As Saffie’s insides twisted, she was vaguely aware of Keith’s voice calling her name, and his footsteps getting louder.

Suddenly the suction was released, and the girl in the rafters vanished in a puff of purple smoke.

“Saffie, are you alright?” said Keith, placing his hand on her shoulder.

Saffie caught her breath and pointed at the spot where the girl had been.

“Did you see her?” she said. “There was a girl on that beam.”

“A girl?” Keith said in disbelief.

Saffie nodded.

“She was doing something to me, and then she just… vanished.”

Keith frowned and surveyed the area Saffie was pointing to, before stroking his fluffy beard.

“Mages are strictly prohibited from climbing the structure of the guild,” he said curiously. “Heaven forbid anyone should fall. I sometimes have to remind players that Overworld is just a game and we do not possess real magical abilities. If I do find out that it was one of the guild members, I shall be having stern words with them. We take health and safety very seriously here at the guild. However, it’s entirely possible that it was a metamorph - a hostile creature that can take the form of a human, though they’re not especially dangerous. Nevertheless, I’ll have the guild checked over. This should be a safe place for all of us to learn and train without that kind of threat.”

Saffie stared at the empty beam and tried to convince herself that the girl had been one of these metamorph creatures Keith had mentioned, but she struggled. A combination of the fact that the girl had been perched so high, that she was able to vanish so quickly, and that she had specifically targeted Saffie meant that Saffie couldn’t shake the gut feeling that it had not only been a real player, but the very same player that had put Dax into his coma.

Keith ushered Saffie into the next room, which Saffie soon realised was his office. A central wooden desk was illuminated by a series of oddly shaped lamps and dribbling candles, and was surrounded by mismatched furniture and messy stacks of books. Behind the desk there was a giant, framed picture of Keith and a woman who Saffie assumed was his wife, standing outside a quaint looking cottage. They were gazing into each other’s eyes, and they seemed like a very happy couple.

Keith opened a crooked cabinet at the back of the office and pulled out a tankard which had a handle in the shape of a dragon. He held it out in front of him, clicked his fingers, and it filled up with liquid.

“Here you go, Saffie. I like to welcome all of our guests with a tankard of Old Mage’s Brew.”

“Oh, I can’t drink,” said Saffie. “I’m only fourteen.”

Keith smiled.

“Worry not, lass, it’ll be non-alcoholic for you. This tankard and its contents are completely in Overworld. The chip will determine if you’re over the legal age or not, and use that info to make it either alcoholic or soft.”

The liquid was a warm amber colour with a swirl of cream running through it. Saffie tentatively accepted it and took a sip, but that sip fast turned into a gulp. The flavour was a mix of spiced apple, cinnamon, and rich chocolate, with a little hint of clove: it was the most delicious drink she had ever tasted.

“The best thing about it?” Keith said, leaning in and whispering mischievously, “Zero calories.”

Keith sat himself in the ornate chair behind his desk and Sabre curled up underneath it.

“Please, take a seat,” Keith said. “I’m sure you have many questions.”

Keith was right. Saffie had so many questions that she didn’t know where to start. She decided to begin with the most superficial of the lot.

“My dad was reading something in the paper,” she said, placing herself in an antique armchair and taking a fourth sip of her tasty brew. “He said there were druids squatting here.”

Keith chuckled while Acorn settled on Saffie’s lap.

“Yes, not the most elaborate of cover ups, but it does the job. I believe the developers of Overworld must have done a deal with Hackney council to rent out this gorgeous old chapel, but agreed to keep it secret as to not cause public outcry and get the game shut down. Overworld is… not exactly legal. Yet.”

“We’re playing an illegal game?” Saffie blurted out, making Acorn tense up, but as soon as she said it, she realised she shouldn’t have been surprised. She couldn’t imagine any game developer getting clearance to insert an electronic chip into peoples’ brains. “Who are the developers?” She continued.

“Ah! Probably the only question I don’t have an answer to,” Keith said, interlocking his fingers and leaning his elbows on his desk. “We currently do not know who developed or published Overworld, how they were funded, or how they intend to make money from it, since for those of us who are fortunate enough to come into possession of a key, it is free to join, and there are no micro-transactions within the game itself.”

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Saffie found this very strange, but even stranger was what the technology seemed to be able to do to her.

“How can I feel this?” she said, admiring the tankard in her hand. “How can I feel any of it? This drink? Acorn’s fur? I don’t get it.”

“It is something called haptic feedback,” said Keith. “Are you familiar with the term?”

Saffie shook her head.

“What happens when we touch an object in real life?” Keith said, placing his finger to his desk. “The nerve endings in our fingertips send a neurological signal to our brain, telling us that there is something there. When we touch our fingertips to an Overworld object,” he continued, lifting his finger and pressing it against one of the candles on the desk, “the Overworld chip detects it, and sends an artificial signal to the correct part of our brain instead.”

He pulled his finger away and rubbed off the little bit of digital wax that had stuck to its tip.

“But… that growlem in the park,” Saffie said. “It hit me and I went flying backwards.”

“Ah, yes, that’ll be the muscle contractions,” said Keith. “Have you ever witnessed anyone touch an electric fence?”

Saffie hadn’t, though she did remember being shown a video in school about the dangers of trespassing at a power station. In it, a young boy had grabbed a hold of a pylon and had been blasted backwards through the air with a bang.

“It is not the electricity that propels us backwards,” Keith explained, “it is our own muscles reacting to the shock. Overworld works in a similar way. By shocking the correct muscles, the Overworld chip can pretty much send us flying in any direction it wants. When it combines this with the ability to stimulate our sensors that feel hot and cold, sharp and smooth, dry and wet, we have a game that pretty much gives us a fully immersive, whole new reality that’s almost indistinguishable from actual reality.”

“Wow,” said Saffie, as fascinated as she was concerned by the technology, especially since it was being used by a company who for all intents and purposes didn’t exist.

A dozen more questions were swimming around in Saffie’s mind, but she knew she couldn’t just blurt them all out in one go. She narrowed it down to just one:

“How did you know I’d performed that magic in the park?”

Keith pulled a worn piece of parchment out of one of his desk drawers and spread it out.

“These are all of the current members of the London Mage’s Guild,” he explained. ‘And here,” he traced his finger down the parchment. “Are potential recruits.”

Saffie leaned forward and peered at the sheet until she spotted her own name:

Sapphire Sparkes - defeated a growlem with a Scorch in Kensington Gardens on 17/07/2025

“I didn’t exactly go looking for that fight,” Saffie explained, leaning back in the armchair.

“We often don’t,” Keith said knowingly. “Overworld is a dangerous place, which is why training in one of the three arts is paramount to survival. There are of course two other guilds here in London; the Warriors’ Guild and the Alchemist’s Guild, should you wish to seek those out, but bear in mind you can only be a member of one guild at any given time. Does the Mage’s Guild seem like somewhere you’d like to spend time honing your skills, Saffie?”

Saffie couldn’t think of anywhere better. All her life, she’d dreamed of actually being inside one of her video games, wielding magic and casting spells, but it wasn’t this lifelong dream that convinced Saffie that this was the guild to join - she needed information about the counterspell, and a Mage’s Guild was surely the best place to start.

“I want to join the Mage’s Guild,” Saffie said with certainty.

“Fantastic!” said Keith, beaming. “In that case,” he drew a circle in the air with his finger. “I formally welcome you as a member.” A silver badge materialised in the air, in which was written:

Sapphire Sparkes

Official Member of the London Mage’s Guild

As quickly as it had appeared, it vanished.

“Now, if you’d just like to stand up for me, Saffie,” Keith said cheerfully, getting out of his own chair. Saffie followed his instructions and Acorn pounced off her lap, trotting over to Sabre and prodding her tail. She had no idea what Keith was about to do, and it must have shown on her face, as there was a twinkle in Keith’s eye as he said:

“Now that you’re a mage, I think it’s about time you looked the part, don’t you?” With a wave of his hand and a whisper of “Outfit gift - Basic Mage’s Guild Robe,” Saffie felt a whoosh of cloth materialise over her shoulders and settle with a flutter.

“It fits you perfectly,” Keith said, smiling. “Would you like to see?”

Saffie expected to be led to some kind of dressing room, but the Grand Mage simply said, “Conjure Mirror,” and an ornate dressing mirror appeared out of thin air.

Saffie turned and looked at her reflection.

She was no longer wearing the red hoodie and jeans that she had put on that morning, but a beautiful, multi-layered, aqua blue tunic emblazoned with a wide strip of patterned gold running down its middle. The seams were also trimmed with gold, and on its left side there was a print of the now familiar Mage’s Guild crest.

Saffie waved her arms in front of her and the cloth wafted around as though it were real material.

“Thank you,” was all she could say, marvelling at herself. “I love it!”

“Changing outfits can be a fun past-time in Overworld,” said Keith. “Once you build up a collection, you can switch between them any time you like. Roksana Kowalski has a total of two hundred and thirty seven outfits, if I’m correct. Each with their own pair of matching shoes.”

“And I can change clothes whenever I like?” Saffie said.

“Indeed,” Keith confirmed. “As long as you have a selection in your virtual wardrobe. Just don’t do what Harold Hogford does.”

“What does Harold Hogford do?” said Saffie.

“Selects no clothes at all,” Keith said dryly. “In the real world he’s wearing slacks and a sweater vest. To us playing Overworld, he’s wearing nothing but his birthday suit. Finds himself hilarious. Mercifully, the game pixelates the front, but unfortunately it doesn’t extend that censorship to the rear. I’ll rejoice the day I no longer have to see that bumbling idiot’s butt-cheeks.”

They both chuckled, and Keith tilted his head.

“Tell me, Saffie,” he said. “What brought you into Overworld in the first place?”

Saffie took a deep breath. This was it. It was time to tell Keith everything, and finally get an answer to her most important question.

“Someone cast a sleeping spell on my uncle,” she said. “And now he’s in a coma.”

The humour left Keith’s eyes immediately.

“It sounded like ‘Ultra Sleep’,” Saffie elaborated. “I was hoping you might know it.”

She waited for Keith to answer, praying that he was going to say that he did indeed know the spell, and that he knew exactly how to reverse it, but instead, his eyes darted back and forth, and he began striding out of the office with urgency.

“Come with me,” he said in a serious tone. “There’s something I need to show you.”