NOVEL NEXT Chapter Forty-Three: A Tipsy Witch
Mage’s Repose was an odd but soothing drink. It was non-alcoholic, more of a tincture or minor potion than anything else. A bright blue liquid swirled about in her crystal glass like a storm; almost depthless. When she sipped it, a satisfying chill ran down her throat and out to her limbs, alleviating her magical aches and pains.
With the cold drink in hand, Autumn curiously looked about.
She was lost.
After the party polished off their enormous banquet, they’d split up to explore the wondrous inn. Each member parted with a specific goal or destination in mind. Whether they’d find it was another matter entirely.
Nethlia spared them a brief goodbye before marching off to find the other captains. Ostensibly, that was to go over their route in the morning, but Autumn felt the berserker was embarrassed. Ever since the fiasco at Everwatch, she’d not looked Autumn in the eye.
In direct opposition to their currently moody captain, there was Lidde. The unreserved pirate had flounced off with arms over the shoulders of both a man and woman. The less Autumn thought about that, the better.
Any hope of companionship with Pyre was dashed when the alchemist informed her that she’d be in search of an alchemy lab to replenish their stocks. It was her responsibility as the party’s healer to keep an ample supply of healing potions on hand. Thus, she too vanished into the twisting bowels of this magical inn.
As both Nelva and Edwyn had yet to fully heal, the pair took a more languid approach to exploring. Meaning they’d taken it upon themselves to try to outdo the near instant refills of booze. To be fair, they were making a good show of it.
What this all ultimately meant was that they left Autumn to explore by herself.
Thus, she instantly got lost.
It wasn’t really her fault as the first doorway she passed through spat her out into a random hallway. When she turned around to see the way back, what should have been a dining hall was missing. Instead, there was a well-stocked library beckoning her. With nothing else to lose, Autumn took a curious step inside. However, her intended perusal of the library was not meant to be. The second she crossed the threshold, the library turned into a fighting arena, complete with a sandpit.
Autumn mused that if one was truly unlucky they might end up forever trapped by these twisting portals.
With a whimsy spring in her step, Autumn allowed the doors to carry her where they may.
Each of her long strides took her wandering through the ever-changing doors. Rooms flashed by her: a stage passed her by, then a bar, a private room, a ballroom, and even a full indoor gymnasium.
The sight of the last gave her pause.
Oh, how she wanted to run, to feel that track pounding away beneath her feet. If not for the dull ache of her complaining ribs, she just might have. With regret in her heart and reluctance in her steps, she turned away and strode through another yawning portal.
Perhaps the doors favored her or maybe they just grew sick of her aimless wandering, for the next room she entered held familiar faces. Not her teammates, but a few of the friendly adventurers she’d greeted here or there on the journey. A diverse group of six sat around a gambling table with cards in hand while a diminished deck sat on the table-top.
“Witch Autumn! Care to join us for a friendly game of Adventurer’s Gambit?”
Noticing her entrance, a tall Inferni demon called out. It took a second, but Autumn recognized him as Arvius, one of Captain Ekrus’ sons in the Nemesis Crew. Sat beside him was the much smaller Felis form of Eme. The catgirl’s ears swiveled in Autumn’s direction before her wide, glistening eyes followed. Other than them, the only other face Autumn knew was that of Delight, the Inferni bardic dancer.
Tugged on by her own cat-like curiosity, Autumn wandered over.
“Adventurer’s Gambit? I’ve never played.”
Arvius looked surprised.
“Really? It’s the Guild’s preferred game!” Arvius paused. “I seemed to have misplaced my manners. I believe you’ve already met Miss Delight and Miss Eme. The two gentlebucks beside me are Misters Evrard and Bastistin.” The Lepus pair nodded politely to Autumn. “And the brooding one is Lady Nizana.”
An Umbra elf smiled politely at Autumn. In the shade of the inn, she’d pulled down her hood and facemask revealing a handsome dark-purple skinned face curtained by stark white hair.
“It’s a pleasure.” Nizana said.
Autumn took an offered seat beside the Felis bard. Glancing over at her cards showed a team of dashing adventurers painted on them.
“As we are now rather light on funds, we’re betting on taking shots instead. We’ll forgo betting on your first game so you can learn the rules.” Arvius spoke up once more.
Before Autumn could say anything about her lack of alcohol, another puff of glittering smoke erupted beside her. When the smoke cleared, a bottle of Earthen whiskey rested beside her, the label reading: The Devil’s Cut.
It was fitting, she supposed.
“Adventurer’s Gambit is a tactical game. The goal is to create a team of six adventurers and defeat the horde of monsters. What makes it tricky is that only the highest value team wins. So some maneuvering, alliances, and betrayals are necessary to win. However, if the horde isn’t defeated, then everybody loses. With me so far?”
Autumn nodded.
“First, everyone draws a card, one after the other, until you have a team of six in hand. Remember to keep your cards secret.”
Everyone picked their cards.
Looking down, Autumn saw she had: a pair of rogues, a pair of mages, a ranger, and a cleric. In the top corner, there were a few numbers and modifiers. Her set wasn’t bad, but most of the modifiers needed classes she didn’t have.
Interestingly, each card had names at the bottom, presumably of the famous adventurers they depicted.
“Now, on each turn, we can choose to discard a card and draw another or trade with another player.”
Autumn ended up trading one rogue for a knight and a mage for a fighter. She didn’t really know what she was doing, but the numbers were going up.
“At the end of the turn, we’d bet on whether we think we can take on the monster. This is the time to bluff or make alliances. Once the bets are in, we flip a monster card.”
The first monster card was called a Skink-Tiger and its name was apt as it looked like a tiger-like skink. Autumn’s card numbers were just barely higher than the monster’s score.
“Now we vote for who we think can win, or lose if you prefer. The player with the most votes fights the monster. If you lose, you drink the amount of shots you bet. If you win, then everyone else has to. Repeat that until either the horde’s defeated or only one player remains. That or everyone is too drunk to play anymore.”
Autumn smiled.
“I think I got it.”
She didn’t have it.
In but a few games, Autumn was staring woozily at a quartet of mages in her hand. Which was impressive since she’d only drawn two. Blinking slowly, she realized it was her turn.
“Emmmmme, Eme. ‘hiccup’ Can I hash…can I hass…have a knight for my…mage.”
Eme screwed up her watery eyes in thought. The Felis wasn’t doing much better than Autumn. Sure, she’d won more games than Autumn, but the smaller girl seemed to have a much lower alcohol tolerance.
“Nooooo. My knight is having an affair with my bard…I can’t break them up…meow.”
Autumn stared at the teary-eyed girl.
“Did you just meow?”
“....No.”
A light-hearted giggle erupted across from them. Turning in unison, the pair looked over at the Umbra elf. Nizana looked unashamed in her apparent amusement.
“What? You two are pretty cute when you’re drunk.”
Autumn felt her spine turn to jelly in her seat as the weight of the violet-skinned elf’s piercing stare utterly crushed her instinctive babble of denial in its infancy. Something peculiar was happening to Autumn’s drunken mind as the leather-clad woman watched her. She felt like a rabbit beneath a hungry hawk.
“How about another game!”
Autumn was embarrassed by the way her voice cracked in the end.
Two soft lips caressed in a virginal kiss. Questing tongues snaked forth, tasting the other’s sweetness. Multiple breathless seconds passed as they kissed till they had to break away with desperate gasps and lidded eyes. Sharp canines bit down on a retreating bottom lip, eliciting a pleased hiss of pain from its owner.
Roaming hands sought to discover a world of bliss. They both pawed impatiently at fastened belts and tight buttons. Clothes loosened one by one until the warmth inside was exposed.
Bound together in an expression of inexperienced intimacy, a pair tumbled against a hallway wall. Cloaked in shadow and incomprehensible geography, they clung to each other’s lithe form. Hot lips kissed against a defined collarbone while the other moaned out a name.
Cold prosthetic fingers played across a surprisingly compact abdomen; the ridges and bumps shuddered under the touch. The finger’s owner gasped as sharp pinpricks of blood welled up upon her breast, left behind by provoked claws. Amateur but passionate ministrations silenced rushed apologies.
A searing heat encircled a peaked nub, and a euphoric cry erupted. It parted through the breathless panting and soft, desperate calls of names. The voices entwined in a burning rapture as they slid to the cold floor.
One aching hand drifted low, while the other high to toy with a pair of beautifully soft ears.
Another joyous cry broke the night.
“Meow!!!~”
“‘Hic’ I love you, robot!”
Fat tears stained a porcelain form as Autumn drunkenly clung tightly to a stoic server. The golem’s blank face seemed to possess a shadow of pity and annoyance at the witch impeding its duties. With coded-in reserve, it gently patted Autumn on the back.”
“Consoling statement: There there.”
“Do you love me?”
“Query: What is love?”
“Love is…is…Everything!!! It’s what we all strive for but cannot have.”
Pure black eyes stared at the uncomprehending faceplate. Thousands of thoughts spun and crashed within Autumn’s mind, but never emerged into a proper articulated speech. A small part of herself recognized she was making a mistake right now, but the confidence of booze silenced it.
“Would you like to feel what we feel? Be more than you are now? How about we make a deal?”
“Anxious Query: Why do I feel fear?”
Somehow, despite all the alcohol pulsing through her system and muddling her mind, Autumn found her way through the twisting corridors and doors to her room. Being keyed to her, the door opened obediently.
Tumbling in, Autumn took in the room with hazy, drunken eyes.
It was her room.
Not in the sense that it was her room at the inn, but in that it looked identical to her childhood room back on Earth. Every mark and mar of life that she’d etched into the surfaces and walls was recreated faithfully. All her effects decorated the room: posters of the bands or games she liked plastered the walls, toys and games cluttered the edges of the room, even her unfinished homework littered her desk.
The bed was just as unrumpled and the pillows just as fluffed as she liked it.
In hindsight, the posters of half-naked female game characters should have been a giveaway as to her orientation. Her parents had probably known before her, just waiting for her to learn by herself.
It was as if the portal had directly deposited back home just before that fateful day almost a year ago, when everything went wrong. She’d never seen this room since.
Tears cascaded unstoppably down her flushed cheeks as she took it all in.
Closing her eyes, Autumn could faintly hear the sounds of her mother cooking in the kitchen, the soft humming of a theme tune drifting. From a room that’d lain empty ever since the cancer had taken him, came the echoing synthetic sounds of her father’s gaming.
It was a torturous catharsis. Autumn couldn’t hold back the welling grief any longer in her state. Wracking sobs resounded from her as she clutched a stuffed rabbit plushie with all her might.
When the sobs had devolved to sniffles, Autumn looked out her bedroom window. Outside was the scene of her home street. Cars drove on by while pedestrians walked beside. A girl with striking green hair stopped walking by to observe Autumn shyly. The illusion of one of Autumn’s schoolmates, Liliana, waved at her. With a flicker of her will, Autumn now looked out at the blue marble that was Earth hanging in the blackness of space. Right now, it was as if someone had built her bedroom upon the dusty surface of the moon.
Autumn smiled.
In a drunken stumble, Autumn collapsed upon her bed and fell into its molded grooves. Cradled by familiarity, it took only a few seconds before a dreamless sleep caught her in its grasp.