Lorenz opened his capsule and sat up, running a hand over his short, curly hair. A quick glance around the room showed that his mother's capsule was empty as well. He could hear a faint humming coming from the kitchen.
He stood up, stretching. He'd researched the capsules after Cora had forced these two on his little family. There were versions that were for medical use that could stimulate muscles while being used. The thought was intriguing, but the price made him wince.
Lorenz had money. He'd worked some summer jobs before getting swept up into sports, and then he'd opened a small securities account and given control of it over to Cora. He hadn't expected much, but Cora had the same gift as her Great-Aunt Addy. His little account had mushroomed.
Lorenz wasn't planning on touching the money until after he graduated. He wasn't quite sure what he was going to do with his life yet. There were offers from a few research labs as well as notes from his coach about scouts. Lorenz had no illusions. His skills were enough to survive in the pros for a few years, but it was always good to have a backup.
He thought about the game as he walked to the kitchen. Orrin's weird book was interesting. If he had the time, he planned on flipping through it when he rejoined the game.
"Smells good," he said as he entered the kitchen.
"Of course," his mother replied. She hummed cheerfully. Lorenz recognized the song as a new ballad that was sweeping through the player base. "Isn't this a catchy little thing?" She asked, smiling at him as she lifted the skillet off of the stove.
"I guess," Lorenz said, skipping backwards to avoid the smoking pan. He ducked into their small dining room and slid into a chair. "You seem to like it."
"It was written about me!" His mother said, putting the pan on a trivet on the table. The trivet was in the shape of a cheerful, smiling sun. "Can you believe it? Your mom's still got it!"
Lorenz paused in the act of reaching towards the food, spoon held over the pan. He glanced at his mother's happy face as she disappeared back into the kitchen for tortillas.
"What do you mean, it was written for you?" He asked, putting the spoon down. "Just who wrote it for you?"
"Oh, Lorenz, so serious," his mother teased as she slid into her chair, setting the tortillas on the table. "Fix your fajitas before they get cold."
"Mom, I'm serious!" Lorenz protested, watching as she fixed herself a fajita and then jumped up to get salsa and sour cream. "Mom!"
"Lorenz," his mother murmured as she returned. "You're nearly grown. You can't possibly think that I'm going to be by myself forever, can you?"
"Yes!" Lorenz replied, scooping up a fajita. He topped it with a dollop of sour cream. "You're a mom."
"I know. I'm looking at my kid right now." His mom took a bite of food. She thoughtfully chewed and swallowed. "So, what is my wonderful son doing in the game? Still wandering around that magic place?"
"Maraca," Lorenz said. "I'm studying at one of the libraries in Maraca. It's so interesting!"
It wasn't until after dinner when he was going through his study materials that he realized his mother still hadn't answered any questions about the mysterious author of the song. By then, his mother had already disappeared back into her capsule.
*****
"Moms are people, too," Heidi said as she dumped a dumpling into a small bowl of sweet soy sauce.
"You're not helping," Lorenz complained. He watched as she happily devoured her dumpling. "How many of those things have you eaten today?"
"Not enough," Heidi promptly replied. "So, your game name is 'Lorenz' with no numbers or letters or anything?"
"Of course," Lorenz replied, offended. "Why would I run around with a silly name? I'd be ashamed to tell my buddies if they asked."
"Your buddies are in the playoffs and threatening bodily harm to Gerald in private," Heidi said. "Not anywhere the authorities will get a whiff, of course." She picked up another dumpling. "Why are they so yummy?"
Lorenz shook his head. He'd bribed Heidi to come by offering her cheesesteak dumplings. Personally, he thought they were disgusting, but Heidi had added them to her list of favorite foods. There were times he believed that as long as it was in dumpling form, Heidi would eat anything.
"So, I should just leave it alone?" Lorenz asked.
"Yes, because she's your mom, and you can't just interfere," Heidi said, counting up the remaining dumplings. "I wish you'd caught me before I ate breakfast. These things are awesome."
"If you say so." Lorenz tapped his fingers on the table. "So, what are you up to in the game? Are you still doing beginner quests?"
"Nope, I'm roaming around right now. If you stay on the roads, nothing will attack you, except bandits, of course. Then again, where I'm at, there are official patrols so no bandits." Heidi separated her dumplings in pairs and smiled at them. "I haven't decided just what to specialize in yet. So far, I have a quest to pick some flowers and get a few hides. Easy peasy because the critters are guarding the flowers."
"Sounds complicated," Lorenz murmured. He stared at the wall in the distance. The pictures there were of the various celebrities that had graced the establishment. "I'm just doing research. A friend of mine has me holding a book for him."
"A book? What kind of book?" Heidi asked, looking up.
"An old one." Lorenz stood up. "I'm heading home. Thanks for the talk."
"I mostly ate and listened to you complain about your mom's secret admirer," Heidi pointed out. She laughed. "See you in the game, then. Where are you? Maraca?"
"That's it," Lorenz agreed. He tossed down a twenty and walked to the door.
He thought as he walked home. The book was interesting, more interesting than he thought. He hadn't had a chance to flip through it. Lorenz was fully aware that that was probably why he was interested in it. He had an unquenchable curiosity about things, and all the game books were new and interesting.
Chasing one topic could lead to four or five more. Those could also potentially mushroom. So far, he'd been through three notebooks in-game, each full of notes that started from a simple question he'd had about casting an easy water spell.
The whole thing stunk of physics. That only whetted his appetite for research. He was currently banned from the university's research labs, much to his mentors' dismay and couldn't play basketball to his team's fury. It was rare that they were in agreement with each other. Usually, they were bickering over Lorenz's free time.
Since his entire quarter was basically free time, there was a lot of time to be divvied. He only needed six hours to graduate, and that was being done through his research project. His mentors had signed off on his final grade before the quarter was even a week old and had redirected his energies to supervising their own labs as a senior research assistant.
Until Gerald, he'd been pretty happy going from lab to practice to game.
He kicked thoughts of the guy out of his mind and found his attention once more snagged on the question of Orrin's book. Lorenz hadn't heard of the Towers of Midnight or the Midnight Sect that supposedly ran them before Orrin's story, a fact which fascinated him. He'd thought that he'd read most of the fairy tales his first week in the library. Clearly, he'd missed this one.
Which led to thoughts that perhaps it was considered a pseudohistory, much like King Arthur. It was something based on a real story but had gotten a bit distorted as time passed.
He mused on that as he entered his apartment building. Lorenz wondered just how much time had been spent on the game to create so many different stories and cultures. The whole research-based culture of Maraca was fascinating when compared to the maritime ones of the coast and the more feudal ones of the countries bordering the little city-state.
He let himself in and checked the security settings almost automatically. Gerald's little stunts had resparked his interest in making sure his residence was secure. Lorenz shook his head. He'd thought that he'd be past this once his father had been transferred to a more secure facility.
Lorenz wandered into the room they'd set up the capsules. His mother's was sealed, a sure sign she was once again in the game. He worried that she was becoming addicted. Still, she'd been thrilled when she'd made her first profit from the game a couple of days earlier, selling off some gold for cash.
Even he had been surprised by that. He'd no clue that the beginners' areas held anything of worth, but after thinking about it, he'd understood. The game had been going on for a year already, and most of the player base was hovering around between the nineties and one thirties. A lot of the simpler potions and constructs needed low level items, but those were usually in the beginner areas which most players didn't really patronize any more. They were more interested in exploring the newer places that kept being discovered.
Lorenz didn't regret playing the game. It was better than sitting and stewing about everything that had happened over the last year. They had all been busy with their own things, and no one had really thought that Cora would ever be involved with someone like that. They hadn't even told Nate at Cora's request which Lorenz thought was a bit stupid because even Nate would realize that something was up with Lorenz sitting at home and Cora a virtual hermit.
Not to mention the news coverage and the upcoming trial.
Lorenz sighed. Cora had clearly been on damage control and hadn't been really thinking. They were all going to have to testify, especially her. She'd been the one to break the case in first place.
He climbed into his capsule. At least it wasn't something he had to deal with right now. Nothing was really supposed to happen until the fall.
When he opened his eyes to see his resting space in the library, he inhaled the refreshing, calming scent of old books and ink. It permeated the entire building, even the commissaries. He stood up from his bed and looked around.
His resting space was better than most. He was a librarian's pet. It hadn't been hard. He was usually immersed in research, and his topics were branching and varied. Most of the new magicians who used their services usually focused on one specific arm of magic and mostly one spell and its variants.
Lorenz was interested in everything. He was fascinated by the mechanics of it all. There were numerous treatises on magic's shape, structure and origins. None of them tended to agree with each other. The different views were almost elaborate in their denials of each other.
"Ah, Lorenz, still researching Corington's Theory of Magic?" A serene voice asked as he exited the dorm area.
Lorenz turned to see Librarian Mirabelle. She was the Head Librarian's assistant, responsible for arranging research spaces for the incoming magicians. She reminded him, almost inexplicably, of a mix of Tyra Banks and his fifth-grade teacher, Ms. Rogers. He knew Tyra Banks from a long, miserable summer when Heidi and Cora had discovered a long series of shows she'd hosted.
That was what made Lorenz run for sports. He'd hunted up Cal, one of the gardeners' kids and gone to play basketball with him and his friends. Before that, he'd been subjected to long, long hours of first judging who was 'smizing' and then, once they got to the seasons with the male models, posing himself.
Putting up with Cal and his friends' jibes as he learned the game had been worth getting away from that. Then, once he'd gotten the hang of it, he'd silenced them with his growing skills.
Lorenz wondered what Cal was up to nowadays. Last he heard, his parents had used their inheritance to buy a house in a nice part of town.
"I have put that away and am now interested in a new thing I've recently heard about. A Tower of Midnight, I think it was, Ms. Mirabelle," Lorenz replied politely.
"Now that's a thing I haven't heard about in a while," Librarian Mirabelle said with a raised eyebrow.
That gave Lorenz pause. As far as he was aware, the research topics of Orrin and his fellows circulated through the librarians faster than most gossip. Orrin's master, after all, was the actual owner of this library. Most of the libraries in Maraca were owned by one grandmaster mage or another.
"It's just something I heard about in passing," Lorenz assured her.
"Well, legends are always interesting research topics," Librarian Mirabelle murmured. She gave him a smile. "Don't spend too much time on it, though. It will distract you from more important matters."
"I won't," Lorenz assured her. He watched as she walked away, frowning.
He walked towards his research area, pausing to mention the topic to passing librarians. He got much the same reaction as Mirabelle's. Lorenz felt a chill. At least one of the librarians should have offered him a direction to go to find more information. All of them brushed off the topic, and at least three acted as if he hadn't said anything at all.
Lorenz came to an abrupt stop at the edge of his research area. The large table was bare. He circled around it and found that the pile of books that usually sat next to his chair was also missing. The only books remaining were the private pile that was now stacked on his chair.
Those books couldn't be moved without his permission, and their appearance was generic. It was a safeguard against mages stealing each other's research materials. There had actually been a war about that a couple of centuries ago.
Lorenz let out a breath as he realized he'd stored Orrin's book in his private stash before logging out. Then he swept his eyes around the surrounding tables. They were littered with books, some providing makeshift forts to protect their readers from prying eyes.
He picked up the private stash and chucked it into his inventory. It filled up around half of the available slots, but Lorenz didn't care.
He now had a new, interesting field of study to look for.