Draconia Offline vol. 1

9.1. I Can Do Magic IRL! - Part 1

"Come on, breathe, Ryuu," Erik is comforting me and lets me rest on his chest. My wings are trembling, mirroring my jarred emotions. Celestial wings are extremely sensitive according to the ingame lore and it seems they'll be super sensitive even here.

I'm with you, he adds in his thoughts.

I hug him even tighter and try to adjust my erratic breathing to match his calm breath. I do believe him but at the same time I can't help it—all I feel right now is dread. My two videos went viral and now my real identity is out as well which means that literally the whole world knows me. I imagine lots of people would be ecstatic about such a thing happening to them but there's nothing worse for a hiding telepath than crazy public attention.

"Does he have a history of panic attacks?" Dr Stein asks, worried.

"Maybe?" Erik answers, uncertain. He did experience my panic attack once before when my telepathy was revealed to him.

I always panic when people might find out, I explain to him in my thoughts.

That's understandable, don't feel ashamed, he gently pets my shivering wings.

"Anyone would be panicking if that happened to them," Ingri points at the 3D projection which is still showing my photo next to the commentator."

Soft knocking at the door.

"Miss Richter," Hana warily peeks inside. "I'm sorry to bother you but the EU representative is calling again."

"Time for work," Liana sighs and gets up. Slowly, with evident effort.

"You should rest," Dr Stein advises her.

"But I can't, can I?" she shakes her head. "Unless we want the government to storm my place."

I feel a surge of gratefulness towards my reliable viceroy. It's only thanks to her that I'm not locked in some lab and being experimented on. My panic gets better a little when I realise I shouldn't be that focused on myself. We're in it together, it's happening to all Draconia's players.

"Can we do anything to at least ease your burden?" Fefnir asks.

"Sure," she nods. "We need to establish a network for all transforming players where we can share information and cooperate. Right now all that matters is to survive the ordeal but we have to prepare for what comes next. Well, I have to go to take that call."

She leaves while Dr Stein stays. She makes me nervous and thinking about our future doesn't help much. I bet my friends had quite some time to ponder what happens when we all transform while I was passed out but I didn't have the chance to give it much thought yet. One thing is certain, though: Nothing is going to be the same.

"Better now?" Erik kisses me when he makes sure I'm breathing normally again.

"Y-yeah," I say. "It was a shock but I feel safe with you."

"The government needs information, it's understandable," Dr Stein shrugs, walks across the room and sits on our bed. I feel that Liana trusts her but she still makes me anxious. Is it simply because of her occupation—my phobia of doctors? Or intuition?

"But locking high-levels against their will is horrible," Erik frowns.

"What would you do in their situation?" she purses her lips. "As a doctor, I understand them perfectly. Imagine there's a mysterious disease and people are panicking. You have to start the research immediately and do whatever is necessary to uncover it."

"Are you implying Ryuu is acting selfishly hiding from them?" Erik gets angry.

"I'm saying his case could tell us a lot about this phenomenon," she answers calmly but I feel she's aggravated inside.