Chapter 206: 34: Unexpected Choice

"You helped make a quest?" Nao1 questioned curiously.

MatchlessMinion answered even faster than Danika could, "She got a job with Starcraft Technologies, and even made it into the Design section." 

Ryullusion complimented her, "You must be doing very well to have already been working on a published quest." 

Saaki instructed, "You have to point out which things you worked on as we do it!" 

Danika didn't quite know how to explain that she'd designed the entire quest and that her seniors had mostly helped detail it, so instead she told Shrubbery, "If you don't want to it's OK, but I thought that since she was your mom you'd want to be the one to start it?"

Shrubbery blinked at her and asked, "You want all of us to preserve the memory of Eyes on the Sky?"

"What else would we pick?" Kit asked. 

"Since the whole guild is here, I thought we were going to preserve the memory of Endless Song," Shrubbery replied with embarrassment.

"Why don't you decide," Aishin suggested, and pressed the token into her hands again. 

This time Shrubbery accepted it, and they made their way down to the riverside. Danika was a little curious about whether the little pond shrine for the Black Turtle would have worked, but she thought that maybe the game might mix the God into a quest that started in his own pond, and didn't mention it. 

The centaur merchants seemed to have stayed late, and had lit lanterns and stayed open until they reached the little marketplace. The traveling merchant was waiting there too. Kit ran over to him and the couple held hands and exchanged a kiss before starting to talk quietly. The moon hadn't risen yet, so they all lingered a bit, and bought a few things after all. 

Danika was low on coin again so she zipped over to Aishin and sat on his shoulder as he browsed the centaur wares. "Why can't you just reset the VR console at your place when I can finally shapeshift so that we can go back to the hotspring together," she asked curiously, but quietly so that they wouldn't get teased.

Aishin murmured back just as quietly, "I probably will, but last time I asked about resetting it for a weekend my dad seemed reluctant to give it up. He pointed out that using the full motion console is better for me and that I get a lot more play time when I use it, which is true, but I think he's just having fun playing." 

"Can't he afford his own system?" she questioned a little doubtfully.

"Sure," Aishin agreed softly, "but I've been thinking about something else that's pretty expensive that I'd like to get installed at our place." He glanced at her and then continued, "I can't afford it on my own anytime soon, so I don't really want to suggest that he spends a lot on a second VR system." 

"Oh, OK," she replied simply. She was a bit curious, but Ryullusion kept glancing at them with a gentle smile once in awhile, and she wasn't certain that the dark haired elf couldn't hear them talking.

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When the moon rose, the members of Endless Song gathered at the riverbank.  

Shrubbery held the token and then said quietly, "Thank you for wanting to remember my mom, but I think the image ZipZing gave me in the fallen star, and all the kind words are enough. She really seemed to be having a lot of fun with starting this guild, so I think she'd want us to keep playing happily in it. I want to preserve the memory of our beginning." 

"OK!","Sounds good!", "Yeah." A brief chorus of supporting replies answered her. 

Shrubbery activated the token, and answered the questions that only she could hear, "I will make this journey with my guild to preserve the memory of the first days of Endless Song."

The path the moon cast on the water brightened and shifted until it was a white carpet, so bright that it was almost painful to focus on, that touched the shore at Shrubbery's feet. She took a deep breath and stepped forward onto the water's surface, and the light supported her. 

They all followed her one at a time as she walked forward. The river and the centaur town fell behind and below them with surprising swiftness and sandy banks rose to obscure the view on either side. It didn't take them long to reach the broad river, and their path was revealed to be nothing but a small brook that had branched off to carry them to meet its mother. 

Shrubbery took another step forward and gasped as her feet sank into several inches of water. Danika hovered nervously, but didn't speak. Aishin glanced between them and then smiled with pure amusement. 

A long narrow boat moved slowly up the river toward them. It was much bigger than the little ferry that Danika and Ariana had designed, but Danika had removed that and simply left a hook for "the boatman to offer his services". Takahashi had set the few details of the boatman that Danika had kept. The figure was hooded, and would demand two coins per passenger. The coin value of the coins didn't matter. 

In the earthly legends it was modeled after, it was one coin laid over each eye, but in 'Living Jade Empire', it was one coin for each of the Twins. There was nothing in the quest that dictated whether you went upriver or down either. You could meet the twins at either the source, a small spring fed oasis full of life, or where the river met the dark sea full of stars. 

At first Danika had envisioned it as a struggle to reach the source, but Takahashi had quietly pointed out that it was not wrong to let life carry you along, and that what mattered was the voyage. She'd felt very young and naive when she'd absorbed that gentle correction, and her river had expanded to have both a beginning and an end, like the life that she'd thought would be remembered, or forgotten. 

Shrubbery glanced back at her, but ZipZing didn't indicate what she should do. The fee was very small and there was room enough for them all to travel together, so she paid it, and Endless Song crowded onto the long narrow boat. Shrubbery didn't indicate a direction to the ferryman, except by taking a position at the front of the boat and leaning out just enough that she could look forward.

As soon as the last member stepped aboard, the boat slid silently up the river. Danika had ridden on a real river before and knew that the silence was a bit unnatural.  

A tall red winged water bird watched them from the shore, and then launched itself into the air in a flutter of wings that captured all of their gazes. It was their first sight of one of the twins, or one of their representatives, since they could watch through the eyes of any bird if they wished.  

It was difficult to discern if the familiar golden sands of the God of Dreams on either side of them were moving, or if the boat was moving. Danika gave a startled gasp when the first note of music hummed across the water, because music had not been included in the quest by design.  

Aishin flashed a grin at her and pointed to Ryullusion who had somehow found enough space to draw out his formerly haunted harp and play. Some invisible cue passed among them, and the members of Underneath sang the first lines of a song that she'd never heard before, in practiced harmony.

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