“She wants to get remarried,” Riley said. “And, from the looks of it, she’s into you. But don’t worry, you should still go to the party.”
Aiden sighed. “I guess I’ll show up.”
“I’ll give her your number,” Riley said, almost gleefully.
At that point, his mother was looking tired, so he paid the bill, gave Riley a one-shouldered bro hug, and went to gather his mother and take her home. He also nodded politely to the assembled group, avoiding Deb’s intent gaze.
When they were in the car, he asked, “Have fun?”
“They always overdo my eggs,” she complained. She complained more since his father had died, Aiden noticed. “Oh. I have something for you.”
He took a scrap of paper, an email scribbled on the back of it. “What’s this?”
“Klara said some friend of hers wants to get involved with that crazy video game thing you do,” she said. “Sounds like the lady’s housebound or something. I don’t know, I wasn’t really listening.”
“That’s too bad.”
“Must be older than me,” his mother sniffed. “That’s why I don’t want to give up my car. That’s when you know you’re circling the drain.”
Aiden winced. “Well, I’ll invite her to the guild,” he said, for lack of anything better to say.
Damn it, he needed that date—needed that leverage to get his mother to finally talk.
And then he needed to figure out a way to get his mother to accept a few facts without thinking of it as being one step away from dying.
CHAPTER 6
SQUEE VS. SQUICK
Maggie took a deep breath before signing in to Blood Saga Online. It wasn’t a new game for her by any stretch. She’d started with Blood Saga, then Blood Saga: New Dawn, then kept buying them—Hierarchy, Duskborne, Foul Moon. When they’d introduced the online multiplayer version, she had hesitated a little, but despite some scathing reviews saying that it sucked, she was pretty happy with wandering around the large countryside. Yes, there was probably something ironic about her hiking through computer-animated wildernesses when she seemed to barely enjoy her own fifteen acres. That said, she’d never been bitten by mosquitos or ticks when she played Saga.
She sighed heavily. She wanted to love nature. Her ex-husband had loved it enough to convince her to buy this place. It was just . . . a lot to deal with. She hadn’t realized that before she actually lived in a true rural area.
She went to the guild board. She’d gotten an email from the guy Klara had mentioned, her church friend’s kid, the one going to community college. He’d sent her the invite to the Ship of Fools （a hat tip to Fool’s Falls, which she appreciated） and said they were having a raiding party on Wednesday at eight. She signed in with the password he’d provided, bringing her character with her. She was an elf rogue, level twenty-seven, the lowest character she owned and a very awkward build.
That was a deliberate choice, since she’d already maxed out two other characters and had them at the ready. Basically, this was her “stealth” character—not in the game but in the guild. She was using it to see how the other players reacted and gauge if this was a group she wanted to stick with or not.
She waited through the intro screens, then found herself in a room with the party, a motley crew of rangers, warriors, wizards, and other rogues. Not a huge guild, she noticed. Nine people. She’d only played with Kit, and occasionally Harrison and a few of Kit’s other friends, but she never wanted to be that parent—the one that horned in on her kid’s social life. For all Kit’s social anxiety, he was much more comfortable jumping into online social groups than she was. So here she was, entering this group, typing in the chat box with the name she’d chosen.
BOGWITCH: Hi.
She used the keyboard: no headphones, no mic, game music on but no player talk. For the most part, she didn’t want to hear a bunch of kids swearing, and let’s face it: when a big boss was barreling down on you like a howitzer shell, you were apt to swear. And she had chosen the name because she knew that women gamers were still catching shit, especially online. If they were going to think she was a bitch, she was going to embrace it.
The chat box exploded with text.
OtterLeader: Hey. You’re right on time. We’re going to be doing a dungeon run at Castle tonight—not too hard, good way to break in. And we’ll be dealing with Archduke Malekrin, who has some pretty good drops. Up for it?
BOGWITCH: Sure.
DangerNoodle: Lev 27 WTF Otter don’t need any more noobs Maggie grinned at this. She’d been expecting this reaction.
BigDorkEnergy: Fucking babysitting
SneakyMeat: Quit ur bitchin—we babysit u don’t we? :/
BigDorkEnergy: FUCK U SNEAKY
GandalfTheGay: Heathens. Hi, Boggy!
TheFerocity: Hi
Mouse5150: Hi Bogwitch. Everybody else, chill the fuck out or I’m cracking heads.
GandalfTheGay: Yes, Daddy
Cyrlaros21: Elves FTW
After a few more minutes of back-and-forth, and making sure they were equipped, they headed off to the castle. She hadn’t done this particular run yet, strangely enough. She’d heard the boss was an absolute pain in the ass, and she figured the choice of tonight’s run was deliberate. She was testing the guild to see if they were assholes; they were testing her to see if she could keep up. She couldn’t really blame them.
They entered the castle, killing some low-level vampires and thralls and whatnot. Basic stuff, things she could handle easily. She did have to be more careful since her character was lower level. She couldn’t just power through, counting on higher health and more experience points to carry her. Still, she’d logged countless hours on this thing, and she wasn’t just a button masher. She’d learned how to actually battle, using her skills to avoid the bigger enemies until she was in a position to get in power shots.
More importantly, she was watching how the rest of the team fought together. She noticed that DangerNoodle, BigDorkEnergy, and TheFerocity were more impulsive, diving in and hammering away. They were warriors; that was to be expected. The rogues—SneakyMeat, Mouse5150—hung back, either sneaking in and slashing or using ranged weapons like bows or wands, stuff that worked from a distance. And the mages—GandalfTheGay and Cyrlaros21—used spells to devastating effect.
Which brought up a point.
She was an anomaly in this world, to say the least. She was a rogue elf that was also a magic user. It wasn’t impossible, but it was frowned on. And right now, she’d allowed a thrall to sneak up on her, taking out half of her health and starting to go critical. She snapped a quick spell that fortunately took the thrall out, but the damage was already done, and unless she went into a corner and hid, she needed something to fix her, fast.
BOGWITCH: Heal please
She felt like an utter ass, but it needed to be done. She couldn’t heal herself—she hadn’t progressed that far in healing with this character. But it pointed out the “flaw” in her setup.
They jumped on it, even as Otter healed her quickly.
BigDorkEnergy: Lol UR bad
DangerNoodle: Trash build
GandalfTheGay: Interesting choices.
Even Mouse, who had been somewhat sympathetic, chimed in.