NIGHT

she hadn't thought to ask nari for her opinion, beyond having known her history, alongside what she had already told night. so they walked, quiet, and as they passed through the castle doors night wondered if lilith was meant to reside here. it seemed like a proper home for the demonic being, but at the same time, it felt a little too grand for a singular person. a part of her recalled oscar's manor, and the memory itself questioned if her friend, now, was doing well, because she hadn't heard from him in a bit.

nari was right to be wary, even if night was underestimating her environment on their behalf. just as the blessed scythe forged in her friend's hands, the third voice came from further within. it was difficult to realize why, at first, given the low light environment; night squinted, chastising herself for having refunded searching earlier. and there, before them, was a rather young, pretty looking woman.

maybe she did deserve a little bit of biting and killing. as a treat.

then, lilith's reaction, overeager, to a strange old man who showed up suddenly crashed all of night's hopes and her face instantly fell. in fact, feeling cruel, she pointed towards him instead with their power dynamic in mind, a brow raised. "wait. isn't he the more likely villain of the operation here? why are we fighting lilith? shouldn't we just kill him instead of his discord kitten?"

she'd looked to nari for affirmation on her call, but strode over to the center of the room afterwards, calling out to the duo. "hey! why're you making her call you master, weirdo?"

almost instantly, there was a darting shadow out of nowhere, swooping in from on high. the player wasn't prepared, but she was quick on the draw, letting loose a large slash in an arc that managed to strike lilith alongside the sudden figure. a human form dropped to the ground before shattering into pieces, in tact long enough for night to realize that was another vampire, and lilith wasn't unaccompanied all this time, after all.

but that just made it look even worse for the creepy old man.

"nari," she shot over her shoulder, getting ready to serve another strike, "i didn't know you needed my help punishing a few bad girls. why didn't you say so? it'll be a good time for the both of us."

and though her calls were in jest, her eyes were fixated on the puppeteer of the attack, instead of their hell spawn of the hour.

or not.

night was about to head out once some of her team did, long strides made brisk towards wushen as she kept her eye out for other potential obstructions. there weren't any. so she turned that into a run instead, darting forward, and she was almost about to hit the dragon, too.

but then the earth shook, the ice walls came back up, and suddenly night was thrown into the air again. a tap from the all consuming was almost like a shove to corner her back into her cage – night tumbled downwards against the floor, where an effigy of his almighty awaited her – alongside the rest of her squad.

she'd at least caught the sight of that burning, not-so-solid creature again, and on her way down, earnestly tried to strike it to no avail. so now on the floor, night just stayed there, fuming. if there was any solace to being face-down, it was that her rage was muffled, if only for a brief moment.

"the records...?" night asked, but didn't linger on the term for too long. hell, she'd expected her query to be taken as a slip of the tongue, but she still remained interested in the presence of documentation from a historical period, especially if it contained information about events such as these.

but she allowed hirru to continue unhindered, nodding allowing with light sympathy – even if she didn't know these players, it still seemed sad, and a little beyond her, that they would be axed without notice – and potentially without grudge. night brushed at her scalp at the back of her neck, considering what her friend had put forward. a friend, to have killed others without a thought?

(she wasn't so sure which part caused her to be hesitant in answering his question – the friend as a criminal, or the act of killing itself.)

it took her a moment to return to his story, eyes brought up from the grass beside them. the mention of the guild unregistered was new, though yet another name she wasn't too sure about having remembered from somewhere else, or heard of from another player. and the guilt plastered upon the knights, which resulted in their demise afterwards sounded more like sabotage than unfortunate incident.

as hirru browsed through his friends list for this mysterious vice commander, she wondered if she, too, should've taken down this person's name. briefly, she tried recalling any others that might have been from the same shared past, but failed to come up with a matching answer.

with lowenthal reintroduced, night considered the state of the front at the time. likely tense, difficult and sparse for warriors. perhaps that was part of the reason why players on the first hadn't often heard news of progress in so long, from her perspective. there was that, and then...

"First time joining the front, and I mess up so hard that I was forced to lead that raid."

night thought to cover her snort with a hand. even though they were speaking about heavy events just a moment ago, there was still light to be found in hirru's retellings, it seemed. it made sense, given that he hadn't witnessed them firsthand, after all. the player set aside a brief feeling of conflict for the state of their conversation to speak instead. "i take it that lowenthal was part of getting everyone else together, then. or was it another player with a warm cursor whose order you intercepted instead?"

and there was part of her that wanted to ask if their influence, despite the rumors, had allowed them to organize for the raid even if it was for a few times, if not constantly, but the question remained lodged in night's throat instead.

maybe it was something about the fourteenth that got people thinking like this, night noted. the black and the reds, she would blame, casting her gaze aside as she'd listened to nari speak. things were changing on the outside, just as much or more than within their realm. and the player contemplated on if she should reach out to grab one of nari's shoulder, but failed to follow through.

"we don't know if it's pointless," night responded, turning to face her. "not until we get to that final floor to verify the administrator's words, i mean." and then she started walking again, casual – almost as though the conversation didn't faze her.

(it did, in the way she'd argued with koga a series of months ago. night bit on the side of her tongue as she held that memory in mind.)

the castle, their destination, was up ahead. night had assumed nari was following along, looking over her shoulder to verify if she wasn't beside her. "i'm one of those people," night admitted. "the 'someone with something to return to'. and it isn't about the people who have grown and moved on or away from us. the truth is that the person i'm doing this for is for me."

"i..." she kept her gaze to the distance as she continued, daring not to look at her companion as she spoke. "i think i deserve to live my old life rather than be locked away in here by someone else. this isn't a defiance against the admins. and don't misunderstand me – it's reasonable to think our slow progression won't get us out of here some day, and that it's not worth the fight at all. but..."

night's words finally hung in the air, as her eyes lingered on nari, only torn away if her ally had looked back.

"... i'm selfish. and i don't want to be in here, even if it takes us forever to get out of here. that's all."

the knuckle of her index went up to her mouth. night had been entirely unserious, of course, but watching nari consider her proposal seemed a little hilarious, even if it did carry the intended effect of offloading the sword to her. it quickly transformed into a scythe in her hands – a mystical show that had the player tilting her head at, and almost made her want to retract her previous efforts of handing over the item to nari.

a brief bout of thought, and her companion's serious argument about not being able to sell quest items suddenly made sense, so she dropped her intent of taking it back.

"blessed?" night echoed afterwards. parts of her memory were coming back now, though there was little more to fill in the gaps. they'd notice the new destination, and so night was on her way out towards it, shrugging off the comment about the beach home. if she wanted one, night would've purchased her housing there.

but –

"Do you...ever get tired of it all?"

– that was a query that caught the player off guard, all of a sudden.

night turned to look at nari, just as they were shuffling out of the keep. a hand went to her hip, but her eyes remained neutral more than the hostility her pose might've suggested. "tired? of what all?" the player gestured vaguely to the outskirts they were passing by. "all this? i suppose. on the fourteenth, things get difficult to take in real fast if black white and red is all you see for an extended period of time."

her eyes narrowed slightly afterwards. "but if you mean aincrad... yeah. i guess i do. that's why it's important to take breaks every once in a while. even if it seems as though you're vacationing a lot, it's worth it to pause every now and then."

night was sincere in her words. but once she'd concluded her feedback, her original motive – pure curiosity rising out of concern – finally spilled from the tip of her tongue.

"why do you ask?"

the golden age? the only frontline guild she was familiar with was firm anima, only because of their size. every other name she even thought to know – no matter how briefly – was smaller in scale. what are the implications of a golden age with regards to guilds, then? and – knowing hirru had mentioned the occurance of a murder – how many had they lost?

hirru mentioned 'a decline in direction and betrayal' – that last word was the second time he'd said it, though night wasn't too sure to tie it into his own interruption on the twenty-third. but she nodded, still, as the man sighed and steeped himself into memories once more.

her suspicions were quickly confirmed.

there were rarely large guilds present as they knew the scene now. perhaps, in name only, there was the aincrad trading post and the aforementioned pseudo-military, but if the knights of blood united these individuals hirru had mentioned and more, it was certainly sizable enough for night to find it difficult to believe. but night found it even more difficult to know hirru to be lying. he spoke of different sectors, with split, delegated responsibilities as the guild strived to work together as one unit. the player felt the familiar surge of wishing, wanting – or perhaps it was part of her imagination – to know what it must feel like, ingrained in a cohesive unit as her friend had been involved it, as mentioned.

hirru then briefly brought up their members' possession of unique skills, and night had found herself wanting to say something, but she closed her mouth, feigning surprise instead, as she continued to pay attention to his words.

she knew of them, and how they were rumored, but never knew the specifics. now she knew they were real – once, if not now – and hirru's recollection was historical proof of that. it was that, alongside the presence of a power struggle, that sent a familiar shiver down her spine.

which left night open to what he would reveal next. if she untangled herself a little from her seated position, it was in lieu of the suddenness of a different sort of 'betrayal' – enough for the fact that living legend and relic macradon had been a witness to the crime to have slipped her mind.

two deaths – at once?

"you mean, this was in addition to the floor boss being defeated?" night blinked twice, almost wanting to fire a barrage of questions if only to obtain more context. she barely knew of a player with an orange cursor to be currently present on the front – and perhaps, now, she might be able to guess the precedent of why. she stammered, searching for the best inquiry to start on. "who was the other friend? – what did opal have against them, the grudge against landon? ... so it was premeditated...?"

the player quickly realized how uncomfortable she felt – physically, and only due to the shift in her position. so she adjusted herself once more, curling inwards tighter. "i've not heard either of those names," she clarified. "do they happen to hold any weight?"

like a roiling tide. the ground continued to morph, shift – rumbles begot an upheaval of the floor, until shards of ice began to protrude, and cut into the air above its root. they grew and blockade, and in the dizzying spell of a changing arena, night only thought herself lucky to have found her other team members in the mix. she'd stumbled back from the corners of their entrapment, idly brushing up against the head that seemed hard as stone – only then did she turn around and back away even more.

it was not as solid as she had initially thought it was.

the instinct that kicked in was one of confusion and fright. she'd whiffed her strike on air – not the gaseous creature she was supposed to smite – and then quickly realized her mistake. now with the others, and looking up to wushen from behind the wall that towered above them, night looked to caustic with hesitation.

"well, it's not like we've got any other choice..."

she drew upon her own reserves, meeting crow's eyes before performing a chest pass. "crow, heads up! keep that in your back pocket – just in case."

night watched koga pick up the sword. and it was shiny, and burning, and 'cool'. but the first thing night was curious in was--

"well? is it cursed?"

that aside, they did have things they needed to kill. night then thought twice about their presence in the keep. it didn't seem as though there were any signs of vampires nearby – but her quest log did update to direct them elsewhere. night shrugged as she waved to koga. "think we should check a window." so they swept the keep grounds for one.

(yeah. they did pass by the sword in the stone from earlier. but it lost its luster in lieu of the sword koga was holding. night wasn't even sure if that was the right weapon they were supposed to be after, now.)

through the stone window, in the distance, was a remarkably convenient gothic castle that seemed to be where they were meant to be headed. and forget the keep housing such a creature of the night, beyond the undead – vampires usually had class, so it made sense that they wouldn't be existing in some back-alley soldier's home base. she pointed it out to koga, for clarity, and then her real gripe began. "can't believe the quest is making us go to a secondary location. did you know you're more unlikely to come back from one?"

so night got up on the ledge of the window, and offered a hand to koga. "i'm going to take the quickest route possible. you coming along or what?"

there was a lot to consider with a weapon balanced for its accuracy. night considered this, as she blazed through door after door. her investigation was careless, untactful – if she didn't catch a glimpse of light once the room's entry was open, she'd leave immediately. between the echoes of the hall, and the noise they were making, it was a wonder there weren't any sleeping corpses to be roused about – or that night could even hear nari above the chaos.

but night took her shot in the dark to know better. "a slot of holy, probably," she guessed, and then placed her faith in false hope. "maybe some accuracy, too? i wasn't the one holding the sword, so i wouldn't know."

nari found it first, and that left night to play catch up with her companion. a quick jog over and she'd peer into the room her team mate was standing at the entrance of. whatever nari had described was a lot fancier in presentation than she'd initially expected, because night had found it anti-climatically – this was less so. at least a skeleton was handing it over to them.

the sword looked about right, so night hummed affirmingly and entered the room, strolling up next to the blade. she thought about what had once happened on her previous attempt, and when she drew a blank, she gestured to it casually with an open palm.

"cool. so we'll take this back and sell it for col and rinse and repeat this quest until we get tired of it. then we finish the quest for the sword art." night looked at nari blankly. "that's how this works, right? you first. my wallet's full."

chekov's gun, one after another. night was failing to keep track of each of them, usually save the last – but that wasn't often tantamount to the story she was being told, she realized. so she set aside her inability to recall, riding through the story beats that hirru was narrating instead. a fragmented collective of players – on purpose, but what was it? and a run in with an orange player, though that didn't seem to phase her much.

it occurred to night, however, that she could only count the number of such individuals she'd encountered on one hand; mari being the most prominent, but she wouldn't go so far as to forget the boy of solitude that had slain bloodbane alongside her. she barely even remembered his name, after all this time. and then there was hidden, stuck in the past, whose motives for being undercover... she still wasn't able to decipher.

hirru said lowenthal was influential. night figured that, back in his day, amidst the chaos, scheming and complications hirru had to face, things were better cut black and white in a hurry – for safety. but people were often more than their cover; appearance, persona, facade. a tide of change prepared for the future, he was – another chekov's gun.

she wondered briefly how many orange players this tale was going to have.

the azure brigade presented itself as a new actor, and though it didn't seem to ring a bell to night, the last phrase that hirru dropped sounded awfully familiar. she'd mouthed its name, as though doing so would jog her memory, but it didn't. in her mind, it existed as sort of a vagueness she couldn't put aside.

but amidst the others, it must have had some connection to them, right?

night traced her failing memory, counting the prominent figures in the tale with her fingers, forwards and back.

opal, lowenthal, lindow's murder.

the crimson blades, the azure brigade, the knights of the blood oath.

and she was quiet for a moment, but when night was certain she hadn't missed out on anything, she spoke up with a nod. "i think i'm keeping up."

once night confirmed herself, however, she remembered that this meant whatever values she'd associated with her friend about 'freedom and independence' were firmly under scrutiny with regards to his enrolment into the new guild. perhaps her guess was wrong about him, she thought. that may be the case – but with no real way of knowing, it still wasn't the point of the story.

she pressed her knuckles into her other palm. night was fidgeting, thinking. "so then, the knights of the blood oath..." she considered, "what was their purpose amongst all of this?"

"a regular?"

night knew she wasn't going to bump into other customers except through sheer accident – that happened only once in a while. rather, the tale behind it was difficult to behold. issuing identifications on the daily? either he had a lot of money, or a lot of items.

both set night's position in the economy into perspective. she may be strong, but at the moment, she was practically living from identification to identification (according to bistro, at least). so she sat on that feeling for a little as she listened. "that... makes sense," was all she could produce, still shocked by the amount of work andromeda had been plunged into (and her apparent sense of poverty, while they were at it).

she hemmed and hawed. "who was this, again? uh-- if you're even allowed to disclose it, i suppose." and night quickly acknowledged the five-day wait with a nod at the notice – it wasn't urgent. "and i'd assume he's not giving you any more trouble, either, right...?"

there was also the question about the 'frontlines' – which, to be honest, night didn't exactly know how to approach it. she'd also completely forgotten the extent to which bistro had publicized their (her?) progress in breaching the labyrinth to the floor boss' door. what should she do, tell the truth that she'd gone hunting for the boss alone?

"busy." night simply said, staring blankly at an, hoping it would prompt herself to explain further. "handling personal stuff. err – love life? maybe?" she gestured vaguely with the shake of a hand. "and then not. getting lost in randomized dungeons too, i suppose – the usual grind."

look. bistro wasn't going to know. iris wasn't going to tell. and if she was, night had just stumbled upon a little secret she wasn't exactly sure was exactly good blackmail material.

iris was passed out on the couch, and so was jean. the thing was: jean had her head on iris' lap. night initially hadn't wanted to intrude on their peace and quiet, but she was caught by the woman in blue by the counter, where iris usually was, who beckoned her to come in.

it wasn't good blackmail material... on the basis she got caught. but between the look of uneasiness from night and indifference of the shop's third owner upon noticing her client's stock low, it was plain and simple.

iris wasn't going to tell.