in?" asked Lily.

  "It already did."

  "...Huh?"

  Michael grinned. "While we were asleep. We do daily maintenance on the main server, usually down for about half an hour. If we were awake, you would have passed out wherever you were standing."

  "And if I'm in the middle of climbing a cliff or something?"

  "Don't climb cliffs before downtime?" Michael shrugged. "It's right at midnight every night, so roughly every twenty-and-a-half hours. You can tell because Annum is at the peak of its orbit—the second moon," he explained to Lily's blank expression. "The first one is Sennum."

  "...Okay." She frowned. "Why is it twenty-and-a-half, anyway?"

  "Best amount of time for an MMO day," said Michael. "It still feels like a full day, but it means people logging in after work will get a different time of day every day of the week, and it resets on a seven-day cycle. So Monday's always the same time, Tuesday is too, and so on. Lets people actually get to see everything, and still be able to schedule things pretty well."

  "You're such a nerd," Lily smirked.

  "Says the girl whose career is playing video games," Michael shot back.

  "Winning video games," Lily grinned. She got to her feet. "We should get moving then, right? I thought we were still heading to Atevusylvec while we wait."

  "You learned the name!" Michael grinned. "Corrupting you one step at a time, sestra."

  Lily rolled her eyes. "Yeah, it's still a cool game. Just fix the whole death-trap part and maybe I'll come back one day."

  "You'll have to, if you want to spend more time with your girlfriend."

  She punched him in the arm, hard. Michael cackled with glee. "...Should never have told you," Lily grumbled.

  "Seriously, though," said Michael, coughing back laughter. "You're really obvious, Lily. You should probably figure that out soon, if you don't want everybody to find out on their own." He made another gesture with his hand, and the vague reverb on his voice vanished. "See ya."

  Lily stayed by the tree, still thinking, with Ketra in the corner of her eye. Maybe I'm just overthinking this. She knows it's a game, even though she doesn't treat it like one, and she was just as interested. I should go ask her… no, I need to get us moving. Somebody's gotta take charge of this group. We're just wandering around without a leader, getting split up and screwing around.

  But… if it comes up again… if Ketra and I get another moment alone like that… I'd really like to kiss her this time.

Liquin

NVR BETA - Pain: Normal

Corruption Effects: Full

NVR BETA - Fatigue: Normal

Back to Menu

NVR BETA - Intimacy: Closed

NVR BETA - Temperature: Normal

  She stared at the screen, and tapped down on her left pinky. The setting changed from Closed to Allowed. Just in case.

  ***

  Lily walked into the center of the copse of trees, right next to the little campfire. Phoenixia looked up from her spot on a pile of leaves, wide-eyed. "Liquin?"

  "Hey, everybody!" Lily called out. Heads snapped around to look at her. Ketra and Avalynn glanced over from their spot at the edge of the trees, gazing out over the rain-swept fields toward the fort. "Something important to talk about."

  "Lily…" said Michael slowly. "What's up?"

  "We gotta tell 'em," said Lily. "Everybody here's trustworthy, you said so yourself, and they're gonna find out sooner or later."

  "Tell us what?" asked Larali, sitting up straight. Her broadsword gleamed ominously from her back.

  "We can't logout," said Lily, without preamble.

  It took a few seconds for it to really register with the others. Manifold's jaw fell open almost right away, and Phoenixia let out a little gasp of shock. Larali took a little longer, but soon enough she too was gaping at Lily. Susanoo seemed seriously upset. Requiant was unreadable at first, but Lily noticed him clenching and unclenching the hilt of his longsword. He wasn't particularly happy, either.

  Well, they might be your hardcore players, but they don't like getting trapped in here either… Sorry, Michael. Lily went on, before anyone could speak up. Take charge, tell them everything frankly. Trust is how you forge a team, and if we get split up, this is really gonna suck. "We're going to get in touch with one of MVG's employees. They'll be able to figure out what's going wrong and fix it."

  "...Not exactly," Manifold interrupted, wiping his brow with his sleeve. "They can't deploy new code to the server without Michael's login."

  "It'll be a few hours before we can get in touch with them. In the meantime," Lily went on, glaring at him for the unnecessary distraction, "we're heading to Atevusylvec as somewhere safe, so nobody dies and gets split up. Sound good?"

  "I wouldn't exactly call Atevusylvec safe," muttered Larali.

  "It's safer than the middle of nowhere," said Michael.

  Requiant shook his head. "They hate humans. They'll turn us away."

  "Bunch of assholes, really," agreed Larali.

  "Dou essey sev kilsvevas," said Avalynn, flicking her head dismissively.

  "She said 'you deserve to be hated'," said Ketra, "which is exactly why we're hated," she added, glaring at her companion. Avalynn ignored her.

  "They won't turn away guests in need," said Phoenixia. "If we ask for sanctuary, elves are bound by the stars to grant it." She glanced around at the other two—Lily barely considered Kevin an elf, no matter his appearance, and Phoenixia seemed to think the same—for confirmation. "That's how we always did it in the East. You two are both Northern elves, right?"

  Avalynn continued to ignore her, walking back to the edge of the trees. Yeah, I figured that was coming. She's already in the party though. Ketra nodded. "We observe sanctuary rights too."

  "Cool," said Lily. "So that's where we're heading." She glanced around. "Everybody who's not in my party, I'm going to add you."

  "You're the leader now?" asked Requiant waspishly. "I don't remember a vote."

  "Do we need a leader?" said Phoenixia. "I thought we did okay before."

  "Until this is fixed, I want to stick together," said Lily firmly. "What if you get split up, and we need you for something? This place is huge. It could take years to find you again."

  "We'll just respawn back at the Haalfwood, right?" said Shirogane, glancing at Michael. He nodded, but Manifold cut him off.

  "No. You could appear anywhere," he said, his voice shaking slightly. "The code didn't get applied to the respawn method, only the initial creation class." He glanced at Michael, embarrassed. "I was going to mention it, but you were already plugged in."

  Michael frowned. He sounded angry. "You looked at my code?"

  "I'm sorr—"

  "If he hadn't," Kevin interrupted, "we wouldn't have known that. Lay off, man."

  We're getting off track again. Lily took a step forward, nearly standing right on top of the fire by now. "So yeah, we're sticking together. Leave your party so I can add you."

  Requiant opened his mouth again, but Kevin—of all people—cut him off, in support of Lily. "Liquin's right, and she's the smartest fighter here. Just do as she says." His tone didn't allow for any argument. Lily was used to hearing that tone against her, not on her side. It was… weirdly comforting.

  ...Thanks, Kevin. Even if you're probably gonna stab me in the back later somehow, that was nice.

Manifold

Human Artificer

Healthy

Able

Faded

Four Fjords Alliance

Susanoo Umehara

Elf Peasant

Healthy

Able

Pure

Unbound

Requiant Volavus

Human Peasant

Healthy

Able

Pure

Unbound

Shirogane Kei

Human Peasant

Healthy

Able

Pure

Unbound

  "Okay, cool," said Lily, turning back toward the fort. I wonder what Artificer means, or Explorer on Michael's. Maybe mine will be Spellsword eventually. That'd be cool. "So, now we just have to get—"

  "Trouble," said Avalynn.

  Of course there is. Lily hurried up to the edge of the trees, Ketra only a few steps behind. They crouched down beside her. "What's going on?" Lily asked, straining her eyes to see.

  "The fort belongs to Felnir," said Ketra, "the nearest town. I can't quite tell, but it looks like a… Avalynn, call it."

  "Twelve soldiers," murmured Avalynn. "Ones nyvalec?"

  "No," said Ketra. "They look like a typical patrol, not scouts. The real question is why they're up here."

  "Can we get around them?" asked Lily.

  "There's no other route to Atevusylvec, unless you want to go all the way south to Hassur." Ketra sighed. "That'd be several days worth of travel, and it'd take us much closer to Felnir."

  "Felnir has a truce with the elves, right?"

  "With the Syldarei Kingdom," Ketra corrected. "Which neither of us… well, the Syldareis aren't exactly fans of our organization."

  "Dellis se caro," said Avalynn dismissively.

  "What about stealth?" asked Lily, glancing at Avalynn. "Can you sneak us around them?"

  "Sed e—"

  "Avalynn," said Ketra sharply.

  Avalynn sighed. She turned to Lily, looking exceedingly bored. "Yes. We should go now, while it's still raining."

  "Cool." Lily rubbed her hands together in excitement. If I'm really stuck here, I'm at least gonna try to have some fun. "Thanks, Avalynn," she added. "You're a lot better at it than we are."

  She turned away without comment. Lily rolled her eyes, but Ketra gave her a tiny nod, mouthing 'good'. Ketra smiled—and it sent a little burst of warmth through Lily's cold, wet hands.

  Lily looked over her shoulder to the rest of the group. "Everybody ready?"

  A chorus of nods and affirmatives. They gripped their weapons tight, though if everything went to plan, they wouldn't actually get into a fight.

  Lily grinned. "All right then. Let's sneak past an army."