[Can’t Opt Out]

“I’m glad you, you know, didn’t die,” Emilia said to Rin as she and the other man—Taoran—approached her and V.

Beside her, her new friend shifted somewhat uneasily, and Emilia had the distinct impression that he wasn’t so happy that his own Enclave babysitter hadn’t been killed during their time apart.

⸂I am also glad you did not die,⸃ Rin said, eyes shifted between her and V, and back to Taoran. ⸂It does not appear that your charge ‘ran off’ after all.⸃

Taoran glowered at the younger girl, and Emilia suddenly felt like she should be getting in between them. V seemed to be of the same opinion, and a moment later he was on his feet and taking long strides towards the doorway.

“We should go,” he said briskly, neither looking back nor saying goodbye before disappearing into the darkness beyond.

His Enclave babysitter glared between Emilia and Rin, before turning to follow his charge, the anger vibrating out of him into the aethernet so powerful it lingered long after the sound of their footsteps disappeared.

“Want some?” Emilia asked, lifting the bag of food V had left behind to offer a piece to Rin, who was glaring over the edge of the rock wall.

Rin glanced back at her, still lounged out over the hard ground. ⸂Where did you get that?⸃

“V.”

The other girl’s face looked vaguely troubled by that news as she came to sit beside her. ⸂You should not trust other visitors.⸃

“Oh yeah~” Emilia sighed, popping another piece in her mouth and nodding towards the disaster far below them. “Already learned that—not that I was particularly trusting of Cade before we fought, but still.”

Rin watched her blankly as she explained the details of what had happened while they were separated. Being chased, meeting and killing Cade, climbing the wall and being helped by V. She didn’t know why she left out the bit about experimenting with her core energy, but she did. Habit, perhaps. She’d spent decades hiding experiments with skills and the aethernet from nearly everyone, after all.

⸂Even if he saved your life, you should not trust him,⸃ Rin repeated as she turned Emilia’s new blood weapons over in her hands.

“Yeah, I know.” She wasn’t really sure if she trusted V, but she felt like she mostly did. Even she had to admit, however, that that trust was more… wide-ranging? Like, she would trust him with something serious—something in their own world, with real, palpable consequences. This world was not real, and as much as Emilia thought of the people here as real and worthy of help, she knew she was an outlier. Even then, she certainly viewed this world as less real than her own, and while she was trying to take the competition and finding a fix for the world’s blood curse seriously…

Nope, she couldn’t take make herself take the situation as seriously as she would something in her own world, even taking the bloody reality of this world into account. Maybe because she knew, even if she didn’t want to involve Olivier or someone else in reaching Ship’o Stars, she could. Maybe, Payton had messed with her knots enough to make everything soft and lazy—for the moment, anyways. Maybe both, maybe something else, Emilia didn’t know.

She did know she should be taking the raid more seriously, if only so she could potentially win some freedom for this world. Even if, as her discussion with Rin about the reality that the blood curse could be permanent had revealed, that freedom might be impossible. With the Risen Guard attempting to stop visitors—Harbingers—from bringing new blessings to the world, the locals deserved as many people as possible fighting for their freedom. Some of them still held hope in their hearts, and Emilia needed to value and respect that. So, she really did need to take this all a bit more seriously, and not trust boys with dimples that just seemed a little wrong.

Rin turned one of the {Blood Needles} over in her hands, a light flutter of her energy searching through it.

“Be careful with that,” Emilia said, half-teasing, half-serious. “It’s explosive.” She grabbed another for herself, flinging it across the room towards an odd rock formation on the opposite wall, near the top of the giant door.

The {Blood Needle} collided with the rock almost perfectly—perfectly enough that Emilia wondered if, despite not having active access to the system, she was being guided by it at least a little.

⸂Oh…⸃ Rin breathed out—as much as an aethervoice can breathe—as they watched the rocks fall away from the wall and—

“Bingo~” Emilia cheered as a gaping hole was revealed in the wall. “Secret entrance!”

Rin frowned slightly as their eyes met. ⸂You guessed that was there?⸃

“Sure,” Emilia said, shrugging as she tossed another piece of food in her mouth and began gathering her stuff. After a moment of thought, she tucked the {Blood Needle} Rin had been messing with into her bag as well. The chances of it exploding on accident were pretty low… probably.

“I kinda hate to put it this way, but this world is essentially a game to people from my world. Sometimes, these game worlds are allowed to grow and change naturally. Usually, the platform designers and the system mess with it at least a little. Yes, there are ethical concerns about that. No, nobody really gets anywhere in trying to regulate how you’re treated.”

Even through her mild facial expressions, Rin did not look happy, although she also didn’t look surprised. Instead, the look written across her face was more akin to someone being reminded of a particularly unpleasant fact they already knew.

“That said, I think this place, more than the other places I’ve been so far, is meant to be a game. Not a very fun game, if you ask me, but a game nonetheless.”

Rin nodded slowly, saying, ⸂And games are meant to be understood and played.⸃

“Exactly,” Emilia agreed, already planning out a route across the rock walls that extended around the upper section of the room. She was a bit surprised V hadn’t said anything about the room’s odd design—not that they had talked a whole lot. Then again, maybe he had realized there was something hidden across the way, but didn’t have the necessary climbing skills to get to it himself and hadn’t wanted to give her any clues.

“The key for many games is to look for little, out of place things. I haven’t played a lot of games in decades—and I’ve played almost none like this. It’s not my favourite way to spend my time, by far. I remember one of my friends, back when we were kids, obsessively going around checking every garbage can they came across in a game for hidden items.”

Rin nodded again, eyes suddenly searching around the area for anything else that looked wrong. ⸂I understand,⸃ she said simply, eyes continuing to flick around, her mouth pressed tight. ⸂You do not like these games?⸃

“Nah,” Emilia said, fiddling with her bag to turn it back into a backpack arrangement. “I think it’s kinda cruel, to design entire worlds for players to destroy.”

⸂Then why are you here?⸃ Rin asked, following along as Emilia made her way to the first step in her get across the giant canyon plan.

“The company that is running this raid—that’s what these kinds of visitations are called, in my world—is offering a prize to the people who do the best.”

⸂Do the best at what?⸃

“No idea. I think everyone is hoping that once they get system access it will become clearer?”

Emilia eyed up the course she had planned as they reached the wall. It was far easier than the ones below had been, seemingly having been designed, so a beginner could attempt the climb and only risk falling a dozen or so feet to a ledge below if they messed up… assuming they didn’t bounce or roll once they landed, anyways. Even the reaches between holds were shorter than below, as though Rin had always been meant to climb this section with her.

⸂Maybe it is to acquire a blessing,⸃ Rin said sensibly, although her voice was somewhat tight, and when Emilia looked back at her, she found the girl staring nervously up at the rock wall. ⸂You cannot intend for us to climb that.⸃

“Do you have any magic that will get us up there?”

Rin looked as though she were running through every magic she knew, trying to find one that would allow her to skip the climb. ⸂No,⸃ she finally admitted, quickly adding that she had no experience climbing such things.

“It’s fine,” Emilia said, trying to sound more confident than she felt. “We’ll start here,” she added, pointing to a section of climbs that were above the main ledge, far enough from the edge that even if Rin fell off the holds then decided to tumble back a few feet, she still wouldn’t fall into the abyss.

⸂Must we?⸃

“Well, we don’t have to,” Emilia admitted. “But, for all we know, it could be a shortcut. I don’t know if you faced any challenges on your way here, but I certainly did! I’d rather avoid anything extra, if possible.”

⸂Only that man,⸃ Rin told her, mouth pressing into a grim line.

“Not a fan?” Emilia laughed, thinking back to the grumpy old man who V was unfortunate enough to have as a babysitter.

⸂No,⸃ the other girl said, a bit too sharp, as she slowly followed Emilia to the place she would be getting a crash course in climbing at.

“He was a member of The Enclave?”

Rin hummed, her agreement floating through the aether as Emilia explained the basics to her and forced her to work through a few of the holds and transitions. Fortunately, her friend was a quick learner and already physically fit, her movements quickly becoming more confident as Emilia talked her through them.

“See, not that hard,” Emilia cheered as Rin pulled herself onto a more difficult hold—likely far more difficult than any they’d face manoeuvring across to the secret door, assuming they went the easy route.

Rin glared at her, and Emilia laughed as she helped her friend down. ⸂I do not know if this is still a potential shortcut given how long this has taken.⸃

Emilia scoffed. “You’re a natural. Honestly. Probably all that extra training with the Ris— what?”

Across from her, Rin’s glare had darkened, waves of threat seeping off her and sending a shiver up Emilia’s spine.

⸂Do not say… that. The man may overhear,⸃ Rin said, her voice floating straight into Emilia, hidden from anyone who might be listening.

Emilia made a little ah-ing sound. That made sense. The Enclave and The Risen Guards were enemies in all this. Key and the others might trust Rin, at least to some extent, but other Enclave members might not. They could even kill her outright, if they found out.

“Don’t worry,” she cheered as she dragged Rin back towards the stretch that would take them over to the doorway, “I’ll protect you if anything happens… assuming we don’t get separated again. Kinda difficult to protect you if we’re not together.”

Rin barely seemed to be paying attention to her, instead examining the scuffs on her hands, slowly healing up despite the lack of blood.

“So… long and easy way, or want to try and short and hard way first.”

⸂Will we die if we fall off the hard way?⸃

“Nah.” Probably not, anyways. Maybe if they bounced. They probably wouldn’t bounce.

Emilia pointed out the different routes to Rin. The shorter route involved simply walking to the far end of the ledge. Near the very end, about twenty feet below the doorway, was the beginning of a significantly more difficult section. It was also a significantly faster section.

⸂We could… try,⸃ Rin said, somewhat unconvincingly.

“Great,” Emilia said, grabbing her friend’s hand and dragging her along the bridge. “I’ll go first, show you where to put your hands and feet—assuming your memory is good enough to remember?”

Rin glared, not even deigning to answer.

“Fine, fine. You have a perfectly great memory. I’ll come back down when I’m done, but I’ll come down back there a bit.” Emilia pointed to the spot she’d pegged as being the easiest to fall from. “Wish me luck!”

Emilia pulled herself onto the first hold. This particular section was a maze of holds and jumps and strange bends, although the holds still reminded her as ones meant for beginners, being large and sturdy. Even keeping her movements slow, so Rin could memorize the shape of them, it took only a few minutes for Emilia to reach the top and climb her way back along the easier path and fall several feet onto the bridge.

“Think you can do that?”

⸂Yes,⸃ Rin said, her voice sure and steady, even if her hands were clenched into fists.

Emilia shot her a toothy grin. “Don’t worry. Even if you fall, I won’t let you fall all the way down there.” She laughed, bolting back slightly when the other girl looked liable to push her off the edge.

⸂Do not joke,⸃ the other girl growled, hands already reaching out for the first hold.