“Okay, let me get this straight,” Tabby said. “You were a regular NPC just like me until you met a super advanced artificial intelligence thing, and now it lives inside you?”

  “Uh, yeah, that’s pretty much it,” I said. “The AI has been helping me ever since.”

  “How’d it get inside you?” Delen asked.

  He was the first to ask this question, and I wondered whether I should tell the truth or not. They had been taking everything in fine so far, so I decided to stick with the truth.

  All eyes were on me.

  “I’ll give you one guess.” I winked at Delen.

  His eyes bulged. “You don’t mean. It got in through there? Your…” his eyes darted around nervously, …your anus?”

  I burst out laughing at his choice of words. I laughed good and hard while everyone else looked at me in confusion. Finally, I regained my composure and said, “No, Delen. It didn’t crawl up my butt. The AI is very small, and if you must know, it crawled up my nose.”

  “Eww,” echoed Tabby and Kitz together.

  “Whoa, so it’s like fused to your brain,” Tabby said.

  “It’s not fused to my brain. It’s just hitching along for a ride.”

  Kitz raised his hand. I grinned and pointed at him.

  He hesitated a moment and then said, “Can we meet her again?”

  I was taken aback momentarily at his use of ‘her’, as I had not yet revealed Val’s gender to the rest of the group. “How do you know it’s a girl?” I asked him.

  “I saw her when she saved us from the goblins.” His eyes were wide and earnest. “She was the most beautiful person I had ever seen.”

  “What a delightful compliment. Perhaps the group being aware of me and my general amazingness is not such a bad thing.” Val said.

  “I’m sorry, Kitz. She used up a lot of energy to perform that magic trick, so she’s going to be taking it easy for a while.”

  “Can she talk to us at least?” Kitz asked.

  “Umm, I guess you could theoretically speak to her through me. She can hear everything you're saying.”

  He smiled from ear to ear. “Can she turn me normal?”

  My heart sank at his request. Don’t worry, Val. I got this.

  “No,” she said. “I want to answer his question.”

  I nodded, waiting to share what she had to say.

  “Kitz, your abnormality is what makes you valuable. You are a precious commodity, and you should cherish your ability. You are in a very unique situation. While it is understandable that you detest what the system has done to you, it has also given you the ability to help us shut it down for good. I beg of you, Kitz, embrace your curse for a while longer. Your unique abilities may be the difference between success and failure.”

  I relayed the words as Val spoke them to me, and I saw Kitz’s eyes harden in determination as I spoke.

  “That’s a little harsh,” Tabby said, arms crossed.

  “I believe it is exactly what the boy needed to hear,” Ersabet said. “It seems there is some intelligence within John’s head after all.”

  “Hey!” I said. “That was mean.”

  Ersabet shrugged.

  Although hurtful, I took that comment as a positive sign. Coming clean was the right course of action. We were a ragtag group, but we were all each other had. Delen could never go back to Danver, and Prajio would likely still be searching for him, so he could pry Delen for information about me. The neurotic inventor could be difficult at times, but he was smarter than the lot of us, and a more practical man like me could use someone with a sharp mind around.

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  Kitz was alone when we found him, and as far as I was concerned, his home was with us now. I knew that wargs grew more dangerous as they matured, eventually succumbing fully to their animal instinct. But this was a game, and that meant there was a cure, or at least a way to prevent Kitz’s wild side from taking over. I’d find a way to stop it if I had to, but in the meantime, he was a powerful companion.

  Tabby, too, had useful skills of her own. As a tinker, she was a bit of a jack-of-all-trades and a master leatherworker to boot. That alone made her tremendously valuable to the group, but I valued her ability to remember the past above all else. That connection we shared meant everything to me.

  Ersabet was a beast in combat and a strong player. Most importantly, she knew our enemy well and hated what her people had become. She wanted to end this game just as much as I did, albeit for different reasons. In her mind, putting a stop to these games was the first step to restoring the soul of her civilization. Saving Earth was just a bonus.

  Delen stepped forward and looked me in the eyes as if he was trying to see through them and into my brain. “You mentioned she used up a lot of her energy. What powers her? Electrics?”

  “Uh, it’s a bit more complicated than that,” I said, scratching my head. “It’s hard to explain. The Triarchy created an energy field around the planet. It’s what gives the other players and me our powers. My AI needs this same energy to recharge, but there’s no way for her to access it on her own.”

  “There’s always a way,” Delen said. “We just have to find it.”

  I hesitated, unsure of what to say. A strange sense of shame washed through me for lying about my reasons for finding a portal to Liport. They didn’t need to know the whole ‘fight a Voxal and steal its magical wand’ part of the plan yet, but I didn’t see any harm in telling them we were searching for a channel crystal.

  “We already found a way,” I said, glancing at Ersabet. She seemed more interested in what I had to say than upset at the fact that I hadn’t told her earlier. “We need to find something called a channel crystal. It’s really rare, so that’s why we’re going to Liport.”

  “What do you plan to do with this channel crystal?” Ersabet asked.

  “Use it,” I said offhandedly.

  She rolled her eyes. “You cannot channel magic. It will kill you.”

  “I was under the impression it allowed non-magic users to channel magic,” I said, glaring inwardly at Val.

  “Oh, it will allow you to channel magic, but that magic will cook you from the inside out.”

  Any comment? I thought to Val.

  “You’ll be fine. I’ll be absorbing all that energy.”

  “I’ll be alright,” I said. “All the energy will go into the AI.”

  Ersabet crossed her arms. “That is a significant amount of energy. Is it sure it can hold it all?”

  “Ha!” Val said. “I can handle significantly more power than one measly channel crystal can produce. Don’t tell her that, though. She’ll start asking annoying questions.”

  “It will be fine,” I said reassuringly. “You can trust me.”

  “It is not you whom I do not trust. It is the machine inside your mind.”

  “Machine?!” Val exclaimed, “How degrading. Tell her I am offended.”

  I ignored Val. “We’ve been through this. She’s trustworthy. She wants the same things we want.”

  “But why?” Ersabet pressed. “Have you asked her why she wants to end the games?”

  My mouth opened, but no words had come out. Val had told me that she had been instrumental to the Triarchy’s late-stage development. She was then forced to create another AI, which they used to replace her and launch the Annexation Game. Having no need for Val, they locked her away forever. It seemed like a good enough reason to want revenge, but I wasn’t ready to share Val’s past with everyone. Not until I learned more about her myself.

  “She has legitimate reason to hate the Triarchy,” I said. “They mistreated her, and she wants payback. That should be all that matters. We all have different reasons for wanting to end this godforsaken game.”

  Ersabet’s arms remained crossed. She didn’t reply.

  “What’s her name?” Kitz asked softly.

  I already knew Val wanted me to keep her name between us, and I assumed she was being dishonest about her reasons for doing so, but Val and I had a nice peace between us now, and I didn’t want to disrupt it. I would confront her about it later in private, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t stick it to her now.

  “She doesn’t have a name,” I said. “I’ve tried to come up with one for her, but she didn’t like any of them. Maybe you should try.”

  Kitz clapped his hands together excitedly. “I’m amazing at naming.” He tilted his head up, thinking, and nodded to himself soon after. “I think I’m onto something. When she saved us in the cave, she was as bright as the sun, so I was thinking ‘Sunny,’ but the sun is yellow, and she was the most beautiful shade of blue I’d ever seen, so then I was thinking ‘Blue,’ but I don’t know if that’s necessarily a girl’s name.” His eyes lit up with happiness. “But if we combine them, we get the perfect name – Bluey!”

  I snorted a laugh, but Tabby completely lost it, which sent me into an uncontrollable fit of laughter. It took us a while to calm down, and when we did, everyone around us was looking either annoyed or confused.

  “What’s so funny?” Kitz said, mean-mugging me something fierce.

  “I’m sorry, Kitz. Bluey is the name of a children’s TV show.” I waved a hand. “I’ll tell you more about what TV is later, but it’s a device that is like a moving painting, and it has sound. Shows are like plays. This one was for kids. It’s about a little girl dog named Bluey. It’s actually pretty great for a kid’s show.”

  “I will not be named after a child dog!” Val said.

  “The name just surprised us,” I said. “It’s a wonderful name, Kitz. You were right, you are great at naming.”

  “Yeah,” Tabby chimed in. “Bluey was the best. I think it’s the perfect name for John’s brain robot.”

  I clapped my hands together. “Then it’s settled. From henceforth, the super awesome AI that resides in my brain shall be known as Bluey!”

  “You’ll pay for this!”

  “She says she loves it.”

  "Hey, John, wake up." Val's voice interrupted my dream.

  What do you want? I replied.

  "I'd like an apology for your rude behavior lately."

  What did I do this time?

  "You forgot to say goodnight two nights in a row!" Val said.