Jessica had moved up beside Silas as we crossed the bridge that led away from town. Kappa, who had been mostly quiet since Jessica had appeared, hung back and walked alongside me.

“Did you tell her?” she said without averting her gaze from the tree line beyond the cross roads ahead. In the moment I had forgotten to tell Jessica about having changed her code and now, on top of the fear I had for my parents, Kappa pressed me for the truth. I debated for a second and thought about how tackling this with Kappa’s disappointment would make it nearly impossible and in a moment of weakness I said, “Yes, I told her all of it and she said we’ll deal with it later.”

Kappa raised her eyebrows. “Good job Lester, I’m proud of you.” She said in a tone that was so earnest it hurt. I could tell she was going to push but nervous that the lie would begin to fall apart beneath me I changed the subject.

“Do you think this will work?” I said, more to the darkness than to Kappa.

“Rescuing your parents?” She asked.

“No, all of this; completing the game. Do you think it will set everything right again?” I said. Kappa thought for a long moment which surprised me. She was usually so quick to answer but now seemed conflicted in her response.

“I don’t know Lester, I hope so.” She said and as I turned to her; her short brown hair looking black in the moonlight, I was suddenly taken aback by how naturally she carried herself as a woman.

“I really like you as a girl,” I said. It sounded pretty stupid out loud but she blushed bright enough to see in the dark and said,

“Thanks Lester, it feels right. It feels like it matches what’s inside.”

As the words left her lips I pondered what that meant. Kappa had already begun to act more and more human with each passing moment. The posh, stuffy, humorous sidekick I had created was all but a distant memory to me. Even the way she spoke was unlike how Kappa was written. As we turned right at the fork in the road I questioned whether the code had brought Kappa into reality, or truly made her human.

“Movement.” Jessica said from up ahead as she crept to the side of the road. We hid just in time to see the bouncing light of a lantern attached to the side of a large carriage. It appeared around a tight corner and followed the road towards us. Our movements were awkward and clearly lacking experience. The scramble into hiding was accented as Silas tripped over his large goblin feet. Despite our amateur nature we hid fairly well as the carriage moved past us. From my prone position in the large ditch I saw a sigil on the side of the carriage that I recognized; it belonged to Millicent the wizard-king and I swallowed hard. After it passed we each climbed from our hiding spots and stepped back onto the road.

“Did you see who was driving or where it was from?” Kappa asked and I shook my head no, not wanting to concern the party any more than necessary. Anyone who had played Dunn or even shared a cursory knowledge would raise a red flag in finding out that Millicent had already come this far. He was an end game character and stayed entirely in his castle, but now, knowing that the AI was largely left to its own devices, it seemed like anything was possible.

We arrived at the mine entrance a few minutes later but decided on a stealthy approach. Silas, Kappa and I knew that the Orcs who called this mine home were slavers and mercenaries, which meant being seen wouldn’t just mean our possible deaths but also a life of slavery. We also knew that there was an outpost before the mine entrance and, if the AI hadn’t roamed too far, there would be at least two Orcs keeping an eye out.

It was either luck or the code’s decision to make the Orcs the non-wandering type, but either way they hadn’t moved and the two large Orcs sat guarding the entrance as expected. Silas silently drew his short bow and Kappa hers, and as I began to move forward Jessica put a hand on my arm. “Hold on,” she said, as if we were acting the fool. “What are you all doing?”

Silas, Kappa and I shared a bewildered and embarrassed look between each other.

“Attacking?” I said, as if doubting what was to come next. I searched her face and she shook her head in confusion.

“Why?”

“Because we need to see if my parents are in there,” I said, a little surer this time,

“Yes but why are we attacking?” she said, again as if leading us to an answer we had not seen. I thought on it for a second and as it became clear that we did not understand, she continued. “Lester you wrote this game.”

I nodded along, a blank gaze upon my face.

“You’re telling me that you designed this entire mine to be entered from only one direction, the front?” I bit my lip slightly, “and you’re telling me that the only way into it is by fighting Orcs who are clearly far more skilled than us,” I bit my lip harder, “and finally,” she added and I slouched forward like a child being chastised, “you’re telling me that if all that is true, the best way to go about it is to run at them and attack as you were each about to do?”

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Jessica flashed her eyes between each of us and after a moment we crawled away, far enough to talk openly.

“You’re each still thinking about this like it’s a game.” She said as she paced before us. Kappa and I sat on a small log and Silas was above us in a tree branch, each of us listening intently as she spoke. If heart-eyes were real in this game, I would’ve had them. Kappa however, wasn’t as impressed.

“It is a game,” she said, a bit coldly.

“Yes,” Jessica said pointing finger guns at Kappa, “however you’re thinking about it as if every puzzle, problem and riddle needs to be solved like the game is meant to be played.” She waited for us to understand but as we each waited she continued. “Lester, you’ve been making this game so long I get why you’re thinking this way and Kappa,” Kappa scowled slightly at the use of her name, “you were born here so I get it as well.” She glanced up to Silas who waved at her and then back down at me. “You told me you fought skeletons when you entered the Cave to get the staff of whatsitcalled…”

“Antioch.” Silas said and Jessica pointed up towards him.

“Yes, thank you. After that you exited to a waterfall out back, right?”

I could see all of a sudden where she was going and felt like an idiot for not realizing it sooner. She finished her thought.

“Why didn’t you just go in through the back; avoid the fight and take the Staff?” she said with hands open at her sides; part jazz hands, part revealing her idea in a way that was meant to make sense to us. To me and Kappa it did, but Silas still looked confused.

“But you have to enter the front; you’re not supposed to go in through the back.” he said.

Jessica nodded and looked to me to help explain. I looked up at Silas and said, “Ya buddy, what she’s saying is that we don’t need to play it that way though. We have meta knowledge, as in we know the solution to a puzzle, the same way I removed that spell from the door without learning the solution to the riddle in game.”

Silas looked concerned for a second and after a beat said, “But that’s not how you play the game.”

“It’s no longer a game Silas.” Kappa said kindly “We can get hurt. Jessica is saying we can approach these problems however we want to now. Just like how you knew your parents were in the Mine because you knew the layout.” She said it with a tinge of remorse as if losing something she held dear and I had to admit, I felt similar. There was something fun and exciting about playing the game I had built; going in the backdoor felt like cheating in a way.

“All I’m saying is that we need to be smart,” she paused and thought, “especially because it seems like this game is much harder than you intended.”

That part was true, with the AI going all rogue on me and with the ‘one-hit kill’ likelihood of battle, we needed to be smart. Despite my slight regret I nodded along and stood up. “The mines do have a back door…” I said, trying to remember the details,

“Perfect!” Jessica said. “We can just slip in the back door and see if your parents are there.”

I thought for a second about the mines. “...or we can try Killian Earthbarren,” I said, raising my eyebrows towards Kappa who in response rolled hers wide enough to make her contempt for Killian crystal clear. Jessica shot looks between the two of us and stepped forward.

“Who or what is a Killian Earthbarren?” She asked. Kappa shook her head in disgust as if to remove the name from the space it had just acquired within her mind and stood up. She walked over to the tree Silas sat in and leaned against the trunk. I stood to follow her but instead walked beside Jessica.

“Killian Earthbarren is a who, and he’s an NPC.”

“He’s an idiot and a cheat,” Kappa said from the base of the tree, her arms crossed across her chest. Jessica, confused by the interaction, waited for me to continue.

“He’s a dwarf who gives you the mission to clear the mines and after completing it, moves in with his team and sets up shop. You can trade goods with him and…” Kappa sat up pointing to me, an angry look on her face. I shook it off and continued, “…and you can have him as another NPC ally.”

Kappa threw her hands up in the air and walked towards me. “I will not be a part of the team if he joins us,” she said angrily. I shook my head and turned to face her pointed finger.

“Kappa you don’t even dislike him you’re just programmed to.” I turned to Jessica. “Kappa is the primary NPC and meant to be the one that the Player Character usually first befriends but there are other companions, Killian being one of them.”

Kappa paced back and forth like a caged wolf, breathing the fire out of her lungs as I continued. “I wanted to have inter-party dialogue for the NPC’s that was interesting so I coded a rivalry.” I directed the last few words at Kappa who was walking back and forth angrily. “Meaning it’s not real.”

“You can say that all you want Lester but it’s not gonna change how much I despise that dwarf.”

I turned back to Jessica for her thoughts as Silas watched Kappa pace back and forth. I could see her conflict, having already sensed Kappa’s dislike for her growing, so I piped up. “Look, if we head in the back way, yes, we may be able to get mom and dad. We may even be able to get out safe but there will still be Orcs in there and they outnumber us 10 to 1. However,” I said trying my best not to meet Kappa’s eyes, “if we take on the quest from Killian, Jessica can probably convince him and his clan to attack the front of the mine. They may kill them all. They may not but at the very least they’ll be a distraction while we enter the back.”

Kappa stopped walking and looked at me. “You want to convince Killian to attack the mines and the Orcs within?” she sounded almost hopeful.

“Well, ya, I mean…” was all I got out before she threw her arms around me and kissed me on the cheek. My cheeks went beet red and as I stepped back I caught Jessica’s eye which sported a furrowed brow.

She stammered a bit and then said, “O-okay then, let’s just do that.”

Kappa, Jessica, Silas and I left the small clearing and headed towards Killian and his clan in hopes of aiding their attack on the mines.