The Right to Choose

by Andrey Vasilyev

  “She’s still joking,” I said with a dismissive wave. “You just worry about having someone meet me at the gate in ten or fifteen minutes to show me where that shaman’s tent is. It’s a big forest, and I don’t want to get lost.”

  “I’ll send the redhead. He got back from a raid three days ago and hasn’t been out of the kitchen since. He could use the chance to walk off some of his fat. Otherwise he’ll turn into just a big target for the MacPratts to shoot at.”

  “Oh, speaking of the MacPratts,” Kro said, clapping her hands. “I have some news. The Double Shields announced that they formed a military alliance with an NPC clan—not a friendly alliance, a military alliance. What to guess which NPC clan that is?”

  The king and I exchanged glances. I wasn’t sure what was going through his digital head, but I whistled. “Well, that’s something.”

  “Who are the Double Shields?” Lossarnakh asked, turning to me. “Where are they from? I’ve never heard of them.”

  “Remember the battle in Tuad Valley?” I asked him darkly. “Remember the troops that stole our victory?”

  Lossarnakh smiled crookedly. “They aren’t gelts; that’s why the godi are in a hurry.”

  “The sacrificial ram was right,” I replied, rubbing my temples. “The MacPratts have people they can ask to get the axe and deliver it to its recipient.”

  “You still have some time,” the king said stubbornly. “I’m just not sure you’ll be able to do anything on your own.”

  You think I have time? There was no way for me to tell him about the forums, with all the information you could find there, not to mention the other ways you could find things out. Although… The quest was a reputational one, so I had to assume it wasn’t just handed out right and left. Whoever had gone through it probably wasn’t in any hurry to talk about how they’d gotten it, and that was not to mention the fact that the quest could have been a new one. The axe belonged to one of the Lords of Death, and they’d just recently been reintroduced. No, there might not be any information out there to find.

  But they wouldn’t be completely in the dark either. I had the godi; they probably had some kind of folk healer to help them. We were starting on equal footing.

  “I have no idea what’s going on,” Kro said. “What do you have time for? And what ram?”

  You have the opportunity to share individual quests from your series with players from your clan so you can beat them together. Only quests that require fighting are available.

  Limitations:

  You can’t share quests with more than six players.

  You can only share quests with players who were accepted into your clan at least three days before you read this message.

  You can only share quests with players between Level 50 and Level 120.

  Note! If you decide to go ahead with this option, the reward will be modified.

  The gold and experience you get for beating the entire series will be split evenly between everyone you shared the quest with, and one item will be given to one of you at random. You will receive the second item and the titles.

  If you beat the quests quickly and bravely, you and your clan mates may receive additional rewards.

  Note! You can select one player to which you will give no more than two quests that don’t require fighting. That may reduce your share of the reward, however.

  If you select a player, make sure you inform the admin immediately using one of the means listed in the Administration section of the Game Rules.

  Note! The difficulty of the quests may increase proportionally to the number of players that have them.

  Warning! You will not be able to select a replacement player if someone from your clan accepts your offer and then refuses to help beat a quest. Be careful with who you pick!

  Warning! If you have a full group of six players, you can take no more than two NPCs with you. If you don’t have a full group, you can fill the empty slots in the group with NPCs.

  The NPCs you take with you for these quests cannot be any higher than Level 100.

  Would you like to avail yourself of this opportunity?

  It was a day of gameplay discoveries. That wasn’t the only eye-opener, but it was certainly the biggest one. The only thing I couldn’t tell was if the game was already that flexible or if it was just being bent to make things easier for me. I’ll have to ask about that.

  “What are you reading?” Kro was right in front of me, almost as if she was trying to catch the reflection in my eyes.

  “Okay, we’re going to have to start at the beginning.” I hit Yes, agreeing to the opportunity I’d been offered to hand out quests.

  To start handing out quests, go to the Quests submenu and select…

  “I’m not in a hurry,” Kro replied, eyes narrowed. “It sounds like you have something worked up, little boys!”

  Something strange gurgled in Lossarnakh’s throat.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked him.

  “Little boys,” he said sadly. “That’s what my sister used to call me and my friends.”

  “We’re all little boys in one way or another,” I replied, nipping that conversation in the bud. NPC or not, it wasn’t for me.

  “Hagen, I’m going to kill you,” Kro said flatly. She pulled out a long knife. “Right now.”

  “No need for that,” I said, glancing apprehensively at the long, icy-blue blade. “I’m going to tell you everything, on my own and of my own free will. I’d like that to be noted.”

  “It’ll be noted in your medical records!” Kro barked. “Out with it.”

  “I think I’d better be going,” Lossarnakh said nervously. “I have some affairs of state to tend to. The redhead will be waiting for you…both of you…at the gate.”

  I watched the king go wistfully and started telling Kro everything I’d just learned. At least, it was the abridged version.

  “That’s a great quest. I’ve heard of being able to give them to other people, even seen that, too,” she replied a few minutes later. “Although, I have more questions now than when you started.”

  “For example?” I started to regret that she’d found anything out, since I had a guess what her questions were. At least, I knew one, and it was the type of question that got into the hows, whats, and whys. I couldn’t hide everything, no matter how much I wanted to.

  “What’s a Black Rider? And why did this one come back after so long? Especially, given who he served. And why do you think the Double Shields got that quest, too? How did the godi figure out that the axe itself had awakened?”

  “Well, the Black Rider is simplest,” I replied, pulling out the first portion of the dish of misdirection I was going to feed her. “It’s your usual archaic monster from ancient times. He’s up on a black horse, red eyes shining, and he carries a decapitated head around in his claw. The usual.”

  “Yeah-h,” Kro said dubiously. “I don’t know… If he wasn’t anything out of the ordinary, they wouldn’t be talking about him like this.”

  “Eh, I didn’t really think about that.”

  “You should have,” the elf girl said accusatorily, jabbing me in the chest with her fingers. “The devil’s in the details.”

  If I told you where the devil is actually sitting, I think you’d have to be committed.

  “But about the Shields… Why do you think they’re involved in this?”

  Once again, I couldn’t tell her anything. I was positive that Miurat, or, rather, whoever was behind him, was looking for a path to Wanderer and had finally hit on the right one. The problem was that our roads were less parallel and more leading us directly toward a confrontation. And if that happened, it wasn’t going to end well for me.

  “Just a feeling,” I said, sniffing. “Also, you can see how involved they’re getting in the war for the Borderlands. There’s the alliance with the MacPratts and then the mirrored quests. If I had to guess, I’d say they got theirs first.”

  Kro rubbed her chin. “Yeah, if it’s one,
it’s the other. Plus, that would be another front they could open in the war—lots of people would head into the Borderlands to see that.”

  “There are tons of options.” I was just happy we were leaving a tricky topic behind.

  “For sure,” Kro replied, rubbing her hands together. “Okay, no sense wasting time; let’s go see that godi.”

  “Hold up.” I was barely able to grab her hand before she ran off. “Number Nineteen, could I talk to you for a second?”

  “Seriously?” Kro hissed. “I’m still dealing with the last time you talked to him!”

  “How can I help you?” The man in the suit, holding his briefcase, didn’t step out of the wall that time; he appeared and hovered in midair directly in front of us. Seeing the surprised expressions on our faces, he snapped his fingers, rode an imaginary escalator down to the stone wall, and stepped onto it.

  “Thinks he’s so cool,” Kro said softly. I tugged on her arm.

  “Yes, Hagen?” the administrator asked in his usual, even voice.

  “As per the conditions for Ruling Axe, I’d like to name the person who can accept quests in my place, the ones that don’t have any fighting. It’ll be Krolina,” I said loudly and distinctly.

  “No more than two,” Number Nineteen replied.

  “As per the conditions.”

  “Done. What else?”

  “No, that’s all,” I said with a winsome smile. “Thanks.”

  “Until next time.” With another snap of his fingers, Number Nineteen disappeared.

  Kro kicked me. “You could have talked to me! I mean, thanks, but we should make decisions like that together.”

  “You know, there’s no pleasing you,” I said with feigned indignation. “You’re never happy. I don’t even know if I should tell you about the inquisitors’ sword now…”

  “What sword?” Krolina asked, arms crossed. “You have something else?”

  “Let’s go. I’ll tell you on the way.” I walked off through the passageway. “No sense wasting time. Nazir, are you coming?”

  I spent the first half of the trip explaining to Kro how I’d gotten the quest where I was supposed to put together the brave, if disgraced, knight’s sword, and then spent the second half listening to her curse about how the good quests never went to the diligent, hard-working players. People like me, the kind who had no idea how valuable they really were and couldn’t even really beat them, got all the best stuff.

  “I can’t agree with you there,” I said as we stepped out of the castle and into the courtyard. “As soon as I had a spare minute, I got to work, and that’s when I had this junk hit me.”

  “Junk?” Wings fluttered overhead. “Everyone’s always getting on poor Tren-Bren, telling her to go away, calling her junk, a pestilence, flying cholera.”

  “Be gone,” Kro said with a wave. “We don’t have time for you.”

  To my great surprise, the fairy listened, flying off to the other end of the courtyard with a wail.

  “It’s a miracle,” I whispered. “The heavens smile upon us!”

  “What miracle? I just promised her that if she’s good, Ded Moroz will give her a dagger for New Year’s, the one you brought.”

  “Not a miracle, then. Just not my day. Okay, anyway, I was headed to Selgar, first, and then to Florence. I just didn’t have time.”

  “I don’t see any reason for you to change your plans,” Kro shrugged and then waved to Lennox, who was hanging out by the gate. He was gnawing on an enormous mutton chop. “We’ll go see this godi and then head out.”

  “We?” I squinted at her.

  “Yes. You and me, the two of us.” Kro crossed her arms over her chest and started blinking rapidly. “I’ve been a good girl all year, never skipped college, ate when I was supposed to, and almost always went to bed on time—alone, too.”

  “You have no idea how much I needed to know that,” I replied, taken aback by the sheer volume of nonsense she’d just thrown at me.

  “God, you’re so old. It’s New Year’s, Hagen. Give a girl a present; let her come with you. The trip sounds promising.”

  “You want to try to take the sword quest for yourself?”

  “I do. You don’t need it, and I might even make friends with old Martin.”

  “Okay, let’s try,” I nodded. “But first, the godi.”

  “Absolutely. He’ll probably give us a clue about some cave or grave, and we’ll have to go there and find something that will help with the search. It doesn’t matter too much when we get there; I don’t think the Double Shields will be any faster. We have to decide who we want to bring with us, too.”

  “Yeah, we have such a wide selection to choose from.”

  “Now, hold on a second. Even if the clan isn’t that big, we can still put together a good team. The ability of the leader to pick the right people makes up a good sixty percent of your chances of being successful on a raid.”

  ***

  “Well, are we going?” Lennox yelled as he tossed the bone out the gate and pulled an apple out of his pocket. “It’s almost lunchtime.”

  “You know, one thing I’ve never liked about NPCs is how they can constantly eat and still stay slender,” Kro said. “All we do is eat a piece of cake, and it’s over. It’s delicious, it weighs maybe 200 grams, and you end up with 500 on your hips. How does that even happen?”

  “Quantity turns into even more quantity? Come on, let’s go.”

  Lennox had changed somewhat. There wasn’t much left of the fun-loving adventure seeker. There was a solidity to his gait, a confidence in his tone. I guess he’s moving closer to the king.

  “You’re awfully important these days, MacSommers,” Kro said, having noticed the same thing. “You more stride than walk, now. Soon, we won’t be able to talk to you, you’ll forget your old friends—”

  Lennox choked, stumbled, and threw his apple core at Kro with a curse.

  “Oh, no, still the same,” she replied, laughing, as she dodged the flying missile. “You scared me there for a second.”

  Lennox took us to a maroon tent with a small flag fluttering above it. Peering closer, I noticed that it featured an eye with an hourglass in place of the pupil.

  “There you go.” Lennox jabbed a finger toward the entrance. “Just…”

  He paused.

  “Come on, MacSommers,” Kro said, “out with it.”

  “Don’t trust Talien too far,” he whispered to us. “I’m no woman, and I don’t like gossip, but I’ve never heard a single good thing about him from anyone. He’s a slippery character if what they say is true. Vindictive, too.”

  “We all have our faults,” Kro replied.

  “Thanks,” I said to the gelt. “We’ll keep that in mind.”

  ***

  There wasn’t anything to knock on, so we just stepped into the tent. Inside, it was gloomy and stuffy.

  “I’ve been expecting you,” said a long and incredibly thin man in a doleful voice. He was sitting on a ragged carpet in the middle of the tent. His legs, which looked more like stilts, were crossed under him, and his eyes were only half-open.

  “Both of us?” I asked.

  “What do you mean?” The voice changed, the man opened his eyes, and he noticed that there were two of us. “Woman, what are you doing here? Get out!”

  “She’s with me,” I said. “She doesn’t let me go anywhere alone, says it’s her business.”

  “Here, I decide whose business is what,” Talien snarled. “Get! Get out of here! You, too, son of the East!”

  “Ridiculous,” Kro muttered, though she stepped out. She had apparently decided not to test fate, as nobody could have predicted how that particular argument would have ended. We would have been finished if we’d failed the quest.

  Nazir didn’t even think about leaving. He sat down cross-legged in a corner of the tent and stared at the godi.

  “I’m not saying anything,” Talien announced coldly. “You won’t get a word out of me until your man l
eaves my tent.”

  “Nazir, go ahead,” I said. “The servant of the cult here isn’t in a good mood, and we don’t have much time.”

  The assassin frowned, but he got up and left.

  The godi smiled happily, enjoying the taste of a small victory that brains had won over brawn. Then he collected himself and went back to his mysterious aura.

  “Before I tell you how to take the first step toward acquiring the black axe, you need to promise me something, warrior from the West,” he mumbled darkly, waving his long fingers as if shooing away a fly.

  “What’s that?” I asked nervously. “If you want, I can promise you what’s waiting for me at home, which I don’t even know, yet. That would be a great oath.”

  Given the fact that I didn’t have a home, really, in any of the worlds I was part of, it really was a good option for me.

  “No, that’s better saved for witchers,” he shot back, flashing blackened teeth. “I need something else. I want you to bring the axe to me, after which we’ll go see the king together.”

  I scratched my nose. “Huh. That doesn’t sound like a very loyal thing to say. The monarch might not like it.”

  “The other option is for you to walk out right now.” He was in no mood to haggle.

  “You have a deal,” I nodded. “If I get lucky and Dullakh’s black axe falls into my hands, I’ll bring it here first.”

  “You swear?” the godi asked, smiling unpleasantly. To my surprise, I felt a buzzing sensation in my palms, the same one I’d noticed when Wanderer had given me his mark. I wanted to look down, but I didn’t. It would have looked strange, and that isn’t the kind of thing you do in public.

  “I swear. I swear by my mother.”

  You completed a deal with Talien, head of the Circle of the Enlightened. If you fail to uphold it, you will lose his favor and be declared outlawed in the Borderlands. Even the king will be unable to help you escape your punishment.

  Chapter Eight

  In which we find that some things are okay to lose.