“Sonnet Entertainment, developer of the MMORPG Annwyn Online, was established in 2011. Our first and only game had quickly grown to be the number one MMO across the globe and still retains a modest playerbase today, ten years since it’s official launch in 2013. We thank our players for continuing to enjoy our world and we welcome you to join us in celebrating our ten year anniversary!”— Dev Blog 11.13.23
Colorado School of Mines main campus. Golden, Colorado. November 17, 2023.
“Hey! The sign still says ‘walk’!”
Isaac shouted at a black, rusted out sedan that blew through the intersection he had only just stepped into.
The car's speakers boomed with a heavy bass and Isaac was certain he saw the driver's middle finger sticking up at him through the bubbled tint of the rear windshield. Before Isaac could return the gesture, the car disappeared around another turn.
The white walk symbol swapped to the angry red hand and Isaac cursed under his breath.
As he stepped back, Isaac’s foot caught the edge of the curb and he tripped, landing butt first into a pothole filled with fresh snow melt. The puddle's icy fury surged up Isaac’s legs, soaking through his clothes. He fought to hold back a scream.
There was just the faintest tug around Isaac’s neck and an almost imperceptible snap as Isaac sat up.
“Fuck,” Isaac groaned, dragging the word out to two syllables.
He pulled his now broken necklace from the folds in his shirt. He had to dig a little to find the ring, a silver band which featured two diamonds flanking its amethyst halo stone. Thankfully, neither the ring nor the necklace’s amethyst pendant were damaged.
With a sigh of relief, Isaac slipped the ring and necklace into his coat pocket and zipped it shut. He would have to see if someone in the jewelry section of the thrift store he worked at could repair or replace the necklace’s broken clasp.
That was the future's problem. Right now, Isaac was running late for his organic chemistry midterm.
Isaac brushed the dirt and bits of snow from his clothes and picked his things off the ground. Stuffing his freezing hands into his pockets, Isaac trudged towards the campus.
Not to Isaac’s surprise, the university campus was a ghost town. Today was Friday, the last day of class before the weeklong fall break.
When Isaac entered the lecture hall, the teaching assistant didn’t even raise her head as she pointed at the projector. A crudely drawn map of the auditorium directed Isaac to sit on the very far side, near the other Organic Chemistry I students. Sam and Ashley had reserved an aisle seat on the left for Isaac, exactly as he preferred. Take the small wins on a bad day, Isaac thought to himself.
Those thoughts disappeared as Isaac watched Sam hiding a snicker at the wet squeak-sloshing of his shoes as he made his way over to him. Ashley elbowed Sam in the side and gave Isaac a sympathetic look. At least she didn’t find his annoyingly uncomfortable mix of wet and cold from the waist down funny.
Isaac sank into his seat and the snicker Sam had been unsuccessfully fighting back erupted into a not-so-silent well of laughter as water began to pool around their feet. That laughter stopped almost immediately when Isaac pressed his wet hat hard into Sam’s lap. The squawk and squirms of protest Sam made did improve Isaac’s mood a little. Small wins, Isaac laughed to himself.
Professor Reddy entered the room with his usual far too awake and bubbly presence for an early morning class. While Isaac didn’t hate the man, he did feel the professor enjoyed the study of chemistry far more than any sane man should.
The entire lecture hall fell silent as Reddy and his teaching assistants began passing out the exams. Quiet, except for the symphony of horrified gasps that rang out from students as they pored over their tests. Isaac even heard a whispered “what the fuck?” escape Ashley’s mouth as she leafed through her copy. Isaac looked at his own paper and prayed the curve would land ever in his favor.
Seemingly oblivious to the devastation he had wrought upon the lecture hall, Reddy clapped his hands together and, with more joy than one should be able to muster at seven in the morning, shouted, “Begin!”
***
Isaac and Ashley finished within a few minutes of each other and made their way to the lobby, comparing notes as they walked. While they agreed on the solutions to many of the problems, either he or Ashley had gotten the bonus problem wrong. Likely him, Ashley was definitely the smarter of the two. But if their answers for all the other problems agreed, he didn’t care. He’d chalk that up as a win in his book.
Fifteen minutes after the exam should have ended, Sam finally joined Isaac and Ashley. When Sam noticed them watching his approach, he switched to an exaggerated limp and rubbed at the small of his back.
Ashley’s boyfriend, Andrew, showed up from his own morning midterm at the same time. He looked at Sam and laughed. “That bad, huh?”
Ashley pulled Andrew’s scarf from his face and gave him a peck on the cheek. “Pretty brutal.”
“Yeah, I swear we didn’t go over even half of those substitution reactions,” Sam protested. “That test really had me diene.”
Isaac groaned and made a show of rolling his eyes. “That was bad, even for you.”
Sam ignored Isaac and just began laughing even harder.
Ashley and Andrew waved goodbye, heading for the library to study for their last two midterms. Isaac was done for the day, though Sam still had one more at noon. Left to themselves, they went to the student center for breakfast.
***
Ben H. Parker Student Center was completely deserted when the two arrived. Well, deserted except for the long line of half-awake students, teaching assistants, and professors at the mini Starbucks on the second floor. The line stretched even further than it usually did, wrapping around the entire right side of the room.
Twice.
Isaac groaned internally. It was going to be a long wait.
The first semester of freshman year had taught Isaac that while studying and hard work might be needed to pass his classes, it was an equal effort between coffee and alcohol that did the real heavy lifting. There was just no way he could recover from the morning’s beating without his ritual flat white. And for that, Isaac would remain undaunted by the long line.
Sam left to grab a seat in their usual spot in the far corner of the cafeteria. He slipped both their backpacks onto the empty table and returned to Isaac in line. He pulled out his phone and his fingers danced across the screen for a few minutes before he tapped on Isaac’s shoulder.
“Check it out, another leak got posted.”
Sam passed his phone to Isaac, who quickly brushed it away. The leak was for the game Annwyn Online, a fantasy MMORPG their entire friend group played in their free time. The game had been a big part of Isaac’s life until two years ago. Now he only played when his friends really needed him to fill out their six man dungeon dive or finish a tough quest.
Still, Isaac did keep up with the news about the game and browsed the forums, occasionally answering questions left by newer players on his many raid guides. He knew Annwyn Online was getting what was teased as the largest content update in the game’s history. Leaks like this one had been popping up with ever-increasing frequency as the update’s release date, tonight, approached.
“Come on, Sam! Stop falling for the clickbait! The pre-patch notes come out at noon. Why ruin the surprise with leaks?”
“Talking about the leaks is just as much a part of the game as any update,” Sam replied. “More people talking means more hype. Which hopefully means Sonnet’ll start dropping regular updates again.”
Isaac couldn’t find any fault in his friend’s logic. Annwyn Online was celebrating its ten year anniversary today, but for the last year or two, updates had dropped to a slow trickle. The leaks had brought more life to the forums and Isaac saw a lot of “old player returning” posts in the help sections. Even Isaac and his friends were making the time to explore the new content tonight before everyone went their separate ways for fall break.
“I still think I’ll wait for the patch notes. I don’t want to get hyped for something that might not even be in the game.”
“Your loss.” Sam shrugged, returning to his phone.
The two got their breakfast and Sam had a mischievous grin on his face as they walked to their table. “Did you catch the way the cashier was looking at you? I’m pretty sure she’s in our calc class. You should talk to her.”
“Nope, I think I’m good,” Isaac said, taking a sip from his coffee.
“Why? You’re the only one in our friend group not seeing anyone—”
Isaac threw up his hands. “Aren’t you single right now?”
“No, I’m… between people at the moment,” Sam replied weakly. “That’s beside the point. She’s cute, probably smart as heck. You're… you’re also smart. You two are already halfway towards making a great couple.”
“You know what, let me see that leak,” Isaac said, forcing Sam to change the subject.
“You should still go talk to her,” Sam said as he passed Isaac his phone.
Isaac ignored his friend as he took the phone. The leak was an image of Gaea’s moon, Lunara. Overlaid on top of that image was a zoomed in portion showing the border between the violet crystal sea and the white moon dust and crater-pocked half. What caught Isaac’s eye, and what must have been the leak, was the grainy outline of a small, hooded man standing with his back to the camera. The figure definitely looked like it had been crudely edited onto the image.
“Seriously, Sam? That’s the fakest edit I’ve ever seen.” Isaac scoffed, returning the phone.
“I think it looks real. Some are saying Sonnet’s opening up the moon as a playable zone.” Sam took the phone and showed Isaac dozens of comments below the image saying just that. “Think about it: Actually getting to explore Lunara? That could mean tons of high level loot! Maybe even a new class and a class reset!”
“Keep dreaming!” Isaac laughed. “Class resets make as much sense as getting to walk around outside the Caer. Sonnet said they’ll never put class resets in the game. Just level an alt like everyone else. I’ve leveled one of each class to the cap.”
“Not all of us have the free time to grind away that many characters.” Sam made a show of taking out his notebook and a pink binder that belonged to Ashley. “Some of us have to actually study to pass our classes.”
The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
“Oh, I study. The difference between you and me is I spread it out over the weeks before my test instead of hours.” Isaac stood and threw his backpack over his shoulder, catching his friend’s hint. “Don’t fail.”
Sam stuck out his tongue, then said, “Go talk to calc girl!”
Isaac ignored him as he finished the last of his coffee. Sam went back to his avalanche of books and just as Isaac was almost out of earshot, he heard Sam let out a long, loud groan.
Done with his midterms and with most of the day left to kill, Isaac decided to stop by his work to see about getting his necklace repaired. He had worn the necklace every day for two years since the accident and he felt naked without it around his neck.
When he made it to the thrift store, the lead manager, Robin, greeted him at the jewelry counter. Isaac figured she was covering a break; when she wasn’t at the customer service desk dealing with an obnoxious customer, she was usually straightening the clothing racks or folding shirts in the women’s or children’s departments.
Robin was a sweet, yet stern lady who ran a tight ship. Many of his coworkers often complained about the tediousness of her end of day recovery procedures when she was the closing manager, but Isaac knew the madness to her method. Whenever he opened following a night she closed, he knew he would never have to worry about morning cleanup.
The grandmotherly woman smiled warmly at Isaac as he approached her. “Isn’t today your day off? You should be enjoying it.”
“I won’t be here long. Just looking for a necklace.” Isaac walked around the corner, passing by a display full of topaz and citrine jewelry pieces.
“For a lucky girl?” Robin asked.
“No, I fell this morning. Broke the chain on my necklace.” Isaac pulled the necklace from his coat pocket and set it on the counter.
Robin picked it up and inspected it. “The clasp is broken. I don’t think I have any chains that match. It’s a very unique design.”
“Do you have anything simple and easy to open that I can put on it until I can get it fixed somewhere?”
“Maybe. Give me a moment.” Robin began searching through the selection of chains, muttering to herself and looking at them closely as she examined each one.
As Isaac watched, he started thinking about what Sam had said earlier. It was true that he hadn’t dated anyone in the two years since the accident. He still thought about Riley often, but maybe Sam was right. Maybe it was time for him to move on.
He was sure he had seen the cashier checking him out and she was cute, Isaac admitted to himself. If he saw “calc girl” on campus sometime when she wasn’t working, he’d ask her out on a date.
Robin turned to help another customer and Isaac used the time to browse through more of the necklaces. His eyes settled on a necklace with a fairy girl pendant that had been in the clearance section. Her wings and body were outlined with white gold and three small diamonds accented each wing. Her tunic was a rather large square-cut amethyst and where her eyes should have been were two empty fixtures. But what he was really after was the necklace’s clasp. It was an almost identical match to the clasp on his own necklace.
Robin cleared her throat to get Isaac’s attention. “Good eye, it was a donation from an estate the other day. Unfortunately the emeralds for its eyes fell out. It’s still a very pretty piece, though.”
“The chain’s wrong, but the clasp is almost the same. I’ll take it.”
Robin gave a hesitant look. “You know we do sell chains by themselves, right?”
“I know, but I probably won’t find one that’s a closer match.”
“Very well,” Robin said and rang up the item.
Wasting no time after Robin finished the transaction, Isaac got to work removing the clasp on the amethyst necklace.
He struggled with the anti-theft packaging, made harder to remove because of the nerve damage in his left hand, for several moments before Robin caught on to what he intended. Humoring Isaac’s eccentric behavior, Robin got to work swapping the clasps with her jewelry tools.
Happy with the finished result, Isaac put the necklace back on.
“Don’t celebrate your fall break too hard tonight, I’ll need you in one piece on Sunday,” Robin said with a knowing wink.
“I won’t,” Isaac said, returning a wink of his own.
As he headed for the door, Isaac was about to throw the fairy girl necklace away, but held off. He had spent a bit of money on it, might as well keep it. He stuffed it into his pocket and turned in the direction of home.
As he neared his apartment, Isaac switched to a fast walk. The air somehow got colder since the morning and the wind bit hard at his exposed nose and ears with each step he took. He pushed open the front door and stopped to let the warmth wash over him. After that, he bounded up the stairs two at a time until he got to his room.
Isaac sat at his computer and started up Annwyn Online’s client. The game had been down the last two days for server maintenance and a new announcement was posted that downloads for the update would start tonight at six.
Isaac sat at his computer and started up Annwyn Online’s launcher. The game had been down the last two days for server maintenance and a new announcement was posted that downloads for the update would start tonight at six.
Five hours left to kill. Isaac passed the time by going over to Rosetta Chat, Annwyn Online’s voice and text chat service. He had received a notification from his guild, North Remembers. The message contained a link to the most recent thread on Sonnet’s forums with the game’s pre-patch notes. His guildmates were abuzz with activity as they dissected the information within the thread.
Though Isaac was the leader and owner of North Remembers, he had stepped down from playing an active role over the last two years. Not since the accident.
No one had seriously entertained the idea of him turning over ownership of the guild to anyone else. That would have required disbanding the guild and recreating it, which would have cost them their guild level bonuses and achievements. No, those were much too important to care about the relative inactivity of the guild owner, especially when the War Council was the real managing body overseeing the guild’s day to day affairs.
Scrolling through the chat log revealed Isaac’s guildmates were already playfully arguing over which raid party would be the first to defeat whichever new dungeon bosses awaited the update’s release. With a grin, Isaac stirred the pot by telling them any party he personally led would be the clear victor.
The chat log exploded with activity as the more well known tacticians and party leaders began asserting themselves and their parties as the dominant team.
One such message from the guild’s de facto leader in Isaac’s absence, Permaphrost, caught Isaac’s attention.
Saiph! Glad to see you! If you’re coming back, we could use you in the tank slot for tomorrow’s initiation raid. The guild’s second best tank is out sick, but we can make due with the third best!
That got a flood of “ooh’s” and light roasting from those in the chat. Isaac’s ego made it almost a requirement to respond.
Listen here, old man, your memory might be going in your advanced age, but I’m free to remind you who Annwyn Online’s #1 Tank 10 years running is. Consider the tank slot filled.
The initiation raid would be a dungeon dive of the instanced dungeon beneath their guild HQ, Watchpoint: Hell’s Mouth. Azeban, the mid-level raid boss, was used to test prospective members in their ability to work as a team. If there was one thing North Remembers prided itself on, it was as the number one raid guild in Annwyn Online.
Before he knew it, Isaac had spent nearly two hours chatting with his guildmates about the level cap increase and the subclass system rework. There hadn’t been any mentions as to what the new cap was or what the rework entailed, the notes simply said the new options were “limitless”. Isaac really hated Sonnet and their intentionally vague pre-patch notes. He hoped he’d get to choose a second subclass. He wouldn’t mind rounding out his main character’s tanky-damage build with some extra utility. Or, if he were being honest with himself, more damage.
Footsteps and tapping on the door pulled Isaac from his musing.
Sam poked his head in the door. “Hey don’t forget: You’ve got pizza duty tonight.”
Sam didn’t wait for a response before closing the door.
The server maintenance only had an hour left to go, he’d have to put the pizza orders in sooner rather than later.
Saying his goodbyes to his guildmates, Isaac promised them he would try to be more active. He missed running large, twenty-four man raids and the thrill of leading them to victory over tough bosses and even harder dungeon puzzles. You just didn’t get that kind of excitement from balancing a chemical equation.
Isaac reached under his bed and pulled out a small, wooden jewelry box. The hinges creaked softly as he opened the lid.
He let himself get distracted with a small perfume bottle with an earthy green liquid inside that sloshed and bubbled as he picked it up. He took off the cap and took in the scent. It was like smelling the early morning air on a camping trip in the Rocky Mountains; a combination of pine and ozone that Isaac loved.
Most of all, the scent reminded him of Riley and always seemed to pick up his spirits when he was feeling down. Unfortunately it wasn’t labeled and he hadn’t been able to track down a brand even with the bottle’s peculiar shape.
Isaac placed the bottle back in the box and took out an envelope that was overstuffed with an assortment of dollar bills and coins. His friends had all pitched in to buy several large pizzas for their game night and Isaac had drawn the short straw for ordering it all.
He looked over the list again; an extra large carnivore’s special for Kaitlynn and Jack, an extra large half beef with cheddar and half ham with olives for Andrew and Ashley, a large pineapple and bacon for Sam, and a large pepperoni and bacon for himself. And the assortment of dessert and drink requests as well.
With the list memorized, Isaac placed a few extra bills into the envelope, just enough for a decent tip. While he’d dug around for his wallet, he pulled out the fairy pendant he had purchased earlier. He put it into the jewelry box and, after thinking for a moment, placed his necklace and ring into the box for safekeeping as well. He and his friends would be drinking both during and after their gaming session. Though he wasn’t a clumsy drunk, he didn’t want to risk breaking the necklace again so soon. He put the box back under his bed and called in the order.
The wait on the delivery was about two hours. The cashier had apologized multiple times, but Isaac didn’t mind and he was sure his friends wouldn’t, either. Working retail himself, he understood a busy friday night, paired with student workers going home, would mean extra long wait times. It wasn’t her fault he’d placed such a large order.
Isaac made his way back to his computer and glanced at the download screen. Seventy-three percent. The update was a hefty one hundred and twenty gigabytes of data on top of the game’s already bloated one hundred and seventy. Isaac minimized the screen and opened Rosetta’s voice chat. Some of his friends had already begun trickling in.
“Pizza’s an hour out. Where’s everyone’s downloads at?” Isaac glanced at his own again. Eighty three percent. He was glad his friends had opted for the fastest internet package their provider offered.
“Sitting at eighty-one.” Sam let out a long, exaggerated groan that Isaac heard clearly through his ceiling. “This game better be adding an entirely new world space or something for how big this download is.”
Ashley chimed in. “The patch notes did say they were adding in tons of jobs and adding player houses to all the major cities. That sounds like—”
“A waste of time?” Sam interrupted her. “I’m here to kick monster butts and complete quests, not sit around paying rent and going to work. If I wanted to do that, I’d stick to real life!”
Andrew came to Ashley’s defense. “Running a restaurant does sound like a fun way to make money. At least they’re trying to offer more things to do.”
“Awh, are the two lovebirds gonna get a house and a flower shop together?” Sam joked. “I’m kidding. I get that they want to expand their audience, but they can’t forget about us oldbies who’ve been playing for years. We want more quests and exploration, not jobs!”
With the download now live, the official patch notes were released. Isaac made it to the section they were talking about.
He scrolled down and spoke as he read. “The devs did say it’s to fix the game’s economy. You have to admit it’s been pretty messed up for a while. We’ve been max level and full build for years. There’s not much for us to spend our money on.” If Isaac were being honest, that was at least part of the reason why he didn’t play much anymore. Beyond helping out low level players or buying avatar items, there wasn’t much incentive for high level players to participate in the economy and that had led to inflation and a scarcity of items in the marketplace. “The new level cap increases should help, too.”
Isaac had to pull his headset from his ears as Andrew yelled into his microphone, “Right! The level cap increase! You know what that means?” Andrew barely let his rhetorical question hang in the air for a second before he answered himself, “New loot!”
“Who cares about loot? You know what I’m really interested in?” Sam sucked in his breath before continuing, “The curves on the new Sword Princess summons. Sonnet really knows the fan service the players really want!”
“You know you’d get the real thing if you got out more, right?” Ashley threw at Sam, her voice a friendly mix of scold and taunt.
“You should tell that to Isaac, I tried setting him up with someone today. He wouldn’t go talk to her!” Sam said.
Isaac sighed into his mic. “You’re still on that, Sam? Why don’t you ask her out? You seem way more interested in her than me.”
Mercifully, Ashley changed the subject before Sam could deliver his snarky reply. “Kait just texted me. She and Jack were having internet trouble. She said they’d join us in a bit. She wants to know where we’re meeting up.”
“How about the Ruins of Araedi? Pretty sure it’s where most people will be playing.” Isaac suggested.
His own download had finished and Annwyn Online’s familiar startup melody played, but it had been remixed to come off as more urgent than the calm version he’d come to know over the last ten years. The splash art showed Terre as viewed from outside Caer Siddi on Diurne, the planet slowly rotating to show the other continents.
After selecting his main account from the drop down menu, Isaac pulled up a second copy of the game. Several weeks ago, the developers had sent out an email to every player who had been a beta tester. A surprise would be waiting for him if he logged in on the anniversary day.
Call him greedy, but whatever that surprise was, Isaac would be getting one for each of his eleven accounts. He selected the North America server and the splash art zoomed in on the continent of Navorinelle.
A familiar message popped up on Isaac’s screen:
Would you like to enter Annwyn Online?
Rosetta pinged, announcing Jack and Kait had entered their group chat. Isaac didn’t wait for them to say anything before he clicked “Yes”.