Spy: Reborn

by Angie A Huxley

  Argo gave her an annoyed look and folded his arms across his chest. There was no point arguing, he realized. She never listened. He wondered again why he had ever offered his services in the first place. He must have been out of his mind. A notification bell chimed on his phone, telling him he had a message. He took his phone out of his pocket and flicked on the message screen. To his surprise, he’d received a DM from someone on the Drake Realm server. Argo frowned in surprise. The only people who contacted him on there were the other members of the Manticore Crew, but this had come from someone called GG.

  Intrigued, Argo clicked on the message and read it:

  GG: You got the violin.

  Argo blinked at the screen, stunned at the message. How would anyone know that? He re-read the message again, unsure what to make of it, when the mysterious GG messaged him again:

  GG: I know you have it. I have the bow. We need to talk.

  After a moment’s hesitation, Argo messaged back:

  Argo: Who is this?

  GG: A friend. I can help you complete the violin quest.

  Argo: How do you know about that? Why would you want to help me?

  GG: I’ve got my own quest related to the bowstring. Reuniting the bowstring to the violin will give me a massive load of experience and sovereigns. I can only assume that you’ve got similar rewards waiting for you—rewards that you can share with the rest of the Manticore Crew. You’ll be a hero to them. Ain’t that what you want?

  Argo stared at the message in disbelief. How could this GG character know so much about him? All of this felt wrong…

  Argo: Who are you, and how do you know all this stuff about me?

  GG: I’ll tell ya all you wanna know, but that’s something we need to do in Drake Realm—not over DM. When can you log into the game world?

  Argo slipped the phone back in his pocket and looked up at Magarito. She was still talking to her friend and was completely oblivious to him. He edged closer and raised his hand to get her attention. “Magarito,” he said in a quiet voice. “Magarito.”

  “I know darling. He had all three at once and ran stark naked all the way down Carnaby Street. It was hilarious.”

  “Magarito,” Argo said again. “Do you still need me?”

  “No darling, I didn’t know you could get them in lemon flavor. Do they come with extra ridges too?”

  “Magarito, can I go?” Argo asked again.

  Magarito glanced up and scowled at him. “What is it, Argo?”

  “Can I go?”

  “Go? Go where?”

  “If you don’t need me anymore, I’d like to shoot off. I’ve got something important to do.”

  “Yes, yes,” Magarito said, waving him away like he was an annoying fly. “Be sure to be here prompt at nine tomorrow. I don’t have slackers working for me.”

  “I will do,” Argo promised, even though Magarito didn’t usually get up until about twelve and then only through Argo’s coaxing, which often resulted in her throwing shoes at him. “Thanks.”

  “What’s that, darling? No, it was just the valet,” Magarito was now saying, returning to her conversation and forgetting him completely. “He wants to go early, the lazy wretch. You just can’t get the staff these days, darling. Yes, I’m far too generous for my own good.”

  Argo grabbed his jacket and hurried out of the door. Heading downstairs, he checked his phone again. He’d received another message from GG:

  GG: Well? You up for it, or will I just set the bowstring up on the open market? Losing the experience will suck, but at least I’ll still get sovereigns.

  Argo looked at his phone screen and tapped his thumb against it. None of this made any sense. How could GG know about the quest with the violin? Yet, if this GG already got the violin’s bowstring, then they might have been notified that Argo had found the violin. It might be all part of the quest’s parameters. Still, there was something about that GG that made Argo uneasy. He had the strongest impression that he was being set up.

  His first instinct was to contact Henk about what was going on. He would have spoken to Aaheli, but she was busy filming and was out all hours at the moment. Henk, though, always seemed to be around in Drake Realm and he would know what to do. He’d come with Argo to meet this GG and get to the bottom of things.

  He was just about to message the Paladin, when he abruptly stopped himself. According to the quest rules, if Argo mentioned it to anyone else, the violin would vanish from his belongings and respawn somewhere else in the game world—which would ruin everything for him and GG.

  In the end, Argo decided to do this alone. Like taking the job with Magarito, this strange twist to the violin quest would take him out of his comfort zone. He was intrigued by what this GG wanted to tell him, and to discover what would happen when both the bowstring and the violin were brought together again.

  The idea of obtaining a large amount of experience and sovereigns was extremely attractive too. He couldn’t wait to see how the Manticore Crew would react when they found him hitting level 3—maybe even level 4—all on his own. He imagined how proud Henk and Aaheli would be, how Sonya and Brier would view him as a peer instead of a liability, how Kip would finally lighten up and give him a break. Aaheli and Henk’s respect, however, was what mattered the most to him.

  He messaged GG again, carefully choosing his words.

  Argo: I can log into Drake Realm in about an hour. Is that okay for you?

  GG: Perfect. I’ll be waiting.

  Argo: Where do we meet?

  GG: Gorgevade, 12:40pm server time.

  Argo stared at the message in surprise. Gorgevade was a huge city on the border between the war-torn Kingdom of Merria and the Wildlands that girdled the southern reaches of Drake Realm. It was an extremely dangerous region and tended to only attract veteran players.

  Gorgevade itself was divided up by rival thief guilds that battled each other for territory and engaged in various criminal activities. Argo had heard that some players got heavily involved in these kinds of enterprises, gaining money and experience running smuggling rings or protection rackets. There was also a thriving black market where players could obtain cheating codes and illegally modified weapons that gave unfair advantages not permitted by the Over Monitor.

  The prospect of going to such a dangerous place filled him with dread, especially on his own. Yet, if he didn’t go, he’d never advance any further with the violin quest and he was hungry to find out what it was all about. He could at least meet this GG, and if things got hairy he could log out of the game before he got killed or lost any stats.

  Argo: Okay. Where in Gorgevade do you want to meet?

  GG: Wait in the market square beneath the clock tower. You can’t miss it. Bring the violin.

  Argo frowned at the text. This was getting way beyond his comfort zone.

  Argo: Why do I need to bring the violin? You know I have it.

  GG: Quest completion, genius. We need to bring the bowstring and the violin together before the quests register as completed.

  Argo didn’t like the sound of that one bit. A level 2 Bard in a level 18 zone with little law enforcement from the NPCs?

  Argo: Forget it. You can just shov

  Argo hesitated, not bothering to finish the message. He could just keep the violin stored away in his ghost pack, not bring it out until he could confirm GG’s story. If anything fishy came up, he’d just stuff the violin back in his ghost pack. Didn’t matter if he died, since only equipped items would drop upon death.

  He didn’t risk storing the violin in his chest at the manor house as the rest of the Crew had access to the shared inventory. He also didn’t want anyone asking any awkward questions about it, especially Henk who knew more about quest items than anyone else.

  He erased his previous message and typed up a newer,
shorter one.

  Argo: Okay, I’ll be there.

  GG replied with a smiley face and nothing more.

  His stomach churning with anxiety, Argo headed back to the apartment and hooked himself into the Astral-bubble. As he had never been to Gorgevade before, the city had not as of yet appeared on his HUD world map. However, he could still access a travelling hub in Merria that he could use as a starting point for exploring the region.

  He materialized in a busy coach station, booked passage on a rickety wagon, and handed over the stiff premium fee for the safe, encounter-free option.

  Having received the gold sovereigns, the NPC driving the wagon activated his fast-travel magic. The wagon zoomed through the hostile landscape around Gorgevade, all monsters and NPCs ignoring it as it passed by.

  Thirty minutes later, Argo safely passed under the forbidding curtain wall that encircled Gorgevade before disembarking from the wagon. Argo found himself in a teeming metropolis of narrow streets and shabby half-timbered houses that seemed to pile on top of one another, creating a confusing jumble. The city lacked the picturesque charm of Granthaven and Witchstorm Manor, instead taking on a hard, ugly look to it. Shifty-looking NPCs and wary players kitted out for end-game content filled the grimy streets, all on the prowl for their next hustle.

  The wagon driver had told him that, to reach the market square and the clock tower, he had to go straight ahead down Predator’s Way, the city’s main thoroughfare. Argo did as he was instructed, staying to the wooden sidewalks to avoid the churned up road of mud that served as the thoroughfare. The journey was stressful, as he had to move through crowds of people, avoiding stepping on toes or bumping against anyone. Several times he was jostled out of the way by other players and cursed at by surly NPCs. The market square was just as overwhelming when he reached it. The whole space was crammed full of makeshift stalls where vendors hawked their wares, shouting at the top of their voices to entice the milling crowds who thronged the narrow twisting paths created by the placement of the stalls.

  Argo was completely disorientated for a while, but he soon spotted the tall gothic structure of the clock tower which dominated the far end of the market square. Weaving through the throng of people and stalls, he travelled a convoluted route toward the stone tower and came at last to the steps leading up to its tall double doors.

  Standing under the archway of the entrance, he found some respite from the hubbub, but a foul smelling beggar nestled on the steps started shouting at him in a strange gibberish sounding language he didn’t understand, and Argo quickly retreated away from him. Fixing on a spot against one of the tower’s walls, he accessed his in-game message pad and sent a text to GG.

  Argo: I’m here at the clock tower. Where are you?

  GG: I’ll be right with you.

  Argo scanned the crowd, craning his neck to see if anyone was coming towards him. Out of the sea of hostile faces, he spotted a heavyset balding man in a dark brown tunic heading towards him. Argo quailed as the light of recognition appeared in the player’s eyes and he picked up speed.

  “You Argo?” the man said gruffly when he got to him. He was a head taller than Argo and built like a tank.

  “Yes,” Argo said meekly checking out his stats.

  Name

  GG

  Race

  Human

  Class

  Rogue

  Duelist

  Myrmidon

  Level

  20/20

  Health Points

  370/370

  Stamina Points

  80/80

  Mana Points

  60/60

  GG was a max-level Rogue, taking Duelist as his secondary class and Myrmidon as his final class. This definitely put the player in the big leagues—an end-game player that should have no business putting about with a level 2 noob like Argo.

  “GG, I presume?”

  “As you no doubt know by accessing my profile,” said GG. “So, you got the violin?”

  “I have it. So… we’re finishing the reunification quest here?”

  “No,” GG said, glancing round furtively. “There are other interested parties after both the violin and the bowstring. There’s a huge amount at stake here.”

  “You mean the reward for completing the quest?” said Argo. “What exactly do we get? And what is so special about the violin anyway? What’s this great power it has?”

  “We can’t talk here,” GG said gruffly. “Come on.”

  Argo pressed himself against the wall. “Where are we going? I don’t like this.”

  “Just come along, it’s not safe here,” GG said. “We got to talk.”

  Though he felt intimidated by the big man, Argo stood his ground. “I’m not going anywhere until you show me the bowstring. This could all be a trick to get me to hand over the violin, and then you would get the reward instead of me.”

  GG shook his head. “Believe me, that’s not how it works, kid.”

  Argo stiffened. “You show me the bow or I log out now.”

  “Okay, okay, but only for a moment. Someone might be watching us.”

  Argo glanced around but the market square seemed to be going about its business and nobody else was showing them any attention. GG moved closer to Argo than he was comfortable with before accessing his ghost pack. He took out a slender bowstring of the same shiny black wood and held it up to Argo’s face for inspection.

  The Bowstring of Henrietta Sorzatia

  Legendary Artifact—unlocks the Henrietta Sorzatia questline.

  Quest Unlocked: The family of Henrietta would be most eager to see Henrietta Sorzatia’s legacy returned to them. Take the bowstring to the city of Paleggio in the northern region of the Protectorate to receive their gratitude and a special reward.

  Additional Quest Unlocked: Discover Henrietta’s tragic past and the dark secret held within the violin.

  Additional Quest Unlocked: Locate the Violin of Henrietta Sorzatia to complete the set.

  Quest Restrictions: Only the finder of the bowstring may perform the quest and must carry it out and all additional quests alone for it to be successfully completed. Tell no-one, seek assistance from no-one, or the quest will automatically be withdrawn and the bowstring will respawn in another location.

  The artifact seemed to twinkle with silvery light and Argo felt an irresistible urge to reach out and touch it. GG stowed it away in his pack before he got the chance.

  “Satisfied now?”

  Curiosity had well and truly gotten the better of him, and Argo nodded. “Okay.”

  “This way,” GG said, looking visibly relieved. “Keep your head down and don’t make eye contact with anyone.”

  Argo followed the instructions and let GG take him down a side street leading off from the market square. It opened into a street of dilapidated buildings and slum dwellings, and the other player headed down a network of alleyways through the slums until coming to a large stone warehouse.

  GG went to a side door and unlocked it. “In here,” he said, opening the door into the dim interior.

  Argo wanted to protest about going in there and was almost going to threaten to log out again, but he decided to enter without an argument. He’d come this far with GG, he might as well find out where all this was leading up to. Besides, he wasn’t wearing anything valuable. No armor, no weapons, no jewelry, just his Novice Spy Outfit—default clothing that doesn’t drop even when you die. Oh, and a couple dozen sovereigns for the return trip via carriage and wagon. It would suck to lose that money if GG betrayed him, but nothing to really cry about.

  GG lit an oil lamp that was standing on a crate next to the door. Picking it up, he headed up a flight of wooden stairs that led to a makeshift office. Sickly daylight streamed in through the dirt coated casement windows, and a large desk strewn with rolled u
p parchments and dusty ledger books was the only piece of furniture.