I thrashed, my HP draining, but I’d landed in the center of the river and it was too deep for me to get a foothold. I tried to swim out, but the searing, viscous fluid wouldn’t get out of my way fast enough. My world was pain and the alarm of fading health.

  The edges of my screen went black. The blackness grew thicker. Now there was only a tunnel of vision—only a lens of it—

  Fwoop.

  The sound came, so friendly in the midst of my own mindless noise that it made me stop thrashing for a half-second.

  Fwoop.

  The blackness moved away, then returned again.

  Fwoop.

  With each noise, the blackness receded a little, then came back, like a wave on a shore. Whatever was healing me was doing battle with the lava. Whatever was healing me probably needed mana, though, and the lava didn’t. I kept swimming.

  My feet touched ground.

  I hauled myself out slowly, punching through health potions as soon as my arms were free. I collapsed atop the hot stone screen that I’d left near the river—the exact spot where Wapum had slipped in.

  “Dave…?” I heard myself say. There was no response, and the fwoop noise came again. This time, I heard a male grunt, and looked up.

  Hergvor stood on the little ridge above me, waving his hand as he cast the heal spell. I took a rallying breath, then opened my Conscript menu. I had set him to follow me back at the Gem Baths. He must have gotten here just in time, but how had he switched over to healing?

  Dave. Dave must have switched him. But where was he? I scanned the sky, but there was no sign of him. Maybe he’d show up in a second, but first things first: I twisted around.

  Wapum had not left a body behind, but there was a glowing orb of blue magic hovering a few inches above the lava a few feet away from me. I crawled over to it, and it ended up being lootable. It was how they formed corpses out of Acolytes in the game.

  The loot menu displayed a one-time-use Lightning Strike orb, something called an Intensify Orb, a big pile of money, and a grimoire for learning the Light spell Prism Shatter. When I looked closer, it turned out that the Intensify Orb could be used to double the efficacy of any other one-time-use item.

  All in all, the haul wasn’t that exciting, which meant that the Intensify Orb was probably a better drop than I thought it was. I’d never even heard of Prism Shatter, either, but spells were always red items unless they were upgraded. So even really good spells showed up as red.

  I filed the loot away in my head for later use. “FATE,” I rasped. “Can you locate Dave?”

  A beat passed, and then FATE’s smooth voice said, According to your Team menu, he is near the entrance to the Gem Baths.

  The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

  My Team menu…? Oh, shit. Remnant would know that. I’d just gone and made myself look suspicious.

  “Thanks, FATE. Sorry. I’m all shook up. Nearly died.”

  She didn’t reply, but I could have sworn I sensed puzzlement in that silence.

  Right. Remnant wouldn’t have apologized.

  “What are you still waiting around for?” I snapped at her. “You’re dis—”

  Remnant, I would be remiss if I did not point something out.

  I blinked. FATE had never spoken out of turn before.

  “Yeah? What?”

  Dave is an unreliable partner as it is, but until now, he was reined in by the fact that he would die if you died. Now, that is no longer the case.

  “How do you know about…?” I said, trailing off as it hit me.

  “Oh, shit.”

  I must have hit my head hard, not to see the obvious opportunity for betrayal sitting right in front of my face. Game Guides all across the Hunt were incentivized to help their Hunter because if their Hunter lost, they, too, would be killed.

  So Dave had been helping me all this time… but then the Developers had essentially cut him a deal, right there under my nose. They had disguised it as a perk, and the real Remnant would have seen through it, no problem. Hell, the real Talon should have seen through it.

  I had always been too trusting. Even with a gun in my hand.

  “But if he lets me die to get out of here,” I said, my mind struggling for any sort of argument, “then he won’t lose any time off his sentence.”

  That’s true, but your sentence was 99 years, FATE said. His was 3 years, and he’s been with you for two seasons. Game Guides get only one year off their sentences in their Hunters survive, and once they sign on with a Hunter, they can’t leave that Hunter, even if their sentence runs out.

  She gave me a few beats to figure out the meaning myself. So if he leaves now, and you’re dead….

  “Then he’d only be in prison one more year,” I finished for her. “Which really isn’t that long to wait.”

  If Dave was contracted to serve as my Game Guide even if his sentence was 0, then not only was he safe to let me die, he was incentivized to do it. The Developers had offered this supposed perk because they wanted him to kill me. And I’d let that loophole slip right in, giving Dave all the opportunity he needed to just sit back and watch me get killed.

  I’d called for him to pull me out of the lava, even to swoop in and slow my fall. There were any number of things he could have done to prevent me from nearly dying.

  Yet he had done none of them. And now, he had vanished.

  I rose on shaky feet, and I was about to ask FATE if she could track Dave for me when I realized that FATE now had the same chance as Dave.

  “What about you, FATE?” I asked, a note of anger creeping into my voice. “You found out about the perk, so you must know that you won’t die, either, if I die. So why not betray me? Why are you even talking to me now?”

  Well, for one, I’m not a prisoner, FATE said. I don’t win time off my sentence in this game. I also don’t get anything at all if you die. Leaving you early does not benefit me; only your win grants me any prizes.

  Furthermore, as you know, an Auxiliary can leave a Hunter at any time for any reason. Yes, normally we die if you die, but we can still leave you anytime between battles. We will then be replaced by a volunteer.

  Really? You can just leave? I almost said, but stopped myself. Dave had mentioned something about that.

  For another, you’ve made threats to… certain people that I care about. I think you made it very clear that if I betrayed you, I would regret it.

  I swallowed and said the most Remnant thing that came to mind: “Glad to see you haven’t forgotten. But if you betrayed me and I died, I could hardly hunt down your loves ones—”

  “You never die. You always squeak out of everything. I can’t take the risk.”

  She had a point. I brushed down my pants and checked the HUD for Bridget.

  “Smart woman,” I said.

  It is why you chose me.

  I nodded. “Now let’s go find Dave.”