About five minutes later, Arlyth awoke where she had fainted. To her surprise she awoke to two prompts.

[New Skill Gained!]

[Blood Manipulation: Rank - D] – This skill is a racial ability of the Sanguine Elves, usually confused with necromancy, this ability looks the same to those who do not understand the art of blood manipulation. This ability allows the user to control an enemy target if they ingest their blood. At rank D this ability requires a half ounce of blood and allows for minor adjustments to enemy movements.

Usage – Grants the user minor control of an enemy for one minute.

[The Hungering Dagger of Blood]

Blood Rank 1: 25/1000 Blood Absorbed

Arlyth had a little throw up show up in her mouth after she finished reading the prompts. All she tasted was iron. She spat it on the floor next to where she lay, in absolute disgust. Sitting up, she groaned; her head was splitting. She saw the body of the dead guard that she had mutilated. She felt a twinge of regret, unsure of what inside her decided he deserved the fate she had dealt. Arlyth had realized it was because of the constant abuse the man was dishing to her. She didn’t deserve to be in this cell, nor did she deserve to be called filth constantly. He wanted to hurt her, and she just happened to hurt him first.

Arlyth was a taken aback by her new ability. She had never heard of any sort of blood manipulation. Then again, she hadn’t heard of her race either. She hadn’t intended to ingest the man’s blood, but she assumed that was the catalyst for her unlocking the ability. She shrugged to herself, resolved in the new body she was in. It obviously wasn’t going anywhere, and what came with it, came with it. The idea of controlling people excited her, although she was hesitant to admit it.

She was curious on how much each different enemy had blood wise in terms of her dagger’s absorption, or if the wound inflicted could somehow allow for more blood absorption. She cut the man twice and stabbed him and got 25 blood points. Unsure, she decided to herself to keep an eye on it for the future. Arlyth knelt to the body to loot it; two items popped up.

[Jail Keys]

A simple key ring with 5 keys on it, although you don’t know to which doors they go to.

[Guard’s Medallion]

This item is a necklace, when worn it provides +1 to dexterity and is used as a sign of respect among guards. I don’t expect it to work for you though, as they all hate you.

Arlyth still didn’t understand why the prompts had become so snarky, while thinking about it she heard a noise in her head that sounded like someone that just came up for breath after being underwater for an hour. “ARLYTH DID YOU FIND THE DAGGER?!” Kye said after gasping loudly.

“Woah there Kye! Settle it down, what’s going on? Why are you acting like you can’t breathe?” Arlyth questioned her AI companion.

Still taking weirdly deep breathes, Kye responded “It was for dramatic effect really, I don’t need to breathe, we both know that. But I figured since I had been gone for a little, I wanted to spook you.”

“You’re an ass, dude. That scared the hell out of me, and are you telling me you put the dagger there for me to find? Isn’t that cheating? Feels pretty unfair to me.”

“Yeah, I did, I found out something while I was gone and its pretty heavy. So, I pulled all the strings I possibly could and hid that there for you, I’m glad you found it. Although, I’m not sure you’ll want to be standing when you hear this. Probably best to find somewhere safer than standing over the dead body of your first murder.” Kye said, with a small amount of sad praise in their voice.

“Yeah, probably right. Let’s go deeper, something tells me they don’t come down here much. They’ll notice he’s gone eventually but for now, let’s see if there is anything useful, we can find.” Arlyth said to Kye.

Walking down the hallway Arlyth came up on an empty room that appeared to be a study on her left, to the right there was a metal door with a little sliding window towards the top.

Entering the study, she looked around and saw that the walls were stone as the rest of the jail, but they had wooden bookshelves in front of them, covered in books of all sorts and there was a simple desk in the middle, with the only lantern in the room atop it, and an open book. Hesitantly she took a step in, as she walked in, the lantern lit itself, as if powered by some sort of magic motion sensor.

She went to the table in the middle of the study, peering down at the book she found she couldn’t read the text. It was in some strange language that appealed to her, though she had no idea the meaning of the words. She closed the book to see the cover, it was a bright red with strange writing on it that she had never seen.

Curious if her analyze could help, she thought analyze.

[Red Book]

You don’t know the language, so you can’t tell what this book is. It has a natural draw on your soul, though, that may be worth something.

Frustrated with her inability to figure it out, she asked Kye. “Kye, do you know what this says? I’ve never seen this text before in EXO. Do you also know why the prompts got snarky ever since you disappeared? Also, why did you disappear?”

Kye responded promptly, something Arlyth didn’t realize she missed. “I can’t tell you much but, I can tell you it’s about your race. It would explain the natural pull it’s giving off. It appears to be a lore book or an ability book but it’s about Sanguine Elves. The snarky prompts are unfortunately Ex’s way of being a dick to you, he really has it out for you. I’ll try and see if I can override it from now on, but they must’ve slipped through because of me being gone. For me disappearing, I don’t have an answer to that, it just felt like we were asleep, I was still conscious and it still allowed me to do things but for this part of things, it was all black.”

“Hmm, thank you, I did notice that it started happening when you vanished, but you can feel the pull?” Arlyth responded.

“Yeah, I feel pretty much every thing you do, it actually makes my job a bit easier. It’s a weird explanation but it goes back to the whole sharing body thing. I’m more of just a mental construct but I still get all the reactions you do.” Kye stated.

Arlyth lifted the book and set it into her inventory. She wasn’t sure what her goals were at this moment, but she knew she needed to find another Sanguine elf to at least get some answers. Remembering the ominous news Kye had waiting for her, she took the opportunity to sit in the chair at the desk.

“Okay Kye, what’s this bad news you have for me?” Arlyth questioned.

Letting out a heavy sigh, Kye said “I don’t really know a good way to put this. I have access to the internet outside the game and while I was gone, I was doing some looking around. I stumbled upon this.” As soon as Kye finished Arlyth received a prompt.

In Loving Memory of

Aubrey Miles

[April 7th, 2018 – October 15th, 2045]

[Image Redacted]

On Sunday October 15th, 2045, Aubrey lost her life to an unfortunate disease, she had fought a long and fierce battle, she passed away at 27. She was a loving daughter, and an even better person. She is survived by her mother, her brother and sister. Aubrey was an inspiring artist in her free time and spent her days in the IT field, where her love of computers only grew larger. Aubrey will be remembered for her love of art, music, books, anime and video games.

After reading the prompt, all Arlyth could say was “I’m dead?” She hadn’t even thought about her illness since waking up. It felt like the memory had vanished and now that she saw this, she was hit by a brick of emotions. She thought how am I here, if I’m dead? None of this makes sense. This simply cannot be possible.

Noticing the internal strife Arlyth was in, Kye tried their best to soothe her. “I wish I had all the answers for you kid, you seem like you got the short end of some really shitty stick. I only showed you this so you could understand what was happening. This explains the inability to logout, it appears that you are a part of EXO now. I know that’s not exactly comforting, but you’re not dead, obviously. You’re still here, in control of your body and you still have all the kickass abilities you had before. I say we get to the bottom of this and find out what’s really going on. I’ll be here every step of the way.”

Wiping away a tear Arlyth hadn’t noticed she shed, Arlyth took a deep breath said to Kye “I’m going to find the motherfucker that did this and burn their very soul to the ground.”

Kye didn’t respond, instead they allowed Arlyth to process the news on her own. Kye knew this was going to be a hard one on Arlyth but acknowledged the ferocity that she carries herself with and knew it wouldn’t break her.

Arlyth picked herself up about five minutes later, resolute in her feelings. She looked up, not sure as to why, it just felt right to her to say this to the sky because something inside her screamed that the AI was responsible for this. “I hope you’re up there, and if you’re responsible, I will break every part of your digital code. I will destroy this world if I must. I gave no one the permission to put me in here permanently. I knew my death was coming and had resolved myself to it, just for it to be stripped away from me. I have suffered, and now this world shall suffer.”