Chapter 3
Corporate Survival Skills
The moment the gag came off, the tiny sprite burst into tears.
"I'm so sorry!" Carol said quickly, fumbling with the ropes around the sprite's small body. "I'm so, so sorry. I can't believe you were tied up for—how long was it?"
"T-ten years," the sprite hiccupped, her voice small and sweet even through the crying. "Ten years of watching and not being able to help or warn her or—" She broke down into fresh sobs as the last of the bindings fell away.
Carol cupped her hands gently, and the angel sprite immediately flew into them, curling up in her palms like a tiny, glowing ball of distress.
"I'm sorry," Carol repeated, stroking the sprite's head with one finger. "That wasn't me—I mean, I just arrived. I'm a player. A new player." She took a breath.
The sprite stopped crying mid-sob and looked up at Carol with wide, tear-filled eyes. "Wait. You're... a PLAYER? An actual player?"
"Yeah," Carol said. "I just transmigrated into this body today. That's why everything feels different."
"Oh thank the CODE! Finally!" The sprite sat up in Carol's palms, wings fluttering excitedly. "You're actually LISTENING to me! You untied me! You're asking for my help!"
"Of course I am," Carol said, confused. "Why wouldn't I?"
"Because Caroline never did!" The sprite's voice cracked. "She could hear me just fine—both of us, actually—but she CHOSE to only listen to Missy! She kept me gagged and bound for TEN YEARS because she didn't WANT good advice!"
Carol stared at her. "Wait. She could hear you? She just... chose not to listen?"
"Exactly!" The sprite nodded emphatically.
"Companion sprites are assigned to everyone—angel and devil, guidance and chaos.
We're supposed to provide balance. But Caroline only wanted to hear what Missy had to say.
She wanted the drama, the schemes, the vindictive plans.
So she silenced me and followed Missy exclusively. "
Carol looked over at Missy, who was examining her tiny pitchfork with exaggerated innocence.
"What?" Missy said. "She LIKED my advice. I was very popular."
"You encouraged her worst impulses!" The angel sprite accused.
"I encouraged her to live her truth," Missy corrected. "It's not MY fault her truth was chaos and drama."
Carol rubbed her temples. "So Caroline wasn't forced to be terrible. She actively chose it."
"Yes," the angel sprite said firmly. "She had guidance available.
She had warnings. She had someone trying to help her make better choices.
She just... didn't want to hear it." The sprite looked at Carol with desperate hope.
"But YOU freed me. YOU'RE listening. That means you're different. You're making different choices."
"I am," Carol confirmed. "Because those choices were leading to execution, and I'd really prefer to not die."
"A very sensible priority," the sprite said, relief flooding her voice.
Carol rubbed her temples. This was somehow worse than she'd thought. Caroline HAD been making conscious choices—just terrible ones. She'd actively chosen chaos over wisdom, drama over peace, vindictiveness over kindness. For ten years.
"Okay," Carol said slowly. "So the difference is that I'm actually willing to listen to both of you?"
"YES!" The angel sprite practically vibrated with excitement. "I can finally HELP! Give you guidance! Warn you about bad decisions! That's what I was designed to do, but I can't do it if I'm gagged and tied up!"
"What's your name?" Carol asked gently. "You must have a name, right?"
The sprite looked surprised. "Oh! Um... I don't have one. Caroline never gave me a name. She mostly just called me 'that annoying thing' when she bothered to acknowledge me at all."
"That's awful," Carol said. She looked at the soft golden glow emanating from the tiny sprite. "How about Lumi? Short for luminous?"
The sprite's eyes went wide with delight. "You're giving me a NAME? A real name?"
"Of course! You deserve a name."
"Lumi," the sprite whispered, testing it out. Fresh tears spilled down her tiny cheeks, but this time they looked like happy tears. "I love it. Thank you! You actually named me! You see me as a person, not just an annoying voice!" She did a little loop in the air. "I'm Lumi now! Officially!"
Carol smiled. "So, Lumi, I need your help. I'm completely lost here. I need you to tell me everything about what's been happening. Especially the last two months since the marriage."
Lumi wiped her eyes and nodded eagerly, floating up to sit on Carol's shoulder. "Oh absolutely! Finally someone who'll actually LISTEN to proper guidance!"
Behind them, Missy made a disgusted noise.
"Ugh, seriously? You're LISTENING to her now?" The devil sprite examined Carol with narrowed eyes. "This is so weird. Caroline loved me. We had such a good thing going—chaos, drama, schemes! And now you want to ruin it by being... responsible?"
"Missy—" Lumi started.
"Don't 'Missy' me!" The devil sprite crossed her tiny arms. "I LIKED the old arrangement! Caroline was FUN! She followed my advice! She caused problems! This one"—she gestured at Carol—"wants to play it SAFE." She said 'safe' like it was a dirty word.
Carol raised an eyebrow. "I want to NOT GET EXECUTED. Is that really so boring?"
Missy huffed. "It's very boring. But fine. I guess you get to make your own stupid survival-focused choices." She settled on the bedpost, clearly sulking. "Just so you know, I'm still the Chaos Sprite. If you make boring decisions, I'm going to complain about it."
"Noted," Carol said dryly. She turned back to Lumi. "Okay, so catch me up. What exactly did NPC Caroline do in the last two months? I need to know what I'm working with here."
Lumi took a breath, her expression turning serious. "The last two months have been... bad. Really bad."
"How bad are we talking?"
"Well..." Lumi twisted her tiny hands together. "After the forced marriage, Caroline was brought here to Frostholme—that's the Duke's northern estate. She was extremely unhappy about leaving the capital and being separated from Percival. She cried for three days straight."
Carol winced. "Okay..."
"She's been writing bitter letters to her parents about being 'exiled to the frozen north.' She refuses to explore the estate. She spends most of her time in her rooms, either crying over Percival Sinclair or..." Lumi hesitated.
"Or what?"
"Or plotting ways to make the Duke miserable," Lumi finished quietly. "That's what she chose to do—be the trapped, vindictive wife."
Carol closed her eyes. "Of course. What kind of plotting?"
"Well, there was the time she tried to poison his wine at dinner."
"She WHAT?"
"It was three weeks ago," Lumi said. "One of the rare times they both had dinner together. She slipped something into his wine glass when she thought he wasn't looking."
Carol felt sick. "And? What happened?"
"He took a sip," Lumi said quietly. "Paused. Said 'This wine tastes odd.' And then..." She paused dramatically.
"Then he realized she poisoned him?" Carol guessed.
"No," Lumi said. "He just... kept drinking it. Finished the entire glass. Didn't even seem bothered."
Carol stared at her. "I'm sorry, WHAT?"
"He drank the whole thing," Lumi confirmed. "The poison she used would have killed a normal person in minutes. He just said it tasted odd and kept drinking. Then he asked for more wine."
"That's—" Carol's brain short-circuited. "That's horrifying. That's MORE horrifying than if he'd called her out on it."
"The Butcher of the North is known to be unkillable," Missy chimed in cheerfully. "Poison, weapons, magic—nothing works! It's actually pretty cool."
"It's TERRIFYING," Carol corrected. "NPC Caroline tried to poison my husband, and he just... drank it anyway?"
"To be fair," Lumi said carefully, "he's been very... patient with her. Considering."
"Considering Caroline TRIED TO POISON HIM."
"And the other incidents," Lumi added.
Carol didn't want to know. She really didn't want to know. "What other incidents?"
"Caroline's been very vocal about her feelings for Earl Sinclair. To anyone who will listen. Including the Duke."
"Oh god."
"She's been cruel to most of the household staff," Lumi continued. "The maids are terrified of her. The butler avoids her. The cook once cried because Caroline threw a plate at her when the soup was too cold."
Carol felt her face burning with shame for actions she didn't commit but was now responsible for. "She threw a plate at the cook?"
"The cook ducked. It hit the wall." Lumi's voice was small. "Only Caroline's two personal maids from her family estate still seem loyal—Daisy and Millie. They came with her when she married and moved here. Everyone else thinks she's..." She trailed off.
"A monster," Carol finished flatly.
"I was going to say 'difficult,'" Lumi said diplomatically.
Carol sat down on the edge of her enormous bed, her mind racing. This was worse than she thought. She wasn't just dealing with death flags from the game's plot—she was dealing with two months of Caroline actively choosing to make everything exponentially worse.
And there was no comfort in saying "she couldn't help it." Caroline COULD have helped it. She had guidance available. She had warnings. She chose to ignore them.
"Okay," she said, taking a deep breath. "Okay. I can work with this."
"You can?" Lumi sounded surprised and hopeful.
"I spent six years in corporate hell," Carol said, her voice taking on the determined tone she used to use before big presentations.
"I know how to navigate hostile work environments.
I know how to fix damaged professional relationships.
I know how to turn around a terrible reputation.
" She stood up, starting to pace. "This is just...
workplace politics with better benefits and much higher stakes. "
"Workplace politics?" Missy echoed, confused.