“Let’s power this baby up,” Demetri said, connecting the cable to the pod and tracing the line to find the plug.

  “Can you not call her a baby, please? Sounds kind of weird.”

  “Not jealous, are we?”

  Mia stuck out her tongue.

  Demetri found a free socket by the desk and connected the plug.

  “There, at least she has power now.”

  Mia spent the next few minutes fiddling with various cables and connectors. It was a lot easier in this room since the space was at least triple the size of the room at her place. This gave her room to maneuver around the pod and make sure everything was correct.

  She strung cables across the floor, connecting them to her laptop, which she placed on Demetri’s desk. She couldn’t help but notice that Demetri’s desk looked a lot like the one Chloe found herself at when she died in-game and waited in the white room.

  Coincidence?

  Maybe.

  Definitely.

  “All set,” she said at last, standing back and checking her handiwork.

  “Sure?”

  Mia nodded. “Let’s fire this up and see, shall we?”

  While Mia played with the electronics, Demetri went into the other room and brought several plush, comfortable chairs back. He rotated them so they were facing the wall. There was a blank white space stretching between two bookshelves.

  “You’re not going to see much staring at that.” Mia smirked.

  Demetri locked eyes with Mia, pointing a remote behind his head for a projector that protruded from the ceiling. “You think this is my first cinematic experience?”

  Mia laughed, mouth hanging open.

  A blue rectangle appeared on the wall, counting down from ten seconds to connection. It then went black for a few moments before a vivid image of Chloe appeared, the whole gang of KieraSlayers kneeling before the king and queen in Killink View.

  “Turn off the lights. You get a much better view.”

  “That’s not what I heard.” Mia winked, then found the switch and plunged them into darkness. She took the space on his lap.

  “Hey, roomie.”

  “Hey, yourself,” Mia replied.

  They sat together, soaking wet and deeply relieved that they had managed to pull off the operation. Pretty soon their clothes were gone and they swapped the chairs for the floor, both internally breathing their sighs of relief (and pleasure) at a job well done.

  Chapter Fifty-Three

  The Chamber of Honors was a hall of fame deep within the castle. It formed a large part of the third story of the palace and had a whole array of objects, everything from swords to shields to skulls.

  Chloe followed King Umbar and Queen Leila as they gave their tour. The whole affair feeling a little too similar to her visit to Tohken’s gallery way back in Nauriel.

  Back then, the man had tried to have sex with her and kill her. She hoped that wouldn’t be the case here.

  “Treasures from across the ages,” the king said proudly. “Trinkets and souvenirs from battles fought and family lost.” He pointed to an oil painting on the wall. “That is my great-great-great-great-grandfather, King Reyhman III. It is because of him that our city prospers. Thanks to the work of his men, the barren fields beyond our borders were made rich with the nutrients needed for cultivation.

  “Over there is King Yurich, his great-great-great grandfather and the founder of Killink View. After a six-month trek across Obsidian from the far corners, Yurich found this haven in the valley beneath the falls and settled here.

  “Way back then, Killink View was nothing more than a few wooden huts and tents. But Yurich saw the potential in the cliff-face and worked on the construction until he died. He never did get to see it finished.”

  In the party behind King Umbar’s back, Tag yawned.

  “Are we keeping you up?” Huk whispered, smirking as he elbowed Tag’s side.

  Tag glared at the goblin. “In case you don’t remember, I was rudely awakened, only to find I wasn’t even in my bed.”

  “Oh, man up. You still got more sleep than me.”

  “Will you two shut up?” Therese hissed. “We’re in the presence of royalty.”

  “Don’t tell my man to shut up,” Jessie added softly. “But, yeah, honey, shut up.”

  “What’s that?” Chloe asked, pointing at a large, round skull on the wall. She was half-interested in the skull, really. The other half of her wanted to keep the king distracted from her group’s squabbles.

  “Oh, now you’ll set him off,” Queen Leila responded, rolling her eyes.

  “Ha! That is my greatest treasure to date. The spoils of the victor! That, my friends, is the skull of Demigan, the great troll, a monster that stumbled across our lands when I was a wee lad the same age that Gilligan is now.”

  Prince Gilligan, who was standing behind the group, folded his arms.

  “Yep. That was a good day. Demigan had begun to terrorize Killink View, his massive bulk able to lift rocks almost twice his size. He saw the city of Killink as a playground, a place for him to toss rocks into the city’s keep and squash citizens like bugs.

  “Rocks rained down for several days. Every time we went up to find him, he was gone, until a day came when we laid in wait, ready to attack the beast and bring him to justice.”

  The king pulled a spear away from the wall, looking at it fondly.

  “It’s this weapon that stabbed through Demigan’s neck, one side to the other. In and out. Oh-ho, back then, you should have seen me—”

  “When you weren’t a fat, blubbering idiot,” Prince Gilligan whispered.

  Chloe stifled her laugh.

  “I was a dead shot with this beauty. Soon put an end to the menace once and for all, but not before Demigan managed to take out some of our best masons and blacksmiths.”

  He took them around some more memories. A rusted set of armor from the days of Yurich. Gems and jewels that had been salvaged from the mines and caves around Killink View in the days of its construction.

  Chloe listened patiently, her heart beating fast. She wanted them to hurry up but understood that kings and queens need to be indulged, not hurried. It was the same with her parents. You couldn’t ask them to hurry. They’d only slow down until they’d made their point and finished what they were saying.

  As they went around each item as though they were on an extended guided tour of a museum, she couldn’t help but wonder where it was—the promised item of armor.

  Their requests had all been relatively simple. When the king and queen had asked what each person wanted, they had mostly been items of armor (for Therese, Tag, and Jessie, who Chloe had a suspicion was only asking because she didn’t want to be in any way outmatched by the female dwarf).

  Ben and Gideon had asked for nothing, wanting only the privilege to walk freely within the kingdom (by which the king and queen were incredibly flattered, which put them in higher spirits than they already were).

  Huk, Talbot, and Leonie had asked for weaponry, while Veronica asked for anything that might boost a cleric’s power, receiving a brand new perfect white set of robes and a small amulet said to boost the healing power of spells by 50%.

  When they had come around to Chloe, she knew just what she had wanted, but wasn’t sure of the best way to ask. After days of searching within Killink View, she had come up with nothing to show for her hunt.

  She had stared at the king and queen, each in turn, and asked the only question she felt she could ask.

  She had saved their asses, after all.

  “And through here,” the king said excitedly some time later, “are some of our rarest treasures.”

  The king guided them through a door, and Chloe expected to find another room. Instead, they descended stone stairs into a darkness lit only by torches. The stairs spiraled down and down until the warm air was replaced by the chill of dungeons long since abandoned.

  At the bottom of the stairs, a door was wrapped in chains held together by several padlocks. The king withdrew a key from around his neck and placed it in the first lock, the clicks of release echoing back up the stairs as he repeated the process.

  When the locks were released, he carved a pattern with his finger, his skin against the fine wood. The door glowed a faint gold before a final lock could be heard clicking.

  “Can never be too careful.” He winked.

  He led them through yet another corridor, this one lined with small cubbyholes that held goblets, amulets, and gems. They shone faintly in the torchlight, only the cobwebs standing in the way of their true brilliance.

  “Where are we?” Chloe breathed, unable to help herself.

  “The hidden chambers of the palace,” the queen replied. “A place of refuge in dangerous times. A place of rarities and secrets. In the days of the city’s construction, safe tunnels were built in an incredible labyrinth below the palace. Only the kings and queens are given full knowledge of what lies beneath the stone floors. It’s part of our induction into our rule.”

  “Easy to get lost.” The king nodded, taking a right, then a left, then another left.

  Chloe saw more and more doors and tunnels leading off, but the king led with the sturdy determination and confidence she expected of royalty. Behind her, Prince Gilligan stared in awe, clearly having never come down this way himself.

  Soon enough, Chloe began to feel the familiar pulse of energy within her, a magnetic thrum inside her body that filled her with racing excitement. It was the thrum she had been searching for since they had first arrived in Killink View. The thrum that would indicate that she was near what she sought.

  The king went through one final door, and Chloe could see it, then—the golden and green glow of a piece of KieraFreya’s armor. The KieraSlayers filed into the room behind her, Blueballs having to duck to enter the room.

  “Is this the item you seek?” the king asked.

  Chloe moved forward slowly, enthralled by the armor. This item was much larger than all of the other pieces she had found so far.

  Well, that’s going to go a long way to completing my look, KieraFreya said hungrily.

  You think?

  “Another discovery of Yurich’s,” the king said, clearly in awe of his long-lost relative. “Found trapped deep within the rock. Legend tells us that Yurich’s army worked hard to destroy the guardians of this item. A large number of men were lost, but the overall victor was the city of Killink View.”

  “Why’s it still here, then?” Gideon asked. As the member of the party with the most experience of KieraFreya’s armor besides Chloe, he couldn’t understand how it was just hovering here by itself.

  The king’s face darkened. “Because no one can claim it. In the hundreds of years since its discovery, every king and queen who has taken the throne has tried to claim it, yet nothing happens. It’s no more than a projection. A vision. It spins and hovers like a ghost, and anyone who tries to claim it passes straight through.”

  Chloe thought about that. It seemed impossible that the armor would have been claimed by no one over hundreds of years since its discovery.

  She wondered if there was a link with the fact that she wasn’t a typical citizen of Obsidian. Maybe NPCs didn’t have the ability to claim the armor, and the gods and the AI of Obsidian had waited thousands of years for the world to open up to the blessed before KieraFreya’s reassembly could begin.

  “Can I ask, have you ever let any blessed down into this chamber?”

  The king thought about it a moment, then shook his head. “Nope. Only the worthy fighters of the realm and the monarchs.”

  Chloe’s grin broadened. “Well, in that case, prepare to be impressed.”

  She walked toward the armor, pausing apprehensively, knowing what came next. She touched it with shaking fingers and immediately felt the overwhelming power that surged through her, the armor automatically snaking its way around her body and attaching itself to her.

  Her world was shrouded in gold. She felt lighter than air. One minute she was in the Chamber of Honors with the rest of her party, the next she was lost in the etheric.

  She felt as though she were swimming, her arms wheeling through the air. The floor vanished. Clouds swirled around her, gray at first, then illuminated like the golden shine of mornings and coin.

  Where are we? she thought, waiting for a response from KieraFreya that didn’t come.

  And then the clouds parted. Ahead, way in the distance and with the sheen of being viewed through the ocean, she could see a large and powerful man. His beard was gray, hair reaching to his shoulders. His biceps were powerful, wrists bound with golden cuffs.

  Beside him stood a woman more beautiful than anyone she could ever have imagined. Her hair flowed to the floor in golden ringlets, and her eyes were the steel blue of icebergs and northern skies.

  But the powerful couple were not the thing that caught Chloe’s eye. For, kneeling at their feet, Chloe could see her—KieraFreya, the Goddess of Retribution.

  She was clad in her full set of armor, covered head to toe in gleaming metal. Helmet to boot.

  They looked down at her with fondness, coy smiles on their faces. The tableau revolved (or was Chloe revolving around it?). She tried to call out, but no words would come.

  She instinctively knew their names, recalling the mention of the gods from the Heartmother in the forest, but also from that part of her deep down where her spells and abilities came from. The part of her that connected her very soul to Obsidian.

  Oella, Goddess of Love.

  Meruer, God of War.

  KieraFreya, the love child of the two.

  The image faded, disappearing in a puff of smoke before a different vision coalesced. This one was darker, turning the clouds the volcanic gray of ash.

  The clouds changed shape, morphing and twisting into two figures. One was a tiny imp which Chloe recognized immediately as Fukmos, God of Mischief. The other…

  What?

  The other figure was taller, standing well over double the height of the imp. Clad in emeralds and golds, two eyes peeking through the helmet of—

  KF? It can’t be…

  The impossibility came from the fact they were shaking hands. Locked in a frozen gesture of agreement. But what could KieraFreya possibly be colluding with Fukmos over?

  She called out again, but her words were quashed. It wouldn’t have mattered anyway. The tableau was already disappearing, turning into a rapid vision of KieraFreya’s parts being thrown down to earth like meteors, fire, and smoke streaming behind them.

  And then she saw it once more: Fukmos’ laughing face. The face she had seen in the dreyda. The creature she had spoken to inside the dreyda, the tiny god who conjured great amounts of mischief.

  She tried to run toward the face. She held up a sword that wasn’t in her hand, her mind not registering her ethereal self as an anger shot over her. She ran on the spot, feeling as though she were chasing the god on a treadmill…

  “Chloe?”

  The words sounded far away at first.

  “Chloe? Are you okay?”

  Chloe blinked, the Chamber of Honors suddenly around her in full clarity. She stared ahead, not registering the others for a few seconds, nor the prince standing by her side, a hand on her shoulder.

  “Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine,” Chloe said, seeing Gideon’s eyes brimming with concern. She cricked her neck and shook her body out. “All fine.”

  “Wow, that really is a nice bit of gear,” Ben said, eyeing Chloe.

  Jessie scoffed. “Easy, tiger. I’m sure the last person Chloe would go to for hanky-panky is you.”

  Chloe looked down and studied herself, a smile growing on her face. This piece of armor had been a hell of a find. The complete undergarments for the armor, including thin, lightweight trousers and a tunic that sat beneath the breastplate and greaves.

  For the first time since she had entered Obsidian, she had more of her body covered than on show, and somehow she felt more powerful (and sexier, she thought) than ever.

  “Does my bum look big in this?” she said, half-turning and trying to look.

  “Don’t answer that! It’s a trap!” Tag shouted, jumping on the spot to try to cover Ben’s mouth.

  The girls chuckled.

  “Looks good,” Veronica said admiringly. “I’ll be honest, I’m a little bit jealous.”

  “We all are,” Tag said. “Unfortunately, we weren’t the first to find the armor. Still, as members of the KieraSlayers, we’ll all get bonuses for completing the mission when it’s done. Check it out.”

  Veronica, Huk, Therese, and Leonie went glassy-eyed, checking their quest information. Chloe took the opportunity to check her own.

  Item obtained: Lightweight Underarmor of KieraFreya

  You’ve found the lost underarmor of a fallen goddess. Made from the finest cotton blends woven by the gods, this underarmor is as light as a feather and as durable as steel.

  Bonuses: +10 dexterity, +10 etheric potential

  Rarity: Mythic

  Aw, man, no additional strength? Chloe thought, looking at the bonuses.

  What’s the problem? KieraFreya replied. These garments weren’t built for strength, they were built to be light and to keep me agile. You want strength, go find more of my metal attire.

  Oh, nice to see you’re back, Chloe replied.

  Yeah, about that. Can we discuss that later?

  Oh, yes. We’ve got plenty to discuss, Chloe sent, looking at her character sheet smugly. She tossed the points she had acquired from defeating multiple dreyda into intelligence (again? When will that ever even out), and smiled.

  Chapter Fifty-Four

  Stacey Hill, better known to her comrades in Obsidian as “Valoric_Warrior_2019,” hated it when she had to log off her VR headset and come back into reality.

  At nineteen years old, she was considered something of a loner. A strange girl with thin, greasy hair and the complexion of someone who never saw the sun, Stacey didn’t have many friends.

  Nor did she have much in the way of family. After inheriting her parent’s small cottage on the outskirts of Austin, Texas, she had lived alone, riding off her parents' money.