“Heather?”

The voice jarred her awake, causing her to remember all that had happened in an instant. She bolted upright from where she sat on the floor, leaning into the side of her bed. A squeak escaped her lips when she caught the eyes of her bone knight, staring down at her.

Instantly her heart was pumping as she relived the last moments before she passed out.

“Why did you run away?” she stammered, but the bone knight didn't respond.

“Heather?” came the voice that seemed to echo down the halls.

“Frank?” she called back in confusion. Struggling to her feet, she looked around a second time to see the morning sun outside the window. “It's morning? I slept nearly a day away?” With unsteady steps, she made her way to the doorway and unbolted the door. She paused at the opening, fearful of what might be lurking outside.

“Heather?” came Frank’s voice with a hint of worry in it.

“I'm up here,” she shouted back, her voice echoing down the barren halls. The mist was gone as were all of the magical defenses. The spell fades after eight hours, and she had been asleep much longer.

“Heather, did your tower get attacked?” he called from somewhere just below.

“Obviously somebody attacked the tower,” she heard Breanne scold as she walked down the hall to meet them. “There is a pile of bodies in the entry hall.”

Frank appeared from the stairwell followed by Breanne and Quinny just before she reached it.

“Are you alright? What happened?” he hurriedly asked.

Heather struggled to remain calm, but her hands shook, and her voice quivered as she told them the story.

“They must have been watching us,” Quinny said. “When we left her alone, they had a golden opportunity to take her out.”

“They must have been watching for days, waiting for us to separate,” Frank agreed. “I bet if we search the hills, we find a hidden camp.”

“These two rangers were the ones who betrayed you to this Moon?” Breanne asked.

“They were, but Moon discarded them as soon as she was done with them,” Frank said. “They must be working on their own now.”

“Hmm,” Breanne replied. “In a way, this bounty of King Kevin's is keeping us safe. They aren't willing to share the information with too many people for fear of losing the reward.”

“Plenty of people know now,” Frank said. “Look at the orcs that came a few days ago.”

“Rumor and hearsay,” Breanne replied as she began to pace the hall. “And we keep countering that with our little ruse. Soon every rumor will be countered by another.”

“That ruse won’t work on the rangers, they know she is chosen,” Frank replied.

“And now so does Meribeth,” Quinny added.

Breanne stopped and turned to face the others as she tapped a finger to her chin.

“What about this beast you saw in the mist. You're sure that wasn't part of your tower's defenses?”

Heather assured her profusely that it came from outside the tower.

“Another player?” Quinny suggested.

“It must have been,” Frank replied. “But who would be strong enough to tear through that party?”

“It’s not like they took them all at once,” Breanne reminded. “They took them out one at a time in careful attacks.”

“Like a hunter,” Quinny chirped.

Frank looked annoyed as he scratched at his head with a long nail.

“Your mirror only allows you to see what’s inside the tower?”

Heather nodded. “I saw it run out the front door.”

“You should put in more traps or monsters,” he suggested.

“I never expected an organized group to attack me directly,” Heather stammered. “Besides, I didn't have the points.”

“I bet you do now,” Quinny laughed.

Heather looked at the pale-skinned woman with a wide eye.

“What level are you now?” Quinny asked.

“What?

“You killed six decently leveled players; you must have gone up a level or two.”

“But the shadow thing killed most of them,” Heather said.

“They were in your tower fighting your traps. You should have been getting experience the whole time,” Frank said. “Didn’t your panel beep?”

Heather didn’t recall hearing a beep, but then she didn’t recall much after she crumpled to the floor. She slowly lifted her arm to rub at her tattoo. The orange light flashed to life and quickly brought up her character sheet.

“Level thirteen!” Quinny cried. “She’s higher than Frank.”

“I did level,” Heather whispered.

“Then you will have the points you need to add more protection,” Frank replied and turned to Quinny. “As soon as you can, you should extend your forest around the backside of her tower.”

“What for?” Heather questioned.

Frank turned to her with those expressionless yellow eyes. “She can sense when people are in her forest, and spy on them from her connection like you can. She will know when people are skulking about.”

“Not if they use magic or stealth to remain hidden,” Quinny said. “And rangers can forest walk, leaving no trace of their passage.”

“The others would be detected,” Frank pointed out. “Then, you can alert us, and we can help.”

“Assuming were here,” Quinny added.

“We should never have left her here alone,” Breanne pointed out.

“Were not her parents,” Frank argued. “She can do what she wants.”

“She is the one they are coming for; she should never be alone.”

Frank sighed and scratched at his head again. “That has to be her decision.”

Heather felt frustrated that they were talking about her like she was a child who had misbehaved and gotten lost at the store. She chose to stay behind naively believing nobody would be looking for her. The lesson was learned, she would be far more careful.

“Frank is right. It's my decision,” she protested. “And I chose to stay behind. I don't want people watching over me constantly, I get enough of that from the bone knight, but I will take measures to prevent it from happening again.”

Breanne scowled and folded her hands together. She looked down her nose at Heather and then pointed to the bone knight that watched from the hall.

“That she was able to drive your knight off means she was a higher level than you.”

“Why did he run?” Heather asked.

“It's what some clerics do,” Frank replied. “All the good-aligned ones can drive away undead or even destroy them. Evil aligned clerics have different powers. Some of them can drive away the living, or if they worship a god of death or undeath, they can dominate undead, and take control of them.”

“Some neutral clerics are invisible to the undead,” Quinny said. “They can walk right past them and not aggro them.”

“They can?” Heather asked, stunned as she realized her undead could be useless to certain players.

“You can still order them to attack,” Frank said. “They just won't do it on their own, and if the player is higher than your undead, they might not attack anyway.”

“Clerics of death or undeath can make undead of their own,” Quinny added. “But not near as many or as powerful as a necromancer can.”

Heather felt dizzy as she learned yet more of this strange world and its endless variety of players. She wanted to sit down, but there were no furnishings in the hall. She requested they move to the study where there were tables and chairs.

Once inside and seated, she put her head down over her arms to clear her thoughts.

“So even if I add undead to the tower, some players might walk right past them?”

“Very few players,” Frank said. “And only if they are high enough level. Most spells are level-based, so the spell gets stronger and more effective when cast by a higher player.”

It made sense but did little to steady her racing thoughts. Was there any way to build a fortress so impenetrable they couldn't reach her? Even if she could build a wall and make her tower a hundred floors high, how many players could simply fly to the top?

They spent the next hour discussing ways to make the tower stronger and to protect it from outside. Quinny would add a ring of forest around the tower and put some of her beasts in it. She would be the early warning for trespassers provided they were not magically hidden. Those that could pass through the trees or fly over them would have to be managed another way. They eventually spoke of the bodies and agreed to search them and then bury them in Quinny's yard to give her some points to spread the forest. The conversation only ended when Heather's stomach protested loudly, reminding her she hadn't eaten in over a day.

“Good thing theirs more apples outside,” Quinny joked.

“What apples outside?” Heather asked.

“There’s a basket of apples on the steps to your tower,” Quinny replied. “The goblins must have brought them.”

“But the goblins never come into the forest,” Heather remarked, but Quinny only shrugged.

They agreed to part and make sure nothing else was disturbed. Frank would hall the bodies away, and Quinny would see if she could move some of the forest now. Breanne checked the rooms of the tower, but Heather made a straight line for the trap door to the basement with her bone knight close behind.

“Hello, My Lady,” Monica called from the shadows below.

“I am so sorry I kept you down there all this time,” Heather said. “Please come up and go back to the kitchen.”

“Of course, My Lady,” the woman replied in a cherry tone. “I think your soup might be cold.”

Heather didn't doubt that at all as she waited for the woman to climb up. She followed her into the kitchen and was surprised to see the tower guards had respawned.

“Monica, what do we have to eat that is quick to make?” Heather asked as her stomach protested again.

The woman fluttered about looking at the kitchen and then pointed to the apples sitting on the magic plate from the pizza place. There they sat, crisp and red, preserved by the magic woven into the dish.

“I hate my life,” Heather groaned.

“I could cook you an egg,” Monica offered.

“An egg?” Heather asked her interest now perked.

Monica nodded and ran off to the cupboard, where she took down a small bowl with three eggs in it.

Heather felt her stomach churn at the sight of those eggs and nodded hungrily.

“Could I have all three?”

“Would you like them fried, scrambled, deviled, poached, or boiled?”

“Yes,” Heather said without thinking.

Monica stood there and tilted her head in confusion.

“I mean fried,” Heather quickly corrected.

She watched as the woman went off to the stove and began to add wood through a little door on the bottom. She sighed as she realized the stove had gone cold and would need some time to heat. It was then she remembered her tree out back and, with wide eyes, ran to the door.

Carefully she opened it and searched the surrounding countryside for anything that shouldn't be there. Her bone knight stood right behind her in an almost aggravated stance as she glanced about. With slow steps, she crept outside and looked to her tree, hoping for something delicious to eat. She was greeted by branches covered in little white flowers again.

“Of course,” she groaned. “You have to pick them at night, or the fruit vanishes and starts over in the morning.” Her stomach groaned in frustration, and she put her hands to her hips and looked down to scold it.

“You be quiet. I was hoping to find a peach, or maybe some cherries, or pineapples, I don't know. You're just going to have to wait for the eggs.”

There was one last howl of protest, and then all was quiet as she looked around the yard again.

“I guess I better fix things,” she said and walked around the side of the tower. Her tree was battered and burned by fire. She used a healing spell for plants from her flower singer class to restore it. Then she set about calling back the skeletons and ordering them to hide in the ground until called. The tower skeletons had already respawned and were standing by as always. She considered adding a second spawner to increase their numbers but had to admit the truth.

“My skeletons are too weak. I either need to massively upgrade them or invest in higher undead.”

With a wary eye on her surroundings, she moved into the midst of her skeletons. Their proximity made her feel slightly safer as she looked at the options. There were two ways to go about upgrading them. She could upgrade them directly, or she could upgrade the object that spawned them. This would cause more of them to spawn and could be augmented with things called sigils. These would cause some of the skeletons to have special abilities, or spawn special types.

“I would rather they were stopped out here before they got into my tower,” she said and pulled up the options for the spawner.

“Too bad I can’t add more of you,” she said with a glance to the bone knight who stood silently behind.

Two upgrades later and it was now a raised stone pillar that ended in a carved skull of white marble. It stood eight feet tall and had two metal spikes that stuck out just below the skull. Hanging from these by chains were little copper bowls. In one bowl burned a red light, in the other a dancing purple flame. These were sigils indicating that the choices she had added. The red one made them all stronger and caused them to attack faster. The purple one meant that it would now spawn a small number of skeleton mages. These would have a few random spells that they would add to combat. The size of the spawner meant it would spawn twelve skeletons in all, and they would have slightly more health.

She also added a magical alarm to the outer yard call the cry of ravens. Intruders would cause a sudden flock of crows hidden in a tree to take to the air, shrieking with calls of alarm. She hoped it would alert her to the presence of sneaky players and buy her time to escape or get ready.

Her points dwindled as she poked through the options, and suddenly she fixated on one.

“Gargoyles?” she whispered as she pulled up the information.

“Magic statues that will protect your tower from intruders. Naturally resistant to many magical spells and skin tough as stone,” she read aloud. “These aren't undead their something called constructs. So that cleric won't be able to drive it away.” The more she learned of the gargoyles, the more she wanted one, or a dozen, whatever she could get.

“I can have one for every five levels of my tower,” she said while looking up and sighed. Her tower was only five levels tall. “So just one.” It was nearly all the points she had left, but she purchased a gargoyle and set about picking a style. There were dozens to choose from, but she settled on a tall narrow one that resembled a lion. It had a pair of folded wings down its back and a spiked tail. She placed it atop her tower, looking out over the balcony so it could protect her when she sunned.

Now that she found the constructs, she looked through the list of things that could be built. One was a Frankenstein type monster that stood seven feet tall. Another was a horrible blob made of dozens of bodies sewn together with bones jutting out everywhere. There was a fascinating one that, according to the listing, was only available because she was a necromancer and a flower singer.

“A pumpkin abomination,” she said as she looked over the horrible thing. It was a giant pumpkin the size of a small car. It was carved with a wicked face and had fire leaking from its mouth. Around its base was a mass of green and black vines that were covered with thorns. These ended in small tangles of smaller vines or smaller pumpkins carved only with mouths.

“What a horrible thing,” Heather said. “I want two.”

There were stone statues of all shapes and sizes and haunted suits of armor in a myriad of styles. There was even a neat stained glass window with an image of a man or monster in it. The image would literally peel itself out of the window to fight. One option that was based on her necromancer was a towering skeletal thing with up to six arms. A bone dervish, it was called, and it looked fearsome and dangerous.

“I need a lot more points,” she sighed. “I guess the kitchen upgrades will have to wait. I need to defend my tower first.

With the last of her points, she added a spiked metal fence to the perimeter of her yard.

“Hopefully, that will slow people down at least,” she said, not really believing it would.

With a tap of her finger, she released the panel and turned to the tower. The broken door was reset, the tree healed, the skeletons raised, buffed, and increased in number. A fence protected the yard, and a gargoyle now stood watch.

“This will have to do for now,” she said as she eyed the fields beyond the fence. All she saw was swaying grass until it reached the distant hills.

“Hmm, could there be a camp in the hills?”

The bone knight suddenly stepped forward as if searching the hills. She stared at it a moment before turning to walk for the graveyard. A loud growl reminded her that she hadn’t eaten and made her sigh.

“I guess I should go see if my eggs are ready.”

She could smell them even before she got through the door and was pleasantly surprised to find two tiny bowls of salt and pepper placed on the table. Monica twirled from the stove with a pan in hand and carefully slid three fried eggs on to a plate.

“Here ya go, my lady,” she said and carried the plate to Heather, setting it down before the spices. Monica walked off, humming a little tune as Heather's stomach hummed another.

“Alright, we eat first, but then we find Frank. I want to know if there is a camp and see what treasures they may have left behind.”