Immediately after she left Justin, Pari sent a message to Lazarus reporting that she had found a newbie sage. She didn’t want to get into the whole thing about the ranger and the dragon until she could talk to Lazarus face to face though.

Next she made her way north to Lena’s farm. She was hoping that Milly was smart enough to find her way back to the barn there. On her way out of town, she saw two town guardsmen patrolling the road.

“Excuse me,” Pari said.

“Yes, citizen.”

“My horse ran off. Have you seen her? Grey dappled mare with a white face. Her name is Milly.”

“Sorry, good lady. But we’ll keep our eyes open for her.”

“I’d appreciate it. I’m staying at Lena’s farm if you need to get a message to me.”

“Safe travels!”

If Milly ventured into the Dark Tree, she’d be toast—torn apart by wolves, or sylvan lions, or worse.

Unfortunately, there was no sign of the horse at Lena’s place. Pari decided the smart thing to do would be to walk in a spiral, starting near the destroyed cabin, then east and back south along the river, west to the Dark Tree, then north again. And then do the same loop, but a hundred yards in.

She spent the next hour looking for Milly, but with no luck. Pari knew the mare wasn’t real, but it still made her sick to her stomach to think that it had been killed. There really were some harsh aspects to this game. Like permadeath after level 4.

She thought of Iniya again and felt even more sick to her stomach. It would have been a nice surprise to have seen her sister here in town, reincarnated as a level 1. Even if she had her memory wiped.

But that hadn’t happened.

:::::. New message from Lazarus. Listen? .:::::

Finally. She activated the playback and heard Lazarus say:

“Pari, things are seriously screwed up here. There are at least three more levels and its brutal. We’re going to camp for the night and keep going. I need you to stick to that sage like glue. Do not let them get away. Bring them in, no matter what. We’ll clue-jack if necessary. Repeat. Do not lose that sage. And wish us luck down here. We’re going to need it.”

Well, that was that. She knew that Lazarus would want her to recruit Justin. They were desperate for a sage. But she felt bad that Lazarus had mentioned clue-jacking; she still felt guilty about that kid they booted last month.

Because fellowships only had twelve slots in addition to the leader, they would sometimes temporarily boot a member so they could bring in a sage—even if they already had one. Once they got the clue from the sage, they’d boot the newbie and bring back the other member. It was called ‘clue-jacking’ and Lazarus recently did it to a young sage, against the wishes of Iniya. Pari couldn’t believe Lazarus would really clue-jack Justin though, since they didn’t even have a sage now since Tolman had been killed. But Lazarus could be working on luring a higher level sage from another fellowship. Who knew? It all just left a bad taste in her mouth.

She wasn’t sure what she should do. She was totally loyal to Lazarus and W&S, but Justin was a good kid and he didn’t deserve being screwed over. This was giving her a headache.

Pari was exhausted but decided to do one more loop. This time she would go check out the ranger’s cabin. Any poison gas must be gone by now. But she’d have to hurry. In less than an hour it would be pitch black.

Following the road up north, Pari passed the guards again. They still hadn’t seen Milly.

Then she came upon the ruins of the cabin. It looked like it had been bulldozed flat. No, actually more like it had been blown up. Debris was scattered everywhere, as far as twenty, even thirty yards away. All the vegetation around the cabin was shriveled and dead—like someone had poured a tanker full of weed killer on the yard.

She wouldn’t get too close—just in case the poison lingered on the ground. This was insane. She had never heard of any persistent destruction of the game world. Maybe that’s how they were going to change out quests, though.

And then she saw it. A large grey form on the ground, on the other side of the debris.

Milly!

Her eyes flooded with tears as she ran over and saw her horse lying on her side. Unmoving.

What had happened? Pari put her head down on Milly’s chest—which was still warm—and tried to listen for a heartbeat. Nothing.

She checked the mare’s eyes, but they were lifeless too. Could Milly have—?

She pried open the mare’s mouth—which was still warm—and saw blades of grass stuck to Milly’s teeth. Poisonous blades of grass.

Oh my god.

Her heart wrenched as she realized what had happened. Milly went back here to look for her.

Pari started sobbing.

Poor Milly, poor loyal Milly. She had come back and then, not knowing any better, grazed on the poisoned grass.

And now she was dead.

Pari clutched the mare around the neck and buried her face in Milly’s soft mane.

This wasn’t happening!

She cried and cried as dusk drew closer. But then a thought came into her mind.

What if she could rez Milly?

Wiping away her tears, Pari staggered to her feet. She had never tried to resurrect an animal, but Milly was kind of like an NPC, wasn’t she? And Pari had rezzed plenty of NPCs.

She decided to try.

First she placed her hands on Milly and cast treat poison. The spell didn’t fizzle. That was a good sign. But who really knew if it had any effect?

Undeterred, Pari took a deep breath and focused—really focused—on Milly.

This had better work. It would have to work!

As she cast resurrect, swirls of light danced up from Milly’s body, accompanied by a deep humming sound. A glowing aura surrounded both Pari and Milly.

All of a sudden a shimmering, luminous image of Millie faded in from nowhere, floating over the horse’s body. The apparition regarded Pari for a moment, then nodded its head.

The humming grew louder and louder and the swirling, glowing lights became more intense.

And then, the next thing Pari knew, Milly was alive!

The horse snorted and shook her head and then rolled and climbed to her feet. She lurched unsteadily as Pari threw her arms around Milly’s neck.

“Oh, Milly! You’re back!”

She quickly led the horse far from the blighted ground and once they were safe, Pari cast her strongest healing spell, vivify, on the horse.

Milly tossed her head, nickered softly, and then nuzzled Pari. And Pari hugged her and stroked Milly on her forehead, which was her favorite place to be touched.

Gazing into Millie’s deep, intelligent brown eyes, Pari said, “I thought I lost you for good, girl.”

They stayed that way for a good long time, then Pari led Milly back south. No riding for a while.

It was just about dark by the time they got back to Lena’s barn. Pari rubbed Milly down and gave her oats and carrots and apples. She wanted to stay with the mare all night long, but then she heard from Justin.

:::::. New message from Justin. Listen? .:::::

“Yes.”

Justin’s voice said, “Pari, I think I’m done for the night. A lot of running around and that old lady was a real trip. But I’m up to 825 experience, so that’s better than nothing, right? Anyway, I’m going to make my way back to the square. Try to find me, okay? See you soon!”

Oh man, she was not looking forward to the scene in town. But orders were orders.

She said goodnight to Milly, gave her another kiss on the forehead, and headed into town.

Even with her glowstone out, it was tough going in the dark. The moon was shrouded by clouds and the air was cool and uncomfortably damp. She so wanted to be back at Lena’s.

Before she even got to the edge of the town proper, her ears were assaulted by the din of hundreds of people partying.

Here we go.

She brought out her Circle of Reckoning and adjusted it to show nearby friends, of which she had one: Justin.

The square was lit by dozens of torches on poles and glowstones strung on lines that stretched between buildings. People were packed tight, like an outdoor frat party. Everyone was laughing and drinking and dancing to the sound of a group of minstrels playing on a makeshift stage.

After pushing through the crowded square, she found Justin sitting on a low wall with another newbie. They were both gnawing on skewers of grilled meat and people-watching.

Justin’s eyes lit up when he saw her. “Pari! Awesome, you made it!”

“Yeah.”

“Did you find your horse?”

“Uh, yeah. Finally.”

“Hey, this is my friend Ten-Spot.” Justin motioned at the other newbie, a short guy who looked to be Chinese. “Ten-Spot, this is Pari.”

Ten-Spot stuck his hand out and she shook it. He said, “My real name is Ni Tien, but everyone calls me Ten-Spot.”

“Please to meet you. I’m Pari Kintala.”

The little guy was checking her out, but trying not to be too obvious. It didn’t work.

Justin told Ten-Spot, “Pari’s pretty high level. She saved my butt a few times. And, Pari, Ten-Spot was up at the cabin trying to do that ranger quest too.”

“Yeah,” Ten-Spot said. “It was bugged for me too. I also did the leech thing instead. My boots still smell from the mud.”

“Mine too. But I got this as a quest reward.” Justin showed her his new short sword. It was a slight upgrade from the training blade, but it looked cooler—with more of a scimitar shape.

“Sweet, huh?”

“Very nice.” She wondered if Justin had told Ten-Spot about Klothar and the dragon. Probably not. Ten-Spot looked kind of bored. He was scanning the crowd distractedly. Probably looking for girls.

“Hey, there’s supposed to be beer at the inn,” Ten-Spot said. “You guys want to check it out?”

“You go ahead,” Pari said. “We’ll be there in a sec.”

“Sounds good. Later!”

Justin pulled the last bit of meat from his skewer. “He’s a nice guy. A healer like you. He actually healed me when I fell out of a tree.”

“You didn’t tell him about Klothar, did you?”

“No. Why?”

“Let’s keep that to ourselves until I can discuss it with Lazarus. He’ll have some idea of what was going on.”

“Sure. Whatever you say.”

He was checking out the crowd too. There were a lot of nice-looking newbie girls in April’s crop, she had to admit.

“Want to hit that inn now?” Justin asked.

“Yeah. It’s over on the northeast corner. C’mon.”

They made their way through the crowd, past jugglers and jesters, to the Hive & Harrow which was a three story inn and tavern with a big saloon area.

But as they walked up to the entrance, they saw that the way was blocked by a burly warrior wearing a gold-colored cape. It was a guy from the Golden Hawks. Great. That’s all she needed.

“Sorry folks, private party tonight,” he said, as he looked them over.

“Are you serious?” Pari asked.

“Yeah. We rented the inn all weekend long. Invite only.”

Justin asked, “How do we get an invite?”

“Don’t bother,” Pari said.

But then the Golden Hawks bouncer must have inspected Justin, because he said, “You, bro, don’t need an invite. C’mon in, we’ve tons of food, beer, dancing—”

“No thanks,” Pari said as she pulled Justin away.

“What was that all about?” he asked.

“Golden Hawks,” Pari said. “They’re the worst.”

“I don’t get it.”

“The Hawks are a bunch of fellowships that have banded together. They all wear those stupid yellow capes and think they’re all hot shit.”

A voice called from behind them, “Hey, hold up!”

Pari turned and saw another guy with a gold cape jog up from behind them. Oh god, it was Chad.

“Sorry about that,” Chad said. “Dave is new and I shouldn’t have put him on door duty.”

Chad was tall and handsome and he knew it. He was about 30 years old and had a perpetual a smug look on his face that Pari just wanted to smack off.

Turning to Justin, Chad stuck out his hand. “Chad Reese, leader of the Golden Hawks. Pleased to meet you.”

Justin looked a little confused, but he shook Chad’s hand. “Uh, I’m Justin Boone, and this is—”

“Pari,” Chad said, nodding at her. “Nice to see you again. You slumming here in Holgate or something?”

“None of your business, Chad.”

“Fair enough. Where’s Lazarus?

“He’s not here.”

“You guys didn’t have a tiff, did you? We’re always looking for high level healers at the Hawks, you know.”

Chad was such an ass. Pari couldn’t believe he was trying to fly-by recruit her. “I’m very happy where I am, thank you.”

“Think about it,” Chad said. “Our doors are always open.”

“Apparently not tonight.”

“That was just a misunderstanding.” Chad turned back to Justin. “Well, Justin my man, what’s your deal?”

Before Justin could answer, Chad clapped him on the shoulder and said, “This welcome party we’re hosting at the Hive & Harrow is completely sick! We’ve got mead. We’ve got burgers. We’ve got babes. We even have dwarf tossing!”

“I don’t know…” Justin looked at Pari.

“This is the biggest party in all of Greystrand,” Chad said. “You’re going to be bumming if you miss it. C’mon!”

Pari shrugged. “Go if you want.”

“Not without you,” Justin said.

“Yes!” Chad said loudly. Then he started chanting her name. “Pari! Pari Pari!”

She could tell that Justin really wanted to go, and she needed to stick with him.

“Okay. Whatever.”

“Awesome!” Chad said. He threw his arms around both of them and steered them back towards the Hive & Harrow. “Let me walk you in. There’s some people you’ve got to meet.”