A conversation between a Passivity Precept representative and Daniel F. age 10, April 4th, 20XX

“Where am I? Why am I here?”

“We’ve taken care of Mr. and Mrs. [name redacted]. They will not bother you again.”

“Are they dead?”

“No.”

“Then you haven’t taken care of them.”

“Oh, Daniel.” *A pause.* “Listen, we’ve taken them to be re-educated. While there, we will help them past their abusive tendencies and fix all mental problems and substance abuse issues. For your peace of mind and comfort, we will move you to the opposite side of the country and will ensure that they never have contact with you again.”

*The sound of a sigh far too adult to come from a child’s mouth* “Look. I get that you’ve taken them, but they’ll just be replaced with more of the same, or worse.”

“No, Daniel. They won’t be. Not ever.”

“Yeah? You think you can fix people?”

“We are the Passivity Precept. We will stop everyone from committing violent acts, even the non-physical kind.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“We don’t expect you to. So, how about this? You can stay here in the Safe World, for as long or as little as you like. If you ever want to return to Earth just ask.”

“And if I leave and want to come back?”

“We can arrange for that too, Daniel. You’re safe now. And when you decide to go home, you’ll also be safe.”

“Not good! So not good!” Crimea repeated as she paced the length of the room.

“What’s not?”

She sighed. “We have plans for you.”

Putting two and two together I asked, “Does this have anything to do with that pretty guy who pointed at me?”

She grimaced. Right. You’re not an idiot.”

“Intelligence is my second highest stat.”

“Well, of course. If it wasn’t, you wouldn’t be fit for our class. That doesn’t mean you can’t still do stupid things.”

I ignored that barb since Crimea likely spoke from experience. “So, don’t keep me in the dark. Let me know what’s going on.”

She shifted her weight from foot to foot then stopped. “Okay. It’s better that you’re in the know than in the dark, regardless of what our fearless leader believes.”

She pulled out a couple pillows from thin air and sat on one. I flopped onto the other and waited as she gathered her thoughts. I figured she was trying really hard not to get ahead of herself again.

“Most elves you’ll meet here are originally from the Elven realm. Very few, like yourself and Rion are imports from another reality. I’d say most worlds are given their own planet or realm in the sim where only characters of their same race begin.”

“That’s a little too much backstory. I just need the facts. What do you need me for?”

“Right.” She paused for a long moment. “So, with the addition of the Passivity Precept, crimes on our realm have virtually disappeared.”

“But not entirely.”

“No,” she said, and I caught the spark of a sharp mind hidden behind her eyes. “Not entirely. There are still non-violent crimes. Like identity theft, research theft, plagiarism and the hardest to identify and most prevalent, tax evasion.”

She tapped a long manicured finger to her cheek. “Janrei and I...” She must have caught my confused look because she continued. “She’s the current leader of the city’s Rogues guild. Well, she and I are detectives outside the sim, and we use our characters within to ferret out tax evaders for our job.”

“And you think Davis is a tax evader?”

“We’re positive that he is.”

“How can you be sure? I mean, isn’t tax evasion hard to detect?”

She shook her head in the negative. “We’ve kept track of his purchases. We believe he’s doing what many tax evaders do: they sell an asset off the books and place their money inside the VS wallet. This keeps a significant portion of their revenue unaccounted for allowing them to record a loss each year and pay far fewer taxes. And we’ve seen that he’s living an extravagant lifestyle within the sim which is one of the signs of tax evasion.

“Reliable information has made its way to us of him keeping his real records concealed within the sim. If we get our hands on those books, we can memorize the information and create an exact duplicate outside.”

“So, where do I fit into all of this?”

“Davis Crimsondahlia isn’t the only one we’re investigating. He’s one out of a few thousand and a little too dangerous for us to want to get on his bad side.” She sighed. “He threatened you earlier, and it was not an idle threat. He’s ruined over 40 people’s lives inside and outside the sim over the past 10 years. One of them was part of the team we replaced.”

“Sure. But you’re still not answering my question. This seems unlike you.”

“I know!” She grimaced. “I just get super detailed when I’m stressed so please give me time to explain fully!”

I understood her, my dad had been the same way. When he was nervous or trying to explain something to me, he always had to describe the whole thing as if he were saying it more for his own benefit. I still missed him every fucking day. “Okay, go on.”

“So, Lore, or Lorevinel as you know him, for his own reasons, is desperate to get his hands on an artifact we have. We’ve made a deal that if he gets us a copy of Davis’ books, we’ll give it to him.”

“Wait a second. You guys are like level 30, Lore is only level 4, and I’m a level 1. How the hell do you expect us to accomplish something if you guys can’t?”

“It’s not that we can’t. Jenrei and I are closer to managers than true Rogues now, we honestly have just too many things to do. I have to train new people like you, I have to help Jenrei with Guild business, and I need to send assets out to collect information on our thousands of other possible tax evaders. Then I need to go over their information with a fine-toothed comb, so we don’t miss anything. And Jenrei runs this place. She barely sleeps she’s so overworked, and that is on top of being a detective. This also isn’t the first time we’ve heard of Davis’ account info locations. In the past 2 years we’ve sent some of our best thieves to find and copy it, but every time they arrive, the books were already moved to another location. Davis is very good and very paranoid.”

“Again, I’m not seeing how I can help. This sounds like a job for a pro.”

“Here’s the thing. We’re positive that Davis has contacts within the guild that warn him of upcoming missions against him.”

I caught on. “So new people like me and desperate people like Lore are the only ones you can trust with.”

She nodded. “That and the books are in the Crimsondahlia’s office safe within his townhouse. His impenetrable townhouse that is impossible to break into, even for a level 30 thief. However, if you have a way inside the house itself, say an invitation to a Bonded Celebration that will take place at the house in four days, it’s doable.”

“Wait, you don’t expect me to break into the safe do you?”

“Of course not. Maybe with four years of non-stop training. But Lore is a master bard. He may be a level four, but he’s all high-level skills and no damage. He should be able to break into the office, get into the safe and copy each of the books within minutes.”

“Then why the hell will I be going with him if he can do everything by himself?”

“He wants you for backup. By the time I get done with you, you’ll be at least level three and able to use your observe skill as a lookout. You can warn him if a guard passes the room and be his excuse to dunk out.”

“Um. In what way will I be his excuse?”

She wiggled her eyebrows at me suggestively.

“Oh, no, gross! I really don’t want him to touch me like that.” Of course, some deep idiotic part of me asked if I protested so much because I very much wanted him to caress me, kiss me and make me feel. I shoved that part into a deep corner of my mind and locked it in a cabinet.

“He won’t. He has ways of making it look like that’s what’s going on, so don’t worry about it.”

I nodded.

“I mean, as long as you have a little acting talent, you’ll be fine.”

A spike of dread ran down my spine. “I can’t act.”

“Eh, Lore will think of something.”

“Okay, so what’s my incentive to want to go along with this? I mean, it sounds pretty dangerous for me.”

“Does five-thousand Passive Marks sound like enough?”

“I have no idea how much that’s worth.”

“Right, of course, you wouldn’t. I’m not sure how much it’s worth in your world either but, it’s an outstanding amount for a single day’s work. It should be a good amount even for four day’s work. Here.”

She grabbed a paper bill from her invisible inventory and handed it to me. I took it.

“Now place it in your wallet, and when you return outside, you can extract it as income from your world to see how much it is.”

“Wait! Seriously?” I said as I placed the bill in my inventory. It appeared as 10PMk.

“Oh yes. I did mention that transferring money between inside and outside was how people became tax evaders, didn’t I?”

“Well, not exactly!” The concept blew my mind, and I had the epiphany that this would literally change Earth’s finances and might destroy banks as I knew. But there was nothing I could do about it now, so I ignored the terrifying thought of an unknown financial future. “Anyways, is there else anything I need to know? Like what a bonded is and why people celebrate it?”

“Oh, that! I supposed you should learn a little about the world you’ll be spending so much time in.”

“That would be useful,” I said dryly.

She sighed with longing. “It’s just so romantic.”

“Huh?”

“A bonded is the person who holds the missing part of another’s soul. Only about one in every 50,000 elves find their bonded in their lifetime, and when they do, they’re finally a complete being and will never be alone again. How beautiful is that?!”

“So, it’s like a marriage ceremony?”

“Oh no! Marriage is something needed when there is no bond. Bonded are already closer than any living thing can be with each other, so they don’t need to get married, and few do. The celebration is quite literally a once in a lifetime party commemorating two people finally discovering each other.”

“And what kind of party is it?”

“Davis will bring together his friends, business partners and a few popular people from the city’s upper echelon, like Lore. They’ll be introduced to the other half of his soul and then drink and party all night long to send good life wishes their way.”

“And Lore and I are infiltrating this beautiful, romantic once in a lifetime celebration?” I said with a raised brow.

She frowned. “It’s not a perfectly respectful plan, but it’s the best one we have.”

“I get it. I don’t like it, but I get it.”

She leaned forward, eyes sparkling beneath her glasses. “So, will you do it?”

[You have been given the quest: Tax Evasion at the Celebration. Rewards: 3000 reputation with Crimea and the Rogues Guild, 5000PMk, and possibly something else. Failure: -200 reputation with Crimea and the Rogues Guild, and salty tears of shame.]

“Can I accept after I find out how much a Passive Mark is?”

Her large eyes morphed into the same look puppies give their owners when they want to go for a walk. I couldn’t stand it.

“Okay! Okay! I accept!”

“Yay!” She clapped. “Now we just need to get you trained up to level three. It’s going to take up most of your time, so I recommend first finding out how much of a time difference it is between your world and this one.”

“How do I do that?”

The PPVS runs at 2X the speed of your world!

“Oh. The prompt thing was helpful this time.”

Not accurate, player Grace. I’m always helpful.

I repeated the useful information.

“You should sleep in the sim. You’ll save a lot of time in your realm. Also, do you have anything pressing to take care of over the next two days in your world?”

“I can take the next two days off work, but I do need some time IRL tomorrow.”

“Will 6 hours your time be enough?”

“I’ll make it enough.”

She pulled out one thick black leather-bound tome and four much thinner books. Without effort, she handed the pile to me. They were heavy and could’ve been used to do blunt force damage to some unsuspecting mob.

“These are for you to keep. The large one is a skill book, and these smaller ones are spellbooks. Read each one.”

I stared at the stylized flames that showed on the first book and couldn’t stop myself from shaking my head. My other muscles froze up, or maybe they shook. Was it both? “Not this one,” I whispered.

“What? The Add Fire spell? But that’s literally the first one everyone starts with.”

“I can’t learn it.”

“Mia. Hun! You know you’re not a full elf right?”

“Yeah. Like, everyone I’ve met has pointed that out.”

“Well, my observe skill is in the late eighties. That makes me a grandmaster of observation, and even I can’t tell what your non-elf half is. But what I can see is that it has something to do with fire.”

A half laugh escaped my lips, and I pressed a hand to the burning in my chest.

“Frankly, I think you’re half fire sprite. I mean, I don’t even want to know how that combination happened. Whoever did the dirty with a fire sprite must have had some kind of amazing guts." She winked. "But if that is the case, you probably have some kind of fire affinity and could do massive damage while wielding it.”

“Crimea, I’m not using fire. Ever. So don’t argue about it.”

It looked like she finally noticed how my body shook and my cheeks burned with embarrassment. I really didn’t want anyone to know how irrationally terrified I was of flames. I really should hide it better, but I just couldn’t deceive people well.

“You don’t have to use Add Fire ever. But you can still study the spell. It won’t cast automatically if you read the book, okay?”

I swallowed and nodded. “I’ll at least try. But it’ll be the last one I read.”

“Fine. Fine.”

Attempting to hide my trembling I hid the spell books under the huge black leather one. On the cover, in beautiful gold script, one word was written on it, “Stealth.”

“I think I’ll start here.”