Dean growled in frustration as he spawned beside the city pedestal. The pain subsided the moment he died and left a bitter taste in his mouth, but worse than that, was the fact that he was starting to get used to it. Not that he didn’t feel the pain, it still hurt when he was injured, but it didn’t leave him as shaken up as it had at first.

He quickly found the stairs and stomped up them. He vaguely thought that anyone on the other side of the wall might hear him, and in his foul mood, hoped they thought the tree was haunted. He made him feel a little better, and a bitter grin spread across his face.

He banged on Eowyn’s door, the grin replaced by a look of determination. She answered it a few seconds later, took one look his expression, and said, “Wrong answer?”

“No,” He growled, knowing it wasn’t her fault, not really, but unable to temper his voice, “I decided to die, thought it sounded fun to start all over, again.”

She sighed and nodded at him before saying, “I hoped you would be able to help, but if you don’t know how to solve the-“

He cut her off, “I’ll solve it.” She nodded, her expression completely neutral as she gestured for him to enter. Seeing the change in her demeanor, he softened his tone, “I’m sorry, I’m not mad at you. Just pissed off that I thought I figured it out, but obviously, I was wrong.”

“I understand.” She said softly, “You should know that we let many of our scholars try to solve the riddle when the barrow first appeared. They studied it for months, and each one came up with a different solution. None of them worked. All of them joined the True Mother in the Eternal Garden, but you’re a player, so you’re different. When you die, your soul doesn’t go to the afterlife. You return to this world.” She paused, gauging his reaction before continuing, “I thought that you might be able to solve it because you’re a player. Still, I would’ve been surprised if you solved it on your first attempt, not unless it had something to do with your world. That’s the reason I asked you to help.” She slowly shook her head, “But, your friends are in danger, and you don’t have time to waste on this right now. As long as you promise to return afterwards, I will give you permission to help your friends first.”

“I’m not ready give up,” He said, “Not yet. There’s still plenty of time to found a new city, and I must’ve missed something, a clue of some sort, to help me figure out the riddle.”

“Very well,” she said, “Then you should hurry to meet my children before they make it back to the village. Time is short, even if you don’t believe it.”

Dean hurried down the stairs at a fast pace, before breaking into a sprint once he was outside. A few villagers glanced at him cautiously, but now that the elders had agreed to let him remain, most of them seemed content with his presence in the village.

More than anything else, even respawning after death, the fact that the village could just accept him at a word from Eowyn bothered him. It didn’t feel real. There was no way a thousand years of fear and anger would suddenly evaporate just because she said he was different. Then again, they were helping him, so he shouldn’t complain. And it was just a game, after all.

He found the others partway back to the village, they’re expressions of shock and confusion making him laugh.

“You’re alive?” Amelia gasped, “How?”

Neva stammered, “You were dead. We found your body.”

“Come on, guys,” Dean laughed, “You can’t get rid of me that easily.”

“It’s not possible,” Famor said as he poked Dean on the shoulder to check if he was real, “We saw your body. Are you some kind of God?”

“No,” Dean said hastily, “I’m definitely not a god.” The last thing he needed was for Ryan to hear anyone claim that he was a god. He could just imagine the look on Ryan’s face, and the lecture that would come immediately after that. No, definitely didn’t need the rumor that he was a god floating around. “Now, come on. We’ve got a riddle to solve.”

He led them back through the barrow until they reached the riddle room, as he’d started to call it. He stopped just inside, seeing that the puzzle had reset, and all the circles were randomized. Makes sense, he thought. Otherwise, someone could write down each guess and move on to the next one until someone finally solved it. But Eowyn had said they tried different combinations, and none worked. Then again, the scholars had been working individually to solve the puzzle. Idly, he thought about just working his way through each combination, starting with all the circles empty and changing them one at a time. It’d only take a few days to try them all.

That’ll be a last resort, he decided. Solving it that way would mean a lot of painful deaths until he hit the right combination, and he’d prefer avoiding that unless absolutely necessary.

He made his way to the pedestal. The orb had to be the necessary clue. He just couldn’t figure out what it meant. He held up his torch and spotted something he’d missed earlier. There was a faint line on the orb, barely visible under all the dust. He wiped at it with his sleeve, only obscuring it worse, before spitting on the orb and wiping it again. This time, the faint line became visible. He worked his way slowly across the orb, a smile slowly breaking out on his face as he started to recognize the patterns.

It was the earth. The faint lines outlined the different continents.

He glanced at the door and the empty circle. Was it the sun? He didn’t think so. It didn’t make sense. So, what else orbited the earth?

The moon, idiot.

He smacked himself on the forehead. If the circles were the moon, then that would mean that the blank circle was the new moon, and a full circle would mean a full moon. Right? He’d done that though, hadn’t he? No, he hadn’t. He’d moved the light around to each area, or had Famor do it, and changed the circles to match the orb. He needed to have the light fixed in one spot, and change the circles to match the circles to thephases of the moon.

“Famor, will you go stand by the door?” He asked. Famor glanced at the others before shrugging and walking over to the door. Dean said, “Now hold your light up higher.”

He first walked back to the door they came through and set it to a full moon. Then, he set both of the half-moons, before finishing with the quarter and three-fourths moons.

“Isn’t that what we did before?” Famor asked dubiously.

Dean glanced at them, trying to remember the original combination, before walking over to Famor and saying, “Go stand in front of the next circle.” Once Famor was in position, Dean glanced at the orb and at the circle. “I had it backwards. It’s the exact opposite of what we did last time.”

“Are you sure it’ll work?” Amelia asked from the doorway.

Dean hesitated before nodding, “Yeah, I am.”

“Still,” Famor said, “I think I’ll wait just outside.”

“Can’t say I blame you,” Dean laughed. Once Famor was in position, Dean flipped the switch for a second time. This time, the door didn’t close. Instead, several rings on the floor started grinding and spinning in opposite circles. Each of them stopped with a loud click as they settled into place and a portion of the floor slowly started descending into a ramp leading beneath them.

They followed the ramp to a small cavern, where a path led through the mouth of a rock formation that had been carved into a skull, it’s teeth razor sharp. He song started playing in his head and he must have started humming it because the others hushed him.

“Sorry,” He whispered, “Thought of something.”

“What?” Famor whispered back.

“Nothing important,” Dean whispered back, “But just so you know, if someone starts whispering ‘kali ma’, you’re on your own.”

“What is that?” Amelia asked, “Some kind of spell?”

“I’ve never heard of it.” Famor said.

“Something like that.” Dean sighed. He was starting to miss his friends. Any player for that matter. He was giving reference gold and it was lost on his audience. “Come on, Short Round.”

“I don’t understand,” Neva said, “Is that a supposed to be a nickname? None of us is short, or round. Or is it a joke?”

“Nevermind.” Dean said, “Let’s go meet the neighbors.”