91

--The Enclave--

Whether or not she was having her coffee at home, 7 A.M. always came too fast; but getting herself up and out to the Perch at least made her feel more productive. She had actually managed to get there earlier than she expected, so she set herself up with a coffee and light breakfast of blue-yolk eggs, a watery kind of seaweed soup with small bits in it she tried not to think to hard about, and a few slices of whatever it was the Enclave used in place of bacon. Meat had become one of those things she simply didn’t want to ask too many questions about, so long as it was tasty.

She was grateful for the fact it was the young earar girl, Shen, that was there and not Grim. The coffee wasn’t quite as good, but she wasn’t awake enough to deal with his personality. She was also pretty sure that he either purposely hid the food menu, or his niece had just put it in to annoy him — but the girl made the food herself, and it was quite delicious, colors and mysterious additives aside.

Nibbling on a bit of the nicely fired up mystery meat, Dassah started to shift through the news of the week. There was a lot she had ignored in favor of game time, but she actually liked the news when she was seriously partaking in real life. There was something therapeutic about reading about people who had more interesting lives than she did.

Scientists published reports on experiments. Entertainment news made her giggle. There was a story about some lady talking about her talking cat. It was a strange world. A world where the impossible was possible, and the good easily outweighed the bad.

And then she paused, her eyes falling on a headline that read: “TheirWorld Ties to Serial Murders Confirmed With 14th Victim”. Dassah’s eyes flickered up to Shen before she opened the article. Grim had all but confirmed that for her in the game, but it really was public knowledge now? The article was about a week old; the EP must have confirmed it around the same time that she met Grim and Hound in-game — and it must have attracted more than a little bit of attention. It was popular enough still that it was fairly high on her feed. Skimming through the article, she read:

Investigative teams have debated on whether the victims connection to the now infamous Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) was by chance or design, but new information has brought them to make a public statement confirming that suspicious behavior and/or events in TheirWorld may have led up to their deaths. Though the investigators have held a strict ‘no comment’ policy regarding the details, Silver Hound, the spokesman for the Virtual Crimes Unit (VCU), holds up his previous advisory warning for all: If you see something suspicious, report it.

She felt that the whole article was longer than it needed to be, and she wondered just how much of it was really given out with the blessings of the police. Journalism was a tricky thing to balance with maintaining opportunities to catch the criminal before they buried themselves in the masses. As she read further, she thought it was perfectly understandable that the police had held so much back until then to declare a connection; nearly everyone on the Enclave played TheirWorld. Without some sort of event or meeting in the game that was known to connect the victims, simply saying that there was a connection was mere conjecture.

The image of the victim who had led them to confirm the connection made her heart hurt. In human years, she would have said he looked to be about 25, though the blue mystricks on his face marked him as Valkyrian. It was more likely he was in his forties, or even fifties. Brown eyes. Dark hair. He had a lean face that was full of sharp edges. It wasn’t the most friendly of faces, but his eyes had a kindness to to them — but it probably helped that his friends had spoken so highly of him.

Olidian Blanc, Age 46. TheirWorld Character Name: Ollie Bear

They had given out his ID with the permission of his guardians in order to allow the police to gather as much information as they could.

Taking her coffee mug in her hands, Dassah wrapped her fingers tight around it. Warmth seeped in through her skin and into her bones. The palms of her hands burned a little, but it didn’t really hurt. It was just enough to remind her that she was alive.

Ollie Bear. A man of the mercantile community. Friend of Katsu and Miko and Hammer and all the others. The man who had said that he had seen a man in a Jackal mask and had been approached by several magicians in-game looking for a key.

But what was the connection? The Jackal? The magicians? The key?

Guilt crept into her as she remembered Grim’s request that she keep in touch with him. He had specifically brought up the matter of the Jackal, but he had also requested that she report anything on the Tenmath. Was there a connection there? Ollie Bear’s friends hadn’t mentioned the Tenmath, but knowing the quest it wouldn’t be surprising if they didn’t know.

Dassah bit her lip. “Excuse me? Miss Shen?” she went waving down the young earar behind the counter. She wasn’t sure that she’d have recognized her, but she also had a name tag.

“Can I get you something?” the girl asked sweetly.

“No, but, is Grim going to be here today?”

Shen scrunched her nose. “Him? Probably not. He’s been running around doing his actual job, for once.” The earar girl eyed her. “You’re a regular here?”

Dassah nodded, saying, “Usually Grim is here, though.”

“Yeah,” Shen went, looking around the little shop. “I haven’t been here was much as I should have been, but it seems he’s kept the place together. I wanted to sell it, but…”

“He doesn’t seem the type to care much about what others want,” Dassah said, playing with her mug.

The girl laughed. “He means well, though,” she said. “He sure can be a big jerk about it, but...”

“You sound a bit happy about that.”

“I don’t hate it,” Shen admitted, then tilted her head as she looked Dassah over. “You were the woman who was talking to Uncle Sav before, too, aren’t you?”

“Yeah,” Dassah said, clicking her nails against the mug. “I didn’t know if you would remember that.

“People who go to Uncle Sav aren’t worth much in the way of remembering,” Shen mused. “Uncle Sav going up to another person, well, that’s a different story.”

Chuckling, Dassah told her, “It sounds a bit wrong when you put it that way. I’m just a person of interest because I work for his sister while being terrified of garuli. It’s quite the… thing.”

Shen laughed. “So what, he’s rehabilitating you?”

“Something like that.”

“And my uncle? How do you know him?”

Dassah held up her mug. “For all that his personality sucks, he makes the best coffee,” she said, then looked down. “But today it’s the officer I’m looking for, not the barista.”

Frowning, Shen asked, “Is something going on? I can call him...”

“Not really,” Dassah said. “It’s just… Well. It doesn’t matter much. It’s certainly not worth bothering him for.”

“I can tell him you were looking for him, at least,” Shen offered.

“Don’t worry about it,” Dassah shook her head. “If anything changes I also have his contact info. I kind of feel silly bothering him for this kind of little thing.”

The earar girl looked unconvinced, but shrugged her shoulders anyway. “Alright,” she said. “How about I at least give you a free refill of whatever you’re drinking since he’s not here.”

“That would be lovely,” Dassah smiled, and handed her coffee cup over. “By the way, the food is great. I’ve never seen you guys offer it before. It’s a great idea if it’s new.”

Shen grinned mischievously. “Oh, I know,” she said. “And Grim will hate it.”