C+5

  Your rage has increased by +1.

  Flor felt the rage upon waking. She expected that the time spent at the temple with Amets helped, both with her awareness of the rage and dealing with its effects. That didn’t mean she was happy with it.

  Maybe it helped, her time with Amets, but this game still sucked.

  Flor wanted to be done with this game. Her anger had cooled to seething. She considered how awful they were, her seething and the game. She still developed a plan to get free.

  Nikolette had told Flor what Flor already knew. The way to beat the game was to beat the next castle. That meant the Keep.

  Last night, before falling asleep on her hard plank in the Brawler’s Rest, Flor looked at her situation. Somewhere along the way she had upgraded her interface. Kester told her it had been through “his” petting of cats. Flor almost thought she could hear his name again. Not this morning, though; This morning, she was on the edge of annoyance, regret, and longing. Regardless, she was still in a party with him, Sparks, and Galoots.

  There was still no chatter on the party chat. Flor wasn’t ignorant enough to think that meant there wasn’t chatter from person to person.

  Flor had not maxed her equipment, but she was close. The armor was the holdup. It was challenging to earn enough money in a day to buy the plated leather chest armor, let alone a level-three weapon.

  Flor had fallen asleep converting loot to timepieces. She still could make a few more and would use them to get at least one level-three gear before she went to the Mayor’s Manor to convince him that she wanted, nay needed, to be part of the procession to the keep tonight.

  She considered her options. Was it required to send a note that she would join them? Did she ever know if the procession continued after clearing the city puzzle? She certainly hadn’t looked.

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  Did that mean she needed to ask them to go on a journey? That complicated her situation terribly.

  Lord 3 Oliver Guillem Francesc sat respectfully in his chair, looking at Flor.

  He leaned forward and said, “Are you sure? It no longer seems to be a requirement that we need to engage the Lord to solve our problems.”

  “I’m certain I don’t understand the current dynamics of your relationship to the…Lord. But I understand power dynamics and the economics that underlie them. Yesterday you were required to send children to the …Lord… for purposes. That purpose didn’t disappear. Rather, it did locally, but not globally. The thuggery from the keep will persist, or increase. The demand for sacrifices will also go up. Where will they come from if not from this city? The farms? There aren’t enough children there. So, what you’ll see is increased boat traffic. It’ll seem legitimate, but it’ll come from offshore, and there will be hints that it is human smuggling.

  “Instead, you could be a bastion of human rights. You could stand up for what is right and good, and maybe even provide an argument that the Iciounda Kingdom exceeds its mandates.”

  “You ask for blasphemy and sacrilege?”

  “No, I ask you to respect the human condition, to respect that some are born in situations they are unable to control but should not be brutalized or sacrificed while they hold the power within them of production.”

  “I’m not convinced.”

  Flor considered the economic studies she had conducted in multiple cities. Facts and figures ran through her head but nothing came to mind to convince this lord that those figures would benefit the people of Shilgrave. The terrible inconsistencies in style and gameplay told her that real-world experience did not influence this game. Flor felt disappointed.

  “My lord, there is evil going on at the keep. You must be the one to stop it. If not you, then allow me at least to convince those in your household to fight it with me.”

  “How do you know?” said Lord Oliver.

  “Because every day I wake up in the same place in the same circumstances and every day the children suffer. They used to come through your manor, but though they don’t anymore, they still end up at the keep and suffer there.”

  “Then I will allow you to try to convince the others in my household to attend to the Keep,” he said. “Perhaps you may find that my wife Rosa and my brother Lazare may desire to attend, as they always did enjoy the gala proceedings.”

  Flor curtsied as she had been instructed to do, “My Lord.” She backed out to look for the other Lord and Ladies. It didn’t matter if Lord Oliver attended, as long as she had access to the Keep. Somehow. She didn’t expect the other Lords or Ladies to assist her in trying to complete the Keep, but perhaps they could tell Flor what to expect.