Chapter 116 Alone – Arianna

  Arianna still couldn’t move. She could only stare at Bryce as he slowly walked toward her. He stopped in front of her, looking at her almost… pityingly.

  No. That couldn’t be right.

  The train finally arrived, but Arianna still couldn’t move. People walked around her and Bryce, then the train left. She was still just standing there.

  From behind her came a whisper.

  “I’m sorry.”

  Faith finally came to stand next to Bryce, rubbing her arm. Her voice was stronger now, but still quiet, and she didn’t look at Arianna.

  “There’s no other choice now. Arianna, I’ll explain in a bit. For now, here are some commands. Once I’ve finished speaking, you can move normally again.

  “1. Don’t hurt anyone I haven’t ordered you to hurt.

  2. You can’t tell anyone about what has just happened, or about the slave collar.

  3. You can’t run away.

  4. You can move freely and ignore me, but when I say explicitly that it’s an order, you need to obey.”

  With the last sentence, Faith finally looked at her.

  “5. You can’t kill yourself.”

  And once Faith was finished, Arianna could suddenly move again.

  She looked around, wanting to escape, but her feet wouldn’t move. She wanted to scream, to tell people something bad had happened, but her mouth wouldn’t let out any sound. And she still couldn’t feel her mana.

  Bryce took a step toward her. Arianna took a step back. He looked at her like she was a frightened animal, keeping his hands wide and open.

  “Arianna, stay calm. We need to get out of here first, before we explain.”

  Arianna took another step back, looking at Faith.

  Had she really… had she really betrayed her?

  Arianna took another step back, and just as she was about to take one more, Faith said,

  “Stop. It’s an order.”

  Suddenly, Arianna couldn’t move backwards anymore.

  Bryce came closer again and gently pulled her arm to make her step forward.

  “Be careful. You almost fell onto the track. It’s dangerous.”

  He sounded so kind.

  But why… why were they doing this to her?

  Faith spoke again.

  “Sor… sorry,” she whispered, then, more firmly, though sounding resigned:

  “We need to get out of here fast. Arianna, here are more orders. We’re going to take the next train and get out after two stops. Once there, we’re going to go up and get into a black SUV. You are to follow me and not talk until I tell you otherwise. Uncle Dan will walk behind us so that no surprises happen.”

  After that, nobody spoke. Neither Bryce nor Faith looked at her. They waited in silence, then boarded the next train for two stations, got out, and entered a black SUV.

  All of this happened without Arianna actively wanting to move her body. It just did everything on its own. It was like she was only a spectator inside it.

  Arianna sat in the back, next to Faith, while Bryce sat in the front.

  “Back to base,” he said, and the driver started the car.

  During the drive, nobody talked.

  Soon, they stopped. Arianna had watched the outside slip by. They’d left the city; they had been on the edge of it, anyway, and had come to quite a wealthy suburb. There were so many villas. Maybe “estates” was the better term. Some were fortified with walls and gates, almost like medieval castles, just polished to look modern; others looked friendlier, though Arianna suspected they had different kinds of security.

  Their car stopped in front of a massive wall and gate. Bryce opened his window and pressed his palm onto a pad. The gate opened, and the drive continued.

  Inside the gate were soldiers, patrolling. Then they stopped at another gate, more scanning, and this time the soldiers even looked into the car. Other than grass, there was nothing between these two walls.

  Once through the gate, they arrived at the driveway of an imposing villa. It was enormous.

  The driver parked and left, but Faith and Bryce didn’t. They just sat there in silence.

  After a while, Faith told Arianna,

  “Another order. Answer the next few questions truthfully. Is Cassis expecting you back tonight?”

  Arianna, without wanting to, answered.

  “Yes.”

  Faith nodded. “Will he worry if you stay out without telling him?”

  “Yes.”

  Of course, he’d worry. And this time, he had been right. She was stupid.

  “Can you text him that you’ll be staying with me for the night and do it so he doesn’t worry too much?”

  “Yes.”

  Arianna had to answer, but Faith had never said she had to do it. So she didn’t take out her phone.

  Arianna felt too many things at once. It was too much. She couldn’t really think clearly; her thoughts were sluggish, and she had no idea what she should be doing now. Still, somewhere deep inside, she felt that she didn’t want to make it easy for Faith.

  So she didn’t move.

  Faith sighed.

  “This is an order. Write a message to Cassis and show it to me before you send it.”

  Arianna couldn’t stop her hand from taking out her phone, unlocking it, and typing the message:

  Something came up. I’ll stay the night at Faith’s.

  This was bound to make Cassis worry. No ‘I love you,’ no joke about him staying up all night or wanting to come find her. Cassis had a bit of a problem, after all.

  Though, judging by the situation she had found herself in… maybe it wasn’t a problem, but a reasonable fear.

  Thankfully, Faith hadn’t explicitly ordered her not to worry him. She had only asked if she could avoid it.

  Arianna silently showed the message to Faith, who approved it, and sent it.

  Then Faith ordered her to follow her quietly.

  They got out of the car and went into the villa. A big foyer greeted her, as did Faith’s little sister, Shari. Smiling, she ran up to Faith and hugged her.

  “Faith! Welcome back.” Then, less enthusiastically: “Father is waiting.”

  Faith nodded. “Alright. You go to your room now. I’ll be by soon. But we adults have some things to talk about.”

  Shari agreed. “See you later.” Then she left, followed by a man clad in dark clothes. He had been so still and silent that Arianna hadn’t even noticed him until he moved.

  Was he a bodyguard?

  A slight vibration let her know she’d received a message. She took out her phone.

  Cassis had replied:

  Alright. Have fun. See you tomorrow.

  Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

  Such a casual message.

  That wasn’t like him at all.

  Had he really believed her earlier message… or had he noticed something and written it that way so as not to raise suspicion?

  Arianna sincerely hoped for the second option.

  Faith noticed she was looking at her phone and read the message over her shoulder.

  “Good. That gives us a night to come up with something. Now come along.”

  And then, sighing, she added,

  “It’s an order.”

  They walked through various corridors, each one watched over by a pair of soldiers, or at least, Arianna thought they were soldiers. The men and women stood absolutely still, dressed in the same dark pants and shirts as the man who had accompanied Shari. Nobody spoke. They didn’t even acknowledge Faith or Bryce. They only watched, observed.

  Finally, they arrived in front of a door with two more guards stationed beside it.

  “Miss Faith,” one of them said, then opened the door.

  Inside was a large study, luxuriously decorated in dark green and gold, with a lush carpet and flowing drapes along the windows. Behind the massive desk sat Keith.

  “Took you long enough,” he spat toward Faith. He ignored Bryce completely.

  Then he stood and walked toward them, extending his hand toward Arianna.

  “Ms. Sloane — no, Arianna — nice to see you again. I’ve been waiting for you.”

  Arianna looked at him but didn’t move. His smile was polite, too polite, and if she was reading things correctly, Keith was the one behind all of this. Behind Faith.

  His smile tightened when she didn’t react. After a moment, he lowered his hand, though his voice remained silky.

  “Well, I can understand you might feel a bit miffed about my sudden… invitation. Women are such emotional creatures, after all.”

  He nodded to himself, then turned and walked back to his chair, settling behind the desk again.

  “Sit down,” he said, smiling.

  Arianna didn’t move.

  Faith, beside her, whispered, “It’s an order. Sit down.”

  Without conscious effort, Arianna’s body obeyed. She sat in one of the chairs across from Keith. He smiled at her approvingly.

  “Good girl.”

  A wave of disgust rolled through her at those words, but she didn’t show it. She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of knowing he’d unsettled her.

  “Now,” Keith continued smoothly, “you are a guest in this house. As such, you may move freely anywhere except in certain restricted areas of the villa. You can easily identify those by the guards stationed there. As a guest, of course, you’ll take your meals with us. I’d also like to chat with you about all the… occurrences since the system arrived.”

  Arianna swallowed. So this was why they’d kidnapped her. But why her? Why not Cassis? From the Hall of Fame videos, it should’ve been clear that he’d been the driving force behind their survival in the beginning. While she’d grown stronger since then, they had to know Cassis would’ve been the better choice to take. Was it because he was always guarded, while she had been easy to deceive? That might be it.

  Keith continued. “I’d like you to tell the full truth behind your and Mr. Walker’s feats. What happened on the first day of the apocalypse, and since then?” He looked at Faith sharply. “It’s an order. Tell us the full truth behind your and Cassis’ strength.”

  Arianna felt compelled to answer. She tried to stop, she fought, but sudden, blinding pain left her breathless. The pain didn’t come from any wound; it was all inside her head, like a knife rummaging through her brain. Tears burned in her eyes. In the end, she couldn’t hold on and started speaking.

  “On that day—” The pain vanished as suddenly as it had come. “—I met Cassis in person for the first time.” That was the truth.

  Keith cocked his head. “Hadn’t you known each other before that?”

  Arianna swallowed. “Yes, but we had only chatted, never met in person.” Technically true. Could she bend the order a bit more?

  Keith motioned for her to continue.

  “When the first monsters came, they immediately started eating people. Cassis realised at once that something bad was happening, and we ran. We hid in a treehouse at a playground and found weapons there. An old baseball bat and a shovel. Three goblins had followed us. We ambushed them, and awakened.” So far, so good. It was all true, without giving the whole truth.

  “We realised we needed to hide somewhere, but also that Cassis’ family was in danger, so we ran to their house. The monsters in the streets left us alone because they were busy eating. When we arrived, we fought the orc and somehow won, but his father lost his arm and would’ve died soon. That’s when Sapphire, who would later become our patron, sent a healing potion.”

  Keith looked puzzled, but Arianna continued.

  “The next day, Cassis and I decided that we needed to level up more. His family wasn’t convinced, but we felt we would need the strength. This new world seemed like a computer game, so we wanted to see if we could get classes. Sapphire had also taken us as avatars and told us to do it.” At least… yeah, that was what they’d told Cassis’ family. It wasn’t exactly the truth, but it also wasn’t a lie.

  So she could bend an order? She didn’t know why, but this little stunt suddenly hurt again, though a lot less. She didn’t show it, and it wasn’t as bad as directly defying an order, but it still wasn’t great.

  “And it worked. We fought quite a few monsters, met the Morrises, and took them back to the house. That’s when baby Jessica cried and attracted way too many monsters. We barricaded ourselves inside and took turns fighting at the door. We also used the healing potions sent by Sapphire. And we meditated to find our elemental affinities.”

  New pain stabbed through her as she spoke the next sentence.

  “Sapphire taught us how to meditate.”

  It wasn’t an outright lie. Cassis had told everyone that Sapphire had taught them, but it still hurt to say it. Thankfully, Arianna had Pain Resistance, and she was familiar enough with pain not to flinch.

  “Then we beat the monster wave and got rewards for doing that.”

  Keith looked at her suspiciously. “I know. I’ve seen your videos in the Hall of Fame. But it doesn’t explain why you and Cassis were able to fight the monsters in the beginning. You had no real weapons or combat training. Tell me the reasons.”

  Arianna answered. “Well… it’s true I didn’t have any training. But Cassis has been training for over ten years.”

  Keith sneered. “No, he hasn’t. He’s never been part of any fighting course or even a gym. Where should he have learned how to fight?”

  Arianna answered carefully. “Cassis is a huge nerd for history, especially medieval history and all the different fighting styles knights had.” That was the absolute truth. He had an abundance of books about these topics in his office. And his childhood bedroom had also had way too many history books there. “I imagine he trained how to fight like them secretly because he was embarrassed.”

  She had no idea if he’d actually done that, but the image sent a cascade of warmth through her. She hoped Keith hadn’t noticed her use of I imagine.

  She held back the rest of the truth, and the warmth vanished, swallowed by the pain blooming in her head. If she could at least access her mana, she’d be able to deal with it better, but no. Right now, she was just as helpless as on that first day.

  Only this time, she didn’t have Cassis with her to protect her.

  Now she had to face the monsters alone.

  Determined, she gave another half-truth. “On the first day, there was just a lot of luck. And later on, Sapphire saved us with her potions, weapons, and armour. A patron’s knowledge of the system and monsters was very important for our survival.” Again, it was only the truth. Cassis’ knowledge had been far more important than her own, but the slight pain this caused her was worth keeping that secret.

  Keith was studying her attentively. She couldn’t show any pain. She had no idea whether Faith knew she wasn’t completely following the order, or whether she was simply choosing not to say anything.

  Before Arianna could think more about it, Keith remarked, “Then maybe I was mistaken. Maybe it’s not you and Mr. Walker who are special. Maybe your patron is special.” He looked aggrieved. “My own patron is not so free with her information and gifts. She tells me she isn’t allowed to, but now I’m wondering. Or is your patron just special?”

  Arianna could answer truthfully. “Yes. Sapphire seems to be very special.” After all, which patron had time-travelled and was now even her own avatar? If that wasn’t special, then what was?

  “All right. Then I’ll trouble my patron to find out a bit more about yours. It seems she played a bigger part than I thought. Can you contact her right now?”

  Arianna actually wanted to hit herself. Of course. She could use her patron persona to contact Cassis. Immediately, she tried to open the patron interface, but nothing happened. Was it because she didn’t have access to her mana?

  So she answered, “I can’t.”

  Before she could explain that she needed her mana for that, Keith continued, “So that’s no different from an ordinary patron-avatar connection. We can only wait until your patron wants to contact you.”

  What? What was he talking about?

  Arianna had been a patron for ten years. In her dreams, she had been with Cassis in every fight, or whenever he called out to her. It was like she was jumping through time and space. During her day, Cassis was on hold, and during her night, he would live, and she’d only get snippets of his life. But he had always been able to contact her.

  Was that not normal? Keith seemed to think so. And of course, he had a patron of his own, probably an evil one, maybe chaotic.

  “Well, this chat was quite nice, Arianna. You’ve given me some good information. You are to tell me immediately when your patron contacts you. And when that happens, let her know that she can’t tell Mr. Walker about this little situation. Otherwise, I’ll make sure he dies. Good night, Arianna.”

  The way he said her name, all silky and soft, paired with that smile and his body language, made Arianna shiver in disgust. She was utterly creeped out.

  Faith called from behind her. “Arianna, come.”

  And for the first time since this whole debacle had started, Arianna didn’t need an explicit order to do what Faith wanted. She would do anything to get away from Keith as fast as possible.

  Once outside the office, the slight headache Arianna had been suffering from, caused by not telling the whole truth and bending it a little, finally vanished. It seemed the orders weren’t infinite… or perhaps Faith had only intended for her to tell the truth during her time in the study.

  Arianna followed Faith and Bryce through more corridors. She had long since given up trying to orient herself. Eventually, they stopped in front of a door on the second floor. Faith turned toward her.

  “This is your room during your stay.” She opened the door and led Arianna inside. Faith stopped in the middle of the room, looked at her again, opened her mouth as if to speak, then shook her head, looked away, and headed back out.

  “Someone will get you for breakfast tomorrow. Until then, you are not to leave this room, except for the en-suite bathroom through the other door. This is an order.” Then she closed the door.

  Just before it fully shut, Arianna heard a whisper.

  “I’m sorry.”

  Then, with a final click, she was alone.

  Alone in the silence. Alone with the betrayal. Alone with her fear.

  That click sapped the last of her strength. She collapsed onto the bed, tears streaming down her face. This pain wasn’t physical. It was the knowledge that her friend had betrayed her, that she was now helpless and completely alone. She had never felt like this. Had never been unable to fight back.

  Sobs wracked her body. But nobody was there to reassure her. Even her necklace didn’t heat up, like it usually did in dangerous situations. But next to it lay the heart pendant Cassis had carved for her.

  She clutched it instead, clung to it like she would have clung to him.

  What was she going to do now? Would he save her? Could he even save her?

  She had no other option than to obey.

  But after a while, she calmed down.

  She did have options. She had managed to bend the order a little during her conversation with Keith. She had paid a price, but it had been possible.

  Could she save herself?

  She would have to try.

  And maybe… maybe she could draw a little courage from him. After all, Faith hadn’t told her not to contact Cassis, only not to tell anyone about her situation.

  She took out her phone.

  Just then, another message from Cassis came in.

  Miss you. Love you. Good night.

  He had to know something was off. Was he reassuring her? She didn’t know. But at least she knew he wouldn’t give up.

  Reassured, if only a little, she answered with a simple Good night, then let exhaustion pull her into the oblivion of sleep.