The Devil In White: An AA Online Novel

Over the guild channel, they were having a quick talk about their impression of how this event worked.

"Can't talk to anyone not on the quest over my friend channel and it looks like our guild channel is now independent of the main guild channel," Ridley mentioned after a few moments.

"Uh, not to state the obvious, but I'm still worried about this being a time travel sort of deal. Are we wiping out whole family lines every time we step on a blade of grass here?" Justin asked with a bit of trepidation.

"It felt like we were transported into a special instance of this space," Aidan said immediately. "Since we have alarms set to log us out if someone from MKC Online calls us under the urgent line, we'll have to assume that everything is just completely normal in the regular game."

"Holy crap, so the game engine is running this independently from the regular timeline?" Rat broke in. "But everything looks as good as it normally does?"

"Why wouldn't it?" Aidan sounded confused. "I think you're overthinking it. AA is huge and generating an area for less than 30 people sounds like an easy task."

"Uh sure, 30 people, but how many Residents?" Rat argued immediately.

"That's a good point." He conceded. "Maybe the AI generated all the Residents and let them write history through their interactions with each other in a sort of background simulation. Like an AI kid playing with toys in the tub."

"Well, that's a different kind of terrifying," Hunter interjected at this point.

"Why?" Aidan sounded curious again.

"Didn't like a bazillion Residents get killed in this timeline? You're saying rather than just making up a backstory the AI actually worked through that whole business?" Hunter didn't seem to like the idea.

"Overthinking it again. Worst case scenario is that a bazillion Residents and less than 30 Transients buy it this time around." He said dismissively.

"We don't know how things are going to affect the, well not the future because we're time traveling in a game. The... present game? We'll log out later tonight and see if anything iffy has happened, and then we'll know more." Amelia finally decided.

"Your group is Shadow Fall?" The journey had been silent, and for the first time, Victoria addressed Amelia directly.

"Hunter is our leader. I am temporarily in charge of this expedition." Amelia explained, pointing out Hunter. Hunter nodded and dipped her head, seemingly deciding that she would be quiet.

"I have never seen one so tall with skin and hair so fair. What is the purpose of such long ears?" Victoria didn't seem to have any filter and was unabashed. She was a more adorable sociable version of Raven, Amelia thought.

"I am a Silf," Hunter said, grudgingly entering the conversation. "Have you never seen a Silf?" Her lips quirked and she nodded to Elisha who also smiled.

"No, I am afraid not my friend. Dwarves and Humans, yes. Humans fish our coasts at our allowance, and the Dwarves trade with us for special ores in exchange for tools. I admire their courage navigating a great distance over the sea when they so hate the ocean. While we are unquestionably better builders, the Dwarves cannot be underestimated for their toolcraft." Victoria replied.

Amelia smiled but inward she felt her stomach churn. Weren't the Half supposed to know about Silf? Wasn't one of the three great heroes a Silf hero? How far did they go back in this arc? In fact, wasn't the princess supposed to be a queen? Her thoughts stilled as they went through a small cave. While she had expected to enter a large cavern Amelia was pleasantly surprised when the cave ended and they came through on a hidden side of the mountain. This bore investigating in the future because Amelia remembered no such passage. A large veranda met the group and everywhere she looked Half people stopped what they were doing and openly gawked at them. Her group in turn, was gawking back.

"They really do look like perfectly formed a.d.u.l.ts who are just miniaturized," Gilduirn commented. "Why would the evil god strike here? Are they strong?"

"We are strong!" Victoria overheard him and replied, though apparently without appropriate knowledge of what he was referring. "The strongest! Who is this evil god that I might smite him and still your tongue?" She demanded. She was super aggressive toward him at this moment for some unknown reason.

Gilduirn startled and then smiled at her. "I hope you will." Came his earnest reply.

Victoria paused, the anger leaving her face. She stared at him for a long moment and then continued walking. Amelia matched her step, surprised at how fast someone half her height could walk. Now was the time to gather information. "Your father the king, we are going to see him?"

"Yes. Pray you do not call me queen in his presence. It would be an affront to him. I am the second Princess of the Half, and I will never be queen." She replied. Then she looked up at Amelia and smiled. "It was a nice sound though, but please do not get yourselves into trouble over a title."

Amelia slowed her pace letting the Princess take the lead once more. Second Princess? Were the king and first princess going to be assassinated?

"Hunter," Amelia called.

Hunter immediately loped up beside her. "Boss." She used the term half-jokingly.

Amelia didn't smile back and instead looked concerned.

"Tell everyone that when we are talking about anything that isn't directly related to where we are, we're using the guild chat feature. Everyone who isn't in Shadow Fall needs a guest access. The Princess just informed me that calling her queen in front of the king might get us all killed."

"Immediately." Hunter raised her gaze as she walked and her mouth moved without sound. Amelia could hear her already making the arrangements over the guild channel. Amelia watched her making the arrangements and was surprised to see that Hunter had a strangely content look on her face. Maybe Hunter really enjoyed having someone else make the decisions for once?

Elisha was being pulled by Forsythe to the side and they were looking at some bread on a table. In turn, Elisha began pulling Forsythe away. It appeared that Forsythe had coerced Elisha into coming and taking a look much more easily than Elisha was able to coax him away from the table.

"Wasn't the dragon supposed to be a good guy?" Aidan had appeared near her elbow. He was being remarkably well-behaved. Amelia supposed that he was trying to earn brownie points with her. Well, he was doing a good job. Staring at her with that carefree grin and light attitude was certainly doing it for her, too.

"Apparently we're too early," Amelia admitted, immediately swept up in his pace and smiling back. "They don't even know who the Silf are. I think our Silf members are going to be a topic of discussion."

"Ah. I was sort of expecting to be battling right away. It seems like we're going to be educators." Aidan guessed. His gaze momentarily paused as he watched Raven join Elisha as they both pulled Forsythe away from the bread table. He was apparently frightening the man who was responsible for baking the bread by asking a series of questions in his usual intense manner.

"Maybe. We're about to tell them what we decided we could, not what we know." Amelia's face pinched as she frowned. "Can't really say, hey we came to save your race because you're all dead."

"No. You cannot." Forsythe agreed. He had hooked arms with Hunter and was escorting her through the street and managing to look quite dignified despite the fact that moments before both of his arms had been pulled to get him away from the bread table. Hunter's radiant smile seemed out of place, as the eyes of the Half watched them with suspicion and distrust while they passed.

When they arrived at the Half castle Amelia wasn't terribly surprised. It looked like a normal medieval castle, only the doorways were slightly lower and the guards holding spears at the gate only came up to her waist. They challenged her party until Victoria came and smoothed the way. The king was in his hall, and while he was not expecting them, runners had been sent ahead so he would be appraised of their arrival. Victoria's patrol, diligent and competent looking Half with spears and bows, dispersed at the gate with unspoken uniformity.

A breathless runner approached the party as Victoria led them through the narrow hall with a low ceiling. Amelia supposed that if you were the size of a Half the ceiling would appear quite tall.

"King Johanis will see you!" He reported. He immediately moved to the front of their parade, calling for people to make way. It seemed a little unnecessary. Everyone was steering clear of them anyway. It was almost like their reputation and fame meant nothing. Like the Residents were trying to decide if they should attack or lose interest.

The great dining hallway was better. It was laid out in a wide-sweeping venue that led slowly up a slope where three thrones sat. Atop the middle throne was a small, even for his face, Half who wore a resplendent crown seated atop a full and rather robust mass of greying hair. Next to him sat a Half who looked to be young, though Amelia wasn't sure she could correctly differentiate the young from the old when it came to the Half race yet. She at least peered at the visitors with interest. It was in no way discernable that she was related to Victoria, as her hair was fair and her general demeanor spoke of the fact that she had probably never held a weapon in her life.

Victoria once again took the lead and bowed before her father. "Father, I present Shadow Fall, a group of adventurers who knowingly trespassed. They do not seem hostile, and I have brought them here for your judgment as well as so they might greet thee."

Taking a cue, Amelia once again took a knee. There was the sound of everyone behind her doing the same. This was going to get real old real fast if they had to kneel to everyone every time they went anywhere in this new land. In fact, Amelia noticed, she herself was a little irked because earlier this very day she thought it had been so incredibly troublesome when people were kneeling to HER.

"You may rise." King Johanis motioned. Amelia gratefully did so. "Who speaks for you?"

"I speak for Shadow Fall." No need to go through the entire hierarchy, Amelia thought. She cast a sideways glance at Hunter to make sure she wasn't feeling slighted. Hunter simply shook her head. Amelia guessed that Hunter was getting tired of the fanfare too.

"Name yourself and your country." Despite being old his eyes were incredibly sharp. Amelia was immediately on guard. It was silly to think that this Half might become Mourning, but not outside the realm of possibility. She chose to be careful.

"I am Amelia, as for my country I fear it is not known to the lips of the Half." She replied. She silently thanked Aidan who had been talking with her the night before on what she might say.

"The Half are widely educated." The King countered. His eyes held an interest as he immediately rejected her evasion of his question.

Amelia paused, wondering at that. It wouldn't do to name the Kingdom of Brack or even the Far North Continent. She supposed she could make something up but she had never been good at lying.

"Worlds." Aidan supplied. Love that man.

"There are many worlds." Amelia jumped on the idea as she began. "Do the Half understand this?"

"The Half understand this." King Johanis leaned forward. "Before this one, and after. You come from such a place? To what purpose? If it is war…" At some point hundreds of Half had entered the hall, ringing Shadow Fall.

"It is war," Amelia answered.

Immediately swords were drawn and spears leveled. The King stared at her stupidly, and even as he began to order them all killed Amelia hastily continued. "Void. Evil God of a realm unknown to you hastens. We are survivors, the truest and luckiest and the last. We swear our lives to the Half." Amelia inclined her head politely. From the top of her vision, she saw a dismissing gesture and was relieved when the sounds of weapons being stowed reached her ears.

"We have no knowledge of this Evil God. Why does he threaten the Half?" Johanis wanted to know. His tone was careless and held a hint of anger as if he hadn't appreciated her theatrical response.

"With the King's permission, I will use magic," Amelia replied by way of answer.

"We are largely immune to your sorcery…" He warned. The Half, apparently, were a largely narcissistic lot despite their reputation as being tremendously generous in the history books. Amelia half expected Aidan to start electrocuting them for claiming magic wouldn't bother them. She was really glad when he made a small sound but otherwise remained behind her with the others. 'You can try the carrot first', he had told her when she had asked him if he would behave, 'but I will be the stick if I start feeling like it isn't getting us anywhere'.

"[Storytelling]. Void, The Evil God, and Vienne, Hero God." Amelia had opened her book to a premarked chapter and activated her skill. Immediately the throne room disappeared, leaving only the inhabitants in the sudden video clip that she had selected. Collective and horrified gasps began. The Half probably were in fact largely immune to magic. They had probably never in their entire lives feared it until Amelia used her Chronicler to make the room disappear. Amusing considering this power was completely and absolutely benign and couldn't even be seen unless those viewing gave their permission.

"There are many worlds." She began again. The picture of half-formed images that had surrounded them slowly coalesced into the night sky. Planets and stars came into view. Amelia was actually pretty proud of this story. It was her first largely fictional entry. Well, a lot of it was based on speculation and past history, but she had written it for effect and edited it after input from her friends.

"Many worlds like this one. Rich in life. Inhabited by those who strive to live, hunger for knowledge, and yearn for love." A picture of Earth rotated into view. It was a foreign concept to Residents, but the Transients in her group were all smiling. They would now seem like Refugees in the eyes of those watching. Refugees who were fondly remembering their world. Point in fact, they were all smiling because the video clip made it feel like they were astronauts staring down on their planet from space. A very cool feeling.

"There is always conflict. The Half understand this." The King nodded as she explained, doing his best to look unimpressed with her special ability and failing.

"Yet the gods who inhabit these worlds follow rules." Vienne appeared, a magnificent recreation of the golden and luminous goddess. Victoria looked startled, and Amelia made a note to ask her about it later. "These rules, while seemingly inviolable, don't diminish the power they are capable of. Many gods, despite the nature of these rules, do their best to bend or circ.u.mvent them in order to help us. Behold, Vienne, Hero God. I personally was not invited to her halls…" Aidan cleared his voice, bringing Amelia back on track. "...but she is one such god who flagrantly and magnificently disobeys these rules. She fights for the mortal races, at great cost. Among me is one of hers, the first chosen in generations. His name is Gabriel."

Gabriel raised a quick hand. He didn't look all that different from everyone else, to be honest. His shield and armor were lacquered in gold, a personal gift from Vienne, but other than that no one could have ever identified him as one chosen by the Lady.

"The rule she breaks is that of interference. We do not understand the reason for the rules, but we do know that they are incredibly binding." Amelia paused and turned the page. Immediately the view of Vienne faded. In its place grew a dark shadow that slowly appeared from the nothingness of the black that had replaced the image of Vienne. He stood taller and more imposing than Vienne and the very light seemed to be stolen into his robes. Skeletal hands fell from his sleeves, but mercifully his face was covered in shadow. Cries of disgust and horror radiated from the Half that were surrounding them. For the moment they had forgotten that they were supposed to be keeping a watchful eye on Shadow Fall. Amelia couldn't blame them, she had done her best to imagine Void with as much evil in his countenance as she could and eventually had chosen a variation of a grim reaper from a Halloween card that she had thought had been a bit too inspired in its recreation of death.

"There is another god, whom Vienne, Hero god that she is, cannot battle." Amelia gestured to the dark figure. "His name is Void. An Evil God with no aspiration other than to steal life. All life. He is known as the world ender." Amelia snapped her fingers slightly behind her back.

This was Shadow Fall's cue.

Surprisingly, or maybe unsurprisingly given her position as head of a coalition for the arts, Idolia made the best actress. She began sobbing and fell to her knees. Ridiculous considering you couldn't cry in this game. Everyone else looked forlorn and tortured as if they had personally suffered at the hands of Void. Personally, Amelia thought they were hamming it up but the Half looked suddenly sympathetic.

"What does he want?" King Johanis was watching, but even though he looked sympathetic, he was keeping his attention on Void.

"Nothing. He is a being that is not discerned. Why does the sun rise?" Amelia countered. "Worlds have fallen, King of Half. We are not many, but we do know that we will aid you when he comes for you. It will be soon. If nothing else we will not run this time." Amelia shut her book and the video faded. "There is nowhere left for us to go."

"How do you even fight something that ends worlds?" The first princess who sat on the throne spoke at last. "Do you have magicked weapons? Powerful sorcery?"

"We have only knowledge and courage," Amelia replied half-truthfully. They had quite a bit of strength with them in this small group as well. "We know that he will come. That the four great races of this world will stand up to him. We do not know how he is fought. We do not know if you prevail." A bit of lie there, making Amelia feel a little guilty. Amelia was pretty sure they couldn't ruin history, only make it better.

"Alright, guys," Amelia said over her guild channel. "The modified chant in a second. Let's make it sound good." There had been a variety of ideas on how to handle a past time event, and ultimately everyone had agreed that they would be mysterious refugees from another world. They would feign ignorance about the future. They would assume that everyone who wasn't Victoria was an agent of Void or a future Mourning and while they would be kind, they would be suspicious of all.

"You will aid us?" The King suddenly looked old. "You are a friend to the Half?"

"Shadow Fall," Amelia whispered solemnly.

The sound of their cry shook the hall, causing several startled and relaxed Half guards to come to attention and battle stance once more. "Our lives before the Half!"

After their audience with the King, they had split up. With permission, most of the guild was exploring the Half city. They had some things to figure out. The first was whether or not there was a cathedral or a temple in town capable of resurrecting them when they died. It wasn't inconceivable that this was a you only live once event. It was a place in time that the game had generated of a world where Transients didn't exist yet.

The second thing Amelia wanted people to do was to gather information of a historic nature. They had already hit some serious holes in their beginning information. The most obvious being that Void wasn't known to this world yet. Other than that she had told everyone to do as many starter and city quests as they could to raise the population's opinion of them. It might have seemed a little strange to see level 300-ish Transients taking beginner quests that might include gathering apples or herbs, but it was really important in Amelia's opinion to get the trust of the people. Their original fame and reputation hadn't seemed to matter much when they were walking through town.

"Impressions?" Hunter called over the guild channel. Amelia was relieved that she was taking over the guild in the private channels. It was all Amelia could do to handle being the mouth of her group on such an important quest. She felt better after the meeting when Gilduirn had approached her and complimented her on the way she handled the event. He had even praised the fact that so far, largely, their plan to ingratiate themselves with the Half seemed to be almost complete.

"Uhh. These people are almost 250." Rat was the first to chime in. "I'm a little concerned that a race of tiny people are as strong or stronger than the visage and we're supposed to be helping THEM."

"Regular citizens?" Forsythe wanted to know.

"Yeah. Shopkeepers, vendors, soldiers. Like all of them." She answered. The fascination was starting to color her voice.

"That means there must be a hunting ground outside somewhere." Aidan speculated. "If there is we need to go out and start leveling up fast."

"That might be impossible anyway," Amelia sighed. "The rewards from fighting the visage and even the stuff around Blutonsi isn't a great resource for our current level. I mean we could all group up and just spend all day every day grinding I suppose."

"We've been outside of Blutonsi before though," Raven argued. "I mean they're 260+ creatures but…"

"Maybe it's different. Void probably wiped out more than the Half when he came." Aidan argued right back.

"Hey, do you think there are like, really high-level primitive Half pirates?" Raven wanted to know.

"Rejected." Forsythe immediately cut in. "No more pirates."

"Hey, they really helped! The cannon fire alone probably kept us from getting wiped out in the visage arc!" Raven w.h.i.n.ed.

"I'm with Forsythe. Pick some other group to bully." Aidan sighed. His voice held no room for argument and even as Amelia grinned she was secretly pleased he had put a stop to Raven's half-baked request to go take over some Half pirate fleet.

Scattered laughter was heard from the group in the guild channel. Raven by now was pretty famous for her subjugation of the pirate fleet before the visage battle at Blutonsi. Everyone had loosely agreed that it was the most terrible thing they had ever seen in the game. Naturally, everyone loved to talk about it.

"I found a cathedral. It's not dedicated to anyone in particular. It's almost like a generic shop." Schulia cut in. "The priests had no idea what I was talking about when I asked about resurrect. We might have to draw straws and experiment."

"Not it," Idolia called jovially. "There are a lot of performers here, by the by. Mostly singing and theater. It's nice!"

"Let's put aside murdering each other for now." Hunter offered. "Good find about the arts though. It'd be cool if when we save them the tradesman and crafters get new stuff and so do the artsy people."

"There are a number of rare materials in the shops at super cheap prices. I can probably upgrade some generic parts to weapons but, well, we didn't bring a weaponsmith." Hendrick, despite sounding apologetic, sounded at the same time incredibly enthusiastic. Amelia imagined him buying out the inventories of all the shops and rubbing his hands together at the thought of selling them later.

"Don't treat any of them as children, alright?" Gilduirn suddenly complained. "I had a group following me and I tried to make a joke right? Everyone loves an elephant joke. Then suddenly they're all laughing and making fun of me. They decided that we're simple people."

"Oh, to be set by Gilduirn's standard." Aidan sighed again, sounding disgusted. "Thanks a lot."

"Oh shut up. You're still mad about that death thing?" Gilduirn sputtered. He really was a lot more personable when you got to talk to him, Amelia decided. She was even starting to like him. She could see why so many people had stuck with him.

"Well, I'm just coming to terms with it," Aidan replied. "It's a first time for me, being the target of a hired hit."

"He killed ME you know," Gilduirn replied.

"Too bad," Forsythe replied unsympathetically.

"What?" Anger started to creep into Gilduirn's voice.

"Too bad Khiafin did not join us." Forsythe expanded his answer, defusing what might have been a troublesome argument.

"Yeah, he rejoined his guild. Apparently, they are going on a murderer hunt." Gabriel said. "Tenebrim, his second, really started liking hunting other murderer guilds and Khiafin got suckered back in. He's kind of a pvp freak."

"Impressions?" Hunter repeated. She obviously felt like the topic was getting out of hand.

"I'm surprised that no one has tried to have Aidan killed before Gilduirn." Rat said sweetly.

"Useful impressions." Hunter reprimanded. Even though she said it, her voice was tinged with laughter.

"Our money is good here," Hendrick reported. "I'm buying up really cheap wood and paints for Schulia and Idolia. We might be able to get some goodwill if they don't mind leveling up their job and handing out the product."

"Are you getting good experience master merchant?" Idolia wondered aloud.

"The best!" Hendrick sounded excited. "I can buy really good stuff really cheap. It's driving my Bargain skill through the roof."

"I was a little worried I wouldn't get to do anything," Schulia admitted. "I'd be more than happy to raise our group reputation by carving. I mean I carve anyway?"

"Lots of stuff to paint." Idolia agreed.

"I'm going to find Victoria and try to talk to her. I think we need to see what she knows about Keristrazly and Vienne. She kinda spooked when she saw her in the entry." Amelia mentioned.

"Good idea. I saw that too." Hunter sighed. "You can log off whenever you want tonight, but knowing you yahoos, you're going to explore. If you do, make sure you don't stray into battle. The top priority remains as the following. Do not engage Mourning if you find him. Be on the lookout for anything pertaining to Void. If you sense even the slightest danger toward Victoria report it. Don't get killed."

"Have fun don't die." Raven supplied. "Got it."

Everyone else agreed enthusiastically and the channel went silent as everyone went about their business. Idolia and Schulia stayed on late into the night and were a huge success. The Halves would come to them for carvings and paintings for the rest of the arc. Hendrick seemed to be starting some sort of merchant empire, and the rest of Shadow Fall was seen doing normal everyday quests.

It wasn't a surprise that soon the Half seemed to be enjoying having the strangers around.