by Baron Sord
Yeah. I was just going to check on her. Talk to you when you get here.
Tiygar:> See you in 20.
I’d check on Layna later. I didn’t want to see her right now. Maybe not ever.
KingFarthurT:> Dad, you around?
Walter_Simon_Byrne_1978:> Yeah, I’m out walking near the stronghold.
I had to admit, this chat thing was better than any smart phone I’d ever used. Perfect reception, instant connection. There were worse things.
KingFarthurT:> Ready for another quest?
Walter_Simon_Byrne_1978:> You going?
KingFarthurT:> Yeah. Jason too.
Walter_Simon_Byrne_1978:> Count me in.
KingFarthurT:> Meet us in the war room in 20.
Walter_Simon_Byrne_1978:> Will do. See you in a few.
I turned to Jason. “We really need to tell Dad.”
“Why?”
“Because he’s coming with us.”
Jason heaved a sigh, “Why did you tell him, Low?”
“I didn’t. But I will when he gets here.”
“No, Logan. You yourself said it’ll freak him out.”
“Any more than being burned alive?”
Jason arched an eyebrow, “Is that what happened to him last night?”
“Didn’t he tell you?”
“No.”
“Probably too traumatized. This place is too much. I don’t understand how you can keep coming back to it.”
Jason shrugged.
I shook my head. I was avoiding the obvious. I didn’t want to check on Layna before we left, but I’d be a dick if I didn’t. I heaved a sigh, “Jay, do you know where Layna is?”
“She was in my infirmary, but her people took her over to the Temple of the Light early this morning.”
I cringed. That sounded like she was dead and her body was being prepared for cremation or something. I swallowed hard, “Is she… still alive?”
“Of course she is.”
“Where’s the temple?”
“Couple of blocks from here. Look for the cone-shaped gold tower. You can’t miss it.”
Outside, I saw what Jason was talking about. The Temple of the Light towered above the nearby buildings, at least 20 stories tall. Curved rectangular plates of solid gold drifted in the air at various heights, slowly circling the central conical tower at random intervals. The plates were rectangles of various sizes and shapes, ranging from about 1 x 2 meters, all the way up to 6 x 10 meters. If those plates were solid gold, they probably weighed thousands of pounds apiece, meaning this building probably cost billions of dollars in materials alone. Now that I knew about the crazy stuff you could do with magic in Reternity Online, I was less impressed by the floating, but I couldn’t deny the sheer volume of gold collected in a single building. One thing was for sure, the grandeur of RO knew no bounds.
As I approached the tower, I could clearly see runes etched into every rectangular sheet. There seemed to be a connection between magic structures and runes. Come to think of it, the hilt of my saber and the blade had runes on them too. So did my Thunder Ring. Somehow, magic runes made things magic? At some point I’d have to ask Jason or Ty how it all worked.
The grand arched entrance to the Temple was open and had no guards. Feeling like I was trespassing, I walked slowly through the archway. A woman dressed in gold robes strolled by, not paying any attention to me.
I walked up to her, “Uh, excuse me?”
She stopped and smiled. “Can I help you with something, sir?”
“Uh, yeah. Are you the, uh, high priest here?”
“Do you mean the Oracle of the Light?”
“I guess?”
She smiled, “Do you wish to speak to the head of the Temple?”
“Well, no. I’m here to see my friend. Her name’s Layna?”
“Ah, yes. She was brought here just before dawn. I’ll show you the way.”
“Wait. Uh, is she… is she alive?” I didn’t want to say dead and I wasn’t sure I wanted to view her body if she was.
The woman smiled again, “Of course. I’ll take you to her.”
Relief washed over me and I was able to finally relax.
Like the exterior, the interior of the Temple was entirely gold. The floor, walls, and ceilings all echoed the same pattern of rectangles, squares, and straight lines found outside, all while adhering to a circular floor plan with curving corridors.
“Hey, uh, can I ask why you guys don’t have guards outside? You got a lot of gold sitting out in the open and anybody can walk in here. You know what I mean?” I felt like I was suggesting I wanted to steal some of it, but I was curious and had to ask. And I was delaying seeing Layna because it still bothered me she might (or might not) be an ape.
The woman smiled, “Those with ill intentions cannot pass through the temple barriers. It’s not an issue.”
“Oh.” I pondered that while we walked up a gently curving ramp.
“Here we are.” The woman motioned through an archway into a large conical room. A cool breeze wafted in from numerous irregular rectangular openings in the circular walls. At least 50 golden beds were arranged around the perimeter of the circular floor, feet pointing to the center. All were empty except 3. Skylight poured through a large opening in the top of the cone almost 200 feet above. Outshining the skylight was a vertical column of sunlight shooting down from what appeared to be a mirror or lens mounted in the open top of the cone. The light landed on a crystalline amber structure in the center of the floor that was about 10 feet tall. 2 inch wide amber channels etched in the floor radiated from the base of it out to each bed in straight lines. At the moment, only 3 of the channels leading to the occupied beds pulsed with golden light energy, which fingered up the sides of each bed’s base in dozens of curved and straight grooves.
“Wow, this is nice,” I said, impressed. This was the most beautiful hospital I’d ever seen.
“We think so,” the woman in gold smiled. “Layna is over there.” She pointed.
“Thanks.”
Another woman in gold sat on a small gold stool beside Layna’s golden bed. Layna was asleep when I approached.
“Hi,” I whispered to the woman. “Are you her, uh, doctor?”
“I am a Servant of the Light,” the woman said softly. “Are you a friend of Layna’s?”
“Uh, yeah. Is she okay?”
The woman smiled, “She’s doing much better since we removed her curse. She’s sleeping right now.”
“Yeah,” I said. “Can I, uh, sit down?”
She motioned to the empty bed beside Layna’s. I sat on the edge.
Layna laid flat on her back in a white gown trimmed in gold, her arms resting on top of a golden blanket. Gold bracelets with pulsing amber gemstones were on each wrist. A similar necklace was around her neck. Her blonde hair was fanned out around her head on the pillow.
She looked peaceful.
What a relief.
Emotions welled up inside me as voices in my head argued it out.
She’s an ape.
Maybe she’s not.
I don’t know.
I could always ask.
I don’t wanna know.
Curious, I examined her stats.
Layna
Human | Female | Hunter
Level: 21
===============
Health | Stamina: 250 | 175
Mana | Mind: 140 | 1320
===============
The curse was gone, but she wasn’t healing very quickly, her Mana wasn’t coming back very fast, and her levels were still gone. Those Ogren Ghouls were nasty beasties.
The woman stood quietly and smiled, “She needs her rest. If she wakes, please don’t tax her too much.”
“I won’t. Thanks.”
I watched Layna sleep for several minutes. I didn’t want to wake her, so I got up to go. I needed to round up Ty and Qoorie and get this show going.
“Nnnnn,” Layna moaned. Her head turned and her eyes drifted half o
pen. Her frown relaxed into a satisfied smile. “Logan.”
“Hey.” Reluctantly, I sat back down on the bed beside hers, four feet away.
“I’m so glad you’re here.”
Why did she have to be so damn beautiful?
“How are Ty and Qoorie?”
I shrugged, “I guess they re-spawned.”
“Have you talked to them?” Her voice was barely a whisper.
“I, uh, yeah, I saw them at Jason’s stronghold before I came here,” I lied. I didn’t want Layna to know I had only chatted with them because then she’d know I’d friended them and not her. She’d probably already guessed, but I didn’t want to remind her. “They’re good.”
“I’m glad.” She sounded so tired.
“You didn’t get your levels back.”
She shook her head weakly.
“Will you ever?” I asked carefully. I felt bad about it.
“If I get more experience I will.”
“Sorry.”
“It’s okay. Shit happens.”
“Yeah,” I snorted, amused. “It does.”
“I’m really glad you’re here.”
“Thanks,” I said awkwardly. Needing a change of subject, I said, “We’re going on another quest today.”
“That’s good. Watch out for ghouls,” she smiled.
“Yeah,” I chuckled. “Well, I should probly go. And you should sleep.”
She nodded.
I stood up. Almost leaned down to kiss her cheek. Didn’t. But I did squeeze her hand. Only for a second. “See ya.”
She smiled, already dozing off.
When I returned to the war room in Jason’s stronghold, Dad, Ty, and Qoorie where there. They all looked good as new. Total relief. I threw my arms around Ty and slapped his back. “So good to see you, buddy!”
“You too, dawg.” He hugged me back hard.
“Whoa, bro! Watch the claws, you animal!”
He chuckled, “My bad.”
I gave Qoorie a quick hug.
She said, “So, what’s this quest you mentioned?”
I glanced at Dad. “Yeah. That. Dad, can I talk to you for a second in private?”
“Sure, son,” he smiled.
I led him to a corner of the big room, near the tapestry map. He was gonna lose it when I told him the whole story about Emily. I opened my mouth to speak, but I just couldn’t do it. He looked too damn happy. The least he deserved was a few hours of “fun” here in the game before real reality came crashing down on him. When we found Emily at the end of this raid, she could tell him herself. Seeing her alive and happy here in the game would go a long way to easing his worries about how she was doing in the real world.
“What is it, Logan?” Dad sounded concerned.
I squeezed his shoulder, “I’m so glad you’re here. I’m really enjoying spending this time with you.”
“Me too, son. Now if only we could get Emily to come on a quest with us one of these days. It would be just like D&D night in the old days. Remember those?”
“Yeah,” I said, my throat tight. I couldn’t believe he’d mentioned it. First time since Mom died. It was a fricking miracle.
“Well, almost like the old days.” He couldn’t bring himself to mention Mom directly. In fact, Dad rarely mentioned her for any reason. But I knew he was thinking about her. In our house, Mom was synonymous with family D&D night.
I winced as painful memories threatened to surface, so I tried to steer the conversation to less depressing ground before I lost it. “Yeah. I’d love to see Em fight some dragons like the major badass she is.”
Dad’s eyes shimmered as he imagined it. “Emily would kick ass and take no prisoners. Not a single one,” he chuckled. “Just like your mother.”
Hearing him mention her nearly knocked me on my ass. I held back tears and sniffed, “Yeah.”
“Your mother never took shit from anybody. Not even me.”
“Nope,” I sighed. It hurt like hell to think about Mom being gone but at least we were talking about it. All the more reason I couldn’t tell Dad about Emily. Not yet. Not until we had her back safe.
Too bad we’d never get Mom back.
—: Chapter 18 :—
Wednesday, March 18th, 2037
11:39pm
The Real World
Bangkok, Thailand
“This is Logan. You know what to do. Beep! Ha ha ha.” Emily’s brother actually said “beep” in his outgoing voice message. The phone she was using was the crooked police official’s private cell phone, which was sound only. She had to imagine the 3D video of Logan’s smiling face. Sadly, it did little to wipe away the rampant fear threatening to tear her to pieces. Emily left a brief message and ended the call.
“Nobody home?” the crooked police official asked from behind his desk. “Is night over dare. Why nobody home?”
“My brother is a bartender. He’s probably at work.”
The official smirked, “He sell drug too?”
“No,” Emily glared at him while she dialed Jason’s number.
“Jason Byrne,” her brother’s voice said, followed by the sim female saying, “…is not available to take your call right now. Please leave a message after the tone.”
Emily’s body tightened another two notches as she dialed her Dad.
“Hey! Walter Byrne here. I’m either out fishing or on the porcelain throne because I don’t want to talk to you.” Loud rattling sounds as her dad fumbled with the phone. “Shit,” he grunted, “stupid fucking—BEEP!”
Emily left messages with all three, giving them the +66 phone number of the crooked official’s private phone. He’d written it down on a piece of paper that was lying on the desk in front of her and he’d instructed her to include it in each message, in case their phones didn’t capture the correct international number. He wasn’t being helpful. He just wanted his $10,000 USD. The cheap phone probably wasn’t even his. It was probably just a burner phone. She set it down on the desk.
The official took it and pocketed it while sneering at her, “Nobody love you. You call tree time, nobody dare for you. Tsk, tsk. Day no love you. Nobody love bad girl.”
Emily knew he was wrong about her family not loving her. But this was the third time she’d left messages with everybody, and they hadn’t called her back. At least that’s what the police were telling her. She didn’t know if they were telling her the truth about that because she’d spent most of the last 26 hours curled up in a ball in the corner of a dank holding cell with 14 other miserable female prisoners, several of them foreigners, all of them awaiting trial. The possibility of release was a distant hope, but Emily held onto it like a life preserver. But she had learned one thing by listening to the other inmates. In Thailand, even foreigners had a right to an attorney. The corrupt official had lied to her when he’d told her Americans didn’t get lawyers.
She glared at him now. “I want to talk to an attorney.”
He sneered at her for a long time.
“Let me call an attorney,” she insisted. “It’s my right.”
“You call att-ney? Okay. Call att-ney.” He pushed the clunky station phone over to her. “Call dem, smart girl.”
Emily didn’t know the phone numbers of any attorneys in Thailand or America. But she knew the phone number of the Giving Hands Worldwide offices in Cambodia. She picked up the receiver and dialed it, but the phone immediately started beeping in her ear after she dialed +855, the country code for Cambodia.
The official leaned forward and said suspiciously, “Where you call, smart girl?”
“I need to call Cambodia.”
He narrowed his eyes. “No you don’, smart girl. You want att-ney? Den you call Thailand att-ney.”
Emily tried not to scowl as she said, “I don’t know any attorneys in Thailand.”
“Oooooooh,” he singsonged. “Smart girl don’ know Thai att-ney? Tsk, tsk. Too bad. Too too bad,” he mocked.
“It’s my right,” Emily growled.
/> He smirked again, staring at her for almost a full minute, his lips quivering the entire time. Finally, he slid open one of his rusty desk drawers and pulled out a fat phone book. He dropped it on the desk in front of her with a thud.
Emily opened the phone book. It was printed entirely in Thai. Nothing but little squiggles. “How do you spell attorney in Thai?” she demanded.
He shrugged. “I don’ know. You tell me, smart girl.”
She glared at him briefly before flipping through the pages for almost five minutes. It was useless. She closed the phone book. “I want to call an attorney. It’s my right.”
He smiled, “Phone right dare. You smart. Call dem.” He folded his arms across his chest and waited.
Angry and frustrated, Emily stared at him for a long time.
He just smiled. Finally, he nodded at the two guards behind her.
They led her from the seeming freedom of the official’s office back to the holding cell. When she entered, most of the prisoners had their heads down, staying within the confines of themselves, trying to block out harsh reality.
Emily headed to the corner she’d claimed yesterday, but it was taken by a new inmate, a Thai woman in a dirty T-shirt. There was no space along the wall for her to lean. They didn’t even have benches in the holding cell. Just the raw cement floor.
So she sat in the center of the room, cross-legged.
She was so tired.
Despite doing nothing since getting here, she hadn’t slept a wink. Too much stress eating away at her. She hadn’t eaten any of the fly-ridden gruel either. Her stomach lurched at the thought of trying to hold anything down. As it was, she already had dysentery from the drinking water. They didn’t give you bottled water in the holding cell. Only in the official’s office when he was trying to sweeten his bribe. Emily hadn’t known about the unclean water, so it hadn’t taken long before her intestines were bubbling noisily in the night. Several times already, she’d squatted over the drain hole in the shower that doubled as the toilet and let everything out. At least the cramps weren’t as bad as before, but now she was badly dehydrated. People died from dehydration. Dysentery was still a global killer.
Exhausted, Emily eventually drifted off to sleep while still sitting up.