LuoirM
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I was proud of this chapter. But I have no one to share because no one gives a shit about my story or read it, and there was a lot of context build on so I can't just share it randomly. But, I ignored the latter and decided to share it here with y'all if anyone cares at all!
They're in video game, sometimes they use real name, sometimes enigma
Cory (CJS69Real) - FMC
Hailie - Priest class, invulnerable in-game cus nepotism
---
These two are duos, who stumbled upon a guild who accepted them and took Hailie on a dungeon run. But then everyone in that dungeon run dies, except for the supervisor (Olga) who alledgedly killed them all and Hailie. Two of 'em survived.
Pearl's a random Bri'ish snob who got a high rank in the guild
Cory (CJS69Real) - FMC
Hailie - Priest class, invulnerable in-game cus nepotism
---
These two are duos, who stumbled upon a guild who accepted them and took Hailie on a dungeon run. But then everyone in that dungeon run dies, except for the supervisor (Olga) who alledgedly killed them all and Hailie. Two of 'em survived.
Pearl's a random Bri'ish snob who got a high rank in the guild
“It was self-defense.”
The 3-word sentence was Olga’s only opening statement opening statement upon returning to the hideout.
The tavern didn’t feel like a tavern anymore, it wasn’t the smoky, rowdy kind of place where tankards clinked and music tripped along the tables, because for tonight, it was the supreme court.
Perhaps they’ve done this before, everyone knew where to sit, where me and Hailie should stand, etc, where do the players involved stand.
More than fifty players crammed inside, either sitting down at their tables or standing with their back against the wall, as though Pearl himself had summoned them like a jury.
There were 11 of us at the bar far end of the entrance for now, with me, Pearl and Hailie standing in the middle of Olga and the 7 other players.
Hailie, as a witness and a direct involver, should be standing on either side, but she’s not leaving my side today. The entire place was awfully quiet, just the low tension of whispers trading theories, and the occasional scraping of a chair leg. So I sat down on a stool while Pearl stood like the main judge, the weight of their stares pressing down on me like heavy armor.
Here are the facts…
Nine people had been involved directly in that disastrous dungeon run, one that should only took 4 hours and a couple of cheap loots, mainly ran for EXP.
Olga, the supervisor for the run, and Hailie, the least experienced, were the only ones who survived the encounter intact. The other seven had returned from the respawn point from Beginning City, stripped of everything but their humiliation, dragging their new level-one bodies back into the tavern to testify.
Luckily, we’ve collected their loots and returned it to them accordingly, so it shouldn’t be hard for them to level up again. One of the perks of having a guild/team.
Among the seven that died, were six men and one woman. All of them united by anger, their words striking like repeated blows of a hammer, all directed at Olga. With each of them coming up to tell the same story with different tones and perspective.
“Olga attacked the NPC for no reason.”
“Then she just… went berserk.”
“She drew her blade before anyone else had the chance to breathe.”
“And then she turned on us, killing everyone.”
I kept glancing over at her. Olga sat rigid, hands planted on her thighs, her jaw tight as stone.
She didn’t interrupt, didn’t argue. She just sat there and took it but with a deadly stare, like if they were alone, she would absolutely smash their head in again.
And then, inevitably, it was Hailie’s turn.
With a hand on my chin, I watched with indifference, not really caring about the guild’s internal shit and whatnot, thank god Ann warned me about this. After Hailie’s statement, she would probably be let go and we’ll just leave, they probably wouldn’t remember my 1-week-trial thingy and wouldn’t give me a hard time anyways, if I just bring up the fact that they tried to kill my friend.
But then… I realized something as Halie stood there. Her hands shook so badly the little healing staff she kept with her rattled against her chest as she stood, she looked like she might burst into tears at any second.
Hailie wasn’t built for this, she was the kind of girl who wilted under a sharp look, who stumbled over her own sentences if more than three people paid attention to her.
To put it simply… A spoiled and reserved rich kid who never got to see much light of day, easily pressured… And would probably do drugs if put in an enclosed room with people who did it.
Now with fifty-ish heads turned all at once, staring her down, weighing her soul like she was some trembling defendant charged for battery and assault.
My stomach twisted, if she broke down here, the crowd would eat her alive, and that would eat me, too.
So, I stood.
“She told me and Pearl everything already, and I’ll relay” I said, my voice carrying across the hush.
Dozens of faces turned my way.
“We would want to hear from herself.” Someone in the audience spoke.
“It’s okay Cory, I can…” Hailie spoke softly at me.
“Well fuck you, then!” I spoke at the audience, ignoring Hailie’s words, because frankly, I didn’t care. I wasn’t going to let Hailie collapse under their pressure, so I added:
“Either you’re gonna get my second-hand statement, or we’re leaving, because she’s not obligated to tell you guys jackshit, she’s not a member. In fact, you guys owe us for almost killing her in that dungeon.”
“What is that punk?” The same guy stood up.
“What, wanna throw hands?” I rolled up my sleeves.
“Ahem.”
Pearl coughed, fake clearing his throat.
“This is not unprecedented that someone is unable to testify themselves. I can attest to the Priest’s (Hailie) statement if any information relayed is out of the original narrative. Please, proceed, CJS69Real, but refrain from those languages if possible, we are trying to have a civilized discussion.”
… Jesus this Bri’ish snob.
“She said she wasn’t paying attention, then, Olga shouted at someone to stop doing something, but before she could even figure out what was happening, one of the party members charged at her with murderous intentions. He failed, she closed her eyes, and when she opened her eyes again…” I let the words hang, sharp and final. “Everyone else was dead.”
The room shifted, murmurs swelling like an oncoming tide. Pearl, seated at the head of it all, steepled his fingers and nodded, not really needing to add anything to change anything.
“And can you identify the one who tried to strike you?” He looked at Hailie
Hailie froze, the air seemed to congeal around her. I saw her lips quiver, saw the panic clawing up her throat.
“It’s okay, I’ll protect you, I can teleport us, remember?” I whispered, half-lying, because that teleporting was only possible with the help of Ann, but, anything to make her feel at ease.
But then, slowy but steadily, she lifted her arm and pointed.
Her finger landed on one of the men in the group, standing amongst the 7 who died.
My eyes was on the culprit, and I heard Pearl’s voice echo from behind me, trying to confirm what Hailie saw.
“The man with lengthy hair that covered one of his eyes, sharp chin, who uses a shortsword and buckler combo, username ErikDop?”
I turned back to look at Hailie, whose gaze was on the ground.
She nodded.
“Fucking hell…” I whispered.
I was on my feet before I even thought, fire rushing through my veins.
“You mother…!”
My hand went for my sword, I was ready to cut through this charade right there and just leave through the front door, I’ll cut the truth out of him with steel if I had to. I was furious, of course, what if Eirlys learned that I left Hailie to wander to a dungeon alone and almost got killed?
Of course, it ain’t entirely my fault, and it’s not my obligations to babysit her… But, fucking hell.
As I was power-walking towards him, Olga herself held me back, and a few others from the seats also came in to block me from approaching them.
“Not like this, CJS69Real.” Olga said.
“We do this democratically.” another added.
“Let him talk.”
I nearly spat at the word. Democracy? This wasn’t justice, this was fifty cowards hiding behind procedure, in every zombie shows I’ve seen, democracy would often lead to the survival community all dying because of incompotency and splitting sides, this wasn’t a real life government, so they should just promote someone to be a dictator and get over it.
For one wild moment I considered cutting them all down, Pearl, the jury, the testifiers, every single one of them. It would be so simple, clean. My blade didn’t ask questions, of course, a few of them here might be high-level with good gear, so it would take me 5 seconds instead of 2 for each of them... But… no.
I exhaled, forcing my grip to loosen, my rage to settle into something colder, killing them wouldn’t get me anywhere, so I sat down.
“I want that bastard to tell me why he tries to kill my friend!” I tell them, mixing myself something random I pulled from the bar shelf.
“No.” Pearl said, “We’ll go through everyone by order, Olga haven’t tell us her side of the story. After Olga, he’ll have his chance.”
“Urg……………”
I squeezed on the glass so hard I almost broke it, but then I just down a cup of whatever I just brewed and nodded for them to continue.
It was Olga’s turn last.
She rose slowly, her greatsword leaning against the table.
“The NPC wasn’t normal,” she spoke, both arms crossed against her muscular chest. “He asked us to guide him, that everyone agreed, then when we were arguing over if we should help him or finish up this dungeon, I saw him conjuring up mana… It was red, and flowing in the air into his palm like threads, forming an orb. If I understand correctly, that’s a Sorcerer magic or something else.”
Her eyes flicked toward Pearl for half a second before snapping back to the crowd.
“When I told him to stop doing that and tried to ask what is he doing, he raised his hand at me. His fist was alive with magic, so I decapitated him.”
The room buzzed with restless discussions, to which Pearl told everyone to calm down to allow Olga to keep going, her tone remained flat, almost dead.
“After that, the others turned on me, I didn’t have to time to assess who is who, I tried to talk while defending myself, but they were already swinging.”
“...” No one said anything while Olga took another breath.
“About the Hailie girl and if ErikDop attacked her… I don’t know anything about that, I was looking at the NPC, while she was behind me closer to the exit. So my focus was only on the weapons drawn against me, and I only cut those I knew had intentio to murder me, that is everyone.”
“Granted, it took me a bit of self-restraint not to cut down the Hailie girl, too. Considering that I didn’t know who’s who at the time, and I don’t know if she’s capable of doing damage, after all.”
The last part she added was unnecessary and ultimately just painted her in a worse light, and it infuriated me, of course. The fact that she thought Hailie was any danger.
The tavern erupted.
The people were split, there were theories throwing around, at least 10 of them, but the most prominent was that at least one of the sides was lying, and it didn’t look good for Olga. Who had all the evidences against her.
The seven who had respawned roared the loudest, slamming their fists on the tables, accusing her of twisting the story, branding her a ‘murder hobo’ who needed to be exiled from New Destiny, some even drawn their weapons, but was ultimately stopped by the people of the jury.
Chairs scraped, boots stomped, voices overlapped until the air was nothing but chaos.
CRASH
I slammed my hand on the table, snarling until silence clawed its way back into the room. My glare pinned the seven who had testified, daring them to keep mouthing off.
“You bastards tell me to keep it down and civilized while you do this?”
For once, they shut their mouths.
But even with the noise gone, the puzzle still didn’t fit. No corpses remained to identify, of course, both NPCs and players despawn when they die.
A sorcerer NPC who tried to attack the party unprompted after asking for help? Yeah, Olga’s side is not making sense right now.
That dungeon was an abandoned mineshaft, moderate level, too, so chances are, there’s not any mind-bender or hallucination enemy that caused both sides to turn on each other.
But what if there were?
Olga and Hailie must be the only two affected, then… Considering how the other 7 got their stories straight and together. While Olga saw the NPC charging up Sorcerer magic, then the party turned on her, and Hailie saw one of the members attacking her… But if it’s a hallucination type of thing, who gains from this? And how?
“ErikDop.” Pearl spoke, pulling me out of my trance, “Did you try to kill Hailie, the priest?”
“No I did not.” He spoke.
“H…He’s lying!” Hailie yelped, but Pearl ignored her.
“Did you have any intention to at all?”
“No.”
“Did you charge at her at all?”
“I did not.”
“That makes sense.” Olga added, “If he wanted to kill her, she’ll be dead, if she’s really just a Priest, how could she defend herself against ErikDop and his gear at that level?”
This bitch is agreeing with someone who’s on the opposite side of her, what the hell, Olga????? I pondered to myself.
The jury murmured, agreeing to that.
So, now they think Hailie’s lying.
“I- I can explain… Um…”
Hailie looked at me, trying to get permission to tell everyone that she’s invulnerable, but I shook my head.
Even if she’s branded as a liar pants on fire, I couldn’t tell people she’s invulnerable… So it’s only me and her who knew the truth.
The question is… What do I tell them?
“Go ahead, Hailie.” Pearl spoke, “We’re waiting for your explaination. How did you protect yourself against ErikDop if he, alledgedly, tried to kill you? A spell? A piece of armor or item we need to know about?”
“I… Um… I-”
“You don’t have to say.” I spoke as I approached the middle of the bar, grabbing everyone’s attention, “I can vouch for her honesty, she’s too dumb to lie. The absent of evidence is not the evidence of absent.”
“That’s not how you use the term…” Pearl coughed, “We will rule Hailie’s statement about ErikDop’s intent to murder invalid.”
But something gnawed at me, crawling up the back of my skull, refusing to let go.
And then, it clicked.
I’d been in that dungeon before in the Early Access VR version.
I knew its layout, I knew its mobs.
And I knew one thing for certain: there had never been an NPC there, not in Early Access.
Not in the PC version either, since the dungeon itself didn’t exist there to cross-reference. Sure, the devs could have slipped it in for the full VR release… but it didn’t make sense for a Sorcerer NPC to be there, especially one with illusional abilities.
I stared around the room, at every face frozen in the tension of the moment, at Olga still gripping her blade, at Hailie trembling in her seat, at Pearl watching me carefully with those unreadable eyes.
And then I asked.
“How do you guys know it was an NPC?”
The 3-word sentence was Olga’s only opening statement opening statement upon returning to the hideout.
The tavern didn’t feel like a tavern anymore, it wasn’t the smoky, rowdy kind of place where tankards clinked and music tripped along the tables, because for tonight, it was the supreme court.
Perhaps they’ve done this before, everyone knew where to sit, where me and Hailie should stand, etc, where do the players involved stand.
More than fifty players crammed inside, either sitting down at their tables or standing with their back against the wall, as though Pearl himself had summoned them like a jury.
There were 11 of us at the bar far end of the entrance for now, with me, Pearl and Hailie standing in the middle of Olga and the 7 other players.
Hailie, as a witness and a direct involver, should be standing on either side, but she’s not leaving my side today. The entire place was awfully quiet, just the low tension of whispers trading theories, and the occasional scraping of a chair leg. So I sat down on a stool while Pearl stood like the main judge, the weight of their stares pressing down on me like heavy armor.
Here are the facts…
Nine people had been involved directly in that disastrous dungeon run, one that should only took 4 hours and a couple of cheap loots, mainly ran for EXP.
Olga, the supervisor for the run, and Hailie, the least experienced, were the only ones who survived the encounter intact. The other seven had returned from the respawn point from Beginning City, stripped of everything but their humiliation, dragging their new level-one bodies back into the tavern to testify.
Luckily, we’ve collected their loots and returned it to them accordingly, so it shouldn’t be hard for them to level up again. One of the perks of having a guild/team.
Among the seven that died, were six men and one woman. All of them united by anger, their words striking like repeated blows of a hammer, all directed at Olga. With each of them coming up to tell the same story with different tones and perspective.
“Olga attacked the NPC for no reason.”
“Then she just… went berserk.”
“She drew her blade before anyone else had the chance to breathe.”
“And then she turned on us, killing everyone.”
I kept glancing over at her. Olga sat rigid, hands planted on her thighs, her jaw tight as stone.
She didn’t interrupt, didn’t argue. She just sat there and took it but with a deadly stare, like if they were alone, she would absolutely smash their head in again.
And then, inevitably, it was Hailie’s turn.
With a hand on my chin, I watched with indifference, not really caring about the guild’s internal shit and whatnot, thank god Ann warned me about this. After Hailie’s statement, she would probably be let go and we’ll just leave, they probably wouldn’t remember my 1-week-trial thingy and wouldn’t give me a hard time anyways, if I just bring up the fact that they tried to kill my friend.
But then… I realized something as Halie stood there. Her hands shook so badly the little healing staff she kept with her rattled against her chest as she stood, she looked like she might burst into tears at any second.
Hailie wasn’t built for this, she was the kind of girl who wilted under a sharp look, who stumbled over her own sentences if more than three people paid attention to her.
To put it simply… A spoiled and reserved rich kid who never got to see much light of day, easily pressured… And would probably do drugs if put in an enclosed room with people who did it.
Now with fifty-ish heads turned all at once, staring her down, weighing her soul like she was some trembling defendant charged for battery and assault.
My stomach twisted, if she broke down here, the crowd would eat her alive, and that would eat me, too.
So, I stood.
“She told me and Pearl everything already, and I’ll relay” I said, my voice carrying across the hush.
Dozens of faces turned my way.
“We would want to hear from herself.” Someone in the audience spoke.
“It’s okay Cory, I can…” Hailie spoke softly at me.
“Well fuck you, then!” I spoke at the audience, ignoring Hailie’s words, because frankly, I didn’t care. I wasn’t going to let Hailie collapse under their pressure, so I added:
“Either you’re gonna get my second-hand statement, or we’re leaving, because she’s not obligated to tell you guys jackshit, she’s not a member. In fact, you guys owe us for almost killing her in that dungeon.”
“What is that punk?” The same guy stood up.
“What, wanna throw hands?” I rolled up my sleeves.
“Ahem.”
Pearl coughed, fake clearing his throat.
“This is not unprecedented that someone is unable to testify themselves. I can attest to the Priest’s (Hailie) statement if any information relayed is out of the original narrative. Please, proceed, CJS69Real, but refrain from those languages if possible, we are trying to have a civilized discussion.”
… Jesus this Bri’ish snob.
“She said she wasn’t paying attention, then, Olga shouted at someone to stop doing something, but before she could even figure out what was happening, one of the party members charged at her with murderous intentions. He failed, she closed her eyes, and when she opened her eyes again…” I let the words hang, sharp and final. “Everyone else was dead.”
The room shifted, murmurs swelling like an oncoming tide. Pearl, seated at the head of it all, steepled his fingers and nodded, not really needing to add anything to change anything.
“And can you identify the one who tried to strike you?” He looked at Hailie
Hailie froze, the air seemed to congeal around her. I saw her lips quiver, saw the panic clawing up her throat.
“It’s okay, I’ll protect you, I can teleport us, remember?” I whispered, half-lying, because that teleporting was only possible with the help of Ann, but, anything to make her feel at ease.
But then, slowy but steadily, she lifted her arm and pointed.
Her finger landed on one of the men in the group, standing amongst the 7 who died.
My eyes was on the culprit, and I heard Pearl’s voice echo from behind me, trying to confirm what Hailie saw.
“The man with lengthy hair that covered one of his eyes, sharp chin, who uses a shortsword and buckler combo, username ErikDop?”
I turned back to look at Hailie, whose gaze was on the ground.
She nodded.
“Fucking hell…” I whispered.
I was on my feet before I even thought, fire rushing through my veins.
“You mother…!”
My hand went for my sword, I was ready to cut through this charade right there and just leave through the front door, I’ll cut the truth out of him with steel if I had to. I was furious, of course, what if Eirlys learned that I left Hailie to wander to a dungeon alone and almost got killed?
Of course, it ain’t entirely my fault, and it’s not my obligations to babysit her… But, fucking hell.
As I was power-walking towards him, Olga herself held me back, and a few others from the seats also came in to block me from approaching them.
“Not like this, CJS69Real.” Olga said.
“We do this democratically.” another added.
“Let him talk.”
I nearly spat at the word. Democracy? This wasn’t justice, this was fifty cowards hiding behind procedure, in every zombie shows I’ve seen, democracy would often lead to the survival community all dying because of incompotency and splitting sides, this wasn’t a real life government, so they should just promote someone to be a dictator and get over it.
For one wild moment I considered cutting them all down, Pearl, the jury, the testifiers, every single one of them. It would be so simple, clean. My blade didn’t ask questions, of course, a few of them here might be high-level with good gear, so it would take me 5 seconds instead of 2 for each of them... But… no.
I exhaled, forcing my grip to loosen, my rage to settle into something colder, killing them wouldn’t get me anywhere, so I sat down.
“I want that bastard to tell me why he tries to kill my friend!” I tell them, mixing myself something random I pulled from the bar shelf.
“No.” Pearl said, “We’ll go through everyone by order, Olga haven’t tell us her side of the story. After Olga, he’ll have his chance.”
“Urg……………”
I squeezed on the glass so hard I almost broke it, but then I just down a cup of whatever I just brewed and nodded for them to continue.
It was Olga’s turn last.
She rose slowly, her greatsword leaning against the table.
“The NPC wasn’t normal,” she spoke, both arms crossed against her muscular chest. “He asked us to guide him, that everyone agreed, then when we were arguing over if we should help him or finish up this dungeon, I saw him conjuring up mana… It was red, and flowing in the air into his palm like threads, forming an orb. If I understand correctly, that’s a Sorcerer magic or something else.”
Her eyes flicked toward Pearl for half a second before snapping back to the crowd.
“When I told him to stop doing that and tried to ask what is he doing, he raised his hand at me. His fist was alive with magic, so I decapitated him.”
The room buzzed with restless discussions, to which Pearl told everyone to calm down to allow Olga to keep going, her tone remained flat, almost dead.
“After that, the others turned on me, I didn’t have to time to assess who is who, I tried to talk while defending myself, but they were already swinging.”
“...” No one said anything while Olga took another breath.
“About the Hailie girl and if ErikDop attacked her… I don’t know anything about that, I was looking at the NPC, while she was behind me closer to the exit. So my focus was only on the weapons drawn against me, and I only cut those I knew had intentio to murder me, that is everyone.”
“Granted, it took me a bit of self-restraint not to cut down the Hailie girl, too. Considering that I didn’t know who’s who at the time, and I don’t know if she’s capable of doing damage, after all.”
The last part she added was unnecessary and ultimately just painted her in a worse light, and it infuriated me, of course. The fact that she thought Hailie was any danger.
The tavern erupted.
The people were split, there were theories throwing around, at least 10 of them, but the most prominent was that at least one of the sides was lying, and it didn’t look good for Olga. Who had all the evidences against her.
The seven who had respawned roared the loudest, slamming their fists on the tables, accusing her of twisting the story, branding her a ‘murder hobo’ who needed to be exiled from New Destiny, some even drawn their weapons, but was ultimately stopped by the people of the jury.
Chairs scraped, boots stomped, voices overlapped until the air was nothing but chaos.
CRASH
I slammed my hand on the table, snarling until silence clawed its way back into the room. My glare pinned the seven who had testified, daring them to keep mouthing off.
“You bastards tell me to keep it down and civilized while you do this?”
For once, they shut their mouths.
But even with the noise gone, the puzzle still didn’t fit. No corpses remained to identify, of course, both NPCs and players despawn when they die.
A sorcerer NPC who tried to attack the party unprompted after asking for help? Yeah, Olga’s side is not making sense right now.
That dungeon was an abandoned mineshaft, moderate level, too, so chances are, there’s not any mind-bender or hallucination enemy that caused both sides to turn on each other.
But what if there were?
Olga and Hailie must be the only two affected, then… Considering how the other 7 got their stories straight and together. While Olga saw the NPC charging up Sorcerer magic, then the party turned on her, and Hailie saw one of the members attacking her… But if it’s a hallucination type of thing, who gains from this? And how?
“ErikDop.” Pearl spoke, pulling me out of my trance, “Did you try to kill Hailie, the priest?”
“No I did not.” He spoke.
“H…He’s lying!” Hailie yelped, but Pearl ignored her.
“Did you have any intention to at all?”
“No.”
“Did you charge at her at all?”
“I did not.”
“That makes sense.” Olga added, “If he wanted to kill her, she’ll be dead, if she’s really just a Priest, how could she defend herself against ErikDop and his gear at that level?”
This bitch is agreeing with someone who’s on the opposite side of her, what the hell, Olga????? I pondered to myself.
The jury murmured, agreeing to that.
So, now they think Hailie’s lying.
“I- I can explain… Um…”
Hailie looked at me, trying to get permission to tell everyone that she’s invulnerable, but I shook my head.
Even if she’s branded as a liar pants on fire, I couldn’t tell people she’s invulnerable… So it’s only me and her who knew the truth.
The question is… What do I tell them?
“Go ahead, Hailie.” Pearl spoke, “We’re waiting for your explaination. How did you protect yourself against ErikDop if he, alledgedly, tried to kill you? A spell? A piece of armor or item we need to know about?”
“I… Um… I-”
“You don’t have to say.” I spoke as I approached the middle of the bar, grabbing everyone’s attention, “I can vouch for her honesty, she’s too dumb to lie. The absent of evidence is not the evidence of absent.”
“That’s not how you use the term…” Pearl coughed, “We will rule Hailie’s statement about ErikDop’s intent to murder invalid.”
But something gnawed at me, crawling up the back of my skull, refusing to let go.
And then, it clicked.
I’d been in that dungeon before in the Early Access VR version.
I knew its layout, I knew its mobs.
And I knew one thing for certain: there had never been an NPC there, not in Early Access.
Not in the PC version either, since the dungeon itself didn’t exist there to cross-reference. Sure, the devs could have slipped it in for the full VR release… but it didn’t make sense for a Sorcerer NPC to be there, especially one with illusional abilities.
I stared around the room, at every face frozen in the tension of the moment, at Olga still gripping her blade, at Hailie trembling in her seat, at Pearl watching me carefully with those unreadable eyes.
And then I asked.
“How do you guys know it was an NPC?”
