The Eternal Sleep

Two Cards? Coincidence?

Luca and Olivia were roughly pulled out of the vehicle by the overexcited throng, cheers getting even louder as they made an appearance. Praises and threats for re-matches were thrown around. Loud whistles echoed as the other drivers pulled in, the track crowded with players.

It was a dizzying affair that lasted for almost an hour, Olivia receiving her prize and the pair propped on someone’s shoulders. Luca laid back tiredly on the  hood of the car as he remembered the exhilaration, his partner was sitting as calm as ever next to him as she sifted through her inventory.

The track and stands were mostly empty now, with a few people milling about to talk with friends or just relax. The music quieted to simple background noise and the NPCs sat on a small stage on the edge of the track in the case that a player might have inquires.

Jay, Armando and Rena were a few more minutes out. Jay had to return the bike and the portal platforms were far too busy for Rena and Armando to make a jump. Luca fiddled with the small, thin plastic in his pocket, he’d offered to show Olivia, but she wanted to examine it with the team. She had her hands full with returning the car to the underground space and sorting out her stats.

A small ping reached Luca’s ears, he lazily raised his hand and pulled up his chat. ‘Change of plans, we can’t get through the portals, you guys mind meeting us in the usual liming spot?’ : Jay.

Luca leaned over and showed Olivia the message, she nodded and swiped away her screen. He sat quietly on the pole that stood between the stands and the track, swinging his legs with a tired look plastered on his face. With the adrenaline rush from the drive draining out, Luca was tired. It was just about eight in the real world and the sun was shining in the blue skies of the game.

He hardly batted an eye as Olivia held out a hand to him. It took them five minutes to appear on the roof, the trio’s face lighting up in joy at their appearance. “Darn good race out there today guys.” Jay grinned.

Luca groaned in response and thumped himself heavily on the ground, leaning his head on Armando’s shoulder. Said teenager hardly reacted, swiping away his screens and grinning at the team. Olivia was far more graceful, sitting on the ground like she was hardly affected by the race, Luca had no idea how she naturally kept such a calm aura all the time.

“So, you guys wanna see what we have?” Rena’s eyes glinted mischievously.

Luca eyed them wearily, they were up to something, “Is it more important than the key card in my pocket?”

“Speaking of which, can we see it?” Armando nudged him gently in an effort to not dislodge him from his shoulder. Luca dug his hand in his pocket and pulled out the card, placing it in the outstretched hand.

“It’s the real thing?” Luca eyed it wearily, the card passing from hand to hand. “Because it’d hate to be having a heart attack for nothing.”

“Yep, it looks just like the other one.” Armando held up the card, pulling his hand away gently and letting it float gently in the air. The careful wording finally registering in his head, Luca pushed himself off Armando and looked at the others.

“Other one?”

“Yep,” Jay pulled another card out of his pocket, passing it to Olivia. She twirled it in her fingers, a thoughtful look on her face.

“But how?”

“When I mentioned it the first time, I immediately sent Rena on it, it was a pretty simple quest.” Armando started, “The person that found it posted all the information on the news feed, so it wasn’t hard.”

“We were going to initially announce it, but then Luc found another, that’s when we knew we had to get it.” Rena continued, “A parkour quest to retrieve a trophy, under it was the card.”

“I guided you guys back on the track and then went to pick up Ren.” Jay finished.

“That’s some smooth planning, now I’m kinda wishing I was with you guys and not in this maniac’s car.” Luca yelped and laughed as Olivia aimed a punch at his shoulder. He placed his head on Armando’s shoulder again, “So what, we’re already two cards closer to the quest or something?”

“Just like that, yea.”

“Doesn’t this seem too easy?” Olivia placed the card next to its twin, watching as it began to slowly spin.

“Coincidence?”

“Did you know that coincidence is the improbable concurrence or near-concurrence of seemingly related events or circumstances that have no causal relation.” Armando belted out perfectly, not even paying attention to the others.

“For real?” Luca turned to face him, not moving his head off his shoulder, “Do you just go reading textbooks for fun?”

“I wouldn’t say fun, but it was interesting.”

“If I ever meet you in real life, I’m taking you out to a bar or at least a stri-.” Jay successfully dodged the fist Rena aimed at him cutting off his trail of words and pulling one of the cards and fiddling with it.

“Wait, if coincidence is that, then that means it was by lack of casual relation of the race and the appearance of the other card that we got it?” Luca rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

“Yep, something like that-“ Armando interrupted himself by laughing as Jay collapsed on the ground, groaning as if in pain from their science talk. The genius was never offended by Jay’s antics, knowing that it was done with the intention to make him laugh and feel more comfortable over-talking them.

“Guys… take a look at this.” Rena held up the card she’d stolen from Jay. Luca sat up and plucked it from her offered hand. This was the first time he was properly looking at it and not clutching it from outside a car hitting almost two hundred miles an hour.

It was a slick, black card resembling a normal credit card. It had a thin band of gold going printed length ways on it, to the top was a small, gold crown. On the front was the word ‘Race’ printed in a calligraphic style with gold ink. He flipped it over and read the words. “‘Flashing ‘larms, Beams of light’ Though, not timed, One must be prime, See you on the other side.’ Naijal Sun likes poems a little too much.” Luca groaned, flicking the card at Armando.

“Fun news, the other card has a poem to,” Jay waved his, the word ‘Pace’ written on it. He recited the poem ‘Ignorant the brave, Weary the wise, These brothers will fight, Knowledgeable is the one who picks up the sword, Brave is the one who picks up the pen,’ Yikes, I feel like some kind of prophet.”

“Wait, what does the front of that card say?” Armando held his hand out. He held both of them side by side. “Is it possible that both of them reference each other?”

“You mean the cards?” Olivia spoke up, “It would make sense… if the main poem is about the quest, then the cards might be clues?”

“Exactly. Let me pull them up.” Luca pulled up his screen, placing it next to the cards. “Look, their names, might not just be a reference to their quests.”

“It might be a reference to the poem!” Armando’s eyes lit up, “Look, at the very beginning, they say ‘ten cards, ten places’ we have to find ten cards, right?”

“’Race-y, Pace-y’ we have two cards, one is a race and the other a parkour pace.” Olivia placed her hand over her mouth in contemplation.

“Looks like we figured out three lines of the poem,” Jay frowned, “But another problem, the back of these cards have nothing to do with their quests.”

“It makes sense, why put the clue to find the card on the card you need to find,” Luca huffed, “So we need to find out which cards they reference.”

“What if they referenced the card forward?” Rena stared at the poems, “I mean, what if the poem on ‘Race’ is actually referencing uh, ‘lazy’?”

“That makes sense, but ‘lazy’ doesn’t really strike me as ‘One must be prime’, I’d be worried if I had to be in my prime to be lazy.” Jay scrunched his nose.

“No, wait, none of the words really match, I mean look they didn’t say ‘race’, they said race-y.” Olivia pulled a card, “What it lazy is actually something else?”

“Lazy, lazy, that’s it, Laze-y!” Jay’s eyes lit up, a maniacal grin on his face.

“Uh, repeating it doesn’t give us the magical chant to summon it.” Luca gave a deadpanned look. He yelped as Jay grabbed his arms and shook him roughly.

“No, ‘Beams of light’, he’s talking about lasers!” it took far to long for the rest of the team to register what Jay was trying to say.

“Holy Eternal, you just found a clue.” Luca shook Jay’s shoulders with the same enthusiasm, “We just found a clue, Mando?”

“Yea, I think it fits.” He grinned before frowning, “The only problem is how do we find this laser quest?”

“That, unfortunately, needs to remain a question for later or tomorrow.” Olivia was standing, flipping through her screens, “It’s almost nine, I need to go check on my siblings.”

“Right, the real world is a thing.” Luca groaned.

“Yep, and what fun it is.” Jay groaned back, pulling him to his feet. They pulled up their screens, “Till next time folks.”