Hunter's Bond, page 30
It wasn’t fair to Alfin, for one, and he couldn’t imagine he’d be well-liked in Lacerda if he spoke poorly about the mayor. It was the truth, though. Higrem’s arrogance cost him and several of the other hunters. It’d almost cost Mira, too, and that was something Arheis wasn’t going to quickly forgive.
“Is he going to be all right?” Alfin asked, getting up from his own bed and crowding in around Higrem’s.
“I’ll do everything in my power to make sure he is.” Mira’s voice was soft and calm, and Arheis felt a twinge of guilt over the grudge he’d developed.
He could do better. Higrem was still a person, even if he wasn’t an especially good one. He deserved care and compassion.
“What can I do to help?” he asked Mira.
“I need to make something to get the swelling to go down. If you’ll check him for other wounds in the meantime.”
Arheis nodded and went about doing so while Mira worked nearby. It was simple at first. He looked at Higrem’s arms, legs, head, and any other place where there was exposed skin. But he knew from experience that he needed to look everywhere.
So he went about undoing the straps and buckles of Higrem’s armor and carefully setting each piece aside. Then he grabbed his hunting knife, cutting open the man’s shirt and then his trousers. As it turned out, Higrem had marks all over his body. Some of the gashes were fairly deep, but they could be washed out and properly bandaged. What concerned Arheis was the high amount of bruising.
He could be bleeding internally and we’d never know…
Mira returned with a small vial and Arheis gave his report. He sounded like an intern conveying their first physical examination of a real patient, but at least it was thorough.
“I’m worried something happened inside,” he said, glancing to Alfin, who was fortunately preoccupied with holding his father’s hand and talking to him. “One of his organs was punctured or something else. That’s a lot of bruising for the trauma just having happened.”
“It is,” Mira said with a soft sigh. “I don’t have the means to fix such a thing—not directly. But I can have someone send for a chirurgeon.”
Unless Estalia suddenly advanced to the point of having personal jets or helicopters, it would be too late for Higrem if he really was bleeding internally. Judging from the look he shared with Mira, she knew it too.
He never wanted this. And as they worked on Higrem and the other injured hunters, Arheis couldn’t help thinking he had the opportunity to somehow stop it. Higrem was stubborn, but there must have been some way to stop him.
Those thoughts continued up to the moment where he finally collapsed into his bed at the Hackleback. Higrem’s color had improved, but he wasn’t responsive in the least. And when Arheis closed his eyes, the mayor’s now-vacant features were all he could see.
The next morning—or afternoon, he guessed—Arheis’ HUD was going crazy with alerts. He took care of most of his needs, but Hunger still flashed obnoxiously, and his stomach felt like a cavernous pit.
Mentally, though, he wasn’t on board with eating. His thoughts were still focused on Higrem, and so he made his way from the inn to the encampment and was unsurprised to find Mira there.
“Did you sleep?” he asked quietly as he approached.
She turned to look at him over her shoulder, her lips tugging into a small smirk. “Not as much as you.”
Arheis’ apologetic tendencies kicked in quickly. “I’m sorry. I—”
She put a finger up to his mouth to stop him. “I’m teasing. You needed the rest. For reasons we still haven’t had a chance to talk about.”
They hadn’t, had they? Arheis vaguely remembered the pain, like it was a nightmare he’d managed to pull himself away from. In the moment, though…
“How’s Higrem?” he asked, not wanting to dwell.
She sighed, her gaze moving to the mayor’s cot. Alfin was still sitting beside it, though he’d fallen asleep at some point.
“His condition’s stable, but…” She shook her head. “I don’t know, Arheis. Right now I honestly can’t see him ever waking up, even if the chirurgeon can help him.”
So the proud mayor of this village was going to live out the rest of his days in a coma. No matter Arheis’ opinions on the man, that was no way for anyone to live.
He approached the cot, not knowing why he was even doing it. It wasn’t like he could help the man. He had a few semesters of a nursing degree and an Improved First Aid ability under his belt—nothing more.
Still, while Alfin slept he carefully examined Higrem’s bruises to see if they’d gone down any. Some had, thankfully, and it was probably a good sign that the man hadn’t bled out while Arheis slept.
But as he went to pull back the shirt he’d cut, Arheis felt something heavy within the fabric. He looked at the outside, expecting maybe a pin or patch or something signifying his role as mayor, but there was nothing. The weight he’d felt was inside the shirt.
He knew he should leave it alone. Snooping through a mostly-dead man’s belongings wasn’t exactly welcomed by most people. But something called to him; begged him to look. And so he pulled back the fabric, finding a pocket sewn into the inside of the shirt.
He reached in, careful to make sure Alfin was still sleeping, and pulled out… an amulet.
No. Not just an amulet. Destiny’s Eye. The exact same amulet he wore around his neck.
Arheis stood there gaping at it, his mind not knowing how to process this information. Higrem was a PC. Someone out there was controlling him in real life.
But Apex: Untamed had only just started. How could any PC reach the title of mayor so quickly? How could he have such a following in the Guild? How could he have an adult son?
None of it made sense, and there was some part of Arheis that wanted to sever the NeuroJak connection right then and there. Rationally he knew there was a chance Higrem’s player had just logged out after or even during the battle, and that was why he wasn’t responsive.
But what if he hadn’t? What if he was trapped inside there, unable to take care of his basic needs?
And what if the same thing happened to Arheis one day?
Chapter 28
It took several days for Higrem to wake up.
Several long, hectic days where Arheis let his paranoia eat him alive. Mira and Zindar were both busy, and he knew he couldn’t exactly share this burden with either of them, anyway. With as strongly as Mira felt about PCs, he was positive she wasn’t one, and it seemed very unlikely Zindar was either, since his race wasn’t available at character creation.
Explaining all of this to two NPCs would be an exercise in futility. As real as they felt, they didn’t know this was a game. They didn’t know anything about Simon Henderson or the real world. Higrem was his only chance, and Arheis kept checking on him periodically, in between lending his meager First Aid skills and getting his Guild issued armor repaired at the smith.
On the second day, he saw Mira pull Alfin aside. The boy backed away from her, shaking his head in disbelief, and Arheis knew what she must have told him. He’d seen his mom give someone the same talk when he’d been a kid. He’d left school early and his mom had him stay in the waiting room while she finished up. She’d had to tell a woman that her husband likely wasn’t going to ever wake up again, and that she should start making plans.
Alfin obviously wasn’t interested in making plans, and the next day he was still at his father’s side. Some small, selfish part of Arheis was tempted to ask him about Higrem’s PC status, but he was able to stop himself from acting like a complete monster.
Sometime in the middle of the third day, when Arheis was at the Hackleback waffling over whether or not he should preemptively sever the link, Higrem awoke. He wouldn’t have known, but there was a commotion outside and hunters and villagers alike started heading to the encampment en masse. When Arheis realized that, he left his unfinished ale and went to see what was going on, only to find Higrem sitting up in bed, looking healthy as a damn horse.
The man was surrounded by admirers, including his son, and so Arheis caught Mira’s eye as if silently asking what the hell happened. She just shrugged.
Of course Arheis didn’t actually have an opening to talk to the man for another full day. Higrem was always surrounded by people. They came by to see how he was doing and express their well wishes, and some stayed to hear his version of the hunt. Arheis only caught bits and pieces of it, but it was already wildly different from what he remembered.
It wasn’t until the Guild started preparing a feast in Higrem’s—and supposedly the other hunters’—honor that Arheis found a moment to approach him. He was inside the hall, helping two other hunters mount the Nepondus Queen’s head to the wall. Arheis ignored how uncomfortable it made him feel and waited for a free moment to catch Higrem’s attention.
“I need to talk to you,” he said as calmly as he could manage.
Higrem didn’t respond in kind. “There’s the man of the hour!” he roared, turning to clap Arheis on the shoulder. “I heard you got the killing blow. Not even a scratch on you, how about that?”
“What was it like?” one of the hunters asked, turning a wide-eyed gaze on him. “What did it feel like to bring her down?”
Soon the others turned to look at him expectantly, and Arheis found himself telling the story just to be done with it. It was hard to be enthused about the hunt with everything else weighing on his mind, but he could feel an uptick in adrenaline as he recalled those last harrowing moments, when his Morale had soared and he’d acted like a true leader.
The two other hunters were eventually called away, though, and Arheis was prepared to seize his opening. Until Higrem spoke.
“Don’t worry about the low rank. That kill should get you to seven or eight easy. Assuming you’ve wised up,” he said with a wink.
“By ‘wise up’ you mean take sole credit for a hunt that had thirteen other people on it?”
Higrem arched a brow at him. “Look, I don’t know what rock you crawled out from under, but that’s the way the Guild does things. It’s how it’s always been.”
“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about,” Arheis said gravely. Before he could be interrupted again, he finally just came out with it. “I know you’re a PC. I saw your amulet.”
The mayor’s eyes widened slightly and he looked around. When he spoke again, it was in a quieter voice than Arheis had ever heard from him. “You mean the one you wear around your neck for anybody to see?”
“Is that a problem?”
Higrem glanced around again. “Not one I plan on talking about here. You’re staying at the Hackleback, right?” Arheis nodded. “I’ll meet you over there in ten minutes.”
Arheis’ walk over to the inn was filled with far more questions than answers. Why did it matter if his amulet was exposed? Was he in danger somehow as a PC? Those questions and so many more battled for space in his head as he made his way to the dark corner booth he’d occupied with his friends just days before. True to his word, Higrem did show up quickly and made his way to the booth.
He pulled his amulet from his shirt and thunked it unceremoniously on the table. “What’s the first thing you notice, besides the fact that I have it.”
Arheis took a look at the amulet. He’d been so stunned by its existence before that he hadn’t even noticed the damage to it. The silver was tarnished, the stone in the center was cracked, and it was lacking the luster that Arheis’ had.
“What happened to it?” he asked, unsure he wanted to know the answer.
“I died,” he said simply. “A lot.”
“I don’t understand how that’s possible, though. How any of this is possible. Untamed just came out.”
“For you, sure.” Higrem took the amulet back and hid it in his shirt once more. “I was a QA tester back in the real world. It was my job to test out the Morale and Redemptive Action systems over and over. Ten hours a day, six days a week.”
“Jesus,” Arheis muttered,
He’d known QA wasn’t exactly a glamorous job, but purposefully failing at a game so many times sounded like absolute hell. And it also explained why Higrem was so reckless. It didn’t account for everything, though. Hell, it wasn’t even scratching the surface.
“So you’ve been here for a while. What, a few years? Five at the most?” Higrem didn’t answer, so Arheis just continued. “How do you have an adult son?”
Something passed across the mayor’s features then. Something that made him seem real and grounded in a way this over-the-top caricature hadn’t so far. It was gone as quickly as it came, but Arheis was sure he wouldn’t forget that look.
“If you’ve logged out, you know time passes a lot quicker here than it does in real life,” Higrem said, his voice painfully neutral. “The rest… well, the rest you’re not getting out of me any time soon. That’s between me, Alfin, and Alfin’s mother.”
There was a slight hitch in the mayor’s voice as he mentioned the woman, and Arheis could only imagine what that meant. He wanted to pry, though. He wanted to ask about every little thing. What was Higrem’s real life like? How long had he played? Why was his amulet losing power? Why was he trying to keep his status as a Predator Class hunter a secret?
He wasn’t able to ask any of it, though. Higrem had a look on his face that Arheis had never seen before. It was haunted; scared. The man rose from the table and looked him in the eyes. “Someday soon, you’re going to have to make a choice. It might not be today. Might not be tomorrow. But it’ll happen, and you’d better be ready for it.”
“What the hell does that mean?” Arheis asked, louder than he intended.
The common area of the Hackleback was mostly dead, but still Higrem put his hands on the edge of the table and leaned in close. “Do you honestly think all of this was programmed in? This world isn’t what it seems, ‘Arheis,’ and it’s as real as the one you and I came from. You’ll find that out soon enough.”
Higrem pushed away from the table, drained a half-full mug of ale that was sitting nearby, and headed toward the door, leaving Arheis to wonder just what he’d gotten himself into.
By the time he was swept up in the Guild’s celebration, Arheis was in low-key panic mode. He’d tried to approach Higrem a few more times, but the mayor just ignored him. Arheis was left to his own thoughts, his own worries, and those had never served him well. Especially when the first thing he imagined was that Higrem was somehow trapped in the world of Estalia and literally couldn’t return to the real world.
But no. He’d said it was a choice. Arheis still had power over the situation. He could walk away now, consider it a fun little demo, and go back to his normal life—no matter how boring or insignificant. He’d made his mind up to do just that—fuck Higrem’s cryptic warning—but several things happened in quick succession that halted his intentions.
First, the Guild’s curator demanded he register the Nepondus Queen. He sat at the same table with the same book propped open and recorded the information just as diligently. Despite Higrem’s “advice,” Arheis mentioned each and every one of the hunters who’d helped him—even if he didn’t know them all by name. The old man scoffed at this, but wrote it down just the same.
> You have completed: The End of the Monarchy!
You have gained 347 XP.
You have earned 5,000GC.
> You have earned the title: Queenslayer.
> You have reached Guild Rank 6.
> You have earned 15,000GC for your recorded kill.
If those were the rewards for reporting the correct number of people, they must have been astronomical solo. More than he needed right now, though it gave him some insight into how Higrem had risen through the ranks.
Unlike last time, though, Arheis didn’t feel that sense of accomplishment. There was some pride, but it was overshadowed by everything else going through his head, and he was grateful when the curator was done with him.
That didn’t mean he was free of the festivities, though. All of the Guild hunters made sure he stuck around for the feast while they plied him for tales of the hunt. Each time, Arheis told the same unembellished story, and each time it was met with disappointment. Eventually they moved on to Zindar, who’d shown up a bit after him and was far better at making even the most mundane actions seem like nail-biting heroics.
As day bled into evening and Arheis mostly stayed out of everyone’s way, Zindar approached him. The Pruvari was a little tipsy, and he dropped down in a chair opposite Arheis.
“Not liking the celebration?” he asked, his brow furrowed in what seemed like genuine concern.
“Too many people.” It wasn’t a lie. One quick glance was enough to prove there were way more people in this room than his introverted self was comfortable with. “And I guess… I don’t know. It feels pretty artificial. We killed the Queen because we had to, not so all the other hunters would see us as superstars who can do no wrong.”
“Speak for yourself,” Zindar said with a toothy grin.
Arheis managed a laugh, but the Pruvari’s expression sobered quickly. “It’s different for me. You’re used to being recognized for your hunts. My kind… aren’t. We’re builders and inventors and sometimes militia. Even with a transmitter, few enough Pruvari devote their lives to hunting. Now that there aren’t many of us left, the number of Guild-registered Pruvari is pretty much just one.”
Guilt tugged at Arheis, and he looked away for a moment before returning his gaze to Zindar. “I didn’t realize. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be.” The Pruvari’s words were sincere, and he wore a genuine smile. “I just wanted you to know. I mean, it’s not that I don’t enjoy having other hunters look up to me, but life’s not all about being revered or even respected. It’s about what you do for other people. Mira taught me that. And you’ve reinforced it. So… thank you, Arheis.”
That was… a lot more than he’d expected to hear. The self-conscious part of him wanted to brush it off and go about his business, but Zindar had yet to say anything to him just for the sake of saying it. If he believed Arheis had done some good, then it must be true. And the idea that they could keep doing good—that they could help other villages, other groups of people—was a tempting one.
