by Natalie Grey
He insisted upon meeting in the ruined temple near Kithara, for some reason, the one on a hill overlooking the city. Thad climbed the slope alone, swearing internally rather than even muttering the words, and found the Piskie staring out at the world. He looked over his shoulder as Thad approached and wordlessly looked back at the view.
“So,” Thad said tightly. Bitterly, he added, “You could have one-shotted that boss, couldn’t you?”
“In a live-streamed Month First, that would be noticed by a great number of people.” Yesuan still sounded bored. “You wanted a raid healer, and that was what you got.”
Thad swallowed his anger. “What do you want?” He had to ask the question.
“I’ll be sending you training for the rest of the team,” the Piskie said. It should have been ridiculous, hearing those flat orders through the high-pitched voice filters, but it wasn’t. The aura of command came through anyway. “I expect you to do that instead of your regular training.”
“I would need to submit documentation to our bosses—”
“Then submit it.”
Thad’s hands clenched. “Fine,” he said flatly. “Anything else?”
Yesuan looked at him, a long look in which Thad sensed not so much contempt as a deep and abiding disinterest. Yesuan didn’t care about him at all.
“I am giving you everything you want,” Yesuan said, “and you hate me for it. I should expect that by now,” he added.
“Who are you?” Thad demanded again. His voice was tight. “Who the hell—”
“This is the path I chose,” Yesuan said, clearly to himself. He brought one hand up to his mouth in a pensive gesture that would be better suited to literally any other race than a Piskie. He looked at Thad. “There is only one question I have for you: will you do what I tell you?”
Thad swallowed.
The silence stretched. If Thad had hoped to win this standoff, he wasn’t going to.
“Yes,” he gritted out.
“Then you will get what you asked for in return,” Yesuan said. “There is nothing more to discuss. You may go.”
He turned back to the view and dissolved the party, leaving Thad staring at his back for a long moment before he turned and left, hatred and fear swirling inside him—along with a growing sense of being utterly trapped.
Chapter Twelve
Kevin stopped dead when he got to the apartment that night. “What am I smelling?”
“Food?” Jamie called back cautiously. “Does it not smell good?”
“No, it smells amazing.” Kevin came around the corner into the kitchen. “It also smells like…yep, you’re cooking it.”
“My father once told me,” Jamie said, concentrating for a moment as he flipped the grilled cheese sandwich, “that if you learned to cook, you’d always be able to have what you wanted for dinner. It seemed like solid advice.”
“Okay, but explain how you got grilled cheese to smell that good.” Kevin walked over and peered into the pan. “Did you sacrifice a virgin or something?”
“Well, obviously. But aside from that, the trick is pretty simple: first step, caramelize some onions in butter, then add a bit of red-wine vinegar. I don’t mean half-assed caramelize them either; I mean take the time and do it right.”
“Let’s pretend I know what that means,” Kevin said drily. He opened the fridge and peered inside. “Beer? Wine? Are you old enough to drink? I should have thought to ask last night.”
“I’m thirty-two,” Jamie said, aggrieved.
“You’re shitting me. Well, then, beer, wine, neither?”
“Wine, I think.” Jamie went back to cooking. “Where was I? Right. First, you caramelize the onions, then you sauté up some garlic in butter and mix the garlic in with the onions, then you make a mix of cheese—throw in something like gouda or gruyere—and make the sandwiches. With more butter. The key is butter.”
“Aaaaand there go my abs,” Kevin said, staring into the pan with resignation. “It smells good enough that I can’t say I mind too much, though.” He sighed deeply as he turned back to pour two glasses of white wine. “Besides which, it’s not like the abs have been working out for me.” He held a glass out to Jamie.
Jamie took it gingerly. “Oh God, you have actual wine glasses. I just drink wine out of…”
“Juice glasses?” Kevin said, raising an eyebrow as he took a sip.
“Definitely not straight from the bottle, I can tell you that much.”
“Dear God, man. All right, we’re going to teach you some things. First of all, how to pair wine with food.” Kevin began taking down plates and silverware. As he set the table, he called over his shoulder, “With a melted cheese sandwich, you generally want to go with a dry wine rather than a sweet one. Something crisp. The most common kind you’ll be able to find almost anywhere would be a dry riesling, but Chablis is also an option. Be careful with reds. Go light-bodied if you really want one.”
“I have no idea what that means,” Jamie said bluntly.
“All right, hang on.” Kevin set the plates down. “You serve those, and I’m going to go get a sweeter white. I’ll be right back.”
“Eh?” Jamie plated the sandwiches and brought them over to the table while Kevin poured more wine—just a touch this time—and put it beside the full glass.
“Okay.” Kevin sat down. “We’re going to skip the minutiae of tasting wine. For now, take a bite of your grilled cheese—oh fuck, that’s good—and then a sip of the first wine I poured you.”
Jamie complied. “Okay.”
“Right, now take another bite of grilled cheese—seriously, I want to marry this thing—and a sip of the other wine.”
Jamie took a sip, a bit bemused, and made a face. What he’d expected to be a sweet wine tasted very sour and odd.
“Yep.” Kevin smiled. “You don’t have to know fancy words or anything; just read up on what types of wines go with the stuff you cook. Here, how about this: you give me some advance notice of what you’re cooking for dinner, and I’ll get a pretty easy-to-find wine that pairs well with it. Sound good?” He held up his glass to clink.
“Yes,” Jamie said. He clinked his glass with Kevin’s, took a sip, and resisted spitting the wine back into the glass. “Wrong one.”
Kevin snorted quietly into his glass. “Seriously, thank you for dinner. You absolutely do not have to cook or anything. You’re a guest.”
“Who crashed here on very short notice, with you taking PTO to come pick me up at the airport during rush hour,” Jamie said with feeling. He considered. “Maybe it’s not a big deal to you, but it means a lot to me.”
Kevin blinked at him. Jamie saw the urge to say something flippant, then Kevin smiled back. “Of course,” he said simply.
Jamie went back to his food. “I can teach you how to make this,” he added around a mouthful of grilled cheese.
Kevin nodded through his own bite. “I’d like that,” he said after he had swallowed. He spun his glass of wine on its base thoughtfully. “Changing things up seems like a good idea.” When he saw the look on Jamie’s face, he added, “I’m sorry. You hardly need to be listening to me bitch about my life.”
“I don’t mind.” Jamie honestly didn’t. “I just don’t…get it. You’ve got the car, the apartment, the clothes, you’re in fucking awesome shape, and you know all that shit about how to pair wine with food. I guess I’m confused about what you think you’re doing wrong.” He waved his hands. “Like, you’re not even an ass about knowing how to pair wine with food!”
Kevin, who’d been taking a sip of wine, choked, then wiped his mouth. “Well, thank you for that. I’m glad to know I’m not an insufferable douche.”
“I didn’t mean—”
“I’m just givin’ you a hard time.” He grinned and took another drink, then leaned back in his chair with a sigh. “Look, it’s hard to explain, and not really something you’d want to hear.”
“Try me.” Jamie raised an eyebrow in imitation of Kevin’s earl
ier expression.
Kevin blinked at him. “All right, then. I was supposed to be the golden boy.” He shrugged. “I played baseball. I played football. I got straight As. My parents thought they knew where I was going, and that mental image was me with a career and a wife and a bunch of blond kids. And then I came out to them, and…they didn’t cope with it well. Over the past couple of months, I’ve realized that I’ve spent the past fifteen years trying to be successful enough for them to be proud of me anyway.” He gave a little laugh. “Goddamned stupid.”
Jamie couldn’t say anything for a moment. He hadn’t realized until Kevin said that how similar their childhoods had been. Jamie, too, had been the golden boy, the one with the bright future.
And while he hadn’t been as successful as Kevin, he’d also been the one who didn’t fit into the box his parents had built for him.
He held up a finger, went to get the bottle of wine, and topped off both their glasses before holding his out. “From one embarrassment to another? I get it. I went the other way, and it didn’t do me any better.”
Kevin’s smile was slow, and he nodded before toasting. He took another bite of his grilled cheese and sighed happily. “Damn, this is good. Okay, so tell me…what’s going on with the guild?”
Gracie was hunched over the counter, halfway through a stack of PB&J sandwiches, when the door opened and Alex came in with a bag of takeout. He blinked at her sandwiches, she blinked at his bag, and then he offered her a wicked smile and said, “Well, I guess I get your share, then.”
Gracie gave him a pained look.
“Just kidding.” He put the bag on the counter and shrugged out of his coat. “I know better than to try that. That’s how a man gets killed in his sleep.”
“A girl has no roommate,” Gracie said philosophically before pulling out plates and forks. “Not out with Sydney tonight?”
“Meeting up with her after her shift,” Alex explained. “By the way, they had a special on an insanely spicy Pad Thai, so I got you that.”
“You’re a dream.” Gracie looked through the boxes. “I’m guessing it’s this one, with the pepper and three exclamation marks drawn on the top?”
“Sounds right.” Alex slid into his chair. “I’ll just…sit at the other end of the table.”
“Pansy,” Gracie said affectionately. She opened her container carefully as Alex dug into his red curry.
“So, how’s Jay?” Alex asked. “Yeah, don’t touch that stuff with your bare hands.”
“Not planning on it. You only gotta rub your eyes once before learning to be more careful about your life choices.” Gracie took a bite. “Oh, son of a bitch. Holy fuck. I’m going to die. This is so good.”
“Your decision-making is fucked,” Alex told her. “I just want you to know that.”
“Such exquisite pain, though.” Gracie chewed. “It burns. Yeah, that’s the stuff. Okay. What were we talking about? Right, Jay.” She grinned and shrugged. “He’s good. We’re good. Things are good. Except I suck at PvP…but he wasn’t there to see that, so at least I don’t have to run away and hide in shame.”
“You suck at PvP?” Alex asked doubtfully. “You?”
“I’m good at puzzles,” Gracie said, sucking in air desperately around a burning mouthful of food. “And I know the sorts of puzzles people set up. But fighting the people instead? That’s unpredictable. People would just wait and kill you when you rezzed.”
“Ah, yeah, camping.”
“What is that?”
“It’s…staying by someone’s corpse and killing them when they respawn.” Alex shrugged. “Staple of PvP, really. Also, you should get some water. You don’t look so good.”
“I’m fine,” Gracie managed. “I just have to keep eating so the spice doesn’t catch up with me.”
“Sounds like drug addiction, but okay.” Alex took another bite. “By the way, I did an unethical thing.”
“You’d be great in sales.”
“I know, right?” He grinned. “Harry didn’t show up for his next appointment, so I looked up the address we had for him and went by. It didn’t look like anyone was there, and while I was waiting, the landlord showed up and asked me if I was there for the tour. Said the guy moved out with no notice, so no idea, but…”
“Maybe he gave you a fake address.” Gracie shrugged.
“No, he described the dude. Anyway, thought you’d want to know you don’t have to worry about him showing up.”
Gracie smiled. “Thanks.” She yawned. “Why am I tired?”
“Because you have no regular schedule anymore.” Alex pointed his fork at her.
“Oh, right. That.” She yawned again. “So where are you and Sydney going tonight?”
Alex coughed. “We’re not precisely…going out.”
“Going down?” Gracie asked smoothly, and gave a fist pump when Alex choked on his curry. “Nailed it.”
“I’ll get you back for that. And anyway, I do have some time to play a bit of Metamorphosis before I leave. I’m jonesing.”
“Yeah, it must have been difficult for you,” Gracie said. “Bet the sex makes it easier, though.”
Alex gave a thoughtful nod. “Well, when you put it that way… So, we gonna go do some questing?”
“Sounds good. We might catch Caspian and Kevin as well.” Gracie sat back for a moment to assess the burning in her mouth. “Let me just drink about eight glasses of water, and then I’ll join you.” Her phone dinged and she picked it up, already grinning at the thought of a text from Jay.
Her smile died.
Alex, who had been heading back to the kitchen, stopped. “What’s wrong?”
Gracie stared at the email, not answering.
You are nothing. You will be nothing. All of this will collapse around you. Yaro
Chapter Thirteen
By the time Jay logged on, almost everyone else was online. “Sorry I’m late, everyone. Just got in.”
“What took you so long?” Alex asked affectionately.
“Ah, Gary Swiftbolt, old friend.” Jay limbered up, running through some cursory wrist and neck rotations. He would normally do this before he logged in so that his character wouldn’t appear to be having an awkward one-person dance party, but he’d been so busy today that he had eaten in the car while driving between errands. “It turns out I am employed once more, so I must do all of the stupid boring shit I won’t be able to do during the day now. For everyone’s information, I had a cavity, it’s been four hours since the Novocain, and I still can’t drink water without dribbling out the right side of my mouth.”
“Pics or it didn’t happen,” Chowder said at once.
“Do you want some time to eat?” Gracie asked. “Or…shove food in the left side of your mouth? No soup.”
“Nah.” Jay accepted a party invite and started into the crush of people on the streets of Kithara. The group was all gathered in one of the parks near the edge of town. Oddly, near the NPCs that manned the PvP queues. Jay headed that way with a curious smile.
“Are you sure, man?” Ushanas spoke in his usual lazy drawl. “We can spend another five minutes hopping around a park. It really isn’t any trouble.”
“I’ve shoved about twice my usual food intake into me in the form of burgers and milkshakes, so I’m good.” Jay bounced on his feet and grimaced. “And wow, do I need to work it off. Like a pile of lead, I tell ya.”
“You should have had my dinner,” Kevin said smugly. “Our Caspian makes the best grilled cheese sandwiches I’ve ever had in my life.”
“He’s saying that after a bottle of wine,” Caspian said in a stage whisper, “so take it with a grain of salt.”
“Hey, now, I also said that when I was sober.” Jay could see them now. Kevin’s Piskie summoner was dancing crazily on top of a fountain, and several of the rest of them had joined up around the edge of it to dance as well.
“You look like you’re summoning demons,” Jay told them.
“What makes you think we
aren’t?” Kevin waved him over. “Get in on the fun! Help us summon a bigger demon.”
Jay looked at Gracie, who gave an expressive shrug. She was wearing her axe now instead of her sword. “I figure what they do while we’re queued is their business.” She pointed sternly at them. “But you are responsible for what that demon does in the keep, do you hear me? You walk it. You feed it. You clean up after it.”
“We’re running Saladin’s Keep?” Jay asked curiously.
“Heck, yeah,” Gracie said. “Also, we’re going to lose spectacularly.”
“I think you’re underestimating yourself.” Jay emoted a smile as he strolled closer. Knowing that Callista’s face was modeled on her own made him feel like they were really standing in the park.
“No, I mean it. We’re going to lose on purpose. Well, we’re going to not-win on purpose.” She waved her hands. “These are exploratory runs. We’re all learning every nook and cranny of the keep, then we’ll focus on the PvP part of it.”
“Interesting.” Jay bounced on his feet. “I’ve actually never run any of the PvP content since the world was launched. We had inter-team competitions there at one of the Christmas parties back in the day, though. I think I remember it fairly well.”
The world disappeared around him and resolved a few moments later into the opening area of the Keep. They were at the northern end of the map, the ruins of a library with the traditional diamond-shaped bookshelves that Jay had seen in images of Ancient Greek and Egyptian libraries. Once, the place would have been filled with scrolls, but now there was very little left, and the wood, ivory, and metal centers of the scrolls lay strewn across the floor.
Their flag was bright green with a spinning wheel, and it stood in a shaft of light at the end of the room, silhouetted against the desert.
“All right, everyone know their part?” Gracie asked. “We leave one or two people here to hamstring their offense and give us more time, and the rest of us spread out and start exploring.”
“I’ve done a lot of PvP, actually,” Dathok said. “I’ll stay and do D.”