Play of Shadows

00.10 Empty Gifts

They talked well into the night. Ann had seldom felt as tired in a game as she did when she finally crawled into her bed. K did not return to their shared room, so Ann was able to grab a few hours of uninterrupted sleep before she was forced awake for yet more group bonding.

Philip apologized again in the morning, more clear-headed and sincere this time around. It helped that James had woken up and was well enough to want answers of his own. He was served strong wine in the absence of pain medicine, so he was still largely confined to his bed.

"I always thought YOMI was full of shit," James told Ann when he first saw her. Evidently, her secret identity was not a secret anymore.

"Thanks," Ann told the man. James only scowled at her, cheeks red and eyes glassy – from the wine or fever, it was hard to tell.

"He's got a poster of you in his room," Tarah whispered, laughter in her voice. "From one of your old game ads."

"Still?" Ann wondered. She had long gotten used to seeing her own face everywhere. The fact that she might still have a fanbase was what she found surprising.

"Why didn't you put up more of a fight? You had all those lawyers – where'd they go?" James slurred, blissfully unaware about being outed as a fanboy.

"I ran out of money," Ann told him flatly.

Philip stepped in then, steering the conversation into less choppy waters. Tarah got James horizontal and under the covers in the meantime.

"Our task is next," Philip told Ann quietly. Cilla stood at his side, looking frightened and hopeful all rolled into a wide, deer-eyed look.

Ann looked at them both and waited.

"We can each take one person along, as an attendant. Max is standing in for James," Philip told her, then hesitated – reluctant or ashamed to continue, Ann couldn't tell.

"Tarah is supposed to come with me, but she suggested we ask you instead," Cilla broke in.

Ann wanted to refuse. She was tired. More than that, she was still feeling petty and vindictive and generally not in the mood to help people who thought her low enough to cheat a game into glitching.

Tarah joined the puppy-eyed line-up. "Please?" she said.

When dusk fell and the butler came to call on Philip and Cilla for their task, Ann found herself rounding off the party step in step with Max.

"What else's in your storage?" Ann asked quietly. It was a long walk to the receiving hall and it had occurred to her, in thinking about the order of tasks, that Max should be the last player to act. As such, he was bound to be better-equipped than the rest.

"Salt," Max told her.

Ann looked at the man, startled. "Salt? What for?"

"It's supposed to trap evil spirits," Max said.

Ann tried to imagine how that would work. "Do you just... sprinkle it on?"

Max chuckled. His laughter died after a few steps, and the eyes with which he looked at Ann turned heavy.

"You're still wearing it," he said.

Ann looked at him warily. "What?"

"Nothing," Max sighed, then he said, "I own a mining company," throwing Ann for a loop.

"That's nice," she offered.

"One of our mines struck a vein of milidium, six months or so ago. It is a material used in some of the higher tech industries, including VR. Contract offers flooded in initially. Then YOMI got involved and we were suddenly looking at practically zero demand and a lot of pressure from our own suppliers and partners. I can't prove that YOMI was behind it, but," Max shook his head. "If it wasn't for VELES throwing in a bid at the last moment, we would have been forced to close on very unfavorable terms."