“Are you sure that’s the boat this titan wants us to use?” Payton hissed at her sister.

  “Yes, that’s the only boat on the beach and this is the only beach for kilometers up or down the shore. Right Zahir?” Sage hissed back and both sisters turned to look at their guide.

  “Yes, yes it is. But that group is a problem. Specifically, she is a very big problem.” Zahir pointed at the tall figure moving across the sand.

  A small village of tents were huddled on the beach near the cliff face and the orc inhabitants were busy building a large ship just beyond the reach of high tide. The ship Payton pointed out was a white, mastless boat beached near the orcs’ drydock.

  Among the orcs, a tall woman with an olive complexion directed the work. She had four arms and the lower body of a snake. She was wrapped in purple silk and several golden necklaces. Her hair was held back by a golden band, studded with deep red jewels.

  “Yeah, she’s big.” Payton agreed, thinking about the size of the sword she wore on her back.

  “Big is only part of it. She’s a spellcaster and these orcs are probably mind controlled by her. Killing the lamia might mean we have to fight fifty angry orcs. We could be stuck here for weeks.” Zahir explained.

  “Maybe they’ll let us pass, they don’t look like warriors.” Sage suggested.

  “That’s possible, but if they don’t we’ll need to fight hard.” Zahir checked his arrows and fixed his hair. If they wanted to make a good impression, he wanted to look good for it.

  “This seems like a job our bard should take the lead on.” Payton fixed her sister with a hard stare.

  “That’s fine, we’ll be fine.” Sage tried to sound confident, but knew it sounded forced.

  She led the trio out from behind the rocks and approached the worksite with slightly shaky steps. She waved at the orcs who noticed her and was glad they didn’t feel the need to interrupt their work for visitors.

  “Who are you that approach my colony so openly?” The lamia slithered across the sand easily. Up close, Sage could tell she was not much larger than a regular person but the serpent body could easily lift her up above the tents and the partially completed ship.

  “I am Sage, this is my twin sister Payton, and this is our guide Zahir. We are answering a summons from the Titan of the Wind and I believe that is her boat on your beach.” Sage smiled pleasantly and pointed to the white boat. It looked like it had been pressed out of one piece of plastic.

  “That boat showed up two days ago, it has the feel of a titan’s magic. I have no desire to have a titan’s meddling here. What will you do when you take it away from here?” The lamia pulled back at the mention of a titan.

  “We will meet the titan, return, and then go on our way.” Lying didn’t even occur to Sage.

  “Very well, take the boat and be on your way. We have work to do.” The lamia waved one hand, took another off the hilt of her sword, and then slithered away without another word.

  “That was easy. I’ll stay out of their way while you two take the boat?” Zahir sounded nervous.

  “Maybe you should go back up the path on the cliff?” Payton suggested as they walked to the boat.

  “I think it would be worse to try to hide. Neutral parties shouldn’t attack if they’re left alone. I just have to let them stay neutral.” Zahir didn’t sound horribly confident.

  “We’ll come back as soon as we can.” Sage promised and climbed into the white boat.

  “I’ll be here and you know,” Zahir’s expression improved as something occurred to him. “If they turn on me and kill me, I’ll wait for you at the last village. Nothing lost right?”

  “That’s morbidly right.” Payton shivered at the suggestion and then climbed into the boat after her sister. It had no internal ribs or benches like the row boats at camp. It wasn’t bigger than the row boats, but only had the shape in common.

  No sooner had Payton entered the boat, it slid off the sand and silently moved away from the beach. The boat continued to speed up until Sage and Payton had to lay down in the bottom to avoid getting tossed out on the waves. No sooner had they lain down, they fell asleep and knew nothing more of the waves or the rest of the voyage in the boat.

  “Ladies, please wake up.” A gentle voice nudged the twins awake before they realized they had fallen asleep. “We don’t have much time, this petulant child could do something rash any day now.”

  “Where are we?” Payton asked as the voice’s owner helped her out of the boat and onto a beach with black sand.

  “That’s not important, you were asleep to keep you from knowing where you are.” The woman answered and then helped Sage out as well. The area was dark, but the area around the boat was lit from no apparent light source. A distant half circle of light seemed to lead to the outside world and that would imply they stood in a cave. The beach didn’t seem to go anywhere and the cave seemed to be the only way to access the beach.

  “I guess you are the Titan of the Wind?” Sage asked the woman softly. She was a young woman with short brown hair and a robe that draped her body with one long piece of billowy white fabric.

  “Please call me Megan. This Titan front was not supposed to be a serious thing. I monitor the ship’s systems and the patients for proper health and development. I brought you here to deal with a serious issue in the game.” Megan put a hand to her chest and inclined her head modestly.

  “You couldn’t just write another note and send a peacock?” Payton asked bluntly.

  “No and that should indicate just how serious an issue this is. Do you know the name Gregory Fulton?” Megan continued.

  “Wasn’t he that guy with the drone company that started a volcano?” Sage asked.

  “Close, he programmed the drones for that company. He considers himself a genius AI programmer and was a well to do shareholder in Earth Co. He was unimpressed with his situation in the game and had a list of demands for the Prime Minister. He threatened to hack the game if he didn’t get his demands.” Megan pointed at Sage.

  “Hack. And do what?” Payton asked.

  “Kidnap individuals. A lot of individuals it seems. Two thousand people to be precise.” Megan started.

  “The missing people from the village, he has them.” Sage finished the thought reflexively.

  “Not just your village, the entire kingdom. He’s holding them in an encrypted drive that he’s pirated for his own use. He’s done a dozen other things, but the kidnapping is the most serious. He’s threatening to kill his hostages if his demands aren’t met.”

  “Then they’ll just respawn, right?” Payton asked.

  “No, he’s not going to just kill the avatars, he’s going to kill the people. Delete them entirely. Permanently.” Megan explained sadly.

  “He can’t just delete them, they’ll wake up and then the ship will put them back into hypersleep.” Sage protested.

  “This is complicated. You need to remember, as an agent of the Exile and new human government, are subject to…” Megan looked up and to her right like she was reading something only she could see. “Judicial Code 2-6-47A, duties and responsibilities of Exile leadership with regards to delicate and damaging information. As your sister is present and you have vouched for her integrity in the past, you will be responsible if she divulges the following information.”

  If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  The moment of silence following Megan’s explanation and Sage’s next words was charged like the instant before a lightning strike.

  “I can explain..” Sage started.

  “When did you vouch for me? I don’t need you vouch for me. I earned everything we have!” Payton was nearly shouting.

  “When the Exile started looking at the Mars colony, I may have mentioned that you were a talented miner working in the asteroid belt and you wouldn’t be opposed to irritating Earth Co.” Sage felt like she had just been hit by lightning.

  “They recruited me because I’m a great miner, not because my sister had connections.” Payton shouted and Megan took a step back.

  “You are a great miner. No amount of connections would have done anything if you weren’t. But there were hundreds of talented miners and drones that were considered. You had to get out of the asteroid belt. You were going to die when they cut the Ganges Treaty.” Sage had tears in her eyes. “Is it really so bad that I helped you? Is it really so bad that I wanted you to survive?”

  Earth Co had, after pacifying an uprising in India, decided to ignore industrial safety standards. It was especially harmful to their zero-g mining divisions which went from three fatalities every earth year to forty-seven every earth month.

  “I don’t need you protecting me!”

  “I’ll come back in twenty minutes to check in on you two.” Megan quietly disappeared. The shouting didn’t stop for twenty minutes and Megan ended up giving them twenty more. They had moments of silence and tears. There on the black sand beach cut off from the rest of the world, they had the hardest conversation of their lives.

  “Are you two ok?” Megan asked after the forty minutes was over.

  “Yes, we’re better now. I won’t reveal whatever you tell us, I swear it.” Payton wiped her tears away and held onto Sage’s hand. Both hands were cold, but growing warmer together now.

  “Excellent. I am not an AI program. I am Megan Sheffly and eight years ago I was trapped for five days in a collapsed building in Miami. My uncle, Professor Ryan Carmichael, used experimental and secret technology to keep me alive in the basement of Cal Tech’s bioengineering lab. Two years later, he succeeded in connecting my brain to a computer controlling an avatar in the Rural Life game. Even though my body was clinically dead, my brain maintained function and even regained capacity as I lived through the game. Three years ago, one of his students succeeded in doing the same process with a trained dog. Then cloned that dog and was able to download the training and brain functions into the new body.”

  “Oh crap.” Sage’s thoughts jumped ahead and she clenched her sister’s hand.

  “Last year, a pilot was put into hibernation sleep and sent to New Corsica in secret to see if previous efforts had failed. On return, she was downloaded into a clone of herself successfully. We are going to recreate this process on a large scale once we reach New Corsica.”

  “So you’re gonna ditch our old bodies and make us use new ones?” Payton asked.

  “Payton, she’s saying we’re already dead. The hibernation sleep wasn’t to save our bodies. Our original bodies are already dead.” Sage explained.

  “That is clinically accurate. Brain function has been preserved in ninety-six percent of participants with the remaining four percent already downloaded. Transfer to the new bodies is already underway. Except for those who Fulton kidnapped. Their data is lost currently and he is threatening to delete them if his demands aren’t met.”

  “We’re already dead? He can’t kill people who are already dead!” Payton let go of Sage’s hand, but Sage clung to her anyway.

  “It isn’t the killing that is concerning, he’s preventing their reemergence in fresh bodies. We are not clear how long it will take to download everyone to their fresh body, if they are gone too long they may not awaken with everyone else. Or their data may be corrupted and lost. I need help to deal with Fulton and this problem he has made.” Megan’s face hardened and waves kicked up around the beach at her scowl.

  “You have administrative access to the game, can’t you put him in time out?” Sage asked.

  “Fulton has a custom neural implant that hacked the game. I can transfer him immediately to his new brain and cut him off from this implant, but he has to be killed in the game first.”

  “So drop a house on him. You’re a titan. Attack him with an army of peacocks or something.” Payton suggested.

  “If I take direct action the other titans, who are real AI programs, will take action and that could restart the whole game. It could send everyone to level one and with everyone respawning, I might not be able to find Fulton and this could start all over.” Megan admitted and the waves shrunk a bit.

  “Ok, so where is this Fulton idiot? I have a big ax, he has a soft skull. This can be done in ten minutes.” Payton rolled her shoulders like she expected to be dropped immediately behind Gergory Fulton.

  “He’s on the western coast. Near the icewall. He has hacked a settlement of gnolls and they’re building him a castle. They are very high level for you right now and are completely loyal to Fulton.” Megan explained.

  “Maybe twenty minutes.” Payton shrugged.

  “We will get some help and do what we can to deal with the gnolls.” Sage stepped up and offered.

  “The Prime Minister has been made aware, she will probably have a team to help you. But gnolls are still expected to be a challenge to players level fifteen to seventeen. I have these tokens to assist you.” Megan waved her hand at the sand and five seashells wiggled up through the sand. “Grind this up, boil it until it dissolves, and then drink it. You will receive double the experience for the next three days. But use it wisely. It won’t work more than once.”

  “How will we know where to find Fulton’s castle?” Sage asked as she scooped up the pale, pink shells.

  “The Prime Minister has a good lead on that. Contact the Prime Minister and end Gregory Fulton.” Megan spoke and the boat grated up against the sand again. Megan disappeared and the twins climbed into the boat. They lay down again and the boat left the cave.

  The boat gently parted the sand by the lamia’s dry dock and Zahir hurried to hold it fast while his two friends exited the boat. The sun was rising and the orc encampment was not yet awake. The lamia’s red, black, and yellow patterned snake body twitched lazily outside of a tent and in plain sight of the beach.

  “How long were we gone?” Sage asked Zahir as he poked the coals of his fire. He had made camp away from the tents and his little fire seemed lonely when compared to the trails of smoke rising from the cooking fire not far away.

  “The rest of yesterday and last night. Not long, but I wasn’t worried about you. These orcs are not here voluntarily. This lamia doesn’t have them under mind control, but it’s clearly not voluntary.” Zahir nervously looked at the camp.

  “What do you mean?” Sage asked.

  “Last night, she stopped all the work and invited challengers to free the orcs. She paralyzed the two challengers with a spell and gutted them with her sword. Then she demanded an offering from the families of the challengers. She ate the orc they brought out. Then in the night she caught six orcs trying to sneak away. They’re staked out below high tide.” Zahir pointed to some logs in the surf. Orcs were chained to them, emerging as the tide went out.

  “Zahir, these aren’t people. These are NPC’s, we have real people to save. I don’t know if we can beat the lamia and do what we need.” Sage winced at what she said. It was hard to see these orcs as just NPC’s.

  “That doesn’t mean they aren’t valuable. We could expand the village and occupy the Manor with them. They could be a very powerful ally if we can get them home.” Zahir was ready for this argument. He had been up most of the night with little else to think about.

  “So this lamia is mostly a spellcaster, right?” Sage tightened her bow just a little while she watched the giant snake tail twitch.

  “Yeah, that’s a big part of her threat. But that sword, the falcata, it’s bad too.” Zahir’s eyes went wide as the lamia backed out of her tent. She coiled her tail to give her upper body someplace to sit while her four arms straightened all her jewelry and silks.

  “I’ll take care of her spells, you two hit her hard and fast.” Sage checked her violin’s tune with a few strokes of the bow.

  “I guess so, I mean the orcs probably won’t fight for her?” Payton counted twenty orcs just at a glance.

  “Uh, try to get rid of the arms as fast as we can. That should stop us from dying.” Zahir didn’t sound any more confident, but he did get his bow ready.

  “You tiny ones have returned and the boat is now gone. I imagine you completed whatever business you had and can now leave.” The lamia approached with a bored look on her face.

  “I thought we might give your orcs a song first, since you were so nice to let us pass.” Sage said with a smile. She began to play without waiting for permission. The sound of the waves disappeared, the sounds of the camp faded, and the wind stopped whistling.

  For a moment, Payton didn’t know what to do. Zahir looked like he was whispering something, but no sound came out. The lamia still looked bored and had two of her hands on what passed for her hips.

  Payton watched the two other hands float to the melody and then one hand was suddenly pierced by an arrow. The lamia shrieked with pain, but Payton couldn’t hear anything. She remembered that she was supposed to attack this bored snake-woman.

  The lamia had reared up off her coils and used her other hands to snap and remove the arrow. Payton ran up to the lamia and chopped at the snake body as that was the only thing she could reach. The ax glanced off the scales like it had hit stone. Zahir’s second arrow hit the lamia’s torso and she suddenly realized who was shooting at her.

  The sword came out in a silent arc and slashed at Zahir with the same motion. It was a silvery blur and Zahir ducked under it. His black hair sprayed away from the blade and he dropped his next arrow.

  Payton swung at the lower torso with her ax and chopped into the shoulder of an arm. It went limp and the lamia swiveled on Payton. The curved sword chopped down at her and she caught it on the haft of the ax. The curved tip reached past the haft and gouged Payton’s face.

  Zahir’s arrow caught the lamia in a bicep and she dropped the falcata.

  “And to think I let you menials pass by! I should have devoured you when you set foot on my beach. Orcs! Protect me!” The lamia wailed and used her last functional arm to struggle against her significant bleeding.