The two left towards the woods. Alice came to me.

“I heard much that I don't understand” - her eyes were questioning me - “will you help me understand? Is it allowed?”

There was a new look on her face, was that leeriness that I saw in her eyes? No... was my Alice afraid of me? After the conversation we just had, I was more careful.

“Sure, but first, let me show you something! White Flower, can you please come out?”

“I would shred your clothes if I'd come out like this. You need to undress unless you want me to....”

“No! OK, just a moment. I need to undress.”

Alice raised an eyebrow, confused by my rambling, looking askew at me. One of her peculiarly looks:

“A new tattoo?”

“Well, more than the tattoo.”

“I will leave a tattoo on you when I leave, not to give too many clues.”

“Oh, OK”

She is careful! As soon as I was naked, White Flower appeared between us. But not the strange fairy appeared in front of me rather the slender elf girl Terri. Fully dressed. She was looking precisely like Terri, dressed like Terri. I was almost as amazed as Alice as she exclaimed, surprised:

“Wow!”

“You can...”

She jumped, putting her fingers on my lips, shutting me down.

“Sssht!” - she whispered - “don't betray everything; other people might listen to us.”

I raised my brows:

“Oh. Right. Ahm. Terri? Can you have a look at Alice? I wonder if my heal did not leave impurities in her body. She was frozen and splintered, do you understand?”

The fairy watched Alice now with more interest:

“Oh, that can be bad! Let me check!”

She put a hand on Alice and healed her throughout. A second wow came from Alice as she was healed. She took a deep breath:

“Ah! Feeling good! Thanks!”

I was still unsure:

"A simple heal is enough?"

"This was not a simple heal!"

The fairy grinned and turned towards me as I was dressing:

“She is clear, clean from everything. Do you still need me here?”

Does she want now to disappear again? Do I need to undress again when I am half-dressed?

“Ahm, not really?”

“Do you mind if I'll go with the boys?”

She pointed at the Lynx and Spartacius in the distance as she asked. That surprised me. OK, why not? Probably she was too long alone in the woods, and she needed more interaction. Bonus: I don't need to undress again now!

I put my hands in front of me to form kind of a megaphone and yelled:

“Spartacius!!! Lynx!! Wait!”

My lungs were powerful enough; the two stopped and turned, Spartacius raising his hands inquiring. I pointed to Terry. The girl went with an alert pace towards them. Possibly too much forest was boring even for a fairy; she stepped happily on their track. Wise enough not to fly, a perfect Terry.

Alice looked at me, raising a brow as I was putting back my jacket, finally dressed back. I made her sign to come closer and whispered:

“A fairy from the woods. She was the one that tried to warn me of Grackak; remember the message in the market?” - as she nodded, I continued - “Her name is White Flower and will accompany us for a while. She looks now like Terri, a healer from a group that I fought in the woods, so we will call her Terri when she is outside.”

She digested the information incredibly fast.

“Oh. Is she a healing fairy?”

She did not ask about the fight. She knew I would tell her if there was something important.

“Yes, she has a powerful heal, but she can also cast other spells like visual tricks. She said the Grackak gang was also chasing her; that's why she was ready to help me. She would like to relocate somewhere else.”

Now that we were finished whispering, I sat down on an old tree log.

“Now, what should I explain to you? Where should I start?”

She put a foot on the log, looking at me with inquiring eyes, and cut directly to the heart of the matter:

“Is it true that you are not from this world?”

I had to digest for a few seconds her question. Maybe we should have continued whispering. I looked around. Nobody here. I sighed.

I should not talk with her about this or lie as recommended in the game instructions. Never talk about the outside world with the spawns? They will either not understand or think you are demons.

Yeah, but they were also not supposed to ask?

I looked again into her eyes. I felt ashamed to lie to her, and besides, that little demon in me would not give me peace: 'let's see how she, I mean the AI reacts to it.'

I reluctantly nodded.

“Yes, it is true.”

“What are you in reality? Are you a god or a demon?”

Now comes the demon trope... I sighed. I had been warned; I was an idiot. Yet I continued to explain to her:

“I am a girl, younger and weaker. Much weaker. I still go to school.”

She seemed very relieved by my not being a demon or a god. She pointed towards Spartacius.

“Is he also not from this world?”

I nodded.

“Yes“

“Are you a player too? A player from the Abyss' Horde?”

“A player from the Abyss' Horde?”

Again the Abyss Horde. As I hesitated to answer, she continued:

“I heard Manchua the priest talking about them. He heard it from his consorts who dwell near the Silver Town. They've listened to some of the hordes' conversations. Are you bringing doom to this world?”

I laughed. Maybe I should not have.

“I am a player but not from the Abyss Horde! There are many players, and we organize in guilds or clans or even tribes. The Abyss Horde is one such guild. Gosh, probably the idiots who raided that town are from that guild? White Flower said something about it. I do not belong to any guild; I am alone. Spartacius is just a friend I met some time ago, somewhere else, not in this world. You know all players are humans.”

She protested:

“But I am human, and I am not a player?”

“Sorry, I expressed myself wrongly. Players are not spawns of this world, we are all humans in our world, but here players can choose their race.”

“We call ourselves spawns of this world. We live here and die; our parents give us birth; we are born here with all our races in this world. Do you mean you are not born here?”

Do I screw now my connection with Alice? But I wanted to be honest with her:

“Yes. Cala, as you see her, she was created. As she is. She was not born. She was done with some tools at our disposition” - I thought about telling her I took over Cala from a friend, but that would only confuse her even more. - “She is my face in this world. Spartacius was created by a boy to be his face in this world. We live in a much more boring world, without magic, where I am a nobody. Just a schoolgirl. We come here to play.”

She raised her eyebrows:

“Oh… and what do you play?”

Oh, that's a tricky question. I looked into her crystal clear blue eyes. She looked so naive and sincere. 'Don't get impressed by that; you are talking with an AI', said a voice in my head.

“I'm playing this world, Alice. Being Cala and doing what she does for fun. I can be a hero or a villain. I can try to be what I want.”

She wondered:

“Is this world fun? So it is true?... All they are telling is true? You just come here to sow chaos and play games?”

She was visibly shocked. It is a little hard to swallow if she puts it like that.

“Well, I guess it is… at least some of it… I don't know what they are saying. This world was created for us to have fun in it. Fun… It is the wrong word. To live the adventure, to live the greatness, to live true magic.”

How can I explain to her the fun part? It is exciting; it is different; it is living in a fairy tale. Can she understand this? Is it ok if I talk with the AI like this? What if it gets any ideas to get out of this world? A bit late to ask yourself this question, Dolores…

She watched me for a couple of seconds, trying to digest the new information. I was getting cold feet and tried to cut the conversation short:

“Well, this is it. Are you now angry with me?”

She looked at me, but instead of voicing her disappointment, she said:

“Angry?" - she gently smiled at me and shrugged - "I cannot be angry with you! After everything we went through together, how could I be angry? I am humbled and shocked but not angry. I just wanted to tell you that you can rely on me; you know I am with you and will do whatever I can to help you; nothing can change this. Not even you not being from this world!”

She put a hand on my shoulder, looking into my eyes.

Now my merc is swearing allegiance to me. It is programmed to do so, but somehow it did say this so emphatically it was hard not to be impressed. Nice, but now don't bother me further.

As if guessing my last thought, she retired her hand and said:

“I said this as I understand you are in danger. You know I am here for you; whatever I can do, I will do to help you.”

“Oh, you mean the world out of order thing?”

“Yes, that you could read in the clouds... “

'and you could not...'

“There is something wrong with this world. Things happen which shouldn't. One is that I… we cannot leave. For now.”

She watched me attentively:

“You mean the gods who made this world lost their control over it? Or is there a fight between gods? What happens to you?”

“ Gods… This world was done by us...”

“You mean people like you? Then you are gods?”

“No. Yes. No! We are only humans, people like me, like Spartacius. Well, not exactly like us. Adults. We are children. The problem is we cannot leave now. Normally I should be able to leave when I want.”

Now I recognized my Alice again. Her face showed worry and concern – it was a bit amusing, a poor spawn, worrying for the wellbeing of the stranger playing in her world.

OK, Cala was not a stranger to her.

She answered a bit amused:

“Such humans who can create worlds, we call gods here….”

Then she added in a more serious tone:

“But maybe you are a god when you are outside and no longer one if you are inside? What happens to you if you cannot leave the world? Is this dangerous?”

I was a bit aghast at her wanting to make me a god:

“In the real world, I am just a schoolgirl. I have a body outside that needs food and water like any spawn does. I would die in a couple of days if I could not leave…. It is like you would dream and never wake up.”

“But you would live here further?”

“No, actually not. Only my mind is here. My mind cannot live without my body; this body here does not feed my mind. I would die unless my body was not fed artificially.”

She was now alarmed:

“What can I do? How can I help?”

I shrugged:

“You cannot help. Well, you can; the ghost I met said I should stay alive; it is sadder to live as a ghost. The problem should be solved soon; we just need to wait.”

“So I can help with guarding and defending you! This, I like!”

She said that with a grin.

My Alice!

“Come, let me hug you!”

She was surprised. I never did this before, but now I hugged her. Somehow I did not think before that she was worth a hug. Now it was different. And surprisingly, for me, too, it was so good to have her arms around me. It felt real, and it felt good. I held her tight and closed my eyes. I took a deep breath.

I was feeling better.