Chapter Text
With nothing left to discover there, Luke went out of the underground, back to the magik tower. After stocking up on a bit more foils, he discovered the three sigils necessary to unlock the next battle on the cards of the training dummy.
Turns out the next student was as disturbing as the rest, a head on a pike. On top of molten lava, because that wasn’t painful enough apparently. Luke briefly wondered why these students would even want to suffer so much just to be turned into a card, which in his opinion wasn’t a very good outcome. Especially after having seen the scribes being turned into cards themselves, they had seemed quite eager to go back to normal.
Whatever, it was just fiction anyways, no logic to find there.
As the spears and swords around the room had suggested, most of the enemies were mage knights. The battle wasn’t too hard, certainly nothing when compared to the one against grimora.
With one last feeling of pity towards his opponent which was reconsidering being a chump blocker, Luke moved up to the next floor. Three pieces of paper were set around the room. As he was about to approach them he heard his phone ring. He glanced at the screen annoyed, and sighed while pausing the game seeing that it was Joy. It was rare for his sister to call him, meaning it should be something important.
He answered the phone, taking a deep breath to clear his head and he prepared to have a conversation.
« Hey there Luke? Am I bothering you? » he heard her ask.
« Nope. » he answered « Not at all. Wasn’t doing anything important…. »
« That’s good, I thought you might already have gone to sleep since it is already pretty late » she muttered.
At this Luke checked on the small clock on the bottom of his computer, his eyes struggling to focus on it. Had he been watching his screen for that long? All of this to find out that it indeed was already around one in the morning.
Joy continued talking, voice muted as it came out of the phone: « Anyway you haven’t called me in a few days, while you usually call me whenever you feel bored during the day asking me to talk to you cause you’re so bad at conversation….. »
And he had gone home by, like, 19:30. Did that mean that he had spent 5 hours there already? That was unusual for him. Maybe not others, but he had never really played video games before, it was easier to watch a playthrough while doing something else. Multitasking helped him be less restless, not knowing what to do with either his brain or hands.
« ….. you really should be asleep by now though, especially since I know you enjoy waking up early in the morning. Not that cookie’s meowing at sunrise leaves you with any choice …. » she continued
Now that he thought about it, his head hurt quite a bit his eyes as well. They were watery, tears forming at corner. Oh wow, it really was time for him to stop for today. As he closed his computer, letting his eyes rest in the darkness, he noticed the background noise that had accompanied most of his thought stop.
« Anyway. Luke. » Joy sais, tone of voice a bit more serious.
Hearing his name finished pulling him out of his mind, as he focused on what his sister was saying again, hoping he hadn’t missed anything important.
« I’m finally getting a break in a week. » she said, satisfaction evident in her voice « I was thinking of visiting you, for at least one week. We haven’t spent time together in so long. So how does that sound? »
To his surprise, Luke wasn’t as excited by the thought of seeing Joy again as he had thought he would. Sure it sounded great, but there was part of him that was slightly afraid at the thought of needing to change his schedule. Having less time to spare.
However although he knew that Joy was and would make it sound as if she was doing this for him, he knew she really wanted to come. She just enjoyed people owing her. And there was no denying the fact that it would also make him happy to see her after a few months.
« That would be great jo! You’ll send me the details of exactly when you come later so I can prepare a room for you, ok? » he exclaimed, maybe trying a bit too hard to sound as excited as his tired mind allowed him.
« Yup! » she chirped « also if you know some good trails nearby, we could go for a day long walk, things like that! »
Now that was something to look forward to. Walking was much nicer with someone you know to share it with. That wasn’t a chance he often got. Thankfully he had, long ago, managed to make his sister enjoy hiking.
« Don’t worry » he replied « I’ll plan things for us, just don’t bring too much work with you, you know I’m allergic to it. Plus, you’re here to rest and enjoy. »
« Yeah, yeah, don’t worry. » she reassured him, « I’m planning to properly rest for once, I’ve been working way too much even by my standards. Anyway I gotta go, I’ll text you later! »
Luke barely had the time to say bye before she hung up. He was left staring at the dark screen of his computer in front of him, visible in the pale light emitted by his phone. He repressed a yawn and decided, despite his curiosity, to leave the game here for today. It won’t be gone tomorrow evening, he could wait.
—————————————
Reginald was yawning, he had gotten up at 6 in the morning in order to drive all the way to Garcia’s house. She had accepted to let him sleep at the house for a few days, after all they knew each other quite well, having been Kaycee’s best friend during her years working at gamefuna.
And it would grant him access to Kaycee’s stuff. After all that was where the location of the game should be hidden. In a card pack, inconspicuous. No one would care for the disappearance of cards from an already dead game.
…….
After arriving and warmly greeting Garcia, she showed him the room he would be using for the next few days, leaving him to settle. Using this occasion he went to what had been Kaycee's bedroom, finding the small box she used for the cards. This should be where the card packs for inscryption should have been hidden. It was weird though, the place seemed emptier, things clearly having been moved around. As he opened the box, he stared in shock at the lack of anything that greeted him. It was completely empty.
Reginald looked around the room some more, but couldn’t find anything. Actually, most of the junk that Kaycee had stored - he knew she never could bear to throw away anything - wasn’t there anymore. Now that he thought about it, he should have expected this. It had already been a long time after all, and Garcia had surely thrown away or sold the small stuff to make some room, or make it easier to clean. Maybe both.
He dejectedly returned to his room to unpack, realizing that things were about to get harder than he had thought. Now the question was - how the hell was he going to find that damn floppy disk.
He either could dig aimlessly in the forest which he wasn’t even sure was legal - but who cared about that, right? - or he could try and find the card pack which by now was either destroyed or opened by its lucky new owner.
And he certainly wasn’t going to ask Garcia the very subtle and delicate question of - what had she done to her daughter’s stuff. How the hell was he going to be able to bring that subject subtly?