The Fell War - Chapter 1

Alfre, if you had asked her all those months ago, would not have said ‘Yeah, in a year I see myself leading an army of MMORPG players in a war against other MMORPG players and that’s not a metaphor for anything.’ Though, technically, she was not yet leading an army into war, but instead a nation into a refugee crisis.

But first the refugees had to get here. And none of that was going to happen until her engineers finished those steamboats, which were behind schedule. They’d originally planned to be finished in two weeks, or a month at most. They were already well into their second month. There had been…hiccups. Their first engine design did not work nearly as well as they’d all hoped, and ended up exploding during the endurance test. Then again, at the time she couldn’t be sure what they’d expected of an engine they’d built and designed in only three months time.

Maldrom, frustrated with himself about the whole thing, pushed his guild members harder than was probably necessary to finish the redesign and construction. They had yet to finish the frame of the ship, but at least their new engine was, at least in theory, in working order.

Alfre, alongside Elias and Spica, walked the long, metal catwalk atop the assembly line, Maldrom waddling just ahead of them. The dwarf was in a particularly happy mood – all because of their sudden breakthrough on the engine. They’d finally figured out a power source.

“So, what is this thing?” Alfre asked, poking the jagged red crystal that lay on the worktable.

“A mana crystal,” Maldrom said, grinning underneath his bushy beard. “It produces mana that magic users can draw upon if they find them in the wild. They’re rare most other places in the world, but they’re in abundance in our mountains. It’s one of the reasons you find so many magic users on Siniy.”

“So you’re going to mine our mana crystals out and stuff them in an engine?” Spica reiterated, sounding absolutely stunned. “That’s mad!”

“They regrow anyway,” Maldrom said, brushing off her worries. “But this is a energy source that we literally never have to mine again. We put one in a ship, and it’ll run even after the ship itself breaks down. We’ll just move it to another ship at that point!”

“That sounds almost too good to be true,” Alfre muttered, staring at the crystal as it pulsed with an almost calming red light.

Elias shrugged. “Call it a glitch in the game system. They were never meant to be used this way, but this is the best use for them. People aren’t really dungeoning anymore, so the crystals are just going to waste otherwise.”

Alfre frowned, still unsure. There was no way this wasn’t going to backfire on them later.

“What will the other continents use for power, then, if they don’t have these?” she asked instead.

“We don’t know yet,” Maldrom admitted. “Likelihood is we’ll have to send crystals over to them. Unless other continents have similar mana restoring item like the crystals.”

“They’re exceedingly rare elsewhere,” Elias reminded, “Not nonexistent. They’ll have a harder time finding them, but they can be found. I remember coming across one in Berdea all those years ago.”

“How does it work then?” Alfre asked. “Does it work similarly to how coal would? Does it heat the water into steam?”

“In a way,” Maldrom nodded. “You see, the engine has a fire spell glyph carved into the bottom of the water cauldron. You put the mana crystal under the glyph and activate it and poof! Infinite fire spell.”

Alfre whistled. “Impressive. And you’re sure it’ll work?”

Maldrom frowned, looking a bit embarrassed. “Well, that’s the thing, we still need to test it. Volpe seems pretty damn certain it’ll work. But you know what they say about trusting a fox.”

“I get your meaning,” Alfre muttered. Ludovico Volpe, leader of the only scholarly guild in the City of Spade, was not what one would call a trustworthy character. Though Alfre had very little evidence pointing to otherwise. Ludovico had been upfront and helpful so far, but rumors had been going around for a long time that the fox familiar was never truly honest with his plans for anything. If he was being so helpful, then he was probably seeing some sort of advantage for himself that the others were not.

“Ludovico is a scheming, underhanded son of a biscuit,” Elias agreed. He sighed, crossing his arms as his long, white rabbit ears drooped. “But he also knows the most about the magic system in Wonderland and how to manipulate it to his own ends. If he says the crystal-glyph combination will work, then I believe him.”

“Aye, and that’s the thing, isn’t it,” Maldrom grumbled.

Alfre shook her head, long white hair flying just about everywhere. “As long as nothing blows up on us, then it’s fine. Do the tests as soon as you can, Maldrom, I want these boats on the sea before things get any worse for the folks on Ahmar.”

Maldrom nodded, his face solemn. “Of course, General.”

Alfre waved off the title. “Don’t call me that, there can’t be a general if there’s no army. Unless it actually comes to fighting, we’re just good Samaritans.”

She turned and walked away, Elias and Spica hurrying after her as Maldrom barked orders to the magic users and engineers nearest to him. Alfre sighed, running her hand through her hair. In all the months she and the rest of her new friends had been stuck in Wonderland, her hair had never grown a single centimeter. None of them had changed, really. All of them perpetually stuck in the image of the avatar they’d created when joining the game. Such stagnation was what had driven her to leave Ren’s Crystal Moon Kingdom, and now it was a part of her very being.

“They’re making good progress, at least,” Elias said quietly. “I heard Doremi say how they were hoping to have the engines finalized by the end of the month.”

“Where does that put us for making the vessels sea-worthy?” Alfre asked over her shoulder.

Elias gave her a helpless shrug. “Somewhere in the next month, month and a half. The unfortunate thing about a first run is that no one is ever sure of anything. Especially since none of this would have been possible in the game.”

And that was the thing, wasn’t it. Even after all this time, everyone who’d played the game before still thought of Wonderland in game terms. It took them forever to remember that there were solutions to problems right in front of their noses if they could only think of Wonderland like they would the Real World. But for people like Alfre and Izo, the Dragonling Druid she and her two friends used to adventure with, Wonderland had never really been a game.

Alfre, Elias, and Spica wandered through the busy cobblestone streets of Spade, greeting Fell and Wonderlander alike as they passed. Doremi, deputy guild master for the Sweet Summer Children, passed by with only the briefest of ‘hello’s as she raced towards the shipyard, arms full of blueprints and heavy looking tomes. A patrol of Knights of the Burning Oak passed without a word, all of them grim-faced and serious, as one would expect from a guild with that grand of a name – though Alfre supposed she couldn’t be too harsh on them; she had named her guild ‘The Alliance of Frozen Stars’ after all.

She was happy to see Wallace, the young Wonderlander who she’d saved from goblins some five months back, waiting for them at the front door of the guildhall. His young, freckly face was marred with worry. Alfre wished to smooth them away, but knew nothing she could say would make the poor lad feel any better. There was little one could say to someone when possible war loomed over the horizon.

“Welcome home, Miss Alfre, Miss Spica, Mister Elias,” he greeted warmly, his voice’s cheer failing to reach his face. “I hope the visit with Mister Maldrom went well.”

“As well as it could,” Alfre replied, stepping around Wallace and into the warmth on the guildhall. “They’re close to finishing work on the engine, which is good. But that doesn’t mean we’re any closer to getting boats in the water. I don’t know how long Canus’ wolves can keep everyone safe and fed in Ahmar.”

“As long as they need to.” Alfre turned to see Canus stepping out from the sitting room, his wild brown hair catching the early evening sunlight and turning almost red.

“Canus,” Alfre greeted with a smile, “it’s good to see you. What are you doing here?”

“Seeing my favorite snow bird, that’s all,” Canus replied with a wolfish grin, his elongated canines glittering in the light.

“One of these days you’re going to become the god of the City of Spade instead of the God of the Wilds,” Alfre warned good-naturedly.

Canus’ grin fell a little, but did not leave his face. “Would that be so bad?”

“Perhaps not for me,” Alfre admitted. “But I’m sure the wolves in all your dungeons would miss you.”

“Haaa, I suppose you’re right, snow bird,” Canus agreed with a sigh. “So, not nearly as close to your little rescue mission as you hoped?”

Elias shook his head as he stepped more fully into the guildhall. “Unfortunately not. They’re closer than I would have thought they’d be at this point, but this is new for everyone.”

Wallace frowned. “Are we sure there’s nothing we can do in the meantime?”

“Unless we can get to Ahmar, we can’t help anyone,” Spica said, her face a mask of calm despite the worry that Alfre knew was eating at her as well. “The boats are our best bet right now, especially if we’re trying to smuggle who knows how many people out of there.”

“Several thousand,” Canus informed them. “My wolves are hiding several thousand Fell in the dungeon. They are safe and warm and well fed, and will be as long as needed.”

“That’s good to hear, at least,” Wallace said, trying to sound hopeful.

“Yes, that, at least, is good to hear,” Alfre agreed. She rubbed at her neck, feeling a stiffness growing there, along with a headache. This was all far more than she ever expected to do, even after literally falling into the world of Wonderland. A world, she was fairly certain, they’d all since given up trying to leave.

There was a sudden shiver down her spine, one not caused by whatever cold had seeped into the building from the open door. She turned to the doorway into the kitchen to find Abital stepping out from the shadows.

“Hello, Abital,” she greeted as warmly as she could. “Decided to give the dead a holiday, have ye?”

Abital – tall, dark, imposing Abital – smiled only slightly. “Hardly. I am here to visit.”

“You’re always here to visit,” Canus snipped, wolf ears flattening against his head.

“So are you,” Abital retorted, sweeping into the room in a swirl of red and black cloaks.

“Boys, boys, please, you’re both pretty,” Alfre appeased with a roll of her eyes. “Was there a reason for the visit, Abital?”

“Not particularly,” he admitted, looking far more sheepish than a god of the underworld probably should. “But I wanted to hear about the progress your mission has taken since last we’d seen each other.”

“Engine is close to completion,” Alfre said, giving him an extremely truncated version of the story. “But we’re not sure if that means the ship is almost ready.”

“I see,” Abital said with a frown. “I understand your frustration.”

Alfre nodded. “That’s one word for it.”

“There is nothing you can do, for now,” Elias insisted. “The best thing you can do is rest and be prepared for when the ship is ready. They’ll want you to lead them when they finally launch.”

“I’m no sea captain,” Alfre argued mildly. “I’m not a general, either, no matter what that grump of a dwarf likes to call me.”

“He’s not that grumpy,” Elias said, though he sounded like he didn’t actually want to get into an argument about it.

“Enough,” Spica said, jumping in before anything else could be said about the matter. “It’s been a long day for all of us. And I, for one, would like to sit down to whatever meal our wonderful Wally has prepared for us, and a nice glass of wine. Now, come on, shoo, into the dining room you all get.”

Alfre went without fuss, and she could feel Abital and Canus coming just behind her. It was likely that the two deities would not actually be eating with them – she was almost certain that Wally had not made enough food for more than the actual members of the guild (plus himself). Not that they needed to eat. They did seem to enjoy dining with her though…actually they seemed to enjoy just sitting at the table with her even when they didn’t eat. She still wasn’t entirely sure why they were so attached to her. Sure, she’d helped Canus avenge the death and skinning of one of his direwolves. And, yes, she had shown Abital kindness when she refused to fight him when he looked so miserable. But neither of those things seemed like they would endear her to them so thoroughly. But maybe all Wonderlanders were like that. Wallace had decided to near throw himself at her feet after she’d saved him from goblins. Maybe it was in a Wonderlander’s nature to be so generous to those who were kind to them. Alfre couldn’t be sure.