-Dorothy Morrison

"J-John! Your abilities give you this much information?"

"Yeah, I mean, I described everything I saw about you when we were training in the yard, remember? The whole "Paladin, Order of the Golden Rose" stuff?"

"Yes, but… how can it show you things you don't even know?!"

"I don't know, how can I level up?" John asked, glaring at the retreating form of this 'Tricia'. "And more importantly, why are you so worried about my abilities instead of the fact that she's hiding who she is?"

"She's not hiding it- I mean, she is, but not from us, we know!"

John paused for a moment, doing his best to derail his current train of thought and backtrack to where he'd apparently gone off-course. "I'm sorry, could you repeat that? Because it sounds like you're keeping secrets again, and-"

"This is on a strictly need-to-know basis, Mr. Newman, and you don't meet the requirements! Now cease your ability and forget what you've seen; it's dangerous information."

"Hey, who are you really?" John called out, cupping his hand to his mouth to make sure she heard him. Tricia stopped in her tracks but showed little reaction as she turned slowly, her eyes continuing their constant swivel of everything in her sight.

"And what exactly are you implying with that?'

"Yes, John, what are you implying? And why are you ignoring me?" Moira angrily demanded, a hand clasping John's shoulder and gripping his collarbone with increasing tightness.

"You said that this person wanted to inspect me, not to mention everyone I've created in the last few days," John whispered angrily to Moira. "Why the hell would I let them come anywhere near us, much less with scientific and medical tools in hand, if they're concealing who they really are from me?!"

John turned his attention back to Tricia, getting as serious as he could minus the anger and hostility he'd had toward Moira. "I know that's not your real name, and I can see you're part of some… Opek- oof!"

A firm elbow silenced him, as Moira stepped in and took the wind out of his lungs. A low growl escaped her throat as she leaned in to John's ear.

"Thirty seconds. Thirty seconds and you're already blurting out things you shouldn't even know! Now do you see why we don't tell you things?!"

Looking back at Tricia John saw the first expression she'd ever made. Her eyebrows quivered as if they had rusted in place from disuse, trembling for a moment before sliding ever so slightly together. It was a subtle move that John almost missed from the distance between them, but on her stone cold face, it was the equivalent of a scream of fury.

"Moira, I was told that the Order would not be sharing any information about my line except with my explicit permission. Have you already broken our agreement? I cannot say that the elders would be pleased to find such disloyalty after we have been doing our best to ensure there is no retaliation for-"

"There is much to explain. Let us do it in private," Moira emphasized, shaking her head as she pulled John along and made for the manor proper. Tricia's face slowly returned to an impassive state, saying nothing as she quickened her stride toward the manor.

"Very well. I trust you will have an… acceptable explanation for this grievous violation of my trust. Let us quickly make our way to the testing grounds."

The testing grounds turned out to be an emptied out room of the Brighton manor, devoid of furniture and stripped of everything but the paintings and the trim on the walls. Tricia's equipment was mostly stuffed into bags, but she had two drones circling the group, drones with no visible method of flight but that hovered flawlessly all the same, the cameras embedded in their hulls focusing in and out as they got every angle possible on the three of them. Moira seemed moderately uncomfortable, but John was too busy wondering what kind of technology this woman had access to.

"And you are willing to vouch for this… understandably difficult to believe story, Moira? You can attest that the things he has said are true?"

"I… everything he's said I've either directly witnessed or at least seen the results of," Moira sighed, shaking her head.

"Some of it you can see for yourself quite easily," John added quickly. “Anyone that I add to my party seems to be able to see my interface, plus they can gain experience and level up. It seems like the items and loot I get by killing stuff is just… you know, loot, so anyone can see it drop and pick it up. Oh, and the inventory and Gamer's Body stuff is pretty easy to see too."

"And you say that you've developed none of these techniques yourself? You do not understand any of them?"

"I mean… I wouldn't put it like that," John said, sighing. "I don't know what using magic is supposed to be like, I just sort of focus on whatever I want to do. As long as I have an ability that does it, it seems to work. I can learn new abilities from books, that was how I got Elemental Control. I can get them out of nowhere - Purify, World Shift, and a couple others were like that. I can learn them like normal, too; Moira taught me Lesser Heal, and I learned Fire Orb by trying to focus on learning a better spell that would be more effective than just throwing regular fire around."

"So your abilities are a mixture of classical magic, innate abilities, and seemingly reality-altering passive effects that have profound effects not only on yourself but the world around you. Conversation will get us no further; I will need time and close, controlled observation in order to ascertain any pertinent information about the extent or origin of these abilities. Perhaps you should start by inviting me into one of your 'parties'?"

"Right, you should get a pop-up," John said as he did his best to will an invite to the strange woman. Her body remained still, but her eyes flicked toward the air between John and Moira as he did so.

"Nanosuit confirms magical affectation of visual cortex, consistent with lack of physical presence. Relatively bland template, no signs of customized design or coloration, white text on a black background with a plain, beveled silver border. Simplistic green 'accept' button and an equally simplistic red 'decline'… and you say that this initiates your 'party' skillset?"

"That's… one way to put it. Thanks for describing it, by the way. I've never actually seen what it looks like to others."

"You are welcome, but you are not the reason I was describing it. One of these drones is recording and transcribing everything so that I may review it later; if there proves to be any basis for the claims you both have made, I will want to be certain every fact is in place."

"Right… well, then-"

"21-C, run a scan on full visible magical spectrum on staging area between subjects A, B, and C."

One of the drones shot out a blue light that waved over the area between them several times. Although John could not see the invitation, he guessed that it was somewhere in the area being processed.

"No magical signatures detectable in the area scanned."

As the drone confirmed the lack of magical presence, Tricia gently swayed her head from left to right, craning her neck all the way until it touched either of her shoulders. She went from side to side twice before returning to her original position. Tricia stood up from her chair and walked around her chair in a full circle, looking from left to right and back again while she walked. After a full lap she simply sat down again and resumed speaking to her drones.

"Despite consistency with visual illusory magic, invitation appears to maintain full integrity and positioning regardless of subjects ocular positioning. Upright, perfectly horizontal to subject, and…" Tricia paused as she reached out her hand.

Party Invite Accepted!

"…yes, appears to respond to physical stimulus. A new message - 'You have joined John Newman's party'."

"Yup, it worked. I can see you in my menu, your health, mana, and level."

"Intriguing. And the name displayed is…?"

"Uh, here, I can… let me…" John mumbled as he lifted up his chair, moving it over beside Tricia and just far enough away that he wouldn't rub up against her. "There, now you should be able to see it too, right?"

"Affirmative. Basic party screen, reminiscent of Globe of Fightercraft-"

"You play Globe of Fightercraft?! What server, I-"

John cut himself off as Tricia's eyes narrowed. As if sensing her annoyance, one of the drones rushed forward, a green light flashing below its camera. John didn't see anything happen, but a moment after it did so, Tricia gave an almost silent sigh and the emotion disappeared from her face.

"Yes, but that is not a question relevant to this inquiry. Resuming observation - party screen contains names and so-called 'health' and 'mana' bars for John Newman, Moira Brighton, and myself. Despite never having provided the name to him and Moira's insistence that he was not given it by any member of the Golden Rose privy to my full name, my own status is listed as 'Tricia Gorbachev'. John, could you please demonstrate this ability you claim gave you my name unaided?"

Tricia eventually had John demonstrate every ability he could in that room - she even sliced open his finger with one of her droids to demonstrate Gamer's Body. She mostly seemed unimpressed. Well, she always seemed unimpressed, John couldn't read her at all, but she showed no greater interest in one ability than the next. Most of his basic spells like Fire Orb and Dungeon Barrier seemed to be generic magic to her, with the exceptions being that John had no conscious idea of how the magic worked and the extra bonuses John's abilities gave him for fighting in dungeons. The only thing that she seemed to take real interest in from the powers he could demonstrate was the physical readout of John's HP and the fact that Gamer's Body cost no mana to repair wounds, even if the HP damage remained.

"Your innate abilities are extremely interesting but not necessarily unique. There are other methods of damage mitigation and fatigue nullification that function in similar ways, some more powerful, some less. Your ability to craft things instantaneously, without proper tools, is certainly vexing. Many are capable of transforming objects through magic, but most require time, and the process is visible. This will require more study; are you sure you have no more materials?"

"I mean, if you want me to make some sticks or something out of blocks of wood, maybe. I kind of dumped most of my raw materials back in my Abyssal Chest in the other world."

"Yes, then it's settled. This Barrier of yours you refer to as another world must be our next stop. I have gleaned as much data as I can from your skills here, and that seems to be where the most outrageous of Moira's tales originate from regardless. Can you safely transport the three of us there, as well as my drones?"

"Uh, I think so. Never tried taking anything inanimate, can you grab onto them to make sure they come with us?" Tricia did just that, her drones hovering over and under her arms almost as soon as John voiced his concern. "Oh… and we can't come back for four hours. It's got a cooldown. It used to be eight hours - and it was a full day when I first got the ability."

"Your video game theme is at least somewhat consistent," Tricia noted. Whether for John's sake or her drones, he wasn't sure.

"At least we won't have to spend the night again," Moira sighed. "Very well, let's get this underway."

"Alright, hold on to your butts," John mumbled, urging his World Shift ability to carry them through. As the world began to shatter and reform, all John could do was hope that Tricia wasn't about to try her hands at a dissection.