5.15 – Arcade I

5.15 – Arcade I

Losing Helena was fortunately easier than Zoey had feared. Bursting into the busy streets of Treyhull, Zoey and Delta quickly disappeared into the crowds. Helena apparently wasn’t willing to leverage any skills or abilities to pursue them, or to start a fight between wayfarers in the middle of the city, and Zoey and Delta had a head-start—and also the advantage of being the ones to flee rather than chase.

Even Zoey had some difficulty keeping up with Delta, though the foxgirl made sure not to lose her. Several streets later, and a good five minutes of winding down random busy pathways, Delta came to a stop, eyes scanning her surroundings. Breathing heavily—and only half from the exertion of sprinting away—Zoey did the same.

Delta took off her mask, which prompted Zoey to do the same.

“Well, that was interesting,” the foxgirl said.

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“Got out, somehow.” Delta shrugged. “Should’ve put more effort into the bindings. Or maybe the gag. Not sure. If I had to guess, someone heard her.”

“Then how’d you get your body back?”

“Swapped over, then snatched the mirror back from Jacquelyn. Would’ve been trickier if she didn’t come straight to me. They’re not great planners, these cultists.”

“I think that’s hypocritical coming from us,” Zoey said. “Considering our own disaster of a mission.”

“We’re all equally bad at it,” Delta amended. “Anyway, we’re home free, pretty sure. Lost Helena.” She wrinkled her nose. “Probably have to watch out for anyone poking around for us, though. Treyhull’s a huge place, and the local guild too, but there’s not too many people fitting our descriptions.”

An orange-haired foxgirl? Friends with a six-foot woman with short black hair? No, even considering Treyhull’s size, tracking down two wayfarers with that information wouldn’t be exceptionally difficult, though they at least kept somewhat to themselves, so maybe not insanely fast, either. She and Delta had felt okay invading the cult because they wouldn’t be in Treyhull more than a week, but it had certainly opened up a vector of danger.

“We’ll keep an eye out,” Zoey said.

“You at least learn anything?”

“Not what we wanted, but some important stuff other than that, yeah.”

“Oh?”

“You heard the start of it. She’s been to a lewd shards.”

“Confirmed?”

“Without a doubt. Specifically the one with the reflection.”

“So it means when you enter a shard, the change is permanent.”

“I guess it is.”

“That’s insane. Can you imagine the implications?”

“Not in the slightest,” Zoey said honestly. “I guess I’m spawning a whole new genre of shards. What the hell does that mean?”

“Not sure, but I expect it’ll be popular with some people,” Delta said amusedly. “Gods, I can’t wait to hear what people have to say about it. Wonder if anyone back at the guild has been to one.”

“Dunno if you should just go asking around.”

“Yeah, yeah. I won’t. Just curious.” Delta paused, then smirked. “But long term, assuming we hang out near Mantle for a while? It’ll be more than just two shards corrupted by you. You’ll have a whole fleet of them as the months tick by. No chance it stays a secret.”

Zoey considered that, then shook her head. “It’ll be interesting, for sure.” She wasn’t sure how else to describe how she felt about the revelation.

“But nothing about our vampire friend?”

“Not even a hint. I don’t think Helena knows much.”

“Sounds like you’re playing to win, to me,” Zoey said dryly.

“Wrong,” Delta said. “I’m playing to embarrass you with how badly I destroy you, not just ‘to win’.”

“You’re in a competitive spirit, I see.”

“Yeah. And also, shit talking is just kinda fun,” she said with a satisfied swish of her tail. “Tell me if I’m being annoying, though.”

“No, it’s fine. It’s cute.”

Delta perked up at that, though it seemed like she tried not to let it show. Zoey got the impression she’d actually been worried about Zoey taking it the wrong way. She didn’t—and wouldn’t. While Zoey could get competitive in her own right, she knew she wouldn’t mind ‘getting destroyed’ if it was Delta.

“Alright,” Delta said. “What first?”

“You lead.”

“Don’t wanna pick the first game? Get an advantage?”

“I’ve got the feeling I’m losing either way.”

“Yeah, probably. Maybe I’ll take pity and let you win one, though.”

“How nice of you.

“I’m a generous person, I know.” She smirked. “And, maybe the bigger reason I’ll go easy on you is I’m hoping to get lucky. Can’t beat you too bad and risk that.” Playful violet eyes sparkled. “Then again, maybe getting beat over and over will get you nice and frustrated, and you’ll want to take it out on me. That could be fun too.”

The first game Delta took them to was nearly identical to a common one back home—miniature basketball. A hoop sat fifteen feet away, with a slope down to return the thrown balls; there were other versions with shorter gaps to the hoop, but Delta had chosen the hardest of the variant.

Zoey went first. She’d never been athletic, per se, but probably more so than the typical girl. The thing was, she didn’t just do okay over the following minute, but rather, she astounded herself with how well she performed. Miniature ball after ball flew into the hoop, less than one in six missing, even after Zoey started picking up serious speed, sending them in a stream—having to let them roll back down, limited by how many she had rather than her sheer aiming and shooting.

She’d known she’d grown stronger, faster, and more agile with her passive boosts that came with her advancements—and especially her new skill, which shared stats among all party members—but this was an impressive enough display to amaze her even knowing that. Not by what she was accomplishing, since her adventures down in the shard had been more impressive and fantastic in the literal sense, but rather the casualness of how well she performed. In a normal setting like an arcade, her newfound powers were oddly more fascinating to her than anything before.

A simple stop-watch device announced when her time was up. This world didn’t have electricity and technology figured out, but they’d closed many of the gaps through magic—the conveniences found in Treyhull didn’t extend just to plumbing and such.

Zoey turned to Delta, flushed with excitement. The display of coordination and speed was far more exhilarating than she’d been expecting. She could see why Delta had wanted to come—skill games had become twice as much fun, and they’d been enjoyable enough even as a regular human.

“Nah, don’t do that,” Delta laughed. “Look so happy about that score, I’ll actually feel bad about destroying you.” She chewed her lip, then firmly shook her head. “No, I won’t let a pretty face sway me. I’ve gotta put you in your place.”

“By all means,” Zoey said, lips quirking. “I wanna see what you can do too, if I’m this good now.”

“You call that good?”

Zoey pouted, and Delta reluctantly admitted, “Fine, it was pretty impressive. For a support mage, at least.”

“Alright, Miss Rogue,” Zoey said with a roll of her eyes. “Let’s see how the dexterity class does it.”

Delta stepped up eagerly to the edge of the arcade game, then got to work.

All the bragging and teasing, Zoey discovered, was absolutely not unfounded. If Zoey had been impressed at herself, she was doubly so by Delta. Not only was Delta’s class more geared towards feats of precision and skill like this, but Zoey knew this woman was also just a prodigy in her own right—hence why Rosalie had approved of her. Not a single ball missed the basket, despite flying by in a blur.

When she’d finished, she turned a smirk Zoey’s way. Zoey only had one honest response: “I already knew it, but you really are incredible.”

To Zoey’s amusement and nearly incredulity, Delta blushed and looked away. “I mean, yeah, whatever. Not really. But thanks.” With some effort, the foxgirl plastered back on her teasing bravado. After seeing her blush so easily, it was twice as endearing as before. “You’re just impressed because of how bad you did. I mean, sheesh. What was the score difference? Two hundred to one?”

“Somewhere around there,” Zoey said.