Orc Wars 2 : Lazarus

Chapter 4 - Rose

Rose peeked at Jace over the rim of her glass. He was lost in his thoughts, brows furrowed, an intense expression on his face. She glanced worriedly at Ash, Jace's best friend and confident. The blond teenager smiled at her.

"He is just working on something. No need to worry."

"What is it? Tell me."

Ash broke eye contact, reaching for his own drink. Rose's hazel eyes narrowed dangerously. He was stalling.

She cleared her throat nosily.

Jace blinked and looked up, coming coming out of his reverie. He gave her one of his trade mark half smiles, "It's nothing."

She scowled at them both. "What's nothing? I know you two are keeping something from me. Don't make me stalk you online. I will if you don't tell me," she threatened.

The two boys kept quiet. Ash took his cue from Jace, if Jace was not saying anything, neither was he.

"Fine, don't say I didn't warn you." She got up to leave. Jace caught her wrist and actually held on. That was enough to surprise her into speechlessness. He never touched anyone if he could help it. That made her worry even more.

"Please, Rose. Don't be angry. I ..." Jace faltered. He didn't want to tell her about Lazarus and make her worry, but at the same time he did not want to lie to her.

"Jace, you know you can tell me, right?"

He released her hand and mumbled, "It's nothing serious. Just the Game." He forced a smile, tilting his head he compromised, "Laz has gotten himself into a sticky situation. That's all. I'll get him out. No problem."

"Oh," she sat back down forgiving him instantly. "Too bad Simtrixx took over the rest of our avatars or I will be able to help you. Its not fair that they allow only the five of you to continue in virtual. I was so close to being in the top five." She sighed. "It was so much fun," she said, reminiscing.

"Well, we all knew that everything belongs to them, even our creations. They did warn us when we signed up for Season One."

"I know, but it still feels unfair. Only seventeen of us survived, Simtrixx controls twelve, including mine and signed the top five of you to continue in their game development."

Jace gave her a crooked smile. "And since it's not a competition anymore, we keep re-spawning at our 'graves' when we have the misfortune to die. I haven't died again yet but I've lost count of how many Silhouette look-a-likes I've encountered."

She glared at him and poked him in his chest. "If it was really me, you wouldn't have the chance to re-spawn, especially if you have kissed any of them," she threatened him.

He held up his hands in mock surrender, "I wouldn't dare!" He tried to look innocent but his green eyes were twinkling mischievously.

Rose's face softened. She knew he wouldn't, his irrational fear of being touched by anyone would prevent that more than anything she could say. It extended even to his virtual self. It made that one kiss last season even sweeter, she sighed. At least he could still joke about it.

"Hey, no worries okay? I couldn't even if I wanted to. Actually, Simtrixx has revised several things in the Game, since it's not competition mode. One being that the other twelve Ghost Lords (winners of Season One) has been turned into quest giving NPCs. They couldn't impersonate the real players' personalities with their own people and the fans were hating on it. No more Silhouettes, okay?"

"Okay," Rose smiled warmly at Jace's worried face. He was so sweet sometimes. "I know. I just wished I could help you in whatever. At least you guys are getting paid."

"Yeah, we sure are." Ash joined in the conversation, now that it was on a safer topic. "But I'm not sure how they calculate it. It's different for everything we do, less when I go in and just chill, more if I actually fight a Boss or actively complete a quest. I think they have a scale of some sort."

"Basically we just have to be online a minimum numbers of hours per day and 'protect the Orb from misuse' but really we are just hanging around."

"There are so many people playing the Game now, it keeps us busy. My chatbox and messages are crazy. I am seriously popular," Ash winked.

"I miss it sometimes."

Ash laughed. "You can always buy the game and make a new character."

"Very funny, like I have the money to spend on an expensive game like that."

Even as she protested, the idea was planted in her head. She had to find out what was going on in there. The two boys were not giving anything away. She would speak to Isis, the Priestess was one of the five Gate Keepers and would know what was going on.

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Rose paced her room wearing out the pink carpet. She was on her phone with Vera, also known as Isis the Priestess in Orc Wars. Rose had managed to catch her on her lunch break.

"It's that bad? Why didn't he tell me?"

"Yes it's bad and will probably get worse if we don't find a solution soon. I spend half my time in there collecting and buying the ingredients for his special brew. Making it takes time too."

"So, basically what you are saying is that Lazarus is dying?"

'Well ... it's not dying in the real sense. If he died he would just re-spawn in his City now. The real issue is that the poison is affecting his Health. It's causing him unnecessary virtual pain and interferes with his fighting. His Health regeneration is slowing down although he has maxed out that Research, so he will need more time to heal when he gets hit. It will become riskier for him to face any confrontation as his condition worsens."

"That is nothing I can do except infused him with the occasional Healer's Light and make his potion. I have tried everything else I can think of. I'm still researching the nasty orc knife. If he doesn't do something soon ..." she left her sentence hanging, letting Rose come to the obvious conclusion.

"There must be a cure or Simtrixx would not have let Varbuk use it."

"What did you find in your research?"

"The Illaru is a special poison of unknown origin. Some kind of serpent or flower I think, definitely not insect. I can't find any reference of it in the official web page or any quest to get an antidote. Herbs are useless against it, other animal poisons only slow it down temporarily. I'm still experimenting."

"That's not good."

"I'm sorry Rose, I am trying, I really am but it's not looking too good right now."

"I know. The five of you are immortal right? He can't die. He will just re-spawn."

"Yes and no. Yes we are immortal to 'protect' the Orbs and change our Trials every so often to keep it interesting but ... If it gets any worse, he will be in too much pain to do anything. Just logging in for the compulsory virtual hours to get paid is going to be a pain, literally ... but the money is good. If it comes to that, even I wouldn't want to play anymore."

Wouldn't want to play anymore. Those words cut into her. She knew what the Game meant to Jace. It was his life, his source of income, fun and excitement but most importantly it was his escape. From what exactly she didn't know.

"Okay, thanks. I won't keep you from your lunch. I will try to think of something."

"Anytime, if you find anything, let me know."

"I will."

She hung up the phone and flopped onto her bed. So that's what Jace was keeping from her. Lazarus was in trouble, serious trouble.