The apes were resting in the valley. They rested on a gravel patch by the river with a pile of apples and strawberries. Fifteen large apes had fought over who got to be first to the fruit and now were content to sleep in the afternoon warmth and finish whatever fruit had gotten caught in their fur.

  The militia and volunteers from the Glossy had waited patiently for the apes to go to sleep. They were far enough back that the apes hadn’t found them and now crept in closer. They carried throwing spears carefully and were mostly barefoot to avoid making noise. A few of the villagers had gotten to the prime classes, but most were still militia or willing to fake it for the day.

  They had been training hard for this, but it was clear not all of them were cut out for doing this regularly. Nerves were high and they were supposed to wait for Zahir to shoot the first ape with his bow. Supposed to wait.

  The first bronze tip spear sailed over the sleeping apes and sent a spray of gravel where it hit the ground. The apes leaped up to investigate and that is when the second spear flew. Then Payton joined with the rest to just get into this fight. The spears injured most of the teal apes, but now that the spears were gone everything had to be finished in close.

  Payton broke out of the treeline and ran at the nearest, uninjured ape. Three other volunteers did the same and it did not care. Some apes were injured and facing five volunteers, but still roared the same rage at their attackers. No matter how many times they were hit, they fought to the absolute last ounce of their rage. A dozen volunteers went right back to the village to respawn and the rest were injured enough they expected to die if attacked by aggressive wildlife on the way back to the village.

  Congratulations, you have achieved level 5 and can choose your prime class.

  Barbarian most closely matches your actions as a militia. You will receive 85% of the class benefits if you choose Barbarian now and full benefits at level 3.

  A second choice is Scout. You will receive 40% of the class benefits upon selecting Champion and not receive the remaining 60% until you are a Champion level 6.

  “Barbarian.” Payton whispered and gripped her ax happily. She had never played Andalusian Dream, but had always liked her book characters to use big axes and attitude. Her wounds immediately didn’t feel so serious and the air didn’t feel so cool. The surviving volunteers gathered together, gathered the spears, and started up the valley towards the village. Smelling like blood and moving slowly, the wolves came fairly quickly.

  Payton let herself enjoy the feeling of floating those moments before respawning. The bell square was crowded when she respawned. It was nearly dark and the flying animals would start harassing the village again. No one should be out of their huts and they didn’t need a stupid bell to know that.

  Then Payton heard the crunch of breaking wood and realized none of the guards were in the bell square. The gates were either broken or near to breaking. Payton ran to the gates with her ax ready.

  The guards were piled against the gate desperately struggling to keep the gates closed. Whatever was on the other side was moving the gate and a dozen guards. Other guards had climbed up in the towers on either side of the gate and had thrown spears down at the attacker and it still continued to push the gate.

  Through the growing gap at the hinges, Payton saw three of the gray skinned icelings. She immediately found space on the gate and began pushing as well. The last hinge snapped and the gate quickly became unbalanced and fell to one side.

  Payton fell back with the other guards as the icelings slowly entered Glossy. They were in no hurry and it was almost like they hadn’t just broken down the gate. A spear came down, pierced an iceling’s clothes, and then fell to the ground. Its tip was deformed and it didn’t seem like it had harmed the iceling at all. Guards rushed in, but their bronze weapons refused to harm the iceling.

  From behind the defensive crescent of doomed guards, someone came running up while singing. Singing the theme song from Friends. Their grandmother had watched and re-watched that show and they must have heard that song a thousand times. Payton didn’t think it was quite the right moment to relive a nostalgic moment.

  When Sage reached the crescent, she stretched an arm past the guards and pointed her whole arm at the lead iceling. Fire spread in a widening fan of flames from her palm and painted the iceling with furious heat.

  It stopped in the flames. Its hands dropped to its side and its face angled up to the sky, in relief or pain was not clear. A guard struck it with his sword and it cut flesh. Encouraged, the other guards stabbed and hacked at the still burning iceling until it fell. Sage sang again and caught the other two with her next spell.

  Payton brought her ax down on the nearest iceling and felt it bite through the collarbone. The icelings fell to the ground and slowly began weeping water as they thawed.

  “Sage! Sage! Sage!” The guards began to cheer and Payton joined in. Her sister’s cheeks burned red and she shyly waved to the crowd.

  Payton noticed she had gone from a Barbarian 1 to Barbarian 2 within a few hours of gaining her new class and almost giggled thinking of how much experience Sage must have earned with her part in defeating all three icelings.

  This was the first display of magic in the village and nearly caused a celebration to spontaneously break out. But an owl swooped down and carried off a villager as everyone was getting excited. The crowd instead hurried back to their huts and the guards to the broken gate.

  “When did you get a spellcasting class?” Payton asked as they wandered back to their hut.

  “Yesterday, I sent my last report to the Capital and apparently it was enough.” Sage admitted and leaned on her sister. Spell casting like that really took it out of her.

  “I knew you’ve been sending reports. You’re working for the Capital.” Payton looked around to see if anyone had overheard this admission.

  “I can tell you now, but you’re not going to like it. We can talk in the hut, that’ll be better.” Sage stumbled a little.

  “You need some water and sleep. If magic is going to affect you like this every time you use it, we are going to have to do something about it.” Payton let Sage use her ax as a walking stick.

  “It’ll get better as I level up. I can cast normally, but if I cast an extra spell it will exhaust me like this. It’ll be harder to hit this when I don’t have to wait so long for a cooldown. But the reports,” Sage shuffled into the hut and lowered herself to her bed. “I’ve been sending them since we got the dove cote built.”

  “That rabbit guy, is he involved in this?” Payton took back her ax and began to clean the bronze with a rag.

  “Dave, yes. He brought a charm that I put with our doves and they travel from the Capital and back.” Sage nodded and fumbled around on the table at the head of her bed until she found a jug of water. She began drinking water directly from the jug.

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  “So he works for the Capital too?” Payton asked.

  “Payton, we don’t work for the Capital. We work for the Prime Minister. And before that, we worked for Project Exile to get everyone off earth.” Sage closed her eyes as the light from their fire hurt her eyes. Leaving the fire going all day without having to worry about the house catching fire was the perk of living in a video game.

  “No, you worked for the Orchestra. The London Orchestra.” Payton’s hand slipped and she nicked her hand on her ax.

  “Yes, I did. But I was also a spy who informed the exiles who might be willing to join them or hurt the cause.” Sage explained.

  “So the violin was a cover? Were you really in the orchestra?” Payton asked.

  “I really play the violin and I was really in the orchestra. They recruited me because the orchestra traveled so much and it wouldn’t be odd for members to meet with high profile people.” Sage had water dripping off her face, but didn’t seem to care.

  “Was that all you did for them? There were a lot of rumors about bad things Project Exile people did.” Payton leaned her ax against her bed and instead twisted the rag as the conversation went on.

  “I’m not entirely sure of everything I was part of. I never killed anyone myself. I did meet with that African ambassador, do you remember him? He poisoned the United Africa Front leader, but I didn’t know anything about that.” Sage was being very candid.

  “That was you? He poisoned her and then jumped out a window. I was mining asteroids, the whole station shut down until a new Chief Administrator was chosen. They were a major supplier for our operation.” Payton felt like her stomach dropped to the floor.

  “I didn’t do that. I mostly recruited people and gathered information. Occasionally I smuggled documents or parts, but that was it.” Sage shook her head carefully.

  “You’re some sort of ninja spy? While you were visiting me in the asteroid belt you were actually some ninja spy person?” Payton asked. She was starting to feel light headed, it was a lot to take in.

  “That’s not real. I’m not a ninja, mostly I played the violin really well and met with people.” Sage frowned at that idea.

  “So why tell me now? What do they want from you now?” Payton asked.

  “Now we’re millions of miles from earth and specifically Earth Co’s Fleet. I couldn’t tell anyone until we’d been in space long enough and the line they set was when I got my prime class. They aren’t asking me to do anything crazy. I’m supposed to support this settlement and help take the manor. The manor is eventually going to be a military base to defend the region once the ice recedes. And you have wanted me to be honest with you.” Sage explained even though her squint made it look like thinking this hard was unpleasant.

  “Well, thanks. That’s a lot to hold onto. I need to think this over, I might have more questions in the morning.” Payton said and Sage held out a thumbs up before crawling under her blanket and going right to sleep.

  “Payton, we need to talk.” Zahir found Payton before she could reach the copper mine for the day.

  “It has never been a good thing when you say that to me.” Payton complained.

  “Yeah I get that. It’s really weird to be on this side of it too. Anyway,” Zahir took a deep breath. “The last ambush we pulled on the apes should clear the way to the farmable land on that side of the valley and the mine you saw over there. I’ve asked Zack to take three laborers and see about that mine.”

  “That is my mine. I spotted it and I fought with the volunteers to get rid of the apes. Zack never left the copper mine!” Payton shouted and drew attention from the villagers beginning their day.

  “Please walk with me, there is more going on than the mine.” Zahir put a gentle hand on her shoulder and they walked towards the wall where fewer people could overhear.

  “You better start talking or I’m going to chop up your thief butt.” Payton demanded.

  “First of all, I’m a rogue. I don’t steal things. And secondly, Becca is missing.” Zahir spoke quietly. “It’s not just Becca though. Five people are missing and we don’t know where they are.”

  “She’ll respawn, right? No matter where she went she’ll respawn sooner or later. She’s not a fighter, she probably is going to respawn right now.” Payton stopped yelling right away.

  “The town council has watched bell square through the night. I just checked her house. She had three clients waiting to talk with her and they are very worried.”

  “I talk to her a lot.” Payton unintentionally spoke.

  “We all talk to her. Everyone in Glossy has needed therapy at some point in the past few months. But we need all five back. No one knows where they went, last night was such a mess and the gate isn’t fixed yet. But this could be really bad. We have to address this immediately.” Zahir looked genuinely frightened.

  “Have Sage send a pigeon to the Capital and do what they say.” Payton shrugged.

  “Payton, what is the worst thing to happen to anyone in real life?” Zahir was struggling to explain himself.

  “Death of a parent at a young age.” Payton said without hesitation.

  “Ok yes, that’s good. Death of a parent, death of a sibling, your death definitely. But we don’t have that here, we have a break from death here. And one of the things has gone up the list of bad stuff that can happen is abductions.” Payton was starting to feel like Zahir was slowing this down to explain it to her. She appreciated it, but she didn’t like it.

  “You think someone kidnapped five people from Glossy?” Payton tipped her head doubtfully.

  “That’s a very worrying prospect. The bad guys who kidnap players are much worse than the icelings. If we have those around the village, none of us are safe. The entire village could be carried off by guys.” Zahir clasped his hands together.

  “So what are we doing?” Payton asked.

  “We need better equipment and someone who can hit really hard.” Zahir went to continue, but Payton interrupted.

  “Great! I’m a barbarian now. I will hit really hard with a few levels.”

  “I meant your sister, she’s a Bard. She has magic. You’re going to hit really hard, but not three lightning bolts hard. We will need you to keep her alive so she can cast her spells. At least until someone becomes a wizard or sorcerer. We need to get her better magic than the fan of flames she used last night.” Zahir winced and leaned back to be out of reach.

  “We don’t have anywhere to get her better magic.” Payton wanted to grab Zahir. It was annoying that he was expecting it now.

  “There is the manor. There will be much better equipment, possibly maps, and maybe even magic. The sooner we clear the manor, the sooner the Capital will send soldiers to hold it.” Zahir felt like he was laying it on thick, but he knew how Payton might react.

  “There are dozens of icelings at the Manor. We’ll never clear it like this.” Payton remembered the spearhead bending against the iceling.

  “We only have to expose the icelings to fire. Your sister’s fire works well, but only a few times. I have an idea on how to get around it. I’m going to need you and your sister at the Manor when I do it.”

  “How are you going to get around it?” Payton asked.

  “I’m going to walk away very mysteriously without answering. Just meet me at the gates in an hour.” Zahir waved his arms to make himself seem more mysterious as he walked away.

  Payton resisted the urge to pick up a rock and throw it at the mysterious Zahir, but if she only had an hour then she had things to do.

  “Where’s Mark?” Payton was at the blacksmith shop to pick up her best breastplate that needed a buckle replaced.

  “We don’t know. He didn’t show up today and he’s not in his hut. Zahir said he was looking for him. Is that what you two were talking so loud about?” One of the apprentices answered.

  “Yeah, I hadn’t seen him either. I’m sure he’ll turn up. We might have some iron for you soon, hopefully he’s back for that.” Payton winced inwardly. She hadn’t thought Mark was one of the five missing people. She accepted her armor and thanked the apprentices for the repair. She nearly ran back to her hut.

  “Sage, we have to go to the manor today.” Payton kicked her sister’s bed to wake her up and then started the slow process of putting all her armor on.

  “What? You hated the manor, you said you’d never go back.” Sage said through her yawn.

  “Zahir says we have to go, we can explain on the way.” Payton’s voice was a little muffled from inside the armor.

  “You’re voluntarily going to the manor after our first deaths? Is it going to be just you, me, and Zahir?” Sage sat up, took another drink from the jug that had ended up on the floor instead of the table, and stared hard at her sister.

  “It better not be just the three of us. There’s more than just the manor. Five people are missing from the village, they went missing during the night. Zahir is concerned they were abducted and if there is something outside the walls that abducts people, it is very worrying to Zahir.”