Chapter 11
Chapter Eleven
When I returned to Uttu, everything went even smoother.
I watched as she climbed through the gap in the webbing, then all of us followed her and witnessed Arachne’s children and the humans reach an agreement.
Without fire, the hundreds of spiders in the village unraveled their web.
The sighs of relief from the humans were like a song.
Now that we’re back at camp, my friends are looking at me like I’m superhuman.
Though Sylvia is busy building a fire to make dinner, she keeps glancing up to stare at me.
When she notices me looking back, she returns her attention to her task.
Joshua taps his chin as he stares. He doesn’t care when I make eye contact with him.
Guy gazes at me like a lovesick puppy. Cait and Tara are at my side as I walk toward Alexander.
They have a lot to say about the day’s events.
“That Beguiling Eyes favor really came in handy today, huh?” Cait says.
Tara pulls thoughtfully at a strand of her chin-length dark hair. “No, it’s more than that. This is not how this works.”
“How do you know?” Cait asks. “Maybe this was an alternate method we never encountered while beta testing.”
“No, I agree with Tara,” I say. “The NPCs aren’t acting like NPCs. They weren’t regurgitating canned responses. I could hear actual words as they talked to each other. The priest was interacting with me genuinely while I mediated his discussion with that spider lady. But I don’t understand why.”
Cait’s red brows press together, making her look both stern and perplexed. “No, it must be a uniquely programmed result,” she says. “Otherwise, that would mean…I don’t know what it would mean, but this is a game, not real life.”
I ponder all this as Alexander’s features become clearer. There were a few times I’d wondered if he was acting strangely, like he was a “real boy” and not Pinocchio. Was there something new, something unexpected, going on?
“Hi, Alexander,” I say when I’m face-to-face with him.
“Hello, Lauren,” he responds. “Have you freed the village of their curse?”
“Lauren? He knows your name?” Tara asks. I can see the gears turning behind her hazel-brown eyes. She’s thinking this is another sign that something’s up with the NPCs.
“I asked him to call me that,” I say and then return my attention to Alexander. “Arachne’s children removed their web and have returned to the forest.”
Alexander squints, like he’s confused instead of just analyzing the data I’ve presented. I wonder if I’ve broken him. After too long of a beat, he says, “They left of their own volition?”
“Yep.”
“And none of them were harmed?” he asks.
“Correct.”
Alexander’s mouth parts slightly in surprise. Then he looks off into the middle distance, and I can almost see him calculating whether this unexpected outcome fulfills the quest’s requirements. Eventually, he looks back at me.
“Thank you for freeing the village of the spiders and their web,” he says. “Here is your reward, as promised.”
I don’t even look at his extended palm. What’s the point when I know that I’ll receive the money before I can even attempt to grab it.
There’s a ka-ching as coins pop into my inventory.
“What next?” I ask him.
“There’s a lorekeeper named Nessa in the village,” Alexander says. “She needs an escort to the king to deliver an important message to him.”
Cait groans. “Ugh, I hate escort quests.”
“Is this the hard quest you told me about back at the starter village?” I ask.
Tara nods. “Unfortunately, this one isn’t a side quest. Even if it was, you know we agreed to do all the quests in case an answer comes up.”
“I know, I know,” Cait grumbles as if Tara was telling her this instead of me.
I smile at Alexander. “We’ll rest for now and get supplies tomorrow. We can take Nessa to the king after that.”
Cait and Tara are already on their way to the fire where Sylvia is cooking when I take a step away.
“Lauren,” Alexander says.
I turn around. “Yes, Alexander?”
“I…I never knew someone could do what you’ve done,” he says with a tone of admiration. “You’ve surprised me.”
I’m embarrassed by how pleased I am that I’ve impressed an NPC.
He almost seems truly human, until he blushes and says, “You’re remarkable.”
Well, wouldn’t you know it? I unlocked that relationship scene I wanted so badly when I was in the real world. I didn’t even need to pluck one dandelion. Yet, the enjoyable warmth that had just been spreading across my chest cools. This is Alexander following his coding, not breaking it.
So little is real here in Peripeteia. The romantic fantasy I’d had sitting in my living room back home is so false, so artificial.
I wish I had taken the time to enjoy what was real while I was there.
I could have spent more time with Mom and tried my hand at baking again.
Practice makes progress, right? I even could have adopted a black cat.
Though, now I’m glad I didn’t do that. Poor thing would have been all alone.
Laughter from the fireside catches my attention, and I remember that there is something real in Legends of Sacrifice—the players. I should spend time with them, not listen to the relationship progression speech Alexander was programmed to give.
“Goodnight, Alexander,” I say and walk back to my friends.
“Hey!” Guy calls out to me when I get close. “Heard you got the escort quest. Cait’s gonna hate it.”
I laugh with him. “Yeah, I remember her thinking I was an escort quest when I met you all.” I stop to consider those words. “I guess I wound up being one in the end.”
“Well, technically we are escorting you on your quests,” Cait says and then sighs. “Though, I guess this one isn’t so bad.”
“Gee, thanks…” I respond.
Cait rolls her eyes. “Okay, maybe I like being around you. Sometimes. I’m glad you joined us.”
A delightful sensation buzzes through me, and I feel warm tears pricking at the corners of my eyes. I really needed to hear that. “Really?”
“Me, too,” Joshua says. “Even if you aren’t a hot NPC who will bang me.”
Cait elbows him in the ribs.
“Hey!” he cries out. “I was being nice!”
She chuckles. “Yeah, you actually kinda were.”
“We’re all really glad you’re here,” Sylvia says.
“Yup,” Tara agrees. “And not just because you might help us find out what our offerings should be.”
I nod. “Yeah, I know. It’s because I’m a healer.”
“No,” Guy says, his voice soft and low. “Because you’re our friend.”
Though there are still strands of web draped over rooftops, carts, and various other surfaces, the village looks like an entirely new place. The biggest reminder that anything happened here is that the NPCs look haunted, not so much by the spiders, but by all they had to go through to survive.
We’re here to shop for supplies, but it’s becoming clear that this isn’t at all feasible.
The few merchants setting up their stalls today have little they can sell.
Where would they get their goods from when they’d been cut off from the rest of the world?
This is a big problem because we’d counted on this stop to get us to the next one.
Joshua gazes at it all, perplexed. “This is so weird. When we did this before, there was a celebration, and all the merchants had plenty to sell. This time it’s just…sad. I hate it.”
“Guess I’ll be making good use of my foraging and hunting skills,” Sylvia says when we pass by another grocer who has nothing left but half-rotted root vegetables. “I hate hunting.”
“Isn’t Artemis the Goddess of the Hunt?” I ask.
“Yeah, but she chose me. I didn’t ask to be a hunter. I hate seeing them die.”
This vibes with what I’ve learned about the archer during our time traveling together. Like me, she seems misplaced. I want to pack a more powerful punch, while she wants to play more of a supportive role.
Thinking back to yesterday, though, I realize that I would have hated to battle anyone to get the job done.
Not so much because I was scared or reluctant to fight, but because I genuinely cared about everyone involved.
I’m grateful for my Beguiling Eyes favor and high charisma score.
Without that, things could have gone in a much more tragic direction.
Though Guy walks beside Sylvia and me, he’s in an entirely different mindset.
“Joshua’s right,” he says. “When we did this before, everyone was happy. Now, they’re all shell-shocked. NPCs don’t get shell-shocked, do they?”
“Again, we’ve never solved the quest in this way,” Cait responds. “Perhaps because Lauren fulfilled the mission in an empathetic way, we’re seeing a more emotionally compelling outcome.”
Joshua and Guy have a point, though. This isn’t just a different mood from what they’d expected. The NPCs seem so real. Their background chatter is close to overwhelming me because I can actually hear the words.
Guy must notice that because he gestures to my ear. I’m tempted to take him up on it, though I turn his offer down, instead. Silencing other people’s pain feels disrespectful.
We pass by a mother and her two small children sitting on their front doorstep.
One is just a baby, feeding from her mother’s very realistic breast. The other is a toddler leaning against his mother’s legs.
Tears had left a trail down his dirty face, but he’s not weeping now.
His eyes are dry, haunted, not a child’s eyes at all, more like what you’d see on a soldier’s face after a devastating battle.
“It will be all right, love,” the mother whispers, and she runs her fingers tenderly through her son’s hair. “I’m sure your father is…somewhere. And the hunters have promised to bring food later today. The spiders have even offered to help.”
At the mention of spiders, the boy freezes up, and his eyebrows press together in an expression of agony and terror. A strange, high-pitched, primal sound resonates from him. It’s not a scream or a shout or a cry. I don’t know what to call it. I feel it, though.
His mind is lost, and his instincts are taking over. It sounds like he’s channeling a spirit of grief and fury. He’s just a little boy. He’s so young that he may never remember a time when he experienced normal.
Except he isn’t real, right? NPCs don’t experience trauma.
They’re not supposed to stray from their programming either, though. What if Tara was right at the tavern when we first met? Could the people from Peripeteia feel? Prior to this, were they incapable of expressing their emotions?
Are these NPCs just a string of code in the most realistic and immersive video game ever? Or are they something more? What purpose does it serve the game to have us witness all of it?
I need to stop dwelling on this. Aphrodite is waiting on some mysterious offering. That needs to be my focus because I’ve already done what I could here. As difficult as it is to walk past all this suffering, I can’t take their trauma away.
So I turn my attention back to my companions. “There may not be fresh food here, but I don’t think clothing can rot within a few weeks of sitting around a shop. Let’s at least get some warm stuff to wear before we pick up our escort quest.”
“You’re right,” Guy responds. “I think I remember the tailor’s shop being somewhere near the temple.”
“Let’s head that way, then,” I say.
But I turn my head to look at the woman again. She’s looking straight at me. There’s something in her eyes that doesn’t invite conversation, but it sends a message just the same. The quests exist for the players. If not for us, there would be no conflict or loss.
Stop it, Lauren. She’s not real. It’s just a game.
The mother unlatches her baby from her breast. The infant cries immediately. She responds to the child with a gentle shush but soon joins in her crying.
It’s just a game.