I raised my tankard in a toast to Archon and patted my belly, “If I keep eating like this my new leathers will not fit.” Giving me a taciturn smile Archon nodded in agreement. “Thank the Gods that we cannot get fat here,” he stated. Looking at me, he nodded, “so you probably have a few questions as do I. Of course, I will not be revealing all the details nor do I expect you to.” “Why don’t you begin,” and with a nod he folded his hands on the table and looked at me expectantly.

Looking at this man sitting across from me I let my thoughts flow for a minute. Who was he and who was Kaie. Let me begin by asking the obvious, who are you and who is Kaie? You are clearly not the hormonally challenged teen players that make up most of the current populations of Gods and Men.” “Very astute, we certainly are not. We are members of a group of people who have been extremely successful in the real world.” “I see, but what are you doing in this game, this whole artificial construct that was created for kids?” “Was it created for kids to play,” Archon asked?”

Archons smiled at me and then spoke, “As I have said, we are members of a group of people, many of whom are now elderly and whose health is failing.” “Do you understand the difference between real world time and subjective time?” I nodded; it was becoming clear to me where he was going. “Is this a service that a company offers or have you folks just had a meeting of the rich and famous and decided to make your last few months turn into years or perhaps decades?” “Damn you are quick; if I was not here in this game world with you I would hire you on the spot.” Smiling at Archon I thanked him, and then asked again, “is it a company that offers this service or are all you people doing this privately?”

“Both, at an annual meeting we were discussing the coming mortality of our group and wondered if there was any option of any kind to help us go beyond the end of our days. One of the trusted interns mentioned his son playing these vrp games. Once he explained the dilation effect on subjective time we hired several experts in several gaming related fields to develop a strategy that would enable us to achieve our goals.” “Let me guess you have custom-made vrp pods that have a full suite of state of the art medical tech built in. I would also think that your vrp must have a few more features than what is available on the current market.”

Archon nodded at me, “Yes our vrp are somewhat advanced over the store bought models. That is one of the reasons I was with the Jackass, once I heard his story I had the analytics department run a sweep for you, and that is how I located you this morning.” I stared at Archon; so this is what it felt like dropped into the deep end of a pool and not know how to swim. “Just how many of you folks are here and how do you have access to admin privileges in game.”

“Lots of us are Ingame and in answer to the second question, I will let you ponder that.” Now having revealed enough information to affect the economies of several countries in the real word if they ever found out where some of the people running things are, it is my turn to ask the questions.” I nodded slowly at him, I was feeling more and more like a struggling swimmer on a shark tank. Crap, I had only wanted to purchase some better gear this morning.

“First,” Archon began, “allow me to say that I have been impressed by you since this morning. You have a set of skills and the ability to know when to use them and when not to use them. That takes training and hard work. Which leads me to the next question? Who are you and who do you work for?”

Licking my lips I composed myself and realized that honesty is a great lifestyle, doubly so when one’s life is on the line. “My name it Tor and I am actually a resident at the state of Nevada’s orphanage, number 231. I have lived there since my parents died in an accident when I was eight years of age. I am almost of age and within one year will no longer be under the tender care of the government’s orphanage system.”

“I learnt Judo at the orphanage and as for any other skills you may have observed, they are simply self taught abilities.” Nodding at Archon I sat back and lifting the tankard let the apple cider cool my dry throat. Looking at me with a slightly quizzical smile Archon lifted his hand and asked, “How did a young man in an orphanage end up in one of the most expensive vrp games ever released?” “Someone somewhere gave the orphanage the opportunity to send one player to the Sleepy Hollow summer camp. I was the fortunate one selected as the recipient “

“Unbelievable and yet that is how the real world works so often. One minute while I verify your story Tor.” One of the perquisites of being in a Guild is having instant guild chat. A sweet feature especially once the Guilds and Houses began to go to war with other kingdoms. After several minutes, Archon looked at me and said, “It all seems to check out. I am glad about that, I would have hated to have to put you in the Guild dungeons, and it is a dreary place.”

“The next question I have is something I am really interested in. You remember when Kaie was leaning against you. She was resting her hand on your shoulder and you began to blush and then asked her out.

Damn, I had not blushed, I had just felt err flushed. Trying to disguise my embarrassment at the memory, I crocked my eyebrow at Archon and nodded. “Good, you see Kaie has a number of amazing abilities developing Ingame and she used one of them on you.”

Seeing my eyes widen Archon smiled and nodded. “I think she bit off more than she thought she would, she sure left in a hurry.” “She was reading you at a deep level, not your thoughts but more your emotions, who you are and even what you are.” “I believe that she found out that you truly found her attractive and that you are a little shy. In addition, she has informed me that you are a half Dragon.”

I almost choked on the cider I was drinking when Archon spoke. “Half Dragon, which is not a playable race, and yet hear you are. In addition Kaie mentioned you have several permanent buffs that any true player would give almost anything to start the game with.” “As I represent a group with a vested interest in this world we would like to know how you managed to achieve this.”

It was one thing to be able to tell Archon details about my real world life, it was all available and verifiable to anyone who wanted to check. How was I going to explain meeting a God and my Google glasses and my companion? Staring at Archon I made my choice. “Sorry buddy there are some things that I am not willing to share with you just yet. I like you and appreciate both the lunch and the candor with which you have shared. My secrets have to remain my secrets; I just do not feel I can trust anyone with them. I will say that I had no idea about you folks and that the situation that led to this meeting was truly coincidental.”

“All right,” Archon spoke, “I will let you run with that for now. However if I hear anything …” “No worries, I hurriedly replied. I am just a lowly level one trying to get to the next level.” “Archon, if you see Kaie please tell her that my offer still stands, I will be done my shift in the kitchen of the Inn Hearthhome where I am staying at. That will be around 10:30 if she would like to meet up?”

“You work at an Inn. I do not think I know of any player who works for an Npc. Shaking his head and smiling he nodded. I will let her know; do not be disappointed if she does not show up. She is several years older than you, you realize that?” Nodding I stood up and thanking him again for the lunch I made my way to the door. I wanted to get home and see why Twink was still sleeping.

Watching the kid leave Archon spoke to the figure that slowly materialized in the seat next to him. "So what do you think, Cameo? I think you have found a mystery here, he is clearly a talented bright kid, and is worth recruiting both here and in the Real world. I could sense nothing to worry about, but let’s keep our eyes on this one." "He gives me a feeling that things are going to be happening and he will be right in the middle." Nodding his head Archon concurred. "Put a hidden watcher on him and let’s see what happens...”