by Sarah Lin
"Bloodwraith..." She caught his arm in the hallway, staring up into his eyes. "Do we... need two different rooms tonight?"
So it was finally coming to this. Raigar's instincts screamed an answer at him, but he managed to shove them back down. "Are you sure? You've been through a lot today."
"I'm sure." Danniah turned away from him, toying with the door to her room. "I actually feel a lot more certain now. Before, I had a lot of emotions. Now that my head feels clearer, I know exactly how I feel." She turned back to meet his gaze again. "And I want you for tonight, at least."
If she had acted like the Danniah from before, he would have hesitated, but this Danniah was fully in control of herself. Almost too much, which left him with new questions. But when Bloodwraith took a step toward her door, he saw her old smile beam out at him and his last doubts melted away.
~ ~ ~
When Bloodwraith woke the next morning, for a moment he was disoriented. One of his arms was pinned and his instinct was to lash out. Fortunately, his conscious mind overwhelmed the urge as he realized that it was just Danniah, curled against his side and smiling in her sleep.
It was if he had finally relaxed a muscle he had been holding tense for a long time. Even with Danniah pinning his arm, he felt refreshed in a way he rarely did when he woke up. Last night had been a good reminder of another one of the advantages of keeping a living body.
Less positive thoughts crowded in as his mind began to operate at full speed. Had he succumbed to Raigar's instincts in some way? Had their behavior been manipulated by the box gods? Was he getting soft, becoming someone the undead entity he had once been wouldn't respect?
Screw all the questions. Bloodwraith wrapped his arm around Danniah and held her closer, which made her murmur happily in her sleep. Whatever this was, it was enough for now.
At that moment another box appeared square in the center of his vision.
[Relationship with Danniah advanced to Lover stage!
Charisma +1!]
"Depraved boxes! Not now, of all times!" He hissed the words, but Danniah shifted in response.
"Huh?" She blinked sleepily at him. "What are you talking about?"
For a moment Bloodwraith froze, staring back at her with his entire body tense. Then he let himself relax and pulled her closer again. "I think it's time I introduce you to the bane of my existence..."
Chapter 24
Thankfully, Danniah was not offended by the box and just joked that she should have been worth more than one point. Though that briefly made him concerned that something was interfering, those fears gradually melted away. Danniah was sharper than before, but she was still authentically herself. Now that she'd put so many concerns behind her, she was back to being her usual irrepressible cheerfulness.
They didn't have much time, however. Even if they hadn't been adventurers accustomed to going out every morning, Meara knocked on their door. "I figured I'd let you get your sleep, but it's almost noon. We should talk."
"Okay," Bloodwraith said, "give me a bit of time."
"I'll see you downstairs."
When he started to get up, however, Danniah latched onto his arm and gave a low whine. "I wanted to stay in bed longer... we spent too much time talking about the stupid boxes."
"See? What did I tell you? Great power at a terrible cost."
Despite her whining, Danniah did let go of him so they could get ready for the day. Bloodwraith started to move away, then had a vague sensation that would be a bit callous. Though he wasn't exactly overflowing with romantic feelings, he did like Danniah and wanted her to be happy. So he bent down and kissed her briefly, which drew another happy murmur from her.
Then he sat up and began to pull on his clothes. Before he could do so, Danniah hugged him from behind, wrapping her arms around his neck. She opened her mouth like she was going to say something, paused for a long time, then said something clearly different than what she'd intended to say.
"Your back is so broad - did you get even more muscles? Anyway, it feels good to hug."
"I'm not complaining either."
"Oh!" Danniah flushed as she realized how much she was pressed against him, but more in happiness than in embarrassment. After that she truly let go of him and began pulling on her own clothes. "L-let's just go meet Meara."
"In any case, my body probably did change," Bloodwraith explained as he laced his boots. "When the boxes bestow points on me, they seem to have a nearly immediate physical effect."
"Aww, that's downright unfair. Are you sure I can't get any points?"
"They've said you're in my 'party' for quite a while, but the same rules don't seem to apply. This body itself might be unnatural."
"I guess that would make sense. Nobody just gets stronger in hops and jumps like that, it wouldn't make any sense."
Fully clothed and armored, they made their way down to the drinking hall like any pair of adventurers. When they sat down across from Meara, however, Danniah scooted her chair right next to his and wiggled over so her hip touched his. It wasn't exactly intimate, with layers of padded armor between them, but she seemed to enjoy it nonetheless.
"The two of you slept in quite late," Meara said, voice utterly deadpan. "You must have been very tired from such a difficult quest."
When Danniah averted her gaze and blushed, Meara shot Bloodwraith a grin and wiggled her eyebrows. Yet Danniah caught it and stuck out her tongue at her. "Don't tease! Just tell us about these important things we needed to talk about."
"Right, I was busy while you were... also busy." Meara's expression shifted, becoming truly serious this time. "Daek the Knife has apparently resolved his problems with the Cresthaven Guard, and not subtly. Basically everyone in the underworld knows that he assassinated one of the major guard captains and replaced her with one of his own."
Bloodwraith frowned. "Has he ever gone that far before?"
"Not according to what I've heard. There are greencloaks openly enforcing order in the streets, too, and the guards don't do anything to stop him. The Governor is useless, of course. So we have to accept that we're living in a city where Daek has fewer restraints on his actions every day."
In the short term, at least. Such bold actions would definitely create a backlash, but he thought Daek was intelligent enough to understand that, which worried him more. What could be worth causing so many long term problems for himself?
"Anyway, he hasn't put out a hit on 'Raigar' or anything, so we might be safe a little longer. Unless the two of you have any grand ideas, I think we don't have a choice but to do everything we can to prepare. We might be forced out of Cresthaven soon."
"Then the priority is pieces of armor we can find in the city," Bloodwraith said. "Any leads there?"
"Yes, Haral was helpful in tracking them down. Unfortunately, you're not going to like it." Meara sat back in her chair, looking between the two of them. "The boots of the set are being sold in a high end shop here in town... for 15 gold pieces."
Danniah sucked in her breath and Bloodwraith grunted. "We're not likely to come up with that much. Could we steal it?"
Though Meara smirked at the suggestion, she shook her head. "All the shops are heavily warded against adventurers trying just that. Of course, no security is perfect, but guess who all the thieves in the city work for?"
"Then we'll have to consider our options carefully there. What about the other piece?"
"The Helm of the Tyrant is in a nobleman's private collection - some lord who was a warrior back in the day and fancies himself a collector. I'm not sure why he'd want to have something like that, but it seems he's proud of it and has shown it off to several nobles. He won't give it up for any amount of money."
That one could prove even more difficult, then. Bloodwraith drummed his fingers on the table, considering his options. For a start, he considered abandoning the idea of collecting the armor at all, since it wasn't a strictly necessary objective. Yet he wasn't exactly tripping over better equipment. He hadn't e
ncountered many things that would allow him to gain a decent amount of power quickly, and he felt certain he would need power the next time he met Daek.
"Umm, I can actually answer one of those questions." Danniah shrank back a bit when they both turned to look at her, but went on. "The Armor of the Tyrant is a bit famous... well, if you pay attention to armor, anyway. The average person has probably never heard of it. But the story goes, when Cresthaven was first founded, it had a cruel ruler who was paranoid that someone would assassinate him. He kept demanding better and better armor, until a dwarven smith finally crafted a set that satisfied him. Well, he probably had a lot of help from mages, but they don't usually tell that part.
"Anyway, he was eventually poisoned, so the armor didn't matter in the end. But even though he was a cruel man, he was still important to the founding of the city. So even though it's not the strongest armor ever or anything, lots of people have tried to get the pieces over the years."
"Hmm. That explains why someone would want it for his collection." Bloodwraith sighed. "I don't know how plausible it is to do this. We can acquire money for the boots, given enough time, but we have no way of even getting close to the helm."
"Well... I have an idea for that too." Danniah gave him an odd smile. "You remember Herena, right?"
"Of course."
"Her family is friends with all the nobles in the city, and she's always getting invited over to their houses. I saw a bit of one of their parties once. The estate had loads of guards and really strong defenses, but inside they seem to mostly trust people."
"That's useful information, but how could I get into the estate through Herena?"
"Admittedly, that's a pretty big hole in the plan. I thought we could ask her, she might be willing to do me a favor, but she's always been a bit mean. So... maybe it's not very helpful after all..."
Though Danniah slumped a bit, Meara was giving him an amused look. He understood immediately, despite his best efforts. "No, surely not..."
"Oh, I think so." Meara barely managed to contain her amusement. "I think Herena would like to receive a shipment of hundreds of cureleaves from Raigar the Valorous."
"Are we really using my power this way? I'm not some strumpet..."
Ignoring him, Meara turned to the confused Danniah. "Do you know what kinds of gifts Herena likes?"
"Uh... I remember her saying white roses were really romantic, once. She likes that kind of thing." Danniah looked at her in confusion. "What is this about?"
Meara grinned. "Let's just say we have the first stage of a plan."
~ ~ ~
As he had for the past five days, Bloodwraith plodded down the street of merchants to Meara's little stall. In addition to her other work, she was trying to sell ordinary health potions to earn them a bit more gold, though he still calculated it would take them a month or two to earn 15 pieces.
Danniah was doing her best to help as well, though she wasn't currently with him. He summoned the quest boxes again just to check on her. Most likely she would be fine, especially since he'd given her the equipment he'd looted earlier - now that they were together, there was no point not being frank about such things. She'd accepted it gladly and continued going questing alone.
They'd discovered that Bloodwraith could accept quests, then still receive credit when Danniah completed them because she was in his "party." That let them do two quests simultaneously, though he was skeptical that such work would be sufficient in the end.
In five days he'd only acquired a little over 2000 EXP, and the number per day was dwindling. Meara said she was trying to find more dangerous quests, but other than going to get themselves killed by the drake, there weren't any good options.
He came up beside Meara, who was staring forward with an utterly blank smile on her face. When she noticed him, she emerged from within herself, shifting to a wry grin. "Do you have cureleaves for me, oh mighty adventurer?"
"I did get the last ones, actually." Bloodwraith slammed them down on the table and reflexively dismissed the box that appeared to tell him what he already knew - he'd never managed to make the box gods stop congratulating him for finished battles or quests. "I don't think it's worth my time to continue with these, since getting distracted by those is costing a fair amount of time."
"Yes, you have much more important things to be doing." Meara produced a white rose from within her cloak with an unnecessary flourish. "Take this to the usual place, you incurable romantic."
Bloodwraith sighed and took it. "Where are you getting these?"
"Don't worry about it."
"I do, actually." He met her gaze to make it clear he wasn't joking. "You aren't making any decisions that could come back to bite us, are you?"
"Worried I'm going into debt or something? Don't." Meara stepped closer to him and lowered her voice. "The source is more abstract than that, but I don't think it will hurt to tell you. Let me put it this way... do you spend a lot of time thinking about where merchants acquire their goods? Did you wonder about how I made a living selling potions in the middle of a random wood?"
"These are simple economics questions! A child could think of them!"
"Well, the Outsiders who used me don't care very much. Sometimes... when the world isn't looking... it's difficult to put into words, and I'm afraid focusing on it might ruin the effect. But you understand, right?" When he nodded, Meara's expression grew more serious. "I can't tell you for certain that there will never be any unintended consequences. But it feels to me like it's part of the same system that grants you your power."
"Considering how long they used you as a part of the Forest of Beginnings, it's logical that you might be connected to the system." Bloodwraith let himself smile at Meara. "Good work. It will be interesting to see just how far we can push this."
"I agree, but I want to talk about the white roses a bit more. And not to tease you. Haral is almost finished with the copy, but it won't do any good if we can't get inside. Are the gifts working?"
"I'm still getting 'Affection' notifications after each rose. The numbers are decreasing slowly, but she's up to 71/100 now."
"Gods, the beings who created this system have a strange view of romance. You have a better understanding, and you're a reclusive, misanthropic skeleton."
"That's unfair. I'm a misanthropic fleshbag now." But as much as Bloodwraith enjoyed talking to Meara, he knew that they needed to stay focused, because there was no guarantee they could continue like this. "In all seriousness, what do you think the chances are that you can find some better quests for us? The ones we can do alone aren't enough challenge."
Meara winced. "I'm trying, but even in a place like Cresthaven it's not like we're constantly stumbling over options as impressive as the best ones I've found. Oh, but I did manage this!" Several boxes appeared in front of Bloodwraith, new quests that he accepted reflexively.
[Potential Objective: Helm of the Tyrant
Find a way into the noble's estate to acquire the helm.
Reward: EXP
Accept? Y/N]
[Potential Objective: Boots of the Tyrant
Acquire 15 gold pieces in order to purchase the boots.
Reward: EXP
Accept? Y/N]
[Potential Objective: Breastplate of the Tyrant
Locate the lost breastplate from the armor set.
Reward: EXP
Accept? Y/N]
"Quests for things we were doing anyway. Always helpful." He glanced at the second one once it took its place in the quest list, however. "Does the exact phrasing there mean we don't have the option of stealing it? If we did, would the quest get stuck forever?"
"I'm not sure. I tried to make it more flexible, but I'm really fumbling in the dark with all of this."
"No, you're doing well." Bloodwraith saw real weariness in Meara's eyes and put a hand on her shoulder. "We're on the same side, in this and in everything. I'm honored to have you with me."
For a time Meara was silent, putting her
hand over his. After a pause, she returned to her usual smirk. "Right now, our bold alliance is acquiring an arbitrary number of points for random actions. How many is it now?"
"11,828 of 25,600."
"Damn. I do need to find you some more quests. I'll do what I can."
Bloodwraith sighed and lifted the rose. "And I'll do whatever is necessary."
He jogged away from Meara's laughter, along the familiar route to the noble district. By now he could do it quite quickly, perhaps getting in another quest before it was time to sleep. The streets of Cresthaven became cleaner, with larger houses along the sides. There were more guards here and no greencloaks, but he never felt entirely comfortable there.
By this point, however, the guards of Herena's estate were familiar with him. When he came up and handed the man the day's white rose, however, he received a letter in return. "What is this?"
"An invitation from the mistress. She'd like to invite you to a formal dinner tomorrow night."
Dammit. "I'd be delighted."
~ ~ ~
Dressed in the best armor they had available, Bloodwraith considered one more time if this wasn't all a trap of some kind. They were trusting quite a bit in the aspect of his amulet labeled "Ladies Man" - two words he knew that made little sense when combined. He was fairly certain that there were limits to the boxes' power in such affairs, yet he had received the invitation.
After nervously shifting in the courtyard for a time, Herena emerged from the estate. Fortunately, she was mostly wearing her combat armor with only a bit of added jewelry. As far as he could tell, in Cresthaven adventuring was only mildly disreputable, and became socially acceptable if you were good enough at it. This way, he didn't feel entirely out of place.