Riverside Conversation

((Book 1 if this is your first time here: 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BZZBHBMF

Book 3's finished version: 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CK72L912))

Thanks to Cats Eyes I'm able to navigate through the darkness and the pouring rain. What am I going to do? I just killed a person. How do I explain that away? Could I even make it to the bowling alley next? I had just killed someone. There were going to be soldiers looking all over.

The mud in front of me splatters in front of my face as a howling wind rips by my ear. A moment later, a knee slams into my back between my shoulder blade and drives me to the muddy ground. I feel a sting against my throat as a dagger stabs into the ground beside me.

"Lawrence, why," Monica says.

"He was a traitor," I say.

"That's what they're saying about you."

"Have you ever heard anyone refer to me as, 'the Sage,' here?"

"No, why?"

"The only ever person who has referred to me as, 'the Sage,' were servants of Roki and that man."

"And that's your proof?"

"He also said the UK needs to be informed of my capture and death so that he could, 'proceed tomorrow evening.'"

"The United Kingdom?"

"No. The Underking."

"Who?"

"It was someone mentioned in some documents in that level 40 I just came out of. The King of the Ratmen who is amassing an army to attack Arville."

The pressure releases a little on my back.

"Is that true?"

"Yes."

She breathes heavily.

"You really didn't do any of the stuff they're accusing you of, did you?" Her voice is a whisper.

"No. Someone is working against me." I say.

She lets the pressure up off of my back completely as her knee leaves my shoulder blade. I push myself up and she immediately jumps on my back and wraps her arms around my neck in an embrace.

"I knew it couldn't be true. I just wanted to hear it from you straight, and when I heard you killed that guy…" She lets loose a long, breath that dies in the rain-heavy air. "I'm sorry."

"Why didn't you come?"

I say.

"What?"

"Why didn't you come for me if you knew it was untrue?"

I pull away from her there is a bit of sadness and confusion mixed on her face.

"What do you mean?"

Ah. I'm an idiot. It becomes clear in that instance. Perhaps it was the bit of rage I had been holding onto. If Garcia was behind setting me up like this, what were the chances that he would tell them I was in dire straits? He, and whoever he was working for or with, probably got to work as soon as I went in on that hackneyed storyline they fed to the others. Shawn, I could believe falling for it, but my brother? Surely he was smarter than that, and Monica...there must be some reason she went along with it.

"There was a battle," I answer after I absorb this new reality; the anger I had held on to washing away with the heavy, slanted drops crashing down over the two of us.

"A battle?"

"Yes...it was…"

"Ah, you don't have to tell me about it now." She says, "Best that you get away."

I nod. The rain had stopped for the time being, and I can hear the sounds of pursuit hurrying down the bank. I turn to leave before stopping.

"Why did you play along with their accusations, then?"

"I...a couple days back, when you first went in, a group of men approached William and me right after we came out of a dive."

"A group of men?"

"Yes. They looked like they had just come back from hunting; you know camo pants, jackets, and all that."

"What did they do?"

"They handed us a folder." She said, looking down to the ground, "Inside the folder was a recent photograph of our parents, along with the instructions to…go along with this. I'm sorry." She glances from the ground to my face. "Look, you have to leave town, Lawrence."

"I can't."

"You have to. There'll be hundreds, if not thousands of soldiers looking for you, thinking you just killed one of their own. Not only that, you'll be hunted by other Chosen. Until you can prove your innocence, you have to leave. If you stay here you're just signing your own death certificate."

I try to form some arguments in my mind, but I can't land on a solid way to disagree with her. I concede with an exasperated sigh.

"Then...I have some things to tell you." I speak in a hurried whisper.

"Firstly, as soon as we're done here tonight, go into the bowling alley by the motel I had been laid up in, there is a door here."

"I know, the level 70."

"Go in there tonight. There is a little girl lost in there."

"How do you know?"

"Call it a hunch."

She nods.

"Secondly, there is a way to kill Roki. Ask Nyt about it." I glance behind her, and I see flashes of light beginning to sweep the trees.

"Night?"

"She's one of the cat things that came out of the door with me. Gray, striped fur, and big blue eyes."

"I'll...how would I do that, I don't know her language?"

"Ah, she cast a spell on herself that should last a week."

Monica nods.

"Lastly, tell Nyt to tell her captors that I forced them to come through to be fodder or whatever you can think of."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure."

"Then can I ask you for something?" Moncia says. "I want you to rescue my parents, so William and I don't have to go along with the lies any longer, and so we can help you..."

"I will." She beams the brightest smile I had ever seen. Ah, why was I mad at her? "Where are they?"

"They're being held by someone called the Cult of the White. That's all the folder says."

Cult of the White? Of the White One, perhaps? A human sect of worshippers, maybe? I thought those cults popping up everywhere were just people panicking and looking toward a higher power.

"Do you know where?"

Monica shakes her head.

"I looked them up. I couldn't find a thing." She lets out a long stream of breath. "I don't even know where they're being held."

"I'll find them, Monica. I promise."

She smiles and no words are spoken between us for a second as the sounds of pursuit draw nearer.

"Now go! Ah, wait, you're going to have to hit me."

"Wait, why?"

"So it looks like you got away." She readies herself.

"Alright..."I take a deep breath, clench my fist, and slam it into her core.

She doubles over into the mud.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I'm sorry." Oh god, that was a little too hard.

"Go go go." She whispers as she hacks.

I pick my staff up out of the mud and flee from the scene. I glance back just as I take to the shadows of a nearby river willow.