Just before the minotaur collided with Cale, he cast a shimmering orb around himself of delicate golden threads. The monster, moving at the speed of a freight train, merely bounced off the shell, and dazed himself long enough for us to get into position.

Salvo somersaulted up and over the minotaur with his vampiric grace, while I slipped between the cloven hooves. The narrow walls didn’t provide enough room for both of us to have access to the rear of the minotaur side by side, and we were forced to improvise. Salvo stood over top of my cat form, I wouldn’t be able to make any jumping strikes without knocking into him, but I could focus on hamstring attacks.

Two undead spiders, their abdomens split with deep oozing gashes, twitched and hissed towards the minotaur, following the raspy, dry parchment sounds of Nate’s casting. One lunged and bit down on the over-sized creature’s neck. Caustic goo dripped from the wound.

Thunderous cries bellowed from the monster’s throat as he thrashed and splattered the spider to little more than pulp against the maze wall. All that remained was a twitching leg held in place by the rotten innards.

“That sonofabitch, do you know how hard those spiders are to get?” Nate yelled.

“Nathan Milstead, you watch your language, young man,” Maddie said from his shoulders where she had an unobstructed view of the battlefield. Her little fists glowed with a bright blue light as snowflakes drifted from them. She thrust her hands forward and screamed with the exertion, sending two beams of focused cold directly at the minotaur’s feet. Ice packed around his hooves, freezing him in place. “I had to overcharge the spell, but there won’t be any more of that ramming business. I’ll keep him frozen. The rest of you, do your thing.”

The bubble of light around Cale faded and the minotaur, screaming in rage and pain from the poisoned bite, raised clasped fists above his head; bringing them down in a spine breaking attack. Despite deflecting some of it with his shield, Cale still took enough damage to nearly down him. His health bar flashed red for a second before Luke healed him back to full.

“Well, that was unpleasant,” Cale groaned and readied his shield against another attack.

Salvo buried his daggers into the neck of the creature and pulled them across its throat, opening an artery. Dark, nearly black blood bubbled from the wound and rained down on Cale.

The minotaur lurched against the wall, smashing Salvo with its shoulder. There was a sickening crunch of bones as his upper torso flattened.

“I can’t heal him without killing him,” Luke yelled. “Motherfucker had to be a vampire, didn’t you?”

A choir of dead voices emanated from Nate’s throat as deathly energy left his palms. Black veins coursed through the rogue’s body and face that faded as his health bar refreshed. Leaving him a little less than half. Not full, but it was enough for him to pull himself back up and latch his teeth to the minotaur’s bleeding throat.

While Salvo was having his snack, I lashed out with a hamstring attack. My teeth sunk into the fleshy meat and tore with shakes of my head. More dark gore splattered the walls.

“Detroit breeds some sick motherfuckers, don’t it?” Luke asked with a hint of amusement in his voice.

“Nah,” I said and bit down again. Through a mouthful of leg meat adding, “Just pretty badass.”

From behind the creature, I could hear Nate casting more spells and Cale’s sword whipping through the air. The health of the boss dropped to nothing while Salvo continued to drink. His muscles rippled underneath the leather armor of undeath he wore.

The death of the boss caused two things to happen simultaneously. First, the walls rumbled and lowered into the ground; allowing us a clear path to the next location. Second and more pertinent to my personal wellbeing, with his feet stuck to the floor, he could only fall one way, directly on top of whatever was behind him. In other words, me. Had I been paying more attention; I could have dodged away in time. Instead, a solid mass of nine-foot-cow-man-hybrid took a quarter of my health on impact, pinning me underneath.

A groan left me along with an angry, “Shit.” In a desperate attempt to pull myself out, I raked my claws against the rock floor but, to no surprise, couldn’t find purchase.

Overhead there were grunts of strain, even the chattering of one zombie spider, as they tried to lift the corpse from on top of me. While I waited for aid, I grabbed my share of the loot, finding an upgrade to my armor.

“Liz, are you looting under there?” Salvo asked.

“You have a better idea of what I could do right now? Get this thing off me.”

“We’re trying,” he said with an added annoyance in his tone.

“Salvo, what’s that buff you have?” Luke asked and sighed. “You can get her out at any time.”

“It’s a onetime feat of strength. I’m not using it to move an over-sized cow off her.”

“Goddamn asshole,” I said as anger rippled through me, causing me to thrash violently under the weight of the creature. It did nothing but cause my body to wriggle more firmly underneath; the weight constricting my rib cage, making breathing nearly impossible. “Can’t breathe…”

“Problem solved. She’ll die and respawn outside the dungeon. We’ll just wait for her to come back and we’ll be on our merry way,” Salvo said with a lighthearted note.

“Or, she respawns to find a few agents waiting for her in the graveyard,” Cale said through gritted teeth. “Did you think of that?”

“Luke could rez her,” Salvo tried again.

“Why do you think I haven’t healed up the damage she took from the fall? I can’t target her underneath that thing.”

“Fine,” Salvo said, and the weight from my body disappeared in less than a second.

I filled my starved lungs with giant gasps of air and shifted back into my elven form. The black spots in my vision gradually decreasing as I stretched out on my back. Golden light sparkled down around me, healing me to full. “Remind me to kick your ass later, Salvo.”

“It’s never, ‘Thank you, Salvo. You’re my hero, Salvo.’ with you, is it?” he asked with a grin and offered a hand to get me up, matching the one Cale was already offering. I took both, and they lifted me to my feet.

“You okay?” Cale asked, plucking a shred of minotaur viscera from my hair.

“Nothing a few nightmares won’t solve. Let’s keep moving. There’re more creatures to slaughter, and I have a grudge to take out on his friends.”

The following boss, Sloth, was a bit of an easy kill and barely worth mentioning. A mutated human who closely resembled the character with the same name from The Goonies. He had a special attack that caused an area debuff called Ennui. All memories of that fight are pretty hazy and don’t really matter, anyway. It happened, and we moved on.

We pushed forward, through caverns filled with tiny lizard-like people carrying sharpened sticks. The trash mobs weren’t much more than a diversion, but it would have been easy to get swarmed if we hadn’t been careful. I noticed all the creatures in this area didn’t carry a single gold coin. It was almost as if someone had been taking them from them.

Before we progressed any further, Nate whispered something into the ear of a lizard corpse. Manacles of dark magic appeared and clamped down on it’s tiny scaled wrists. A low groan came from the trash mob’s throat as it twitched and came to life. With the smashed spider replaced, he was ready to continue moving.

Finally, the area widened, revealing a glittering pool of crystal-clear water filled with sparkling gems. Coins splashing into the watery pools heralded the arrival of Greed. Or the representation of it, at least. A slick, amphibian-like creature coiled in the waters before breeching the surface with a gush of bubbles. I’d seen something similar, nearly at the tip of my tongue, but couldn’t place it until Cale exclaimed how much it looked like his old pet axolotl, Spike.

“Whatever happened to Spike?” I asked, before shifting to my cat form.

He shook his head. “Not sure. One day his terrarium was empty. Figured he got bored with me and wandered off.”

I worked my mouth to form words, finally settling on, “Cale, you realize pets that require water to survive don’t just wander off. Right?”

“About that,” Salvo said. “Remember that chick I was fucking around with for a while?”

“Which one?” Cale replied, readying his shield.

“Hair color?” I asked, hoping to narrow down the multitude of possibilities.

“Green maybe,” Salvo replied. “But it might have been turquoise, the more I think about it. Either way, she would have been hanging around the time Spike went missing.”

“Oh no…” Maddie said, concern in her voice. I glanced to check on the boss before I realized she was responding to the story unfolding.

“We’d had a lot to drink one night and she, the girl, got confused when she got sick. We’d been drinking some pretty high-proof hooch and…” Salvo dropped into the shadows.

“And? What happened to my pet, Salvo?”

“She barfed in the terrarium while I was on the porch having a cigarette and didn’t tell me until he was already dead. Probably alcohol poisoning. I panicked and flushed him, along with most of the chunky water, and added fresh. If it helps, I never saw her again after that.”

“Nope. That doesn’t help one bit. Thanks for the closure though, I guess. Where was I during this?”

“You were passed out in the bathtub. Part of why the girl didn’t yarf there, I’m assuming. Honestly, I’m amazed you didn’t wake up after all those times I flushed the toilet.”

“Oh, shit. Was that the night Viv made me go to some ballet show? I remember hearing how crazy you guys got and how guilty you looked for a while after. I just figured it was because you tossed the girl aside after she’d gotten attached again. Should have known better.”

“Now that we’ve taken that trip down memory lane, can we focus, please?” Cale said and pointed to the lumbering boss closing in on us.

Between my raking, bleeding attacks and Salvo’s stabs, we took the giant axolotl down in, what I could only assume, was record time. Granted, I’m biased in thinking our group was a little above the rest.

A system message appeared stating:

Greed has fallen by your hands. Now, collect your reward. Each champion may take one scoop of the hoard. Beware, those who double dip will suffer the same fate as the monster who collected it.

Salvo was the first to jump in the water, scooping both hands into the pile near a glittering diamond and pulling out his share. The rest followed until Maddie was the only person remaining.

A devious expression lit up her face. “You guys ready for this?” She tossed an object that looked similar to what the Ghostbusters used to trap their targets. A motor whirred as the device came to life, vacuuming the remaining loot in one large scoop before returning to her hand.

“Um, what just happened?” I asked, looking down into the pool containing nothing but water.

“Gnomish invention. When little hands just aren’t enough to grab what you need,” she said and winked. “C’mon, let’s go. I’ll split the rest of it later.”

“That won’t trip the whole greed thing?” Luke asked.

“Probably not,” Maddie said. “The message said one scoop and technically, that was only one.”

Flush with cash, the future seemed a little brighter.

One second, I was with the group, preparing for another battle, the next I was staring at bright, white lights gasping for breath. My body shivered uncontrollably and there was a weight missing from my chest. Rose and Blanche were gone. This was the real world, then. “Fuck me, what the fuck happened?” I asked through chattering teeth.

A dark blotch in a human shape hovered above me. “You’ll be fine. It’s just some disorientation from us hitting the emergency switch.” The blotch sounded suspiciously like Mark.

But why the fuck did Mark just pull the plug from me? I wondered. A feeling that resembled a whip-it high rushed through my head and I fought against the disorienting weightlessness that accompanied it.

“I just had a very interesting conversation with Mr. Richard Bouchard. Seems he knew more about your findings than I did.” Mark’s voice had an edge that sounded completely alien to his normal cool, calm, and collected image. “I really dislike being out of the loop. Especially when I’m the one fronting the bill on your little adventures.”

“We just solved this shit today. I thought it’d be too late to call you when we did,” I lied. The truth was, I hadn’t even thought about filling him in. Based on my current situation, it’d been more than a slight miscalculation.

“Eliza,” he said with a note of disapproval in his tone. “I’d like to think we’re past the point of lies and half-truths? Don’t you?” He handed me a pair of sweats and turned his back for privacy. “That’s why I’ve come tonight. To show you my hand, as they say in Vegas.”

The fluffy interior of the pod became an annoyance as I wriggled my way into the offered sweatpants. My modesty intact, I moved to pull myself upright.

Mark clicked his tongue in disapproval and held out a hand for assistance; pulling me to my feet and supporting me as a second wave of disorientation hit. “Hitting that switch wasn’t ideal, I’d have preferred you to be at your full capacities for this meeting. But, after my conversation with Richard Bouchard, I had to move a little faster than I’d planned.”

Once I got my bearings and my head cleared, the players in the scene came into focus. A primal rage ignited somewhere deep inside me. A man, possibly one of the wrestler-turned-goons who took Brad, perched on the lid of Cale’s pod. My lips opened in a sneer and I moved to attack. Fist pulled back for a punch that I knew would amount to the whiff of a butterfly wing on a gorilla.

“Eliza,” Mark said with an added warning in his tone. “Calm yourself. If you play by the rules, no one else needs to get hurt.”

“Your rules, I take it? Fuck me and anyone else if they don’t play along when you’ve rigged the wheel?” I asked, sticking to his Vegas slang. I sneered at him while attempting to pull my arm free from his grasp.

“I can see how you would come to that conclusion. But allow me to enlighten you further. While we speak, let’s eat, huh? I’ve subsisted off hospital gruel and need something a little more substantial.”

Mark opened the door that led to the living area of the suite, revealing a doorway filled with the back of yet another hired goon. Who moved ahead of us and stationed himself directly in front of the only exit.

Mark pulled a chair for me to sit at the rolling table provided by room service and waited patiently for me to deliberate. I had a bad feeling, but couldn’t see a way out. If I sat down at the table, I’d only be trapping myself further.

He cleared his throat, ending the internal conflict within me. This wasn’t an option; this was a demand. I took the offered chair with a mumbled thanks as he spread a napkin in my lap.

“Look at you with the manners. Was that so hard now?” he asked, and situated himself in his own chair. As if it were nothing more than a Sunday brunch, he worked at a cork on a bottle of whiskey that looked as old as he was and continued, “By now I’m sure you’re wondering exactly what it is I do.” The cork came free, and he sniffed the bottle, emitting a small sigh of pleasure.

“Pretty sure I figured it out,” I said and flinched when Mark reached over to grab the empty glass in front of me. My breaths came in rapid shallow gasps, the edges of my vision darkened as I drew closer to hyperventilating.

“Drink this and calm down,” he said, putting the crystal tumbler of amber liquid in my shaking hand. “Again, no one is getting hurt if we all play by the rules. And so far, you’re doing wonderfully.”

I gulped the contents down in one motion, welcoming the burning sensations in my throat and stomach. After a deep breath and another quick glance at my exit opportunities, which were none, I said, “So, you have my undivided attention. Let’s get on with it then. What is it you want to tell me?”

“People like you are a precious gem, you know that? No small talk and other boring, trivial nonsense. I like that.” He took a sip of his drink, swishing it around his mouth before swallowing. “It won’t come as much of a surprise that I’ve been watching you. All of you.”

“Kinda figured that when you invited the new guildmates along less than twenty-four hours after we created the guild.” The liquid courage kicked in and I grabbed the bottle to refill my glass. I’d need a whole hell of a lot more to get through this nightmare in one piece. “Why did you do that, though? Invite them here. Couldn’t they have just stayed at home where they were safe?”

A half smile formed on Mark’s lips. “Absolutely. But I like to have my soldiers within arm’s reach. This Brad individual…” his smile faded into a sneer, “He was a mistake. Things about him didn’t add up. Too many aliases and shady individuals in his life. I should have told you to drop him. It would have saved us all a good amount of trouble.”

“About Brad,” I said and bit my lip while I tried to phrase my question as delicately as possible. “Is he… yanno… sleeping with the fishes?”

Mark snorted and removed a silver dome from a roast of beef. The juices pooled at the bottom of the platter, spilling onto an assortment of vegetables cooked to perfection. The smells hit my nose and churned my nervous stomach.

“Do you really want to know what became of Brad?” Mark asked and stabbed the cut of meat before slicing a piece for himself.

A wave of intense nausea hit me, and I swallowed hard against the rising whiskey in my throat.

“Stop with that look, Eliza, I’m not Hannibal Lector. This is grain-fed beef, delivered from a ranch I own in Montana exclusively for this meal. I had Hannah prepare it for us. You might remember her from Christmas the time you came with Vivian.”

“Why are you doing this?” I asked, feeling more emboldened by the shared memory.

Mark looked at me questioningly. “Why wouldn’t I? You’re risking your life on a daily basis for my daughter. Don’t think I’m ignoring the danger you’re putting yourself in.” He took a bite of the beef and smiled. “Besides, you’ve done more than that, haven’t you? Kept my daughter safe from that grubby thing you call a friend.”

“Salvo?” I asked through gritted teeth. “Don’t bring him into this if you want a pleasant conversation. I promise you, talking shit about him is-”

“Loyal to a fault,” he interrupted. “Yes, I’m aware.”

As if summoned, there was a loud banging on the door separating the two suites.

Mark wrinkled his nose and mumbled under his breath, “Speak of the devil and the devil will appear.” When the knocking grew louder and turned to shouting, Mark turned to the goon in front of the door. “Shut him up.” I stood to protest, but an angry, “Sit” kept me in place.

The goon entered Salvo’s suite. After some angry protests and a scuffle, the noise died down and the henchman returned to his post at the front of the door.

“What the fuck did you do to him?” I asked, ready to launch myself at the smug-looking asshole. “So help me…”

The bodyguard sniffed and made a show of wiping his knuckles on his pant leg. “He’ll be fine, just made him go night-night for a few so the boss can finish.”

“Are you ready to continue?” Mark asked, taking another bite of his meat. Unaffected by the commotion. “I’ve spoken with Mr. Bouchard on numerous occasions now, and he seems receptive to my gentle encouragement. Of course, in his case, I let my lawyer do most of the talking.”

“Encouragement, huh? Same type that you used on Salvo just now or did you threaten the type you used on Brad?” I asked and scoffed. “You know what, don’t answer that. I’m done with this conversation. I’m not doing anything for you, you get that, right? It’s for Viv.”

“I understand that better than you think, Eliza. That’s why I’ve been so charitable. Not just with the resort, but in other, less obvious ways. While I can’t provide you protection within the game, know that you are possibly the most well-guarded woman in all of Las Vegas.”

“I take it those guards are keeping me in place just as much as they’re keeping me safe?” I asked and received my answer in the form of a devious grin. Fear shot through me. “We can’t leave Vegas, can we?”

“For the time being, it’s in our mutual interests that you stay where you are,” Mark said and patted his chin with a napkin before rising. “That said, enjoy your meal. I have other places to be.” He stopped in the doorway; his icy stare bore into my soul. “I like you, Eliza. You’ve been a good friend to my daughter. But don’t think you can lie to me. I’d hate to show you what happens to normal people who try to get away with it.”

I didn’t say another word, just glared at him as he and his goons left the suite. Once they were gone, I rushed to the opposite room to check on Salvo.

My friend lay in a heap on the floor.

“Fuck, Salvo, are you okay?” I asked and got a moan in response.

He hissed as I prodded his chest with my fingers. “Who the fuck was that guy? And what happened to you in the game?”

“Let’s get in my suite, I need to check on Cale too, make sure he’s okay.” While I helped Salvo down on my couch, I called out, “Cale, we’re in the living room. Salvo’s here.”

“I need to call down to the front desk,” Cale said as he joined us. “Couldn’t get out for some reason. What happened to you in the game? Did your system crash or something?” Reality still hadn’t caught up with him, our shaking friend and the room service table both unnoticed. Thanks to the soundproofing of the pod, he probably hadn’t heard anything either.

“No crash,” I said. “And don’t bother with the front desk.”

His eyes moved from Salvo hunched over on the couch to the table full of rich smelling foods. “Liz, what happened?”

“I’ll explain, but-”

There was a loud banging on the front door. Cale shrugged, “You kinda disappeared, everyone was worried.”

I answered to find Luke. Before I could say anything, he asked, “The fuck happened?”

“Long story. Come on in.” I said and ushered him inside.

Maddie was right behind him, granting me a small blessing for the night of not having to repeat myself. Once I finished explaining everything that happened, with Salvo interjecting his own exaggerated side of the story. No, his fight hadn’t lasted for fifteen minutes and if they’d seen the other guy, there wasn’t a scratch on him.

But I kept my mouth shut, I had more important things to worry about; exactly how dangerous Mark truly was. Honestly, I should have known better. Our accommodations were too good to be true. Hadn’t life already taught me good things weren’t just handed to you on a silver platter? There were always drawbacks. Always.

I just wish Viv mentioned at some point her dad had connections. But hadn’t she in a way and I’d just ignored it? I mean, I’d never known exactly what he did in Vegas Land, only that he had a lot of power and wealth. It was just easier to assume he’d obtained it legally.

“So what do we do now?” Salvo asked, looking nearly as frightened as the little boy I’d first met. It was so completely uncharacteristic, it cut a little deeper than everything else. Because it was my fault.

Instead of facing them, I focused my hands; twisting my fingers, letting the edge of a nail dig a little too deep into flesh.

“Stop,” Maddie said, pulling my hands apart. “Am I pissed my son got involved in this mess? Absolutely. But I didn’t have to bring him here. It’s just as much my responsibility.”

Salvo repeated his question, this time with a little more backbone.

“Speak softly and carry a big stick,” I said, massaging my temples.

Nate scoffed, “That’s stupid and doesn’t make any sense.”

“It would, if you’d done the assignments I gave you,” Maddie said. “My son can tell you all about the history of this game but ask him a question about the country he lives in and there’s nothing.”

“So,” Cale said, frowning. “You keep the lines of communication open and direct with Mark. What’s your big stick? We don’t exactly have a great military force behind us.”

“We don’t,” I agreed. “But Mr. Bouchard does, and he seemed sympathetic. Seeing as how it’s his loose lips that led to the predicament, he might be even more willing to offer aid.”

“Hold up a sec,” Luke said. “You want us to trust a corporate asshole to keep us safe from a mafia asshole? You don’t think that’s more than a little wishful thinking?”

He wasn’t wrong and had nothing to say in my defense outside of, “Have a better idea?”

Apparently, he didn’t, only crossed his arms and sniffed at me in response. If I’m being honest, that about summed up how I felt too.

When I got into the game the next day, the first thing I did was check my messages. After finding nothing from the mystery sender who I’d hoped was Viv, I reread the previous message:

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

I ported to Lighthall to work on my leathercrafting for a while as we all woke the hell up. Cale had slept like a log beside me, but my sleep had been spotty. Reaction time would be extra slow today. It’d be best I avoided fighting anything large that could fall on top of me again.

As I walked along the cobblestone path leading to the crafting area near the center of town, I searched for fairies and found none. Panic built inside me for a moment. Did Richard do this? Or did someone get tipped off and cover their tracks?

Sick of the constant worry eating away at my insides and hoping I wasn’t overstretching my bounds, I pulled up the chat console.

Ri0tGrrl: This is the chick you met with yesterday… But you probably know that already. Did you happen to remove the fairies? I can’t find them.

BouchardtheWhite: Greetings. I was hoping to hear from you today. I had an interesting talk with Mr. Williams. Yes, I did in fact have the fairies in all locations pulled until further notice while they’re being investigated for “Bugged Code.” That’s the term we’re using for the general public.

Ri0tGrrl: You don’t think that’ll tip anyone off?

BouchardtheWhite: We’re hoping it does and discourages whoever is behind the attacks to cease and desist.

Ri0tGrrl: Cool, I guess. About Mark Williams, I understand what you meant now. He came to visit me last night after your discussion. Can we meet?

No sooner had I finished typing the words did a portal appear in front of me. I cringed, hoping his were safer than the mage portals.

BouchardtheWhite: Come on in, the portal’s safe. After your tip, we stayed up most of the night to patch the backdoor being exploited.

Once in a great while, I’m not too proud to admit I can be wrong about a person. The initial mistrust and uneasiness I had about him slowly melted as we met, and I told him everything that happened with Mark. While Richard was still corporate, and even to the day of me retelling this, it’s still not complete; but this was when I started to feel like my trust hadn’t been misplaced.

There was still one giant hitch I wasn’t quite aware of yet. But there was still a way to go before I knew what was truly happening.