The Lightning Mage

48 | The Midwest Misadventures, Part II

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Sin-Ni rested her head on her hand as she stared out of the ice cream shop.

Three more months had passed. They had been a lot less grueling than the previous three months by herself, and it was all because of Joe, Elliot, and Seth. Sure, they had been using her to complete quests they would have never taken up otherwise, as well as hoarding the lion's share of the rewards. But she had been living a lot more comfortably while traveling with them, so she did not mind.

Her free hand rested on her abdomen subconsciously. Soon, she would be in Boston. Soon, she would join the Dawn Avengers, and ask the powerful mages there about opening up a portal. And then soon, she would be back home.

As her drowsy eyes trailed along the road outside the window, she caught sight of a sign on the cafe opposite her. She jerked up.

The sign read, 'Voted best hot chocolate in Wisconsin!'

Wait a minute...

She spun her head around. The three idiots were grabbing a large bowl of ice cream, arguing over who would be getting the first scoop.

"Joe."

Joe did not even bother lifting his head. "Sup?"

"Why are we still in Wisconsin?"

The three questers stopped their bickering. Joe's face was unreadable, Elliot's head was averted, but Seth's expression gave it all away.

Anger welled up inside her. Had they been lying to her this whole time? Had they been tricking her, making her travel around the same place, earning money for them, for three entire months?

"I trusted you, Joe..."

"Listen, Sydney," Joe said, "Wisconsin is a very, very big state, so it takes a while—"

"I've seen the map. It's not that big compared to other states."

"Okay, okay, let me explain. H- Have you heard about the Mercator projection? So because Earth is round, the map we see actually makes places near the ends of the world look a lot smaller than it actually is. So, Wisconsin is like, actually a lot bigger than it looks like on the map, it- it's actually the biggest state in America..."

Sin-Ni did not know much about this country, but even she knew that that was untrue.

"Don't lie to me anymore," she muttered. "I'm sorry, but I'm leaving the team tomorrow."

With that, she left the ice cream shop and hurried back to the motel.

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Sin-Ni woke up to loud thuds on the door.

Heaving herself up, she squinted at the window. Streaks of golden rays seeped through the shades, casting spotlights on her bed, flickering every so often as if a group of people was running across the corridor.

She frowned. The three questers she had abandoned at the ice cream store would never bang on her door like that.

"Is there a Sydney Yen in the room?" a low voice bellowed from outside.

That did not sound friendly at all.

Sensing danger, Sin-Ni grabbed her backpack and crept towards the door. She peered into the peephole. There were about a dozen men outside her motel room. At first glance, they appeared to be normal, but she had had enough experience with law enforcement to recognize the hand-sized Nerf-gun-looking blasters holstered at their waist. Those were the standard weapons the cops had in this world. Instead of bullets, those things shot out tiny balls of fire.