by Natalie Grey
“You’re overthinking this, Gracie,” she muttered.
She thought she saw something out of the side of her eyes and turned her head quickly, but there was nothing there. She must have imagined it. Then she heard a high-voiced mutter, hastily cut off, and knew something was here with her.
She stopped and looked around herself. “Hello?”
There was a long pause. Whoever they were, they didn’t trust her.
“Hello?” Gracie asked again.
The grass in front of her rustled, and a kobold hopped out onto the path in front of her. It chattered at her in a language Gracie didn’t know, then pointed at her head and shrieked.
“Rude,” Gracie said. “There’s nothing wrong with my face.” She was grinning, though. She was having fun making up what it said.
It hopped and chattered, moving its hands strangely.
Then she had a thought. She swung the staff over her head and put it down hastily when the kobold took off.
“Wait! Wait. I’m not going to hurt you.” She looked up to see it peeping out of the grass. “Was this what you were pointing at?” Gracie asked. She tapped the blue stone.
It crept closer, wiggling its whiskers.
“Yeah, I thought so.” Gracie thought of the hill warden’s rhyme and wished she could remember it better. She looked over her shoulder and saw the warden still watching her. “Creepy. Hey! Hey, can you come over here?”
He didn’t move.
“Typical,” Gracie muttered. She tapped the stone. “Is this a kobold thing?”
The kobold darted forward and touched the stone, then ran away and hid again.
Gracie laughed. “Come on. I’m going to take it to that tomb, okay?” She picked up the staff and walked carefully around the kobold, giving it a wide berth and looking over her shoulder to beckon to it. “Come on. Come with me.”
It chattered at her but followed as she headed off. Unseen, the fighter in the hills muttered a soft “aha” to himself and followed them.
Chapter Five
Gracie hadn’t gone very far before she realized she was accumulating kobolds. First, it was just one more. It hopped along beside the other one, waving around a flower of some sort. The two of them chattered to one another and gave a few shrieks.
The next time she looked back, there was a handful. The time after that, there were well over a dozen.
“I really hope you’re not planning to sacrifice me to a demon,” Gracie told them. They chattered back at her. “Not reassuring, guys.”
By the time she arrived at the tomb, there were dozens of them swarming around her, all lit by a ghostly blue glow—which she now realized was coming from her stone. She took her staff out and stared at it.
“Whoa. Okay, so the hill warden wasn’t kidding about that riddle. What’d he say? That the blue was like sky and sea? And something about ancestors? Well, rock, here’s your ancestor-place.”
She approached the door of the tomb cautiously. The hill warden had said that the fae lived here now, and she was pretty sure that by returning some ancestral rock, she was going to be siding with the kobolds.
She grinned. She loved learning the rules and history of a new world. It was one of the things she liked best about D&D, and even though she felt a twinge of guilt as if she were betraying her roots, she had to admit it was even more fun when you had a whole world around you, completely immersive.
Her character walked up to the door, hesitated, and then rapped on it. “Hello?”
Silence.
“Hello?” Gracie asked again. “I’m here to return an artifact.”
This time, something in the darkness hissed, and there was a rattle.
“Fuck.” She adjusted her grip on the staff and rotated her shoulders, cracking her neck. “Well, I knew this wasn’t going to be easy, right? Hey, all, I’m—ow!” A bolt of magic had whizzed out of the darkness and hit her in the head, making the haptics in her headset shudder. Her character stumbled back. “Ow! Rude!”
“Leave!” The voices were tiny and shrill, and there were tons of them.
Gracie chewed her lip. On the one hand, she was Level 3 now, which should mean she was well able to handle things in starting zones. On the other, she’d clearly gone a different way than the hill warden had wanted to send her.
She was probably going to get smacked down hard.
She glanced at the kobolds. They were peeking out from behind her, staring at the tomb, and they looked sad. This was where their ancestors had been laid to rest, and it had been taken from them.
Fury suffused her, and Gracie squared her shoulders. She strode up to the door, and after a couple of tries of figuring out her distance, managed to kick it open. She extended the glowing blue stone into the darkness inside.
“All right, that is enough. This is a kobold tomb, and I’m coming to return a kobold artifact. There’s no call to attack— Oh, fuck me.”
The blue light from the staff lit the walls and ceiling, and there were hundreds of eyes glinting at her. The fae apparently slept like bats, and the effect was what Gracie would charitably call “creepy as all hell.”
In various campaigns, she and her fellow adventurers had found themselves badly outmatched any number of times, only to flee, rolling desperately to evade. That was the gaming rule: you were outmatched, you ran away.
Except now she was pissed. Gracie tilted her head at the fae, bared her teeth in a smile they couldn’t see, and said in her best ice-cold-bitch voice, “I’m going to count to three.”
They might not have understood the exact words, but they seemed to realize she wasn’t going away because they began charging fireballs again. Hoping the haptics couldn’t shock her, Gracie said a silent prayer and began to swing her stick with wild abandon.
Keep moving, keep moving, keep moving. Maybe if she kept her character in motion, they wouldn’t send magical bolts her way to avoid hitting one another. It was as good a plan as any; after all, there were hundreds of them. Keep moving, Gracie told herself. It was surprisingly frightening to be surrounded by angry fae who were swarming and ready to use magic. Part of her wanted to freeze. Keep moving.
And then the kobolds got involved. The door burst open and they swarmed in, yelling angrily and throwing things at the ceiling. The fae shrieked, the kobolds shrieked, and Gracie gave a whoop. It was a proper brawl now, and she was enjoying that. She lost count of how many fireballs she ducked, how many fae she bonked on the head with her staff, and how many she grabbed out of midair and threw out the door.
When her screen began flashing red, she realized she hadn’t been paying attention to her hit points. She swiped for potions and gulped down the last one. She was going to have to get more of those, and hope that nothing worse than this crowd of fae was going to happen to her before she could.
The fae, luckily, were on the run. After some chattering in both English and their own language, they disappeared, streaming out the door into the night. Gracie and the kobolds were left inside.
Gracie looked around herself and gasped to see several of the kobolds lying on the ground, not moving. Of course, they weren’t moving, she told herself. This had been a fight with weapons.
She had the feeling that she’d led an uprising without having any idea what it was going to cost. For a moment, she forgot that none of this was real and stared at the bodies with her lip trembling. She hadn’t meant for this to happen.
One of the kobolds approached her and tugged on her hand, and Gracie numbly followed it farther into the tomb. It must have been built into the side of the hill, because she was led down a much longer hallway than was possible in the part of the building she had seen. The corridor sloped down slightly, and she found herself adjusting her balance and then nearly falling over. That, at least, made her laugh a little. She felt like an idiot for crying about the dead, pixelated kobolds.
The blue stone was glowing brighter, so much so that Gracie was squinting when they emerged into a small room paneled in mar
ble.
She blamed not immediately noticing the giant kobold on the squinting. When she did, she jumped, swore, and dropped the staff. It clattered on the floor, and Gracie muttered that apparently she could even be awkward in a virtual world.
“Er,” she said after she’d recovered, “hi. Hello. I’m…Callista.”
“Callista.” The voice was very deep. It made her jump, even though she’d expected it. “Why are you here?”
“Oh. Right.” Gracie held out the staff. “I heard a kobold riddle from the hill warden, and it seemed like maybe this stone belonged here.”
The kobold nodded its head. “Yes. Take the stone from the staff, and place it here on the altar.”
“Uh.” Gracie set about removing the stone from the staff. The game, luckily, seemed to know what she was trying to do. After she’d taken it out, she holstered the staff on her back and approached the altar, where she found an indentation in the center. She laid the stone carefully in it and felt a jolt from the haptics. Carved lines in the white altar flared with light. “Whoa.”
“The stone was stolen,” the kobold explained. “It was taken from us, and without it, this place was not kept safe. Now that it is returned, we have access to many powers we had thought lost.”
Gracie smiled. “I’m glad.” She turned and blinked. The giant kobold was gone, as was the smaller one who had brought her here. She was alone in the room. She looked back just to make sure she hadn’t imagined the stone, but it was still shimmering there.
“New quest activated,” the female voice told her as cheerily as it had informed her of her last level-up. “Long May She Reign. Accept?”
“Er, yes?”
“Quest accepted.”
Gracie looked around once more but still saw no one else. It could be a glitch, of course, but she didn’t think so. She had the sense that the kobold had been a ghost of some sort. With a faint smile, she headed back up the hall into the main area, which was now filled with kobolds. Ceremonial fires had been lit in the corners of the room.
The kobolds hopped about, hardly paying any attention to her at all, and Gracie only faintly caught the sound of sliding stone. She turned in time to see stone doors close behind her. The effect was so seamless that if she hadn’t known there was a corridor, she never would have guessed it.
“That’s CGI for you, I guess,” she murmured to herself, and she made her way out through the main door with a small smile. “Nothing like a little bit of hero-ing to make your day better. I— Gah!” She jumped.
“I’m sorry to startle you,” the man said courteously. He emerged from the shadow of a tree and gave a half-bow. “I was…coming to see this place.”
“Oh. It’s a tomb.” Gracie looked over her shoulder. “For kobolds, I guess. They have some powers or something all wrapped up in it. It’s cool. If you got a blue stone in the caves, you can turn it in here. I don’t think there’s any XP but it’s interesting.”
“Mmm.” The man had cocked his head to the side. He was a human, even taller than Gracie’s Aosi, and absolutely jacked. Muscles rippled when he moved. He was also ridiculously handsome, enough so that she felt genuinely awkward.
He wasn’t real, she reminded herself. It wasn’t like she really had dark blue hair, after all.
“I could help you go back to the caves if you didn’t get the blue stone,” Gracie offered. Then she remembered the bear. “Actually, that’s probably not a good idea. There might be bears.”
“Ran into one already?” The man seemed amused.
“Yeah. My roommate came to party up with me for the starting zone, and, well—sudden demon-bear.” Gracie laughed.
“Yes. Everyone must begin on their own, proving themselves with their skills and nothing more.” He sounded very sure of himself.
“Are you an NPC?” Gracie asked.
“Oh. No. Just, uh, getting into character.” He shrugged and cleared his throat. “Want to make a party for the wolf quest?”
“Sounds good.” Gracie stuck out a hand. “I’m Callista.”
“Anders.” He smiled and shook her hand. A moment later, a party invite flashed up on the screen. Gracie accepted it.
“So, how did you hear about the game?” she asked as they made their way back up the hill.
“A friend mentioned it,” he said casually. “You?”
“My roommate was going on and on.” Gracie laughed. “He just plays shooters. I was always more into tabletop, but I have to say he was right. This game is amazing. It’s so immersive.”
“It’s beautiful,” the man agreed. He had stopped at the top of the hill and was staring at the city in the distance. “A whole world where you can be a hero and really do the things you wanted to do when you were little and reading books, you know? Make an actual difference instead of…”
He sighed, and there was something so heartfelt in it that Gracie lost any lingering doubt that he was an NPC. Even with the voice filters, there was no missing the depth of emotion, and she recognized those emotions very well.
After all, she’d had grand plans of changing the world when she graduated.
And now she was dealing blackjack. She squashed down the feeling and swallowed hard.
“Yeah,” she managed, hoping he’d heard her agreement and they could just move past this without having to discuss it. She cleared her throat and looked at him. “And movies, of course. I always wanted to be a Jedi.”
“Not a Sith?” He looked at her, and his character smiled. “The Aosi give me Sith vibes.”
“Their costumes were better,” Gracie said. “Let’s say, Jedi morals and a Sith wardrobe. Although, the Jedi were so rigid. Chaotic good all the way.”
“This is gonna be a good group,” Anders said. “I can tell. Shall we go kill some wolves?”
“Fuck, yeah.” Gracie hoisted her now-stoneless staff. “Let’s get our hero on and save some sacred wells. Also, how do you emote like that? Facial expressions and so on.”
“Ah, I’ll show you. You can hotkey some of them. They’re not super easy to find, but— Hey, there.” He gave the hill warden a nod as they passed.
“Greetings,” the hill warden said.
Gracie waved. “Super in-depth game. I almost expected him to ask how the kobold extravaganza went.”
Anders laughed. “There’s only so much you can expect from NPCs, right?”
Chapter Six
“And your sister wanted to know everyone’s plans for the 4th of July.”
“Uh-huh.” Gracie pinched the phone between her shoulder and her ear and hopped to push her car door closed with her foot. With her dry-cleaned vest hanging from one hand, a giant pack of paper towels clasped in the crook of that arm, and a plastic bag of takeout in the other hand, she was seriously beginning to doubt that she could get to her apartment without dropping something.
“So, dear.” Her mother’s voice sounded, as always, forcedly cheerful. “What are your plans?”
“Um…” Luckily, one of her neighbors was coming out as she was going in. The woman smiled and waved, and Gracie managed to flex her fingers and wave back.
“Gracie?”
“Sorry, a little busy right now.” Like I told you when you called. “I, uh… Mom, the 4th is months away. I have no idea what my plans are. I’ll probably be working.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. Any holiday is big for people coming to gamble.” Gracie made it up the first flight of stairs and hitched her hip slightly to catch the paper towels, which were beginning to slip out of her grasp. “They tend to have all the pit staff working overtime, and—”
“Oh, sweetie, you won’t still be working there in July, will you?”
Gracie stopped dead. She was fighting the urge to hang up and not say another word. Her parents hadn’t been thrilled when she had gotten her degree and run off to Vegas. They had wanted her to take her math skills and go into finance or move home and do internships, or both. Neither of those had appealed, and in any case, Gracie
had always been what her mother called “relentlessly contrary.”
That didn’t make it any less frustrating when they got on her case about the job.
“Dear?” her mother asked. “Gracie?”
“Still here.” Gracie took a deep breath and started up the second flight of stairs. “Look, I don’t know where I’ll be working in a few months, all right? Why does Katie even care what we’re all doing?” Her sister, older than she was by three years, had graduated from MIT and immediately gotten a scholarship to a business school in New York. Apparently, Gracie’s parents had liked this so much that they wanted Gracie to copy her.
“Well.” Her mother drew the word out as though she were sharing a wonderful secret.
Gracie rolled her eyes but didn’t play into the game. At the door of the apartment, she considered her options, then bonked her elbow into it repeatedly. She’d seen Alex’s car downstairs.
Her mother gave up on waiting for her to ask for more details. “I think she and her boyfriend might have a surprise for us. Or maybe he wants to have the surprise be a family thing.” Her voice was filled with excitement now. “Oh, wouldn’t that be wonderful? Surrounded by family and getting engaged.”
Gracie was rolling her eyes when Alex opened the door, clutching a towel around his waist. He frowned at her expression.
“My mother,” Gracie mouthed at him.
He laughed silently and took the paper towels, throwing them one-handed down the corridor and neatly plucking the food out of her hands.
“Look, Mom, I gotta go.” She remembered a moment later that her mother would find this far too abrupt. “Really exciting about Katie. Give her my best.”
“Will do, darling. Love you.”
“Love you, too.” Gracie ended the call. “Ughhhh.”
“What was that about your sister?” Alex asked from around a mouthful of Vietnamese food.
“That had better not be the spicy shrimp,” Gracie warned him. “You finishing all of that would be very bad for your health. I’ve had a long day.”