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  “Who are you?” Talon demanded. “Why are you with these NPCs?”

  The middle-aged, brunette-haired woman glanced at him with a familiar distracted look, as she checked out Talon’s player profile. Ajax did the same to her, and only got the basic information (like with Lillus and Cassius), as she too carried a Talisman of Obscurity.

  Kat Black

  Race: Human

  Class: Martial Warrior

  Skill Focus: Unknown

  Level: 11

  Allegiance: Unknown

  Origin: Unknown

  Player Kills: Unknown

  HP: 394

  EN: 100/100

  Active Abilities

  Battle Resolve (BR): Increases all defenses by 10%

  Kat turned her gaze to both Ajax and Talon then to Lillus. She lingered on the Demon Mage for a moment longer than the other two, then looked her up and down. “You are most interesting.”

  “Tell me who you are and why you are here,” Talon again demanded.

  She turned to him. “Cassius is my husband, and I’m out here to support him.”

  Cassius had finally gotten the grieving woman under control and held her as he spoke. “We’re refugees from the war between the Imperium and the Republic.”

  “Yet your wife and the NPC warrior behind her are armed with army issued weapons and armor.” Talon stared at him, his weapon still drawn. A tense silence descended over the street.

  Lillus went to stand between the two. “No need for hostilities. We are among friends here. All of us have been cast out of the Imperium and should stand together.”

  Ajax quickly went to stand beside her, in case things got carried away.

  Talon’s eyes flicked to her. “You believe they’re refugees? They could be brigands or deserters.”

  Smiling a knowing smile, Lillus turned to Cassius. “You’re the leader of the NPCs who raided an Imperial army supply camp for weapons.”

  The dark-skinned NPC Rogue only stared at her, his lips a hard line. Lillus gave him a friendly wave. “Don’t worry, no ill-judgment from me. You have nothing to fear from any of us.”

  “That is yet to be determined,” Kat said.

  A teenage NPC male ran up to them. “Did you find her? Please tell me you found her.”

  “Did you have a hand in this, boy?” Cassius asked.

  The teen’s mouth fell open. “She’s... She’s?”

  Cassius nodded once.

  The boy burst into tears. “We were going to meet away from the others to be alone. Just for a few minutes.” He fell to his knees. “I loved her, I loved her. It’s all my fault.”

  Kat took him in her arms. “Tell me everything. Why is it your fault?”

  “We had a secret meeting place, outside of camp.”

  The teen’s words were barely legible through his giant sobs and it only made the aching lump in Ajax’s throat grow. He had never been good at dealing with other people’s grief.

  “We’d met there before...” The teen wailed. “I thought it safe so close to camp.”

  Cassius grimly told them about Ajax and his companions seeing the newly arisen female ghast and what likely happened. As he spoke, the dead young woman’s mother wept into his chest. “But I promise you both, I will find her and put her to rest.” He shook with emotion. “Don’t blame yourself, boy. I should’ve taken care of that ghast when our scouts first sighted him.”

  Talon shifted his weight. “Do you have a camp around here?”

  Kat gave him a hard look. “What’s it to you?”

  The dragon rider slowly put his sword away. “I heard the gossip about you lot. I can see why you did what you did.”

  Finally, Ajax understood who they were. He’d also heard the rumors of a band of NPCs stealing weapons from the army, then heading north. And I thought there would be no chance of us meeting them... The Fallen Empire is vast, after all.

  Had the Oracle been behind this? How much power did it wield over events?

  Kat’s eyes widened slightly as Talon continued. “Once, I was part of the Imperium Guard. I got to see first-hand how the elite core of the Sinjharian army treated the NPCs.” He paused for a long beat as he turned to Cassius. “I’m sorry they treated you all so bad. As if you were second-class citizens.”

  “More like third-class,” Cassius snapped, stroking the grieving mother’s long blond hair. “We weren’t born into your real world.”

  Talon blinked. “You know of our world?”

  “After seeing all the NPCs in our village slaughtered by the Imperial Army, I broke our player oaths and told him everything.” Tears ran down Kat’s cheeks. “I met Cassius in a Dernese settlement in the border region between the Imperium and the Republic, a few miles south of the border. I was with a group of Independent City-State mercenaries out of Thorn who had been hired to fight for the Republic. When I met him.” She smiled lovingly at Cassius. “My life... came together. It felt complete. I am his, and he is mine.”

  Her smile faded as Cassius spoke. “Then a few years ago, a group of Sinjharian butchers came and rounded up the NPCs in town and executed them all. I was the only one they spared, because I was married to a player.”

  Ajax frowned. Could they be talking about one of the tit for tat slaughters captain Cynthia’s actions had started? When she’d butchered Dernese NPC peasants, it had been in a border town—and from what Captain Shawn had said, for years afterwards, villages on both sides of the border were raided and destroyed by the two feuding powers.

  Cassius snarled at Talon. “We stumbled through the broken bodies. Blood and worse everywhere. Then both of us held one another and vowed we would never see this happen again.” He shook with rage. “So we gathered up thousands of other dispossessed NPCs from other villages, people who would never be missed, and headed north in small groups so as not to draw attention.”

  “On the way up here, we raided a remote barracks for supplies.” Kat let the boy go and he shuffled back to the group of people in the distance, his head lowered. “And we came north, to live free of the war and the murderous players who partake in it. Now we train with weapons, and live off the land.” She had almost spat the word player as she had said it. “I’m the only player among us. But I would have it no other way. My kind... are scum.”

  Not all of us are, Ajax thought. But he could see why she would come to such a conclusion. In the past, online games and even the internet in general, had often brought out the worst in people, and to some extent, those tendencies had transferred over to humanity’s exile within Visaria.

  Normal people, once truck drivers, pizza delivery boys, day care workers and so on, could become hardened killers overnight. Killing in Visaria wasn’t the same as killing in the real world, even if it felt much the same.

  “You said there were thousands of you out here.” Lillus glanced at Ajax. “They could help us in the coming war.”

  “Why would we help you?” Cassius asked. The woman in his arms let him go and sat against the wall of the house were Ajax had slept the night before and continued to weep.

  Lillus grinned. “Because it’s in all our interests that you do.” She told them everything, including how they had been exiled from the Imperium and of their current destination.

  The Oracle.

  Then she blew a kiss at Ajax. “This handsome, manly man with a kind heart, is the Chosen One. He is here to save us all—for it will be him who must lead the war against the void.”

  As all eyes turned to Ajax (including those of the two dragons), his cheeks burned. “Um, yes, well...” He squared his shoulders and stood tall. “I will do what I can.”

  Cassius and Kat went cross-eyed, as they checked out his stats again. Ajax didn’t flinch at their scrutiny. No doubt, both were scratching their heads as to why some level 8 Imperial outcast would be anything more then the dirty and disheveled man standing before them.

  On a whim, Ajax brought out the broken pineapple (now a black marble) from his inventory and held it
in the air over his head. The ball caught the rising sun just as it crested the tops of the distant mountains, and flared an intense white. Everyone backed away from him. Firesoul and Dawnspark took flight, fleeing to the edge of town to watch.

  The light burned like bright white fire, yet Ajax felt nothing more than a mild warmth. No smoke rose from the flames, and he caught no whiff of burning flesh. When he lowered the marble, the light dimmed, but remained trapped inside the glass-like surface. No longer was the marble jet black. Now it contained a dense glossy white fog, that swirled like mist within.

  Instinctively, Ajax knew the item had gathered the power of the sun, and recharged itself. If he were to encounter the minions of the void once more, he could unleash that power and scour the world clean of their presence.

  “Well... I’ll be.” Talon muttered, as he and Lillus tentatively approached him.

  The Demon Mage had a massive grin on her face. “Oh, Ajax, you make me want to kiss you when you do something unexpected like that.”

  Cassius and Kat stood side by side as they stared at the glowing object in his hands. “What is it?” Kat asked. “I get an error message when I try to look at the stat information.”

  “I know.” Ajax lowered his arm, but didn’t put the broken moldy pineapple marble thing away.

  “Strange you players can’t see what it is, for I can,” Cassius said.

  Ajax’s heart skipped. “Really?”

  The NPC Rogue nodded. “It’s called the Eye of Destiny. Powers Unknown. Unique item: bound to Ajax Stoneheart.” He shrugged. “That’s all I can see.”

  At least Ajax had a name for it now. Odd that an NPC could see the description and yet players couldn’t. Maybe the Oracle could tell him more.

  As he put the Eye of Destiny back into his inventory, Ajax stepped forward, his hand held out in friendship. “Please stand with me. When I return from my journey to the Oracle, and face the void, help me defeat it. Send your NPCs south, and join up with me as I try to unite the armies of the Republic and the Imperium and have them cease their wars, and turn their weapons against the void.”

  He held his head high, really getting into his speech. “For our enemy doesn’t only threaten us players—it threatens all of Visaria. I don’t know what will happen once us players are woken and returned to the real world. But if I can, I will ensure that Visaria continues long after we’re gone.”

  Ajax smiled at Kat as he listened to the broken woman crying against the side of the house. “And here is a player who has fallen deeply in love with an NPC, proving beyond a doubt in my mind, that NPCs are more than their coding. They are real people. They love, they cry, they feel remorse—they long for freedom. They feel everything a normal human does.” He took a deep breath and pointed over to the people gathered in the distance. “I will fight to save them. All of them. Every NPC, every creature, every player within this world. Visaria belongs to all of us, and we must stand together to save it.”

  Everyone stared at him, dumbstruck it seemed, for no one uttered a single word for over half a minute. Then Lillus walked up to him, and kissed him passionately on the lips. After a long time, she broke away. “You wait till Yana hears about this!”

  CHAPTER 13

  SANCTUARY

  CASSIUS’S AND KAT’S camp had been built at the base of an extinct volcano in the ruins of an old Pendraxian fortress. When Ajax brought up the story of the place in his field of view, it said the location had once been a 40-player raid zone named Mines of Tollow. Eleven raid bosses, led by Arch Lord Cazulu the Mad had once lived here making mechanical constructs and mining valuable obsidian within the ancient caldera for Pendrax. Players had long ago vanquished them, and the place had become forgotten after the next expansion pack had launched and everyone had moved on.

  Ajax stared up at the volcano peak, and imagined what it must have looked like before Pendrax fell. From the looks of all the ruined machines scattered about the place, it must’ve been loud and busy, with acrid air that burned the lungs. The designers had done a good job, of giving it a dreary, evil atmosphere.

  But then again, the Visarian designers had been masters at their craft.

  Firesoul and Dawnspark circled overhead. They’d refused to land anywhere near the place. Dawnspark had said they had once fought here during the war against Pendrax, and that they’d seen too many of their kind brought down from the skies and butchered on the ground by the mechanical mining constructs.

  “We call this place Sanctuary,” Cassius Black said, as he gazed out over the vast stone fortress.

  Talon scanned the battlements. “How many people are inside?”

  “Over two thousand.” Cassius pointed at a nearby snow-drenched forest. “We grow our food in small clearings in those woods to decrease our chances of being detected. When we met you, we were in the process of bringing several hundred more refugees from our hidden camp back here with us.”

  Ajax and his companions had traveled for half a day from the ruined town where they had met Cassius and Kat. He and the Demon Mage had both flown on Dawnspark (because Lillus was too weak to walk long distances), but they’d been forced to keep pace with the column of people below them, so the journey had been long and tedious.

  Kat pointed at a mine entrance. “There is a machine down there that uses underground magma pools to power our lights within the fortress keep. Down there is also an old barracks, and it is where we train our peasant NPCs into warriors.”

  Ajax had to admit, they had a nice setup out here. “Do the Imperial Dragon Riders normally come this far north?”

  Talon shook his head. “Why would they? Dern is south.” He scanned the skies. “But now they know we’re up here, it’s possible they might come looking.”

  “We must leave early in the morning.” Lillus let go of Ajax’s arm. “For we must get to the Oracle as soon as we can.”

  “Do you have a doctor here?” Ajax showed Kat and Cassius some of his wounds from fighting Sejanus. “These need treating.”

  They nodded and led the way into the keep.

  A large monument shadowed the path leading up to the fortress. It showed a mighty warrior with a an ax in each hand. A player perhaps, or a fallen hero. Ajax stopped to read the plaque.

  This monument has been erected in honor of the Legion of Self Denial, the first guild of brave warriors to slay Arch Lord Cazulu the Mad in combat. Here follows the names of these brave warriors.

  Ajax glanced over the list of forty names that followed and smiled to himself. Ah, the days of internet memes and silly names. The main Shield spec’d Martial warrior tank had been named Leroy Jenkins, while other players had equally silly names. Heartworm the Elemental Mage, fapfapfap the Poisoner spec’d Rogue, L33+ the Hunter spec’d Poacher and Yomama the Steampunk Contraptionist.

  He shook his head sadly. All of the people who had once played those characters, were probably dead. Felled by the machines that had risen up and stolen the world from their makers. Leaving the monument behind, he raced to catch up with the others who waited for him not far from the entrance.

  When he reached them, a message appeared in his mind’s eye.

  Quest Complete

  Kill Cassius’s people if they prove themselves a threat, in any way you can (dragon fire should work). If they are no threat, then make friends with them. Allies can be useful pawns after all... #insert mustache twirling evil laughter sound effect here.

  Rewards: 1500xp. A Tier 3 item of your choosing. Some negative reputation gains with both the Sinjharian Imperium and the Republic of Dern. But this is of no consequence to you anymore, so we have not bothered coming up with a figure. Just think of a high negative number, and double it and that would be about what you will lose.

  Ajax scanned the Tier 3 rewards, and decided on a new cloak. After selecting it, the item instantly appeared in his inventory. His old crappy cloak had been turned into bandages and he hadn’t found a replacement. Equipping the new blue cloak, he nodded in satisfaction.
/>   Flitter Flutter Cloak of the Breeze

  Flutters like a flag in the wind

  +1 Might

  +1 Dexterity

  +1 Spirit

  +1 Intellect

  +1 Luck

  Not bad, for an all-rounder item. Ajax checked the changes to his stats.

  Ajax Stoneheart

  Race: Human

  Class: Spiritual Warrior

  Skill Focus: Warrior Paladin

  Level: 8

  Player Kills: 4

  Might: 17 (BASE: 7+10 Might from equipment) (1 Might increases AP by 5)

  Dexterity: 2

  Intellect: 4

  Spirit: 13 (BASE: 5+8 Spirit from equipment) (1 Spirit increases healing by 10% and improves mana regeneration by 2%)

  Luck: 2

  HP: 347 (BASE: 235+12 BLS +100 from equipment)

  MP: 240 (BASE: 190+50 from equipment)

  AP: 215 (BASE: 150+15 from weapon + 50 from equipment)

  DEF: 175 (BASE: 20+155 from equipment)

  XP: 14717/15500

  Not long, and he would level up. Man, his this level been a grind!

  Lillus must’ve completed a quest too, as she grinned as a shiny new silver ring materialized in her hand. He checked the item’s info, and frowned when it came up with a question mark. Damn, I still lack the Intellect to identify stuff. But at least the extra one point might make him sound a bit smarter when he talked!

  When they arrived inside, they found the fortress a bustling place, filled with NPCs, their belongings and makeshift beds. Clearly, there hadn’t been enough rooms to house everyone, so many NPC families had made their home in the giant rooms that had probably once been the area where the raid bosses had been fought. Some of the rooms still bore the scars of the fighting that had once taken place there. One even had a huge hollow obsidian skull resting in the middle and a family of peasants had made their home inside.

  Cassius pointed to a door. “That leads to the infirmary. Head in, get treated, then ask the doctor for directions to our guest quarters. After you’ve eaten and had a night’s rest, we will see you off in the morning.”