Courtney throws her hands up, “fine, he’s our teammate.” Rosha wraps her arms around Courtney before she can stop her, “there there. It would have been nice to go off on our own but Jason seems like a nice enough guy. At least he isn’t constantly staring at your butt like the idiots from school.”

Courtney grumbles, “you just didn’t have to deal with that nonsense. Who would dare stare at you after all?” Rosha lifts one of her arms and puts her finger over Courtney’s lips, “I still insist they just wouldn’t bother with someone flat like me when put next to someone like you. Now this is nice and all but I need to get to bed. That and you need more time to ignore my orders to not obsessively research Energy users. Don’t give me that look. We’ve known each other since childhood. With such an interesting thing popping up how could you not check it out? Though I expect you to be asleep when it is time for my watch.”

Rosha stands up and stretches. With a drawn out yawn she heads off to bed leaving Courtney alone on her perch. Up on the rock Courtney pulls the blanket up around her having felt colder. Left with her thoughts she pulls up a browser and starts her research into Energy. It doesn’t take long though before she hits a brick wall.

Energy users are a rare breed indeed. Some call them the force users of fantasy because of the perceived mix of ranges and how past players had a tendency to at some point play around with laser swords. Qi and Mana users had limited success with it as their pools ran out too quickly. Only a couple of very, shall we say, themed Energy users ever succeeded at it until matters of copyright and lawyers came for them.

Them not having a pool so much as a fount of power let them manage it. The difference between a squirt gun and a hose. This however is about as far as it gets. Even those original forces users are now gone as they had already been old when they started. Medical technology is good now but not that good. She sighs and types up an email.

Courtney might not like to use her connections with Rosha’s father but some things are just beyond her current network. Especially when over half of that came from him already. Once again she makes a mental note to start anew in here as she doubts she can weed all the double agents out. Not that it would stop new spies from infiltrating her group but at least they wouldn’t be so open about it.

‘And send. There, that wasn’t so hard now was it? ...Nope that’s a lie. He is a nice guy but such a helicopter when it comes to Rosha. If not for her mother, I doubt she would have come out so nice. When she first started here, I missed her. Just glad she didn’t question me turning up at the city she went to. I can forgive her father for quite a lot after his assistant dropped that little tidbit of info on me.’

‘I do have to wonder about her time with Jason. She isn’t lying about him being a nice guy. Though that may have more to do with how he seems entirely focused on his training. Rosha might have been confused at his recent behavior but she will get used to it. From even the little time I personally looked into him this is a common enough thing. Anytime he has some new insight about his martial arts he gets like this.’

‘Good thing her father has reigned himself in. He never reacted this well to what amounts to a guy ignoring her. On the other hand he would also react when they didn’t either. Almost feel bad for our male schoolmates. There was just no winning for them. It raised the number of couples if only because already being with someone else was a good excuse for them.’

‘That all aside I need to get Jason off to the side at some point and grill him. We already know of a few of his skills but I should know more. He just isn’t follow any of the guides. Not that I blame him with his combat skills and Energy use. Though really it just comes back around to that. The only normal thing he seems to do is grow plants and even that isn’t normal, not really. Who ever heard of someone so low level taking plants with them. Sure some druid types bring the occasional plant with them but not like he is.’

Courtney spends the rest of her shift analyzing every scrap of information she could get her hands on. Even going so far as to reread the entire file she had gathered on Jason. While she rationalizes it as being professional in the end she doesn’t want to see him hurt Rachel. While Jame’s cult has suddenly developed a number of financial problems, it doesn’t heal what has already happened.

Rachel might have tried to hide it but that fool of a cultist had hurt her. To have the very first group, she joins after getting out from under her father’s constant surveillance contain such element scarred her. Courtney suspected that half the reason she was so set on staying with Jason stemmed from this. To prove to herself that not everyone is out to betray her. It doesn’t matter that she had no real choice in the group composition she still felt it was her fault. 

Though the rabbit helps as well. Nothing like a cute bundle of fur to brighten the mood. Courtney already has a source for another rabbit if things with Jason does fall out. Just one at the moment but she has been on the side of adding another so they can both have one. Rabbits are quite cute in the game when you don’t have to worry about any of the extra nonsense with owning one.

Akhier

Thank you for reading! Next two chapters free on my Patreon ( https://www.patreon.com/dragonheartednovels ), five chapters beyond that for only a dollar, and many more for five dollars (two chapters release a week at this tier).