In a flash of light, Seajee stood in a medieval town square with a crowd of people walking back and forth all around her. She hadn’t even caught her bearings when someone bulldozed her to the ground. A surprised yelp escaped her, and she fended off a tangle of arms and legs. Another voice swore, trying to disentangle themselves from her.

“Hey, watch the hands buddy!” Seajee said as she pushed herself away from what she assumed was a man in a dress.

“Sorry about that.” A throaty voice responded. Free of the tangle, the man picked himself up off the ground and dusted off what she realized were robes, not a dress. She caught her breath as she stared up at him. He was gorgeous. Shoulder length wavy brown hair with clear glittering green eyes, combined with high cheekbones and the scruff of a three-day beard. She stared at his perfect face when a small window appeared over his shoulder, interrupting what she realized was her ogling. She flushed in embarrassment and tried to hide it by focusing on the window. It had a gold border with a name written inside it.

.

Siegfried

.

“I know this is the newbie spawn point, but I figured what are the chances of a new player spawning right when I am walking through,” Siegfried reached his hand out to help her up.

“No problem,” Seajee said as she took his hand, “I’d say I shouldn’t have been standing there, but I didn’t have much choice in the matter.” The man lifted her to her feet with no effort, which surprised her. He must be even stronger than he looked.

The man looked her in the eyes and smiled. “I have to say you picked excellent features making your character, you’re stunning. Outstanding job.”

“Oh, um, thanks but I can’t take all the credit, I used the body scan option, with a few tweaks.” She blushed again as she remembered her super-model like reflection during character creation, “Okay, maybe more than a few.”

His green eyes bored into hers, “My name is Siegfried,” he said, having yet to let go of her hand.

She realized that it was his name tag that popped up when she was staring at him earlier. “Oh, hi, it’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m Seajee.” Not knowing what else to do, she shook his hand.

He seemed to realize he hadn’t let go yet and quickly released her hand. “Um, I guess I should be the first to welcome you to Athanasia.”

She was about to thank him when a flash of golden light appeared off to her left, and out stepped a towering man wearing a rough-spun shirt and pants to match her own. He was at least seven feet tall with a bright red mohawk that resembled a wild mane more than hair. He looked around in confusion for a few seconds before his eyes fell on her. He approached and looked her up and down, “Wow, I see you made a few little tweaks to the body scan option.”

“Rowan?” She craned her neck to look up at him. “Wow, you look different!”

He winced briefly at his name, but it vanished as quickly as it appeared. “Ah no, no, no. That person isn’t here. Here, I’m Wyrm.” He struck a hero pose, making her smile. It was so like her foster-brother that she would recognize him no matter what face he wore. While focusing on him, Seajee saw the same window nameplate appear over his shoulder.

“You picked Wyrm for your name?”

“Sure, but not the lowly worm crawling in the dirt kind. Spelled like this, I’m like a dragon. I can’t believe it was available.” His eyes shifted as he focused on something over her own shoulder. “Ha! Seajee. I love it.”

Seajee smiled, but noticed Siegfried’s own smile had faltered. He looked back and forth between the two before addressing Seajee, “I guess this is your boyfriend?”

She choked and had to swallow a laugh before answering, “Not likely, he’s my foster-brother.”

Siegfried’s smile returned in full force, and he put his hand out towards Wyrm. “Well, in that case I’m thrilled to meet you, Wyrm. Welcome to Athanasia.”

Wyrm grinned at Siegfried and enthusiastically shook his hand in return, “A veteran player, and a mage judging by your robe. Let me guess, you’re an Evoker?”

Siegfried nodded, looking a little impressed. “I guess you’re already familiar with some game details.”

“Only what I’ve read, but I’ve read a lot of technical documentation.” Wyrm answered, then started examining his surroundings. “Wow, they said it was realistic but I can’t tell the difference between this and the real world.”

That prompted Seajee to examine her surroundings again. She expected high-resolution graphics, but what she was seeing was incredible. This was beyond photo-realistic.

Siegfried smiled, “Yeah, I love it, the game doesn’t draw any graphics for your eyes to see. It’s telling your brain ‘There’s a tree’ and your brain creates the image of a tree for you based on your own memories. There’s more to it than just that, but I don’t know the technical details of how it all works.”

Seajee and Wyrm explored the area, examining everything around them. They were in a medieval courtyard, streets paved in interlocked stone, and the details were exquisite. She couldn’t tell that she was in a digital simulation at all. They also studied the people walking past them at a fast pace, intent on wherever they were going.

“Are all these players?” She asked.

Wyrm shook his head, “Nope, most of these are non-player characters or NPCs. You can tell by their name tags. They have orange borders, players have gold borders.”

Siegfried focused on something in the air for a moment, “I’m sorry I have to cut our introductions short, but I have to get going. I was in the middle of returning to the mage hall with news from the Diviners, some of my guild members have gone missing lately and we’re trying to find them but the Diviners aren’t being very helpful lately. It was a pleasure meeting both of you,” He addressed both of them, but he only had eyes for Seajee, “I hope we meet again. Have fun picking your class.”

Unable to think of a reason to have Siegfried hang around longer when he had somewhere to be, she said the first thing that popped into her head, “It was great running into you…” She had to suppress a groan at how cheesy that sounded after how they met. In order to cover up her gaffe, she decided to just give him her contact info and raised her hand to activate her smart-ring. It took her a second before remembering there were no smart-rings in here. Doubly embarrassed, she waved in order to hide the awkward gesture. Siegfried’s lips curled in amusement and gave her a wave as well before he hurried off. Sighing, she turned back to her foster-brother who thankfully had continued to admire the world around them and didn’t even notice the exchange.

“Okay, so let’s talk classes,” she said to him.

Wyrm stood up from examining a stone on the ground and dusted his hands off, “Oh yeah, but before we do, you have to remember not to give out our real names like that. Even if it’s just our first name."

"Why not? Olivia said it was safe to look for my parents."

"Safe enough, but some basic anonymity is best just like any other activity on the internet."

She nodded, "Okay, I'll try to keep that in mind."

"Allright! Classes! I’ve got the perfect one for you, how would you like to become an Alchemist?”

“What’s that?”

“Well, you’ve been planning for a degree in chemistry since we were kids and alchemy is the fantasy equivalent, mixing potions and stuff. Right up your alley.”

“That does sound perfect for me.” Her thoughts kept wandering back to wavy brown hair and green eyes. She couldn’t seem to focus on anything other than Siegfried. “Say, what’s a Diviner?” she asked after a moment.

“It’s a mage, like Siegfried, but Evokers like him specialize in manipulating energy. Diviners are different. They specialize in, well, I guess you would call it information magic. Visions of faraway places, finding hidden items or people, knowing the future. That kind of thing.”

Her interest piqued, she wanted to know more. “Is that a class we can learn?”

“Sure, all mage schools are open to players to join.”

She clapped her hands together. “That sounds perfect! I’ll learn to be a Diviner.”

Wyrm looked taken aback. “Seriously? I thought you would be way more interested in the alchemist class.”

“Sure, and if I was here to have fun, then I would have. But now that I know there’s a class that specializes in finding hidden people, can you think of a better way to find my parents?”

He thought about it, “That makes a certain amount of sense. I mean, you could just get strong in another class and pay a Diviner for help, but I hear their services are crazy expensive so it might be a while before you could afford one.”

“Great, let’s catch up to Siegfried. He said he was heading to the mage hall.”

He stopped her with a shake of his head, “Diviners might be mages, but you don’t find them in the mage hall. If you want to join the Diviners, go to the Great Library.”

So much for killing two birds with one stone. Seajee suppressed a fresh surge of disappointment and asked, “Any idea how we find it?”

“Sure! Hey you!” He pointed at a passing NPC, “How do we get to the Great Library?”

“Follow me, sir.” The NPC said and changed direction, walking further into the city.

“That’s it?” She asked.

Wyrm chuckled. “What? It’s the newbie zone. The NPCs will guide you to any major city landmark or class hall.” He rubbed his hands together, “I can’t wait to get started!”