Helmgarth followed Addrion, his backpack shuffling loudly with each step. I noticed that now that he had the means of supporting himself with the cane, his limp was much more pronounced. Commander Zideo followed Helmgarth, and I of course brought up the rear.

The youth hurried down the dark of the final twist of the stairwell. There was fear in their gray-green eyes, and they pointed behind themselves, gesturing back up the steps. “Hurry,” said the youth whose name I still did not know. “She needs you! Do not trust your eyes!”

Addrion wasted no time, converting her body into energy and dashing up the stairs. The youth squeezed past us, hurrying back down to the Lower Court.

In the library above, we found a clone of the youth we had just passed—a statue made of the same crystal and ice as Addrion had been only moments ago. It stood with their hands on the railing, and an expression of surprise clear on their face. The familiar blue-white glow was instantly obvious, and Helmgarth slid the statue away from the ledge to prevent a fall. The oversized boots scraped harshly against the floor.

Zideo burst into the library to find the Princess standing, smoking a cigarette and reading a book by the light of a single candle. She had not removed her mirrored sunglasses.

The armored woman made the slightest bow. “My—your majesty,” she said. Her eyes darted around the room, rapidly glancing behind the open door, beneath the side tables, and at every dark corner. She turned suddenly and sprinted back to the doorway, pushing Zideo out of the way, then peered down the dark of the staircase and muttered, “Damn.” She walked swiftly out onto the dark balcony with her weapon raised, disappearing off to one side.

“Are you cool here?” asked Zideo, adding, “Uh, that is, your highness.”

She clapped the book shut, causing Zideo and myself to jump. Her seemed deep in thought, and took a long drag on the cigarette. One thing you must know about my human, and do not think this is a fault, but he does not know what to do during long silences. He becomes uncertain and impatient and I smell something akin to fear on him when he’s not sure who should be talking. While long jets of smoke swirled out of her majesty’s nostrils, he shifted from foot to foot, cracked the joints in his knuckles, and began to fidget uncomfortably.

“Crazy stuff tonight, huh?” said Zideo, daring to break the silence under the circumstances. “I mean, this morning.” She took another long drag, then lowered it to her side, seeming to hold her cigarette arm down with her other arm. “Could have been worse though, I gue-”

“How?” she turned her head toward him, fixing him a glare in the dark. The single syllable thrashed the room so thoroughly and suddenly that I thought the books might fall from their shelves.

Indeed, I was certain I heard the shuffle of dry pages.

“What happened in here?” said Zideo. “I thought they were going to try to take you…r highness.” She watched him. “We came to check on you and make sure everything was chill.”

“You came because I called you,” she said. She stubbed out the cigarette on an overflowing ash tray. “Although I am beginning to question my wisdom in this matter.”

Zideo scowled, but Addrion clamored back into the room from the other side of the balcony, having finished her investigation. She returned her weapon arm back to the green gauntlet that mirrored the other. She stood too close to the Princess and asked too quietly “Who was it?”

“A boss,” she said, although I was surprised that she replied at all.

Addrion took a step back. “Here? In the tower?”

The Princess’s hands wrestled with one another, one attempting to smoke, the other preventing it. “Oh bollocks,” said Helmgarth, and there was a crashing sound as the statue in the hall fell to the floor. “My mistake, friend.” The statue of the youth lie on their back, arms still resting on invisible handrails above them.

“You’re alright,” said the Princess, suddenly noticing Addrion. “I called for you.”

“I was frozen,” said Addrion.

“How did you escape it?”

Addrion looked at Zideo. Helmgarth looked at Zideo. The Princess looked at Zideo.

“My good man seems to have a trick up his sleeve,” said the warden, kneeling over the crystallized youth in the doorway. “Come here, old chap. Be a chum and demonstrate.”

My human crossed to the doorway and touched the spiky hair of the youth, now icicles of crystal. I once again heard the thawing, crackling sound.

Color returned to the brick-brown hair, the steely blue eyes, the colorful clothing and enormous shoes. The youth wiped perspiration—or perhaps condensation—from their forehead and leaped to their feet.

“Your majesty,” they said. “I think an intruder is in the tower!” They pointed at Addrion. “Do not trust her, your highness!”

“It’s alright,” said the Princess. “The intruder is gone.”

“We just passed you on the stairs,” said Zideo, trying to help.

“No shit,” said Addrion, and leaned to spit before remembering where she was.

“So that was them?” said Zideo.

“Whoever they are,” said Addrion, “they’re taking the shape of one of us.”

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“A few of us,” said the youth. “They were you.” The youth balled their hands into fists. “They still could be, for all I know.”

“We already passed you on the stairs,” said Zideo. “Relax.”

The youth pointed a finger at him. “That’s what the intruder would say if the intruder was you!”

The Princess raised a white-gloved finger, and all conversation froze—as effectively, I thought, as whatever freezing spell had been cast on the defenders of this tower. “You,” said the Princess, turning to Zideo. “How did you do that?”

He shook his head and shrugged. “I just touched them and they came back.”

Helmgarth walked into the room proper. “Begging the good lady’s pardon,” he said, placing both hands on the crystal topped cane. “But it is another sign.”

Everyone stared at him. After a moment, the Princess spoke. “Helmgarth?”

“Oh,” he said, covering his mouth. “My apologies, madame. Yes, it is I.”

“Mods again?” she said.

He nodded, his face broadcasting embarrassment. “But it is as I said, I am sure of it,” he pointed the cane at Zideo. “Yet another miracle of the player.”

“Not this again, Helmgarth,” said Addrion. “Can this wait?”

“We saw another portent last night,” he pushed. “We were attacked in the city. I was saved from death within the Ludic Grotto.”

“Helmgarth,” said Addrion, “shut up. Really. Not the time for your Chosen One horseshit.”

“He is here for a reason—I am sure of it!”

“Enough,” said the Princess. “We have a catastrophe to attend to.” She walked out of the candlelight to the balcony, flicked her cigarette. I winced to think it might have landed in someone’s sandwich below. With her back to us, she said, “The Boss Council has pulled off their greatest maneuver against Ludopolis yet. We have to talk about how the city gets through this.”

“They got our water and our light,” said the youth. “It’s a matter of time before the time before the crops fail.”

Helmgarth scratched his chin. “Depending on resources from the Shards… seems unlikely as well.”

Addrion crossed her arms. “We need to strike back.”

The Princess whirled around. “With what army?”

Addrion twisted her palm in the air. It blurred and spun, and became the energy weapon. “With me.”

The Princess gestured for calm. “The risk is too great.”

Addrion shrugged. “In chess, sometimes you send the queen into enemy territory,” she said, then looked mortified at her own suggestion. “Err… your majesty.”

The Princess shook her head. “Put the call out to all my loyal operators,” she said, hooking her gloved hands behind her back. “We meet tonight… today. As soon as we can. Time to dust off the war room.”

“Hell yeah,” said Addrion.

“The Irregulars, too?” said the youth.

“Only the captain of the guard,” said the Princess. “This is a strategy meeting.”

“Madame,” said Helmgarth, and was shoved by Addrion. “Ah… your highness. What about my prisoner?”

“He is to attend, therefore you are to attend as well,” she said. “I am glad to see you are already dressed formally enough to be in my presence. You, on the other hand….” She spared a glance for my human’s muddy shorts, stained tie-dye shirt, and dirty Jordan-shoes. “Well, there are more important things to think consider.”

She dismissed the room, but once again called Zideo to stay. He accompanied her to the balcony, to the visible annoyance of Addrion, and I was permitted to follow.

I put my front paws up on the parapet to better see the city while she stood in silence. Unnatural night reigned over Ludopolis. House windows lit up one by one throughout the arcing streets of the city, which, even in the dark, reminded me of the keychain maze. The feast below was ruined, trashed and disordered. The Irregulars continued the slow process of lighting lamps, and individual torches and lanterns clustered together in the streets. The clocktower in the southeastern quarter struck ten times, although I was unable to reconcile it with my body’s internal clock. (There are few systems in all of creation as regular as a dog’s internal ones, in my admittedly biased opinion.)

The Princess spoke quietly and seriously to my human for a time. I found the topic tedious and obscure, and turned my attentions to sniffing around the balcony, hoping to find any sign of anything relevant to my canine interests. I heard her ask him, repeatedly, “Can you see it yet?” but could not determine what he was supposed to see, nor did I care. While there were occasionally scents wafting up from the city below–spices from foreign worlds, burning lamp oil, shreds of the feast beneath us–they were faint. The only thing in the nearby vicinity was the smell of books and worry. The Princess did not seem to own a pet, and there were few traces of visitors to this library.

“Oh,” I heard Zideo’s voice saying. “Uh. Um. I seeeeeaaaaAAAAUUGH!” He began screaming, and I ran back to find the Princess standing alone on the balcony. Afraid she had pushed him over the parapet, I propped my front feet up once more to look, which must have seemed a very human gesture.

The Princess only smiled at me. She pointed to the night sky. Suddenly, Zideo reappeared, standing beside us and stumbling for his footing as if he had been dropped from high above.

“What the actual, literal heck was that?”

She nodded, and I inferred that she must be very pleased.

We were dismissed to the lower courts, where the youth, whose name was Shiori, spoke to the other dignitaries and court-dwellers in hushed tones. One by one they departed, taking lanterns out into different quadrants of the city with wide eyes and serious looks.

Helmgarth and Zideo, cleaning up the mess of the thrashed feast, spoke quietly beneath one of the archways. “What, uh, g-word are they from?” asked my human, with a subtle nod toward the youth.

The man adjusted his backpack and looked around, then said quietly, “Domain Spirits (20_2).”

This meant nothing to me, as usual, but my human nodded in recognition. “That’s it. That’s the one. Thank you. That was gonna bother me.”

“You have… experienced it?” asked Helmgarth, a little dubiously.

“I watched a stream,” said Zideo. “One of the guys on Team Plasma was a big DomSpi-head. Oh man.” He shook his head. “He would just unload lore on you left and right. Not that it made any dang sense.”

“I commend you for finding sense in any of this, my good man,” said Helmgarth, dragging a wooden bin around as a trash receptacle, but examining everything for use before relucantly tossing anything in.

“No, no,” said Zideo, tossing a crumpled box in from a distance away. “This was beyond anything. It was during the Kingdom Hearts property mashup craze. But FUNP.R.O. couldn’t get those big franchises to get onboard, so they combined anime with public domain stories.” He swept up a pile of crumbs, or possibly pixels, with his hands. “The starting party was like… Sancho Panza and Raskolnikov.” He brushed his hands over the trash bin. “So wait. Do you know all this?”

“Not all video g-word characters know one another, my good man,” said Helmgarth in a huff. “Before the Total Conversion, we were all separated out into what amounted to neighboring worlds.”

“Sorry,” said Zideo. I hunted for unattended scraps beneath the feast tables. “I just figured… since you said that every g-word exists here…”

Helmgarth straightened and looked Zideo in the eye. “Do you know anyone from Mercury?”

“Okay,” said Zideo, “but, see, you know about Mercury.”

“Of course. I’ve been to the Simulator Wastes.” He pointed generally toward a horizon, although I did not see which.

Commander Zideo opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came.

“I’ve been meaning to ask you, chum,” said Helmgarth, both arms full of discarded hot sauce bottles. “We heard screaming when you were alone with her majesty. Addrion was about to kick the door down.”

Zideo’s eyebrows knit together in consternation. “Yeah?” he said. “Why didn’t she?”

“Oh, she quickly realized it was you screaming,” said Helmgarth. “Not the Princess.”

“Great.”