19. Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Nineteen
Cody
Cody had sent off a text the night before, telling Morgan they needed to chat, but that it wasn’t anything serious.
He didn’t want her to worry, but he also wanted her to call him ASAP so he could explain the situation.
Or at least try to. He checked his phone in the morning, and there was still no reply. He also checked his Map several times
He was fixing his coffee when he heard footsteps behind him. He turned to see Yana, the elven-orc woman. He was relieved it was her. She seemed the more reasonable of the two and he wasn’t sure if he could deal with the lovesick nekofae before his first coffee of the day.
“Want some?” he asked her, holding up the coffee pot.
Yana shook her head. “No, thank you.”
“I can make you some toast?”
“Um…okay. Yes, please.” She took a seat at the kitchen table, her eyes still following his every movement. “I was hoping we could talk. About Nyrah.” She was keeping her voice low, nearly whispering.
“Is she still sleeping?” he asked, following her lead and keeping quiet.
“Yes. She’s a heavy sleeper. And she won’t wake up until noon unless I go in there and wake her up myself. Nekofae sleep a lot.”
Cody added four slices of bread to the toaster. He turned around, leaning on the counter to face her, and crossed his arms over his chest. “So, what do you need to tell me about Nyrah?”
“She really is a Heartseer. And if she saw that you have a Heart of Gold, then it’s absolutely true.”
“What does that even mean? I’ve never even heard of this before.”
“It makes sense that you didn’t come across any other Heartseers while in Velasarin,” Yana mused. “They are rare, and if you had, you’d know. They’d be like Nyrah, unable to let you go, because you have a Heart of Gold.”
“And what is a Heart of Gold, exactly?”
“It means you are kind and courageous. That you mean goodwill to others, always.”
Cody scratched his chin, thinking about how much he hated Knife right now.
And even though he knew Doug was going through some stuff, he still didn’t really like the guy.
He also thought about the sheer number of goblins and other monsters he’d slaughtered during his time in Velasarin.
He had never killed a fellow human, but still–he wasn’t buying the whole Heart of Gold thing.
“Yeah, no,” he said. “That doesn’t describe me at all.”
Yana sighed. “I have no way to convince you it is the truth. But I know it is, because I trust Nyrah.”
“And what about you? Do you have a Heart of Gold?”
“No. Nyrah says my heart is red, the most common of colors. Most good-natured, average people have a red heart.”
“And Nyrah believes my Heart of Gold somehow makes me her soulmate or something?”
“Heartmate,” Yana corrected. “Someone like Nyrah, a Heartseer, can only mate and find true love with a person who has a Heart of Gold. It’s so rare that she was perfectly fine with becoming a priestess of the Rose Temple and taking a vow of celibacy.
She never expected to find someone she could fall in love with.
But she met you, and everything changed. ”
“Well, she’s going to have to deal with the fact that I'm already spoken for.” Cody took a sip of his coffee. “You two should turn around and go back to Velasarin and the Rose Temple. There is nothing here for you.”
“Nyrah is not…taking well to that piece of information.”
“Yeah, no shit. But I think we have a bigger problem, anyway; what’s going on with the two of you and Temica? Is that goddess-bitch going to come looking for you?”
Before Yana could answer, the goddess-bitch herself materialized into the room, a cloud of pink sparkles swirling around her. She did a little wave, smiling serenely at Cody, before taking a seat at the kitchen table across from Yana. Her parrot was perched on her shoulder, as usual.
“Why yes, I am going to come check in on my little workers,” Temica said.
“We quit!” Yana said fiercely. “We already told you that.”
“That’s it? You’re going to quit your job and live here now?” Temica asked.
“Yes,” Yana said.
Temica sighed dramatically as she idly pet Henry the parrot.
She looked from Yana to Cody before she spoke again: “You know, I actually don’t mind this turn in the story.
It wasn’t the direction I expected, but I’m fine with letting this play out.
The whole ‘forced proximity’ thing might be interesting.
” She turned to Cody, smiling sweetly: “Have you told Morgan about your new houseguests?”
“I will,” Cody said. “And you can get out of my house now.”
The toast popped out of the toaster, making Yana jump in her seat. Cody stood right where he was, arms crossed, giving Temica an unfriendly stare down. He remembered what Knife said, about Temica exaggerating her powers. He really hoped he was right.
“I’ll have you know I can handle the shop just fine on my own.” Temica stood and rearranged her long, pink dress. “And I'll be watching how all of this unfolds with my popcorn and my shit-eating grin. Have fun, Cody.”
She disappeared in a cloud of pink sparkles just as quickly as she’d appeared. Yana looked at the now empty seat, her brow furrowed.
“What does she mean ‘turn in the story’? And that she’ll be watching?” Yana asked.
“I think this whole thing—me, you, our lives…it’s a big stupid game to her,” Cody explained. “She gets shits and giggles out of watching me figure stuff out. She’s also stuck me in another game, a bit like Velasarin, but without dungeons and battles.”
“A game?” Yana asked.
Cody rubbed the back of his neck. Right. Yana and Nyrah were natives of Velasarin. The whole game thing was everyday life to them.
“Do you have notification screens here?” Cody asked. “Pink ones?”
“We do. But they are fairly simplistic. I have some Recipes and Inventory. Oh, and my inventory is unlimited! That was a wonderful development, besides the fact that we lost our entire Inventories while hopping to this realm with Temica. But I haven’t been given any quests or notifications since we got here. ”
“Yeah, I think Temica is mostly focused on me and everyone else is an NPC, in a way.”
“En-pee-cee?”
“Non-Player Character,” Cody explained. “Like…they’re not playing the game? For example, I have specific tasks: I have to meet people and figure out how to be their friend. You don’t have that, do you?”
Yana shook her head, still looking a little bit confused.
But he supposed NPCs didn’t really exist in Velasarin.
They were all very real and had their own lives, their own quests, their own hopes and dreams. They were as real as he was, and so were the people in Cornerstone, so maybe the term NPC wasn’t quite right.
But whatever was happening, he seemed to be the only one with a specific quest: to meet and befriend his list of Residents, and to fully romance and marry Morgan.
But why did Temica feel the need to bring outsiders to Cornerstone?
Had she really brought them here just to fuck with his life?
“Do you know why Temica chose to bring you here?” Cody asked Yana.
“She knew we were looking for you,” Yana explained. “She offered us free passage and jobs, plus a salary and lodging once we got here. But as it turns out, Nyrah and I are not suited to the world of retail.”
“Most people aren’t,” Cody said, and decided he better turn his attention back to making their breakfast. There wasn’t much else he could do at the moment and he was hungry.
He plucked the toast from the toaster, putting two pieces on each plate, and then grabbed the peanut butter. “You okay with peanut butter toast?”
“Yes, that sounds good. Thank you.”
He finished up the toast and handed a plate to Yana, along with a glass of orange juice and she thanked him. At least one out of his two new houseguests was relatively normal and polite.
He checked his phone again, but there were still no messages from Morgan. He knew she’d been thinking about spending the night with Gracie, so maybe she was still there and abiding by Doug’s stupid ‘no phones’ rule.
“So, it looks like Temica brought the two of you here to cause drama,” Cody said after his first bite of toast. “There’s a chance she might be a Chaos Demon and wants to feed off the chaos that your little nekofae friend can bring to the table.
But it seems like the two of you don’t like Temica, right? ”
“That is correct. I despise Temica and her stupid shoulder chicken. She is a lying witch and a horrible boss.”
“Shoulder chicken?” Cody shook his head. “Not important. What’s important is that we don’t cause drama or chaos, because that’s exactly what Temica wants. So, you keep your little friend in check, and I promise to help you to find a way back home. Deal?”
Yana was silent.
“You do want to go home, right?” Cody asked. “You can’t stay here.”
“I…will continue to do my best to keep Nyrah from doing harm. I will explain to her that is exactly what Temica wants and she should listen to me.”
“Good. Glad we had this chat. Oh, and do you mind wearing your magic necklace disguise thingies? I don’t want anyone to be weirded out if they happen to stop by.”
“Very well. I’ll tell Nyrah that you have made this request.”
Yana and Cody ate the rest of their breakfast in silence.
By the time he was done, Cody had made up his mind: he was walking down to Doug Callahan’s cottage, finding Morgan, and explaining the new houseguest situation as best he could.
It was going to be tricky, since he had to leave out some very important information.
But Morgan absolutely needed to hear it from him first, instead of finding out from someone else, or stopping by and seeing two cute girls hanging out in his living room.