Trial and Flame Read online

  “Howdy boys,” called out Melee in her rough-and-tumble voice. “Dakkon, you’ve got some nerve not replying!”

  Chapter 5: The Journey Begins

  “Dakkon, Cline!” Mina yelled, dispelling any tension Melee had hoped to create as she rushed up to give them each a hug. When Mina approached, she did so with a large and formidable-looking light gray wolf at her side. Roth followed leisurely behind her and Melee brought up the rear.

  Standing outside of Qirim’s cottage, Lina excused herself to give the five friends an opportunity to catch up—and for Mina to introduce a new companion.

  Seeing a big wolf run toward him, despite being in friendly company, was disconcerting for Cline. “Hey, what’s with the canine!”

  “Oh, that’s just Jinx, don’t worry about him! He’s a little too easily agitated around new people, so I’ll have to introduce you to him slowly,” said Mina.

  Cline looked down at Jinx, whose master was happily embracing him. The wolf’s thin lips curled back, showing a threatening collection of sharp teeth as he snarled. Cline anxiously gulped.

  “Woah, what’s going on with your foreheads?” said Roth with narrowed eyes.

  “Eww, one’s got a hole!” shrieked Mina after quickly taking a step back then looking them over. Cline and Dakkon glanced at each other, then managed to laugh despite the presence of the large, apprehensive wolf.

  “Oh yeah,” said Cline. “I’d completely forgotten.”

  Dakkon scraped the worse-for-wear clump of costume makeup and cloth from his forehead, then said with an overly-dramatic flourish of his left arm, “We’re in the tournament. You may now be impressed!”

  “Wait, both of you are?” said Roth, surprised. “I mean, I sort of expected it from Dakkon…”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” asked Cline, narrowing his eyes.

  “He means,” said Melee who had finally strolled up at her leisurely pace, “that if participants were really chosen based on how interesting the gods found them, which of us do you think they’d choose?”

  Cline cocked his head in thought.

  “He trailed a war band of higher-level marauders back to their den, then tricked us into going in there,” said Roth.

  “Hey, I didn’t—” began Dakkon.

  “He made us fight for our lives to save an NPC then attack an unknown boss monster!” Mina cheerfully chimed in.

  “Woah, I never—” Dakkon tried to say.

  “He spiked that priceless relic onto the ground like a football after a game-winning completion!” interrupted Melee, with a broad grin.

  “I… I uh—” Dakkon found himself a bit lost for words regarding the last accusation.

  Cline nodded, convinced. “Fair enough. Him being chosen is not all that big of a surprise. Still, I’m more surprised that none of you have the mark.”

  “It’s a pretty rare thing to see, Cline,” said Mina in her normal, considerate tone. “Almost certainly rarer than one in 1,000 players, though there’s no way to know for sure.”

  “Hmm,” said Cline as he thoughtfully stroked his own glowing red tournament sigil. “I suppose I hadn’t given the rarity much consideration.”

  “Speaking of consideration,” said Melee addressing Dakkon and Cline, “so, what’s this quest you two wanted to pitch to us?”

  Cline let out a forced yawn and leaned back against the side of Qirim’s cottage. “I’ll let ‘He Who is Most Loved by the Gods’ give you the details.”

  Not missing a beat, and eliciting an eyeroll from Cline, Dakkon picked up from there. “Thanks, Cline. As you can probably guess, we can no longer walk into public places without some sort of disguise.”

  The three new arrivals nodded their understanding.

  “Both of us needed to learn new skills, so we went into town earlier today, but we just about disastrously overstayed our welcome,” Dakkon said. “Thanks to the owner of this house, however, we may have uncovered something worth checking out from an old map.”

  “What sort of ‘something worth checking out’?” asked Melee with a single raised eyebrow.

  “Your guess is as good as mine, and I’ll wager Mina’s might be better,” answered Dakkon. “What we know is that there’s this protected relic in the dwarven city of Yotgard with some funky ancient script and a peculiar marking on it. As best as Qirim knows—he’s the one who explained this to me—the symbol doesn’t show up anywhere else. From there, who knows?”

  “More lost temples?” asked Roth.

  “Possibly,” Dakkon said with a nod.

  “Count me in,” said Roth enthusiastically.

  “Nice,” said Dakkon. “How about you two?”

  As Melee opened her mouth to speak, Mina held up her left hand to interject. “Exactly where does the ‘old map’ say this potential temple is?”

  “Ah,” said Dakkon. “It’s about… I don’t know… a week or two’s walk north by northwest, probably.”

  Melee’s eyes widened, and Roth rubbed his forehead.

  “Are there roads going there?” said Mina, unperturbed.

  “Hmmm. Some—a part of the way, at least,” said Dakkon. “But, it might be best if we avoided them considering the whole glowing-red-targets-on-our-foreheads thing.”

  “Two weeks of walking in that direction would put us in or close to elven lands,” said Mina. “Is that the end-goal?”

  “I’m a little unclear on the boarders and whatnot, but I don’t think it’s quite as far as the elves,” said Dakkon.

  “All right,” said Mina. “We’re in.”

  “What!” said Melee. “We’ve never walked for a full day. This is weeks! I’d have thought you’d never agree.”

  “What can I say, Dakkon puts me in a gambling mood,” Mina said with a sly smile and a wink. “I will have to take a look at the map, scrutinize the symbol, talk to Qirim, and do some research on the way up, though.”

  “I wouldn’t have it any other way,” Dakkon agreed.

  The three new arrivals and Jinx were led inside the cottage and introduced to Qirim, Lina, and Merri. Qirim seemed much more polite than he had when meeting Dakkon and Cline, and Dakkon wasn’t sure whether that was due to Lina being their common link, that two of the newly introduced were girls, or simply because there was a big, unhappy-looking wolf in his house—but Dakkon would have bet on the latter. Lina and Mina, though not outright rude, didn’t seem too terribly fond of each other, but the disontent was apparent enough to cause Merri, Cline, Dakkon, and Roth to scratch their heads in concert.

  After only a bit of time for Mina to properly pick Qirim’s brain on the subject matter, Qirim had clearly met and exceeded his tolerance threshold for company. Despite the gracious mask he had worn, his usual sour personality had begun to glimmer through the cracks. “Oh, it was so lovely to meet you all, but you really must be going. I know that you’ve got a long trip ahead, and though it breaks my heart, I wouldn’t dream of keeping you from it. Time is ever of the essence.”

  So, thanks to the additional preparations of Cline when he bought three large bags-worth of supplies, and after Dakkon and Cline had tied new headbands over their tournament sigils, Dakkon, Cline, Melee, Roth, Mina, and the wolf, Jinx, were ready to begin their long walk. They’d need to stop after a few hours for a proper break, they’d decided, but there was no reason not to get going if they didn’t have the protection of a roof and four walls.

  “Oh, you guys haven’t met Nightshade, have you?” Dakkon remarked as he pulled a palm-sized metal disk from the side of his belt and held it out, clenched between the fingers of his left hand, toward the open space in front of him.

  “Daedarah,” Dakkon said and light shot out from the disk, bathing the path before him. From the light emerged the fully-contrasting black of his horse’s head. Nightshade’s strode out regally and whinnied proudly.

  “You big showoff,” Dakkon said with a grin as he patted Nightshade on his long neck.

  “What the hell was that!” yelled Melee. />
  “Seriously!” added Mina.

  “Cool doodad you’ve got there,” Roth said with an approving nod.

  “You’re the big showoff, Dakkon,” huffed Cline. “You could’ve maybe mentioned you were about to shoot a horse out of your pocket watch to give people a little heads up.”

  Dakkon simply shrugged, especially pleased with how that had gone since once before Nightshade had seemed irritated to be pulled back to his side.

  “So, how’d you do that? Magical horse from a rare item?” Mina asked.

  “Nope! Well, sort of. I got Nightshade from the quest we did in Greenburne after the mayor spent a portion of my reward on animals and such. He’s good looking, but he’s more or less an average horse.” Dakkon rubbed Nightshade’s neck.

  “Well then?” asked Melee.

  “Ah, I’ll show you the properties for this thing,” Dakkon said.

  |Name: Equis Medallion

  |Item Type: Trinket

  |Durability: 100/100

  |Ability: Equis Rift

  |Ability: X Factor

  |Description: This medallion was created by an adventurer of untold power to stable and recall his beloved horse. With it, the wielder may safely stow and retrieve mounts. Beyond its intended effect, the exceptional craftsmanship of this item has imbued it with a secondary ability. Once per day, the wielder may replenish his health and mana to half of their current maximum.

  “And where did you find something like that?” asked Roth, curiously.

  “It was a gift,” Dakkon said.

  “From a god, probably,” Cline added.

  Eyes widened.

  “Yeah,” thought Dakkon. Though he’d never admit it, he was beginning to find that one of the best parts about getting a cool new gadget was having a chance to show it off to friends.

  “He just sort of showed up when the Tournament was announced,” Dakkon said by way of explanation.

  “Did everyone in the Tournament have a god greet them personally?” Roth asked Cline. “I hadn’t heard of anything like that.”

  “Not unless I got skipped,” Cline remarked.

  “Well, did he say anything interesting?” Mina asked with a glint in her eye. “Anything cryptic or… useful?”

  Dakkon replayed the event in his mind. “Hmm. He wore these golden robes. He was sort of glowing—I couldn’t see his face… As for what he said—” Dakkon paused. He couldn’t very well give away that Cline was some sort of top secret artificially intelligent non-human entity. That would have to be Cline’s decision to make. “He said that if I surprised him then he might reward me some more. He also said that I’d received his boon before he gave me the medallion. I’m not sure if he meant my dagger, entry into the tournament, or what, but that’s about all that stood out.”

  Dakkon’s dagger was still a bit of a mystery even to its owner. Dakkon knew it was valuable enough that it had painted a target on his back; he knew it did an impressive amount of damage; he knew that the scabbard and blade could repair each other; and he knew that it was made out of some dark rock called drakestone—but he still didn’t fully understand what the item did or why he’d once been offered what had seemed like an unreasonable sum for it.

  Mina looked a little displeased that she hadn’t managed to learn any helpful cosmos-aligning, mind-boggling secrets of the sort that only supreme beings can provide.

  “There, there,” said Roth, patting Mina on the shoulder. “I’m sure the next time Dakkon talks to a god he’ll throw them a curveball and ask for something more substantial.”

  Mina sighed. “He’d better.”

  The five friends fell back into step with each other right away. Any fear borne of Dakkon’s mind that some grudge might be held by Melee or Mina dissolved in no time. They were practical people and they were his friends. Dakkon was only starting to remember what having close friends felt like. In the real world, he had friends, but between his circumstances and their own, the simple act of finding time to spend with one another was difficult. Then, compounded by his constant lack of spending money, he sometimes grew to resent the rare opportunities where he was able to hang out as he counted away the precious lost seconds that perhaps somehow could be used to better his place in life. That went double when there was a price tag on the excursion serving to actually tax him for the pleasure of a night out.

  None of the misgivings he’d cultivated were his friends’ faults on the other side. Dakkon, or rather Corbin Landrick, had simply been yet another victim of a system where—if one was lucky enough to get a job—working all day would allow for only enough money to live without piling on debt, providing they didn’t have too many emergencies pop up. The promise of retirement had long been erased from public consciousness.

  Despite the generally bleak nature of having been born average, things had already begun to change for the better. The bonus seven hours which Dakkon gained in Chronicle for each one he invested meant that most of his time-based concerns were simply gone. He had no reason to count passing minutes or to weigh his sleep time against his obligations. He didn’t need to throw away money when he wanted to spend time with friends.

  His friends here had clearly grown stronger in their time apart, too. Mina wore new green robes which were so immaculately clean it seemed as though they repelled dirt—not to mention, she’d gained a companion wolf. As for Melee, though her armor didn’t look like much, she could apparently wield the new two-handed sword strapped to her back which was nearly as big as she was. Then there was Roth, who was starting to look like a mobile armory. His belt held a short sword, a mace, some sort of coiled chain, and a gauntlet with a large metal plate positioned over the back of his right hand. On Roth’s back were javelins and a spear which hung just above the backside of his knees and stretched upward over a meter above his head where it forked into a two-pronged tip.

  Based on Dakkon’s experience in the real world, when friends grow more into their own lives they tend to drift away from one another. He could remember an old fable about clashing lifestyles:

  ‘A brass pot and one of clay cannot travel together, for when they are shaken, the clay pot will shatter.’

  ‘The weak and the strong cannot share company.’

  It was a fable that could be interpreted in many different ways, but Dakkon couldn’t help but feel that it told the story of friends. Both pots represented people. One had a solid foundation in life while the other always had to be mindful that a single bump along the road could shatter everything. Here, though, in Chronicle, maybe a clay pot could use their extra time to cast themselves a sturdy, bronze exterior. In any event, the growth of these five didn’t seem to be pulling them apart.

  The party traveled forward—partners with a destination in a remote land. For Dakkon at least, the start of their trek was bliss.

  \\\

  “It’s getting to be about that time,” said Roth. “Let’s pull off the road a ways and take that break we’ve all been thinking about.”

  Travel had grown quiet during the last thirty minutes or so on the road. There was something hypnotizing about droning along, left foot followed by right, over and over, again and again. Dakkon had smartly used the lull in conversation to train his new skills, but the scheduled break would do them all some good—even Cline. Though they didn’t technically need the rest, it wasn’t enjoyable to constantly be on the move.

  “What happens with your wolf companion when you log out?” Dakkon asked.

  “Jinx’ll be somewhere around here waiting for us to get back since I seem to have misplaced my dimension-altering god-trinket,” Mina said.

  “Is that safe?” Dakkon asked.

  “He’s pretty clever so he’ll be alright,” Mina said. “Unless you think you can stable him in your medallion along with Nightshade, I mean.”

  Dakkon wasn’t sure. It wasn’t that he hadn’t thought of using the trinket to store more than just his horse, but he’d been rather busy in the meantime, and thought that using it o
n himself, Cline, Lina, Merri, or Qirim might have been a remarkably bad idea. Even if getting them inside worked, there was no guarantee he’d be able to pull them back out.

  “Well, we can try,” said Dakkon. “If you’re up for it.”

  Mina looked over to Jinx and then drew her lips to one side. “I don’t think so,” she said. “Maybe after we experiment on some wildlife first.”

  Dakkon nodded his understanding. He wouldn’t want to lose a companion or be responsible for one’s loss. It would be better to be cautious.

  “So, what’s the plan again?” asked Melee. “We taking a long break?”

  “Yeah,” said Mina. “Six real-world hours.”

  “Awesome,” replied Melee jovially. “Plenty of time for a jog and a shower.”

  “And for a dump,” Roth added.

  “You’ve got that right,” Melee agreed.

  Though Mina made a face at the comment, she didn’t disagree. When stepping out of a capsule after laying there for hours on end, unmoving—save for gently spinning around rotisserie-style—that was just the way things went.

  “Okay guys, make sure to set your clocks on the other side,” said Melee. “No one wants to wait on you for a couple of hours because you got distracted while watching ChronCast.”

  One by one they logged off until all that remained were Dakkon, Cine, Nightshade, and Jinx.

  “You going to be fine out here, alone?” Dakkon asked Cline.

  “Yeah, no worries,” Cline said, relaxed. “I’ll just browse the net until you guys get back.”

  “All right,” Dakkon said, then turned toward Nightshade. “In you go, now.”

  Dakkon pointed the Equis Medallion toward Nightshade and said, “Aedarah.” In a flash of cold light, the spot where Nightshade stood was empty.

  Dakkon thought the commands, “Logout,” and then “Yes,” immediately as the prompt confirming his decision appeared. The world began to fall away from him, piece by piece—a stone, then a leaf; a shrub, then a tree.

  “I’m off.”