by Domino Finn
"Hey Caduceus, how you doin'?" Kyle stood taller than usual, considering he was a tree.
The healer adjusted her glasses. "I like the new look, Kyle."
"You do, right?" He wore a giant shit-eating grin and I caught on to his intention too late. "Since you dig the treant style, I was wondering if you wanted to go somewhere quiet. For the next fifteen minutes I got some serious wood."
"Oh, brother," grumbled Izzy. She couldn't roll her eyes hard enough.
As for me, well, treant-Kyle wasn't technically wearing any clothes. Bad puns aside, I didn't check below the belt to see if he was being literal.
"Still looking for that black notch, I see." Caduceus shrugged halfheartedly. "Too bad for you I'm not looking for a tree notch."
"What's all this talk of notches?" asked Izzy.
"You know," said Kyle, gesturing to Caduceus.
The pixie shook her head. "Just when I started to think you were redeemable."
Caduceus laughed. "Don't worry, Iz. He never had a chance. I haven't been into my last few guy notches, either."
The light went out in Kyle's eyes. "Well, screw you guys. If you don't mind I'm gonna spend my last minutes as a tree somewhere I'm appreciated." He hurried ahead into the respawn building.
"It's not appreciation if it costs money," called Izzy after him, but he was already distracted by the oohs and aahs that welcomed him.
The rest of us entered the brothel behind him. It was a simple wood structure. A common room on the bottom, with private spaces in the back and upstairs.
"The frat boy doesn't have the wrong idea," said Caduceus as she hooked each arm around a different girl and wandered away.
I widened my eyes. "I don't think even a treant could keep up with her."
Dune shook his head. "You don't know the half of it. Say, Talon, I was thinking of heading over to the Wicked Crow tonight for a beer. You game?"
I shook his hand as he prepared to leave. "Maybe so, actually. We got a bit of an adventure tomorrow so I could use a break. I'm sure Trafford and Kyle will swing by, and I might even drag this one out." I pointed to Izzy while pretending to hide the gesture behind my other hand.
"Ooh, a romantic night out in a dive bar." Izzy placed her backhand on her forehead. "You really do know how to make a lady swoon."
Dune laughed and said, "I think she's on to you. See you there." He left with his Viking companion, which was funny, as I would've thought a big dude named Stigg would've lived in a place like this.
I wandered to a set of beds out in the open, along the side wall. These spots weren't used for pleasure. They were reserved for respawners. Since dying came with a 24-hour lockdown, some residents chose to spend that downtime in a party atmosphere. They had most of the benefits of public and private spaces combined, as long as you didn't want actual privacy. Bravo Team huddled against a wall while Crux sat downtrodden on the bed. As soon as Lash saw me, she popped her helmet back on and walked outdoors. Tough crowd.
Glinda approached with much more tact. "Hex never made it back, Talon. We don't know what to do." I nodded. "And don't worry about Lash. She's in a mood." I thanked her before she followed the white knight out.
Conan wasn't much for words. Alone with Crux, he grew uncomfortable. As I made my way over, he jumped at the chance to excuse himself and sit beside a woman who'd been ogling his muscles. He alternated flexing his pecs.
Crux didn't lift his head as I leaned against the wall. Was it sadness or shame? Screwing us over in Oakengard was one thing, but he'd also gone behind our backs. That part was near inexcusable and was what irked me most. Still, it had cost him more than he could've imagined. Now wasn't the right time to address it.
"We're gonna get her back," I said. "I promise you that."
He turned to me with wet eyes. "I promised her I'd always look after her. Do what's best."
"We both have promises to keep then."
He couldn't find the will to reply. His gaze dropped to the floor again as he waited on the bed, hoping beyond hope that he would soon receive a message from his sister.
I scratched the back of my head, probably feeling about as useless as Conan had, and thought it best to sneak away. Despite only being gone a few seconds, I found Izzy engaged in conversation with a man on a sofa. He was broad-chested and looked like a giant human except he had four eyes and four arms.
"So just to be clear," prodded Izzy in a lowered voice, "arms and eyes aren't the only body parts you doubled up on?"
The oafish man smiled. Two tongues flicked from his open mouth.
"Ooh! Even better than I thought!"
"Very funny," I snapped.
I grabbed her hand and gently showed her the door.
We continued through Oldtown in a tight embrace. I was feeling a little territorial, I suppose, but it was a nice moment. Izzy and I were growing more relaxed with each other, even if she never quite committed to the relationship. You know. All the way. To be completely honest, after being so hard up lately, being in the brothel was torture.
"Can you imagine," she started, head on my shoulder, "what this place will look like in a year?"
I jutted my lip out. "I haven't really thought about it."
"Really? Try."
"Um, I dunno. I figure mostly the same, just with a few new buildings."
She smacked her lips. "Come on, Talon. You've been in Haven for a little over a month and a half and it's not even recognizable anymore. I've done this gig nine months. Sure, there were new skills and levels and dungeons—but Stronghold was always Stronghold."
I leaned my head on hers. "I get that, but it was everyone. Lucifer hacked free will into the AI. Goblins chose to settle in Shorehome. The wildkins seceded from their warlike brothers. And every single resident of Stronghold fought hard for the city."
Her finger rapped my nose. "And you were at the heart of all of it."
I blinked. I'd never really thought of it that way. Lucifer had used me, of course. The thought of tracking him down made me uneasy precisely because of the power and knowledge he had. Without him I never would've known I wasn't dead in the real world. Tad Lonnerman was alive and well. Recovering, anyway, after a horrible car accident. But that wasn't my life anymore. I was a copy. An individual AI myself. All of us were, in a way. How much did it matter whether my "source code" was alive or not?
"It's funny," I mused, stopping and squaring off with her. "I always thought you and Kyle were the ones living in the moment. Him killing time in the afterlife and you keeping your head down and grinding ahead. It's not that I don't have big plans anymore, it's just that... I've kinda already gotten what I wanted."
She smiled. "All this rubble? This is what you dreamt of?"
"Not the rubble, Izzy. I'm talking about peace. A stable world. One where injustice is righted. A place with friends. A place with you."
She swallowed. I gazed deep into her indigo eyes. They weren't nearly as hard and sharp as usual. Not with me. Not anymore. I still saw glimpses of the walls when she was with others, but she bared her soul when we were alone. I lowered my lips to hers in a gentle kiss. I pulled away and smiled.
"Let's hurry home," she said.
I opened my mouth but stopped, realizing what she was implying. I grabbed her hand and made for Dragonperch. The doors opened and shut us in, alone. We embraced like ravenous vampires. I kissed her neck, her cheek, her lips.
We rushed two stories up and looked at the den. She shook her head and pulled me up further. At the door to her private quarters, I shook my head with a devilish grin and yanked her further upstairs. Past the library to the top—the war room, ready for battle. Izzy smirked.
I lifted the pixie's small body and laid her on the large oak table. "I have to warn you," I said. "I only have one tongue."
She laughed. "I guess it'll just need to do double duty." Izzy's clothes blinked away, leaving only the modest undergarments all Haven residents wore at minimum. Then even those disappeared, as private homes and brothels were the excepti
on.
I stiffened as I took in her naked body, smooth and supple lavender skin trembling beneath me. Izzy smiled in equal parts confidence and shyness. It was the cutest thing ever. And also the sexiest. My clothes flashed away and I leaned in.
1220 Quest for Booty
We lay beside each other, naked. Izzy rested her head on my chest as I stared at the stone ceiling. This was what the afterlife was supposed to be. Not Nooner or Chadwick feuding, not a fractured Oakengard Trinity, not an assassin, or a plot by a hijacked saint. I ran my fingers up and down Izzy's back and sighed in perfect contentment.
"You know what you're doing," she said, almost a revelation.
I snorted. "Don't act like I'm a virgin or anything."
She turned and set her lips just inches from mine. "I didn't mean it that way. It's just... it's hard to surprise a girl like me."
I could no longer hide my stupid grin. This really was Heaven. "I know this sounds corny," I said, "but I really like you. I guess that made it easy."
She smirked again and was quiet a moment, but her next words made me even happier. "I really like you too." She scooted up and straddled me, perky breasts right above my face. They were small, like her frame, but perfectly shaped. Her purple skin was doing something for me too. She was warm and wet where her hips hugged my stomach, and it was impossible not to think about going again.
"What the fuck?" she snapped, recoiling. Her full set of clothes immediately snapped into place, forcing miles of distance between our skin.
I twisted around as a large dove fluttered loudly through the open window, sending white feathers in the air. It flew a frantic lap over our ducking heads before landing on a window sill.
I sighed in relief and turned to Izzy. "Freaked out by a bird?"
Izzy still covered her privates as though her baby blue robes weren't on. "I was naked! What if that's not an ordinary bird?"
I hopped off the table and hugged her. "We're safe in Dragonperch. And it's almost certainly not a normal bird."
For one, it was twice the size of any dove I'd ever seen. Twice as strong too. Not only was a scroll tied around its leg, but it held a large orb in its other talon.
"That's a pearl," I said.
I approached the bird cautiously. It surprised me by being totally docile. At the window I gently eased the orb from under knifelike claws.
Kyle: What was that? Omw!
The chat was colored blue, restricting Kyle's message to party chat only. Past the bird's window perch on the ground below, Kyle hurried across Oldtown and entered the tower. He must've seen the bird fly into the tower.
I examined the cloudy white item.
[Dove Pearl]
Ivory orb with soft marbling, but inert.
Talon: It's a new pearl to fit into our feather socket.
I turned to Izzy. She shrugged with a neutral face.
"Something you're not telling me?" I asked.
She held off a smile. "No. No idea what this is."
I narrowed my eyes and tossed the pearl to her. I unwrapped the scroll and read it aloud.
Neither friend nor foe,
Alas, alas, I find myself thus burdened. I seek balance in all things, yet your gift of a bone pearl offsets the fates. The Black Keep finds itself in possession of a redundant pearl. Consider it payment in kind, and our balances leveled.
- The Wild King
I studied the note for another minute as Kyle's boots pounded up the stairwell.
"And I thought I played hard to get," said Izzy. She was still watching me with a mischievous grin.
"Let me have it," called Kyle. "I love this part." He barged headlong into the war room, immediately skidding to a stop and spinning away. "Oh!"
I turned to Izzy, the bird, and back to Kyle. "What is it with you guys?"
"Bro," said Kyle, peeking from behind an upraised arm, first at Izzy and then at myself. "Uh, don't take this personal or anything, but I've never seen your dong before."
The hairs on my legs and arms and back burned as I realized I was stark naked.
"Pretty impressive chub too," added Kyle.
I popped my clothes back on directly from inventory and flashed Izzy a vengeful look.
She returned a lilting laugh, strolled to my side, and gave me a long kiss. "Relax. It's not like you have anything to be embarrassed about. Besides, now we don't need to have any drawn-out conversations with our roommate."
"Drawn out?" asked Kyle with an indignant look. "You still don't know me that well, do you? It's about time you two banged." He approached and grabbed the dove pearl from Izzy.
I chuckled through closed lips and shook my head at Izzy. The war room had been my idea, after all. When she smiled, I broke out into laughter. Hooves rapped down the stairs as Bandit joined us. She must've been sleeping on the roof and heard the commotion. I nuzzled her ear.
"Sorry to wake you. Hope you weren't awake too long."
The black stallion, Artax, cantered down after her. The two were fast friends, but my mood darkened when I saw the horse. His master was missing, petrified along with Hex. Grimwart was a good man, and I vowed to save him as well.
"Got it," said Kyle, moving to the sanctum master panel and navigating the socket menu. Feather and wind were the only two main sockets open. He slotted the dove pearl in.
Feather: Dove
A diagram of the tower appeared. A white thread traced down from the sky and hit Dragonperch with a glow.
The dove cooed so loudly we jumped. I noticed a white glow on the war table, right where Izzy and I had consummated our relationship. When the light died away, a single olive rested there. I picked it up. "Wonder what I'm supposed to do with this." The dove cooed again. I chuckled and held it in my open palm. As soon as I was in reach, the dove stretched its neck and gobbled the olive whole. It chirped happily and flapped out the window, disappearing into the sky.
"It's a messaging system," relayed Kyle. "Or, more accurately, a messenger system." He tapped the flat screen showing Dragonperch and the Black Keep as white waypoints.
"We can communicate with the wildkins without a two-day trip."
"Looks like it." Kyle rubbed the scruff on his chin. "Too bad Underkeep isn't an available option. We still need to sail."
Izzy squeezed between us to see the display. "They probably don't have a dove pearl. Looks like the birds take special olives as payment. We were only able to receive a message because it came with its own pearl."
"Still hella useful, though."
Kyle nodded. "What's the message say?"
I handed it over. "Nothing much. The Wild King still doesn't want an alliance."
"But he opened the door for one," noted Izzy.
"Maybe, but it's not enough. Here we've been thinking of Shorehome as the only other power capable of standing up to Oakengard. It's the third city, that's true, but we can find other allies. The wildkins would be perfect."
Izzy shrugged. "Their faction defined themselves by being their own people, breaking away from the pagans, and choosing not to fight the battles of others. It's not gonna be easy to convince them to join a war effort."
"Even if the crusaders start a war?"
"There's no evidence they will," she said. "Even after what happened out there, the soldiers were bolstering their defenses. Their sole concern for Cleric Vagram might be genuine."
"Rightly so."
We all nodded, but none of us were convinced. Something was definitely hinky or we wouldn't be sailing out in the morning.
"We need to figure it out," I finally said. "We need to think of a way to convince them."
"Or show them proof," said Izzy.
Kyle shrugged. "Or you guys could just bang again." He chuckled and headed downstairs.
The pixie's eyes went dull. "That's gonna get real old real fast."
"Hope it was worth it," I laughed. I slapped her butt and headed down myself.
1230 Midnight Club
The Wicked Crow wasn't what one wo
uld call a respectable establishment. It was barely an establishment, if we were being technical about things. Sure, there was swill on tap which could be exchanged for silver, but in all other respects it more closely resembled a prison camp, only with less discipline.
The mood, in contrast, was markedly different. It was a lively atmosphere. No one was stuck here. This was an escape as opposed to a trap, fun while maintaining its dark edge. Hazing and posturing were commonplace.
Izzy liked it because no one messed with her. She was still the city's resident badass, with more Arena kills than anyone and an undefeated record which I liked to remind her came with an asterisk. Even back when Kyle was a meek whipping boy, he got along fine in the Crow due to his drinking prowess and friendship with Trafford. No one disrespected the salty veteran. He was kind of like the bar's mascot.
I left the group at the table as I played rounds of hopcoin with Dune. Stigg was on my team while Caduceus backed up the ranger.
"Now the trick is," instructed Dune with a cocky saunter, "to keep your eye on the glass, not where you're bouncing the coin." He pitched a silver piece sharply into the corner. It ricocheted off the wood floor and skipped off the lip of a shot glass before clattering beside it.
"Stuff that advice back down your gobhole," chortled my Viking teammate.
Hopcoin was a straightforward game. Four glasses were arranged in a diamond against a corner. The deepest cup, being framed by two walls, was the easiest to score with. Catching that glass won your coin back plus three more off the floor. The two side glasses, with single-walled backboards, were worth five coins. The lead shot glass had no walls and scored you the jackpot: all the collected coins on the floor. That usually marked the end of the festivities.
"Eh," said Dune, stepping aside for Stigg's go. "I'm distracted. All this talk of Oakengard sours my stomach."
"We could actually do something about it," suggested Caduceus. I nodded avidly.