Demonic Magician

An unease had settled amongst us, despite there being no obvious problems with the houses. No System-created, but no signs of any struggle or violence. Eventually, any caution took back seat to our exhaustion.

While Wolf sniffed at the air, we slowly pushed our way into the nearest residential building. I stepped in first, card at the ready. Empty, aside from the expected furniture. The others filtered in behind me, their weapons lowering, seeing how mundane things were. The bear struggled, but eventually squeezed in through the door without bringing the wall down with it.

“Quinn, check the upstairs with me.” I gestured with my head. Normally I’d take Ren, but I didn’t want it to become a thing where the Party would keep splitting along the obvious line. Plus, I didn’t think I had the fortitude for anything more than a cordial handshake. Even then…

He fell into step behind me, sword in one hand and the other up, ready to cast a spell. I’d need to pry open his mind to see what he was actually capable of at some point. Although, with a less violent sounding metaphor.

Wooden staircase led us up from the open downstairs area and onto the upper floor. Open doorways, only two rooms. A cold breeze that only I could feel steeled any nerves I had, and the slow and steady pace was only for the slight chance of getting the jump on anything that may be lurking in the shadows. Or to avoid traps, I supposed.

The first was a large bedroom, which looked like a small slice of heaven. A door on the right side gave promise of an en-suite, and fully expecting the jump scare to arrive at this juncture - I pushed it open to see. Small tub alongside the usual restroom facilities. Nothing untoward, but the relief that washed through me made me shudder. I couldn’t wait for my turn.

“All clear,” Quinn reported from the doorway of the second room.

It didn’t help shift the awkward feeling this place gave me, but I relaxed somewhat in knowing we had a brief reprieve from the wider world.

We returned downstairs to the pensive elf, and I let her know the good news about the bath. She was gone before I had even finished the sentence, doors closing behind her.

I sighed, but smiled. “Let’s cook up a feast. You any good with food, Quinn?”

“I’m great at eating it,” Wolf murmured to himself, curled up beside the closed front door like a guard dog.

“Not exactly,” the fencer scratched at his bearded chin. “I have an ability that can turn less desirable things into a reasonable meal, but have no real hard skills from my previous life.” He shrugged and gave me a sheepish grin. “Servants, you see. I was born into some wealth.”

I nodded. That sounded like it made sense and explained some of his foppish attitude and immaturity when it came to matters of the heart. Not that I could be a judge of such things, having been a loner until very recently. The dangerous love I had with Ren still hadn’t settled in. It would be good for me to keep my head on properly and not let my heart start driving the narrative. Oh, there was that L word again.

“Can’t say I’m much better,” I admitted, “but let’s get this stove fired up and see if two heads are better than one.”

He gave me a brief bow and gestured towards the back of the downstairs area where the open-plan kitchen was set up. Even from down here, I could hear the water flowing through into the bath, and I was slightly envious. I bet the elf looked contented and relaxed.

I blinked away the mental images as Quinn lit the wood. “You have a lot of survival or utility skills,” I noted.

“That’s what I get for being an Arcane Fixer, I suppose.” He smiled, before his eye unfocused to search his Inventory for some food to cook.

“Fixer,” I repeated. “Not… Fencer?”

“Hmm? No, Arcane Fixer.”

Oh. Perhaps one of my head injuries had knocked something loose in my hearing. It should come as no surprise that I was an unreliable narrator in my own life—even ignoring my rather drab journal entries—but mishearing an important detail like Quinn’s Class was rather embarrassing.

Then again, that made perfect sense. I wondered if the System was smoothing something over there, as ‘fixer’ was a rather odd name for a Class - yet a very fitting title for someone with as much utility as he brought to the show. Things were a little too convenient sometimes.

Using a rapier had added to the deception - not that I could rightfully call it that. A dazzle icon probably earned, as I had tricked myself into believing something not quite based in reality. I ruminated over my folly as we threw some meat into a pan and cut up some vegetables. From behind us, I could practically hear Wolf salivating.

Right on time, just as the food finished cooking, Ren returned to the ground floor. Radiant as ever, with her outfit fully repaired. Not quite a smile on her face, but with the cloud of the day's activities now washed away, she seemed much better for it.

“Would have lived in there forever, but the food smelled too good.” She narrowed her eyes, as if we had done her a disservice by cooking too well.

“Feels like forever since we had a proper cooked meal,” I said, before smiling. Now I didn’t know whether I wanted to bathe first and look as sparkling and fresh as the elf, or sit and gorge myself on the food while it was still hot.

My stomach won out in the end, and in short order we were then sitting around in the living room area digging into our meal. Any trepidation about the group of houses sunk away as I became more relaxed than I had felt in days. I finished eating first, so got the pleasure of bathing next.

It went by in a blur, as if the steam clouded away my memories of the minutes that passed. Gave myself a thorough scrub-down while my suit repaired once more. Although I didn’t have the cooked meal to draw me away from the warm tub, I was more keen to not be alone for too long. Not out of nerves, but… I was used to having people around at all times now. Such a change from my previous life.

I stepped back down the stairs and grinned at them all. They had been in conversation about something, but stuck a pin in it on my arrival. Quinn grunted and stood, eager to get himself in the bath next. As he worked his way upstairs, I went and sunk down onto the couch opposite to where Ren was sitting.

She seemed calm, which was as good a look as any considering the life we led.

“Coffee?” she asked, already on her way to the stove before I had the chance to nod.

Wolf yawned and stretched out. “Wake me up when there is killing or eating to be done.”

I tipped my hat to him as he settled down for a nap. A weird dog-analogue while my faux-wife was in the kitchen. Domestic life seemed like something… unattainable with how the System wanted us to live. But in this brief moment, I felt accomplished. The showman act had always been seeking a greater audience, more accolades and acceptance… but it couldn’t have a good ending. Self destructive in my desire to burn the candle from every end.

A life where I settled down and could be content was as alien to that Max as this world was. The Demon Hunter was no different - it wasn’t a career where you kept friends or were able to hold down relationships. How amusing that the two souls weren’t so different, despite being worlds apart. I wondered how many other Max souls there were out there… but felt uncomfortable in knowing the answer already, somehow.

“Here you go, Max.” The elf snapped those thoughts from my mind as she passed me a mug.

I hadn’t even heard the kettle whistle. “You are an angel, as always.”

She gave me a soft smile and sat beside me instead of returning opposite. With a sigh, she sunk into the couch while cradling a mug of her own. “Quinn is growing on me.”

“Yeah? Out of all the assholes we’ve met, he’s probably the most reasonable.”

Ren nodded and blew the steam from her coffee to cool it. “He’s a jerk, sure, but he is pretty upfront about it. He was just telling me that Magnus rejected him.”

I tilted my head and raised an eyebrow at her. “How’d he take it?”

“Much the same as with us. Sulked for a few minutes, and then it was like his passion for life came back and he was looking forward to finding love elsewhere.” She pulled a face, clearly unimpressed that he could be such an extrovert with his feelings.

Perhaps we were just lucky to have found each other. Certainly, if I ever did imagine who I’d end up with, it wouldn’t have been with a grumpy elven princess from another world. I had my delusions - but that had never been one. Still, my brow furrowed.

I opened up the Map and zoomed out. The small world of Othea was displayed before me… or at least this singular continent we were currently on, the starter island just off to the right-hand side.

“Ren, what was your old world called?”

“Hmm? Oh, Othea.”

That sounded… maybe there was a translation thing that the System was doing. Othea could just be the word for ‘world’ or ‘earth’ in the shared language.

She seemed interested in this change in conversation. “Why? What was yours called?”

“Earth,” I said, trying to zoom around to find anything else lurking in the large ocean surrounding us.

“Oh.” Ren looked up at the ceiling. “I wonder why the System has the same name as mine then, but not yours.”

“It’s not translated then.” My thought came out verbally. A statement that might not make a lot of sense without context, but the elf caught hold of it with a firm grip.

In less time than anticipated, Quinn was already done with his bath. The door closed upstairs before he started down toward us, a sheepish grin on his face. “Something about a hot bath always rubs me the wrong way, but at least I no longer carry the sweat and stress of the day.”

“What was your home world called, Quinn?” Ren immediately went in for the question, skirting past his statement.

“Othea,” he replied, moving over toward the chair opposite us.

She hummed and glanced toward me.

“Don’t forget,” I added, “both of me came from different worlds. So there’s probably more than one Othea. Aside from these with Systems, anyway.”

The fixer looked very confused as to what the conversation might be about, but didn’t seem keen to ask us to get him up to speed. In truth, I wasn’t sure what it all meant either at this stage. Not that a clear answer would affect our current lives in this System, but the whole portal thing was something I had put out of my mind early on and then tried not to think too hard on it. Not like I could leave, and at this point… my eyes wandered back to the elf… I didn’t think that I wanted to, either.

“True,” Ren replied. “Some of my memory is fuzzy still, like I can’t remember names of places I used to know.”

I tilted my head and found that I had a similar issue. All these tours to so many cities… but I couldn’t remember the names. Anything with more granularity than just ‘Earth’ drew up a blank - although I also knew ‘Hell’ for as helpful as that was.

“Same here.” Quinn rubbed at his goatee and furrowed his brow.

Ren held out her hand. “Paper and pencil, trickster.”

Although I wasn’t a supply closet- ah, who was I kidding? With less flare than usual, I withdrew the requested items out and handed them over. She gave me her mug to hold, and she set about finding a blank page and began drawing shapes.

Quinn raised an eyebrow, but I just gave him a shrug.

After a few focused minutes, she was done. Turning it around, she showed the fixer a page full of shaped blobs. “This look like Othea to you?”

Confusion across his face as he nodded. A finger extended, he leaned forward to point to one of the blobs. “Apart from this bit here, it's one big landmass instead of the smaller islands you've drawn. But I come from…” his finger went to the lower right corner. “Whatever this one was called.”

Ren leaned the page back to look at where he was pointing. “Oh. I’m from up here.” She tapped the blob on the top left. “Worlds apart, even if our worlds weren’t different.”

I glanced over at the sleeping bear. Even if he wasn’t still napping, I doubted that he knew what Earth or Othea were, or understood the concept of continents or world maps. For some reason, I felt confident in guessing that he would be from one or the other.

My narrowed eyes brought up my Chat.

[Max: You’re from Othea, right?]

[Fiona: …]

[Fiona: Yes, how the fuck did you know?]

[Max: How many of your group are from 'Othea'?]

[Leyla: Three. One from ‘Earth’ and one doesn’t remember.]

[Max: Who was from Earth?]

[Leyla: Yuri.]

[Max: Thanks. Send me his contact details sometime, please?]

I closed the windows down, leaving Fiona on read. The replies had taken a few minutes to go back and forth, and Ren and Quinn had been trying to describe landmarks or vague historical events to see if any information could be gleaned. It appeared not, if their expressions were anything to go by.

“Alright, focus gang.” I clapped my hands together, disturbing the bear enough that his ears opened, even if his eyes resented me for the interruption. “Other world problems for another time. Let’s talk business. Leveling and getting ahead of the Shadows. Quinn?”

“Dungeon is about an hour away,” he replied. “It can take a couple of hours to complete if we are careful, so my advice is to head there soon rather than leave it too late.”

“Don’t want to get caught out in the dark on our victorious return,” I said with a nod, which he returned.

I stood, about to rally the troops to make ready our intention to travel right away… before stopping.

From outside the front door came an odd sound, as if the ground itself was splitting and tearing like dry vegetation. Getting closer. Louder.

Right outside.