“Jakob… I’m so sorry.”

He was looking into his hands. “It’s not your fault.”

“It was my fault. I should’ve told you that I had a psycho following me.”

“Plenty of those live in this World,” he replied weakly.

“Yeah, but most of them probably aren’t Frontier players…”

His eyes widened, but then he smirked sadly. “Frontier players are no different. In fact, they’re probably even more psychotic than the bottom-feeders in the Village and Gothershall.”

I sat down next to him. “…What do we do?”

Jakob handed me a small coin in response. I almost asked what the hell I would do with a coin, but then I saw the reflection in its surface. It was like a hole in my hand as it lay there, showing Silt from another perspective.

I looked up at him, shaking my head, while smiling at his boldness. “I can’t believe you did that!”

He laughed, but then seemed to remember where we were and why, and a cloud fell over him again. “At least he won’t be able to surprise us anymore.”

“You’re right about that,” I said, lifting the little coin-sized Scrying Mirror up to my eye.

As I looked into its surface, I could see the stilt platforms of Silt, but the fishing village looked different than the version we were in. It was livelier.

“His World looks a lot different from ours,” I commented.

“That’s a good thing. It means he’s done something to radically change things, meaning he can’t reach us here. He probably did some kind of quest-chain to bring people back to Silt, and, as a result, he cannot find us as long as we remain here. We’ll be unreachable to him forever.”

“But we can’t stay.”

“You’re right. And since Patrik died, that means he’ll be resurrected near the Village tomorrow morning.”

“He might still be alive,” I said optimistically, even though I didn’t believe it. I saw his head come off. You don’t live through that, no matter how many potions you have…

“He’s dead,” Jakob said with utter confidence. “Look at the group. He’s no longer in it, and he also vanished from my Friendlist.”

I looked at the group menu, and, sure enough, it was just Jakob and I now.

“Shit…”

After six hours, when the air had gotten colder and the sun was gone from the sky, Jakob came and tapped me on my shoulder. I’d been sitting on one of the piers, watching the waters below. Occasionally I’d spotted some fish, but Barnacle Barney remained out of sight. For now.

“He’s gone back to the Village,” Jakob told me. “He might try to attack us tomorrow morning if we go and find Patrik in the Resurrection Field. Or he might go to Gothershall. I’m not sure.”

“Can he hurt us in ‘the Resurrection Field’?”

Jakob nodded. “But he won’t be able to hurt Patrik.”

“Why not?”

“People who have just woken up have the Resurrection Sickness. It makes them weak, but it also protects them until they enter the Forgotten Village, or twelve hours have passed.”

“That’s comforting to know,” I said. “I was worried people could just go seal clubbing on all the ‘newborn’.”

“From what I heard, that actually used to be an issue. A lot of people forgot everything and became Forsaken because of it, but then, one day, suddenly the Sickness started protecting people.”

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“Almost like someone corrected an oversight,” I commented. Almost like a hotfix in a game, I thought, but didn’t say.

“Yeah. Anyway, we should head back. Maybe he left Patrik’s things behind, but either way, we don’t want to be here when night falls.”

“Thank god we don’t have to go across the lake to avoid him,” I replied.

“Don’t jinx us.”

Though it was pitch-black by the time we reached the Safe Zone banner of The Forgotten Village, we’d made it back in one piece.

Jakob had managed to loot all of Patrik’s equipment, but his crafting items, gold, and a few other rare items he’d supposedly had were all gone, looted by Kerebor…

Was everything he told me a lie? I wondered to myself. I wanted to tell Jakob all about Kerebor and how he helped me, but I didn’t want him to hate me more than he already did.

Due to the additional weight, we moved a lot slower on the road, but Jakob insisted it was necessary. I didn’t argue.

When we got to the Ornery Pig, Jakob bought us both dinner and rooms from the still-awake serving girl, who greeted us with her unfalteringly-positive attitude and charm. We went to our separate rooms to eat and then sleep, after agreeing to reconvene early the following morning.

I yawned wide enough to nearly dislocate my jaw as we were heading to the Resurrection Field. Jakob had apparently not slept at all, and had spent the time looking through the Scrying Mirror. It seemed Kerebor hadn’t slept either, but had instead found a horse he kept in a stable and had headed to Gothershall. I was glad not to have to worry about him, but if Gothershall was where the next Stage would be, I would have to find some way to deal with him.

We walked past a lot of drowsy-looking people in rags as we went to the field where I’d only just recently awoken. It was a sobering reminder of my own mortality to see such a number of people here.

“There’s a lot of people who have died lately,” I commented.

“It’s rare for there to be so many all at once,” Jakob replied ominously.

We continued past the hill with the tree where I’d first met Kerebor. The sight made me uncomfortable and I tried not to look at it.

“How long have you been alive?” I asked, trying to focus on the dirt path and not lock eyes with the many ‘newborn’ people.

“I haven’t really been counting the days,” he started, “But it has probably been eight months, give or take.”

“Wow…” I just said.

“I know. I spent a long time just doing small Errands and whatnot. It’s only recently that I really began progressing through the Main Quest.”

I stepped around someone walking towards us, since he showed no signs of moving out of the way. Then looked to Jakob again. “Why did you wait so long?”

“I was scared, I suppose. Besides, it took me a long time to come to grips with this place and my…”

Jakob stopped on the road, looking at the grass ahead and to the left. I followed his gaze. In the grass next to the dirt road sat a man with a familiar face. He was looking at his hands in amazement.

“They’re all there…” he mumbled incoherently, turning his hands back-and-forth.

“Hey Patrik,” Jakob said.

He simply ignored the greeting.

We stood there for a full minute in silence before Patrik finally noticed us. As he shielded his eyes against the sun to look at us, he asked, “Were you talking to me?”

I pointed a finger to Jakob and then myself, “Do you remember us?”

For a moment I thought that he would, but then he shook his head and looked back at his hands. I wondered why he was so fascinated with them.

“We used to be friends,” Jakob continued, unperturbed by the total lack of response. It was hard for me to watch. For as much as I hated myself for the thought, I could suddenly empathise with Kerebor.

This is awful…

“Did we?” Patrik replied without looking up. “Then why are you calling me Patrik? That’s not my name.”

“That’s what you told me.”

“My name is Duke Harkenfaarth.”

I shook my head. “Jakob, this is too much.”

He didn’t acknowledge me, and instead sat down in front of Patrik. “In this world that is your name, but not in the real world.”

“What do you mean?”

“He’s trying to say that this isn’t the real world,” I interjected. Patrik seemed a lot slower on the uptake than I’d been.

An epiphany seemed to come over him at the answer. “So, that’s why I still have all my fingers,” he said.

“What’s he talking about?” I asked Jakob.

He shrugged, still with his back to me.

I let out a deep sigh.

This is gonna take a while…

After two hours of Jakob slowly coaxing Patrik out of his shell and recounting stuff they’d done together, he handed him his old equipment and helped him stand.

The three of us slowly made our way to the Village and then the Ornery Pig, where Jakob paid for Patrik to get a room and a meal. He then told him to eat and sleep, and that they would talk the following day.

Afterwards, the two of us sat at a table sipping some weak ale. It felt like we had just come from a funeral and at least ten minutes passed without either of us saying anything, but then I eventually broke the silence.

“You’re not coming with me to the tournament, are you?”

Jakob looked into his mug absently. “I have to stay here and help him. I owe him.”

“I understand,” I replied. “I was hoping we could’ve done it together, but I know this is more important to you.”

Jakob looked kind of sad. “I’m sorry,” he replied softly.

I smiled in return. “It’s okay. You’ll just have to catch up later.”

“Are you leaving for Gothershall now?”

“If I can find transport from here, yes. Otherwise, I need to buy some food, since it’ll be a long walk.”

His eyes brightened. “I can help you with transport.”