I will be a traitor to my heart pt2

‘The wind played with the crowns of the trees, rustled the leaves that let the sun's rays break through the green veil, sundogs ran across the lush grass.

A sea of blue and purple buds with white veins on the petals swayed in the breeze. These flowers had no name, too rare and precious, only in this place could their beauty be truly appreciated.

The open buds reached for the azure sky, the toothed leaves of dragon-green embraced their companions, the thin thorns, silvered at the tips, evoked an involuntary respect for these proud plants, whose most astonishing attribute was their scent.

The nameless creations of nature smelled different to everyone. For some it was a delicate rose, for others a meadow, for others lime-tree honey. The most pleasant aroma.

A barely visible path led me to a tall, solitary willow tree growing in the middle of this bluish-lilac lake of flowers.

Beneath the branches of the shady tree was a small bridge that offered a delightful view. Butterflies did their dance, cicadas hummed in the grove, it was so wonderful to be here, to breathe the delicious air, to catch the slightest whiff of the breeze.

I put my foot on the first tread of the bridge and heard the creak of wood, as if someone was coming up from the other side. I raised my head and met the gaze of black eyes. A man in ornate dark robes was staring at me in surprise, the hilt of a sword behind his back.

Black hair? A swordsman? A scarlet rose embroidered on his chest?

I grinned and ran up the stairs at lightning speed, stopping in the middle, my right hand immediately reaching for the rapier on my belt. “I was here first. Go away.”

The guy was discouraged by my tone, but quickly got over his feelings.

“Can't we admire the view together?” he asked in a pleasant voice.

“Anyone but you. If you were the last player in Virtul, I'd kill you without a second thought,” I said, drawing my sword halfway from its scabbard, the blade glinting in the sunlight.

“Why didn't I please you?” the young warrior asked with a grin, resting his palm on the hilt of his sword…’

“You almost challenged me to a duel,” Cirkul chuckled, putting his hands behind his head and stretching.

“So it was you?” The realisation only hit me now, and I sat there with my mouth open, staring at the guy I'd considered my nemesis in the game. “Are you the senior officer of the Black Wind Guild? Weren't you the one who took our loot in the battle with the Beast King?”

“How many times do I have to tell you? It was an accident, we were in the mountains with our party when this mob came at us. How did we know he was your prey? It was only Mr Noob Stew who knocked him out with one punch.”

“It took us two days to track him down and twenty-four hours to remove the Life Scale,” I almost growled. “And all you did was knock once and take all the benefits.”

“We didn't know,” Grant shrugged, which made me even more angry.

“We gave you proof, asked you to share, and you...” I kicked him in the side.

“For what?” Bending over from the kick, Grant looked at me with innocent eyes.

“You deserved it,” I muttered, still trying to shake off years of resentment towards him.

“Winner takes all. Always, Siri.”

“Then you said the same thing.”

“You organised this Guild Council for a few useless artefacts. Weren't you ashamed to fight over something so trivial?”

“Those. Were. Not trivial things,” said I. “There were important ingredients for potions we had spent months making with the whole clan.”

I looked at the former Black Wind officer with disdain. Our guilds had always fought for supremacy on the server. Wind was more of a military clan, while the Northern Crown was a more neutral community that specialised in peaceful gaming practices.

Because of this looting incident, a war broke out that affected almost all of Unica's servers. Grida, my beloved clan leader, had many allies who stood up for us.

When Grant and I met on the bridge in the Garden of Nameless Flowers that afternoon, we almost killed each other, but were stopped by our guildmates.

“I had challenged you to a duel according to the rules of Virtul, to be held in the Arena of Asire,” the guy remembered.

I smiled at the memory of the angry and arrogant message I had received from the Black Winds officer the day after the unfortunate encounter.

“But you didn't come,” Circul's voice brought me back to reality.

“Yes,” I smiled sweetly at him. To be honest, I didn't want to duel with him. It would have been suicide. Grant's avatar was one of the top ten players on the server, and I had no chance.

The only thing I could do was to apologise and ask for the challenge to be cancelled. Otherwise, I would simply die without the right to resurrection.

“I always wondered why?”

“Di was very sick,” I said sadly, remembering how my daughter had suddenly fallen ill with an unknown disease. Even though I knew it was hard for NPCs to die, it was unbearable to see Adisi suffer. Krile and I searched through all the books on healing and rare herbs to find out what our little girl was allergic to. “The System considered this a valid excuse to cancel the duel.”

“So I've been waiting like a fool in the arena all day for nothing?” Circul exhaled in disappointment and ran a hand through his hair.

The guy had such a crushed expression on his face that I couldn't help but laugh.

“It's all in the past,” I murmured, wiping away the tears that were welling up in my eyes. Virtul was gone, everything that had once seemed important and worthy of attention, all the arguments and squabbles now forgotten and ridiculous. The only thing that mattered was relationships. “Did you have any best friends in the game?” I looked at Circul with curiosity.

The social circle of his real life was too narrow, it was immediately obvious that he never aspired to be the soul of the company, he was reluctant to make new acquaintances and lazy to strengthen favourable relations.

“I was part of a team with Kai, Dav and some other friends of mine.”

“Oh, right. Mr Noob Stew. I've seen him around you in councils and battles. Did you know him well?”

The legends of Mr Noob Stew were everywhere in Virtul. Even I'd come across him, met him in person a few times. He usually sat in the street taverns and told stories of his ridiculous adventures.

He was nicknamed Mr Noob Stew because he always acted like an awkward newcomer to the game, even though he was considered one of Virtul's veterans. Some players thought he was actually an older woman. But no player in Vir was funnier or more witty than him.

“Mr Noob Stew became my best friend. Although I never found out who he really was,” Grant said sadly.

I nodded in understanding. I had many acquaintances and friends whose real lives I knew nothing about. It was a kind of code.

It was not common to talk about real life in Virtul. The head of a guild or an elected king might be a simple janitor, while the chairman of a large corporation might walk around in the avatar of an elven woman.

“Abi and Dav were often angry with him for bringing the team down. We dreamed of being the strongest squad in the game.”

“Abi?” I've heard that name before.

“The girlfriend of Dav.”

“He has a girlfriend?” I couldn't hide my surprise. “I'd never seen her before.”

“She died...” the young man breathed out quietly.

“Is that why Dav is so sad all the time?”

Circul nodded.

“Let's not talk about it,” the guy smiled sadly and reached for a mug of cold cocoa. “Did you have a best friend in the game?” He turned to me with interest.

“Yeah,” I smiled happily, coming to my senses. “Grida. She was the head of the clan.”

“NPC?” He gave me an astonished look.

“And why not? You had a girlfriend who was an NPC,” I shrugged. “Grida had a very stubborn attitude towards certain things in life. She just hated men and used bad words whenever she could,” I took my mug too, hiding a smile behind it. I had disliked the male gender for a long time too, listening to my friend's speeches. “She had a dream to unite all the guilds into one and ban men from joining.”

“What?” Grant almost choked.

“You know, everyone should have a dream, even if it's the craziest one,” I rushed to justify my friend, even though she didn't exist. “Otherwise it all seems meaningless. What's your dream?”

“The sea,” the president's son covered his eyelids and breathed deeply. “When I was a child, my mother and I lived in a cottage on the coast for a few months. I collected shells, caught crabs and fed the seagulls,” Circul smiled, his face glowing with peace and hope that made me want to smile too. “At least to see the sea again...”

Butterflies fluttered in my stomach at his words and a warm feeling ran through my veins. I loved to look at Grant when he had that bright and captivatingly beautiful expression on his face.

“And then what? What will you do when you have fulfilled this dream?” My question shattered the moment and made the man open his eyelashes.

He looked at me, then raised and lowered his shoulders, so much nonchalance creeping into his gesture. Grant had it all: looks, health, wealth, a little intelligence and good family connections. The whole world was open to him, any road he chose would be a red carpet, and flowers would be planted along the roadside to please the eye.

“I don't know. I'll decide by the sea.”

“Hmmm...” I leaned back on the pillows and raised my eyes to the ceiling.

Silence fell over the living room. In the distance, Barg could be heard barking outside, and grasshoppers sang an ode to the warm night. The fire was almost out, and the young man hurried to add more logs; the flames crackled cosily again, chasing away the shadows.

“And what is your dream?”

I looked at Grant's back. The question surprised me. I hadn't thought he'd be curious. “You know, I was going to die…”

“I remember you saying that.”

We fell silent again. I had no idea what Circul’s thoughts were, but mine were the last few days before Virtul's closure. How I'd said goodbye to Di and Krile, how I'd made the worst decision of my life.

“And why did you want to die?” he asked after a while.

I sat up sharply, cold. I moved closer to the fire, closer to Grant.

“Because your father took away the one thing that gave my existence meaning,” I said quietly, staring into the void.