We walked a ways west while talking. Beth told me about the news recordings she had watched with Liz. Apparently my sister had passed out on the couch upstairs while the television kept right on going about all things wrong in the world. Middle age had firmly caught up with both of us.

[Escapee]!

[Criminals] who have not earned enough [Redemption] and manage to get away will be given the [Escapee] status.

Civic minded guards may attack on sight

[Redemption] earnings are halted

[Respect] effects halved

System Notice!

[Brand Anchor] broken. [Convict Brand: Docile Binding] effects removed unless a new [Brand Anchor] comes within range. Coming within range of [Brand Anchor] will renew [Convict Brand: Docile Binding]. Current bind point set to last active [Brand Anchor].

The messages annoyed me. I never asked to be a [Criminal], but technically I did the crime. My breath came in a shudder. There were a good deal of other things to do. At least the broken [Brand Anchor] allowed me to roam around without pain, but I had no idea who managed to shatter the item or how.

“How did you even get here?” I asked abruptly. Continue Online was huge, even my [Light Body], [Blink], and autopilot moving while I slept or worked couldn’t have made it here so fast.

“We made scrolls to summon raid members to the Tower of Stars. Even though we only made it halfway, I still had a few left over.” She answered with a confused head tilt. A moment later both hands were spread wide above her head. “So woosh, here I am!”

My niece had mentioned that, hadn’t she? Almost two months ago the young lady had babbled about fighting a boss up top and being blown away. It tied in nicely with the fact that bodies from the deceased upstairs became undead down below. I turned to look at the jutting tower a few miles away.

“But you, you look like a giant dog has been chewing on you, Uncle Grant.” She unhesitatingly pointed a finger towards my face. “And that weird spot around your eyes. It looks like, tears, or scales. And they’re kind of stripper glittery.”

My eyes closed and the skin around my cheeks crinkled again. The ARC feedback presented my scales as stiff, like having sunburnt skin. I brought my fingers up and wondered about the little token of Dusk’s gift. Tears, huh? This avatar was rapidly becoming a weird combination of elements.

“It wasn’t dogs. They were zombies. I guess.” I had tried hard not to equate that pit to glowing pale unholy monsters, but it fit. The issue of my scales looking like tears would be left for another time. “From player’s dead bodies on the top floors.”

“Oooh. Were you in the bottom? Our guild doesn’t go there because that’s where the convicts all go. Is it neat? It’s neat right?” She said excitedly while circling around.

Beth was a bundle of energy even in-game. Her footsteps moved a pace that held more grace than even my Ultimate Edition given stats did. I remembered that first reckless run she made through a starting city while I hung on in the Second Player helm.

“It was neat, once I got past the other players.” Plus unpleasant. Dealing with that dungeon had been like crawling through a nightmare made of trippy glowing wall hangings while running for my life. A scary rush only made survivable by the fact that this world was a virtual reality.

There was a howl in the distance. At first, the noise was singular but as it died down an entire chorus of noises took their place. We were off the beaten path in a game which included monsters.

“Wolves!” Beth shouted. She pulled out a sword and started slashing at the air. Trails of color hung behind each swing making a pattern of sorts. It seemed to be [Lithium], but more like a mathematical formula than flowing script.

“Wait, we could run!” I rapidly suggested. [Blink]ing away helped me avoid most stupid fights during my traveling around. It wasn’t that I couldn’t battle, it was that I had letters to deliver and fighting every little game monster slowed me down.

“No time, howls mean they’ve aggroed, get ready!” She shouted with an uplifted tone. Both her eyebrows were focused on the drawing being cut into air. My mind tried to figure out what role to take in the upcoming fight. I didn’t group with people that often.

[Power Armor] seemed like overkill against wolves, but one of the beautiful things about Continue Online was that everything could cause a game over if not taken seriously. Where the monsters got a Traveler, how big their teeth were, the concept of Rank only implied a complexity of abilities, not danger.

“Here they come!” Six wolves poked their heads out from between trees. One in the lead snarled.

My heart thumped. They were not like normal wolves in reality. Those wolves typically ran from humans and had very little terrain still left. Entire subspecies had been wiped out during the last thirty years. Continue Online’s wolves were bulky muscled creatures with jaws dripping rivers of saliva. They moved in unison straight for us. Dirt and roots chipped as their bodies surged across the forest.

Months of frequent virtual reality combat helped me know how to handle this. I pulled out [Morrigu’s Echo] and whipped the spear shape forward. It barely completed transforming before excessive amounts of [Brawn] sped it rapidly along. The lead wolves dodged and a third went flying as the spear impaled it upon a tree trunk.

One down.

I started a swing of [Morrigu’s Gift] in its two-handed form. The blade rippled into shape barely before my [Blink] went off, placing me in front of the ones charging for Beth. The remainder of my partially completed swing lined up perfectly with another wolf’s face. An obsidian black edge sliced through the open jaw and carved a path along the beast’s body.

Two down.

My gaze turned towards Beth. Another slice of light poked through as Beth’s forehead started to sweat. The biggest wolf veered straight for my niece, Thorny, as her in-game character was called. Her clothes wouldn’t stand up against the monstrous teeth, and another one was headed for her.

[Blink]’s cooldown needed a few more seconds. Voices damn it, Dusk could have taken one. I cursed at myself, transferred [Morrigu’s Gift] over to one hand, and lifted the other one back in a prepared throw. The shot sliced a bit of fur and caused the running beast to turn towards me with a saliva filled snarl.

Paws caught my backside. I kicked with one foot then twisted. Teeth tore into my arm as the metallic sound of [Power Armor] expanding from my laces could be heard. The toga went stiff and expanded. [Wild Bill]’s brim folded down into part of the armor. A jaw releasing to snap at me again yelped as tender flesh turned to something like a knight's armor. I still only had a vague idea of what this ability looked like outside the suit.

Tails mingled badly with fur and a sliver of vision. My armor was being chewed along with bits of health where teeth poked through. Beth’s chanting finished and my niece snapped the sword towards her other hand, holding it in front like a baton.

“Incoming bombardment!” Beth shouted while pushing forth the [Lithium] formula carved into the air. Light pulsed from the carvings and I lifted my arm up to avoid being blinded. From the formation, a wall of small balls flew out rapidly. Energy of all colors trailed behind them rapidly seeking out targets.

A wolf yelped and the pressure on top of me dropped. My own abilities were only a portion of their original amount. I laid flat and looked around as much as the armor would allow me. Four more bolts hit other wolves. My hand swung [Morrigu’s Gift] into a wolf that had been knocked off of me but didn’t go far. A crunching sound preceded the creature’s abrupt yelp. After a mess of orbs flew out they stopped coming forth. I stood up quickly then looked around for a target to [Blink] towards and kill.

“Are you okay?” Beth asked me.

They were all dead. Six wolves, I had only defeated three of them. [Convict Brand]’s partial reduction might account for some of it. My niece, a sword carrying mage of some sort, had destroyed the others with one spell. Two wolves showed scorch marks, the third had frozen with a bit of melting fur that had been green colored.

“Uhhh…” I said while trying to evaluate the damage. Even TinkerHell hadn’t been this effective. That friendly woman had done ice bolts and walls but not a heat seeking multiple element spell. “Voices, that’s neat.”

“Sure is. It’s a pain in the ass to learn, though. I had to get my elemental affinity up to rank seven in three categories.” She actually blushed a bit while putting away her sword. “If I get lightning up there then it’ll get more powerful.”

I thought about it for a moment. There were a lot of things we knew about each in real life due to being related and living together briefly. Our game characters were almost completely alien to each other, aside from meeting near the end of that great battle.

Elemental affinities didn’t mean much to me. I had Rank one in [Fire Spell]s and could only manage the small lighter. Basically, I used it to start fires when camping, and now with [Breath of Flame] even that attempt at learning [Lithium] felt worthless.

[Power Armor] slowly slid back into the toga’s positioning. One shoulder remained uncovered while the fabric wrapped around front and latched in. It looked like the classic cloth, but at least latched in places so that I could move around quickly without suddenly turning naked. The biggest issue was drafty lower legs, which [Gait of Bowman]’s wrappings helped with. It was odd that a pair of fancy shoes resulted in full body clothing.

“Dusk,” I said as thoughts caught up. My [Messenger’s Pet] was missing in action and we hadn’t paused long enough for me to reach out.

“Nightfall is a few hours away,” Beth said with a half-formed smile. Her lips quivered a bit.

“No, Dusk, my companion. I need to summon him.” I ran to a clear spot on the side of our recently dead attackers and started scrawling the spell circle. [Morrigu’s Gift] once again transformed into a small blade with the blacker handle. The runes that normally lined [Morrigu’s Gift] sat on its flattened edge.

“Oh, the cute little dragon.” Beth said while my hand speedily followed the system assisted pattern. The younger woman came over and looked down at the patterns. “You know you could probably get a chalice and cut down on the spell time.”

“I’m still new at an actual spell circle,” I said. This wouldn’t even be possible if it weren’t for my unique connection to Dusk. Once again I wished that my skills might have included a spell caster route, but abilities in Continue Online had more to do with personality and tendencies.

“Oh. Well, if you find time to research, study some of the Wiccan ritualistic stuff.” There was a sound of feet shuffling behind me as Beth talked. Her tone sounded almost embarrassed. “I’ve got a friend who uses different tools to shortcut spell circles.”

“That’s neat,” I muttered. The idea of following witchcraft in a video game seemed odd. Then again Continue Online was designed to allow everyone a mildly unique path through. It was a shame so many people ended up being the same.

“I-“ Beth started to say something and I raised a hand up briefly.

“I promise a dozen cupcakes at my earliest convenience!” I shouted the keywords at my dirt engraved circle.

Nothing happened. The circle didn’t flare with light or look even remotely special in any way. All that happened was me trying to look cool in front of Beth but flopping. My head hung downward as I studied the spell circle. Maybe Dusk hadn’t died. He could even now be guarding Wyl. I remembered asking him to do exactly that before running into a hoard of undead shamblers.

“Crud,” I muttered.

“Let’s keep walking,” Beth said. “You were headed somewhere, right? You lead, and I’m going to ask a friend what to do about your branding.”

It took a moment to register what she meant. After a few seconds of staring at my circle, I realized Beth was talking about the fact that I was still a convict with a load of [Redemption] points to work off, from being a [Criminal].

“Oh,” I said simply while trying to gauge how low my abilities actually were. Skills clearly worked, [Morrigu’s Echo] could still pierce wolves. They were fairly low ranked creatures which made a difference.

We kept going west. Our path traveled over a hill until we found a major road. I couldn’t find any signs of Dusk or Wyl nearby, but tracking people was hard without a letter from the [Messenger’s Tube].

Voices above, I should have thought of that sooner too.

“Gah. He’s offline.” Beth grumbled behind me. “Hold on, maybe Awesome will know.”

“You’re talking to Awesome Jr. ?” I asked while sitting down. A feathered quill and piece of paper came out to send my message upwards. The ink dripped on paper as I paused to think.

“No, his father. We worked together in a raid once.” Beth answered while I debated exactly what to say.

Bothering the Voices now, after Mother’s death and the world falling apart might not be a good idea. How much attention did they require to plan a way out of it? Could they? Was the world really falling apart while I sat down here fighting digital wolves?

My legs sat crossed under me, my lip hurt from where I bit at it. My left palm pressed towards an eyeball trying to fight off growing frustration. Finally, I stood up, throwing the paper and quill far away. Beth said nothing, her fingers pressed away at air, typing a message out to whichever random contacts there were. After a few quickly paced laps I picked up the writing instruments and smoothed out the paper on my thigh. There, I unevenly inked down a note.

Let me know if I can help. Until then, I want to be with Xin.

- Hermes

The poorly flattened parchment was crumpled back up then shoved into the tube. It heated up as my message to any Voice above vanished. Knowing my luck they would be waiting for me again in the Atrium. I had no intention of logging out until after Wyl and Dusk were found.

After that, Dusk could probably find Xin. I hoped.

Beth still looked distracted. Both my eyes closed to ping the area with [Sight of Mercari]. No Wyl. No other players. For a game with so many players, remote areas like this rarely saw more than a few people pass through any given day.

“Got something,” Beth said. “Wait, no. He said the item's hard to get. Maybe we can find it on an auction house, but it’ll cost a lot, and the guards probably won’t let a criminal inside.”

I rocked a bit while chewing then nodded. My [Messenger’s Tube] hadn’t lit up with a return message. Dusk didn’t wing through the sky anywhere that I could see. A city might be best. A [Porter] would be even better.

“Let’s go that way anyway. I want to try and friend Xin in the game.”

“You mean with a Porter? That’s a really good idea. I didn’t even check to see if she was on my friends list. If you can’t get into town, maybe I can.” She said.

We started jogging down the road. After ten minutes Beth started huffing a little while my avatar didn’t report any loss of breath despite missing a good chunk of my character values. My pulse was raised according to the ESR-Sevens but nothing else hurt. We weren’t moving quickly enough. Beth could run fast, but my character had spent most of its game career running the countryside.

“We’re hardly going to make any headway.” I slowed down then sighed. All this rush to get somewhere now and do things right this moment was pointless. “We could run for days and barely make it to a town.”

“Everything in this game take time. You can’t just go rushing about and expect things to happen right away. NPCs move around, monsters don’t come back right away, bosses take a month to even respawn. The game isn’t all go, go go.”

“I know.”

“We’ll take it slow, Uncle Grant. One step at a time.” She stared at me while huffing a little. Maybe we had run longer than expected. The tower could still be seen far away.

“That’s amazingly grown up,” I said. It had taken me a decade to adopt that frame of mind. My niece was more put together than I was. She passed her classes, did homework, played around in an alternate video game reality with friends. Apparently the young woman even found time to have a vague boyfriend.

“You know how it is, technically mom pays all the bills, which means I’m her dependent and she can legally watch all of this.” Beth abruptly veered into a complaint.

“I understand.” I nodded.

That was weird to me. The idea that my sister might be floating off to one side watching a video replay bothered me. Voices knew that anyone and everyone could be watching my life with modern technology, but Liz might actually care enough to do it. She had taken to spying on me after that whole issue with Xin’s first letter.

“But despite being young in the real world, with Continue Online’s time dilation, I’m almost twenty-two. I’ve done lots of stuff.” My niece nodded twice then raised a hand over her eyes. They glowed a soft yellow as an ability kicked in.

She searched for whatever while I pondered legal ramifications of time dilation. Maybe Frankenstein would know, or his firm's lawyer Mister Stone. Perceived time couldn’t truly trump a Gregorian calendar, could it? How old would Xin be then if she existed at the speed all those Voices did? Better yet, what sort of human rights did a machine AI get?

“That’s right. Time in here is funny, isn’t it?” I said while trying to put everything together. We kept walking at a much slower pace.

A few interesting thoughts ran through my brain regarding the nature of time and digital existence. Could Xin alter her shape at will? Beth had already confirmed that my body looked nothing like my real life one. A few aspects stayed the same, my scars and height, but the fairly defined body from a high amount of [Brawn] was certainly not real life.

I liked my avatar, and in a few months maybe the EXR-Sevens would let my body catch up at least in terms of build. Maybe I could get supplements and workout in a home gym for an hour a day. At least in Advance Online my shape had resulted from being a [Mechanoid].

“Yep,” Beth said as we moved along. “Despite that, I still like playing. I feel like I get so much more done, and some of the gear is really neat.” The young woman pulled out her sharp looking blade. She slashed it at the air and a few colorful lines appeared. It looked like she was cutting fabric between here and some bulging plane where bright rainbows resided.

“That is neat.” I agreed.

“Except your stuff. Your clothing is just weird, Uncle er, Hermes.” Beth said. “You look one of those Greek tragedy actors come to life.”

“Black togas are actually called Toga Pulla, I guess.” I had researched about it on the way back from mom’s house, along with Viper’s real life. This coloring to the cloth was typically worn by mourners. It felt oddly appropriate for me as a piece of gear, despite my recent happiness. Apparently it also tied into perceived danger to oneself, or public anxiety, which was also oddly fitting. My other gear had similar meanings as well. [Wild Bill] as a gambler. [Morrigu’s Gift], the name Hermes. I tried not to think about it too hard most days.

“Oh wait, Awesome Jr.’s back online, and he’s got a message.” She paused and pressed at the screen. “He says a woman named Hekat found him and is trying to rescue you?”

“Who?” the name didn’t ring a bell. I rapidly brought up an outside connection window then searched the internet for any hints. The name sounded vaguely familiar. Being in the Trillium van would have let me search for Travelers previously encountered.

“A tiny Asian, wait-” Beth stared at a message I couldn’t see. “This is new, I think he’s talking about Xin.”

“What?”

“Xin’s in the game? Is that possible?”

“I guess.” I felt kind of weird talking about Xin’s digital version to other people still. Beth knew, but at the same time, she didn’t really know. It was like I had brought a ghost home and said ‘here she is, please approve as we play video games together’. The very idea sounded neat and looney bin worthy.

“Oh man. She’s what?” Beth started laughing while tapping fingers at the air. The only clue regarding anyone typing was a slight blue ripple that resembled a keyboard. It appeared as fingers came down and connected.

“What happened?”

“Aunt Xin, she-” Beth looked at me with twinkling eyes then shook her head. “-nevermind.”

“What?” I grew worried and looked at my niece. Her cheeks bunched up with a tight smile. It didn’t seem bad based on the young woman’s reaction, but if something was going on with Xin I wanted to know.

“Nope. I’m not telling.” She laughed at me.

I pretended to be unhappy but couldn’t really feel it. We had a connection to Xin, she was alive and reaching out to me. She, even her virtual recreation had been trying to find a way back to me for so long.

“Where is she?” I asked while trying not to let myself get overly happy. The last time I felt good was this morning. That emotion had promptly been ruined by finding out other events were going on. Dammit, I was being selfish, how did Xin feel about Mother’s passing? Did she even know? Of course she did.

“Ratches Hill, I’m not sure where that’s at,” Beth answered while my mind wandered.

“Hold on.” I wiggled fingers at the air to bring up a system menu. My own map showed at least two weeks of travel to get to that point. Assuming we met in the middle our path would converge in the [Mire of Illusion]. I didn’t have much information about it stored in my journal.

“Northwest a ways. We’re headed in that direction anyway. At least, I think we were. Normally Mister Fuzzy does all the navigating.”

“Your boyfriend?” The question slipped out before I could stop myself. It wasn’t my business who Beth went out with. She was my niece, not my daughter, despite how big a role her well being played in my own stability.

“He’s sweet, and purrs.” The young woman said with an excited voice and red cheeks.

Flattened earth by the roadside thudded. It sounded almost like knocking. I frowned a moment before shaking my head. That sound had been repeating ever since my return to the ARC. Did it have to do with Mother’s passing?

“Do you hear that?” My feet cautiously stepped around the path searching for weak spots. A creature might be following me ready to pop out.

“Hear what?” Beth asked.

“The knocking,” I asked.

“Nope. Birds, some buzzing.” She spoke quickly while smiling. “Occasionally I’ll get a chime from a message to my ARC, but no knocking. Is someone at your door maybe? Did you order a pizza?”

“No.” My hands waved to check the house security again. There was nothing apparent anywhere in the house. Even Hal Pal’s shell sat quietly in the garage. There was a nagging feeling of being crept upon by another person. I whipped around trying to figure out if some monster had started stalking us.

Our surroundings looked empty. I pulled out [Morrigu’s Gift] and swept it through the area, carefully avoiding my niece. The only result was a strange look from Beth and a tired arm. I think the stress was finally starting to get to me.

Rain started to drip as clouds overhead were blown across the sky. Our weather was rapidly turning worse for wear. Our path westward grew darker with each passing moment.

The change in skyline made it easier to see a small dot in the distance. Something with wings circled a few miles away. The creature barely stayed ahead of the rolling storm. I squinted while trying to figure out what it might be. One hand pointed upwards for Beth.

“Can you see that?” I asked.

“Hold on, Far Sight might be able to.” Beth placed a flattened hand above her eyes like a visor. The brief glow of yellow came forth again. “It’s, a dragon?”

“Dusk.” I breathed a sigh of relief. He probably knew I would be looking upwards for him.

Dusk had found us, and through him, we could find Wyl. The Local was probably still hurt and limping along towards a settlement. Things were looking up, aside from that whole end of the destruction of the artificial intelligence’s creator. My fingers curled around the [Messenger’s Tube] under my toga but it remained inert.

I cast a glance towards Beth and tried to decide how much to tell her. The last time I tried to explain my life Liz kicked me out of Continue Online. Or maybe we could wait until after talking to Xin. My fiancee had chosen the name Hecate for this world. According to the internet she was a Goddess of Ghosts, and the Moon, among other things. It seemed fitting for a woman had been training to go to Mars and trancidened death.