My voice was filled with a cold warning as I said, “I have better things to do than sit here and listen to some spoiled little dilettante whine about her lot in life.”

  From her expression I could tell that the comment had struck a nerve. She dropped her sword and lowered her eyes.

  Some of the tension drained out of me as I looked away from her and muttered, “Look, I’m sorry. I’m just having a lot of my own troubles…”

  Why the hell was I apologizing to an NPC? What did I care if this sprite drank herself silly on a mountain side?

  Practice? Maybe if you start being decent to video game characters it will translate to the real world? In short, stop being a dick Voss.

  In the midst of my introspection I heard her slur a question, “What happened?”

  Working my jaw I rolled my shoulders in the dive chair. After several long moments I sighed as I said, “It’s hard to explain. I…,” my words stumbled as I tried to suppress the emotion in my voice, “I killed someone. The love of my life helped bring me to justice and I lost everything because of it.”

  She hiccupped again and stared at me for a long time through heavily lidded eyes. I was about to prompt her when she slurred a question, “We just killed a buncha people?”

  Wincing at that I considered what to say for a long moment before sighing as I said, “It’s different.”

  “Hmmm,” she took another unconscious drink from her bottle and leveled her unfocused golden eyes on me as she said, “They just let you leave your women on your world?”

  The question stuttered my mind. I blinked away the dark thoughts I’d been slipping into and said, “Of course.”

  She gave a drunken nod and shake of the head at the same time as she said, “Here, a male like you would not have the choice to leave their mate. Your mistress would point out her displeasure with your murderous tendencies and punish you for it.”

  She gestured toward a random horizon and slurred a proclamation, “Back to the harem with you!”

  Studying the mad drunk woman with wide eyes I finally chuckled and shook my head, “I suppose that would have made the whole thing simpler.”

  Considering the open moonlit plain I saw the lights of the Necropolis and north of it, what I could only assume was the sprawling city of Lothin. It was filled with pinpoints of blue lights. A sprawl of lower buildings surrounding a towering wall around rising spires. Without turning I asked, “Is that your future, a harem of handsome young men falling all over themselves to do your bidding?”

  Behind me she sputtered and I turned to see the young warrior putting her face in her hands crying uncontrollably. Debating whether to walk over and comfort her, she shocked me out of my thoughts by sputtering an angry answer to my question, “I have trained since I was nine pyreing revs old to be a soldier. A tactician! A leader!”

  She waved her bottle toward the plains spread out beneath us and choked out her angry tirade, “I knew that I would have to spend my first ten years or so when I came of age…,” she grimaced and choked out the end of her sentence, “securing the bloodline. Of course, I knew that. My mother repeated it often enough but…”

  She took another draw from her bottle, “The sword was my escape… now they are turning that into a marriage in all but name. If I choose to walk my path I end up serving as an officer in the Immolated Order. If I continue my life in service to the family, a tall damned order given my mother’s influence, then I get to spend ten years on my back between attending meetings and trade deals. I don’t want to be the servant of some theocratic crusade. I don’t want a damned harem of sycophantic noble boys.”

  She sputtered and glared down at the open plain with a glare of molten gold, “All this for a world that no one seems to notice is on borrowed time.”

  “Boiling frog.”

  She turned her hazy and confused glare on me and hissed, “What is a frog?”

  Grimacing, I responded, “It’s a proverb from my world. Heat a pot to boiling and throw a living creature into it and it will jump out to save itself. Put the same creature in a pot of cool water and heat it slowly and it will sit there happily until it’s cooked to death.”

  At her still confused look I sighed and shook my head, “When the end of your world is slow but uncomfortable people will learn to abide it rather than doing the hard work of saving themselves.”

  She pointed her bottle at me and slurred her response, “Yes, we are all of us frogs!”

  Nodding I smiled at her drunken escapades.

  She rolled onto her side with her bottle and said, “I’m sorry your mistress cast you out. I know that you look nothing like the Ghost of L’Chasse, are you at least fresh faced and soft?”

  Smiling wryly, I said, “Umm, something like that.”

  She yawned and her eyes opened and closed slowly, “You’ll find… another,” she yawned again, “mistress… I would…”

  The young woman started to snore. Making my way over, I tossed her blanket over her before wrenching her bottle baby from her arms carefully. She muttered angrily but remained asleep.

  Surveying the surrounding area I settled in near the blue fire and watched the strange drunken NPC sleep. There was a lot of leveling potential in the surrounding mountainous hills but…

  My decision was made when some kind of beast bellowed a screech somewhere nearby.

  “Fine! Maybe the camp will get attacked and I’ll get a few skill ups out of it.”

  To pass the time I worked through my own training forms. Martial arts training and physical fitness were a key part of being a top tier streamer in VR. As I worked my way through a series of attacks I could feel the AI trying to interface with my RIG chip and drive my strikes to meet the game’s parameters of what my character could manage. Tense and tired from my hours in the system I pushed back. I grew more familiar with the Dancing stance that my class required. The system provided the movements and smoothly interfaced with my RIG to assure that my movements were graceful and deadly.

  Not one to trust solely in machines, Lydia aside, I studied the movements and promised myself that I would practice the dance movements into my morning workouts.

  When the attack finally came I was bone weary and exhausted. The beasts were low to the ground with six stunted legs, covered with wiry black hair and toothy canine like maws topped with gigantic milky eyes. They tried to sneak in and grab the snoring Valerie from her bedroll but they were not nearly as stealthy as they believed.

  The monsters weren’t as capable as the Spiral Stalkers I’d tangled with before. I fell upon the first of them from hiding driving both my blades into its eyes. Essence burst up from the wounds and I saw my reserves ignite when it contacted my avatar’s skin. The other four screeched and charged with gibbering snarls.

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  Spinning through them like a dervish I severed limbs and deep wounds pulsing with viscous fluid in my wake. Several of them were writhing and screeching in their own pools of essence within moments. They tried desperately to stem the flow but were quickly whining in pain before succumbing to their wounds.

  For my part, when the battle was done I had only taken a pretty hefty bite to my midsection. I watched the punctures in my skin vanish as I made my way back over to the still sleeping noblewoman. Giving an exhausted chuckle I said, “THAT doesn’t wake you up?”

  The young woman sat up with a start and glared at me through slitted eyes, her voice hoarse as she said, “Why are you just standing there?”

  Sighing I shook my head and grumbled, “I’m going to ‘sleep’ now. I will be inert and silent for some time and then I will be able to rejoin you.”

  She eyed me for a long moment and asked, “If I need your help…?,” leaving the question open for my answer.

  Considering the question I eyed the surrounding boulders and trees. Finally, I spoke into the dive room hearing my voice echo, “Lydia, can you operate my avatar if it or this NPC come under attack?”

  After a moment the AI answered with her typical cheery disposition, “I sure can Sugar, but I won’t be as capable as you would be.”

  After brief consideration I added, “If she asks, follow her and help out if needed.”

  “Sure thing, darlin.”

  Turning to Valerie in the game I said, “If something happens I will help you. I won’t speak or interact with you, but it's the best I can offer. If you ask I will also follow you but may not seem like my normal self.”

  She sighed and rolled her shoulders with a yawn, “That will have to do.”

  After a moment she looked sheepish and finally muttered, “I apologize for everything I said last night.”

  Smirking I shook my head, “I’ve said a lot worse when I was that drunk before.”

  “Still, I apologize.”

  I nodded and smiled, “Understood.”

  Wandering over to the rocks I found a nice place to settle in between the boulders. She strode over and looked down at me with obvious confusion as I looked up into her golden eyes and said, “I will be back as soon as I can.”

  With that. I logged out.

  –

  When I pulled the helmet free I was bathed once again in the intense red light coming off my setup. I looked up to see that the monitors displayed a time of 11:22 pm. I ran a hand through my sweat matted hair and muttered, “Everything quiet in the kingdom, Lydia?”

  She answered as saccharine as ever, “There have been no disturbances Mal.”

  I hauled myself up out of the rig, the wires and clips tugging lose as I pulled out the zippers and carefully removed it. Before I removed the haptic glove I used it to shut down the system before grabbing my robe and making my way toward the stairs.

  “Don’t forget your letter Mal.”

  Pausing, I looked down at the lonely envelope on the table. Starting to reach for it I paused before pulling my hand away and shaking my head, “Not tonight… I think.”

  Starting toward the stairs, I stopped when Lydia asked, “Are you sure?”

  Blinking at that, I looked toward the ceiling as a long drawn out silence filled the room. Finally, I answered with a note of annoyance in my voice, “Yes, I’m sure Lydia. Lock down the house.”

  Hearing the house’s locks fall into place I climbed the stairs into the kitchen. The room was dark and cast in blue light from the window over the sink. Brushing past the kitchen island, I drummed my fingers on it idly before making my way to the bathroom.

  I unscrewed my bottle of meds and raised an eyebrow at my tired looking image as I said, “Shouldn’t I be coming up on a refill for this medication Lyd?”

  After a brief pause she answered, “No sweetheart. That refill should come in another week.”

  “Huh…”

  Taking the pill, I washed my face, giving myself a weak smile in the mirror before trudging from the room to my bed. Settling in, I let the silence accented by occasional familiar creaks of the old house fill my ears. Before long I was drifting off to sleep.

  Immediately as my eyes closed I found myself leaning against a doorframe and looking into the haze filled room with a ready smile. An entire host of young people were reclining on the furniture in states of quiet bliss. At the far end of the room the usual master of ceremonies sat in a pair of old jeans, a flannel overshirt and a green t-shirt. He was heavyset but stout and his dark brown hair was a mess. He had a stupid grin on his face.

  Holle was anything but stupid. No one who spoke to him for more than a few minutes would ever think so. He spotted me there in the door and raised a bottle that looked small in his hand as he took a pull from it.

  “Would you look at who it is! I thought you were at that Kappa thing tonight?”

  Raising an eyebrow I gave a small shake of the head, “Me? Miss my old friend Holle’s usual get together? You gotta be kidding.”

  He chuckled and stood with some difficulty, making his way over and fist bumping me. He looked around at the gathered people, and largely perceptively compromised visitors and boomed, “This is my old buddy Malcolm Voss. Mal is a legend.”

  A few people called out a welcome or drunken shout. Raising my own beer in greeting I chuckled, “Who am I to disagree?”

  Holle stepped past me and waved me into the room I’d just come from, “Come on man, I want to talk to you about something.”

  As he was leading the way across the foyer he high fived a friend into a hug and left the guy stumbling and saying, “You’re the best Holle.”

  Watching the man walk away I was shocked, not for the first time, at how much I idolized him. At my old high school I had been the homecoming king. I’d taken the track and field team to state. I was hated and idolized and I was nothing compared to the charismatic orbit that this man seemed to manifest.

  He did it all without being the monster that somehow manifested out of my high school persona. I had been a bully…

  At that Holle looked over his shoulder with a ready smile as he said, “You’ve always been a bully, Mal.”

  Flinching, I staggered in mid step and glared at my old friend.

  I was dreaming again.

  Ah fuck, I was dreaming again.

  As usual I was unable to escape this. My only hope was to ride it out.

  Following him into the kitchen, I saw a familiar sight. I remembered this night too well. She was here with a friend, leaning against the counter in a white tank top. Her midnight hair was pulled up into a ponytail and she gestured at Holle with her own beer as he entered, “The man, the myth.”

  He gestured at me as he made his way to the fridge, “I was just telling Mal he has always been a bully.”

  She gave me that familiar smile. It was the same kind smile she had given me all those years ago in the kitchen when Holle had introduced us. She said, “Oh trust me I know. I wasted a lot of good years figuring that out.”

  My jaw tightened and I leaned against the doorframe as I forced a smile, “So am I just supposed to stand here and let my nightmares talk shit about me until I wake up?”

  Holle pulled out a new beer from the fridge and gave Sydney a half hug before pulling away and popping open the bottle with a sigh, “Mal, why didn’t you pick up the letter?”

  Narrowing my eyes at him, I muttered, “What letter?”

  Sydney leaned forward, her smile so playful and reminiscent of that night as she said, “You don’t get a free ride because of a loophole.”

  Holle continued, “You took something that didn’t belong to you.”

  I blinked at him, anger building as I stood up straight, “You know, Holle died in a car accident five years ago. Where do you get off using him to torture me? Who the hell do you think you are?”

  Sydney’s features started to blur and then the room along with her. The walls and floors cracked and split as her mouth distended open. A pained but familiar voice screamed, “Your jailers!”

  Another distant and screaming voice answered as Sydney’s torn and cracking jaw filled with rows of shark-like teeth. She cackled and eyed me hungrily. Beside her Holle’s flesh was melting away. All that was left of his smiling visage was a blackened skull, its jaw falling open as he growled, “Killer!”

  My mother’s voice whispered in my ear, “Liar!”

  My father chuckled in the other, “Prisoner.”

  A deafening crash awoke me and I sat up lathered in sweat. The world outside rumbled and shook and the slatted windows beside me flashed.

  Coughing, I rolled onto my side and groaned, “Lydia, is everything ok?”

  After a moment she answered, “Everything is a-ok sweetie. You seem distressed. Should I notify someone?”

  I glanced at the clock beside my bed.

  4:32 AM

  Sighing I shook my head and swung my feet out of bed, “No, just bad dreams.”

  An hour and a half later I had finished showering, eating breakfast, training and prepping the dive room. Sipping my coffee I surveyed the screens above me. The floor under my feet vibrated as the violent storm continued outside. Scanning my email I frowned as I said, “Lyd, draft a boilerplate email to the realtor asking if there has been interest in the house.”