Apocalypse Dawn: First Light - Part 13

Printer-friendly version
AD first.jpg

 

Part 13: Daenyss.

When Caleb's sister offers to get him and Jess an opportunity to play-test a new Virtual Reality MMORPG, Caleb's vacation just may change his life and the lives of those close to him forever.

 

“What’s the veer jayith?” Lissany asked in confusion.

 


 
Author's Note: Here's part 13 of my reluctant princess story. I managed to get it finished today despite my past week, but it took a bit longer to edit than I hoped and I decided on a few changes before posting. ~Amethyst.
 


 
Part 13: Daenyss

I sat there for a while with Rei’s head cradled in my lap as she slept. I used that time to quickly open up my menu and check my stats. It looked like I had leveled up from fighting the Lindwyrm and I would be able to choose a new skill once we could get to Amoiraishe or a skill trainer back in Haven or the Fae Glade. “Damn that thing was worth a crap ton of XP,” I muttered.

“What do you mean Taelya?” Grell asked before his eyes glazed over for a moment and then widened in surprise. “Holy shit! You weren’t kidding. I was just a little over halfway to leveling, but now I have enough XP to choose a new skill and I’m a good quarter of the way toward reaching the next level.”

“Same here,” Lissany said after a brief check of her own stats page. “It must have been an area boss or something.”

“It wouldn’t surprise me, that thing was tough,” Venika agreed with a frown. “Well, at least we all got something out of it. So Daenyss, you’re one of the new players replacing Razor and those other jerks right? I didn’t think that the Nymphs were a playable race. Are you an employee of Pegasus Entertainment too? Moira mentioned that she had people in mind and it didn’t take you long to get into the game.”

“Umm… yes. They aren’t usually, but Moira chose this race and class specifically for me when she told me what my duties would be. She had the character all set up for me so that all I needed to do was swear my oath and receive my nasyr taka from her,” Daenyss replied. She considered the Sprite’s other question and a look of confusion and uncertainty briefly settled over her face before she shook her head as if to clear it. “I guess you could say that I have served Moira for as long as I can remember.”

“What class are you exactly?” Grell asked with a curious look at Daenyss. “What skills did you take?”

“I am an Attendant, trained to anticipate and serve all of Mistress’ needs, whatever they may be. Her Majesty wished to have her own attendant back, so I was given the choice to serve Mistress here. My skills were all taken to see to Mistress’s needs: Cooking, massage, cosmetology, hairstylist(Fae), fashion stylist, sewing, Fae Culture, Kurinshal, and Faerie Dance.”

A deep frown appeared on my sister’s face as Nishalle muttered, “Not a combat skill in the lot except for Kurinshal. You’re supposed to be accompanying Taelya all the time? How do you expect to protect her, or even yourself for that matter?”

“I will gain more skills later and Mistress may choose them as she sees fit. I believe that I had some talent with guns before entering Moira’s service though, and one of my nasyr taka will allow me to summon or dismiss weapons or other objects that are stored in a special chest in Mistress’s rooms at the manor,” the Nymph explained.

I frowned at her response and the Nymph seemed to shrink away from me as she caught the expression on my face. Her reactions to me and some of her answers had been concerning me so it was time to ask some questions of my own. “What do you mean that you ‘believe’ that you had some talent with guns Daenyss? And why are you so damn scared of me?”

“I… I don’t remember anything before meeting your mother in the real world, Mistress, and swearing my service,” the young Nymph admitted reluctantly before going on to relate everything that she could remember.

~o~O~o~

All that I knew at first was pain, Mistress, like it was my entire universe. The first thing that I remember clearly was that agony in my head, so terrible that when it finally left me that my existence seemed hollow without it there with me. When I first opened my eyes Moira was there, right in front of my face and she was furious, telling me how she was going to make me suffer for what I had done. I didn’t know who Moira was or what it was that I had done to anger her though, so after staring at her in confusion and listening to her constant barrage of threats for several minutes I started to cry. I couldn’t stop sobbing as I told her that I didn’t know what I had done and that I couldn’t remember anything. I didn’t know who I was, where I was, or why I was there. I was just so scared.

Someone started talking to her, saying something about a procedure, too much data, damage to a hippo’s campus, memory loss, and more gradual removal with others but it was all hazy to me so I only remember a few words. Moira asked me all sorts of questions, but I didn’t know what she was talking about or what she wanted to know. I think that she was trying to make sure that it wasn’t an act and she seemed to become even angrier when I couldn’t answer her questions properly. She told me that my name was Dennis and that I was a bad person who had done horrible things to her and others, and she was so angry with me that I just sat there and cried, wondering what I could have done that was so horrible that she was that angry at me.

She left me for a while to do other things and I spent the whole time wondering what I had done to make her hate me so much. She wouldn’t have been so mad at me if it hadn’t really been my fault and I hadn’t had done something horrible. So I knew that I had to be to blame for whatever it was, just like she had said, for her suffering and pain and that of anyone else that I had wronged as well. I cried for a long time and when she came back I told her that it was all my fault and that I would take whatever punishment that she wanted to give me. “Do you remember now?” she asked me.

I shook my head and said, “No, but you obviously hate me so I must have done something terrible.” She got mad again then, but not at me. She told me who she was, who I had been, what I had done, all of it. When she was done and turned her attention on me I was so terrified that I curled up into a ball and couldn’t stop sobbing. She did have good reason to hate me, I was a horrible person and I hated myself. I just wanted to be punished for it and find a way to make up for the things that I had done.

That was when she sat down beside me and then she told me that, as much as she would have liked to, she couldn’t punish someone for crimes that they couldn’t remember committing. She said that there would be no purpose to it and then she told me that I had the chance at a new beginning, an opportunity to choose what sort of person that I wanted to be for the rest of my life. She said that she could release me to run away from all of this, leave it all behind and face a life that I couldn’t remember and an uncertain fate out in the world alone or I could try to redeem myself and try to help others and make up for the things that I had done.

I swore to serve her, to do whatever I could to make things right. That was when Moira told me about the game and said that she had four people to fill five open slots, but she needed a fifth. She had already prepared a character beforehand, one meant to help her daughter, but she told me that it would not be easy for me and that it might make me uncomfortable so she would tell me about it and leave the choice up to me. I didn’t need for her to tell me anything about the character, I just wanted to know if I could use this chance to make up for the things that I had done. When she replied “Yes” I agreed to do it.

So she brought me to a big room with lots of huge devices with people inside that she called F.I.Ts and helped me inside one. She and another person attached a bunch of strange devices to me and explained that when I woke up that I would be inside a game. That I would be in a different place and a different body that would feel uncomfortable at first, but that I would get used to it over time. Then Moira said that she would join me soon and that she would show me what I needed to know, help me choose a name, and prepare me for what I was going to be doing by giving me new skills and knowledge that would help me to do my job.

~o~O~o~

As she finished her story Daenyss finally got around to explaining just why she was so skittish around me. “I chose to try to be a better person than I was before, I would do anything to make amends, but I fear that people may always hate me for the things that I did. Please know that I have willingly placed my fate in your hands' Mistress. With the Viyr Jhaith, I cannot refuse you anything and if you wished to punish me or make me suffer then you could easily do so. Her Majesty said that you are not that type of person, but I fear that many would not be so kind in your place. I do not think that I would be, at least not the person that I was before.”

Rei’s lightly snoring head very nearly fell from its current resting place in my lap as I half-jumped in surprise. I had my suspicions about who the Nymph was now, but I couldn’t be certain and it was the Fae term that she had used that had me shocked. “You swore the Viyr Jhaith?!”

“Yes, Mistress,” Daenyss replied, gesturing of the long string of turquoise-hued elvish sigils encircling her throat like a collar.

“What’s the veer jayith?” Lissany asked in confusion.

I let out a long sigh and then attempted to explain. “It’s like your Guardian’s Oath but on magical steroids. It translates to ‘Soul Binding’ and it’s the most powerful magically binding oath that there is among the Fae. Not even death releases the person from the vow that they made. Because it’s so binding and there is no release from it, not even by the one who has been sworn to, the Viyr Jhaith only takes if the person honestly and truly wishes to abide by that vow to the deepest recesses of their heart. Once sworn, the person who took the oath can’t do anything against that oath, the magick of the oath will prevent them from doing so. What exactly did you swear?”

“I decided on the wording of my oath myself, Mistress. I swore that I, Daenyss, daughter of Naerysse and Nymph of the Hawthorne Clan and the Autumn Court, will serve Taelya, daughter of Amoiraishe and Yseil'dhraí of the Autumn Court for all time. I will not do anything to harm her or cause her to come to harm in any way through either action or inaction. I will protect her with my life, anticipate and serve all of her needs to the best of my ability, follow any orders given to me by her, never lie to her, and support her and her allies however I can,” the Nymph recited obediently.

“That sounds very specific and restrictive,” Nishalle pointed out with a frown. “You’ll have no choice but to serve Taelya, at least until the closed beta is over and we’re out of the game. Did you have any idea how binding this oath was before you took it?”

Daenyss nodded with a serious expression on her face. “Of course, the oath cannot be sworn unless the person swearing it is both willing and fully aware of the power of the oath and what they are swearing to. I will do everything that I can to serve you faithfully so that I can make amends and possibly earn forgiveness.”

I looked away from her. In my head, I strongly suspected that this was Razor. But was she really? Even if she had started out as him, and I couldn’t be certain yet that that was indeed the case, she was now in a different body and had no memories of being that person or the wrongs that he had committed in the game. She was like a completely different person now; vulnerable, confused, and scared but willing to make amends for crimes that she didn’t even remember without being told about them second hand. The way that she couldn’t look at her body for long made me suspect that she was having major dysphoria issues too. She needed my help, not to be stuck serving me but now she was bound to that promise whether either of us liked it or not. I also couldn’t believe that Amoiraishe would stick me with Razor.

“You don’t need to earn my forgiveness Daenyss, I don’t think that you are that person anymore, at least you’re not anymore if you could honestly swear that and be bound by your words. I have to be honest with you, I don’t like this, it feels like slavery to me and I can’t even free you from this oath. I’m not really sure how to handle this,” I admitted after a long silence.

“I do not consider myself a slave Mistress,” she told me after considering my words. “A slave has no choice but to serve. I had options available to me but I chose to serve you. I give of myself freely and, even if I can’t remember it, I have done wrong and I must make amends. Please do not think of me as a mere slave. I am your attendant, your companion, and I hope that someday you can learn to accept and tolerate my presence at your side.”

I shook my head sadly. “It isn’t your presence that bothers me Daenyss, it’s that you are giving up your free will for me.”

“Your concern is for me and not yourself?” the Nymph asked with a confused look. Once I had nodded she actually smiled, tears in her eyes as she seemed to lose some of that fear and uncertainty in the way that she looked at me. “Your mother told me that you would not treat me cruelly and, to my shame, I did not believe her. She said that though my mother was serving as your attendant that you treated her as a friend. I hope that I can someday earn your friendship as well. Please rest assured though, Mistress. I exercised my free will in giving you my service and I can still exercise it in how I serve you. My oath just prevents me from making the wrong choices and, given what little I know of my old self, that is a relief to me. Aside from that, I am no different from any other Fae with a will and desire to serve my Court and the Yseil'dhraí.”

I wasn’t completely reassured, but it wasn’t like I could do anything to change the situation. Or maybe I could. I may not have been able to release her from the oath, but I could try to make it easier, for both of us. I tried to give her a friendly smile as I said, “Daenyss, you seem uncomfortable. Close your eyes and use your focusing exercises to push the discomfort of your body to the back of your mind. You should do this whenever you start to feel like your new body is wrong. I was feeling similar discomfort when I first came into the game and it has been lessening with time, but I know how difficult it can be at first. When you are feeling more comfortable why don’t you tell us what each of those nasyr taka on your arms are for?”

Daenyss closed her eyes, her breathing slowed, and after a moment she visibly relaxed. “Thank you for the suggestion, Mistress. It was kind of you to think of my comfort like that.” She smiled at me and then gestured to each of the three turquoise marks on her right arm in turn. “This first one allows me to teleport to you at any time Mistress, while this one allows me to hear it when you call my name, no matter where either of us is. These are so I can be there for you whenever you require my services. This other one allows me to summon or dismiss weapons or other objects that are stored in a special chest in your rooms, as I explained earlier, though I haven not stored anything there yet.”

“Okay, those sound pretty useful, especially that last one,” Grell opined. “What about the ones on your left arm?”

“Those allow me to cast some minor spells. One is a small healing spell, one is a light spell, and the last is a heat spell that will allow me to keep Mistress warm if she needs it or to dry her hair after a bath. My mother said that she uses that one often before Her Majesty placed the marks on me and sent me to join you.”

I breathed a sigh of relief. “That light spell should be useful in our current situation. Rei’s out cold and I haven’t really come up with any light spells yet. So with your help Daenyss, we should be able to do what we need to do now.”

“What do we need to do, Your Highness?” Lissany inquired, starting to get to her feet.

Once I had managed to extract my fiancée from my lap and settle her somewhat comfortably I turned to the others, giving my Beastkin Guardian a stern look. “Lissany, you need to rest your arm. So I want you to watch over Pete and Rei, you should all be safe in here with the barrier that Rei put up. Don’t give me that look, Liss, I’ll have Nishalle and Daenyss with me and I’m sure that they’ll both keep a good eye on me. Everyone else, we’re going to check for any lingering blighted in the store and see about scavenging some things. We’ll need things to make sleeping here for the night more comfortable, something for us to eat tonight and when we wake up in the morning, and anything else on that list that Amoiraishe had Naerysse give me.”

“I’d like to see if I can find a couple of large thermoses as well,” Nishalle said with a pensive expression. “You said that the Lindwyrm’s poison is lethal and I’d like to milk it’s venom sacs to gather as much as I can. It could be useful for an assassin like me, especially if we need to fight something big again. I’m going to have to go back in that thing’s mouth anyway to retrieve Pete’s sword.”

I considered that for a moment and nodded. “That’s not a bad idea, you could coat your weapons with it, just be extremely careful with that stuff, Sis.”

“I plan on it, I’m going to see about getting some good gloves and a mask for while I’m milking it too. I figure that I’ll need to toss or burn them after I’m done, and I might need some small paintbrushes to apply it to weapons,” my sister replied.

With that, I asked Daenyss to cast her light spell and we ventured deeper inside the Walmart with a large globe of white light floating above the Nymph and providing illumination for us. Before we went looking for anything in particular we searched the entire store for any more blighted so that we could be sure to do our shopping and sleeping in relative safety. We ran across several of the undead creatures as we carefully searched the aisles, though we only encountered one or two at a time so they were easily taken care of.

I had offered Daenyss the use of one of my Colt 45’s but neither she nor Grell had to expend any of our precious ammunition. Mostly it was easily taken care of with a quick spell by myself or Venika, or Nishalle using her shadow shift to slip in behind and drop them with her katana. By the time we had made certain that things were all clear, an hour had passed and Nishalle was starting to get a bit tired from using her new ability so much. It wasn’t like Venika or I were doing any better though, we had used a lot of magic throughout the evening and the strain was starting to show with all of us.

Daenyss seemed to be just as tired as we were, but at the same time, she regarded nearly everything around us in the store with the wide-eyed wonder of a child, as if she were seeing them for the first time. Occasionally we would have to stop when she had taken an interest in objects and explain what they were, their purpose, and how they worked. Still, Daenyss didn’t allow herself to be completely distracted by the wonders around her. She would keep casting glances in my direction, watching me and our companions in concern as we started searching for the items on our list. “You look, tired Mistress, I think that you and your friends should rest. Please, I can gather the items on the list for you, and then perhaps when I return a massage would help you to feel better?”

“We’ll be fine, and it will be done quicker if we all chip in,” I told her with a sigh. “You really don’t need to call me Mistress though Daenyss.”

“Would you prefer that I call you Your Highness?” the Nymph asked uncertainly.

“No, it’s bad enough that I can’t get the others to stop calling me that,” I said waving my hands in frustration. “Please just call me by my name.”

“I couldn’t possibly do that Mistress, it would be disrespectful for someone like me to address one of the Yseil'dhraí without a proper title. Y… you could order me to and I would of course have to comply Mistress.” The fear and uncertainty on the Nymph’s face told me just how uncomfortable that option made her feel. As horrid as the option was to her personally though, she had still brought it dutifully to my attention. As much as I hated the titles though, I couldn’t do that to her. Not only would it be an abuse of her oath but it would make her uncomfortable each time she did it and any Fae who saw her addressing me by my name would see her as being disrespectful. It would only earn her the animosity of other Fae.

“To be fair, we only do that when someone may be watching Taelya, well mostly,” Nishalle pointed out with a shrug, interrupting my thoughts. “In public, you need to be treated according to your rank but we usually try to call you by your name when it’s just us around.”

I placed my hands on my new attendant’s shoulders and looked her in the eyes. “You should call me whatever you feel comfortable with Daenyss. I will never order you to do something that will make you uncomfortable or that would make others look down on you just for my own comfort. I refuse to treat you like an object with no feelings of your own. If something makes you uncomfortable I want you to tell me. I won’t even make that an order, but I will ask that you please do so, for both our sakes.”

She bowed her head, and I thought I could see tears in her eyes as she answered. “Yes, Mistress. Thank you, you are far kinder than I probably deserve.”

“You need to stop putting yourself down like that Daenyss,” I told her sternly. “You have a chance to start anew and the person that you’ve chosen to be, taking responsibility and trying to make amends for things that you don’t even remember, I think that is a person worthy of respect. Now let’s get what we need so we can figure out something for dinner and get comfortable for the night.”

~o~O~o~

It took us over another hour going back and forth to bring back everything that we wanted. First, we gathered enough pillows and comforters to make everyone comfortable for the night. That was of course after we managed to find some that wouldn’t cause an allergic reaction in the Fae amongst our group. Next, we searched for food for the night and the following morning. We managed to gather some cereal, granola bars, snack foods, soda, and a case of bottled water. A lot of it wasn’t very healthy, but it wouldn’t require cooking and we just really wanted to settle in for the night as soon as possible.

Daenyss offered to cook something, but she was looking tired herself and I didn’t want her to have to put out the extra effort for all of us, even if we did manage to find a camp stove to cook dinner on. I certainly wasn’t going to send anyone out in that rain again to cross the parking lot and get what we would need for a proper meal. Most of us were ready to fall over and I wasn’t willing to send anyone out there alone or make them do something that I wasn’t prepared to do myself.

It was as we were passing the electronics section and a cell phone display that Daenyss stopped to stare and then squealed excitedly. “Moira had one of these in the real world! It played music and then she used it to talk to someone far away.” Her enthusiastic grin faded to a thoughtful and slightly confused expression though as she admitted, “I didn’t really understand most of what she was saying though. I think she may have been speaking another language for part of the conversation because it didn’t make much sense to me. Something about transforming spock stares I think.”

“Transferring stock shares?” Venika suggested gently.

“Oh! Yes! That was it!” the Nymph exclaimed, her head bobbing up and down excitedly. “She was asking the other person to transfer stock shares to her and said that the others had already approved it and transferred theirs. She also said something about moving to a sanctuary and then she thanked the person and said that she would see them at the tournament.”

“It sounds like Moira is trying to get enough shares to get a controlling interest in the company so she can get control of the board,” Nishalle stated pensively.

“Yeah,” I agreed as we continued along our way again. “I figure that she was talking to someone from the branch in Japan, the States, or Britain. It was probably whoever she has in charge there if they were talking about the tournament at the end of closed beta.” I couldn’t help but wonder what the whole ‘moving to a sanctuary’ was about though as we continued our search.

We managed to find a pair of large stainless steel coffee thermoses for Nishalle’s poison-milking in the kitchen wares section, and a trip to home improvements landed her some paintbrushes, a boxcutter thick leather work gloves, and a rubber respirator mask for painting. We also took the opportunity to scavenge a few heavy-duty flashlights for the night and some batteries to power them in case Daenyss started to tire from the light spell. With all of that done, all that I really wanted to look for was the plants that were on the list for the Fae Glade. We headed over toward the garden center with Daenyss’s light spell guiding us and as (bad) luck would have it, the cosmetics aisle was directly in our path. Of course, it was. Why wouldn’t it be? It was after all the one section of the store I was hoping we could avoid so that I could honestly tell Amoiraishe that we hadn’t happened upon any.

Sometimes I’m too honest for my own good so since we were blatantly passing through the section anyway I told the others, “We might as well have a look here, they may have a few things on the list that I was given.” I silently hoped that we wouldn’t find any of the brands and colors that my Fae ‘mother’ had suggested. I figured, “What are the odds that this store will have exactly the brands and colors that she sent me for? Even if they have some of them they probably wouldn’t have all of the things on the list.”

It was just my luck that they had almost everything on the list, and what they didn’t have Daenyss was able to suggest suitable substitutions for with her cosmetology skill. She even selected some things that weren’t on the list that she thought would flatter me and were suitably environmentally conscious. “This color will look great on you if we ever need to give you an evening look for some reason Mistress,” the Nymph suggested as she showed me yet another shade of eyeshadow.

“I’m afraid that I don’t know much about that kind of thing Daenyss so I’ll put myself in your hands. Gather whatever you think would be best and a small case to put it in and then we’ll go check out the plants and see if they have anything useful,” I told her as I looked toward the garden center.

My new Nymph attendant quickly complied and then we all made our way into the garden center guided by her light spell. A lot of the plants were in pretty bad shape and I couldn’t find much of what was on the list. A lot of it was flowers that had seen better days and they didn’t seem to have any of the herbs at the top of the list like vervain. We did manage some aloe vera plants and some varieties of mint that Venika thought could be nursed back to good health with a little TLC. We also snatched up a large variety of vegetable seed packets. Those hadn’t been on our list, but they didn’t take up too much space and I thought that they would be useful for both Haven and the Fae Glade.

Pete and Rei were both still fast asleep when we returned to the front of the store where we had made camp. I was a bit worried about them both but their pulses seemed steady and strong so it seemed like they were just sleeping. In our absence, Lissany had arranged all of the pillows and comforters that we had brought earlier so that we could all rest comfortably. She had to ask Nishalle and Grell to help move Pete and Rei when we returned so that the pair would be comfortable and warm throughout the night though. She hadn’t wanted to attempt that using only one arm, especially with how big Pete is. It wasn’t that it still hurt, in fact, she said that it felt like it was fully healed, but she didn’t want me and her mother giving her crap for not taking it easy like we had told her to.

The rain had let up and the fire at the gas station was out by this time so Nishalle decided that she would go and retrieve Pete’s sword and get her poison. Before even entering the dead creature’s massive maw she donned her gloves and respirator mask for safety’s sake. It took her a while to work the sword free and then clean it with a towel that she had picked up in housewares for that purpose, but soon Grell was carrying it back inside to place it beside his best friend for when the large Human soldier awoke. While he did that Daenyss and I directed the beams of our flashlights to give my sister enough direct light to work on her second task.

Once the Tokh'dhraí found the venom sack on the right side of the mouth we held the lights in place while she made a careful incision with the box cutter and then placed the first opened thermos underneath, allowing the leaking toxin to flow inside. Then, once the first had been filled and tightly sealed, she repeated the process with the second. I was really glad I wasn’t inside that mouth with her, it stank badly enough from the outside. Finally, with both thermoses full, she made certain to carefully splash rainwater on the outsides of the thermoses to wash off any poison that may have gotten on the surface and ensure that nobody would accidentally touch any. Then she borrowed Rei’s sharpie to write “Poison: Do Not Drink” on the thermoses.

With that gruesome task done and all of our hands carefully washed afterward with some antibacterial hand soap and bottled water, just to be safe, we settled in for the night and feasted on snack foods and soda. Daenyss was like a kid as we ate, it was her first meal in the game, and since she had lost her memory, each thing that she tried was something amazing and new to her because she couldn’t remember ever trying them before. Watching her was both heartwarming and heart-wrenching at the same time and despite her wonder at everything she was trying, she was still focusing on me.

“Mistress, you look sad? Or are you just tired? Is there anything that you require? Maybe a massage or a foot rub?” I must have let my emotions show because she was all over me with concern.

I carefully shook my head. “I’m fine Daenyss, just a little tired and…I feel a bit worried about your situation. I realize that maybe you weren’t a great person before, but I never would have wished this on anybody. I can’t imagine what it’s like for you, knowing nothing about yourself, forgetting everything you know.”

A sad look crossed the Nymph’s face briefly before she shook her head. “My situation is my own doing Mistress, I am just paying the price for my own mistakes. Do not feel sorry for me, I may not know who I was, but that just allows me to explore who I would like to be and discover the wonders of the world around me. I think that I like who I’m becoming. I feel like I’m doing the right thing and that feels good.”

We continued to eat and talk for a while and planned on heading back to Haven first thing in the morning, as soon as we made sure that Pete and Rei were both able to travel. We were all weary though and eventually the long day and lack of sleep the night before caught up with us so I snuggled close to Rei, holding her tight under the comforter as drifted off to sleep. The last thing I recalled before falling asleep was Daenyss tucking the comforter gently around me and whispering, “Good night Mistress,” as she settled into her own sleeping arrangement behind me.

Copyright © 2020 Amethyst Gibbs
up
254 users have voted.
If you liked this post, you can leave a comment and/or a kudos! Click the "Thumbs Up!" button above to leave a Kudos

Comments

Yay

It’s my happy day now. Wow I’m pretty sure Moira went overboard a little but hopefully she can be a better person now, I wonder if there were other crimes Razor did that Moria found out about. I’m also concerned about the apparent brain damage Daenyss has suffered and what else was done to her physical body. I am also more convinced Moira is really fey, extra curious if the sanctuary she spoke of is a fae glade. I’m also wondering if Taelya will be uncomfortable bathing near Daenyss knowing who she used to be and whether her libido as a Nymph will be kept in check long enough for the dysphoria to pass. I wonder if they could make some good fire resistant armor from the monsters hide.

hugs :)
Michelle SidheElf Amaianna

To me, it sounds as if it was

To me, it sounds as if it was two issues. One was that they were removed from the system too quickly, and the other was damage from having the skills removed. It may be that the FIT removal would have been fine without the skill deletion, and vice versa, but the two together was catastrophic. So, re-insertion to try to repair part of that damage would be on the list. Starting as a character at least gives the mind some workout while they try to determine what happened, and how much they can put back in place.


I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.

Your right

I went back and reread that part your right it seems like the memory loss and brain damage weren’t intentional.

hugs :)
Michelle SidheElf Amaianna

accidental

Amethyst's picture

We'll likely find out more as things progress, but this was accidental and there were a lot of factors at play. They pulled Dennis from the game and tried to do a mass erasure of all the skill downloads he had received. That was a lot of information to be getting rid of at once and it would seem that there was a lot more than just the skills that were lost because they had wanted to do it fast and easy. It was eluded to that with the others they would be doing it more gradually so Daenyss was likely the first that they pulled from the F.I.Ts.

Giving her skills and memories from background skills such as character class and Fae Culture will give her at least some knowledge to work from. And the F.I.Ts are designed for life support and complete health and brain monitoring, so while inside Dennis' body and brain can be monitored for the time being, keeping him stable while they arrange to consult with someone about Dennis' condition.

*big hugs*

Amethyst

ChibiMaker1.jpg

Don't take me too seriously. I'm just kitten around. :3

Daenyss

Amethyst's picture

To be fair Moira didn't want Razor, or whichever member of H3lls-Pwn it is, to lose their memory. She would have preferred that they remembered who they were so that she could make them suffer or fear suffering for a very long time outside the game. Daenyss didn't mention any physical issues in her flashback and the language skills seem fine for the most part so it's likely a severe case of retrograde amnesia. The word sanctuary could be referring to several things, so we'll have to wait and see about that.

As for physical discomfort, Taelya is very uncertain about letting Daenyss get too intimate with her. She at least suspects that this person was razor, but at the same time Daenyss is nothing like him and her eagerness to make amends and her childlike innocence at times about the world around her makes it very hard to see her as anything but a victim herself and a very different person. She may remain guarded until she can be sure Daenyss isn't a threat. Daenyss' dysphoria is going to be a problem for the Nymph and so is her Nymph sex drive, though she does have the skills to suppress both to some degree until she is more comfortable with herself. Being fire resistant and fairly thick, the Lindwyrm's scales could be used to make some armor, provided they can harvest it.

*big hugs*

Amethyst

ChibiMaker1.jpg

Don't take me too seriously. I'm just kitten around. :3

While he was a very bad person

having the ability to basically wipe out all memories and personality is way scary

DogSig.png

Regretable

Amethyst's picture

Dennis was terrible, but Moira didn't intend for this. It's a frightening possibility and she wanted him to suffer and to know why he was suffering so she was very upset by this turn of events. It just goes to show how this technology could be abused in the wrong hands.

*big hugs*

Amethyst

ChibiMaker1.jpg

Don't take me too seriously. I'm just kitten around. :3

Technology

WillowD's picture

I had been wondering why the military might want a monopoly on the technology. I am assuming they wanted a monopoly because it didn't sound like Moira objected to them having access to the technology, she just didn't want to be prevented from doing her own thing.

But if the technology can give or remove skills from a person in a matter of minutes or hours then I can see why the military or nasty governments would want a monopoly. After all, the technology could be used to mind wipe and reprogram hostile leaders and populations, which means it could be a weapon easily used against them.

Moira wouldn't want to see

Amethyst's picture

Moira wouldn't want to see her technology used that way and some governments and militaries will try to weaponize anything. Before this the military was mostly interested in the training aspects of the technology ( Entire combat ready units in hours or days instead of months), but if what happened to Dennis should get to the board members eager to sell this tech to the highest bidder, then it could be very bad. She would rather nobody has the technology than to have it abused in that way.

*big hugs*

Amethyst

ChibiMaker1.jpg

Don't take me too seriously. I'm just kitten around. :3

After Action Recovery

Daenyss is an interesting character. I'm looking forward to learning how she develops going forward and, of course, learning what real life issues she has. Thanks for sharing.

She is interesting

Amethyst's picture

I'm really liking the way she's turning out and her mix of innocence and determination to do the right thing makes her a nice character to write. We'll find out more about any RL issues she has later most likely, if not through Moira then when they leave the game.

*big hugs*

Amethyst

ChibiMaker1.jpg

Don't take me too seriously. I'm just kitten around. :3

Moira on the hook?

Well, Dennis (now Daenyss) should have been handed over to medical authorities to see what can be done to recover his memory. I am still vague on why he was just shoved back into the game without at least getting him medical help. Bad boy or not, the game company sounds like would have liability as to somehow the early disconnection process damaging a participant severely.

Skills

I think it may have been done to give her new skills and allow her mind subjective time to heal. Also I don’t think it was the disconnection process that caused the damage but the speed of the skill removal.

hugs :)
Michelle SidheElf Amaianna

precautions

Amethyst's picture

They do have medical technicians on hand and from a business perspective it's a bad idea to put people in devices that will be affecting their brains to the degree that they are without having some sort of expert to consult with on speed dial. As for putting him back in the F.I.T it was the most immediate medical help they could give him. They are designed to monitor both brain and body and keep the person inside stable health-wise. Having him in he game will allow them to monitor his brain while active and assess the damage. Moira didn't want this and being responsible ( at least in part) for his condition she wants to make sure that there is no serious physical damage.

*big hugs*

Amethyst

ChibiMaker1.jpg

Don't take me too seriously. I'm just kitten around. :3

Yay also!

Nyssa's picture

I was kinda expecting Walmart to be a dungeon crawl, but I guess that's a little too IRL ;).

I really liked this chapter and the way more was revealed in a way that just adds to our mysteries. However, ending the chapter without a cliffhanger is probably even more ominous than when our authoress does. Assuming her computer holds up (and her other story has probably pushed her apostrophe key to the very brink), we may be in for a truly rollicking trip back to Haven or a development when we get there that will have shocking consequences. IMHO.

Great job, Ame!

Walmart

Oh, no! For the rest of my life, I will not be able to think of going into a Walmart as anything other than a dungeon crawl.

You didn't already?

Nyssa's picture

Not even a gamer and I sure did, lol

Dungeon Crawl

Amethyst's picture

Lol I was thinking along those lines too, especially with the zombie jokes last chapter. Martin said something similar about the cliffhangers, that me not ending a chapter on one was probably a bigger cliffhanger than when I do. Who knows what could happen next chapter... oh wait that would be me :)

Thanks Nyssa

*big hugs*

Amethyst

ChibiMaker1.jpg

Don't take me too seriously. I'm just kitten around. :3

Magic chest

Having a semi worth of stuff is good. However, with Daenyss's magic chest, they can stuff a bunch more stuff into it. Now the chest probably has a finite capacity, but may not, so why not try stuffing the whole store into it?

If someone besides Daenyss could open and empty the chest, they could just shove everything in both stores through, given enough time.

Can Daenyss put herself into the chest? Then she could go into the chest, tell people back at the "palace" to keep emptying the chest, and be summoned back to Taelya.

Having a portable wormhole is very very useful, and can be creatively abused in all sorts of ways.

Moving goods

3 Ifs.
1. If the big truck has a condo sleeper then it has more space in the back than a pickup.

2. If the pickup has a hitch attach a trailer (utility or U-haul) for extra freight capacity.

3. If the smaller truck has a hitch same as #2.

moving

Amethyst's picture

The pickup does have a standard trailer hitch, but they would need to search for trailers. As for the semi, we'll find out more about that when they leave for haven, but a cargo sleeper would indeed give them more room for some extra necessities or anything else that might be useful.

*big hugs*

Amethyst

ChibiMaker1.jpg

Don't take me too seriously. I'm just kitten around. :3

Trailers are easy to find.

Trailers are easy to find. Penske, U-Haul, and even tool rental places all have them. Even a Northern Tools or Harbor Freight would have some light duty ones. Not to mention any large hardware stores or big box lumber yards. All you'd need is a set of powered bolt cutters or a good hacksaw - which you can find at the same hardware/box stores.

I'd be looking for one just to get some tools to liberate a bit of WyrmSkin(TM).

(Edit - Realistically, I'd have been looking for one of those during the original Zombie breakout. Large, heavy vehicle that can push other vehicles out of the way as well as mush zombies, plus carry whatever you can find. )


I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.

True

Amethyst's picture

There is the possibility of them finding some like that, and it wouldn't be too hard to liberate one. You've also mentioned the WyrmSkin(TM), which was something that I was carefully avoiding mentioning. It's fire resistant, sturdy and hard to penetrate, and if they could manage to skin it or remove the scales that would give them another valuable resource.

A big vehicle would be useful against the undead and if they had passed anything like that on the way out of town during the Deadrush Taelya would have likely jumped all over it. They're not doing too bad for cargo or vehicles right now though.

*big hugs*

Amethyst

ChibiMaker1.jpg

Don't take me too seriously. I'm just kitten around. :3

Well it is a city

Well, let's say it is a Canadian city or northern US city and if so they would be in luck as they would have Salt Trucks with snow plows in front would be pretty unstoppable and if some zombies get in the way of it I doubt the zombies could do much. Besides I bet it would be a lot of fun in a way if they did get in the way ^_^

Snowplows would be good

Amethyst's picture

It would depend on what city though, there are some Canadian cities on the coast of British Columbia that can go years without snow so it might be hard to find something like that depending on the city.

ChibiMaker1.jpg

Don't take me too seriously. I'm just kitten around. :3

Magic chest

Amethyst's picture

It's only a c cup ;) Seriously it's a standard sized hope chest and to summon items from or send them back to it, they first have to be keyed to it by physically placing the items in the chest in the first place. She can't just pop a bunch of stuff over there so there's not a lot of ways for her to abuse this ability.

*big hugs*

Amethyst

ChibiMaker1.jpg

Don't take me too seriously. I'm just kitten around. :3

The whole moving to a sanctuary thing......

D. Eden's picture

Intrigues me, and kind of feeds my thoughts as to what may be going on outside of the game. I still feel that somehow this game is more real than the players realize, and that actions being taken outside the game are going to have a huge impact on the players.

After all, what is reality? Are our dreams that actual reality, and what we think is real is actual the true dream?

Will we find out that there is more going on than a simple beta test of a game?

Hurry up! Write more, lol.

D. Eden

Dum Vivimus, Vivamus

I agree with you there

which seems par for the course.

Sanctuary

Amethyst's picture

Well Sanctuary could have two possible meanings. It could be referring to a nature reserve or a place of refuge and safety, or both since the two are not mutually exclusive. From Daenyss' glimpse at the outside world before being put back in the tank it would appear that things were relatively normal, though he didn't get to see all that much.

As for our reality that's a fairly philosophical debate, as is Daenyss' situation. What makes a person who they are? Their body, memory, or past experiences? Or is it ones actions, choices, and how they see the world in the present? A lot of deep philosophical issues in this story ;)

As for what may or may not be going on with the game and reality, we will find out in time.

*big hugs*

Amethyst

ChibiMaker1.jpg

Don't take me too seriously. I'm just kitten around. :3

Daughter of Naerysse...

So on one level, this means Taelya has a PC replacing an NPC as her attendant. (Presumably Naerysse wasn't programmed to deal with a daughter, and especially not one with Daenyss's non-nymphlike personal style. But I guess since NPCs aren't living, changing her out for a newer version wouldn't matter. That's assuming this really is a game with NPCs.)

In any case, it's a substitution. Even if Daenyss's and Naeryesse's skills match, the ability to travel with Taelya or come immediately from anywhere when summoned probably make her a more convenient servant. And there's still the whole weapons question; it'd seem that if Moira/Amoiraishe gave her a storage area for "weapons and other things" Daenyss will eventually be expected to put such items into service. Presumably an active PC could make better or more relevant decisions than an NPC can, though at this point Daennys's amnesia and lack of world-knowledge may counter that.

An interesting point: "Not even death releases the person from the vow that they made." I'm guessing that would mean instant resurrection if Daenyss were to die protecting Taelya, provided the latter was still alive and conscious and could order it.

One thing about Moira conscripting four particular company people while increasing her stock holding: I wonder if they're all on the board of directors. Trouble is that in that case the "you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink" adage would seem to apply: I'd expect them to all sit on the sidelines, at least figuratively, rather than helping to accomplish anything. (I suppose she could make their continued presence on the board, if/when she takes control, contingent on a satisfactory game score...)

Eric

(I doubt that it means anything. But in a state of semiconsciousness in bed last night, I got a feeling that Dennis had actually been Razor's brother, another H3lls-Pwn member who had let Razor take public charge. I can't justify that thought, beyond the points that (1) there are several people in Jason's group who are relatives of others and (2) the author seems to be passing up chances to explicitly identify Daenyss with Razor. Those would be lame reasons, so I'm wondering if there's something I can't identify that's telling me that. As I said, it's probably nothing. But if I'm right, you read it here first (g).)

Who knows ;)

Amethyst's picture

We may yet see some interaction between Daenyss and her mother and that might be telling. It's not like there's not any NPCs in the game who turned out to be real people *cough Amoiraishe and Sheriff Becky Shaw *cough*

The substitution is as much for Daenyss' sake as for Taelya's. Moira wanted to sneak in another protector and companion for her 'daughter' and Daenyss needs to have a purpose in the game and feel like she's making up for things that she did in the past. Her skills were chosen to be useful to Taelya as a servant and companion and she will be able to take more combat skills as things progress as well to make her more useful. The chest of summoning should be of particular use for Taelya and Daenyss both.

The note about the Oath is an interesting one and Daenyss is bound to serve Taelya even should she die and be resurrected or remain in a spirit form. To resurrect her in game though they would have to wait the required 24 hours or have someone on hand with a resurrection spell or prayer within the 6 hour period post-death.

As for conscription, we have yet to see who the other people are replacing H3lls-Pwn on Autumn Server, but if she had meant to put the people she's getting the stock shares from into those four spots she likely would have said I'll see you later or I'll see you in the game. Instead she specifically stated that she would see them at the tournament which isn't until the end of the closed beta, which is why Taelya assumes they had a connection to the other servers and are thus based in other countries. As such they may not have had the opportunity to be at the board meeting where the decision was made to explore other avenues for the company's technology.

Yes I have been merely teasing about who Daenyss might be without saying it directly because there were several people in Razor's group. This also places doubt in Taelya's mind about who Daenyss might have been before and makes it easier to see her for who she is now and ease any discomfort a bit. In time we may or we may not find out for certain who Daenyss is. ;)

*big hugs*

Amethyst

ChibiMaker1.jpg

Don't take me too seriously. I'm just kitten around. :3

I wonder

So far we only have Dennis’ name, and Teyla’s suspicions that it is Razor. But the level of hatred and vitriol that Daenyss describes doesn’t seem justified by Moira. so I’m wondering if maybe it’s someone else, someone from Moira’s past, related to her bio daughter.

True

Amethyst's picture

All that we know is that the person's mere presence angered Moira immensely and that she loathed him, and it has been established that she holds a grudge. It was also mentioned previously that her daughter was killed by trusting the wrong people. So this could very well be a possibility as well. ;)

*big hug*

Amethyst

ChibiMaker1.jpg

Don't take me too seriously. I'm just kitten around. :3

First I thought Daenyss was an actual Fey Nymph

that Moira recruited and inserted into the game. After Daenyss' story I realized Amethyst was way more creative than I was thinking. Nice plot twist.

Takes a bow

Amethyst's picture

I do love a good plot twist Wendy. Though for her to bring an actual Nymph into the game there would have to be Nymphs living in the real world and that couldn't possibly be the case, could it?

*big hugs*

Amethyst

ChibiMaker1.jpg

Don't take me too seriously. I'm just kitten around. :3

I believe

I believe in magic...

So do I ;)

Amethyst's picture

So do I ;)

*big hugs*

Amethyst

ChibiMaker1.jpg

Don't take me too seriously. I'm just kitten around. :3

I wonder

if we're having the conversation we think we're having. :-)

That would depend

Amethyst's picture

on what conversation you think that we're having ;)

ChibiMaker1.jpg

Don't take me too seriously. I'm just kitten around. :3

Is this the magic in a young

Is this the magic in a young girl's heart?

If so, you'll have to make sure to have the music to free her, whenever it starts. It also has to be groovy.


I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.

That is the inspiration,

but it's really an attempt to finagle some more clues to the story; not that it's been wildly successful.

You're probably just not

You're probably just not groovy enough.


I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.

;)

Amethyst's picture

I'm such a terrible tease aren't I?

*big hugs*

Amethyst

ChibiMaker1.jpg

Don't take me too seriously. I'm just kitten around. :3