Pieces of Sonder

Freya froze in front of the demoniclasts. All of them were keenly focused on her, or more precisely focused on something above her head. Kamdale, the one that had called out to her, wasn’t even trying to hide the direction of his gaze.

Attempting to hide her rising panic, she gave a small bow and peeked at the top corner of her vision.

[Frey Evenkey]

[Lvl 16 Shaman Apprentice]

[390/390 HP] [135/135 MP]

Reassured the Misidentify was still holding, she spoke in a low voice, “It would be an honor to speak with you.”

Behind Kamdale, Freya recognized Daveth and the female player Meng. The woman had been present when Freya signed up for the trials. Both Daveth and Meng had watched her reaction to picking up the registration papers, seemingly knowing it would trigger a game prompt. Freya had passed from detection that time, but she mentally reminded herself not to be startled by any game messages.

Daveth spoke up from behind Kamdale, “That was an impressive feat you pulled today. For a shaman apprentice, I thought for sure you’d rely on qi, not strength.”

Ignoring the fact that it should be impossible for him to know her occupation, Freya said humbly, “Thank you. I wasn’t sure if it would work.”

“Normally, that wouldn’t work.”

Kamdale’s deep voice made her flinch. He continued, “Hitting a slime usually causes no damage. Most either use fire or slice it into small undividable slimes. Focused qi would do damage, but those sword sheaths cannot channel qi. It’s a good thing you didn’t try using qi. You would have ended up with thousands of splinters embedded in your hand.”

Frowning, Freya realized why Daveth hadn’t been confident in her facing the slime. As a shaman apprentice, it wouldn’t be unusual for her to brashly use qi. Still, it seemed odd they would assume she didn’t know about the type of wood needed to channel qi.

“I had a feeling they weren’t designed to handle qi,” she said truthfully. “My shaman master taught me to recognize such things.”

Kamdale conceded with a nod. He smiled amiably, but his eyes still bore into Freya.

“That’s good. Still, it is unusual to meet someone strong enough to generate internal injuries on a slime.”

“Ah…”

Freya grasped for an appropriate response. Her strength was game-generated, but she needed some believable excuse. Why would a shaman apprentice have so much brute strength? Picking herbs and imbuing talismans didn’t require a lot of muscle. 

Why didn’t I think about this earlier? I’m terrible at coming up with stories on the fly.

She had picked “shaman apprentice” partly because she wasn’t good at acting or telling lies. It made maintaining her Misidentify identity much easier. However, cracks were beginning to form. Heart racing, part of her focused on believing she was still “Frey” while the other half scrambled for a cover story.

Beep!

[Nightscythe: Don’t freak out, just play along]

Freya only glanced at the notification for half a second before darting her eyes away. Did I read that right? What is Nightscythe-

“Frey! Hey, Frey!”

She turned to the voice. A boy with brown hair pushed his way through the crowd. He waved his arms to catch her attention. Once he got into the open ring, he ran up and hugged her arm.

“Brother, congratulations on passing the second trial!”

?????

This boy was completely unfamiliar to Freya. Based on the notification, she thought it would be Nightscythe, but he didn’t have his blue hair or facial features. If he learned Misidentify, it would be possible for him to appear different. However, he also looked much younger and shorter. Those kinds of changes would require a high level.

[Loki Evenkey]

[Lvl 4 Apprentice Bookkeeper]

“Thank you… Loki,” Freya attempted to say naturally. She stared at the boy, What is going on? I don’t have a brother. Is this supposed to be helping me somehow? And who is this kid?

The boy turned to the demoniclasts. He let go of Freya and said innocently, “Sorry for disturbing you. Were you talking to my brother?”

“Ah, yes,” Daveth said. “So you’re Frey’s brother?”

Loki nodded, “Yes, we’re twins! My brother has always taken care of me. He’s been training for this for so long. He’s really strong!”

Kamdale looked at the young boy critically. Freya also looked at Loki with concern. Did they look like twins? They both stood at about the same height and had brown hair and eyes. But Freya wasn’t sure how much her “Frey” face looked like this boy.

“Frey’s the brawn, and I’m the brain,” Loki joked. “Growing up, our father made him chop one hundred logs of wood and move fifty sacks of flour every day. Meanwhile, I was always sick in bed.”

“I see…” Kamdale said, looking at the sad, melodramatic expression of Loki.

Freya cringed. Actually, this “Loki” sure seems like Nightscythe.

She doubted it at first, but his silly overconfidence gave him away. Only he could tell this kind of extravagant story. However, this didn’t seem like a good idea. Who would believe this ridiculous spiel?

To Freya’s surprise, Kamdale’s expression softened. 

“You should be proud of your brother,” the demoniclast said to Loki. “We were impressed with his performance today. It’s not often we see someone of Frey’s level in the demoniclast trials. I think he will make it through the next trial with ease.”

Loki beamed, “Thank you!”

Kamdale looked to Freya. His cold expression didn’t seem as critical as before. 

“See you tomorrow.”

The demoniclasts left without another word. Freya watched them go, confused. How had their suspicion dropped so much? As soon as they were out of earshot, Freya turned to her “brother.”

“What are you doing here? You’re Nightscythe, right?”

The boy laughed, “It’s a long story.”