I Can't Get the Vampire Rogue to Romance Me

Chapter 24 - New Camp Feature

"Guys! You're alright!" Hagor called as they all piled through the entrance to the camp.

"Hagor!" Evangeline called, more relieved than she had ever been when playing the game. She rushed across the space and jumped into Hagor's arms, giving him a joyful hug. "You're not dead!"

"I am as surprised as you are!" he said, hugging her back solid and hard before setting her back on her feet.

Artmond approached next, grinning like a fool as he shook Hagor's hand vigorously. "Well met, sir! Well met!"

Sigismund nodded, her hands tucked into the sleeves of her robe.

Only Valerian ignored Hagor completely, spinning in place and throwing his gaze around. "Where is the phoenix?" he demanded.

"Why it..." Hagor turned to indicate it, only to pull up short himself, confused. "It was just here.

"What about the necromancer and his horde?" Sigismund added.

Hagor indicated a small pile of ash next to him. "The phoenix had done this before they... woke me up."

<And I will do it again, son of the forest,> the phoenix's voice reverberated in all of their minds. <And I will do the same for all of you.>

Strangely, even though the sound was telepathically expressed, Evangeline still got a sense of direction from the sound. Turning with the rest of her party, they noted the phoenix sitting on a log a few feet away regarding them with regal patience.

Sigismund couldn't help herself; she dropped to the ground into a kneeling position, holding her hands up in a pose of supplication before them. Artmond also knelt a second later, but he took a more lordly kneel as if before a royal personage.

Knowledge: Arcana. Failed.

Knowledge: Nature. Success.

Phoenixes were considered the noblest and most sacred of animals.

Knowledge: Religion. Success.

Some regarded them as messengers of the gods, and others as gods themselves.

"What do you mean?" Valerian demanded, crossing his arms, clearly not feeling reverent or trusting.

"<It is my destiny to travel with you and be your shield against death,>" they said.

"Resurrections. Just before we're on the brink of death, they can summon us back," Evangeline explained. It was the game's respawn system so that death wasn't permanent. Inconvenient, but not permanent, reviving the players' character companions if they fell in battle. Evangeline didn't feel like she could or should really say any of that. There was something in the way the phoenix regarded her that encouraged her to keep quiet.

"So you'll just follow us wherever we go and keep us from keeling over?" Valerian questioned harshly, then completely shifted with a wry smile. "Because I'm totally fine with that."

"There are limitations," the phoenix continued as if they hadn't been interrupted. "The request must be made by one of you, sincerely. You must truly wish for their return. My powers can only be extended to you five and those you grant access to this camp by way of the First One's decree."

"Why such a limitation?" Artmond asked with all his usual guilelessness.

"My power is not without its own limits, and I am now bound to you who have freed me from my prison. Such is the conditions of my release."

"Who is the First One?" Hagor asked.

"You are," Evangeline said. "You're the first one they resurrected back from permanent death."

"No, child of the day. You are," the phoenix corrected.

Stunned, they all stood there staring at Evangeline.

"But... this is not my sanctuary; it's Hagor's," she argued.

"It is your camp. Wherever you are, that is where I will remain."

Evangeline understood, or thought she did, what they were saying. She had one Meta point left and she knew that this was a game. She was the player character. Everything in this game revolved around her.

Suddenly, she felt small. Like she did in the real world. All the lesser feelings she had escaped in this game came slipping into this living fantasy she had been enjoying. And she genuinely had been enjoying herself, for the first time in a long while. Now she just wanted to sink into the ground and disappear beneath the heavy stares; it was like they could see the truth. That she was really a pathetic, ugly, overweight loser who had failed at life and hid that fact inside her video games. They knew the truth...

"Well, this has all been fun, but I'm beat, and I am tired of looking at all of your faces," Valerian declared, spinning in place to march off. His declaration broke the spell on them all.

"There are other conditions," the phoenix added matter-of-factly.

"Please, ignore him, Great One," Sigismund said, shooting daggers at Valerian's uncaring back.

"Each time I bring you back, it will cost me one of my feathers. If you should be so careless as to die so frequently that I use them all, I will be reborn, and my boons will go with me."

Now that surprised Evangeline. That wasn't how it was in the game.

"I also need a jewel per person that represents you. That is all," the Phoenix concluded.

That part was in the game. It was a quest actually, to find everyone's representative jewels.

"We understand, thank you, Lord Phoenix," Sigismund said, bowing her head once more. The Phoenix seemed satisfied, fluffing their feathers, then tucking their head under one of them. The act dimmed their light, returning the camp to a sleepy twilight.

"But why do they need jewels to resurrect us?" Hagor asked, shifting uncomfortably.

"Don't worry, you don't owe them anything," Evangeline assured, touching his arm. "The first one is free. But phoenixes like jewels, they make nests out of them, so whenever we find some, we should just bring them to them anyway."

"Why?" Artmond asked.

"It'll keep them happy. Now, I think I'm going to follow Valerian's example and get some sleep," she said and turned to head to her willow tree. She was exhausted.

This whole thing can't be a dream then if I'm this bone tired. You can't be exhausted in dreams, right? she thought.

To her relief, her bedroll was where she had left it. Slipping into it, she thought for a moment that she might have had trouble dropping back to sleep after the late-night attack and subsequent excitement. Yet, when she looked through the branches of her tree, she saw the soft nightglow of the phoenix, protecting them. The urge to remember something more about the phoenix tickled her again, but she had only the last Meta point, and she was about to go to sleep. It could wait until later.

# # #

She wasn't sure what woke her. No one had touched her, no one had said her name, yet she felt dragged out of a deep, dreamless abyss.

But opening her eyes, she saw the form sitting next to her.

It noticed her too.

"I need your help."

To be continued...

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