The sun was slowly beginning to sink over the horizon, and I didn’t relish trying to find somewhere to hid in all of this mess. We were both tired from the long day of walking. The sky was also beginning to darken early from overcast clouds, and the dropping temperature promised freezing rain, or even possibly snow.

Carefully, we made our way through the forest surrounding the lake’s edge until we found a burned-out cottage that had a cellar. Pausing at the door, I arranged burned out wood over the door leading down into the cellar so it was hard to find, and didn’t look disturbed before we descended.

The cellar had obviously been looted already, there were smashed casks, and empty cheese racks. There were also the ominous blood spatters across the stairs leading down, that made me hesitate when we looked around the cellar, but I didn’t find anything that wanted to kill me or any bodies. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to know what had happened, either to the people or the bodies.

I found a section of smashed furniture, and piled it up around us to hide us in the debris, before I spread out a pile of empty sacks, I had found for us to lay on. Outside we could hear the rumble of distant battle and perhaps the beginning of thunder from the approaching storm.

Even as scared as I was, I began to drift off to sleep, until we were both woken up in the middle of the night by a terrible, bloodcurdling scream.

It was long, and drawn out, and very close, like right outside the cellar close. As I began to try and extricate myself from our little hidey hole, Kai pulled me back and shook her head. In my ear she whispered “Banshee”

There was maniacal laughter from above, and I could hear the sounds of wind and rain pounding the door of the cellar, but even that didn’t drown out the terrible noise. It sounded like there was a group of people talking and muttering above. Then there was the sound of rubble being cleared and I heard the cellar door slam open. A torch flared beyond our nest of broken furniture as several people descended the cellar stairs.

“Hey Maven! It’s actually dry down here! See I told you there was a cellar! Leave the slaves! The banshee needs to eat too, just don’t let it gorge itself, or it will go into a blood rage!” One of them said and I peered into the gloom, barely making out a man wearing a dark cloak, and several other figures. They were quickly building a fire in the center of the cellar on the other side from our hole.

They were two players! I could barely make out names, and blood red aura around them that indicated from what I remembered, they were PKers, or Player Killers meaning they were unfortunately the worse possible people we could have run into.

“That’s Dark Lord Mavin to you Squigs!” Another whiney sounding voice bellowed and the first player laughed. “Just because you got promoted after Bruce went and turned traitor doesn’t mean ur better than me! We both started together! Remember who got you the good life asshole!”

There was another round of jeers and catcalls between the players before a warm red light kindled and one breathed a sigh of relief.

“Shit, it’s colder than a witch’s tit out there, and the rain will be ice by morning, mark my words!” The whiney one, I had figured was this Mavin guy complained.

“Well if Targus catches us slacking off when we are supposed to be doing patrol, he will skin us both. He’s still pissed that he’s down to only two lives now! I think Sarkiss is just getting tired of him and hopes he gets himself killed off during this siege so he can find another sucker to be Phthonus’s bitch.”

They both laughed and I heard the clatter and crunch of a wrecked stool being pulled over the fire.

“Hey! By the way did you hear about this druid guy… what’s his name…” Squigs said and I heard a groan of consternation from his companion.

“It’s all I ever hear now that the Pathfinder isn’t causing any more trouble… druid this druid that. What’s he gone and done now? I still can’t figure out how he got both me and Bruce killed in that ambush we set for him. You know it was like a dang nuke went off in that stupid underground rift we were maintaining. Should have seen the look on Bruce’s face when the tower stated falling down! Hahahahahaha!”

“Yea, been hearing something about him fighting with Fenwick right now, he was riding around on that stupid white dragon again, you know the one that helped sink our first dreadnaught, right before Brucie stabbed Sarkiss in the back over that Pathfinder chick.”

“Well… not that I really blame him… Not saying that I totally believe what Bruce said over the forums, that… I mean wouldn’t that get Sarkiss banned or something? I still think it’s a load of crap. But yea, not sure if I would have gone along with Sarkiss over that shit.”

“Well, Sarkiss is a sick bastard but yea that’s what Bruce told me, that the girl couldn’t log out somehow, and Sarkiss thought he could get away with it. Bruce showed me a recording of the conversation and everything, he was streaming at the time and his whole cast just exploded into chaos. Should have seen the chat feed on the livestream.” He began to laugh hysterically as if it was the funniest joke ever.

“He’s cut off all his streaming now that we have to track him and Pathfinder down and kill them.” They both chuckled and I heard the stomping of boots, and our pile shifted slightly as one of them pulled some of the debris off of it. There was the crunch of breaking wood and the clatter and roar as one of them tossed the wood into the fire. My heart was pounding so loudly I was sure that they could hear it if they listened hard enough.

“What’s Bruce down to now? Two lives? I heard he died again when Targus caught up to them after the betrayal.” There was another chuckle.

“Yep! He’s done for! I don’t know how he managed to dodge the blood oath… would really like to know that, but yea he’s almost toast.” Squigs cackled.

The pile shifted again and there was the crackle of wood. The one with the squeaky voice was in mid reply to Squigs when he froze. Suddenly, he began to franticly dig into the pile. “Hey there is a player tag in here!” He bellowed and I heard the drawing of steel.

I gave a yowl of fear and rage as I kicked the pile over, nearly burying Squigs and pulled Kai behind me as we bolted for the stairs. There was a flash and boom, and I was lifted off my feet, tumbling head over heels, my entire body on fire with tingling pain.

“Hah! A rank F?! She’s just some stupid noob, and an NPC!”

Kai screamed and I tried to sit up, as I watched Kai rip the little hatchet off her belt and stand over me brandishing it in a shaky grip. As I watched, foxfire began to shroud the hatchet. I stood up and pushed the girl behind me as I crouched and glared at the two Pkers.

“Hey! You try and run I’ll kill you dead noob! What you doing down here?!” The squeaky voiced Maven said and I shrugged.

“Just spawned, was trying to get some sleep? What’s with all of this war stuff going on?” I tried to sound innocent and clueless and I saw Squigs narrowing his eyes at me as he studied my robes.

“Hey, she isn’t quite dressed like a noob, never seen robes like that on a fresh spawn.” He said quickly as he franticly looked between me and the terrified Kai, clutching her burning hatchet in a death grip.

“Yo, your not tagged with Fendwick, or anyone else we fighting, so we got no beef, don’t see a bag or anything…” Squigs sized me up, and I saw him studying me over a ratlike nose as he adjusted a bowler hat.

“Yea, don’t mean anything though… I don’t see any pockets… it’s not like it’s even worth killing her, we can add them both to the slaves…” He said hopefully.

“No, Sarkiss said he wanted anyone with magic sent to the citadel to be tested for bonding. We can’t feed them to the banshee!” They began to squabble and I slowly inched back towards the stairs before Maven adjusted a large top hat and grinned at me. “Don’t even think about it you wouldn’t get ten feet out the door before our banshee gets ya!” He jeered and fished around inside a bag at his waist.

“Hey noob, it’s ur lucky day! We are looking for recruits! You can join us, or I can slap you in these.” He brought up a set of gleaming slave collars.

“What happens to my friend here?” I motioned at Kia who was shaking and sniffling behind me. I turned and looked down at her pleading eyes.

“Oh her? What’s it matter to you? She’s just an NPC, why would it matter? Don’t worry, if she isn’t eaten by the dragons, I’m sure she will be taken care of. They don’t kill dragon pilots if they pass.” He huffed and kicked an empty stool to me. I refused to sit down, and stood against the wall right next to the stairs leading up out into the roaring storm.

Maven’s reedy voice dismissed Kai with a derisive wave that made rage boil deep inside me.

Squigs shrugged and pulled out another wrecked stool and slumped into it with a weary sigh. He pulled out a bundle, and unwrapped it.

It turned out to be some sort of jerky which he began to chew on. Standing up he offered the bundle to me and I shook my head. Shrugging he went back to his meal.

Maven plucked out some of the jerky and sighed as he pushed the slave collars back into his pack, idly tapping a wand with a dark glowing purple stone on his thigh like a riding crop. It fizzled and sputtered every time it made contact with his wet cloak.

“Hey, don’t’ know what you heard about us Darkies, but we aren’t all bad and I get a good vibe from you… you don’t feel like any of those conceited Fenwick punks, or the local trash. Sit down and take a load off, ur not going anywhere in this storm! No one is.” Squigs said, between a gulp from a waterskin, washing down his trail ration.

He pointed to the girl. “She got you on an escort quest or something?” He asked and I shrugged. “She’s my apprentice.” I finally decided on something that might work.

“Oh! I’ve heard of those quests, yea NPC companion quests! Cool!” Maven squeaked and I nodded slowly.

“So you can use magic too? What god are you?!” Squigs suddenly spoke up, quickly standing up. He picked up a wicked looking scimitar he had laying at his feet and it flashed with dark purple energy as he sized me up warily.

“My god isn’t that popular with the locals either, have to admit… some sort of destruction god.” I raised my hand, pulling out my statuette and showing them. They peered at it, seeing the net and spear, and both of them looked confused.

“Don’t recognize that one, but yea it doesn’t have the goody twoshoes aura to it… she ain’t lying.” Mavin said, and adjusted a lens that was fixed to his absurd hat as he stared at the statuette.

“So… you have her as your power battery or something? You know how to use blood magic, or soul leech yet?” Squigs said, excitement in his voice. He had wide smile on his face, almost a creepy one.

“I don’t quite understand about that…” I shook my head and they both laughed. “That’s what NPC’s are for you know, if they know magic, or have really strong soul. You can you know sac the normal ones for power over an altar or you can tote around a bunch of thralls to keep you juiced up.” He explained as if it was the most normal thing in the world to just kill little girls for power, or use them as glorified batteries.

When he saw the look of anger on my face, he raised his hands in supplication. “Hey, I didn’t make this game noob, we just use what tools we got. Who cares about a bunch of code? I sure don’t, but I do care about my viewers! They want blood!” Mavin cackled and he gave an evil laugh that sounded really bad and corny. “Muheheheheheehheehhe” Even his friend Squigs winced at it and shook his head.

“Your really bad at that you know? Why did you choose such a horrible voice?” He chortled and Maven glared at him with venom.

“Hey! Not my fault! I didn’t know about that stupid age slider!” He squeaked and when I peered at him closely, Beneath all the dirt and grime I could see indeed, he was in a teenage body.

“Yea…. Ahahahahahahaha. You wanted to be a shorty… and you became a squeaker… never going to let you live that one down bud.” Squigs began to laugh and even I had to cock a grin at the pair.

“So you guys… like being evil?” I tried to hide the disgust in my voice and I saw Squigs roll his eyes at me.

“Someone’s got to do it, and It’s much more fun than being some sort of stupid paladin of justice, or whatever. Like those Fendwick smucks, they think they so bad because everyone wants to go an join the big player kingdom. Well you know what?! We going to crush them, they gonna get wrecked!” Squigs chortled and Maven grinned.

I nodded. Had to admit, they did have a point. Fendwick didn’t seem to be able to do much against them, and it didn’t seem like these too weren’t bad people, just playing the game differently. I had to give a deep sigh, who was I to judge them? Still it left a bad taste in my mouth every time I thought about their offer.

“If I join you, I need my apprentice. You know, like you said as a battery or whatever, right?” Squigs sized me up as Maven replied in his squeaky voice.

“Hmmm… not really up to us. We have our orders too, Sarkiss… doesn’t really like people ignoring them.” He gulped and Maven nodded quickly.

“What do I have to do?” I asked and he shrugged.

“Not much, as long as you take a blood oath not to betray the Darkies, that’s about it. Until you take the oath though we will have to consider you a prisoner.” Squigs looked a bit apologetic, and Maven sighed as he munched thoughtfully on the dried strips of jerky he had swiped earlier.

“What happens if I, you know break a blood oath in Endaria, that sounds bad.” I winced and they both nodded.

“Yep, it will kill you over and over again, a respawn won’t fix it. Very painful too from what I hear.” He shrugged at me.

“Yea can’t take any chances. To many goody-goodies trying to worm their way into our faction, especially around Maven here, who’s a streamer.” He pointed as his squeaky friend and he rolled his eyes.

“I’m not always streaming you know, can’t do it all the time or Sarkiss would have my hide… in little strips…. Slowly…” He shuddered.

“Who’s this Sarkiss guy?” I asked and they both laughed.

“Really you haven’t heard of him? Now I really know you’re a noob!” They both laughed.

“The Dark Overlord?! The Big Bad Boggie Man of Endaria?! I thought everyone knew who he was by now, especially after we started making this game our bitch.” Maven squeaked and they burst out laughing again at my confused expression.

“So you two are important people, can you put in a good word for me?” I perked up and Maven snored in derision.

“As if, I’d speak up for some noob I just met… you have to be kidding me.” He rolled his eyes. There was another bloodcurdling scream from outside and Maven clamped his hands to his ears grumbling.

“Worst… pet… ever… Stupid banshee!” He snarled.

Squigs burst out laughing. “I told you not to summon it! I told you man!” He shook with mirth. There was a banging on the cellar door before it burst open and I caught sight of a ghastly spectral face framed in the dark and rain.

It stared at me and its eyes flashed, before someone shoved it away and gave it a kick. “Damit Maven! Feed your stupid banshee already!” The newcomer bellowed as he tromped down and froze when he caught sight of me.

“What’s all this… he froze and swayed as he read something above my head and his eyes went wide as they began to glow with a sickening inner red light. I shuddered as our eyes met. His own body seemed to be framed in billowing dark foxfire, as he glared at me.

At that moment, I realized this man was a champion of another god, I could feel it deep inside and I knew he could too. As he grabbed his weapon, and lunged at me I stepped back and gathered as much of a charge into my fist as I could and slammed it into his jaw. My ears rang with a peal of thunder that was deafening in the enclosed cellar. The man was thrown back, knocking over Maven who had stood up, they both sprawled in a heap as I yanked on Kai’s arm, dragging her behind me as we ran up the stairs.