by David Petrie
“Altercation? You destroyed half the city.” Ginger tossed her journal on to the table and jabbed two fingers into its cover. “The three of us have been getting messages for the last half hour about it.”
Max waited for her to finish. “Things may have gotten a little out of control. However, it was Amelia and her Winter Moons who started it.”
“Yeah, we just finished it.” Kegan returned, sipping from a goblet and placing a mug of beer down in front of Max.
“Does that mean you got the information.” Ginger leaned forward.
“I’d say so.” Max placed his palms flat on the table and gave her a smug grin. “And how did your end of things go?”
The Coin smirked and opened her journal before sliding it across the table to display her status page. “Take a look at my title.” She tapped the paper with her finger. A heart-shaped ring on her hand caught his eye.
Max did a double take as he read the words 'Lady of House Lockheart' sitting just below her name. “Holy crap, you started a house.”
Ginger spread her hands out toward Farn and Kira. “I’d like to introduce you to my First Knight and Archmage.”
“Why Lockheart?” Max leaned to the side. “That’s a little, umm, feminine.”
“Too bad.” Ginger revealed a small box and produced three rings from it, placing them in front of Max.
Kegan reached past him to snatched two up. He tossed one to Corvin, who almost dropped his drink to catch it.
Max examined one before slipping the ring on to his finger. The metal rippled as it resized to fit. “So do we get titles too?”
Ginger seemed to fake a frown. “Sorry. No.”
“Well, now I feel left out.” Max sat down and tipped back in his chair. “So why did you need to start a house anyway?”
Ginger flashed the corner of a green envelope from under her cloak. “The invite we got is specifically for a lord or lady and their plus one.”
“I guess that makes sense.” Max flipped through his journal to check his new house affiliation now that he wore its ring, finding House Lockheart listed on his status page. Then he read the line below it. His leg kicked involuntarily in surprise, throwing his chair off balance. He caught the table with his foot just in time to stop himself from crashing to the floor. His journal flew forward as he flailed his arms.
Kira ducked the book.
Finally, he steadied his chair, blurting out the words, “Loyal to Rend? How?”
“You can thank these two and the literal back-alley deal they roped me into.” Ginger swept one hand in the direction of Kira and Farn. “They triggered some kind of hidden quest. Something about reclaiming the city.”
Max’s jaw went slack. “What the hell does that even mean? It’s a dungeon. Can Rend even be reclaimed?”
“Beats me. I messaged Alastair about it, but his response was… unhelpful.”
Kira jumped in, “Yeah, all he wrote back was a long line of maniacal laughter. Like, mwahahahahahaha.”
“You done?”
She took a breath before continuing, “Hahahaha.”
Max ignored her and picked up his mug, gesturing it in Ginger’s direction. “Anyway, so if you’re the Lady of the house, who are you taking to this party as your plus one?”
“Probably Kira. She’ll make a good distraction while I case the place.”
“I’m very distracting.” The fairy held her head high.
“That’s not a good thing.” Max sipped his drink.
Farn leaned forward on the table. “You and I will be going in as bodyguards. They won’t let us in the ballroom, but that’s almost better if we can check out other parts of the palace.”
“True, I doubt we’ll get enough time to find the vault, but at least we might be able to get an idea of what security options Berwyn has the place set up with.”
“Speaking of,” Ginger steepled her fingers like a crime lord, “what were you able to find about the vault?”
Max started to speak but stopped, taking a moment to scan the tavern for potential witnesses. It was mostly empty, save for a few tables of adventurers wrapped up in their own conversations.
“Okay, the vault will be on a basement level with only one way in. The door itself will be at the end of a long corridor. That much we know for sure, but as far as what that corridor is going to be like, that’s a mystery. According to Amelia, it’s customizable. She was able to tell us what some of the different options could be, but we’ll have no way of knowing what Berwyn has chosen. The only saving grace here is that the corridor is only so long, so there’s a limit to how many defenses he can fit in it.”
“That doesn’t sound good.” Farn leaned forward. “What kind of things could we be up against?”
Max shrugged. “Could be almost anything. Guards, weight sensitive floors, traps, puzzle locks, mana fences–”
“What’s a mana fence?” Kira interrupted.
“Basically a laser grid but powered by magic,” Kegan added before taking a casual sip of his water.
“Seriously?” Kira eyed Max skeptically.
“Yeah, I know, but what kind of heist would this be if there wasn’t a hallway of lasers to maneuver through?”
“What about identity scanners, like fingerprints and retinas and what not?” Farn rubbed her fingertips against each other.
“That’s where we got lucky. There’s no way to verify things like that since the system doesn’t always render them consistently. And Checkpoint only lets businesses use the ID system, so we won’t have to worry about that either.”
“Well that’s good, at least we won’t have to cut out anyone’s eyeball.” Ginger ran a finger across the table casually.
Kegan snorted before letting a mouthful of water pour from his mouth back into his cup. “Holy crap, Ginger, weren’t you the one trying to stop us from even doing this heist a couple hours ago?”
“Yeah, but that was then. Now, I smell money.” She punctuated her sentence with a wink.
“Well that’s kinda terrifying.” Kira scooted her seat a few inches away from the Coin.
Ginger leaned back with her hands behind her head. “Oh, relax, I was kidding. I know the system wouldn’t let me cut out a player’s eye to begin with.”
Max accepted her point with a nod, a little too casual for the subject matter. “Moving on, the invitation will get us in, but only for the night. We’ll have to find a way to get back in later.”
“Could we fire one of Kegan’s Shift Arrows though one of the windows or something?” Farn pointed a finger at the Leaf.
Kegan snorted. “Not a chance. I’d never make that shot. Not from outside the wall. Also, I only have one of those arrows left and have no idea where to find the feathers to craft more. Unless you can find Carver and ask him for another mission.”
“No thanks.” Max shook his head. “That won’t work anyway.”
“Why not?” Farn let her finger fall back to the table.
“Mostly because the vault won’t be the only thing we have to worry about.”
“Meaning?” Farn furrowed her brow.
Max let out a sigh. “How much do you guys know about the shield generators that each city’s palace has?”
“We know that they can project a shell around the building to keep people out in the event of an attack, not sure how much damage they can take though,” Ginger waved her hand, “but Berwyn won’t activate the shield without a reason, so I wouldn’t think that would be an issue if he doesn’t know we’re there.”
“That’s the problem, there’s no way in without him knowing. What most players don’t know is that the palace shield never actually shuts down all the way. It just goes into a passive defense mode when not active. Even if we can’t see it, it’s still there. We’ll be able to walk through it tomorrow night since we have an invitation, but if we try to go back later on, we’ll set off the alarms as soon as we cross it.”
“And a Shift Arrow would get picked up by it?” Farn asked.
“And we don’t have access to a teleport point inside the palace to bypass it either,” Kira guessed.
“We could use the Shift Beads.” Farn gestured at the bracelet that she had loaned Corvin to boost his defense as he leveled. “I’m pretty sure they transfer you from one point to another without actually moving you there. That’s kind of like teleporting. If I can find somewhere out of sight while we’re inside tomorrow, I could swap places with someone outside to get them in.”
“But we would just have to swap again to get you back in. Otherwise, someone might question where you are. That still leaves us unable to stay inside beyond the night of the party,” Corvin reminded.
“Not if you two hold hands.” Farn grinned.
The fuzzy-eared Blade tilted his head to one side. “I’m sorry, what?”
The Shield leaned one arm across the back of her chair. “The beads can shift anything you’re holding along with you. So if you hold hands, you should appear on the other side together. Then you can just let go and swap back to leave someone inside. Then they can hide somewhere and wait.”
Kegan laughed. “Okay, sure, but the bracelets only have a range of a few hundred feet, so we would have to get close enough to the palace for it to work.”
“Well, we are guests. Maybe we can land the Cloudbreaker on the palace’s private dock. That way we could smuggle you past the outer walls and most of the guards.” Max folded his arms and tapped his foot against the leg of the table. “And if we can recruit one more player to swap the shift bracelets around with, we could sneak Corvin and Kegan in together.”
“That would mean giving up another cut of the loot.” Ginger let out a harrumph.
Max gave her a judgmental stare.
“What? I’m a Coin. I’m greedy. Plus, we’d have to find someone else we trust and let them in on the whole plan.”
“Maybe not.” Max leaned to the side, looking past Ginger at a pair of players that had just sat down at a table behind her. Each wore a low-level cloak with the hood pulled up. Max smirked. They weren’t fooling anyone.
“I seem to remember that there are two players that already know what we’re planning and would probably help us, even without their own cut.”
Ginger scoffed, adding a sarcastic, “Who?”
Max didn’t answer, giving her a moment to think about it.
Her eyes widened as she sputtered a response, “Oh no, you don’t. You’re not recruiting my kids for this.”
He ran a hand through his hair. “Oh, don’t be so dramatic. It’s not like we’re actually breaking any laws here.”
Ginger gasped with indignation, but before she could respond, one the players at the table behind her spun and pulled back their hood.
“We’ll do it!”
Ginger cringed with her entire body as soon as she heard the voice, then craned her head back to look over her shoulder.
Her daughter, Piper, greeted her, hanging over the back of a chair. Her foxlike ears stood up straight with excitement. Beside her sat Drake, her brother.
Ginger squinted at them. “How long have you two been there?”
“Long enough,” Drake offered as he tipped a little in his chair.
Piper cracked a wicked grin that resembled her mother’s. “What was that about cutting out someone’s eyeballs?”
Ginger slapped a hand to her face and dragged it downward. “Fine. You can help with this one thing. But that’s it. And no more following me while I’m doing shady things. I have a good mind to deactivate my location marker on your maps.”
“Sure, scouts honor.” Drake held up one hand.
“Toby, you’re not a scout,” Ginger reminded the young Rage class, using his real name as if he was in trouble. “Now, get over hear and keep your voices down. We don’t want to have to cut in everyone in the tavern.”
Piper dragged her chair over to join the party. Drake followed her lead but sat backward in his seat, clearly trying to act cool. They bracketed their mother on both sides.
Ginger groaned and pushed away her beer. “Now, with that settled, how do we get the hard out of the vault?”
“And get it past everyone in the palace without being noticed?” Kira added.
Max glanced at his stat-sleeve. “We’ll have to figure that out later. Right now, it’s getting late.”
“That’s right.” Ginger smiled. “And we still have to get you some formal gear.”
“What’s wrong with this? Max looked down at himself.
I won’t have my personal bodyguard looking like, ” she gestured in his direction, “that”
Kira snorted. “She has a point.”
Max winced. “Why do I feel like I’m not going to like this?”
Chapter Fifteen
NIGHT TWO: PARTY HARDER
Max tugged at the necktie that practically choked him as he piloted the Cloudbreaker over the ocean toward the city of Reliqua. He hated ties. Even more, he hated formal wear. Why he had to dress nice in a fantasy world, he had no idea. Of course, that didn’t stop Ginger from dragging him to some bizarre shop in Lucem full of creepy dolls, where a strange Rage class threw a bunch of clothes at him.
Clearly, Larkin had been busy working and wasn’t thrilled to have another person showing up for some free gear. From the look of what he got, Larkin had just shoved a bunch of hand-me-downs at him and called it a day. A double-breasted vest, white dress shirt and a pair of slacks. After that, Ginger had branded him with a small banner that hung from his belt to one side that bore their new house crest. Honestly, she was getting a little too into her new position of power.
The outfit’s stats were all over the place, including a ten percent boost to his nonexistent mana. At least the vest was lined with some kind of scales that brought his defense up to a reasonable level. It was also light and easy to move in. What really bothered him, though, was the fact that he had to switch his pistols from the drop-leg holsters he was used to over to a shoulder rig. It definitely looked classier, but it made it hard to draw weapons quickly. He felt like he needed to practice in front of a mirror for a few hours.
“Quit tugging at your tie. It’s not going to go away no matter how much you fidget with it,” Ginger chided Max as Reliqua’s coast appeared in the distance. Her face lit up at the view, and she forgot all about him within seconds. Shoving to the front, she leaned over his shoulder for a better look. The excitement in her eyes made him smile. She was right to be excited; the city was breathtaking.
In front, a vast ocean swept across the view while a range of mountains wrapped around the city’s rear to form a natural wall. Lush groves of palms and lagoons of crystal blue water littered the tropical paradise.
Most of the buildings were small, but what they lacked in size, they made up for in quantity, practically spilling into the ocean. Some even stood on stilts just offshore. The city’s streets weaved this way and that in a casual, almost haphazard manner. It was as if the place didn’t care about efficiency, like relaxation was more important.
Max frowned.
Berwyn had certainly chosen the right place to claim as his capital. Atmosphere aside, the city was near impenetrable. Sure, it might have seemed laid back, but between the mountains and the sea, there was no way for an army to approach. Not to mention that the sprawling roadways would slow any progress from the lack of a direct route. Obviously, Berwyn had realized the same thing. Max’s tactical thinking was cut short when Kira threw herself against the windshield.
“Oh, wow.” She shoved Ginger to the side with her rear, the ship lurching to one side as the Coin bumped the controls.
“Back off. We don’t want them to think we’re drunk.” Max elbowed at the two of them.
“Sorry, sorry, sorry…” Kira trailed off. “But check out that palace. I’ve never seen it from the air befo
re.”
The Jewel of the Sea rested near the back of the city, its outer wall surrounding a wide, square palace. Its sides were lined with brightly lit windows and ornately carved stonework covering nearly every inch of the four-story structure. At each corner of the square sat a tower only slightly taller than the rest out of which a crystal obelisk reached toward the sky. They were beautiful, but even more so was the center. Starting at the top of the inner edge of each wall rose a pyramid of crystal, polished to a flawless shine. Its surface glittered in the night like a star.
I guess that’s where the Jewel gets its name, Max assumed.
Appearance aside, the palace was far wider than most of the others in Noctem. Getting from one side to the other must have been time-consuming.
What’s inside the pyramid? Max wondered, going back into tactical mode. He shrugged and begun the descent toward the royal landing field just inside the wall. He glanced back at his team, noting Kegan and Corvin hiding in the back. I hope this works.
Max connected the ship’s com-plate to the palace’s private channel as instructed by their invitation. “Cloudbreaker to Place Guard, this is the personal shuttle of Lady Ginger of House Lockheart, invitation number 46294845, requesting permission to land.”
Silence answered back.
He held his breath, hoping that Ginger’s contact from the brothel had notified someone in charge about the change in recipient. After a tense moment, the response came back.
“Lockheart?”
Max cringed. “Uh, yeah. That’s, umm, us. May we land?”
Ginger squinted at him.
“What?” Max whispered back at her.
The com-plate emitted a sound like someone flipping through pages followed by a low voice clearly not meant to be heard over the transmission.
“Loyal to Rend?”
This time, it was Max’s turn to squint at Ginger.
She rolled her eyes while Kira and Farn pretended to be minding their own business, pointing out a window.
Finally, the same voice came back on, “Lockheart, you’re clear to land.”
“Nice, it work–” Kira got out before both Ginger and Farn grabbed the little mage. The pair each slapped a hand over her mouth as if one wasn’t enough. Everyone’s eyes fell to the still active com-plate. Silence filled the craft; the only sound was a muffled word from Kira that suggested an apology. Then the com-plate disconnected.