It was Sigrid who figured out where I would reappear. A Player overheard her asking someone else if they knew when and where you respawned and came up to tell her about an incident earlier that morning. The Player had been in a group outside the walls and one their party had been killed in an encounter with a pack of wolves. The same group of plague doctor NPCs had come and taken that body away too, and a few hours later the person reappeared on the gazebo, good as new.

She rushed to the courtyard but I hadn’t come back yet. It was nearly time for her to regroup with the others, but she didn’t want to leave in case she missed my return so she paid an NPC child a silver piece to go to the Dragon Clan and pass along the message to someone there.

She was still waiting for the others to get the message and join her in the town square when I suddenly appeared without warning in the center of the gazebo. I was wearing the same clothes I’d had on when I died, including my ring, although there wasn’t a knife hole in my shirt. No sign of any injury at all, not even a speck of blood.

Sigrid came so fast she almost bowled me over. She pounced and caught me in a tight hug and squeezed hard, tears flowing freely onto my shoulder as she sobbed and apologized, over and over.

“I’m so sorry, Daniel, it’s my job to protect and I failed you. I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”

I allowed myself to be crushed for a while, Sigrid was much stronger than me so it’s not like I had a choice anyway. Plus, even though it made me uncomfortable it wasn’t altogether unpleasant. I kept trying to tell her it was okay, that it wasn’t her fault, and it wasn’t really so bad anyway. Once her sobs eventually subsided she let me go, wiping tears and snot from her face before grabbing my shoulders and looking straight at me, her blue eyes boring into mine.

“I’m not going to let that happen again,” she told me. “Ever. You understand me?”

“Sigrid, you don’t have to—”

“Shut up,” she snapped.

“But—”

“Shush. Don’t argue. From now on, I’m your shield, you got that?”

“Yeah, okay,” I said. She let go of my shoulders.

I hated that she felt guilty, but I was also very thankful that she was going to protect me from then on. Stratos’ warning about what might happen if I died again still rang in my ears.

Then I heard my name shouted from across the courtyard. “Daniel!” It was Jane. She was striding across the cobblestones with Andy in tow. Sigrid and I left the gazebo and met them in the middle.

Jane came up to me and I closed my eyes, bracing myself for another hug. I got a sharp punch in the shoulder instead.

“Idiot!” she said. “Don’t you ever, and I mean never, do that again.”

I figured it was a joke, so I opened my eyes expecting to see her smiling. All I saw was righteous fury.

“Jane, be nice,” Sigrid said.

“I’m always nice,” Jane snarled through gritted teeth.

“Don’t listen to her,” Sigrid said to me, “she lashes out like that when she doesn’t feel in control.”

“Not one of her better qualities,” I muttered.

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“Tell me about it,” Sigrid murmured back.

“I know you know I can hear you,” Jane said.

“What she really means to say,” Sigrid said, “is thank you, Daniel, for risking your life to save mine. And as for me, I’m really sorry I couldn’t save you.”

“I’m sorry I wasn’t there too,” Andy said. “But I’m going to make sure I’m there the next time you bump into that Kiki chick. I’m going to make her watch me smash her crew to a bloody pulp.”

“Don’t be silly,” I said.

“What did it feel like?” he said. “Dying, I mean.”

“It hurt,” I said, rubbing my chest where the knife had hit me. “And then it didn’t.” I inwardly debated saying something about my new abilities, but once again decided against revealing my abnormal relationship with Stratos, at least not yet.

“I think I’m going to avoid getting killed then,” he said.

“I’m so sorry,” Sigrid said.

“You can stop saying that now, I get it. But honestly, you have nothing to be sorry for. I’ll tell you one thing, though,” I said. “I am never going out unarmored again.”

“Well,” Jane said, “thanks to your pointless heroics, we’ve lost precious time we could have spent finding good Players for the team. We’ll never finish your quest at this rate.”

“Wait a minute,” I said, a big grin spreading across my face. “Did you just call me a hero?”

“I said no such thing!” Jane said, looking horrified.

“I heard it,” Sigrid said.

“Me too,” Andy said.

“I said pointless heroics.”

“And what do you call someone who does heroic things?” I said.

“An idiot,” Jane said.

“The word I was looking for is hero.”

“Same thing,” and she stormed off in no particular direction. We all watched her go.

“Should we...?” I said.

“Follow her, you mean?” Andy said.

“Yeah.”

He sighed. “Probably,” and he made it one step before Sigrid held out her hand to stop him.

“Not yet,” Sigrid said, and we all stood there, watching Jane get farther and farther away until she stopped and looked back at us.

“Are you jerks coming or what?” Jane yelled. Several other people stopped to look at her.

“Now you can go,” Sigrid said, and Andy started off toward Jane. I was about to go too when Sigrid stopped me with a tug on my sleeve.

“I almost forgot,” she said, and pulled a knife out. I recognized it right away. The last time I’d seen it, it had been flying through the air toward my heart. “I pulled it out of you before these spooky undertaker guys came and got your body.”

I took it from her. It still had my blood caked on it. “Thank you. I’m going to hang onto this.”

“Don’t thank me. It was Jane’s idea to keep it for you.”

How did she know I’d like to have this?

“She’s a strange girl,” I said.

Sigrid pulled a face halfway between a smile and a grimace. “You’re not wrong,” she said.

I turned away from her and watched Jane striding ahead of us.

"Don't do it," Sigrid said.

"Do what?" I said.

"Fall for her."

"Come on, like I'd--"

"Just don't, okay" Sigrid said. "No good could come of it."

"What do you mean?"

"Look, Jane's my bestie and and I love her and all, but...how do I spin this kindly? She's a narcissistic attention whore."

"Yikes. I'd hate to hear the unkind spin."

She laughed. "I don't mean it in a cruel way. Objectively speaking, Jane's a stunner all round. She has every right to be a bit narcissistic. It's just that because of her many sparkly qualities people tend to fall for Jane."

"I'll admit, I can see how that could happen."

"Yeah. The problem is she likes that, she likes the attention. A bit too much. But no good ever comes from it. It would be a shame to see her break your heart too."

"I'll keep that in mind."

Sigrid exhaled heavily. "No you won't. Just don't say I didn't warn you."