To Deyana’s surprise, The Alliance wasn’t particularly present in the city when they got close enough to see the people around the outside of the walls.

Instead, it was Smurfs.

Had it been any of the other guilds around the area, that fact might have been a bit more difficult to determine, but the nice part about that specific guild was their commitment to the bit– massively oversized blue plate armor was the name of the game with them, with their primary focus being on nearly impossible to kill frontline and supports around a much smaller than usual core of plate-inscription casters, trading time for efficiency at a high enough rate that they managed decent clear speeds in spite of the lead-time that introduced.

Still, their presence here already didn’t say good things for when the other guilds would be actively looking for their little party. Deyana would need to start keeping track of a lot of movements very soon.

The spike of awareness and adrenaline that went through her at the concept managed to be familiar, fun, and a deeply unpleasant reminder, all at the same time.

“Didn’t expect them to have found us this quickly. Do you think they’re spiking off of one of you two or me?” Deyana asked.

“Hard to say,” LJay waffled. “I wouldn’t put money on either.”

They took a few minutes in silence, observing the movements of the guards around the outside.

They weren’t professional guards or anything, and their movements were significantly more chaotic than someone who might typically be doing it as a job, but that in some ways made it harder to pick out a time where it would be safe.

It was in the middle of that chaos that Deyana had realized her mistake.

“Fuck. Well, I’d be able to take that guess. My fault, but I’m pretty sure that Geria’s compromised across all the guilds if anyone recognizes her.”

The girl in question turned slightly towards her. “Your fault how.”

“Part of drawing The Alliance’s primary force away from the city proper. I gave enough information that The Alliance could put it together, and either they told DS or one of their agents figured it out on their own.”

“Bet they got it themselves.”

Nobody justified LJay with a response.

“Do you have a plan for dealing with this situation, or do we need to leave this city?”

Deyana needed to take a moment to think about that before she was confident enough in a response, but a plan did begin forming in her mind. “We’re probably good here, as long as you and LJay can get yourselves to another city and teleport somewhere random today before you log out, then back here tomorrow before we log in.” Geria nodded at that, so she went on. “It’s not ideal, given that the Smurf’s’ll still post a couple of scouts around the outside tomorrow, but in a lot of ways we can still get everything we need done, no problem. What we’ll need to do is–”

====

In her head, there was no reason for the plan not to work, especially when considering for the fact that her new character’s face was still basically unknown in the circles that would be coming for them. That didn’t make the experience of watching Geria and LJay, intentionally casual like they had no idea who the Smurfs were looking for while approaching the city, any less nerve-wracking.

From beside her, Don spoke. “And you’re sure this is going to work.”

“Mostly sure. Probably sure? I’m sure as long as there’s nothing about the situation I’m not taking into consideration.”

He laughed. “So you’re sure you’re right, unless you’re wrong.”

“About the long and short of it,” Deyana said, then sighed. “It would be nice to have better information, but we aren’t going to be getting it.”

The front-person in the blue armor moved to intercept the duo, and she could almost hear the conversation in her head, backed up by the body cues she could see, even as far out as they were.

Asking their names, meanwhile calling up allies from elsewhere around the city.

Denial that that was them. Not especially believable, but they needed to give enough time for that force to get closer.

A variation on the you know we know you know I know dance, talking about the rune.

Some filler as the person in blue armor tried to unobtrusively slip around the side to pen them in.

Finally, with the appearance of more of that blue armor from the entrance, movement.

The closer person in blue was the first, but not by much, his lunge forward and the effect from his hands reaching out to grab LJay and Geria but bouncing off one of the force-shields she’d apparently had ready. LJay followed immediately after by swinging that ridiculous sword of his.

It didn’t quite manage to cut through the armor, but the sound of crumpling metal was loud enough that, even as far away as they were, Deyana was able to pick it up on the edge of hearing.

Apparently, that mistake of a weapon could overcome the enchantments on the Smurf’s armor.

Good to know.

It wouldn’t apply to all of them, of course, but with LJay able to play more along the lines of a berserker than a tank–

She banished the thought to a background consideration as Geria teleported backwards, just outside of the cylinder of stone that tried to contain her, then threw two more stones on the ground that appeared to launch the Smurfs approaching in an arc back towards the city before the stones themselves started floating back to her.

And the chase was on.

As the two tore off northwards, almost every one of the Smurfs in the area followed after, leaving only one of their casters and one of their people in armor at the gate, obviously distracted as they continued to watch the chase.

“We go now.”

It took Don a little longer than she would have liked to visibly relax enough that he wouldn’t be instantly suspicious, but they were able to leave the side-path they’d been observing from and move towards one of the city’s main entry-points in short enough order that the two members of the guild were still the only ones there.

“Hey, pretend like I said something funny,” Deyana said, leaning over to grab Don’s arm, then walking momentarily on tiptoe to whisper in his ear. “Thought you’d be fine with this part, but I should’ve asked privately, sorry.”

He laughed, and even listening for it she couldn’t hear its fakeness. “Yeah, I’m okay with it. If anything, I should be taking the opportunity to show you off to as many people as I can. Besides, I think those guys at the gate can hear us.”

Deyana looked that direction, gauging out the distances involved. Her best guess put it at a hundred yards or so. That was out of the range of normal hearing, but a dedicated watch squad might have the tools required to pick up sound at distances like that. Still, this wasn’t the dedicated watch squad, this was the people who had replaced them on short notice. “I don’t think so. But if you really want to know, I’m sure I could say… something that would, mmm… get a reaction.” Deyana leaned further into him for the last sentence, running her hand over his back, then carefully tightening a faux-grip on his side.

Don stumbled, likely at her tone, and the one of the two guards bumped the other one, then they obviously laughed. She decided to let up on him, lightening her voice significantly. “Alright, they can’t hear us yet.”

“The had to be a better way to find that out.”

“I mean, maybe, but none of them are quite as fun,” Deyana whined, tugging on Don’s hand. “Besides, it’s part of the role.”

“So you’ve been like this with all your boyfriends?”

“Me? No, not really. But I’ve seen it before!”

“It kinda messes with my ‘show you off’ plan a little bit.”

“Ooh, big strong man’s gotta show off his girlfriend’s brains, too. Or do you just want her to be a trophy?”

He shook his head at that, a slight tensing in his arm clarifying to her that he’d noticed they were in range to he heard, now. “I wouldn’t be terribly opposed to the trophy, but, y’know, I don’t think that would last too long.”

“In my experience, usually until the trophy ages up or the money runs out, whichever comes first.”

“In your experience?” Don asked, turning to stare. Deyana didn’t let him stop, though, pressing him lightly forwards and smiling at the guards.

“Academic interest, mostly. But if you’re offering…”

The two guards didn’t even move to question them.

The Alliance had a leak, the Smurfs had a spy, or– worst case– The Alliance had already given up getting it back, and was now willing to take a consolation prize to keep it out of her hands.

Her plan had somewhat depended on one of those being the case, but in truth she’d hoped she was wrong.

When they were safely in the Runewriter’s Guild’s crafting room, Don finally asked. “Okay, what the hell. At least three people got stopped, that I could see. Why’d we just go through? It’s not like you look that different.”

She grimaced at that. “Well, as Novsha I kept dating and gaming separate. And as Deyana… I’d bet they were under the presupposition that I’m dating Geria.”

To her surprise, he just nodded. “Honestly, with how you two interact, that makes sense.”

“Well…”

“There’s more?”

“It’s… possible that we got seen together. And I may have played the trophy girlfriend to her, too.” Deyana explained, carefully looking slightly away.

Don looked thoughtful for a moment. “But you haven’t actually dated her? You two were flirty, but it didn’t really seem like there was history.”

He was approaching an area that made things difficult. It was better to just deal with the problem, instead of letting it sit, but she usually preferred to either have dealt with it before the first date or after the second. “No, but not because I don’t want to. I just think it’s better if I wait until she’s comfortable asking me out.”

She could see him school his face. “So you don’t think it’s going to work out with me?”

“Whether it will or not, it’s not really going to affect that relationship much. At least, from my end. I’m not really built for the whole… monogamy thing. I was going to tell you before we really went anywhere, but sometimes the world decides to fuck over any attempt at delicacy with the subject.”

“So, what, you’ve got a bunch of IRL boyfriends?”

She’d been trying to stay serious, but the droll accusation set her to laughing even through the distraction of picking which items she'd be working on. “No! Not even one, at the moment. No girlfriends either, before you ask, and no real prospects outside what you know. I just don’t really feel comfortable going into it under false pretenses. I know for a fact that trying to stick to just one person… it doesn’t work out.”

He seemed to relax at her answer, so she went back to picking items while she waited for him to say something. Another disc like the ones she’d already made for Geria was first, to test the three-rune merge. A staff for testing the sequencing, and another copy of her personal absorption armor, due to the increasing threat of player combat with people well beyond her own level. A few other items joined them on her list before Don spoke again.

“Well, talking about Geria, I’m not really concerned about a girlfriend’s hot girlfriend.”

Deyana’s hands froze, and she fixed him with an unimpressed look. “I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that, and you’re not going to say it again.”

He shrugged. “So, expectations?”

“Hm.” She was back to work, lining up the items in order of priority and starting the process of coming up with ideas for each. “Now, these are just my personal– well, plus the legal and ethical, of course– and you can change some of them, or different rules depending on what we’re each comfortable with…”

A glance over at him didn’t do anything but confirm he was listening, so she continued, “I’m particularly low-requirement, in some ways. I need honesty about your interactions with other people, preferably beforehand but as soon as possible after is okay too. If you’re planning on a medium or long-term relationship with someone, I want to meet them. And if you feel like ending it…” another pause, letting memory sweep through her for a moment. “Just tell me, instead of letting it drag on past where we enjoy it. Which isn’t to say I prefer you give up easy, just that you recognize if we won’t get past something.”

He seemed to think on that for a moment, his eyes narrowing and an eyebrow going up. “I… think I remember someone saying that ‘rules’ aren’t how it’s supposed to be done.”

Deyana rolled her eyes. “Bull-shit. Call it what you need to make sure it’s not a power game, but as long as they’re discussed and agreed upon beforehand they’re functionally identical. It’s easy to admit the difference matters if you’ve got a bunch of extra boundaries and some of them might move or have different responses when pushed, but in my case those are the ones I’d just break up with you for and that I don’t have any reason to think would change. So, functionally, rules.”

He nodded slowly, watching her start work on the first item. “I guess… Then… I don’t want you dating like, twenty people.”

“I’ve never dated more than four, and I don’t think I could keep up with eight. At least, to a level I’m comfortable with.”

“Don’t just treat me like an online boyfriend and never talk about anything meaningful. I know we haven’t met IRL, but I wouldn’t want it to stay that way.”

“Easy enough to agree to,” Deyana said. “Not that I’m going to immediately push conversations in that direction, just won’t stay too far away from it without reasons.”

Don tapped his fingers against the table absentmindedly. “I’m not sure I’m comfortable with you dating other guys.”

Deyana sighed. “Not something I’d agree to. I can tell you that I tend to like girls more, but it’s much more likely to be reciprocal with guys. Ultimately, agreeing to that is just putting me in a position where I might eventually have to choose, and I don’t like that at all.”

“You know what?” Don said. “Fair enough. So… If I find out you’re fucking everyone else you date before you do me, I’m going to be… moderately disappointed?”

Deyana just laughed.