Chapter Seven - Long Distance Comforts

“Mom?”

The line was a tiny bit crackly, not owing to any sort of bad connections or anything like that. The entire city’s phone service was built by Optimaze years ago, it was hard to find any place where a phone couldn’t connect, or where the internet wasn’t decently fast.

It had been that way since she was twelve or thirteen. She hadn’t really paid all that much attention at the time, but she still remembered the super powered inventor going to court with Ell telecom because he robbed them of a bunch of customers. His defence had been that their service wasn’t very good to begin with.

No, the reason their line crackled was because her dad had a thing against buying new stuff when their old stuff still worked fine. They still had a cathode-ray-tube television in the garage that he refused to toss, and the home phone was an old corded thing that spat and cracked if it wasn’t held just right.

“Sweetie!” Her mother’s voice came over the line. “Oh, I was so worried when you didn’t call yesterday. Why didn’t you call yesterday?”

“Oh, uh, I kind of forgot?” she said. It even had the benefit of being the truth. So many things had happened all at once that day before that Emily was having a hard time keeping track of all of them.

“You’re already having so much fun that you forgot all about your dear old mom?”

Emily smiled and pulled her cell closer to the side of her head as if she could hug the voice coming from within it. “No mom,” she said. ‘It was just a long day.”

“An enjoyably long one? How were your classes? Did you make any friends yet?”

She wondered how she should answer that. “I guess it was okay,” she said. “Um, classes were alright yesterday. Just a lot of explaining and stuff. You know, about homework and tests and credits. It’s nothing I didn’t know. But my professor seems nice.”

“Nice or nice?”

“Mom!” Emily said. “He’s an old man.”

“Your dad is eight years older than me,” he mom rebutted with a sing-song lilt to her voice.

Emily felt herself flushing. “Don’t be silly mom,” she said. “Um. I guess I made a friend too.”

The line crackled and popped.

“Mom?”

“What sort of friend did you make, sweetie?” her mother asked.

Emily couldn’t pin the tone. Definitely curious, but also wary, maybe. “It’s a girl. Her name’s Teddy. She’s... a bit younger than me. She likes bears?”

“That sounds wonderful! How did you meet?”

“Uh, it was in my dorm. She just kind of showed up and, um...” Emily thought fast. “She ate my doughnuts?”

There was a snort on the other end of the line. “That’s certainly one way to make a friend. I hope she’s good for you.”

“Yeah. A-anyway. I have a thing I need to do,” Emily said. “I just wanted to talk a bit before that.”

“Busy already? I understand. You be careful, okay sweetie? I know you’re not the sort of girl to get herself into any kind of trouble, but try to be careful anyway.”

“Yes mom. I love you.”

“I love you too,” was the quick reply. “Should I tell your dad that you love him too, or did I finally win the best parent award?”

Emily giggled, she couldn’t help herself. In just a minute or two her mom had soothed the worse of her fears away. “Tell dad that I love him too,” she said.

“I will. You stay safe. If you need anything, I’m always there, okay?”

“Thanks. Bye mom.”

“Bye sweetie.”

Emily clicked the call end button and let her arm drop onto her desk. Her room was quiet except for faint background noises, the kinds of things that were easy to ignore, like the thumping of someone’s feet padding across the floor above her or the faint whistle-y snores coming from her bed.

She looked at the time on her phone and winced. It was nearly three already. She had to move.

The day had been a hazy mess. Classes passing without notice, her attention drifting from the moment she woke up.

“Teddy,” Emily said as she drifted over to her... summon, sister, henchgirl? She wasn’t sure what terminology to use just yet. “Teddy, wake up please.”

The little bear-girl blinked awake and pulled her head off of Emily’s pillow, though she did stay connected to it via a nice line of drool. “Huh? Boss?”

Emily nodded. “We need to head out soon,” she said.

“Now?” Teddy asked.

“It’s nearly three PM. You’re still in your PJs, so that means you must have slept since... seven last night. Do you really want to stay in bed ever more?”

“I got up,” she said. “I had to pee.”

Emily figured that that explained how she got from the floor to Emily’s bed. “Well, I might need your help today,” Emily said.

Going to visit a mysterious person that sent her vaguely threatening emails was... probably not the smartest thing Emily had ever done. In fact, it was quite the opposite. It was the biggest thing making her rest the night before troubled, and what had been at the centre of her mind the entire time she was in class.

Teddy yawned and rolled off the bed. “Why didn’t you just start with that,” she said.

Emily turned away as Teddy got undressed and started to put on her shorts and bear-print t-shirt. She only turned back when she heard Teddy having a hard time tying her shoes.

She was putting all of her hopes on the back of a girl who didn’t know how to keep her shoes on. That was not terribly reassuring.

“C’mon,” Emily said when everything was done and Teddy’s shows had acquired a nice pair of bows. “The faster we get there, the faster this will all be over.”

“Cool. Can we grab a bite to eat, Boss ?” Teddy asked as her hand slipped into Emily’s.

Emily nodded. “Certainly. On the way back.”

The walk out of the dorm was done in silence. Emily stepped out into a cloudy afternoon where the weather had taken a distinct turn towards the chilly. Not so cold that it was uncomfortably, but the sort of cold that reminded everyone that winter was right around the corner.

She had to pull her phone out to Oogle the address of the Dark Cup. It was supposed to be about four blocks away from the campus. Close enough that calling a taxi would feel like an indulgence, but far enough that she was afraid that she might work up a sweat on the way there.

She slid her phone into her purse. “Okay,” she said.

New Quest!

The Mark of A Villain

Impress upon the people of the Dark Cup that you are a Villain to be Feared.

Reward: 1 Skill Upgrade Points Per Persons Terrified. Villainy +1 per success!

Accept? Refuse?

New Quest!

A Rogue Delight

Make An Offer They Cannot Refuse

Reward: 1 Skill Upgrade Points Per Persons Intimidated. Scoundrel +1 per success!

Accept? Refuse?

Emily read the two quests. They seemed pretty similar to her at first glance, though one was definitely less evil than the other.

They were both shut off and removed from her line of sight. She didn’t want to play the system’s game of villains and rogues. She wanted... she didn’t know what she wanted, but she knew what she didn’t want.

“Come on, Teddy,” she said.

“Alright, Boss,” Teddy agreed.

Emily wasn’t out of shape, but she wasn’t exactly an athlete. The only sport she really played was a bit of badminton with her mom and a few older women at an indoor court every week, and sometimes she would use her dad’s little gym set up at home to burn off some excess anxiety. It kept her slim. That and the way she lost all appetite when stressed, which was always.

Still, by the time they had made it three blocks over, Emily was regretting wearing a sweater and a thick skirt. She would need a shower the moment she returned home or the sweatiness would bother her to no end.

What if someone noticed and thought she was a slob. What if the mysterious person in the Dark Cup noticed?

Her worries grew into a grand crescendo that reached their climax when she stood before a little coffee shop and bistro set between a tanning house and a store that sold clothes for construction workers.

The old label at the front looked like it belonged in the seventies. Big mom-and-pop style lettering that read ‘The Dark Cup’ across a little awning over the front door.

She could barely see within, but the vague shapes through the frosted glass hinted at chairs and tables and people moving within.

Emily swallowed a gulp of air. “Here goes,” she said.