Chapter 34. The Headmaster

“If we find any large groups, we could be in big trouble,” I said, looking in the direction we needed to go. I glanced at Rowan. She seemed calm. Steady. Confident. I tried to absorb some of that energy, despite the fact she was the only one with any combat prowess in our new two person group.

There was a large hallway that ran forty or fifty yards until it dead ended at a wall of windows. The left side of the hallway was a wall, made of the same smooth white stone with a few doors spaced evenly. The right side of the hallway was wide open, with couches, tables and chairs. A group of three ghosts wandered the space, too far away to aggro yet.

“Yeah, about that,” Rowan said. “Why didn’t you make any gear for yourself? That’d be pretty useful right about now.”

“He’s too cheap,” Janica said. “He talks about money nonstop. Probably sold them instead of equipping them.”

I glared at Janica. That was downright rude.

Rowan looked at me, tilting her head to the side.

“I’m not cheap,” I said. “I’m frugal. There’s a difference.”

The group of ghosts started to approach us. I had hoped to avoid this group by going around them. But there was nowhere to go except maybe… I peeked through the small window of the first door along the hallway, just to our left. It was an empty classroom. “In here,” I said. I opened the door and the other two followed me.

I shut the door behind us as silently as I could. I peeked up, through the little window to the hallway. The ghosts hadn’t seen us. They turned and pathed in a different direction.

I sighed with relief and sat against the door. We were in a fairly large space. A lecture room with desks circling a place where a professor would lecture from. I didn’t see any chalkboards, but I imagined they had more magical teaching-tools at their disposal at a school like this.

Rowan sat against the wall.

“Come on,” Janica said. “Let’s keep moving. We can take that group.”

“No,” Rowan said. “This is the first moment we’ve had and I want some answers.” She looked right at me.

Hell. Was I about to be interrogated? Blue eyes met mine. I squirmed, suddenly realizing I had no place to run. And with Janica here, it was two versus one.

“You don’t make any sense to me,” Rowan said. “First, you crash my set. Rude. But you played well and didn’t try to take the credit. Sweet. Then you avoid every chance to open up in any way. Weird. But you make a pretty badass armor set for Cassandra and I. Sweet.” She shrugged. “So what are you? Sweet, or rude, or weird?”

I stared, not sure about what to say. It’s not like I knew exactly why I acted the way I did.

“He doesn’t trust anybody,” Janica said.

I glanced at Janica and felt my jaw tighten. Just as I had thought. I was getting ganged up on. And I was sick of her answering on my behalf. I wanted to yell at her. Instead, I opened up my loadout and toggled Spiritual Connection off. Janica faded out of existence.

That startled Rowan. “What did you do? Bring her back.”

“Not yet,” I said. I saw a timer ticking down, warning me that I had sixty seconds to bring her back before she disappeared forever.

“Janica really got under your skin with that one,” Rowan said.

I looked down. I couldn’t meet her eyes.

“You don’t trust people?”

“I trust… some people,” I said. The words hung there. In the silence. She waited for me to speak. I looked to the ceiling, annoyed. “Every time I trust somebody, I pay for it,” I finally said, looking into her face.

She didn’t look disgusted. It was… pity. “Who hurt you?” she finally said. “I’ll kill ‘em.” She smiled.

I laughed.

“When we were at Ilrune’s and Aimon’s house you told us that your parents had been killed.” She seemed to be searching my eyes. “Cass and I lost our little brother when we were little,” she said. “It’s not the same, but I understand the pain. Cass was really young when it happened, but I remember him well. He was such a happy boy. Always up to mischief.”

The tears began to well up. I swallowed, pushing them back. I don’t know why, exactly, but her story seemed to unlock something in me. Maybe in that moment a small piece of her became real, and I wanted to reciprocate. “I’m sorry,” I said. “I’m not very good at talking about this stuff. But… I do trust you. A little. I lost my parents almost ten years ago. They went on a trip for work.” A tear came down on each side. “I never saw them again.”

Rowan moved close to me. She reached out with a sleeve and wiped my tears. “Warren,” she said.

I looked at her. She had tears in her eyes as well. “Maybe it's that in this game I don’t really know what’s real and what’s not.”

“What do you mean?”

“We don’t really know anything about each other, so how am I supposed to trust? The game lets us change our appearances, our voices, our names. And apparently there are AI pretending to be humans. You could be a fifty-five year-old man for all I know. With a beer belly.” A small smile grew on her face. Most likely because of how ridiculous my statement was. “Or an evil robot. With a twirly mustache.”

“Do you think I’m either of those things?” she asked, a little smirk on her lips.

I shook my head. “No. But do you see my point?”

She raised her eyebrows. “What if you’re the AI and trying to steal my identity?”

“Fair enough.”

“No Warren,” she said. “I know you’re not an AI. Nobody would ever design a fake person who liked the terrible music that you like. Or someone as confusing.”

I barked a laugh.

“This is not exactly what I look like,” Rowan said. “But isn’t that why we play games? To escape our realities? I am a badass woman, though, not a man with a beer belly. I’m twenty-five years old and still live with my parents and sister. It’s hard to move out on my own. I want to, but I could never afford an apartment.”

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“Rowan,” I interrupted. “You don’t have to—”

“I do have to,” she said. “This is how people become friends. They share. Someone has to be the first to trust.”

I nodded because it seemed like the right thing to do. Easier said than done. Yet Rowan made it seem so easy. “My… favorite food is ramen,” I said.

She made a hand motion to indicate that I should keep going. “Come on.”

I took a deep breath, my eyes finding the floor again. This was harder than fighting river monsters. “I’m twenty-six. I live with my sister. We’re pretty poor. I’m playing this game to make enough money to pay rent.” I looked up, expecting judgment. Instead, I saw understanding.

“Thanks for telling me that,” she said. “Warren, I hate to bring it up just as we’re making a little progress, but there’s only ten seconds left before you can summon Janica back. I can see your debuff.”

“Oh hell,” I said, pulling up my interface.

“Hold on,” she said. I toggled Spiritual Connection back on.

Janica materialized. Madder than a hornet. “What the fuck!” she said. “You almost lost me. Me! I would have murdered you. Or worse.” She buzzed around, pointing at me and gesturing wildly. Then she paused, confused. “What’s going on here? Why does it look like you’ve both been crying?”

“We got into an argument,” Rowan said. “About who the best band of the ’80s was. Took us both to tears. But I won the argument.”

“Okay,” Janica said, more confused than before. “That’s weird. You two are weird.” Janica shook her head, then flew to the window, looking out into the hallway.

Rowan reached down and grabbed my hand. She smiled, as mischievous as a racoon.

My thoughts raced. Before, we had had playful interactions. Flirtations, maybe. But something between us felt real now, something more powerful than attraction. I hadn’t had a friend in years. It was… weird. And good.

“Come on,” Janica said. “They’re at the other end of the common space.”

I focused on the task at hand, pushing the moment away.

We snuck down the side of the hallway, making as little sound as possible. The group of three wraiths moved away from us, but if there were mobs patrolling into our path, we’d be trapped between two groups. That could be worse. Another group, with two wraiths and a madman were at the edge of the room to the right.

Janica zipped forward. We followed, trying to slip past without alerting them. We reached the end of the hallway and slipped into a stairwell on our left. As we reached the top of the staircase, I heard a commotion from the third floor. On my interface, the four other members of our party had started taking damage. Most of them were around half health.

I panicked seeing the NPCs so low. What would happen if they died? Would they respawn like gamers would?

Rowan whipped open the door. A group of four banshees had surrounded our group. The ghosts were white with hoods that covered their faces. Wispy robes dropped to the floor. Bony arms and skeletal fingers protruded from the sleeves. And at the center of the melee, an elite banshee wailed. It was taller than the rest and dressed in all black. Our group had found the Headmaster.

The Headmaster

‎ Level 32, Elite Banshee

‎ HP 318/360

‎ Stamina 355/400

‎ Mana 0/300

I pulled out my drum and pounded out the beat to “Everybody Wants to Rule the World”, trying to activate Rhythm and Tempo. It didn’t work. I looked at my interface and saw a debuff.

Silenced for 6 seconds.

This might explain the terrible positioning of our group. If I couldn’t use my skills, then Henry couldn’t throw potions. Cassandra couldn’t silence or stun. Ilrune and Aimon couldn’t… do whatever they do. Our party was on the other side of the group of banshees. We had them surrounded, but Rowan and I were backed into a corner with no place to run if we needed to.

Rowan ran in, spear thrusting into a banshee at the back of the group.

It screamed in pain and turned on her. Another banshee wailed, its head lifting to the air while its arms raised.

The six second debuff refreshed. If the ghosts were alternating their silences, we’d never be able to cast skills.

“About time you got here,” Cassandra said. “Where were you?”

I felt a pang of guilt. Opening up and crying. That’s where we had been.

“Start backing up,” Janica called. “We need to give our ranged a chance to get unsilenced.” She was the commander now, poised and ready for battle. “Kill the non-elites first.”

Henry turned and ran backwards to max range. Aimon did the same as he fired arrows at a banshee.

I backed up, creating as much distance as possible. My silence ticked down. Four… three… two… Then another silence rang out and the buff refreshed. What was the range on this?

Ilrune and Cassandra backed up as well, creating more space for me.

Rowan thrust her spear through two banshees at once, doing double damage and drawing the attention of a second one. She switched to her axe and shield, then pushed forward into the center of the group. A dangerous position.

I watched her health start to dip. First to 40% then to 30%. They had all converged on her. She was trying to break free of the group, but she was surrounded. 20%. She sidestepped an attack and rolled out of the melee to the other side.

Then I saw it. A white potion flying over the top of Cassandra and Ilrune. It landed just as Rowan created a few feet of space between her and the mobs. It splashed and froze the ghosts in place.

My silence ended, and Tempo activated immediately. Then Rhythm.

Aimon fired an arrow, connecting with the lowest banshee. Killing it.

“Three left and the elite,” Janica announced.

Henry lobbed a green potion. It exploded and each of the enemies now had a poison debuff.

The Elite broke free and went after Rowan.

She held up her shield, but still took some damage. She was down to 15%. If I had any mana at all, I could cast Rejuvenate. But I was useless.

Cassandra slipped around the group and attacked the banshee closest to me.

I moved up. I didn’t want to be in melee range, but I needed to do something. I stabbed at the same banshee as Cassandra with my staff, doing minimal damage.

Cassandra sent two daggers into its back and it fell. Another one down.

Ilrune had a shield out and was protecting Rowan.

“Get away!” Henry shouted. He sent a light blue potion and a yellow potion hurtling toward the mobs. I’d never seen these before.

Cassandra crouched low, about to lunge in.

At the worst time.