Metamorphosis Online Complete Series Boxed Set; A Gamelit Fantasy RGP Novel: You Need A Bigger Sword, The New Queen Rises, Reign With Axe & Shield

by Natalie Grey

It was over. It didn’t seem real, but it was over.

  The game could finally face a new dawn.

  Finally, she pulled away and wiped her face. “You know the ridiculous thing?”

  “What?” Jay took her hand, both in the real world and in Metamorphosis.

  “No one knows,” Gracie said. “Almost no one has any idea this happened.”

  “I’ve always thought that’s how most of the great battles are fought,” Ushanas said. “A small group risking everything, and everyone else blissfully unaware. Makes you wonder how often it happens.”

  Gracie looked around herself. “So, what do we do now?”

  Someone cleared their throat, and they looked around to see Yaro standing there. His bow was very courtly.

  “Might I suggest you get some sleep?”

  They all exchanged looks.

  “And then we have a party,” Dhruv said. “Obviously.”

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  When Gracie woke up the next morning, Jay was snoring gently on the bed, one arm flung out. They had gotten back to the hotel too tired to do anything except stare at the ceiling and fall almost instantly into a deep sleep.

  Judging by the state of things, she had forgotten to brush her teeth.

  She took a long shower, brushed her teeth more than once, and came out to find Jay still dead to the world. Her stomach, however, was anything but dead, and it informed her that it wanted to be fed now.

  When she got downstairs, only Jamie was there. Gracie paused at the edge of the buffet area and watching him push eggs around on his plate. Finally, she gave up trying to divine what it was and walked over. He jumped when she pulled out a chair and sat, and gave her a vaguely hunted look.

  “Do you want to talk about it?” Gracie asked him. “Or is that the last thing you want to do?”

  He swallowed. “I did something dumb.”

  She frowned. “Look, if this is about what you told Thad, I get why you did it. I’m not mad. Harry was cheating, and Thad certainly took advantage. If you fight people like that head-on, you get steamrolled, and then they take over.”

  “Not that.” Jamie sounded almost sick. He leaned his head into his hands. “Oh, God.”

  Now Gracie was actually concerned. She leaned forward and reached out to touch his arm lightly. “Jamie? Are you okay? Is something wrong?”

  He started to laugh while shaking his head. “It’s stupid, and it’s nothing important, I’m just… I don’t know how to deal.”

  “Okay.” Gracie made a decision. “How about this? I’ll go get some food, you figure out if you want to talk about it right now, and if you don’t, we’ll just have a lazy breakfast and then go for a walk or something.”

  He gave her a grateful smile and nodded wordlessly.

  At the buffet, she piled her plate with eggs and bacon and chowed down on a yogurt while her bagel toasted. Armed with all the fixings for an epic breakfast sandwich, she headed back to the table and began assembling it, assiduously not looking at Jamie while she did so.

  She was just trying to figure out how to take a bite of the damned thing when he blurted, “I think I’m in love.”

  Gracie put the sandwich down. “That’s so sweet!”

  “No!” Jamie looked panicked. “It’s not!”

  Gracie blinked as she tried to parse this. “Uh…is she underage?” she asked delicately. “Oh, God. She’s human, right? Tell me she’s not a pillow.”

  Jamie sank his head into one hand. “She’s not a pillow.” At the raised eyebrow, he threw up his hands. “She’s not underage, either, Jesus. She’s also…” Gracie made a faint anxious sound, “not a she.”

  It took Gracie way longer than it should have to put it together. “Huh,” she said and picked up her egg sandwich again. “I mean, I’m sorry. I guess I just assumed you were straight.” She took a bite, mostly for something to do.

  “So did I,” Jamie said in a very small voice.

  That was when it clicked. Gracie choked on her sandwich, dropped it, and stared at him with a mouthful of egg and sausage. “Ke-then?”

  “Shut up,” Jamie hissed, looked around desperately, as though he would be found out. He waved his hand. “Don’t tell anyone. Oh, God.”

  Gracie clapped a hand over her mouth as she stared at him. It all made sense now—the way he would laugh and joke and get so invested in the conversation, then look totally blindsided and unsure of himself. The way he hadn’t wanted to tell anyone what was going on.

  “Oh,” she said finally. She took his hand. “How are you doing?”

  “Not great,” Jamie said. “My parents are gonna lose their shit. I mean, probably not. I just… A lot of stuff makes sense right now that I kind of wish didn’t? And, like…oh, God.” He dropped his head onto his arms. “He’s perfect,” he said, his voice muffled. “You’ve seen him now. He’s perfect. He has everything.”

  “Does he?” Gracie asked gently. “Because I don’t think he’s dating anyone, and I know he’s trying, so it’s not like he wants to be single. And he talks a lot of shit about being a disappointment to his parents, but from my own experience, that’s the sort of thing that isn’t exactly easy. And…” She weighed whether to say this, then shrugged and gave up. “You’ve seen how he looks at you, right?”

  Jamie’s head came up. “Really?”

  “Really,” Gracie said. She hunched her shoulders. “If you want my take, I’d say he would never make a move while you were staying with him because he’d feel like it was creepy. You know, you didn’t realize you were gay—or bi, or whatever—and you didn’t have anywhere else to go. But you make him laugh. He’s been happier in the past couple of weeks than I’ve seen him before.”

  She let go of his hand and took another bite, looking away to let him process this in relative privacy.

  “I’m still kind of shell-shocked,” Jamie said finally. “Is there a word for when you just always assumed you were one thing and then you realized you weren’t, and all of a sudden a lot of dots start connecting?”

  Gracie gave him a commiserating look. “There definitely should be.” She sighed. “Look, this is more complicated than Jay and me. I get that. I think it’s always terrifying to tell someone you’re into them.”

  “I feel like I shouldn’t tell him,” Jamie said in a small voice. “Until I know…what I am.”

  “Hot take,” Gracie said, putting her sandwich down. “Does it matter?”

  Jamie stared at her.

  “Okay, you’ve now mixed those eggs and ketchup into a paste and it’s really grossing me out.” She put a napkin over his plate. “Where was I? Right. Look, you know you like Kevin, right?”

  Jamie looked faintly like a deer in the headlights but he nodded.

  “Maybe that’s all you need to figure out right now,” Gracie said and shrugged. “As long as you’re honest with him…”

  Jamie had stopped paying attention. He was looking across the room to where Kevin had just emerged from the elevator bank and now looked a bit queasy.

  “Should I go?” Gracie asked delicately. “Or would you rather I stay?”

  “I don’t know yet,” Jamie said, looking at her with mute appeal.

  Gracie smiled and took a sip of her coffee.

  It was going to be an interesting few days.

  That day was a lazy affair, punctuated by people slithering out of bed at intervals, lying next to the pool, and winding up draped over the couches in the main suite. Chowder straight-up bought a coffee maker for the group, along with several boxes of pastries, and people lay around talking, laughing, and—in Jamie’s case—studiously not looking at Kevin.

  Gracie tried to keep from looking at Jamie. If she did, she knew her face would be a picture, and then she’d have to explain it to Jay, and she wanted to give Jamie time to figure it out for himself.

  “Well,” Chowder said, sometime around dinner, “what do you all say I get some pizzas and we bring that tequila out again?”

  There were som
e cheers.

  “I’d wait a few moments on the alcohol,” said a new voice. Everyone turned to see Dan and Dhruv, as well as Sam.

  Gracie felt exhausted suddenly. This had been such a good day, not worrying about the game, but now she was worried all over again.

  “We have an offer to make,” Dan said, “and I think it would be best if we at least presented it while you were all sober.”

  Gracie looked at Jay, who shrugged. Whatever this was, he didn’t know about it. She looked back and found the rest of the team staring at her, so she nodded to Dan and Dhruv.

  “All right.”

  Dan came to lean against the window, apparently unconcerned about the steep drop behind him. “Very well. As I think you all know by now, Gracie’s quest was created without our knowledge and has boosted her ranking in ways we cannot control. We believe that she, however, can.”

  Gracie swallowed. She wasn’t sure she liked where this was going.

  Dhruv picked up. “One of our main mechanics in the game is that we pay the people in the top-ranked spots. Everyone in Red Squadron has experienced a boost that they otherwise would not have had. While this is technically a game mechanic, it is also something most players do not have access to.”

  Gracie folded her hands in her lap. Jay’s eyes were narrowed, and Alex was chewing on his lip.

  “We would like to make an exchange,” Dan said finally. He had his businessman smile on, which didn’t necessarily make things better. “Right now, you receive considerable compensation for your rankings. We would like to increase that by offering you employment at Dragon Soul.”

  “You would still have a place in the game,” Dhruv said, “but not in the rankings. Like our other GMs, you would resolve player problems and give us feedback on how the game might be improved.”

  “We’ve researched.” Dan looked around at all of them. “If you don’t want to be GMs, all of you have skills we can use as Dragon Soul expands. We need accountants, software developers, department coordinators…” He waved his hands. “Relocation costs could be negotiated as necessary.”

  “Why are you offering this?” Gracie asked bluntly. To her surprise, tears were stinging her eyes, although she didn’t know why. She was almost angry.

  Dan took his time before answering. “We have heard a lot recently,” he said finally, “about fairness.” He gave Jay a wry smile. “And about people loving the game, and doing what they did because they wanted to protect it. We have to look out for what’s best for all of our players, and having a bug in the rankings isn’t best for them. But we’ve seen how much every one of you cares—for each other and for the game. Gracie spoke to us about what the game meant to all of you, which is something we had lost sight of over the years.”

  “We could use you on the team.” Dhruv didn’t have a way with words, Gracie reflected, but he was very to the point, and there were worse things. “We knew Gracie would never agree to take you all out of the rankings unless you got something in return.” He smiled at all of them, and then at Gracie. “So we thought about what she would want for her team.”

  Gracie swallowed hard. “That’s nice, but it’s not just my call.”

  “Proposal,” Chowder said. “We have a few days to decide. All of us. One way or another.” He looked around at people. “I know I wouldn’t mind heading out here. I don’t have much going on in San Fran.”

  Alex looked at Sydney, and Gracie’s heart squeezed.

  “Chowder has a good idea,” she said to everyone. “And not everyone would have to relocate, either, even if they took the offer—right?”

  “Right.” Dan nodded.

  “We’ll think about it,” Gracie said.

  Both men hesitated, then nodded and left quietly.

  In the silence that followed, everyone looked around. Gracie crossed her arms over her chest.

  “Jay? You’re the only one who actually works there.”

  “Drinks first,” Lakhesis interrupted, “decisions later.”

  “Nope,” Gracie said, uncompromising. “Facts, then drinking, then decisions. Well…drinking, then hangovers, then recovery, then decisions.”

  “I’ll be around to answer specific questions,” Jay said, “but I think you should consider it. It’s a pretty good team.”

  “Anything else we should all think about?” Gracie asked. When everyone looked at her blankly, she laughed. “Okay, it’s a big decision. Chowder’s right: let’s hang out and decompress, and we’ll take some time to decide. Chowder, pop that bottle.”

  Chowder climbed over the couch and got the tequila out, grabbing shot glasses and lining them up on the table.

  Gracie snagged the first one but didn’t drink. Instead, with everyone focused on Chowder, she brought the glass over to Jamie.

  “Liquid courage?” she asked.

  He smiled at her. “I, uh…I think I’m going to try to talk about this sober.”

  “Probably wiser.” Gracie took the shot before he thought better of it. “I’d do it now if you want both of you to be sober…unless you want to wait. But you look like you’re about to jump right out of your skin, man.”

  Jamie looked like he wanted to cry. “Yeah.”

  “Talk to him,” Gracie advised. She circled back around to where Jay was standing and met his curious gaze blandly. “So, we might be coworkers.”

  “Yeah, yeah.” He looked at Jamie. “You figured out what was up with him?”

  Gracie purposely didn’t look at him, but she knew where Jamie was looking—and she knew, because she had paid attention, that Kevin was studiously trying not to look back. She had observed that he always seemed to know exactly where Jamie was in the room.

  “I think you’ll know soon,” she said with a smile, “but it’s about the cutest thing ever.” She sighed and leaned her head on his shoulder.

  “Proposal,” Jay said.

  “Hmm?”

  “How about we have a proper date?” He looked down at her. “I know everyone’s talking and hanging out and so on, but we’ll be seeing them a lot for the next few days. How about we go have a real date?”

  Gracie smiled up at him, then sobered. “I don’t know. My last date was a shitshow.”

  Jay gave a laugh. “Wait ’til you hear about mine.”

  “Okay.” Gracie grinned. “Let’s go.”

  THE END

  Author Notes - Natalie Grey

  May 7, 2019

  Thank you so much for reading Metamorphosis Online!

  When Michael and I first began speaking about this series, we didn’t know how long it would go. We batted around several ideas, and so it was a big surprise to us to sit down after this last book and say, “I think this was meant to be a trilogy.” Neither of us are people who like to leave our characters, and we definitely don’t want to leave the world of Metamorphosis Online - but this trilogy really does stand alone, and we wanted to let it do that.

  There is a lot coming up with some other characters, and fairly soon you’ll be hearing about some other authors joining this world, which will be awesome. Stay tuned!

  With that said, I do have a fairly big announcement: I will be stepping back into the realm of having a day job for a while. I have enjoyed the heck out of writing full time, but when an organization nearby reached out about a role they’d been having trouble filling, I realized how much I had missed using some of my other skills.

  I am not going to stop writing—frankly, I can’t imagine a world where I’m not writing! However, I won’t be able to get books to you all as fast, and I thought you should know why. I am excited for this change, and excited to keep being a part of the LMBPN team. There is a lot coming up that I’ll be working on: a side project related to Metamorphosis, more Dragon Corps, and an epic fantasy series that’s been in the works for a while!

  Until next time,

  Nat

  Author Notes - Michael Anderle

  May 8, 2019

  THANK YOU for not only reading this story but t
hese Author Notes as well.

  (I think I’ve been good with always opening with “thank you.” If not, I need to edit the other Author Notes!)

  RANDOM (sometimes) THOUGHTS?

  I’ve collaborated with Nat since 2016.

  We have worked off and on during that time as she worked with others, on her own books, and with me and LMBPN. This series (in my opinion) has been the one where we both dug deep to really figure out what it was like to work on something we BOTH had strong feelings about.

  And I’m seriously proud that I have my name on this book.

  Natalie is a gamer, she has the cred - she has done the time and has the marks to prove it. Many of them emotional.

  When I collaborate, I have a blast pulling interesting facts from my collaborators and placing those aspects into our characters. However, there was an aspect of being emotionally mistreated while playing tabletop D&D that neither of us wanted to ignore. We struggled to find a point where we were both happy with how we presented the hurt and joy that online multiplayer games can bring to individuals.

  I’m pleased with the result and the way we portrayed the BETTER side of gaming. The part(s) that don’t make headlines, and where people don’t give a flying @#%@#% if you are male or female. All they want to know is if they like playing with you.

  And the funny stuff!

  For example, I was telling her a story about how new guys will find a girl (‘chick’) avatar on games like World of Warcraft and chase them, not realizing it’s just another guy playing a female character.

  So, with the maturity of MMORPG’s, most male players start to assume that females are just guys playing female characters.

  So, wouldn’t it be funny if the guys all assumed she was male?

  And then, the size of the sword jokes?

  Ok, I admit that was ribald humor, but I still smile about it.

  I will still get to work with Natalie, but DAMN I’m going to miss the next few books as she has to slow down with her writing production.