Book 1: Chapter 3: Is All Truly Well When Surrounded By Friends

Son of Eternia

Book 1: ‘From Dusk ‘Till Twilight’

Chapter 3: ‘Is All Truly Well When Surrounded By Friends?’

A story by TSMC\_Minecraft2009

Edited By Superbattleshipyamato

    For once in his life, perhaps for the very first time in a long time, Declan O’Connor felt… happy with himself.

His real self.

Thanks his giving in to Valorie, he had finally been enjoying himself, in the real world. He had made friends with those in the little club that she had formed, and the group had sworn to meet up again ‘sometime in the near future.’ Declan almost felt guilty of making Valorie try the Aetheria server in exchange for his attendance of the Tabletop-RPG session. However, he had other thoughts on his mind, for it was the middle of period 5, the very next day. 25 minutes until break, until he can meet his friends. But a question echoed in the back of his mind, as they usually did whenever he lost interest in what was going on around him.

“Does Valorie actually know who Ashgem and Pheonix are?” He thought to himself.

  During the session, the group had only used the aliases that they had bestowed upon themselves; so he was known as Decadence to them, Valorie was Moonshroad. He knew that they were twins, or at least they claimed to be. Having a sibling in this time was quite uncommon, with even dual-income households struggling to keep afloat. For a moment, Declan’s thoughts drifted to his father, Ethan. He knew that he worked as a programmer, but he never directly said where, or what did. Claimed that it was all “highly confidential”, and that he had signed more NDA’s than he could remember. Declan brushed these thoughts away and focused on his friends once more.

  He was half-making an attempt at paying attention in class, but his friends stayed the dominant thought in his mind. Friends. Something that, in plural, he hadn’t really had before. He had Valorie, but that was it. And, in the beginning, they only hung out with each other because they were both outcasts. Perhaps that’s what Ashgem and Pheonix were to; it wasn’t out of the question, knowing Valorie. She had that kind-hearted love of humanity and nature that always managed to make Declan smile, despite his lack of faith in the human race.

  Thinking of Valorie once more, he remembered something. When he first saw her dressed up as Moonshroad, his heart almost jumped out of his throat. But why? To him, Valorie was a friend, she had never shown any romantic interest in him, and the same vice versa. So why now was happening to him. Were his icy reserves of his heart finally starting to melt? He was still the same person inside… So what was different about today? About now? About her or him? The thoughts of her, swirling around in his mind, reminded him of what he did yesterday. How he told Valorie that he’d only join the tabletop-RPG sessions if she joined the Aetheria server. Knowing that she was only trying to help him, a wave of guilt washed over him. How would he get out of this situation.

  His train of thought was interrupted by the peeling of the bell. Almost instinctively, he picked up all his stuff, waiting for the teacher to dismiss the class.

“Afternoon, folks. Remember, we have a test next week, so study up.”

Declan immediately bolted out of the door and stuffed textbooks in his locker, and headed to the school cafeteria, where he knew Valorie would be waiting. On the pair’s usual table sat Valorie, as well as two other figures; boys, around Declan’s age. They seemed to be in conversation, laughing. It took him a second to recognise just who was sitting with his friend.

“Ashgem. Pheonix. Pleasure to meet you two fine fellows in person again.” Said Declan in a phony British accent.

The two turned around to face him, trying to hold in a bit of laughter. Because of this, Valorie was the first one to speak.

“Oh, Hey Dec! Nice of you to join us, slowpoke.” Valorie mentioned. “Oh, right! I forgot you haven’t met these two out of their persona’s yet! To my left is Damien, who you know as Ashgem, and here’s Alex, a.k.a. Pheonix.”

The group soon got past the formalities and had hit a roadblock when it came to the conversation. Something needed to be addressed, to be said. Something between Declan and Valorie.

“I’m sure you two won’t mind if I steal Val away for a second? She and I have something to discuss.” Declan mumbled in a timid manner as he stood up.

Valorie got up and walked over to Declan, and the pair made their way for the lunch line.

  “So… what thing that needs to be addressed that’s so important that you need to keep it from your new friends?” Valorie joked.

“Well… about yesterday…” Declan tried to say as he rubbed his neck.

“Declan. I’m fine joining the Aetheria server with you. You don’t need to apologise for that.”

Declan began to ramble through a carefully constructed response about how he was sorry, before what Valorie said to him really sank in.

“Wait… What? I thought you hated the thing! You did always call it the blasted server. What’s changed?”

Valorie brushed her hair aside as she spoke. “Well, for one, I managed to find and boot load one of those fancy VR 2.0 techno headset gizmos, so I have the means to. And… I dunno. The way Ashgem and… sorry, Damien and Alex described it made it sound pretty fun. From what I can tell, it sounds like an immersive RPG… like an Isekai that almost puts you in another realm.”

Declan froze. This is not what he had been expecting. It was almost as if something inside of him broke, as he started rambling incoherently again.

“Server… headset… Moonshroad… Isekai… What?...”

It was only after Valorie gave him a punch on his arm that he came back.

“Ow... that hurt, Valorie. Again.”

Valorie simply just shrugged and let out a little chuckle. “Think I broke something in that head of yours. Don’t tell me, but you had this whole speech planned out, and when I said something you didn’t expect, it broke a wire in that ‘noggin of yours.” She lightly tapped his head. “I don’t blame you, same thing probably would have happened to me.”

  There was an awkward lapse in conversation after that, so the pair grabbed their lunch and headed back to the table, where Damien and Alex were waiting on them, having a heated debate on some random piece of trivia.

“I’m telling you man, when she was shot, you could see some Latin phrase written in the background! Her death was at the hands of the Roman cavalry, so it only makes sense to put it in” Damien argued.

“It was not there, man. I’ve seen the film at least a dozen times in the past 2 years, and never once have I seen anything written in blood!” Alex retorted.

Seeing that their argument was going nowhere, Declan decided to put an end to it.

“The blood writing is only viewable from a certain angle when you watch it.” Declan interrupted.

Damien was going to say something, but Valorie interrupted him before he could.

“But it doesn’t say just any old Latin phrase, it says ‘Satin' bonum est ab amicis circumventum?’, which is Latin for... something.”

The group all laughed at that, and continued talking about anything and everything under the sun. But thoughts still lingered in the back of Declan’s mind.

  “What’s different?”

Seemingly, everything had changed overnight, no slower than the snap of someone’s fingers. But how, and why? Things like this only happened in those cheesy, feel-good movies. Again, things just weren’t making sense. Regardless of that, Declan decided to just enjoy the moments while he could. He went back to the conversation, and the thoughts in his mind receded. All was well for him when he was surrounded by friends.

  “So... how was school, kiddo?” Ethan asked as Declan walked in the door.

“Actually, for once, it was... pretty good, not gonna lie...” Declan responded.

“That’s great to hear! You mind telling me more about it?” Ethan enquired.

“Well, I will, but I uh... gotta do something with a friend. I’ll be upstairs in my room. But, I’ll tell you all about it at dinner, okay?”

“Oh, okay, fine. You better keep your word on that, kiddo. Now scram! Enjoy your childhood!” Ethan said as he ruffled Declan’s hair.

Declan dropped his back at the door and bolted up to his room. Inside a drawer was an old flip-phone that he managed to coax back to life over the course of a month. The only real use it had was calling Valorie, as up until yesterday, he hadn’t exactly had many people that would give him their numbers.

He flipped the phone open and rang a number that had become muscle memory to him, and waited.

“Deedle dee da deedle da dum deedle dee da dum...” the phone rang.

A voice soon picked up on the other end.

  “Hello? Valorie van Der Brink here... oh! Well well we’ll, if it isn’t the almighty Decadence...” The voice said.

Declan fell back into his chair. “Valorie, for the last time, it’s just Declan here. I’m only Decadence when I’m either dressed as him or in the server, and as you can tell... I am neither.”

“True as that may be, you will be soon enough. I just like being prepared, dear.” Valorie countered.

Declan let out a tired sigh. “So you know how you said you actually wanted to... y’know... go on the Aetheria server earlier today?”

“Yeah, what about it?”

“Well, have you actually ever been on the server before?”

“...”

“Valorie, have you even registered an account?”

“...”

“Valorie?”

“No...”

“Well, don’t worry, that’s where I’m here to help. So what you first gotta do is go to https://AetheriaServer.org, I’ll just give you a second to do that quickly...”

Declan heard the sound of a chair rolling on the other end of the line.

“Alright, I’m in... what’s next?”

“There should be a sign up option to the top left of the screen. It’s a big green button. You see it?”

“Yeah, I’ve clicked on it.”

“Rest of it should be obvious, so I’ll give you a moment to do that.”

Declan heard the clacking of an keyboard that had been a relic before he was even born on the other end, and twiddled his thumbs, until he heard what sounded like someone slamming on the desk.

  “Dammit! Ran into an issue...” Valorie exclaimed

“Well, what seems to be the problem?”

“I’m signed in, registered and verified. All that jazz. But to actually access the server, I need one of those fancy-schmancy high-tech VR 2.0 goggles of yours. Twins failed to mention that...”

“Right, forgot about that... the Aetheria sever is rendered using wavelengths that interact directly with the brain instead of pixels, so it’s like you’re really there. At least that’s what I understand...”

“You don’t have one I could borrow, do you...?”

Declan rubbed his right temple as he tried to think of what he should do next; formulate a plan. He couldn’t let... this... go to waste; to do so would be unlike him.

  “Well... I do have one you can borrow...” an familiar voice said on the line.

“Oh, hey Mr O’Connor. Nice of you to drop in and do a little bit of snooping on us. I can assure you that we weren’t talking about anything bad, just discussing that server that Declan’s constantly on.” Valorie said.

It took Declan a minute to realise that the other person was, in fact, his adopted father, Ethan.

“Dad? How... how’d you get on this line?” Declan exclaimed.

“There are still some benefits to the landline, and this is one of them. I Didn’t mean to call you on purpose, mind, the lines crossed. Didn’t want to interrupt your conversation, so I kept quiet.”

“Well, regardless thanks a lot for snooping...”

There was a moment of awkward silence between the three, until Valorie broke the ice.

  “Sir...? Sorry, Ethan? You said that you... had one that I... we could borrow. Is that true?” Valorie mentioned with hesitation.

“Well yes, of course I have one. I’m sure by now Declan has told you I worked on the Aetheria server a while back. It would be pretty difficult to work on it without it.”

“Well no Mr O’Connor, I don’t believe that your son has mentioned that. Bit strange, seeing as that’s kinda important information.”

“Declan... Anyway! You can borrow mine, no problem. Only issue is... how are we... you going to get this to Valorie, Declan... think of this as a creative exercise.”

There was another awkward lapse in conversation.

“I’ll go get my bike...” Declan said, breaking the ice.

“Now that’s my boy! Anyway, I’ll leave you two to discuss the rest of this, bye!”

“Well... that was more awkward than it needed to be...” Declan said.

Valorie chuckled. “No, your dad seems like a pretty cool guy. Anyway! You know where my house is, I’ll be waiting...”

  Declan hung up the phone and flipped it into his pocket. He ran into Ethan in the hallway, and apologised, before sprinting to where his father kept his headset. He unplugged it, and placed it into his bag.

“Gotta go Dad, see ya!” He yelled out.

He bursted out the front door, and unchained his bike from the side of his house. Kicking it into gear, he jumped onto and began to ride through familiar streets. But everything felt off to him. When he was younger, before he had developed the borderline addiction to the server that plagued him not too long ago, the town, while quiet, was still... alive. But now? It felt greyed out, almost like a thick film of neglect covered everything in sight.... dead. Not a soul in sight. The reason for this was obvious, though. It was 2039. Earth seemed to be in the early stages of death. What was the real point in anything anymore?

  Declan soon found himself pulling up to Valorie’s house. Despite being her best friend, he had never actually been there himself. He knew that there was something going on in her life that she was keeping to herself, and he wanted to know so that he could at least try to help, but he never prodded further than he should. He parked his bike just off the lawn and chained it to a nearby fence, and went up the front door.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

For a moment he heard nothing, but soon there was commotion inside. The door began to open, but the person who greeted him was not who he expected. A balding man in a tank top stood there in front of him.

  “What do you want...” The man slurred.

Declan was taken aback. He turned around to make sure that this was the right address, and Lo and behold it was.

“Er... hello sir, I was here to drop something of for a friend of mine... is there anyone here called Valorie...?” He asked with trepidation.

“Yeah... but that’s none of your business. Go... go away!” The man spoke.

Considering the man, who he assumed to be Valorie’s father, was at least twice his weight, Declan obliged. But he didn’t give up hope. He took his phone out of his pocket, and dialled his friend again. She picked up almost instantaneously

  “Hey... Declan.... I assume you met my dad...”

“Valorie, I’m going to be blunt here. Your dad looks, sounds, smells and acts like a functioning alcoholic. What the he... nether is going on...”

“I did say my home life wasn’t the best, if you remember...”

“Yeah, but... I wasn’t expecting this! Speaking of which, it seems your dad won’t let me in. Might be an issue, considering that this is pretty valuable stuff I got here. Can’t just leave it lying around.”

“Can you climb?”

“What?”

“Can. You. Climb. Simple one word answer Declan.”

“Well, yeah, to an extent... why?”

“Come ‘round the back, stay out of view of the door. I’ll tell you more in a second.”

Declan, figuring he really didn’t have anything to lose at this point, walked around to the back of the house, jumping a fence along the way.

  “Alright, I can see you from here.” Valorie said. “Can you see that drainpipe?”

“Yeah, but... wait a minute... no. No. Valorie, I am not going to climb up that rickety, rusty old drainpipe. Even if I didn’t fall and break my neck, I’d probably get tetanus. And what if your dad hears me?”

“I’m sure he won’t. I’m fact, he should be asleep in a few minutes. Amazing what they put in drinks nowadays.”

It took Declan a moment to realise what Valorie as implying.

“You... spoked his... how?”

“Maybe if you payed attention in science class you’d have learnt that last month. Anyway, I’ll call you back when he’s cold.”

“Wait, wait wait... If he’s out cold, why can’t I just walk in through the front door?”

“Well, do you have a door key? Besides, there’s a camera installed, and he can check the footage later. If he saw bringing a boy into the house, I’m as good as dead. Anyway, call you back in a minute.”

Declan heard the tone that signalled the person on the other end of the line had hung up. He sat on the grass, waiting for the signal.

  In a world unknown to us, a man made his way to the entrance of a grand city on horseback, it shimmering in the skyline like the glorious refuge it was. It was a simple errand that he needed to run, a favour for an old friend of his. But visiting the capital city of Lorica was always a pleasure for Feldacia Godwinson, next in line to lead clan Godwinson. He brought down the reigns of the horse, for he needed to make it there before sundown, before the great gates shut to keep out the monsters that resided in the darkness of the night. It had barely been a day since he had left the camp that his clan resided in, yet he already missed his wife and daughter. Yet, this was important for the future of the clan: it was vital to keep relationships between them and others that resided in the realm positive, for they were not a warring clan. Even if they were, the can was ill-fitted to fight. They had no weaponry, no army. So they tended to live in peace.

Feldacia reckoned that he had an hour to make it to the gate, and that he was going to make it there in an hour and a half at his current pace. Hence, he fastened the reigns once more with a “Hiyhah!” And set off.

  Back in the realm that Declan knew, he pulled out a pair of gloves from his backpack. They were usually meant for either physiotherapy or fighting, but he figured that they would provide him with more grip than his bare hands. Still no call from Valorie, and yet the house was dead silence. A sickening feeling began to turn in his stomach, and yet he didn’t know why. For no particular reason, he decided to text Damien and Alex, telling them that he would be off grid for a while (they had exchanged numbers the night before). No sooner than he had sent the message did his phone ring again, startling him.

  “Jeez Val, you had me worried there! Sure took a while for the effects to take in, huh?”

“Yeah, it does. Usually takes less time, though. Maybe I should use a different formula so he doesn’t develop a tolerance...”

“Val... anyway, I’m assuming that I can come in now...?”

“You are not incorrect in stating that. Good luck with the drain pipe!”

Declan cracked his knuckles, and started to climb up the pipe. It took him several tries, and he had a couple of false starts, but he eventually made it up to the the second floor, where he saw Valorie’s window open.

“Hey.”

“Hey. Little bit of help here?”

“There’s a gap in the bricking that can be used as a foothold right about there. You should be able to use that, Mr Decadence.”

“Hey, remember what I said. I’m only Decadence when I look and/or act like him. And right now, I’m not him.” Declan said as he moved his foot into the hole.

“Right, that’s it, you’re almost here!” Valorie chuckled.

Declan realised the gap between the pipe and the window was bigger than he’d been anticipating. He’d need to make a leap to get there.

“Yeesh... all this for a headset...” he said aloud. “Valorie, I’m going to need your arm, that okay with you?” He asked.

Valorie saw that her friend wasn’t horsing around, and was beginning to slip. Without a moment’s hesitation, she leaned out of the window and grabbed him by his hand.

  Declan gasped aloud as he lost one of his footholds. He was now but inches from falling.

“I’m going to pull you in on the count of three, okay?” Valorie yelled. “And you’re going to push out at the same time, okay?”

Declan nodded, as he was to exasperated to speak.

“One... Two... Three!”

  The combined momentum of the pair was enough to hoist Declan into the room. In fact, it was great enough that Declan fell on top of Valorie. He quickly scrambled up and away, clearly embarrassed by the situation.

“Uhh... right! Now I’m here, in your room... with expensive tech in my backpack...”. He was choking for words.

“Yeah... y’know, this is actually the first time I’ve had a friend over at my house... I don’t really know what to do from here...”

The tension in the air between the two was so thick you could cut it with knife.

“Well uh... might as well do what I came here to do...” Declan stuttered as he took of his backpack.

“Oh, right! I was caught up in the moment... almost forgot why you came here...”

Declan pulled the headset that his father had gave him out of the bag.

“Right! Now this is a V.R. 2.0 headset. It’s a few years old right now from what I can tell, but it was top of the range at the time, so it should do...”

“Well... uh... Thank you for that Declan. Before you risk your neck trying to get down, you... do you want to hang here for a while? My dad’ll be out for another 2 and a half hours at the least, so we should be safe. Don’t want to let all that effort go to waste.”

  And that’s what the pair did; sitting in Valorie’s room talking about anything and everything that came to their minds. It was almost like the world around them seemed to fade away, as they unleashed their collective streams of consciousness at each other.

“Not to sound rude or anything, but how did you afford to make that Moonshroad outfit? It doesn’t seem to me like you get an allowance, and neither of us are old enough to get a job yet, legally at least...”

“Well... my mother sends around $15 a week, sort of like compensation for her not being here. Best thing I figured I could do with it. What about your outfit? How’d you get it without revealing your location?”

“Well as you can remember, a fan made it for me for free, but it still ended up costing me around $250 with all the re-mailing services I used...”

  There was a pause in the conversation, as they both tried to think of the next topic to talk about.

“Wait here for a moment, Val.” Declan said as he got up.

He walked over to his backpack and pulled it his Walkman and walked back to where Valorie was sitting.

“I... don’t really know what to talk about next... so... you want to just lie and listen to something...?”

“Yeah! Yeah, that... would actually be pretty nice. Make sure it’s good music though, nothing from that Angst playlist I know you have on repeat!”

“Yeah, yeah... I know your taste, and I think I got just playlist for it.”

Declan popped out the usual tape that he had installed, and put in another one that he hadn’t listened to before. A tape Ethan had created called ‘At Peace’.

“Alright, let’s try this for size... here’s your earbud.” he said.

Declan put the other earbud in his own earl and pressed the play button, not sure of what to expect. But as soon as the tape wound itself up, a soothing clarinet sound came over the both of them.

  “Hey, Kenny G... hate to say it, but you have good taste, man...”

“Not bad, if I do say so myself...”

And for the next half hour, the two of them lay down on the floor, just listening to music and enjoying each other’s company. All was good when with a friend. But soon, Valorie stood up.

“Sorry Dec... I forgot the time... the stuff I put in will be wearing off in the next 10 minutes, you need to go, now...”

Declan slowly stood up, and removed the bud from his ear. “That’s a shame... shall we do this again, though? It was pretty nice to just spend some time alone with you...”

“Yeah, we will. At your house though... don’t want to go through all this trouble again. And thanks for the headset. I guess I’ll be seeing you around soon, in there...”

Declan was about to say something, but he was interrupted as Valorie hugged him.

“Thanks for being... y’know... such a good friend Declan. I couldn’t ask for anyone better.”

Declan, despite not expecting this, hugged her back. “No, thank you Valorie. You truly are the light in my life.”

  The two said their goodbyes, and Declan made it out of the window, down the drainpipe, and into the backyard. It was only then that he realised that it had already turned dark outside, that being unusual for such an early time. Taking precaution as to not be seen, he hopped over the fence, grabbed his bike, and slowly peddled his way back to his house. He knew that Ethan would be waiting for him the main hallway, either worried to death about where he’d been for the last 2 hours, or slightly peeved at him for staying out after dark. Or, even worse, preparing to have... ‘the talk’. As he parked his bike out front, he made sure to be quiet when doing so. No need to disturb the whole neighbourhood; alerting them of his presence. He fumbled in his pockets for the door key, and walked inside.

  “Declan? Oh thank goodness you’re here, I was so worried about you! Are you okay? Did you get mugged on the way?”

“No Dad, I’m fine. Just hung at Valorie’s for a while. Neither of us had any homework, so we thought ‘might as well’.”

The expression on Ethan’s face changed gradually to a more serious as that sentence rolled off Declan’s tongue.

“Declan...” he sighed. “I can understand that you’re getting older, and more mature, but still...”

“I’m going to cut you off right there Dad. No, we just hung out, talked, and listened to that corny Kenny G playlist you made.” He tapped his Walkman, still clipped onto his belt. “Nothing but that.”

“Ah, gotcha. My bad, hombre. Anyway, important thing is, you had a good time?”

Declan paused for a moment before replying. “Yeah, dad. All’s good when surrounded by friends.”

  Feldacia made his way inside the abode of his old friend Saereth, Forger of Nightfall, making himself at home in the place he would be staying the week.

“It’s nice to have you over for the weeks my good fellow. You really didn’t have to come all the way over here just to help me out.” Saereth said.

“True as that may be, old friend, I think it’s just nice to get a change of scenery every once and a while. And still, my family is in good hands, they’ll be safe for the time being.” Feldacia replied. “And, it’s nether really a bother to help out with the horses, you know how I love the fellows.”

“Well, to celebrate your arrival, I concocted some of my specialty Stormfire ale. Would you be interested in a drink? You have come all this way, so I’m sure you’re quite parched, to say the least.

“Oh, why not? You always did make the best ones, Saereth.”

And so the two chatted and drank the night away, unaware of what was happening elsewhere.

End of Chapter 4

Declan ‘Decadence’ O’Connor will return in:

Son Of Eternia: Chapter 4: Godsend.