1

Zack and Ethan were the first ones awake the next morning. They were resting at the fire pit when Jordan and Emma wandered out of their cabin. The pair walked over sheepishly and sat opposite the two orcs.

“Guys, we want to explain—” Emma said tentatively.

Zack held his hand up, stopping her midsentence. “Save it,” he grumbled. “Whatever it is, you can say it in front of the entire team.”

She closed her mouth and looked at Jordan. While he’d slept a bit through the night, Emma was up the entire time. He wrapped his arm around her, watching her lips tremble as she suppressed her tears. He pulled her closer.

An uncomfortable silence settled between the four members. It wasn’t broken until Damon and Janna walked over from their cabins.

“How’s Harper doing?” Zack asked Damon as he sat down.

He shook his head. “Not good, but she did finally fall asleep,” he sighed. “It took a few hours last night before we got her back to the village.” He picked up a rock and chucked it into the charred remains of the fire.

“Is there any way we can get Miguel back?” Janna asked thickly.

Ethan and Zack stared at her incredulously.

“You saw what that thing did to him…” Zack began, but Janna interrupted him.

“No, no. I mean, when we return to earth.”

“In this fucked-up situation?” he muttered, “I doubt it. Besides, Walker said if we died on Epiphany, that was it.” He glared at Emma. “You have a background in this, what do you think?”

Emma’s eyes were wet. She cleared her throat before answering. “When we’re sent here, we are transferred completely… body and mind. Our Epiphany characters function like containers, storing everything from our DNA to…” She cleared her throat again. “… to our souls.”

“I don’t believe in souls,” Ethan grunted.

Emma glanced up at him. Tears streamed down her cheeks. “Then… then, your essence.”

The group pondered her words silently. The sun continued its ascent, shortening their shadows on the dusty ground. A strong wind blew through the village and gusted into the fire pit, blowing ash into their faces and making them cough. As the dust settled, Angie joined them and sat beside Damon, leaning her body against his massive weight.

“How’s she doing?” he asked.

“Still sleeping,” Angie answered.

With the entire group assembled, except for Harper, Zack turned to Emma. “Alright. Let’s hear it,” he said coldly.

She glanced tentatively at Jordan, then started. “Well, you probably already know what we were doing last night…”

The team stared at her soundlessly.

“And… and… unfortunately, we can’t do anything to… to… change…” Emma burst into tears, covering her head with her hands. Jordan hugged her.

The orcs passed expressions of impatience and frustration, but they held their tongues. Angie and Janna watched them coldly. Finally, Jordan spoke for them both. “We can’t take back what happened last night. It was selfish. We made a big mistake and it won’t happen again.” He peeked at Emma, who was still sobbing. “We promise you. It won’t happen again,” he finished.

“Tell that to Harper,” Zack grumbled.

2

Emma continued crying heavily for fifteen minutes before her sobs tapered out. Through it all, Jordan held her, serving as Emma’s one defense against the incrimination of the team. When the situation calmed down, Ethan addressed the team.

“I’m going fishing today,” he stated. “The Jennings were up all night along with us, and Ryan didn’t go fishing this morning. We should replenish their food supply.”

Damon grunted. “Take Emma, Zack, and your brother with you,” he ordered. “I don’t want you going alone.”

They discussed Brett, and it quickly became apparent that everyone on the team considered him a threat. Emma talked about her attempts to befriend him, and Janna suggested he may have misconstrued her intentions. “Do you think he saw what you and Jordan were doing?” she asked.

Emma glanced at Jordan. “Yes, that is a possibility,” she muttered.

Janna exhaled. “What should we do if he turns up?”

“Shoot first and ask questions later,” Zack replied.

Janna scoffed. “You’re joking, right?”

“No. I am absolutely not kidding. Outside of the chance he may have been injured, Brett has decided to hide from us. Now, consider what that means.”

“He’s right,” Angie said. “The best-case scenario is he’s returning to the landing zone alone. That is a betrayal. He would be abandoning his obligations to the team. Who knows what he might tell Cloud Nine when he gets there.” She waited for that to sink in, then continued. “But I’ll say what you’re all feeling. He’s somewhere out there with his own plans, his own agenda. He could be watching us right now, so I agree with Zack. If we see Brett and are uncertain of his intentions, we shoot first.”

The team mumbled their agreement.

“And we’re up against a very intelligent enemy now,” Janna added, not believing the position she found herself in; discussing the murder of someone who, one week ago, was her colleague. She finished by saying, “Brett can plan an attack against us. He knows our practices and habits.”

“From now on,” Damon said, “I want everyone to have their telepathy turned on at all times. I’m as guilty of this as anyone. Some of us didn’t hear Miguel last night, and that was unacceptable.”

No one objected. The members knew it was a huge mistake to have neglected the telepathy function, and their faces showed it.

“And I want everyone to have their weapons equipped at all times,” Damon concluded, “no matter what the circumstances.”

Nocking an arrow to her bow, Angie stood up and went to check on Harper. A moment later she returned. “She’s still asleep,” she reported. “We’ll fill her in on our discussions later.”

As he wrapped his arm around her, Damon addressed the team. “We’ve lost a mage, a healer, and I’m not sure Harper is coming with us tomorrow so we may be down two mages. We have to re-examine our roles.” The orc general paused then continued. “Emma, you have the highest mana pool and MPR. You will act as a hybrid hunter/healer/mage. You’ll still be responsible for long-ranged attacks, but I want you to supplement Janna and Harper in their duties, too, now. You have access to many of the same spells as the mages and healers.”

He waited a moment for Emma to take it in. She looked overwhelmed. “You, Angie, and Jordan will form the second line of offense,” he continued. “But if either Janna or Harper call for you, your role will switch to assisting them.”

Emma nodded reluctantly.

Damon noticed the Jennings family approaching and pressed on to his last instruction. “Finally, no more small groups… ever. Emma, Jordan, you can bunk with Zack and Janna tonight. Ethan, you’ll take the floor with me, along with Angie and Harper in the beds. Any questions?”

The team was quiet, shocked by the night’s events.

When the family joined them, Ryan Jennings moaned his contempt for Brett. In his broken vocabulary, he said that he’d never trusted the male nurse. In his way, he expressed what the team felt: that Brett was an enemy now.

Zack gazed up at the trees and regretted ever showing him mercy.

3

As the team got reacquainted with the Jennings family, Ethan, Zack, Jordan, and Emma headed east from the village, following the northern road that led to the tower. On their way, they watched in fascination the ripped glitch in the realm’s border and the body of water it had produced.

It was like observing a waterfall that had no mass or structure. The water gushed erratically from the black glitch, cascading down the border and pouring into the small lake. The water chopped and crashed against the large rocks that jutted out from the shore, discharging an aerosol of mist that hovered in the air.

Above the mist, the tower beckoned to them with a malignant force. Closer to it now, they stared at the large stone blocks that formed the cylinder’s construction. At its base, the tower was one hundred feet in diameter, but it tapered as it stretched toward the sky.

They noticed the entrance was covered with an undulating green portal, similar to the one they’d stepped through to enter the earth realm. Above the portal entry, a stone sculpture in the shape of a head protruded from the dark stone blocks, looking down at the entrance. Massive stone hands jutted out on both sides of the head, reaching toward the portal.

Behind the tower, more black glitches shimmered from their destructive invasions on the land and in the border. They projected light beams horizontally over the rushing water.

“They’re growing,” Ethan muttered.

“Where?” Jordan asked.

The orc pointed at one black splotch that had eaten away at the rock and earth near the tower. As they watched, the blob-shaped glitch expanded, spreading over the landscape.

4

While Jordan and Emma remained at the shore, Zack and Ethan turned west and climbed the hill, intent on gathering more firewood. Within seconds, they shouted down to the Grimalkin members. “Emma, Jordan, get up here!” Ethan yelled, then said more softly, “We found your tree.”

Jordan and Emma shared a puzzled expression. They climbed the hill, and when they reached the top, they identified their tree instantly. It stood out like a beacon against the neighboring trees. The tree’s bark was completely stripped away. Gouged deeply into the raw wood was a single word:

Whore.

5

Emma collapsed when she saw Brett’s message to her. Jordan reacted quickly, catching her under the shoulders. The orcs ignored her and stepped forward to have a closer look at the tree. Ethan could smell the sharp wood odor. On the bare wood, Brett had chiseled letters that were six inches high. Fresh blood was pressed into the crevasses that formed the letters. At the tree’s base, discarded bark littered the ground. Ethan glanced at Jordan, who was comforting Emma. “He ran his blood through the grooves,” he whispered.

The orcs scanned the perimeter.

“Brett! Where are you, Brett?” Ethan shouted.

His voice echoed through the woodlands and down to the village, but there was no response. Zack was about to yell, but Ethan lifted his finger to quiet him. “It’s okay, Brett,” he shouted apologetically, trying a different approach. “We understand you’re upset. Come back to us. We need you, buddy!”

Still, the woods were quiet.

He cursed and turned to his brother. “Is she ready to go?”

Jordan stared at him. “She didn’t get any sleep, Ethan,” he replied, not answering his question.

Ethan grunted impatiently.

“Okay. Let her rest,” Zack said, turning to Ethan. “We’ll search the area.”

After five minutes, the orcs returned without finding any other traces of Brett. Emma was back on her feet again, but looked dazed and disinterested. Zack considered her and shook his head slightly.

They hiked down the hill. When they arrived at the shore, Ethan pulled a bundle of canvas from under his plate armor and unfurled it. It was the same wrapping Ryan Jennings had used on the fish the previous night.

“We’re still going fishing,” he told them.

6

While the orcs stood guard and scanned their perimeter for any signs of movement, Jordan and Emma used their bows to hunt the fish. Initially, they didn’t have any success. Then Emma climbed a large rock formation that had shifted upward from the changing landscape. From there, she picked off the fish with ease.

The water was shallow, only two to three feet deep in some areas, and as clear as glass, so spotting the large-bodied salmon was effortless. Emma felt exposed perched on the rock, but she knew if Brett wanted to take a run at her, he would have to go through the orcs first.

The four members had their first laugh of the day when Jordan slipped on a stone while retrieving one of Emma’s catches. He plunged into the water, drenching himself from head to toe. He jumped out of the small lake and shook the water off like a dog. The laughter lessened the friction that hung over them.

Emma caught fourteen salmon, which garnered 21 experience points each, bumping her to level 37. They tied the fish in the canvas and headed back to the village, feeling more grounded and proud of their work.

7

Harper wandered from her cabin around midday. She scanned the village, subconsciously expecting to see Miguel. Then she remembered. Wiping fresh tears away from her eyes, she approached Damon and Angie, who were standing by the well.

“How are you doing?” Damon asked hesitantly.

“Fantastic,” she replied sarcastically.

They told her how sorry they were, but she waved them off, uninterested in their platitudes.

“What happened to Brett last night?”

“He’s gone AWOL,” Angie said.

Harper glanced at her, puzzled.

“Look,” Angie said. “Some things took place last night, which you don’t need to know about, but we think Brett has gone rogue on us.”

“What do you mean ‘I don’t need to know about’?” Harper barked. “Tell me everything.”

Angie shook her head while Damon intervened. “We think it’s better that—”

“Stop treating me like a fucking child!” Harper shouted.

Everyone in the village looked at them.

Angie placed her hand on Harper’s arm, but the mage shoved it away. She tried again, and this time, Harper allowed it. “Trust us,” Angie said gently. “You’ve been through enough hurt already.”

Harper glared at them, feeling anger burn inside her, but she didn’t have the energy to lash out again. “Great, so we’re down to eight,” she said flatly, “Where the hell are Zack, Ethan, Jordan, and Emma?”

“They’ve gone fishing,” Damon replied.

Harper saw Janna and the Jennings family preparing food by the fire pit and joined them. Damon and Angie followed and filled her in on the decisions they had made that morning. Olivia moaned her sympathies, but Harper brushed the matriarch off. They exchanged small talk until Zack, Ethan, Jordan, and Emma entered the fire pit, carrying an armload of fish.

8

Emma offered her condolences, and Harper lost it, breaking down in convulsive tears. Damon slid over and held her until the weeping subsided.

“Can everyone please stop telling me they’re sorry?” she choked roughly.

They were silent as Harper cried. After some time, the group spoke quietly about Miguel, about what his loss meant for them. They said they would always remember him.

The Jennings retrieved vegetables from the garden and started cooking a stew. They used some of the fish Emma had caught and stored the rest in the small well near the fire pit.

While the food cooked over the fire, the members of the fishing expedition told the other members about Brett’s scrawling on the tree. Emma lost her composure, breaking down into heaving sobs. Olivia Jennings painfully rose to her feet and led Emma away from the fire pit, just on the edges of the firelight. There, the matriarch comforted the young Grimalkin member, soothing her with whispers and moans. Minutes later, they returned to the group with Emma feeling better.

As the time waned and the sun dipped below the tree line, they ate slowly and talked about strategies for the next day. Damon urged Harper to remain in the village, but his request was only halfhearted. He knew how much they needed her.

She refused any notion of not being with the team when they entered the tower. Emma asked Harper what to do with the 48 attribute points she’d retrieved from the salmon. The mage told her to drop them into her intelligence and wisdom stats because of her new role.

Before they doused the fire, Ryan Jennings asked the group to gather the canvas bedding from the cabins to use for the journey into the tower. The team was grateful for the Jennings’ kindness.

Wanting to get an early start, they agreed that the first person up would wake the entire team. The Jennings wished them luck and said their goodbyes, knowing they wouldn’t be up to see them away. The small groups made their way to their respective cabins, shoving the heavy doors across the openings while a pair of cold, hateful eyes observed them from a distance.