The arrow at the top of my vision shifted and pointed east, away from the city.
“This way,” I said.
Their horses followed my lead. I didn’t look back, but Ryo did. He kept checking for the spires of the castle until we were too far away and the mountains had swallowed the city.
A fox darted across our path. The moons-light kissed wildflowers, and branches swayed in a gentle, dawn-breaking breeze. We traveled until we found a clearing with a rock circle, the perfect place to make camp. We needed to rest and heal up a bit if we wanted to make it to the boots. I was starving, and tired, and my butt hurt from sitting on the horse, and it was a game, so I shouldn’t be feeling any of that.
WHO THOUGHT IT WAS A GOOD IDEA TO GIVE US PAIN RECEPTORS?
“I’ll hunt,” Grig said as he dismounted. He still seemed tired, but not like he couldn’t carry his own weight anymore. “I can hear some vultures chewing on some bones not ten paces from here.”
“Creepy.” I dropped my bag and threw him a spare hunting knife. He caught it.
“We’ll need to gather some supplies tomorrow,” I said. The arrow spun west.
Side quest—find peddler wagon ran past my vision.
“I’ll start a fire,” Ryo said.
I knelt next to my bag. I needed to take inventory if we were going to trade in the morning.
I pulled out the blanket that had been on that wire frame bed in my father’s tunnel. We had fifteen gold coins, a jar of peaches, the signed contract, strikers, my old boots, seven knives, and a pouch of hibisi blossoms. I needed to be on the hunt for more treasure chests. Maybe we could look in the morning, after we’d rested enough to sleep off our aches.
Or afternoon. Dawn had painted the sky a warm yellow. A line of white ran straight up the sunrise, like a crack on a phone screen.
One error in a perfect world. I didn’t know when it appeared, but it was there now. Proof that this world wasn’t real. The source code was beginning to corrupt. A chill ran up my neck. I wrapped the blanket around my shoulders and turned my back to the cracked sky.
Ryo searched the underbrush, a handful of small branches in one hand.
He seemed so focused, his eyebrows furrowed.
I leaned back. “How does a prince know how to start a fire?”
“I’m capable of far more than you give me credit,” he said. He snapped a branch in his bare hands and wouldn’t look at me.
I folded my legs under me. “I’m sorry.” I sighed. I’d called him all sorts of names. I’d become exactly the kind of bully I hated. “I’ve been really scared and angry and I guess I took it out on you.”
“It’s all right. In truth, I wouldn’t have gotten through this without you. Whatever this is.” He glanced at the sky and then back at the branches in his grip.
“You’re handling all this better than I expected.” There was so much he couldn’t understand.
He broke the branches and placed them in the firepit. “Despite not drinking the seer water?”
I grinned. His eyes softened. But I turned back to my inventory as if this jar of peaches I’d found in my father’s tunnel were fascinating.
If he drank the seer water, then he’d remember who I really was.
Before the game started I’d caught him arguing with his mother in the hallways of Stonebright Studios. At the time, Nao Takagi was my hero, and he seemed so ungrateful for this chance I’d fought so hard for, so when he stalked past me, I shoved my shoulder into his. He’d looked me up and down and sneered so dismissively.
Once he drank seer water, he’d stop flirting with me.
Which was clearly what I wanted.
I stood and hunted around the campsite for anything promising. Some kind of environmental decor that also held items inside, like a treasure chest, or a barrel, or … A glint of light sparked within a large hollow log. Great. I really wanted to smash something. I kicked the thing harder than necessary, and it shattered into chunks of wood pieces.
Inside, I found a frying pan. Score.
I loaded the shattered wooden pieces in the pan and carried it back to the fire.
“Here,” I said.
He leaned back. “Perfect.” He assembled the wood pieces into a tepee, with kindling and underbrush underneath.
I grabbed a striker from my bag, or match, I guess, and gave it to him.