Once we got checked in, the first thing I did was take a shower. The hot water warmed me down to my bones, something my car’s heater had been unable to accomplish no matter how long I kept it at full blast. The front desk clerk had given us a tube of toothpaste and two toothbrushes. Add to that the hairbrush I kept in my glove compartment, and I had everything I needed to freshen up.
When I stepped out of the bathroom, I found Alex lying on the bed looking at the room-service menu.
“They have twenty-four-hour room service here,” he said. “We could order something, if you want.”
My frugal instincts immediately said no, but my credit card had plenty of room on it, and given the path my life was taking, keeping a good credit score wasn’t high on my list of priorities.
“Sure. Order whatever you want,” I said. He handed me the menu and we both ended up ordering the biggest steak on it.
“How long do you think we can keep running?” Alex asked. “At some point your money is going to run out.”
“I’m not planning on running.” I’d had plenty of time to think on the drive, and I wasn’t cut out for this kind of life, constantly looking over my shoulder.
“But with the cloaker, you could theoretically hide forever.”
“Do you really believe that? Because I don’t. Marcus will eventually find me. It’s only a matter of time. I want to continue improving my skills and go to Elustria.”
“There might be some shifters on the Oregon coast who have a way back. Worst case scenario, I told you there was a royal family in Europe that I know of who are shifters, but I don’t want to leave you to find them.”
“We can travel together in the direction you think we need to go to find someone who has a portal. While we’re doing that, I can be studying. These are not mutually exclusive options.”
A knock on the door interrupted us. I moved to answer it, but Alex waved me back onto the bed while he went to the door. The arrival of food put a hold on our conversation. The steak wasn’t great, cooked far longer than a medium rare should be, but after the gas-station donut I’d had earlier, I didn’t mind. Between the steak and garlic mashed potatoes, I was more than satisfied after devouring it all.
“You should probably get some sleep,” Alex said once I’d finished.
“We need to settle on a plan.”
“I’m open to what you said earlier, but how exactly do you want to go about it? How are you going to continue to learn magic with no one to teach you?”
During the drive with John, I’d considered that very question. The solution was both obvious and crude.
“The same way I did magic the first time: the game.”
“You can’t be that foolish. Marcus has access to your game account. He might be able to track you through that. And I don’t trust Casper. I’d rather you not give him a trail to follow either.”
“I’ve already thought of that. I agree I shouldn’t log in to the game or really into any of my accounts. Once the stores open, I want to go buy a cheap, little laptop. I should probably get a new phone as well. The quests in Wizards and Fae are full of spells. There’s dozens of fan sites on the Internet that have compiled databases of all the quest lines in the game. All I need to do is access them and learn what I can from the spells. Between the theory I learned at the Armory and the spells Casper put in the game in order to find latent mages, I’m confident I can make progress.”
“Do you really think there are going to be any spells there that are of use to you? Wouldn’t that present something of a dangerous situation for latent mages to have access to that?”
“No, because they don’t have a talisman. In the case of the game activating the magic of latent mages, the game code itself is the magical object the mage is interacting with. My mother enchanted it but only with a low level of magic, just enough to create a blip for Casper to find. It worked differently for me because I had a talisman. If my mother hadn’t stripped my spark when I was little, the magic would’ve activated for me the first time I played the game, but not big enough to actually cause ice to come out of my hands.”
“If you think it’ll work, I’ll support you and protect you while you do it.” Alex’s sincerity and commitment to helping me were overwhelming. Since my parents had died, I hadn’t had that kind of support.
“Thanks. You can also help in another way. I want to know everything about Elustria. I know you haven’t been there in a long time, but I heard different things while at the Armory. Casper seems to think that Marcus is a sorcerer assassin. I was so consumed with learning magic that I didn’t delve into the details of the situation with anyone, but I think I need to know more about whatever politics or conflict is going on, seeing as I’m now part of it.”
“The animosity between mages and sorcerers is both simple and long enough to fill several volumes. I’ll tell you everything I know, but we both need to get some sleep if we’re going to do this tomorrow.”
We stacked our dishes back on the delivery tray, and Alex left it outside the door. I set the alarm with just enough time for us to get down to catch the last few minutes of breakfast and climbed into bed. All throughout dinner, I’d wanted to reach out to Alex, to kiss him again, but there were more important matters at hand. With a little twinge of disappointment, I watched as he climbed into the other bed, turned off the light, and rolled over.
Chapter 25
The pizza at the food court of the mall tasted like cardboard that had accidentally been dropped into some sauce and cheese and then shaken off and served up on a plate. Bland, inoffensive music played, annoying precisely for its plainness. Across from me, Alex surveyed the scene, his eyes darting from face to face as people passed. He’d chosen this table in the corner which gave him a clear view of the rest of the food court without the possibility of anyone coming up behind him.
This wouldn’t have been my first choice for a late lunch, but the mall had everything we needed: an electronics store for the new laptop I had out in front of me and the phone I’d already put in my pocket and plenty of clothing stores for me to grab a few outfits. My old phone was smashed in a trash can outside. The one saving grace of the food court was the free Wi-Fi.
The new laptop was the most basic model the store had. Practicing magic indoors was too great a risk, so Alex and I had decided that we would go to a remote area outdoors where I could practice while he patrolled the perimeter, alert to threats. That meant that I needed to download the spells I would be practicing.
Nerves caused my mind to blank. The game was full of interesting spells, many of which I knew would come in handy, but I couldn’t recall any of them. My mind remained keenly aware of each passing minute that Marcus could be drawing closer. My thoughts wandered to the smashed phone in the trash can. Was there a way for him to track it there? I’d feel a little better once we were moving again.
There were dozens of fan sites to choose from, but I’d have to explore them all later. I chose The Codex, one of the sites I frequented with GreyMist. I created an account with a new email address and looked up my character profile. Players could publicly display information about their characters, and the site pulled in information from the game to display stats and quest history.
Seeing Serafina in her familiar armor was like seeing an old friend. The title “Hades Killer” floated above her head. A mixture of pride and remorse filled me. I had been so proud of my accomplishment, but I knew now that it hadn’t been real. At the same time, even though I was in a bad situation, that quest had also opened up my destiny to me. I didn’t know how to feel about it, and instead of dwelling on it, I clicked on my quest history.
Page one of eighty-seven loaded: years of quest history, chronicling my time in-game. As I scanned the list, I couldn’t help the memories flooding in of sitting in front of my computer, chatting with GreyMist as I worked on progressing in the game. It was odd how with each quest I could remember what we’d talked about. During Feeding the Troll King’s Champion, GreyM
ist had been telling me about the loser she was dating at the time. And while I ground through Infiltrating the Troll King’s Guard, she’d regaled me with the story of how she’d dumped him—the loser, not the Troll King. In fact, the long Troll King quest line could be a good source of material for me. I clicked on the quests and copy and pasted the text to a word processor. I didn’t have time to reminisce.
“Remember, we can stop somewhere else if you need to get more. Just grab enough material for you to study until then.”
“All right, let’s go.”
I finished copying over the quest line as well as the standard spells Serafina used and put the laptop away in the carrying case I’d bought for it. Alex grabbed the shopping bag with my new clothes in it, and we went to the car.
As I drove farther west, Alex read the quests to me from my laptop, and I had him flag the ones I’d want to take a look at when we stopped. Driving through Idaho, it wasn’t difficult to find places out in the middle of nowhere. Most of the state was either desert or ski resorts with little towns sprinkled about here and there. The trick was to find a place that would be hard for us to be seen, and that meant getting far away from the freeway. The flat landscape resulted in good line of sight, which was bad for us. We also had to avoid grazing land, of which there was plenty. The last thing we needed was a run-in with an upset rancher, even if the chances of being caught were slim. And while I enjoyed beef, I didn’t want to inadvertently kill a cow.
An hour after leaving the mall, I parked off to the side of an old dirt road that looked like it hadn’t been used in ages. “All right, hand me the laptop. I want you to give me plenty of space. I don’t want to accidentally hurt you.”
Alex handed over the laptop and got out of the car. “I’ll be patrolling. If you hear me growl, I want you to stop what you’re doing and come back to the car. I really don’t think Marcus will find us here, but if he does, I don’t know how much of a match I’ll be for him, so you might want to practice that spell that makes fire rain from the sky. Just an idea.”
I smiled. “Noted. I’ll practice for four hours, then we’ll meet back here.”
“Sounds good.” Before my eyes, Alex shifted into his panther form. I’d never get tired of seeing it. He ran north to start creating a perimeter, and I headed about a hundred meters east to give me some room to work with. Not only would it break my heart to damage my car, but it would make this whole plan a lot more difficult logistically.
Alex’s suggestion had been a good one, but I didn’t like the idea of playing with fire in such a dry climate. Starting a brush fire was a very real risk. Instead, I pulled up a similar spell that was part of Serafina’s regular rotation. In-game, it rained down deadly purple droplets. I had no idea what they were or what they would do, but they had proven effective at killing most things in-game. I looked at the spell in the word processor and committed it to memory.
“Acidic downpour,” I shouted while casting my hand in front of me and feeling like an idiot.
The English translation proved ineffective. My guess was the purple substance didn’t have an English equivalent.
“Acruvio regnian.” While saying the spell, I pictured what it looked like in-game. A few purple sprinkles appeared and burned the ground like acid. Not the impressive display I’d hoped for, probably because I didn’t know exactly what I was doing. It might be better to move along to the elements I was familiar with.
Next.
At the end of four hours I’d created a cyclone I could control, summoned lightning strikes, refined my skill at using ice as a weapon, and made the logical discovery that I could use my power to accurately throw rocks at a target. I’d also learned a neat defensive trick.
“How did it go?” Alex asked when I met him back at the car.
“You tell me.” I cast a concealment spell I’d been working on. Since it could keep me concealed without alerting someone to my presence, I prioritized learning how to execute the spell nonverbally.
Alex’s eyes widened and he started forward. “Kat?”
“I’m here.” I raised my hand and waved at him. This particular spell transformed my skin and clothing to blend in with my surroundings. I reappeared before Alex. “What do you think?”
“That was amazing. If you hadn’t moved, I wouldn’t have been able to see you at all. And if I hadn’t seen you disappear, it would’ve been nearly impossible for me to pick up that little bit of movement without knowing exactly what I was looking for.”
“Yeah, I’m a long ways off from offensively being a match for anyone, so I thought I should have some good defensive and avoidance skills. The offensive spells are a little harder, but I’ve got some up my sleeve.” I hadn’t been able to successfully execute any spells that didn’t use elements I knew. While playing the game, I’d never noticed how many spells used poisonous green fog, purple acid, or sprays of deadly gold light.
We headed to dinner, and I tried my best not to reveal the most important lesson I’d learned: that there was no way I could possibly survive an encounter with Marcus.
Chapter 26
“Can you order dinner for us? I’m going to do some more research.” We’d just settled in to our new hotel room, and I wanted to check out The Codex and troll for new spells. The forums were awash with people debating the virtues of this spell over that. As I’d found out earlier, not every spell translated into the real world, and there were also considerations in-game that I didn’t have that would skew my results, things such as health and magic meters that needed to be replenished. Seeing as I had an assassin actively searching for me, my general plan was to seek out spells people thought were overpowered.
“Sure,” Alex said. “I assume you want some kind of steak?”
“Yeah, that’d be great.” While practicing magic was not physically taxing, it did drain me. From the reading I’d done back at the Armory, magical ability was thought by some to be like a muscle which grew stronger with use. Not many people had ever been in my position before, and I could attest that this theory about magic was true. Most people learned magic gradually; I was cramming it all in to save my life—literally.
The Wi-Fi in the hotel was slow, especially when I was anxious for content. As expected for this time of night, the forums were a hive of activity. I scanned the list of topics on the main forum page.
elemental wizards nerfed…again!
Magma Lake way OPed
That was a good thread to click on. My character didn’t have that spell, so I’d have to look it up in the database.
help plz n00b confused
Anyone else offended by the hunting lions quest line?
new buff add to dark magic tree r dark sorcerer best class?
Latest Hades Killer is Serafina, Dark Sorceress!
That caught my eye, not just because of my name but because of the correct grammar. The author of the thread was GreyMist. Count on her to brag for me. I clicked on the thread and read her post.
The newest Hades Killer is Serafina, Dark Sorceress!
This was linked to my profile page so people could check out my stats and see proof of my new title.
Anyone seen her around? She hasn’t been online in a while, and I want to congratulate her.
GreyMist had been there the night I got my title. She knew someone had access to my accounts. This was her way of reaching out to me, of trying to make contact.
A knock sounded on the door, and Alex answered it, making way for the server bringing our dinner.
“It’s time to eat,” Alex said as he unloaded the tray of food on the table and placed my plate next to my laptop.
“I can’t right now. This is important. My best friend’s trying to get a hold of me.”
“Whatever it is can wait. You need to eat, and it’ll be better hot.”
“It’s serious, Alex. Marcus has already talked to her while pretending to be me. She’s trying to reach out to me in a way that he won’t find out about.”
“Yes,
that’s important. It’s also important that you eat. She’ll still be there when you’re done. If I’m going to protect you, you have to do your part, and that means taking care of yourself.”
Alex’s yellow eyes bore into me as he looked down from where he stood next to my chair. And of course it was at that moment that my stomach decided to release a growl that could rival any of Alex’s.
“Fine, but I’m doing it because my stomach says so, not because you do.”
“That’s totally fair,” Alex said while unsuccessfully suppressing a laugh.
As I ate, I couldn’t keep my mind from wandering to what GreyMist could possibly want. It wouldn’t be anything good. A post like that was practically code, and she wouldn’t do that just to chat. Marcus must have done something.
The food helped not only relieve my hunger but also calm my anxiety. Good decisions are rarely made on an empty stomach, and when I finally pushed the plate away, I had a much more level head on my shoulders to deal with the issue.
“Don’t worry, I’ll clear.” Alex put our dishes outside the door while I opened my laptop.
The message had been a cry for me to get in touch with her in a way that didn’t make use of my normal accounts. Underneath her avatar, a green circle showed she was currently online. I clicked on her name and chose the option to send a private message.
I momentarily worried this might be a trap, but it was unlikely Marcus had found a way to hack her. The only reason he had access to my information was because he had my computer. This wasn’t a CIA assassin; he didn’t have technical knowledge.
User4276: It’s Kat. What’s wrong?
I didn’t want her to think I was someone trolling her. She was the only person in-game who knew my real name. I hit “send” and hoped that she’d get it before logging off.
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