Chapter 53

Fey returned to the assassin trainer to turn in her quest. Climbing a mountain at night was generally a foolhardy thing to do, but the wide, paved path allowed her to reach her destination with her ankles intact.

The compound was unlit as Fey entered the courtyard. Between the moonlight and her elven night vision, she could see, but the atmosphere was still unsettling.

“So you’ve returned.”

Fey jumped and turned to where Rreowar stood within conversational distance on the right. Sneaky bastard. “Yeah.”

“Completed within a day. You show promise. I will begin to teach you the assassin’s arts.”

Before Fey could worry too much about what would have happened if she had taken longer to complete the quest, the system notice popped up:

“The first ability you must learn,” Rreowar continued, “is to identify the weaknesses in your targets. Assassins do not fight ‘fairly’.” A verbal sneer at the concept. “Leave that nonsense to knights and their ilk. No, always strike to inflict maximum damage and gain the upper hand in combat. For that purpose, I grant you Critical Sight.”

Red spots appeared in Fey’s peripheral vision. Turning to look, she saw that they appeared to highlight the vulnerable areas on her pets’ bodies, such as eyes and necks.

“Right now, your Sight only serves to show the most obvious of weak points,” Rreowar explained. “As you grow as an assassin, it will reveal more subtle findings.”

Fey looked back at Rreowar. Her Critical Sight did not show any red areas on his body.

Catching her glance, the assassin trainer smiled in amusement, revealing his long canines. “You will need much deeper Sight to find weakness in me.”

Fey nodded in vigorous agreement, trying to convey her absolute lack of contemplation about how to attack the were-cougar assassin. There were more painless (though not necessarily faster) ways to commit suicide.

Rreowar huffed in amusement, the sound distinctly cat-like. “Welcome to the path of shadows and blood. Return here when you are ready for your next stage of training.” The spot where he stood darkened, and when the lighting returned to normal, he was gone.

“…Bye,” Fey said to the empty spot. She was not much of one for extended greetings and farewells, but she thought Rreowar and R’shielle took things to the opposite extreme.

Shaking her head, Fey first figured out how to un-target her pets from Critical Sight, then headed back to the Elvenwood to test out her new ability.

◊◊◊

“Hai!” Arwyn executed a 540-degree jumping roundhouse kick and then stood panting in front of the target, posture slouched in fatigue.

Her partner for the day, a cheerful, middle-aged first-dan black belt, slapped his free hand against the target he held to create a loud booming sound. “Come on, five more!”

Arwyn did not waste breath replying, shuffling back to the starting position, two paces back from the target. Her state of exhaustion was long past pain and well into numbness. All of her concentration was focused down to drawing enough breath to stay conscious and forcing her muscles to obey her commands.

Staring at the target, she locked its location in her mind’s eye and set her fighting stance. A deep breath. Her posture straightened for a fraction of a second— Launch.

“Hai!” Arwyn’s foot slapped across the centre of the target with impressive speed, and then she was back to panting, hands on her knees this time, appearing far too frail and tired to have accomplished the kick.

“Four more!”

It took a full two seconds after her mental command for her muscles to begin moving back towards the starting position.

Ninety minutes later, Arwyn was flopped on her couch, trying to eat lunch despite the fact that she could barely feel her limbs. Her phone chimed. It was within arm’s reach, so Arwyn checked the message.

Leah: Get online and choose between the options for your transformation sequence

It took Arwyn a few seconds to remember what her friend was referring to (see Chapter 49 if you don’t remember). Normally, curiosity would have her booting up her laptop immediately to see what Leah had come up with, but in her current condition, the five metres between her couch and her desk was an insurmountable distance.

She texted back:

Arwyn: The laptop is too far away. I’m probably going to pass out on the couch and nap for two hours.

Leah: Wimp.

Leah: I sent everything over chat

Leah: Let me know by the end of today

Arwyn: k

Arwyn finished her lunch and considered her options. She had been (mostly) joking about napping on the couch, but as her adrenaline level fell and took her ability to move with it, the idea rose in merit. Snagging the blanket folded on the back of the couch, Arwyn surrendered to gravity and lay down.

Physically exhausted but not really sleepy, Arwyn’s thoughts wandered.

Wonder what Leah came up with. Hope it’s not too crazy.

Figures that we have a crazy class in tae kwon do the one day a year I exercise outside of class.

Critical Sight is a really useful ability. I just hit the red spots and the monster dies. Fey had managed to level up twice in the few hours left before logging off.

Inevitably, thoughts of Leandriel drifted in.

(More sappy, mopey stuff. Skip to the next parentheses if you’re not into this kind of thing.)

Never thought I’d fall for someone who apologized so much. A small, involuntary smile turned up the corners of Arwyn’s mouth. In her experience, having someone apologize too frequently generally forced her into the dominant position as the expert or manager, something not conducive to forming a relationship of equals. It works for him because he’s so perfect.

She sighed and snuggled deeper under the blanket.

Arwyn honestly had no idea how long it would take to get over the angel. There was not a single trait about him that she disliked and could focus on, and talking to him every game night made distance impossible.

Dryly, she thought, I suppose I could just keep liking him until somebody better comes along, i.e. forever. Other than the melancholy moods, her feelings did not impact her daily functioning. She supposed they could theoretically affect her hypothetical dating life, but she was so determinedly anti-people that worrying about that possibility seemed unnecessary.

Arwyn shrugged mentally. She would either get over her feelings or not, and did not think anything she could consciously do would change the outcome. Until then, she knew that thoughts of Leandriel would pop into her head at irregular intervals. The image of his smile accompanied her as she drifted into a dreamless sleep.

(Moping over. On to the actual story.)

Contrary to her earlier claim in her text, Arwyn’s nap lasted only for one hour. However, if one included the time spent lazing on the couch before and after the nap, the total came closer to two hours.

Eventually, Arwyn booted up her laptop and looked at the files Leah had sent over. There were four songs and four backgrounds.

Arwyn put on her headphones and listened to the songs first. All four were high-energy electronic music without lyrics, but within that category, they were quite different.

The first song was an ultra-fast tune with a catchy, sugary-sweet melody that reminded Arwyn of her favourite J-pop(1) songs to play on Dance Dance Revolution, the ones that were too fast to process consciously (and hilarious to watch beginners try).

The second song had more of a rock influence, with the powerful sound of electric guitar and drum set. Arwyn did not think it exactly fit her personality, but she could see how it would help create the image of ‘badass assassin’.

The third song had an otherworldly quality created by wordless female vocals over synthesizer notes and bass drum. Arwyn quite liked it, and thought she would choose it – until she heard the fourth song.

Electric violin was quite possibly Arwyn’s favourite sound in the world. She loved its power and sweetness, its range and resonance. The fourth song featured one such instrument over an irresistibly-catchy syncopated beat. “We have a winner,” she murmured to herself. Arwyn made a note to look up the artist later and download all their music.

Music chosen, Arwyn turned to the background options. She did not recognize the file extensions displayed; the only reason she knew they were backgrounds was because they were named “Background 1 – Void”, “Background 2 – Dark Flame”, “Background 3 – Starscape”, and “Background 4 – Night Clouds”. Fortunately, her computer knew what to do and ran the correct program when she selected the first file.

“Woah.” Arwyn was impressed. The background was not a single still image but rather a three-dimensional space that she could rotate and move. She could see why it was called “Void”. It consisted of utter darkness that seemed to stretch into infinity, with only the faintest trace of sourceless light to distinguish space. That space was slightly warped in a way that implied a centre was pulling everything towards it.

Arwyn found that she could toggle a button to insert the image of her avatar. Dragging it around the background, she saw that the spatial distortion became more pronounced close to the middle of the area, though there was no visible object causing the effect. This is probably the closest I’ll ever get to seeing myself sucked into a black hole.

After a few more minutes of exploring, Arwyn opened the second background.

“…Really, Leah?” was all she could say. The “Dark Flame” area consisted of an endless floor of black marble overlaid with lines of dark fire depicting intricate runes and geometric patterns. In the centre of the pattern was a ring of fire containing what looked like a sacrificial altar. Arwyn could not decide whether it looked more like a fantasy hell or the set of a fancy BDSM movie. (Why not both?)

Not wanting Leah to accuse her of not giving the option a fair chance, Arwyn made a face and inserted her avatar into the set. It appeared right next to the altar.

“Nope, nope, nope. Nope.”

Chance given and failed, Arwyn opened the third background.

The “Starscape” background appeared exactly as its name suggested, an endless sky dotted with twinkling stars. Arwyn’s avatar was swallowed by the vastness of outer space, and yet looked oddly at home among the stars. It’s because I’m really an alien, she (half-) joked to herself.

Keeping “Starscape” in mind as a strong contender, Arwyn opened the fourth background. It came with an annotation from Leah: “For when you have wings.”

Arwyn could see the potential. “Night Clouds” was set above the cloud line on the night of a full moon. Above, the air was utterly clear, the stars so close, they looked almost reachable. Below, the thick carpet of clouds was painted silver by moonlight. Her current avatar looked utterly out of place so far off the ground, but it would be a spectacular setting for an avariel to swoop and dive.

Arwyn sighed, thinking about how long it would take to earn her wings. The fifteen remaining levels until level 50 would take longer than the thirty-five she had already gained. Friggin’ exponential curves.

Arwyn messaged Leah with her choices, noticing that her friend had changed her display name.

ArwynTheElf – The song with the electric violin and Starscape. Definitely Night Clouds once I can fly

Leah-SirenaTheMermaid – I thought you’d go with those.

ArwynTheElf – Could you add a moon to Starscape? Also, what the [bleep] was up with Dark Flame? Also, are you making fun of my display name?

Leah-SirenaTheMermaid – “Could I” add a moon. What a silly question. Dark Flame is totally a cool background. No, I’m following the practice of “flattery through imitation”.

ArwynTheElf – There was a SACRIFICIAL ALTAR

Leah-SirenaTheMermaid – It’s just an altar unless you kill something on it.

ArwynTheElf – …What exactly were you planning?

Leah-SirenaTheMermaid – *innocent* Nothing.

ArwynTheElf – Innocent people don’t use *innocent*

Leah-SirenaTheMermaid – Never mind that. I need to go work on the choreography. I’ll have to redo everything when you get wings.

ArwynTheElf – I’d apologize for the trouble except that you’re the one who wanted to do this in the first place. Also, don’t put anything in that I wouldn’t do.

Leah-SirenaTheMermaid – Muahahahaha

ArwynTheElf – Oh boy.

Leah-SirenaTheMermaid – Kekekekeke

ArwynTheElf – Now you’re just being creepy

Leah-SirenaTheMermaid – Heeheehee

Arwyn sighed and let her friend be. After all, she did not actually have to use the transformation sequence.

A (n evil) thought occurred to her that she seized with enthusiasm.

ArwynTheElf – Hey, did you consider making a transformation sequence for Blade?

Leah-SirenaTheMermaid – ZOMG THAT IS SUCH A BRILLIANT IDEA I LOVE YOU

ArwynTheElf - ❤

Leah-SirenaTheMermaid - *sigh* I don’t think it would be possible for me to log on with his account, though.

ArwynTheElf – You can make it in game as well, right? Might as well put those carriage rides to use

Leah-SirenaTheMermaid – I was going to meditate and improve my Prayer bar, but this is much more important.

ArwynTheElf – Lemme know if you need help convincing him

Leah-SirenaTheMermaid – I’m sure he’ll say yes if I ask really nicely

ArwynTheElf – Looking forward to it

There. Arwyn was satisfied that the majority of her friend’s exuberant tendencies would now be channeled towards someone else. (Poor Blade. Mercilessly thrown under the bus.)

Footnotes:

(1) J-pop is short for Japanese pop. K-pop is Korean pop. Other places don’t get a short form because they’re not cool enough.