Beta Life, page 25
part #1 of Digital Sorcery Series
"Yeah, that shouldn't be a problem," Viltria said, "Please wait here, I need to go and collect some things if we're leaving on a journey."
"No way am I letting you run off on your own without one of us," Elaria said glaring at the dark elf.
"Elaria, she literally just had guards in her house," Rondo said exasperated, "she could have turned us over to them at any time."
Not waiting for the conversation to finish or for permission, Viltria left us in the kitchen and exited into the hallway. Turin stood there awkwardly with his collar still on staring at Elaria.
"I can't believe I wasted my time rescuing this poor excuse for an elf," Elaria muttered under her breath.
That was not only harsh of Elaria but unfair to Turin. Sure, he was a bit awkward and into some weird things, but he did manage to stand up for his love when he felt he needed to, and that wasn't something that everyone did. Even some of the supposed toughest men I met in my life would simply let their lovers be attacked without defending them.
"Elaria, look at me," I said sternly to her.
The ranger turned away from Turin and glared at me. Well, at least on the plus side she still listens when someone speaks to her, though that attitude needs an adjustment fast.
"I know that you don't like or trust these dark elves, and your reasons for that are your own, but we are now allied with Turin and Viltria. We need their help to get out of this city," I said to her speaking sternly but calmly. "The decision has been made, and for better or worse, our fates are tied to theirs right now."
She glowered at me before saying, "Fine, but it's on your head if she betrays us."
Good, now that I got Elaria to at least begrudgingly buy-in, we could focus on the task at hand. Viltria seemed confident that she could get us out of the city without much of a problem, but I wasn't so sure. We had three elves in our party who were mortal enemies of these people and only one dark elf who knew the lay of the land down here.
"You know, I'm getting really tired of running from things," Rondo said wistfully. "Feels like all I've done since I entered this world."
"Yeah, I know what you mean," I muttered in response. "Hopefully we can find a place, not just for Viltria and Turin, but where all of us can relax a little."
"I wouldn't count on that," Eldertits said in response, "this is a game, not a vacation."
Viltria came back into the kitchen a moment later breathing hard and said, "Alright, I've grabbed what I needed, and now I'm ready to go."
Turin looked at her with guilt written all over his face and said, "Vil, are you sure you want to leave behind your life here?"
"I'm certain," Viltria responded with a fiery determination in her eyes.
"But Vil, what about your home and wealth?" Turin asked the dark elf.
Viltria came over to Turin and grabbed ahold of his hands before saying, "Turin, I've made my decision, and I want to be with you. This is no life for you down here, so it wouldn't be right for me to keep you here pretending to be a slave whenever anyone else is around. This house is just a possession, but home is wherever we can be together, and besides, I'm not leaving empty-handed."
She winked at him and kissed him following this statement. The rest of us stood there awkwardly watching throughout this whole display of affection. Rondo and I seemed to enjoy the sweet moment while both Elaria and Eldertits looked like they wanted to throw up.
"Are you two lovebirds going to stand there all day not screwing, or can we get a move on already?" Eldertits asked after a moment.
"What's the matter Tits?" I quipped. "You can stand there and watch two people have sex but can't enjoy a nice romantic moment?"
"Romance is just people deluding themselves," Eldertits muttered in response. "Sex is natural for all living things."
Well, that's cynical. Whenever I thought I had her figured out she would surprise me again. Sure, on the surface she acted like a troll who thought everything was a joke, but underneath, this woman had complexities I wasn't sure I'd ever completely understand.
Having finally pulled herself away from Turin, Viltria stepped on the floor causing the tile to rise again and said, "Alright, this way."
Rondo apologized to Elaria and threw the loop of rope back over her neck. Elaria's face, which had already settled into a scowl, didn't change. She simply silently accepted it and began climbing down the staircase with the rest of us following after.
Chapter Eighteen: Blind Escape
Just like Viltria had said, the passage underneath her kitchen dumped us out on the second tier of Maleuhur. Specifically, we came out into an abandoned building built right into the cliff face.
Elaria quickly went to scout the remainder of the building which meant that Rondo had to go with her. Viltria assured us she owned this building and there was nothing inside of it, but that didn't stop Elaria. Only after the elf completely swept the building would she declare it safe.
"Well, what now?" Eldertits asked the dark elf.
"Now we need to make our way down to the first tier, and then I'll have to blind all of you before I take you to the way out," Viltria stated.
"I guess let's get moving then," I sighed and motioned for Viltria to lead.
She led us out of the building, which was near the end of one of the side streets on the second tier, and back towards the main road. Our group moved swiftly but took efforts to avoid drawing attention to ourselves, though I'm not sure how well this worked considering we had two elven slaves and three humans in our group. Eldertits pulled her hood back up and resumed pretending to be a human.
Even though we tried to stick to the sides of the road and avoided large groups of dark elves I still caught several of them openly staring at us. I prayed that word of our group wouldn't get back to the guards that were probably still stalking Viltria's home.
When we reached the main road Viltria jerked Turin violently out of the way of some dark elves causing him to stumble and gasp before he regained his footing. The dark elves nodded their thanks and Viltria smiled at them before we continued on towards the ramp to the first tier.
Moving up next to Turin, Eldertits whispered to him, "Doesn't being treated with a firm hand just get you hard?"
The elf blushed and glared at Eldertits before asking, "Do you ever behave appropriately?"
Tits adopted an expression of mock offense before saying, "Romeo, Romeo, where art thy ball gag, Romeo?"
"What?" Turin said not understanding a word of what she said.
"Shut up, Turin," Eldertits hissed back to him, "you're supposed to be a slave, remember?"
Pouting, Turin moved as far away from Eldertits as he could, restrained as he was by the leash. Viltria shot a quick glare at Tits which the latter didn't notice.
After their little dust up, we walked the remainder of the second tier in silence, and much to my relief, we had no issues getting through the gate located at the top of the ramp down to the lower level. I guess they only really cared if you were trying to get to a higher level, not the other way around.
Once we reached the first tier, Viltria led us down one of the larger roads off of the main street to the right. This level of the city was so much larger than the second or third tiers. It made a lot of sense as it wasn't confined to a terraced hillside but could spread out on the rest of the cavern floor.
We zigzagged up and down streets until we ended up in the industrial section of the city. Craftsmen worked with every sort of material you could imagine, and giant furnaces poured nearly invisible smoke up towards the cavern ceiling.
Aside from workshops, smithys, and foundries, large warehouses also dotted this section of the city. I had to give the dark elves some credit, if they wanted to hide an exit out of their city this area was as good of as any option I could think of.
Going around the side of one of these warehouses, Viltria stopped and looked both ways to check if anyone else was around. I looked too, and there was no one visible in either direction.
Satisfied, Viltria said, "Okay it's time, I'll need to blind you from here."
"Alright, our lives are in your hands," I responded quickly before Elaria could start to argue about this again.
Stepping up in front of Rondo, Viltria raised her hands and darkness poured out. This darkness flew up and settled in front of his eyes. This made it look like he had a thin strip of pure black across his face where his eyes should have been.
Viltria repeated the process with Elaria, who I expected to object, but the elf simply stared murderously at the dark elf and accepted her fate. A moment later, Eldertits was blinded, and then it was my turn.
"Last one," Viltria said to me raising her hands.
"You're not blinding Turin?" I asked surprised.
"No, I would trust him with anything," Viltria said with a smile and added, "besides, I'm going to need help guiding four blind people."
"Fair enough," I said, and she quickly cast the spell on me.
The darkness, or whatever it was, settled over my eyes and I couldn't see anything. She was right about it not hurting, because my eyes felt fine. In fact, I was pretty sure my eyes still worked just fine, but the darkness she summoned was blocking everything else from my vision as if she placed a blindfold over them.
"What now?" I asked still adjusting to the complete and total darkness. It actually felt like it was encompassing the area around me even though I knew that it was just covering my eyes. This must be how the blind feel every day. I really took my eyes for granted.
"Oh, I like how kinky this is getting," Eldertits said from somewhere to my left.
Ignoring her and answering my question Viltria said, "I'm going to lead you and Eldertits by the hand. Turin will do the same for Rondo and Elaria. Please try to match our pace, and we'll do our best to keep you from running into anything. We'll have to move fast, because I'm going to have to unhook Turin's leash. If anyone sees a free elf walking around down here we're in big trouble."
I heard the sound of the leash being unhooked from the collar around Turin's neck and felt a cold hand grasp mine a moment later. It guided my hand to another softer and warmer hand.
This second hand must have been Eldertits', because she giggled and said, "Oh, holding hands, how romantic."
"Quiet," Viltria commanded and then took my other hand with hers. "Turin, are you three ready?"
"Yeah, we're ready," Turin replied.
Viltria breathed out slowly and then said, "Let's move."
I felt her hand pull me, and I stumbled forward and yanked Eldertits along. It took me a minute of floundering after Viltria before I finally was able to settle into her rather quick pace. I hadn't taken walking for granted since I had been forced into the wheelchair back in the real world, but I still hadn't expected it to be so difficult to do without being able to see. I knew right now that if I was ever given the horrible choice of my legs or eyes I would easily choose my eyes.
The turning was the worst part. Viltria would jerk us in different directions seemingly at random, and the two of us trailing her would be jolted in that direction. I never fell down, but it was close.
The stops were almost as bad. Viltria would stop, and without being able to see her I wouldn't realize, and I'd crash into her back. A second later Tits would slam into my back. The three of us would grunt and lurch forward before Viltria caught herself and forced all three of us to stay on our feet.
This pattern continued for what felt like ages but was probably only about five minutes until Viltria hissed, "Turin stop, there's guards over there!"
Turin must have stopped, because the three of us stood in silence for a moment without Viltria saying anything else to him.
"You two, wait here," Viltria whispered to Eldertits and I. "We'll handle this and be right back."
So, Tits and I stood there in silent terror holding hands and waiting for Viltria to return. I could feel my heart beating quickly as I strained to hear anything. All I heard were the faint noises of workers in the distance which wasn't very reassuring.
Tits, who must not have been able to take the quiet, whispered, "Do you think that Turin can do anything in a fight?"
"He can handle a shield, I know that," I whispered back to her.
"Well, at least I'm fairly confident that Viltria knows what she is doing," Eldertits replied.
The dark elf certainly carried herself like someone who was confident in her abilities, but would she actually be able to hurt her own people if push came to shove? I wasn't so sure about that, but all we could do at the moment was have faith that she would be able to handle whatever difficulty she had seen and then be back to whisk us away.
Of course, if Viltria and Turin failed, the rest of us would likely be discovered and captured or killed. Four blind people were not going to put up much of a fight against anyone. Killing ourselves and being sent to respawn might be preferable to getting captured and most likely forced into slavery.
I shuddered at the thought of going back to respawn or becoming a slave. Seriously, what was wrong with the developers at the Everlast corporation anyway? Why would they put an institution like slavery into a game where they planned on people becoming permanent additions to the game world?
"You know what we should have done before Viltria blinded us?" I whispered to Eldertits. "We should have added her and Turin to the party, so we could communicate with them via the party chat."
I just checked my menu and could still pull it up and see it blessedly. This helped make it feel a little less like I was standing in a void.
"Too late now," Eldertits responded, "Though, it would have been hilarious to watch Elaria's reaction to that. Speaking of Elaria, I'm going to check in with them now that you mentioned it."
Eldertits: How are you two lovebirds doing over there?
Elaria: This is taking too long, they should have been back by now.
Rondo: We're just peachy. Elaria especially enjoys the waiting in darkness bit.
Elaria: The sooner we're out of this pit the better.
Elaria was about as cheerful as I expected her to be, but honestly, I don't think any of us enjoyed waiting here like this. This is the most helpless I've felt since I entered the game, and I've spent most of my time in Alderoth feeling helpless. You might call me an expert on the feeling.
"We're back, and we need to move quickly," Viltria suddenly whispered in front of me. "Sorry it took so long, but there were some complications."
Not waiting for a reply, she grabbed my hand and jerked us into motion once more. This was the fastest pace she had set yet, and I tripped and fell to the ground more than once, which unfortunately took Eldertits with me.
After my third fall within a couple minutes I hissed up at Viltria, "Slow down, I can't keep up with this pace."
Viltria quickly pulled me to my feet and said, "Sorry, but they know someone is here, and we have to get through the entrance before more guards arrive."
"So, I take it," Eldertits stated getting back to her feet, "that you didn't get all of them?"
"No," Viltria responded pulling us quickly forward once more, "There were a couple that we didn't see until it was too late. I'm not involved in the defenses of the city, so there were things that I wasn't aware of."
Rapidly, we continued our blind journey through the industrial section of Maleuhur. At least I think we were still in that section of the city, but honestly I had no idea. For all I know we could have left the city entirely.
A few minutes later, Viltria stopped us and told us to wait for a second while she and Turin opened it up. What exactly it was she didn't say, but a few seconds later it sounded like a door was sliding open.
"Let's get you inside quickly," Viltria said grabbing me and pulling us through whatever she had just opened.
We only moved about ten feet before she stopped us again, so she could go back and close whatever they opened. I began to hear the sound of a scraping and sliding door a few seconds later and I assumed they were sliding it back into a closed position.
Suddenly, a masculine voice called out in the distance, Lady Viltria, I didn't believe it when I was first told that you assaulted the tunnel to the surface with a free elf, and yet, here I find you showing elves and humans our secrets!
The sound of the door moving stopped, and I swallowed some saliva as apprehension filled me. This was it, we had been caught, and I couldn't see any we would get away with over half of us blind.
Finally, Viltria yelled back, I have betrayed none of our secrets. I am still a dark elf of Maleuhur, but I will no longer be bound by the prejudices of our people!
You have betrayed everything! The voice yelled back venomously, I will enjoy watching your companions as they are sold into slavery, but I will take no pleasure in locking up one of the true people.
I will not allow you to touch them! Viltria yelled back defiantly. I am Viltria of Maleuhur, and you will not have them!
The door began sliding shut again and closed with a soft boom a moment later. I flexed my hand as I waited for Viltria to grab it, but it seemed to take an obscene amount of time for her to finally take it and to pull us into motion.
"I have slowed them, but it won't stop them for long," Viltria said as I was forced by her pace to start running.
The ground in front of us suddenly sloped downwards and neither Eldertits nor I was at all prepared for this. The two of us went tumbling forward, and we rolled down the short ramp until the terrain leveled out at the bottom.
"Sorry, I know it's difficult," Viltria said helping me to my feet, "but we have to move quickly."
She must have helped Eldertits to her feet as well, because a second later, my hand was thrust into the elf's hand, and to my surprise, she pulled me forward this time. She must have somehow gotten ahead of me when we rolled down the ramp.
"I'll try to call out changes in direction and terrain as we go," Viltria said as we ran, "that should be the last time the ground will slope downward on you. We'll actually be moving upwards most of the way."
