Double-Blind: A Modern LITRPG

Chapter 313

I told myself that it was fine. Miles wasn't going to take down Azure in the middle of West Village. This time of day, there was guaranteed to be hundreds of people around. Less than there would have been pre-dome, but more than enough to ensure things stayed on the civil side of hostile.

But the timing was bad. If Miles and friends stuffed Azure into the back of a van, the effort and ingenuity required to simply make the swap back would take up the rest of the day.

And I'd only accomplished a fifth of what I intended to do.

Think.

"You've taken control of me before. Can you let me do the same?"

Azure grunted negative. "So many jokes to be made, so little time. With the maxed out bond it's theoretically possible. But I only just now worked out how to contact you over long distances. We could try—"

"No, nix that." I spoke aloud, standing up to close Miles' bedroom door. This wasn't the time to trial something untested. If there were issues, anything akin to glitching or an imperfect depiction of body language, Miles would catch it. He was already angry and his guard was up. "You're used to communicating with images, manifesting metaphors. Can you relay how he looks and what he's saying to me in real time?"

"Close to real time," Azure confirmed. "That'd be a hell of a lot easier than the alternative."

And now, the definitive question. "Can you do it while providing context for anything that happened after the tower?"

"How much time do we have?"

"Thirty seconds, give or take."

"Short run down of your movements."

"I took a long detour-filled drive here—"

"Specifics, Azure. Could it be explained away as avoiding traffic or a certain part of town?"

"... No." Azure said, then amended, "Some of it. But I went further up the highway than I needed to, missed my exit. Not something you would naturally do."

I swore internally. "Okay, fine. Then what?"

"I stopped by a Sports Bar—"

"—Which one?"

"Don't remember the name, but it had a dark metal fence and a patio. Ate wings and fries at an outside table, in clear sight the whole time. Washed my hands, came back out, and went shopping at the outlets."

"What did you buy—"

"Matt, we're out of time." Azure's voice grew garbled as a desaturated image of Miles appeared in my vision. At first, I thought my summon was wrong. Miles didn't strike me as overtly angry. But still waters run deep, and there was enough of an edge to his apparent serenity that I was willing to trust Azure's judgment over my knee-jerk impression.

"Miles." I said, keeping my tone neutral but guarded.

"Matt." Miles bore a sharp smile, dropping it a second later and walking past me. "You know, it's tough to describe you. Even harder now. Calculated, kind, monstrous, all perfectly fitting depending on the day and the face you've chosen to wear for it. But this is the first time you've ever come across as... how do I say it?" He snapped his fingers. "Ah, right. Puerile. Immature."

The accusation immediately got my blood up. Exactly what he wanted, so I played into it.

Slow flush, starting at my neck, rising into my cheeks. I conveyed the directions to Azure, making sure to tag them differently than anything spoken aloud, so there was no risk of mistranslation.

"Kind of a fucked up thing to say, considering the circumstances."

"Is it?" Miles raised an eyebrow, kept his hands in his pockets as he turned back to face me. "Because, gravity of the situation aside, you seem to be enjoying yourself. Pretty sure I told you to go straight home. Yet here you are, without a care in the world, dining and shopping after dragging my guys all over the interstate."

"Your—Miles. You had me tailed?" I laced the accusation with irony and an undercurrent of monotone.

Miles stuck a finger in my face, placidity gone in a second, rage burning beneath it. "Don't. Don't fuck with me."

Backwards step. Sarcastic fear.

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

"Come on Dad, don't make a scene."

His hand moved quickly, smoothly averting course at the last second as he hooked his thumb in his belt. But I'd seen him draw too many times to mistake the movement for anything but what it was.

Look away.

"You were clear before. Tyler didn't give us a lot of time. Once we start making our way through the tower, it'll be awhile before we have a chance to come back to the real world. And there's... a genuine possibility I may not make it back at all. Convicts on death row get their choice of last meal. Guess I wanted mine."

He stared at me hard, empathy and disdain warring for prominence. "It's an evaluation period."

"Yeah, Miles, and if I fail, you'll send me to a farm upstate to live out my life peacefully with the rest of the animals. Heard you the first time."

Miles grimaced and looked away. "Kinda difficult to believe you're taking this so seriously, when I just watched you waltz out of a toy store and into a Victoria's Secret."

As I sent my summon the mental image of me drop-kicking his ass down an endless flight of stairs, he sent me back an explanation. It made a degree of sense, though I definitely appreciated some aspects more than others.

Open the bag, show him the toys.

"As you uh, may remember, Iris recently regained her hearing. I'm thrilled, but it's not exactly a Christmas Miracle." My summon drew out a colorful plastic piano, with resin buttons along the top in the shapes of various animals and instruments. The sort of auditory learning toy designed for infants and very young children. Even if he was acting out ideas and desires I'd already considered, part of me was touched by his thoughtfulness. "She's had some trouble tying sounds to speech and concepts, and she'll probably turn her nose up at these, but I figure if they help young kids make the same connections, they'll probably help her."

Miles was silent for a long time. "Get one with the alphabet on it?"

Azure confirmed that he had. "Yeah."

"Annoying as hell, but they help. Especially if there're developmental roadblocks, and learning to interpret sound for the first time definitely qualifies." Miles ran a hand through his hair.

"I'm not gonna show you what's in the other bag." Azure hefted the striped Victoria's Secret carrier, wiggled it. "But the same concept holds. Really want to deny some poor bastard his last meal?"

"Jesus," Miles pinched the bridge of his nose as some of his previous edge returned. "See, somehow, everything you're saying is perfectly plausible. Sentiments you'd communicate, words you'd use. There were a lot of revelations on the sheet you brought me. But nothing to explain how, exactly, you pulled The Prestige bullshit. So spill. How do I know I'm even talking to you right now?"

Shrug.

"You don't. I can go over all the details you want, but there won't be a solid way to confirm them until we're in the tower."

Miles shrugged. "Okay. Start there."

I weaved my way carefully through the truth, only lying on the fringes. "Azure's a lithid. You've already pieced together that a lot of his abilities involve psychological manipulation, but the goblin look isn't his true form."

"So he's a shapeshifter." Miles observed, like he was commenting on the weather.

"With caveats." I interjected. "The potency of his power varies depending on location. Realms of Flauros are where he's strongest. He can maintain a form for extended periods of time in any dungeon or trial."

"Or the tower." Miles nodded along, then squinted. "But when he shot you, as Myrddin, with what I can only assume was your own crossbow—as a side note, way to commit—"

"—thank you—"

"—maybe I'm getting old, forgetting details, but I'm pretty sure that didn't happen in a realm of Flauros. Or am I wrong?" He challenged.

Keep the flush going. Add a little shakiness to the hands, frustration in the face.

"I never said he couldn't do it anywhere else."

"But you gave me plenty of room to make that assumption." He gloated.

Step in.

"Keep interrupting me if you want to stay in the dark, motherfucker. The badger till they break shit isn't gonna work here. I wasn't done when you cut in, and if you'd like to hear the rest, shut the fuck up and listen." My annoyance carried through, raw and real.

Miles observed it silently. Then mimed zipping his lip.

"Azure can only maintain his altered form for minutes on the hour outside of a realm. A few hours at most, only if he hasn't completely tapped himself out."

Miles started to speak, pushed his cheeks out comically, then pointed at his mouth in a voiceless question.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

"Go ahead."

He unzipped his lip and smirked. "Yet, here we are, well within the few hours mark. Assuming you're telling the truth about durations, which frankly, would be the smartest thing to hold close to the chest. Nothing about this conversation feels inauthentic, and it's difficult to imagine your pet shapeshifter is this, goddamn, slick," He stuck his finger against my chest three times for emphasis, "at mimicking you. But who knows? Maybe you spent hours coaching him. Maybe you skipped that, and you're somewhere else, hearing everything I'm saying and reading him the script. Where would it be, I wonder? Infringed on your privacy, your life. Made things personal. Wouldn't be shocking if you tried to do the same. My house? No, you're too smart for that." He snapped his fingers and leered at me. "Figured out where the flat is, huh? You're probably in there right now, combing through my shit. Well, any thoughts? Nice space, good layout? Like the bed I fuck your mother into?"

Ah.

The spot-on accusation and layers of pressure had unsettled me, but he'd made a mistake leaning so far in. Because I got it, now. Why Miles was acting so much more unproductively confrontational than he'd been in the tower.

No matter how much he ran his mouth, he still didn't have shit. He'd guessed Azure was the key before he got here, but that was it. The script comment was a lucky guess, and he wasn't betting on it. If Miles knew for certain, he would have come straight here, caught me in the act. Instead he was gambling, pissing me off on purpose, assuming the logical conclusion—that I instructed my summon to not escalate or retaliate under any circumstances.

What I had in mind was crude. Unsophisticated.

But sometimes the simplest solutions worked best.

Cold cock the bastard.