owlsbooks Chapter 52: DLC: The Ace in the Hole
Chapter 52: DLC: The Ace in the Hole
Chest two, unopened. Chest three, unopened…
“Woman, I know you’re enjoying tree-gazing, or whatever,” Sharpshoot complained. “But it’s getting boring real fast here.”
“Now, Sharpshoot, we need to survey our traps,” she replied, although she did take some time gazing at their surroundings as they walked through the forest. She liked to pick up details, see a landmark or secret they missed.
“Maggie sounds better,” she replied, “Sharpshoot is nice, but it’s not like I’ve got a secret identity anymore.”
“Whichever you prefer.” To Ace, names were like jobs. Tags you put on at a point of your life before you changed once you outgrew them; as she abandoned her patronym, Saga Freyson, when she left Concordia. She had had many names before taking that of Ace, and it would not be her last.
It didn’t mean she forgot her past, nor buried it. That would be disrespectful.
“Look, it’s useless,” Maggie kept complaining. The more Ace observed her, the more she grew convinced she was an adrenaline junkie in need of a fix. “Why don’t we ask Stitch to create us a tracking hound or something?”
“Now, now, patience is a virtue,” Ace replied. “There is power in waiting and letting the other make the first move.”
“Ugh, the power of wasting time?”
“The power of getting to know the other better.” Which was what Ace was pulling on the other woman here.
The truth is, the younger woman had been giving Ace the cold shoulder since she asked her to join her on this survey—she thought it would help them know one another, and considering that team’s poor track record with ambushes, make her task safer.
Ace had a keen insight into people, or so she thought. She was always very good at sensing what they wanted, not what they said they wanted. Maybe she was born with a stronger sense of empathy than most or having worked with multiple, various groups for years sharpened her emotional skills. Humans’ ability to adapt to social groups had made them valued as lieutenants and diplomats by various galactic powers, a niche which Ace had exploited to get ahead in life.
And she could tell Maggie Powells didn’t like her on principle. It bothered Ace. She knew she couldn’t get along with everyone, but a part of her wanted to be liked.
“That sounds like a bad pick up tactic,” Maggie replied with condescension.
Mmm… romance. What an odd choice of discussion. Random choice? She could sense an undercurrent of frustration there. Then again, Maggie Powells seemed to be a frustrated person in general. “You were dating someone before joining this group, were you not?”
She guessed right. “It went nowhere. Guy asked me out for a party which I didn’t even go to. Instead, I almost got killed.”
“I heard. That was when Shroud wiped out the Evermarsh cult?”
“He told you?” she asked, astonished.
No, but she had re
“What I done?” a familiar voice replied from within the walls, Maggie’s eyes shining with a vicious glint behind her mask.
“Come in,” the pig said, inviting the two women, “Make yourselves at home.”
The two eagerly walked in, the pigman closing the door behind.
Sun Wukong, clearly having taken a few drinks already, lifted a cup of beer with his tail as he saw them arrive. He sat in front of a table, covered with various items, holding cards with his hands. Ace recognized the game played as Poker, one of the many fads in the Midnight Market.
The Monkey took their presence in stride. “Oh, you followed me there? Please don’t litter the tunnels with your medic’s creatures please, I cleaned them up last week.”
“What is this place?” Ace asked, curious, putting her knives back under her cloak upon realizing there would be no fight.
“You’re smart, figure it out.”
“This is my house,” Zhu clarified. “And Sun’s, since he spends all his time playing with me now.”
“Since I cannot go back to Earth until the Sun Empress obliges,” Sun Wukong replied, shifting his cards. “I must occupy my time outside cultivation exercises as I can.”
“Who cares,” Maggie replied. She hadn’t lowered her weapons, eyeing the treasure on the table. “You took our stuff to… to what, gamble?”
“I was out of funds to play poker,” Sun Wukong said, although Ace smelled a lie. “And to pay for my beer tab with Zhu.”
“... I’m going to kill you,” Maggie said, with a stony tone, pointing her gun at his face. “I’m going to shoot you. Like Harembe.”
“Nope, you will not,” Sun replied. “If you try, I will punish you.”
Maggie pulled the trigger.
The bullet stopped within an inch of Sun Wukong’s face, floating in midair. The Monkey hadn’t even looked at it.
“Are you insane?!” Ace lambasted her colleague, grabbing the gun off her hands before she could react.
“Hey!” she complained, struggling to get it back. “That’s my stuff.”
“You think violence will solve all your problems?” Ace replied, slightly angered at her reaction.
“Oh, this is fine,” Zhu Baije replied with cheerfulness. “Everyone has tried to kill Sun at one point.”
“Even you?” Ace asked, curious, as she kept the gun out of Maggie’s range.
“Except me, and maybe Shifuyáng, who is great in his wisdom and patience.”
“He got me into the Zodiac, I could never bother that goat,” Sun Wukong replied, sending Maggie’s bullet back in its barrel with a thought. “I am the Monkey King, Sun Wukong. I laid waste to Heaven's’ armies and lifted mountains by myself. You will not succeed where they failed. But I will gladly give you my emblem as a token of good faith. Here.”
He grabbed his emblem with one of his four hands, tossing it at Maggie.
Ace, sensing a trap, released her ally and attempted to catch the item, but an invisible force moved it out of her fingers’ grasp. Instead, the headband opened and caught Maggie’s forehead by surprise, tightening around it.
“What the—” Maggie raised a gun at Wukong, only for the headband to shine and tighten. The pain made her drop her weapon and fall to her knees.
“Your punishment of course,” Sun Wukong replied. “The headband will hurt you if you ever try to hurt someone else in any way.”
“You fucking—” Maggie screamed, as the headband shone brighter.
“Even verbally,” Sun Wukong said, sipping his drink.
“Now this is a bit much, Sun,” the Pig pleaded, as Ace immediately rushed to the Red Sorceress’ side. “Tang never used it on you for insults. Remember that event with the dragon?”
“I must teach her in days what I learned in years,” Sun Wukong defended his choice. “Stern teaching makes for quick progress.”
Ace tried to grab the headband, which wouldn’t budge. Eventually, Maggie calmed herself and stopped struggling, the headband stopping to shine and returning to normal size.
“On the bright side,” Sun Wukong said. “If you spend twenty-four hours without triggering it, it will fall down, and you will have my emblem. I promise it as the Monkey King, may the Buddha drop a mountain on me should I lie.”
“You already did,” Ace lambasted him.
“Yes, hence why I made a vow on the Buddha,” Sun Wukong replied. “Also if you had asked nicely for the treasures, I would have returned them.”
“That’s not fair, you stole them from us!” Maggie complained. “You stole our stuff!”
“Hey, the chests were laying around for everyone to open them! You humans always feel so entitled.”
“The treasures are mine, actually,” Zhu Baije said sheepishly. “I wanted to help Players so much and left our treasure around the Lair for you to find. Sun Wukong said I was too generous—”
“You are,” the Monkey interrupted him. “You teach them a bad lesson. Remember all the trouble we had on our journey? What was the cause? What led them here?”
“Greed,” Ace guessed.
“Greed. Greed makes you pick fights you should not, for one more trinket. Adventurers always tell themselves they will be satisfied this time, but they never are. If your group is to follow in our footsteps and live through your journey, then you needed to learn to let go of what does not matter.”
“We came here to get stronger!” Maggie snarled at the Monkey, her hand almost reaching for the gun, but stopping at the last moment. Pain made for a strong teacher.
“They already have all the tools to succeed,” Sun Wukong said, and this time, Ace believed him, “I did not lie on this. You, Players, have sorcery, and brains. You should practice with them instead of relying on shiny, outdated weapons.”
“Then, this was all a test?” Ace guessed, glancing at the stash.
“Zhu is too nice to hold debts,” Sun Wukong chuckled. “I was trying your patience. Some of the monkeys you slew were friends, and I worried your friend might be too rude and violent. So I set to test your temper, as the Buddha did with me long ago.”
“Have you Mur?” Maggie hissed. “He’s way worse than me!”
“Yes,” Sun Wukong admitted. “But unlike him, you are not bound by a fiendish nature, but by your will alone. You can temper yourself. Anyway, you failed my test. In a moment of rage, you would have stuck me dead under Zhu’s roof, and so you will learn patience and restraint as my trial.”
“Sun Wukong and I decided early that we did not want to threaten our successors with bodily harm, the way others Zodiac members decided to,” Zhu Baije said. “We thought we should rather help you grow instead of trying to kill you or push our own agenda.”
“Successors,” Ace noted. “Odd choice of word.”
“You’re just passing the responsibility to free Earth to us!” Maggie complained, grabbing the headband but unable to remove it, nor willing to admit defeat.
“We intend to help when the time comes,” Sun Wukong said, but then added, sheepishly, “This old monkey here can pack a punch still, but our skills have diminished. I remain the strongest of the Zodiac, mind you.”
“Except the Tiger,” Zhu Baije said, the Monkey King pouting in response.
Ace glanced at Maggie, who seethed in silence, and at the headband. The treasures weren’t important. The emblems were, and they had one, in a fashion. “Zhu Baije,” the diplomat asked the Pig. “What is your trial?”
“Oh, my trial?” the Pig laughed. “Curiosity? I left my emblem inside a treasure chest.”
“I didn’t take it,” Sun Wukong said. “Even if I think it is too easy.”
“If you keep looking, you will find it. You could say it is… hidden in plain sight!” Zhu Baije added a dramatic intonation to his voice as if he had given them a difficult hint.
Ace, ever the seeker, quickly figured it out. “In that case, we will go look for it.”
“So soon? I would be very glad to exchange tales around a cup of tea,” Zhu Baije said. “Would you like to play a game?”
Ace glanced at Maggie, who kept glaring at the Monkey King. “No thanks.”
As Ace had figured out, Zhu Baije had hidden the chest containing his emblem in the very first room, inside the golden earth replica. After some effort and checking, Ace had found a lock opening it up like an egg, with the treasure at its center.
Hidden in plain sight. A landmark the Players would have needed to go through no matter what area they explored afterward. The very first.
More importantly, they had confirmed the tunnels linked the various areas, using one to go back to the northern water reservoir. Ace was now convinced the spirits moved from the south to the forest, circumventing the wards, through them.
All in all, the backtracking with a seething, miserable Maggie had been the hardest part of the journey by far. And while the Pig’s trial was so easy it hurt, Maggie struggled with her own. “This is humiliating,” she said, finally giving up on removing the headband forcefully.
“Yes,” Ace agreed. Even if she earned that punishment. “It’s only one day.”
“I can’t stop being assertive for one day!” Maggie complained.
“That… that is not assertiveness, Maggie,” Ace said, before realizing she had hit the root of her ally’s problems. “Maggie, trying to hurt or shout at people is not strength.”
“That’s the only way to get respect,” Maggie countered.
“No. If anything, it lessens respect others have for you.”
“You’re starting to speak like the Monkey,” Maggie glared back, “You had a bad family time?”
“No, my parents are happily married, although I haven’t talked to them in a long while.”
“You killed someone?”
“Never outside of self-defense.”
“And that’s why you can’t understand,” Maggie replied. “You never had to fight to live.”
Ace inhaled deeply and resisted the urge to slap her. “I fought, more than you know,” she replied. “Against my fate. Against Concordia. I don’t have to suffer through the same hardship as you to understand where you come from, and to tell you your behavior is incorrect.”
“Really? Well, think it’s all a game to you. amuse . You don’t really care about yourself, do you?” Ace replied with a heavy silence, letting Maggie speak her mind. “It clicked, over time. You’re too selfless, it’s not normal. Nobody’s that kind. You just don’t care. Or you’re afraid to.”
“In an instant, we are alive, in the next second, we are gone, like light,” Ace replied, “Time consumes us all in time. Empires rise and fall in the face of an uncertain future, and all that remains of our actions are the ruins and impact we leave behind. Even over that, we have little power.”
“I’m pretty sure I know that if I kill someone, it’s because I wanted it.”
“Or so you think, but think about it… are the events we face coincidences? Were my meeting with your group and what came after chance, or premeditated. Maggie, we are not free, or not fully. There is a force bigger than all of us, and all we can do is go along with the flow; if you go against it, you suffer, always. This is how the universe works. I’m at peace with it. And this is why I want people to be happy and live without regret. Because so few of our choices matter and our lives are so short, they are all the more precious.”
“What kind of mindset is that? You think we don’t have power, and that we should make peace with it?” Maggie shook her head, unable to come to terms with it. “It’s creepy as hell. I don’t want it. It’s cowardly, I don’t ever want it.”
“Believe what you want,” Ace replied. “I don’t expect you to come around to my worldview.” She had wanted to make an analogy to the headband but decided Maggie wouldn’t listen then.
Her fingers brushed against Maggie’s headband. “Maggie, I really want you to feel better, but you earned that punishment. Why did you pull the trigger?”
Maggie almost slapped her hand away, before the headband shone in alarm. “None of your business.”
Ace looked at her dead in the eyes and waited for an answer.
“Alright, because it makes me feel strong,” she admitted. “I didn’t want to look weak. Happy?”
“Can you honestly tell me that you were happy, fully happy, even before?”
“That’s…” She marked a short pause. “I was happy. Happiest weeks of my life, ever since I…” Another pause, but longer this time. She struggled to find her words or lies to tell. “If I don’t fight I… I can’t live without it… I’m useless if I can’t fight!”
“Maggie, you’re not a victim.” Ace hugged her, the other woman freezing, “Strength isn’t putting a gun in someone’s face. Strength is standing strong even in the face of torment, and not being afraid of being vulnerable. And you’ve strength aplenty.”
Maggie just stood still. Perhaps she had never been hugged before. Ace released her hold, putting both hands on her shoulders. “You will conquer that headband,” Ace declared, “By will alone.”
“I… I don’t need your support,” Maggie replied brashly.
“No, you don’t,” Ace agreed, “Just be honest and focused, and prove that ape wrong.”
Maggie looked down, then tightened her left hand into a fist. “Damn right.”
Players' Stats
Account
Dragonslayers Guild Moderator
(Pending Judgment)
NameShroudNetworkProgressHolderMathias MartelBroadcastUnlockedLevel2 (Adept)Grant SpellUnlockedAffinityBlueSynergizeUnlockedLockNetworkLocked Feature(0/7)Spellcoins3Overlock(0/1)Stored Saves5Save?Load?Spell CompendiumNameDotAffinityPremium Thoughts1BlueBabel1BluePurge1GreenBeastmaster2BlueMindshield2BlueDoppelganger2BlueHeal2GreenGlass Field2Orange/BlueLightbringer2Red/OrangeMad World2Blue/GreenAccountDragonslayers GuildNameYoshikageOversoulProgressHolderKari MatsumotoRememberUnlockedLevel2 (Adept)Channel SoulUnlockedAffinityYellowLocked Feature(1/3)LockOversoulLocked Feature(0/7)Spellcoins9Overlock(0/1)Spell CompendiumNameDotAffinityBabel1BlueWallcraw1GreenPeak1GreenNeedless1GreenWard1YellowDoom Sense1YellowSpiritsight1YellowDeathgem1YellowHands of Slaughter3Yellow/Violet/RedAccountDragonslayers GuildNameThe Mur!AdamantProgressHolderMurmur the ImpHarderUnlockedLevel1 (Novice)FasterUnlockedAffinityOrangeLocked Feature(0/3)LockAdamantLocked Feature(0/7)Spellcoins20Overlock(0/1)Spell CompendiumNameDotAffinityReinforce1OrangeDiceweight1OrangePitborn2Green/RedAccountDragonslayers GuildNameDocInseminateProgressHolderNathaniel StitchSpawnUnlockedLevel1 (Novice)IncubateUnlockedAffinityGreenLocked Feature(0/3)LockInseminateLocked Feature(0/7)Spellcoins7Overlock(0/1)Spell CompendiumNameDotAffinityPremium Thoughts1BlueDeathgem1YellowAccountDragonslayers GuildNameAceCastlingProgressHolderSaga FreysonSummonedUnlockedLevel2 (Adept)Piercing BoundaryUnlockedAffinityVioletLocked Feature(2/3)LockCastlingLocked Feature(0/7)Spellcoins1Overlock(0/1)Spell CompendiumNameDotAffinitySwitch1VioletPathfinder1VioletTimesense1VioletUrbanstep1VioletSeamancer1OrangeAccel1WhiteDoorway2VioletSplash2Orange/VioletRainmaker2Orange/VioletAccountDragonslayers GuildNameSharpshootSpellgunProgressHolderMaggie Jesse PowellsCrimson BulletUnlockedLevel1 (Novice)Homing BulletUnlockedAffinityRedLocked Feature(0/3)LockSpellgunLocked Feature(0/7)Spellcoins13Overlock(0/1)Spell CompendiumNameDotAffinityStockmight1RedBabel1BlueThunderling2Green/RedBullseye2Violet/BlueAccountDragonslayers GuildNameSolAegisProgressHolderSolomon NicholaeSpell MartyrUnlockedLevel1 (Novice)Locked Feature(0/1)AffinityWhiteLocked Feature(0/3)LockAegisLocked Feature(0/7)Spellcoins9Overlock(0/1)Spell CompendiumNameDotAffinityPeak1GreenNeedless1GreenBabel1BlueQuasar1RedBiosurge1RedReinforce1OrangeEncode1WhiteSpell Syphon1White
Spell of the Day
Focus
Affinity: White
Dot: 2
Price: 6-10
Activation: Active, Thought
The caster compresses a spell that would usually affect multiple targets or an area, drastically reducing its range and duration but boosting its power.