Vivian Greymoor

“Why are you letting her do this?” I said to Diane, who stood hunched over with her hands on her stomach, dying from fits of laughter.

“Just hold on for a second longer,” she wheezed, “This is too good.”

“Good for you, but what about me?” I cried, “And how do you know that old man isn’t a danger to her?”

“Oh, he is dangerous,” Diane grinned, “But don’t worry I have it under control.”

At the snap of her fingers, the red fractured wounds splitting the sky fell to the earth, shifting their forms into vipers that lunged at the old man. He yelped as they tied his wrists and feet together.

“Diane, what are you doing to my bracelet!” Vivian gasped.

“That’s not your bracelet,” Diane snorted, “That’s the Caxton Manuscript.”

“But I thought the Caxton was–”

“A book?” Diane said, “I would’ve thought so too, but magical items like the Caxton revel in being mischievous and secretive. It’s how they hide in plain sight and deceive people who are looking for them. And who could’ve guessed that one of the kingly relics is actually a curse?”

“Heavy lies the crown,” the old man grinned, “Royalty isn’t so different from a curse, is it?”

“The real curse is stranding people here with a facile old man until they’ve deluded themselves and drown in the ocean,” Diane shook her head, “My, my, I’ve seen some sinister relics in my time. I wonder if the Dimoskis ever knew what you truly were.”

“Wait, so,” Vivian said, her eyes slowly but surely shifting towards me, “If he’s not my bracelet, then…”

“That’s right, Vivian,” Diane smiled, “I need to isolate the Caxton in a shielded environment. I’ll come pick you two up when I’m finished.”

With a stern hand, Diane dragged the old man, who continued flailing and shouting references to landmark movies and video games, until he was out of sight. Meanwhile, Vivian, with a sheepish embarrassed expression, waddled over to me with the wariness of a curious cat. It was a bit too late to be concerned over whether I was clothed, but my hands touched my thighs to confirm I was indeed wearing some pants.

“Hey there,” she said.

“H-hi,” I stuttered.

“Sorry about that just now, I didn’t know what you looked like.”

“No worries,” I scratched the back of my neck, “I blame Diane, to be honest, she’s known about me for the better part of a month actually.”

Vivian’s jaw dropped.

“A month?!” Vivian looked like her soul was going to jump out of her body as she shrieked, “You mean…”

“Yeah, do you remember when you went to visit Diane at her estate?” I said, “That’s the day she found out.”

“I knew it!” she screamed at the sky, “I knew it, I knew it! I knew she was hiding something that day, I could feel it. This isn’t the first time she’s done this, by the way, she always does this!”

Vivian’s arms gestured now with much greater vitality, and her eyes gleamed in this distinct way that I could’ve never seen if it was from behind the pixelated walls of my digital home.

I started laughing.

I laughed, because she was here. Vivian was real, and she was speaking with me, not to me.

“What are you laughing about?” Vivian’s pout soon broke into a half-smile.

“It’s just,” I chuckled, “I thought I was mad at Diane when she wouldn’t tell you about me.”

“Yeah, well, you haven’t known her since the academy,” Vivian rolled her eyes, “But enough about her. It’s you I’m interested in.”

Vivian looked deep into my eyes. She strolled around me, inspecting my face, my chest, my back muscles. She did so without even remotely the semblance of a blush, which surprised me since she would turn ripe as a cherry whenever talking to me when I was just a bracelet. Maybe it was the potential embarrassment of being caught conversing with a piece of jewelry?

“Is this what you actually look like?” Vivian asked, “You look like you’re roughly my age. And you look quite handsome, actually, totally my type. I don’t know if I can call you my charming little bracelet anymore. You’re taller than me.”

I had never been complemented in so many ways at once within the span of ten seconds. From the heat stirring in my cheeks, it turned out that I was the embarrassed one blushing furiously.

“I’m a little more muscular than I remember,” I said, “And I’m Kyle, if you don’t want to call me a bracelet anymore.”

“Thank goodness,” she breathed a sigh of relief, “Yes, Kyle, that will do beautifully. Have you always been stuck in my grandfather’s bracelet or…?”

“No, I died a little over a month ago and this goddess put me in the bracelet.”

“Diane did mention a thesis one of her colleagues wrote about the existence of so-called ‘transmigrants,’” Vivian said, “I’m sorry to hear about your previous death and I wish you had been born under more…auspicious circumstances.”

“It’s okay, but you’re taking this news about who I am remarkably well.”

“The Caxton Manuscript is a legendary sacred artifact. It’s rumored that the one who possesses it will be crowned the next king of Caerleon,” Vivian said, “And it turned out to be a soggy old man.”

“...I see your point.”

“But now that you mention it,” Vivian’s eyes narrowed, “And don’t lie about this, I have a really good lie detector. Do you snoop around when I’m changing clothes?”

“No, actually, the goddess blacks out my vision whenever that happens.”

“Thank the goddess then. Anyway, that answers all of my questions,” Vivian clapped her hands and stared at me expectantly, “Did you have anything you wanted to ask me?”

“Ask you?” I repeated, “Well, I’ve been observing you for a little over a month, I think I know quite a bit about you, already…”

“Yes, but does anything about me come to mind?” Vivian replied, “Something that you don’t know about me that you wanted to know?”

Vivian cocked her head to the side and hid her hands behind her back, leaning forward until her face and eyes were inches from mine. Was this a test? Was there a right question that I was supposed to ask?

Was there a wrong question? Probably, and I scrupulously removed all sorts of lecherous and risque questions from my mind, leaving me with a set of questions that had been burning inside me since the first week of meeting Vivian.

“Yeah,” I nodded, “There was something I wanted to ask you.”

“Yeah?” she smiled, “What?”

“Why do you keep putting all your stats into luck?”

“What?” Vivian’s smile disappeared.

Had I asked the wrong question?

“Nope. No, no, no,” Diane’s voice echoed from behind me, “I did not crack open a legendary relic and expose myself to yet another curse just for you to fumble the ball now, you fatuous clown.”

“Diane!” Vivian snapped, “Why didn’t you tell me about Kyle? You must’ve thought I was so silly talking to him, not knowing that he was there the entire time!”

“It was silly, I agree, and I reveled in his misfortune,” Diane beamed at Vivian, then turned her frowning disappointed disposition to me, “Kyle, I’m going to eject us from the Caxton’s energy field now, which means Vivian and I will be returning to the real world. You, on the other hand, will return to the bracelet.”

“Okay,” I said.

“Which means,” Diane said as slowly as she could manage, “This will be the last time you will be speaking to Vivian in this way for some time. Do. You. Understand. Me?”

Oh.

The gravity of my circumstance became clear to me, and I felt stupid that I had been wasting so much precious time. I nodded to Diane and brought Vivian’s hands into mine. She blushed and glanced at me with a timid grin.

“Vivian,” I took a deep breath, “There are actually tons of things I want to ask you. Like, why are we weirdly attracted to each other even though this is the first time we’ve officially spoken, and seriously, why did you ignore all my instructions and put your stat points into luck?”

“Kyle!” Vivian laughed, “Who said anything about being weirdly attracted? Are you the type to rush these sorts of relationships?”

“You have no idea,” Diane moaned.

“Well, there’s not much time left,” I said, “I’m still going to be near you obviously, but I’m sure in some way that’s actually going to feel worse. I just wanted you to know that ever since I laid my eyes on you, I was in love.”

Vivian laughed again in that beautiful clarion voice. Her eyes squeezed shut as she laughed and the sun shined brilliantly against her scarlet hair and in that brief moment in time there was no one else but the two of us in the universe. Her nimble hands pressed against my coarse fingers and she brought the weight of her body against my chest and she leaned her head forward and kissed me, briefly on the lips, and then again on the cheek, and finally on the forehead.

“Let’s start slowly, lover boy,” Vivian smirked as she pulled away.

“Good job, lover boy,” Diane mocked as she snapped her fingers, “Remember my warnings, will you?”

The world of the infinite beach crumbled around me. A radiant light blinded my sight until everything turned white, and the last thing I felt was the warm tenderness of Vivian’s fingers, who squeezed my hands with a promise to see me again.