Magic Madness™️

Chapter Twenty One: Mock

Word Count: 4,077

The next morning, Eli got up first (for once) and went back to his room for his backpack and to make sure Penny was still there. Alex woke up a few minutes later and grabbed his own backpack, ready to leave.
"Good morning, boys," Mentrias greeted, startling Eli and Alex, who hadn't even heard him approach.
"Oh, uh, good morning," Alex said with an awkward wave.
"You boys look...eager to leave," Mentrias said, expression falling flat.
"Well, we really need to get back to our friends so we figured-"
"Leaving so soon?" Mentrias asked solemnly, "Won't you join us for breakfast, before you go? We wouldn't have you adventuring on an empty stomach."

The conversations that Alex and Eli had with their eyes was the easiest tell that they were old friends. There are universal looks for 'are you sure?' and 'help me' and other simple things like that, but good friends have a whole other plane of communication. Especially these good friends.
'Should we?'
'I think we should book it.'
'But dude he's probably just trying to be nice!'
'No.'

'I'm gonna do it.'
'Don't you dare-'
"Breakfast sounds great," Alex smiled at Mentrias, who smiled back (though his smile looked more like a sneer). It took all of Elijah's self control to not facepalm (even though it was Alex's face that he kind of wanted to hit).
"Lovely to hear. We'll have it ready in a half of an hour. I will be at the entrance to the dining hall to let you in."

"I'm just saying, if he did want to kill us, he probably would have done it by now. I don't see any reason not to trust him. Besides his name," Alex shrugged as they walked along the white marble pathways around the lake.
"His name?" Eli asked, raising an eyebrow.
"His name. Mentrias. If you switch the r and the i, you get 'mentiras' which means 'lies' in Spanish," Alex explained, "But I don't think that really matters."
Elijah stopped in his tracks, flailed his arms around, dragged his hands down his face, and took a deeeeeeeep breath to keep from screaming.
"Alejandro. If there is one thing I've learned from this game so far, it's that everything has meaning. Everything. You can't just ignore stuff like that. I told you this guy was suspicious. I told you something was off. And you knew his name practically translated to lies, but you still didn't believe me. I swear, Alex, one of these days, I'm gonna throttle you," Eli said, doing his very best not to raise his voice.
"You two need to be quieter!"
"AAAAAGH."
"What did I just say?!" They whispered.
"What is up with people just sneaking up on us here? I didn't even hear your footsteps. Who are you?" Alex whispered back.
"Come with me," they said instead of answering, quickly walking further down the path toward some willow trees. They climbed one of the trees into the taller branches until they could no longer be seen. Elijah and Alejandro followed.
"My name is Mercutio," they said, taking the hood of their cloak off.
"What is up with all the Shakespeare characters in this game?" Alex asked.
"What is up with you knowing Shakespeare characters?" Eli retorted.
"Who is Shakespeare?" Mercutio asked, the only one genuinely confused of the three.
"It doesn't matter. Who are you?" Alex said.
"I already said, I'm Mercutio. But if you meant to ask why I'm here, I'll tell you: I was made to be an NPC, a non-player character, but I wandered off from my village and got lost in the forest. I wanted to see what else this game had. I wanted to know what it was like to be a player. So when Mentrias came up to me and offered me a place to stay, I thought it was a necessary part of the game and I said yes. He took me in. I only meant to stay here a day, but he kept offering me things and each thing would keep me here just a little while longer and before I knew it, I had been here for weeks. Months, maybe. So every player that comes in here, I let them know what's going on. I wanted a purpose as a character, so this is it. I'm here to tell you to get out of here as soon as possible, and no matter what you do, don't tell Mentrias you're leaving," Mercutio explained, pushing their large, round glasses up their nose.
"Okay...so we just...leave? Like just walk away?" Alex asked.
"Essentially, yes. Leave while Mentrias prepares the next thing for you. It's almost breakfast time now, so you two should go. But when you're done, meet me back here. Don't touch anything you're not supposed to when you're in there," Mercutio said.
"Why not?" Alex raised an eyebrow.
"Because nothing here is what it looks like. It looks nice so you'll want to stay here, but it's all an illusion. And if you break the illusion, Mentrias won't even act nice anymore. He won't disguise that he's keeping you here, he'll straight up chain you guys to the walls. So be careful," Mercutio warned.
"Jeez. Um. Okay," Alex said.
"So we'll find you right here? In this tree?" Elijah confirmed.
"Precicely," Mercutio nodded.
"Okay. And how do you- How should we-" Elijah fumbled, gesturing vaguely to Mercutio.
"If you're about to ask if I'm a girl or boy, I'm a mystery and I will present myself how I please. You know, you humans are quite rude. You ask too many questions. Now it's high time you went and got your breakfast, so good morrow, well met, and I will see you back here soon," Mercutio said curtly. Alex and Eli took that as their cue to leave.