"Red light?" Danika asked aloud when she finally noticed the increasingly red glow that tinted the meadow ominously. A shadowy figure on the edge of the meadow startled at the sound of her voice, but the movement passed unnoticed. She raised her face to the moon, which still glowed silver-white above the horizon, to find the sky above streaked with red stars.

Danika reacted by stuffing the pouch full of seeds into her inventory, and a split second later a pair of human hands grabbed her and clutched her firmly. Before she could even shriek, a man's voice said frantically, "If you're still alive after it hits, please pull the dagger out of me within 5 minutes!"

One of his hands released her, but Danika was still unable to escape. She gasped in horror as he curled over and thrust both her and the dagger that appeared in his other hand hard against his own chest. With a horrible crackling noise, he turned to stone, and then the entire world melted beneath a rain of fire.

Eventually, a minute of eternity later, the molten shower of dying stars dwindled and then died. It left behind a charred and blasted landscape in every direction, with tiny flames still dancing at the edges. Puffs of steam emitted fading screams here and there in the snow higher up the slope.

Danika was still alive. She was singed and roasted, and she wasn't sure she had any skin left outside of the areas covered by the stone hand that still clutched her against the stone chest. After a long moment, she reached for the dagger beside her, but froze, when a voice overhead asked, "Did we finally get him? You're sure he doesn't have enough left to revive again?"

Another voice answered, "Yes, I'm sure! And yes, we got him! Look, he tried to use some kind of stone defense, but he's shattered. Ha, finally that rich brat will have to start completely over!"

A voice Danika recognized said accusingly, "You lied to me!"

The first voice replied with confusion, "What are you talking about?"

Justin said with disgust, "Look at me you idiot. You guys owe me ten times the amount you paid!"

The other voice gasped and squeaked, "Red PVP flag!"

Justin accused, "You swore that he was still under his own PVP flag, and that this would only cost me one day of green PVP status."

"I don't understand," the first voice said defensively, "he was, I swear." His voice got fainter as he protested, "Hey, stop, where are you taking us?"

The distance seemed to be increasing rapidly, and Danika barely made out Justin's last sharp sentence, "Back to my tower, where I'll be stuck for the next week!"

After a minute, Danika struggled to pull out the dagger. She didn't have enough leverage where she was trapped in the stone hand, so she tapped her ring and pulled out the bottle of slippery witch's oil. She dumped the rest of it over her head and tried to spread it under the stone by wriggling. Thankfully it worked, and she soon slipped out of the hand. Unfortunately, every movement hurt.

Danika stared up at the figure of the man who'd grabbed her. The voice hadn't lied, he was shattered in many places. Grimly, she started the restore prayer as she propped her feet against his knees and pulled the dagger out with her dragon's strength.

As the dagger slid out, stone became flesh, and the flesh bled. The prayer was granted, but Danika wasn't certain it was successful, until he spoke.

His voice was flat as he said rapidly, "What the hell is a little novice character doing here? Are you with them? I swear if you are, I'll kill you until you have to restart your character, even if you did pull the knife out in time to unstone me!" He stopped talking abruptly and his head swiveled, after a moment he asked, "Is that my elbow? And that's definitely an ear, but…"

Danika turned and stared at the shattered remains of his elbow and other fragments on the ground without answering.

After a long silent moment, he reached for her. She tried to evade his grasp, but failed. Either he was too fast, or she was too slow. He held her up to his face and said flatly, "I'm sorry. It looks like I really owe you."

Danika said sharply, "Then let me go!"

He released her, and she fell. He didn't let her hit the ground though. He caught her, but this time he didn't grip her, instead he supported her on open palms. "I'm really sorry, you look like you're in bad shape too. Do you have anything left to heal yourself? I'm all out of potions and Karma. I can't imagine how much it cost you to heal me from that."

Danika pulled up her menus without answering. She felt cold and shivery. Her health bar was very low and still dropping, so she repeated the restore prayer. She gazed regretfully at her Karma stat as it dropped another 30 points, but her body warmed as her health and energy refilled, and the pain vanished.

"87 Karma," she reported the amount his restoration had cost her. She had only 12 Karma left. If she died now, at level 35 she wouldn't be able to revive, and all the time she'd spent earning enough Karma to play a dragon's child would be wasted.

She shivered, thinking of the dangerous return trip to the witch's house. After a moment she gazed up at him. She hoped he was worth it.

"I'll buy more Karma and pay you back," he promised when their eyes met.

"You can't buy Karma," Danika pointed out dryly.

"Of course you can," he corrected, "just not from the game company. Priests of the God of Balance can transfer Karma between players, as long as both parties are willing."

Danika frowned up at him disapprovingly.

He smiled at her, a quick expression that vanished as he said strangely without inflection, "Wow you are really cute."