** Chapter 3 **

Even with Lady Whisper’s confusing departure, Lord Vincint still had some unfinished business for the assembled guild leaders to discuss. He wished that he could've called the meeting to an end immediately after Whisper left, but the question of Whisper’s quest could probably wait until the next day when she logged on.

Lord Vincint warmly bid each member of the council good bye and a good night, while politely turning down a few offers of a port back to the city from the mages present at the council meeting. He thanked them and just mentioned that he had his griffon to get him back.

“Oh, that must be really nice! I’ve never flown before, what is it like?” Lady Celeste asked as she started to prepare her teleport spell to take her home for the evening.

“Very fun and worth every gold piece that I spent! I highly recommend that you get yourself one my Lady.” Lord Vincint said with a smile as he walked toward the tent's exit.

Stepping outside of the tent and inhaling a breath of fresh air, Lord Vincint tiredly made his way to the stables so that he could ride his griffon to get back to his palace back in the capital.

He felt mildly amused to see the guard’s eyes grow to the size of saucers at the sight of him walking towards the stables. He was not amused in the slightest when he discovered his griffon missing from it's stable.

“Where in the hell did my griffon go?!?!” Lord Vincint growled, his expression fierce with rage and confusion.

“My Lord…please forgive me,” said the trembling guard. “I watched you leave upon its back and head towards the capital a mere forty minutes ago.”

Thinking furiously, Lord Vincint reached a troubling conclusion.

“Whisper.”

**

Okay, It is 9:15 PM and time to get down to business here. The business is sneaking and sneaking is good! I crack myself up sometimes.

Okay, I should have at least 45 minutes before my parent’s TV show ends. It is times like this that I am glad that they don’t like using the DVR for their shows. They like to claim that skipping the commercials or recording and watching a show later isn’t as good. I think that it is just because my Mom doesn’t want to figure out the remote and my Dad keeps messing up with the commercial skip. The first few weeks that we got the DVR all I heard from my Mom was, “John! You skipped forward too far! Rewind!” or “Hey! I wanted to watch that commercial. Ooohhh, nice sale prices there!”.

“Oh! I better turn off the lights in here. Maybe my parents won’t notice me playing when they come upstairs.” I say after just getting comfy in my chair.

“Okay, lights off, headphones on. Super stealth powers, engage! Whisper, you have the con.” I mock order myself just before I add my cool spaceship sound effect noise.

“Zzzzzhhhhiiiiippppp!”

That’s my cool sound effect. Sorry, I didn’t have time to hunt for some .wav sound effect file to use for you all. I had to wing it. Feel free to come up with a better sound effect.

I feel so alive right now. This is really getting to be exciting. Okay, I better concentrate now. Whisper is getting close to the border and I really need to pay attention. I put on my headphones and focus on guiding my character through the magical mine field.

**

Whisper noted the faint glowing red line that represented a basic enemy detection and warning ward located just inside the border of Seremis’s kingdom. She frowned and carefully scanned the area to make sure there wasn’t anyone watching her.

Whisper’s thief’s mask was more than just a way to hide the reflection of her face. It closely resembled one of those porcelain play masks that some people liked to hang on their walls for decoration. Unlike those highly decorated and glossy masks, her mask was matte black with amber tinted lenses covering the eyes. The lenses were what really made her mask unique among thief’s masks. The lenses not only helped to protect her eyes, but they also gave her a magically enhanced sight. With this sight, she could see perfectly in the dark and most importantly, it enabled her to see magic and spells as lines that looked like ropes or strings depending on how powerful the magic was. Most magical spells that guarded doors and locks looked more like string or even fishing line. They didn’t have the power that a fire ball spell would need. The wards used to guard doors and chests were very low powered, but they often acted as the trigger for the much more powerful spells that mages liked to use to punish anyone foolish enough to try and open the object that they warded.

Just being able to see the magic wasn’t enough of an edge. She also needed a way to manipulate the magical lines. That is where her magical thief’s tools and thief’s gloves came into play. The tools were for the fine traps hidden in locks, while the gloves enabled her to touch and manipulate the larger magical lines used in protection circles and area wards.

Simply stepping over a warding line would alert whoever was watching the ward that someone had just entered the area, how many and from where they had entered. A detachment of soldiers could then be dispatched to the area to apprehend the trespasser.

Whisper couldn’t have that. She quickly double checked the lines that represented the ward to make sure there wasn’t some hidden trap. Then, she carefully reached under the ward line and lifted it up a few feet as she fluidly passed under the ward. Carefully, she placed the ward line back on the ground and continued on her way. From start to finish, it took her less than thirty seconds to pass the first obstacle on her way to Seramis’s stronghold located fifteen miles in the distance.

Wrapped in shadows and using the night as her shield, Whisper was effectively invisible as she raced to get closer to the stronghold. Her quick and graceful stride ate up the miles until she spotted a second and more powerful ward at the halfway point thirty minutes later. The magic of the ward pulsed with an angry purple color. Whisper could only guess what this one would do if someone foolishly tripped over it. It probably wouldn’t be pleasant. Again, she carefully double checked the simple looking ward for any hidden tricks before she repeated the process that she had used to bypass the first ward. Unlike the first ward, this one hummed and vibrated with angry potential as she lifted the line to quickly pass under it.

Once she had ran half a mile past the second ward, Whisper found darker shadow to hide herself while Brian removed his headphones and pushed himself away from his desk.

It’s almost 10pm now. I think that if I brushed my teeth and said goodnight to my Mom and Dad, I might be able to sneak another 20 or 30 minutes of play time tonight. That should allow me to get Whisper to a good hiding spot for tomorrow. It would really suck if I go through all this trouble just to have Whisper get caught due to the dumb AI doing something wrong while I am at school!

**

After walking his character back to the command tent, Jim activated his world map and stared at it while ideas and connections started to percolate in the back of his mind. The time spent lost in thought allowed him to calm down and almost see the humor in the situation. What Whisper had done took some real skill and daring. He could hardly wait to hear all the lost griffon jokes that were bound to soon become very popular. Jim idly noted that his wife had come home from work when he heard the garage door open and close.

It must be after midnight. Oh yeah, Julie got the late baby delivery shift today. She has got to be beat.

Returning to the game problem, Jim noted the following facts on a notepad:

1. Quest specified Whisper.

2. Whisper is a highly skilled thief.

3. Whisper indicated that the quest was a theft of some kind.

4. Whisper exited game in a panic.

5. Blamed Real Life issues.

6. Approximately ten minutes later, my griffon was stolen.

7. Thief assumed to be Whisper.

Jim was mulling over those points when Julie entered his office.

“Honey, it’s late. We should go to bed and ummm..sleep.” He heard his wife whisper in his ear as she nibbled on his ear lobe seductively. Breathing in her delicate floral scent, he turned to look at his wife. Jim noted that she was wearing a new Victoria Secret’s outfit. Not much was left to be a secret, but what was a secret, sure was captivating.

“Um, yes Jewels, I do believe you are right. We should ummmm…sleep.” Jim said with a kiss as he quickly disconnected from GEO. His game problem was quickly forgotten as his wife made sure that he found his way to their bedroom.

**

The AI that controlled Lord Vincint in Jim's absence from the world, noticed the sound of a griffon’s wings passing from the west and over the command tent on its way to the stables. Lord Vincint rushed to the stables to see if it was his griffon. After verifying that it was his griffon, the AI noticed that the griffon needed to be fed, so it grabbed some rabbits from the stable’s stores. It ended up taking ten rabbits to sate the griffon’s hunger. The AI made a note of the amount taken from the stables stores.

Once the griffon was fed, Lord Vincint double checked the griffon’s flying harness. Finding it sound, he walked his griffon out of the stable, mounted it and directed for it to fly him to his keep near the capital.

**

Whisper looked up at the shear walls of Seramis’s stronghold. She had managed to dodge two human patrols and was lucky to spot the magical energies of a roving magical sentry eye before its operator spotted her. It was essentially a magic floating eyeball that a security mage remotely operated. The eye would’ve spelled the end of the road for most intruders. It was actively invisible and perfectly silent. Whisper wasn’t really able to see the eye, but with her mask, she could see the magical lines and knots that made up the spell the eye represented.

Most sentry eyes could see invisible and had perfect night vision. Some eyes could even see into the infra-red spectrum, but those were pretty rare since the first two vision modes could see most threats. Since Whisper wasn’t really invisible in the traditional sense, she wasn’t worried about the invisibility detection. The perfect night vision was the hardest for Whisper to defeat. Her form of invisibility depended upon the shadows and dark to hide her. Since she spotted the eye before it spotted her, she was able to avoid it by casting her low level illusionist’s spell to make her look like a nearby object. Crouching down, her form briefly shimmered as it took on the appearance of a large sized piece of broken rock that might have been discarded during the stronghold’s construction.

Hardly daring to breath, Whisper waited an extra minute after the eye passed her position and around the next corner before she allowed her minor illusion to fade. Standing up, she quickly approached the portion of the stronghold’s outer wall that had the most shadows. She efficiently slipped on her climbing claws over her thief’s gloves and boots before she quickly and silently made her way up the way by exploiting every tiny crack, mortar seam and surface imperfection that only a master thief could even hope to exploit.

Pausing at the top, she remained hidden in the shadows as she noted the fixed and roving guard positions. She then tossed a small pebble behind the nearest fixed guard and used his momentary distraction to smoothly blend into the next shadow behind the guard. Even though the interior was well lit with torches, it was easier to move from shadow to shadow on the inside of the wall. The torches that were used liberally to light the stronghold’s interior flickered and cast moving shadows all on their own.

The torches also helped to destroy the guard’s night vision. One more “moving shadow” in the night was easy for a guard to ignore. Suddenly, she heard someone talking nearby as Brian froze in a panic.

“I’ll be to bed in a minute dear.” I hear my Mom say from outside my door.

Oh crap! It’s 10:20PM. I only needed another five or ten minutes to find a good hiding spot for Whisper.

“I’m just going to brush my teeth, then I think that I will tuck in my lovable and sleeping son for old time’s sake.” I hear my Mom mock yell to my Dad.

Crap! She knows. I was so close! I wonder how long it will take her to brush her teeth? If she does it the way that she expects my sister and I to brush our teeth, then I might have two minutes.

Crap. Crap. Crap. This sucks! Oh well, if she busts me, then she will certainly take away my GEO privileges for a week or more!

I quickly look around with Whisper and spot a dark stairway that leads down to somewhere. I point Whisper to that spot and log out from GEO. I can hear my Mom making loud gargling noises from the bathroom just as I am jumping under the covers of my bed.

I’m pretty good at pretending to sleep, but I am still a little surprised when my Mom peeks into my room and whispers, “Night Brian, don’t try that again please.”

Sigh.

“Yes, Mom.” I whisper back then add in some brownie points with a “Thank you and I love you.” thrown in for good measure.

Arrrgg! This is so frustrating. I can’t believe that this is happening to me! It’s going to take me forever to fall asleep tonight.

**

Jim woke up to the sound of a shrilling electronic alarm clock at 6am. He quickly turned off the alarm so that Julie could sleep some more. Then, he snuggled up to her and simply held her for a few more minutes. Gently, he disengaged himself from her as she mumbled and whined as her sleep was disturbed from having her husband’s warm snuggly body leave her. Slipping out of the warm bed, he sighed and muttered, “I have got to stop playing that game so much…”, as he tiredly yawned on his way to take his morning shower.

The steaming water slowly brought Jim back into the land of the living and as his thoughts began to quicken he started to go back over the events from last night. Sudden fear stabbed into his gut as he remembered exactly what Whisper had said about the quest.

“…to go steal some object from some highly guarded tower somewhere...", was what she said the quest was asking for her to do. Then, she stole his griffon and flew to the capital.

What if she was going to steal the Font of Light from the capital? It sort of fit the description. The Font of Light was technically in a tower. It has been over six hours since she disappeared. The Font could be gone already! After all, it wouldn't be the first time that she had snuck past all the guards and protections for an unsupervised visit to the Font room. Jim had to login and check before it was too late! If the Font was still there, then it was his duty to beef up security and limit the risk where possible.

He quickly toweled himself off, pulled on his boxers and made his way to his office to login to GEO.

Entering the world, Lord Vincint was surprised to find himself back at his modest keep located just south of the Alliance capital. He didn't want to do it, but to keep the Font safe and make things hard on Whisper, he reluctantly entered the guild officer command to remove her from the guild. Worse case, they will both share good laugh over his paranoia as he re-instates her into the guild. Sighing, he then entered the following guild notification message that every guild member would see when they first logged into their character:

“Troubling circumstances have forced me to temporally remove Lady Whisper from the guild. A warrant for her arrest has been issued as she is wanted for questioning by the Guild Council. If anyone has information that they feel may help, please contact me or a guild officer immediately.”

Lord Vincint followed that notification up with a “call” to the Colonel in command of the guards for the Font of Light.

“Good Morning Lord Vincint, how may I be of assistance?” The AI controlled Colonel respectfully asked.

“Good Morning Colonel. Is the Font still safe?”

“I have not been alerted otherwise my Lord. Is there something amiss?” The Colonel said with a hint of humor.

“The master thief, Lady Whisper, has gone missing and is also presumed to have gone rogue. Until further notice, I want you to place everyone on high alert and double the guards around the Font.”

“Certainly, My Lord. What should we do if we spot Lady Whisper?” The Colonel asked, concerned.

Lord Vincint felt the weight of command on his shoulders. He had a duty to protect the Alliance from all enemies, even ones that he liked and respected immensely. “If you or your men see her, then she is to be considered an agent of Evil and no effort spared to capture her.”

“Yes My Lord. It shall be as you command.” The Colonel said with parade ground crispness. He paused for a moment in thought. “Should I alert the Constable of Lady Whisper’s wanted status?”

Lord Vincint smiled at the Colonel. “Please do so and thank you for reminding me about that little detail. I’m a little fuzzy here still. I need my coffee to really start thinking in the morning.”

The Colonel smiled with sympathy. “Of course, My Lord. Is there anything else I may do to be of assistance to you this coffee-less morning?”

“I don’t think so, but thanks.”

Next, Lord Vincint sent communications to the other leaders of the Guild Council informing them of his fears and actions taken to help protect the Font of Light.

Saddened, yet relieved to feel somewhat back in control of the situation, Jim shut down his PC and started to get ready for another busy day navigating the clogged legal system. He never thought to check with the camp guards to get their report about his griffon’s return. Nor did he think to ask the stable master about the condition of his griffon after it returned to the camp stables.

If he had, then he might have decided that the Font of Light was the least of his concerns.