A Simple Life: Chapter 19 (Patreon)

I stand alone out in the dark customer service area of the old garage.  The boards over the big front windows had been removed that day and I could now look out into the sheer blackness of the night.  The only thing I could see through the sheets of rain streaming over the windows is the glow of Haven Point spread out in the distance, though the occasional flash of lightning briefly lights everything up in split second glimpses.  The worst of the storm had already passed over on its way to the mainland but it wasn’t done with our little island quite yet.

I felt like at any moment this dream of a night was about to be snatched away from me. I wanted to savor every moment we had.  So instead of using this quiet moment to reflect on the wonderful things that had just happened inside that suite this evening I instead try to get into character like Winona had told me to.  We were about to play a Fables of Fantasy scene and I didn’t want to mess it up, again.

Remembering well the instructions I’d been given I focus on inhabiting my role.  I run my hands down my slender body and think about that pretty girl’s face I had seen in the mirror.  I was Althea.  I was an elf.  I was a mage.  And I was a beautiful woman.  I imagine myself with pointed ears and pert little breasts, which makes me smile.  At my one hip were my components.  On the other my spell book, the book held in a purse that Winona had lent me to act as my satchel.  I, Althea, had found my way to the fearsome Lady Ara’s secret castle and used a charm spell to get past the guards at her gate.  My opening had been brief so I had been forced to leave my loyal crow familiar Touka behind in the dark forest that surrounded this place.  Poor Touka.  He must be worried sick about me.  He had been warning me that this was a bad idea every step of our journey here but, for better or for worse, I was determined to meet this faceless warrior.  Once inside I convinced the servant who greeted me to take a short letter that I had written pleading for an audience to his Lady.  And now I stood outside the grand double doors of the hero’s audience chamber waiting to see what the response would be.

I was abuzz with both excitement and trepidation.  Excitement because I could not wait to play this game with Winona.  The trepidation had surprised me and seemed to stem from this role I was playing.  I could actually feel some of Althea’s fear reaching up through the veil of fantasy.  Wild.

“You may enter.”  Comes an authoritative voice from within the suite.  It was time to play.  Oh what fun!

***

The great iron doors groan and creak then yawn open through some magic that the waifish young wizard could not detect.  The great room within was lit with only two low flickering braziers of dim red flames whose illumination could not even reach the walls making it appear as if the area stretched on forever into an endless inky blackness.  Sitting upon a high throne in the full suit of plated armor that she was never seen without Lady Ara looks down upon the tiny elf woman who had so brazenly connived her way into the mighty adventurer’s inner sanctum.

Entering the room as tentatively as a mouse crossing a kitchen floor when it didn’t know where the household cat was the lithe blonde pads carefully forward to approach the throne.  With every ounce of courage she had the wizard comes to stand between the two braziers and reveal herself to the Lady of the castle

“Who is this welp who seeks an audience with me?”  Echoes a powerful voice from within the mithril helm.  “SPEAK!”

Althea the mage shudders in fear.  “B-b-begging your p-p-pardon m-m-m-m-…”

***

Winona raises her hand for me to stop.  Leaning forward so that the two flickering candles she had on either side of her computer chair illuminated her face she whispers out of character.  “It’s just a game Avery.  Calm.”

I take a long deep breath and nod.  “Can…can I try again?”

“Of course.”  She gives a nod then leans back, wrapping herself up in her character as she does.

***

Althea the mage shudders but covers it with a polite curtsy.  “Begging your p-pardon milady.”

“If you waste my time you’ll be begging for your life!”  Snaps the warrior.  “Speak swiftly elf.”

“Oh!”  The mage peeps.  “O-of course!  Um…I w-wished to offer you my services.”

There is a moment’s silence before a ringing laugh fills the air.  “Ha ha ha!  You?  Offer YOUR services to ME?  HA HA HA HA!  This must be a joke.  Do you know who I am?”

“Lady Ara of the Mayhems.”  Althea says bravely.  “I am a w-wiz…”

Gripping her knees with her gauntleted hands Ara leans forward.  “Did Super Ninja put you up to this?”

Althea swallows hard.  “N-no milady.  I-I come on my own.”

“Indeed.”  She replies, clearly unconvinced.

“Yes.  I am a mage and I…um…I heard that your last wizard…um…ran away and…um…um…”

The helmed head tilts as Ara takes a closer look at the struggling mage.  “My, you are a pretty one.  Aren’t you?”

“Huh?”  The elf maiden blushes and bows her head bashfully.  “Th-thank you milady.”

“Ninja does know my tastes well.”

“Your…tastes?”

“My tastes in whores.”

“Whores!?”

There is a clack of metal on metal as the armored hand strokes the armored chin.  “Or perhaps you were sent by one of my enemies.  Mmm?”

“No!”  Althea shakes her head.  “N-nobody sent me.  I am not an ene…”

“Yes.  Somebody who thinks I would be so foolish that I would drop my guard for such an obvious trap.”

“I’m not a trap.”

“Aren’t you?”  She says, the amusement of her laughter long gone in her hard tone.  “I think you are.  What better way to get me out of my armor than send a little harlot like you?”

“N-no.  It’s not like that!”

“I can see by the light of those flames that you are indeed gifted with the arcane.”  She says.  “But barely more than an apprentice in power level.  What could a mage of your ability possibly offer somebody like me?  Why take such a risk as to charm your way past my guards?  What is your game here, elf?  Who are you with?  Who are you really?”

“Ummm…”

“Choose your words carefully mage.  Your life hangs in the balance.”

“I…I…I…”

***

I look away and shake my head in frustration.  “I’m screwing this up.”

“No Avery.”   The hard voice of Ara is now the warm tone of Winona.  “You’re doing fine.  Keep going.”

“Wh-why are you acting like this?  Althea just wants to be friends.”

“It’s not me Sprout.  It’s Lady Ara.  I am playing her true to her character.”  She says.  “It’s my job as the Fable Master to play things true to themselves.  To make a convincing world.  Your decisions have consequences in this game.  Touka did try to warn you, remember?”

“Yeah but…but Ara hates me.  I didn’t even do anything.”

“Ara does not know you.”  She explains.  “Put yourself in her boots.  Some unknown elf who can barely cast beginner spells shows up at her doorstep offering her services.  Anybody would be suspicious.  And Ara has far more reasons to be suspicious than most.”

“Mmm.  That makes sense.”

“She’s trying to rattle Althea to get to the truth.  She’s trying to figure her out.”

“Oh.”  I say.  “So…what am I supposed to do?  How am I supposed to win?”

“That’s an answer I can’t give you.  That’s for you to decide.  Althea is your character.  Use what you know about your character and Ara’s character.  And even if things end poorly, as long as you survive, the game goes on.  Fables of Fantasy isn’t about winning and losing or clearing every obstacle, it’s about the story we tell together.  Okay?”

I let out a breath, feeling a bit foolish myself now.  “Okay.”

“And listen.  Lady Ara is a bad-ass bitch with a reputation to maintain, but deep down she is also a hero.  Just don’t do anything foolish, and for goodness sake don’t try to cast any spells at her, and Althea should be fine.”  She smiles and brushes my cheek with her fingers.  “After all of our hard work I’m not just gonna kill her in her first encounter if I can possibly help it.  Okay?”

“Thank you Winona.”

“You’re doing great Sprout.  Really.  I mean it.”

“You too.  You’re…very convincing.”

“Thanks!”  She says brightly.  “Having fun?”

I nod.

“You want to keep playing?”

“Yes please.”

“Alright then.  Get ready.”

As Winona sits back and reimmerses herself into the fantasy world I reflect on her words.  Use what I know.  What did I know?  I had a familiar that couldn’t reach me.  I had a family who didn’t know where I was.  I had a connection to nature but I was cut off from that too inside of this castle.  I couldn’t cast spells if I wanted to live through the next few minutes.  I had nothing to offer in terms of power or riches or influence.  And my naive ass certainly couldn’t hope to match the experienced Ara in any sort of contest of brawn or brain.  What was left!?  Here I thought it’d be cute to come offer Ara my services.  Oh what a situation I’d gotten myself into.

As I think about myself in this costume and the details I had written down on my character sheet I find only two things on which I could grasp.  The first was that perfect 100 in my Charm-Active.  With that score Althea would be the most beautiful mortal woman in the world Winona had said.  The second thing I cling to was that word woman.  Althea wasn’t me.  She wasn’t held back by my limitations.  She was objectively as smoking hot as it was possible to be in this game.  And she had wiles, feminine wiles, through which to harness this hotness.  It was then I remembered a third thing.  A throw away comment by Ara.  ‘Ninja does know my tastes well’ she had said.  It sounded like Althea was exactly Lady Ara’s cup of tea.  Perhaps my hope for a connection was not yet lost.

Chapter 20