The Devil In White: An AA Online Novel

Amelia rolled over, hitting the alarm clock that had been going off for about ten minutes. She always set it early so that she could just ignore it for indeterminable amounts of time, a decision she had made after too many late nights diving. She g.r.o.a.n.e.d and pushed her smiley-faced down comforter to the foot of the bed, draping her b.a.r.e feet to the floor.

She brushed her teeth, showered, and once dressed, padded quietly out of the one-room apartment she had rented in Champaign-Urbana, IL. Her parents, now both retirees, were off on some cruise somewhere so she didn't even have them stopping in for the next month. It was a nice luxury considering they hadn't really gone anywhere together in the last 20 years. Amelia was secretly hoping they would extend the trip a bit. She had been living on her own ever since she became a graduate and had grown quite accustomed to it.

It was nice having a modic.u.m of freedom, and as she peddled on her bike toward the virtual sciences lab on campus she found herself being invigorated by the cool morning air. Not, she scowled to herself as she navigated, that she was stress-free. She felt knots in her whole body from the escapade in AA the night before.

As she locked her bike down at the spot outside her building, she paused, listening to some students that were walking together in front of her. She had happened to hear a distressing word and dreaded the conversation they were having.

"Did you see the live-feed that showed up?" One girl asked her friend.

"It was super trippy, right? It didn't look like a webstream from some software." the other laughed. "It had a late 20th-century homemade movie feel to it like we were watching a history channel movie."

Amelia fell into pace behind them, noticing they were going into her building. She didn't really remember seeing them but she wasn't the most sociable person. With as many as several thousand students that probably went in and out of this particular lecture hall she didn't feel too bad about it.

"I can't believe a world quest opened up." The first girl said.

"No kidding, and it has a 1-month delay. I guess it's to give everyone time after that huge list of announcements."

"Ugh," m.o.a.n.e.d the first one again. "Don't remind me. That went off while we were trying to clear the river demon quest in Uldi's zone. We barely got out alive, even closing windows as fast as we could."

"Couple friends of mine had to make resurrect trips because they DID die."

"It makes me mad because you try to tell people you died from the spam and they tell you about the setting that lets you ignore announcements in the settings, like we ever needed it before? Ugh." She made a disgusted noise deep in her throat and her friend nodded in agreement.

It hadn't occurred to Amelia that everyone else had been spammed like she was, but it made sense since it was information that had involved the two continents. Three continents now, Amelia conceded. She did remember a certain black-haired singer making fun of her while she took care of it. She scowled.

"Whoa, sorry…" the first girl said.

"Huh?" Amelia looked up to find the girl had been holding the door for her but her face must have been pretty scary. "Oh, no, thanks!"

She decided that for now she would forget all about it and worry about it when she got back home. Entering her classroom was like entering a sanctuary. No one bothered her, and she could sit in the back and forget about whatever was troubling her anywhere, not just in Awakened Aspiration. The teacher lectured, and she wrote down her notes on the desk monitor, a device that was installed in front of all the seats. When she was done, she loaded her notes to her webmail and sent it.

It was almost the perfect day except for when she would stop at a light and hear people talking about the past days events on every street corner, from the windows of the public transpo electric buses, and even from people sitting on the verandas that were protected from rain by the static-sheet coverings in front of coffee shops.

World Quest! It was a hot topic in the real world too, especially in a college town.

When she got home she finally gave in and pulled up some of the forums that she frequented for updates and information on the game. Digging produced various results, from people complaining about how they'd died from the announcements to people complaining that with the influx of Resident refugees they had to cut down their questing time because the Residents that normally wanted monsters killed were instead offering rewards to crafters and hunters for food and other necessaries.

It all seemed pretty normal until she came across a thread that made her freeze in her seat. It had 99 response pages and had been locked, but it wasn't the length it was the title that caught her attention. With mounting dread, she clicked on the link and began to read.

"Looking for information - Chronicler of the Heavens?"

"The video circulated explaining the coming Far North Continent expansion was streamed live from Verdios, a player from Canada, but he claims it wasn't from him initially. He was just streaming something he saw in the game. I got on the new AA-Talklist and found his information, and he said that he was VIEWING that video in-game? Does anyone know anything about this? Verdios and I talked about it for quite some time, and he told me that all the leaders in the North Continent got one! By one I mean a scroll. It was carried as an in-game item, and once viewed everyone around could see the experience that happened in the Brack Kingdom's throne room.

Verdios can confirm that it was NOT a player stream from their machine capsule or dive helmet, but a stream or video made BY a Transient through an in-game job. The Transient name wasn't supplied but the end of the video where it goes to black? There are a few extra seconds and a message appears "creation: Chronicler of the Heavens… [Blank]".

"I know Chronicler is a job, but does anyone have a high-level Chronicler Job and can confirm this? I thought that it was just used for sharing past events in the picture and wordcraft sort of way the game makes for a record entry in learning about old quests and picking up new ones?! What're the criteria for the Chronicler of the Heavens?% Is the woman in the 'video' a [email protected]! Does anyone know who she is?$ She has a book and it looks like a mid-class Chronicler's journal but she stays silent for almost the whole encounter with her hood up!?" After every single question, there were multiple question marks and other garbage symbols as if the forum thread author was really trying to convey his excitement and frustration.

Amelia sat back in her chair, her mouth open. It had been mere coincidence that her cowl had been drawn, and it had never occurred to her even once that when she had discovered she could share with [Share Entry] that entry would, in turn, be streamed by another player and uploaded to a share account online outside the game.

She didn't even think it had anything to do with being a Chronicler of the Heavens, the class upgrade she had received for completing her quest. When Aidan had asked about it she had figured it was a pretty good idea to write the encounter in her book, and with her new skill, she was even feeling pretty spiffy about the fact that King Elairdrin was going to send HER entry to the other leaders and nation-representatives. All she knew about Chronicler of the Heavens so far was that it had replaced her Chronicler job and reset her back to Beginner Level 1. She had been sort of upset until her status window had revealed that Beginner Level 1 of her new job was slightly better efficiency-wise than her previous Expert level.

She sat silently and finally clicked on the Canadian player Verdio's Stream link. She was redirected and after a moment the same dreamlike sequence style she had witnessed when she had shown Raven, Forsythe, and Aidan the knighting ceremony began to play out the sequence from last night in the throne room on her room monitor.

The first thing she noticed, as she watched, the video cut out certain parts that Amelia herself had left out because they had been unimportant. Snubbing Hunter, for instance, had been largely cut because Amelia couldn't bring herself to put all of it in there. She did leave a part of it in but, she had liked Hunter right off the bat, and didn't want to offend her by leaving it in the entry.

After she watched the video she stared at the screen, and sort of wished it had all been a dream. Just thinking about it angered her now, an anger that was only slightly softened by the new job and the thrill of seeing her entry being broadcast by players.

"What more can I do for you?" Aidan had asked with that look of picturesque innocence still on his face. Raven seemed to have sensed that things were finally about to get rolling, and she re-appeared behind Aidan after giving Hunter and her posse the quick once-over.

King Elairdrin stared for a moment, obviously at a loss. "I can sense from you a certain destiny young man, and I feel compelled to ask you to stay and help defend our kingdom."

"I refuse," Aidan said immediately without even blinking.

Amelia and Hunter froze, and after a quick glance at each other, they realized they had both had the same gut-check reaction to look for status screens indicating loss of reputation or fame. Nothing had happened yet.

"If it is a matter of compensation as you discussed, that can be arranged. I can tell from your aura," Amelia wondered about that as Elairdrin continued extolling, "...that you have fought and prevailed against these creatures before."

"125?" Hunter muttered, doubt evident in her voice.

"Well we were 254 at the time," Raven allowed seriously, her eyes rolling up and to the left in a half-thought.

Hunter looked like she couldn't take any more shock, with these Residents casually acting like Transients. She looked at Amelia for help but otherwise kept her cool demeanor. As expected of a famous Guild leader and player, Amelia thought, even as she shook her head slowly with sympathy, hoping that Hunter would realize that she in no way had a connection with these people.

"I am prepared to offer you a Knight-Commander position in our kingdom as well," King Elairdrin continued. He had been expounding on the kingdom's need, and how the land must come together, and Amelia had been tuning him out apparently.

A chime sounded, indicating official titles had been offered. The three glanced up.

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King Elairdrin offers the heroes a new job: Knight Lord!

Control 300 units.

Monthly salary.

Perks incl-

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"No way." Raven blurted out eyes going wide.

"No." Forsythe, looking like he'd rather be lit on fire. For a moment his eyes widened. He really did look like he was getting ready to run away.

"I refuse," Aidan said again and stretched the two words in a meaningful way.

"Let him finish!" Hunter exclaimed, she moved forward and stood slightly away from the king so that she was facing them. "This isn't an offer you can casually disregard."

King Elairdrin, for a generated personality, was doing a pretty good job of showing just how confused someone could be. "If the title is insufficient, I'm sure after the situation is resolved…"

----

King Elairdrin offers, upon successful completion of the world campaign, Count status among the nobility.

Land - 30 acres

Population poss-

----

"No thanks," Aidan said again, and that bastard was smiling. Amelia didn't weigh in on any of this. She was having a sneaking suspicion that this was going just as that Devil wanted. Amelia didn't even know how someone could turn down such a generous quest reward without at least hearing the details or thinking on it.

"This is a state of emergency, and I could directly encourage your participation…" King Elairdrin's incredible amount of patience seemed to be wearing thin. A sound chimed above Amelia's head, as she was still partied, and she was surprised to hear an upcoming combat scenario warning go off. Complete with a small musical number. It was pretty peppy.

"Don't get me wrong. We're going to help, we just don't want anything from you." Aidan admitted finally.

"Then why didn't…" Hunter began to say.

"King Elairdrin," Aidan began quite diplomatically. "Don't you tire of the Transients?"

Elairdrin was listening, but his eyes were narrowed in acute suspicion. Rightly so, if Amelia had any thoughts on the matter. Hunter too had stopped, and now her mouth simply hung open. Elairdrin said nothing now, merely stared at Aidan as if waiting for him to further damn himself.

"They are vital to the war and defense effort of your cause I am sure. Forces that come again and again to defend you… but… don't they seem a little… indifferent?" Aidan winced as if it was personally paining him to say. As if he were ashamed for having a doubt as a loyal Resident.

"We're going to go to the Far North and we'll hunt the visage."

Forsythe and Raven were nodding as if this was the plan all along. They kept nodding in a distracted sort of way that made Amelia think they were just head-bobbing while thinking of something else. Since they had just learned of who the invaders were, it seemed doubtful that there had ever been a plan.

"What are you saying?" Hunter demanded. She had lost all patience, and her avatar status bar was beginning to hue indicating that she was considering combat. "Transients are a huge part of this economy, and this world, and we love this world. There's no way we'd ever be indifferent toward defense!"

"I find it hard to believe," Aidan finally admitted slowly. He was giving her a look with his head tilted back almost as if he were staring down his nose. Hunter looked like she was going to explode at him at any moment. "Especially when I saw the fighting strength of the patrolling guardsmen on the way into this area."

King Elairdrin was looking thoughtful, but he said nothing, merely stared at Aidan as if he were having a staring contest with a snake that could strike at any moment.

"What does that have to do with anything?" Hunter asked, and it was admirable that she managed to do so neither angrily or peevishly.

Ah, Amelia thought, that makes sense but the way you went about it was… Amelia was starting to get an idea of where this was headed. In fact, she was certain that Elairdrin had probably seen what he was alluding to as well, sooner than she, judging from his silence. Amazing constructs indeed.

"They will be crushed." Aidan said calmly. The chilling note in his voice making everyone in the hall squirm. "The entire defense of the scheduled invasion of the Far North will hinge on Transients, and their levels are probably close to yours I would assume?" Aidan said, glancing above her head, and Amelia followed his gaze. Hunter was in the upper 90's, still a far cry from handling legions of the creatures.

"...lower," Hunter admitted, looking sick like she finally had an idea of where this was going as well.

"It's hard to remember that some people don't wake up in a graveyard, or a church, or sheepishly after being the target of a [Resurrect] from a cleric. The King and all his allies will have their forces decimated, Transient levels may go higher if they win, but for every Resident that falls, an enemy will take his place. The land will be under the desecrate effect and you will simply lose the… Northern Continent was it..?" He shrugged. "It will simply be a hunting ground for Transients in the future, and every foothold the visage takes on the continent will no longer be available for Transient resurrection while under the desecrate condition."

Hunter said nothing, and Amelia felt really bad for her. It wasn't something that one would normally think about, and it wasn't her fault that the global announcements had gone off several hours earlier. It certainly wasn't her fault that he was painting a picture that put Transient and Resident at odds in front of a king, no less. No one had thought about it yet, and being hammered for not taking it into consideration seemed a little excessive. The idea of having to travel across the border of the Southern Continent after death was also a staggeringly awful thought.

King Elairdrin looked like he had aged about a hundred years. His face was set in a grim line, and he still did not speak. She could see the wheels turning like he had no idea what to do and was scrambling for ideas. The outcome was certain if all the factors Aidan had mentioned were as described. Factually, any sort of defense mounted by the Residents would be completely destroyed. With the loss of the patrolling guards even with Transients taking turns at all times of the day the visage would likely start desecrating the land. When they desecrated the land they would cut off the Transients who resurrected in Cathedrals. The war would be one of attrition and slow loss and it was unlikely the Transients would continue fighting such a depressing war for long. That was even the best-case scenario. Even Residents admitted that the attention span of Transients was short indeed.

The truth became apparent; Aidan had simply declined because there was no need to go on a quest where there was a failure condition that was probably going to be met when he could just go with his party and do the same thing without facing all the penalties later. Something that many others would consider and think of, further stretching out any sort of defense force. Even Amelia felt a little guilty at that moment remembering how she had considered dropping the prior quests herself because they were slightly inconvenient.

"We will strengthen them." Hunter straightened, her voice was firm and once again admirable and in control. It broke the silence that had started to stretch uncomfortably.

"Residents?" Aidan made a face, looking like he'd believe that when he saw it. Right up there with meteors being steered by swine.

"We will need to go raise our levels as well, we can coordinate with the King's permission and go on group hunts until the start of the invasion…" Hunter glanced over to the King to see his reaction. Elairdrin, this time, did not even look at her and his cheeks were flushed with the edge of anger.

"Who is this we? Exactly?" Aidan asked, eyeing Hunter again, interrupting whatever response the king might have given. "I would think that it would take more than that. Most Transients will think that they are babysitting, and most Residents will feel the same won't they?"

Hunter reddened, and even though it might have been presumptuous to volunteer her guild and assume everyone else would jump on the bandwagon, her heart was in the right place even if Aidan was right. There was no guarantee that without proper motivation Transients would agree to a 1-month long training regime with the Residents to face a force that might be impossible to defeat anyway. A month was a long time to grind the but game had been out for some time and the highest levels in the game were only at best, half muster to the task.

King Elairdrin spoke at last. "I will send word to the other leaders of what we discussed today, and we will convene within the next week. We will invite all the guild leaders with enough renown, and open it to the public to discuss the conditions of raising the military strength of the Residents and Transients… in a mutually beneficial way, I pray."

Hunter was silent, and though the King's sudden counter-proposal wasn't aimed at silencing her Amelia could see she took it a little personally. The king had pretty much just ignored her offer to help in favor of appealing to a larger audience.

"I don't think much of these Transients thus far." Aidan finally announced, playing his Resident card gleefully. Hunter didn't even bother to reply, simply stared at her companions, obviously involved in party chat. The Silf woman cast only a single irritated glance at Aidan before turning back to her affairs.

"Thank you for your assistance. Will you be going to the Far North immediately then?" King Elairdrin asked warily. Amelia thought that if she were the Queen, she would be glad that such a troublesome person was going to go off immediately somewhere far away. If she were Queen, she might even have made up a quest to get rid of Aidan and his friends.

"No, we're going to stay here and level," Aidan replied, ignoring the knowing yet ignorant look Elairdrin gave him when he brought up leveling. He looked thoughtful for a moment before continuing. "Though I think we will watch this meeting again. I'm sure our Chronicler would like to see it again."

Eh? Pardon? His Chronicler. Amelia jumped, startled to suddenly be brought into the conversation. She cowered a little bit under the sudden gaze of everyone and couldn't help but answer. "I'd like to see it again, yes."

"Then we can watch it later! That is pretty neat." Aidan said, smiling slyly. "Come on, we'll go and buy you something to eat. You can use, what, [Share Entry] after you wrote all this down and we can see it all again?"

"Hold!" King Elairdrin commanded instantly. He turned to Amelia and looked at her closely for the first time. "You have such an ability?" He looked dubious, and after the pony show that Aidan had just put on and the way he had just thrown her at the King, she didn't blame him in the slightest.

"Yes, my King," Amelia replied, ducking her head slightly. Please don't give me notoriety, she begged quietly.

"Your King? Are you a member of the Brack Kingdom?" Elairdrin asked slowly. He seemed to brighten even as he looked like he was now being cautious in getting his hopes up.

"Yes, my King," Amelia said, wishing the world would swallow her up. This was a game, a game where she wanted to go see the world and study in various new parts of it. She had no d.e.s.i.r.e to be in the castle under the direct attention of the King.

The King didn't seem to notice her distress and instead began speaking loudly. "You must be the one from Sleipnir, the Chronicler who released the heroes to bring us this news? I am sorry I did not greet you earlier."

"Chronicler of the Heavens, King." Forsythe corrected. He went quiet immediately afterward.

Amelia shot him a glance, wondering what the hell he was talking about. Gotta get those five words in? Aidan smiled at her and from his waist pointed up with his index finger. She looked up automatically and checked her status for abnormalities and … behind her name was her job, or rather her new job: Chronicler of the Heavens. Feeling dizzy, she looked back at the King Elairdrin and began to recall that it had been in some of the quest text earlier. A quest she had finished when she walked in the room.

He looked impressed. "You can share what has transpired here?"

"Check [Share Entry] and [Create Copy]." Amelia whispered.

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[Share Entry]

Through the earnest effort of the chronicler, you have gained the ability to visualize and recall the past and show entries you have made to others who are willing to view them.

+

[Create Copy](b)

Early on the Chronicler is taught to make copies of history, as history is so easily displaced. (b) - If willed by Chronicler, copies can be made with the [Share Entry] feature with the following permission: Everyone, Me, Specified Transient/Resident.

+Chronicler of the Heavens: Increasing skill level will unlock customization and editing.

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Her skill had morphed to allow synergy with her newer skills and class. It wasn't uncommon for skills to improve with level, but it wouldn't have immediately occurred to her to use it in such a way.

"I can, my King," Amelia said softly. She took her book out and began to write.