For hours they walked with Heather in the arms of the bone knight. They tread more carefully now, anxious to avoid another risky battle until Heather was recovered. The distant trees grew ever closer, and with them, the sight of the old tower. Just before the sun moved to noon, they arrived at the edge of the forest and made their way inside.

Frank picked a path as Heather and Breanne spoke about spell power. Breanne was a class that used spells as well, and she helped explain how depleting spell power made one feel tired. Heather asked why the system was exhaustion and not something simple like a message.

“It isn't like a video game,” Frank said. “In most games, you have a physical bar or number to show your power. Since you can't see that here, they needed a physical way to alert you.”

“So if I can't sleep at night, all I have to do is cast a bunch of spells until I'm tired?”

Breanne laughed. “I suppose that would be one way to do it.”

“I have another question,” Heather interjected. “When do we get treasure?”

“What do you mean?” Frank asked.

“Don't you get treasure from killing monsters?” Heather asked. “I may not have played games, but I saw enough of it to know that's how most of them worked.”

“Oh,” Frank said with a nod. “You mean, why didn't we get any treasure for killing the sedu hunter.”

“Yes, where are my gems?” Heather pressed.

“Probably under its body,” he said. “We would have to dig it out.”

“Or wait for it to despawn,” Quinny said.

“So, there was treasure?” Heather asked. “Why didn't we get it?”

“Most animals don't have treasure per say, but there are things you can gather from them, like pelts and teeth,” Frank began. “Anything that has a nest or lair can have treasure in those locations. Usually, it's the kinds of things you might find on adventurers. It represents the loot the monster gained from killing them.”

“So it won't be any better than what we get from players,” Heather sighed.

“Not true,” Breanne said. “The world generates it randomly. It places what it assumes an adventurer might have with a small chance of something rare.”

“Depending on the monster,” Frank added. “And intelligent monsters will have better treasure because they will intentionally collect it.”

“Oh, like how the goblins had that room full of stuff,” Heather nodded.

“Yeah, monsters that raid and gather treasure will have much more. Monsters like the sedu hunter who catch and eat random players will have incidental treasure at best.”

“And it would have been underground where the body was,” Heather nodded. “But you dig quickly, would it be worth digging it out on the way back?”

“We can try, I guess,” he replied. “Since you used so much spell power, it was safer to get away from it before something came to investigate the roaring, but we can check it on the way back.”

“Ha, Heather is hoping for something more like a dragon treasure,” Quinny said. “She wants a room full of gold and jewels.”

Heather smiled with a slight nod. “I wouldn’t mind it. What woman isn’t enticed by gold and jewels?”

Breanne glance at her with a smile. “I happen to like them as well.”

“Bah,” Quinny said as she ducked under a low branch. “You can’t eat it, and it attracts adventurers.”

“Isn't that what you want?” Heather asked. “If word got out that your dungeons were full of treasure, wouldn't players come to earn their fortunes?”

Quinny shrugged, but Frank nodded as he pulled a branch aside to let the others pass.

“I suppose it would, provided it didn't attract high levels like those orcs. They would decimate anything we have in the graveyard or the tunnels and complain about the loot.”

“You could always spend some of the money on the dungeon itself,” Breanne said.

“Wait; what?” Heather said as she perked up. “Spend it how?”

Frank took the lead and pushed on through the trees as he replied.

“I told you this before. I can bury the treasure in the pit where I put bodies. It will vanish in a day or so and add to the points I can spend on the graveyard or tunnels. Quinny can put hers in a special coffin in her lair to add to her points. You lose the gold, but the ratio of points you get is slightly better.”

“So treasure is a win-win for you?”

“I guess so,” he said. “But it’s not that easy to come by.”

“Can I do the same for my tower?” Heather asked.

“You should be able to,” he replied. “There must be a special chest or something you can place that you put the items in. It gives you twenty-four hours to change your mind before it absorbs them into the point pool for your tower.”

“But you lose it forever,” Quinny said. “And if you have to restart someplace else, you don't get those points for the new location. Only the points you earned by leveling stay with you.”

Heather wondered what her method of converting gold to points was as they arrived outside the cave entrance.

“This is the entrance?” Breanne asked as she peered into the cave.

“It’s a hidden entrance,” Frank said. “There is a ramp to a proper gate around the other side.

“Do we really want to pick our way through the cave again?” Heather asked as her back started to hurt. The bone knight carrying her was nice, but his thin bony arms were beginning to dig in. She shifted in his grasp to take the pressure off and let out a disgruntled sigh.

“Why don’t we circle the hill to the ramp,” Frank suggested.

None of them felt like navigating the cave and the lower tunnels, so they agreed to head for the ramp. Twenty minutes later, they were in the yard where before the tower.

Heather felt her strength returning and could no longer find a comfortable position. She looked at the knight and demanded to be put down. With a slow stretch, she stood on her legs as Breanne poked through the piles of bones.

“These were soldiers,” she said. “They are not summoned skeletons.”

“What do you mean, soldiers?” Frank asked as he rolled a skull with a foot.

“Look at the armor and the shirts,” Breanne said as she held a scrap of cloth up. “They were wearing custom clothing with an emblem. They must have belonged to a house or guild.”

“That would mean they were players,” Frank said. “But the bodies would have long since vanished.”

“Didn’t you say the owner of the tower was still here?”

He nodded and pointed up to the top of the tower. “It’s up there on the highest floor.”

Breanne nodded and led the way through the open doors into the gloom inside. Nothing had changed since they were last there except for maybe the dust growing thicker. The light of the sun came down in defined rays through curtains of it, disturbed by their passing.

They briefly showed her the two lower rooms, but Breanne found nothing of interest there. Frank then suggested they go to where they found the book. When they arrived at the room, Breanne looked amazed. She squatted down to run her hand over the silver inlays cut in the floor.

“This is remarkable,” she said. “I have seen this before.”

“You have?” Heather asked.

Breanne nodded as she stood back up. “The necromancers all seemed to be building these. Every necromancer above the tenth level either had one or was in the process of creating one.”

“What do they do?” Quinny asked as she walked around the room.

“Honestly, I have no idea,” Breanne sighed.

“Because you were just a player,” Heather repeated. It was a sentiment Breanne shared many times. She lived in the lands of the necromancer kings but knew little of what was going on behind closed doors.

“I am sorry I can’t be of more help,” Breanne said in a defeated tone. “I can tell you they were devoting a great deal of effort to them.”

“What are they made of?” Quinny asked.

“The lines are made of a type of silver,” Breanne said. “Silver is the most magical metal, and it's used as the base nearly all permanent magical structures.”

“Used as the base?” Heather questioned.

Breanne nodded and stood tall. “You will certainly learn about this sooner or later, but most spellcasting classes can create permanent magical effects. It requires an investment of materials, and almost always liquid silver. You often mix the ingredients into the silver and then mold or pour the silver to craft the magical effect.”

“This could be some kind of spell, then?” Frank asked.

“It most certainly is,” Breanne replied. “Whatever it is, it was vital to them.”

Heather walked around the outer rings looking at the strange writing and realized she could read some of it. It was written in the same runes as the book, and some of the letters were now familiar. She walked in a circle trying to piece it together and realized she could only read maybe one rune in four.

She felt a pang of frustration to realize she could have brought the copy of the key. Then she would be able to read them all, or most of them. Some of the letters looked new or different in some way. She stopped at a word that rested at one of the points of the inner star. It was one of the strange multi-symbol words found on the first page of the book. She recognized it and struggled to remember how to pronounce it.

“Eruk,” she said, translating the word out loud. The runes on the floor flashed with a blue light as a hum filled the room. The sudden change made Heather jump as the others turned to regard her.

“What did you do?” Frank asked as Heather stepped back.

“Nothing!”

“You did something,” Quinny said. “The tower is buzzing.”

Heather looked around to see nothing had changed. The light was faded from the rune, and the buzzing began to die away.

“I recognized this word and said it out loud,” she admitted as her heart started to settle.

“What word was it?” Breanne asked.

Heather went to reply but worried about speaking it out loud again.

“What if saying it causes something to happen?” Heather asked.

Breanne looked about a moment and then back. Her elven features looked delicate and gentle, and she smiled slightly. “It doesn't seem to have caused any harm.”

“Maybe you have to say it three times like in the movies,” Quinny suggested.

Heather wasn't sure what movies Quinny was referring too, but she was certainly not going to say it three times.

“What was the word?” Breanne asked again.

Heather stepped to the side and pointed to the runes at a point of the star. “This word here is eruk.”

As she spoke, the runes flashed again, and the buzzing returned.

They watched amazed for just a moment before the light faded, and the buzzing died away.

“Is that all it does?” Quinny asked.

“I have no idea what it’s doing,” Heather said in a huff.

“It is initializing,” Breanne said. “That word is either out of sequence, or it's waiting for you to follow it with more.”

“So, this is a spell that needs to be triggered?” Frank asked.

“It could be,” Breanne said. “That could be why the buzzing fades away. It’s waiting for the rest but wears off if it takes too long.”

“How do you finish it?” he asked as he studied the floor.

“Maybe it’s more of the words around the star,” Quinny suggested.

“Maybe,” Breanne said as she looked to Heather. “Can you read any of the others?”

Heather paced around the ring, looking at the others and realized that was the only one she could pull from memory. With a shake of her head, the disappointment became apparent on the faces around her.

“A pity,” Breanne sighed. “We should have brought your key.”

“It never occurred to me we might need it,” Heather said as she studied more of the runes. “We were coming here for you, not me.”

“I should have thought of it,” Breanne said.

“What were you hoping to find?” Frank asked.

“Something familiar,” Breanne said as she studied the floor. “I may not have known what they were doing, but I still saw some of it. I know that many necromancers were building these.”

“How would you know, though?” Quinny asked. “Did they allow you inside their towers?”

Breanne shook her head. “Some of them were building rings like this in the plazas of their cities. I walked across one, just like this a hundred times and never understood it's meaning. To most of us, it was just a decorative pattern, but I once saw one being built. Five necromancers poured silver into a cut channel while chanting over it. A friend of mine helped gather some of the things they needed. He said the silver was specially prepared with spectral essence and mercury. Whatever the purpose was, it was highly magical.”

Frank scratched at his head as he sat on his heels. “It’s still magical, and it still works,” he offered. “It must serve some purpose that was important to them.”

“This was the room the book was hidden in,” Quinny said. “Maybe the book is important to the rings.”

“I am sure the book is,” Breanne agreed. “The question is, how is it important?”

“I suppose the only way to know is to keep reading,” Heather said as she gave up on the runes.

Breanne walked about the room and looked the narrow stair going up. They went to the room above and inspected the once opulent bedroom, and it's ruined contents.

“This is the body that had the amulet?” she asked.

Heather nodded as Breanne leaned over the corpse.

“This must be a player that didn't respawn like the ones in the yard,” Breanne said. “I have always wondered why. Maybe it is part of the mystery of the room below.”

“So, he's fully dead?” Heather asked.

Breanne looked up with a blank expression. “What is life or death here? Technically I and the others are already dead, but we persist. Death is not a limitation in this world, yet somehow these players have been removed from the cycle.”

“Maybe this was an accident?” Heather suggested. “What if what they were working on didn’t go the way they intended?”

“Perhaps,” Breanne said. “But there were a lot of them working together on it. I find it hard to believe they could have made such a terrible mistake with so many minds on the task.”

Heather didn't have a retort to that comment and looked to her bone knight as if he was going to offer some kind of insight. When he only stood by silently, she sighed and began to pace the room.

“Then nothing from this trip was of any use?” Frank asked.

“On the contrary, something very useful has come from this,” the elven woman said. “This building should be our meeting place if anything goes wrong.”

“What could go wrong?” Quinny asked.

“They could come looking for Heather,” Breanne said. “If they come in force, we should scatter and meet here.”

Heather heard the comments and turned about to argue.

“And do what? There is nothing here for us but some walls to hide inside.”

“It is a hidden location we all know how to find. It is a perfect place to meet if we have to run.”

“Maybe we don't have to run?” Heather pressed.

“What?” Frank said as they all turned to look at her.

“I have been thinking about this,” Heather began. “If these paladins are so just, they can't blame for being forced into this. I will explain what happened and hope they understand.”

Breanne folded her arms and glared at Heather with the look of an annoyed mother.

“Now you're being foolish,” she said firmly. “Do you think they will care about how you came to be a necromancer? Do you think they will show you any kind of mercy? They are the self-appointed champions of the law they wrote. They believe they have the right to punish and will compete with one another to be the one to bring you down.”

“They don't have the right to punish me, I didn't choose to be here,” Heather pointed out angrily.

“But you are here,” Breanne argued. “You're here, and you are the enemy to all normal players. They will only see the reward you are worth and scheme night and day to bring you in. The paladins will not hesitate to capture you and drag you off to be reset.”

“What am I supposed to do?” Heather asked in annoyance.

“You stop assuming you can reason with the paladins or King Kevin. You focus on your plan to grow stronger and meet them on even footing. Maybe if they can’t so easily lay their hands on you, they will pause to speak, but I doubt it. What made you suddenly doubt your choice to grow stronger?”

“The fact that there were lots of necromancers working together and they failed. I am one single necromancer facing the same onslaught. Let's be realistic here. The odds aren't in my favor. It might be better to negotiate.”

“You can’t negotiate,” Breanne said. “The paladins are irrational.”

“Remember the one we met on the road,” Frank reminded her. “He wouldn’t even let you speak.”

Heather sighed as she thought back to that encounter and how the paladin shouted her down. If the other paladins were like that, there was going to be no choice but to fight.

“How many necromancer kings were there?”

“Seven,” Breanne said. “Though technically two of them were queens. There were another thirty or so lesser necromancers who worked alongside them as well.”

“Thirty-seven necromancers lost to the paladins?”

Breanne sighed. “There are a lot more paladins, and the necromancers were taken by surprise. They didn't expect the whole of the world to rise against them. There were even betrayals from inside that weakened them.”

“How could they be betrayed?” Frank asked. “Their undead can’t be charmed.”

Breanne looked distant a moment. “It wasn't the undead players to be certain. You must remember that although the necromancer kings ruled, the land was open to any who wanted to live there. There were plenty of other races and classes, especially magical ones. The region was a hub for research into the arcane mysteries. It attracted wizards and the like from all around. When the fighting started, some of them attacked from within, undermining the kingdom. The necromancers simply couldn't manage so many foes at once.”

“What about the other necromantic classes?” Heather asked. “My panel must have listed five or more of them when I asked it.”

“There were plenty of those as well,” Breanne said. “Many a death knight stood with the necromancers to the end, but some of the other classes switched sides when they saw the direction the war was going. King Kevin gave them no choice; it was join him or reset. When it was clear the necromancers were going to lose, many switched sides.”

“I bet the death knights only stayed because they hate paladins,” Frank said as he considered it.

“No doubt,” Breanne said. “But there were many brave last stands by the death knights. I have to admit as brief as it was, it was their moment of glory.”

Heather thought about Breanne's story and looked back to the rings on the floor.

“I want to search the book for any references to this pattern,” she said in a firm tone. “I want to know what this is and what they were using for.”

“What if it isn’t in the book?” Frank asked.

“Then I will find another book or somebody alive who can tell me,” Heather replied as she shook her head. She looked up at Breanne as her own words spawned a thought. “Did any of the death knights live, or did they all fail to respawn?”

“Some are still here,” Breanne said. “I know Nellicar, the black blood escaped. He had a bounty on his head for years. But, the last time I dared to enter a city was several years ago. For all I know, they caught him and reset him.”

“Just him?” Heather pressed.

“Child, there are thousands who were involved in those days. Except for the ones lost to the reset bug, they are all still alive.”

Heather nodded and walked toward Breanne. “I don't need just anyone. I need somebody who was inside their confidence and knew what they were trying to do. Or at least somebody who helped them build some of the things they built.” Heather looked at Breanne intensely as a burning desire to unlock the mystery grew in her heart.

“I am sure some of them can be found, but I couldn’t tell you where to look.”

“Then we will find where they are hiding,” Heather said, looking away.

“Wow, Heather is scary when she’s focused,” Quinny laughed.

“She can be rather intimidating when she wants to be,” Breanne agreed.

Heather stood with her back to them and looked around the ruins of the room.

“I don't want to end up like this,” she said, holding out her arms to encompass the room. “I didn't ask to be here, and I am not about to allow a bunch of overzealous nerds to condemn me. If they won't listen to reason, then I have no choice but to fight. The only hope I have of surviving this is learning how to be a better necromancer than even the kings.”

“Maybe we should move someplace else,” Frank suggested again.

“Were not moving!” she snapped as she whirled around. “If they want that graveyard, they can pay for it in blood!”

“Woah!” Quinny laughed again but took a careful step back.

“Heather,” Frank said softly. “This isn’t like you. What’s come over you?”

“I'm trapped like a rat in a sinking ship,” she replied. “It's like a bad horror movie. I can't escape, and there's an army of egomaniacal madmen hunting me. Every minute of my existence is plagued by worry that they might sweep through the graveyard and kill us all.”

“You can’t focus on that,” Frank said. “And besides, we will stand at your side no matter what happens.”

Heather smiled as she realized he meant it. She softened her tone and looked about with embarrassment.

“I'm sorry, I just don't like the idea of people hating me for something I didn't do, and can't change. I feel more and more threatened as I learn about what happened in the past.”

“I think your response to the problem is very mature,” Breanne said.

“I think this is ruining the world for her,” Frank said with an angry glare at Breanne. “This was meant to be something fun and exciting, not a torment.”

“It isn't a torment,” Breanne corrected. “It is a fact of life here. All of us are monster players, and we all face the threat of sadistic players forcing a reset.”

“Heather’s is different,” Frank countered. “We don’t have rewards hanging over our heads to motivate them.”

“It doesn't matter,” Heather said. “I still have doubts about why I am here, but the logical course of action is to plan and prepare to fight. We need to be as ready as we can be. Breanne's idea of meeting here if we have to run is a good one. This gives us a fallback position in case we lose the graveyard. I will hide some of my food here, so I have something to eat if we have to flee.”

Frank looked distressed as his shoulders sunk. Heather realized he didn't come to this world to fight a war. He wanted to play and provide a fun adventure for others. This new course of action was utterly contrary to his hopes and dreams.

“I’m sorry, Frank,” she said and took a step toward him. “I never meant to bring this burden on you or anybody else.”

He looked up with strangely tear-shaped eyes.

“You didn't cause this problem, and since I met you, I have more friends than I ever had. Honestly, these are some of my best days here, but I worry how long it will last.”

She put a hand to his shoulder and shuddered to touch his cold rubbery skin.

“We stick to our cover story. I am a flower singer and recluse. You and I are friends from outside the world. I came in to be with you, and I picked the recluse to match your graveyard. It explains everything and leaves them nowhere to go.”

“She doesn’t dress like a necromancer either,” Quinny added.

“I should say she does not,” Breanne said with a shake of her head. “But in her case, it is for the best. The simpletons of this world judge her purely by her appearance.”

“See,” Heather said. “We are hoping for the best, but preparing for the worst.”

`

“I don’t worry about me,” he said. “I worry about you. I can be reset easily, but what they need to do to you to accomplish that makes me angry.”

Heather tightened her hand in his shoulder. If it was half as bad as Breanne described, then it was horrific. Repeatedly being killed over and over for days didn't sound like an experience she wanted to have.

“So how do we get to the top floor?” Breanne asked, breaking the tender moment.

“Top floor?” Frank replied. “This is the top floor.”

Breanne looked around the decayed room and then looked up a the vaulted ceiling. “This doesn’t go all the way to the top. There must be another floor.”

“This is all there is,” Frank said.

“Nonsense,” Breanne replied as her form started to fade.

“What are you doing?” Heather asked as Breanne became a white spectral ghost with wildly flowing hair and a gaunt face. Her outfit was tattered and flapped as if in a breeze only she could feet.

“I am going to up to see what is above us,” she answered in a chilling voice. She floated upward and passed through the ceiling.

“Why didn’t I pick a ghost,” Quinny said as she looked up. “Walking through walls must be so cool.”

“This is the highest floor, isn't it?” Heather asked Frank.

He scratched at his head as he looked up uncertain of the answer. “I guess we explored it from the inside. We had no idea how tall we expected it to be. We didn’t get a good look at it from the outside until we were leaving.”

“A few moments later, Breanne drifted back down until her bare feet floated just above the floor.

“There is another room above us,” she said in her shrill voice. “But something broke into it and wrecked it.”

“What was it?” Heather asked.

Breanne smiled at Heather and held out a hand. “Come and see.”

Heather took a step back uncertain what Breanne was suggesting.

“Come, child. I will carry you up safely.”

“Through the floor?” Heather asked as she looked at the gaunt outstretched hand.

“While I hold on to you, you will be as ghostly as I am,” Breanne said. “I can only take another with me for a few moments, but that is more than sufficient to pass through a wall.”

Heather nervously took her hand and felt a sensation of cold seep into her skin. Her muscles felt heavy, and the world around her suddenly lost its focus. It blurred around her, and a sensation of floating came over her. A moment later, she passed through something that felt like water only to arrive on the other side. The world suddenly came back into focus, and she was another room.

“That was strange,” she gasped and started to look around. Her eyes went wide as the contents came into focus.

“What is this place?” she asked.

“This, my dear, is our future,” Breanne said.