Matched

Matched

    Match officials stuck a syringe into my arm and talked among themselves about the waiting box controls for lighting. I didn’t ask them what they were giving me.

         It kind of didn’t matter anymore – I had been selected to go into the arena, take out my opponent, and hopefully avoid being shiskabobbed by a random bone mutation or blasted by some unforeseen energy mass out of someone else’s foot.

Knight in Real Life: Epilogue, Legacy of the Robe

Knight in Real Life:

Epilogue, Legacy of the Robe

         Two days later Bethany summoned Paul to the library.

          “What's this about? Any more orders for bean tea?” Paul shut his mouth when Bethany set an empty gauntlet on the table next to her new laptop.

          “Library Wi-Fi connection, basically.” Bethany pointed at the screen. “Read it.”

          Paul used his finger to speed-read the email. Then his finger fell away as his eyes went over the words a second time. “I don’t get it.”

          “‘Bethany, your hunch excavated more evidence. The genealogy has another section. A cartograph encapsulated in a wall has been discovered in the cottage of the village where the monk dwelt.’” Bethany looked at Paul. “Do you want to see the map Professor Rycliffe sent?”

          “Dude…” Paul opened the attachment without asking. Bethany said nothing, but she made a mental note to teach him some manners.

          They looked over the digitally scanned version of the ancient map.

         “Do you see what I see?”

         “Yeah, a terrible map of the Atlantic. There, what’s that signature, what is that?”

          Bethany beamed. “That, my good sir, is the name of the author of ‘The Dyed Rose’.”

        “Uh, Beth, how certain are you?”

        “I'd stake my bachelors' on it. I would know that handwriting anywhere.”

         “And that?” Paul pointed to the edge of the map, where a small ship decorated the unknown waters. “‘The Sleeping Maiden’.”

        “Oh no.” The figurehead of the tiny ship they saw looked just like –

       “Lisa,” they said together. The picture detailed an angelically curved face hugging a bunch of printed flatsheets.
        "He did a decent job with the shape of them." Paul traced his finger over the pair of antiquated headphones. "Beth? Can you see me?"
         "Yeah." Bethany answered slowly. She stroked the gauntlet, raising a ring that only metal of a thick density can. "It really happened. He was really here. The author. Maybe not drawing the map, but he definitely had his hand on this."
         Paul stared at the parchment face of Lisa. "I'd have to say he did."

⟴⟴⟴ 

Knight in Real Life: Part Five, Such Sweet Sorrow

Knight in Real Life:

Part Five, Such Sweet Sorrow

         Getting the knight was surprisingly easy, Bethany thought, especially considering his sudden fascination with T-shirts.
         Getting the coffee, not so much. She and knight were still waiting thirty minutes later when Paul finally walked in the room.

Knight in Real Life: Part Four, Unraveling

Knight in Real Life:

Part Four, Unraveling

         Bethany arrived out of breath at the elevator. A crowd of Greeks piled into the elevator ahead of her. She cursed herself for not caring to learn the locations of the emergency stairways after two years.

Knight in Real Life: Part Three, Crossings

Knight in Real Life:

Part Three, Crossings

         Right after seminar Bethany opened her email and discovered yes, the professor would meet with her, but only for a couple minutes after twelve. It was twelve-ten now. Bethany shoved what she could into her bag and bolted down the hall to the stairs and the fourth floor.
           The door was cracked slightly open, and a murmuring spilled into the hallway. Bethany paced back and forth as some boy of a man demanded to know why his grade was only a B.

Knight in Real Life: Part Two, Brief Acquainting

Knight in Real Life:

Part Two, A Brief Acquainting

“Are you nuts? Bring him down here?” Paul asked. Throughout their conversation they spoke in hisses, although the clanking metal plates of the anachronistic knight caused enough of an echo to make that practice a waste of effort. “I can see why they want to give you a doctorate.”

Knight in Real Life: Part One, The Prodigal Son

Knight in Real Life:

Part One, Prodigal Son

       Sitting on the edge of Bethany’s desk was a man obscured by a grimy set of full armor. Bethany raised her forehead from her forearms and squinted against the gray light reflected in the dull iron. She must have stayed up later than she thought. When she blinked and the apparition did not leave, but rather opened the hooded visor and bid her a “good day, fair maiden,” Bethany groaned.