Wail

All eyes were suddenly on me, and I was feeling extremely self conscious. "Wha? What's the matter with me?" I stammered.

"Nothing," Astra says. "But um... You look ah... Different."

"Different? How?"

Vladimir says harshly, "For one thing, you're glowing!"

I raise my hand to my face. My alabaster skin now has a faint violet hue, and it does seem to shimmer and glow. Although it doesn't seem to be giving off any actual light.

"Your eyes have changed too," Lynesse says softly. When I glance up at her, she clarifies, "They're like amethysts—pale purple and sparkly. And your ears seem longer but that might just be because of your hair."

"What about my hair?" But even as I say this, I'm running my hands through it. I used to have it tied in two waist-length braids, now its loose. It's long enough to hang past my as but I don't feel any on my backside. I reach back and grab a tress and see the black color is now streaked with a deep, dark purple. 

But that apparently isn't the only thing that changed about it, because Lynesse answers, "It sort of floats."

"Wha?"

"Floats," Astra says. "It spreads out in... tendrils and just hangs in the air behind you."

"Like Medusa," Morgan says.

"No, not like Medusa," Bronte scolds. "Medusa was ugly, remember?"

"Yeah, I didn't mean ugly. But the effect is like that. I bet if you saw her in silhouette, you'd think she had snakes coming out of her head."

"Wha?" I say again.

"Triste, do you know what happened?" Astra asks.

"I hit level 10."

"Evolution!" Morgan says as though exclaiming Aha!

"Katie, said that I was now a Fade." I draw up the article on it from the system documentation.

Fade (Species specialization for Banshee): A Fade is often mistaken for a spirit or a demon, especially at night or when the light is poor, however they are fully corporeal and uncorrupted. They draw their power directly from the Netherworld, which in turn, influences their appearance. The draw from the Netherworld also imbues them with an uncanny aura, which may seduce or cause fear. As a superior level Liminal being (the genus between mortal and fairy-folk), they choose to show their elevated status with body modifications such as tattoos, brands, and piercings like others of their kind.

When I finish reading, it's clear that the others had looked up the same entry. 

"So, is that glow your aura?" Vladimir asks.

"Um... Not sure I did get a new skill." Two actually. An active skill and a passive one called Eerie Aura.

I look it up on my character sheet.

Eerie Aura: The energy from the Netherworld flowing through you invokes an aura of both fear and attraction. At Level 1: All intelligent sentient creatures who see you must make two Harmony based saving-throws of 6 or more. Failure of the first, will make you an object of their nightmares and they will fear you beyond reason (1 in 10 chance of them being unable to stay in your presence). Failure of the second, will make you an object of their erotic dreams and they will lust after you (1 in 10 chance of submitting to your every command). In addition to the previously listed effects, failure of both, will drive the target mad (Intellect -3, Harmony -3) and will make you the object of their obsession. This does not effect the undead, demons, NPCs, or party members.

Crap! I'm going to have people lusting after me or obsessing on me? What the hell? I don't need this in my life!

At least I won't have the others in my party getting ensnared by this. I wonder briefly why it doesn't effect NPCs, but then I realize it's probably a bit of a safety net for me and the game. Because otherwise if I entered a town, things would get crazy pretty fast.

I'm just about to shut it down and tell my friends what I've learned when I notice another line:

Amendment: due to your unnatural Presence score, the 1st Saving Throw is adjusted to 5 or more and the 2nd to 7 or more.

Huh?

Oh, double crap! My Presence is now in the preternatural range. Even without this stupid aura, I'm going to have everyone lusting after me. It was bad enough when the score was only 16.

I imagine again what entering a town will be like. Everyone's eyes glued to me. Staring. Ogling. Drooling! As I swish my hips and make my ass jiggle in my short tight dress. As I thrust my chest out, teasing them all with my magnificent boobs. I'll have anyone I want eating out of my hand. I'll be able to get all kinds of gorgeous women to give into their base desires and bed me and use me.

If only I had this beauty in real life, I'd be the most popular girl in my class—in the entire high school. None of the students or teachers would be immune to my charms!

I shake the thought from my head. My skin is flush and my panties are getting soaked.

"Are you okay?" Astra asks.

"Sorry. I was just looking up the skill. Eerie Aura. Apparently, monsters and other players have to make saving throws or fear me or um... become attracted to me. But it doesn't do anything to you—to people in the same party as me."

Bronte says, "Are you sure about that? Because..."

"Yeah. No. The attraction from the aura is different. It can kind of enspell people. But the odds are really low. At any rate, it seems like it's going to be more of a pain in the ass than anything else. I hope the other skill I got is more useful."

"You got two new skills! What's the other one?"

Channeling: All the souls in the Netherworld are a resource to you. When this skill is invoked, you are able to summon a denizen of that realm (specifically or randomly) in order to access their knowledge or skills. The subject called forth cannot be of a higher level than you. At level 1: this skill can only be used once every 3 days. WARNING: Channeling a subject of equal level, may result in possession.

This actually seems pretty good until I reach the part about the possibility of becoming possessed.

After I share the information with the others, Bronte says, "Awesome! You could use it to get in touch with Kerda and find out what happened after she died. Make sure she's okay."

"Wait!" Astra says. "Did you hear her? It has a three day cool down. I don't know if she should waste it on that."

I'm relieved when she says this because all I can think is what would happen if Kerda possessed me. She was willing to have sex with anyone. Would I just end up as a passenger in my own body as she screwed everyone she came across. Doing the lewdest and most obscene acts imaginable.

My body starts heating up again, and I force my thoughts to turn elsewhere.

"Waste!?!" Bronte says. "I hardly call it wasting it! She was our friend. And even if that wasn't enough of a reason, wouldn't you feel better knowing what exactly will happen if we die."

Some of the group nods at this although Lynesse and Vladimir seem to think it might be best not knowing.

Astra says. "Okay. I admit, you have a point there. Triste, what do you think?"

I realize that Kerda was a lower level than I was when she died, and I'd gone up quite a few since then. She wouldn't be able to possess me. And I both miss her and am curious about how the game handles death. So I agree to it.

The instructions say I need to be sitting and then speak aloud my request including the person I wish to contact (if there's one) and what I want to learn or be able to do.

Once I'm sitting cross legged on the floor, I say, "I want to speak with my friend Kerda and find out about what happens after she died."

"It didn't work," I say. "It couldn't find her. Maybe she's respawned and not in the netherworld."

I'm about to stand up when another message comes up.

Huh?

"Where am I?" I say without meaning to. "Who are you people?" 

Astra looks a bit freaked out but asks, "Who are we talking to?"

"I'm Emma Yuen. What's going on?"

"Emma?"

"Triste? Is that you?"

"You know her?" Astra asks.

"Yes. In the real world." I had the biggest crush on Emma. I only agreed to play Feronia to get the chance to be around her. And now I had her inside of me. This was not what I had in mind.

"Emma, are you dead?" I ask.

"Ey! No!" Then, after a pause, "Well, my character died. But I'm hoping I'm still okay. Because when I get out of my game-pod I'm going to sue RoboDyne for everything they're worth."

I'm not sure how to respond to this. Luckily, Astra steps in. "Yes, game-dead. That's what she meant. What happened to your character when they died?"

I sigh. "The game glitched out, and we were stripped of all our equipment and skills. Then some fucked up AI gave us new ones. But we didn't even last an hour. Walked straight into a hill troll and that was it."

I interrupt, "Does that mean that Lee and Will are dead too?"

"Yeah. We were obliterated." I say this ruefully. This explains why I couldn't contact any of them when I entered the game.

Astra asks, "Then what happened? You didn't respawn?"

"We did. Only we didn't. It's complicated. The game spawned us into a new location called the Netherworld."

"What's it like?"

"Hell."

Astra winces at that. "What exactly makes it so bad?"

"No. I mean. it's like Hell. Pits of fire, no sun, only darkness. And filled to the rafters with demons."

"So, do you have to fight the demons?"

"Pfft! As if we could. When my character died I was level 1. The lowest demon is level 10. And those are the lackeys. Most are a lot higher. We hide. Well, Lee and me hide. They got Will on day 3."

"They killed him? I mean, killed his character permanently?"

"I'm sure he would have preferred that. But they don't kill, they're lust demons and they turn their victims into slaves—sex slaves!."

Morgan says, "Well, I think we all saw that coming."

"The poor little guy had already been made into a little girl like your friend over there." Since she can only speak through me and is unable to gesture, I'm not sure if she means Morgan of Valdimir. "Now, I don't even want to think what those demented things are doing with him."

I feel a bit guilty that I never really liked Will and don't feel too broken up that it was him and not my other two friends that had this fate.

Alarmed, Astra asks, "Is there no way to escape?"

"Not that we came across. Hell, for all we knew the whole game had changed again. This is actually my first proof that there is still other regions in Feronia. Unless the fucking AI is giving me a brain aneurysm and this is just some kind of hallucination."

"No, Emma, it's real. Game-real anyway. I got a new skill that allows me to channel people from the Netherworld."

"And you thought of me?" She sounds touched.

"Well... I..." I really don't want to tell her it was an accident. It would be so much better if she thought I was wanting to talk to her.

"Hey, Triste. Do you mind if I ask you favor."

"Sure anything!"

"This may seem odd, but we have another fifteen minutes left with this spell. And I was wondering... could you give me control of your body. The system says I can take over if you allow it. Pleeeeaaase!"