Holy War

by Sugralinov Daniel

  Right after that, I contacted my parents. They’d already heard from Ed that I was fine, but of course they wanted to hear it first-hand. Once mom was done with the sighs and shrieks and admonishments to be expected from any mother with a Thoughtless child,’ she hurried off to the ‘Moon-spa’ and I was left alone with my dad.

  “How are you guys doing, pops?” I asked, meaning his and mom’s relationship.

  He understood me.

  “You know, son,” dad answered. “A marriage built on feelings alone is like a character with the wrong build. I had a friend who played a mage. He put everything into intellect to increase his damage, crits, mana pool.

  As you can imagine, he was screwed when any mob at his level so much as sneezed on him. Balance is important, Alex. It’s important for everything, but especially for family. Your mom and I loved each other so much that we figured everything else would figure itself out. But love alone isn’t enough. You need a lot more than that. A good family isn’t a onetime craft. You have to work on relationships your whole life. It’s a shame I didn’t realize that until I’d almost lost Ellen.”

  “What do you need apart from love?”

  “Decide for yourself. Your relationship with Tissa…”

  “Is over.”

  “Let’s say it is. You like each other, you want the same things. That’s great. It’s a foundation you can build a long-term relationship on. But it’s also important how you both see the path to your shared goals. For you, that means leveling up like you know how, and Tissa saw her path the same way. But life gave her other opportunities, with a shorter and easier path. You too, actually. Just remember that offer you got from that big shot at Snowstorm. Even if you quit playing today, you’ve already got what you wanted. An education, a high citizenship status, your friends, the clan—you won’t lose any of that. But you’re like me, you’re bold. The high stakes have their grip on you, and now you’re playing your own game, and a million gold isn’t real phoenixes for you, just chips in a casino. How much money have you spent in Dis in the last few days?”

  “Millions…”

  “See? Your paths to your goal forked, but don’t blame the girl. She has what she could only dream of before. You didn’t stop wdien you got comfortable. You strive for more. You don’t just w^ant happiness for yourself. You want to do more for your friends, for the noncitizens that believe in you. That’s commendable, but sometimes you have to be ready for your partner to walk their own path. And that’s when couples break up.”

  “Dad, I still don’t get it. What does this have to do with you and mom? Are you sure you’re both alright?”

  “Oh, we’re doing just fine!” Dad winked and smiled broadly. “Like before. We talked about our goals and the paths that we see leading to them. And you know what we found out? We want the same things. Ellen wasn’t confident enough that she was more important than anything else to me—I was always showing her otherwise. I thought that since we were married, she’d always be mine. I thought of her as an integral part of myself, and so I let myself be distracted by other things.”

  “So you’ve found a balance now?”

  “Yeah. And in no small part thanks to you. I don’t just mean the money you gave us. I mean your achievements. I’ve been watching the news, Alex, and I know what my son has achieved. I’m afraid I’m never going to want to play Dis again. No matter what I do there, it won’t be worth a fraction of what you can achieve in a single day. And that means I want to do something else: live with your mom, so w^e can rebuild our careers together, restore our name, and of course, raise our grandchildren. Hurry up with that, you hear?”

  We talked a while longer, then said goodbye. Dad had registered for a weekly poker tournament at Silver Harbor, where he planned to ‘knock it out of the park’ with mom.

  I went back to the boys. They were busy; delivery drones were flying through the open window one after another. Thanks to Hairo, our part} had alcohol—it had taken time for Hung to convince him, plus a promise that we wouldn’t get drunk, but he eventually placed an order. All kinds of food arrived along with the beer, and by the time the first guests arrived, we were ready.

  “I’m the DJ!” Malik announced and started making a playlist and giving commands to O, our household assistant.

  The apartment shook as cray-jungle beats boomed through it, a new kind of dance music that got the blood pumping and made feet move on their own.

  Rita “Overweight” and Karina “Goosebumps” were the first to arrive. Rita had always been athletic and shapely, and now her blonde friend had filled out too—she was as tall as me, and with high heels on, she reached Hung’s height. Ed livened up when they appeared. He immediately took Rita away to a corner to discuss the clan’s trading operations and future plans. Rita held her eyes on me as she left. I answered with a nod—we’d have time to talk later. The night was young.

  Karina immediately asked me to show her my room, but we didn’t have time before more guests arrived: Piper and Alison. Hung introduced us to his girlfriend and dragged her away to make cocktails from my parents’ liquor supplies. Piper and I exchanged glances—it was clear she wanted to talk alone. Maybe she had a message from Pecheneg-Polotsky?

  Tissa was late. Finally, we all got together in the same room and drank a couple of rounds of cocktails and beers, shouting to each other over the music. Then there was a ring at the door. I went to open it and swore when I saw on the screen that Tissa had come with company.

  She was there with Liam, nephew to Elizabeth of the White Amazons. The same guy that kissed her. The same guy that was in Modus, and recently moved to the clan of his friend Mogwai.

  “Do you see this, Hairo?” I whispered into my comm.

  Keep a grip on yourself, he answered by message.

  I opened the door. With a blinding smile, Liam offered me a bottle of wine.

  “Hey, Alex! Nice to meet you again!”

  Tissa said simply:

  “Hi.”

  She didn’t even explain why the hell she’d brought that dumbass along! Just kept staring into my eyes. I saw tension, uncertainty, and at the same time a hidden triumph in her eyes. The pause stretched out. Music played behind my back and I heard the boys chatting. I tore my eyes from Tissa and took the bottle from Liam.

  “Hi! Sorry, Liam, it’s just that nobody told me you were coming.” I smiled falsely. “To be honest, it’s a surprise even to see Tissa.”

  “A nice one, I hope?” the girl asked. She stepped over the threshold to hug me.

  Then I fist-bumped Liam’s extended fist and brought the guests inside.

  “O, lower music volume to ten percent,” I ordered the home assistant. Then I raised my hand to get everyone’s attention. “Anyone who doesn’t know Tissa and Liam, please make them feel at home.”

  My ex-girlfriend’s companion knew Piper and Alison, but the others he was meeting for the first time. As soon as he mentioned which clan he was in, everyone perked up and started questioning him about the plans of the Elites and Mogwai, and even about the Alliance’s business. T-Modus wasn’t participating in the holy war, and Rita and Karina didn’t know anyone in a position to know much. Even Ed, Hung and Malik were interested, so Liam quickly had everyone’s attention.

  Soon the whole group was hanging off the boy’s every word and occasionally bursting into laughter—Liam turned out to be a great storyteller. After starting with a short self-introduction, he suddenly told a story about walking through Kinema with Mogwai and getting into some trouble that turned into a unique quest chain for the goddess Athena.

  Tissa’s shining eyes were glued to him. She stood next to Karina. Unwillingly comparing them, I realized that it wasn’t Tissa’s looks that attracted me to her. Goosebumps had long blond hair, blue eyes, thick brows, rich eyelashes and luscious lips—just like Tissa. They looked almost like twin sisters, although Karina was a little taller in her high heels. But I felt nothing for her. When I looked at Tissa, I felt an abyss yawning insi
de me, full of the toxic waste of jealousy and anguish of the soul.

  Tissa felt my eyes on her, turned, raised her head. I nodded and walked into my room, ordered O to activate sleep mode: the lights dimmed, the windows darkened, the music blasting through all the apartment’s speakers quietened in the room.

  Half a minute later, Tissa appeared.

  “A break…” I said. “When you said that, did you mean you wanted to end things between us?”

  “Of course not, Alex!” Tissa walked over to me, touched me on the cheek. She bit her lip. “Let’s not talk about that? I really am happy to see you, you know. I’ve missed you.”

  I wanted to shout out accusations— Bullshit! Don’t lie! You missed me? Wdiat were you thinking when you uploaded those photos of you and Liam? You befrayed me!— but I bit them back. Since I was a kid, I never could stand the scenes my parents put on. I always suspected that they didn’t talk about what really bothered them, but instead just tried to jab at each other harder and harder, often without regard for the consequences. I didn’t want to be the same, and I didn’t want to show weakness either. Not here. Not now. Especially not with Hairo watching. And, of course, I remembered the Alliance’s Great Game. It had been a while since I’d seen Tissa as someone close, dear to me. She had become, whether unwillingly or consciously, just another piece on the chessboard. Possibly under Otto Hinterleaf s control via Elizabeth or Liam, although the latter most likely represented Mogwai’s interests. So I suppressed my feelings, said simply: “I missed you too. How have you been?”

  Tissa sighed in relief and then started to tell me about her life on the White Amazons’ private island, hesitating at first, but then continuing with more confidence when she saw no anger in me. To hear her tell it, she constantly felt guilty not only about me, but about the other boys too, although ‘we surely understood her.’

  “We understood you, Tissa,” I said. “How’re things with Liam?”

  “I don’t know. I like him, but we don’t see each other often—he doesn’t live on the island. He just came to visit a couple of times, that’s all.

  We haven’t been on any dates, there were always people nearby.”

  I got the impression she regretted that they’d had no dates, but she didn’t want to hurt me even more. But I was probably the one consoling myself and overthinking things.

  “Yeah, shame,” I said.

  “Actually, Liam found out that I was headed here and offered to fly together on his flyer. You really aren’t upset, Alex? At all?”

  “Of course not. I thought I loved you, but to be honest, I don’t even know what I feel right now. I’ll figure it out, don’t worry.”

  “So you’re not seeing anyone? I was told that you were planning to get involved with Wood or her blonde friend.”

  “Who’s the telepath? Malik? I bet it was him,” I said. Tissa smiled, nodded. “Maybe. I don’t know. Like I say, I don’t know what I’m feeling right now.”

  I heard an explosion of laughter from the lounge. Tissa looked at the doorway, but didn’t leave. Maybe she hadn’t got all the intel she wanted? My paranoia switched into “Enemies all around!” mode and I decided to give the girl a nudge. I changed the subject to Dis and Tissa told me about how stats went up so much after all those new adepts joined up that she cleared all the top instances in Tristad last night on her own. Unfortunately, her priestess of Nergal had long since outleveled the mobs and couldn’t gain even one extra level, although Tissa very much wanted to break the sandbox record. But it seemed she wouldn’t break it now; to succeed before she went out into greater Dis, she’d have to literally live in her capsule and farm crumbs of experience.

  “There’s one option,” I said without thinking. As usual, my brain took the task, processed it and came up with a solution, forgetting that I was still angry at my girlfriend.

  “What?” Tissa moved toward me in excitement.

  “If you jump to Kharinza, we could take you into the desert from there, group up with you. Killing any mob would give you at least ten levels. But that’ll invite questions that you can’t answer without telling your friends about us.”

  Tissa clasped her hands at her chest and begged:

  “Alex, come on, please! It would be sooo easy for you! You’ll help out, won’t you?”

  “No.” I shook my head, not revealing the true reasons for my refusal. It would be hard to do her that favor from the Nether. “Forget it.”

  “But you won’t mind if one of the boys helps me out?”

  “Yes, I will. When do you plan to leave the clan?”

  “After my birthday…” Tissa thought for a moment. I was sure she was already thinking about how to comince Malik or Ed to help. “Alright, let’s go, everyone’s waiting for us.”

  Tissa took me by the hand, just like before, and led me into the lounge. Naively failing to see her trick, I let her hold my hand and caught a few interested and sometimes jealous glances. Not from Rita, to my surprise. Oveiweight was busy sweet-talking Ed. They were nestled in a corner by the window, whispering something.

  Noticing us, Liam excused himself, cutting one of his stories short. He gave Tissa a loud kiss on the lips, looked at me triumphantly and spoke in displeasure:

  “You took your time. A word, Alex? Tissa, my dear, would you mind if I had a little chat with your ex?”

  That last word was still more proof that our ‘break’ was actually a breakup. Tissa didn’t object. I felt even more sure that Liam’s appearance was no accident. He was here to… to what? Recruit me? Convince me to collaborate? Relay a message to Hinterleaf? I needed to know the reason, in any case. I agreed to talk to him.

  “Alone, if you don’t mind, Alex,” Liam asked, a mask of false goodwill frozen on his face.

  His tone was friendly, but the smile didn’t reach his eyes.

  “No problem.”

  I went back to my room, this time with Liam. I saw an alarmed glance from Piper along the way. Looking back, I saw Karina rushing to Tissa. No doubt she wanted to figure out what was up with me and whether she had any chances.

  The robot cleaner busily moved back and forth, filling itself with empty cans that cracked as it crushed them in its internal press. AT was jumping around nearby in dog form. He copied the mood of those around him, and his behavior showed that the people were in the mood to part}.

  Liam pulled the door to, sprayed a dose of Accelerator into his mouth and spoke:

  “Listen. I know there was something between you and Tissa. But I want you to be a man and leave her alone. Why are you so hung up on her?”

  “What? We never officially split up, Liam! We were just talking…”

  “Don’t lie. You could have talked in the lounge. You know what? You should find the courage to admit to yourself that she’s out of your league. Have you seen where you live? It’s been a long time since I’ve been in a cesspit as bad as your district. And this?” He waved a hand at my room. “You call this a home? It’s a stable! Melissa has a bright future. She’s going to be a star. She’s way out of your league! Your ceiling is category F. Your win in the Junior Arena means nothing. You wasted your chance. None of the top players recruited you, and I saw you beg to be taken in! Pathetic.”

  His onslaught stunned me. I would have sworn he wanted to talk about anything else, anything but Tissa. Did he not even know that I was a Threat…? But… Nether, I really was tied up in grown-up intrigues! I was actually planning to have a break from Dis, recover from my year in the Nether, relax with my friends, finally. I didn’t want to hear insults! It seemed Liam in particular had lost the plot. Either it was the effect of that narcotic of his, or it was his eyes filling with blood out of jealousy, or he was angry that our party messed with his plans for a romantic weekend with Tissa.

  “Listen, Liam,” I said as calmly as I could. “Yeah, I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth. I’m just an ordinary schoolkid. Just like Tissa. In case you didn’t know, she and I have been studying together since
middle school.”

  “Sometimes you find pearls in pig shit.”

  “I don’t know as much about pig shit as you…”

  “Watch your mouth!”

  “…but I agree with you there. Tissa is a beautiful girl. She deserves more.”

  “That’s for sure,” the boy snorted. “You could have remembered that when you invited her to this shithole.”

  “I’d promised Hairo to keep hold of myself, but I swear, in that moment, it was harder than my year in the Nether. My fists clenched and I imagined myself slamming them into that perfect face. The only thing that stopped me was remembering the punishment; throwing the first punch at a higher-category citizen meant a one-way ticket to Cali Bottom.

  “Listen, Liam…” I took a deep breath. “I didn’t invite Tissa. Or you! I had no idea she was coming. My friends told me literally right before the party started. And I had no plans to fix anything with her. We just hadn’t discussed our relationship until now, and anyway, Tissa is still in my clan…”

  “Not for long,” Liam snorted. “Let me be clear. If I hear even one more time that you’re bothering her, then you’ve had it. I’ll find you in Dis and I’ll spawn-camp you until you drop down to level ten. Got it, Sheppard?”

  Then it all lifted. My rage melted away as if it had never been. Uncle Nick always said: with people you don’t know too well, always be extra polite and civil. After all, you never know who you’re talking to. Liam didn’t seem to know that rule. In any case, I decided to play along, all the while smiling inwardly; sure, he would spawn-camp me. Ha-ha!

  “I get it, Liam. You’re very convincing. I’m shaking in my boots. I won’t bother Tissa anymore.”

  “Don’t play games, kid. Get it into your thick head—she’s mine. That’s it, I’m done with this. We’re getting out of this bug-infested shithole!”

  Liam left the room, slamming the door behind him. In the couple of seconds while the door was open, I heard shouting from the lounge, but paid no attention. There were no words for how Liam had angered me, but he’d amused me even more. Choking back laughter, I went to join my guests.