The Legend of William Oh

Chapter 69: A Missed Opportunity

Jason Salazar***Stephan Akul***

“Its technology surpasses anything I’ve ever seen, My lord. At first glance it appears to be based on my own re

“That’s why I asked you to keep their attention away from my girls. They’ve got controlling Tangled down to rote. If they what those three are, they will send a Handler after them, and they will become weapons again.”

“I see.”

“Can you do us a favor?” Jean asked. “I know I’m asking a lot, bu-“

“I’m in,” Will interrupted. “I believe that baker girls are cute and should be protected.”

Jean gave a surprisingly youthful chortle, her wrinkles fading momentarily before returning as she sobered up, her mouth set in a thin line.

Will thought. That was one of the things that’d been bugging him. Tangled were a relatively recent invention, so there was no way an old woman could be one…unless she had convinced herself she one through a healthy dose of acclimation sickness pressing against a mind with weak Focus under heavy stress.

The way Will saw it, in order to retain her memories, Jean had distanced herself from them…assuming an identity she believed would be tough as nails and capable of handling the stress. An old woman, with a lifetime of experience to dull the sting of traumatic memories.

A humorless crone with an iron will. She’d played the part long enough to believe it, without realizing.

“What do you need?” Will asked.

“If you could continue to…make a spectacle of yourself, that would attract attention away from us.” Jean said. “The Wyrd family does like you.”

“Matter of fact, I was already planning on making a spectacle of myself at the 25 and under tournament,” Will said. “No sweat.”

“And you need to stop coming around here.” Jean said, her expression severe. “Drawing attention to yourself is pointless if-“

“I lead them right to you.” Will finished, guts twisting.

Will’s heart sank, and his breathing sped up at the prospect of cutting himself off from them. before he could sink any deeper, he took control of himself and sucked in a huge lungful of air before letting it go.

“Alright,” Will said, despite feeling all right about it.

“I’m sorry.” Jean said with a glimmer of sadness peeking through her stoic façade.

“I know,” Will said, biting back the anger. She wasn’t the appropriate target for it. “Tell Anna…tell her something that doesn’t make me seem like an asshole.”

“Fair enough,” Jean said with a nod.

Will reached out and shook Jean’s gnarled, calloused hands. Then, before she could react, he brought the veiny, liver-spotted, age-gnarled hand to his lips and kissed the back of her hand, causing Jean’s eyes to go round with shock.

Decades faded away for a few heartbeats, revealing the face underneath the self-imposed disguise before she recovered and yanked her hand out of his with all the strength of a level 30 Tangled.

… Will tapped his fingers together. A sensation…something was tickling the back of his mind. There was more to this, but he wasn’t sure what it was yet.

Jean had told him of the truth…but something was off.

Will’s mind was like a dog worrying at a bone. It loved chewing on these sorts of things, and would continue to do so whether he wanted to or not.

“S-Save that nonsense for naïve little girls who don’t know better, y-you c-cad,” Jean stammered, backing away from him, her age returning in an instant as she drew the old woman persona back around herself.

“Will do.” Will tipped his imaginary hat. “Then, until this ugly business blows over, best of luck to all four of you young ladies.”

“Too sharp,” Jean muttered, arms crossed and shaking her head as she watched him leave.

Once Will was outside of the bakery, he shook the bad feelings out.

As much as he hated to admit it, there were more important things right now to turn his mind towards than Baker Girls In Trouble.

Namely, winning the tournament and not getting turned into a puppet or gutted by the Church of Granesh.

He’d considered running away in the dead of night, disappearing from the city and trying his luck at catching a bus up to the sixth floor…but the risk was nearly identical to that of participating in the tournament, while the reward was tepid at best.

Will needed to devote all his energy to developing strategies for the tournament.

But the back of his mind would continue chewing that bone.