foot, but he took his time and watched the scenery unfurling beneath him. He hadn’t spent very long in this area at all, because he’d never rolled an elf. It was very sub-Tolkien: all trees and stars and dwindling. He found a narrow path that spiralled to the crest of a hill and under a pretty impressive waterfall. It tumbled between the rocks in silver-crested streams and down into a pool that shimmered, blue and green, with the reflected images of the surrounding forest.
He paused to admire the ray tracing. Obviously, the game was getting on a bit and it wasn’t much by modern standards, but someone had clearly put a lot of effort into getting the scene just right. He’d already got credit for exploring Arandiel’s Vale, but since there seemed to be a cave behind the waterfall, he thought it’d be nice to poke his head in.
It turned out to be the standard cave model, and it was full of level fifteen bullywugs who were probably some kind of bandits or cultists or something. When you were new to the game and at an appropriate level, this cave was probably a complete nightmare, but Ella was high enough level that the mobs basically ignored her except when she actually ran through them. In the end, Drew dragged a bunch of them into a corner and massacred them wholesale with a single Circle of Corruption. There was a certain base satisfaction in one-shotting a bunch of low-level creatures.
Solace has come online.
[Guild][Morag]: Hey
[Guild][Heurodis]: yo
[Guild][Mordant]: Hi :)
[Guild][Solace]: Hello everyone
[Guild][Solace]: How was the date, Tiff?
[Guild][Morag]: Nfc
[Guild][Morag]: I really liked her. She was hot and wrote poetry.
[Guild][Morag]: But I have literally no idea if she was into me.
[Guild][Heurodis]: you should have told her your gearscore
[Guild][Morag]: And this is why you’re single, Bjorn.
[Guild][Heurodis]: I am single because nobody is awesome enough for me.
[Guild][Jargogle]: Keep telling yourself that.
To [Solace]: can we like talk
[Solace] whispers: thought you didn’t want to
To [Solace]: sorry i was freaked out
To [Solace]: and i really want to talk about this
To [Solace]: if you still want to
[Solace] whispers: okay
Solace has invited you to join a group: y/n
Solace is now group leader.
Shit. Drew suddenly realised there was a massive difference between wanting to talk to someone and having any idea what you were going to say to them. And it seemed really weird to be having this kind of a conversation in a chat window in a video game.
[Group][Orcarella]: um can we kind of go somewhere
[Group][Orcarella]: if that’s not weird
[Group][Solace]: I’m in Alarion
[Group][Orcarella]: kk omw
The journey had never seemed quite so long, even though he wasn’t more than three minutes’ flight from the City of Stars. And just like the first time he’d gone to meet Solace, he found himself worrying pointlessly about which mount to use. El’ir seemed wanky suddenly. But he wasn’t sure he had a mount that said, Hi, I’m kind of cross with you, and I don’t think I’m gay, but I still kind of fancy you. Maybe. Even though I’ve never met you.
Finally, he dug out his bog-standard Orcish Wyvern and flapped gracelessly over to Alarion. Solace was perched on their usual rock, still in full raiding getup, fishing line trailing in the water. Ella landed, dismounted, and hunkered down.
Shit, this was difficult.
[Group][Orcarella]: um hi
[Group][Solace]: Hey
[Group][Orcarella]: you know, i don’t even know what your name is
[Group][Solace]: It’s Christopher
[Group][Solace]: But everyone calls me Kit
Kit. Drew rolled the name around in his head, trying to make it connect with something.
Good healing, Kit.
Me and Kit rolled some medusas to see what the starting area was like.
I really like you, Kit.
[Group][Solace]: Look, I’m really sorry
[Group][Solace]: I didn’t mean to . . .
[Group][Solace]: Mislead you or anything.
[Group][Solace]: I know I kind of did
[Group][Solace]: And I’m sorry.
[Group][Orcarella]: I get its a weird situation
[Group][Orcarella]: and i get i made a bunch of assumptions
[Group][Orcarella]: but I don’t understand why you didn’t just tell me
There was no typing for a very long time.
[Group][Solace]: I made assumptions too.
[Group][Solace]: At first I assumed you knew or maybe I convinced myself you did
[Group][Solace]: And by the time I was sure you didn’t . . . God, this is going to sound so pathetic . . . but I kind of liked it.
[Group][Solace]: More than kind of.
[Group][Solace]: I liked the way you were with me.
[Group][Solace]: Kind, and funny, and interested. And a bit flirty.
[Group][Solace]: I’ve never had that before.
[Group][Solace]: And I didn’t want to lose it.
And now Drew didn’t know what to say.
And then he did.
[Group][Orcarella]: I don’t want to lose