Jack led the group through the streets of Silverward, soon arriving in the small plaza that contained the large, stone dome.

He figured he could gauge from their reactions how to respond to this thing. Heck, hopefully they would have some answers about what it was.

But they were all as confused as he was.

‘By the Maker,’ Aeshara muttered. ‘What is this?’

That answered that.

All Jack knew was that the quest was prompting the members of this strange, ragtag group to place their keys into the dome.

The problem was that the rest of the group didn’t seem to be aware of the quests, the windows or any part of the interface. Only Jack.

I’m going to have to work around this so they don’t get freaked out.

‘I found this when I got here,’ Jack said. ‘My key fit into it, and there are five other keyholes. Maybe if we unlock it we can figure out why we’re here.’

‘Do we really wish to open this strange object?’ Eldrin the high-elf knight asked. ‘We have no idea what threats may await within.’

‘My guess would be something useful,’ Torick said. ‘Whatever being brought us to this world gave us these satchels, and they only contain useful things. If there was anything dangerous inside this dome, then it wouldn’t direct us to this place.’

‘Zania afraid of nothing,’ the troll warrior-woman spoke, ‘Zania will go first.’

Before Jack or any of the others could say anything, Zania stepped up to the dome and placed her key into the next hole. It spun 360 degrees and wedged in place just as Jack’s had, the second of the six.

One by one, the rest of the group reluctantly placed their keys into the holes, until Fiora delicately placed hers in, the last of them all.

Quest Completed: Ayak’s Awakening

Objective: Use the six keys to awaken Ayak

Reward: Map of Silverward

In that instant Jack felt a thick, folded piece of paper land in his back pocket.

The map. If they can’t see the interface, then they won’t know that I’m getting rewards for doing all of this stuff. If we’re going to trust each other then it won’t go down well when they discover I’ve got a map of this town in my pocket.

But that was the least of Jack’s problems.

The whole dome suddenly lit up with a bright purple light – and then it vanished, revealing its hidden innards.

A small whirlwind of black dust and vapor spiraled in the center of the space. It grew thicker and taller, turning with faster rotations, slowly beginning to take a much more defined shape.

Jack and his new acquaintances each took several steps back. The smoke swirled aggressively upon the platform, and within it the shape took a firm form.

It was vaguely humanoid in shape but stood at least nine-feet-tall. It wore a heavy, blood-red cloak and wielded a long staff with a tip that split off and weaved like the spiraling roots of a tree, wrapping around a chunky gemstone that glowed like a blacklight.

Once the last speck of smoke and dust had vanished, the huge figure pulled its hood down.

Jack’s breath caught in his throat. All of a sudden, unlocking the dome didn’t seem like such a great idea.

A huge head sat atop the thing’s wiry shoulder. Its mouth was gigantic, spread into a wide, mad smile bearing row upon row of fanged teeth. Just above a long, hooked nose should have been a pair of eyes, but instead they were covered by a tightly-wrapped blindfold that stretched all the way around the thing’s gray, hairless head.

‘A fiend! A beast!’ Eldrin yelled, raising his polearm and swinging his shield around.

‘Calm yourselves, mortals,’ the demonic-looking being spoke with a calm, husky voice like gravel falling upon ice. ‘I have no intention of harming any of you. The powers I possess could easily end all of you if I so wished – though I do not desire such a thing.’

Jack suddenly recognized the voice – it was the one that had spoken the last words he remembered before arriving in this place.

‘I am no mortal, monster!’ Eldrin shouted. ‘We elves are beings of long life!’

‘Firstly,’ the tall demon started, ‘I tell you that I have the power to end all of you, and the first thing you get caught up on is my reference to you as a mortal?’

‘Pride and integrity are of great importance to me, demon. I would not expect you to understand.’

‘All beings beyond my realm are mortal to me, elf. Tell me: do your kind die?’

‘Of course we do. All beings die.’

‘Then you are not immortal, are you? So by default, you are mortal.’

‘All right, enough with the semantics,’ Jack said. ‘Who or what are you? What’s going on?’

‘Finally a relevant question,’ the thing spoke. ‘I was beginning to worry that I had made a mistake in bringing you beings together. I am Ayak, and I am the Keeper of the Realm.’

‘Okay…’ Jack said slowly. ‘And what does that mean?’

‘Every realm has an entity tasked with observing it. As as keeper we are not permitted to directly interfere with a realm, but if the health of a realm is called into question, then we are allowed to take certain steps to make general corrections or guide it in the right direction.’

‘Permitted by who?’ Jack asked.

‘Beings that your mortal brains are far too simple to understand.’

‘Does this place count as a realm in ill-health?’ Fiora the bespectacled fae-woman asked politely – and with a surprising amount of courage. ‘Places don’t get to looking like this overnight.’

‘I took a holiday some time ago,’ Ayak spoke casually, batting his hand at us. ‘I swear, I only left the realm without observing it for a few thousand years at most, but when I returned, well… Look around and see for yourself what a bunch of mortals do when you leave them alone for a little while.’ Ayak folded his arms and rolled his eyes. ‘I swear, typical mortal behavior… No offence, elf.’

‘High-elf,’ Eldrin corrected. ‘And I am slightly offended, demon.’

‘I would be offended at being called a demon, but…’ Ayak shrugged apathetically. ‘I do not care. I have summoned you beings here for a very important task: to rebuild and settle the land of Virendel. You have all been chosen from different worlds because you are all well-regarded heroes in each of your respective homes. Together you possess the perfect combination of skills to accomplish a task such as this.

‘A troll berserker with fierce strength, regarded as the most powerful fighter in the region she calls home; a gnome who occupies not only the position of a well-respected aristocrat in his kingdom, but also an archmage; a fae scholar of great renown with wide-ranging knowledge and artful expertise in a variety of fields; a noble high-elf knight with formidable battle prowess and a long history of bravely protecting the royalty of his kingdom; a famed half-elf warlock capable of commanding mysterious cosmic power for the good of her people…’

Jack’s companions looked around at each other and nodded calmly. He could only follow suit, but deep down he was panicked beyond belief.

‘… And,’ Ayak continued, turning to Jack and smiling with his huge, terrifying mouth, ‘a knower of people, a famed mayor from a fine town, capable of rallying people together behind a noble cause and creating order and civilization where there is none.’

Jack kept his mouth clamped shut and nodded along with a smile, mirroring his companions.

The only problem? He didn’t fit that title in the slightest. He was a Political Science Major in college. The biggest achievement he could attest to was being a member of the debate team.

But here he was, surrounded by magical beings of great renown from different worlds. They might have been special, but he certainly wasn’t.

There was only one explanation: Ayak had made a mistake.

Jack wasn’t supposed to be here.

‘Unless…’ Ayak continued. ‘You feel that I have made a mistake in choosing you?’

‘What if we do feel that you have made a mistake, demon?’ Eldrin asked, diverting Ayak's attention from Jack. ‘What if we have no interest in rebuilding this fallen world of yours?’

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

‘Then I shall be forced to end you and find a suitable replacement, though I would prefer not to do such a thing. For one, it would require me seeking out such a being that could work with the rest of you. For another, in my personal experience, mortal beings tend to soil themselves when they end, or before they end when they know that end is coming. That is not a mess I wish to clean up. So I ask again, mortal: would you like to stay and build, or do nothing and die?’

Eldrin stared the Realm Keeper down, then bowed his head slightly and stepped back into line.

‘Very good,’ Ayak growled with a self-contented grin. ‘I knew that I made the right choice with each of you. Now, before I depart, I shall leave you with one gift that I am capable of providing.’

Ayak snapped his fingers. A wide, low bowl appeared before him on the ground, right in the centre of the plaza. Despite there being nothing inside, a fierce orange flame burned within it.

‘This is the Builder’s Flame,’ Ayak spoke. ‘Fire is the core of all great worlds, and this place is where your new kingdom shall begin. The Builder’s Flame will burn endlessly, and you may use it for whatever you should so desire. Now get to work, brave heroes – the land of Virendel awaits redemption!’

A cloud of black smoke appeared from nowhere, whirling around Ayak like a tornado. It disappeared as fast as it had arrived, taking him with it and leaving only the never-ending flame behind.

The dust settled inside the circle and all fell silent, even the fire that fed upon nothing.

Jack glanced around at his companions, trying his best to look inconspicuous.

Stay calm. You’re just going to have to pretend that you’re also a professional in some field of your own so the others don’t realize that you’re an imposter… And so Ayak doesn’t come back here and murder you.

But as Jack looked around at the others, he realized something: he might have been trying his best not to look shifty, but they were all doing a terrible job of the exact same thing.

He just didn’t understand why.

‘So… I’m guessing that chatting with realm keepers isn’t a normal thing in your worlds too?’ He started, just trying to make conversation with these strangers.

‘Ask the warlock,’ Eldrin said, nodding to Aeshara the half-elf, ‘she is the one who dabbles with demons.’

‘I don’t dabble with demons,’ Aeshara retorted sharply.

‘You’re a warlock and you don’t command demons?’ Torick said. ‘Does that even make you a warlock?’

‘Well…’ Aeshara frowned. ‘… No. Because I’m not one.’

‘But the demon-thing just said-’

‘I know what he said, gnome, but I’m not a warlock.’ Aeshara reached into her stretched satchel, untied it and pulled out a lute. ‘I’m a bard.’

‘Wait, so you’re not a magic-user?’ Jack asked.

‘I can command arcane magic through my lute, but I’m nowhere near as powerful as a warlock. The form of arcane I command is much lighter than the darkness of a warlock. I’m practically a healer, but only by accident. Really, I’m an entertainer.’

‘Well…’ Eldrin the high-elf added, ‘If confessions abound, then so too must I confess. I am not a knight. I could only dream of possessing such a high rank. I am merely a kingdom guard in my city, just like so many others. I am not even a particularly good guard.’ Eldrin hung his head in shame. He glanced off to the side suddenly as if he had spotted something, then shook his head and looked down.

‘All right,’ Fiora the fae woman said suddenly, straightening her glasses nervously before holding her hands out in front of herself, ‘I’m just going to come clean with all of you. I’m not some famous scholar. I’m just a librarian in my kingdom… Which I suppose still makes me a scholar to some extent, just not a very useful one. I spend my days reading and sorting and shelving. That’s all. Not that I don’t like that life, but those are my duties.’

‘No judgment here,’ Aeshara said. ‘It seems none of us are who we appear to be.’

‘Zania?’ Jack spoke to the troll warrior-woman.

‘Mm?’ She grunted absent-mindedly.

‘You’re a troll berserker, but if this pattern is carrying on then I’m guessing you’re not some famed warrior in your kingdom?’

‘Zania is berserker,’ she replied simply. ‘But Zania not well-liked among Zania’s people. No tribe. Zania kicked out of tribe. Zania live alone. Zania is hermit.’

‘Oh, that’s awful,’ Fiora said genuinely.

‘Why do you make strange sound, fae-woman?’ The troll frowned.

‘I was just being sympathetic, I suppose?’

‘What is sim-path-ett-ikk?’

‘It doesn’t matter,’ Fiora quickly shrugged off the notion.

‘So everybody was nodding along just because I was?’ Aeshara asked. ‘It looks like my yarns aren’t only convincing when sung…’

‘Wait,’ Jack said, looking around at his companions. ‘So none of you are these well-regarded heroes that Ayak was talking about?’

‘I am,’ Torick said, sounding offended. ‘I shall have you all know that I am the most well-respected magical practitioner for a hundred leagues in my world.’

‘Zania thinks that the gnome lies,’ the troll warrior-woman said dryly.

‘Why?’ Torick asked defensively.

‘Because you are lying,’ Aeshara said just as dryly as Zania. ‘Do you really expect us all to believe that you’re the only exception in this colossal fuck-up? Spill the beans.’

‘Speak the truth, gnome,’ Eldrin added.

‘Come on, nobody’s going to judge you,’ Jack said. ‘None of us are who Ayak said we we were.’

‘Very well, very well,’ Torick said. ‘I am not an aristocrat…’

‘I’d already figured that out,’ Jack smiled.

‘But I am a mage… Just not a particularly good one. I live alone in the woods because nobody will have me in their community. Everywhere I go, I… Have something of a tendency to destroy things. I swear that I don’t do it on purpose! I just struggle to maintain control. But it is my calling, so I shall never walk away from it.’

‘Maybe if you can’t use magic you might want to try… I don’t know…’ Aeshara shrugged. ‘Not using magic?’

‘That is easy for a being to say who commands it so easily. You do not know the gift you possess, and yet you use it for music of all things!’

‘Hey, commanding bard magic is no walk among the cherry blossoms,’ the half-elf bard retorted defensively. ‘It took me a long time to learn my craft! And for your information, bard magic can do a lot more than create music. I’d be happy to make your life very miserable with it, if you should so desire?’

‘It does indeed require much work,’ Eldrin nodded. ‘To become great at anything one must spend considerable time on it, just like wielding a polearm.’

‘Oh, please,’ Aeshara said. ‘Do not compare the nuances of my craft to the stabbing of a weapon.’

‘If it wasn’t for the skills of my polearm that troll-woman would have killed you! I am on the same side as you, bard!”

‘You and I are not on the same side, elf, believe me. A kingdom guard. You really wish to protect royalty? They are the worst of the worst…’

‘How dare you speak ill of the leaders of my kingdom?’ Eldrin seethed as if somebody had just disrespected his mother. ‘You do not even know them!’

‘You show respect to people who would throw you to the wolves in an instant if it meant an advantage to them! Have you never thought about that? I have met kings and queens from many kingdoms in my travels, and they all behave the same. They are fiends in gold crowns!’

‘Crown people bad,’ Zania said simply. ‘Zania no like crown people.’

‘Thank you,’ Aeshara smiled. ‘

‘No thanking,’ the troll-woman said, her arms suddenly tensing as she crossed them. ‘Thief-woman steal bag. Zania still hate thief-woman.’

‘And now the troll pipes up,’ Torick said sarcastically, shaking his head. ‘This is a very constructive conversation.’

‘Oh, go blow something up, gnome,’ Aeshara muttered.

‘Hm,’ Zania chuckled slightly.

‘Please,’ Fiora said quietly, finally managing to get a word in, ‘can we all just-?’

‘I’m glad you find this comical, troll,’ Eldrin said. ‘I didn’t find your halfwit actions funny. You almost sliced my legs off.’

‘Hm,’ Zania muttered again, taking a seat on the ground with such a heavy slump that Jack felt the ground vibrate slightly. ‘Elf man think he strong. Zania kill elf man easy.’

The ranting and arguing only kicked up harder. Fiora the fae librarian raised a hand and tried to say something, but there was no way.

She glanced over at Jack and sighed. Jack shook his head and looked around at the group as they argued ferociously.

If the rest of the group kept arguing like this, he was never going to get anything done. They might as well have just given themselves up to Ayak straight off the bat.

I wonder…

Jack discretely pulled up his interface. The next quest hadn’t appeared, even though Ayak had clearly told them exactly what he wanted them to do.

The only possibility was that it would appear once Jack got a handle on the situation.

A new tab had appeared in his interface named Skills, which Jack tapped. In the new window there resided several icons, including his Dagger Proficiency and Tracker, but only one was flashing - the very same that he had been rewarded after completing his second quest:

Perk: Diplomat’s Joker

Class: Mediator

Type: Active

Description: The Mediator projects a booming command from his mouth, quelling the rabble caused by his companions.

Cooldown: 60 seconds

I’ve got the Mediator class. Maybe if I…

Jack instinctively tapped the icon, and the window closed. He looked around expectantly, but nothing happened.

Then he opened his mouth.

‘CAN EVERYBODY JUST CALM DOWN?!?!’

His voice boomed so loud that everybody ducked and shuddered as if they were coming under attack. Torick toppled over and fell onto his back, scrambling to his feet quickly while brushing his cloak off.

The group stared at him in silent disbelief for several stretching seconds.

‘How in the name of the Mighty did you do that?’ Trick asked.

‘Uhh…’ Jack muttered, ‘Just a spell of my own, I guess.’

‘A rather useful one for such a situation,’ Fiora smiled curiously.

‘So none of us are the people that Ayak thinks we are,’ Jack said, looking around at the group and getting the subject back on track. ‘Somewhere in his whole kingdom-building plan, Ayak accidentally summoned the wrong group of people.’

‘I’m guessing that you’re not some super-successful mayor back in your world?’ Aeshara frowned.

‘I’m a college student studying Political Science,’ Jack said. ‘I’m on the debate team, I can swim better than most, but… That’s pretty much it as far as useful skills go.’

‘So none of us are these so-called brave heroes,’ Fiora said. ‘What should we do?’

‘Firstly, we can’t keep arguing like this,’ Jack said. ‘If we do that, we’re not going to make any progress because eventually we’ll just start throwing punches at each other, or worse. If we do that, we’re never going to get anything done, and if we get nothing done then that Ayak-thing is going to come back here and kill us all. Either we work together and do something useful, or we might as well just give up now. For better or worse, we’re stuck here together.’

Jack and his new companions looked around at each other uneasily. Before he could say another word, another window suddenly appeared before him.

Master Quest: Kingdom Settlers

Master Objective: Build a kingdom in the world of Virendel

Jack scanned the simple message and its unique distinctions to the other quests he had been given so far. Master Quest.

This was the overarching quest. This was the real reason that they were here.

Only it didn’t seem to possess a reward.

Then again, the implied reward was pretty obvious: not getting killed by Ayak.

‘Jack?’ Fiora asked. ‘What are you looking at?’

Jack glanced up. The window blocked his view of the fae librarian, but instinctively he swept it aside and the window closed. She frowned at the strange movement.

‘Uhh… Nothing,’ he said quickly, realizing that he was still the only one who could see the windows that had appeared so far.

‘So what do we do now?’ Torick asked, crossing his arms in the begrudging echo of coming clean.

‘There’s only one thing we can do,’ Jack replied. ‘We get to work building a kingdom from scratch.'