Late Introductions

John turned around with a jolt at Aeolia’s sudden and unexpected statement. The winged woman regarded the Gamer with tired but alert eyes as she reclined against the wall.

“You’re awake,” John managed to blurt out, his tone a mix of relief, excitement and nervousness. “Um, so, do you….”

“Know how to get out of here?” Aeolia finished with a sly smile. She adjusted her position to sit more upright, wincing slightly.

John awkwardly rubbed his arm. “Uh, yeah.”

“I might,” Aeolia replied, “but there are a few things I want to know first. Just who the hell are you and what did you do to end up on their radar?”

A grimace flashed across John’s face; her question wasn’t too demanding, but he feared his answers wouldn’t satisfy her.

“Well, I’m John,” the Gamer said, “and I don’t have any idea what’s going on.”

Piercing yellow eyes bore into John, examining him intently. John squirmed under her intense gaze, guiltily relieved that his healing hadn’t restored her to fighting form.

“You really don’t have a clue, do ya?” Aoelia said, breaking the silence. She let out an annoyed sigh, closed her eyes and leaned her head back. “Just great. A dead end.”

Reassured that the wounded woman took his answer as truth, John felt a bit bolder and couldn’t keep his curiosity down.

“Just what is all this about anyway?” he asked, gesturing around with an arm.

Aeolia opened an eye. “You really want to know? You start to dig into the Abyss, and you’re not likely to pull yourself out.

“Abyss,” John echoed, “is that the name of who attacked us?”

“Gaia above,” Aeolia said, the saying obviously a curse. “You are green.”

“I did say I only had my powers since I woke up,” John retorted, old memories of being hazed over being the new guy to a game souring his mood.

“And getting attacked in less than twelve hours might be a record,” Aeolia shot back before letting out a sigh. “OK, you saved my ass, the least I can do is give you the rundown. Just don’t interrupt me, explaining shit isn’t something I’m good at.”

She paused to collect her thoughts and took a breath. “The Abyss is everything and anything non-magical humans think is fantasy stuff. Elves, spells, all that jazz. Only reason mundanes don’t know about it is because, well ....”

Aeolia frowned as she tried to find the words, biting her lip cutely as she debated how to explain something everybody just knew.

“Basically,” she started up again when she noticed John looking at her with a concerned face, “god makes it so all the magic stuff is separated from the non-magic.”

“God,” John echoed, his tone far less skeptical than it would have been yesterday.

“Well, goddess actually,” Aeolia clarified with a shrug, wincing slightly, “Gaia, and she’s the most powerful being ever. Anything she says goes, but she really only has that one rule: don’t reveal the Abyss to mundane people. Break it and, well, poof.”

With Aeolia’s explanation finished, John found himself frowning. Not in disbelief, not after the day he’d been having, but in contemplation.

‘A supreme goddess that’s the last say in all things magic,’ he thought. ‘What are the odds that’s who's been talking to me through my pop-ups.’

I’d put money on it.

John blinked as the pop-up faded away, more than a little nervous to have a deity directly keyed into his thoughts.

‘Definitely have to not piss off the goddess that can snuff me out in an instant.’

“Oi,” Aeolia’s sharp voice brought John out of his reverie, “I know it's a big idea to wrap your head around but some sign that you get it would be nice.”

“Sorry,” John apologized, rubbing one of his arms awkwardly with the other, “got distracted by something.”

Aeolia cocked her head to the side, a confused look upon her face. “What the hell did you get distracted by? I drop on ya that there’s a goddess that can end your life if you screw up and you get lost in your own head?”

“Well,” John said, “what if I told you that said goddess was confirming her existence to me.”

“I’d say you might want to get your head checked,” Aeolia retorted, crossing her arms under her breasts in an annoyed fashion. “This is serious business, you know.”

“I am being serious,” John shot back. “She sends me messages and stuff.”

Aeolia didn’t respond to what John realized was an extremely insane sounding statement, even if the existence of gods wasn’t a debated topic. And since Aeolia hadn’t noticed the divine pop-up, John figured none of his screens were visible to others.

‘How the hell can I explain this,’ John wondered, before his eyes lit up. ‘That could work.’

“Not saying I don’t believe you,” Aeolia said slowly, “but that really is a tall order to take. Gaia isn’t really known to just talk to people.”

“I guess I can’t really prove it,” John replied, “but she talks to me like this: Invite Aeolia to Gamer Test Party.”

“How….” Whatever question Aeolia had died on her lips when a pop-up manifested in front of her face.

You have been invited to: Gamer Test
Do you accept?
Yes / No

Aeolia stared at the display, then her eyes snapped up to John.

“What the hell is this? And how the hell do you know my name!?”

She tried to adopt an aggressive posture, but a grimace broke her heated glare and **** her body to slump against the wall.

“I’m way too burned out to beat the answers out of you,” Aeolia grumbled, “so you better supply them before I decide some pain is worth knocking your head in.”

John gulped at the diminutive woman’s worn fury, not wanting to be on the receiving end of her weapon.

“Well, I guess I’ll start with saying that I have a skill called Observe that lets me see info on people and things, which is how I know your name,” John started before going into a full recount of his day, detailing how he woke up to a screen floating above his face, got quests and achievements, unlocked skills and received items, pulling a few out of his Inventory as an example.

“And that’s about it,” John finished, ending his recounting with him using Evocation on the Acorn Eye to heal his prone audience of one.

“That’s a whole lot of bullshit,” Aeolia remarked after a short silence of contemplation, causing John to pale. Before he could try to address her issues she continued, “But I can’t say your powers don’t seem useful.”

She clicked No on the party invite screen that had been ignored during John’s recap of his day, dismissing it, then leveled a serious eye at John.

“So,” she began, “that info gathering ability you got clues you in on something's history, right?”

“Yeah,” John replied warily, subconsciously edging away from her.

“What did it say about me?” Aeolia half asked, half demanded.

“Oh, um,” John stuttered, trying to recall the details. “Something about your clan being, well, um….”

Aeolia’s face adopted a dark look as she nodded. “Yes. My family and everyone I knew is dead. Killed in an ambush that included whoever made this Trap Barrier to attack you. And since we’re still alive, the coward must have run after we beat his dogs.

“If I had the Tracer Crystal, I could be sure,” Aeolia said with a melancholy sigh, “but it looks like it got lost in the fight.”

“Oh right,” John said, fishing the crystal out of his inventory, now a third of the size it had been, “Sorry, I forgot about it. It saved my ass though.”

John bent over, crystal pinched between his index and middle finger, and presented it to its rightful owner. Aeolia plucked the gem quickly, holding on to it tightly. Then she seemed to realize her actions and desperately avoided John’s gaze, opting to examine the crystal.

“Dammit,” she cursed as the crystal’s dull green light remained static, leaning her head back against the wall. “Looks like he did book it.”

“So, um, now what?” John queried, awkwardly shifting on his feet.

“You jumped on top of a monster plant hound and stabbed it,” Aeolia snapped at John when she saw his fidgeting. “Show some of that spine. You’re not going to survive the Abyss if you look like a stiff breeze will knock you over.”

John stiffened at Aeolia’s admonishment, but her harsh words did resonate within him. Before he could ruminate on his lack of decisiveness, Aeolia resumed speaking.

“We can’t just sit in this Barrier all day,” she said, her tone less harsh. “And I think I’m going to be a little out of commission for a while, so I’ll need your help. Here’s the deal: I can keep filling you in on the Abyss, but I’m gonna need your legs for a bit. Maybe I can find you something you can bullshit up a healing spell with. How’s that sound?”

John took a breath, trying to evoke the courage he had shown during the fight. He **** himself to stop fidgeting and straightened his posture.

“Sounds like a plan,” he said, hoping that his voice sounded at least a bit confident. ‘Not that I really have a choice,’ he thought before continuing aloud, “So, how do we get out of here?”

“Alright,” Aeolia smirked, “time for Barrier 101.”

The winged woman adjusted her posture, face contorting with discomfort for a second, then lifted her right hand.

“Watch carefully,” Aeolia said cryptically, and then the air around her began to shift, reminding John of a highway road on a hot day. Accompanying the distorted air was a sensation John could only describe as the anticipation of falling, that feeling when standing at the edge, looking down below; only this feeling had the ‘down’ direction behind John, away from Aeolia.

And then Aeolia dropped her hand and both the distortions and the sensation abruptly vanished.

“You catch that?” Aeolia asked with a casual air.

“I think so,” John answered. “You caused the air to go all funky and it felt like I was being pushed away from you. Come to think about it, you never explained what a Barrier is.”

Aeolia flushed and looked away slightly. “I did say I’m not good at explaining things. Right, Barriers. Basically, they’re sort of... pockets of reality anyone with Mana can make. They’re kinda powered by the Abyss itself, or Gaia, I guess. So all you need to do to make one, or get out of one, is a little bit of Mana and the thought to make or leave.”

“Sounds really simple,” John said. “I would have thought making something like this would be more... complex.”

“Gaia made it so we couldn’t mingle with the mundane humans, so she provides us the ability to have our own realities,” Aeolia explained. “And it’s not like someone can’t tweak Barriers to make them do what they want. Most people use Barriers to train in. Summon up some fake monsters to fight. The stronger the maker, the more control over what their Barrier can do.”

“Alright,” John said with a nod. “So it’s just... raise my hand and think of home. No need to click my heels three times?”

“I don’t think ruby slippers would look good on you,” Aeolia cheekily remarked before slowly rising to her feet, using her glaive as a makeshift walking stick. “And we should probably leave in one of those rooms. Gaia makes it so leaving a Barrier makes you kinda invisible for a bit, but let’s not risk it.”

Aeolia flexed her wings experimentally, then took off. She flew over to John and landed upon his shoulder. The Gamer winced slightly as her landing was less than graceful and her taloned feet pricked his flesh through his shirt.

He shot his passenger a sideways glance.

“What,” she said haughty, “I’m injured and you’ll know which of these rooms should be empty on the outside.”

John couldn’t argue with her logic, though he thought she could have been a bit nicer about it, and he strode off towards the room the Alpha had chased him to.

“I’m pretty sure this room isn’t being used,” John said when they arrived at the busted door.

“It’s on you then if we get smote,” Aeolia said as they slipped into the disused, overly organized room. “You go first. If for some reason there’s someone in the room, you can distract them when I come through.”

Aeolia jumped off John's shoulder and glided down to the teacher’s desk, landing upon the wooden structure with her back to him, her body tensing for a second before she turned around to watch John’s egress.

John took a moment to gather himself, eyes sweeping over the room, committing it to memory. He noticed his discarded backpack slumped on the floor from when he threw it off to brace against the door. He retrieved the pack, slung it over his shoulder and took a deep breath.

“OK, here goes... something,” John said, nervousness coloring his voice. He lifted his right hand and went over what Aeolia had told him. He felt his Mana gather in his hand as he thought about returning to the real world. For a second, nothing happened.