CA Chapter Thirty-five

“Never. Again.”

Alpha and Tess were sitting in the stream near their original campsite. They had removed their acid-eaten gear, and were only wearing the non-removable underwear all Veritas avatars started with. She didn’t know about Tess, but Alpha was pretty sure her kit was damaged beyond repair, unless she could somehow find a Master-level Tailor and Leatherworker who were willing to work for next to nothing.

Tess laid her head back in the pleasantly cool water, which finally ran clean around her golden-blonde hair. They had had to move upstream several times, after contaminating one small grotto after another. “I agree,” the other woman murmured drowsily, closing her eyes. “I’m just glad you and Orah were able to regrow my foot. I would have been pissed if I had to die to regenerate it.”

Alpha smirked, laying her own head back, feeling the eddies of water wind through her hair to caress her squeaky-clean scalp. “I’m sure we could have made you a very nice peg leg.”

Tessle snickered. “Aye, matey, but where would ye find me a parrot?”

“How would you feel about a shoulder fairy?” Alpha mused, and Tess sat up, splashing water over Alpha’s face as she did so.

“Seriously?” Tess practically squeed, clasping her hands in front of her, big eyes shining with hope. “Could you make one of your fairies be my pet?” She tilted her head, expression calculating. “We know they persist when you leave the dungeon and come back in. Do you think they could travel between floors? I mean, they probably couldn’t leave the dungeon, but maybe I really could have a shoulder fairy while we’re in here!”

Sputtering, Alpha sat up, swiping water from her face. “I am not going back up to the first level to get you a fairy, if we could even figure out how to do that.”

“Oh, come on,” Tess wheedled. “We know how to solve the first and second floor now, so it’s not like it would even take that long.” Alpha stared at her, incredulous, until Tess cracked, laughing hysterically. “You should,” she gasped, “see the look on your face. Oh my gosh.” Out of habit, she swiped at her eyes, which were still dry in spite of her laughter, since she was only using a regular VR pod.

Alpha scooped her hand through the water, splashing her friend, and the moment quickly dissolved into a minor skirmish, which Alpha won simply because she had longer arms and bigger hands, and could create bigger waves.

“Hey!” Vexxx called, sounding peevish. “Are you two done yet?”

The lightning mage was sitting on a rock on the other side of a fallen tree; one of the ones Tess’ Zombie had felled, but that was too large for Alpha to retrieve. Through unspoken mutual agreement, he had had the first bath, though unfortunately even the soap Wep produced from his inventory had failed to remove his Stench debuff, so no one was willing to be downwind of him, much less bathe with them.

The two young women exchanged glances, and Alpha finally sighed before standing and wading to the edge of the stream. “I guess so. We’re probably not a hazard to marine life any more, at least.”

Tess chuckled as she, too, waded out, though it took her longer since the water reached to just above her knees. “I hope not, anyway, since I was thinking about going fishing. I’ve seen a few baby bass swimming around, and where there are babies, there are bound to be mamas and daddies, too.”

Vexxx turned, staring at Tess before flushing and spinning back around. The underclothes Tess and Alpha were wearing covered more than most swimsuits, so they weren’t worried about where Vexxx looked, but the boy turned beet red every time he caught a glimpse of them anyway. Players had a peculiar tendency to remove their clothes at apparently random moments, so Alpha was certain he’d seen more than one female in a similar state of undress, but there seemed to be something about the fact that they were also wet that triggered this reaction in the boy.

“You… you know how to fish?” the young mage stammered, keeping his eyes on the distant horizon.

Tess grinned. “Sure do. My grandparents had a farm about an hour outside the city. It wasn’t big, but they had a few acres of crops, some cows, and a couple of dozen chickens. There was a pond out in the pasture, and grandma loved to go fishing.”

“Oh,” Vexxx said. “That sounds… nice.”

Tess tilted her head, eyeing the boy quizzically. “Don’t you know how to fish? I mean, in game, at least?”

He shrugged, looking down at his knees, which protruded from beneath his new outfit, which resembled a violently green and purple Japanese jinbei, except that the pants were more like long shorts. “My online friends aren’t really the fishing type. My dad always said he would take me camping, and we’d go canoeing and fishing, but we never did.”

“Oh,” Tess’ eyes grew wide and soft. “Is he…?”

Vexxx scowled. “Dead? Nah. He got remarried, and I don’t see him much any more. He’s busy with his new family, you know?”

The half-dwarf breathed an understanding sigh, and her gaze went distant as she searched through her inventory. After a few seconds, she was suddenly wearing a pink linen shirt edged with embroidered flowers, a pair of chestnut capris, and some rope sandals. In one hand, she held a pair of fishing poles. Stepping into Vexxx’s field of vision, Tess handed him one of the fishing poles, offering a cheerful grin at the same time.

“Well, let’s get going, then. We can catch lunch while the rest of the slackers sit around and talk.” She raised a meaningful eyebrow at Alpha, who nodded gratefully. Myles, Amy, and Wep were already clean, changed, and talking in a clearing just out of easy eavesdropping distance.

Alpha, too, rifled through her inventory. Quezal didn’t allow her to wear black, which cut out more than half of her choices, so she finally settled on a pair of tall brown boots, royal blue breeches, and a loose-sleeved natural linen tunic under a brown leather vest. They weren’t at all her usual style, but they were clean and comfortable, so it would do.

“Sounds like a plan, then,” she said, as Vexxx stood to follow Tess, who was already starting upstream. “Don’t go too far, though. We’re assuming the cubes were the only monsters on this level, but we don’t know that for sure. You should stay close enough that you can call for help, if you need to.”

Tess grinned. “If we find a gelatinous crocodile, we’ll be sure to let you know.” She lifted a hand in a nonchalant wave, and continued walking, with Vexxx trotting along in her wake.

Alpha watched until the pair were all but lost among the reeds and small trees that lined the streambank before turning away. Myles and Amy had had plenty of time to make their case, and she wanted to know what was going on. She headed toward the clearing where she’d left the other four members of the party, intentionally crunching leaves and snapping twigs underfoot as she went.

The early warning system worked, because when she saw Myles, Amy, Wep, and Toggle, they were all looking in her direction. Actually, Toggle’s look was rather glassy, and she glared at Myles as she stepped into the sunny area they’d chosen for their little confab.

“I asked you not to do that,” she said, crossing over to crouch in front of the gnome, who didn’t move or blink. Orah was looped around his shoulders, and the snake, too, looked oddly still.

Myles sighed. “Our conversation just would have made him uncomfortable, and, ah, your god wouldn’t have appreciated it either.”

She blinked, looking over at him. “My god? Que-?”

Quickly, he cut her off. “Yes. He can hear his name, and see through the eyes of his Divine Creature, and we don’t need any of the Veritas gods getting the idea that their world isn’t real. They have a lot of power in the game, and when they start looking for ways to apply that power to escaping it-”

“Ba’ things happen,” Amy finished, grimacing.

Alpha stood and set her hands on her hips. “Are you telling me that the in-game gods can start affecting things outside of the game?”

Amy and Myles looked at each other.

“Not anymore,” they chorused, and Wep shook his head, looking from one to the other of the pair.

“Never thought I’d see such a thing,” the dwarf muttered, eyes shadowed behind his overhanging brows. He turned a piercing gaze on Alpha, and she froze, feeling the force of the personality behind those eyes. This was a man who was well-used to power, and expected both honesty and respect, if not obedience.

“They say you’ve seen,” he paused before carefully saying, “Amy. In Carl Landon’s house. Is that true?”

She nodded. “When Myles told me…” She bit her lip. She wasn’t sure if Wep knew Myles was Amy’s AI copy or not, so she just said, “about Amy, I looked her up. The Amy in Carl’s house doesn’t look exactly the same as the pictures, but she had to have, ah, several surgeries,” she shot Amy an apologetic look, “so that’s not surprising.”

It was Amy’s turn to look surprised and somewhat concerned. She lifted her hand to her face. “I don’t? What’s different? Is it… bad?”

Alpha managed a smile. “Not bad. There are a few small scars, but mostly it just looks like this version of you had a little plastic surgery to make you more,” she cleared her throat, “conventionally beautiful?”

The other woman actually growled. “Dad,” she muttered, then shook her head. “He was always getting after me to lose some weight, maybe get my nose fixed.” She traced a finger over the barely visible bump in the bridge of her nose. “I guess he finally had a chance to make me what he wanted me to be, and he took it.”

Wep, who was watching Amy’s every move with the focus of a fox stalking a mouse, shook his head. “I can’t believe even Carl Landon would fake his own daughter’s death just to make sure no one could remove her from his control, but…” He sighed. “I admit, if he did decide to do it, he certainly could.” Now,” his eyes flickered from Amy to Myles, and his brows drew down, forming a single thick line. “I’m not saying I’m completely convinced this story is true, but at the very least, it sounds like Carl Landon is holding this young woman, who certainly seems certain that she is Amy Landon,” he held up a hand to forestall argument as Myles opened his mouth, “against her will.”

Looking back at Amy, he said, “So, I’m willing to help you get out of there. I make no promises about what will happen after that, but if this is true, and, by some miracle, you really are Amy-” His voice choked, showing the first crack in his armor of skepticism, “by God, I’ll turn every resource I have toward helping you get better.”

Clearing his throat, Wep looked at Myles and said, “You said you don’t know how badly… How much damage there may be, in the real world.” It was a request for more information, but not a question.

Myles nodded. “I’m fairly certain she has incomplete paralysis on the left side of her body. There also seems to be some form of aphasia going on. While she’s immersed, I can correct for both of those, though I’m actually having more trouble with the paralysis, since there are unpredictable spasms that throw off my mods. Out of the game, I can create an app that will integrate with her implants to help with the aphasia, but you’ll just have to see how much of the paralysis is permanent.”

Though Wep and Amy simply nodded, with Amy looking unsurprised at the diagnosis, Alpha caught the use of the word ‘you’ll’, instead of ‘we’ll’, and she didn’t like it. She bit her lip and remained silent, however. This wasn’t the time for that conversation.

“All right then,” Wep said, clapping his hands together. “It sounds like I have a lot of work to do, then.” He glanced over at Alpha. “When you lot finish this ridiculous dungeon, is there any chance I could convince you to go to Refuge? I think I’d like to have the chance to play with you again, and I’ve decided to stay there until,” he looked at Amy, “well, for a while, yet. It’s a nice place.”

Even though she knew he couldn’t feel it at the moment, Alpha reached down and laid a hand on Toggle’s shoulder. “I promised Toggle I’d take him home to the Atheneum Dungeon, and it’s already taken a lot longer than it should have to get there. But after that,” it was her turn to  glance at Myles, “I’m not sure what I’ll do.”

Wep nodded. “Good enough. I’ll just have to try to convince you to stay for a while.” He grinned, eyes twinkling in a way that brought back childhood memories of watching a much taller and less hairy man speaking from the screen in her living room.

Alpha shook her head, unable to prevent an answering smile, and not sure how she should respond.

Fortunately, Amy saved her by taking an unsteady step closer to Wep and holding out a shaking hand. The smile on the woman’s face was uncertain as she said, “I’ll see you soon, then?”

Wep met her eyes, and his face melted into such a look of love and longing that Alpha felt her own throat close, and her chest tighten at the sight of it. The dwarf stepped forward and wrapped the woman in a powerful embrace. “You can count on it, my girl,” he murmured. “Like the stars in the sky.” Then he shimmered and faded away as he logged out and the game sent his Zombie back to his respawn point.

Amy sobbed, and Myles stepped forward to take her in his arms, while Alpha turned and walked away, leaving them to comfort each other.