Errant tugged on the front of his blue suit jacket as he walked the streets. Bern had

a lot of problems. He saw some of them getting fixed in the near future. Once he had

dealt with the one problem that intrigued him, he might stay and watch how things

went.

He paused at a corner to look around. He sniffed the air. What he wanted was close

by. He could feel it.

“What do you think, Woody?,” he said.

His companion barked at him twice.

“We should go left?,” said Errant. A flash of something sparked across his eyes. He

nodded. “Let’s go left.”

The two wanderers started down the street, watching the sides for problems. They

were confidant in their abilities to handle any problem, but they didn’t want any

trouble before they reached their destination.

That was when the trouble usually began.

“Mad magician, you think?,” asked Errant.

Woody barked once. His wooden body gleamed under the street lights. Being the size

of a lion gave him enough confidence not to worry about a common street bandit.

His companion was a human male dressed in a light blue suit and a dark shirt who

didn’t look as nearly as dangerous as he was on any given day. Woody thought the

fake smile and fast talk was what convinced people they were dealing with someone

normal and harmless.

And then things escalated, explosions of some kind happened, and then his friend

blew up the opposition before they could stop him.

Sometimes Woody leant a hand, but it was more of a formality for the wizard.

You didn’t lend a hand to the lightning.

“I’m sure we’re close, Woody,” said Errant. “I can practically feel the magic vibrating

against my face. It seems a little risky inside the city like this.”

Errant and Woody walked along, checking the air until Woody sniffed one door in

particular and barked. He sat down in front of the door.

“This is the place, eh?,” said Errant. He raised a hand. Glowing lines revealed

themselves. “It looks like it’s shielded from the ordinary people who have to pass this

way.”

He traced the lines until he found a knot in the air. He twisted the locus. The shield

temporarily inverted to let him and Woody pass before going back to keeping people

out again.

He walked over to the door. He tried the knob. He made a noise that an ordinary lock

was keeping him out of the building after inverting the shield like he had. He pulled

a wand from inside his jacket and pointed the end at the lock. A moment of

concentration left a hole where the lock had been.

He pushed the door out of the way. He looked around as he stepped inside. He pushed

the door closed so no one would be likely to notice the hole in the door and think

about looking around. He felt that would be more trouble stacked on to whatever was

hidden in the place.

Light cascaded in the center of the room. He saw people standing around inside a

signature circle. Some of the people looked like they had died where they stood. He

walked closer to get a better look.

As the Queen’s Knight, Errant had enough personal power to break the circle. What

would happen to the people inside it? He expected he might be trapping their minds

inside the circle forever if he just cut everything off.

On the other hand, he wasn’t comfortable just letting the circle throw magic out in the

world with no one around to supervise it. That’s how you got the many wills of the

wisps that annoyed travelers.

“Some kind of mind trap, Woody?,” Errant said. He put the wand away as he

analyzed the circle. “Seems extensive.”

Woody barked once.

“I know,” said Errant. “What is the point of all this?”

He paused at the edge of the circle and knelt. The lines did channel a lot of energy.

He supposed it was mystical energy from the people he could see.

He had some options. Most involved killing the people who were still alive. He didn’t

like those. He thought that he could pull them out one by one which would involve

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

severing the connection to the circle and hoisting them out of contact. He imagined

a lot of pushback against anything like that if the dream was pleasant enough.

“What do you think, Woody?,” said Errant. “Some kind of life link, do you suppose?”

Woody sniffed the air. Then he barked once.

“That’s what I think too,” said Errant. “I wonder what all of this is for. What good is

it?”

Woody barked twice.

“A magical simulation of reality?,” said Errant. “What good is that? Why not let

things grow in the real reality?”

Woody shook his head. He didn’t know why someone would set up another plane to

create a fake world, link people to it, and try to shield it from outside forces. That was

not his part of their partnership.

“I think I am going to have to go in and see what this is about,” said Errant. “It looks

like you get to stay outside where it’s safe and keep anyone from doing anything rash

while I am in.”

Woody chuffed at that.

“I can’t help that I have thumbs,” said Errant. He held up both hands. “I’ll let you

enter the next demiplane we discover.”

Woody barked at that.

“I will,” said Errant. “I’ll even give you a fancy translator thing so you can talk to

people without barking.”

Woody laid down on the floor. He lowered his head on his paws.

“I’ll take care of this and come right out,” said Errant. “How hard could it be?”

Errant stepped inside the circle. He felt a moment of disorientation. The empty space

around the circle disappeared. He found himself in a city resembling Bern without

signs, or transportation, that he could see. He frowned as he looked around.

What was the purpose of this?

Errant looked around. He decided that he would walk toward the center of the city.

If he ran into one of the trapped people, he would take the chance to talk to them.

Whatever was going on had to be nefarious. Why else hide it from the authorities

under a shield? If it was straightforward, the circle would have been set up in a

business, university, or government place. He would have seen mages monitoring

things to make sure people like him couldn’t meddle.

That wouldn’t have stopped him, but he would have been more inclined that

something was being done that wasn’t dangerous to the people locked in this

secondary world.

He would have been more inclined to let things be, and talk to the creator of the circle

when he was sure things were done.

Now he felt he should stop the circle, tell everyone to leave, and call whatever

authority handled magicians gone mad.

Unless he was forced to handle the magician gone mad. Then everything that

followed fell under self defense.

“How are things looking, Woody?,” he asked the empty air. “I seem to have switched

scenery.”

Woody barked. The sound filled the air.

“So I haven’t gone anywhere,” said Errant. “This is just a mental construct. That’s

good to know.”

It meant that he had a line of defense if he wanted to shut things down. All he had to

do was wish for things to stop. That would affect the others stuck in the circle with

him. He wondered what their function was.

Maybe they had signed up for the spell to do what it was supposed to do.

This wouldn’t be the first cult he had put down in his long life.

Errant saw people moving around as he walked the city streets. He realized most of

them were constructs. He wondered why. It probably had something to do with the

purpose of the circle, and since he didn’t know what that was, he had to make guesses

about the fake people.

He wondered if he had stumbled into some kind of experimental magic. That might

explain everything. What did he want to do about it?

He supposed a talk with the creator was in order.

Once he had his questions answered, he could make a decision on what to do.

He spotted one of the men from the circle in the street ahead. Maybe he could get

answers from him.

Then he saw another one. The two men looked at each other. They pulled swords of

lightning from their belts. He raised a hand to attract their attention. The last thing he

wanted was a public duel before he got his answers.

“Excuse me,” Errant called. He looked at the fake people scattering from the duel.

“What’s going on here?”

“What do you mean what’s going on here?,” asked the first man Errant had seen.

“We’re playing the Game.”

“Wait,” said the second man. “Who are you? I don’t remember you being in the

group.”

“I’m not really in the group,” said Errant. “I walked into the circle to find out what

was going on. This is an extraordinary work of magic in my opinion. And it’s to play

a game?”

“Yes,” said the two men.

“How did you get in here?,” asked the first man. He held his lightning sword so he

could attack either of the other two with a step in their respective direction.

“Your circle leaks,” said Errant. “Woody and I found it while walking around Bern.”

“It’s not our magic circle, it’s Bass’s,” said the second man. “He set it up so we can

play without hurting anyone.”

“I’m afraid some of your number are dead in the real world,” said Errant. “I guess his

safeguards weren’t that good.”

Or never meant to be safe at all if he wanted the players to kill each other.

“What do you mean dead?,” asked the first man.

“Several of the people in the circle are dead,” said Errant. “That’s what prompted me

to find out what was going on before I called the authorities.”

“No one is supposed to be dead,” said the second man. The duelists looked at each

other. “This is supposed to be a perfectly safe war game.”

“Really?,” said Errant. “I think we should sit down somewhere and you two should

tell me what you think is going on. We should probably get everyone together for our

talk.”

“Everyone is hunting everyone else,” said the first man. “I don’t think they’ll want

to sit still and talk about things.”

“Good point,” said Errant. “We should ask.”

He pulled his wand from his jacket and held it up in the air. The simulated buildings

flattened to nothing. All the players except two looked around at the loss of their

cover. The two exceptions were fighting a duel and didn’t have time for a change of

venue.

Errant clapped his hands to get their attention. He put the wand away.

“Everyone, We’re having tea and sympathy,” he shouted. “Gather around. I have

some questions for you.”

A Rialt tea house lifted itself out of the ground. Errant waved at everyone to join him

as he went inside.