Raven wasn’t having a great day. It wasn’t a bad day, by any stretch, but it was one of those days that disappointed you gradually. First, she had been late to the start of the fight. It had taken her, in her mind, a great deal of time to run at full speed through the crowded streets to Keristrazly Square. She would have turned around and gone back to watch Aidan beat up Fanciful, but if she was being honest with herself, Fanciful made her skin crawl in a not fun way.

When she arrived at the Square, all the famous people and the big names were duking it out in lines on either side, neither making headway because they were backed by other big name healers and defenders. There was a never ending churn of people more than willing to just throw themselves into the grinder though, so it wasn’t a total wash. Naturally, she found a nice spot some yards away from Hunter and a bunch of other Shadow Fall and did her best to sucker punch or slow down any red name that got too far passed their line. Then, like a pack of wolves, all the Imperials would swarm that person. Sure, it was funny the first few hundred times, but Raven was over it now.

She was humming to herself when Raven vision picked out and properly filtered a flying ghost ship in the clouds. In Raven vision it had a pink circular glow with little ‘wows’ and heart shapes coming out of the gun ports. When it started dropping water, that was cool. When it started dropping death ice. That was when she started to suspect she had been seriously screwed by her former very best friend, Elisha.

“Elisha. I am on the ground. Am I to understand that you didn’t ask ADMIRAL RAVEN to drive your very fun ship?” Raven tried to be patient but couldn’t help adding, “of death?”

She waited a few moments and then a small icon with a crossed hand clouded her vision.

“DON’T YOU PUT UP DO NOT DISTURB ELISHA WE ARE TALKING ABOUT THIS RIGHT NOW. SWEAR TO YOUR MOM I WILL JUMP UP THE BUILDING AND KNOCK THAT SHIP RIGHT OUT OF THE SKY.” Raven took a deep shuddering breath, looking around and realizing from the wide berth she was receiving that she had screamed it out loud as well as over the message.

Elisha’s only response was to put up a ‘not receiving messages’ version of the Do Not Disturb.

“Oh. We’re not done…” Raven looked up and her eyes narrowed as a fistfighter from the rebels tripped the wrong direction and stumbled backward toward the irate woman. She grabbed him by the shoulder, dragged him to the ground, and then started to crush her greatsword down on him without skills until the only thing she was doing was throwing up dirt particles.

“Earth Mover, Beginner 1?” Hunter asked dryly behind her.

“Your daughter,” Raven began with a wracking breath. She turned and pointed a finger at Hunter and was really about to lay into her, but then Hunter did that thing. That thing that Amelia’s mom and dad could do. The thing she did where she raised one eyebrow in a nonthreatening way that made Raven feel like she would get exploded with Hunter’s brain if she said even one more word. “...is a delight, and a treasure, and you should be proud of her. Honestly, I’m happy that she messes up sometimes. It means that there is still room to grow. All of us could stand to grow more, don’t you think Hunter-mom?”

Hunter just chuckled and started shooting arrows into the fog again.

Raven sighed, watching the ship fly back and forth in the sky dropping mountains of frozen doom. It called to her so hard. She looked around, her expression growing increasingly forlorn. Sure she knew some of these people, but Aidan was probably standing over Fanciful’s broken corpse taking pictures, Forsythe was probably wearing an eyepatch and serving some sort of really great ice cream aboard a flying pirate ship, and Amelia?

Amelia had been absent this whole campaign.

Explosions of energy and flashing metal swirled all around Raven, but the girl’s shoulders drooped. “This isn’t why I’m here…”

Dark thoughts swirled up and the anger that always festered below the surface started to rise up. This was all freaking Mordred’s fault. The Rebels. Even some of the stupider members of Shadow Fall. Even she had wanted to be a Rebel but knew better! Maybe she’d needed to be talked around to not being a Rebel, but she’d done it! Her eyes narrowed at the Rebels dancing in and around the Square at the edge.

For the first time in the entire event Raven decided to consider them enemies.

She took a deep breath and then raised the greatsword to her shoulder. There was a slight metallic clang as it rested on the small right pauldron. “Welp. Guess we can just kill everybody so this entire dumb event is over.”

“Raven!” Shadow Fall guild channels had private groups, and this is one she shared with Amelia that excluded the boys. “Raven I need you!”

Amelia was calling her, and it was really taking the wind out of her sails. She had just started to work up some enthusiasm for a nice murder spree, and here was Amelia, probably going to say something stupidly emotional and make her feel all better. Raven sighed. Maybe this day wouldn’t suck after all.

“Raven! I need you to sing a really great ballad about me and Vienne and get the crowd involved! Raven! You’ve got like, 7 minutes or we’re going to get wasted by the Research Laboratory!”

Raven’s sword fell from her fingers and hit the ground.

Seven minutes to write, compose, and execute a legendary ballad? Hahahaha…hahaha. Impossible. No way. No freaking way.

“Raven! I know you can do it! Get started, I told Hunter to shoot up the special arrow we cooked up!”

“What?” Raven squeaked. “No! Hunter, don’t shoot that!”

Hunter had already been in the process of firing the arrow off into the sky, looking over at Raven with wide owlish eyes. “Eh? Oops?”

Raven watched the arrow fly high into the sky and burst. Fireworks all started to rain down in seemingly random patterns hundreds of feet in the sky. At least until a shape emerged. A golden lute appeared and hung in the sky, gently falling downward with no real speed. It would hang there for at least fifteen minutes.

Raven stood frozen in time as everyone fighting around her stopped for a moment. Most of the people fighting would have no idea what it meant. The problem was everyone else.

Forsythe and Aidan immediately private messaged her.

Elisha was suddenly not busy and demanded to know what kind of song she was going to sing.

Several Shadow Fall members were pinging her excited emojis.

A quick peak at Shadow Fall chat showed everyone was celebrating in expectation of getting a ballad boost for the fight; some of course were giving ‘oh no’ emojis, those would be the Rebels.

War sent her a thumbs up emoji over the private channel.

Raven crouched down and started punching the dirt with her fists.

“What do we think her plan is?” Abhy asked her co-host. He smiled and started to reply when he stopped, looking behind Abhy at the stage exit. Jenner was a solid co-host fill-in, and they’d used him several times. When he stood up and started clapping instead of answering her question, Abhy frowned and turned around in her chair to see what had caught his attention. A slight smattering of applause started in the studio audience in response to his clapping, but most couldn’t see who he was welcoming. When the young woman turned toward the stage, making one motion with a hand over her forehead to shield her from the sudden studio lights, the crowd erupted in actual applause. A happy grin crossed her face and she squinted her eyes, taking momentary blindness so she could wave cheerfully at the audience with both hands. “Oh! Hah! Sneaking failed!”

Abhy stood up and walked over, grabbing her arm to start pulling her toward an empty chair. “I guess Idolia needs no introduction!”

“Ahaha! That’s me! I’m Idolia!” She let herself be blindly lead toward the chair, at one point making a joke about it by making a face in Abhy’s general direction.

Getting Idolia to show up in the real world was a major coup, and Abhy and Jenner eagerly filled her on in what had been happening.

“So maybe you can tell us what you think is happening?” Abhy threw a softball of a question to Idolia. There wouldn’t be any wrong answers because it was still in the formative stages.

“Wow, I have no clue.” Idolia studied the screen behind them. “Amelia doesn’t look like she’s going all out yet, and wow, Vienne.” Idolia started to fan herself. “Oh no! Vienne’s hot!”

Abhy’s face blanked for a moment even as the laughter in the audience started to swell.

Jenner laughed was quicker and laughed along. “I suppose we’ve just been going along with it, but what do you think about Vienne’s avatar change?”

“Well,” Idolia kept studying the ‘new’ Vienne on screen. “I suppose if I could change my form back and forth, I’d do it. You know, just see what all the fuss is about. If you’re a god, or goddess, who is going to get on your case about it? Nice! 10/10. I liked him more, I think, when he was some twenty foot valkyrie lady, but we were getting stomped on by a big world-ending skeleton so, you know, that was more appropriate at the time. I can see this as a nice change.” Idolia finally gave a thumbs up and turned back toward them with a happy smile. “I would have added an extra pair of arms and a tail though. Horns are also in.”

Jenner’s expression slid off his face, having no idea what to do with this information. He turned to Abhy, his look suggesting it was her turn.

“Idolia, I know what you’ve been doing because we have conversations off-set sometimes,” Abhy said, she leaned down and put her hand on the arm rest, “but maybe you could tell the audience what you’ve been up to?”

“Oh!” Idolia laughed and leaned back, eyes widening briefly. “Uh, it probably doesn’t come as any surprise to people that I absolutely despise this Rebel and Imperial thing. I know that’s not popular, but it has really put a funk in my groove. All my friend’s are just constantly trying to kill one another, and you know, I’m just trying to keep my lifestyle. Sing some songs, do some dancing, entertain. So, that’s obviously been thrown right in the shitter,” Idolia paused and her mouth opened for a moment. “Oh, I’m not supposed to say that am I? Sorry, I’ll do better. Ahem. Anyway. It’s been very bad for my mental health. Several people I know in my guild and out of it feel the same way so, you know,” Idolia squared her shoulders proudly, “we started helping out in the Resident camps. There are a lot of crafters and other players who just don’t want any part of it. It’s actually been a great opportunity for players who might normally not get to interact with the ‘nobility’, so it’s been great.” Idolia actually did little bunny airquotes for nobility. “That, and I think, going back into non-war time it’s going to be important that we stay friendly with the Residents.”

Abhy nodded, and her gaze sharpened. “Oh? How do the Residents feel about this?”

Idolia grimaced and tapped her fingers across her knees, adjusting her longskirt slightly. “Well, they’re obviously not thrilled. I think a lot of things will iron themselves back out when it’s over, but if we could all agree to just kill Mordred over and over in the future,” Idolia nodded slowly with a very serious expression, “so he doesn’t do this again. I think that’d be good.”

Jenner had been using Idolia’s speech to take a large drink of water from a bottle he kept at the side of his chair, and snorted at the end of her comment. In his defense he tried to turn his head and make it less obvious he was choking, but he was mic’d.

“Oh goodness!” Idolia said after a moment. “You alright?”

Abhy touched her earpiece and a ‘thank god’ expression crossed her face. “Oh! It looks like something is happening at the Square! Hunter has just fired off a special event arrow, and it looks like it’s been modified for duration and shape. A lute?”

“Bard sign!” Idolia gasped, and clapped her hands a few times. “Raven’s going to sing! That’ll be a treat. I wonder where she’s going to set up.”

Raven appeared on the screen. She was punching dirt.

Idolia frowned and then hmm’d. “In the business. We call this a bad sign.”

Abhy and Jenner both pulled their gaze away from Raven beating the ground on the screen and openly stared at Idolia. No kidding?

A screenclip appeared in the corner. It was Amelia, apparently contacting Raven moments before.

“Raven! I need you to sing a really great ballad about me and Vienne and get the crowd involved! Raven! You’ve got like, 7 minutes or we’re going to get wasted by the Research Laboratory!”

Idolia made a very unhappy noise and then straightened up. “No wonder Raven’s angry. 7 minutes to compose an original song and then perform it? That’s not how it’s done Amelia,” Idolia pursed her lips and shook her head, she looked down and reached for her own water bottle and unscrewed the cap with an extra shake of her head. “Not how it’s done at all.” She took a drink.