After hearing about his adoring public, Salvo was more than ready to get back into the game as soon as possible. Though not before basking in the praise from those around him. Even if some of it was either awkwardly given or backhanded.

Cale’s was both. Still unable to bring himself around, he kept going back to how bad of an idea it was in general to leak the tapes. It drew a massive amount of attention on us, which could only lead to further attacks.

It was hard to blame his hesitation, he’d been the one who’d nearly gotten killed. Which, to be honest, made me sick with dismay and more than a little horror. All the more reason to just get this whole nightmare done and over with.

I reentered Arcadia to another flood of communications and a notice that my email inbox was full. It was past time I started clearing that thing out. Maybe I should start doing that with the mail at home as well.

We ran through a few dungeons, though superstition told us to avoid Dante’s Depths dungeon at all costs, along with mage portals being well off limits. We could just as easily use our mounts to get where we needed to go.

With another day of hard grinding behind us, we entered the tavern that night with most of us nearly at level 45 while Nate was kissing 48. Despite him being the first person to complain about needing a break, he groaned and bitched about how close he was to level.

I quieted the growing annoyance inside me by reminding myself over and over how old he actually was. And took solace that I’d grown out of that stage myself. No amount of money could bribe me to relive those teenage years. The walking contradictions of hormones and near adulthood were in the rearview mirror and would happily stay that way.

The dwarves raised their frosty mugs to Salvo and cheered, yelling their typical greeting of, “Norm!” Their ruddy cheeks bursting in gleeful smiles.

Stunned, he mimed raising a mug to them.

“That won’t do,” The largest of the dwarves said. “Bar wench, be a good lass and put an ale in that man’s hand for me.”

There was no getting around the fact that Salvo’s video had touched people. More than he’d ever realized. He was also just the man to be a face for the movement. Someone to give reassuring smiles and eat the praise like warm buttered bread. I rolled my eyes, realizing his adoring public was creating a monster.

With the eyes of the patrons upon us, our party found an empty table. Luke, who’s in-game persona was so vastly different from the outside, batted his delicate golden lashes and giggled with glee. With a single pout of his ruby red lips, he had a table full of men eating out of his hand, whistling and adjusting their lower armor.

Luke’s better at being a chick than I am, I thought. And made myself feel better imagining their reactions if they actually knew who they were fantasizing about.

Cale, who’d been silent for a while and in his menus, finally spoke up. “Richard Bouchard gave another press conference. Read through the transcript and it doesn’t look like we missed much. Just reassuring people that they’re doing their due diligence.”

I pulled up the in-game communications tab and skimmed it, confirming what he’d said. The attached image of the conference showed an even more defeated Richard Bouchard. The man who’d weathered the storm of his father’s death while expanding the company looked thin and sickly. I wondered how much, or little, sleep he’d been getting lately.

“Any word from your contact?” I asked him in private, lowering the ambient noise to hear the response.

“Nothing all day. Getting worried he might have poked his nose where he shouldn’t and got noticed.”

I opened my mouth to offer a canned bullshit response that everyone gives because they don’t know what else to say when the server, GingerSn4p, came to take our orders and I had to rush to increase the volume before missing what she said.

With our orders in, we prepared to pay. But she held up a hand. “Members of the Bookhouse Boys guild don’t have to pay in here for a long while. There’s been so many people dropping off credits to buy you a round or dinner, you’re paid up for the next ten years or so.” She winked at us and rushed away without another word.

Satisfied with himself, Salvo reclined in his chair, putting his hands behind his head.

“Have you gotten any new info yet?” Maddie asked.

“No,” Salvo said and made a face. “Well, maybe. My email box is full and I just haven’t taken the time to work through it yet.”

Cale groaned. “You do realize there’s more to all this than free stuff. Right?” A blank stare from the rogue was the only response he received. Which seemed to agitate Cale further. “Can you at least skim through them and forward the promising ones to me or Liz?”

“My box might be full too,” I said, feeling the heat of his ire and giving him my cutest grin possible. Though it felt more like a grimace. “In my defense, I never check mail. So, I’m not abusing the system like some of us around here.”

“Bitch,” Salvo cried out in mocked outrage and tossed a glove at my head.

“Children,” Cale said and pinched the bridge of his nose, his lips silently counting down from ten.

“I’ve been meaning to go through it anyway,” I said and pulled up the email communications tab. First tossing the obvious spam messages, invites to private chats for a low cost, offers to make my dick bigger and last longer, etc. The second pass through, I marked messages that contained sightings of the assassin, figuring if we started a map we could see if there were any patterns. I also really wanted a red yarn map of my very own, and this was the easiest way I could come up with one.

Which led me to another idea of printing out employee snapshots and creating a red yarn collage with those as well. It might not amount to much, but it would look badass.

Once my brain was back on track, I searched through again, finding an email with no sender that I’d received shortly after joining the game. The body of the text only read:

The fairies. Pay attention to the fairies. We are the fairies. Please… Help us… V.

“What the ever fuck shit hell?” I said, nearly screaming and closing out of the menus as fast as I could. Shit, have I been ignoring Viv all this time? Was that from her or someone else playing a disgusting trick?

All those times the little bastards had been buzzing around my head, I’d swatted them away like mosquitoes. No, this had to be a trick. Right?

“Liz?” Cale put a hand on my arm with a questioning look. “You okay?”

“No, I’m not. Either someone played a real shitty prank or I’ve been ignoring the biggest piece of the puzzle we had this entire time.”

“What do you mean?” he asked, deep lines grew in his elven face.

With great trepidation, I forwarded the message to each member of the guild. Except for Salvo, who’s inbox was indeed full and bounced back. “Delete something asshole so I can send the message to you, too.”

Finally, the entire table read the message and shared a look of confusion.

“But, what does it mean?” Maddie asked.

“Ever notice how Liz attracts the shiny little background fairies like she’s made of sugar water?” Cale asked.

“I’d always assumed it was a druid thing,” I said. “But, maybe, I’ve been wrong this entire time.”

“Wait,” Luke scoffed. “Are you assuming the victims are what? Tossed into the fairies and let free to flit around? First, that’s some of the dumbest shit I’ve heard and second is that even possible?”

Cale rubbed at his cheek while he thought. “It’s possible. All the data for scenery is tucked away in the background and it’s not like anyone is accessing it. The servers are massive enough that it could continue unnoticed. At least until they changed the area for cosmetics and who knows when that would happen. Holiday event, maybe? But even then…”

“So what are we waiting for?” Nate asked and jumped from the table. “Let’s go find some fairies.”

Maddie patted her son’s hand. “Nate, I get that you’re excited, but this isn’t like the time we collected lightning bugs. Even if this is really what’s happening to the victims, there’s nothing we can do for them. We need someone on the other side of the game to help us.”

I agreed with her wholeheartedly and knew just the person to speak with. The problem would be getting him to agree to talk to us. But I had ways of being persuasive.

After walking through the long winding hallways of the great palace in Lighthall, Cale, Salvo, and I stood outside the large mahogany doors of Richard Bouchard’s virtual office. The receptionist, a goblin with the same angry face as the one at the tavern, eyed us warily as we approached his desk.

“Mister Bouchard is busy. Come back never,” the goblin said and spat.

I forced a smile on my face and looked to the nameplate on his desk, careful to contain a burst of laughter at the mundane moniker scrawled across its face. “Look, Jeff. I think Mr. Bouchard would really want to talk to us. We have some information that could help.”

“Oh, well in that case… No. He’s still busy.” He flicked his gnarled little fingers at us in a move along gesture and returned to the magazine he’d been reading when we approached.

“Jeff,” I said with a sigh. “I didn’t want to have to do this, but you’re forcing my hand.” I rested my palm against a delicate porcelain urn and gave it a light push. Delighted that the exhilaration caused by shattering glass and pottery was just as satisfying in the game world.

Jeff raised an eyebrow and flicked a finger, returning the unblemished pot to its stand.

So I pushed it over again, if for no other reason than the cathartic smash on the stone floor. A shiver raced through my spine as I grinned back at him.

He sighed and returned the pottery to the original state.

“This should really be featured in the game somewhere. Holy shit, this feels great,” I said, pushing it over again. Little peels of laughter erupted from me, cut short by a voice booming from a mirror behind Jeff’s desk.

“What is that racket?” it asked. The image of an elven man with fiery copper hair in flowing sapphire blue robes appeared and his eyes widened. “Jeff, do you know who this is? Why didn’t you let them in?”

“All I know is they’re players in the game and you said not to bother you. Besides, this one keeps breaking your things,” Jeff said and pointed in my direction.

A smile lit the elf’s face, and he laughed. “Ones and zeroes, Jeff. It’s all just ones and zeroes. Go ahead and let them in.”

The goblin made an especially sour face, but waved a hand for us to pass. There was a soft click from the door as he did.

“Mmm, this daddy knows who I am,” Salvo said in a whisper, straightening his armor and running a hand through his hair. “Do I have anything in my teeth?”

“So help me god,” Cale said, just as low, though his voice quavered slightly. “Keep your dick in your pants and be on your best behavior. Please, please I’m begging you, don’t perv on the CEO.”

“All right, but if he makes the first move, I can’t promise anything.”

“Since I highly doubt that’ll happen, that’s good enough for me,” Cale said and took my hand before we stepped through the mahogany doors and into a meeting with the CEO himself.

His office was massive, though a confusing mix of modern world and game life. The floors were plank style wood but adorned with octagonal rivets flush with the surface. A fireplace built into the wall no doubt doubled as a television, based solely on where it was located. The walls, lined with thick oak shelves, housed books from both places. I spotted a copy of The Stand by Stephen King next to a tome of Arcadian lore; each were equally thick. The desk in the center of the room looked to be a mix between enchanter’s table and office furniture; the sigils were all visible, but so were the cords that lead into a computer somewhere hidden below.

The smile on his face that crinkled the corners of his eyes was just as charming on his avatar as it was in all his pictures online. I caught myself returning the pleasantries with a little more zeal than normal.

“To what do I owe this pleasure?” he asked and ushered us into plush high-backed chairs. Then pointed to a wet bar and the only one to accept was Salvo.

“Mr. Bouchard, sir, we need your help,” I said and gathered my nerve to tell the most powerful man in the game nearly everything we knew; leaving out the part about us sending a sleazy asshole to lurk around his son’s house. I felt my cheeks burn as I talked about the fairies. Goddammit I must sound like a raving lunatic.

He handed Salvo his drink then leaned against his desk, listening intently as I spoke. His reactions split between nodding along with a line of thinking or exhaling sharply through his nose. Either in disagreement or despair, I couldn’t be sure. “I’ll have someone I can trust look into the code for the local fauna,” he said once I’d gotten everything out. “You’ve given me some pieces of the puzzle I’d been missing. Thank you.”

Salvo motioned that it was nothing with his hand, slurping down the rest of his Arcadian martini.

“I also wasn’t aware someone was directly targeting you until I watched your little video last night. Hearing why you’ve been singled out helps more than you know. Though it’s a little distressing you’ve been affected outside of the game because of your affiliations. I’ve heard of this Mark Williams individual and know some of what he’s about… Be careful around him.”

“We’re kinda stuck where we are,” I said. “For the time being, at least. There’s no way in hell I’m walking away now. Just when it feels like we’re finally getting somewhere.”

“Good,” he said, slapping his thigh for emphasis. “I’ll let Jeff know you’re welcome in my office whenever you need me. I’m hoping we can get through this together. Now, if you’ll excuse me, you’ve provided me with enough work to last a few late nights. I need to call my wife and apologize. Is there anything else I can offer you before you go?”

I grabbed Salvo by the upper arm before he could say something that would make the meeting go south and thanked Mr. Bouchard for his time.

“Call me Richard,” he said with a wink and turned to sit at his desk.

As soon as we were out of earshot of the goblin Jeff, Cale said, “Does anyone else feel like that went a little too smoothly?”

“Maybe,” I said, hoping we were both just being paranoid. “But he could be one of the good guys left in the corporate world.” I thought further and chided myself. “Nevermind, good and corporate don’t go hand in hand. Something else is going on.”

We’d nearly gotten back to the tavern before Luke ran up to us. After he caught his breath, he said, “I was just about to send you a message. There’s been another attack. This time at a world boss and there were six agents.”

“Agents?” I asked.

“Since they can’t call the assassin the Lone Swordsman anymore, the community just started calling them agents. Agents of what? Who fucking knows. Community doesn’t seem obsessed with making sense. Anyway, about twenty or so players were cut down before the In Memoriam guild took out three of these agents. The other three vanished like they’re so fond of doing.”

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” I said and kicked at a rock.

Salvo groaned. “I know, right? I mean, it’s shit that all those people got hurt, but the optics are going to look horrible for us. Killing the agents was kind of our thing.”

“Uh-uh,” Luke said and pushed a finger into Salvo’s chest. “You best hide that selfish side of you before stepping foot inside the tavern. People need to know you heard and care. Show them the same compassion you did last night.”

Despite the drop in the rogue’s shoulders, it was clear he’d received the message as his haughty expression sobered.

We spent about an hour listening to stories and talking to people before quietly excusing ourselves to grind more levels. It was getting late, but we needed to squeeze all the experience we could out of the day.

“Should have let me ask my question in Richard’s office,” Salvo said and crossed his arms. “I was going to ask for free level boosts for everyone.”

“I think you can handle playing through a few more levels,” Cale said.

“Maybe, if we survive, that is.”

Nate glowered at Salvo. “If we stick to an instance without using mage portals, we’ll be fine. Stop being such a baby about it.”

“Oh my god,” he said, raising a hand to his throat. “Someone needs a nap.”

“Everyone needs to shut the fuck up until we get to the dungeon,” Cale snapped.

And they did. At least until we realized he was leading us back to Dante’s Depths. The bitching and moaning started back up until Cale threatened to turn the bus around and take us back to Lighthall if we didn’t behave. Not in so many words, but that was the gist.

Luke was the first to giggle. Which caused me to imagine it coming from his real persona and spread to me. Which spread to Salvo, and so on. Until everyone but Cale was wiping at their eyes and holding their bellies.

Part of me felt bad for the rise in morale at my boyfriend’s expense, but honestly, it felt too good to not feel like my friends were about to burst at any moment.

“Ready to kick some ass guys?” I asked and took a deep breath at the entrance to the dungeon before walking through.

This time we made it past the succubus without a single member going down. The extra levels had done wonders for our resists and we knew her tricks; making her charm and swap spell that much easier to avoid.

We traveled through the door past her room that led to a maze of thick stone blocks. The same sulfur smell lingered in the air, but the temperature cooled. A constant drip drop in the distance told us we were close to water. The only other noise was the peculiar sound of animal feet somewhere in the distance. Hooves clopping with each step.

At some points, the hallway narrowed so tight; it forced us to maneuver through single file or on our hands and knees. Well, the rest of them did. Cat-liz didn’t have those kinds of problems.

“What do you think that is?” Salvo asked, despite whispering, his voice echoed off the stone walls.

“Shh,” Maddie hissed. “It’s a minotaur, obviously. We’re in a maze in this underworld of sorts. Plus, going with the Dante theme, even though they’ve gotten the order wrong, the first boss was probably a depiction of Lust. My guess, this guy’s the depiction of Wrath.”

Somewhere, closer than I expected, a creature snorted. The hooved steps turned in our direction.

“We need to find somewhere better to fight,” Cale whispered over his shoulder. “If this guy has a ramming attack, there’s no chance I’ll be able to dodge out of the way.”

Even at our slowest pace, careful not to upturn a single pebble, our footsteps still echoed painfully loud. When we found a crossroads, we moved to take the right. Since according to Maddie, you always take a right and you’ll find your way through, eventually.

The path, however, was blocked by a nine-foot-tall monstrosity of man and bull. His bovine eyes blazing with hatred, puffs of smoke trailed from his nostrils. He lifted a hoof, scraped it against the rock floor before putting his head down and charged.