Chapter XI – The Sniper and The Scythe:
Riordan sat on a small stone stoop near the teleport gate on the fifty-fifth floor of Aincrad as the rest of the Knights of the Blood Oath readied the last of their gear for departure. He didn't don the traditional KoB uniform, instead wearing a more traditional light plate armour set; however his heater shield was still emblazoned with the guild's signature cross icon.
"You do realize that mathematically, this will likely be the hardest fight until the final boss. Are you sure we're ready for this, Fearless Leader?" he asked.
Heathcliff, leader of the KoB, was arguably the strongest player in the game. He cut an imposing figure with his regal looks, stoic attitude, and commanding presence. Riordan wasn't sure he'd ever seen his guild leader outwardly show concern over anything, hence his nickname for him. Heathcliff simply looked down at Riordan and sighed.
"Every boss is always harder than the last, no need to get the troops too worked up." he assured Riordan.
"That's a crock and you know it, sell that to them if you want, but don't peddle it to me." Riordan lightly shot back. "You know better than most that every twenty-five floors the difficulty ramps up hard. Even though floor fifty wasn't a catastrophe, everyone's still nervous that this could be another floor twenty-five."
Heathcliff didn't bat an eyelash at the comment. "Not counting the ALS's foolish stunt on the last floor, it's been quite some time since we've lost anyone in a boss raid. What everyone needs right now is our familiar surety of purpose, and that I shall provide."
Now it was Riordan's turn to sigh. "If you say so Fearless Leader. Just remember, the will of a person is not so unbreakable as your vaunted Perfect Defence. Between the ALS's shitshow on the last boss and the deaths of Godfree and Kuradeel, our troops are shaken."
Heathcliff didn't have a chance to respond as the rest of the KoB's front-line raid members had now assembled before them. Riordan quietly stepped back into the rank and file, grouping up with his own party as Heathcliff's inner circle formed up around him.
Turning to address his guild members, Heathcliff effortlessly projected his voice to the small crowd. "Today we open the door to the final stretch of this game, the last quarter awaits us. Be strong and stalwart, show the other players that they can count on us to carry them to victory!"
The assembled members cheered and without another word, Heathcliff turned with a flourish of his cape and stepped into the portal taking them to the raid assembly on the seventy-fifth floor.
After stepping through the portal, Riordan took his team to the main assembly area, while Heathcliff and his party cut an imposing line through the middle of the raid group. Riordan scanned the members of the raid team as they finished grouping up and spotted Asuna. He wanted to say something to her, but couldn't bring himself to do so; even knowing that there was the possibility he would never get another chance.
There wasn't much time to mull it over anyway as Heathcliff opened another portal to the corridor outside the boss room and the raid stepped forward into the unknown.
Immediately upon arriving at the other end, the air felt heavier, almost oppressive in some way. Riordan checked his HUD but didn't see that any kind of negative status effect had been applied. He wrote it off to nerves and shook his head clear of the thought, drawing his falchion Quietus and reading his heater shield Indomitable.
"Everyone ready?" Heathcliff asked.
A wave of assenting nods from the group confirmed their status.
"The Knights of the Blood Oath will be out in front, distracting the boss and blocking it's attacks," Heathcliff explained. "In the meantime, the rest of you have to stay sharp and try to figure out its attack patterns. I won't lie, this battle will be hard, but I have faith that we can and will prevail. For our day of liberation!"
The raid group cheered as Heathcliff's party grouped up behind him, and Riordan's followed quickly. He couldn't help breathing heavily knowing what likely awaited them on the other side. Here we go again, Riordan thought.
"Forward to battle!" Heathcliff called.
The raid team charged into the room, the tanks fanning out in the usual pattern to cover each of the teams. They spread out across the large flat circular platform that overlooked a black pit, making sure not to stray too far from the rest of the raid. However, unlike every other boss room they had encountered thus far, this time the boss was nowhere to be seen. The silence was both ominous and deafening.
Everyone in the assault team frantically scanned the room looking for any trace of the boss to no avail. Then Asuna called for them to look up. Hanging from the ceiling was a monstrous combination of a skeleton, a centipede, and their worst nightmare; The Skull Reaper. It had two gigantic scything talons as primary weapons in front and hundreds of smaller bladed appendages that rain down its long spine.
It dropped from its perch, falling straight for the centre of the raid. Everyone did their best to spread out, but two players were still too close to it's landing spot. The Skull Reaper's attack was terribly fast, catching both the fleeing players in the back and shattering them with a single blow.
Riordan's shield trembled in his grasp. A singe hit? He thought. I expected this to be tough... but this is just broken.
The monster gave no reprieve, as many of the raiders continued to scatter, it launched itself at the nearest target. Heathcliff was there in a flash, shield raised, and took the blow from the talon straight on. His defence was as impregnable as ever and it gave Riordan a spark of hope, until the boss rotated around their leader and struck its original target with its second talon, bursting him into bright polygons.
Riordan's group moved to pursue, but the creature was far too fast to chase, already scuttling across the battlefield at tremendous speed towards it's next target.
This time, it was Kirito who jumped into to defend the Skull Reaper's shell shocked target. As it's scythe arm came down, Kirito crossed his swords overhead and met the blow between them. The physics of such a move would never have worked in real life, but with the game system enhancing him, Kirito was able to almost completely stop the attack, though it still sank a few inches into his right shoulder and forced him down to his knee.
The second scythe came from the side a moment later trying to cut Kirito in half, but Heathcliff met it with his shield and deflected the blow. A flash of light exploded over Kirito's head as Asuna struck the creature at the base of its talon, finally dealing a small amount of damage and forcing it to recoil.
"If we block it together, we have a chance." she said. "Come on, we can do this."
"Me and Asuna will deal with they scythes, everyone else, flank and attack!" Kirito shouted.
"You heard the man!" Riordan shouted to his party as he charged into the fray. "Spread out and keep the DPS covered, we're not going to be able to pin this thing down."
The battle raged on for well over twenty minutes before the boss's health finally dropped into it's last bar, but it had not been without sacrifice. Thirteen of the forty-eight raid members were dead and several more were hanging on by a thread, desperately gulping down potions and cracking healing crystals behind the front line.
Riordan scrambled forward after finishing his last pot rotation, his shield at the ready. The assault team was finally closing in on the kill, but they were starting to get reckless. A scything claw headed straight for the back of one of the raiders who was preoccupied slashing at one of the bosses appendages.
Bringing his shield to bare just in time, Riordan deflected the blow with a crash of bone on steel. The KoB member he had saved spun around at the sound just in time to see how close he had come to oblivion.
"Get back to your group!" Riordan ordered. "Stay in formation!"
He then noticed perhaps the most reckless thing yet. The Fuurinkazan guild had pushed through a section of the talons in a wedge formation allowing their guild leader Klein to get under the boss and score critical hit after critical hit from below.
Riordan took off after them the moment he noticed. They were holding off the talons on their side, but the party attacking the boss from the opposite end was starting to fall back. If he wasn't fast enough, half a dozen jagged bone talons would descend upon the unsuspecting samurai.
Riordan unceremoniously crashed through the Fuurinkazan formation to get to their leader. With his shield hand, Riordan grabbed Klein by the back of his collar and threw him out from under the boss and towards his guild-mates.
The talons came down a moment later but Riordan already had his heater shield up and deflected five of the six strikes. The last one bounced off his gorget, only doing minimal damage. The blows hit him hard, but he dug in his heels and stood his ground.
Then another half dozen talons struck him from behind.
Riordan's armour was pierced like a pincushion, his HP dropping almost instantly to less than ten percent. Instinctively, he looked behind him and realized what had happened. When he had thrown Klein clear of the boss, he had crashed into one of his guild-mates; the other four had fallen back to protect them, abandoning their attacks on the boss and inadvertently allowing the talons to strike at Riordan.
The talons came free a moment later and Riordan dropped to the floor. I'm not dead yet. He thought. I just have to-
His thought was interrupted by a blow to his head from behind that sent him tumbling back. Blindly, he brought his shield up on reflex to stop the attack and it was peppered by several more blows that continued to fall even as he was battered across the dungeon floor. Even so, he could see in his HUD that the boss' HP had dropped below two percent, he just had to hold on a little longer.
With his own HP matching that of the boss, Rirodan's luck finally ran out. A talon struck him with it's blunt side just below his guard; it did little damage, but it did flip him onto his back and knock his shield away. The last thing Riordan saw was the jagged bone talon of the boss descending upon his face.
Riordan shot up from his nightmare in a cold sweat. He looked around frantically, seeing the ruined shack near the Ipswitch bus station that he had made his temporary home. The ramshackled little building brought him no comfort, but at least it provided him with a sense of familiarly, bringing him back to the present.
Ever since he died, his dreams had been the exact same nightmare over and over again. Early on he had tried to simply avoid sleep, however he found that after several days he started being unable to think clearly or perform basic tasks correctly. Evidently, even without a physical body, his mind still required something that sleep provided.
Riordan rolled over in his cot and checked his wards, they were still up and there was no sign of anyone approaching. Next he checked his private messages, still nothing from Asuna and the others. It had been a day and a half now since he had last heard from them and his messages to Agent Nishiyama had gone unanswered.
He pinched the bridge of his nose in worry, an old habit he'd gotten from his father. "Where the hell did you all go?"
He had spent most of his free time the previous day tracking down information that would be of use to the party, perhaps that was his in. If he offered the info in a message, maybe he could get an update on the current situation and also recover from putting his foot in his mouth a few days prior. Two birds with one stone.
On his friends list, Riordan selected Sinon's name and typed a quick message. "Found some information that will help you out, are you free today?"
It took a few minutes, but eventually she responded. "I'm free, but were not allowed to solo dive, part of our contract."
"You won't be solo, I'll be here. I am part of the team now right?"
Another delay before the response. "I guess that's true... what did you find?"
"The location of that sniper rifle we were discussing the other day."
"For real?! Why didn't you lead with that?"
Riordan thought for a moment on how to address the second half of her message, but settled on it being easier to just ignore that part."Yup, for real."
"I'll be right on!"
Sinon arrived at Velma's Diner first and settled into the booth they had all shared a few days prior and ordered a slice of strawberry cake with a small milk shake. Despite her troubled mind, she could help tapping her foot along to I'm Beginning To See The Light playing on the diner's jukebox. Her English wasn't amazing so she couldn't catch all the words and it wasn't her usual style of music, but the tune nevertheless helped her to relax a little.
She stared out the window while she waited for her order and wondered if she was going to get in trouble. Sinon was sure that she was following the letter of her contract, but couldn't help but feel like she was ignoring the spirit of it. Despite fighting closely together for the last few days, she still didn't know Riordan all that well. Being able to watch each other for signs of odd behaviour didn't really seem like it was in the cards. Perhaps she'd have to change that, if only to cover herself in case she got caught trying to nab a rare sniper rifle while everyone else was off.
It took until she was halfway through her cake for Riordan to finally arrive, giving her a small wave as he entered the cafe.
He sat down at the table and quickly ordered a slice of apple pie and chocolate milk shake before fully regarding her. "It's good to see you again." he said.
"Likewise." she replied.
They both sat their awkwardly for nearly a full minute until Riordan's food arrived. Even though they had spent several days together, they mostly talked tactics or were too busy fighting to talk about anything else, so she wasn't sure where to begin. As he started to dig in, Sinon had finally had enough and decided to be the one to break the ice.
"So I'm dying to know how you found out about this." she said. "You made it sound like some huge secret of the game or something."
"Honestly, I didn't end up having to do anything all that special. I just tracked down the owner and paid a hefty sum for the info." he admitted.
"I'm surprised he parted with it so easily."
"Well, that all depends on what you would consider easily. The guy wanted an absurd amount of money for the info, but time is of the essence after all." Riordan paused a moment before leading into what Sinon now realized he really wanted to know. "Speaking of... where has everyone been?"
As they finished up their respective plates, Sinon relayed the events of their temporary stand down with an abbreviated version of the conversation she had with Agent Shirai.
"Honestly, I'd rather just be in here figuring things out, but I can understand why they wanted us to take some time off." Sinon finished.
"I can certainly understand the feeling of burnout. Being stuck in here for who knows how long... some days it's hard just getting out of bed. That's why I was so glad when you all showed up, it felt like I was finally moving forward again."
Sinon smiled lightly at the thought. "Maybe we'll make some real progress today then?"
"Perhaps. I certainly hope so."
The pair paid their respective bills and departed Velma's Diner together. Riordan led Sinon across Arkham to the South Side Church that she had been to earlier in the week for the funeral. However instead of heading inside, he led her around the building and into the graveyard behind it.
The cemetery was somehow even more dismal than Arkham itself. Dim lighting and the cloudy day cast dark shadows across the seemingly endless rows of tombstones and the occasional crypt or mausoleum.
As they walked, Riordan pointed to a break in the fence far ahead of them. "The quest starts down there, at the end of a path into the forest."
Trudging through the dreary cemetery, Sinon couldn't help but feel a little unsettled. Despite knowing that these were all virtual graves of people that never really existed, the threat of what they were up against kept her mood sombre. She just couldn't find it in her to make casual conversation in a place like this, even one that her rational mind told her was just a bunch of ones and zeroes.
After a few minutes of walking, the reached the small break in the iron barred fence surrounding the property; past it was a lightly worn path though a dense forest that led the pair to a small clearing. In the centre of a ring of old oaks sat two small piles of stones; makeshift graves for those who had died with nothing.
As they approached one of the burial mounds the wind picked up all around them, tossing leaves and dirt into the air in a cyclone around the grove. Then suddenly, hovering above the mound, appeared the ethereal form of a young woman. She wore a simple dress, though the colour was unidentifiable, and she had a pair of short pigtails that stuck out at either side. Above her head floated the words Lily, Lost Soul identifying her as an interactable NPC.
"I welcome you both to my humble resting place." she greeted. "One who has braved the horrors of this world and redeemed my family name." she nodded to Riordan who nodded back. "And one who embodies the spirit of my father, in heart and in skill." she nodded to Sinon who took Riordan's lead and also nodded back.
"There is one last thing that I need in order to rest in peace," The spirit continued. "My father who never returned home, please find him and bring back anything that remains here so we can finally be together again. Once we all rest here, I will at long last be able to move on."
Before them appeared a quest icon titled Lost In Time & Space and they both hit the accept icon.
"I have searched long across this world for the remains of my father to no avail; all I can tell you is that he is no longer here. He would leave home for long stretches of time, returning with strange artifacts that he used to support our family... truly I never understood how far he had really gone. Please find whatever strange place he is lost in and bring him home to rest at last."
With those parting words the spirit vanished and the two were left alone in the grove once more.
The pair quietly made their way back out of the graveyard and into the Arkham streets before Sinon finally spoke up. "So did this guy give you a walk-through for the quest too?"
"He offered for another large fee, but I declined. I figured we'd be able to figure it out ourselves once we knew what the starting requirements were."
"So, where to then?" she asked.
"Well, the first parts of the chain were about finding the remains of both her and her mother and bringing them back to the glade. It stands to reason that the remainder of the quest is the same. The first clues were always found out in her abandoned house on the other side of Arkham."
Sinon looked at him quizzically. "So how come it's been so hard to find then? Seems pretty standard stuff to me."
Riordan waved her over to a maroon coloured trolley parked on the side of the road; it's destination listed as West Arkham. The vehicle wasn't so dilapitated as the bus they had taken to Innsmouth, but it was hardly in good repair. The paint was peeling off in nearly every place they looked and most of the seats had been torn up. They moved to sit together near the back so they could have the entire section to themselves. Finding a pair of slightly less mangled seats, they were finally settled and Riordan continued his explanation.
"According to my source, it was for a few reasons. First off, it was only added in the last update, until then most people believed the quest chain was complete. It's also so far out of the way that few people have discovered the continuation yet. Last and most notably, the quest only triggers if someone in your party has completed the entire chain so far, and also if one of the party members is a high level sniper. Since the first parts were designed as a solo quest, most people haven't figured it out yet."
"That makes sense I suppose." Sinon said looking out the window and watching the city pass her by. "Is the place we're going to far away?"
"The other side of Arkham, about a ten minute ride."
The trolley bounced hard from a pothole in the road, tossing the pair a few inches into the air. "Is it going to be like this the entire ride?" Sinon asked.
"More-less. I know it's a pain, but it's still much faster than walking."
The pair sat in silence for several minutes, except for the occasional surprising lurch from the trolley. Missing the fast travel systems of ALO and GGO, Sinon could do nothing but stare out the window and ruminate on her own thoughts.
A light rain misted the window and coupled with the fog of her breath, blurred the view of the city as they passed. Between the grainy filter and the dreary weather, the buildings seemed to mes into one long grey smear, punctuated by the occasional glow of a streetlamp or porch light.
Turning away from the bleak world around her, Sinon's gaze drifted back to her temporary partner. The muddied lights outside the tram cast him in a soft glow, punctuated by the fact that, like a certain someone, he donned mostly black attire. While he didn't wear his Reaper's Cloak in public, his worn Kevlar vest and patched black pants had the feel of someone concerned more with practicality than appearance.
Ever since they had met, Riordan had radiated a sense of grim determination; she didn't quite peg it as fatalistic, but given his circumstance, it was hard to say what that even meant for him. Was it even possible for him to "die" now that he was just data? Either way, after fighting both with and against him in the past week, she certainly felt an uncomfortably familiar sense of reckless abandon to his combat style.
It had been several years since SAO was cleared, ETO hadn't been around anywhere near that long, so what had Riordan been doing for all this time? How long had he been fighting for, and against what? His... experience, in Aincrad would have been hard enough, but had he really been going non-stop since then?
She turned away from Riordan, resting her head against the refreshingly cool glass of the trolley window as a battle raged inside her mind. She wanted to ask him, to learn more about who he was, but how could she? All it would do would bring painful memories flooding back and she knew well enough how hard that was to deal with.
But then again, how could she not ask?
They had been spur of the moment partners originally, but now they were actively choosing to work together and she still knew so little about him. Under normal circumstances, Sinon was perfectly fine keeping to herself, but how was she supposed to recognize a change in someone she barely knew. Who had he once been, who was he now? She needed some kind of baseline to compare.
Sinon knew better than most that a soul was not bound to a physical body, but did Riordan even know about the recent scientific breakthroughs on that front? How did he see himself? In one aspect, she felt like she was sitting beside the closest thing to a real ghost she would ever see, one displaced and floating between worlds.
Lost in her thoughts, Sinon almost jumped when out of nowhere Riordan spoke. "I'm sorry for the other day." His tone was sombre and full of regret, but Sinon wasn't even sure what he was talking about.
"Huh?" she asked, trying to refocus her wandering mind.
"About my question the other day, I didn't mean to ask something so personal out of the blue like that."
"Oh, that..." Sinon replied. Truly, she hadn't paid it much mind after he had asked her. Has he been feeling guilty about that offhand comment this entire time? She wondered.
Sinon had wanted to talk about something personal, just not exactly that. If she did open up to him though, maybe he would do the same. If there was anyone who would understand, it would be an SAO survivor, and everyone else in their group did already know about it anyway.
"It's okay, it's just something I've had a lot of issues talking about in the past." she said.
"You don't have to explain. I was out of line, I didn't mean to pry."
"No, it's okay." she replied. "I'm trying to be more accepting about what happened, and if anyone would understand, it would be someone like you."
"Like me?"
"Someone who's been through SAO, who's faced down death before."
"If you're sure." Riordan said, still looking guilty about bringing up the subject in the first place.
"Yeah, I am." Sinon said, though she couldn't keep her expression from wavering slightly as she recalled the face that still haunted her dreams. "I... killed someone once. IRL I mean."
The look on Riordan's face and especially in his eyes when she told him, it was something she couldn't put into words. A swirling mix of emotion, sadness, compassion, pity, others that crossed his features so fast she was unsure. However his features soon settled into a simple look, one fast softer that she had ever seen from him before. One that, louder than any word, said "I understand."
Sinon wasn't sure how long they just sat there looking at each other, but without consciously meaning to, words continued to flow from her lips. "I was only eleven at the time... my mother and I were out at the post office. A robber broke with a gun and was going to shoot my mom."
The man's face flooded Sinon's mind, eyes staring accusingly while blood ran free from the hole in his head. Taking a deep breath, Sinon tried to calm her racing heart as best she could to finish her tale.
"There was a struggle, and the gun fell at my feet. I didn't really think at the time, I just reacted. I picked it up... and shot him dead."
Sinon looked down sombrely at her hands, whenever she thought about what happened that day, she could still see the blood on them. "It took me a few seconds to comprehend exactly what I'd done; I think it was seeing the look of shock on my mother's face that finally did it in the end."
"...Shit." was all Riordan could think to say.
"Ever since then, whenever I've held a toy gun, or even seen on on T.V., I'd get terrible panic attacks."
Riordan cocked his head at the notion. "So, how did you end up as a sniper in here? What with your phobia and all, I'm surprised you didn't take... well, any other class."
"It's a kind of an immersion therapy I've been doing. Sinon is me, but not completely. When I would hold a gun as Sinon, for some reason I wouldn't get panic attacks anywhere near as bad. My hope was that if I could master my phobia in VR, I could do it in the real world as well."
"Did it work?" Riordan asked.
"Not at first. It took meeting Kirito and the others for me to realize that the gun was just a symbol of my guilt at becoming a killer. Having gone through similar experiences in SAO, they've all been helping me to deal with it."
"I'm still not completely over my phobia... I'm no sure that I ever will be, but things have been getting better, so that's part of what I'm fighting for."
The trolley coming to a stop saved Riordan from having to respond right away. He led her silently into the streets of Arkham and set them on the path to their objective before finally responding.
"I'm not sure what kind of story I was expecting, but that sure wasn't it. At least with us, we didn't have to deal with the aftermath... they just shattered into pixelated fragments and disappeared; almost like they had never existed at all. We knew what we were doing but there was still a strange sense of unreality to it all."
Sinon couldn't help but feel that the streets of Arkham were unusually quiet as they made their way to their destination.
"What was it like for you... in SAO I mean?" she finally worked up the nerve to ask. "It sounds like you had a rough time of it too, even before... well you know."
Riordan slowly looked down as his feet and kicked a nearby pebble into the street. "Let's just say that my title of The Reaper existed before ETO. After the raid on Laughing Coffin's base, I spent most of my time tracking down all the ones that escaped... none of them were willing to surrender."
"That many?"
"Yeah. They were all red players, they'd all killed before and I felt like it was up to me to stop them from killing again. When all was said and done, I was the only non-red player in SAO to have a double digit PK count. Eleven lives ended by my hand."
"I justified it of course, told myself that it was for the sake of everyone. Who knows how many lives I saved by cutting theirs short, we may never have even beaten the damn game if I hadn't done what I did."
His voice was quiet, but the pain carried within was palpable.
Gently, Sinon put her hand on his shoulder. "I'm still there sometimes too." she said.
"Still where?" he asked.
"Still trying to convince myself that it was the right thing to do, still trying to convince myself that it didn't make me a monster. Some days it's easy, others... not so much."
"Yeah, I guess that's part of why I really took this crazy job in the first place," Riordan admitted. "I just couldn't let my only legacy be as The Reaper of SAO. I thought that maybe if I could save lives in other ways, without hurting anyone, then maybe I could reach some kind of balance... some kind of peace."
Sinon looked over at him and couldn't help but feel a bit of an unconformable kinship with her new companion. "I'm starting to think that it's not that simple" she said. "No matter what we do from here on out, it doesn't change what we did. I don't think there really is any way to properly atone, and that's what I'm trying to accept."
Riordan was silent for nearly a full minute before he finally said. "Perhaps."
Sinon had certainly accomplished her goal and learned more about Riordan, but she couldn't help feeling guilty that she'd picked at an old wound a bit too hard. Hopefully she could find something to lighten the mood a little during their time so they could get to know each other beyond their personal demons.
The pair walked together in silence for another few minutes before they finally reached their destination. Deep in the suburbs of Arkham they came to a stop in front of a simple two-story house with faded blue paint and a large brick chimney. It didn't look too bad from the outside, but the sign reading CONDEMNED stuck into the brown front lawn said otherwise.
"This is the spirit's former home." Riordan said as he quietly used his scythe to pry off the wooden boards that nailed the front door shut. "Both the other parts of the quest started here, so it stands to reason that this one would too."
The door came open with a puff of dust and a loud creak before the pair made their way inside. The foyer was full of dust and cobwebs, eliciting a few quick coughs from Riordan. A set of stairs directly in front of them curved up to the right with a rug that was barely identifiable as red.
"This way." Riordan said, leading Sinon up the stairs into a study at the far end of the hallway. "This was the father's study, seems like as good a place as any to start looking. Some items will only become active after a certain point in a quest, so things could be different from when I searched here the last time."
The room was fairly large, and despite the sheer volume of items contained within, Sinon felt that it was a rather cozy place; one of the first she'd encountered in this world. An overhead chandelier and several desk lamps cast the room in a warm yellow glow that made her want to cozy up in front of the currently unlit fireplace and read a good book.
"We want to try to find some kind of close personal possession so I can use tracking magic on it and see if we can get a general idea of what happened to him." Riordan said.
The study's far wall was lined with stacked bookshelves and the one to her right was similar, but with an ornate fireplace directly in the centre. To Sinon's left was an old mahogany work desk that was empty, save for a small filigreed letter opener that rested in the centre. Riordan picked up the item for a moment and examined it before returning it to the table and moving on.
Sinon began with the bookshelves to her right and pulled one out at random. The title readHistory of the Esoteric Order of Dagon. She flipped open the pages and was surprised to find several pages of actual text within the book. If each of the books were different, it must have taken the developers a long time to write them all.
"Most of the books only have a few pages." Riordan remarked, noticing Sinon examining the item. "There are many copies of each scattered throughout the world, even so, there are well over two thousand different books."
"That's crazy, it must have taken them ages."
"Maybe, but I wouldn't be surprised if they outsourced that kind of thing."
Sinon kept picking through the bookshelf for the next few minutes while Riordan searched any cupboards, drawers and obvious hiding places he could think of. Eventually, when Sinon pulled on one of the books, it didn't come free right away. She gave it a solid tug and the sound of shifting gears filled the room.
A portion of the bookshelf, a little larger than the size of a person slid back into the wall and shifted to the side. Behind it was an iron door frame that didn't go anywhere, leading to nothing but a concrete wall.
"Well that's... something." Riordan said as he came over to look.
"Why would there be a door that goes nowhere?" Sinon asked. "Have you seen this kind of thing before?"
"Yeah, in a few quests. It's a gateway to another world, typically one filled with horrific monsters. There should be something in here that activates it."
Riordan returned to looking around the room, now having a better idea of exactly what he was looking for, while Sinon continued to stare at the door to nowhere.
She reached her hand through the door frame and touched the back wall, but felt nothing there. Figuring it was about as safe as she could be certain of, Sinon leaned in and examined the door frame close up.
It was made of old iron and was of very sturdy construction; despite the apparent age of the material it was well maintained and showed no signs of rust. As she ran her hand along the frame, it bumped against something that she hadn't noticed before. Upon closer inspection there were several iron bars that jutted out from the frame, but they were barely visible as they all went behind the bookshelves. At first they seemed like a simple braces, but something about the placement made Sinon think otherwise.
"Hey Rio, what do you make of this?" she asked.
Riordan turned and regarded her, but didn't move or say anything. A strange expression that Sinon couldn't quite place played across his usually stoic face.
"What?" she asked.
"It's nothing... it's just the first time anyone from your group other than Asuna's used my nickname."
"Oh, sorry. Did you not want me to?"
"No, no, it's not that; I'm glad really. Even after joining up with you all, I still feel more-less like an outsider. I'm happy you fell comfortable enough to use my nickname."
Sinon couldn't help but blush a little at Riordan's sudden bout of sentimentality, though she wasn't really sure why. "Its no big deal." she said. "Now, are you going to get over here and take a look at this or not?"
"Right." Riordan replied and joined her at the secret door.
"See this?" Sinon said, leaning into the door and noting the hidden protrusions.
Riordan leaned in close to see as well. Sinon quickly stifled a yelp as his cheek gently brushed against hers for a moment.
"I can't believe I didn't think of that, good catch." He said, backing out of the secret door as if nothing had happened. "Each of those bars should correspond to a location on the shelf, like a code."
Riordan backed up a few steps and tried to judge where best the bar ran behind the shelf and began pulling off books in that general area.
Sinon took a second to regain her composure, first at what happened, then at the fact that Riordan seemed not to even notice. Soon though, she was tearing books off the shelf as well; nearly twice as fast as her companion.
Riordan hit a correct book first, locking it into place and generating a soft hum from behind the shelf. Sinon got another a few seconds later. Within a minute they had found five books that couldn't be removed from the shelf, all set in the pattern of a pentagram, and locked them all into place. The humming intensified and a pinkish purple glow streamed into the iron door frame as a swirling vortex took shape with a dramatic whooshing sound.
"That is certainly something." Sinon said staring at the strange portal before them.
"Yeah, I've never seen one of this colour before. I've got no idea where it might go." Riordan admitted.
As the pair examined the portal they had activated a light hissing sound started to grow behind them. It was dull at first, barely noticeable but after a few seconds, Sinon caught on and turned around.
The letter opener that was sitting on the desk was spewing forth some kind of strange steam from its tip. After a few seconds of looking at it, the steam itself started to take shape. It morphed into the vague semblance of the head of a wolf, if that wolf had no skin and was made of something akin to wax. Out of what would have been it's snout reached a vile purple proboscis that slithered around the air for a moment before turning in Sinon's direction.
"Uhh, Rio..." she said tapping him on the shoulder with one hand while drawing her sidearm with the other. "What the hell is that?"
Riordan turned around at her request and for a second, Sinon thought the veteran had gone a full shade paler.
"Oh, shit." he said. "Uhm... run."
"Wait, what do you mean r-"
Sinon never had a chance to finish her sentence. Riordan grabbed her by the arm and flung them both head-first into the strange portal.
Hey everyone, thanks again for reading, I hope you're all enjoying the story. :) Quick update on progress, my computer is dying on me again so I've got to send it back in for repairs. It may finally be time to get it replaced, but either way it's going to slow down the next chapters release a bit. Sorry about that in advance. :(
I'm glad that I finally got to give Sinon and Riordan their own pair of chapters (originally it was going to be one one long one, but I ended up splitting it up again to get it out faster). What do you all think of Riordan now that you know a lot more about who he is? I'm really looking forward to getting into the next chapter and having these two play off each other in different ways.
Speaking of, the next chapter will be titled Lost In Time & Space. Hopefully I won't keep you waiting too long for it.
Thank again for reading, and I'm always happy to hear any feedback you might have on the story.
Oh, I almost forgot, do any Lovecraft fans know what kind of creature they escaped from just based on that description? ;p
- Tawnis
P.S. So this is version two of this chapter, as I came back to give it a major tune-up. I'm still not 100% satisfied with it, but I think it's a lot better now than it was previously. If you think of anything that could use some more polish, please don't hesitate to let me know.