“Do you want to give that a try? What would you like to do?” Ever asks.
I shrug. “Have we ever tried simply…brushing the glyphs away?”
“We haven’t, because devouring wards can kill,” Finn says. He seems to stare straight through me.
“I mean, sure. But.”
“Do you want to try?” Maddy asks. She came back to the game with a distant look in her eyes, and seeing her like that is the only time I ever feel guilty.
I’m helping her—aren’t I?
“I do,” I say.
Finn smiles thinly. He certainly seems a lot more relaxed now that Liva is out of the room. Did I ever do anything to Finn to make him hate me like that? If so, I don’t remember it, and I can’t believe that’s what’s happening. I don’t want to believe that’s what’s happening.
We’re friends.
And Ever…Ever was here, all of yesterday. I know they know how to keep secrets.
“Are you certain?” they ask me, a calculating look in their eyes. It’s the look we’ve all come to know as the GM Look. Are they this calculating outside of the game too? Did I just never realize? “How do you plan to do this?”
I breathe in deeply and try to keep my focus on the murder mystery. There’s a question underlying their question. Am I ready for this decision to backfire spectacularly?
Normally, I would be. It’s a game, after all, and there’s something to be said for messing up with abandon. But we’re one down already. And this weekend…
Here’s the thing. I care about Corrin. He travels the world. He’s dedicated his life to adventure and truth. He lives to right wrongs and bring to light injustices. And he may be nothing more than a character I made up, but I made him up from all the dreams I have. Corrin sees the world in shades of possibility.
Life in Gonfalon is simpler, more easygoing than the real world. Less…for lack of a better term, political? Corrin doesn’t have to watch what he says, and not everyone seems so sensitive.
Of course I’m not certain.
I lick my lips and try to think, my mind racing through everything else I’ve seen in the game. “I run back up the stairs toward where we saw Joanna’s unfinished shield. Since it seemed to be warded too, maybe I can use it to break one ward with the other.”
I’m not entirely sure that’s how shields are supposed to be used, but it’s the only thing I can think of.
And Ever smiles slightly. Maybe I’m onto something.
“Do you tell any of the others what you’re about to do?” they ask. “Or do you go by yourself?”
I may be running head-on into a trap, but I know what Corrin would do. The life of a curious fool longing for truth is a dangerous one. “I would bolt. I wouldn’t tell any of the others.”
Finn hisses. Maddy groans. And Ever’s smile widens. “Good to know. If Carter and I could have the room, please. Just for a moment.”
Oh cool. That bodes well. I sigh.
Finn gets to his feet, passing by me on the way out, and places a hand on my shoulder. “One down, huh? You jinxed it.” It’s meant in jest, I’m sure, but there’s a shadow in his eyes.
Maddy goes next. “It was nice knowing you.”
There’s a twitch in my heart at those words.
They head in separate directions—Finn out onto the porch, and Maddy up to her room. Ever keeps their eyes on the notes in front of them, waiting until the others are well out of earshot before they say anything else. In that silence, the cabin closes in on me.
I hate being here. It’s not just the coins burning a hole in my pocket, or the note that accompanied them, or the shadows that crawl in from the windows.
It’s Liva. She made sure the cabin was well-stocked and supplied with delicious food. Even the assorted drinks on one of the tables—La Croix and Perrier, for crying out loud—seem like too much. And I don’t know. It’s clear she’s rich. She doesn’t have to flaunt it, right?
We all know.
And we all try to be like her, in one way or another. Money is value, my parents always remind me.
There’s a twisted kind of satisfaction in Liva being the first to lose her character.
Gods, I wish Ever didn’t have such a good poker face; I have no idea if what’s happening is good or bad. But if I don’t make it out of this scene, I can rest easy in the knowledge that I survived Liva.
It’s petty. I know.
Once Maddy’s footsteps have died down and the only sound in the cabin is our breathing and the wind creaking through the grove outside, Ever looks up. A hint of a smile on their face. They settle in right in front of me.
“You run up alone. Perhaps it’s the memory of Lente’s death that spurs you on, perhaps it’s knowing you have a solution, right at your fingertips. But you move fearlessly through this tower with all its secrets and all its ghosts—”
A loud crash cuts them off, from somewhere close by.
My heart rate jumps.
Ever falters, then raises their voice. “Liva? Maddy? Finn? Everyone okay?”
The words are met with silence, and nothing more.
We listen—for either a call for help or the acknowledgment that everything’s fine, nothing to worry about, but neither of those come.
“I’m sure if something were wrong, someone would’ve said something,” I mutter.
“Or perhaps someone needs help and they can’t ask for it.” Ever stretches and comes to stand in front of me, their head still slightly cocked. I’ve seen them around their sister, and they look exactly like that now: equal parts protective, worried, and paranoid.
“I’m sure it’s
