Only one eye was open, the other was crusted with blood and swollen shut. I gasped and shuddered, and then my world spun as my stomach clenched with sudden nausea. I felt bile and gasped a dry heave for a second before my world spun back into place.

As my one open eye spun into focus, I saw a glinting knife blade only inches from my face. As my eyes widened in fear, and the other broke free from what had been crusting it shut I saw that I was being held by a very angry looking man in shimmering golden robes.

He gripped my hair painfully and I struggled and fought against my bindings trying to figure out what was going on. “Don’t even try to use your gift! You do and I swear by Hermes I will slit your throat…” He cursed at me as I tried to glance around. I saw Kai next to me, she was laying in a tangled heap, her short hair sprayed over her face, blood seeping from a cut in her forehead and her hands bound behind her back. Her armor had been taken and she was stripped down to her padded vest and torn leather pants.

For an instant I thought she may have been dead, before I saw her chest rising and falling. My rage boiled around me when I saw she had not only a cut on her head, but a black eye and split lip. She had been soundly beaten.

The man’s face twisted and grief and hatred and he spat on me and it was as if he struggled to keep from killing me. “If it wasn’t… for my patron’s advice I would… end you… creature.” He snarled.

“Wut…. What are you talking about?” I stammered and he screamed at me, spraying my face with spittle in a wordless wail.

“That!” He thrust my face forward and I gasped as I realized that I was looking from high above towards a field of carnage. The wooden railing disappeared below me and I looked around to see the curve of wood and distant destruction far, so very far below.

Was I… floating, in the air? No, I was on some sort of vessel. I saw the shattered wall of a castle, the scattered wreckage of airships, dark constructs and what looked like a sea of black bloody wreckage a trail of dead creatures, then beyond it a long line of devastation and torn up forest that disappeared over the curve of the bowl the lake was in.

I gaped, my jaw hanging as I couldn’t believe the magnitude of what I had done. The town was gone, heck most of everything on that side of the lake was gone.

“You… you… freak… vile aberration of darkness!” He screamed. I felt a searing blossom of pain as steel toed boot connected with my side. There was a crunch and a blinding pain filled my breath as I shrieked and felt a rib crack, then my hair was yanked up and a gauntleted fist slammed into my nose, crumpling it and snapping my head to the side. My vision exploded into sparks of light as I gasped and blubbered in agony.

“Duke Edris! Calm yourself! You can’t bring her to justice if she is a corpse!” Someone howled.

Another man stood over me and sneered, he was wearing a uniform and what looked like some sort of officer insignia. I panted in short shallow breaths, unable to fully take a deep one without blinding pain and tried to struggle, but my body was already weak and wrung out. I felt drained, both of strength and any desire to fight.

I began to sob again. This was all just a bad dream, it had to be a bad dream. That’s why I was floating up in the sky being beaten by a madman. Each heartbeat sent spikes of pain into me. My throbbing eye was quickly swelling and every breath that sent daggers into my side quickly changed my attitude. This was a nightmare and I wanted out.

“We can’t kill her, she’s a traveler! The only way we can make sure this abomination suffers, and can never harm anyone again is if she is quickly taken and imprisoned.”

“Are you sure the collar will bind her power?” Came the voice of my tormenter. An old woman responded, “Yes, she is bound did you find her foci?” She crooned and there was a heated discussion.

“We need to take her foci, her channel to her dark god.” She cackled. I was laying there, bound and tied up, blood spilling out of my ruined face and nose as I snorted and sniffled.

“I know! … use the girl, her foci is likely soulbound to her, but if we can get her to give it up…” The woman said and the man in the golden robes sneered at me as he bent down and kicked Kai’s senseless form next to me, holding the knife over her neck. “Call your foci… creature of darkness! Call it and I won’t slay the girl!” He screamed, his fury half maniacal as he held the knife poised over Kai’s throat.

“Noooo….” I burbled, but I meekly did as he asked and the small statuette shimmered into existence in front of me, as it had suddenly appeared in my hands or my pocket so many times before. They all gasped as they took a step back.

“It is the bringer of typhoons! Aegaeon!” The old woman hissed. The duke reached down to grab it, but the statuette burned with ghostly blue foxfire and he screamed in pain.

“Fool! Do not use your hands to touch a dark relic! It must be put in a consecrated container!” The woman cackled.

I tried to reach for my power, but couldn’t find it. The only thing I felt was the pain, and the deep weariness. They had said I was wearing some sort of collar? I could feel something around my neck when I focused on it. None of this made any sense… I had beaten the people attacking the castle, why was this… duke so mad at me?

I watched as my statuette was swept up with a gust of power into a glowing crystal box that shone with golden energy. A lid was thrown over it, and when it was shut, I felt even weaker than I had before, as if part of my very being was gone. It was a burning ache in my chest, and I felt woozy.

The woman stood over me holding the crystal box and grinned. “Ah… so it was your foci, she did not trick us. I can see her aura dampened now that her god can no longer look upon her with his favor.”

“Captain! Get this ship to Dawnwatch! Now!” Duke Edris shuddered with rage and gave me a final vicious kick that crunched into my shoulder before he stomped off growling with fury.

I felt myself being dragged, roughly along the deck by strong hands. I blinked through my swelling eye and saw a trail of crimson blood across the deck before a hatch was opened and I was shoved down it. I fell for a brief second before I was dragged up short by my bindings and someone lowered me down to the floor. Pain exploded into my side when I thumped down onto the hard deck. A burly man in a white and blue uniform jumped down after me, landing in front of my vision.

He roughly dragged me across the deck and down a corridor. My vision swam as I tried to focus through tears of frustration, pain and hopelessness before I was shoved into a tiny room with bunks folded up against the wall.

There was a thud behind me and I saw Kia’s senseless body tossed in behind me before the hatch slammed shut and I heard the clank of bolts being turned.

It was all over now. What was the point of living like this? Why would I punish myself in the last few weeks I had left to live? I could just log out now, and delete my character, and respawn. I could choose a town spawn, no more of this crazy stuff that only felt like the pits of hell. Kai would be better off without me to help her into any more trouble, and honestly what did I owe an NPC anyways? She had held me back, and I had sacrificed my only link to my god for what? For an AI that liked to pull my heartstrings?

I couldn’t move my body, my one good eye that wasn’t swollen was only able to fix it’s gaze on Kai’s form. It was stupid… so stupid. Why? It is just a game, just a game. I thought this over and over laughing at my own stubbornness. In the end though, I’m ashamed to say I decided it was better I try again, and I abandoned Kai.

Or tried I to anyways.

When I tried to focus on the interface, the one thing I had neglected for so long to bring up the menu to log out I couldn’t. My heart thundered and I began to panic as I couldn’t find the logout, couldn’t get any of my interface options to appear. “Logout..” I burbled, my ruined nose making the sound into a bit of whispery screech, sending lances of pain through me as my lips moved. I was stuck. I was trapped here, with my life ticking away in the real world… would it end in a week? Did my real body even have a week left to live?

I cried, and burbled, tears and blood streaming from my face as I wailed in frustrated horror as it truly sank in. Weariness threatened to claim me as I lay there, but I didn’t want to fall asleep. If I fell asleep, who knew what fresh nightmare I would endure? The was the rumbling sound of turning metal and wood behind me and the sound of shod feet.

“Ah… creature! I’m supposed to make sure you aren’t going to die!” Hold still! I heard a youth’s voice as he roughly pushed me over and the world spun around as my addled mind tried to focus on the face in front of me. It was a ebony-skinned teenager with close cropped curly hair, he was wearing white robes and giving me an appraising look of horror at the damage to my face. “Sheesh our grace really did you over… well serves you only your just reward dark spawn!” He growled, but he did lean down and touch my side. I screamed as a rib snapped back into place and throbbed. He gave me a nasty grin.

“Nope, not going to deaden the nerves, not for you, orders from on high, and I’m happy to obey.” He cackled and then shifted to my face. It was no less painful when he fixed my nose. When it was straight again, I gave the youth a crooked smile. “Thanks…appreciate it.” I murmured. He sighed and took a deep breath as he settled his fingers over my swollen eye and I felt cool light pour into the swelling. “Should be ok by tomorrow.” He got up to leave and I called out to him.

“Help the little girl! Can you?” I asked and he seemed torn. “I was only supposed to heal you… ok it’s not like she really needs much attention anyways.” He sighed in exasperation and knelt down at Kai’s side and laid his hand on her forehead, healing the shallow cut, and then a split lip. He seemed to sag with weariness as he passed his hand over her face. Stumbling to his feet, he swayed out of the room and turned to smirk at me. “I’ll be likely seeing you soon! I’m sure our grace, Edris will give you another good thrashing, but I dare say it still won’t bring his son back.” He said, and I saw deep hatred creep into his of expression before he slammed the door shut.

I was frozen in shock. Had I really killed the duke’s son? How? I remembered very little of what I had actually destroyed, but I did remember parts of the castle wall wrecked, a fallen tower, and several airships, with one exploding when it was slammed into something… was it an enemy airship or one of the ones defending? I couldn’t remember.

The only thing I remembered was that feeling, of being drunk on power, then of control slipping from me as I wanted to make people pay… I didn’t feel any triumph. I only felt sick to my stomach at how badly I had messed up.

Scooting across the floor I turned my aching body to study the stowed bunk, spotting a pull string at the top. Turning my body with it’s back flat against the wall I pushed against the wall and up until my fingers felt the string. When the ship swayed again and moved, I lost my balance and fell forward, the bunk springing out from the wall and sending me in a sprawling heap on the floor.

Dazedly I looked up, then smiled as I saw a nice flat, pallet to lay on instead of a hard floor. I scooted across the floor the wall next the far side of the bunk, pushing myself up before I lost my balance and tumbled onto the thin padding, my head striking the wall with a painful slam that sent me reeling. There was some sort of straps to secure myself into the bunk to keep from tumbling out, so I wormed under them and felt more secure and comfortable as the ship bucked and rode through the air.

A combination of nausea I was sure was airsickness made my head spin for a moment but that moment ended with my weariness claimed me and I felt into a senseless slumber.

I wish I could have stayed in that darkness until someone could save me, but all that occurred was a rough shake awake followed by an idle slap. “Get up, time to go darkspawn! Let’s go!” I was being lifted out of the bunk and dragged upright as I tried to make sense of my addled wits once again, it was starting to become a habit, drifting from one nightmare to another here in Endaria.

Framed in the doorway to my cell was Duke Edris. He had a grin of pure malice. I franticly looked around for Kai, but I couldn’t see her anywhere. “Where is the girl, where is Kai?” I called and he gave a dark laugh.

“Don’t worry, your accomplice will be tried with you. I wish I could say she could hang beside you on the gallows, but that sort of punishment doesn’t discourage travelers, does it?” He snarled and pushed me forward as the guards guided me.

“She’s just a little girl! You going to hang her just because I saved her from being killed by those monsters?” I screamed and he called a halt to the guards who froze me in place and pulled me up so Duke Edris could face me.

“You expect me to believe that story? I know you must have corrupted her, or wooed the little girl from whatever hovel she crawled out of with promises of riches and power, and that you would throw her away as if she was trash. She made her choice and will pay for it just like you will in a different way.”

He sneered down at me and laughed, almost hysterically.

“Oh yes, I’ve had to put up with travelers ever since you infernal cursed creatures have returned, and been a plague on Endaria.

Everywhere you go you all cause chaos and destruction… and none of you care about any of us. Right then! Don’t feed me a fanciful tale to try to gain pity from me… MY SON IS DEAD and you will PAY!” He screamed in my face and punctuated his tirade with a fist into my stomach.

I doubled over, and retched as the guards turned me away from their crazy ass duke, but nothing came out other than a bit of wet bile.

It felt like I had been kicked in the stomach by a mule, if there was a comparison. I thought for a second, and my cheeks burned with both anger and shame. He was right, I had been fully prepared to just leave Endaria, and hide in a new life here to escape my… crimes. I was going to leave Kai to her fate, and not even give more than a few regretful thoughts.

“I’m… I’m sorry about your Son, nothing I can say will bring him back and… there is nothing I can do. Don’t worry, either I’ll die on my own, the final death or they will bring me out and I’ll never come back…” I sobbed and he whirled on me.

“You… are going to die? Nonsense! Travelers never truly die… they always return! Is there a way to kill you traveler?! Tell me!” He screamed and clutched at me before he lifted my slight form up and slammed me against a bulkhead, his eyes wide with hope and maniacal glee.

I could see he was fighting against that abstract thing, the great seal, the one that kept NPCs from asking these very same sorts of questions, but somehow, he screamed and growled and turned to face me.

I looked down at him and nodded with a grim expression. “Well not others I guess… just me. I don’t have long to be a traveler; I’ll die on my own eventually, in my world and that means I die here forever. If you want to make my life… pain and suffering I guess it is what I deserve, you see in my world… my time…. Is…growing short… days… weeks… I do not know how long I have.” I said and I felt my own mind clouding up as I forced myself to speak, my brain going fuzzy and trying to shift me away from the line of conversation.

He stared at me and nodded. “It is interesting you haven’t returned to your world, most travelers they leave us at the first sign of danger of being captured and we have to watch for their return, a most frustrating and tedious process…but you are different.”