9

Paths, Aligned

Achievement unlocked: “Power in Solidarity” (Joined a guild)

You have gained experience! (+4)

Rian stepped down the plank and onto the pier, trying to avoid bumping into other players as guild messages and system text and even the name of the area appeared and crowded his vision. So much goddamn text everywhere.

THILE HARBOR

You have discovered a new area! (Total explored: 2.17%)

You have gained experience! (+2)

Cobalt has joined Moonlight!

: Welcome.

: sup

: who dat

: anyone got a spare stack of Ezre’s Voice

: how’s the new alt going, Kat?

Okay, that was enough of that. He would respond if he could, but all this hovering text was making it more likely for him to walk off the pier and into the ocean. The sunglasses filtering everything wasn’t making it any better, so he took them off and stuffed them into his pocket. He swept his hand across his field of view and the messages stopped coming in.

Ahead, the pier connected to a brick road. Buildings with shuttered windows stood above dock workers going busily about. It almost reminded Rian of a certain area in Shadow Spirits, but everything here was bright, lively, and well-kept. Most of the dock workers at a glance were NPCs, yet some of the people in the harbor—walking up and down the white and gray brick roads, delivering items, attending to merchants—were actually players dressed like NPCs. Their stat pages listed them as “non-adventuring players.”

When he listened, he thought he heard distant music. Town music.

Off to the right, an archer by the docks raised a bow. He shot an arrow at a bird: what looked like a faceless seagull with four wings and black feathers, roosting on one of the dock poles. The arrow connected but halted the moment it struck, then fell as if nothing had happened. A transparent number appeared on the air and floated away. The bird, hardly noticing, casually leapt off and started flying. Some of the NPC dock workers raised their fists and yelled at the archer, who slunk away, embarrassed.

So it looked like nothing took damage while inside the city, if Rian had to guess. Cool. He wouldn’t have to worry about getting randomly ganked by other players in this crowd, at least. Given that this was the PVP server, the chance of him eventually getting player-killed was practically guaranteed. But for now, he was safe.

As the music got louder, the crowd split up, with some heading west or east and a few heading toward another group of Altirian priests standing ahead. Waiting aside of them was another priestess with soft brown skin and dark hair. Dressed in lavish clothing, she waved at Rian and Kat as they approached. She wasn’t an NPC; “Lv. 50” hovered above her head, and beside her level were medals stacked atop other medals aligned in a row.

“Welcome to Moonlight,” the priestess said with a flourish of her hand. “The most prestigious guild in all of Miracia. I hope you won’t disappoint, Cobalt.”

Oh no, he’d stumbled his way into one of the hardcore guilds, hadn’t he?

At the look on his face, she and Kat began to smile as if they couldn’t hold something back, and then the priestess burst into laughter and said, “Nah, I’m just screwing with you, dude. We’re a chill-ass guild. No pressure.”

He breathed out, smiled, a little disappointed but mostly relieved. At least he wouldn’t be getting expelled from the guild for not being up to snuff right away.

Eyeing him, Kat said, “You don’t seem like the casual type, though.”

“Right,” he said. “I used to speedrun Shadow Spirits, actually. Like, professionally.”

“Whaaat?” the priestess nearly hollered. “I love that game! It’s so brutal.” She collected herself, covering her face with a hand and then moving it down as if to fall back into character. She held out her hand, and they shook. “I’m Maia,” she said, then whispered, “Damn, we got a pro on our hands.”

“Most people call me Cob,” he said.

Maia almost snorted in laughter. “Like ‘corn cob?’”

Rian shrugged sheepishly. “Yeah.”

“So, speedrunning,” Maia said, intrigued. “Really? So you’re great at doing things really fast?”

“Well,” Rian said, “it’s more like I’m good at optimizing things. Being optimal. The doing-things-fast part is just…kind of the end result of that.” Flushing at his own explanation, he scratched the back of his head. Hoo boy, I was not expecting to be put on the spot like this.

Crossing her arms, Kat said, “It’s safe to say you’re not going to be an NAP, then?”

“Is that a ‘non-adventuring player?’” Rian said, and she nodded.

“It’s not the most exciting way to play,” Maia said. “You’re essentially a replacement for an NPC, or like an extra in a film, but it pays well enough if you don’t have the time to go on longer quests and stuff.”

She nodded aside, toward one of the roads leading further into the town, where there was a band of players: a woman playing a flute, a man strumming a guitar, and another tapping a set of drums. A whimsical melody danced through the air, and it seemed the game was attenuating its volume such that it became louder when Rian focused on it and quieter when he didn’t. They were playing the music he’d heard earlier.

There was even an open guitar case where other players were leaving them tips. A player passing by flipped a gold coin into the case. Another player, a level 15 mage in blue robes, stopped by and tossed in a glass cube whose edges seemed to shift internally and bend light like a prism. It clinked as it landed.

“Really though,” Kat said, “if it’s money and items you’re after, adventuring is miles ahead of that, so long as you can put in the effort.” She tilted her head towards Maia. “We made Moonlight because we wanted to eventually turn this into our job.”

“Yep,” Maia said, shrugging, “we’re ‘moonlighters.’ Or were, I guess.”

“It kinda lost its meaning over time, but it’s whatever.”

One of the Altirian NPCs rang a handbell, and the other priests and priestesses began to head down the street. The group followed. “Looks like the pilgrimage’s started,” Kat said, heading forward with Maia.

Rian hesitated, and Kat looked over her shoulder at him. “You can come along,” she said. “At least until the end of the town, if you have any more questions.”

On the street, passersby yielded, looking on with reverence at the group of traveling players. The enormous gold rings of Maia’s staff jingled with each step.

“So this pilgrimage is for a job advancement?” Rian said.

“Yep!” Maia said. “New Priests or Thieves generally need an escort to the Temple for their first job. I’m here to help ol’ Kat here get on her way to becoming a Thief.”

“At a temple? That doesn’t sound like a place for Thieves.”

“Well, that’s the thing about Yindra-alignment,” Kat said. “The path to it isn’t exactly obvious.”

Rian almost stopped walking, suddenly conscious of the marking on his arm. He took a moment to tug the sleeve of his tunic down, making sure it was covering his shoulder. It barely reached far enough.

As worried as he was that his question would be suspicious, he was starved for info, and this was his chance.

“Yindra, huh?” he said. “Would either of you know where to find her?”

They both looked taken aback, then smiled. “Dude,” Kat said, “if either of us knew that, we’d be set for life. In-game and out.”

“So you think she’s still alive, then?” Maia asked him.

“Alive?” Rian nearly blurted. “What do you mean?”

“Yindra’s dead, Cob,” Kat said.

The words, like a knife to his chest.

“Did you sleep through the opening cinematic, too?” she continued. “It should’ve told you everything you need to know about the lore, how each of the four gods died in the Undoing. Goam, Ezre, Altir,” she said, counting them off. “Yindra.”

Maia scrunched up her face in thought. “Well, that’s what most people think: that they’re dead. Lore-hunters think otherwise—that some of them or maybe even all of them are still around. Hypersphere’s our resident lore freak. You could probably ask him in the guild about it sometime, if that interests you.”

Curious, Rian brought up guild chat again and selected the virtual keyboard to see what would happen, but it was mostly to recollect himself. If there’d ever been a deer-in-headlights moment in his life, that was it.

So Yindra was dead. Or maybe not. He glanced aside, and Corvis was floating along at a distance, unnoticed, weaving his way past random players and NPCs walking the street. Rian was almost angry at how he hadn’t told him about it, but it was really his fault for not paying attention to the opening cinematic. Still, if Yindra had servants wandering around and following her commands, what were the odds that she was truly dead? Maybe it was a “Schrödinger’s cat” sort of deal.

Selecting the virtual keyboard, an outline of one appeared in front of Rian at waist height. It was a vibrant blue, shimmering like lasers suspended in fog. As he typed into guild chat, he could somehow feel the keys pushing back against his fingers, even though it was nothing more than light.

: hey guys

: o/

: are you actually lagging lol

Kat and Maia had continued ahead, and he swept his hand to dismiss the chat. The keyboard vanished accordingly and he hurried forward again.

They were snickering as he caught up. Kat whispered something to Maia, and she whispered back, “Really hope Trini shows up this time so I can give her what’s coming.”

The end of the town was in sight: The brick road, transitioning to a dirt path. The buildings falling away to vast and rolling plains.

“You should probably head out, Cob,” Kat said. “Things might get a little hectic once we leave the town.”

“Really? Why?” When he looked ahead, he couldn’t see any monsters roaming the plains, and he didn’t suppose there would be anything difficult spawning just outside the starting area.

“Rival guilds,” Kat said. “There’s a good chance LastWhisper knows I’m here, starting a new character. After we leave Thile Harbor, we’ll be inside a player-kill zone. We’re betting they’ll ambush us.”

Rian nodded with disappointment. Of course. That was exactly the kind of behavior he expected from the PVP server.

Maia raised her staff, held it aloft. “And that’s why I’m here,” she said. “The Altirian NPCs with us can put up a fight to protect their new recruits, but nothing’s gonna come close to me.”

A slowly filling translucent bar appeared over Maia’s head. When it completed, wind rushed around her and whipped at their sleeves, struck the window-shutters against the walls of the buildings. The others turned their heads, watching Maia with wide eyes. A shining barrier emerged around each player, and already there was another meter appearing over Maia’s head as she repositioned her staff with both hands.

Rian opened her stat and equipment pages and gaped. Her stats were insane—Intelligence and Spirit in the upper 90s. Her equipment was almost all graded at “S+”, each of them providing a unique effect. And she wasn’t just level 50; she had something called Ascendant Levels, which Rian assumed were the medals floating next to her level.

He looked up and noticed she’d excluded him. There wasn’t a barrier around him.

“Last chance,” Kat said, smirking. “Better decide on your class real quick.”

He still had so many questions. But there were only a few steps until the street ended. Another burst of wind swept across them and down the alleyways as Maia completed another buff, sparks of light dancing around their bodies.

“Remember,” Kat said, struggling to talk over the wind, her hair flowing, “Elmguard for physical classes. Aetheria for magical ones. If I had to guess, you probably want an alignment with Goam—that’s Elmguard. If you head there, you should be safe from anybody in LastWhisper, if they’re on the roads. They’ll know you’re in my guild, but they’re gonna be too focused on ganking me to harass you.” She glanced aside, then nodded sideways, smiling. “Probably.”

He stopped walking as the brick road ended, and they stepped onto the dirt path outside of the town.

“Good luck, Cob!” Kat shouted, walking backwards to face him.

An explosion from their left swept across the group, their individual barriers shining like bubbles amid a tsunami of fire. Players screamed and began to scatter through the smoke. Maia and the Altirian NPCs pointed their staffs in the direction the explosion had come, and a wall of searing light pushed away the flames. Arrows pattered the ground before Rian, arcs of electricity jumping between the shafts to form a web that caught running players at their legs. Howling beams of light shot across the plains and rebounded off the barriers, which faded slightly with each impact. From above, descending upon the group was a dragon, an armored man riding atop it and wielding a massive spear; as he wound up to throw it, a blinding sun ray emerged from the clouds above and set him and the dragon afire. Orange and red damage numbers ticked everywhere, crowding the sky, flooding the ground. Yet the group remained standing—and mostly together—as Maia led them forward.

Waves of other players were approaching from the forests at the end of the plains. All of them were level 50, but from what Rian could see, it seemed none of them had as many medals, Ascendant Levels, as Maia.

Rian stood there, awestruck, though feeling rather strange to see all the destruction and chaos in front of him, yet none of it affecting him by merely standing at the edge of the town. Every thunderous blow resonated in his chest. He could hear every arrow and bolt of electricity spreading across the ground. Above, the NPCs in the buildings closed their shutters, shaking their heads, rolling their eyes as the apocalypse happened ten feet away from them. Just another day in Thile Harbor.

So that was what awaited him at the end of the game. Magnificent, but at the same time it was harrowing: this was what he’d have to deal with at the end of it all.

Collecting himself, Rian headed back into the town.

Step by step, he would get there. He’d find Yindra. He’d find his mom. Maybe not now, but someday. He would get there.