Things with Patrick were…. Well they were sort of terrible.
“It’s a game, right” he told her as they left their housing for the night. The inns in the area were welcoming to Adrienne, who spent far more time and coin on building her reputation than she really should, but less so to Patrick who, apparently, didn’t. Reputation was an often-overlooked mechanic in the game. Adrienne focused on hers because it made the high-level gear she needed much less expensive and unlocked certain merchants. Patrick only shrugged when she asked why the townsfolk were watching him so cautiously. “Maybe they’re programmed like that?”
“They seem pretty real to me,” Adriene pointed out and shrugged one shoulder. “Killing monsters felt… that felt real too.”
“But kind of fun, too, right?” Patrick said, and tossed a coin to a fruit merchant as he took a bag of dried fruit off the table. The merchant looked a the coin in his hand, and went to protest before he saw Patrick’s white necromancer robes. His mouth shut with a click, and Adrienne tilted her head, confused. “What?”
“Fruit rations are three coins,” she told him, and he stared at her until she nodded to the terrified merchant who was looking between them like they were about to leap over the stall and murder him. “Look, I spent a lot of time on my reputation. If this is just a game, I don’t want to screw it up by shorting one of the shops.”
“It’s barely a hit to your reputation score.”
“But they add up. What’s with you today? I know you have the gold.”
He sighed, and dug in his pouch before begrudgingly laying down two more coins. “Satisfied?”
“Thank you. Come on. It’s two gold. A single veteran dungeon will net you like, thirty thousand.”
“It’s the point of the thing. They’re just programs. Why do you care?”
Because she didn’t think they were programs. Not right now, anyway. How cold she, when they were here, living and laughing around her. She smiled when two little girls hurtled past her, screaming as their brother chased them with a captured lizard. “I got a ride down the river because I helped someone, and he told me all about is family. This is an end-game quest and no one’s ever beaten it. If we’ve gotta do it in real life, I want to have all the help we can get.”
“Fine fine,” he waved her off as they headed out of town. “I’ll try and treat the programs well until we’re out of here.”
Adrien stifled her own annoyance. What was with Yvarian today>? She couldn’t remember him ever shorting the merchants when they were running together. In fact, she thought he was going for the almost-impossible Necromancer Hero achievement that he could only get by maxing out his positive reputation.
Maybe something changed when everything became real. She couldn’t really blame him for that. She was spooked too.
“Okay, so if I’m remembering right,” she said as they crossed over the great, walled bridge that marked the edge of town, and summoned their mounts, “The first leg of the quest takes us out to the coast. There’s an abandoned Alchemist Tower out there that is supposed to have the actual quest.”
“There was a big launch for this quest like five years ago. I looked up the trailers because I was curious, and found the tower on a different quest.”
“Thanks. Oh hey, you changed out your mount.”
Instead of the huge lizard he usually favored, he was riding a spider like her own, but instead of brass, his was made of red mist. He glanced over at her, brow furrowed. “How did you- it’s a smoother ride and it’s faster.”
Fair enough. Adrienne shrugged and fell silent as she summoned her own spider and mounted up for the first time, only a little apprehensive. She hadn’t tried riding yet, and was glad when the mechanical creature shimmered into view as it always did. When she was in the built-in seat, she discovered he was right. Eight legs did make for a comfortable ride.
They rode for nearly an hour in silence and Adrienne found herself missing the chime of the scroll at her hip. After days on the road, it was her anchor. The promise that she had one friend in this world, who had her back.
Now that he was here, in person, she found herself missing the man she knew and thought she liked.
Now she wasn’t so sure. Patrick was an ass, and they had spent years as mostly-enemies. What was she supposed to do now that he was her lifeline?
The choice was taken from her, when screams echoed out of the trees.
On instinct, she whirled and ran for the screaming. These woods were thick with bandits, and they liked to corner travelers. Gembis told her all about it on the boat.
“What are you doing?” Patrick demanded, although he did seem to be following. That was good. She would need help if someone was hurt. “Adrienne!”
“It sounds like a kid!” she yelled over her shoulder and ducked a branch as they burst into a clearing. As she feared, bandits had cornered a wagon. The merchant had his wife and two tiny daughters protected behind him, but it was a rare fighter who could take six bandits, and the merchant was clearly not that sort. Adrienne, however, was. “Hey!”
The bandits turned, and she threw herself out of the saddle, trusting the skills that she shouldn’t have and did. Her instincts were good. Two of the bandits hit the ground under her weight, and she threw a dart at a third. It shouldn’t be enough to kill him, but if this was real, she didn’t have to kill him to stop him. These weren’t like game enemies who stayed dangerous until their health bar was gone. These were real men, and an injury might convince them to run.
“Dria Shalla!” one bandit yelled, and hey, they recognized her. That was useful. Dria scrambled to her feet in time to see Patrick raise his hand, a disagreeable expression on his face. Green fire engulfed two of the standing bandits, who screamed as the fire burned through them, leaving nothing but charred bones. With a snap of his fingers, the bones pulled themselves together and stood, collecting their fallen weapons on the way.
The bandits looked at Patrick, with green fire in his palms, at Adrienne, who had her swords out, and bolted. She let her fallen two up and they paused barely long enough to grab their injured friend.
None of them made it to the trees.
Patrick clenched his fist again, a mean smile on his face, and the men died screaming as more green fire burst around them.
Adrienne closed her eyes as nausea pooled in her stomach. When she thought she had it under control, she turned to the merchant and tried for a smile. He flinched, and she tried harder putting away her swords and proffering empty hands.
“You’re safe now,” she told him gently. “My name is Dria Shalla. Do you know me?”
“Yes, Lady Dria,” he stammered, and she was pleased to see him relax at the sound of her name. “Apologies, Lady. We had heard you traveled with a necromancer, but…”
But Patrick had just murdered six men and was even now Raising their bones. Adrienne carefully didn’t look, and nodded. “Don’t mind him. Are you alright?”
“Yes. Thank you, Lady. You saved us this day.”
Adrienne traded a few more words with the merchant, accepted hugs form his daughters, and waited until they were out of sight to lean against a tree for a few long breaths.
“What’s with you?” Patrick asked disinterestedly, fiddling with a charm around his neck. Adrienne could see the magic on it, but didn’t know what it did. “We saved them.”
“They bandits were running,” she told him faintly, back to feeling sick and scared. “Why did you…”
The skeletons milled around them as they always did, but now she had seen the men they used to be and she wasn’t sure she could bear it.
“They’re just programs,” Patrick told her and snapped his fingers at his skeletons. They fell in behind his spider as Adrienne mounted up again. “Why are you torn up about it?”
“Because I don’t think they’re programs,” Adrienne said, almost to herself, and looked down to her hand, where the wedding band glowed softly. Patrick’s hands were covered in gloves, and she wondered if his was glowing too. “And everything here feels real.”
He was quiet for a while, and finally shrugged. “Come on. The sooner we get to the tower, the sooner we get out of here.”
“Yeah,” Adrienne agreed tiredly. “Okay, let’s go.”
Adrienne is one of her server’s top players, but the game is more than a game, and she will have to face love, and betrayal, to survive.
Reorienting Home (Subscriber Only!)
Skills Already Known (Subscriber Only!)
Finish Them! (Free on Patreon!)
Down the River Boat (Free on Patreon!)
Lily Shine (Subscriber Only!)
