Adrienne looked around as she stepped off the river boat and onto the docks of Forest Hall.
The town was nestled at the edge of a wide lake, in between two towering hills that were almost mountains themselves, and were backed by higher peaks themselves. The town itself, named for the thick, ancient forest that surrounded it, spread between the hills and up them, the higher houses glittering with gold and hard tile on the eves, while the lower ones fluttered with flags.
The market, of course, was the town’s greatest landmark. It rolled through town, al the way to the edge of the lake and the docks there.
“Welcome to Forest Hall, Lady Dria,” Gembis said. He straightened his tunic with a quick yank and straightened, his eyes on the city, and his expression of a man who had missed his home. “Welcome back, I should say. You are here often, are you not?”
“Often enough,” Adrienne said, and looked over the town. For a moment, she struggled with the odd familiarity of the place where she had spent hours, maybe days, of her time. She knew this city, for all that she had never set a foot on these streets. This was the place she came when she just needed to run simple little crafting missions to relax.
This was home.
“Thank you,” she said when she realized that Gembis was waiting for something more, and dug in her pocket for a little bag. He hadn’t asked any payment, but he wasn’t a rich man, and he had helped her. “If you need me, leave word at the Fighter’s Guild. They can get word to me anywhere in the kingdom.”
That was new too, but Yvarian had stopped at the Mage’s Guild, of which he was a member as she was of the Fighters, and confirmed that as well. The game had a mechanic where quests could spawn from characters a player helped in the past.
It turned out to be more like a glorified mail delivery, combined with a magical telegraph system.
But it was useful, and that was what really mattered.
“You are always so generous,” Gembis said, and tentatively offered his arms for a hug. During the voyage, he told her about his daughters, two of which were just about her age, and the third who was newly married. She strongly suspected that, if she was not a hero, and on her way elsewhere, he would insist she spend her time in Forest Hall with his family. “I hope this is not to forwards, but I count you among my daughters. If every you need aid, come find us and we will help however we can.”
Adrienne stood on her toes to kiss his whiskered cheek and smiled up at him. “You’re a good man. Go off to your family, Gembis. Thank you for everything.”
The scroll at her hip chimed, and Adrienne waved goodbye to Gembis as she pulled it off her hip.
(I’m in the mage-market, ) Yvarian wrote, the words appearing in sharp gold ink below their earlier conversations. (Meet you there?)
(See you soon,) Adrienne wrote back and tucked the scroll onto her belt before heading off into the market, her pack over her shoulder comfortably. The crowd around her was a wild mix of races and cultures, and she took it all in with the wonder of seeing her favorite game made real.
There were some things, she decided, that were alright about this whole venture. The market was incredible, separated first by types of sellers, from food to weapons to mage-supplies, and farther by the sort of wares they peddled. She passed heady stalls of fruit, rich with citrus and other tropical fruit, and stopped to buy herself a skewer of odd, but tasty cut fruit on her way.
On and on she went through the market, until at last, she reached the mage-market, dedicated to everything a mage might need to practice their craft.
There were spices here too, and herbs, but they tended towards the wildly exotic. Another stall had crystals of every imaginable shape and size. Still another offered beautifully-carved staves, unspelled, but set with everything a mage would need to craft a truly powerful weapon for themselves.
“Adrienne?”
The sound of her name, her real name, made Adrienne turn, and she froze when she met eyes that were familiar in a way she never expected. He was tall, and handsome, with flaming red hair, and dressed in the heavy white robes, with a staff in one hand, and a skull-pommel dagger on his belt.
“Patrick?” she gasped, and stared at him. Of al the people she expected to be Yvarian, the persistent headache of her dorm was not him. She and Patrick were not friends, and routinely snapped at each other. “You- you’re…?”
“Yeah,” Patrick said, and shifted from one foot to the other as the crowd around them parted to give him wide berth. After all, he was every inch a powerful necromancer, and not to be trifled with. No one wanted to cross a sorcerer who could kill you badly, Raise you, and kill you again. “I can’t… I can’t believe this. Everything. You’re real, right? I’m not imagining you?”
Now that he was in front of her, Adrienne didn’t know what to do with herself. On one hand, they were friends, married, even, sort of, and had spent hours playing together. On the other, it was Patrick, the same man who set up a ranking system for every woman on campus, complete with beauty ratings, and probability of cheating.
“I’m real,” she said carefully, and followed when he nodded to an out-of-the-way nook beside a fountain, where they could talk without blocking traffic. “How was the ride? I- sorry. That’s stupid. I don’t know what to say.”
“Me either,” he shrugged as they sat, the rushing water beside them filling the awkward silence. “Let’s start at the beginning, I guess, right? We’re both here for that end-game quest. Maybe if we complete it, we can get home. What do you say? Partners?”
He offered a hand, and Adrienne weighed her options, questioning herself over and over, until finally, she shook his hand once, and stuffed her worries in a sack. It was Yvarian. Maybe Patrick was an asshole, but Yvarian, they were friends. She could give him a chance, and at least she wouldn’t have to go on alone.
“Partners.”
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Cybersecurity 101
Adrienne is one of her server’s top players, but the game is more than a game, and she will have to face love, and betrayal, to survive.
Cyber Finals
For the Experience
A Quest Never Completed
Reorienting Home (Subscriber Only!)
Skills Already Known (Subscriber Only!)
Finish Them! (Free on Patreon!)
Down the River Boat (Free on Patreon!)
Lily Shine (Subscriber Only!)
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MORE STORIES!
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