ALEXiThymiA: Chapter 29: Two By Three Completion

Chapter 29

Two By Three Completion

In all Alexa was only able to complete the battle of Mythandor three times. Each time when asked to choose a race, Alexa chose the same race. “Human.”

The trials it seemed were designed to force a race into servitude, forcing the trial candidate to fight with one of two races. Then at the end give them the chance to choose which of the races present should gain the gift of Prophecy. It was misleading, as in it almost wanted you to choose any race but your own. Basically, the further you went, the more power you gave either the orcs or elves over your own race, and more importantly the more power you gave them over you.

By running the same dungeon three times in a row, she broke the geas, a mythical contract, that the elves were able to invoke due to so many people blindly assuming an outcome.

Then after the third time through she stopped her progress, by going to the regular dungeon. Had she been part of the real Trials of Ascension, or been following the script laid out before her, she would have gone onto stage three of the Trials. But all she was met with was the normal challenge of the Tier II dungeon she entered. A dungeon she spent time memorizing the routes, key puzzles of, and most importantly the types of monsters that could be summoned.

She ran through that Tier II dungeon twice, before calling it a night. It was now Sunday, and she would soon have to get ready for classes, and the new students that would be coming in. Students that she was determined to make sure would not be subject to the same hazing that she was almost forced to endure.

On her docket, Alexa had only scheduled one Date Consultation over this weekend. Her rationale for this was that it wasn’t a date consultation, but rather someone purchasing the repeat offender service.

Despite the initial meeting, Alexa found herself oddly looking forward to this meeting. At least that is what Alexa considered the event to be when her mind would wander to a specific person multiple times throughout a weekend. Normally, she was able to think about a person, then dismiss them once she had thought about them and their relevance to her. This person however seemed more.

That or that is what Alexa had come to under moments of clarity between trial resets. In this person she had found what she thought could be a kindred spirit. Not someone that she could have a romantic relationship with, but someone she would be able to relate to. At least she would be able to relate to her during moments of clarity.

Her first alarm was originally set to go off an hour before the meeting. But Alexa found herself leaving the Tier II dungeon early. Not that running the dungeon was hard, but she found that the closer to time she got, the more distracted she became.

Granted Alexa’s idea of distracted and other’s definition would likely be far distinct. For Alexa she was able to focus her enhanced mind to complete any task before her. But then, found herself immediately thinking of her DCR, Date Consultation Redo more and more.

So finally, she left.

She made sure to keep a stash of ten crystals for readmission fees.

As she left, there was a big commotion about her leaving the dungeon so late. It turns out, it was a good thing she did leave so early, for even with leaving an hour before her alarm time, she was still almost late. The gate guards had been given her description and to alert everyone when she was next spotted. These were of course the night shift and had only been given a note to call a number. The person at the end of that number did not answer, so finally after making a log of the event, the number of calls made, they let Alexa go.

Alexa used the quick spray off from the showers, but that only got some of the blood and viscera that had clung to Alexa’s body over the past few days. While the dungeon used magic to summon monsters, the monsters they summoned and controlled were real. At least from every test people had been able to perform on them.

That was why a quick pre-soak was important for Alexa and her gear, as it gave her a chance to get prepared on time.

“Oh, my gods, you are back?” Alexa’s roommate said, as she jumped to her feet. “You look like you came from filming a horror movie. Are you okay?”

Alexa stopped and turned to smile at her roommate. Alexa had learned that most people who only cared about the story, asked what happened first. But the people that were truly nice, they asked how you were doing first. Alexa made it a point to identify those people and befriend them. Well befriend them as much as she could.

“I am quite well, thank you for your concern.” Alexa said, making sure to give a bow. As if it was the most natural thing in the world to suddenly wield knightly manners, while covered in torn clothing and bloody rags.

“Did you get abducted?”

“No, I went through a…” Alexa paused; she did not want to bind herself to the next stage of the Trials of Ascension so soon. “A dungeon.”

“Yeah, I heard. You caused some type of big commotion, all but calling forth the bogeyman, or something like that.”

Alexa nodded.

“That’s what happens when we allow fear to guide us. We let things become superstitions and give them power over us.”

Ding-ding-dong.

Alexa’s chime went off letting her know she had only an hour to get ready. Normally this would be more than enough time, but Alexa realized it would likely take all that time just to get the blood and viscera out of her hair.

“If you excuse me, I have a prior engagement.”

“Your date thingies?”

“Yes.” At that, her roommate looked conflicted.

Alexa was about to question her about it, but then decided it was best to leave it alone.

***

Since the first consultation had gone so well, Alexa agreed to meet with Gina on campus. Letting her drive to the intended location, without letting the time to or from campus count against their date. This was perfect, as Gina decided tonight would be extra special.

Badump, badump.

Gina’s heartbeat wildly, and for the first time in forever Gina let the emotions overtake her. This was a rather freeing feeling, letting her emotions finally be allowed to be expressed without needing to take medications to calm her heart. Or for fear that her heart would suddenly begin to break down.

Gina had heard the rumors, that Alexa had committed suicide. That she had spoken about the taboo subject and then immediately entered the dungeon. Just hearing that, made Gina smile.

That was a page out of her own playbook after all. At least that is what Gina thought about the way Alexa had called her out. Stating that she could have collapsed or worse had they gone out dancing. They of course did go out dancing, and it was amazing. But that was only after Alexa had healed her heart.

Throughout the week, she had to go to three separate specialists to have her own thoughts confirmed. Her mother was the first to believe and be excited.

Even her father called to congratulate her.

This had truly been the best week of her life.

But a faint trickle of fear filled her mind, as she waited. She knew Alexa liked to be punctual. Which was why Gina was flustered now, waiting for her date to come.

Knock, knock.

The sound was so sudden that Gina nearly jumped out of her seatbelt. Then clasped her chest.

Badump, badump.

Instinctively she thought about her pills, but then after a second paused as she realized she didn’t need a pill. Not for this, hopefully never again.

She looked to the passenger side door to see Alexa. Well, a wet haired Alexa, who still looked stunning despite having clearly come from a shower.

Click.

Ba-chunk.

The door opened and closed quickly as a angel just appeared in the passenger seat. No notice, just the slight ruffling of wind, as she teleported. There was no other word for it, she just teleported into the cab. One second outside, then the next inside.

In fact, had it not been for the sound of the door opening and closing she was fairly certain that’s what her overactive imagination would have come up with to describe what just happened.

“Sorry I’m late. It took me longer to get ready than I planned.”

“Oh, no that’s quite alright. I wasn’t waiting long.”

“You don’t need to lie. I apologize. As such, if you would like we could extend this consultation to be even longer if wanted.”

“What? Well then sure, yeah. I totally waited for a year and a day for this. But let’s see, maybe we just meet halfway?” Gina pressed.

Alexa gave a gentle smile.

Again, it looked so casual on her beautiful face that sometimes it was hard not to remember she couldn’t feel any emotions.

“Let’s try thirty minutes and see where we are after that.” Alexa said.

“Deal, I can do a lot in thirty minutes.” Gina said.

Alexa herself nodded in agreement. Remember how her second run through she managed to kill over one hundred orcs and elves at one time. It was also that run that Alexa realized the orcs had their own magical schools. A school she spent the entire third run learning, as she only focused on killing off the orcs.

This was where the immersion for the dungeon sort of ended for Alexa. The idea was that despite how many orcs she killed, the elves still had to fall back. Meaning that each victory caused you to take a half step back towards the Tower of Prophecy. Then finally once you met the orc shaman and defeated them before they could gain control over the tower, you were once again given the choice of which race to choose.

Every time she chose humanity, and every time that choice was accepted.

“Everything okay?” Gina asked.

Alexa shook her head to realize they were already driving. “Sorry I am just distracted.”

“Does that happen often?”

Alexa paused. “Normally I would say no, but I have found that I have become increasingly more distracted recently.”

“Anything a problem?”

“No, no problems. But I do know the cause.”

“Oh, what is it?”

“You.”

“Me?” Gina asked. Momentarily losing focus on driving, until the thump, thump, thump, of her tire hitting the sleeping line jarred her back to driving.

“Yes. I have done some thinking.”

“So, you are going for that honeymoon option?” Gina asked.

Alexa smiled.

“No, I think this should be our last Date Consultation.” Alexa said.

Badump, badump, badump.

Gina’s heart was beating quickly too quickly, and she felt the world spinning around her.

Jerking the wheel.

Powerful hands gripped the wheel from the passenger seat and started steering.

“Pull over.” Alexa said, her voice commanding enough to snap Gina out of the fact that she almost had them both killed.

Gina of course did as Alexa demanded, pulling the car over on the side of the road. The emergency flashers were going, apparently Alexa had turned those on at some point. Alexa then put the car in park.

Tears.

Gina didn’t want to cry, she just felt so many emotions going on.

“Take a moment to calm down. I don’t know what is going wrong.” Alexa said.

She was close, so close from having gained control over the steering wheel to now being right over top of her. From this distance, she could see her ice blue eyes staring at Gina.

“What did I do wrong?” Gina asked. That was the only thing she could ask. She didn’t think she was that annoying. Lord knew she was forceful, and that she was strong willed, but that was okay, right? Surely, she would understand, she had to. So why was she doing this.

“Nothing.” Alexa said, as her eyes scanned Gina’s face. Then recognition filled her features. “Sorry, I now see the confusion.”

“You do?” Gina asked, because she sure as heck couldn’t understand what was going on.

“Again, I’ve been distracted recently. But no, I don’t want to go on Date Consultations with you, as I don’t think you should have to pay for us to hang out anymore.” Alexa said, reclining back in her seat, so she was no longer inches away from Gina’s face.

“What?”

“I think I would like to be friends with you, and it is my understanding that friends do not have to pay to be in each other’s vicinity.”

Silence.

The words took a second for Gina to fully comprehend, but then she replied, the only way she knew how.

“Wait, so you’re saying I finally got my unlimited free pass? Cha’ching baby!” Gina said, excitedly as she made a fist pump.

Gina looked like she was about to say something more when she was cut off.

Gurgle.

Alexa’s stomach rumbled. “Though I was still hoping we could continue this meeting for its intended purposes. I am rather hungry after all.”

“No, yeah. That is, yeah.” Gina said, flustered. Then she took a moment to gather herself. Just as she was about to turn back onto the road to drive, Alexa asked.

“Are you sure you’re okay to drive?”

Gina looked like she was going to say something, but then bit back her comment. “Yeah, not my finest piece of driving there.”

VROOM!

Gina’s V8 hemi powered sports car purred to life as it came to life and easily allowed their vehicle to merge into traffic.

Once they were on the road, a sudden thought came to Gina’s mind. One that she instantly acted upon, by talking to the vehicle’s monitoring program.

“Siri, make a note to buy Crypto-tickets.”

“Making note to buy Crypto-tickets.”

After few moments Gina turned to see that Alexa was just staring at the eccentric girl who clearly didn’t need the money.

“Go on say it?”

“You know crypto-tickets are effectively a math tax on people who are bad at numbers, right?” She asked.

Gina just smiled. “Normally I am right there with you, but this is clearly my lucky week. I’m going to run this baby for all it's got.”

Alexa just raised an eyebrow at the comment, but otherwise went back to staring out her window.

Gina on the other hand, felt truly free.