Demonic Magician

I sat and stared out into the darkness, unsure as to why people seemed to turn to me for guidance. Especially after calling me a clown or jester. Running a show wasn’t really leadership experience - I was but a spectacle propped up by those around me. The part of me that killed demons on the regular was just as solitary, so my position now was just… bizarre. Confusing.

In seeing the look in Fiona’s eyes, I had offered to take watch. Partly for that reason, at least. She was exhausted and grieving. Rest could help with some of that. The other part of my offer was just in case the demon showed their face again and I could ram my fist down their throat and pull their organs up like many handkerchiefs tied together. See how long that trick worked for.

Wolf and Ren were nearby. They hadn’t left my line of sight, which was comforting. The bear had curled up just below the camp entrance, and the elf was sleeping against him, a blanket covering her. Out of sight of any potential arrows, or worse. Quinn was taking watch with me, sitting on a chair opposite, across the opening to the camp proper. The remaining other group had moved their sleeping arrangements closer. No point being spread out when we could be assailed from any side.

“I see that look, Max.” Quinn turned his eye to me, speaking quietly. “You feel undeserving.”

“Am I that easy to read?”

He gave me a brief smile and nodded, gesturing toward the sleeping pair not so far from us. “I see now the bond you all have. It’s humbling. They would not trust you if you were not deserving.”

I nodded, but I wasn’t sure I believe it entirely. Ren and Wolf, sure. Love and companionship formed over struggles and conflict. Quinn and Fiona? Earlier today, I was a murderous weirdo that could be challenged to fruitless duels. Now I was worthy to lead?

The colder part of me had an inkling. It wasn’t about my decision making or the way I held myself. I had strength. I did what needed to be done. I survived it. Faced with dozens of walking corpses, we had made it a show - probably something beyond the pale to the group ambushed and just trying to survive the night. My abilities had taken me flying through the air and back. We weren’t just struggling to survive the System, we were making it our own.

“What do you think of this… situation?” I asked him, more to keep myself awake than anything.

“Can’t see the camp being tenable any longer.” He rubbed at his eyepatch. “As for the absent groups, I do not have any good words for them.”

I had tried not to think too hard about it. The most generous reasoning I could come up with was that they had a forewarning about what was about to happen and left to save their own skins. But then, why not warn Fiona’s group? No, I felt the anger rising up again. I’d save my seething for tomorrow.

“In my old world,” Quinn said, softly, as he looked out into the darkness, “there’s a saying. Faux bravado may be an empty box, but enough can build a sturdy wall, if given enough time.”

“I have something similar,” I smiled, despite the circumstances. “Most of my adult life is built on empty boxes.”

He shook his head. “Yet you do not see that you have filled them. With competence. With love. With power.”

It was nice talking to Quinn. As much as he seemed like something from a more antiquated world than my own - and has his own share of overt bravado - there was a soft sadness to him. His simple machismo hid something more poetic and emotionally intelligent, which I respected. It was still a distance before he was trusted on the same level as the other two, but I didn’t consider him a threat.

“Max?” he shuffled awkwardly. “Do you think that Magnus likes men?”

My brow furrowed. “What, to eat?”

A wide grin crossed his face, and he relaxed in his chair. With a deep sigh, he looked up at the stars overhead. “One day, I hope to find happiness in this world. Peace and happiness.”

I turned my tired eyes out to the darkness. The slight hue of brown promised a potential sunrise over on the horizon. What would it take for me to be able to get to that point? Remove the Lady in Red? What if there was worse than her in this world? If there was no escape, what would I have to do to make this System habitable?

These thoughts ticked away in my head, counting up my exhaustion until the darkness took me.

“Max?”

My eyes shot open, the light burning at them.

“You’re okay. Quinn woke me and Wolf and I have been on watch.” Ren’s hand came over to cover my eyes as her radiant hair drooped across my face. “Calm your eyes, trickster. But there’s something you need to see.”

I considered that she wasn’t offering anything pleasant, but I nodded and she released her grasp. Somehow the act helped with the tiredness that the sunlight threatened to scour into my skull. I looked up at her and she gestured out of the camp.

With aching legs, I stood as Wolf grunted his good mornings. Up the road, away from the camp, the large stone had been toppled to block the road. Burned into the stone was a word or… no, a phrase.

“Can you read it?" Ren asked.

I nodded slowly. It was in demonic. Could I always read demonic? Probably. My brain felt like wet compost. “Loosely it means brother killer, but more… there’s a stronger bond there.”

“A twin?” Wolf asked, looking up at me.

“That would fit.” I pulled a face. “Rolo’s twin, then?”

Ren crossed her arms. “It’s not a threat or proper message then, just giving us a label?”

“It means they weren’t happy their deceit was found out.” I shrugged. “Until we know why the other groups left, I’m not certain how much I want to commit to saying or believing.”

She gave my shoulder a squeeze. “I’ll go get some coffee on.”

I turned my gaze to watch her move back into the camp slightly and set up her grill. Still constantly scowling at nothing in particular. If it wasn’t for the aches in my muscles, I’d easily believe the fight during the night was a dream, and she hadn’t actually given me a big introduction to the walking dead.

My eyes closed again so that I could try reliving it. Any other circumstance and I would perhaps be enamored beyond belief. I still was, I had to remind myself, as I stole a gaze at the grumpy elf. Quinn’s utility really set the stage, and I would have to pick her brains on what she thought about that. Right after the looming meeting.

I turned back to the message inscribed on the rock. There was a demon out there, allied with the Shadows. I’d need to put them in the dirt so they could be closer to their twin. Even now, part of me wanted to ride into the jaws of death. Seek out the demon and necromancer and erase them both as a matter of urgency. The part of me now pretending to be a leader put a wet blanket over that idea. As powerful as we were, we still have to play by some of the System’s rules.

Quinn had filled me in on a few details that we were too busy being drenched in conflict to soak in. This area was for Players to get up to level fifteen, then the next was to eighteen, fourth to twenty, and then the last area was solely for max level Players. We had been ahead of the curve in terms of power, but low when it came to the numbers required of us. There was an element to it that felt… arbitrary.

At least, until I was humbled by a higher level Player, I’d think that way. Then again, I’d probably be dead - which was the reason why we’d go leveling instead of straight for the Crimson Shadows. A nice, circular thought I tied up, good as done. Now it would be time to address something not so easily sealed away.

I turned back to Ren as she brought a mug of coffee over, but looked past her as the trio of the other Party had emerged and were working their way to us. Quinn was still asleep, and I didn’t blame him considering he was sleeping off the trauma, even if the status icon had gone.

The elf turned to the others after passing me the warm cup. “You three want coffee too?”

Fiona and Magnus nodded, but Ruby shook her head. “Makes me a little too wild,” she said, but looked sad to be left out.

“How’d you sleep?” I asked them as they joined us up near the camp entrance.

“Like shit,” Fiona shrugged. Her eyes definitely told the same story. “But thank you for taking watch so we could get some, at least.”

I nodded. “I wish I could have done more.”

The fighter paused for a moment, before bringing out a chair from her Inventory to sit with us. Ruby followed suit, while Magnus leaned against the nearby crates and scowled out up the road.

“What’s done is done,” she eventually said, the energy having sunk from her usual fiery attitude. “This changes things, but I think it’s time enough for that meeting.”

I withdrew an apple into my hand and threw it over at Quinn. His hand grabbed it from the air before his eye opened, surprised and bleary, confused to be meeting the bright light of the morning. My eyebrow raised at this act, but nobody else seemed to be paying attention. Curious.

Ren finished up the coffee making, passing one to Quinn as he stretched out and nodded his greetings to those gathered, his eye lingering on the lion-man a little longer than the rest. With the formality of sharing out the life-giving scalding liquid out of the way, we all settled into a loose circle, and awaited Fiona to begin. Wolf continued to look out onto the road, either not excited at the prospect of a long conversation, or not keen to tire his eyes out by staring at Magnus.

“First off,” Fiona sighed, deflating in her chair. “An earnest apology to all of you. I realize that I have been a huge asshole.”

I nodded slowly, but waited for her to continue.

“My time here has been… I came to this world avoiding conflict.” Her tired eyes dropped to the floor. “I was a solider. My unit was overrun, and I was trying to escape pursuit when I found the portal. There was… I was never built to be a leader.” Fiona looked up at Ruby, before past the goblin to the arranged tents.

With a sigh, she turned back to us. “I tried to build a place of safety and do what I thought was best. But I kind of fucked it, and if anything, just made things worse. You three looked like a threat to our status quo, so I tried to push you away. Maybe if I had been more accepting… things would be different.”

I exchanged a look with Ren, and I could tell her thoughts mirrored my own. With a glum smile, I nodded again to the fighter. “We understand. This world is not easy, and you did what you thought was best for those you cared about. We hold no ill will against you for that.”

Fiona looked again at the goblin, then back to me. “You’re pretty reasonable for murderous oddballs.”

“It’s kill or be killed,” Ren said. “I’m surprised the Crimson Shadows haven’t tried harder to get rid of you.”

“They either recruited or killed every other Player in the first area,” I explained. “And… really fast.”

Fiona nodded. “Other than the group pressuring us here, there might be more further north… honestly knowing Rolo was betraying us, it puts a lot of our information into question.”

We’d have to play it by ear. The assumption would be most remaining Shadows would be en route to Candlekeep where the Lady was heading, but we couldn’t be lax with our defenses. “The two groups who are usually here… might be a problem.”

Ruby screwed up her face. “They can’t have turned against us, surely? We had no bad blood, even if we did get on each other’s nerves sometimes.”

Fiona shrugged. “I am beyond assuming their intent. If it was betrayal… then they’re as good as dead, right?” There was no threatening tone to her question, as her eyes went between Ren and I.

We nodded, and the elf answered. “Yeah.”

“Rest assured,” I added, “we will avenge your fallen, whether it was the act of the ones under your care, or the Crimson Shadow.”

“Wish it could be by my own hands.” She gave me a wry smile, but the exhaustion still hung heavy in her eyes. “Instead, we’ve decided to… yield.”

I raised an eyebrow. “How so?”

“We’re going back to the first area,” Ruby explained. “Just to breathe easy for a change, get our bearings before we return.”

Fiona nodded. “Would be nice to see what supposed good you have done over that way, too. If it’s really as you say, then I’ll owe you an even deeper apology.”

“Water under the bridge.” I held my hand up. “All that I want is for you all to be safe.” Rather diplomatic of me for a change, but as much as the fighter hadn’t been a fan of me up until now, there was no point holding grudges over potential allies for the future.

Other than being grouches, they hadn’t done anything terrible toward us.

She just sighed in response. “I had hoped people would be more trustworthy. When it turns out, the ones I most expected to be dangerous were the only ones we could depend on. Without you here, we’d probably be dead.”

Ren shuffled in her chair. “Are the attacks usually that dire?”

“No. The attacks have been increasing in severity since the Crimson Shadows rolled through.”

I tilted my head. “The necromancer has been a problem since before?”

“A nuisance at first,” Ruby said, with a nod. “Like he was just toying with us. Either the Shadows have made him give more of a shit, or have given him a big ass power boost.”

Zombies weren’t a great threat unless you were distracted, or they had support. If they hadn’t assassinated the two on watch, then it would have been easy enough, even with the other campers abandoning the place.

My eyes went over to where I had seen a pair of figures by the fire the night before. I was no detective, but it would be an idea to give it a once over before we moved on. No doubt we would come across at least one of the two groups in our travels, and some manner of conflict would need to be resolved.

Almost exhausting to think about. I raised the hot coffee up and took a sip. Slightly burning my lips, but I needed to feel the pain to sharpen me. Ren might have the ability to perceive the occasional ambush, but I had been growing a lump in my stomach for this second area since arriving.

And I knew the worst was yet to come.