Qube was so busy trying to concentrate on appearing focused that she almost missed when the group stopped. Jolting to attention, she tried to look like she had been alert and present the entire time.

The sight in front of her was vaguely familiar. There were several backpacks lying around, a Save Point, and a blackened cave entrance…

This was where they had fought those Bandits, all that time ago.

“Do you think the bear’s respawned?” the Chosen One asked Qube. Qube frowned as she tried to figure out what respawning was.

“I shouldn’t think so,” she replied. Respawning was probably just having more spawn. While Qube didn’t know how animals spawned twins/children in the wild, without a Mage to help out, she had to assume that there was some method. Given the Bear Mage had potentially been a Mage itself, it may have taken care of spawning its own offspring, but it had seemed pretty determined to leave and find its Bandit owners last time Qube had seen it.

“Eh, let’s check it out anyway,” the Chosen One said, dismissing Scaley-Waley, then passing his hand through the Save Point.

That was when everything went strange.

The Save Point, normally peacefully floating in the air, expanded, flaring off bright blue light for a second as everything went sideways. The world warped around Qube and, for an instant, innumerable numbers flashed around her, the same as when she’d been dreaming, or electrocuted. Time seemed to collapse in on itself, before everything snapped back to normal.

Then the world pulse again, driving Qube to her knees as the numbers nearly seared themselves into her vision: every item, movement, moment calculated and accounted for. She covered her eyes, but it made no difference; the world continued to burn.

As fast as it had started it was over, only the dancing afterlights of the numbers every time Qube blinked proving it had ever happened. Looking at the Save Point, she gasped.

The Chosen One was gone. In his place, standing next to the blue sphere of power, were two familiar figures.

“Warwick?” Qube asked, squinting as her eyesight adjusted back to reality. “And… Ruth?” Their names felt strange, like she wasn’t used to them, even though she was looking at two people she had known her entire life.

It was the Wizard and Rogue from her home village. The two Potential Chosen Ones who had never realised their Potential to become Chosen. Two people who were looking around, like they were seeing everything for the first time.

Her letter to Alderman must have worked! They must have finished rebuilding the village (much faster than the Wood Elves in the Forbidden Forest, Qube mentally added) and decided to teleport to the Chosen One and join in on their adventures!

“Where are the others?” she asked, almost tripping over her own tongue in excitement. “Did the Chosen One go back to get them?” She rushed towards them, throwing out her arms to hug both at the same time, only to have two of her oldest friends step back, away from her.

“What’s wrong?” Qube asked. Had she really changed so much in her adventures? Did they not recognise her after she’d grown so strong? Could they not actually see her? Did the Evil Emperor’s curse affect them too? “Can you see me? It’s me, Qube! From the village!”

“Hey, Qube,” Ruth said, with an unconvincing smile.

Something was wrong.

“I told you this was a bad idea,” Warwick said, looking at Ruth.

They were wrong.

“Do you have any idea how difficult it was just to mod this so that two of us could be here at the same time?” Ruth snapped at the Wizard. “Especially without accidentally messing with any of this?” she waved her hand around, indicating the party as a whole. “You want me to take on the workload of designing two new player-capable avatars from scratch? Invent something that eliminates the need for sleep!”

“You didn’t have to come with me!” Warwick said.

What was going on?

“She’s my creation; I’m not letting anyone else do this!” Ruth snapped back.

This was totally foreign to Qube’s memories of the pair. The strange way they were talking where she understood almost every word they used, but the sentences barely made any sense… it was like they were different people.

No. Not people.

Qube had only ever heard one other being refer to avatars.

“Devs,” she whispered, and even a lifetime of training couldn’t keep the quiver of fear out of her voice. “You’re Devs.”

Ruth and Warwick froze. Ruth recovered first.

“Yes,” she said plainly. “I know you asked that we not inhabit your… friend’s body, but we couldn’t make totally new ones in time. Sorry about that.” She (it?) didn’t sound very sorry.

“Where’s the Chosen One? Is he safe?” Qube asked. She suddenly became aware of her fellow party members directly behind her. Squiggles in particular was pressing against the back of her legs, shivering slightly.

“Yeah,” the creature inhabiting Ruth’s body said, her attention not on Qube. Instead, she was studying Sexy Screamy Spider Lady. By this point, Warwick had recovered his balance, and engaged Qube’s attention.

“We’re just here to ask a few questions,” he said, his reassuring smile not reaching his eyes.

“Have I failed a test?” Qube asked worriedly.

“No, no,” he said soothingly, as Ruth stepped past Qube and stood in front of Sexy Screamy Spider Lady.

“I want to talk to you,” the not-Ruth said to the Hunter.

The meetings in the Chosen One’s bedroom. The questions he’d been asking, the way he’d been standing back and observing Sewer Bard and Sexy Screamy Spider Lady during the Trials.

The Devs hadn’t come for Qube.

They’d come for the others.

---

It took all of Qube’s considerable self-control not to attempt to [Heal] the two Devs then and there. She’d heard how the testing had gone down with the Chosen One — there was no way the trio had been able to pass. Remembering Definitely Bad Guy’s theory that the Devs were wary of her power, her first instinct was to use that fear to protect her friends.

Almost instantly she dismissed the thought, horrified at herself. Who was she to try and take on the very creators of their world? Not to mention, for unknowable, alien beings, the Dev she had spoken to last time had seemed to want to help her, or at the very least make sure she was happy.

Maybe these ones had come to see what the others wanted to do, and make sure they were happy, too.

“Well, Bianca is here to talk to —” the Dev inside Warwick gave a resigned sigh, “— Sexy Screamy Spider Lady. I feel so stupid saying that. Why did we allow companion renaming?”

Sexy Screamy Spider Lady shifted, looking down at the apparent Rogue in front of her.

“Bianca?” she said, her inflection a question. Not-Ruth grimaced.

“Yeah, call me Bianca,” she said, seemingly unhappy about her name being known by the party.

“Do not fear, fair Bianca,” Sewer Bard said, taking his place by Sexy Screamy Spider Lady’s side and reaching for the Dev’s hand. She pulled it away from him before he could touch her, so he turned the motion into a bow. “Though names may hold great power, we would never dream of using it to harm one as beautiful as yourself.”

“Huh, you’re not as hot in person,” Bianca said with a bluntness that made the Chosen One look diplomatically skilled. “I’ll have to tweak that in the future. Make you look less tired.” Sewer Bard stiffened, before his expression slid into one of diplomatic neutrality.

“Bianca,” Not-Warwick said warningly. Surprisingly, Bianca instantly pulled herself up, shooting the once-Wizard an apologetic look.

“Sorry,” she mumbled, flushing.

It had never occurred to Qube that there would be power dynamics amongst the Devs. But clearly, the not-Warwick was much more powerful than Bianca, for her to react so strongly just to her name being spoken. Perhaps Sewer Bard was on to something, and true names held great power.

“And you can call me Alex,” not-Warwick said, smoothing over the awkwardness.

While Qube’s mind was spinning with theories of name-based power, her companions had also been thinking.

“What was the name of the other Dev we spoke to?” Definitely Bad Guy asked, deftly leaving out the part where the previous Dev had dismissed everyone except Qube.

Alex and Bianca exchanged a speaking look.

“Don’t worry about them,” Alex said, stepping aside and gesturing for the group to follow him as he drifted to the other side of the cave entrance. Only Sexy Screamy Spider Lady, pinned in place by Bianca’s attention, remained still. Something about the way Alex easily separated them out, creating a small bubble of privacy for Sexy Screamy Spider Lady and the other Dev spoke to Qube of experience with leading others, sharply contrasting the rough commands given by the previous Dev to control the group.

“Now, I’m sure you have questions for us,” Alex said, smiling at Qube and the others. “From everything I’ve heard, you’re one for asking questions.” Qube went bright red, then dead white as she realised that the Chosen One must have been telling the Devs not only about her actions and answers, but probably about her personality as well.

It was a heady thought, the Chosen Saviour of All discussing your personality with the beings who made everything in existence. As Qube tried to absorb this, and figure out what was safe to ask, Definitely Bad Guy broke in.

“There are several questions I would like answered,” he said. His tone, normally superior in a way that the Chosen One called insufferably smug, was surprisingly meek.

The Alex Dev’s lips twitched downwards for a split second before he once again smiled. “Of course,” he replied, with perhaps a touch less enthusiasm than before. For some reason, this made Sewer Bard cough, almost like he was trying to conceal laughter.

“I believe we all have questions,” the Bard added. To Qube’s surprise, the Dev didn’t seem particularly excited about talking to Sewer Bard, either, his smile becoming slightly grim.

Why had they come to talk to them, then seem reluctant to actually talk to half of them? He hadn’t even greeted Squiggles, who remained fixed to her place behind Qube’s legs.

“Very well,” the Alex Dev said to the two men. “Let’s see what you two are made of.”

---

Meanwhile, a short distance away from the main group, Qube could still hear everything being said by the Bianca Dev. She swivelled between the two women and three men, trying to listen to both conversations at once.

“So, we heard about you refusing to turn back into a wood elf,” Bianca said with a lack of delicacy that seemed characteristic of her.

Sexy Screamy Spider Lady didn’t instantly respond. After a moment, she glanced up, meeting Qube’s eyes, before looking at the Dev.

“You said ‘she’ was your ‘creation’. Now, who were you referring to with that?” the Hunter asked, focusing intently on the Dev.

“You, of course,” Bianca replied. “I helped design all of you, but I made your model all by myself. Both models.” The Bianca blinked. “That means you as an elf and a spider.”

Sexy Screamy Spider Lady frowned with all her faces.

“You designed my spider form?” she asked. “That wasn’t part of the Dryad Queen’s curse?”

Bianca bit her bottom lip, an unexpected display of uncertainty from an all-powerful being.

“Yes, it was, but I also designed it,” she said, which didn’t clarify anything. “And chose how it would integrate with… things.”

“You’re clearly a powerful woman,” Sexy Screamy Spider Lady purred, “how can it be that one such as yourself would be unable to turn me back into a wood elf without running the risk of damaging my memories?”

“I don’t control that,” Bianca replied shortly. She chewed on a fingertip, then stopped and looked at her finger like she’d never seen it before. “That tastes weird,” she remarked, to no one in particular. “Anyway!” she refocused. “I made you, but I don’t make the rules. It’s like the difference between making a child, and making the laws of the land. That ain’t my wheelhouse.”

“Then whose is it?” Sexy Screamy Spider Lady asked. Bianca jabbed her thumb over her shoulder, in the direction of the other group.

“Alex is the one in charge,” she said grimly. “But you,” she said, staring at Sexy Screamy Spider Lady, “you are my baby.”