Necromancer

A Royal Road Fan Fiction

By: Halosty

Chapter 6

Solara Vail was a very shy girl. This had led, in a rather recursive fashion, to social awkwardness. She was shy, so she didn’t know how to talk to people, which just made her more shy. On and on and on, as such. She was, however, also quite intelligent. Generally, this is the formula for a stereotypical nerd. Another contributing factor to her social awkwardness. Throughout much of her life, this caused her much distress. Partly because people picked on her in school, but while unpleasant this was not a terribly big problem for Solara. No, in fact it was the fact that although she was shy, she really liked being around people. She wanted to be able to talk to them, and her inability to do so hurt.

This is why Mortimer Perrywinkle was sort of a blessing. Sort of. When she first saw him, Solara had been talking out loud to herself off in the corner of a courtyard, during the lunch period at school. She had been practicing conversation, in an attempt to get better at it. Then she saw him, kind of awkwardly hiding, but obviously making the attempt. She wanted to go up to him and talk to him, but she was too shy to attempt it.

Instead, she started talking to herself more, to communicate with him. It was a sort of odd, one-sided conversation. She never learned much about him, since he said nothing and pretended not to be there, and she pretended not to notice him. However, he also learned about her mostly just what she wanted him to know. After that first day, she was careful in what she said. She even left a carefully formulated journal which Mortimer was creepyobservant enough to find.

This very awkward relationship carried on for some time before Solara found another possible way to come out of her shell. Virtual Reality. There was a game called Royal Road which practically everyone played. She saved up money and sucked up to her relatives for some time before finally getting a capsule for her birthday. She would have to pay for her subscription herself. Still, it promised another world where she could be someone else.

She had researched the game quite a bit before playing, and decided she wanted to be a bard. She had always been interested in the thought of playing an instrument, and wanted to force herself to do something that would inevitably involve other people. She had considered being a dancer, but bard had won out since she had to choose just one.

Thus, when she logged into Royal Road for the first time, she made sweeping changes to her appearance. No one could recognize her, because she would be using an entirely different face, build, hair color... everything. She also planned to go in with an entirely different attitude than she did outside of Royal Road. Solara chose to name her character Ruby, although it was perhaps a bit cliche. Well, quite a lot. Still, bards were kind of expected to be extravagant about whatever they did, so why not start with a bit of a pretentious name.

During her first couple of game days she did quite a few odd jobs, and also went for singing and instrumental lessons at the bard’s guild. She even managed to pick up the singing skill. Then, she spent some time practicing in less traveled areas of the city. She really wanted to sing in the main square, but she wasn’t really that good yet, and she was still kind of embarassed of the idea. Still, she had been talking to some people, and that had been more than she had done before. Men were significantly more eager to talk to her, probably because of her new looks.

After a few days, she saw Mortimer when she was just finishing up her singing practice. It was easy to recognize him, even with the few minor changes he had made. She’d seen him often enough, and he was the closest thing she had to a friend. She tried to avoid thinking about how pathetic that was, and walked towards him. She was going to talk to him, as the new, more social her. Unfortunately, he skittered away. She realized he probably didn’t actually recognize her, so he probably thought an unknown woman had noticed him stalking her. This made her feel rather odd, as she both felt jealousy at Mortimer watching another woman, and disgust at the thought of thinking her stalker was kind of cute. She hadn’t really thought about that second point much at all.

Solara soon learned that the dance skill could be used, to a much lesser effect, even for one not of the dancer class. She thought it might be a good thing to have, and thus learned that as well. Again, she went to practice her skills. She noticed Mortimer watching her again, much earlier this time. She had to rest, so she had plenty of time to look around. Then, one time he slipped around the corner, with much more finesse than he had exhibited when they first met. This was the last Solara, as Ruby, saw of him for a long time.

-------------------------------------

A note to readers: I hate some of you (not really) for guessing some of the things I was/am going to do. Just let it be known that I (mostly) won’t be changing my story based on suggestions you guys make. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t give them, and I love comments, I’m just saying that if you see something you suggested it doesn’t necessarily mean I was swayed by your comment. Then again, it could be subliminal, so keep at it, and maybe you’ll get everything you want!

End Chapter 6

Next Chapter: viewtopic.php?f=47&t=246