by Mia Archer
“Sounds like a plan. Look forward to seeing you then!”
And then she was gone.
I was so giddy that I tapped my feet against the floor and let out a triumphant shriek. And then I quickly schooled myself to seriousness as an older professor stuck her head in, looked around the office for a moment, settled on me with a raised eyebrow and then a smile, then disappeared.
I blushed again, it seemed like that was going to become a common thing if I was going to be spending much time around this girl, but I didn’t care. A date! Sure a date in-game, sure a date with a woman which I was still a little unsure about despite all my bluster, but I’d take it. Pretty much all of my social life was taking place inside that game these days anyways, so why should my love life be any different? And why should I care if that love life was igniting again with a woman rather than a man?
If my in-game love life was bringing me a girl as incredible as this then I was all for it. I just hoped she really was what she said she was. That this wasn’t just some scam. That she wasn’t just playing me for her amusement.
Sometimes I really hated that the worst-case-scenario centers in my brain were so overactive.
7: Digital Date Night
A blinking light showed in the top right corner of my heads-up display. I felt butterflies running through my stomach. I felt my breath start to quicken. Hell, I felt my nipples start to harden and I even felt a tingle between my legs. A hell of a reaction to a chat notification.
And it might not even be her. I had that reaction every time I got a chat notification. That’s how powerful her hold on me was.
I glanced over my shoulder to where Megan sat bathed in the glowing light of her massive monitor engrossed in a raid or something. It looked like she was just clicking her mouse over and over, but I knew from the way she was staring at her screen with intense concentration, the way she was listening intently to whatever voice chat was happening over her ridiculously expensive gaming headphones, that the entire world, myself included, was shut out. She wouldn’t be paying attention to anything going on over on my screen.
Good. I still didn’t want her to know about this girl. That I was actually falling for a girl. In a video game. Not yet. Both because I didn’t want to deal with the inevitable barrage of questions and because I didn’t want to hear her not-so-expert opinion on the state of my love life, which was usually pretty dismal.
I turned back. I clicked that blinking icon, a thrill running through me as I did so, and it popped up with a message.
“Good evening my lady elf,” she said. “Ready for that date?”
Those butterflies in my stomach were fluttering around on overdrive. To the point that I thought I might actually get sick from how nervous I was. I’d been doing this for years and yet this girl was the only person who’d ever managed to get this sort of reaction out of me. I forced myself to control my breathing. Maybe it was a date, but it was also a role-playing session. I needed to get in the zone and I definitely wasn’t going to get there if I was acting like a silly girl with a crush even if that's exactly what I was!
“Mother fucker!”
Megan’s shout pulled me away from the chat window which I quickly minimized since that phrase coupled with the sound of her expensive headset being thrown against the wall usually meant she was back in the real world.
I looked over my shoulder. Megan looked over at me but there was a frown on her face. Obviously the raid hadn’t gone well, though at least she hadn’t launched her mouse across the room along with the headset this time.
“I take it the raid didn’t go well?”
“No, not really,” she groused. “We’re stuck on a boss because this idiot healer keeps fucking up and he’s trying to blame me for it! I can’t take this shit. I need to go get drunk. Wanna hit the bars?”
I blinked. This was definitely a development I hadn’t anticipated. It was an unfortunate development considering that I had date night planned with Kaira and it didn’t seem like she’d be available any time soon if I passed up on tonight. Damn it.
“I actually think I’m going to stay in tonight,” I said. “I’ve got a scene I’ve been working on for awhile and the person I’m doing it with is only available tonight.”
Megan grinned and I winced at my choice of words. Perhaps “doing it with” somebody wasn’t the best way to phrase that. Damn it.
“Oh really? Is this special person a dude?” Megan asked.
“No,” I said.
So maybe that wasn't entirely honest from a certain point of view. I knew exactly what she was asking when she asked if it was a dude. She was asking if this was a role-playing session with someone I had a romantic inclination towards. The answer to that question was a definite yes, but that wasn't the question she asked. She just asked if it was with a guy and I'd answered truthfully even if it wasn't quite the truth considering what she was really asking. I wasn’t going to reveal anything else unless she dragged it from me though. Not yet.
Megan walked over to stare at my screen and I quickly flicked it off. She crossed her arms and looked down at me with a huge grin splitting her face. A grin that made me blush as much as I would if I was talking with Kaira. I knew I was giving myself away, but what could I do?
“Keep your secrets for now Amber,” she said. “I’m going to go get drunk. Maybe head down to the bar if you get done with your new boyfriend.”
“He’s not my boyfriend,” I said. Now I was playing the pronoun game. Still, she hadn't used the right pronoun so I definitely wasn't giving that away. Using the right pronoun would cause it all to come out and that would ruin date night as I tried to pry Megan away from my monitor as she attempted to to learn more about this girl I was suddenly so into.
“So it is a guy!”
I rolled my eyes. Let her think what she was going to think. Let her think she was being crafty.
“Go have your drink Megan,” I said.
She took her sweet time getting ready. I waited until I heard the front door slam shut before I moved back to my own machine and clicked on the blinking chat icon. It felt like it’d been an eternity, I wondered if she’d even still be there, but when I looked at the screen I was surprised to see that only about five minutes had passed.
“I’m ready now,” I said.
“Glad to hear it. I was starting to wonder where you’d disappeared to my lady elf.”
I glanced over towards the front door one last time and then put my hands on the keyboard. I closed my eyes, opened them, and I was in the world of Elassa.
I stood at the entrance to the Pirate Caves of Aktor. This was one of my favorite dungeons in the game, even if it was one of the earlier dungeons that only new players tended to go to. New players and higher level players who were looking for a convenient spot for a quick role-playing session. Megan always laughed when she saw me exploring the place. She always acted like it was ridiculous that somebody with a character my level would bother with the place, but I loved it.
I rounded the corner towards the dungeon entrance and moved inside. My breath caught as the screen loaded up a private instance of a dungeon where no one but a game moderator could bother us, and it's not like they were going to be poking around one of these dungeon instances without being called down anyways. We were already in a party together and she was waiting for me in there. As soon as I stepped through, as soon as that loading bar finished, she was there. Looking me over with a very intense stare.
Or, rather, looking over my character. But it might as well be the same thing. It caused the same reaction sitting in the real world in my computer chair as it would have if I’d suddenly rounded a corner and saw a beautiful woman with striking green eyes staring at me in the real world.
This was ridiculous. I’d only seen that one picture of her before and I was drooling over just the thought of that delicious body. Assuming she actually was who she said she was, and I wasn’t just getting catfished.
I needed to stop that. I need
ed to just enjoy myself. More than anything I needed to avoid getting pulled out of the game like that!
I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, put my fingers down on my keyboard, and when I opened them I was my character. I was Maia the high priestess of the Elven Order. I was a gorgeous high elf priestess going to meet a human adventurer in a forbidden rendezvous in a less than savory part of the world.
I eyed the human barbarian warily as I stepped into the cave leading to the pirate’s cove. I called her a barbarian, though to be perfectly honest that wasn’t an entirely accurate description of what she was. That assessment was a product of one of the unfortunate attitudes towards the lower races I’d picked up. I tried to be careful about those assumptions, but it was difficult after so many years of seeing humans prove themselves worthy of the barbarian name time and again.
Though this human probably wouldn’t have considered herself a barbarian. Not in the way they reckoned it. Muscular men in loincloths wielding giant swords and attacking one another with no care in the world aside from where their next meal or their next mating would come from.
This one, at least, had once fine boots and wore a tattered shirt and pants that looked like they were well cared for but a far cry from the finery they’d started as. She also wore a belt with a buckle on it that bore some house sigil. Not that I could determine which house it was just from looking at that sigil. There were so many minor human noble houses scattered by the Sundering that nobody could keep track of all of them. Not even the humans. Not that it stopped them from fighting incessantly with each other over those houses and the paltry territory they controlled.
I could guess her story from a simple look. She was the daughter of a minor noble house with a tomboy streak that served her well in this new world where might so often made right. The Sundering had hit her hard, had separated her from everything she once knew, and so now she wandered the world selling her sword for her next meal and probably holding herself to some outdated moral code that didn’t apply in the new realities of the world after the Sundering.
Still, it also meant I could probably trust her. To a point.
Still, trust could be dangerous and I wouldn’t throw caution completely out. I was well aware it was a dangerous place I was going. I was well aware that the world wasn’t the perfect place that the Order would like to believe, to be cataloged according to their view of things.
I was aware of all of those things, and so that’s why I was keenly aware of the incredible danger I could find myself in if this strange human I’d only met once in a tavern was hostile. If she decided to cause trouble.
I prepared several nasty magic spells that would catch her by surprise if she should choose to try and take a high priestess. If she tried anything then I would at least make her very sorry that she tried, if not kill her outright. Assuming she didn’t have that little toy that negated my magic spells.
“My lady elf,” she said, sketching a quick bow.
My eyes narrowed. There was a rakish grin that crossed her face as she made that bow that told me her supposed show of respect was anything but.
I raised an eyebrow. “Is that mockery?”
She moved up from her bow and that rakish grin was still on her face. I had to steel myself. Had to suddenly concentrate on my breathing so it didn’t start coming in quick gasps. This woman was beautiful, there was no denying it, even if she was just a lowly human from what looked to be a noble house fallen on hard times.
“Merely showing my lady elf the respect she deserves,” she said.
Her voice was melodious, hypnotic. It had me swaying and I had to blink. I had to shake my head and concentrate on the business at hand. I was here on the Order’s business, and I definitely didn’t have time to indulge in impossible fantasies about lowly human nobles.
I sniffed and turned to enter the caves that led to the hidden cove. “Very well human, we must be about our business.”
“Are you sure you want to do this? I wouldn’t go in there if I were you,” Kaira growled.
I turned and looked at her, once again trying and mostly failing to control myself. Trying to control my breathing. I was not some novice to go mooning over a girl of all things! Especially a human!
“And why is that?” I asked in a quiet voice. I wanted to laugh. She obviously hadn’t yet realized that I was easily one of the most dangerous women she was ever going to run into in the course of her travels.
“Lots of criminals, thugs, nasty people in there,” she said. “I’d hate for a pretty little elf such as yourself to get in trouble.”
This time my eyes lowered in a stormy expression. Who did she think she was? Pretty little elf? And yet even though I was indignant, even though I was angry, there was also a part of me that was undeniably flattered. My body was betraying me and a blush was rising to my cheeks. I felt a rush between my legs at her words. There was a part of me that was definitely interested in the promise that flirtatious smile offered, and the fact that this was a random girl I’d just met who I didn’t know much about didn’t seem to mean anything as I stared at her.
I pulled my hands away from the keyboard. I had to stop and catch my breath. This was so wrong. I was on the verge of going to a very dangerous place that I promised myself I’d avoid when I started in the role-playing community on this server. I shouldn’t be indulging in this fantasy.
I should go to a public role-playing location with her where I wouldn’t be tempted. I should be anywhere but where I was, continuing this role-playing session with a flirtatious girl who got my blood pumping with just words on a screen! And yet I'd already broken so many rules for this woman. I'd already crossed so many lines. What was one more? I paused in the quiet of the computer room. Made my decision. I reached my hands out, placed them back on the keyboard. Found myself transported back to the forbidden world.
I looked the human up and down, an appreciative glance that took in her slim muscular figure, her smooth shoulders, the way her armor molded to all of the above leaving nothing to the imagination. And yet I kept returning to that easy, cocky, rakish smile with her short hair above it all. There was no denying it. This woman was gorgeous. Not just for a human. She was one of the most gorgeous creatures I’d ever laid eyes on, and it was no surprise she was having such an effect on me.
Of course her attitude was infuriating. That ruined the other effects she was having on me slightly. But only just.
“What makes you think I can’t handle myself in a den of thieves such as this?” I asked. As I did I held my hand up and a small flame danced from finger to finger. Her eyes widened for a moment which disappointed me out in the real world since she'd been so good about not having that reaction earlier, but that was the only surprise that registered. Meanwhile back in the game world my character felt another stab of frustration. Usually when humans saw me working the elements like that it sent them running in terror, but not so with this woman. She was calm, confident, collected, and she still had that cocky grin plastered on her face. Then again if I had an ancient artifact that wasn’t supposed to even exist that negated magic I’d probably have that same delicious smile on my face.
This woman was as infuriating as she was beautiful!
“I’m not saying I don’t think you could turn any of those ragamuffins into a pillar of fire if you saw them coming at you,” she said.
I nodded and smiled in satisfaction at that admission. But that smile soured at her next words.
“Of course you have to be able to see someone coming at you to turn them into a pillar of fire. That won’t help you much in those pretty robes if someone comes up behind you with a knife.”
“Then what do you propose I do?”
The human stepped forward from where she’d been leaning against the cave wall and she stretched. She lifted her arms up above her head which gave me a clear view of how muscled she was even on her slim frame. I realized I was staring, captivated, with my mouth hanging wide open and quickly remedied that situatio
n. I was not going to sit here and stare at this woman like some hormone addled novice, no matter how beautiful she was!
As she stepped forward she clearly eyed me up and down with something more than the professional interest of someone who’d been hired to act as a bodyguard. I blushed and looked away as she eyed me, then realized what I was doing and anger flashed through me.
I forced myself to meet her eyes, to ignore the thrill running through my stomach at that eye contact. I forced myself to channel some of the fury I was feeling at the casual way she was addressing her elven betters, though I felt a flush of embarrassment as the casual dismissal of "lesser" species that I hated so much from my own people drifted through my mind unbidden.
“I have no doubt what you’re interested in, human,” I spat out.
She looked me up and down once more, and there was hunger there. And there was something else. Amusement?
“I’m simply giving my lady elf the same consideration she’s been giving me ever since she first laid eyes on me.”
I blushed. So she’d caught me looking. Interesting. Very interesting. She was far more perceptive than I would have given a human credit for. There were hidden depths to this one, and I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.
“Very well human, I am the one who has hired you but I assume you are about to present me with terms despite the fact that I am the one paying you to do my bidding?”
She sketched another bow. “My lady elf is quite perceptive.”
My lips turned to a frown, but I decided to let this particular dig slide. Maybe if I just ignored her referring to me as her “lady elf” she would tire of the jest and stop using it entirely. I could hope, at least.
I reached into the pouch at my side and pulled out a gold mark. I held it up in the fitful torchlight that illuminated the entrance to the pirate’s cove.
“This is one gold piece. I imagine that will be enough to feed you for a week if not longer. Maybe even get you some proper clothes. You get one of these at the beginning, and another when we are finished if you desist in this ridiculous insistence on dictating terms to your employer,” I said.