<< Chapter 69 | Table of Contents
Luna Lorelei
-oOo-Chapter 70-oOo-
“What is the difference between good and evil?”
Luna Lorelei spoke her question with the smooth, schooled voice of a young lady. Sylvia paused in her work, pastel pink eyes turning to the qilin. The immortal beast had her mighty legs folded elegantly beneath her, pale blue scales shimmering in the light cast by the ether lamps.
If anyone else had asked Sylvia that question, she would’ve blown them off. She might’ve given a tongue in cheek answer like: one begins with a ‘G’ and the other an ‘E’. Or she might’ve blandly replied: ‘intelligence’. But this was Luna. The silver-haired witch felt compelled to provide a real answer. She was, after all, something of an aunt or an uncle figure to the girl.
“Well, I think it’s pretty simple,” Sylvia said, refocusing on her routine maintenance of the Astral Observatory. It wasn’t too difficult of a job. Mostly, it involved checking components and fixing anything that was damaged or reverted. “Evil is an ancient word for predator. Someone is evil when they selfishly feed off humanity, leaving all of us weaker.”
“Interesting,” Luna replied. “Since you believe evil relates to selfishness, would you say good is selfless by nature?”
The qilin’s blue eyes studied the reflection pool. Luna was taking her role as the plane’s fate protector very seriously. As a consequence, she’d spent much of her time on the top floor of the Astral Observatory, making use of the tower’s divination enhancements.
Seeing the qilin brought a pang to Sylvia’s heart. The frail little doe of six years ago was gone. Now if Luna stood, she could rest her graceful muzzle on Sylvia’s head. Luna’s horns were growing, having developed into a pair of short antlers. Given another five years, they might become a majestic crown.
Kids grow up so fast.
Why, just the other day Luna was running excitedly around the Academy, curious about everything. Tch. Sylvia ought to shrink her right back down. Who gave Luna permission to be so big? Sylvia certainly hadn’t. As for Riley? Her opinion didn’t matter anymore. The traitorous blonde had run off with Henry to Earth. In fact, just last week Riley had proudly shared her first baby pictures. Emmy and Belkis had been cooing all over them.
What was so good about an adorable, cuddly, friend-stealing monster?
“Good and evil are not direct opposites. If evil is a predator then good is a symbiote,” Sylvia refuted, continuing the conversation. “A good person is someone who seeks to leave the world better than it was when they entered. There is no need for selflessness and self-sacrifice. Consider a merchant who sells high-quality equipment at a fair market price while paying their employees a reasonable wage. They are good because, thanks to their deeds, society is better off.
“What is good and what is evil is decided by externalities.”
Altruism was a disease, Sylvia disparaged. Fools who neglected themselves might accomplish more in the short run. In the long run, they abandoned their wealth and power to evil. The effect was to lead societies into ruin. Real, praiseworthy good had to be sustainable.
“I begin to understand your perspective,” Luna commented. “However, first let me pose to you a different question. A wolf is a predator. As a carnivore, it cannot survive without devouring others. Therefore, would you say all wolves are evil?”
…
“Is this a lesson?” Sylvia questioned, feeling faintly irritated. She had a good thirty years on this brat!
“Every debate is a lesson,” Luna replied. “To share and examine our thoughts is to teach ourselves and others. The greatest intellectual failure is to view an argument through the lens of who has won and who has lost.”
Sylvia sighed. Where had Luna picked up these strange notions? It certainly wasn’t from Riley. Was this the Internet's fault? Or maybe, this was the intrinsic nature of a qilin shining through.
“No, I don’t think wolves are evil,” she answered.
“Yet, they are predators.”
Sylvia groaned.
“Let’s back up for a moment,” she said, holding up a forestalling hand. “Morality is a social contract. I don't murder you, you don't murder me. I don't rob you, you don't rob me. You respect my human rights and I respect yours.”
Simple, right? Even a toddler would get it.
It was the step beyond where things got tricky. Actions had secondary and tertiary effects. It was impossible for people to live their lives without affecting one another. History had proven this succinctly. If there were two cars in the same state, they’d find a way to collide.
Consider the good merchant. By running a successful business, he might cause his competitor to collapse. Did this make the merchant evil? Sylvia didn’t think so. Humans were flawed beings, not omniscient omnipotent gods. They shouldn’t be held to such an exacting standard.
“So your solution to this conundrum is to say the wolf is not part of the moral contract,” Luna concluded. “I presume, therefore, that you’d say a wolf can neither be good nor evil.”
“That’s the gist of it, yes,” Sylvia confirmed. She studied the qilin. “You disagree, I take it.”
“I believe your principle of the ‘moral contract’ is flawed,” Luna replied. The qilin pondered for a moment, then asked: “Are you familiar with Game Theory?”
...
“I’ve heard of it,” Sylvia deadpanned.
“Then I will explain in detail,” Luna decided. “In 1980, Robert Axelrod held two tournaments. Each presented an iterated prisoner’s dilemma where the parties would meet each other over and over again. In both cases, the simple strategy of ‘tit for tat’ proved the most successful.”
“A hypothetical scenario doesn’t necessarily match the real world,” Sylvia interrupted. “Which strategy performs best would vary wildly by individual circumstance.”
“Indeed, but a simulation doesn’t have to be perfect,” Luna argued. “This tournament, and the many studies that followed, are sufficient to show that cooperation or, if you prefer, symbiosis has an innate advantage over predation. This can be seen throughout the natural world. As a simple example, there are cleaning stations in the material oceans of Earth. Even a predator can approach and offer up their body so they may be cleaned of parasites.
“From this, I conclude morality’s foundation arises from the natural world and, thus, extends well past human thought. What you think of as the ‘moral contract’ is, in my mind, an extension of this primordial morality. A mechanism which your people have developed to better harvest the benefits of cooperation.”
The qilin raised her head proudly.
…
Ay, ay, ay. Now the qilin was citing science in her arguments. If the other qilins heard her speak, they’d bully the poor girl. Then Luna would gore them, because she obviously believed in ‘tit for tat’.
“Even if there is a primordial morality, we would have no place judging whether a person is good or evil because of it,” Sylvia pointed out. “Instead, it would be determined by the selection process of evolution.”
Morality, in Sylvia’s mind, was functional. It didn’t exist just so one could raise their nose and feel superior. It had a point and a purpose. The problem with primordial morality, or even divine moral systems, was that they had nothing to do with humans. For a person to judge another based on these ideas was pure hubris.
Nay, it was megalomania. A sign someone had, quite literally, mistaken themselves for God.
“When I think of good and evil, I think about what makes a thriving, happy society,” Sylvia continued. “Morality which isn’t actionable is the same as morality that doesn’t exist.”
“Then, let us look at it from the perspective of society and your ‘moral contract’,” Luna conceded. “You say morality exists to make a thriving, happy society. How is this different from law?”
While the qilin spoke, Sylvia disconnected a metal disk. With a small enchanter’s hammer, she scrubbed away a few damaged runes. Then, with her rune stylus and magiscope, she imprinted new ones. A short incantation aged the new runes into place. But the disk would have to be replaced eventually. She made a record of this in her System notebook.
“Optimally, morality guides law. So law should be moral points made formal. In other words, it exists to handle those occasions where ‘sorry’ isn’t enough,” Sylvia explained. “In practice, law is written by both good and evil people. While good strives to make law moral, evil codifies exploitation.”
Law was a tool that could serve either intent. In the netherworld, Zeus had used Heavenly Law to cling to power, inflicting upon all those souls who refused to bow before him the Heavenly Tribulation. On Earth, her own nation’s laws had for centuries held men and women in slavery.
“Should I, then, conclude that the way to make society better is to raise the moral standard?” Luna asked.
Sylvia shook her head.
“Absolutely not. Humans are just apes with over-inflated egos,” she sneered. “No matter how high you set the moral bar, the people being asked to step over it won’t get any taller. We all have finite time, energy, and empathy. It’s impossible to make a society better by asking people to be more moral, because the day you ask too much, the foundation will crash and morality will be abandoned altogether.”
Nobody wanted to live their life walking on eggshells. Reality was, people were going to hurt each other. They were going to be dumb. They were going to do trashy, tribal things. A society which ignored the flaws and imperfections of its people wasn’t a good society.
Then again, neither was a society which allowed the people to eschew responsibility altogether.
The moral bar had to be set at a height where most people could comfortably step over it. It was tempting and easy to raise it higher and higher, but that way lay ruin and destruction.
“In that case, how would you go about building a better society?”
“With technology and government intervention,” Sylvia said bluntly. “A good society emerges naturally when doing what is right is profitable and easy. If you ever find places where this isn’t true, then you have to fix them. You can ask people to step in to fill the gap to a point. That’s what morality is for. But, you can’t ask them to step in for everything forever.”
“Thank you, Mrs. Swallows,” Luna said, dipping her head. “I believe I have a firmer grasp of your perspective. You have given me much to think about.”
“Nobody has ever agreed what morality is, so don’t think too hard on it,” Sylvia shrugged. “And we don’t have to. It’s enough to be good, you don’t have to be a saint.”
“Even if we disagree, thinking is necessary to arrive at wisdom,” the qilin insisted.
Quiet fell for a moment. Sylvia turned her attention back to her work, carefully checking the runes and channels. After a bit, she stood. The click of her heels echoed in the contained space. This was Sylvia’s latest accessory. Her Starlight Striders, currently in the form of clunky-heeled shoes.
The stats appeared before her eyes, filling her heart with pride.
Equipment: Starlight Striders
Weight: 16.4 dromsType: Accessory/MysticValue: 520,000 soli
Characteristics: * +10% celerity for movement arts* +10% precision for movement arts / evasion* +200 Force for Flux Shift* Moderately increases ki consumption* Mp Drain: 50 / hour
Effects:* Glamour* Freedom of Movement
These shoes were forged from the wing bones of Windscourge and highly refined white jade. The Starlight Striders grant superior speed and motion when empowered by ki and mana. They also improve the precision of movements as well as the ability to judge attacks when dodging. The shoes are particularly well-designed for the transformation realm art flux shift. While wearing them, the spacial channels can be made with less effort.
Glamour (Active)* Mp Cost: 25
The Starlight Striders can transform into any one of 84 predefined shapes. Further, the color of the shoe may be set, including the color of its subcomponents. Hues can be selected from any available in the 3 byte RGB scale.
Certain parts of specific designs may offer additional customization options, such as luster, reflectivity, or transparency. The glamour enchantment is System compatible, meaning the predefined styles and colors may be deployed from a set of saved shoe profiles.
Freedom of Movement (Passive)* 15% to 50% resistance to intangible effects restraining movement* 0% to 35% resistance to physical effects restraining movement
The wearer is encapsulated by a law which allows them to resist all forms of magical and physical restraint. The strength of this resistance depends on a contest of attributes between the wearer’s Magic: Dominion or Strength: Force versus the appropriate attribute of the restraining effect. The resistance ranges define both the minimum and maximum resistance allowed.
Freedom of Movement covers all types of restraining effects, whether it is a chilling cold, manacles, a magical law, or even a cage in which the wearer is caught. Further, it applies no matter which method the wearer uses to move. Spells like realm skip and tools like brooms benefit just as much as movement arts like flux shift. Even ordinary, physical acts of escape count.
As a law-based effect, this only applies to movement. Shackles restraining the legs would be less binding, but those wrapped around the arms would be undiminished.
After so many years, Sylvia had a new movement accessory. Even better, Emmy could never again complain: ‘those shoes don’t go with your dress’. Well, she probably would, because Sylvia’s fashion sense was rather shaky. But, Sylvia could now correct the problem without having to fill her closet with various abominations.
She paused near the qilin. “Before I head off, has our fate guardian seen anything worrisome in our future?”
Luna’s blue eyes turned up. The qilin stood, striding across stone then water. Her long, serpentine tail swayed behind her, all but slithering through the air.
“I have seen many things and many futures,” Luna answered. “What concerns me, however, are those who hide from my eye deep in the dark. I can feel a hand reaching for us in the seething chaos, pawing blindly in the shadows. I twist fate to misdirect, but I do not know how long they can be deceived.”
Sylvia sighed. Her question had been rhetorical. If Luna had actually seen anything, she should inform the governor and not a poor, fragile, irresponsible princess.
Fate was catalyzed from void and causality. With it, a mage could gaze into the sea of possibility and learn what should’ve been unknowable. The flaw of all fate magic was the uncertainty. A wish did no more than rearrange probability and any prophesy was necessarily vague and arcane. Worse, the very act of divining fate lent reality to imaginary connections. Thus, all subsequent spells would find similar results.
Even if the first divination was dead wrong.
There were methods a diviner could use to get around these obstacles. First, the caster could amend their spell with facts or evidence. This would constrain the sea of possibility, eliminating false futures. Next, they could wait for the world to relax back into its natural state. This would ensure the following divination was random. Last, they could change location or environment to evade any local connections made concrete.
Sometimes, though, these weren’t viable options. When Heaven divined: “Who was responsible for the shift of fate?” all those years back, they had spoiled the whole netherworld. The endless probes by various powers, interests, and scheming cultists had since ensured the threads of fate never had a chance to relax.
As their fate protector, Luna’s job was to spy on their enemy and sabotage their information gathering attempts. Perhaps it was fitting that the qilin was connected to the Internet. Because her job description was very cyberpunk.
“Operation Centralia Flame is about to launch,” Sylvia noted with irritation. “Is the threat serious? And have you informed Governor Sanchez?”
Luna’s tail whipped. Ripples spread across the pool, conjuring an image. For a moment, Sylvia saw shimmering strands of light like the weave of a tapestry. Then a dark curtain fell over it all, obscuring the picture. Yet, a few scenes flickered through the gaps. Plains. Mountains. Cities.
Sylvia caught the gray, hazy skies of the Asphodel Meadows. Briefly, she spotted Iacchus and Pyrkagiás.
“I do not know how close the threat, but I can say this. It is growing closer. What’s more, the churning fate does not rise in the Fey Federation. It stems, undoubtedly, from Tartarus.”
…
Sugar plums.
Pinching the bridge of her nose, Sylvia realized her neglect. “We have some seeds on that world. It might be related to them. I just hope Gavin didn’t do anything stupid.”
Summoning a blue window, Sylvia searched for a pair of names she hadn’t thought of for years: Elroy of Est Sombre and Gavin Thiefcatcher. Finding their net handles was trickier. The System didn’t connect real names to handles by default. For instance, most of the gamers on the forums had only known Sylvia as CutestSilverBird right up until the players arrived in the netherworld.
Luckily, there was an easy way to get someone’s handle. Send a friend request. Sylvia put out two. Then she drafted a PM to both.
To: Gavin Thiefcatcher; Elroy of Est SombreSubject: Take caution, the Inquisition may be onto you
Gavin and Elroy,
This is Sylvia Swallows. I’ve just been informed by our resident fate protector, Luna Lorelei, that there is a high-risk the Inquisition has something planned in Tartarus. You and anyone else you’ve shared the System with should consider themselves in immediate danger. Please send any relevant data you might have on the situation to Luna and me.
Whatever the case, keep your heads down. I’ll try to scrounge up more information for you. If this proves to be a false alarm, I’ll let you know.
Sylvia
Hitting send, Sylvia looked back at Luna.
“Collect everything you’ve learned and send it to Governor Sanchez,” Sylvia ordered, her pastel pink eyes serious. “I’ll contact the associates I left on that world.”
-oOo-
It was late afternoon when Sylvia left her office.
A flurry of emergency messages had been traded between the governor’s office and her e-mail account. By now, Sylvia had a firm understanding of what was going on. Gavin had gone wild for merit points, spreading the System through Pyrkagiás then Aidonopol. Apparently, the goblin had an entire web of gamers working for the ‘Bluelight’, each controlled by cells he called ‘fingers’.
Elroy, on the other hand, had been busy making friends with the local gangs and the cultists. Apparently, they had an in with Firestorm. Who had, somehow, reached out to their friends among the Clockwork Men and cobbled together a crude dungeon to keep the insane scheme going.
Sylvia was so, so glad this wasn’t her headache to solve.
“That crazy chocolate chip cookie,” she muttered, heading outside. “Don’t proudly write to me about a plot to plant a dungeon adjacent to Tartarus’s most prolific soul well while the strawberry shortcake is flying through the fan.”
Seriously, what a waste. If the goblin was going to plan a trick so profitable, he should’ve cut her in first. After everything Sylvia had done for him. Ingrate!
At least she knew how GrimQuill had reached the 15th position on the merit boards.
“I probably should learn Art of the Con,” Sylvia mused.
Art of the Con was a skill book Gavin had created. It covered deception, particularly in combination with shape-shifting and a false identity. This was a skill set Sylvia really did need to learn.
Orange-red light blinded her as she stepped outside.
The sun was setting over Chaos Lagoon, casting the shield islands in dark silhouette. A lady in a blue dress sat on the edge of their backyard, her legs dangling over the side of the cliff. The dying sun set her emerald hair afire, highlighting the muted browns.
Sylvia’s heart trilled.
It wasn’t Emily Sylvia remembered. Instead, she saw in her heart an arched bridge and a promise. The silver-haired girl sat down beside her beautiful wife, her right hand tangling with Emmy’s left.
“I heard you had quite the afternoon,” Esmeralda said softly.
“I don’t know why I keep getting dragged into these things,” Sylvia groused. “I’m a private citizen. It’s none of my business.”
“It’s because you are a capable woman,” Emmy replied, showing a loving smile. “If you are truly set in staying out of things, then you must studiously remove yourself from them. Otherwise, people will always turn to you.”
Sylvia leaned close. Their lips touched. Her gaze returned to the sunset. Sitting here, in the warmth of Starlight, was so comfortable and right. She didn’t need anything more.
“There is a subject I wish to broach,” Esmeralda said. “I wish to return to the world of my birth for my Transcendence.”
A month ago, Emmy had reached level 1000. By Sylvia’s calculation, it’d take another month before the emeraldette could punch through to the fourth consolidation. Esmeralda had a firm grasp of her ideal. She’d Transcend shortly after she became eligible.
“Duo Pacha Ayu?” Sylvia questioned. “How would you even get there?”
“There are interdimensional gates made available to the public, at least for Ayu and a few other worlds,” Esmeralda explained. “Though it is not easy for an ordinary denizen to gain permit to cross, I am still a baroness. Transport shan’t prove too much trouble.”
“Then you should do it,” Sylvia declared, throwing caution to the wind. She offered a wide grin. “When do we leave?”
Esmeralda sighed. The emerald-haired lady untangled her hand then patted Sylvia on the knee.
“Therein lies my conundrum,” Emmy continued. “A part of me feels I must make this journey on my own. To return to Ayu is to face my past then put it behind me forever. Another piece disagrees, and hopes dearly that you’ll be at my side every minute of the way. I want to show you the kingdom in which I was raised and the lands which once belonged to my Vallenfelt family. Though, I suspect, the kingdom is no more.”
Sylvia retook Emmy’s hand. They both squeezed together, comforting one another. The silver-haired witch gazed at her love, fractal pink captured by nebulae of umbral green.
“You can do both,” Sylvia said softly. “You can go to Ayu now, on your own. You can bring me there later and show me the places of your heart. I’d rather be with you from beginning to end, of course, but it isn’t as though we would be disconnected.”
She raised her left hand. A pink stone caught the light, shimmering. Her wedding band which the System had named Esmeralda’s Love.
“Mmm,” Emmy hummed. “I love you very much. I wish for you to know that.”
Emmy’s head leaned against Sylvia’s shoulder, her long, emerald hair spilling like a fountain behind them.
“Perhaps, that is best,” Esmeralda considered. “The governor may need a strong arm to help settle this issue. Of all the gamers, we are the best suited. And you more so than I. If duty calls you to Tartarus, then it is fitting I head to Ayu.”
Sylvia grimaced. She feared Emmy had the right of it.
“There is a quest I have been eyeing which will keep me busy,” Esmeralda continued. “The System wishes to gather samples of Ayu’s technology. While Earth’s science is more advanced, few planes have done so well in integrating magic with material law.
“In addition, I wish to gather biological specimens. The ether atmosphere has incurred many mutations. There are the orcs and elves, as well. Both species, as you might know, were engineered. If I can gather this information, plus books on the netherworld’s biological research, then the System might be able to produce homunculi. That would be a vast improvement over the current crude mechanism of seizing bodies abandoned by their soul.”
Mortal elves were not to be mistaken for their light elf or dark elf cousins. They were a subspecies of human which had been bioengineered by the Fey Federation thousands of years ago. Mortals died too quickly. Nations could rise and fall in as little as three hundred years. A dynasty could crumble in less than a hundred. For the fey, there was nothing more annoying than striking a deal only to find out three generations had passed and the kingdom they were working with no longer existed.
Elves lived for three to four hundred years. Therefore, they were the preferred intermediaries with mortals. Heaven had later adopted the elves as well to serve as their divine proxies.
Orcs, by contrast, were created by malicious parties wishing to bypass the interdiction on human souls. The Heavenly Will had not been amused. The foul participants had suffered cataclysm for their action. Afterward, the subspecies had languished for millennia. Then came the War of Words, where Hell spread orcs to multiple material worlds as a weapon against Heaven.
But none of these facts were as important as Emmy’s focus on homunculi.
“Don’t think for a second, you can drag me to Earth and get me pregnant,” Sylvia deadpanned.
“Perish the thought,” Esmeralda returned with a giggle. “You have no fear on that end, my dear. If I ever get the inkling of being a mother, I’d rather find a soul that belonged to a child, rare as they are, and raise our daughter here.”
Of course it’d be a daughter. One Emmy could happily dress in everything cute, no doubt.
“How long would you be gone?” Sylvia asked.
“Several months at the least,” Esmeralda answered. “No more than a year. I do not wish to be parted longer. And you? Have you considered Transcendence?”
“I have.”
Sylvia closed her eyes. Her mind drifted back to those dark days in a dingy apartment. Eric had been a flawed man. She could see, with the help of distance, how so many of Eric’s struggles had been born from his errors and his weakness. It’d been easy to blame the world. In part because the world deserved a great deal of blame.
But people can’t change the world. They can only change themselves.
“I want to be more focused, more driven,” Sylvia said, thinking about where she went wrong. “I want to feel a spark of passion when I read books and pursue knowledge. And, I think, I need to be better at pacing myself and expressing my feelings.”
“Those are all wonderful things,” Esmeralda encouraged. “Though, I must remind you, I am quite fond of you as you are.”
“Really?” Sylvia sneered in an exaggerated manner. “I think you want me to be even cuter.”
Emmy let out a sweet titter. “I wouldn’t be opposed.”
There was another question. One Sylvia wasn’t quite ready to confront. Was her ideal a princess? Should she use this chance to embrace femininity wholesale? Sylvia found she wasn’t really opposed. When looking from the outside in, being pretty was objectively a good thing.
What’s more, she kind of enjoyed it.
Yet, she worried. Did she think this because this was what she wanted, or because it was the easy way out? The silver-haired witch had not forgotten her dream of Awakening.
“I think, I need to spend a couple of months as a man,” Sylvia admitted. She offered her wife a weak smile. “I need to see that part of myself again, to know my ideal.”
And to know whether she should transform into a true and eternal princess or seek better balance between the Sylvia of today and the Eric of her past.
“Then, that is what you must do,” Emmy commanded. The emeraldette’s umbral green eyes were firm. “Transcendence should not be taken lightly. Awakening is a resolution of yourself. It brings growth and completeness, never harm. The second grand mutation, however, is dangerous. It can distort the soul and bring ruin.
“I will not lie. I wish you to be a lady. I even went so far as to conspire to make you a princess. But I have promised to love and cherish you always. And to support you and your endeavors with all my heart. This is not just an oath, but my dearest wish and my deepest feelings. Know, therefore, I will stand at your side faithfully no matter which road you choose.”
“Thank you,” Sylvia whispered.
What had she done to earn the love of such a perfect woman? Even now, Sylvia wondered if she deserved it.
“Just remember, when the girls gather around you because of your handsome figure, you may look, but you cannot touch,” Esmeralda warned, wagging a finger.
Ha, ha. Sylvia’s eyes shifted to her Faithfully Married achievement, which now read two years.
“If you’re going to Ayu, what happens to your position of mayor?” Sylvia asked.
“I will resign, of course,” Esmeralda said primly. “Local elections are held at the end of the year, so now is the best time to stand aside on behalf of the next generation.”
Sylvia raised a brow. To think, the lady who had been displeased when Sylvia had given up her position was now stepping down from her own.
“I have come to realize, you had the right of it,” Emmy accepted, offering a gentle smile. “My mind was fixed on rule from the perspective of an aristocrat. Democracy is a different beast. I do not enjoy bowing and scraping before the public. And I have realized, there was no need. My wealth and power are made plentiful by way of industry.”
The emeraldette squeezed Sylvia’s hand, her expression infinitely sweet.
“Besides, meeting with the planar governor suddenly became less pleasant four years past,” Esmeralda finished.
“I wonder why,” Sylvia commented dryly.
“I fear it is because Mr. Sanchez is not an adorable, darling princess,” Emmy returned, sounding pleased. “A dreadful failing, to be sure.”
“Tch,” Sylvia sounded. “Remember, you can look, but you cannot touch.”
“Oh, but I’ll touch you however much I want,” Esmeralda purred.
With heated eyes, the emerald-haired woman stroked Sylvia’s cheek. Shivers ran down her spine. Emmy leaned closer, melting into a steamy kiss. Sylvia wrapped an arm around her wife, heart buzzing in her chest.
A moment later, Esmeralda drew back, an impish smile on her lips. Tch. And the woman dared claim a lady does not tease.
“On the question of Ayu, are you certain you will not mind if I go alone?”
“Of course I’ll mind,” Sylvia said with great authority. Who wanted to be away from their beautiful wife? “But, I love you and I trust – ”
Bzzt!
An orange screen suddenly appeared in Sylvia’s vision, refusing to be dismissed. Snickerdoodles, Sylvia cursed internally.
Emergency Quest: Orpheus Protocol
Confidential: This quest is to be shared with emergency personnel only, except where authorized by the Governor.
A security review of System communications reveals that several Users and their local clients may have been compromised. For this reason, the entire Tartarus region has been placed under lockdown. All remote connections from this region, or from anyone who has recently been to that region, will be refused until such time safe access can be confirmed.
Recipients of this quest are to meet with Governor Sanchez immediately, whereupon your role in resolving the issue will be decided. Please be aware that at least 23 Users have been lost, so participation in this quest may include risk to the User’s immortal soul.
Quest Reward:* Merit Points, assigned per situation and completeness
Quest Failure:* Increased risk to all System Users.
Objectives:[ ] Identify the threat[ ] Identify the mechanisms by which the System was compromised[ ] Locate the lost Users[ ] Recover the Users and the stolen information: 0%
“It appears the future has been decided for us,” Esmeralda commented, her expression amused.
“Who knows, maybe we’ll both be sent to Tartarus,” Sylvia joked.
“Gavin and Elroy are persons with whom you are familiar,” the emeraldette noted. “And your connection to the cults is stronger. Furthermore, you have your Three-Faced Visage, allowing you to easily assume false form. Whereas I, could not for the life of me, pretend to be anything other than a lady for a single day.”
“We all have our weaknesses,” Sylvia accepted.
“An excellent opportunity for you to experience life as a man,” Emmy noted. She leaned forward for a light kiss. “Do be careful, my heroic princess.”
Sylvia’s phone rang. Brrring. Brrring. She answered.
“Princess Swallows,” Joshua’s voice called over the phone.
“I’ll be there in just a moment,” Sylvia sighed.
“Thank you, Mrs. Swallows. I could not think of a woman more suitable.”
-oOo-
Calendar of EventsDue to Patreon's in ability to handle tables, I gave up and made this a series of images instead. Hopefully it's readable.