Surprised, Hua’Lena made a step backwards and turned towards her. The queen had her face hidden by a veil, probably not to be recognized.

She was approaching us, seconded by two very old amazons.

There was a moment of silence. I turned towards the forest.

“Lynx, you can come out of the bushes! Everything is OK”

To my surprise, he listened to me, but he issued only half of his head, looking over a bush. I turned again towards the queen, and she nodded.

“Come on, Lynx, don't be afraid!”

He protested but got slowly out.

“I am just cautious...”

I shrugged. We approached the queen, and the Lynx timidly joined us. The group surrounded us not in an ominous way but rather as kids looking curious and admiring the giant lynx would. The queen expected us in her dignified way, several steps away. I realized something strange in how she moved, as if she would mimic the two old ladies at her side. Once I got close enough, I could see a surprisingly old face under her veil. She had the traits I remembered, but the person in front of me was not her. She was not mimicking an old person, she was an old person, but the queen I remember was young?

Is this her grandmother?

What is happening here?

I was a bit confused about what to say or do. The queen comes out and greets me; finally, everybody calms down and accepts me, and now I come out and say: oops, she is not the queen I met?

Or did the game reset the amazons? Why would they... ok for whatever reason. True, that could be: lower levels, older queen, but it is such an unorthodox move! It never happened before in Mephisto. It puts you in a situation where you would doubt the timeline.

She gave me the honour of a personal magic handshake, and once our forehands touched, I felt that prickle that tells friend from foe. Once we shook hands, and the blue light enveloped us for a short moment, all the others relaxed. I was now identified as a friend. As the queen already greeted me by name, I think this was only a formality, or maybe a demonstration to the crowd: see, this is how it is done.

The queen did not let me meditate further; she pulled me by the hand:

“Come, Cala, let's go inside the camp. Excuse me for the improper reception you've had, but it is difficult for me to walk; else, I would have come sooner.”

The queen I know was a very active, enterprising young amazon, and she would certainly not miss the opportunity to check personally if there was a challenge near the camp.

The etiquette was as I knew it: there is no 'lady' with the amazons; they address each other and everybody else directly by their names, except the queen, which is to be addressed with the simple title 'queen'.

Still confused by what I've seen, I could not abstain from asking:

“Excuse me, queen, are you In'Hetta's mother?”

OK, I did ask it. Let's see how she reacts. I did not say grandmother to be polite.

“No, Cala, it is me, Hetta” - This was the surprising answer I got, together with a burst of sour laughter.

I pondered for a couple of moments, but she was kind enough to explain:

“This is the harpies' curse, Cala. They have a new terrifying curse. Our witchdoctors cannot cure it. We've been repeatedly attacked and cursed by them. After each attack, the wounded got older. Even those that were only spat by the harpies got older. Their touch brings the curse. They sprayed cursed water over us. Our kids are grown-ups but not trained; our trained warriors are old or dead. Even our trees and our animals got old. There have been many miscarriages. We had to run and leave our villages, our lands. We currently hide from them in this forest that is to become our new land.”

OK, totally different situation to what I've thought.

I sighed. So much for them helping me: a bunch of old ladies and kids with bows?

Her’Thaya approached us, looked at the queen, and as she got permission to talk: a slight nod from the queen, she asked:

“Cala, can you heal our queen? If you took me back from death, you could maybe heal her?!”

I turned towards the queen:

“I can heal wounds but not curses. Will this help?”

Her'Thaya insisted:

“Please, can you try your magic?”

I shrugged:

“Sure, I can try.”

The queen nodded. I touched her hand:

“I want to heal you.”

The fine silver dust touched her, but I was disappointed to see the same old woman in front of me.

“I am sorry, it does not seem to work!”

The queen took deep air into her lungs:

“Don't be disappointed; I am not younger, but my wounds are healed. There were enough not properly healed wounds that plagued me. Your heal is powerful!”

She looked at me and added:

“Thank you, I do feel indeed much better. There is a lot of work if you can heal… will you and can you?”

Did White Flower not say that I can use unlimited heal?

I shrugged and nodded:

“Sure!”

We entered the camp. Hidden under trees, on the banks of a small rivulet, the camp consisted of many improvised tents surrounded by a half-finished palisade. It did not have the order and discipline I was used to seeing in an amazons' commune.

The queen gave a couple of orders then she left. I was left free to do what I wanted in the camp, but everybody expected me to set up a healing centre.

Cala, the healer! The idea of asking for a healing tax did cross my mind, but in the end, if they would have had the money, they would have bought healing potions.

Her'Thaya helped me organize the healing centre; basically, she provided a table and a chair for me in front of her tent that I was free to use now and almost instantly, a queue formed.

I healed and healed and healed and healed. I got some water and wine to drink and soon some fruits and cookies. I think the entire camp visited me. I was not sure if White Flower’s power would last, but it seemed she had almost unlimited resources, true to her word.

I sent the others to go visit the camp. You do not often have the opportunity to visit an amazons' village, so they should use it. Alice found the advanced archer's group and ended up chatting and exchanging tips with a group of what looked like ancient ladies.

The Lynx decided to stay with me and was soon submerged by a mass of very young girls who all wanted to climb the mass of fur, and Spartacius with Tina disappeared with a group of girls that looked older than them but were probably their age.

Meanwhile, the amazons prepared lunch for us. It was not as rich as I had some in memory, but still, it was good, and it ended with those delicious honey cookies that I had in memory. After that, whilst the others remained around the table and talked with the amazons, I had the pleasure of visiting a sauna. The others did not seem interested in visiting it. OK, I could understand the Lynx but Alice and Tina? Spartacius, I think he was too shy to try it.

Well, whatever. I remembered it well from last time, and a pleasant surprise was to see that they had it working. Improvised settlement and all, but the sauna was working!

I undressed, took a bath towel and went slowly to the highest stairs inside the wooden cabin. There were only a couple of amazons there relaxing.

After copiously sweating, I enjoyed a massage as only amazons can do. As they train all their lives, hunting, fighting, and sports, they have a deep knowledge of anatomy: muscles, bones, and joints. Oh dear, that was good!

Having nothing to do but relax on the massage table, I could let my brain free reign to think about my situation. Prisoner in a game. It was like a dream come true, or a nightmare, depending on how you looked at it, and suddenly I realized that 'dream' is the answer.

You can dream years in one dream!

When they did build up this world, it was at a higher speed. Years, even centuries, went through in only days. This is how the world was prepared for the story. Nations grew, kingdoms were conquered or lost, and empires were built, all in hours and minutes.

When the story achieved the required level, it was slowed down and then opened for users.

What if they lost control of the time function after that?

What if time here got disconnected from time in the real world? What if everything that I lived through happened in maybe ten or twenty minutes of real life? How much can you compress a dream?

I don't know. With their built-in feedback to our brains, as was explained by Ivar the ghost, it could have happened. What if that function overran the clock function of the system?

When I do say my speed spell, I can move and think at double or even triple speed. What if something like this happened to the whole system? This would explain why Ivar found no bodysuit players so far; they must have simply lost connection to the game. They could not play at increased speed.

This would explain why there was no shutdown and disconnection yet; it simply could not have happened in the short time! It would explain why a single error message in the clouds and no follow-up. I simply have a longer system-supported dream. So let's keep it as a dream and not a nightmare. No dying here.

I stood up, energized and happy. Yeah, I can further play without worry! Everything will get fixed in time.

Hopefully, they do not fry my brain before.