Ben, Gideon, and Chloe burst out laughing, doing their best to stifle their noise as they heard something howling out in the wilderness.
Gideon wiped a tear from his eye as the laughter faded, eventually saying, “Now might be a good point to rest. Look, we’re fairly sheltered, so we can cover ourselves in foliage to protect us from being spotted. It might not be great, but at least it’s something. We can pick up tomorrow and go the final leg of the journey.”
“Yeah, maybe we’ll actually find something useful in the woods.” Ben took a seat beside Tag.
Gideon followed them to the forest floor. “Aren’t you joining us, Chloe?”
Chloe, who had been staring into the darkness, sure that she’d seen something glimmer out there, turned her attention back to the guys. “Nah, you go ahead. I will keep watch while you guys rest.”
Tag mumbled appreciatively. “Thanks.”
“Don’t you have things to do in the real world, Chloe?” Ben asked, settling down and creating a small pillow out of leaves and grass.
Chloe gave a weak smile. “Not for me. I’m more of a night owl anyway, so if I can do my bit and keep you guys intact until you return, I’m more than happy to help out.”
“She’s a keeper,” Tag said, winking at Gideon and nudging him with his elbow.
Gideon’s mouth flapped, but no words came out.
They were soon asleep, snoring gently in the darkness. Chloe watched them, still half-expecting their avatars to disappear the moment they closed their eyes.
It seemed a strange function of the game that the characters would remain exactly where they were even when they weren’t being controlled. She supposed it added realism for players still in-game, in that attacks in the dark caught people by surprise, though she imagined that it would suck to discover that you’d died while you were logged out and had respawned miles away from wherever the hell you had been.
Chloe took a seat, chewing her cheek, wondering where the respawn point would be if a player got attacked while AFK.
(Un)luckily for her, it wouldn’t be too long before she found out.
Chapter Thirteen
The first sign that something was wrong was a series of hushed whispers in the dark. The second was the sound of bodies being dragged through the brush.
Chloe woke with a start, not remembering the moment she had fallen asleep.
“Wake up, idiot!” KieraFreya shouted, causing several dark figures to snap to attention. Chloe caught glimpses of starlight on silver and the glimmer of eyes all around her. She tried to stand up but felt the hands on her legs as she was tugged over the ground, her head falling back and hitting the soft forest floor.
“Let go of me!” Chloe said through gritted teeth. She wriggled and kicked with her other foot, turning her head to see Gideon’s lifeless form bumping along beside her.
The figures ignored her, tightening their grip on her leg. Chloe closed her eyes and began to summon a purple fireball.
There were gasps of alarm as the fireball grew. She could see their faces now, silhouetted in purple—several bulky men and women with masks covering half of their faces. They looked terrifying. Tribal tattoos decorated what was visible of their skin.
Chloe pushed the fireball out at the exact same moment her leg was dropped and the jolt sent her fireball in the wrong direction, illuminating its path through the darkened trees before setting the area ablaze.
Seizing the opportunity to move, Chloe jumped to her feet. A man lunged at her and she side-stepped, already feeling KieraFreya’s pull on her wrist as it moved toward her knife.
“No,” Chloe growled. “They’re just humans. We can’t just kill them.”
KieraFreya’s voice came into her head. If you don’t kill them, how long do you think it’ll be before they kill you?
Chloe considered this in the briefest of moments. Already she could see Ben and Tag being dragged way up ahead, their silhouettes only visible thanks to the purple flames that several figures were already rushing to put out before the fire spread. Though a number of the figures had swords, few seemed to be using them.
The man rose from the forest floor, grasping Chloe’s leg. She kicked him away, fighting once more as KieraFreya put her energy into making Chloe draw the dagger. Before she knew it, the blade was in her hand.
No! Chloe thought, shouting at the goddess in her head. I said NO!
When KieraFreya replied, it was with a force that Chloe hadn’t felt before. An overwhelming sense of strength rushed through her. MORTAL! I am the Goddess of Retribution. These shitstains have stolen your friends and hounded you in the night. Retribution is due for their acts. Slay the man. Slay them all! Let honor and valor stand tall in the world, and let the weak burn…
Chloe felt her hand dragged down toward the man, his eyes sparkling in the moonlight. The pointed end of her blade came down slowly since Chloe was still resisting the move.
When it was just an inch away from the man’s eyeball, something hard hit the back of her head. A moment later, she felt the warm trickle of blood down her back.
And then all was dark.
“My lady sails over the shoreline
My lady sails over the sea
My lady don’t buy me no red wine
My lady won’t buy me no bree
For I’ve got a lady who hates me
She’s covered top to toe in her sin
But I’ve got a lady who—BEEPs—me
Like she knows that the world will soon end.”
Chloe’s ears tuned in to the most beautiful voice she had ever heard. At first, the song was muffled as she came out of her unconsciousness, but as she became aware of the room around her, she allowed her eyes to shut and take in the sultry tones of the musician. As the singer continued, the dulcet tones of a lute were introduced.
“Just give me all of your ten pence
And I’ll not return you my change
For ladies can carry resentment
’Til the familiar soon becomes strange
But I’ve got a lady who loves me
As much as she hates to admit
For the ladies who love and who hate you
Are the best ones at riding the di—"
“That’s enough!”
Thank God for that, Chloe thought, her mind now active enough to actually read between the lyrics of the song.
She teased open her eyes, immediately finding herself feel nauseated as she discovered that she wasn’t lying down, as she expected to be, but was actually upright, arms spread wide and handcuffed to the wall. She blinked stupidly as firelight dazzled her eyes and the room came into full focus.
She was in a wood cabin with a semicircle of people gathered around her. In the center of the room was the small fire, casting dancing shadows on those gathered around the walls. Chloe scanned the group, seeing that their bodies were decorated with tribal markings, and immediately her mind flashed back to the moments before all had gone dark.
“Where are they?” she said weakly, tugging at her bonds. “Where are my friends?”
Chloe looked at a large woman who had appropriated the middle of the semicircle. She was naked, except for a loincloth covering her downstairs area. Her hair was split into two braids that fell down her back. She looked blankly at Chloe, then pointed to the side of the room.
“We’re right here,” Tag said blankly, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “Didn’t you hear my song?” He sat on a chair, elevated above the rest of the group.
Beside Tag were Ben and Gideon. Ben sat cross-legged next to the chair, while Gideon was slumped against the wall, looking all kinds of confused. A tribesman with a low-set brow stood next to Tag, a lute in his hand.
Chloe shook her head, then winced as the headache rocked her brain. “What’s going on—”
“At last, she awakes!” a voice to her right said. A man stepped into her field of vision. Twice as tall as the others and with a body that rippled with muscle, this man wou
ld have been a sight to behold in her real life—the type of man she turned pages in magazines to get a glimpse of. His jaw was sharp, and his face rugged. She found herself flushing in his presence.
“Warrior maiden,” he boomed, voice echoing around the room. “You have been accused of the attempted murder of one of our people. Now that you are able to respond to these accusations, how do you plead?”
The man was surprisingly well-spoken. Chloe closed her eyes and tried to understand the situation.
“Murder? But you...you kidnapped us. I mean…” She stared confusedly at Gideon, Ben, and Tag, “You ambushed us, and I… Okay, what the—” beep “—is going on?”
As the beep sounded, all of the tribespeople threw their hands to their ears, their eyes screwed up in pain. The larger man pointed a finger her way.
“This woman threatens death upon our own and now dishonors the gods! May they smite her where she stands!”
Reaching to his side, he pulled out a long gleaming sword, rearing it back as if to strike.
A second later, Tag had kicked his chair back and jumped across the room to stand in the man’s way with his hands held up to his face. “Woah! Hey there, buddy. She’s not an enemy, I assure you.” He met Chloe’s eyes, looking more awkward than she had ever seen him. “Honestly, we know her. We’ve been traveling through the woods together, and...she’s...she’s good people.”
The man slowly lowered his sword. “Good people?”
Ben appeared at Tag’s side. “Yeah, I can vouch for her. Good people.”
Chloe turned to Gideon, who reluctantly got to his feet and trotted over. He could barely walk, his knees were knocking together so badly. “I’ll vouch for her too.”
The man turned around to the crowd and began speaking in some unknown language filled with guttural clicks and phlegm-y noises. The woman who was sitting in the middle of them all remained silent while the others chatted among themselves.
“What the hell is going on?” Chloe whispered, only loud enough so her comrades could hear.
Tag spoke out the side of his mouth. “Just keep your mouth shut and we’ll get you out of here. Did you really try to kill one of them?”
“They were trying to steal us away,” Chloe breathed. “I was trying to protect us. If it hadn’t have been for Kier—” she paused as she realized the mistake she was going to make. “I was trying to protect us.”
Eventually, the man returned his attention to Chloe. He signaled for Gideon, Ben, and Tag to move aside. The man stared at Chloe for a long moment before snapping his fingers. At the sound, another man, much skinnier than the first, stood up in the crowd.. Chloe recognized him instantly.
“My eye saw your blade.” The man spoke slowly, as if each word was pulled from some dark recess in his brain.
“You were stealing my friends.”
“We protect them,” he said. “You and your friends sleep in forest. No protection. Bad idea.”
Chloe had been ready to retort, but now it all seemed to click into place. Not once had she seen any of her captors draw a sword. they had not intended to bring harm to the group. The entire time they had been trying to protect them.
Surely there might have been a better way.
“Your friends are from the blessed, yes?” the larger man asked.
Chloe’s brow creased. “The blessed?”
“Those who are birthed from the stars, blessed with the light of the gods. They sleep a deeper sleep but have a number of lives untold to others. Those who are blessed with the power of rebirth after the final darkness comes? That is them, yes?”
“I suppose.” Chloe shrugged. “If that’s the case, then I am also of the blessed.”
The man whom Chloe had attacked snorted. “No, Mantari,” he said, motioning to the larger man. “Stupid woman tries to trick us. We have been told the stories. We have seen the prophecies of the blessed coming to our lands. The blessed sleep the deep sleep, and are undisturbed. You were awake when our people come. You not blessed. You are Enpeecees like us all. Your life just as fragile as our own.”
The larger man—Mantari—loomed over Chloe. “Brother Cijay is right. You have been proven to be a liar and trickster. We are not as blind as we appear to your deception. For the greater good of the village, you must be given back to the earth.”
Mantari drew his sword once more. Ben, Tag, and Gideon tried to step in, but while they had been talking, several more tribespeople had stood up, and now held them back. “For the greater good of our people, I sentence this deceiver to the final death.”
Chloe’s eyes widened as she struggled against her bonds. She felt KieraFreya’s power vibrating through her wrists.
Do something, bitch!
“No! I assure you and all of your people that I am of the blessed. I am a child of the sky. Please, spare my life, and I will honor your grace by offering protection to your people.”
Mantari grinned wickedly. “If what you say is true, then this death will not matter all that much. If you lie, well then, we have saved our village from a great threat.”
After a great sweep of his sword, Chloe felt pain roar through her entire body. She struggled to breathe, watched as rivulets of blood poured down her body, and then gasped as, moments later, a notification appeared.
Wup-wup. You’re dead.
Wow, you really killed it in there. Just kidding! They really killed you. Maybe make sure you get a proper read of the situation before you go around trying to stab people, eh?
-50n experience (where n equals your character’s level)
-1/2 your equipment
Time to respawn: 2 hours
Chapter Fourteen
“What the hell was that?” Chloe shouted, throwing her arms in the air in frustration as she plonked back into the white room’s chair. “And that message? I didn’t try to kill anyone. It was you—” Chloe stopped mid-sentence as she realized that, where she had expected her bracers to be, her arms were now bare.
“Oh.”
She slumped back in her seat, trying to process what had just happened. It hadn’t been her fault that she had nearly stabbed a man. She had fought against the armor with every ounce of her energy, but she could definitely understand how that might have looked to the people on the other side.
Without thinking about it, she rubbed her wrists, surprised by their smoothness. “That friggin’… Rargh!” Chloe shouted in frustration. The last thing she wanted to do was wait another 2 hours to respawn back into the world. For all she knew, that could be another 4, 6, or 8 hours before she landed in the game again. In that time, any number of things could have happened. The guys could have left without her. The tribe could have killed the guys. For that matter, where the hell was she going to respawn?
The telephone rang, scaring Chloe half to death. She had forgotten it was there, the game world already seeming more real to her than she could ever have imagined. She was taken aback by how passionate she felt about the journey. She wasn’t even mad at the tribespeople. She understood their angle. She had just wanted to prove to them that she could help. That she was one of the good guys.
It was that friggin’ goddess who needed to answer for her actions.
Chloe picked up the phone, diving into a twenty-minute rant about what had just happened before she even allowed the person on the other end of the line to speak. When she paused to take a breath, Mia asked, “Are you done now?”
“Where’s the doc?” Chloe asked.
“You realize he can’t be your permanent babysitter, right? He still has a job to go to. Lagardes to fix. It can’t be all about you.” Her words were playful, no malice in them.
“You’ve made a helluva impressive game in there,” Chloe said, reclining in her chair and closing her eyes. Instead of darkness, she could see the tribe in that room. Gideon, Ben, and Tag. The whole gang.
“When we said we were going for full immersion, we certainly meant it. Do you have any idea of the programming hours and skills that have
gone into that game?”
Mia dived into her own speech about the mechanics of the game and the developmental history, relaying elements of its construction as Chloe listened quietly, interrupting only occasionally to ask questions and prod Mia in certain directions.
When Mia trailed off, Chloe said, “I know you mentioned in our first chat that you wouldn’t be able to help me, but is there any chance you could break your own rule and answer a question for me?”
Quiet on the other end of the line. Contemplation. “It depends on what that question is.”
“Well, after finding KieraFreya’s bracers, I received the quest to unite all of the pieces of her armor and restore her to her former glory. The only problem is, I have no idea where to start. Is there anything you can think of that’ll help me along the way?”
Another pause while Mia arranged her thoughts. “Do you want the good news or the bad news?”
Chloe considered this. “Bad. Always start with bad. That’s what Mum always used to say.”
“I can’t help you with your quest. Not only am I bound by contract to not reveal anything that might sway an adventurer’s quest, but I also have no idea. The game’s AI is intelligent, able to construct its own plots at will. You saw it yourself with yours and the wizard boy’s—”
“Gideon’s.”
“Firefighting challenge. You received different things. Even if I had some inkling, the likelihood would be that as you played, the world would shift and adapt around you and the lines would change.”
Chloe exhaled loudly, folding her arms. “What’s the good news, then?”
Without warning, the computer screen on the desk switched on and turned to a web page that showcased a number of pictures of various shrines and altars. There were close-ups of broken ruins and carvings of powerful men and women in clouds and of strange, fabled creatures of legend.
“Cool trick,” Chloe said with awe.
“Thanks.” Mia chuckled. “The good news is that the land of Obsidian is based entirely on legend and myth. Most, if not all, of Obsidian’s NPCs are well-versed in whatever theology the AI has set for them. Dotted around the land are a series of shrines and ancient structures built to honor the gods. My first suggestion would be to start there. Discover the truth behind the myths and set yourself on that path. That’s what I’d do, at least.”
Collecting The Goddess (Chronicles Of KieraFreya Book 1) Page 10