The Game Master waved cheerfully at the group, subtly staring right into Maya's eyes as the whole group stared back at him. He sent more commands to Erin, and she sat down in one fluid motion, gesturing for Dexter to join the group at the table. He bowed his head slightly, a deferential gesture, and sat at the very end of the table, setting down Ashley's character sheet and his own transparent amber dice.
What is the GM doing here? I thought that all ended! He heard this faint whisper coming from Maya's mind, pervading the calmness of the atmosphere. He immediately realized that he had forgotten to tell Maya that he could read minds, and he was blasted by the alarmed thoughts of everyone... everyone except Erin. Her mind was a blank starscape of emptiness, her brain in a state of easy control. He released his control over her and left her with a basic knowledge of what was happening right now. Her gaze turned blank for a split second, then shifted back to her normal sunny smile.
Meanwhile, however, the rest of the group was anything but calm.
Who is he, and why is he giving Maya that look? Tanya's observance was oddly disturbing, but he let that worry pass.
Why are his eyes such a weird color? At Xavier's thought, the GM realized that he had given this form bright amber eyes, the same color as the wax on his home plane. He decided to dismiss this, however, and figured that it could be a quirk, something that seemed off, something to remind Maya who he really was.
He looks like Jamie. This thought came from everyone at once, and their reactions to this were very conflicted, but in the end they all decided that it must be a coincidence. Well, everyone but Maya, that is. Maya, who already suspected his identity based on his intense stare, now confirmed the information in her mind, positive that he was the Game Master.
This was all irrelevant, however, as the game was about to start. Erin shooed them all away so she could set up the map of their current session, and Maya deliberately refused to leave, clearly seeking to talk to Erin alone.
"What is it, Maya? I have to set up the game." Erin's face was a blank mask as she rushed to position the characters.
"Don't you notice anything... weird about Dexter? It seems like he just came out of nowhere. Where did you find him?" The Game Master's heart skipped a beat as he realized that Maya was trying to tear open this slight hole in his supposed backstory, and he quickly took control of Erin.
"Well- He's one of my friend's brothers. He expressed an interest in playing D&D, so I invited him to join our campaign. It's not going to be permanent, don't worry. He just wanted to try playing a real game to see how it worked." The GM sighed in relief at his skillfully improvised cover-up story, and Maya turned away, frustrated but unable to find anything wrong with the story.
"One last thing, though. Did you see his eyes? They're amber, just like the wax in the Plane of Souls."
"The plane of what? Maya, what are you even talking about? Can you just let him play with us, just this one session, without being suspicious of everything he does? Come on, he's barely 10. Give him a break." As soon as the GM made Erin say this, he realized that it was a mistake. Erin never spoke in that tone, not to her friends, and especially not to Maya. But he added as an afterthought, "Sorry. I didn't mean for that to sound rude, I just promised him that he would get to experience a fun game, and I really want to give him that." Maya's face made it clear that she was not satisfied by this answer, but she dropped the subject, just in time for the setup to be finished. The GM released his hold over Erin, and she called everyone to the table.
Tanya and Xavier had clearly been talking about Dexter while Erin and Maya were talking, and they hushed their conversation as they walked by him. This didn't go unnoticed by Erin, however, and she shot them both stern looks as they sat down.
The session started with an encounter with a strange demon, which Erin told them was called an erinye, that challenged their characters with a very difficult battle. After that creature was defeated, the rest of the game went by uneventfully, and they all left the library that evening with a slight frown on their faces, as if they were all unsettled by something. Dexter was the only one that left the session with a wide grin on his face, and he thanked Erin for hosting such a wonderful and fun session, and told her that he would try to look for his own campaign in the near future. Tanya looked relieved at this statement, and the GM was slightly offended. He hadn't done anything to make any of them suspicious of him!
But the GM continued to track Maya's thoughts, listening carefully to each thing that went through her mind until, finally, she went to sleep and her mental hum slowed to just a heartbeat. He materialized into his normal form, a will-o'-wisp that glowed with an unearthly black light, and performed a spell to bring her to the Plane of Souls.
As soon as he sensed her departure from the Material Plane, he followed her through the otherworldly portal that had appeared in Maya's room, and he instantly saw her in the middle of a circle of candles. Her group's candles. Oh, no. She had noticed the note he wrote next to her candle.
"What is this? 'Remember to tell her about the grand story plan'? What does that mean?" Maya was staring frantically at the paper, her pupils dilated and her hair frazzled. The Game Master sighed, knowing that she wouldn't rest until she found an answer.
"Alright, I owe you this explanation, at least. So... I have this amazing plan. I'm writing a magnificent tale of heroes and monsters and friends, and you're the main character." The GM stared at her, his incomprehensible essence hovering in the air around Maya, awaiting her response. Maya just sat there, restrained by her own thoughts, trying to process what she had just heard.
"So? Do you want to be the hero in your own story? I know it's what you've always wanted, being the center of attention, being the one to rescue your friends and defeat the villains. What do you say?" The GM took the form of Dexter and extended his hand to Maya. She looked up at him, a billion thoughts tearing through her mind.
It's everything I've ever wanted.
But I don't trust him. Who knows that he's planning?
But this is the opportunity of a lifetime. Being the hero of a story? Everyone would look up to me. Why would I ever say no?
Maya stood up on her own, looked Dexter right in the eyes, and said, "No."
"... No? That's not the right answer, Maya. You were supposed to say yes. You were supposed to be the hero of my story and save your friends from the villains and monsters. Why would you say no to that?" The GM was taken aback by her blunt statement, and he recoiled his hand.
"Well, it sounds like an amazing offer, but I don't trust you. I mean, how did you get Erin to know who you are? I don't know anything about you or what your full abilities are." Maya stared firmly at Dexter, her gaze unflinching.
"I have the ability to control others' minds and actions. That's how I got Erin to relay my backstory to you." Dexter's form began to dissipate, and the GM returned to his form of simply existing, the form in which he was the essence of the entire plane. He hovered above Maya, perceiving her thoughts all at once.
So, if that's all true, why doesn't he just mind-control me to be his main character? Why bother asking?
The GM heard Maya think this, and he realized that he didn't know. Did he want her to be the hero on her own? Did he feel bad, taking away the control of the main character? Or was it just that he felt like a mind-controlled main character wasn't a very heroic story? Whatever it was, he was determined to master his own mind and figure it out.
"First of all, you should know that I can read minds." The GM said this with a triumphant smirk, although Maya couldn't see it. This statement had the intended effect, though, and Maya's brain started tying itself in knots.
What has he heard? Does he know that I think Tanya is way too mysterious and Xavier is just a walking brain and is he listening to this right now? Of course he is, is that even a question? What is wrong with me?
Maya's mental freakout was very distracting for her, so the Game Master took this opportunity to quickly phase her back to the Material Plane, where he suspected she would have a very hard time going back to sleep.
He flipped his clock forward a few days, making that time pass in the Plane of Souls, and he phased to the Material Plane, where it was now time for their next session. Tangentially, he realized that he had forgotten to tell Maya he could travel in time. Oh, well. He could tell her later. It wasn't very important right now.
He appeared in the form of Dexter deep in the forest by the library, and started to walk out to meet them there. But right as he approached the clearing with the table, he stopped, a fantastic idea taking shape in his mind. He ran farther back into the forest and quickly took the form of Evelyn, complete with the glowing blood-red eyes and the searing hot daggers that dripped with silver droplets. He added some extra details to make it more believable, like longer hair and older-looking facial features, and took control of Erin. He easily summoned a portal to the Plane of Spirits, an unimportant little demiplane where records of past characters were kept, and swept Erin into the portal. She would be suspended in time there until he brought her back afterwards. The best part of this was that she wouldn't remember anything about the plane, making it seem like she actually had turned back into that nightmare form of Evelyn.
His plan was perfect. He would scare the whole group into thinking that Erin had somehow lost control again, although Maya would likely know that it was actually him, considering how many holes there were in his story. But regardless of that, she would defend her friends from this opponent, making her the hero of that situation. Once that happened, she would start to believe that she could fit into the niche of the heroic guardian, the defender of all good, the person that legends speak of.
Having planned out his next course of action, he waited a few minutes for the group to get settled in, entertaining himself by reading Tanya's mind and exploring the vast depth of secrets that she kept.
After he was confident that they had begun the session without Erin, he began making small rustling noises in the bushes around the tables. He made sure only Tanya could hear the ominous sounds, and she quickly began shooting panicked expressions into the forest.
"Do any of you hear those sounds? I think there's some kind of wild animal in the bushes." Tanya's face showed that she was clearly just trying to comfort herself with this excuse, but Maya's face turned very serious, and she hesitantly started sweeping through the bushes.
Just as Maya finished searching the undergrowth, the GM, in the form of a slightly older Evelyn, emerged dramatically from behind a tree.
"Taylor... you weren't supposed to survive. You can't run forever. I will find you, wherever you go..." Evelyn's voice was haunting, but Maya noticed the unique tone of the GM's voice buried under the dissonant sound. Her eyes narrowed, and the GM realized that Maya had found him out. The battle had just begun, however, and he wasn't going to let Maya's unusually good perception distract him from his intended outcome.
Evelyn raised her hands, dropping one of her daggers dangerously close to Tanya's foot. A blazing fireball appeared in one of her hands, and she lunged towards Xavier, who responded with a sphere of water to quench her flames. The GM didn't give up, though, and built up a towering wall of lava, letting half of his body stay submerged in the boiling liquid. Xavier's eyes widened, and he took an involuntary step back, his mind drowning in his own panic. Evelyn turned away from Xavier, sneering, and faced Tanya.
"How is this even happening? Maya, how is this happening?" Tanya's hazel eyes were widened in horror, genuine fear creeping into her gaze. Evelyn cackled, black mist oozing through red cracks in her skin. But all of a sudden, her red eyes turned ghostly purple, and she shuddered once before collapsing on the floor, paralyzed by the electric shock. Maya was standing behind her, both hands flickering with lightning sparks.
"I think I got her. We need to run, you guys. I know why this is happening." Maya's heart was beating loud enough for everyone to hear, and they dashed into the woods after her, not saying a word.
Immediately after they had left, the GM got up, shifted into his will-o'-wisp form, and floated away from the clearing. He added some faint tracks leading in the opposite direction, so they would assume that Evelyn had gotten up and walked away, and he took a second to admire how well his plan was working.
Maya had just saved her friends from a danger that none of them had been prepared for. She had kept her cool in a tense situation, and her friends definitely looked up to her now, if they hadn't already. She was doing everything a hero was supposed to do. Now the only thing left for her to do was find a villain. The GM pondered over who could be the antagonist of her story for a few minutes, then gave up and decided to figure that out later.
He cast a portal spell and went back to the Plane of Souls to travel forward in time to when Maya would be sleeping. As soon as he had turned the clock forwards to make it nighttime, he traveled back to the Material Plane, still in his will-o'-wisp form. He quickly teleported back, bringing Maya with him. He remembered to turn formless at the last second, and Maya woke up to his shapeless essence surrounding her at the Plane of Souls.
"I know that was you. Why would you do that? Oh, wait, I know. It's because you want me to be your hero. You want me to play the part of the main character." Maya's eyes narrowed as she said this, and she crossed her arms defiantly.
"That's... not entirely wrong." The GM was struggling to find a way to not let her ego get any bigger, but also show her that she was getting the right idea. Before he could say any more, Maya interrupted him, a determined look on his face.
"Fine."
"Fine? You mean you'll be the main character?" The GM felt a small twinge of satisfaction at Maya's acceptance, but he heard something in her mind that he desperately wished he could unhear, something that left him paralyzed in mental agony.
"I'll be the hero, as long as you're the villain."
Maya wanted him to be the villain? Not Evelyn or Charlie or any of the clear bad guys? Well, he didn't care. In fact, this could even be good. With any other unpredictable villain, they could hurt or even kill Maya. The difference with him was that he knew he could never bring himself to hurt her. She was too much like the daughter he had lost, the child that he had sworn to protect, and failed.
He saw his daughter every time he saw Maya. He saw her in Maya's eyes, he saw her in Maya's rebellious attitude and he saw her in Maya's fierce determination. Everything Maya did only served to remind him of the child he lost, and it was all because of a stupid mistake he had made 5 years ago, when his daughter was 9.
Whatever. It didn't matter. He would sort out his complicated thoughts about Maya and his daughter another time. For now, he needed to do something about this new story plan that Maya had forced him on.
"Alright. If that's what you want. Now go get a fair amount of sleep. I know you barely slept at all last night." The GM began casting his portal spell to bring Maya back to the Material Plane.
"Yeah, of course I barely got any sleep, because you gave me the most ominous- aah!" Maya's retort was abruptly cut off as she fell into the portal, landing in her bed. The Game Master went through the familiar pattern of skipping his clock forward to the time and day of the next session, and he spent a few minutes trying to decide what form to take for his next approach. He eventually decided on a haunted paladin with distinct devil horns and rusted versions of Jamie's old shield and sword. He wanted Tanya to be unnerved by these returns from her past, and therefore Maya would have to protect her.
When he came back, however, what he saw was nothing like what he expected. He teleported to the Material Plane only to see Maya and all of her friends, all except Erin. He immediately realized that Erin was still in the Plane of Spirits, and he made a mental note to bring her back after this encounter.
After he got past the fact that Erin was missing, it took him a second to realize that the rest of the group was in full fighting gear. Maya's cleric was already emanating purple sparks, Tanya was wearing a dark cloak with mysterious symbols on the back, Xavier was holding a quarterstaff embedded with blue gems in one hand and a wizard's spellbook in the other, and Emma was glowing with a monk's ki energy. They were clearly battle-ready.
"What is going on, and why are none of your minds readable?" The GM tried to read their thoughts, and found some mental block in his way.
"See? This is the GM. He did something to Erin, and now he's here for you, Tanya." Maya's emerald-green eyes were clearly hiding many secrets, including almost everything about his plan. How did she know that he was going for Tanya? How had she gotten all this information, and how was she able to block his mind reading. He quickly lunged at Emma, waiting to see their reactions. She had clearly been preparing for him to attack Tanya, and she yelped in surprise when he bashed her in the head with his shield. She fell to the ground, motionless.
Xavier saw Emma fall and he screamed, the painful sound dropping everyone to the floor, including his own allies. However, after a second, Maya and Tanya seemed to recover their senses and renewed their attack. Xavier stopped his scream, which the GM realized must have been some kind of spell, and the haunting sound continued to reverberate through his skull. He sat prone on the ground, unable to move, confused.
Maya abruptly started floating in the air, her eyes glowing yellow and her hands outstretched. Wait. Maya was a level 3 cleric. How could a character of her level and class be floating? She didn't have a spell that could make her float, and she definitely didn't have a spell to make her eyes glow golden like that. What was happening?
Before the GM had a chance to say a word, a blast of amber light that felt hotter than the sun hit him right in the face. He cowered away from the blinding light, confused and genuinely terrified. How was any of this possible? Maya was doing so many things that seemed impossible, and yet they were actually happening right in front of his eyes.
The amber light burned his skin, instantly melting the sword and shield that he had been holding. He immediately realized that it wasn't anything like Maya's normal magic, Maya's normal magic was storm-based and this was.. soul-based. It was the same magic he used. He quickly made a decision and summoned a portal to the Plane of Souls, realizing that he couldn't win this battle. He saw Maya scream, "You are not gonna use your portals and just disappear! I will not lose another villain like I lost Charlie!" And just before the portal closed, he saw Maya leap in after him.
Maya and the GM landed in a pile at the Plane of Souls, both of them breathing heavily. Maya sighed, stood up, and muttered something to herself before offering him a hand. He stared up at her curiously, and took her hand, and she helped him get up. They both stood there in silence for a few minutes before Maya finally spoke.
"I want you to tell me everything. In exchange, I'll tell you everything that you're wondering." Maya crossed her arms, looking him in the eyes. The GM sighed, wondering if he was about to make a really bad decision, but decided to just do it. After all, everything that could go wrong had already gone wrong, right?
"Let me show you something that I probably should've shown you a long time ago. Come here." He gestured to the screen where he had shown her what Erin had seen the day they switched. Maya didn't want to trust him, but her curiosity eventually got the better of her, and she hesitantly stepped towards the amber screen. Like before, the screen seemed to engulf her and she was brought into a strange sort of spectator mode, where she could read the minds of everyone there, and the only person there was the GM.
She stepped closer to him to better hear his thoughts, and realized he was thinking about Evelyn and the origin of the powers. She was about to read everything thoroughly to find out all the details, but then it occurred to her that it was something the GM would do, and she instead turned to face him.
"Tell me what happened. I won't interrupt, I just want the whole story. Go." Maya sat down on the floor and stared up at him defiantly, making it very clear that she was playing by her rules, not his. The GM saw this and sighed, not knowing what else he could do.
"I want to tell you the story of how the powers came to be. I originally created them with the purpose of bringing some variety to the boring, ordinary Material Plane, but I quickly realized what a good tool it was for finding my main character. I started looking at the most worthy players and DMs, giving them the powers to see what they would do with these unusual abilities. The first person I ever gave them to was a young person named Skyler, and they kept begging me to give the magic to someone else. When I insisted, they allowed themselves to bear the curse of immortality in exchange for the ability to pass on the powers if needed. They are still wandering around the Material Plane somewhere, trying to avoid coming into contact with me or anyone who has the powers. The second person I gave the powers to was Evelyn, the third person was Alexa, and the fourth was you. As you know, Alexa chose to pass the powers to you, and you still have them, but Evelyn's story is a bit more complicated than that. See, she seemed like she would actually be good at using the powers when I first saw her. She was clever, creative, and determined, kind of like you. But when I decided to give her the powers as an experiment, to see how she would handle them, she just seemed content to play D&D with her friends like she wasn't special at all. What I failed to realize at first was that she was content with her life. She didn't have that drive, that motivation to do good in the world, not like you do. I controlled her for a short period of time, trying to force her to give the powers up, but she fought back. So... I had to pause her mind. That's why she lost control, because I took away all logical thinking ability and tried to force the powers to the surface. As soon as I got the powers, I released my hold over her. I realize now that there were many other things I could've done, but it doesn't matter now. What matters now is that you have the powers now, and-" Right as the GM was about to wrap up his lengthy speech, Maya punched him in the face, cutting him off. He recoiled, rubbing his cheek where she had hit him. Maya's face was boiling with fury.
"You're the one who made her lose control? You ruined her life when you did that! Can't you see how inherently wrong that is?" Maya was in a rage now, lightning and golden energy sparking off her. She gathered a sphere of soul energy in her hands, holding the volatile energy in a tight ball, and releasing its pressure by hurling it at the Game Master.
It suddenly exploded, putting out several candles and throwing the GM backwards. He kept flying backwards for a few seconds until he abruptly stopped moving, suspended in the air by Maya's outstretched hand. She made a gesture with her hand, and he floated towards her slowly, stopping when he was a few feet away from her.
"I can't hurt you. As much as I want to, I can't." Maya sighed and dropped her hand, dropping the GM in the same motion. He landed on the floor, clearly defeated, wondering how Maya had gotten so powerful.
"Why not? I hurt your friend, remember? What's stopping you?" The GM knew that he was playing a risky game by asking her this, but he just had to know. Maya sighed again and finally relented.
"I just... don't have it in me to hurt my own father."
[ 4502 words ]
WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME WHY ARE THESE CHAPTERS SO LONG
please vote my brain is a pot of mush