Alejandra gnawed on her pinky nail. Nick, Derek, and Rafael were in an argument that was heating like the morning sun, even as they were trying to be quiet. Rafael getting dressed did not help his mood, and when he came out, he looked ready to rip into Derek and Nick. Derek and Nick had taken turns explaining the rest of the story to him, as they had with her. It did not help his mood.

She stared at the CCNC characters that were living and breathing. Hraktar had been her first character she’d ever created. She remembered that night well. She was eleven years old, and her mother Mariana got called in for a shift. It would have just been Alejandra and Jack at home. Rafael, always protective, didn’t want her to stay by herself with him. Jack rarely hit her if she stayed in his room, but she was always scared around him. Rafael invited her along to their new CCNC game. Her older brother had always been her quiet protector, and some of that bled into Hraktar when Tyler suggested a fighter was a great first character for someone getting into the game.

Hraktar knelt at the swimming pool, poking the water. The water didn’t react to his finger. Grizzizzik snuck up from behind and tried to shove him in, but the rogue was having a hard time gaining the momentum to push a half orc into the water. Hraktar gave Grizzizzik an annoyed look.

“No, nonono,” the rogue said before Hraktar picked him up by his shirt and dangled him over the edge of the pool. Grizzizzik sighed. “I hate you.”

“The feeling is mutual.” Hraktar plopped him back down, dry, on the side of the pool.

Alejandra didn’t know why she was smiling through the entire encounter. Grizzizzik and Hraktar hated each other, but they worked together for the betterment of the team. It was odd and exhilarating to see them interacting in real life. She and Nick weren’t prompting them to do this at all. This was ingrained in them, and she enjoyed watching it.

Milo was on his hands and knees, examining the dirt in front of him. He picked it up, sprinkling it between his fingers. He, Clarissa, and Ezekiel had talked beforehand about their mana. They all felt a difference. Milo was writing some calculations, and they figured in a couple more days, their cantrips would be useless. There was no mana here on earth, and it would be a tremendous blow to their casters. Now that they knew Torraq and his entire lair were here, the idea that they needed to fight without a spell like cure wounds felt impossible. True, that meant Torraq wouldn’t have spells either, but he also had thousands of creatures for a meat shield.

She didn’t even want to think about the possibility of Akshi being here, too. She just hoped that Grizzizzik’s father was far enough away from the blast that he was still in the Shrouded Domain.

Milo was on his knees with three different vials in front of him. To his credit, Milo didn’t look scared. He looked more focused than anything as he placed some sand in the vial before digging deeper. She never thought of mana being so essential before. And earth had none of it, of that she was certain. The only magical places she knew of were in imagination. Milo wanted to see if he could pull some black mana from the zombies, but Clarissa and Ezekiel both looked horrified by messing with the undead. If Milo wasn’t such good friends with both of them, he would have done it. Milo was never cautious of the undead, but a druid and a cleric absolutely were.

When Alejandra was young, it impressed her how much Derek knew about mana. Now that she was older, she was still impressed. CCNC had its own rules about mana. She had seen the chart in the back of the handbook and saw the many rules regarding which colors of mana could be combined to make what spells. He knew the terrain in the Shrouded Domain that produced the different colors of mana, with the rarer terrains being able to produce two at the same time.

When she heard about the hours upon hours upon hours Tyler and Derek would spend making theories and homebrew ideas of what weapons Milo could fuse with mana, she was eternally grateful that Tyler suggested she go with a fighter for her first character. She would have been turned off from the game if she had to learn the magic system, too. All she knew was there was the white mana that every spell caster had initially. The kind that, in the game, regenerated inside themselves every time they took a short or long rest. White was the color combination of all the manas, so they could use it for whatever spell.

It was the breaking down of the five mana colors that she always got confused about. Later she created another CCNC character who was a sorcerer, and she still gave up on figuring out the different colors. She had white mana that regenerated every time she rested, that was all that mattered.

But now, here on earth, this was a blow. If they couldn’t regenerate mana, they were only as good as their weapons. Unlike Hraktar and Grizzizzik, their spellcasters Ezekiel, Clarissa, and Milo relied on their mana. How was Ezekiel even going to be a cleric unless he had his spiritual weapon? He couldn’t cast that if they didn’t have mana.

If the entirety of Torraq’s lair wasn’t out in the world right now, she wouldn’t worry. But now she realized not having spells was going to hurt their chances of keeping their characters alive long enough to get them back home.

Alejandra glanced at Clarissa and Ezekiel in the car with Evelyn. Poor Evelyn looked concerned as she kept feeding Clarissa bottles of water.

It was getting hot. It was almost nine-thirty. They had fought mostly in the early morning, but the sun was on its way up, and it was only going to get hotter. Alejandra was tempted to slip into the car with them just to sit in the air-conditioned car.

Rafael, Derek, and Nick still had their heated discussion as Alejandra fanned herself with her shirt collar. She had a feeling their conversation was going in circles, and they couldn’t stay out here.

“We’ve got to get back. Evelyn might need to take another picture of Nick soon,” Alejandra said.

The three boys looked at her, and Rafael frowned. “What? Why?”

“Don’t worry about it,” Nick mumbled.

Rafael didn’t press it. Instead, he looked like he was fiddling with his hands, concentrating.

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“What the hell are you doing?” Derek asked.

Rafael focused on his open palm. “I’m trying to get the dice back. I will gladly hand it over to Nick as soon as I get it.”

Derek watched him for a bit. “Yeah, I really don’t think that’s how this works.”

Nick folded his arms. “Just let him try. It’s better this way.”

Rafael kept focusing on his empty hand, but nothing happened.

“It’s clearly a sign. We’ve got to stick together,” Alejandra said.

“None of this is my problem.” Alejandra was surprised at the darkness she heard in Rafael’s voice. “I didn’t ask for any of this. I left this game years ago. I don’t have time for this. I’ve got to apply to colleges! Apply for more scholarships!”

“Think about it, Rafael.” Derek held up his hands, palms out. “Torraq is here. You’ve heard the stories about him. He could very much ruin the world. Our world.”

“They can’t touch our world, and we can’t touch theirs. That was made clear to me in this fight. You can do this on your own,” Rafael said.

“But what if—” Derek started to say.

“Rafael’s right, we don’t need him,” Nick said.

Derek gave Nick an incredulous look. “Are you insane? Go through this without our cleric?”

“It’s not like he’s that good at playing the cleric, anyway. It’d be better to not have him at all. We can do this on our own,” Nick said.

Rafael glared at him, then turned around. He already started walking toward the beat-up car by the pool. “Are you coming, Alejandra? Or are you staying with them to clean up the mess Derek and Nick started?”

Nick shot the back of Rafael’s head a dirty look. Alejandra fiddled with her fingers, looking between Nick and Rafael. “I… I do want to help you guys…” Alejandra said.

“Good. Because we can’t lose our cleric and our fighter. No mana is already a big enough blow,” Derek said.

“We’ll start gathering more information. We’ll text you if we find out anything,” Nick said, not looking at her. He closed his eyes as though holding back a wince. “Derek will text you.”

Alejandra’s nod was small, then she jogged to catch up with Rafael. His knuckles were white as he held his swim bag. The dark glare was still on his face. He didn’t even wave to Evelyn.

“Um, Hraktar? Ezekiel!” Alejandra called out. “We’re… we’re going.”

Hraktar glanced at everyone before walking over to her. Ezekiel nodded before turning back to Clarissa and Evelyn to make sure they were settled before heading over to them.

“They’re not coming,” Rafael said.

“They have nowhere else to go,” Alejandra said.

Rafael opened the trunk of the car, shoving his swim bag inside. “I don’t want them in our house.”

“They won’t hurt anything.”

“Can’t they stay at Derek’s house?” Rafael asked.

“No.” Alejandra hated that she had to stand up to her brother. “I want Hraktar with me.”

Rafael slammed the trunk and turned around. Ezekiel was walking up to them. Rafael pointed to Nick. “Go, Ezekiel. Go with Nick.”

Ezekiel shook his head. “He didn’t create me.”

“Please, just go. I’m not interested in playing this game,” Rafael said.

“It’s not a game. It’s life. This new world we’ve landed in is in grave danger. It’s up to us to save it.”

Rafael said nothing, though Alejandra noticed him grinding his jaw before he spun around and headed toward the front of the car. He got in, slamming the door. She jumped a little at the noise, glancing at Hraktar and Ezekiel. Hraktar caught her gaze.

“Do you feel safe with this man?” Hraktar asked her.

Alejandra sighed. “Of course. He’s my brother. He’s… just angry. He’ll get over it.” To be honest, the years after their parent’s divorce, she’d seen a shift in Rafael she couldn’t quite place. But he had changed from being her silent protector to… being gone. Distracted. After Jack left and Mariana filed for divorce two and a half years ago, Rafael threw himself into his studies, getting top grades in all his classes. Throwing himself into his job and schooling. Being the absolute best kind of a person on paper.

But he never had time for her anymore. Never really a brother. Sure, Rafael didn’t need to protect her from beatings anymore, but she couldn’t deny that a part of her missed their late night chats. The way he’d talk with her about anything to keep her from focusing on their parents screaming at each other. It was on those kinds of nights that Rafael helped her form a backstory for Hraktar. To give her something to focus on while their parents sorted out arguments in the only way they knew how.

She watched Rafael’s white knuckles on the steering wheel as he glared at the road, waiting while Alejandra talked Hraktar into the car. His shoulders were too broad, and he almost had to shimmy inside their little car. Ezekiel tried to help, but there was only so much he could do. He still tried, though, because Ezekiel never realized when to be defeated. Rafael did nothing but glare at the road, keeping the air blasting as the early morning turned into midmorning.

Hraktar finally got inside, and it took another few minutes to figure out the seat belt situation. Hraktar got it on, settling into the seat and glancing at Rafael. “I am aware this new world is perhaps unfamiliar with half-orcs like me.” Hraktar said this as though he, too, was painfully aware he had a -1 in charisma. “Thank you for your patience.”

Rafael slammed the blinker with more force than was necessary. Alejandra jumped. Rafael knew as much as she did that Hraktar was deeply unsettled that a part of him was half an orc. It was something Alejandra created for her fighter during a night where Rafael slipped out of the room to make sure Jack wasn’t getting so angry that he would throw something at Mariana. Hraktar knew that there needed to be two people needed to create a person. Hraktar was often unsettled that half his heritage came from a race known for being violent and brutish.

The silence was too much for her, and she inclined her head toward Rafael. “I don’t get why you’re so angry.”

“Because this isn’t my problem. It’s my senior year. I don’t need this,” Rafael said.

“You used to love CCNC.”

“It was a fun little game when we were kids, but we’ve got to grow up, eventually.” Alejandra shook her head, her brother still glaring at the road. “This isn’t your problem either, you know. You’re about to start your junior year. You’ve got to think about your future. Where you want to go to college. What you want to major in. You need to start applying for scholarships. Getting tests lined up.” Alejandra felt herself shut down. She folded her arms, looking out the window. Rafael noticed her change in attitude. “So tell Derek and Nick they need to solve this problem on their own. I will not have them asking my little sister to put her life on hold to solve their problem.”

Alejandra’s lips formed into a thin line, finding herself glaring at the road as darkly as Rafael had. “No. I’m helping them. You can’t tell me what to do.”

“Look at the facts, Allie,” he said, using a nickname she hated. “There are way too many invisible monsters. You don’t know where they all are. They can’t hurt this world, so this world is in no actual danger.”

“It’s not like Derek and Nick knew that when playing CCNC, a portal was going to open and suck everyone into this world. It’s not a problem they created, they’re in trouble. Something is going on, and we’ve got to help our friends. You know Nick would do the same to you if you were ever in this kind of trouble,” Alejandra said.

That did not soften Rafael’s glare one bit. “Nick and Derek, you mean?”

“Yeah. That’s what I mean.”

“You just said Nick.”

Alejandra folded her arms, rolling her eyes. “Rafael…”

“He’s a delinquent, you know. I’m trying to protect—”

“No, you’re not. This isn’t protection, this is control,” Alejandra said.

“I’m just pointing out the obvious fact that Nick—”

“—would help you if you found yourself in this kind of situation. Police reports from three years ago be damned,” Alejandra said.

Rafael tightened his fingers over the steering wheel. “Pretty sure he’d only help me to talk to you.”

“Then you don’t really know him, do you?”

“Neither do you,” Rafael grumbled.

“We’re done talking about this.”

“Good,” Rafael said.

The siblings rode home in silence. Behind her, Hraktar and Ezekiel exchanged glances.