The Ring of Tantor has activated!

There was silence and blackness, but Connor still felt like he was falling—he just didn’t know where he was falling to. He realized that he felt no heat and no cold, just this blackness all around him.

What if I created a game glitch? Connor suddenly thought, terrified as he looked down—and saw nothing, not even his own body.

Where am I! Where are the others?! The half-elf tried to yell, but there was nothing. No sound.

For a wild, terrible moment, he wondered if he had broken the game and whether he and the others were now going to be stuck in some between space in the Legends of the Six Realms. Some realm of nothingness between worlds, or between Annwn and the game, or even in the depths of his own mind. Or maybe he and his friends were now just ghosts inside the server of Tir’Nan’Og, doomed to forever be trapped, never find a way out?

He would go mad; he was sure of it. He couldn’t last another second—

Congratulations, Adventurers!

All at once, there was a glimmer of light as words coalesced out of the darkness.

Connor Halfelven, Olanna Stormbow, Dargan Firebrow,

You are the first adventurers to make it through the First Gate!

This was followed by a burst of colored lights and falling gold pieces like it was an award at the end of the game.

Prepare yourself for Adventure in the Second Realm!

Glory Awaits You!

WELCOME TO THE UNDERWORLD!

The words slowly faded back into the darkness, and the darkness itself started to lift. Connor saw a shadowy shape start to take form underneath him and realized that he was looking at his own body. There was his torso, there were his legs, there was his right arm—and there was his left, ending in his left hand, holding firmly onto Olanna’s.

“You, we—we made it!” Connor whispered, noticing that now it was bright enough to see that they were standing in a dark tunnel, lighter at the far end, with an eerie mist filling the corridor to about knee level—higher on Dargan.

“Thanks to that,” Olanna said, nodding to where the Ring of Tantor still glowed on Connor’s right arm. It appeared to be leading them forwards, lighting their way.

Congratulations! You successfully made it through the First Realm.

You have been awarded 1000 Experience Points.

“Awesome—I leveled up!” Connor heard Dargan say at his side. Although a part of him felt exactly the same way, he couldn’t bring himself to share the same enthusiasm as the dwarf did.

Because we’re still stuck here in the game, aren’t we? Connor thought as he began walking toward the light end of the tunnel, noticing just how exhausted he felt. It was a mental exhaustion more than a physical one because he noticed that even though his clothes were still rent and ruined, his body was not.

“Looks like going through the Gate results in a full healing,” Connor murmured out loud. Olanna and Dargan suddenly marveled that their own Health and Vitality bars were soaring up toward their maximum.

Small mercies, Connor thought dryly.

They reached the end of the tunnel and stepped out to find themselves on the bank of a wide and deep river.

“I thought this place was supposed to be the UnderWorld?” Connor mumbled, looking around.

There was a wide river ahead of them, and they were standing on a large patch of fine, short grass. It was clearly nighttime, as everything was steeped in shadow, and behind them, they had just walked out of a tunnel in a massive cliff.

Really massive, Connor thought, as he strained to see how high it stretched and realized that he couldn’t see the top.

“What do you mean?” Olanna asked Connor.

The half-elf pointedly looked upward, where there appeared to be tiny glimmers of brilliance in the sky.

“Stars,” Connor said. “I thought everyone back there in the First Realm said that the Second was all underground?”

“It is,” said a new voice, startling them. The group turned to see the faun, Finbar, walking toward them along the bank of the river at the base of the cliff. He wore the same green leather tunic, and he had the same horns and curly hair and the same deep, luminous eyes.

“What you see above you aren’t stars, my friends, but the lights of the distant forges of this realm. In fact, this entire place, everything you see here, is underground.”

“You!” Connor said, breaking his grip with Olanna. “If you could travel here so easily, then why didn’t you just bring us here, then? If you knew another way through—”

The satyr held up a finger, and the calmness of this gesture and the seriousness on his face was enough to halt any more questions from Connor.

“I can travel between the realms because of what I am. I am not beholden to the rules of the game as you are,” he said with a tinge of something that could have been sadness in his voice.

“But you are here now. It is my job as the Greeter of Souls to be the first to meet you, and so here I am.” Finbar bowed low before them, but when he rose back, his face still held that sad expression.

“Why the long face? We survived! We made it!” Dargan said excitedly.

“Yes, and your courage and bravery have been extraordinary,” Finbar said, before his eyes flickered to the tunnel opening in the cliff behind them.

“But now, the way is truly open between the First and Second Realms. Soon, more will come.” Finbar’s eyes moved to the light in Connor’s arm, which was starting to fade but still glowed faintly.

“The warriors and creatures of Lord Pwyll will be after you. They will be after not just what you already have on your arm, but also the key to the Second Gate—as the Ring of Tantor was the key to the First—which is hidden somewhere in the World of the UnderWorld.”

“You mean they’re going to try again? To use these rings and their magic to open a portal to Annwn?” Connor asked.

Finbar nodded, gesturing down the riverbank to a point where the river curved. When Connor squinted, he could see the distant shadows of low buildings and a short pier that struck out over the immense river.

“That is the crossing. There you will find a guide to take you across,” Finbar said.

“I thought you were supposed to be our guide,” Olanna said a tad distrustfully.

“Ah, the guides of the UnderWorld can do things that I cannot.” A weary smile ghosted across Finbar’s lips before it vanished just as quickly as it had appeared.

“You should know this, adventurers. Lord Pwyll will not stop trying, although you have certainly set his plans back a bit. If you wish to leave these worlds, then you must find the key to the Second Gate and then the Third and so on.” Finbar was quiet for a moment as he gestured them forward.

“Over the water is the entrance to the rest of the UnderWorld. I fear that you have a long journey ahead of you,” the faun said. Then he looked up at them suddenly with a grin spreading across his face, a true grin.

“But, you have surprised me. You have achieved what I thought was impossible and shown that the Lord Pwyll is not invincible. Not yet, anyway.” The faun took a deep breath before appearing to shiver.

“And now, if you will excuse me, I must be going. There are still many souls to greet, you see, and I am needed elsewhere.”

“Wait!” Connor said, raising a hand as he stepped forward to try and stop the enigmatic creature, but the faun had already turned and lightly bounded around an outcropping of rock . . . and disappeared.

“He’s gone,” Connor said, dumbfounded when he attempted to follow Finbar.

“Stupid arcane mumbo jumbo,” Dargan grumbled. There was a pause, and then Olanna burst into a musical laugh.

“After everything we’ve been through, a simple teleportation is the thing that freaks you two out?” she said, which was a fair point, Connor had to concede. In a moment, they were all grinning at the ridiculousness of their situation—three people trapped in another world, surrounded by wonders, and still questioning magic.

“I guess we did it, didn’t we?” Connor muttered.

There was a murmur of agreement from the others as the Rogue’s eyes wandered to the dark horizon ahead of them.

We are in the Second Realm now, he thought to himself. Who knows what horrors await us yet?

But still, as they stood under the strange star forges of this vast, magical realm, Connor had to admit, at least to himself, that they had done it. They had beaten the First Realm.

And I couldn’t have done it without my friends at my side. He took in the still hesitant faces of Olanna and Dargan, standing there with him.

“Maybe we are heroes after all,” he murmured, as a grin returned across their ranks.

They had arrived, strangely and suddenly, in the UnderWorld . . . where their next adventure was about to begin.