“You’ve been a little busy. I get it.” Ember stuffed a handful of popcorn into her mouth and crunched noisily. “Want some?”
“No, thanks.” Cheyenne put the recliner back in its normal position and stood. “I can only take so many hours of vegging out in the middle of the day.”
“It’s not much different from sitting in front of a computer screen all the time.”
“It’s definitely different, Em. Nothing wrong with wanting to turn your brain off sometimes and watch things, but that’s not what I do on a computer.”
“Oh, that’s right. You keep busy with all that super-important, highly secret halfling-hacker stuff.”
“Pretty much.”
Ember laughed and turned back to the TV. “Well, don’t let me stop you.”
“Wasn’t planning on it.” Cheyenne raced up to the mini-loft and slumped in the chair. If Persh’al won’t tell me what the hell’s going on with those machine-driving idiots, I’ll just have to look around and see if anyone else picked up on something. Just like Corian said, right? Follow the trail.
She snorted and powered Glen up before punching the power button on the monitor. Once she’d logged in, she got her VPN up and running, double-checked her security, and dove into the dark web again. The Borderlands forum didn’t have much in the way of remotely interesting topic threads this time. Cheyenne scrolled down through title after ridiculous thread title.
I need help with a tracking spell to catch my boyfriend cheating on me.
Please advise in the proper preparation of human wafflecakes.
Did anyone else get the shits from Osna’s grog this week?
“Damn.” With a wry laugh, she shook her head and kept moving down. If this is the biggest problem right now, Corian must be keeping their raids squeaky clean. Or at least silent.
A private message popped up in the corner of her screen. “Who is this?”
EyeSee4U: I have something for you. Feel free to stop by if you’re interested.
Cheyenne grimaced. If this is some rando asshat trying to come on to me, he picked the wrong chick on the darknet.
Squinting at the unfamiliar username, she leaned toward the rail. “Hey, Em.”
“Yeah.”
“Think you could toss me my jacket?”
Ember stared at the TV. “You want the fae in a wheelchair to get your jacket for you and throw it up into the loft?”
“Well, when you say it like that, it makes me sound like an asshole.”
The trench coat lifted off the back of the couch in violet light and sailed up toward the mini-loft, where it came to a stop against Cheyenne’s face with a rustle of thick fabric. She slowly pulled it down into her lap and stared at Ember. “I could say a lot right now, but I’m choosing just to say thank you.”
The fae girl snorted. “You’re welcome.”
Pursing her lips through a smile, Cheyenne untangled her jacket and reached into the pocket for the activator coil. Then she hung the trench coat over the rail and attached the tech piece behind her ear. Her monitor instantly lit up with hundreds of code lines scrolling across her vision, and she focused on the private message from Anonymous Creeper.
This thing would’ve saved me so much time if I had it for Corian’s dumbass scavenger hunt.
Cheyenne’s finger swiped automatically in the air as she selected the different commands the activator gave her. In twenty seconds, the thing had pulled up a map of the central area of Richmond, and a red dot pulsed over a building she recognized.
“Ha. Apparently, the Oracle’s good for more than cryptic prophecies, if that’s what that was.”
“Huh?”
“Nothing, Em.” Cheyenne scrunched her nose. I need to quit talking to myself.
She tossed aside the map of Gúrdu’s neighborhood in her vision and typed a reply to EyeSee4U.
ShyHand71: I had no idea you knew how to use a computer, raug.
Hitting the Enter key, she sat back. The reply was almost instant.
EyeSee4U: I know a lot of things. Specifically, the contents of one or two messages I think you’ll want to hear.
ShyHand71: What kind of messages?
EyeSee4U: The kind that needs to be delivered in person. No offering necessary, hidna. Call it a freebie.
Cheyenne chuckled. The raug Oracle wants to give me a free prophecy.
ShyHand71: Is this the kind of message that can wait, or are we on a time limit?
EyeSee4U: That’s for you to decide. I’m just the messenger.
The halfling dropped her hands from the keyboard and scoffed. You think you’re clever, don’t you? She glanced down at Ember, still glued to the TV, then at her phone nestled between her friend’s knees. “Screw it.”
ShyHand71: I’ll head your way, then.
EyeSee4U: You know where to find me.
The message box disappeared from her screen before she could click out of it.
“Huh. Raug.” Cheyenne left the Borderlands forum, closed down the dark web browser and her VPN, and decided to leave Glen running just in case. Better sync it first.
As soon as she thought it, the activator prompted her with the commands to send all Glen’s alerts to a single number. When that was done in under ten seconds, she pulled off the activator, grimacing at the pinch behind her eyes. Grabbing her jacket, she headed down the stairs. “Em, can you do me a favor?”
“Depends.”
The halfling snorted in surprise. “If you get any alerts from Glen, will you forward them to me?”
Ember tore herself away from the TV as Cheyenne shrugged into her trench coat. “What? Where are you going?”
“Got an invitation for a free raug prophecy.”
“Didn’t Corian—”
“Yeah, he did, but I can’t handle just sitting around without being able to leave.”
Ember shot her a curious frown. “You do that all the time.”
“Sure, but it’s different when I know I can step out whenever I want. Not a big fan of being locked up.”
“Guess there’s one thing that doesn’t run in the drow family.”
Cheyenne pointed at her friend. “Funny. Wanna come with me?”
“To see a raug? No, thanks. I’ve had enough crazy for
