Everything is fine.

“Wait, hold on a second! How am I supposed to do that?” John’s fading hope vanished completely as Mrs. Wentworth fixed him with a piercing gaze, her sinister smile warning him of the deadly consequences that came with continuing to talk back to her. He took the hint and shut up.

His teacher waited a moment further, taunting him to test her patience, and when he didn’t, she seemed almost… disappointed. Mrs. Wentworth reached for the paperwork on her desk and dismissed him with the words, “You’re inventive. Improvise.”

In a blink, John was standing outside her office with a quest prompt hovering a foot or so away. He’d never get used to that.

Two days? Lethal? …and no refuse button. Of course.

John dismissed the popup with a distressed groan. The time he’d been given was hardly enough to scour the city for a missing girl, much less one as wealthy as Vanessa. She could’ve gone to ground at any of the hotels in Springfield, or left the city… but if she’d done that… He couldn’t imagine that Mrs. Wentworth would have any difficulty following a mundane paper trail. No, it was far more likely that Vanessa had encountered something else, which didn’t bode well for her safety if his suspicions about the other mysterious disappearances were correct. He briefly wondered if bringing back a corpse would satiate the Witch of Ashcroft’s fury. Maybe it’d be best to use the time he had left to put his affairs in order…

He shook the thought from his head. This wasn’t going to be the end, it might be a challenge, but there had to be something he could use to track her down, maybe through the Abyss Auction?

“Dude, you alright?” Erica’s voice shattered his train of thought; he hadn’t even noticed her join him when he left the classroom. She waved a hand in front of his face, and John looked over at her. “You seem…” the berserker hesitated, “off?”

John turned to her, and a nervous laugh slipped out, “Oh? Yeah. Fine. I’m fine. Really, why would you even ask that?” His laughter tilted towards borderline psychotic, causing the passing students gave them a wide berth, “Absolutely everything is fine!”

Erica stared at him with an unconvinced deadpan expression until he calmed down somewhat.

“Sorry. I’m totally fucked.”

---

“You weren’t kidding,” Erica let out a low whistle and leaned back against the bench. After the scene that John had made, the two decided to take their conversation somewhere less crowded. Fortunately, the academy courtyard was sparsely populated enough to work. “Pissing off the Witch…” she grimaced and trailed off.

John pressed his face into his hands, “Sorry, I really shouldn’t be dragging you into my problems.” He badly needed her help, but the last thing he wanted was for Mrs. Wentworth to start targeting Erica because of his screw up.

“Why not?” The berserker gave him an odd look, “We’re friends, aren’t we? That’s what friends do: cause trouble and bail each other out.” Her expression shifted to a confident grin, and she nudged his side forcefully, “Besides, you’re my partner. Lord Brighton would kill me if I let you get obliterated by that hag in less than a week.”

“Would he?” John asked. Erica’s cheer was infectious, and he had trouble staying gloomy in the presence of such relentless positivity… but he was beyond skeptical that their guild leader would give a single fuck about him. On the contrary, Lord Brighton would probably be happy to see him go.

“Eh. Ok, maybe not… but I would,” Erica’s casual words drew the hint of an embarrassed blush to his cheeks, “and technically, he’s obligated to by contract. Remember that thing you signed? It’s got a protection clause that says we’re supposed to ensure your safety. The Order won’t go to war with the Academy Witch over you, but I’m sure we can leverage some assets to help find Princess Hawthorne.”

The offer was unexpected enough that it took John a couple seconds to re-align his thoughts. Maybe this was doable, after all… “So, about her,” he said, “I don’t exactly know Vanessa that well, but she’s rich as all hell, and this academy is her turf. She wouldn’t leave it without a good reason.”

“No kidding, she’s like a bimbo lioness,” the metaphor drew a chuckle from both of them before Erica continued, “I agree. What about that card you stole from her? I bet there was some juicy stuff on that, dude.”

He froze, remembering the horrifying revelations from the night before. Laetitia’s screams were still a painfully fresh memory. “No…” John said slowly, but Erica definitely noticed the way his fingers balled into fists. “There wasn’t. It was… just some nudes.” His stomach clenched, and he fought back the urge to vomit, “Not even good ones.” Technically, he wasn’t lying.

Erica didn’t press the issue but just knocked a fist against the back of his in a silent gesture of solidarity, “Alright, probably not important then.”

“She shouldn’t even know that I have them, I didn’t throw any on the internet or anything,” John swallowed his disgust and spat out the words.

“Pity.” When he gave the berserker a concerned look she elaborated, “Ugh, no, I’m not into brainless whores. It’d just be a fitting punishment, you know? With how she flaunts herself?” Erica’s eyes narrowed, and John wondered just what their history entailed. Vanessa riled her up in a way that nobody else did; there had to be more to the story than just ‘being in the same drama class’.

He filed away the curiosity for now and returned to contemplating the original subject matter. With Erica’s agreement, his earlier suspicions were looking troublingly likely. “Hey, what about the missing-”

His companion floated out an idea at the same time, “You think it’s related to the other,” they both paused, until John indicated that Erica should finish, “disappearances?”

“I’d considered it,” he replied flatly.

Neither of them spoke for a while as they each explored their respective thoughts, which for John were along the lines of ‘fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!’. If neither the Order nor the police had located the kidnapper, or murderer, what chance did they have?

“Alright,” Erica said, pushing herself up from the bench and turning to offer him a hand. “We can take the Path to headquarters and start there. If Lorelei can’t help narrow things down, maybe the archives can.”

“Wait, just like that? We still have classes.”

She rolled her eyes at him and gave John a look, “Dude, an ancient evil hag threatens your life and you’re still worried about school? Priorities.”

…She has a point.

He took her offered hand and was pulled to his feet a bit more forcefully than he’d been ready for. It was easy to forget how strong the berserker was; her body might not be made of rock-solid muscle, but she still had more than enough hidden underneath her rather attractive exterior.

They set off towards the theater and the forest beyond it, where they had entered the Path on Tuesday. As they reached the front of the building, John remembered the ring he’d picked up the day before and pulled it out of his inventory. He offered it to Erica, “Here, this is yours, I think.”

Erica took it with surprise, looking at the small band of metal for a second, then offered it back, “Oh, hey. Thanks for finding it, but rings aren’t really my style anymore. You want it?”

Trade Offer Received:
Ouroboros Band <-> ----

“Sure,” John took the offer, and to his surprise, the entry for the ring changed. Where it’d previously been owned by ‘Erica Carpenter’, now his name was there instead. Experimentally, he tried equipping it to the middle finger of his left hand. His health immediately jumped upwards, along with his strength, but it wasn’t alone. As John viewed his character sheet, a word appeared alongside his charisma score, followed by a disconcerting prompt.

New Aspect: Grandeur ~ 1
Power corrupts, do not lose yourself.
(Enhancement - Charisma)

Really? I thought we were past the cryptic bullshit...

For a moment, he held out hope that the Developer would explain herself, but this time, there was no such luck. He tried removing the ring, and his stats dropped back down… except for Grandeur. John sighed and re-equipped the ring.

“Something wrong, dude?”

“Huh?” he glanced over at Erica, who’d stopped to give him a skeptical look. “Oh uh…” John wasn’t sure what to say; ‘Your ring might’ve cursed me’? No, they had more than enough problems right now. He’d study it later in his workshop, once everything was over.

Erica raised an eyebrow, “Yeah?”

“I was… I was just thinking about the moving to Canada thing,” he lied. It was easier than he expected, weaving a bit of truth into things always made them easier to say… and to swallow. Erica froze. A pained expression crossed the berserker’s face, and she couldn’t meet his eyes. The lie began to morph into pained sincerity, and his voice faltered as he pressed the issue further, “You could’ve told me.”

Erica was quiet long enough that John started to regret what he’d said, but before he could backpedal, she spoke, “I should’ve. You know, Moira told me what you said.” Her words bit into him, though they lacked the venom he expected. “I…” she seemed to steel herself, “On Tuesday, I thoughtlessly dragged you into danger, and then I was so focused on getting us back home that I threw you to the Order without being there with you like I’d promised. I didn’t tell you about my plans to move either, because I honestly didn’t think it’d matter, not when we might not live longer than a few hours or a day at most… but that’s not a good excuse. I should have told you afterwards.

“John, I’m sorry,” the corners of her eyes watered, and Erica’s voice had a ragged edge to it. “I’m sorry I screwed up so badly on this, but I never, ever thought of you as a convenient replacement. All I wanted was to make sure you didn’t face all this alone, like I did.”

Her honest confession took John by surprise; he didn’t know how to reply or what to say. All he could do was nod and think. For all the accusations he’d directed at Erica and Moira and the Order’s intentions… what did he really know about any of them? He had no doubts he could trust Erica, after what they’d been through, but trust wasn’t the issue.

It dawned on John that he’d never asked Erica about her past. They’d always talked about him, or their powers, or the situation at hand… On occasion there had been tidbits here and there: a moment where she’d seemed almost jealous of what he could do or where she recounted some minor detail, but he’d never brought up the topic himself. John felt his heart sink. He’d been so focused on his need for ‘friendship’ that he’d neglected his half of their relationship.

As she looked at him with agony in her eyes, John didn’t know what to say. He’d been as much at fault as her, but his outburst to Moira had tilted the balance of blame, and now he felt even worse because of how visibly it hurt Erica. Throat dry, he managed to put his feelings into words, “It’s ok. We both made mistakes. I shouldn’t have reacted the way I did, it wasn’t fair.”

Erica managed a half-hearted smile and then punched him in the shoulder. It hurt, and John stumbled from the impact, but it brought a smile to his face. “That’s for being a jerk,” she said, then stepped over to pull him into a hug. Her breasts squished against him softly, but he was too immersed in the warmth of the gesture to care. “This is for forgiving me,” Erica mumbled into his neck.

Achievement Unlocked! - “Make Love Not War”
Resolve a conflict peacefully by raising a relationship score above 100.
+1 Wisdom
+1 Charisma

John dismissed the popup immediately, he had something else to focus on.

They stayed like that for just long enough that John’s attention inevitably started to wander downwards towards her chest. Constrained by the Ashcroft Academy uniform and what he could only assume was a sports bra, an inch from his face, was a pair of plush pillows that he badly wanted to grab. Just the vivid memory of touching Erica’s breasts on the cavern beach was enough to make his pants uncomfortably tight. Before things spiraled out of his control, John rapidly extracted himself from the hug, drawing a bark of laughter from the berserker.

“Relax, dude. They can be pretty distracting, and I don’t really mind the attention,” she said as she cupped her breasts in her hands and hefted their weight. “But...” a wide grin formed on Erica’s face, “you should probably know that I don’t swing that way; y’know, so I don’t lead you on or anything.”

Wait, wha… she’s a lesbian? But… that’s not… oh, come the fuck on!

Fantasies died, strangled in their infancy by the cold, harsh truth of reality. Their executioner openly enjoyed John’s obvious confusion and distress at the situation as his brain recalibrated to try, and fail, to place Erica into a new category: ‘unavailable unreasonably attractive women’.

Still grinning like a cheshire cat, Erica continued past the theater building and across the stretch to the edge of the grove of trees beyond. She let out one last snort before composing herself into a more serious mode, though she couldn’t manage to suppress her good humor entirely. A smile hid at the corners of her mouth as she said, “Alright, serious time. Remember that this place is a maze. Stay close to me.”

“Right, got it,” John took her cue and did his best to set aside the turbulent emotions he felt for now. There would be time to deal with them later if he made it through this.

Just before they passed over the threshold, his companion looked at him with unhindered amusement, “Oh, and dude?”

“Yeah?” he asked with apprehension.

“I can totally tell when you’re staring.”