by Mills, H. C.
Meanwhile, Jacob spent 20 Trial Points on a Skilldream for Respiration level 3 and finally managed to gain it. Dave made some good progress towards Meditation level 3 but didn’t succeed with it yet. However, when Kaitlynn tells us what she did today, I almost choke on a bite of yellow Trigot meat.
She worked on combining Astreum Manipulation and Breath Control.
Basically, she’s been inhaling Astreum, burning her lungs to a crisp in the process, and relying on the Crystals of Lavi and Regeneration to keep her alive and patch her up.
“Told I was copying your playbook,” she says cheekily while meeting my wide-eyed gaze.
Alec nods, grinning widely. “Yeah, that sounds like something Nonya would do.”
“It sounds like the exact thing she would do,” Jacob agrees flatly. “The only difference would be that she’d have done it way sooner.”
“B-but...” I stammer, trying and failing to come up with a rebuttal that wouldn’t be hypocritical.
“I even raised my Willpower,” Kaitlynn announces proudly, sticking her cute nose up in the air a little. “And by now, it doesn’t even hurt that much anymore, because I’m getting much better control over the Heat.”
I give up on finding something non-hypocritical to say and simply shake my head at her. “You masochist.”
They all jeer at me, and my innocent façade quickly cracks when the corners of my mouth curve up uncontrollably.
Dave clears his throat. “I think we should do something fun tonight, to celebrate making it this far. Maybe some party games?”
“Oh, frig yeah, we should totally have a party!” Alec exclaims. “It’s been ages since I’ve gotten drunk!”
I blink at him. “Ehm, I hate to burst your bubble, Alec, but unless you’ve been carrying a bottle of vodka around with you all this time, I doubt we’ll be getting drunk anytime soon. Actually, even if you have, it might just have turned into Hydrum or something.”
“Hah! Shows what you know,” he says with a grin. “There’s booze in the Consumables Shopping Window now: it’s called Honey-Yam Mead.”
I look to Dave for confirmation.
“Oh yeah, after Hub Two, there were some additions to the Consumables Shopping Window,” he explains. “I believe Honey-Yam Mead is 2 Trial Points a bottle. I’m not sure if we should be investing in that, however.”
“Oh, screw that,” Alec exclaims. “Look, I know this is easy for me to say, since I’m literally borrowing points from you guys right now and definitely can’t chip in, but life is short. Especially here. We’ve got like thirty-six hours left in here before we have to enter Hub Three. Thirty-six hours in which we’re perfectly safe, and we’ve got no Trial to prepare for. If this isn’t the time to get drunk and celebrate, then when will it ever be?”
I purse my lips. “I do still need to take a very expensive Skilldream tomorrow... what if we get hangovers?”
Alec waves his hand dismissively. “You’ll be fine. From the description, I’m pretty sure the active ingredient in this stuff is Toxic Energy with some kind of Purpose, so you’ll probably be the least affected out of all of us.”
“That depends on how much I drink,” I retort, before sighing. “You have a point though. I guess I saved my bag of Doritos for long enough.”
“Now that’s what I’m talking about!” Alec cheers.
We continue our meal even more merrily than before.
In fact, I hardly notice when Jacob slips out after finishing his second bowl.
However, we all notice when he returns, carrying five bottles of Honey-Yam Mead.
He’s met with loud cheers and some protest.
“It’s fine,” he replies to the protestations. “I’ve still got plenty of Trial Points. I just wanted to chip in.” He furtively glances at Alec and offers a small smile.
Ah. He must’ve been feeling guilty for being the only one who didn’t jump up and offer points to Alec when he had the chance. What a softie.
Naturally, a round of hugs follows.
And that’s when the bottles open up. They’re large—I’d say at least a quarter gallon each—and made of a kind of crystal, with oddly styled labels featuring a Honeycomb Yam seemingly crushing a misshapen human to death, or something.
Right. That’s not ominous at all.
Oh well. Willingly and knowingly ingesting poison is what partying is all about, right?
I pop the cork off my bottle and take a careful whiff. It smells sweet and heady, and definitely reminds me of the Honeycomb Yam.
The specks of energy that drift out into my view are almost entirely lacking in purple. They’re almost blue, perhaps closest to periwinkle, yet I still instinctively recognise it as Toxic Energy with some kind of Purpose.
Screw it.
I bring the bottle to my lips and take a sip.
My eyes widen. It’s good!
The mead tastes as sweet as it smells, and has a well-rounded, fruity flavour with a soft aftertaste. The energy inside doesn’t burn the way alcohol does, it’s more a cool, smooth feeling as it flows down to my stomach and enters my meridians.
The way it rises to my head is definitely like alcohol, however.
Soon enough, the party is in full swing. We’re all talking and laughing extra loud, and even Jacob seems to relax for once.
When I finally break open my bag of Doritos, to find most of them in crumbs, I laugh until I cry. Still, we eat the contents almost reverently, shouting in joy when we find a whole one, and licking off our fingers afterwards.
I’m definitely less affected by the booze than the rest, so in order to rectify this, I end up spending 2 points on a second bottle of mead for myself. I’ll have to make do with this because I now have exactly 100 points left for my Skilldream tomorrow.
At some point, the wild exuberance dies down, and a more mellow, melancholic atmosphere descends into the living room.
Jacob gets up and raises his bottle.
“I wanna make a toast,” he says thickly. “To the dead.”
The atmosphere turns straight to solemn, almost sombre.
We lift our bottles.
“May the ones who died in this Realm, rest in peace,” Jacob intones, articulating surprisingly well.
“May they rest in peace,” we echo.
I can’t help but think of Thicc Misty. Poor girl. She deserved better. We all did.
Although I have to say, in a strange way I also feel blessed. I look around at my friends and am overwhelmed by a rush of emotion.
Suddenly I’m on my feet, albeit somewhat unsteadily.
“I would like to... apologise,” I end up saying. I frown. Where am I going with this? “For keeping secrets.”
Ah, that’s where I’m going with this.
They all look at me, silently. Dave’s frowning. Still a bit of a sore subject, this, I guess.
“To tell you the truth, I already got the Charm stat back in Hub Two, when I levelled,” I confess. “I wanted to tell you guys about it, back then, but I wasn’t sure what it meant. Also, we had bigger things on our mind, with Kaitlynn being kidnapped and all... and Suri advised me not to tell you, but that’s no excuse.”
I take a deep breath and attempt to organise my thoughts.
“Then we left Hub Two, and I found out what it meant. Suddenly I had a new reason to keep it from you all, as it would lose its effectiveness if you knew about it. And also, I was afraid of telling you.”
“Did you not trust us?” Dave asks quietly.
Tears well up in my eyes. “That’s not it! Trust wasn’t the issue, I do trust you all. It’s just...”
I flop back down on the couch and swallow thickly. “I never had a lot of friends. Most of the friends I had were guys too, for various reasons. Don’t get me wrong, guys make good friends. They wear their emotions on their sleeve, they tell you exactly what they mean, and they’re always willing to help. But there’s always this niggling doubt in the back of my mind, you know. Are they my friend because they think I’
m cool, or because they think I’m hot?”
I wipe away some tears, avoiding eye contact with the rest.
“Anyway, the thing is, I was about to go nuts before I reached Hub Two. I’d never realised how much I needed, craved human contact, and I was so happy to find it in you guys. And then came this stat, and part of me worried that if you knew about it, you would start to doubt if you actually liked me for me, or if it were just my ‘Charm.’ And honestly, maybe I’ve just grown numb to the danger, but at this point, I’m more afraid of losing you guys than I am of dying.”
Silence follows my surprisingly heartfelt speech and I reflect on the things I just said.
Huh. This mead is good stuff. It’s like, I didn’t even know I felt half that stuff.
I give my second bottle an appreciative glance and take another sip.
“Idiot,” Jacob says quietly, fondly.
“It sounds kind of silly now that you’re saying it out loud, doesn’t it?” Kaitlynn says, smiling through her tears.
“You know we all owe you our lives at least once, right?” Alec says, surprisingly with tears coming from below his eye patch as well. “Dave would be dead if it weren’t for the Power-Up you gave him. Jacob would be dead if we hadn’t gotten his pearl back. Kaitlynn... let’s not talk about what might’ve happened to her. And I... I wouldn’t have survived levelling up if you hadn’t forced me to train my Willpower. I would’ve died in the Fourth Trial if you hadn’t persisted like a maniac in getting my eye-crystal back—don’t give me that look, I would’ve entered that hut with or without you.”
I snort.
He sighs. “Hell, the only reason we all made it out of the Fifth Trial alive is that you attacked Bubbles like a raging lioness, and then you took the hardest enemy in the Sixth Trial. Honestly, you’re like a sister to me. A super-annoying, constantly nagging, but over-protective sister that I love to death.”
That’s more than I can handle. Thankfully, Dave stands up with tears glistening in his eye, and breaks the uncomfortably sentimental moment by saying, “I have something to confess as well.”
We all turn to him.
“I, uh, lied about something. Back in Hub Two. My girlfriend and I weren’t going to get a puppy.”
I can’t help but smile confusedly at the absurdity of the statement. “Ehm, was I even there for that?”
He blinks. “Oh, no, I think I only told Alec and Kaitlynn, before you joined us.”
“So, what about that wasn’t true?” Kaitlynn asks with a bemused smile. “Were you... going to get a kitten?”
He shakes his head. “No. We were going to have a baby.”
You could hear a pin drop in the silence that follows that statement.
Dave takes a deep, shuddering breath. “I bent the truth a little, because I wasn’t ready to talk about it, and yet, wanted to share a bit of my grief, I guess.”
“Had you been trying long?” Jacob asks quietly.
Dave shakes his head. “No. It was an accident, but we were keeping it. That’s why we moved in together so quickly, we were preparing for the arrival of our... our daughter. I shouldn’t have gone to the Con, I knew I shouldn’t, but I wanted to surprise her.”
“Surprise her?” Alec asks with a frown. “With what?”
“With this,” he says with a sigh, before pulling out a small square box.
Oh no.
Kaitlynn gasps.
“That’s right,” Dave says emotionlessly, opening the box to reveal a ring. “This is what I came to the Con for. It’s a replica of Nenya, the White Ring. I was going to propose.”
A silence falls, before we pretty much pile onto him, hugging him from all sides.
After half a minute in the pile, I glance at Alec and hook a tether onto him.
I frown minutely.
Right. I knew that.
“I have to get back, you guys,” Dave whispers. “There has to be a way. God, if I hadn’t gone, we’d be picking out flowers right about now.”
Seeing the wreck that is Dave right now breaks my heart. Suddenly, a sense of calm determination washes over me.
I extract myself from the pile to look at him. “Ifs and onlys are futile, Dave. We’re here, and we have to deal, one way or another. Take every day as it comes.”
“I know, but...” He pauses to take another deep, shuddering breath. “She’s going to be a single mom now. I’m not even sure if she’ll be able to make rent. I have to get back, Emma, I have to!”
“You will, Dave,” I say, somehow convinced of the truth of it. “We’ll find a way. Any way.”
CHAPTER 33
Revelations
WE LINGER IN THE AFTERMATH of Dave’s confession for a while, until Alec gets up.
“Okay guys, enough tears,” he says, wiping away his own. “We’re supposed to be partying here!”
Dave chuckles. “You’re right. Sorry for being a downer.”
Kaitlynn shakes her head. “Don’t apologise for sharing.” She gets up and sways to the side, giggling as she almost falls over again. “But Alec is right, this is supposed to be a party. I wanna dance!”
She glances at me as she says it, holding my eye for a moment longer than usual. I swallow and sit up.
“We don’t have any music though,” Jacob mumbles, his eyes half-lidded.
Dave scratches his head, then gets up and grabs his bow. “Let’s see if this works.” His Focus Crystal lights up red, and he strikes the bowstring. A wail not unlike that of an electric guitar bursts forth.
Jacob is roused from his lethargy. “Dude, what was that?”
Dave smiles. “Amplify. Now, let’s see if I can pick out different frequencies...”
Within minutes, he’s playing a simple blues tune on his bow. Jacob joins him, drumming on his shield, and Alec starts scatting adlibs.
Kaitlynn drags me off the couch to dance with her. I go along with it, dancing with her while sipping on the remnants of my second bottle of mead until it’s empty. What a pity. This stuff is really good. Maybe I should get another...
Except I have exactly 100 Trial Points right now, so I can’t. Damnit.
‘Suuriii,’ I subvocalise, ‘my Toxic Energy Tolerance is too high, I’m not getting drunk enough!’
[Don’t worry, Emma. You’re plenty drunk.]
‘Hey, what if I take that hallucinogenic mushroom? I bet Kaitlynn still has that!’
[Do me a favour and forget about that idea, Emma. Eating that thing would pull you into a Dreamscape out of my control. And if you didn’t manage to return in time, you’d die.]
I pout. Such a party-pooper.
Kaitlynn grabs my hand to spin me, and soon enough I’m distracted by the flush on her face and the gleam in her eye, and forget all about the shroom.
Dave plays a variety of styles, from blues to disco to some slower stuff, and we dance the whole time. In the more upbeat songs, Alec joins us in jumping around.
At some point, during a slower song, I hear Dave explain to Jacob that he played guitar in a metal band back on Earth, which doesn’t surprise me. He then goes on to say that, regretfully, he’s almost used up all of his Qi.
Somehow, I’m still caught off guard when they switch styles to death metal. Jacob starts beating his shield with all he has, Dave is headbanging while he plucks his bowstring, and Alec does his best impression of grunting, in between fits of laughter.
I stop dancing to watch them in amusement. Kaitlynn first covers her ears, then grabs me and drags me off to a room—hers I think—with a peal of laughter.
Inside, we sprawl onto the single bed, still laughing. Everything feels fuzzy and warm, and the ceiling spins slowly.
Our laughter dies down. I’m lying on my back, and Kaitlynn’s pressed into my side, nuzzling into the crook of my neck. Her nose presses
against the sensitive skin, and her exhale tickles, sending shivers down my spine.
“You know,” I say, breaking the silence. “I think I said something about this earlier, but I’ve never had many female friends.”
Kaitlynn backs up a little to look at me, blinking languorously. “Why’s that?”
“Bitches be cray,” I joke. “No, I don’t know. Girls don’t like me. Think I’m rude, or somethin’. Or they worry I’ll steal their boyfriend.”
Kaitlynn hums, pursing her lips. “People find you rude? Imagine that.”
I glare at her, threatening a tickle by twitching my fingers against her side. Only now do I realise one of my arms somehow wound up curled around her back. “Now don’t you start, too!”
Kaitlynn giggles and jerks away a little from my feigned assault, which just presses her more closely against me. “Seriously though, I don’t get it. You’re so sweet to me.”
I shrug. “Guess I took a likin’ to ya. You’re pretty nice to me too, most of the time. When I haven’t done anything risky.”
Kaitlynn partially sits up to glower at me. “I’m sorry, what was that?”
I freeze up. “Ehm, pretty sure I said ‘Well gosh, you’re always so nice to me too!’ ”
“That’s better,” Kaitlynn says smugly, before relaxing back into me, somehow pressed even closer to me than before.
The closeness is getting a little overwhelming, in fact. My palms are kinda clammy, and I can feel my heartbeat in my throat.
“It’s just... I can’t stand the thought of something happening to you, you know?” Kaitlynn confesses softly. “That’s why I get upset when you do something dangerous. You’re like, the closest friend I’ve ever had, and I jus’ wanna hug you and never let go. And I was worried for a bit that it might be your Charm affecting me, but right now I just don’t care anymore if it is, I just want to be close to you.”
She looks up at me with big, slightly watery eyes and our gazes lock. Heat wells up in my chest. I want to say something, express similar sentiments but my throat closes up.
Despite the heady haze of the booze, I am now so focused on her face that I catch the minute motion of Kaitlynn’s eye when her gaze flicks down towards my lips.