by Prax Venter
“Thank you again for the food,” Jezebel said. “This means a lot to us, too.”
Cel nodded and retreated back to the edge of the ocean with her protector to wait for dawn while Mark, Sasha, Jezebel, and Abby ate their fill from the strange giant clover.
“Now that we’re all awake, we should do point distribution,” Jezebel said as she sat back down among the thick clover leaves. “That being said, I’d like to save these points for my next level of Shapeshifting Mastery. Should let me be more effective in my bear form, which includes talking and casting my vines spell.”
Everyone agreed with that plan, and then Mark turned to Abby.
“Any new mind-melting powers open up for you?”
The petite abyssal horror sat close to Mark and wrapped her long appendages around her knees.
“Indeed, some have, but I was thinking about resolving a logic error with my innate Mind Cloud ability.”
“Logic error?” Jezebel asked.
“Currently, we are afraid to use it because we don’t know if enemies can see me before we test it. This is a problem, and I only need to spend half my current store on upgrading it to be more reliably effective on most minds. Also, the next node on this path will allow me to cast spells while concealed.”
Everyone was in, and Mark took another bite of his tangy midnight snack as he turned to Sasha.
“I’m thinking of saving my points too. My next Arc Bolt upgrade lowers the cooldown and has a chance to jump to one additional enemy. Although I should dump a few points into agility to keep things balanced.”
“You guys know what you are doing,” Mark said, and everyone agreed with Sasha’s plan for her growth.
He wiped his chin clean with the sleeve of his silk shirt and settled back down into the cloves to get some rest. Getting back to sleep seemed far out of reach as Mark replayed his bizarre encounter with the tortured mind of the Crystal Heart administrator and began to focus on how his abilities affected her. A connection to something said by the entity called He Who Judges snapped together in his mind, and a wave of certainty washed over Mark.
With more power and more experience, would he be able to abuse his gifts and open a portal straight out of this simulation? He’d already decided to make more friends, but there was a specific pull from the dark crackling energy to help the good people of this world. The powerful deity said Mark would be able to open new doors to new worlds if he did just that, and all his goals seemed to align.
Mark knew the four of them would figure this out and escape, and with a fading smile on his face, he drifted off to sleep again.
- 15 -
An instant after the orange disk of distant fire peeked over the dark ocean, the Behemoth Bumblebee phased back into existence with a spectacular reverse explosion of colored images. Mono-hued shapes condensed from thin air to form the giant, fluffy insect in a burst of dazzling light, and Mark tried not to gasp. The plan was to bring the thing closer before giving it a target for its powerful ranged attack.
The bee started up its droning wings, and Mark felt their deep hypnotic bass shake the grass-covered stairs under him as it lazily drifted away.
Abby was supposedly emanating her upgraded Mind Cloud next to him, but he still couldn’t see any difference. She tucked herself very close to his side anyway as they waited.
Mark heard her whisper, “It’s not coming,” but as soon as she did, the bee stopped buzzing, turned around and began scrambling over the mammoth flowers straight toward them.
He rubbed her bare back, and she knew it was almost time to start casting.
When the blimp-sized Behemoth Bumblebee drew to within about thirty yards, Mark triggered their plan by standing up.
“Good morning, my fat friend!” he yelled as Abby began chanting.
The giant insect’s multifaceted eyes saw this audacious creature dare to wiggle within its domain, and rainbow-hued light began to gather on the tips of its dropping antennae. Mark activated his barrier a moment before the plasma-like beam triggered and blocked the wild blast.
This time Cel, Dar, and Sasha were waiting under the fat leaves below and out of range, allowing Mark to focus on the chaotic swirls of colorful magic hypnotically filling his vision. After the light show on his translucent barrier, Mark readied his summoned weapon.
The enormous creature reacted to the shield the same as it had yesterday and turned around to try and sting it, but before it could, Abby finished her spell, and an enormous gash appeared where the bee’s wings joined its back. Mark then reached out with his solid energy as if it were merely an extension of his hand, and as he clamped the summoned ethereal fingers onto its stinger, Sasha tossed her Shock Bomb up into the insect’s face from below.
By the time her crackling explosive detonated and stunned its brain, Jezebel had already started her galloping sprint up the stairs. Abby tucked herself behind Mark as the armored bear thundered past in a brown blur before leaping off with a savage roar.
Her weight pushed the Behemoth Bumblebee to the ground, and Mark unsummoned his magic glove. He saw everyone below tear the unsuspecting creature to shreds. He and his team of badass monster-women had never been more in sync, and it wasn’t long before both Collectors felt the rush of essence flood their bodies. This thing was worth about a quarter of a tank.
“Whooo!” Cel cheered as her smaller reservoir filled up much more. “Mmm, I could get used to that.” She turned her cabbage-helmed head to face her stoic protector, and Dar reached out to take her hand.
“Great work, everyone!” Mark yelled out as he came down the stairs with Abby. “Time to turn this quest in.”
As planned, they all gathered around the bee corpse. The body from the day before had faded at some point during the night, and Cel was glad to find that her new stinger halves were still attached to her belt. But this was the real test. Could she really leave the island with her weapons and her new enthralled Sacred Nut?
Jezebel pulled out the tree-shaped plaster object, and they all grabbed onto her or linked hands.
“Everyone ready?” she asked.
Everyone nodded, and Jezebel snapped the Starglade recall charm.
The world instantly flipped, and they reappeared near Noma’s desk within the great tree.
Mark turned to count five people with him. Dar, the enthralled Sacred Nut, searched his new surroundings, and Cel still had her weapons. But the absence of the warm glow that saturated the anomalous garden made everything feel strange- as if he were back on land after a month at sea.
“It was a huge success!” the leaf-wrapped Fighter said as she pumped her fist into the air.
“Congratulations, little sprout!” Noma cheered as the animated vines lowered him to the ground. The first thing the old master did was move straight to Dar and study the alien-like creature with his milky eyes.
“Your partner appears to be a stalwart defender. What is your name, young man?”
“Dar, sir,” he said. “I am stunned to see so many new sights and scents.”
“You’ll get along just fine. I’m sure of it.” He then turned his withered form toward Mark. “Here,” the Guild Master said before he held up a wooden pendant on a leather cord. “You’ll want to put that on as soon as possible.”
Mark only hesitated for a half a second before deciding that he trusted this little plant creature to steer him right. He took the necklace, pulled it over his head, and the moment it passed his ears, Mark felt a rush of essence flow into him from the universe as he received his full reward for completing Cel’s quest.
At this rate, he’d be full again before lunch.
“You,” a low male voice boomed from the archway. “What have you done?”
Mark looked up to see a purple-tinged cabbage-like Kalorplast in a black suit. He had a lit cigar in one hand and a pair of sunglasses in the other. Beside him were two other plant-elves, but they looked like they were from a larger species and had several sharp-looking thorns sprouting from their heads
. He came stomping into the area on shiny black shoes that click-clacked on the polished wooden floor, and his bodyguards followed close behind. “I recalled as soon as I got the alert. How dare you leave the castle without my permission.”
Dar stepped forward and placed himself between the sneering daughter and her wealthy father. Cel took his hand and stepped forward to stand alongside her new partner.
“You have no say over me anymore, Father. I am a Collector.”
Her father looked similar to the two sisters, but Mark could see that the feisty warrior had a lot in common with this pissed plant-elf sucking on his cigar.
“I’ll find a way-”
“You’ll find,” Guild Master Noma said, talking over Cel’s father, “that your daughter has made her choice, and you know there is nothing you can do about it.”
The older plant man turned his red-hued eyes toward Mark and projected a growing hatred for the person that helped take his daughter away from him.
“Speaking of choices,” Noma continued, “this Human Collector is quite unique and is on a legendary quest. He wears your house sigil on his chest, Mosan. I recommend you choose to fill out a CEO Starglade Request Voucher instead of wasting time on fighting your own daughter in the branch courts. If your name can be directly traced to his quest as a House Backer, your family will gain great favor. If you choose not to do this, I will be going to other Houses.”
Cel’s father, Mosan, lifted his focus from his house necklace quest reward to Mark’s scarred and blind eye.
“What makes this unknown Lover unique? My standing would plummet if I appear foolish in front of the High Board.”
Mosan was good at hiding his true thoughts and feelings, but Mark could tell that a good word from the Guild Master was nothing to sneeze at.
“Well?” Noma said before poking Mark in the leg. “Do something to prove you are the chosen one.”
This crafty old chunk of rotting wood knew this was going to happen right from the beginning, and Mark was getting the sense that every single one of these Kalorplast were frighteningly intelligent and ultra-manipulative.
Fine. If they wanted to see what he could do, he would test his own limits in the process.
“My name is Mark,” he said, taking one step forward as he formed a ghostly blue helmet that spread outward from his eye sockets. He found his goddess-given pool of energy was deeper than he remembered, and with surging confidence, he covered his whole top half with ghostly armor before holding up his hand and activating a wide-area healing effect. As the golden flecks of starlight fell around everyone in the room, Mark summoned his baseball bat and stood over this influential Kalorplast.
“I am a Lover and a Fighter.”
Cel’s father’s eyes held fear under the blue glow from Mark’s display of power, but they soon shifted back down to his house’s sigil around the neck of this impossible Collector. His bodyguards both took a step forward, but their boss held up a hand for them to stand down.
Mark let his power fade and learned that holding large amounts of energy in place for any length of time was going to take more practice- but the message was delivered.
Mosan sucked on the smoldering plant matter and blew it out, filling the area in acrid smoke. Mark’s mind rejected the notion of a smoking plant-person, but it was becoming easier to just let the madness wash over him.
Something changed in the older Kalorplast Royal, and he turned to face his daughter with a different attitude.
“It became clear over the years that I could never stop you from pursuing the dangerous life of a Collector, but I had to try.”
“I promise we’ll come and visit at least every two seasons,” Cel said. “Father, this is Dar. He’s a Sacred Nut.”
“Of course he is,” Mosan said. “It’s all you’ve ever talked about for years.”
Dar stepped forward. “I will protect your daughter from all harm until my final breath.”
Cel’s old man sucked on his cigar again and nodded as he inspected her young defender like he was livestock.
“Good, because if you outlive her, Enthralled, I will send out an army to hold you to your word. Now get out of here, my little leaflet, and go off on whatever treasure hunting nonsense Noma has filled your head with. Apparently, Daddy’s got some business to conduct.”
“Be good to Mark,” Cel said with a serious tone. “He and his Enthralled have given me much of what I was missing and helped prepare us for the realities of combat.”
Mosan narrowed his eyes and then nodded, revaluating Mark yet again.
Mark and his team hugged the short, leaf-armored Fighter and shook hands with Dar, wishing them good luck in their adventures.
“Perhaps we’ll run into each other out there in some hidden corner of the wide world,” Cel said with a content smile before she led her nut-man out through the arch into the massive hallway.
When she was gone, her father turned back to Guild Master Noma.
“What’s this legendary quest, you old pile of bark?”
The old pile of bark raised his knobby hand and pointed at the glass-covered pedestal with the remaining seven crystals.
“It’s the Crystal Heart Shards, Mosan. There are only seven left. Mark here absorbed one already, and the CEO will have to be informed either way. You going to back him, or shall I go somewhere else?”
Cel’s father rubbed his leafy chin.
“Starglade already holds ownership over the reward?” he mumbled then seemed to remember something. “Rotting roots, Noma, those ancient things are considered evil, aren’t they?”
“I’m glad you remember at least part of my teachings, but it has never been established that they inherently draw evil. Only surmised. Besides, I can feel it in my sap. These people are not evil.”
Mark gave Mosan a winning smile, but his mind involuntarily flashed back to all the potentially evil stuff these AI women had done in their pasts. He shook it off and focused on this unfamiliar exchange of power.
“Excuse me, gentlemen,” Mark said, holding up his finger. “While it’s true I don’t consider myself evil, I’d very much like to know what is going on here. What exactly does it mean to wear this sigil? And what is being decided right now?”
He lifted the small wooden plaque with the strange ringed symbol engraved into its surface.
Cel and Penda’s father pulled in a few more swift puffs before letting out a big sigh. Whatever this guy was smoking started to make Mark lightheaded, and he was now certain that it was not tobacco. Abby, on the other hand, looped a tentacle around Mark’s waist as she moved closer, sniffing the strange aroma with her small green nose.
“I can’t just give you the shards, Mark,” the Guild Master said with a twinge of sadness in his ancient voice. “Your legendary quest objectives are the property of the Kalorplast Conglomerate. The CEO will have to decide what to do- most likely, it will be an undertaking that benefits the great tree in the current centaur war.”
“And you won’t even set one foot into the boardroom unless you have backing from one of the Royal Houses,” Mosan added with a sly smile.
Sasha’s spade tail snapped behind her, pulling the purple-tinged royal’s attention.
“I suppose if we are going to advance any Starglade family, I’d want it to be Cel’s.”
Jezebel nodded. “The way I understand it, if Mosan gets enough favor, he can apply for a promotion. Their House could hold a position on the Board.”
“Why do you propagate this aromatic particulate?” Abby asked.
Everyone turned to look at the abyssal horror, but Mosan spoke first.
“You’ve never seen a cigar? Where did you find these odd hairy people?”
Noma ignored the question and walked back toward his chair among the vines.
“I’ve already drafted the document,” Noma said over his shoulder, and one of the leafy tendrils pulled a rolled-up parchment from somewhere under his desk. “Stamp your marking before these good people decide to p
ropel another House up the boughs.”
Cel’s father gave them all another clearly objectifying appraisal before he moved over to the desk with his arms crossed.
“I don’t appreciate you using my daughter in your schemes, old one.”
“This isn’t my scheme, child, and if you brazenly accuse me of doing wrong against you again, I will file for arbitration.”
Whatever this arbitration was sent a shiver through Mosan.
The Guild Master hobbled into the wall, and the vines once again wrapped themselves around him, leaving only his ancient face exposed. At the same time, one of the vines slid the parchment across the table. Noma continued.
“Your daughter is happy, and you have an opportunity to advance your house. The time has come to make your decision, Mosan, Head of House Nightwater.”
Mark saw the plant-man bob his cabbage-wrapped head from behind while he put down his sunglasses on the counter. He then reached into his suit jacket and pulled out a brown block of wood. The head of his House then pressed what had to be a signature into the paper.
“I’m doing this because Cel recommended you, Mark,” he said, still facing away. “I must do everything I can to protect my family, but if they drift from my roots, my only want is for them to be happy.”
Guild Master Noma nodded solemnly as his animated tendril collected the parchment. With a bright flash, the signed document vanished into the vine as glowing green energy. Mark watched as the illumined part moved up the long plant and up into the curved ceiling far above as if it were some sort of pneumatic tube system.
“I bid you good fortune,” Mosan said as he turned to face Mark again, “for all our sakes.” He walked past his bodyguards, who turned to follow him out of the conservatory.
“An attendant will be here any moment,” Noma said as three cat-like people came strolling through the archway from the hall. One was an orange-and-black-colored female who paused to looked over to Mark before they passed.