Craig looked worried. “Um, okay,” he said hesitantly. “Well, there’s different adventures, and all of them are cool. You can get to the Forest of Heliox, the Celestial Realm, the Eagle’s Crest or the Ebring Fei Desert, and all of them will get you victory points and big upgrades.”
“Just give me the dirt on the communication point,” Nate repeated patiently.
Craig leaned over the counter. “So this is the deal,” he said in a hushed voice. “You gotta go straight to the Ebring Fei. You’ll already be at least at level ten if you make it that far. Otherwise nothing. And it’s not easy to get there. You’re gonna get killed, like, hundreds of times. So just expect that from the outset.”
Nate nodded. “Great. Good to know. Tell me more.”
“The Ebring Fei is huge,” Craig said. “Lots of ground to cover. There’s this dried out riverbed there, and there’s a cave in it. This huge underground hole.”
Elisa and Nate exchanged glances.
“It’s pitch black in there,” Craig went on. “So you have to bring your own light, or else you fall off this cliff into the chasm and die. And you have to go deep. You’re looking for the Obelisk of the Lost Tribe of Aras, but it’s guarded by the slaughtered priestesses of Aras, so you gotta make a sacrifice to them if you wanna go any further.” Craig looked around the store surreptitiously. “Um. I’m actually not supposed to talk about gaming in here, ‘cause I end up talking too much. My boss said if I did it again he’d fire me. So if I talk for too long, just tell me, okay?”
“You can’t possibly talk too much to us, Craig,” Elisa assured him. “Have at it.”
“We intend to spend a lot of money in here today if you tell us what we need to know,” Nate told him. “So at least today, this is just good customer service.”
Craig needed no further encouragement. Nate held up his smartphone and recorded his lengthy monologue, which was disjointed and full of detours, but still packed with useful details. Craig also gave them a list of the best YouTube video guides for finding their way through the Ebring Fei, locating the dry riverbed and avoiding deadly pitfalls. Of which there were many.
“I read in a forum that the game designers named it Shards of Ruin because you can have a bunch of different, completely separate adventures, and you can get torn to pieces in a gazillion different ways,” Craig said enthusiastically. “So it’s like, the stories are broken into pieces, too. Into shards, get it?”
At a certain point, Craig began to repeat himself, and Nate stopped the recording. He bought two gaming consoles, two monitors, and two copies of the game. Elisa pulled out her wad of saved tips to pay for it, but Nate just gave her an incredulous look.
“Really?” he said. “We’re still there? Aren’t we in this together now?”
“I’m really glad of that, and I’m grateful, but that doesn’t mean you have to pay for all of it,” Elisa protested. “You already covered the hotel, for God’s sake.”
“Jeez,” Craig said wistfully. “Your girlfriend wants to pay for your gaming gear? Dude, you’re living the dream.”
“Yeah, it’s pretty sweet,” Nate agreed, sliding a couple of bills discreetly across the table. “Thanks for all the tips. We appreciate it more than you will ever know.”
Craig’s eyes went big as he looked down at the money. “Holy shit! I, umm…I don’t think I’m supposed to, ah…”
“You really helped,” Nate assured him. “You were very generous.”
They wheeled the shopping cart piled with boxes out to the Jeep and packed them into the back, and Elisa got back into the passenger’s seat, but Nate hesitated.“One more little thing,” he said.
“What?” she demanded. “Let’s go back. Now. Let’s get started.”
“There’s a woman’s clothing store right there,” he said. “Let’s just grab a few things for you. You’ve got nothing except what’s on you right now. You need some stuff.”
“It’s a sweet thought, but I’m not in the mood for shopping,” Elisa said. “I want to get into that game and hit it hard, right freaking now.”
“I understand, and we totally will, but it’s just a few minutes,” he coaxed. “Just a few little things. You don’t have to try things on. Just eyeball them. Indulge me.”
He kept at it until she gave in. After all, he held the car keys.
Predictably enough, she ended up walking out of the store with her hair practically on fire and four huge shopping bags filled with clothes. Underwear, socks, boots, T-shirts, sweatshirts, sexy nighties, jeans, teddies, fluffy sweaters, fleecy pajamas. Cashmere and mohair sweaters, sexy wrap tops. Nate had just grabbed anything he saw that he liked and tossed it in. And he liked freaking everything.
“You’re insane!” she fumed, once they were back in the car. “I’m not a doll to be dressed!”
“Of course not. But I can’t wait to see that blue silk thing on you. So hot.”
“That was unnecessary and absolutely extravagant!”
“Sure,” Nate’s voice was mild. “But if I see something pretty that’s nice quality, I just want you to have it. You deserve nice things.”
She was opening her mouth to scold him…and the words dried up, as she thought of those years with Gil. Buying all the costly clothing, working out every day in the gym, dieting anxiously. Always hungry. Learning to apply makeup like a pro, getting her hair done all the time. Trying so hard to live up to his expectations.
And it was never enough. She never felt deserving of his approval. There was always something to criticize, something to correct. Her hair, her speech, her choice of words. Her laugh was too high-pitched, her smile wasn’t wide enough, her eyes were always half-closed in the publicity photographs, she was too stiff in front of the cameras, too uptight in the interviews.
She was too stiff and uptight in bed, too. Surprise, surprise.
You do want to improve yourself, don’t you? Gil had always asked that question when she protested his relentless criticism. Don’t you want to grow? Do you just want to sit back? Give in to mediocrity? Shall I just lower my standards right now?
Put that way, it had been hard to defend herself. What was she defending, anyway? Mediocrity? Laziness? Sloppiness? Sloth?
It was embarrassing to think how long it had taken to understand what she should have known all along. That Gil wasn’t the goddamn arbiter of her worth. He didn’t get to set standards for her. She didn’t deserve to be scolded and derided.
She had to fight so hard for that realization, but hey. Better late than never.
Being with Nate was so different. It was like night and day. It felt so strange and lovely, this wild idea that she just deserved approval, for no particular reason. Without having to earn it or win it by being perfect. Just for being who she was.
Nate was looking at her with a frown. “What? Did I say something wrong?”
She coughed to clear her tight throat. “Not at all,” she said. “On the contrary. The clothes are great. Thank you. I know I’ll enjoy wearing them.”
He looked taken aback. “Huh,” he said. “That’s one hell of a quick about-face.”
“Sorry,” she said. “I freaked out. I’m just locked into super-thrift mode, and it’s really hard for me to make the adjustment all at once.”
“I hear you. I spent my whole childhood in super-thrift mode. Me and my mom. When we were with my dad, he hung onto the money and never gave her a cent to shop with. And when it was just the two of us, we lived out of our car.”
“Oh God, Nate,” she said. “That’s awful.”
“It’s okay,” he said quickly. “I didn’t mean to make you feel bad. I’m doing just fine, now. And I like it that I can buy you nice things without pinching pennies. I’ll always be sorry that I never got a chance to do that for my mom.”
“I’m so sorry,” she said.
“Will you model the clothes for me later?”
“You are pushing your luck really hard,” she told him. “Not before playing Shards of Ruin.”
“Oh hell, no. I wouldn’t dream of it. But later?”
“Later,” she promised. “Definitely later.”
“I can’t wait. And you know what the next shopping trip will be, to celebrate once all this is wrapped up? An art supplies store. I think I’d really get off on following you around in one of those places, watching you dump your art stuff into your cart right and left. Pencils, paints, paper, whatever your artist’s heart desires.”
That blindsided her. She had to look away fast, before he saw her eyes fill.
“What?” Nate asked, alarmed. “Oh no. Shit. What did I say now?”
It took a few minutes of him repeating the question before she could control her voice enough to reply. “Relax,” she assured him, reaching over to pat his thigh. “I’m fine. You just touched a tender spot.”
“Is that good or bad?” he demanded.
She wiped her eyes and gave him a misty smile. “It’s great,” she said in a husky whisper. “I like it when you touch my tender spots. You’re very good at it.”
She could tell from the look in his eyes and the way he shifted in the driver’s seat that her words had turned him on. Good. Let him suffer.
Art supplies, her ass. That seductive bastard.
15
They had a long and spirited argument before finally settling on the lowly hograt as their steed of choice. Elisa had insisted on it. Nate held that it was counterintuitive. The damn thing was so small and scrawny and ugly. Plus, he had money to throw at this game for points, so they’d make better time with a swifter mount that cost more. They’d cover more ground in less time. It was a no-brainer.
Relative to their humanoid on-screen avatars, the hograt was about the size of a burro, but it was hairless and warty, with a wet, fleshy mouth and protruding, slimy yellow teeth. It had thick, grotesquely muscular kangaroo-like back legs. A yellow-green tinted vapor hung around it, suggesting that it stank. It looked diseased and misbegotten. Like bad luck personified.
The other choices were more attractive. There was a big, shimmering, sinuous lizard creature that flashed through the desert sands at high speeds. There was a massive, armored creature that looked like a giant rhino out of a nightmare. Another choice was a flying creature like a silvery pteradon, with a mouthful of snaggled, dagger-sharp teeth. All of those options looked far more promising to Nate.
But Josh had mentioned the hograt by name, and Elisa was adamant. So they got to limp-hop their way through this vast game landscape at a fucking snail’s pace.
There were unpleasant surprises from the start. Yes, the hograt was cheap, point-wise, but the animal could only be controlled with an expensive spell that had to be bought separately, in advance. Otherwise, it turned around and promptly ate the player. That was a nasty little detail they both discovered to their cost.
Lots of blood. Not a great beginning, but whatever. Back to the top.
It had taken a long time to get going. Setting up two game stations, two monitors, and Elisa was a novice, so she was clumsy and slow, and emotionally on edge, not a great combination for gaming. She made up for it with her stoic tenacity.
The whole enterprise required massive multitasking. Nate simultaneously played his own game, coached Elisa through hers, and watched the YouTube videos Craig had recommended on his tablet. The YouTuber he was watching was a screamer, which grated on Nate’s nerves, but he’d do anything to garner fast tips.
Hours ground by. Slow. Frustrating. Stops and starts. Sudden and ugly deaths, gruesome dismemberments. Elisa got better, but she fell into every trap and snare.
“Aw, shit,” Elisa snapped.
“What happened this time?”
“Eaten again. That big thing buried in the sand with the mouth like a big garbage disposal. Me and Yellow Tusk just slipped right down into its maw. Damn it.”
“My condolences,” Nate said. “Respawn fast.”
The day passed like that. Nate ordered in sandwiches and fruit and a couple of pieces of those famous layer cakes that Gina had talked about, one a towering chocolate cake, the other strawberry shortcake with layers of Bavarian cream.
Sometime in the afternoon, once Elisa had found her feet and he was no longer watching the YouTube videos, he actually started to appreciate the game itself. It actually deserved the hype. It had good graphics, good music, creative interactive design, and an endless series of fiendishly sadistic traps for players to fall into.
He wasn’t much of a gamer himself. He hadn’t had the option as a kid, so he’d never programmed his mind to crave it. But his Marine buddies had introduced him to it late, during his deployments, and he’d learned to enjoy it. It was good for killing down time, and for not thinking about bad things. Always a useful tool.
Elisa had come to grief again, judging by the crescendo of profanity coming from her gamer console. She pounded the table, making her empty, chocolate cake-smeared plate slide to the ground, clattering and bouncing.
“What is it now?” he asked.
“Dead again,” she snapped. “I tripped on a snare in the fucking Canyon of Shadows. Dumped an avalanche of rocks down on myself. The bandits are feasting on my broken body right now. Someone’s chomping on my avatar’s leg. Disgusting.”
“Don’t take it personally. You made it farther this time than ever before. You’ll get through the Canyon of Shadows this time. It’s killed you how many times now?”
“Three. But I hate losing the time,” she bitched. “You’re levels ahead of me now. Damn, this shit is hard.” She gulped cold coffee. “I can’t believe how I used to lecture Josh for wasting his time on video games. Now I wish I’d been playing with him.” She looked at the screen, and winced. “Oh, lovely. They’re eating my insides.”
“Don’t watch, just respawn,” he urged. “Get right back up on the hograt.”
“Those game designers are a bunch of degenerate psychopaths,” she muttered.
The longer they played, the further the real world seemed to retreat from them. Day darkened into evening without them noticing. Neither of them even thought about dinner.
At a certain point, Nate was so much further ahead that Elisa abandoned her console in disgust and dragged her chair over to watch Nate’s screen as he played. He was deep in the Ebring Fei Desert, making his way carefully up the dried out riverbed that would lead to the Godringer Cleft, or so they had been instructed by Craig, and in the YouTube gamer videos. She caught her breath as he dodged a nest of crystal vultures just in time to avoid being torn to pieces and fed to the hungry hatchlings.
Nate’s avatar swiftly sprayed a canister of poison at the nest of fuzzy, bobbing heads and snapping, hissing beaks and spurred his hograt to lurch on past them, leaving the hatchlings writhing in their death throes.
Then Elisa straightened up. “Oh God.” Her voice shook. “The cairn of rocks. The dead tree that marks the spot. Craig talked about that.”
“Yeah.” He turned his avatar in a circle several times before he saw it. A jagged fissure in the towering cliff. It was barely visible if you weren’t looking for it, but at the bottom of the tumbled rocks on the level of the riverbed, the crack widened slightly at the bottom into a low, narrow cave.
At that point, it finally became clear to them why they were stuck with the unprepossessing hograt. It was the only mount small enough to get inside the cave, and once Nate had maneuvered the beast into the tiny opening, and lit the lanterns, they saw that the cave was a chasm, a canyon in the dark, too deep to see the bottom.
The only way inside was down a crumbling, barely-there roadway that hugged the sheer rock face. It wound down and disappeared into the darkness. But at regular intervals, large chunks of it were crumbled away to nothing.
The hograt’s thick, kangaroo-like hind legs could jump over the gaps in the path. Therefore, the only possible way down into the cave was by hograt.
Nate descended slowly and carefully. Too exhausted to face the thought of dying, respawning and having to go through th
e canyon and its perils again. Elisa was perched on the edge of her seat, rocking slightly, her knuckles in her mouth.
Crawl…hop. Crawl….hop. Crawl…hop. Slow and easy.
When he reached the bottom, he found himself on the banks of an underground river. His avatar and the hograt bounded from one huge, tumbled rock to another.
“Please, don’t die,” Elisa begged. “I can’t take any more of this.”
“Doing my best,” he told her. “Don’t distract me.”
He pressed forward into the dark. The circle of light cast by his lantern was all that lit his way forward. He’d started wondering if he was going to have to buy more points to replenish lantern fuel when he finally saw an eerie glow, far ahead.
“Is that the Obelisk?” Elisa said.
“Please, God,” Nate muttered.
“Stay to the right side of the corridor, remember. Or the ceiling stalactites will fall down and skewer you. Isn’t that what Craig said?”
“Yes, that’s right.” Nate guided the hograt as far to the right of the widening chamber as he could. He rounded the curve of a rock formation, and there it was.
The Obelisk towered high in the vast, dark chamber. Its surface seemed to shimmer like liquid, but as they grew closer, they saw that the movement was caused by lines of shifting, incomprehensible glyphs which rolled across the stone horizontally and then disappeared. The glow lit the whole chamber, revealing its depth, and the huge stalactites hanging down. Ominous ambient music played constantly.
As he drew closer to the Obelisk, a pop-up opened on Nate’s screen. It was a grid, with the gamer handles of the people currently writing on the stone.
Elisa leaned closer as Nate scrolled through them, and stopped on the eighteenth one.
GeekwadX1000.
16
“Nate,” Elisa whispered. “Did you see that?”
“Yes. Let’s hope it’s really him.” His voice was rough with excitement. “That gamer’s message is on the eighteenth line of the Obelisk. So it’s this one, right here.”
Heedless: The Hellbound Brotherhood Book Four Page 14