{-Myr-}

“Hello, Farrar!” Myr said brightly as the group entered the blacksmith’s shop.

He stepped back from putting a recently-made sword on display and turned to them, smiling. “If it isn’t the twins, and you brought some company with you! What could I do for you guys?”

Reynneak stepped forward and presented the charm to him. “You’re the friend of the person who owns this, right?”

“I’m friends with one of the people who own something like this,” Farrar remarked with a smirk, “and luckily for you, I’m pretty sure this one is hers. I keep setting it in a safe place for her so she has it whenever she comes back, but it always ends up going missing again. I’ll be sure to make sure she gets this.” He took it from Reynneak and sat it on the counter, mumbling about moving it to his office once they all left.

“So, we’re supposed to get something for returning it to you,” Zetai pointed out, getting right to the point. “Can I have that now?”

“I’m getting to that part! Is it just me or are the players these days getting more and more impatient?” Farrar walked into a different room for a moment and then returned with what she wanted. “One [Flaming Tip], right off the forge.” He gave it to her and she immediately equipped it. “Now if that’s it, why are you all still here?”

Zetai wandered around closer to the sword displays. “Can I buy any of these?”

There was a moment of silence before he burst into laughter. “I’m a blacksmith, not a shopkeeper! If you want anything, you’re going to have to go to Fininri. Either way, there’s no reason for a person like you to have these. They’re not actual items. They’re just here to look pretty.”

“Okay, well, can you tell the developers I want a sword that has flames on it like that one?” Zetai asked.

“You really don’t know how any of this works, do you?” Llewel sighed. “If any of us had that kind of power I’m pretty sure we would’ve used it by now.”

“Send them a couple of complaint tickets and maybe they’ll consider it for a couple of seconds,” Farrar agreed.

It looked like Zetai was barely paying attention to them, though. She was trying and failing to take one of the swords off of the display.

Reynneak watched for a moment before pulling her away from it. “I think it’s time to leave before you break something,” he decided. There was a hint of reluctance in his tone when he added, “Look on the bright side: now you can set stuff on fire.”

“You do have a good point there,” she admitted. “Fine, let’s go see what else we can do. There should be something else easy with a good reward that we can get before heading out in the wild.”

They all started heading for the door. Myr, as the last one out, gave Farrar a farewell before following the others.

It looked like they were going to be waiting for a while, though, when the quest board proved to be crowded. This was around the peak; the time where, before, Llewel and Myr would simply wait at home. They’d learned a long time ago that there was no reason to try to fight past the players.

Zetai grumbled something Myr didn’t think she wanted to understand, then turned to Reynneak and prompted, “[Quest Finder]?”

He pulled up his map and looked around the city. “There’s probably more that we can get from wandering around but we’ve done all the standard quests—at least all of the ones that aren’t triggered by something. We’ll either have to wait to see what else has been generated once everyone’s done or wander around and hope we trigger one of them.”

Zetai glanced at the twins. “I don’t suppose either of you know someone who could use some help and would offer normal quest rewards for it?”

“Nothing that you’ll be able to do,” Llewel responded. Fininri’s offer had been just that, an offer; quests weren’t something any of them could create on their own without the code to tell them to, nor could they give players rewards for it like it was a quest. Or at least, that’s what Myr had observed—it wasn’t something any of them usually talked about.

She had some intentions of helping out, though. “Usually Idihu needs help dealing with mice,” she offered.

“Once the others move away from the quest board, he’d probably have all the help he could ever need,” Reynneak pointed out. “Besides, the only thing that made it worthwhile the first time around was the skill he offered. We’re trying to stock up on what we need for fighting, not waste it on something that’s not going to be able to make up for what we lost.”

“With you two around, all we’ll have to do is wander and we’ll be able to get something,” Llewel remarked. “Quests literally spawn around you.” He walked off without another word to them.

Myr frowned. “I promise he doesn’t mean to be rude—at least I don’t think he does—he just doesn’t really like people. Players are kinda like the worst part of that…”

“Why? I mean, we’re the whole reason this place can exist,” Zetai questioned with a shrug.

“Care to think about most of the things you’ve done in the past couple of days?” Reynneak replied dryly. “I can’t blame him. You’ve been wreaking havoc and picking fights almost for the entire time we’ve been together here. I really don’t want to know what you do when I’m not here to be your voice of reason.”

She did give it some consideration. “Oh yeah.”

“There’s also this thing where they tend to think that we don’t have feelings or thoughts beyond what the code tells us,” Myr muttered slowly. She didn’t like to talk about it; for the most part, she pretended like it didn’t make a difference. “They don’t realize that we’re just as real as you are, just because we aren’t exactly like you.”

“I’ve come across a lot of games in my life, and I’ve seen some pretty realistic characters. But at the end of the day, they were still just part of a game.” It was no wonder Zetai didn’t get it. It wasn’t the first and it definitely wasn’t going to be the last. Reynneak nudged her, likely not understanding any more than she did but knowing it better to keep that part to himself.

“There’s one thing that I remember about what we did before we were in Nafrius,” Myr eventually mumbled. “I don’t remember who it was or why she was there, but I know that we were close to her. She showed us how to break free from the script and become our own people. Before her, nothing changed and we only did what we were supposed to. Because of her, all of us are more than what we were created to be. We have lives and families that we made on our own, not because something told us to. I’d say if we can make decisions like that by our own free will… we’re just as real as you, you know?”

She bumped into Llewel, who had stopped to stare at the man now blocking their way.

He looked old and tired, wearing a suit that she hadn’t seen on anybody before. What must’ve been a name tag had been poorly covered up and replaced with Zuradu. “You’re the two that I need. Let’s not make this difficult, shall we? All you have to do is come with me. I promise it only has to last as long as you make it.”

Myr couldn’t tell if her speech had done something or if Zetai would’ve always stepped between the twins and the man. “What do you want from them?”

Zuradu blinked before he seemed to notice her and Reynneak, giving them a wide smile. “Ah, players! You don’t need to worry, this won’t affect your gaming. Just a little maintenance. You can go back to what you were doing and you’ll never notice anything was different.”

Reynneak, though hesitating to get involved in the conflict, moved beside Zetai. “What we were doing involves these two.”

Zuradu peered around them so he could still see the twins. “Well, you’re causing a lot more trouble than you should. Don’t you realize clinging to these two is only going to make things harder for you? Your little Cassy realized it. Quit causing trouble or else I’m going to have to get rid of all three of you, and it’s not going to be pretty.”

“Look, dude, I’ll fight you if that’s what you want,” Zetai said bluntly. “I’ll scare you off if I have to, just stay away from these two.”

“I am in no way interested in a fight, so I’ll leave you alone… for now. You know I’ll be waiting for my time.” When the only response he got was a sword drawn on him in warning, he walked away grumbling, “Kids these days…”

Reynneak looked at the twins. “Have you ever seen that guy before? It kind of sounded like he knew you.”

Llewel shook his head. “I don’t think so. Let’s just try to find another quest, we can think about what he said later…”