The night was gone in a flash.

She and Aidan had spent it on the couch, holding hands wrapped, both wrapped in the same blanket, watching some terrible movie that they had found online. They hadn’t chosen it for its rave reviews though, simply because it would be good background while they sat and chatted together. Amelia didn't tell Aidan but it was actually one of the Super Dimensional Force Mecha shows she had sort of spotted her mother watching.

Elisha and Raven had spent the night around the table, rolling dice and making grand gestures as they debated over what their imagined avatars were doing in their campaign. The debate was surprisingly lively, oftentimes reaching decibel levels that interrupted Aidan and Amelia’s quiet chat. Raven as always tried to take the lead but Elisha was stubbornly and uncharacteristically adamant about some topics. She had been the one, after all, that had read and memorized all the rules to the game.

Forsythe and Hunter had disappeared as had become their custom. When they returned Hunter’s blonde hair was in disarray and she was looking quite pleased. Forsythe looked like Forsythe always did. Cool, calm, collected. He kissed her once at the threshold of the doorway, gently, before moving to the kitchen to make preparations for the morning’s meal. Amelia vaguely recalled that he was going into town later in the week to participate in a cooking show that was pretty well known in Australia.

When they logged into the game Amelia was once again struck by how different Blutonsi was compared to her first visit. It was full of life, and the chill of the air didn’t seem quite as harsh. Residents and new starter Transients littered the streets peddling wares and arguing about prices. Children recently born back into the North by Refugees skipped and played through the streets.

Amelia herself pulled up her blue cowl to hide her face as she walked in order to avoid scaring them. The blue cowl kept her hair and most of her face less than visible and it kept knees from smacking into the ground. She was meeting everyone from Shadow Fall in the square that had been erected. Surprisingly it already housed a statue. Her father had made good use of the past month. He and her mother had started the game as novices but had quickly achieved fame and accolades, much to the dread of Amelia.

In the Brack Kingdom her mother had started a bit of a flower garden around the lake while her father had begun his sculpting career. She had heard, though she hadn’t seen yet, that the area had become protected as a cultural highlight. Her father had sculpted a large human man with bulging muscles, bent under the weight of what looked like a mulch bag. Far smaller was a beautiful Silf woman who seemed to be directing the mountain of a man. Amelia had been told that it was a rendition and satire of Atlas. The caption simply read ‘Love Beggars Power.’

In addition, there was a series he had created, incorporating her mother’s flower gardens.

The first was at the lakeside near the road, not far off from where Forsythe had his legendary cooking battle debut. It was a three-piece depicting two adults dragging a reluctant child forward toward a field of flowers that towered in comparison.

Further down the lake another three-piece. The adults were bent over, pointing toward the water. The small child no longer looked as if she were being led but instead was, at last, taking an active interest.

The last piece was in the sunflower garden her mother had planted. In it the adults were being dragged forward by the small child who was pointing at a large specimen of sunflower, her face full of laughter and excitement. Amelia grudgingly admitted that when she had a chance she really wanted to go see it in person.

Despite their growing fame and reputation Hysteria and Pluto, her mother and father, had departed on one of the first ships taking them to Elysium. Ironically, it was one of the ships that Raven had tasked from her pirate fleet to help ferry Residents back and forth, the Iron Raven.

The first thing her father sculpted was the centerpiece of the square.

It came into view as she moved forward, the result of 12 hour days for an entire week. Who knew what kind of ridiculous skill level he had risen to after carving it. It wouldn’t be a stretch to wonder if he wasn’t already a Grandmaster Sculptor. In the square a massive dragon had its head raised and thrown back toward the sky where it seemed to be declaring victory to the heavens. Below him was the broken and battered remains of an army of indistinct visage.

The Residents loved it.

Truth be told, Amelia was pretty fond of it herself. She had thought she might have had to pull some strings as the Empress to get the piece put in the city.

Instead, it was the Residents who insisted that ‘Shadow Fall Victory’ be placed in the central point of Blutonsi. It was just as well, a relieved Amelia had thought. It wasn’t good to be asking King Elairdrin for favors in Blutonsi after she had basically ceded the territory to him. Strangely anyone who gazed upon the statue was granted a special bonus to an, until now, unknown stat, luck. No one knew what it did or how it affected the world but the statue drew crowds every morning nonetheless. Players who got good drops or lucrative hauls began swearing it was because of the dragon, and what they coined ‘dragon’s luck’.

Ahead she saw that everyone already awaited her in the square. She didn’t think she was late, but that just meant that everyone else had come exceedingly early. 20 members of Shadow Fall lounged around the stone dragon. Many of them were conversing with Residents, seemingly caught up in regaling them with the tale of the battle. That was one thing about the Residents that everyone liked, they never tired of hearing of recent exploits. Gilduirn, Gabriel, Hendrick, Idolia, and Schulia were the only standouts from the group that would accompany them that weren’t from Shadow Fall.

They were also the only ones not wearing white armbands above the left elbow. After the battle Shadow Fall had taken to wearing a white armband with a setting sun. It was their signature and mark of pride as a guild that set them apart from others even though they were all garbed differently in the clothes of their class.

Amelia was met by Aidan and Raven, who fell into step beside her as she made her way to the center near the dragon. Hunter was surrounded by people. There was no escaping high levels of reputation and fame after all. When she saw Amelia approaching she jumped down from her sitting position and yelled out across the square. “Shadow Fall! Approach.”

Everyone stopped what they were doing and slowly made their way toward Hunter.

As they gathered Amelia pushed down her hood and jumped a bit at the reaction she got from her surroundings. A collective gasp came from the crowd. Immediately knees started hitting the ground as all the Residents and a few of the newer Transients who were in the square just followed the behavior instinctively. Amelia was terrified that this was her fate. No matter where she went people would just start crawling on their stomachs because of a silly battle.

“Empress Amelia!”

“Shadow Fall has gathered! What calamity awaits?!”

“That’s Hunter and Empress Amelia!”

“I thought the battle was over?”

People began collectively panicking. Amelia raised a hand briefly in greeting to the crowd that had suddenly halted and kneeled. With her friendly gesture, much of the riotous babble dissipated. Amelia ignored them almost as quickly and stood before Hunter.

“Everyone?” She asked.

“Everyone is accounted for and ready for a few weeks of action,” Hunter confirmed.

She was grinning, her eyes scanning the crowd lazily. Hunter never made it a point to sympathize with Amelia, she thought the attention and fanfare being directed at the Empress was hilarious.

“Does everyone know what we are doing?” Amelia asked, her voice rising so everyone could hear.

“Our lives before Hero Queen Victoria.” Was the sudden and thunderous response from the gathered members of Shadow Fall. In fact, even members of Shadow Fall who were not going seemed to be in attendance. Everyone wanted to see what their departure was like.

That just set the crowd off again. This time they made no effort to keep their voices or their speculations toned down. The event that they were about to take part in wasn’t one Amelia had advertised. For one thing, she could have never dealt with the volume of requests that would have surely come in from people who really wanted to go. She felt bad that there was a limit to begin with. If Amelia had her way she would have taken anyone that wanted to go.

“Save the Halves.” Gilduirn monotoned. He was looking around like he couldn’t believe the spectacle they were making. Despite that, the corner of his lips was starting to pull upward. He was getting caught up in the ambiance just like everyone else.

“Save the cheerleader, save the world,” Gabriel added. He looked at least like he was having fun. Amelia couldn’t fault him since he had missed the visage arc in its entirety. Vienne had inferred that if he was very exceptionally quick in his prestige class quest he might make the battle but that had apparently been too generous. Gabriel, when he did talk about it sparingly, mentioned that he had beaten the trials quickly and still hadn’t made it in time.

“Uhh. Craft? Yay?” Idolia added.

Schulia smirked and even Hendrick smiled.

“Well let me see if I can figure this out then.” Hundreds of eyes were on her as she opened her book and thumbed her way through the pages. The tense mood was broken up when she held up a finger. “Uhh. Hold on. I think… Maybe…”

Snickers broke out then. Some of the members of Shadow Fall including Rat and Ridley simply laughed outright. Amelia was becoming something of a legend in Shadow Fall. Everyone was always eager to meet her, and then quietly amused when they found that in reality, she was kind of an unsociable flake.

“Wow. Buzzkill.” Raven complained. “Doesn’t even know how to open a time portal.”

“Surprising,” Forsythe commented. He moved forward and peered over her shoulder, not being able to see her entries without permission but attempting to help nonetheless.

“Shut up! I’ll get it!” Amelia growled. “Ahh! [Live Entry] - specify Hero Half Victoria, a tale of valor.” Amelia looked around expectantly, and when nothing happened more laughter started. “No, it takes a second! It was like this with the stone thing too!” She whined.

They were all still laughing when to the amazement of everyone not in the raiding party, they were gone. Just like that the laughing members of Shadow Fall and guests vanished from the world as though they had never been. Terrified silence spilled into the square and many shops were closed because the Residents thought that something horrific had transpired.

Despite the assurances from King Elairdrin and the royal guard he sent out to keep the peace, it was a pretty hectic day.

-------------

When they reappeared the mood changed. Everyone gathered together and kept a watchful eye to surroundings. Everyone had half-expected to show up in a city and had been prepared to lay down their weapons or immediately jump into battle depending on the situation. Instead, they were in a lush forest with the sound of moving water. The edge of a forest at any rate. When Amelia looked back to see if the group had made it she saw a break in the trees and was surprised to see that there was snow accumulated on the ground several yards from the treeline. While she would have loved to stroll out of the trees and take a look around they really weren’t here for sightseeing.

Hunter had reached the same sort of notion Amelia had. Standing around would get them nowhere. They needed to find people, and soon. There was no clear idea of how much time they had in this world. “Advance!” As one the group moved forward. No one readied weapons since there didn’t seem to be any sort of threat nearby. It was just as well that they didn’t.

Moments later they broke into a clearing with a large pool. The water seemed to be naturally heated and sat at the base of a large stone wall. After a moment it became clear to Amelia that the stone wall led up to a sizeable mountain. It was obviously the dragon mountain that overlooked Blutonsi. The terrain was just different enough with the lush foliage and vegetation that no one could get a real bearing on where they were even though many had been here many times in the future Blutonsi.

“Hold!” A call came from the trees. As one Shadow Fall and guests halted and looked around, trying to find the mysterious voice. “Lay down your weapons if you are not an enemy of the Half!” It appeared that even a minute of walking had been enough to provoke the environment into challenging Shadow Fall’s presence. Despite the light timbre of the voice, there was an edge to it that promised swift and ruthless violence if it was not heeded.

Amelia raised a hand slowly, signaling to the rest to do as they were bid. Hunter had made it very clear that while they were in this special event Amelia was in charge. She knew the history best and had the highest fame and reputation. There was no guarantee that fame or reputation would mean anything here but it had seemed to please the members of Shadow Fall when they heard that Hunter had temporarily and voluntarily stepped down as direct leader. Amelia laid her staff on the ground even as she heard everyone behind her doing something similar.

“We seek Victoria,” Amelia called out confidently. Good, she thought, at least she sounded confident.

“What business have you with the Half Princess Victoria?” That annoying voice again. Amelia still wasn’t sure where in the trees it was coming from. She couldn’t help but look around dryly waiting for someone to pop out of nowhere.

“Our lives before hers.” Amelia finally answered after a brief pause when no one emerged.

“Hooo… Your lives? Do you so freely give them to strangers?” The voice taunted.

“We are not strangers,” Amelia replied. The voice she was hearing sounded original, and not a variation of one of the hundred or more common Resident speech tones.

“Yet I do not know you.” Victoria, presumably from her speech, stepped out from behind a tree and everyone got their first good look at a Half.

Halves, as it turned out, weren’t halflings or gnomes in the conventional sense. Instead, they seemed to be smaller miniature versions of humans. Victoria was a beautiful woman in her mid to late 30's that only came up to about Amelia’s waist; though she was small she couldn't be mistaken for a child. Perfectly proportioned beautiful small person perhaps? Victoria had a long tail of black hair, plaited neatly behind her back that swung behind her every time she made a move. Her dark eyes were so deeply brown that, at first, Amelia thought that they were black like her hair.

"Kind of like a hobbit then?" Aidan said in guild chat. Most people disagreed right away, with some sounding less sure than others.

Amelia raised her hand again. Victoria dropped into a low threatening stance as she waited. Instead of attacking her as her stance had indicated she thought they might, as one Shadow Fall, guests, and Amelia fell to a knee. “Hail, Hero Queen of the Far North Victoria!”

Victoria relaxed slightly, a look of bafflement on her face. “I have already said I do not know you. What business does an armed party have with the Half?”

“We come to serve. Our lives before Victoria.” Amelia answered again. The exchange would be tricky. They had all agreed that they could not reveal they were from the future of the game. At least not until they had gathered information. Of course, offending the Halves and getting murdered was high on the list of things not to do.

“What service?” Victoria said, her bafflement apparently growing.

“Your service,” Amelia answered. She thought she heard Raven snickering behind her as the exchange went in circles.

“So you have heard of me then?” Victoria demanded. It appeared the small Half was going to take the direct approach and try to get information from them. As she approached Amelia noted she was wearing well-oiled leather and was carrying a normal longsword. In her hands, it might as well have been a two-handed broadsword. “Dragonslayer! Hero! Princess of the Far North?”

“Dragonslayer?” Ridley muttered. He didn’t seem to be able to help it.

“Yes! Dragonslayer!” Victoria pounced upon him, moving in front of him as she bent over only slightly to meet his kneeling face. Amelia was proud that Ridley hadn’t actually jerked back when that face came within inches of his. “I alone ventured into this very valley and slew the mighty red dragon Keristrazly! The fear he caused in my people proved to be unfounded, for he fell within a night to this very blade.” She showed him her sword as if the well polished and obviously maintained sword still had some evidence of a great battle on it. Ridley looked at the blade dutifully and from his confused expression, Amelia gathered he didn’t see anything remarkable about the sword.

Aidan was shaking beside her. He was trying really hard to keep his face behind his hood and stay upright as he kneeled. Amelia could tell that it was all he could do to not start laughing in Victoria’s face. Hunter too had a smile that threatened to swell under her long blonde bangs. A quick glance behind her revealed that the majority of Shadow Fall thought Victoria was hilarious. Most of them had spoken with Keristrazly and it was well known that he was her best friend. The amount of fervor that Keristrazly defended Victoria’s memory had actually been a key point in the dragon’s popularity with the Transients.

“Why do your faces display mirth!?” Victoria demanded, her face going as cold as ice.

“Like you could kill that thing,” Raven muttered.

Her response generated soft laughter before people caught themselves. Everyone knew very well how powerful Keristrazly was from watching the MKC Online video and Amelia immediately sympathized with Raven’s outburst.

Victoria, was, well, tiny.

“It is the truth,” Victoria said softly. Her eyes looked suddenly dangerous. “Why do you dispute me? You offer your lives to me yet you call me truthbreaker?”

“Princess Victoria.” Amelia began, trying to sound diplomatic while trying out the Princess title. She had sort of expected her to be queen. “We laugh not because we are rude, but because we know of the noble and majestic being of whom you profess to have slain.”

“Noble and majestic?” Victoria sounded doubtful but didn’t immediately repudiate the idea that she had in fact, not killed Keristrazly. A different kind of dangerous look was starting to cross Victoria’s face.

“Well, he can be kind of a jerk.” Amelia allowed after a moment, unsure of herself suddenly.

“You knew Keristrazly?” Victoria’s voice rose in question, and her eyes began darting around the woods. She made a very clear cutting motion at her waistline just inside Amelia’s field of vision.

“Ah. I mean to say before he went mad.” She amended, winging it. It occurred to Amelia that the dragon might not have been popular and that Victoria was keeping the fact that she had, in fact, not killed him, a secret.

“Yes! Mad with rage. Before we knew it he flew over our villages and burned parts of the sea!” She swept her arms wide, and now Amelia knew that the Princess was playacting for an unseen audience. Some of the people behind Amelia made little noises of understanding as well. Raven was not one of the noises she heard making the understanding murmurs, so Amelia activated raid chat just to be careful. “Let’s all pretend the tiny adorable princess killed the dragon.”

“You had no choice.” Amelia nodded, utterly sure she didn’t sound convincing in the slightest. Aidan was the born liar in the group, not her.

“There is always a choice friend!” Victoria twirled and leaped forward, crouching in front of Amelia. Upon closer inspection, Victoria's weren't entirely black and had the faintest hue of violet attached to them. She looked up into Amelia’s face even as Amelia herself tried not to startle and to keep kneeling and looking down. “Even a child knows that you must slay a villain when he appears," Victoria started with a smile, opening her mouth to finish, "No-"

“No matter the cost,” Amelia whispered, recognizing the quote immediately.

The smile disappeared from her face. Amelia didn’t think she suffered from PTSD or anything severe like that. AA was a game after all and her experience couldn’t be compared to the brave men and women who served their countries in wartime, or the victims of heinous and vile acts. It wasn’t PTSD, but the image of Mourning appearing in her mind had wiped the carefree smile clean off of her face.

Victoria paused again, peering at her intently.

Finally, she stood and made a motion toward herself from the trees. “Half! Come to me. We will take this party to my father the king! Their words, if not their attitude, please me! They will keep their weapons, but I swear to you strangers, should you bring violence to my people I shall cut out your throat and blow through it a merry tune.” Victoria leered at them violently. It was almost comical. She was so... small. But there was something about the way this Resident moved and owned the space she stood in, that made Amelia feel like she would immediately regret it if she thought of this small person as being weak.

Hunter saved Amelia from saying something that she would have regretted. “Shadow Fall! What is your mission!?”

“Our lives before Hero Queen Victoria.” Their voices carried and thundered through the trees.

Halting and surprising the Half patrol that had caught them.

Victoria herself looked frightened for the first time, wondering what they were doing here.

Everyone from Shadow Fall was really getting into their role. Who didn’t want to be a band of mysterious strangers sent through time to save the Queen, err, Princess?