Thursday, November 28th 2052, 19:07 OWO Server Time

An NPC barmaid, Teresa Penbrook, approached the table with a welcoming if slightly plastic smile on her face, “Good evening adventurers! Happy Festival of Thanks- ”

“- Fuck a duck!” Macha cut in. “What day is it?”

“November 28th, it’s Thanksgiving in the US out in the real world,” Elias answered then lifted his wine cup in a toast. “Cheers.”

“Thanksgiving? Really?” I couldn’t hide the unbridled enthusiasm from my voice, not that I tried.

The quote-unquote “real world” seemed so far away, but Thanksgiving has always been one of my favorite holidays. At one time it had been Christmas, but as I got old enough to realize what a stress the gift-giving holiday put on my parents, Thanksgiving had replaced it. Although even for Thanksgiving our feasts had usually been pretty sparse. Back when I was twelve was the last time we’d been able to afford an actual turkey with all the fixins. That was when Dad could still get legitimate work before getting blackballed as a union instigator and rabble-rouser, and it was before Mom had gotten sick and was near the peak of her career. After that, we’d celebrated the holiday with vat-grown special turkey-like products with similarly dubious accompaniments. It had still been one of the few days each year when the three of us gathered, tried to ignore the fact that the world was crumbling around us, and just enjoyed one another.

“Colonial bullshit,” Macha muttered darkly.

“We have a special festival menu available tonight,” Teresa cheerily jumped back in as though she’d never been interrupted. “Roast turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, green beans, and pumpkin pie for desert.”

“Sign me up!” My mouth was already watering at the thought. Sure it was a simulated meal, but it was as close as I was likely to get to a legitimate turkey dinner for possibly the rest of my life.

Bryn and Elias both accepted the Thanksgiving plate. Macha very pointedly ordered fish’n’chips from the inn’s regular menu. After a moment of hesitation, Bolton seemed to read Macha’s dark mood on the subject and joined her by ordering some soup.

While we waited for the food we continued to poke and prod at Bryn’s map. I kept the Sword’s recently revealed poem to myself, but casually scoped out the various swamp regions of the continent, mentally noting their names for research. There were

“So, can I float a proposal to the group?” Bryn asked, drawing everyone’s attention.

“What?” Macha’s tone was heavily weighted with distaste. The tension between these two was getting to be a bit much. It wasn’t jealousy over me, Macha had made it crystal clear to me that we were just friends even before she got involved with Illiya. Although, Bryn’s continued flirtations with me did seem to ratchet up Macha’s animosity. Probably cause she’d worried the blood isn’t flowing through your brain dummy, I told myself.

“I’ve been thinking about the Swor -'' Bryn began.

“-Ah!” I cut her off and reminded everyone with a glare. “The MacGuffin.”

“Fine,” Bryn shook her head then proceeded. “The MacGuffin, I’ve been wondering if we shouldn’t just put it up for auction.”

“What?” Macha and I demanded in unison.

“Hear me out!” Bryn pleaded, and raised her hands to forestall any more interruptions. “We got lucky today that no PKers were waiting for a group of hapless noobs as we left the OZ. It’s going to take us months to grind up to a level where we won’t look like easy pickings to every wanna-be out there, and even then we could have some of the most powerful players on Gygax gunning for us! Why not just cash in and auction it off?”

A stunned silence washed over the table in the wake of Bryn’s proposition. I immediately knew selling the MacGuffin wasn’t an option. It wasn’t just a powerful and valuable ingame artifact it was a puzzle piece. It was supposed to help me unlock hidden secrets that might give humanity the gift of immortality. But how are you going to explain that to them without telling them everything?

“You selfish, greedy, whore!” Mach seethed and she looked like she was ready to get violent. “You expect -”

“- She’s not wrong,” Elias stunned everyone by cutting off Macha’s building tirade. “I did some looking around online today while we walked. The forums and socials are flooded with buzz about the Sw...the MacGuffin. It’ll likely earn us a fortune at an auction. A fortune I imagine most of us could deerly use. We did recover the artifact as a party, what we do with it should be a party decision.”

In our limited conversations about our lives in the real world, it had become clear that all of us - well all of us except Bryn - were not well off financially. Like many, our best shot at upward mobility was to strike it big in OVR World Online in some way.

“Seriously? We only got the damn Sword because of Zee,” Macha spat while I still sat there mutely trying to find something to say. “It’s his.”

“It’s a party asset,” Elias insisted. “Or it could be. The longer we hold onto the MacGuffin, the more people come after us for it, the more of a liability it’ll become.”

“We don’t have to decide right now!” Bryn jumped in just as the barmaid returned with our food. I doubted the NPC’s synthetic intelligence would care much about what we were discussing, but it offered a chance to end the argument. At least for the moment.

The plates of food were set before us and my mouth flooded with saliva as the smells filled my nose. Trying to decide how to dive in, I sat there motionless for several minutes staring at my plate with reverence. Long suppressed memories of those few times my family had cobbled together a traditional turkey day feast came flooding back.

“You gonna eat it or just stare at it all night?” Macha pointedly chomped down on a fry her expression sour.

“Good question.” Bryn squeezed my thigh no doubt trying to dispel the tension left in the wake of her proposal about the MacGuffin. “Be sure to save room for dessert.”

It didn’t take a rocket surgeon to figure out Bryn wasn’t talking about the pie. I still wasn’t sure whether Bryn was legitimately flirting or just trying to annoy the others. Or possibly, both? Regardless, I licked my lips and turned my full attention to my little feast.

With deft movements of my fork and knife, I attempted to compose the perfect bight. A piece of gravy-soaked turkey breast speared to the end of the fork, a scoop of fluffy mashed potatoes - slightly yellow from all the butter in them - used as glue to hold a one-inch segment of green bean, and a couple bread-cubes of dressing. The table went silent as I raised the entire precarious construction to my mouth which I opened wide. I let out an involuntary groan of pleasure as the forkful successfully deposited its cargo in my mouth and I began to chew.

“Are you crying?” Bolton asked, his tone seemed mingled with concern and humor.

“Shit a dick, man,” Macha chided, “it’s just-food. It’s not even real!”

“Shut up,” I responded around a mouthful of virtual meat and fixings.

There was a universal round of tension-reducing laughter from my friends, which I did my best to ignore as I dove in for my second bite. It was a struggle not to wolf the entire plate down in mere seconds when I also wanted to relish this experience. However, my enjoyment was interrupted when I noticed a figure in velvet, black robes, with a deep hood pulled up over their head sitting at the bar. There was no NPC tag over their head, meaning they had to be a player. I couldn’t see their face, but I felt absolutely certain that they were intently watching our table. Granted, I’d been a little distracted, but I was fairly certain he hadn’t been there when we arrived, nor had he entered afterwards. One of us would have noticed. He’d just appeared.

“Hey guys,” I said quietly, trying not to raise a stir. “Don’t look, but when did that other player arrive?” I cocked my head subtly towards the bar.

Of course, everyone followed my motion and looked towards the new player. With skeletal fingers the robed figure lifted a cup of wine in a silent toast to our table. Then he pulled back his deep hood. Intense black eyes were set deep in a pale, gaunt, skull-like face. His mouth, beneath a short smashed nose, was spread in a lipless, rictus grin as the firelight of the room danced off his entirely hairless scalp.

“Someone made Charisma their dump stat,” Elias slurred under his breath. “Total Raistlin vibes.”

“I didn’t see him come in,” I said adamantly.

“Maybe he just logged in?” Bolton guessed.

“Or maybe he was there the whole time under an invisibility spell and someone missed him,” Macha looked pointedly at Bryn.

“If I missed him, so did you, hun,” Bryn’s voice was venomously sweet.

“What should we do?” I asked, suddenly feeling very exposed. I resisted the urge to pull the hood of my cloak back up, that would’ve just been more suspicious.

“Ignore him,” Macha suggested as she devoured a mouthful of fried fish and fries. “He’s ugly, but he’s not hurting anyone.”

I glanced around the table. Bolton and Elias returned their attention to the map and their food, but Bryn’s lips were pursed, and her gently glowing red eyes were fixed intently on the new arrival. I could practically see the wheels of her mind turning in a scheme, and it made me instantly nervous.

“I’ll go feel him out,” she volunteered.

“Wait -” I shot back, but Bryn was already up and moving across the room.

I felt the urge to go after her, even when she was already gliding up to the stool beside the strange player. I heard Bryn order a fresh cup of wine for herself and a refill for the stranger, then turned a devastating smile on him as they started to talk. I had felt the effect of Bryn’s charms when she utilized her high Charisma score and her other associated skills. A mild flirt from her could easily make a man’s head spin like ten shots of tequila. It might not be nearly as effective on this guy, if he had his perception filters cranked up, but it certainly wouldn’t hurt. Even without the dazzling influence the game imposed, Bryn’s avatar was still movie-star-level gorgeous. I heard the bell-like tinkle of Bryn’s laugh followed by the sultry rasp of hushed words in response to something the man had said.

“Either go over there or stop staring,” Macha scolded me. “You’re the one that keeps telling us to trust her.”

Blowing out a frustrated sigh I turned my attention back to my meal, while trying to keep an eye on Bryn and the stranger with my peripheral vision. The bliss of the Thanksgiving feast had soured and I found myself struggling to get the rest of it down. As I ate, I tried to convince myself that I was just concerned about the danger that this stranger might pose to us, and that I was most definitely not jealous.

Bolton and Macha tried to distract me with details about the Grindagain Trail while I drank my more wine. They pointed out several notable stops along the way, either fantastic sights or high rewards quests. I did my best to focus on what they were telling me, but my attention kept drifting back to Bryn and the stranger. It felt like she’d been over there a ridiculously long time for just a little intel gathering. Then I saw he had slid a skeletal hand out to rest on her hip, and she had eased closer to him!

I was about to take a little saunter over there when Elias firmly placed a hand on my shoulder. “She’s either in the midst of flirting information out of him,” Elias whispered sternly, “or she’s already decided to kick you to the curb for Skelltor over there. Either way, you going over there would serve no purpose.”

“Fine,” I snapped.

Lifting my wine cup to my lips, I drained the last of it down. The table rattled slightly when I brought it back down a little harder than intended. Pushing away my plate, littered with cold, half-eaten food, I announced to the table, “I’m going to bed.”

“Good idea,” Macha said with a wan, unsympathetic smile. “I’ll keep an eye on her.”

“Whatever. Come on Archer.” Archer rose and followed me across the room. With deliberate effort, I kept my gaze turned from the bar as I walked to the stairs.

At the top was an NPC that looked like a freckled ten-year-old boy. The tag over his toe-head identified him.

Lucas Penbrook, Level 0 Commoner, Human

“Can I show you your room mistah?” Lucas offered, his vacant eyes bugging me more than they should have.

“Lead the way.” I swayed on my feet more than a little.

Lucas led me down a short hallway, stopping at an unmarked door. “This is you, misstah.”

Stepping towards the door, I drunkenly stumbled over nothing but my own feet. My hand came down on Lucas' shoulder for balance. Despite being half my height, the child-sized NPC didn’t falter. I felt a rush of intangible warmth surge in my chest, then run down my arm and into Lucas.

“Sssorry,” I slurred, my head spinning.

Beside me, Archer let out a gentle whine.

“Sir?” Lucas asked, his eyes suddenly wide and bright with confusion.

“Thanks for the help.” I drew in a breath and straightened, then grabbed the door handle, twisted it and let myself in.

“You coming?” I asked Archer as I held the door open for him.

The dire wolf turned his massive canine head from me to Lucas. Archer yipped at me and I frowned. Then the wolf stepped over to Lucas and began to thoroughly sniff him from head to toe. Lucas laughed nervously then sputtered as Archer licked his face with a massive tongue.

“Fine, stay out here.” Confused by Archer’s behavior, I shrugged and slammed the door.

Turning to the quilt-covered bed, I flopped down face first and passed out, still fully dressed.

***

A steady, insistent knock at my door dragged me back to consciousness sometime later. Bleary-eyed, I heaved myself up from the bed and stumbled over to the door. Leaning heavily against the wall, I cracked the door open to find Bryn standing in the hallway.

“Finally!” she said. “I was getting ready to pick the lock.”

“What are yo-?”

Bryn pushed the door open and into my room. Before I had realized what was happening, she had hip-checked the door shut and had pushed my back up against the wall. Her wine-flavored lips pressed firmly to mine.

“Huh?” I managed to utter after she broke the kiss and began rapidly stripping out of her cloak, armor, and other gear.

“Are you waiting for an engraved invitation?” Bryn laughed merrily.

Half dazed from drink and sleep, I began automatically stripping in response. Within seconds, the two of us were embracing again and fell naked onto the bed together. Soon I lost track of everything but Bryn’s body against mine for an unknowable, beautiful amount of time.

***

Thunderous banging at the door woke me a second time. Bryn groaned an incoherent protest as I slid out from under her splayed leg as she pulled a pillow up over her head, smothering her obsidian pointed elf ears. Stumbling across the room, I had just enough presence of mind to wrap my cloak around my lower half a heartbeat before I ripped open the door.

“We’re fucked sideways!” Macha exclaimed, her eyes wide with alarm, bordering on panic. I felt her take me in from head to toe in a single glance and her expression twisted with confusion.

“Too late,” Bryn called from the bed. “I got here first.”

Macha’s eyes rolled with irritation as she growled under her breath, “Fan-fucking-tastic.”

“What’s going on?” I finally managed to get out.

“Check your Inbox, then get geared up and meet us downstairs,” Macha said, her tone flat and emotionless now. “We need to get the hell out of here.”

Macha reached in and grabbed the doorknob, then yanked the door out of my grasp, slamming it shut.

“Oh shit Zach,” Bryn said as I turned back towards the bed in confusion. Out the room’s small window I noticed it was still the gray of pre-dawn.

Bryn’s eyes were closed and her face slack in the universal sign that a player was navigating system menus. Then her eyes snapped open as she launched herself from beneath the bedding and started snatching up her discarded gear.

“She’s right, we’ve got to move,” Bryn announced her voice tight with alarm.

Frowning I pulled up my own inbox. I’d taken a peek at it the day before while we marched, but other than the message from Lemorak, there hadn’t been much but a few advertisements. On Bolton’s advice, I’d muted notifications, so that I didn’t receive distracting inbox alerts while in the midst of a fight or while I was trying to sleep.

My inbox was flooded with messages, but three Global Priority messages were pinned to the top of my feed. They were from the three leading clans of the game.

WANTED: Zee Locked-In, Captured Alive and recovery of the First Player’s Sword, 6,000,000 cc reward by the Mithril Falcons

BOUNTY: Player Zee Locked-In and the artifact the First Player’s Sword turned over to the Eternal Shadows Clan. 4,750,000 cc reward and the Clan Rank of Master

REWARD: The Dragon Army will beat any offers for the capture of Zee Locked-In and the First Player’s Sword he carries. Authorized by General Ender_Wig_Gins_The3rd

I opened one of the messages and my heart, my real heart back in my prisoner pod, just about stopped beating. At the top of the message were several images of my avatar, including up close shots of my face from several angles. The images included shots of me with my original inmate handle floating over my head, Inmate 81348, as well as my current one, Zee Locked-In. I scrolled down, and there were images of Lemorak, Macha, Elias, Bolton as known associates and even Archer.

Was it possible for a simulated body to have a panic attack? Or was my real body having one right then? Regardless, I felt dizzy and short of breath as I closed the message window and scanned the subject lines of the other messages that had flooded my inbox. With a quick scan, they mostly appeared to be from individual players, with various enticements or threats to turn over the Sword to them.

Dismissing the inbox, my avatar’s eyes opened. Bryn was fully dressed, waiting impatiently for me by the door to the room. Without a word, I started equipping gear as fast as I could. Less than ten seconds later, we rushed down the stairs to the common room, two at a time. Bolton, Elias and Macha were all geared up and waiting by the front door.

“Has anyone seen Archer?” I asked, looking around the common room for the dire wolf.

“He wasn’t in your room?” Elias asked.

I shook my head and wracked my brain. Through a thick haze of wine I remembered Archer wanting to stay out in the hall the night before. Where the hell was he?

“He’s not real,” Bryn said with exasperation. “You can get another animal companion later.”

“I’m not leaving without him,” I insisted.

For whatever reason, my mutant brain had birthed actual sapient intelligence in Archer. He wasn’t just some scripted NPC wolf that followed me around. He was self-aware and autonomous with a human-level intellect. In my book, he was alive. More importantly, I had no idea what would happen to him if he died. I didn’t know if he would just respawn or be gone forever. Maybe the Doctor had a digital backup of him like he did for slain players, who knew? Just then Teresa, the NPC barmaid, emerged from the kitchen doors.

“Good mornin’ adventurers,” Teresa said her voice tight with concern, “have any of you seen me lil brother Lucas?”

“We don’t have time for this,” Macha griped, her hand on the doorknob.

“We haven’t seen him since last night,” Teresa continued with her B-rated movie acting.

The memory of my brief interaction with Lucas the night before came flooding back to me. Specifically, the genuine look of confusion, maybe even terror, in the young NPC’s eyes. Then I remembered that warm sensation I’d felt rush out of my chest, down my arm and into Lucas when I’d stumbled. I hadn’t clocked it the night before, but I’d had a very similar experience when I’d first summoned Archer as my animal companion. It had been the moment that I somehow imbued the simple synthetic intelligence running Archer with sentience.

“Oh fuck.” I reached up and rubbed a hand over my face in exasperation.

“What is it?” Elias asked.

“Would you adventurers help us locate Lucas?” Teresa continued as though none of us had spoken. A quest offer appeared in the notification bar at the bottom of my vision.

Quest Offer

Locate Teresa’s brother Lucas and return him to the Laughing Owl. Reward: 1,000 EXP & 50 CC.

ACCEPT

DECLINE

“The last time I saw Archer, he was with that kid Lucas. I know we’re in a hurry...” I accepted the quest, causing a notification to appear for the other party members. “...but this is important.”