CW: Blood, Death, Mild Profanity, Stress

So uh, this one kinda got out of hand. But there's very little exposition this time, more dialogue between characters too. Thing is, the Venn Machines don't see an actual use here, but their effects, and things they've transformed, are mentioned a lot so I'm hoping that still counts. 

Without further ado...

Chapter 3 - Saturday Part 1

Saturday, the day after everyone at the LARP has settled into character, and can finally start role-playing in earnest. All four miniature cities were bustling with miniature people doing miniature things. Merchants were hawking their wares, Taverns opened up for the breakfast rush, and Nobility prepared for the day’s court session. Event management looked after the enclosure like towering gods, and some of them entered that morning as priests to help out players and maneuver events from the inside. One of the regular Un-Venned members reached in with a covered box and put it by the orcish kingdom of Stormveil. Everyone, of course, had to pretend they couldn’t see that. Compared to the lull of the Friday evening - where event goers had been checking in after driving here from work or university - today was a hubbub of voices and faces that blurred together, and enriched the immersion of the fantasy world everyone was pretending to live in for the weekend.

“Hey Essie, I guess you were up early huh?” asked Sara, just emerging from the shower in her commoner outfit.

“Yes, I’ve actually been up for a while.” Esmerelda, dolled up in her royal dress and finery, looked up from some papers that had a rugged look, and a beige tint. “Been going over the agenda for today.”

“Oh, I must’ve missed you when I went for my shower.”

“I was out getting these papers. Which we’ll be calling parchment, by the way.” regular paper Venned into miniature parchment.

“Ah, and when they’re rolled up they’ll be called scrolls?”

“You learn fast, good job.” She smiled then returned to pouring over the parchment ”Is Enna up yet?”

“Let me check…” Sara strolled over to the retainers room and peeked inside.

“Eek!” came a high pitched voice from the room.

“Sorry!” called Sara as she quickly slammed the door closed - ahem, coughed Sara. “She’s naked and grabbing her towel to go shower now, I think.”

Esmerelda laughed “Yeah. So, want to learn more about front-lines while we wait?”

“Would I ever?!” Sara’s fox tail wagged excitedly and she practically leaped into the sofa next to Esmerelda.

Enna, covering herself with a towel and carrying her elven robes and underclothes, sheepishly sneaked from the retainers room to the bathroom and locked the door. The other girls pretended not to notice, for her sake. Esmerelda and Sara chatted about what front-lines is and how it worked, as well as the rules of engagement. By the time they were finishing up their chat, the bathroom door swung open and a much less disheveled Enna walked out, showing off her elven beauty in her white flowing robes. Her hair had gone from blue rug, to curly blue whirlpools. She had done her make-up too.

“Enna! You look like-” Sara started

”-an angel…” and Esmerelda finished.

“Aww, you girls!” the vision of elven beauty blushed, giving a glimpse of the cute and shy ‘Emma’ underneath the persona.

“Wow…you might be mistaken for an Elven princess.” Sara said, almost jealous.

“Speaking of, shall we head down for breakfast? I’m afraid the morning is going to involve politics.”

“Oh yeah... I had forgotten about food…” Enna agreed

“I’m starving, now that you mention it.” Sara patted her grumbling belly.

------

The girls walked out the room and down the stairs of the mansion. Greeting noble lords and ladies on the way down, who all bowed and curtsied for the Princess and her retinue as they walked past. They all gasped in shock at Enna’s beauty, making her very self conscious. Once they got out of the castle however, things were different. The quiet sleepy city from Friday night was gone, replaced with crowds of people of various races. Most of the people were human, Elador is the human kingdom after all, but like Enna and Sara there were some other races making up a diverse minority. Sara would’ve blended right in with her commoner outfit, but her two friends were not as inconspicuous. 

“Okay girls, especially you Sara, time to play your role as retainers.” said Esmerelda.

“How?” Asked Sara, who was holding her head - the various sounds were messing with her new fox ears.

“What do we do...?” asked Enna who, despite how nervous she was, maintained her elven grace.

“Easy, stay by my side, and make sure nobody gets too close. Think of it like… how the black suits keep paparazzi away from celebs.”

“Black suits…? Oh!”

“Um… I don’t want to get violent…” Enna fidgeted.

“Don’t worry, Sara is scary enough for both of you.” winked Essie.

“Hey!”

Enna giggled, calming down a little.

Sara was still adjusting her ears, they were quite maneuverable, twitching this way and that. However, she was still adjusting to the heightened hearing, which caused her to unconsciously clutch where her human ears used to be, as they walked down the street.

“Headache?” asked Esmerelda out of concern.

“No, no. Sorry, I’m trying to tune out the noise.” replied Sara, who finally lowered her hands from the side of her head. She hadn’t realized she was doing that.

“Ah, the sounds must be worse for you… just relax and let your ears do the work.”

“Oh yeah…my brother mentioned something like that once.”

“That’s right, the Venn Machines give you some instincts. If you just relax, your ears should work on their own. You haven’t had to focus on using your tail, have you?”

“No, I haven’t... and you’re right - I’ll try that.”

Sara took a deep breath, letting her ears do their thing. And funnily enough, it worked. The loud noises began tuning themselves out.

“Hehe, your ears are so cute when they twitch like that.” Enna muttered under her breath.

“Cute, huh?”

“You heard that?” gasped Enna.

“You practically shouted it at me.” Sara grinned

“I… was muttering… under my breath.”

“I didn’t hear what Enna said, Sara.” remarked Essie.

“Woah…super hearing, awesome!” Sara pumped her fist in a cheer.

Essie just chuckled, and Enna swore to herself to be careful with her usual mutterings from now on. The girls had finally ended up at a different tavern to the one from last night. It was a fancy establishment that wasn’t letting people in. The bouncer of the place looked over at Esmerelda and took a knee, bowing. “My lady. You and yours are free to enter.” he said in reverence. Enna and Sara followed Essie inside. “Enjoy your breakfast, ladies.”

“This is a place for nobles and their retainers. In case you were wondering.” Esmerelda explained.

“Yeah, I had heard that.” Sara had heard the Bouncer mention that when he turned away a couple of commoner types earlier.

“Scary indeed…” Muttered Enna.

“I can still hear you…” growled Sara in reply.

“Girls, please.” Esmerelda sighed, and made sure to whisper so only Enna, and Sara of course, could hear. “Retainer roles, remember? Be noble.”

“Sorry, Princess.” they both replied in hushed tones, embarrassed.

After breakfast, which was basically crumbs of normal sized food that was broken up and reshaped by tiny hands into something presentable. “Muffins”, Sara thought aloud, going from the chocolatey taste of her ‘bread’. Essie and Enna nodded in agreement, enjoying their bread-looking crumbs. Afterwards Sara used the fake in-game money - gold, silver, and copper looking plastic coins, with an engraved serial number on one side - to purchase a Merchant’s shrunken bag of cookies. Sara was happy with her haggling skills, having gotten the bag for a mere two coppers. After that, mostly due to the attention the Princess was getting, the three of them headed back to the castle to get ready for the morning Noble court.

-----

Esmerelda sat on her throne, atop the balcony overlooking the lobby of the mansion, which was filled with well dressed men and women. She was flanked by Sara on her left, and Enna on her right. They all had their weapons, just in case. A Nobleman approached the center of the lobby, which was devoid of nobles as per the etiquette, he knelt down.

“Speak, Baron Edgar.” bid Esmerelda.

“Yes, your grace.” Edgar looked up at the princess on the balcony, and she stared down at him. “I have good news to report. Our mages have successfully undone the Curse placed upon our people. We are now free to grow our crops, and are expecting a big harvest.”

“This is good news indeed, thank you Baron.” she smiled and waved her hand in dismissal.

“Of course.” he bowed his head, stood, and backed into the circle around the middle of the lobby.

The politics continued in much the same vein, much to Sara’s boredom. Enna seemed to enjoy it, however, given the mutterings only Sara could hear. There were noble lords and ladies giving various reports of curses undone, new immigrants of note - New players, rumors of the other Kingdom’s politics, etc. The most interesting to Sara was the front-line casualties report, and the escaped-assassin report that Baron Krow was currently speaking about.

“Down!” Sara shouted suddenly. Her ears twitched and she immediately pushed Esmerelda off her throne, there was a whipping sound as something missed its target overhead, then a sickening thud and gasp as it impacted something. She looked up to see where it impacted, and saw Enna with her eyes wide, and a blade sticking out her chest. “Enna!” she screamed.

Enna hadn’t heard a thing, she spotted someone in a strange mask at the back of the room to her left, she was about to tell Essie about it when suddenly she heard Sara shout something. Next thing she knew she had a dagger in her chest. It hurt, but was like a dull ache, like when you’re poked really hard, but sharper. She began feeling a little dizzy though. She held up her hand to her chest and felt something warm. She raised her hand in-front of her face in stunned shock, it was red, and wet. “Oh…” then she lost her balance and fell backwards.

Esmerelda was in the middle of talking with Baron Krow about the escaped assassin from last session, then Sara suddenly shouted and grabbed her, dragging her to the floor of the balcony. She was stunned, but knew what it meant as she saw the flash of metal fly overhead. She heard Sara scream Enna’s name, and she immediately looked over to see Enna holding her bloodied hand to her face, she had managed a simple word of shock and then fell backwards. ”…No…not her!”

Thump.

The noble court erupted into screams and chaos, retainers grabbed their weapons and chased after the assassin, while some focused on defending their charges. The assassin had cursed at her miss and started running down one of the castle-mansions hallways, her escape route planned out in advance.

“Damn it!” Sara got up, grabbing the spear off her back, and with her beast-kin speed and senses, rushed after the assassin. “Get back here you bitch!” she screamed in a blind fury, overtaking the other human retainers as she followed the scent of the assassin.

Two priests quickly rushed up the stairs, along with someone in red robes carrying a wooden box with something rolled up on their back. They crouched down next to Esmerelda, who was holding Enna in her arms and begging her to stay with her.

“Damn, it’s bad.” said Gregorius in a frantic scottish accent when he saw the growing pool of blood on the floor “Doc, can ye fix ‘er up?”

The red-robed elven man, long black hair, pale complexion, and an angular facial structure, handsome, but with a grim look and furrowed brow, spoke calculatingly. “It doesn’t seem to have hit anything vital at least, but we have to stop the bleeding before we try to remove the blade.” He was already ripping Enna’s dress off her chest, and opened his wooden box to take out a roll of antiseptic bandages. He began wrapping her chest carefully, firmly, and efficiently. He made sure to keep the knife in place, in her chest - it was too risky to remove it right now, especially if it had punctured something important. It would only make her bleed out faster.

“Hang in there Enna!” cried Esmerelda. 

“Es…sie?” whispered a pale and weak Enna.

”...I’m so, so sorry…” she buried her face in Enna’s bloody hand. “This is my fault… I shouldn’t have… why did I…”

“No…” She raised her hand to cup her friend's face. ”…Don’t blame…your…ssse-” her hand went limp and fell as she breathed out a long sigh and closed her eyes. Her body went limp in Essie’s arms.

“Enna?” gasped Esmerelda. “Enna!”

The doctor wiped his brow, and checked her breathing and pulse. “Fear not, Princess. She’s just unconscious.” He said with a small glance to the sobbing Esmerelda.

“Still…alive?” she asked between sobs.

“Yes, but we need to carefully carry her to the castle’s infirmary.” the doctor stood up. “Then I’ll try and get that dagger out.”

“Aye, don’t worry, she’ll be safe in oor care.” Gregorius, looking very concerned, along with a female priestess that Essie recognized as Greg’s wife, ‘Encelia’. Who also played the bearded, and male, ‘Enceladus’ during the Friday night entry. 

“Okay, Greg. Lets get her to the infirmary.” said Encelia, going for Enna’s legs.

The doctor pulled a roll of two sticks and a material from his back, he unfurled it beside Enna - revealing a makeshift gurney. Greg and Encelia counted down from three, and quickly but carefully moved Enna onto it. With another countdown, the doctor and Greg this time, picked up the gurney and carried Enna off.

“Are you alright, Essie dear?” asked Encelia, who stayed behind with the princess on the floor.

“I…I’m sorry, I need to…”

“It’s okay if you need to chat out of character for a moment.” nodded Encelia.

”…Emma is new to all this, and I…” she sniffled, wiping tears away from her face “I didn’t expect…or want her first LARP to go this way…”

“Oh Sally…” Encelia hugged her.

“What if…she hates this…hates me?”

“She wont. I promise. Emma seemed like a strong girl.”

“But…I…”

Encelia broke the embrace, and held Esmerelda’s shoulders firmly. “No. No ‘buts’. From what Mark told me, Emma and you seemed like good friends. As awful as it looked, she likely felt little more than a sharp poke. You know how this works, you lost an arm once.”

“And…had to get a whole ‘magic ritual’ done to grow it back.” Sally chuckled softly through her tears at the memory.

“There, see?” smiled Encelia “And on the first day of introducing Venn machines to the larp as well.”

“Yeah, it was scary but…I had my arm back at the end and…” Sally winced slightly “But Emma is different, she’s nervous and quiet…”

“And she’s only here because you are?”

”…Well…yes…”

“So, clean yourself up, and go see her. She’ll want to tell her best friend about her near death experience.” Encelia smiled warmly.

“You’re right…” Sally wiped her tears away and took a deep breath. ”…Thank you, Jane.” 

“Ah. Ah. Ah.” Encelia smirked with the tuts “back into character now, Lady Esmerelda.”

Esmerelda stood up and nodded. “Right. Thank you, Priestess.”

-----

Sara was furious, this assassin was trying to give her the run around. The mansion - no, the castle was like a maze. So many scents and sounds. Eventually the Assassin had leapt out a window and into the city, Sara didn’t even think twice about the two story fall, or how she landed without injury. This assassin, this mask wearing, elven woman, this bitch was responsible for hurting her friend.

The chase continued through the city, alleyways, boxes, a cart of cabbages knocked over while the owner fell to his knees in dismay. It was a blur, Sara was focused on only one thing and hadn’t even noticed they were halfway across the fields outside the city. That was until she caught up to the assassin, and pounced her.

Stab. Miss. Stab again. Squelch. Scream of pain. Grinning. Another stab. Parried. Swished at. A dodge backwards. Just in time.

Sara looked to her opponent. Unmasked, clutching the spear wound in her side. pointing her dagger at Sara with her other. “Damn, you’re good. I didn’t know the princess had a retainer like you left after last time.”

“You hurt Enna! You’re going to die!” Sara screamed in blind fury and charged the Elf.

Stab. Miss. Flipped behind. Crunch. Pain but armor took most of the blow. Spin the spear and stab behind. Squelch. A gasp. A thud.

Sara turned and looked down at the Elf. Impaled on her spear, right through her chest - Dead and wide-eyed. Sara growled and pulled her bloodied spear back, letting the dead body land on the grass. She stood there panting for a good minute or so, it was then the adrenaline began wearing off and she realized what she had just done. She dropped her spear on the grass, and fell to her knees, shaking and looking at her hands. “I…I just…killed…a person…” she didn’t feel well all of a sudden, and threw up.

-----

As she was blacking out Enna thought she was about to die. It felt kinda cold, numb, and very peaceful. So it was a surprise when she awoke in a strange room filled with beds and people wearing red robes attending to other people in those beds. ”…where…?”

“Enna! You’re okay!” Essie carefully wrapped her arms around Enna’s neck in an embrace.

“Oh…hey Sa- I mean, hey Essie.” Enna smiled warmly to her friend, and realized just in time that they were still in character.

Essie backed off to a chair at the bedside and sat on it. “What a relief…for a moment I thought you had…”

“Died?” chuckled Enna. “Me too, oddly peaceful you know?”

“Is it really? I’ve never died since before the Venn part of it.”

“Uhh…” Enna raised a brow. Wondering if they were allowed to speak out of character here.

Essie gave Enna a reassuring nod before explaining. “We used foam or plastic weapons, got a few bruises actually. Lost my HP and had to ‘play dead’ for ages in a field. Medics didn’t get to me in time, I ‘died’.” Essie made curling motions with her fingers as she said it “Eventually, I got up and had to come up with a new character back at the reception tent.”

”Princess Esmerelda, right?”

“At the time it was pirate Esmerelda, scourge of the 12 seas!”

“12? Really?” grinned Enna

“No…small joke.” Essie chuckled as Enna pouted. “Still only 7 seas in Faelis.”

“Oh, so that’s the world’s name.”

“Not world, Realm.”

“Right, sorry.”

Essie looked down feeling guilty. “Stop that, I should apologize to you for…” She felt a little hand grab hers before she could finish, she looked up at Enna’s smiling face - a sunbeam that made her smile back in relief.

“I’m okay. It was scary at first, but the pain wasn’t even close to what some of the kids in the ah…orphanage can do.”

“Orphanage, huh? Lovely, suits you perfectly.” grinned Essie. “Mother Enna.”

“Oh my god, Princess, please!” blushed Enna.

They both laughed, and then the elven doctor from earlier approaches holding the dagger, which until recently was lodged inside Enna’s chest. “Excuse me, my ladies.”

“Oh right, I should get going - Noble court is in chaos right now.” Essie stood and accepted the dagger from the Doctor, who bowed and took a seat next to Enna’s bed.

“Wow…you’re the one who saved me?” asked Enna, feeling very interested in this angelic looking elven specimen sitting before her.

“Yes, my lady.” he bowed his head slightly.

“Enna.” she muttered.

“Huh?” he tilted his head.

“I’m Enna, Princess Esmerelda’s retainer.” she said more firmly.

“V-very well, Miss Enna.” he smiled.

“Please…Just Enna.” she blushed.

”…Enna.” he grinned.

“Thanks…” she grinned back at him.

-----

Eventually Sara was able to stand again, she cleaned her spear on the dead assassin’s cloak. She had mostly gotten over what she had done. She knew how dying worked for Venned people, and knew the human mind inside the dead elf was still conscious. “Look at the mess you’ve made of me.” Sara closed the elf’s eyes so she won't be bored while she waits to be taken back to the Venn machine to be revived. “Rest up…” She left to return to the city and report the kill, but before she got far she heard rumbling coming from the direction of the orc settlement.

The front-line war horn sounded out from one of the regular sized management staff outside the enclosure, signaling the beginning of the battle. Sara watched as the orc army crested the sand dune in the distance and were headed her way. “Oh no…” she turned to run, but saw another army swarming over the grass towards her. “Oh Sara…well you wanted to cut loose…and Orcs don’t look human enough for me to feel bad, so...” she got her spear out and turned to face the Orcs.

Sara was feeling really confident as the Elador army caught up to her, and let her join the charge. Until something else crested the sand dune in the distance. A four legged, towering insectoid monster. It had several scythe-like claws along its vertical body, and a black chitinous exoskeleton. The human army froze in their tracks as they saw it. It drew closer and closer, backing up the rear of the orcs who took formation 50 feet away from Sara and the rest of the Elador army. 

The orcs slammed their weapons against the ground, or their shields, and chanted loudly in unison. “Today! The world of Men falls!”

Sara wasn’t so confident anymore…

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