Aya's walk out of the building was quiet as she was met with looks and stolen gnces whilst being escorted out by security.
She had no personal effects left within the building so off she went towards the exit.
It was meant to be humiliating for her but even the security men manhandled her less after finding out what she had done.
The weight off Aya's shoulders was lifted, the men escorted her to the bus stop. Then turned back to the office without a word leaving Aya aloo wait for the bus.
The girl opened her bank at, gauging how much she had to live off before the rent payment was due.
Her Gpal notification popped up
[Acc. Bal: 228 Lue]
Aya sighed, running the expenses in her head, this would be enough for the bills and food month but not enough to cover the rent of 350 Lue her aunt had hiked it up to.
She smacked her cheeks to snap herself out of further spiraling.
"Alright Aya, you know what you have to do," she said. She pulled out her phone and stared at the Moon Valley app. She looked through the different tabs, frowning at the ck of gold in her iory.
"I'm broke in the game too." She said i amusement, but the potential of her path filled her with determination. There was so much to do and see, Bloom Haven had so mas.
Her parent’s secrets.
The te afternoon bus pulled up to the bus stop with loud squeaky tires, allowing Aya to enter, she got in and made herself fortable knowing the st stop would be her destination.
With the end of her job, a lot of time had suddenly freed up, and all she o do y.
Aya opened her phone, notig the forums were still blowing up with ents about Bloom Haven. Even with the Miasma go was still inaccessible to other pyers.
"Was this area made just for me?" Aya said. Her eyes stung with tears at the thought that her mother or father created the area just for her. But how did they know she would py?
“And if others ’t get in, does that mean I ’t get out?”
Aya, during her childhood never had time to py video games of any sort, she would y on the carpeted floor of her grandmother's house watg the adverts of the test VR releases and gear.
She would stare at the s wishing and wishing she could py alongside the other kids who probably had them.
Her mother's coughs resouhrough the background when she would stay at her grandmother's. Her father was either w or at her mother's side.
It wasn't always like this.
The memories of her mother and grandmother's trips persisted in her mind until one day her mother could no longer make it from Axen to the small cottage iicks where Aya then lived with her grandmother.
The memory stung, causing Aya to grimace from the unpleasantness of it. Her mother had gotten so sick, the illness eventually taking her life. Her father stayed with her through it all and even stopped ing to see her.
"Mom, did you spend your final writing the story? I 't remember most of it but I remember the elves. I remember the Rose Manor." she said to herself, she probed her memory, trying to figure out if there was something else deep within the recesses of her mind.
"There's only one way to find out," Aya said, she puffed her cheeks full of air and blew it out in frustration.
The memory of spping Viviana popped up in her head. She ughed.
"God I've wao do that since I started w at Nue," she said.
Her mind wandered back to her mother and father.
"For all I know he could have died on his way bad Grandma never got word," Aya said in regards to her father.
Ieen years just before her mother died, the crime rate in Axen had increased drastically after the closure of several major panies. Most of the iors moved to Mericross and Evangels.
The eic situation only got worse in a detrimental feedback loop, the few pahat stayed gained unpreted amounts of power over the popuce.
"What could have happened? I just want some answers." She said.
Soon more people boarded the bus allowing Aya to listen to their idle chatter as the vehicle moved through the city. Buildings she had never seen before let her know the bus took a different route than the one in the evening.
Being shackled to her office didn't allow her to see the nicer parts of Axen, dominated by corporations though they were. Aya passed rge digital ss that hung off skyscrapers almost as big as her former office building.
‘This must be the city square,’ Aya thought.
The bus drove through, bakeries and flower shops all stamped with the logos of one of the rge five pahat owhe city. She reized the Nue Corp delivery vehicle pig something up from the bakery and cluded this must be where all standard pany lunches came from.
'Not that I ever had any of those privileges to begin with.' she thought.
Like clockwork, the people slowly departed the bus, each stopping closer to the city than she did. It was lonely on the way back to the apartment plex, with only her phoo keep her pany.
The Seelim bus stopped and Aya disembarked once more, walking towards the apartment.
She walked past two of the secretive tenants who stood huddled by the entrahey passed a baggie of somethiween them and Aya knew enough about living here not to say anything.
She muttered a greeting which was returhusiastically by one of the two then walked up toward Mars' apartment.
----------
"That was fast," Mars said inviting Aya in.
"I just wao e by and say thank you for taking me in st night," Aya said with a smile.
"I was just trying to make sure you didn't end up like Rob and Tim over there on the er." Mars joked.
"Hey, they're nice guys!" Aya protested.
"Never buy any treats from those nice guys," Mars said, making quotes with her fingers around the words nice guys.
She led Aya to the couch so the two could talk some more about Aya's day.
"How did it go?"
"About as well as you'd expect, I was escorted out of the building after I hit the president's secretary."
"You what?!"
"The only way they would let me go is if I was fired and I could only be fired if I was a dao the pany," Aya said throwing her hands up in the air.
"Won't lie I've wao do that for a very long time," Aya fessed after a moment.
Mars chuckled. Aya ughed along, knowing If it was her, Mars would have probably done much worse.
"Lucky she didn't meet me," Mars said grinning.
----------
Aya returo her apartment after a few minutes of versation, it was still the middle of the day, and Aya. She felt aimless, flopping onto her bed and looking up at the ceiling.
Usually by now, she would be delivering something to the president's office but that wouldn't be her ever again.
"My time is suddenly freed up but it doesn't feel right," she said, she pulled out her phone and searched up a few things reted to the game.
"So now the things that go the highest are pnts, food, and magic stones, I know that already but what about the really, really rare stuff," she said. She tio read through forums looking through the discussions o items.
"Quest items? Some pnts be quest items, the Everbloom was one, and those herbs too. It says here equipment also be aued off," she tio read until she was struck with the motivation to pay.
"So we're really going down this path?" she said to herself as she pulled out the VR Gear and ptop to tinue where she left off.
----------
Yvlena is once again the Bloom Forest's hiddehs. She spun around looking up at the sunlight shining through the leaves, around her pnts flourished.
The area, one barren and corrupted, now teemed with forest life. Yvlena heard the call of birds in the distahe scurrying of small forest creatures surrounded her. She looked up at the sky again.
It was almost like she could feel the sun's rays shining down oruly the effects of her hard battle against Viseli were worth it. The notifications pop up.
[Quest: plete
front the Miasma Dungeon
The Ever Bloom opened a portal to the dark energy of the miasma, you only have a limited time before the dungeon closes and the miasma tinues iing the nd.
Only by defeating the miasma dungeon the miasma be banished permaly.
As the Harvest Guardia Bloom Forest's Miasma ond for all so the nd heal.
***
Rewards
Point Travel Unlocked
New Book added to the Rose Manor Library
***
Moon Points x1500
Moon Gems x300
***
EXP x700]
[Yvlena is now Level 9]
[Bonus Quest: plete
Defeat Miasmic Guardian: Viseli, the fallen
Exp: 1250/950
***
Rewards
A Ring x1
Strom Stone (High Grade) x1
Viseli's Bracelet
***
Moon Points x2500
Moon Gems x500]
[Yvlena is now Level 10]
[Css Skill: Summon Leveled Up]
"It was worth it after all," Yvlena said with a shudder. She remembered the blind terror that choked her as she tried to flee from the Miasmic forces of the dungeon.
Wherever Viseli was now, be it in the game's code or the story's version of heaven she wished her well.
"Point Travel?" Yvlena muttered.
After looking through her rewards Yvlena turned her attention back to the temple, in the brightness of the sun she could see the stonework rown with rit life, The statues of Vaelindor and Selendriel once shrouded in darkness were now revealed to her.
Yvlena stepped closer, iing the face of Seledriel sure enough, it was the face of her mother. A face she could never fet.
"But if that's mom, who's Vaelindor based on?" Aya asked. She narrowed her eyebrows trying to decipher any clues.
"I wonder if Dad's face is on any of the statues," Yvlena said. Beside the statues was a worn brazier but the desig her know the item wasn't meant to hold fmes.
She looked into the iroer and found a tiny glowing purple ember embedded in the surface. She touched it and watched as bright purple fmes burst to life with the question.
[Return to Rose Manor]
[Yes/No]
"Oh, so it's a fast travel thing," Yvlena said. She selected the 'No' option and tinued expl the brightened area.
Yvlena stepped into the temple once again. Past the decay and viny growth to the gardeh the statue of Selendriel.
"Maybe I e bad pnt something. I still have the old locket to ask Beatrice about, and the tea house to visit," she said.
She studied the temple's decrepit form and wondered if she would be able to restore it.
"After I'm doh the Manor," she said to herself.
----------
Toug the brazier again, the same options as before present themselves to her.
[Return to Rose Manor]
[Yes/No]
This time she hits yes and like being transported into the Miasmigeon, she's pulled in by a mysterious force.
AnnouHappy New Year everyone! Christmas side story and up to chapter 37 now on Patreon