The Devil In White: An AA Online Novel

Victoria wasn't hard to find. It seemed that she had been trailing behind the excited members of Shadow Fall as they dispersed. As they further broke up it was Victoria who approached Amelia.

"Friend Amelia, I would have words." She said politely. Gone was the hostility that marked their first encounter. Instead, Amelia was starting to feel like… like maybe Victoria was a little shy. "I wish to apologize to the great hero Amelia, champion of the many worlds." The obvious wonder and reverence in her gaze were almost painful. It gave Amelia a pause.

Hero. Amelia faltered for a moment. It wasn't the first time that a Resident had addressed her in that way, but from Victoria, it seemed incredibly depreciating. This was Victoria! Fabled hero, dragon friend, the savior of the Far North and of the world. Venerated by all three hero races as the bravest, the strongest, and the best of them. More than that the complexity of whatever algorithm that ran Victoria's persona was not only incredible, it seemed tremendously verbose. It was really hard to think of her as a Resident and not a Transient.

"I thought your reaction appropriate. Heroes don't lose their worlds either." Amelia finally managed.

"Perhaps. That does not make my actions any less vulgar to one who journeyed from their world to save mine." Victoria countered generously. From anyone else it might have seemed too much. "Might we speak in private?" Victoria gestured to a nearly empty shop nearby. The proprietor was napping inside behind the counter. It sold some sort of oddly shaped fruit.

When they had moved to the relatively quiet shop Victoria cast a quick look around and then lowered her voice. "You know Keri?" She picked up one of the fruits casually and turned it in her hand as if searching for some unseen blight.

"Keri?" Amelia replied, her brow furrowed. After a moment she replied. "Oh, Keristrazly." She felt immediately stupid and then worried. This seemed like a dangerous conversation to be having all of a sudden. "Yes," Amelia replied guardedly. "I know of Keri."

"How did you know he is alive?" Victoria hissed. She looked around frantically again, somehow managing to convey presence with her small stature. "He has not appeared in over a year! He swore to me he would remain hidden!"

"We are friends." Amelia simply said. "He will not know me though. If we meet you must introduce me as if I have no knowledge of him."

"What?" Victoria made a face. "You knew he was the 'kind of a jerk'! That you know his demeanor means you know him. That he would forget you is unlikely. Explain!"

Amelia faced the small warrior down and willed her expression to convey stone. She pictured Forsythe and tried to emulate his face when he outstared someone, and after a moment Victoria looked alarmed. She started to apologize but Amelia simply cut her off. "There are many worlds. I cannot ask for your trust for I have shown you nothing of myself. I am sorry. I cannot tell you certain things. It is against the rules that allowed me to come here."

"I...understand." Victoria said hesitantly and then griped. "What incredible restriction!"

"Yes. Needless to say, I will keep your secret. It was not known to me that he was not a friend to the Half." Not yet, at any rate, Amelia thought. "Though he is a friend to Shadow Fall. The greatest of allies. It pains me, but he will not know me."

"Ally? The dragon?" It was Victoria's turn to look lost. Her face went blank as she tried to reconcile with this new information. "Do you know I am not certain we are speaking of the same creature suddenly? He lazes the day away sleeping under the sunlight and cooks fish at night with his breath. That he would be your ally and one of the greatest, is far beyond me suddenly."

Amelia considered this, and though she agreed, part of her was getting annoyed. Yes, she realized that the dragon was just a game character. Yes, she realized that he hadn't REALLY mourned the death of his friend for a thousand years in real-time. Yet part of her wanted to defend him. Even though it was just a game that was the type of dragon the game had made him. One who had been so shaken by the death of Victoria that he had literally turned to stone while sleeping on her grave.

"Have I offended?" Victoria was watching her gaze suspiciously. "You are surprisingly easy to read, friend Amelia."

"I am offended for the wrong reasons," Amelia admitted. "That dragon is everything you say. He is rude, vulgar, pretends to be uncaring. Yet when the moment comes he will scream with the fury of your world and die defending you."

"He will die?" Victoria looked suddenly horrified.

"No. It's a figure of speech." Amelia said quickly. Victoria's recoiling in horror made her feel a lot better. She really did like the dragon after all it seemed. "How did you meet?"

"I was sent to slay him, as friend Amelia has probably surmised," Victoria said quickly. She cast a glance at the shopkeeper who slumbered loudly nearby. "I took up my sword, Changer, and I swept forth alone on a valiant dragon-slaying quest! He was terrorizing the village when he crested over the mountain, casting his hideous shadow down upon them; he horrified the fishers when they were at sea by boiling the ocean. Once, he reportedly even stopped and peered hungrily down at a small group of children who were playing in the water…" Victoria's voice changed from animated to a hushed to an ominous whisper.

Amelia was starting to think Victoria was a master storyteller.

"More like he was peering hungrily down at the fish, and then left when he realized the children were in the way." Amelia guessed, her face frowning. She was picturing Keristrazly lazing in the sun with the children of Blutonsi crawling all over him. They would pretend that he actually flew and make whooshing noises as they played. The great dragon might have been sleeping, but Amelia always thought his lips were peeled back into too much of a smirk.

"Yes! Friend Amelia understands him well." Victoria stopped pacing and placed her small hands on her h.i.p.s. "I did not know him. I charged forth and cried my challenge to him as he boiled a small pool and ate fish. He eyed me with his great and terrible yellow eye!" Victoria struck a pose as if holding a sword. "Your days of terror end dragon! I shall slay thee for the honor of the Half!"

Amelia was grinning despite herself. She had a pretty good idea of Keristrazly's reaction.

"Yet he peered at me, ate his fish, and turned his back on me and began to slumber!" Victoria managed to shriek at Amelia in a whisper. "I was so incensed. I demanded battle. Keristrazly snored. I prodded him with the point of Changer! He turned his shoulder. I climbed atop him and threatened him with Changer! He turned again and yawned! Finally, I told him I would come on the morrow and he had better prepare for demise!"

Amelia was really trying not to laugh. That was pretty much what she had pictured. "But dragons eat people." She heard herself say. It was hard not to get swept up into Victoria's story. "Yes," Amelia replied to herself in a gravelly voice mimicking Keristrazly. "I suppose they do. If they don't mind taking off that ridiculous steel skin…"

Victoria immediately jumped on board and imitated his voice as well. "...or they don't mind the taste. What is it with you small people. You smell terrible, you could only taste worse. I shall eat fish instead." Victoria immediately jumped on the table in front of Amelia and made another sword-holding motion.

"I have returned dragon! Let us end this in glorious combat! I shall sing your name as I embellish how ferocious you were!" Slowly Victoria lowered her imaginary sword and took on the gravelly voice she and Amelia had been using for Keristrazly. "Would you shut up? I am really trying to sleep. The light is perfect and it is warming me. Would you not instead rest you tiny, angry woman?"

Amelia was laughing now and slowly the shopkeeper stirred. He looked out confused and then stepped on a box behind his counter so he could see clearly. "Princess Victoria?" He said, quite shocked that she was standing on one of his tables and speaking with a foreigner.

"Yes. I. I suppose this is difficult to explain." She admitted to him at last, at a loss as to how to explain why she was playacting on one of his tables in the dead of the afternoon.

"The Princess was telling me about a story she heard. We are becoming friends." Amelia supplied. She turned to Victoria and winked, after that completely ignoring the shopkeeper. "Go on."

"So I could not very well… err… the valiant knight could not very well slay his enemy when his enemy had no d.e.s.i.r.e to fight. So he returned night after night, always crying his battlecry and brandishing his magnificent...spear!" Victoria said, eyes darting as she started ad-libbing.

"Perhaps mace." Amelia suggested. "Magnificent spear is inappropriate."

"Really?" Victoria paused. "Why can't a spear be magnificent?"

"Trust me." Amelia was already imagining the leering grin of Raven. Raven was a lecherous old man in soul and would have pounced upon the wordplay immediately.

"Yes, so with his wondrous mace, he challenged the ...enemy again and again! The enemy was less than enthralled at the prospect of battle. It was not that he was not cunning, not thoughtful, nor that he wasn't superbly ferocious. He simply did not hate anyone. One morning, the valiant knight came without the cry of battle. The next and the next after that, he shared stories with the enemy, and little by little they became friends." Victoria finally finished.

"That sounds like someone I know," Amelia admitted at last. "Thank you for telling me. I will write about it."

"Oh! Your magicked scrolls?" Victoria peered down at her Chronicler journal. "Will you make pictures of story?"

"I will. Would you like to see your story?" Amelia gently offered.

Victoria smiled then, and it was suddenly very easy to see why the other Heroes had thought she was the best of them. "Seems a shame that he will not know you, friend Amelia."

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Victoria and Amelia journeyed through the city together after that. They spoke of foods they had eaten, wonders they had seen, and Amelia was surprised when the sun began to set. She wasn't ready to log off with such an amazing source of story and insight like Victoria literally bouncing around her.

It was easy to forget why she was here. Already she could feel the siren call of this world, and in her heart, she knew that she couldn't stay. It made her cling more tenaciously to the idea that she should see everything and stay in the game as long as she could. Such light-hearted thoughts couldn't quell Amelia's reasoning though. At last, when they were alone along a forest walk within the boundaries of the Half kingdom, Amelia gathered her courage and asked the first hard question.

"Victoria. Vienne has appeared to you, hasn't she?" Amelia sighed, regretting the question almost immediately. Her small and newfound friend had dramatic facial expressions, and she could tell that this wasn't an avenue that was open to questioning.

"Why do you ask me of this?" Victoria insisted immediately. Her face shutoff, and Amelia knew that she was right. Victoria was easy to read. Something they apparently had in common.

"Because Victoria. I know that you are beyond expectation." Amelia gently probed.

Victoria halted in her walk and simply stared at Amelia with tremendously large eyes.

"Did she tell you of Void?" Amelia persisted.

"She told me of no such enemy!" Victoria said vehemently. The small beautiful girl was suddenly hostile. "That she would forgo such a warning is unsound. You are betraying yourself as an enemy, Amelia." Victoria warned lowly.

Once again there was the weirdest sensation of danger causing the digital hairs on Amelia's neck to stand upright. A weird dissonance between the instinctual threat of danger Victoria was capable of producing compared to her diminutive features.

"I am not welcome in her halls." Amelia admitted. "I am within expectation. Yet we are ally." Amelia was a little surprised that she was starting to mimic Victoria's speech patterns unconsciously.

"Gabriel is said to be one of hers." Victoria probed back at her suspiciously. There was a note of give and take appearing in her voice.

"Yes. He doesn't talk about it. Something about snakes and worms." Amelia confided, pouncing on that tone.

"Oh yes. The worms." Such was the distaste in Victoria's voice that Amelia immediately grabbed at it.

"Oh. I was meaning to ask him. Was it really terrible? I mean she put him through trials and screamed at anyone that tried to talk to him." Amelia said thoughtfully.

"Oh my. Friend Amelia does not know of our capricious god of battle. You did her great service when you called her hero-god." Victoria said reluctantly. "She is a god of life. Life is not always kind, nor is it beautiful. It is just life."

"Like the worms? Life but not beautiful?" Amelia was getting confused now.

"Oh, the worms. Must I really tell you? I beseech you not to write of it. Should I see that horrid memory with my own two eyes again I shall cut them out and eat them and then make myself sick from the taste." Victoria shuddered with a small motion that made her entire body quake.

"I am beginning to understand why Gabriel doesn't want to talk about it." Amelia offered unhelpfully. What the crap had happened that even this Resident was showing such horror?

"Yes. It is a trial of the mind. There is a pit Amelia. I shall not describe to you what a pit is because it would do no justice to the horror I am about to attempt to impart. Indeed the description is sullied by adjectives and verbs or any other form of word I might contrive. Suffice to say that I am not a faint-hearted Half, but by day two I was searching for a means to end my own life." Victoria warned. "Must I?"

"Ok. Now I have to know." Amelia felt her smile starting to take hold. She tried really hard to hold it back because it had been described more than once as creepy.

"Your face contorts horrifically with interest. Fascinating." Victoria observed.

"Very well. This pit that I cannot describe to you and which bears no real description. Suffice to say instead that you cannot reach any wall or handhold or foothold or purchase of any kind." Victoria made an expansive motion with her tiny hands. "In this pit is a writhing mass of life. Worms. They are not just worms. They have little hands and very small eyes. They make noises as they breathe, as they move, as they eat the waste that each one makes. They can sustain themselves this way you see? I agreed to the trials because what Half refuses a god? I was honored to be chosen."

Victoria was looking plaintively at Amelia for agreement. "Yet my first trial is this. Go into this pit, the wondrous beautiful lady of faces tells me. If you do not go mad within a week I will take you to your next trial. Then she left." At this last part, Victoria's face turned quite ugly, as if she still couldn't reconcile the experience wholly in her mind.

"Mad?" Amelia stared blankly.

"Oh yes, Amelia. For a week I was buoyed by the writhing mass of worms as they crawled over me, under me, through me. They did not know the resistance of clothes nor of flesh. They were me in a sense. They continued their crawling and writhing and the very thought of their crawling gives me nightmares. That I did not go mad is a small wonder." Victoria said quite seriously. Her eyes suddenly held a timeless look, as if even now she were recalling something beyond terrible.

Amelia was having a hard time seeing what the big deal worms were. She didn't feel like it was safe to question the terror of a trial when two people she knew were deathly horrified at the memory. "Snakes then?"

"Oh, the snakes too? Would it seem strange of me to say to you that the snakes were not as bad as the worms? They struck at me, biting my flesh and hissing with their small exposed teeth. They buoyed me much as the worms but did not crawl through me. They were not poisonous nor were they really dangerous. I started to laugh then, I remember it clearly. After a while even when they struck me I laughed. The small pain was nothing compared to the terror of the worms." Victoria sighed. She kicked a rock in front of her and sent it skidding down the path, her actions completely alien to the story she was imparting.

"The snakes sound worse. The noise they emit makes me jump." Amelia admitted.

"Hahah, would that I could still jump at such noise. I laugh now instead." Victoria shook her head. "She does not tell stories or joke as we might to each other Amelia. She fancies and laughs at things that I do not find amusing. She carries grudges like some people wear clothes. Often, infrequently, depending on the time or day of the week. Do not ever slight Vienne." Victoria warned her with a quiet dangerous voice. "She will forget for months and then you will suddenly, one day without warning, be in a pit with the worms."

"I'll keep that in mind," Amelia muttered. "Did you gain anything?"

"I am hers," Victoria said cryptically in much the same way Gabriel had. "Despite her terrible personage, when she sleeps she dreams of happy Halves. She wishes nothing more than our continued joy. She cries and berates herself when she believes we are in danger. She argues with herself over the most trivial of conflicts. She spends all her divinity and all of her time controlling herself so she does not come to our plane and solve our every conflict. Tis quite terrible when her many voices hold council with themselves in vocal conflict."

"And she has said nothing of Void?" Amelia asked again.

"Why do you know such a name?" That voice, still easily remembered by Amelia, shrieked once more across all her channels. Several of the Shadow Fall members actually spoke up. Vienne was heard over the guild channel and had immediately drawn the attention of everyone. "What do you know of Void, human?"

There was a great flash and suddenly Vienne was there. Mighty and terrible in a way she had not been before. While she had worn a dress when they had first met, now she wore a coat of arms that glistened and repelled the light in blinding rays. "Speak, that I might not slay you where you stand. For you are no Half. You should not BE here." Her voice managed to hiss at Amelia even with the volume.

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Local Announcement - Bloodl.u.s.t floods the area. Battle seems imminent.

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"Vienne?" Victoria began."What..?" She looked alarmed. Clearly, the goddess had never appeared before her in such a fashion.

"SILENCE. You who are ignorant stay silent, lest your enemy know you to be a fool!" Vienne thundered, completely incensed and livid. She drew a long sword the likes of which was half again larger than Victoria from a scabbard at her side and leveled it at the frozen Amelia who was doing her very best not to break out into her creepiest grin.

The blade crackled and the very air smelt of burned ozone. "There is only an answer to a question, and the end of a life should that answer fail to lessen my wrath."

It was only the fact that Amelia knew this was a game that saved her. The fear that paralyzed her mind did not extend to her character. Her avatar moved freely as she slowly came back to her senses in front of the enraged god. Amelia reminded herself then that even Vienne did not truly affect her. She suffered no status effects due to her incredible morale rating, a boon from her battle with the world boss Mourning. Amelia was invincible. I am invincible, she thought, and then she replied with sorrow. "He comes."

"He does not!" Vienne raised her sword over her head to deal a killing blow. Yet, even as she raised the sword Amelia recognized the shadow of hesitation in her actions. She was questioning Amelia's calm, her demeanor, and her words. There probably wasn't any morale rating like invincible in this era.

"Gabriel! I need you!" Amelia called over the guild channel. She also made sure she spoke it aloud so that Victoria and Vienne could hear. "He comes, Vienne. This world is not hidden to him any longer."

"We shall see." Vienne reluctantly lowered her sword, apparently willing to wait for whoever Amelia had called. It wasn't mercy that made her wait. There was no way the person Amelia had summoned could be a threat to Vienne, and that meant that Vienne was willing to humor her for a moment longer.

"This is friend Amelia…" Victoria began again, careful to stand well away from the sword that was leveled. There was distress apparent on her face, and a slow sort of realization as well. Vienne was acting bizarre, and not at all like the god of life she knew.

"SILENCE. What have I said of fools?" Vienne thundered once more. The sound was so intense that Victoria actually covered her ears. Vienne's eyes actually sparked with fire as she turned and peered down at the Half. Victoria quaked and went silent.

Amelia was strangely unworried after that. The being before her was more terrified of her than anything. Terror that could only be explained by Void. "Why have you appeared before us?" Amelia asked. She decided there was nothing lost at this point by pressing her luck.

"Do you think I would not hear if you so casually speak the world ender's name with such unmarked repetition to my chosen? I will destroy you the moment I find doubt." Vienne promised sincerely, her faces lifting slightly skyward in a look of terrible judgment.

"So you did know about him," Victoria whispered. "Why didn't you tell me he was coming?"

Anguish filled Vienne's face before it shifted to a more impartial one. "He is not coming. Your world is beneath his notice. He now devours another. There are so many worlds that are above this one."

Amelia frowned, wondering at that statement. "You're… not a god of this world." Amelia suddenly guessed.

It was beginning to make sense to her why she had been able to appear before them in the tombs under the castles and why she was absent from the history of the world.

"You're… a survivor…" She whispered in awe. It was like a puzzle piece had slid into place. A vital piece that shed a different light on the picture. Amelia and Shadow Fall had accidentally chosen the same fake background path as Vienne's true background!

Vienne turned her terrible countenance on Amelia once more, and her sword began to raise with the threat of violence. There was no doubt now that Vienne had exhausted her patience with Amelia. There was an unhurriedness to the action, and this time it did not appear that Vienne even card if Amelia was telling the truth.

"You're not his rival? You're not the one that battled him and lost. You're his victim?" Amelia gasped, shock and awe clouding her features even as she felt everything click. Pity clouded her features without fear as the blade slowly raised above her head, her next words causing the enormous instrument to freeze above her.

"Oh my god. You ran."

"I DID NOT RUN. I fought and fought and THERE WAS NOTHING LEFT." Vienne cried. The terror and pain in her voice touched Amelia, and after a moment she stepped passed the sword and closer to the beautiful luminous clad warrior who seemed now reluctant to strike her down.

"I am sorry Vienne." Amelia really was. She felt the pity in her voice. She was surprised at how much she was sorry for something that was just backstory in a game.

Gabriel, fortunately, arrived quickly, and after a moment he took in the scene and approached. His face was hard to read. Though worry was clouding his expression he didn't look afraid. "Vienne. Why have you appeared? Does he draw near?"

Vienne stared at Gabriel then, disbelief clouding every face that appeared. Her sword lowered and finally, the point rested on the ground. Victoria looked confused but grateful that the threat of violence for the moment had fled. "You are mine?" Immediately lines began appearing and moving away from Gabriel. Vienne was literally inspecting everything about Gabriel's AAO character and avatar.

"Yes?" Gabriel said questioningly. He had to know that this Vienne didn't know about him but he was playing it off well. "Don't get me started about the worms. Really. Stop doing that to people."

Vienne turned and peered at Amelia. As she had once before she felt lines being drawn from her body within her view. Vital statistics and armor were suddenly raised in her vision. The goddess Vienne was examining her once more. Apparently satisfied, Vienne sheathed her sword and the armor on her body slowly faded. Her size diminished as well until she was only slightly larger than Gabriel. Her dress of light and gold returned after her armor disappeared, and instead of the hostility, she stared at them as if trying to suss out what their presence meant.

"But you cannot be here. Wait. No. You are outside the rules." Vienne brightened, and then she began to laugh. She turned to Victoria who had no idea what was going on and repeated. "They are not breaking the rules. They are outside the rules!" Vienne turned to Gabriel and smiled brightly. "I see you, child beyond expectation."

"It is good to see you too. Though you'll forgive me if I'm not as enthusiastic. The worms thing wasn't that long ago for me." Gabriel supplied.

"Everyone always hates the worms," Vienne sounded a little cross for a god. She turned to Gabriel and faced him directly. "What great magic has been worked? Why are you here? What comes?"

"He comes," Amelia replied again, steering the conversation away from time travel. Victoria was right there and it wouldn't have been appropriate. Vienne reluctantly faced her directly. Amelia wasn't about to be ignored by a god that was apparently amazing and had no d.e.s.i.r.e to have her visit her halls.

"He does not. This world is protected." Vienne insisted. Now, knowing what Amelia knew, it sounded petulant.

"He comes." Gabriel insisted. "Void is coming. How do we defeat him if our champions won't see the truth?"

"He does not come!" Vienne cried again, this time she seemed to be growing aggravated. "There are worlds that he has not devoured that take priority over this one. The life of this world is not worth his notice. We grow strong in his absence and knowledge of his presence only brings despair, do not spread misinformation of this kind!"

"They are gone then." Amelia guessed, feeling like she was on a roll. She was pretty confident the more she heard.

"They are gone then." Gabriel repeated, jumping on that train of thought and obviously willing to repeat Amelia so that Vienne would listen. "He is coming. Our information is irrefutable."

Vienne straightened as if the very idea was distasteful to her. Amelia supposed that when you were a god you weren't used to backtalking.

"They are not gone. Even now I…" Vienne stiffened and suddenly looked up. A minute passed as her faces seemed to look slowly in one direction and then another. Growing concern etched into her cheeks or brow or pulled at her lips as the faces changed. A look of mortal terror began to appear on her timeless faces. When her voice came once more it was only a whisper. It no longer consumed every channel Amelia had.

"They are gone!" Vienne said.

"What does this mean for the Half?" Victoria suddenly demanded. She looked pretty irked that she wasn't in the know about what was going on. Even more irked that Vienne had greeted Gabriel and then continued to ignore her, the other obvious chosen.

"Your world will be devoured," Vienne said simply, not bothering to limit her answer to the Half, her voice full of soft wonder yet returning to strength. Her entire body seemed to slump toward the ground.