Lancelot had just taken a bite of the best chicken he'd ever tasted—not that he'd tasted chicken much in his life, well this life—when the front door rang.
"Must be Dred.Be right back."
Sure enough, he returned just moments later with Dred trailing behind.
Lancelot laughed in sympathy."You look as miserable as I did when I showed up.Everything okay?"
"Rain flooded out some of the lower level homes, and took out an entire day's worth of harvested mushrooms.Tried to retrieve all I could, so we wouldn't be punished too severely."They shrugged.
Lancelot held out his glass of wine, which Dred took gratefully and drank faster than was probably intended for wine.Then again, Lancelot knew fuck all about wine, only what he'd gleaned about it from various games and other media.
"Up the stairs, turn right, second door on the right.Everything you need will be waiting for you.Come back down when you're ready.Dinner will be waiting.Now we just need Morgan to get home."Merlin sighed."Hopefully she doesn't work all night to slither out of agreeing to play.If so, I really don't know how the fuck we're going to get her."
Dred grinned."If Morgan did anything the easy way, you wouldn't like her nearly as much."
Merlin grinned as he fetched a third wine glass that he filled for Lancelot before refilling the one Dred held."Get on with you, before you get any more water and mud on my floors."
Snickering, Dred lifted the glass of wine in the air as they walked off.Just seconds after their departure, a cleaning robot came out of its nook in the hallway and set to work cleaning up the mess left behind.
Lancelot returned to his meal, eating it in slow, savoring bites, no matter how badly he wanted to wolf it all down like it might escape if he didn't.Merlin was just dishing up seconds for him when Dred returned, long hair still slightly damp, coiled and pinned up out of the way.They slid into the seat on the opposite side of Lance, clapping their hands as a plate near-overflowing with food was set in front of them."So when is your stepsister slash lover showing up?"
"Shut up.Soon, hopefully.I—" Merlin stopped and looked at his wrist, which was flashing with a soft red light."Shit, that's her.Our house emergency line."He touched his wrist, and then his ear, spinning away and walking off, his voice sharp and urgent as it went out of hearing range.
"You think they got her?"
"Possibly," Dred said grimly."We still don't know if they can recognize us in the day to day.Given we look more or less as we did back then, we have to assume they'd know us on sight the same way we'd know them.So maybe one of Maleagant's lackeys saw us when we were snooping earlier."Dred ate their food faster, clearing the plate in little to no time, and had gathered up all the dirty dishes just as Merlin returned."So what's up?"
"She can't leave work.She asked them to show her how to play because 'her brother begged her to, and she wanted to have some knowledge beforehand,' and now they won't let her leave the game.She was barely able to get a message to me, and part of it was cut off, so they found out what she was doing and cut the link.We need to get in there."
Lancelot pushed away from the bar and stood, heading immediately for the stairs, the others right behind him.
"She's going to be so pissed we had to come to her rescue," Dred said.
Merlin just grunted in agreement before overtaking the lead at the top of the stairs and taking them into the gaming room, where four full rigs were ready to go.Lancelot settled into the one he'd used before, shifting around to get comfortable as it closed up and the life support system kicked into gear.Normally such a hardcore arrangement wouldn't be necessary, but given that Maleagant seemed capable of trapping them for as long as he damned well pleased…best to be prepared.
As if echoing his thoughts, Dred said, "What happens if the house loses power?"
"Generators in the basement, no outside access, and I changed the code, so I'm the only one with access to the room.Even the government would have to really work at it to get access."
Dred nodded and slid into his own unit, the hiss of the door closing the last thing Lancelot heard before his own sealed off completely and communication switched over to coms.
The equipment settled into place, and it only took a touch of his fingertip to log in.
Moments later, they were standing in front of a small house, a ramshackle cabin that also had a shed and a rickety stable with room enough for two horses."Where are we?"
"I bought a house.It makes a better spawn point than any of the general ones.Plus, we're already halfway to Camelot from here."
"Is that where we're headed today?"Dred asked.
Merlin shook his head and pulled up a map."No, if they took Morgan but didn't kill her, then they want her for something."
"She is the Witch of the Shadows," Lancelot said."You'll not find a more powerful witch anywhere, and only you and Guinevere come close."Maleagant, powerful as he was, used supplementary power, most often stolen from other people.Morgan had never needed anyone but herself.Combined with her lover and best friend?
Of course Maleagant had been forced to dangerously overreach to win.
"Makes me wonder why they haven't done it already.They managed to take Galehaut, and so thoroughly he didn't recognize his own beloved when fighting against him.So why haven't they already got Morgan too?"
Lancelot flinched.
