Chapter 37 A Side Quest of Reunification and Apologies #3
“If what you say is true…” Roden dropped on one knee before her, pulling Destiny’s Song, Reaver of Diligence from the sheath at his side.
He offered the prophecy sword to her, head bowed.
“Then the Wood Elves of the Glorious Musclewood pledge their allegiance to stand and fight alongside you in the final war against Kriqir the Living. And I, Roden Trislee, with both heart and soul, promise to protect you, Em Smith, the Almighty Queen of Stars, Princess of the White Rose Valley, and Heir to the Cursed-But-Once-Uncursed-Tower, in both life and death.”
Em laid a hand on his shoulder. “You don’t need to bow to me, Roden.”
“On the contrary, princess.” He barely lifted his chin to meet her gaze. “There’s no one else I’d rather kneel to.”
Heat rushed through her veins, and Em wondered if she was as red as she felt. “I’m glad you’re back,” was all she managed to say.
“Me too.” Roden cracked a smile.
“Me three!” Polo cut between them, slapping them both on the back. The way it stung snapped Em back into focus, reminding her she had three other characters to reunite with. “Seeing you back together is cute… like watching a spark hit a match. A very flirty match.”
“Cut it out.” Roden swatted at the imp, but he dodged away with ease.
“Do you know where Ming went?” Em asked them both.
“Back to her college,” Roden said. “And before you ask, Gair didn’t tell any of us where he went. The moment we left the Cursed-But-Once-Uncursed-Tower, he just left without a word. And none of us know where Sasha’s tree is hidden.”
Shit. Em chewed on her lip.
“Okay, well, I think it’s absolutely necessary for me to have a mentor help me get through Gair and Sasha’s heads,” she said. “Because you all might be quicker to forgive, but I know they’re more hurt.”
“Then off to the Larian Community College for Secondary Characters we go!” Polo cheered.
Can you time jump us? Em thought to me.
On it.
In a flash, Larian’s pristine landscaping and brick buildings popped into view. The sudden combination of modern architecture and teleportation was jarring. Em’s head spun for a moment, and Roden and Polo both moaned beside her as they staggered to regain their balance.
A stillness hung over the community college, chorused with harmonizing crickets. Not a soul wandered the winding sidewalks. Streetlights began to flicker on, casting a golden hue over the twilit campus. Even the windows showed through to nothing but dark classrooms and empty hallways.
“Where is everyone?” Polo whispered. “Did we miss a memo about a frat orgy or something?”
“Maybe they don’t have night classes?” Roden asked.
“What day of the week is it?” Em racked her brain. She’d long lost track of how time passed on her chaotic questline. “Is it the weekend?”
The others just shrugged.
They trudged quietly between the buildings, testing each locked door they passed and double-checking any campus maps enroute to clarify they weren’t wandering in circles.
Everything looked the same, except for the occasional poster or small signs reading MAGE AND SPELLS LABORATORIES and SUBCLASSES EDUCATIONAL CENTER.
There was no sign of Ming or any of the other unfortunate interns Em had hired. Or even the gnoll Dubrovina who’d given her the campus tour.
“We should stop for the night, regroup in the morning,” Roden said after they cut across another long stretch of sidewalk and found themselves right outside the Student Activity Center for the third time.
“Let me try just one more place,” Em said, an idea occurring to her.
She turned on her heel and backtracked toward the middle of campus.
During her last visit, the earthquake had chewed into the cafeteria.
Ming had been the one to suggest they all get lunch together before their disastrous dungeon crawl.
As Em came around the corner, the mentor-in-training with her yellow embroidered sweater and lavender skin lingered outside the sprawling cafeteria.
Ming stared up at a long crack cutting through the side of the building, bricks split and slowly eroding from the earthquake.
The Tiefling wizard hugged herself, her tail drooping under her plaid skirt.
“Ming?” Em cautiously approached.
Ming’s glassy eyes darted her way, reflective in the streetlights. A mixture of creased unease and excited shock twisted across her face. “Em? What are you doing here?”
“Coming back for you, girl.”
“Why?” Ming visibly cringed. “I failed you. I was a terrible mentor and couldn’t stop you from turning into a villain. I even led you onto a wild goose chase into that stupid dungeon, then had the gall to send you to a rehab center when you needed a friend…”
“No.” Em interrupted her. “Ming, none of that was your fault. You were a great mentor.”
The Tiefling’s cheeks blushed periwinkle, and she tugged at her short horns. “I was?”
“Yes! I’m the one who failed you,” Em said. “I expected too much of you. I was a bitchy Main Character, and even though I asked you to be my mentor, I never once listened to your advice.”
Ming’s gaze focused beyond Em, noticing Roden and Polo lingered close by. The last of the intern’s stress seemed to melt away, and she waved happily at the others.
“Does this mean you’re getting the party back together?” the mentor-in-training asked. “Is this some sort of big reunion?”
“That’s the goal,” Roden said.
“But I can’t do it without you,” Em admitted. “I need you to help me find Gair and Sasha. Then, I’m going to need all the support I can get to apologize to them.”
“Who wouldn’t be quick to forgive an amazing person like you?” Ming nudged her playfully. It only seared the guilt simmering in Em’s gut more.
“If they didn’t, I wouldn’t blame them,” she fidgeted with her knapsack.
“You’re too hard on yourself,” Ming said. “We need to work on the whole self-esteem thing if you’re going to fully embrace your Chosen Oneship… starting with assuming everyone hates you.”
“I think most of Novella does…” Roden said.
“Not helping, Trislee,” Ming snapped.
Em couldn’t help but smile at the intern’s sudden loyalty. Everything the Tiefling girl had said was true, and it’s exactly why Ming was needed in the final dredges of her quest.
“Do you know where Gair or Sasha went?” Em asked.
“Sasha, no,” Ming said, tapping her chin in thought. “Gair, on the other hand…there’s only one place I can assume he’d go.”
The mentor-in-training didn’t have to explain anything more. A stereotypical best friend turned disappointed love interest would flee back to what was comfortable and sentimental.
Home, Em instantly predicted.
The Sanderson School of Main Characters felt eerie at night. Void of any bustle or hassle from students, the rain-streaked sidewalks glistened beneath the golden lamppost glow.
Em’s friends offered to join her, but she needed this time with Gair alone.
She owed it to her childhood best friend more than anyone else.
So, while the rest of her party went to rest at a local inn for the evening, she found herself shivering in the middle of her high school campus, squinting past the downpour.
Her cloak failed terribly at keeping her dry or warm, so she didn’t bother keeping the hood over her dripping face or hair.
Given she met Gair here all those years ago as a kid, there was no doubt he brooded somewhere close by. This was where they’d grown up together and made so many wonderful, easy memories with simple hopes and foolish dreams.
Puddles sloshed underfoot as Em walked across Sanderson’s campus.
The familiar layout was so second nature to her; she could’ve searched the campus for Gair in her sleep.
Adventuras Island didn’t house the largest population in Novella’s realms, and given Sanderson was a prestigious school, it was only made up of a few ancient brick buildings between cracked walkways with concrete courtyards and metal picnic tables.
Looking at it now with real adventurer experience, Em realized how cliché her own high school was.
It almost made her laugh at the irony of it all.
She’d been so focused on being the smartest, most original student, she was blinded by her own passions from reality.
The childhood best friend, the limp banners on the flag posts, the gum-covered sidewalks—as cliché as any other realm.
In the center of it all, a playground sat waiting for her. The paint had long chipped away, and given Sanderson’s majority population was teenage students, besides the occasional child genius, it was usually abandoned to slowly rust away with time.
But not tonight.
On the whining swing set, legs dangling over puddling gravel, Gair sat hunched over with his back to her.
Em hesitated, shivering in the rain. Temptation to turn away and run so she never had to face her mistakes gnawed at her. But she let out a deep breath and trudged forward.
“Hey.” She slipped onto the soaking wet swing beside Gair, avoiding his gaze. The chains holding up her swing whined in protest, and the puddle on its plastic seat soaked into her pants.
“Hey,” was all he responded.
The cold rain, the darkly silent night, the strained tension between them—it was beyond cliché.
Em fought against herself and everything she’d obsessed over.
Now was not the time to discriminate a plot point to a real-life issue.
She needed to trust Stephanie and get over her damn judgmental self.
Especially if it meant gaining Gair’s friendship again.
You got this, Em.
“I’m sorry, Gair,” she whispered.
He didn’t respond, his foggy breath catching, head still hung. A muscle in his jaw twitched, but his wet curls veiled most of his face from her.
Their swings squeaked in unison, barely swaying back and forth.
“I was selfish,” Em went on, pulse racing. He must hate me.