All voices went down, the music started, and I even found it dimly familiar. But I understood less of ballet than an old Aleut hunter knew about modern helicopter engines, so I was not ashamed to read minds in the audience. That told me this was the classic ballet Raymonda, set to the music of composer Alexander Glazunov. The people sitting around me were sincerely touched and happy, watching the spinning dancers, and I also watched the dancing girls. You may call me a hard-hearted blockhead, who with no understanding of true beauty, but ballet was clearly not for me because I couldn’t see why this work was so venerated. I simply watched the girls move about the stage to the music, spinning, jumping, sometimes making mistakes and falling out of synch, worrying, and trying to please the audience.
Nevertheless, my obduracy and absolute lack of understanding did not hinder me from jumping up with the other viewers and applauding loudly, showing the appropriate level of admiration for the mastery and boldness of the dancers. After handing the flowers thrown on stage to her friends and sending the audience air kisses, Gerd Tamara hurried back into the striped tent, wanting to quickly change out of her white ballet dress into something more befitting a feast.
I then, taking advantage of the pause and the fact that everyone in the party was near, estimated the number of guests and came to the conclusion that the Second Legion was here in full.
“If all the soldiers are here, who is guarding Karelia?” I asked my table, above all Roman Pavlovich.
“Guarding from who?” Gerd Tamara’s deputy asked, sincerely surprised. “Your father in law promised five more days of ceasefire, and the Geckho confirmed that understanding, so the Dark Faction wouldn’t dare break it. And other than the darksiders, Karelia only has NPC animals who won’t be attacking the citadel. The Harpies live in the neighboring node, too, but they have become greedy. They not only won’t attack for free, they won’t even flap a wing these days. But of course, there is always some garrison in the Karelia fortress. Right now there are fifteen First Legion guys, and plenty of common players. Plus, Phylira’s Centaurs took a contract to build a road from the Capital node into Karelia, so they can help out if anything happens.”
It was strange to hear Dark Faction Leng Thumor-Anhu La-Fin referred to as my father-in-law. At any rate, the great mage was Princess Minn-O’s grandfather, not father. But still, I didn’t poke holes. What Roman Pavlovich said was true overall. The ceasefire with the Dark Faction had allowed us to finally finish building the fortress in Karelia and send the most capable squadrons to do other business. And where did they get sent, if it was no secret? I was not ashamed to ask that question.
“No, it’s no secret. Tomorrow in the early morning, the full Second Legion and half of the First are being sent far to the south, to the New Bavaria node. It’s our duty to help our new German allies. By the way, Gnat, have you seen the news on TV today?”
I had to admit that, before coming under the Dome, I hadn’t watched TV for a long time, and here at the military base I figured the regime of secrecy made any contact with the outside world strictly limited. But my answer made Roman Pavlovich and the other soldiers laugh:
“Come on, Gnat! This isn’t a prison, we can even leave the building if we get it agreed to by the leadership. Just so you know, we were initially thinking of holding this party not under the Dome but in a restaurant in Sergiev Posad or Dmitrov. But the feds didn’t approve of so many players leaving the dome at the same time. Still, no one is stopping us from getting news from the outside world! Anyway, today our minister of foreign affairs unexpectedly flew to Germany for emergency negotiations. Officially, they say that they’ll be discussing bilateral projects and an unfinished underwater gas pipeline. But you and I understand why he really went out there!”
“The alliance between our factions in the game that bends reality?” I suggested, and I was not wrong.
I knew already after talking with the Germans that the Human-6 Faction was in dire straits. Their starting node was on an island, which was very favorable for initial development, but it was not large and was separated from the continent by four miles of salty sea water. They had sailed to and occupied two nodes on the coast of the gulf two months ago, and that was when their problems started. The NPC Naiads considered the shore theirs, and after the newcomers arrived, they started sinking all their boats, dragging fishermen and pearl divers to the bottom of the sea and harrying the humans in hundreds of other ways.
Using modern technology from the real world, above all echolocation equipment and underwater video drones, the H6 Faction figured out the position of the Naiads’ underwater cities and wiped them off the sea floor with powerful depth charges. But that only served to further enrage them. Other species started coming to help the small three- to five-foot long Naiads. Black deep-water creatures up to nine feet long, and white giants up to twenty-one, but the main thing was that the ghastly sea monsters they controlled. All connection with the capital island was cut off, and the only way of moving between it and the shore were two single-engine aircraft, which had been brought in piece by piece from the real world.
“But how are three hundred of our soldiers, even the most experienced and well-armed, going to help? Or are you going to go to the depths of the sea with aqualungs?”
“We do have aqualungs, but not many,” answered another soldier, who I guessed was Rupor in the game. “But first we’ll try to solve things peacefully. The Naiads no longer speak with the Germans, but maybe they’ll negotiate with us. Our Diplomat Ivan Lozovsky is now accompanying a large caravan of Peresvets with cargo for the Geckho space port, but right from there, he promised to take the ferry to New Bavaria. And if the negotiations don’t work out... well, our troops need to do something in the five days of cease-fire and improving skills and leveling up never hurt!”
“What’s more, we’ll have a bit more than three hundred,” added the other player, a joker with curly red hair. “The second half of the First Legion will also go to New Bavaria but later, after the big hunt. It’s just that in the forest nearest the Citadel, where there has never been anything more dangerous than a wolf before, we’ve been seeing some leviathan. It has eaten four players. We do not even know what kind of creature it is. No one managed to see it before they got killed. But the lumberjacks are afraid and refuse to go into the woods until the problem is handled. So the First Legion wants to spend tomorrow and the day after combing through the forest and exterminating everything even remotely dangerous.”
Everyone around me went silent instantly and stood up. I didn’t understand why at first. As it turned out, Gerd Tamara had slipped through to a free place at the large table. And that seat just so happened to be opposite me. The Leader of the Second Legion had changed her pure white dancing outfit into an unremarkable track suit and was at least a head and a half shorter than all the huge muscle-bound dudes around her. But still some unseen power could be sensed in the miniature girl. Even a totally new faction member, knowing nothing about Tamara and seeing her for the first time in this group of cutthroats would have instantly been able to tell that the fragile doll-faced girl was in charge and the others would follow her to hell and back.
“Well, how was it?” She asked me.
The information I’d read about the opera came in handy. I answered totally sincerely that this was my first time seeing Raymonda and the main actress was sincere and delightful, conveying all the feelings of a beautiful girl on a long journey after a gallant knight.
I guessed right. Seemingly, I’d never have thought up a better answer. The tension and worry instantly fell off Tamara’s face and she started looking satisfied and even happy. Roman Pavlovich, sitting next to his adopted daughter, gave me a surreptitious thumbs up, as if to say, good job, keep it up! With Tamara’s arrival, all conversations about business, Naiads, the Germans and Dark Faction went quiet. Now, everyone was wishing Tamara happy birthday and giving toasts in her honor. And this time I wasn’t able to twist out of it. A shot glass was filled with sur
prising speed as soon as I set it on the table. Tamara then demanded she also be poured some alcohol and none of her soldiers were brave enough to contradict their leader.
“Say, Gnat, what held you up?” she asked at a certain point. And I raised my eyes to her and... turned to stone like a rabbit in front of a constrictor.
Tamara had asked quietly and politely, but I saw the cold challenging gaze of an inquisitor and could sense that a truthful answer was very important to her and she was applying all her abilities and skills to get it. The merriment and conversations instantly went quiet. Dozens of eyes were staring at me and I felt like I was being interrogated. I was not sure I could lie now, even though I didn’t need to.
I honestly told her about the Geckho military base and the crushing might I had seen there. I told her about the Meleyephatian fortress and the grand space battle. In comparison with the forces that met there, all our sectarian struggles for resources, disputes about who owned what node and all our conflicts looked like nothing more than children’s’ squabbles in a sand box over mud-pies and shovels. Humanity in its current form had no chance of stopping such might if it wanted to destroy our planet. Just one tong of safety was very little, and we stood very little chance of developing enough to repel an invasion of any of the great space races.
“Do you mean to say that we are doing nothing down here by fighting the Dark Faction and saving our world from destruction?” Tamara had still not raised her voice, but I could sense how the others at the table had started to perceive me. A minute earlier, they considered me one of their own, but now they looked at me with cold tense gazes, seeing in me a potential enemy. Despite the strain, I was simply in awe of Tamara’s abilities. It was true wizardry on the part of the delicate little girl to manipulate a crowd so skillfully.
“No, you’re doing exactly what you must. The Dark Faction is a clear enemy, trying to destroy us at any cost. Leng Thumor-Anhu La-Fin will spare no human or material resources and has even invited the legendary General Ui-Taka to advise him. In their world, he is considered the greatest strategist of his time. So a conflict with the darksiders is inevitable, and here we either win or die. Coruler Thumor-Anhu finds the concepts of humanism, mercy and sympathy utterly foreign. In the last year, he was not troubled by murdering six million people just to bring down the number of mouths to feed during a famine. So we cannot expect mercy from him if we lose.”
I saw the soldiers listening intently, simply hanging on every word. Seemingly, the details Princess Minn-O had told me from her grandfather’s biography had not been heard by our faction before. But they fit very neatly into the picture they already had of a ghastly and murderous enemy. But to me, it seemed the time had come to tell them my own impression of the situation:
“Beyond the objective of winning the ongoing war with our unpeaceable Dark Faction neighbors, there is another no less important goal: in less than one tong, we must be able to withstand a possible and even expected attack from outer space. We have to reinforce very seriously, implementing advanced technologies from the great spacefaring races, and also obtaining friends and allies. First of all and most importantly, we need our Geckho suzerains to think of humanity as a valuable ally, something worth defending after the tong of safety is over. Second, there are other humans in deep space. To my eye, they are our most obvious allies. Third, the galaxy is not limited to just people and Geckho. There are also other spacefaring races. Cultivating friendly and mercantile relations with them would mean crossing them off the list of potential aggressors, and maybe even making allies. Those have been my three main objectives, and I consider my work no less important than yours!”
Gerd Tamara spent a long time looking at me, as if she couldn’t find the words to answer. And the soldiers of the Second Legion were in silence together with their leader for so long it made me uncomfortable. Finally, the miniature girl’s gaze came to life and the corners of her lips stretched up. At that, Tamara was clearly afraid. I could see her top lip quaking and her left cheek twitching.
“Gnat, my head really hurts from all this loud music, sound and smoke from the fires. I need to go somewhere quieter. Why don’t you come with me? We have something to discuss, and I have everything to continue the feast in my room.”
Chapter Thirteen. Sad Celebration
I SUSPECT THAT the delicate dark-haired girl’s head was aching not so much because of the loud music and smoke as from the alcohol. I had to admit that, during the celebration, I was surprised that none of the experienced adults had warned their young commander to stop when she tried to keep up with the soldiers of her squadron, pouring herself glass after glass. On the way to the residential area, I even had to hold Tamara up, because her legs stopped obeying and were bending into bizarre sine-waves as we went up the park path.
“Everything is a-alright, Kirill. I’m f-fine!” the little headstrong Tamara was stubborn when I suggested she go take a rest on the bench.
Despite her vain attempts at resistance and threats to “shoot me in the game again if I didn’t let her go right now,” I picked her up and carried her into her building. Yana, who was at reception, hurried to get out the electronic key to Tamara’s room and ran ahead to open it for us. And I carried the her into the room and carefully set her down on a large couch after quickly removing her shoes and placing a plush pillow embroidered with a cartoon Mermaid under her head.
“Don’t leave, Gnat!” she asked when I was turning to go. “Sit here with me for a second. I admit, I overdid it, but the weakness will pass soon. I have very high Constitution in the game that bends reality, and that gives me good regeneration here in the real world, and high resistance to toxins. Ten minutes, a half hour maximum and I’ll be back to full strength.”
I looked at the fragile girl and had a hard time believing in her high Constitution. Nevertheless, I didn’t go anywhere and sat on the edge of the couch, giving a kind-hearted chuckle:
“Constitution, you say? I couldn’t even feel your weight when I was carrying you. All you’re ‘constituted’ of is skin and bones.”
I was actually bending the truth, and Tamara had a very harmonious body-shape for her small height. Of course, you couldn’t say she had “mile-long legs” or a double-D breasts but she was pretty cute.
Tamara first smiled at my joke, but then decided to comment with notes of pity:
“You shouldn’t be laughing. I actually have high Constitution, best in our faction. My Constitution was fifteen at first, but I put all five from the Labyrinth in it, then raised it two more with practice. And when I became a Gerd, I put six of my eight stat points into Constitution as well, giving a total of thirty-two. When you add the bonus points and rings, I have a whopping thirty-four. For a Paladin, it is the most important statistic, which defines the number of hitpoints, endurance and resistance to all kinds of damage. If I didn’t have such high Constitution, I wouldn’t be able to wear my exoskeleton armor or use high-caliber machine guns.”
Constitution thirty-four?! That inspired respect, no way around it. As did the speed with which Tamara recovered from the alcohol. Five minutes before, her tongue was slurring and she could barely stand, but now she was singing like a nightingale and looked utterly normal. I suspected that her ability to quickly recover from wounds and poisons was well known to the Second Legion, which explained their lack of concern about her alcohol abuse. But a different part of Tamara’s tale had caught my interest:
“So you passed the Labyrinth? I heard that they waited almost a day for you and were very worried.”
“That is true. But I spent almost all that time in the character generation room. I was too afraid to leave...” it looked like a shadow ran across her face. The smile instantly crawled off her face and her eyes went dim. “Kirill, do you have any idea what it’s like to suddenly wake up in a healthy body after four years being blind, deaf, paralyzed and talking to yourself at the edge of madness?! I saw myself in a mirror, I COULD SEE myself, move my arms and legs, and... I coul
dn’t stop bawling! I didn’t know where I was or why I suddenly got better, but I was horribly afraid that moment of joy would end as soon as I left the tiny little room.”
Tamara extended her little hand and carefully placed it in mine. Her fingers were unnaturally cold, and I squeezed her hand to warm it up.
“Then I spent a lot of time in thought, choosing between a Paladin and a Matriarch, and reading all the information. I had no one to ask for advice, so I had to figure it all out and think for myself. But I didn’t have any problems with the Labyrinth itself, because I had walked through it many times in my sleep. Yes, it came to me in my dreams as I lied there blind and paralyzed. And so did you, and this room, and really this whole day, even my dance. Imagine, I started practicing it four years ago!”
“You saw me in your visions?” I hooked into the girl’s words, and Tamara gave a distinct nod:
“Yes! Many, many times. I saw your face, your glowing blue eyes... And I recognized you the first time we met in the game. Or to be more accurate... not right away, but when I saw your dead body. Back then, I thought you were pitiful and weak, and I was very disappointed. But now you’ve changed. Now you’re a reputable and intriguing man like in my visions... By the way Kirill, could you bring me some water? I’m just dying of thirst. The cooler is next to the fridge. There’s a clean glass right there.”
When I came back a minute later with a cup of water, Tamara had already managed to get a dark soft plaid and wrap herself in it up to her chin. Clearly, she was freezing. Although... I noticed her track suit, hurriedly thrown on a far-away chair. And her crumpled up leggings and lacy black underwear were on the floor behind the chair. It was not hard to imagine how Tamara now looked under the plaid.
She instantly realized I had figured it out, and a mischievous twinkle glimmered in her eyes:
Game Changer (Reality Benders Book #3) LitRPG Series Page 13