I don't remember the last time I felt so utterly miserable. I cradled Cheeseburger's massive body in my arms, and as strong as I am these days, it was a real struggle to carry her even a short distance. I was grateful that that big ugly creep wasn't following us. I doubt we could have dealt with him even with ten Cheeseburgers. Elizabeth was running beside me, crying her eyes out. I didn't really understand the bond that had formed between her and the gigantic predator I was carrying, but I knew she was worried about her friend. I was crying too. Our attempt to rescue Kyle had been a complete failure, and now we were running away to lick our wounds.

The idea that we would be physically unable to pull Kyle from the ring of Fly Agaric had never occurred to me. I knew that those circular formations of fungal growth are sometimes called fairy rings, but apparently in this crazy world that was actually a literal description rather than a poetic one. I felt that we had had one real chance to save Kyle from being taken off to whatever fate that filthy bastard Kumakros had in store for him, and now it was gone. With that troll on his side, there was simply no way we could seize Kyle by force, even if we could get him out the fairy ring. I had failed.

I hauled Cheeseburger through the woods until I was too exhausted to continue. We rested in a small clearing until I could get my breath back. I checked Cheeseburger's injuries, and found that she had two broken ribs, in addition to all the general pummeling she had received.

“She took a real beating, but she'll be okay.” I told Elizabeth, wanting to add one bright spot to our situation. Elizabeth didn't seem to greet this news with any enthusiasm.

“I know.” she said, struggling to keep her voice even. “I felt it, all of it. I can feel it now too. All the pain she's in. And it's all my fault. She didn't want to fight that guy. She told me that she was scared. I made her do it anyway, because Kyle was in trouble. He still is in trouble! Cheeseburger got hurt and it was all for nothing!”

I placed my hand on Elizabeth's shoulder and we wept together for a while. I wasn't even really trying to make her feel better anymore. She didn't want to feel good right now, and neither did I. So we simply sat, and shared our misery for a while.

“What are we doing here? I hate this place. I wanna go home!” she sobbed. I felt the same way. This was a stupid game. I didn't want to play anymore.

It's funny that no matter how bleak things are, sooner or later you have to pick yourself up and keep going. Elizabeth knelt beside Cheeseburger and wrapped her arms around the animal's thick neck. After a while, Elizabeth told me that Cheeseburger was starting to feel better, but still wasn't well enough to walk. I cradled the massive cat in my arms again and made another attempt to carry her back to the temple in Dezzermon. There I knew I could use the Boon of Sanctuary to heal her up more quickly, and use the Boon of Bloodlines to see what Kyle was doing. In that way, carrying and resting, carrying and resting, we slowly made our way back to the looming tower that was now the Temple of Bloodlines. Cheeseburger was still in a lot of pain, but had recovered to the point that she could trudge along with me and Elizabeth without needing to be carried. Elizabeth informed me that the link she shared with Cheeseburger allowed her to accelerate the animal's recovery, which was good news considering that her feline companion was probably going to be in the front line of our next fight too. I was beginning to wonder what had become of those flying bloodsuckers. We had been limping along through the same territory where we had already encountered them twice, but today they were nowhere to be seen. Despite my worries about Kyle, I'm ashamed to admit that at that moment all I wanted was a meal and a warm place to sleep.

Which is why I was flabbergasted to discover that the doors of the temple were now buried behind a pile of rubble. I blinked a few times, as though it would just disappear. I looked up to see where the pile could have come from, but the ziggurat was no more damaged now than it had been when we first arrived. The area in front of the doors was a big empty plaza. Had someone dragged several tons of stone blocks here in the time I had been gone? I didn't need this.

“That's...” I was about to say that it was impossible, but after seeing my grandson trapped behind an invisible wall guarded by an evil troll, that seemed such a feeble thing to say.

“Stupid.” Elizabeth completed for me. “Isn't there supposed to be another way in? Further up I mean?”

“Honey, I'm tired and my head hurts. Even if I could climb up, you and Cheeseburger would still be out here. Maybe we should just find somewhere else to spend the night.” I had really had it. I felt utterly defeated. I had all this power in this world, and yet nothing I did was right. I don't know what I would have done without Elizabeth there.

“Maybe we can climb over it?” she suggested. Now that Elizabeth had had her cry, she seemed to bounce back and was ready to solve problems again. I knew it was wrong to feel that way, but I was annoyed, and probably a little jealous. She really was pretty tough, when you got right down to it.

“Be careful. I don't think...” I began, but I was caught off guard. As Elizabeth tried to climb onto the pile, her foot sank straight through the stone as though it weren't there.

“Hey, Gramma, look! It's a fake!” she announced proudly.

Sure enough, upon closer examination, the pile of rubble was simply not there. What to our eyes seemed like solid rock had no more substance than a shadow. I followed Elizabeth inside the illusory pile. From inside, the pile looked like a thin veneer of hollow stone around a completely unobstructed door. Cheeseburger's head emerged through the ghostly curtain of stone, looking totally unperturbed to be walking through solid stone. I grabbed Elizabeth by the shoulder as she went to push the door open.

“Hold on. Someone put this illusion here for a reason. Somebody is in there, and they have magic. We should be careful.”

“Do you think it's Kumakros? We never saw him at that mushroom circle, and he's magic.”

“I doubt he'd have the courage to come back here, and he already has everything he wants from us. Probably just someone who needs a safe place to stay, like us.” Considering all our options, I decided to try doing the polite thing. I knocked.

For a while nothing happened. I raised my hand to knock again, but Elizabeth stopped me.

“No, they heard you. I think they're talking it over, but I can't understand them.”

“You can hear people in there?” I asked.

“Not really, but Cheeseburger can. She thinks there's three of them.”

I had forgotten that Elizabeth could share everything with Cheeseburger, including her sharp ears. At length, I heard heavy footsteps cautiously approaching the doors.

I heard a man's voice ask “qui est la?” He was speaking French, which I hadn't expected. I paused and waited for the system to ask me if I wanted to learn French, but I guess that only worked on local languages. Whoever this fellow was, he was a human being playing the game, just like us.

“Do you speak English?” I asked, hopefully. The door opened.

A heavyset black man in his early twenties appeared in the doorway. He had short, curly hair, freckles, and a very square jaw. He stared at us like we had three eyes each. Maybe he would have been less surprised if we had.

“O' course I do. Where the hell did you two come from?” he asked. He spoke with a slight accent, although it was not as pronounced as Elizabeth or Kyle's. I guessed that he was French Canadian.

“Est-ce qu'ils leur?” called a woman's voice from well behind him.

“Non!” he called back. “C'est une dame britannique et une petite fille”

He glanced back at us, then turned and shouted again. “Aussi, un lion.”

“Avez vous dit lion?” said a different woman from inside. Her accent was quite different from the first two. I couldn't place it.

“Is that thing tame?” he asked. I opened my mouth to reassure him, but Elizabeth beat me to it.

“No! She's my friend.” said Elizabeth, accurately and unhelpfully.

Despite this, we were invited into the sanctuary. The young man introduced himself as Arturo LeClerc. His two companions were a pretty black girl in her late teens, who Arturo introduced as his sister Dahlia, and a middle-aged Asian woman, who he introduced as An. An's arm was in a sling, and Dahlia's knee was wrapped in a cloth bandage. There was something odd about the way Dahlia looked at us, but I couldn't put my finger on it. An just seemed frightened of Cheeseburger.

“We started out in this weird cave, where we had to sneak our way past a bunch of huge scorpions to escape.” explained Arturo, once all the introductions were out of the way. “We found this temple that let us heal ourselves and level up. Then the cave disappeared, and we were on the edge of this city. We didn't know where else to go, so we just headed for the tallest building we could see.”

“This was the three of you?” I asked. Arturo shook his head.

“it was me, my little sister, and our big sister Tabitha. We were almost to the tower, when we saw these three Asian people walking though the town, heading the same way we were. An older couple and their son. We kinda kept our distance at first, but then a swarm of little vampire monkeys came flying out of nowhere at us. Tabitha found a bow and arrows in the cave and decided to go for a ranger-type build, and I had my illusion spells, but there were way too many of them. Then the Bui family ran in and just turned those things into mincemeat. It was a really cool fight, but a lot of us got really hurt. They had a sword and everything. Afterward, we all came in and explored this temple. We didn't expect the temple to be dedicated to Family, especially considering the decor. We all healed up as much as we could, but An and Dahlia didn't have enough Piety to buy healing. Eventually, we decided to send out a scouting party to see if there were any more monsters around. Tabitha went out with Kiet and Duy (That's the dad and son) since she's our ranger and those two were our best melee guys. I stayed here with the Dahlia and An, since they were too wounded to travel and I can use illusions to protect us. How about you?”

I told Arturo and Dahlia about our time in this world. I spoke about the hell-hounds, Kumakros, our raid of this temple, about Kyle's abduction, and about our failed attempt to save him. Dahlia looked on the edge of tears as I explained that Kyle was still a prisoner, and was being guarded by a seemingly invincible monster. I wish I knew what was up with up with Dahlia. She was definitely listening to me as I spoke, but she never met my eyes. If An spoke English, she gave no indication of it. Arturo would occasionally start speaking to her in French, but she didn't seem very interested. I guessed she must be worried about her family.

By the time we finished our stories, it was quite late, and I was beyond tired. The trip up the stairs to the altar high above the sanctuary was almost too much for me. I used my Piety stockpile to cleanse myself, but unfortunately I could do nothing for any of the others. The healing function only worked on the user, and I couldn't find a way to transfer Piety from one person to another. Likewise, the Boon of Sanctuary could only affect the user or a user's family members, so I couldn't use it to help Dahlia or An. I used another Boon of Bloodlines to check on Kyle. He was still in the fairy ring, sleeping on the ground with that big ugly thing snoozing nearby. I hated to sleep with him still there, but I had no choice.

Elizabeth said she had reached Level 2, which is nice I suppose. I didn't ask her what she had spent the points on. I figured she would tell me if she decided to. By the time I had reached the bottom of the stairs, I was so exhausted I just bundled my shirt under my head and passed out on the tile floor.

When I woke, it was to the smell of fish being roasted over the fire. My head wasn't back to 100%, but it felt much better. Considering that I had slept on a hard tile floor, I was actually in good shape. Elizabeth had apparently gotten up early to forage, and Cheeseburger had been out fishing. I couldn't imagine waking up so early after such an exhausting day. Arturo and Dahlia were munching thoughtfully on roasted tubers. An also seemed pleased to have something to eat.

“What time is it?” I asked, entirely forgetting that none of us had a timepiece of any kind.

“Late” said Arturo. “They should be back. They were just supposed to clear the monsters out of the immediate area and come back. Who knows what else is out there. We have to look for them.”

“What about Kyle? If we don't rescue him they might take him somewhere else. I don't know what Kumakros wants with him, but I can't bear the thought of losing him. I was hoping that we could all go out as an army and bring him back”

Arturo looked positively grim. He paused before speaking. “I know what you mean ma'am, but I need your help here. Dahlia and An are in no shape to go anywhere, and there are still vampire monkeys all over the place. If I leave, I can't maintain the illusion on the entrance, and they could come in here and kill everyone. What kind of stuff can you and Elizabeth do?”

I squeezed back into my arming shirt and picked a tuber out of the hot ashes.

“Not a lot. I've put most of my points into strength, and Elizabeth basically controls Cheeseburger. Other than that, I can't do much.”

Arturo expression mellowed or a moment.“Did she seriously name that monster Cheeseburger? Look, never mind. You're a front-line fighter, and that's what I need right now. My illusions are good distractions...”

He demonstrated by making the campfire twist and writhe, then change colors. He made it blue, then green, then pink. Elizabeth clapped approvingly.

“...but I can't make anything invisible. When monsters show up, all I can do is confuse them. You can smash them.”

“The search party had two fighters that were better than me. What makes you think we'll do any better?

“It's impossible to say. Maybe we'll all die. But we have to try anyway.” Arturo paused. He seemed to be choosing his next words carefully. “If you help me get my sister back, I promise, I will do everything I can to get your grandson back. I will go anywhere and I will face any danger. Please.”

I paused too. If Elizabeth and I ran out to the fairy circle right now, we might be in time to reach Kyle before he was dragged off to whatever fate Kumakros had in store for him. Of course, there was no reason to think that we would have any more success this time if we did. On the other hand, if I could find this party of serious warriors, and they were still alive, I would have the gratitude of two families of powerful people, and then we would be a force to be reckoned with, able to take on practically anything. So many people were in danger here. We needed to unite and organize if we were going to survive here. I sighed and extended my hand. He shook it.

“Alright, that's a deal. We need to make a plan. Have you tried using the Boon of Bloodlines to locate your sister?” I asked. Arturo shook his head.

“I used all my Piety on healing myself and getting Dahlia a Boon of Sanctuary. It'll still be a while before she's in any state to leave this temple. Do you have any Piety we could use?”

“Plenty, but I already tried that last night. The Temple only lets you spend Piety on yourself or on family members. I can't do anything for you that way.”

“Damn. What about...Cheeseburger?” he asked, nearly choking on the name.

“What about her?”

“Could it track my sister? I assume lions have a good sense of smell?”

Elizabeth nodded. “She probably can. We know they started out here, and Cheeseburger already has all your scents. They won't be exactly the same, I guess, and all of us smell pretty bad, but Cheeseburger can handle it.”

“Could you stay here with Dahlia and An and send Cheeseburger with us?” asked Arturo.

“I don't think so. Cheeseburger would get confused without me around. I have to keep reminding her not to eat people.” said Elizabeth, ever helpful in maintaining inter-group relations.

“So, no splitting up Liz and the lioness, but we need someone here in case a swarm attacks. Damn, our party really needs a healer.”

“Is there an option for that?” I asked, wondering if I had missed it.

“I don't think so. There are a few abilities that lean in that direction, but it seems like staying near a temple is our best healing option. There's probably a way to make healing potions and stuff like that, but we're not there yet. Dahlia is trying to go for a cleric build of sorts, but she's just starting out. Her first spell is pretty sub-par.”

“Really? What does it do?”

“Its a minor buff. Makes it easier to get out of restraints. I think she's going for a freedom theme.”

“You wouldn't call it minor if you were tied up.” shot Dahlia, talking around a chewy tuber.

“Not the worst I've heard of. Kyle can just give you a bad headache with his spell. You're the only one who seems to have really useful magic.”

“I really had to spend on it though. That rock-pile phantasm I put out front? That was my major skill talent. Could of been a +4 to anything, and I spent it on Illusion.”

“I think I spent mine on Diplomacy, but I don't think that's going to do much good against the bloodsuckers.”

“You have a major skill talent? What's your Intelligence?” he seemed to get really excited to talk about this stuff. It didn't really interest me, but at this point it was information we should be sharing.

“14. I spent a point to bump it up.” I said.

“Yes, still numbuh one!” Arturo punched the air dramatically.

“Eh?”

Arturo composed himself. “Sorry. That was rude of me. I spent a couple of my points on Intelligence. I like being the smart guy. Its why I went straight for a wizard build. But it sounds like you were pretty brainy right from the start.”

“I'm not sure we should be talking about this.” I glanced over at Elizabeth, who seemed to deflate a bit. I'm not sure what her Intelligence is in this game, but I know she feels insecure about it. Kyle is always lording his brain over her at every chance he gets. Or, he used to.

It made me wonder how long we were going to be living in a world where all our personal qualities were actually measurable in an objective way. How would we deal with that? Would we demand to know everyone's scores before we decided whether to take their opinions seriously? It seemed more likely that we would have to treat talking about your attribute scores as a kind of social taboo. After all, people who took IQ tests and then bragged about their result were really annoying, and nearly always idiots. Arturo, utilizing his own enhanced intellect, was probably thinking along similar lines.

“You're right. We should be focusing our attention on getting our people out of danger. Do you think Elizabeth and Cheeseburger would be enough to keep Dahlia and An safe?”

“I don't know. Cheeseburger is pretty badly hurt as well.”

“No, she's fine. I healed her, Gramma. It's an Animism thing.” said Elizabeth.

“All the same, I don't want to put her in danger either.” I added, placing my real concerns front and center.

“Grammaaaa...we've been through this. You need my help. If I go with you, I'll be in danger, and if I stay here, I'll be in danger. There's no safety here!” she whined.

“There is safety in staying together as a group.” I told her. “We lost Kyle because Kumakros tricked us into splitting up. Now we're talking about splitting up again. Every time someone leaves, they're in danger.”

“That's true.” admitted Arturo. “We need to level up a bit and get a reliable healing system going before we start moving around alone. That's why we need at least two people in the search party. I wish we could all go, but my sister is going to be out of commission for a while. I hate to say it, but I think Liz is right.”

“It's Elizabeth!” she shot back, sticking out her tongue at Arturo. “Wait, what am I right about?”

“We have to treat her as another person with power who can help, because she is. In this world, we all have to do what we can to help.”

I scowled at him. “We're talking about using children as soldiers.”

“I know. It's terrible, but I don't see how else we can do this. I have to stay here to keep my sister safe. If Elizabeth and Cheeseburger are a package deal, then she needs to stay with you. You guys are my only hope.”

I was livid. “You can't be serious! You were just talking about how you would face any danger to help us, and now you want an old woman and a little girl to go out and fight for you?”

Arturo was getting angry now too. “I know, I know, but that's the situation. Cheeseburger is the only one around with any kind of tracking ability, and if she's going, so is Elizabeth. And I know you won't send Elizabeth out alone. Someone has to stay here. It's the only option we have now!”

“No.” Dahlia spoke very clearly and with an authority I wouldn't have expected from someone her age. Everyone was silent for a moment.

“What do mean?” asked Arturo.

“There's another option. All three of you can go. Me and An will manage by ourselves.”

“That's way too dangerous sis. Those things could come back any time!” objected Arturo, but Dahlia raised a finger and silenced him.

“It's a risk, but it's our risk to take. The three of you will be safer if you stay together. We'll seal the doors, and if anything gets in, An is good with a knife. We both have the Boon of Sanctuary, so we'll heal fast and take less damage here. This place is way safer than going out there, so we should send everyone who can keep up. Agreed?”

Everyone was silent when Dahlia finished speaking. I almost asked her Charisma score was, but I thought better of it.

“Good. Now get on it, you guys, and be careful. If you all get killed, we're all screwed.”

After that, we all suddenly felt like we knew exactly what to do. We said our goodbyes, and the three of us set out to search for the last three people who had gone out to search. Charming.