Rose looked up at us and blinked a few times. “Thanks Sorsh,” she accepted the new woman’s hand and got up a little unsteadily. “Good timing.”

  Saoirse smirked, “Would you expect anything less?”

  Rose chuckled. It was clear these two knew each other. Rose hadn’t been playing that long so this new person must be someone she knew before Infinity Tale. She turned to me, “I need to go. I am so happy you are ok. You can trust Saoirse here, she’s good people.” Rose patted the ranger’s arm and then disappeared.

  I looked at the empty spot where Rose had just been. What in H E double hockey sticks the fuck was going on? Annoyed, I asked as much.

  “What the fuck?”

  Even Dekka, was glaring at the newcomer.

  “Let’s get moving,” Saoirse said. “I will tell you everything we know as we go. It’s not safe to stay here too long.”

  This did nothing to make me feel less anxious. However I was excited to finally be promised some answers. It was about fucking time. “Ok,” I said. “By the way this is Dekka. Best dog to have ever dogged in the history of dogs.” Dekka looked up and wagged her little tail as regally as she could. This was an introduction she approved of.

  “I saw what she can do, and Rose told me about her.” The ranger who had seemed aloof thawed as she looked at the small terrier. “I am very pleased to meet you. Your reputation precedes you.”

  Dekka’s tail slowed.

  “All impressive things.” Saoirse reassured her.

  The tail continued.

  I brushed myself off and took a drink of water and we headed out.

  “Why did Rose have to leave?” I started with.

  Saoirse nodded as if she was anticipating this question. “Because it isn’t safe right now for you to be with your friends.”

  My heart felt like it stopped. “What do you mean?” I asked though I was sure she was going to continue.

  “The management of the game is interested in you. And it seems like they can’t easily see you.”

  I thought of the way the GM couldn’t see me and nodded.

  “So we have heard that they are tracking your friends to find you. Each of your friends who are playing have split up to different areas to try to confuse them.”

  Oh shit. I had split the party. That was never good.

  “Some have even taken to pretending to talk to you to add to the confusion,” she continued. “That was Barry’s idea. And I hear your friend Copperbeard is taking to it with alacrity.”

  I had to think for a moment for the meaning of that last word. But that did sound like the bard. “Who is telling you guys that the Infinity Tale's management want to find me?”

  Saoirse threw a nervous glance over her shoulder. “That we should talk about when we get further away.”

  “Ok. So how do you know Rose?”

  Saoirse relaxed at the change of topic. “Oh, Neil, or I guess as you know him, Rose, and I go way back. We were friends in the real world in high school.”

  I looked over at her. That change of demeanor, nervous now relaxed spooked me. Just how much danger was I in? This stranger seemed very worried about what was going on.

  “Um, are my friends in danger?” I wasn’t sure I wanted to know the answer. But I had to ask.

  This question seemed to startle her. “No,” she then paused, “at least we don’t think so at this point.”

  I took a deep breath and scooped up Dekka. I needed a hug, or to hug someone. If I was in danger so was she. My dog accepted this with grace if not with enthusiasm. She had learnt hugs were things humans sometimes inflicted upon dogs.

  We walked past the road that led down to the Dew Drop Inn. I looked over at the ranger, she shook her head. “Ruse?” I asked.

  She gave me a half smile. “Yes. Rose talked a lot about going there and we even have rooms booked and paid for by her account. The current consensus is as much misdirection as possible. The plan is to head to Bistmore tonight.” Her smile faded as disappointment must have shown on my face. “You good to walk that far?”

  “I have had a very interesting and hectic few days and little sleep. But I can do it.”

  She unhooked another bottle from her belt and handed it to me. I put Dekka down to examine it. I held it up and swirled the contents. The liquid was lavender and looked oily. “What is it?” I asked. Not that I thought she was trying to harm me, but I still wanted to know what it was before I ingested it.

  “It’s a restorative potion,” she explained. I kept looking at it skeptically. “One of my favourite parts of these games is crafting. With this character build I go out and gather rare ingredients. This is a rare potion. Mainly because regular players run out of ingame time before they get tired enough to need one.”

  “So it’s like a stamina potion?” I uncorked it and smelled it. The fragrance was pleasant, floral and herby. But not in a way that made me want to drink it.

  “A bit. Why is your stamina low as well?”

  I checked. “No the bar is showing almost full stamina.”

  “Good. So drink up.” She grinned at me. “That is one expensive potion.”

  Rose trusted her so, I upended the bottle and tried to swallow it all in one go. I coughed at the strong floral taste. It tasted like I would imagine drinking perfume would taste like. I made a face as the oily substance continued to coat my tongue. “Why woul anna won wanna ding tha?” I asked trying to touch the rest of my mouth with my tongue as little as possible.

  “I don’t know if anyone wants to, but the ingredients are very rare, driving up its cost.”

  I drank the rest of my waterskin. “Who is paying for it?”

  “Oh, that. The only real market for potions like this are the people living in her on Compassionate Life. Many of them don’t want to sleep. They want to experience as much as possible.”here

  That made sense. A sad melancholy sort of sense. Dying people wanting to experience every second possible now that they were aware the end was racing towards them. “I have yet to meet a player here that is living her full time.” I said. “Or at least that I know of.” I thought for a moment. No, pretty much everyone I had met, even those in the World Event had logged off.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  “Most of them choose the really fantastical realms. This particular storyline has a reputation for feeling very ‘real’ and that doesn’t seem to attract those people.”

  That was interesting. I had heard that things on this continent felt more real to the players. I had no frame of reference, this storyline was the only one I had experienced. I had a thought.

  “Have you met anyone living here. Other than me?”

  She nodded. “Yes. I was playing another storyline when Rose asked me to make a new character and come over here.”

  “Ok so how does it work when they die?” I asked.

  She gave me a weird glance. “They disappear from the game.”

  I realised my error. “No not when they die for real. But when they die in game. Is it roguelike for them? Do they have to start over.” That to me would be a very cruel fate.

  “Right! I forgot that about you. Sorry, Rose and Barry have been filling me in on so many details. My head is swimming with them. When you die you end up at your starting zone?”

  “Yup. With nothing but the clothes I started in. At least at first. Now I have this hammer and shield. They are soul bound so they come with me.”

  Dekka sneezed indignantly.

  “Oh and Dekka too.”

  She looked tired. I should have offered her some of the restorative potion. Would she have drunk it? It was nasty but she also ate horse poo when the occasion presented itself. I scooped her up again. This time she relaxed and let her head flop down on my arm. Poor thing must be exhausted. She had run beside Shamoly all day. I immediately felt guilty.

  “No when they die, at least the ones in the area I was playing, they just reset back to an auto save point. They have all the gear they had at that point.”

  “How do they know where the autosave points are?” I was jealous.

  “I don’t think anyone knows where they are. I mean the usual ones are right before a battle. But some are arbitrary so they can’t bank on it. I had one customer who was exhausted because they had lost two days of trekking through rough terrain when they slipped off a cliff.”

  That tracked, this game was an asshole even to the dying.

  We walked in silence for a while. No talking, not actual silence. The wind in the leaves rustled, the sounds of our feet on the hard dry road, the cry of birds wheeling overhead in the darkening sky, and quiet, little dog snores. I had a lot to think about. This game treated me differently than even the other people who lived in it full time. And Dekka and I were in danger. Serious enough that my friends weren’t playing the game, not really. They were out playing red herrings in their spare time. And this stranger had rolled a new character and was escorting me to Bistmore. It was all so very weird.

  Small talk seemed safer. I didn’t want to do or say anything to call attention to myself and Dekka. “Um. This seems a weird question. I don’t want to come off as a terrible person. But I have never met an elf with dark skin before. And now that I think of it it’s weird that all the elves I have met here and that I have seen in games are usually so pale they practically glow.”

  “Yeah that is kind of messed up,” she agreed. “And it’s even worse that the dark skinned elves were thought up for a game and were evil.”

  “Wow!”

  “Yeah. Infinity Tale had some story lines where the dark elves were all evil and the light elves were good. They got taken to court by some human rights group. They settled out of court but they changed the story line. The evil and good elf story line stayed but they got to be all colours.”

  “Whoever made this game is fucked in the head,” I muttered.

  “The more I play and hear the more I agree.” The ranger agreed again. That felt odd to me. She was still playing this game. If it was so problematic why was she giving them money? Not that I wasn’t glad she was here, just it seemed weird.

  She told me of her experiences crafting in game. I listened with only half an ear. Crafting never appealed to me. Perhaps due to my upbringing — everything was hand crafted, often by my immediate family with my help. I remembered going to a mall the first time and realised that everything could just be bought. I felt a twinge of longing for home. I missed my parents. Why didn’t I think about them more often?

  I was off on my own train of thought wondering why I didn’t think of home as much these days, my parents and Rodney. Or even my school friends. I hadn’t thought of Jenny at all and she had been my best friend. Luckily Saoirse didn’t need me to comment to keep going. This was clearly a deep interest of hers.

  It was well after dark when we got to Bistmore. The guards harumphed and let us in. They eyed Dekka, but her bow helped, as did the extra silver Saoirse slipped into the palm of one. To my surprise we didn’t head to the market or commercial districts; We wended our way through a residential area. I knew Bistmore well, from spending so much time here, and I was sure there were no inns in this neighbourhood.

  “Where are we going?”

  “We thought it was best to avoid inns at the moment. So we are borrowing a rented home that another player has. A player that none of your friends has ever played with to further obfuscate your whereabouts.”

  “Players can rent property?” And this seemed like a lot of effort. People had gone to some serious lengths for me.

  “It costs real world money. Not a lot of players do it, but some like to have a spot to decorate and display things they find and earn in game.”

  “Huh.”

  We came to a quaint modest home. It was fancier than Wendle’s home but along that style. Not only was it larger, the home was made of better materials, the glass windows were of better quality and I could see a cozy looking kitchen clearly lit by firelight through them. The ranger opened the door and we entered. She locked the door behind us and I explored the home. Dekka had woken from her nap and was still sleepy as she looked about the place from my arms. Possibly to check for monsters, rats, or other critters in need of a good chomp and shake. There were no foes in need of a terrier’s attention but there was a full larder, so my dog was content. I was happy to see an indoor bathroom with actual plumbing. Not sure how that worked but I wasn’t going to argue. There was a large ornate bathtub and two spigots. So I assumed one was for hot water. I knew what I was going to do before I went to bed.

  The cheerful fire in the kitchen fireplace made me think that someone had been home. But it seems the player who owned this had paid for or earned a number of upgrades. Not only was their hot water there was a perpetual fire in the hearth.

  “That is convenient,” I said to Saoirse and thought how useful this would be to many of the peasant families I had met.

  “The player is a magic user and has unlocked spells for their home.” She grabbed an apple and put the kettle on. I still thought it was a waste. A home so comfortable and I bet the player hardly ever used it. Just a status symbol. I was starting to think unkind thoughts of this unmet player and not wanting to be ungrateful I thought of something else.

  “Can we talk now?”

  “We can. Or if you want—you look dead on your feet—we can rest and talk tomorrow. It will likely be a long conversation.”

  I did want answers. But I felt so tired I wasn’t sure I was thinking straight. “Okay. Do you mind if I have a bath? I haven’t had a good bath in... well, it’s been ages.”

  “Sure. I was going to make a simple meal and some tea. If you want to have a bath and then eat.”

  What I really wanted to do was soak in the tub for a while. Ideally I would have liked to eat in the tub. But that seemed too personal to ask her to bring me food whilst I bathed. “Sounds good. I will try to not be too long.”

  The water came out of the left tap very hot. Almost hot enough to burn. I smiled in pure delight. I found some soap flakes and sprinkled them in. I hoped they weren’t some fancy trophy toiletries. They created divine smelling rich bubbles. I found some large towels in a cupboard. There were some small ones there as well. I eyed my dog who was sleepily padding after me, never letting me out of sight. I grabbed one of the small ones as well.

  The tub was long but narrow compared to what I was used to. The bath water was so hot I had to get in slowly, and then I melted as I laid back, all the tension starting to ease. I felt safe here. Which might be silly, but I trusted my friends. If they thought this was safe then this was likely as good as it got.

  After the water had cooled slightly, I called Dekka over to me. She had been sleeping just out of reach on a towel. Now she was sitting up giving me a suspicious look. “You like hot baths,” I reminded her. She narrowed her eyes at me. “Well you do!” Back when we were in the real world when she got old and had back issues, I would put her in the tub with me and she would sit there with her eyes half shut, and just zone out.

  She continued to glare at me. I also remembered she hated how cold she was after a bath. “I promise we can go sit in front of the fire as soon as we get out.”

  She blinked but slowly walked over to me. I took the bow off and carefully lifted her into the tub. We soaked until the water began to cool too much to be relaxing. As promised I wrapped both of us up in thick towels and went down to the kitchen. I pulled a chair over close to and facing the fire and put the burritoed terrier on it. She had already started shivering and gave me a baleful look. I took a piece of cheese from the plate Saoirse had prepared and laid out for us and gave it to Dekka. Cheese is the best apology.

  Saoirse was sipping tea and watching us. “What are you getting out of this?” I asked her and sat down at the table to pick at the plate of cheese, fruits and bread.

  She cocked her head. “Well I owe Rose for a lot of things. And he really seems to like you. I think any friend of his is a person worth helping. That is the short answer.” She got up to refill her cup and offered me a mug which I accepted. It was weird the way she referred to Rose as a he. Though I guess if she had known her — him — for years as Neil it could be weird.

  “What is the long answer?”

  “What I have been learning about this game,” she shook her head sadly. “This game company is doing some seriously shady things. And what we think they are doing to you is criminal.”