Short Story: [Emberfate] Crystal Cave

Hey everyone!

So if you've been keeping up with the monthly short stories rewards, you'll probably have noticed that a few months got skipped in the past because I was too tied up with dev work on Reanimation Scheme.

I keep trying but failing to find time to make up for them, so I ended up commissioning a writer friend of mine to do the first draft of these short stories, and I'll just edit instead, so that it's a lot faster on my end.

So this is the first story to make up for the lack of story in Oct 2023 — Khanyisa's installment in a new In Game Date series! It's written by Anna 'Lavinnia' Kończak with some edits done by me.

More short stories will be coming this week, so stay tuned! I hope you enjoy this story 💖

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“I just need to… go a little more to the right, and… aaaargh!”

Khanyisa and you decide to spend the evening at your favorite location in Emberfate — the serene crystal cave that she showed you half a year ago, before you two started dating. The cave can only be accessed through a glitch caused by controlling your character to jump off a cliff and bugging through the ground — but judging from how Khanyisa's health bar in the party window keeps emptying to nothing, it appears that the trick isn't working quite so well anymore.

“Maybe it’s time to accept that the glitch doesn’t work anymore?” You say to your girlfriend when she runs her character back to the cliff from the nearest graveyard where the gentle angel NPC has resurrected her for the ninth time tonight — in exchange for some gold and lowered durability for her gear, of course.

“No… I’m just doing it wrong. Maybe I should try a little more to the left,” Khanyisa mumbles, her voice genuinely sad. “It’s the cave the two of us visited together for our first date! It’s… important to me. They couldn’t have patched the glitch out. I refuse to accept this.”

As brave as she is stubborn, your girlfriend positions her character at the edge of the cliff again and jumps down. Another failed attempt, another dead enchanter on the ground.

You wait for her to return from the graveyard again, moved by her confession. The memory of the first time you visited the cave is still vibrant in your mind: the crystals embedded in the rock walls, the domed ceiling glistening with water, and most importantly, the pure joy in Khanyisa’s voice at discovering the location. All of those precious pieces form one beautiful, romantic memory. 

The place might have been unfinished by the developers, but to Khanyisa and you, it’s the most precious location in Emberfate.

Except now you may not be able to access it again until the next expansion rolls out — if ever.

As Khanyisa makes yet another futile attempt at glitching through to the area, you type in the Emberfate website into your browser and pull up the latest patch notes.

“Khanyisa,” you say in a defeated tone. “You can stop trying. They fixed the glitch in the latest update. Patch 2.4, the one we had to download to launch the game yesterday.”

“Nooo,” Khanyisa sounds like she’s about to cry. “They couldn’t have…!”

“I’m sorry,” you say. “But you should stop trying to get through now, or else you’ll break your gear beyond repair. That repair cost is gonna hurt.”

You can hear Khanyisa’s heavy sigh through your headphones. “Alright. I guess there's not much I can do about it now.”

It hurts to hear how disappointed she is. You’d love for your girlfriend to always be happy.

You need to do something to cheer her up… but what? It's not like you can hack into Emberfate's servers to revert the patch so she could visit the crystal cave...

Hmm... Unless I can do something in real life instead...

As the lightbulb goes off above your head, you try to keep the eagerness from your voice as you speak. “Khanyisa, can we log off for the day? I just remembered there’s something I should do. I’m sorry for canceling our date. I’ll make it up to you, I promise."

“Okay,” she says softly. “I’m not really in the mood to play more tonight anyway. I'll call you later before bed.”

With a quick "I love you", you log out of the game, ready to put your plan into action.

***

It takes two days for the items you ordered online to arrive at your door. Barely able to restrain your excitement, you call Khanyisa to make sure she's home and immediately drop everything you're doing to head over to her place.

She greets you with a kiss when you get there, cocking an eyebrow at the large package you carry so carefully in your arms. “What’s this?”

“A gift for you, of course. Open it!”

Khanyisa smiles, looking pleasantly surprised, and obliges. With a grin, you wait with bated breath for her reaction — and she doesn't disappoint.

A shocked gasp escapes her lips as soon as she sees the contents of the package, followed by a squeal of delight. “Oh, you didn’t…!”

“I did,” you chuckle. “Look, we may not be able to access the crystal cave in Emberfate anymore, but that's not going to stop us from making your free guest room into our own special crystal place.”

Khanyisa takes out a bright pink crystal from the box full of crystals of different sizes and colors, holding it up higher and admiring the way it glistens in the light streaming in through the windows. Judging by the pure joy on her face, you conclude that your quest was successful after all.

"I love you. Thank you so much for the beautiful, thoughtful gesture." Khanyisa pulls you close for a long kiss, her cheeks flushed with the most adorable shade of pink.

"I love you too. Now let's start decorating — we're going to make our own 'cave' of crystals that will put the one in Emberfate to shame!"