No Longer a Game

Chapter 14- The Vote and Just Friends

The four friends sat around a triangle table in the dining area of the Leaky Cup the next morning. Rain and Ahira had given them the details of the Shadow Thieves offer the night before and they decided to wait for Christie to make a decision on whether to take the offer or not.

"What do we know about vampires in the game? We have to assume they will be like that now since everything in the game has been real." Jason said.

"I thought we were going to wait for Christie?" Natalie said as she sipped s hot drink of some type of tea.

"We will but let's talk about it just in case." Jason told her.

"Well I vote no." Natalie added quickly.

Rain looked at her with disgust. They slept in the same room the previous night and did not say a word to one another. Natalie actually slept very little since she was truly afraid the half elf would kill her in her sleep.

"We are not voting yet." Rain told her. "But the majority rules so you are going to have to man up if we vote to take the offer and stop being so afraid."

Natalie turned to the other girl, 'Your fucking right I'm scared! Look what happened to Derrick; this is not some stupid game you are playing with dice and rule books. There are no rules here and its fucking vampires, you stupid bitch!"

Rain was about to reply when Ahira placed one of his large hands on her shoulder. "Natalie's right. It's not a game and all too real." He turned to the elf girl, "We are all scared, Natalie. But I would vote yes. It's our best chance we have to help us get home."

"Ok...ok...no voting yet. Lets' wait for Christie. She should be back soon." Jason told them. "But in the mean time we can discuss it. So again what do we know about vampires over her. Weaknesses first."

"Well they are not like vampires in our myths. A wooden stake in the heart is not the only way to kill them. Fire is the best way. Takes a magical weapon of plus three or higher to hurt them...I assume we are good on that since all our weapons are pretty well enchanted. Jason, you have a Holy Avenger so that would kill them easy." Lou started. "Let's see...holy symbols will not kill them but stun them for a moment and keep them away...but strong holy symbols not the trinkets we have...one like Christie has."

"Good, what else?"

"Well to actually kill it yes a wooden stake will do it but also chopping off its head. We can fight them and cut them up and in the game if they got zero hit points then they seem dead but aren't and will regenerate health and come back to life, but that takes a sever minutes. So like if I stab one in the heart and it goes down I need to chop its head off so it will truly die." Rain added.

"Good and as a paladin I got some spells to help against undead also and if Christie gets her powers back...well she is a high level priestess and can do a lot of damage against them. Now strengths."

"Well if they bite you it won't turn you into one of them so that's good. They normally fight with whatever powers they had before they were turned. Like a mage vampire will keep his or her spells, a warrior vampire will use his weapons and keep those skills and so on." Ahira told them. "They are not like in our world's myths...super-fast. They will have some speed boosts but it's more a short burst than maintained speed. They can charm you if they look into your eyes...cept for Natalie and Christie. Them being elves are immune to any charm spells or fear spells so that's a plus for us. But let's not underestimate them...they are still powerful and..."

"Underestimate who?" Christie asked as she walked to the table.

"Christie!" Natalie called out and gave the drow a cheerful smile.

Christie gave Natalie a curious look and then threw a large coin purse on the table. "That's five thousand gold that should be of some help to us." Everyone stared at the bag in disbelief.

"Where did you get that?" Rain and Jason asked at the same time.

"Did the priestesses give it to you?" Natalie asked

"Who did you kill?" Ahira asked and chuckled.

Christie smiled, pulled up a chair, and sat down next to Rain and saw Natalie frown at her choice if seats.

"No I sold my mace. Could have gotten more for it but did not want to haggle."

"Your mace! Why?" Rain asked. "You need that."

Christie grinned and leaned back and moved her cloak to reveal the hilt of her new sword. "Not anymore. The priestesses did not give me gold but they did give me a song sword and it's more enchanted than the mace."

"Sweet." Lou said.

"So what are we talking about?" She asked.

"Vampires." Natalie told her and rolled her eyes.

Ahira filled her in on the Shadow Thieves and their offer. "I vote yes." Christie said.

"Without even listening to everything?" Natalie asked in a worried voice.

"I just want go home." Christie told her, "Plus I can get us some help I am sure."

"Help? From who?" Jason asked.

"Sinafey...she is the high priestess at the temple. I...no we...we had all better go if we ask her for this kind of help."

"Do you think she will?" Rain asked. "That would be a huge help."

"I am pretty sure she will. Its part of Eilistraee's ethos...help people in need specially a drow and a fellow follower of the Dark Maiden. Plus if it's against evil undead I am sure she will."

"Ok then lets vote and we go with Christie and ask this Sinafey for help." Jason said.

"I vote yes." Rain told them.

"Yes." Lou nodded.

"I am a yes." Jason smiled.

"Me too...yes." The dwarf said.

"And I said yes." Christie reminded them.

"I vote no." Natalie said quietly. "They are fucking vampires!" She added when everyone looked at her.

"Well you are out voted so we go. You can stay behind if you want." Rain told her.

"Fuck you, Rain!" Natalie told her and stood up from the table and quickly walked up the stairs and to her room.

"What was that?" Christie asked.

Ahira rolled his eyes, "Just some drama you missed. Apparently Rain threatened to kill Natalie yesterday and Natalie responded by threatening to roast Rain alive and Rain told her go ahead and let them take her to Spellhold and we would leave her there. Just an everyday thing lately." The dwarf chuckled.

Christie smiled and stood up, "I'll go check on her. Oh I got something else as well." She tossed a small coin purse in front of each person. "That's two hundred gold for each of us to spend how we want. I agree with Natalie on one thing...I am tired of these shithole inns and saw some very nice one's in the promenade."

"You have changed, Rain." Jason told the half elf after Christie left.

"How so?"

"You are more...assertive and well...violent." Jason chuckled.

Rain shrugged, "Must be the rogue personality of my character. But honestly I like it...not the violence thing...I mean I would never kill or hurt Natalie...at least I think I won't." She grinned wide, "But Of course she does not know that."

The boys laughed at Rain.

"But yeah over all I like this new assertiveness and stuff. I wish I was more like this in our world and not such a push over."

Christie found Natalie sitting on the bed crying in her hands. The elf girl looked up at the drow with tears in her eyes.

"So...you...we are really doing this?" Natalie asked.

Christie sat down next to her, "We have to, Natalie, if we want to get home."

"There has to be another way? One that does not get us killed."

Christie shook her head, "What? You come up with another way to get enough gold for supplies then we do it."

"The gold from your mace...that's a lot we could make do with that." Natalie said firmly.

"No, it's not enough...hell we don't even know where this portal is. It could be on the other side of the world for all we know. We need supplies, horses, maybe a wagon to carry the supplies, gold for bribes so we can get into the more restricted areas of the library to find the portal maybe, and other things. On my way back when I sold the mace I went into other shops and did some pricing...things are not cheap. And...and I did not get my healing powers back so we are going to need healing potions...lots of them I suspect...and they are costly."

Natalie looked into the drow's face, "You...you did not get your powers back?"

Christie shook her head, "No."

The elf gave the drow a half smile, "You will...I am sure of it. I think when you really need to use them you will...you will see."

Christie chuckled, "Sinafey, the high priestess, said almost the same thing...Eilistraee will grant me the powers in a time when I really need them...when there seems no hope, but I am not too sure."

The drow put her arm around Natalie, "Natalie, I know things are not the same for us...me and you...and I...I am sorry about the thing with Rain...I really am. I...I just hope when we get back home we can...well...be back to normal between us."

Natalie slowly stood up and gave Christie a sad smile, "No...I am sorry, Christie, but they won't be. It's not the Rain thing...hell look what I did...I am to blame also. I was so mad at you and blamed you for me being here. I know it's not your fault...I always knew but I wanted someone to blame and you were the easy target. Maybe I drove you to have sex with Rain...I don't know...maybe I am glad you did because it gave me an excuse to break up with you. You...you are a sweet person, Christie, and I am not. I cheated on you way before we came to this world...I don't know why I did it...I don't know why I do most of the terrible things I do...well I know why, but I just...I just can't stop it. I know they are wrong but I do them anyway."

Natalie sat down on the other bed, "You deserve someone who is not as fucked up as me. Someone better...when we get back home I am leaving school. Going home for a while."

Christie felt pain in her heart but she was not one to beg and her drow personality made her angry at Natalie's words but she took a deep breath and calmed herself down.

"I...I understand. We...well let's just put everything that happened her behind us and at least be friends and get along until we get home. Once back home then...well...we'll just do what we have to and go our separate ways."

Natalie nodded, "Yes...I want to be friends again. I do miss that."

Christie nodded and stood up, "Natalie, if you don't want to go with us when we fight the vampires you don't have to. Rain was right, you can stay behind."

The elf shook her head, "No...I...I don't want to go but...I will. It's just that I...I am scared and y'all talked about it so casually like you were playing the game and it's not real. It is real and it's scary...this whole place is scary. But...but I will go. I can't not go...I mean...well...I don't know; I would just not feel right about not going and it's about time I doing something right in my life. I have done so many terrible wrongs and I need to do this...I don't think we should go but if we are then I am going also."

Christie took off her sword belt and laid it on the bed, "I am scared also, Natalie. We all are. But that offer of thirty thousand gold will be more than enough for the supplies we need. And we will need you...your spells."

"My spells? But we can't use them...me or Lou would end up in that mage prison."

"Well from what Sinafey told me and from that this Linvall guy told Rain, there are places warded against the Cowled Wizards and I would assume these vampires would do the same."

Natalie nodded, "Oh." She gave Christie a smile, "Can...can I see your new sword? I can feel the magic off of it from here."

Christie laughed. In the rule book for the game in the chapter of character classes it gave details about each class and under the mage section it read that mages had a strong curiosity for magical items and she figured Natalie's elf mage traits were making her curious about her blade. Christie drew the sword and it gave a low, soft humming sound like a song.

"It sings." Natalie said in astonishment.

Christie smiled, "It is a song sword." She held the sword out to Natalie hilt first. "Go ahead you can hold it."

Natalie took the sword and as soon as she did the blade stopped humming and her arm dropped down due to the weight of the weapon.

"It's so heavy."

Christie smiled, "Not to me. It's very light to me. It's...well I guess you could say attuned to me like your mage staff is to you. Only priestesses of Eilistraee can use song swords. It's like Jason's sword. He has a Holy Avenger sword that only paladins can use. To anyone else it's just a sword and the enchantments won't work for anyone but a paladin. Same with this sword."

Natalie grinned, "Oh like Excalibur and King Arthur."

Christie laughed, "Kind of...but we don't get to be kings or queens."

"Yeah...a shame. If we did we would not have to stay in dumps like this."

"Oh that reminds me...I almost forgot. Pack you stuff. We are moving. I already payed for two nights in an inn a lot better than this one. I got each of the boys a room but they did not have enough rooms for all of us to have a room to ourselves so I got me, you, and Rain a suite. It has three bedrooms in it. Oh and there is a spa in the inn...it's more like a resort...so you can have your spa day today."

"CHIRISTIE!" Natalie shouted out and jumped in the drow's arms and hugged her tight.

"Oh thank you." She said and kissed the other girl's cheek. "I get to be all clean and smell good when we get killed by the vampires at least." She added with a grin. "If Rain does not kill me first."

Christie laughed, "You won't get killed or hurt...I promise. I will look out for you."