Page 9 of Violet Spark
“MojiMaiden!” a welcoming voice bellowed in my earpiece.
BuggyBear27, aka Arjun Patel, was a high school junior in Baltimore who’d made several rather sexist passes at me these past couple of months. To teach him a much-needed lesson, last week I cast a melt-flesh spell on him, stole his weapons and his coin, and left him to die on the High Road. To his credit, he hadn’t taken it personally.
“BuggyBaby!” I bellowed back. The “baby” was to remind him that I was too old for him. Definitely too mature.
I would grace him with my presence for a minute, a peace offering of sorts, while I scoped out the joint.
I made to walk over to him—too late realizing who his companion was. SirJacksalot, my secret nemesis. Or, in the language of Legendelirium, my scourge. Other gamers knew the Emerald-level MasterBlader as SirLancelot. But he was no hero.
Of all the people he could harass online—and there were a lot of ridiculous people in this world—why he felt he had to constantly trollmyvideo feeds was beyond me.
Get into the castle through the drawbridge, not the moat. If you need me to drop some wood on you, just let me know.
If you want to see how magic is supposed to be used in Legendelirium, come see my channel at SirLancelotTheAwesome
Hey EldBitch, watch where you’re aiming those weak ass spells.
It was fine. I was chill. He couldn’t bother me. I earned my Deathcaster blade, its sheath gleaming right here on my belt, all by myself.
“Miss Me Mo,” he drawled. He knew my damn name.
I notched my chin in his direction—”Hey,”SirJacksalot—before turning to BuggyBaby. “Any quests going?”
Baby put his hand on the hilt of his sword. I didn’t know where his hand was in real life. Didn’t want to know either. Teenagers. “I’m, uh, thinking of trying for the, um, Chalice of Insanity.”
It was very good he couldn’t see my eye roll. The kid was trying to impress me.
“Who’s in the company?”
Say SunSummoner.They’d campaigned together before. SunSummoner was actually really sweet to take the bumbling Baby under his swirly-cloaked wing. It was one of the reasons I’d taken a chance on chatting with Brayden offline. If his MageLord was in Legendelirium, Baby would know.
“You interested?” BuggyBaby asked.
Ugh. Not in you.“Maybe,” I said. “Depends.”On who else will be coming alonghung unsaid in the smoky tavern air.
“Do you think we could get SunSummoner?” Baby asked. “I saw him earlier but he seemed busy.”
I could’ve kissed Baby right then and there. A virtual big wet one he could hang all his hopes and dreams on until he finally hit puberty.
“Maybe I’ll ask him,” I said. Casually. Very casually. “Where’d you see him?”
SirJacksalot snorted.
Dick.
“He was in here for a while,” Buggy told me, “but then he said he was heading to the Mapmaker.”
In here for a while?I came here first every night, just to say hey to everybody. Could he have been…waiting for me?
Aw yeah. He’d been waiting for me. Swann would have to send me all the heart-eyes.
My head went a little swimmy with my excitement, and damn if I wasn’t still seeing purple again. “I’ll go see what he’s up to,” I said, oh-so casually, “and bring him back if he’s game.”
I navigated out of the Dead End and kept my gloved hands still as I did a little celebratory booty shake in the real world.
In my peripheral vision, bog gnomes inched toward me along the shadow of the tavern’s stone wall, but I was wise to their creep and stepped out into the sunlight where they couldn’t reach me.
Around Questown’s square with its tragic heap of newbie gamer bones and happily singing corpse crows, I made my sexy way to the Mapmaker’s cottage.
