Abernathy: That is incredible! There are so many possibilities!

  Chanter: That’s what I just said!

  Encore: It’s true. He said that just now, moments ago.

  Abernathy: Great minds, mate.

  Katarina: That is really cool. I wonder if you can detonate two instances at once, from different parts of you body? Or the same part? Like twice as strong?

  Encore: My enchantment is not as powerful, so it would not be twice as strong.

  Chanter: We need to test it out some more to find out.

  Sebastian: I can’t wait to see what all this is about.

  Katarina: Oh that’s right, you haven’t seen it yet! You’re in for a treat. Too bad you don’t hit things. It’s so much fun.

  Sabation: I’ll… take your word for it.

  Abernathy: Alright mates, I’m beat. Gonna turn in for the night.

  Sebastian: Same. Thanks again for the awesome performance and for getting me a partial refund, Chanter.

  Chanter: Of course! Glad it worked out.

  I stretched, making my way to the massive bed. Encore was already nestled in the soft comforter at one end.

  “That looks comfy,” I said as I pulled back part of the thick blanket.

  “It is quite comfortable.” He replied from the far side, raising his head slightly to speak.

  The bed was even more luxurious than the one in Fort Ethers. It wasn’t as soft as that one had been, but that actually made it better. My eyes had begun drifting closed, consciousness slipping away, when I received a private message.

  Katarina: You up? I mean of course you’re up. Everyone was just talking. But can we talk in person?

  I sat up, sleep forgotten. The bed was forgotten. Mostly. My heart raced and a tingle washed over my body. Was this really about to happen?

  “Uh, Encore. Do you mind giving me a little bit of privacy?” I asked, tossing the covers aside and standing. Encore lifted his head and sniffed the air.

  “Ah. Yes, of course. My wings could use some stretching after that bath.” He stood, hopping from the bed and jogging out of the room, heading for a large door on the far wall that led to a small balcony.

  Chanter: Of course! One second. Do you want to come here?

  Katarina: If you don’t mind…

  It can be difficult to convey emotions through text sometimes, but I sensed hesitation in her message. My pulse raced as I hurried around, picking up the towel I had strewn over one of the wicker chairs and roughly folding it a few times before tossing it in the bathroom and closing the door.

  Chanter: Not at all! I am unlocking the door now!

  Katarina stood just outside of the door, glancing down the hall with a nervous smile before stepping past me and into the room. She smelled of roses and some herbal soap that washed over me as she passed. Blood rushed to my face.

  I heard a tink tink tink coming from Abernathy’s room down the hall before I closed the door. He was always working on something. I hoped it helped him overcome the events of the day as I turned to face Katarina.

  She wore a pair of loose fitting shorts that hung halfway down her thighs and a baggy cotton shirt. Her hair was tightly wrapped in a white towel and her skin glowed in the room’s lights.

  “This place is so nice,” she stood in the middle of the living room, holding one of her wrists in her other hand. She was wearing her backup leg. It was a duller shade of metal, bulkier. “Did you see the lotions?”

  “Lotions?” I asked. I didn’t move, didn’t know what to do. My heart raced. She looked at me with large eyes, filled with an emotion that reminded me of our time spent windmelded. It was fear. A fear of what? Disappointment? I wasn’t sure, but it confused me. “No, I just saw the soap.”

  “Oh, they are on the same shelf. They have the glass stoppers in them.”

  “I see, you smell nice.” I shifted. She shifted. She looked down and I did the same. My feelings of excitement were shifting to doubt. “Want to sit down?”

  She nodded, looking around the room. Her eyes drifted over the wicker furniture and lingered on the door for a moment. Her expression hardened into resolve and she strode towards the bedroom.

  I swallowed, a tight knot of tension forming in my stomach, as I followed her into the bedroom. She hopped up on the soft bed, pulling aside the thick comforter, and gestured for me to follow.

  “Come on, luteboy. That furniture isn’t comfortable at all. It’s much better here.”

  Breathe. Just breathe. I stepped into the room and walked around the bed, climbing in. I sat on the edge, then shifted myself closer, until I felt her warmth pressed up against me. Encore had left the balcony door open and the cold desert wind blew through the room, chilling the air. Her warmth was nice.

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  One of her arms snaked up around mine and she lay her head on my shoulder as we sat there. My mind short-circuited. I didn’t know what to do, how to act, what to think. I had never done anything more than kiss a girl before. And that had been years ago.

  Katarina laughed softly from my shoulder. “I can hear your heart from here. Don’t have a heart attack.”

  I took a deep breath, held it for a moment, and released it, trying to calm myself. She lifted her head, looking at me.

  “Can you shift back to your human form? It was the first that I knew and it’s how I think of you. Like the real you.”

  “Oh, sure,” I replied, enacting transform and shifting from my wood elven form to human. “This is what I look like out of game too. It’s impressive, how they recreated our features.”

  She stiffened against me for a brief moment. Her hand shook slightly under mine. I squeezed it reassuringly. I didn’t know what to do, but it seemed like the right thing. She leaned her face up toward mine, her eyes nearly closed.

  Our lips met, and fireworks erupted in my mind. This was nothing like my other kiss, which had been more of a dare from a friend. Jolts of electricity fired from my lips, surging into my mind and down through my body. She tasted of mint and … salt?

  I opened my eyes, backing away to see tears pouring down her cheeks. She sniffled and a dam burst, pouring sorrow from every facet of her body. She covered her face with both hands, sobbing quietly.

  “Whoa, what’s wrong? We don’t have to do this, we don’t have to do anything. Are you okay?” I hesitated for a moment, confused by the sudden shift in atmosphere, before reaching an arm around her shoulders and pulling her into a hug. She lay her head against my chest and continued crying.

  “It’s okay, everything’s okay.” I repeated. It was all I could think to say. The towel had fallen off of her head and her hair hung in half-dry clumps. I ran my other hand through her hair, repeating the words.

  “It’s not, though.” She replied. She sniffled again, regaining her composure bit by bit. “I can’t give you what you want.”

  “Whoa whoa,” I choked. “What do you mean? What I want?”

  “I mean in real life. I know what you are like, down to your core, Chanter. Just like you know me. After what we experienced. And I liked you, even before that, but what about after the alpha ends?” The words poured out of her in a rush. She paused to take in a breath before continuing, not allowing me to say anything.

  “I don’t know what you saw about my life, but I had an accident. I can’t move my body from the neck down. I’m just a damned burden, and you deserve better. I tried to be selfish and enjoy the time we have together in Veil, but it is gonna end. You should be with someone who can give you a life outside of VR.”

  She rubbed the last remnant of tears from her red, swollen eyes, shifting away from my embrace and looking at me with resolve.

  I hesitated, shifting through the landslide of emotions that had overwhelmed me. It was so much to unpack. The time we had spent windmelded had shown me glimpses of her past, slivers of her inner self. It had been fertilizer to a seed of attraction that had been planted before that. “I don’t care about that. Any of that.”

  “That’s horseshit.” She snorted. “I know you, Chanter. Chandler. You… have a heart of gold. It’s one of the reasons why I…” Tears began once again filling her eyes. She sniffed, rubbing at them angrily and continuing.

  “It’s why I have to put a stop to this. Now. I thought I could push through, but I can’t. It’s for your own good. You deserve someone who can give you a life outside of Ve—.” Her voice broke and she buried her hands in her hands as her body was wracked with sobs.

  I rubbed her back. The memory of mint and tears remained on my tongue. “You saw my past,” I whispered.

  I took a deep breath. She looked at me, and the vulnerability I saw in her eyes was such a contrast to the strength and confidence she normally exuded that I would have been shocked, had we not experienced the times together, windmelded, that we had. She looked at me with a face that she kept hidden in the depths of her heart, that she protected fiercely with a strong front and endless determination. I still saw a glimmer of that strength in her eyes, mingling with a spark of mischief. Her smile exuded confidence and thinly veiled the doubts that simmered just below the surface in a way that made her uniquely herself, and I had a sudden realization that struck me like an errant bolt of lightning. I love her.

  “You saw my past,” I repeated. “I know you did, because I saw bits of yours. If you don’t already know, I have nothing waiting for me in the real world. My family’s dead. All of them, for one reason or another. I’m alone in the real world.”

  I reached up and took one of her hands in both of mine, squeezing it. “But I’m not alone here. You say it‘s a game, but I don’t care. It’s not a game to me. I can still taste the mint from our kiss. It feels so real. And it’s just an alpha test. There’ll be a beta. And a full release. We can have a life together here, in this virtual world.”

  She tried pulling her hand away, but I held firm. It remained in my hands, and I knew it was by her choice that it stayed there, because she could have lifted me and thrown me from the room, had she so desired. “You deserve someone in real life.”

  “This feels better than real life. Please don’t make a choice for me. It should be my choice. Our choice.”

  Her eyes lifted and found mine again. They were red and all aspects of strength had fled. A soft vulnerability was all that remained. “You’re sure?”

  I smiled, nodding. “I’m sure.”

  She shifted, melting against me. “Alright then, if you say so. But I totally killed the mood with my crying.”

  I laughed, shifting to lay down next to her. Our limbs intermingled and I noticed her metal leg was gone, presumably returned to her inventory at some point.

  “That’s okay, I, uh… would like to take it slow anyways. And I’m so tired.”

  She laughed softly,her head laying on my chest as a finger drew small circles on my shoulder. “Yeah, me too. It was a helluva day, wasn’t it? Do you mind if I sleep here?”

  I stroked her damp hair. “Of course you can. I am confused though. You’re a wind monk right? An Aery Pugilist I think it was? Why didn’t you dry your hair with your chi? It’s still damp.”

  She sat up, reaching up and touching her wet hair. “Oh. I totally forgot. I was so focused on this that… you’re right. I’m too tired to worry about that tonight. Can you hand me that towel?”

  I reached over, picking up the slightly wet towel she had wrapped around her hair originally, and handing it to her. She wrapped her hair in a few quick motions and shifted back into position next to me, a comfortable warmth.

  “This is nice.” I murmured. She replied with a soft, lilting snore, already asleep. I took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “This is nice.”

  I closed my eyes and fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.