The butler judged me. Which was stupid because he had a maggot on his sleeve. I pointed at the larva. He kept a straight face and brushed it aside.

Interestingly, the maids were showing signs of recovering as well. My mug wasn’t. I couldn’t remember when I’d put away the staff and pulled my empty liquor container out but it retained no beer. Maybe I’d never had the darn thing out and been relying on my Rank and Path skills, and the dogs. They were useful in fighting monsters without needing to dirty my hands.

“If you’d kindly send the dogs outside it will be much easier to talk without distractions.”

That should be possible. I squinted at the empty mug again in case I’d missed something then tossed the container into my inventory. From there I dug through spells and my guidebook.

“You should have an unsummon. If you summoned them, then there’s normally a reversal. Like the same spell backwards or a release icon if you’re using bars.”

“Who uses bars?” Johnny asked.

“Some people like them.”

“I’d be so lost if I had to put all my stuff on bars. There’s too many options. Too many icons. Half the time I turn off the interface and do whatever I want to. Except for lock picking. Have you tried manual lock picking?”

Rose tilted her head. “No.”

“It’s a nightmare.”

“It is,” I agreed.

The butler cleared his throat. We’d been ignoring him this whole time, which was rude considering how much work went into finding him.

“The mongrels, if you would.” He gestured to his half pristine clothes. “Additionally, this state won’t last long.”

I threw a healing spell at them then continued flipping through the digital screens. “I’m working on it.”

There. It was pretty simple. Rather than summon them with names or funny circles, it was possible to open a portal back to the grove. Not a real portal, a spirit one. According to the text, these weren’t even the real dogs. They were projections of some sort. Spirit animals.

“Yes, well. While your curative techniques have clearly improved, the curse will only grow stronger the more you fight it. Briskness is the key to victory.

The maids started cleaning up dirty shelves. Their efforts made the dreary house light up for a moment before the rot vibe pushed back. Even without the butler’s warning, I could have figured out that my efforts were a stopgap at best.

First, I needed to check with the dogs before sending them away.

I knelt over Sarge and rubbed him on the head. “You’ve got food?”

He barked sharply. It felt like a yes, but it could have been him asking for more to eat instead. I couldn’t tell for sure. He tilted his head and wondered something vague that I couldn’t quiet pick up through [Animal Understanding].

“I’ll drop by, or Rose will ask her mom. Remember her? The nice green skinned lady that wanted to destroy loggers?”

Sarge tilted his head to the other side, making his ears flop around. Soon the other puppies were tiling as well. Except Sleepy, he stared at a wall.

“Do you even know her name?”

I shook my head.

“She likes Nem. Don’t call her Nemesis. She says it’s cheesy.”

It was. Nem was a weird name too. I wound up the spell, a circle inside a circle and let the game’s magic create a doorway. Sarge barked, and three dogs jumped through the small portal. Their bodies turned to starlight, much like the runic spells I cast, then became nothing a second later. Sarge barked again then nipped Sleepy on the heel. He whimperd then trudged toward the portal while yawning. He faded to starlight then nothingness, and Sarge dove through after his family.

I stared at it for a moment. It’d been awhile since I’d seen anyone function in a tight knit group. Decades, at least. They made it look natural. Maybe it was, but they were digital dogs too so it could be a lie of programming. My eyes drifted downward in thought.

Eventually I concluded that my mug was still empty.

“Maybe I should be a summoner,” Rose said.

Johnny shook his head. “Animals hate me.”

They’d liked him a moment ago, but that might be because Sarge was too smart for his own good.

Rose sat down on a chair and flipped through windows I couldn’t exactly see. Only her finger pointing at thin air and moving around gave me any clue what was going on. Johnny yawned like Sleepy had then rummaged through his bag.

The butler clasped his hands together. Both maids straightened and stood at attention behind him.

“Excellent. I can focus now.” He stared at me briefly then glanced up and down. “Goodness. You’re certainly trying hard to fit in with our deplorable surroudings. Ragged clothes, an unseemly face. Dirt and bare feet.”

My shoulder shifted slightly so I could get a better look at it. These were poor clothes. Even if we managed to use the loot from the dead monsters, they’d hardly be a step up in appearance or thread count.

“Especially your features. You look a sight worse than last time. You could almost be one of the missuses cursed offspring with that face.”

I felt pretty sure these undead were uglier than me. My nose only had a few extra bumps on it and the knobby knuckles hadn’t stopped me from casting any spells. They were all cosmetic features.

“Right. It’s a curse. Not the same one. I made a princess mad.”

“Queen now,” Johnny corrected. His hands were both in the depths of the backpack feeling around for who knew what.

The butler nodded. “Curses happen to the best of us. Those dirty clothes however could be corrected. For you at least. There’s no need to let a weighty burden cause you to dress like a slob.”

My eyes slowly blinked. I couldn’t tell if he was simply stating a fact or being a jerk. It could have been both. After a moment’s thought, it probably was both. So, on I went. “Right. Am I strong enough to stop your curse?”

“You clearly can’t even stop your own,” he countered.

His logic felt on point. I had a curse brought on my low level, rank, path, or whatever, prior self.

“Mine came from a princess. Or a queen.” I glanced around in thought. Wait, I’d already explained part of this to the butler. Maybe I needed more than a bathroom break. A full-on nap and some sunlight in the real world might help. There was a park nearby, but it didn’t help me through this stupid quest starting process. “I can’t remember right now. I’ve got notes somewhere.”

Having a decent [Knowledge] meant all the game lore I’d discovered sat only a thought away. I could have stopped to sort through them, or paid attention to the pop-up reminder one side of my vision. I didn’t.

“How do you propose to stop this affliction if you haven’t mastered your own?”

“I’m a man of many talents. I’m something a mage. Priest. Druid. Bunch of stuff in between. I’ve done a lot of stuff over the years. I’ve got a lot more going for me then when this curse first came around. I know stuff.” I had approximate knowledge of many things. Especially compared to my first month in the game. Heck, how the world let me sneak around with a princess was beyond me. It shouldn’t have happened.

“Then, I’m sure you can state which methods there are to break curses.” The butler gave me a pop quiz.

I glanced to the others. Rose and Johnny were content to let me hash it out with the Local on my own. She didn’t seem to care about the quest and Johnny only wanted gold that might result. He probably had a bet with someone on this trip anyway.

Either way, this time I paid attention to the [Knowledge] prompt. It helped to sound like I knew what I was doing in front of the butler’s testing. “Either overpowering the magic, or fix whatever drove the original formation of the curse.” That meant I had to be a number of Ranks above the spell, or have the right traits and skills. Or I had to kill a person, find an object, or set something right.

In the case of my [Beat with the Ugly Stick] I’d need to get the girl I’d run from as the first Friday to forgive me. That was pretty much impossible so I’d be “Blessed” with this face until my next character. Over powering her curse was also unlikely. I’d tried on three characters, even going so far as to run to a forest where no other magic should have worked.

The butler nodded then smiled sadly. “Or the destruction of the cursed object.”

“Well I can’t do the first one right now.” None of my abilities would let me do that. “And it would take me ages to learn enough to overpower it. Destroying this place, since the curse seems to be on the entire building, is out.”

“Indeed. I must digress to my original observation. Your face is, to put it kindly, an epic disaster only eclipsed by the Voice of Plagues.”

Johnny elbowed me and broke their silence. “Don’t worry. Even before the curse it wasn’t that pretty.”

Rose snorted.

I looked down at him. He had his backpack over his shoulders and smiled.

Defense was required. “I’ll have you know I got second place in a beauty contest.”

“Against a skunk.” Johnny doubled over laughing. I resisted bonking him on the head.

“It was very pretty skunk.”

“What in Arcadia is a skunk?” The butler shook his head quickly then brought us back to the main point. “It does not matter. You would need to choose the route of recovering items for the missus. Trinkets tied to her lost loves.”

I squinted.

“It’s obvious,” Rose said. “This place is called Widow’s Children. Her lost love must be her husband, father of the children.”

“Indeed.” The butler agreed while picking at forming lint. His clothes were a increasingly ragged and the maids backs started to hunch. My healing spells were losing their effectiveness.

“Duh.” Johnny dug through his bag searching for something.

“Yeah,” Rose added. “What he said.”

The butler’s eyebrow lifted. “Unless of course, you’d be willing to get married.”

My stomach clenched and both hands went up in defense. “No. Did that once. Went poorly.”

“Ah.” He pursed his lips for a moment. “Then we shall avoid that solution. It only serves as a temporary solution. There’s been seven other LeCroy’s and all have met terrible ends. Or fled. The missuses is, difficult at times.”

Even a drunk could read between those lines. I filed away worries of the Lady LeCroy being an utter shrew and moved on.

My head bobbed. “Curses are like that. If marriage was enough to solve a problem, everyone would get hitched.”

“You were married?” Rose asked.

My eyes rolled slowly. “Still am, I think.” I shrugged. “Not sure on the legalities of it. It’s in an event notice I got somewhere.”

“Which Friday was this?” she said.

“Oh, an early one.” I clasped my hands together in a prayer to the dearly departed Friday the first. “May he, I, rest in peace.”

Johnny pulled out a rubber duck from his backpack and squeaked it. He looked around but the only ones who would have cared, my dog pack, were gone. He shrugged and put it back in the bad. “Were you paying attention? He was cursed by that queen. She owns two countries now. One? It doesn’t matter I guess. She really hates Friday. A lot.”

Johnny had been keeping tabs on the queen’s history. I didn’t keep track of past characters like Princess, no, Queen Luna. Her title might matter in other parts of [Arcadia], but I’d planned out this starting zone in order to be far, far away from her realm of influence.

“But were they married?”

Johnny shrugged. “Only through an obscure custom to that kingdom.”

Rose squinted. “How do you know?”

“She’s paid me to find Friday once or twice.”

His admission broke me away from trying to convince the butler I had a brain. Their banter made it impossible for me to focus anyway. My brain registered exactly what Johnny had said and a groan escaped.

“Tell me you didn’t,” I said.

“Hey. She paid a lot. I mean a lot, a lot. I’ll do anything for gold.”

“Except a undead maid you little backstabber.” My fist shook at him.

The butler calmly ignored us with the skill and grace of a long time household servant.

“Please.” Johnny waved me off. “It was your sixth Friday, and I only told her where you were after you restarted. She showed up to find nothing.” His eyelids narrowed and lips curled in a smile. “For forty gold I’ll never do it again.”

He must have sent them after my [Priest] character. I hoped that the queen’s men hadn’t messed with the clergy too much. They’d been kind people. Probably the best Locals I’d ever met. They truly believed I could be redeemed and act as a force for good.

I’d also failed their vision quest during a promotion test. I’d failed a lot of stuff but that one bothered me. There was not quiet like believing I could be a better person then failing miserably. Now though, I accepted I had faults and simply did what I could despite them.

“May I continue?” the butler asked.

Rose snickered.

I blinked slowly and attempted to gather my thoughts.

“Right. My ugly mug aside, how can we break the curse?” I put up my hands. “Without marriage or overpowering it. Finding objects, right?”

“Overpowering it is pointless anyway. It’s a self inflicted curse that the missus brings upon us shortly after each man she becomes enamored of vanishes.” He shrugged. “We’re doomed to repeat the cycle. Typically with some new offspring. Most of these children have different fathers.”

Rose wiggled her nose and looked halfway to throwing up.

Children bothered me. Everyone had parents, everyone had been young at some point, but my childhood had gone sour and I didn’t want to pass that onto anyone else.

Even anything close worried me. I rubbed an arm. That didn’t help so I searched through my inventory for a drink. There were none. It didn’t matter how many times I’d checked recently I felt myself going in circles. Maybe it was all the talking. This didn’t suit me. Sitting on a porch watching the sunset would have been nicer but the beach views were too expensive in real life. Plus I still couldn’t legally drink in reality.

The butler coughed then said, “You’ll need to find the most recent ring.”

“A wedding ring?” I asked shakily.

He shook his head then plucked at a loose thread. “No. A promise ring. Not the only item stolen from our madam, but it would be a start. Enough perhaps to slow the curse.”

Our party exchanged glances. Rose’s face still had a hint of green. I debated a healing spell but my mana reserves were getting low despite the rank increases. I’d been tossing them out left and right with the dogs since we started this adventure. Johnny stared at the ceiling then back at his bag and started counting on fingers. What he counted, I had no idea.

The butler’s face scrunched. He put a hand to his stomach then let out a quiet burp.

“What’s it called?” Rose asked.

“A promise ring. I’m not aware of any fancy names.”

Johnny put up a finger. “Think I got parts of the ring somewhere.” He started digging. After a second, he paused then winced. “Maybe I sold them.”

Rose crossed her arms. “Of course. Friday is getting an important quest and you already stole the thing they need and vendored it as trash.”

That sounded about right.

“We could steal them back,” Johnny offered.

“I do need to practice lock picking. Even if it’s manually.”

I burped. It wasn’t as impressive as the butler’s earlier belch. He let out another one that rumbled the foundations.

Neither of the other two noticed. They were busy plotting some pawn store’s demise.

“We should! We could steal everything they own.” Johnny hoped up and down briefly then rubbed his hands together in excitement. “Then we can resell it to them. You’ll have to do it though. I can teach you how to get a better deal with some haggling. For a share of the profits.”

My head felt heavy. This place had worn it’s welcome. I barely followed who was talking anymore and the dogs were gone. I wanted to be alone so I stared at the butler. His jaundiced eyes stared back.

“I’ll get the ring,” I said. “Rings. Whatever. I can do it.”

“If you wish to try, far be it from me to stop you. Good luck. Please kindly leave your muddy boots at the door next time.”

“Sure.” I smiled and made a mental note to wear dirtier clothes next time. It’d serve him right for telling me what to do and giving me some annoying quest that could probably never be completed. I’d have to learn counter curses or something else. It’d come to me eventually. Despite Johnny’s earlier distaste of my “crusades”, I did tend to find a project and stick with it. At least long enough to feel like I’d mad ea difference before the personal drama set in. This virtual world gave me lots of chances to drink, feel like I was worth something, and heaps of events I didn’t want to deal with.

The pop-up box for the quest was boring. I read it slowly as the butler took his maids and left.

Quest: Widow’s Husbands

In a manner, in a valley, near a river called [Super Whined], lived a widow and her children, and their curse throughout all time. Of course, she lives with men occasionally, but they’re often seen fleeing the building as quickly as they might have entered.

Goal - Stop the curse by overpowering it, marrying the widow so she has happiness, or returning the promise rings

Reward - You’ll get to feel like a useful person.

Punishment - Someone else will hate you when you fail this one. So, don’t fail it, okay? Especially since this one comes with undead monsters that will probably march on your grove and turn it into a sopping mess, reclaim the dogs, and destroy anything positive you’ve done as Friday the 13th.

The quest text should cite a lot about bonuses to skills and abilities but I had those hidden. It may even offer hidden classes like [Curse Breaker] or something, but those notices were often worthless in this game, especially if they were something I’d never use or lose the minute I started a new Friday. What remained was clear enough. I could do something good for the area, or basically make the last few weekends utterly worthless in terms of gains.

I had an actual quest to fix the place. I had five dogs to feed and sort of take care of, though I suspected they’d do fine on their or with that dryad players help. For now, I wanted some time to myself. Away from Johnny and this mansion.

“I’m done for today.”

Rose frowned briefly. “You okay?”

“Doing great.” I smiled to make my lie believable.

Rose leaned over toward Johnny. “He’s lying right?”

Johnny grinned widely. “Through his teeth. You can tell because his face gets all white and he wants to be left alone.”

“He wants to make things better but gets freaked out by a quest?”

My small friend shrugged. “Crusades don’t make sense.”

They were talking about me like I wasn’t there. That annoyed me but before my brain could up with a polite way to tell them screw off, I yawned.

Their question wasn’t that hard anyway. Being an adult gave me lots of emotional baggage. Quests like this hit a bit harder than others. I’d loved and left many women. It also served as the latest in a long line of jabs at my past that Continue had thrown at me, possibly tracing back to a certain Princess I’d left on the first Friday. Admitting links between me and the prior Fridays would add more complications eventually. Plus the events in my virtual world felt parallel to my real life. That meant I really didn’t want to talk about my mistakes with anyone. She seemed like a nice enough girl who had her own issues to work through. I couldn’t let my baggage touch hers. I’d fucked up enough lives.

Rather than explain that to a naive Rose, I waved goodbye, dropped our party, and walked off. The trip out took less time than our wandering in. Life was like that sometimes. Getting into trouble took less work than getting out. Or maybe that went the other way around. I couldn’t figure out a good analogy and didn’t have the heart to figure out a better way to phrase it.

They let me be the rest of the weekend. For the next two weekends I had a rather blissful time wandering around the forest which served as my grove. The dogs and I went on hikes around our forest. I found exploring nature easier than trying to play scavenger hunt in a place Johnny had picked clean a few times over. There weren’t many monsters to speak of, or treasures to dig for, only dirt and nature.

The grove itself had a center at the alter I’d drunkly made from dirt. There were flowers everywhere that added a pleasant smell, but I suspected the lily's or whatever weren’t because of me. That dryad player, Rose’s mom, delighted in growing new plants everywhere. Nem. I hadn’t seen her since that time weeks ago. Her auto pilot kept away from me despite us both being nature oriented. I’d only see her lurking between trees, not that searching for her was a focus of my weekends. It amounted to a secondary goal while taking the litter on walks. Along with seeing how well the garden grew, or whatever.

Having a druid's grove was weird. I’d never owned more than the few belonging in my house. If being in the service taught me anything it was the value of keeping few belongings. Doctors could have afforded plenty of belongings but wouldn’t be home to enjoy them.

I managed to strike a deal with some of the loggers. They’d bring me liquor and I’d let them take some trees from the town side of the forest. Everybody won.

I think the dogs missed biting players but I’d promised them they could attack anyone that came deeper into the woods, which made Sarge yip happily.

To each their own.

One Sunday evening, according to the real time clock, I found Nem sitting in the middle of the woods humming happily to herself. She spun her hands and flowers grew up in a trail along one of the tree trunks. She’d decorated my alter with pink roses and even the dog’s den have been beautified. It didn’t hurt anything and some of the text popups I’d barely paid attention to said the flowers actually helped. Growing plants around this place added some [Social] stats that made outsiders feel more at ease and reduced aggression of carnivorous animals.

Apparently, we also needed a nice lake. I’d figure it out eventually. Or reroll. Whichever came first.

Nem waved over a shoulder without turning around to actually make eye contact.

I brightened. “Hey. You’re on.”

“We need a wall,” the green-skinned woman said quickly. “Sometime to keep those loggers on their side. I logged on last week and saw a quest saying about you making a deal with them. Which I don’t agree with, but maybe it’s easier than fighting them every day. My autopilot can’t do everything.”

It was hard to think of her as a Nem, or Nemesis. Neither name fit green and smiling pleasantly. The cynic in me believe dthat she’d go crazy if we ever broke up, but I didn’t plan on dating her. Not that the idea was out of the question. It’d been months since I’d gone on a date.

“Walls never work out. China. The Berlin Wall. That America one before the war.”

“But this is a game. Walls would help keep them out of our forest. It would give the dogs a border, so they don’t run into town while we’re logged out. Plus we could let the town log anything on the other side. And I could grow plants along them to add with defense. I think I’m about to make a breakthrough on skills.”

I was a druid so there were a few ways to respond. Hamming up the path felt like fun. “Walls go against nature.”

“Uh huh. Nature would be letting dogs bite their asses.”

“I don’t think that’s how it works.”

“You sure? Maybe we can burn down their houses so they see how it feels to take out some poor bird’s home.”

“I don’t think that’s how it works either.”

“Well what do you think?”

“I think it’s been a long week and I could use a drink.”

“You buying?”

Rose would be mad if I said yes, but it’d been awhile since I’d hung out with anyone my own age. Girls like Rose didn’t understand half my jokes.

“If you want to join me. There’s only one bar in town and if I’ve got a deal with the owner. I heal anyone that comes in and they give me all I can drink. At least until I do something stupid enough to get kicked out.”

That took a day or two. The best thing about a player-based town was the amenities. I hadn’t been here when it was founded, but the one bar had been running before anything else had a roof. We ventured off. None of the players, or Travelers, or whatever, bothered us. They didn’t care about another set of people nearby. If anything, other players should be happy to have a middle ranked group nearby to keep one side of town safe enough. I suspected they’d ask to route trade groups to the forest or search for rare herbs one the place was around a bit longer.

We grabbed a set of benches and talked. Then a few more drinks, and some more talking until eventually I couldn’t even figure out what we were saying. My mind shifted to thinking about the pliability of Nem’s lips. Right until Johnny banged the door open.

Other patrons frowned. Nem jumped, which made her bark dress shake. No one cared enough to notice though. Girls in Continue often wore attractive clothes. So did the guys, or at least went for imposing as soon as they could get anything crafted to their tastes. I’d once dreamed of being a clothing modifier.

Johnny ran over to our stoles, ignored Nem, and pulled on my ragged pants. “Friday! You’ll want to see this.”

My chest lifted in a slow sigh. “See what?”

“Something happened at the Widow’s Children dungeon.”

My stomach sank. I swallowed slowly then asked, “What?”

“You’ll should see it firsthand.”

“That’s hours away and I’m a few drinks in.”

“You’re always a few drinks in, but I’ll draw you a picture.”

He pulled out a piece of crumpled paper with markings all over it. In a moment he sketched out the courtyard to [Widow’s Children]. Brick walls on both sides, a giant gate, and in the middle, a tall leafless tree. On it were scowling female faces, mouths half open in a silent scream.

“This is it right?” Johnny asked. “That thing from last time? I remember it on the field with everything else. All those monsters and people. And this tree.”

“What tree now?” Nem asked.

I took a swig of my drink and said, “What a nightmare,” then logged out.

Dating in the virtual world clearly wouldn’t be allowed either. Not without drama from the past rearing its ugly head. Cock-blocked by a prior Friday’s creation.

Typical. I’d leave it for next weekend.