They were all shouting but only one voice stood out.

“What do you mean you were William Carver?” Wyl asked. He had pushed past the younger players and stood right in front of me. Xin’s skeleton guard moved half an inch in response. I had the urge to yank out [Morrigu’s Gift] and start smacking the freaky construction.

“Only for the last four weeks. From just before SweetPea started playing, until his death was me pretending to be him. The real William Carver, in our world, was apparently all but dead by then and the Voices wanted to give him a sendoff. One last moment to feel like a hero. ”I looked down and took a breath. Those final moments had meant perhaps as much to me as anyone else. “I tried hard to do right by him.”

The mess of people demanded different answers at the same time. I held up my hands in hopes they would calm down but the quartet seemed unwilling to handle it. Wyl stayed bottled up and didn’t move right away. After a few seconds of glaring he turned and pushed through the crowd.

After seeing their reactions, I wondered how they managed to stay quiet during my initial explanation. That might have been a muted influence from the Voices or they were simply interested. My attempts to get them to speak in turns failed. None of my prior experiences prepared me for yelling over other people or snapping them to attention.

“Agghh!” A wild shout barely preceded a crack of noise.

The skeleton which had been standing off to Xin’s side rapidly moved in front of us with one arm up to block. Both its knees bent to absorb the impact. A glowing red staff held by HotPants bore downward. Her hair tips were white hot and fluttered slightly in the nonexistent wind.

My fiancée stood up and readied her own weapon. Small symbols of white fluttered around the robe’s hem as she prepared to chant something. Shadow appeared next to HotPants and had both his arms wrapped through the older woman’s limbs. The younger teen struggled to hold back an angry mother while I sat there chewing my lip.

“Jesus!” Awesome Jr. said with an unexpectedly serious tone. “Take a walk!”

“Asshole! You let us believe he, you, fuck! You were dead!” She practically spit the words as pressure increased. Muscles along her arms twisted and coiled under the strain of oppression. Xin’s skeleton had hairline fractures all over that hadn’t been there moments ago.

“William Carver is dead.” I spoke with a firmness that years of customer service had provided me. The edge of [Awareness Heightening] threatened to kick in as my heartbeat climbed but the threat had passed. Instead I felt a little more surprised that not really being dead had garnered such a reaction.

“Come on. Remember your exercises. Breathe. In with the good.” Shadow spoke in hushed tones to the older woman. She let herself be dragged backwards.

“God dammit!” Something crashed as they walked off through a doorway.

Xin turned towards the fractured skeleton and pursed her lips for a moment. One slender arm reached out and touched its white body. The creature collapsed one bone at a time and a rune flared for each vanishing piece. White lights cascaded around as her summoned creature's entire body vanished into the clothing somehow.

“Sorry about that. HotPants has been increasingly volatile since Haven Valley.” Awesome Jr. said with a surprising amount of diplomacy.

I nodded slowly then reached out for Xin’s hand. She turned and squinted for a moment while her nose flared. The woman was annoyed, not at me, but at the others' disrespect of the situation. At least that’s how I normally remembered those expressions. It had taken me a long time to understand her mannerisms. In public she chose to let me take the lead and grew annoyed when others slighted me. It had taken almost a decade of working my ass off to get that level of respect from her.

My almost casual acceptance of Xin having abilities should have bothered me but didn’t. Here in a virtual world violence was more natural. If we explored dungeons together we would have plenty of opportunities for abilities. I swallowed a brief moment of unease.

“It’s okay.” I said to her and rubbed softly on the back of Xin’s hand.

The others seemed to be more hesitant in their responses. Awesome Jr. hadn’t said much yet, taking a backseat and fiddling with his army pieces.

“I’m sorry about that. Everyone here was affected by Mister Carver's passing. It sounds like it wasn’t easy for you either.” SweetPea said.

“How could it have been? We had all just started. I thought he was just an NPC at first, then once I realized he was still alive during the last moments, I, well it helped me get myself together a bit.” I said. Was SweetPea really only nineteen? These teenagers all seemed so grown up at times. Maybe it was a matter of what they dealt with. My own life had changed a lot since I started playing. The same may be true for them.

“Do you really talk to them, this world’s people, outside of Continue?” The young woman asked.

“The Voices mostly. I’ve talked to them a few times in my Atrium. Recently one of them kicked the others out.” I wished they had another name. Telling people I talked to Voices from a video game felt a step shy of needing a straightjacket.

“Awesome. They’re self-aware enough to rein each other in.” Awesome Jr. said.

“And she’s really a copy of your fiancée who died years ago?” SweetPea asked with soft tones. Her fingers fidgeted with air and legs crossed at the ankles. She seemed to be struggling not to pull the hoodie downwards in shyness.

I hesitated before answering that one. My eyebrows lowered while looking at Xin. She was a copy, but at the same time had lived experiences of her own.

“I don’t feel like a copy, or dead, if that’s what you mean.” She said while smiling at me. “At first I felt more rigid, less natural, but the longer I exist in here, the more natural this world feels. There’s just extra rules and things move faster.”

“It makes sense.” Awesome Jr. spoke up. SweetPea’s eyes opened wide for a moment then she turned around. Her head tilted in confusion. “You remember all the other NPCs we’ve dealt with? They’re super complex. There’s an entire Neural Matrix Primer class at school using Continue and Advance Online as case studies.”

“Oh yeah. That entire course is hard.” Beth spoke up. She sat a little off from me. “Plus the teacher makes no sense.”

“Are you in that program?” The alchemist in his ugly green cloak paused to look at Thorny.

“I’ve attended a few classes after-“ Beth glanced at Xin and I. “Well, I’ve had more interest lately, you know?” She shrugged.

I looked at my fiancée. She smiled and leaned her head back slightly. Being so close to her physically made life feel right. Well, we were only here digitally or mentally, but both were real enough for me to be happy.

“I told you she was a smart girl,” Xin whispered while bumping me with a shoulder. Dusk opened an eye then looked towards us from his spot on the floor next to our feet. He flicked an ear but otherwise stayed quiet.

I nodded to my fiancée while feeling slightly drained. Airing myself in public always left me subdued. There was a relief to it all, to tell my story to those who might listen and tried understanding first. The action required risking ridicule for being a bit crazy. Anger from HotPants stood higher on the list of possible reactions than laughter by a mile.

“Does it matter? They’re alive.” SweetPea looked upset for us.

“Technically they’re pure code, at least if we’re following Keppler’s model. They might be using Gratton’s variation though, it’s like, thirty percent hardware?” Awesome Jr. stepped down from the table to get a closer look at Xin. “Then the rest is stored in a cloud, maybe?”

My fiancée blinked twice in rapid succession and I started to feel annoyed. She kept her face carefully neutral but the stillness worried me. One cheek bunched up slowly. I tried to keep myself positive, being around her made me happy and telling the story with Xin there had helped immensely.

I leveled my gaze at Awesome Jr. The young man looked oblivious due to focusing so intently on my fiancée. People used to look at us the same way in public years ago. A trace of confusion and uncertainty on how one of us fit into the world. Out in reality, there had been lingering post-war racism. She froze the same way during those occasions.

My hand started to reach for a weapon. The reaction was extreme but I never appreciated people giving her that look. Studying us, even though Awesome Jr. probably didn’t understand. I tried to take a breath and relax.

SweetPea noticed first and walked in front of Awesome Jr. “Sorry. We’re being rude.” She said.

“Sorry.” The other male rubbed the back of his head while looking down. Wyl looked upset too but I didn’t know why he might feel that way.

My fiancée sat up a little bit and stared at Wyl. Her head shook and the momentary still attitude faded away.

“You’re not asking new questions. I’ve run through the same ideas hundreds of times, if not more. It’s not my field of expertise, but like Thorny, I’ve recently had many reasons to try and understand.” Xin said carefully.

My lip actually hurt from chewing into it. Xin didn’t even understand how she was put together. The idea should have calmed me down but instead I felt worried. What surprises might her digital existence house? Could there be some ticking time bomb of code inside that recreated her body? I had so many questions and didn’t know where to start.

“What’s a Keppler?” The guardsman asked while fingering his ruined tunic.

“A scientist from our world. Kind of like a magician over here, only his work is mostly theoretical without much basis.”

“And probably on god knows how many drugs. The man had lots of sleep issues.” Beth said with a sigh.

Wyl frowned then shook his head and muttered, “Kids today. Why don’t you learn how to do proper things, like-“ Both eyes went flat and the grumbling noises stopped. The man’s shoulders drew together making him look lost. His body faced the red doors.

The remaining two asked a few more questions. They were mostly going over the same details again and again in different forms. Occasionally the teenagers would start talking about various classes at school. Every time one of them babbled about a theorem or speculated about items it made my head hurt.

Plus I felt kind of stupid. Accounting wasn’t a hard class. It only required a head for numbers and study of trending. Even most of that could be done with the aid of a computer. Compared to their topics I felt old and lazy. During these last few months I could have easily researched about Xin’s condition instead of studying how to make a campfire. I was really good at making campfires, though, even without my small bit of magic or ability to barf fireballs.

Xin abruptly giggled then tried to cover her mouth.

“What?” I asked while smiling.

“You’re doing that thing where you think too hard.” She pressed fingers against my forehead and massaged. Her thumb came down towards my poor lip that still throbbed from being bitten.

I grabbed her hand and used my other arm to lift up Xin’s face. Her lips felt amazingly soft. My mind went fuzzy for a moment as old memories flooded through me.

“Get a room!” A female shouted.

Xin’s eyes were heavy lidded. From this angle, I could see down part of her thick robe. There didn’t seem to be much under it and the sight of a toned path downwards made me gulp once. I looked up and raised an eyebrow at her. The woman’s head shook back and forth in a negative.

“While I may not like her, Mezo said you’ve been dreadfully chaste, and that doesn’t sound like the Gee I remember.” She whispered.

That brought back a lot of memories and my body warmed up. The drained sensation of explaining my past to a room full of people vanished as a whole host of very different ideas started occurring to me.

“You remember our Saturdays?” Xin asked while smiling. Her words were still quiet and the others were talking about something pointless.

“I spent Friday cleaning and preparing dinner and a making sure I had everything for breakfast.”

She giggled. “Your breakfasts were horrible.”

“Dinner was pretty bad too, but you wanted real food.” I admitted. Cooking wasn’t one of my skills. These last few years I had grown even worse. Even Continue Online’s requirements for eating hadn’t forced me to actually make my own food. I often loaded up on all sorts of items when in a town.

Dusk was about the only reason I had any food in Continue Online. He frequently demanded fresher meals and something more complex than beef jerky and bread. The [Messenger’s Pet] didn’t care if he was fed in-game or my Atrium, as long as the supply line didn’t dwindle.

“Our Saturdays.” I said with a heavy sigh.

“Saturdays were fun.” She started laughing. Xin really hadn’t changed.

Saturday involved a lot of releasing steam. She exercised a lot more than I had and always seemed ready to go. Not that we did anything before our first month of dating over eight years ago. After that, it became routine, especially when we were both going to school during the week, or working.

“It’s been a long time since my last Saturday,” I said with a pause. Three years and change since the last time I really touched a woman, besides Mezo and that didn’t truly count.

“I’m sorry.” My fiancée whispered, and just like that our mood had shifted.

I looked around while trying not to feel upset for destroying a moment. SweetPea was whispering something to Awesome Jr. and his eyes were wide with amusement. Beth held no such restraint and had a wide grin and raised eyebrows.

“What? You’re an adult.” I said. She didn’t have room to talk, not since that tail and red skin had to be a [Blessing] from Mezo. My niece knew enough about the birds and bees by now I was sure.

“Wait, Uncle Grant, are you saying you’re not a virgin? How scandalous.” My niece put one hand up and covered her mouth. “What will mom think when she finds out she’s not the only Legate getting some?”

I certainly wasn’t. Then that reminded me Xin had been pregnant upon death in my world. I didn’t know the chances of that happening here, or how functional biology was. Did NPCs get to turn that stuff off or had Mother somehow designed all those changes to be involuntary?

“It was just a joke,” Beth muttered.

“No, it’s all right, Munchkin. I just, uhhh-“ words failed me for a moment. “-I have a lot I need to talk to Xin about. A lot.”

Xin stayed quiet.

“Well, at least we didn’t need that Porter to find Auntie Xin. Or her, well. You know.” Beth fumbled rapidly through the words and her hands waved. “I mean Hecate and Hermes? Really, and Skeletons. What a kick!”

“They’re more like robots made of bone and magic.” Xin held up her fingers and did an air quotation. “The rest of this look came from the Voices. Though the heavy robe has perks, and it keeps me warm.”

“I’ll bet swamps are a bitch.”

“Skeleton boat.” My fiancée responded. “I wanted to start with fire and energy spells, then somehow meld them into stones for an airplane, but the Voices wouldn’t let me have that much.”

“Huh.” Beth’s eyes looked into the distance. I had no idea what sort of concepts would go through her brain after that, but I wondered how the boat might prevent water from coming in.

There was a silence in the room only broken up by Awesome Jr. and SweetPea’s low voices. Their words were beyond me. I tried to remind myself to relax and not crush Xin’s hand. Every little memory reminded me how tenuous our time together was. The game world was crumbling, and oddly no one had asked about that yet.

Maybe they didn’t believe me. I only vaguely knew from the death of Miz Riley and Viper’s real life existence. Or they could require more than an hour to process the information. I know a lot of those revelations had taken me days to fully understand much less figure out how to react to.

“Convict.” Wyl’s voice startled me.

“He saved your life multiple times. Hermes deserves to be called by his name.” Xin snapped her fingers and a bone flew across the distance towards Wyl. The guardsman stared at the white projectile that embedded itself in the ground.

“Babe,” I said after settling my heart.

My fiancée stayed quiet and closed her eyes. I tried hard not to chuckle. Once again her actions proved there were no differences in attitude or actions. Now the woman had spells to assist in expressing her irritation. We should have played VR games a long time ago.

“Sorry, sir. We haven’t even asked what you want. Do you want to go back to Haven Valley, or were you on another quest of some sort?” SweetPea spoke to Wyl. She said a lot more than I ever remembered despite the obvious desire to hide. The last three months of playing this game must have changed her too.

“I wish to be taken to Haven Valley, but I have no idea what’s happened to it. The last word I had was that some Travelers attacked.” Wyl toed the bone Xin had cast out. It sat in the floor. I could see that it had lodged into the ground with force comparable to a metal spike being shot. “Do any of you know more? Or can you contact friends through your ways and find out?”

“Shadow might be able to once he gets back.” Awesome Jr. said. “And the closest we can get is maybe half a day away, it’s an island off shore. We don’t have a boat, though.”

“Which island?”

They started talking and making plans and my head dipped for another kiss. Xin responded but the moment of passion from before felt distant. I was okay with that, being able to show any affection to her would have been a dream months ago. It had been one, and a nightmare, and a noose that threatened to strangle me daily. Odd how that which was tied so closely with my mental hell also served as a key to liberation.

“We’re going to dance,” I told her.

Xin opened an eye then raised one thin brow. “Now?”

I looked around at the other three in the room then blushed. My jaw hurt a bit from trying not to smile. “If you want, or later. I want to dance with you.”

“We did dance once you know.”

“We did?” I tried to think of the times we had met in person. Only one time really came to mind, an all too brief moment together after the second use of [NPC Conspiracy]. All those other interactions were exchanging letters and two phone calls.

“That first day, in your ARC. That was me.” She used one finger to point at her chest.

“Oh,” I said and failed to keep myself under control. My stomach clenched for a moment. I remembered how messed up that one interaction had left me, and she remembered it too. “Oh.” The word escaped me again.

Awesome Jr. walked over towards one of the doorways in the distance. He shouted behind him at the other girls. “Come on, Elizabeth, maybe you and Melissa can figure out a way across. I know my swimming Ranks are way too low to make it.”

“Let me go with you. It would do me good to be closer to home.” Wyl said.

Then we were alone for a moment. I wanted to talk to Xin about so many things but then she moved up for a kiss. Without an audience I found it far easier to regain our heat from earlier.

She had one hand on my shoulder and I wrapped an arm around her waist then lifted. Her robe got in the way a bit so she ended up half on my lap and twisted to give room to our kiss. I slid a free hand along her hair then pushed it of the way. Lips progressed from Xin’s lips downwards towards a sensitive spot on her neck, one that never failed to get her attention.

Xin had been the only woman I felt comfortable enough to be aggressive with. She wasn’t one to lose the lead. Smaller fingers curled in mine and dragged my hand along a leg. I took the hint and slid my hand up further, pushing past the robe's edge and halfway up a thigh, then further until I confirmed she wasn’t wearing anything at all.

“Really.” I murmured into her neck.

“Really.” She responded with a happy gasp.

I wanted to keep going. My experiments with sliding a toga around were minimal, but I was willing to learn how quickly. There would be player underwear and possible a few check boxes to click yes on. Xin squirmed then pulled away.

“Ah, too much. Not yet.” She said bringing my head back down to [Arcadia]. Xin stood up and gave an amused smile as I fell forward to where she had just been with a grunt. “Come on. We should go see what they were looking at anyway.”

“But what about-“ I tried to control myself. Walking was awkward now. “Uhhh….Saturday?” Today was Thursday, or maybe Friday. I had lost track of time recently and didn’t feel the desire to pull up my ARC display.

“As much as I’d love to, something tells me there’s information worth our time over there.” Xin pointed towards the table. She walked off looking none the worse for wear. The robe really was unfair.

Part of me stood at attention while Xin got further away. I took a moment to contain myself then tried to walk discreetly after her. Thank the Voices no one had walked in during that.

[Chaste] Trait removed

[Faithful] Trait added

Oh, Voices help me. Someone had noticed, be it the system or another Voice. Hopefully, that hadn’t come from Mezo. I waved away the messages. [Chaste] probably meant about as much to my character as [Faithful] did. The only difference is someone up there had finally recognized my attentions were focused on one woman.

I shook my head and took a deep breath. Across the room, Dusk was nosing around on the table. His large tail brushed away soldier figurines onto the floor. He sniffed around then plopped down to stare at us.

Xin walked backwards while dragging my arm. I followed, as I always did. She let go and walked a slow lap around the table, entering and exiting light. The effect made her look unintentionally cute. One hand sat in a fist under a chin with the other arm crossed under.

“Mmmhm. Do you see it?” Xin asked then planted both arms upon the table. Her eyes were dimmed and hair hung in a frame.

“I do.” I saw her. That was the only thing to cross my vision since our reuniting. My brain sat stuck on a giddy repeat. Especially after our close encounter of the sexual kind.

She looked up then smiled. “Not me, here.” A finger ran down the map. “Do you see what I see?”

I looked at the board Awesome Jr. had left behind. There were pieces all over and a groove in the map where his finger had traced repeatedly. Ink marks and crossed out portions were in clusters all down the middle. He seemed to have identified a path that cut through the continents center. Almost like a river that gathered up smaller streams.

My breath hitched for a moment. Michelangelo had mentioned a river gathering together. The mighty Mississippi cut a path through the continent. Its very existence defined a generation of pioneers and still served as a landmark and dividing line.

The path Awesome Jr. had traced repeatedly looked the same, only its trail went towards the west. Across the mountain paths of [Tuu], through cities and forests alike until it arrived at the shore.

“It’s a river,” I muttered while trying to remember the full description. Thoughts of [Instant Gratification] faded away into the background. “A path to the ocean.”

“Not the ocean Grant,” Xin said.

“Where? This appears to lead to Haven Valley. Where does it go from there?” I muttered. Everything came back around to that starting point, but why?

“A new home, I hope. Maybe a place we can be safe from the programs tearing apart Mother.” Xin’s face was motionless for a moment but her arm trembled. Their impending deletion from those giant monsters wouldn’t have completely bypassed Xin. She probably thought about the threat frequently.

I felt bad for shoving it to one side during our reunion. She was in danger and we needed to figure out a way through that first.

“Was this her plan?” I asked while running my eyes down the path again. “How long ago did she expect to die? This couldn’t have all been done in one week. How did these four even find out? Or get mixed up in it?”

“Maybe because they’re special, like you. The chosen of William Carver.” Xin shrugged.

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t know everything, Gee. I’m only guessing based on this map. But Haven Valley is where William was, and he picked people during his last moment, or at least, his autopilot did.” She shrugged like it didn’t matter which was which. “He couldn’t have been hanging around Haven Valley to retire, he didn’t seem like the type.”

Xin was right. William Carver had gone from one point to another to adventure endlessly until falling ill. The man’s journals stopped prior to killing the dragon, but he could have done a lot of other tasks. Or went into the real world and programmed something. An autopilot which copied William would have still been trying to help the people of [Arcadia] in some fashion. Bringing up new Travelers and sending them into the world might only be part of a grander goal.

“That makes as much sense as any of this does.” I started nodding and brought up my own player map. There were a lot of vaguely filled in areas but I could see the connections between my own recorded destinations and the map. “William had played this game long before anyone else. He loved the people here. He worked with The ARC Labs. He could have, no, would have done something.” I felt sure of it.

“A way out.” Xin took a huge breath as the idea solidified.

I stared at her and smiled again. What would happen between us if she went to a new place? Her survival meant more than being together. This sort of information was exactly what I had been waiting to hear from the Voices before. Now I knew that there was a part for me to play as well.

“What do we do?” I asked.

“I don’t know. But William’s friends might have more information.” She said while pointing towards the shoreline starter town.

“Haven Valley.” I said slowly then turned to look at Wyl.

It seemed coincidental, but it was a shred of hope. William Carver’s friends from [Haven Valley] might know what the old man had planned. Xin saw the bigger picture, and I had a rather unique insight to the old man’s past. High Priestess Peach, Peg Hall, Wyl, and just maybe a certain young rascal named Phil. Maybe one of his stories or journals could hold the key.

One of my fingers ran along the smooth edge of [Morrigu’s Gift]. The weapon had been crafted by two of his friends and could change shape. Could it form up a key? Maybe there were more people involved than we even knew. Either way, we needed to get back to town and search for answers before everything fell apart.

Wyl stepped back through the door. Xin and I turned around to look at him.

“They’ve got a few ideas, but sent me back to get you and the others.”

“Wyl! Xin and I will be going with you all. William might have left behind something to help everyone.”

“From that destruction you talked about? I’m not sure I believe it, but that monster you fought-“ His words trailed off and the man shook momentarily.

“Ask the others for anything you need to prepare yourself. We’ll have to leave soon.” I waved at him.

Wyl’s lips went white from being pressed together. After a moment he nodded. I sat down and scribble notes to the Voices while Xin stared at the map. A knocking noise filled my head which caused my hand to skip and ink to blot across the parchment. There was a hole forming in the world again.

We had a lot of things to prepare and time was against us.