Cassandra Lexington leaned against the black leather and let out a long sigh as the adjustable chair bent and folded to conform to her frail body. It lifted her gently off the ground, rotated horizontally, and relaxed back to the floor. The old woman knew she wouldn’t be able to do this for much longer. Even staying awake until 4 pm when her housemaid left each afternoon was getting more and more difficult. She caught herself nodding off at two today.
“Should I up your medication, dear,” her husband’s voice said through the computer speakers.
“Oh, James, can we go any higher?” she asked.
“We can always go higher.”
“Will I wake up?”
The digital voice paused. “Do you want to?”
Now, Cassandra hesitated. She knew she was going to die in this room one day. She feared that if she died in the Realms of Infamy, her mind would take that as a signal and shut down permanently. She didn’t want that to happen. Instead, she planned to exit this world on her own terms. One day, she would leave a note for Bianca, her maid, saying that she was no longer needed. Cassandra would remain upstairs, connected to the machine her husband had made for her, basically on life support, and complete one last marathon session in the game until her body gave out.
Maybe she would last a week, possibly two. Currently, she could still move around the house and found some pleasure in the waking world and interacting with real people. The time for that wasn’t far off, but it wasn’t tonight.
“Do we have anything interesting waiting for us?” Cassandra asked as robotic arms attached monitors and IVs and lowered the skull cap over her head. Within seconds, her eyes closed, and she fell down the digital tunnel into the Realm of Infamy, where she was Lexi, a level 19 shapeshifting leopard druid.
“I thought you’d never ask,” James said, his voice ironically gaining realism as she entered the virtual world and heard it only in her mind. In the sterile room back in her house, the computer-generated voice lacked heart and soul. But once it bypassed her ears and fed directly into her brain, it sounded exactly as she remembered. “Gandhi has reached out to us. Your first wish is ready.”
Lexi’s heart skipped a beat as she opened her eyes to find her digital body precisely as she had left it, lying on her bed in the palatial room the dwarves had carved for her at the top of her new mine. She got out of bed and walked over the fur-covered floor to look out her window. The lights in the distant city of Ironfel began flickering to life as night settled on the realms.
“Where do I need to go to watch it?” Over a week ago, she had secured three wishes from the game’s AI by passing a horror-filled Aladin’s Lamp module. Her first wish was that Jace Thorne would be given a mandatory quest where he would need to face off against a monster far beyond his ability to survive. While she trusted Gandhi to fulfill the request, it had taken longer than she expected.
“Check your inventory,” James said.
The druid was already rolling her eyes up to access her magical rug. She had found a crafter able to turn it into a comfortable wrap that she could wear instead of clothes while retaining instant access to the transportation device. The dwarves didn’t like it when she walked around naked, though if she flew directly out of her window, they didn’t have time to stop her.
Instead of fetching her rug, she found an item she had never seen before: a pair of glasses. Lexi equipped the eyewear without leaving her inventory. When she rolled her eyes back down, the dexterous druid nearly lost her balance as she found herself hovering over windswept, snowy mountains over a thousand feet in the air. Her hand eventually found a rock-solid wall, confirming she was still in her room and not transported to an unknown location. After steadying herself, her other hand slowly removed the glasses so she could look at them instead of through them. Her room filled her peripheral vision, with the image of mountains inches from her eyes flashing across the lenses.
{Virtual reality glasses inside a virtual reality game,} James said. {Very meta.}
Lexi ignored the comment, moved toward a padded rocking chair, and eased herself down. The process of sitting was more straightforward with her powerful digital body than it had been a few moments ago in the real world. Once she felt stable, she slid the glasses back on her face and felt like an eagle soaring over the massive peaks. She searched the snowy landscape below her, ready for a show.
----------------------------------------
Food had been a good idea, Jace realized, as his crew left one of the many restaurants in Madria that sold tacos. Word of the king’s death and his son’s coronation spread like dragon fire through the city, and with it came news of Jace’s involvement. He probably didn’t even need to disguise himself as a human anymore, but he did, and his party was showered with free food and drinks. Jace had to keep an eye on Draya to make sure she didn’t drink too much, but she did fill her stomach, the spicy food no match for a mouth used to breathing fire.
In fact, everyone liked the food. Even Gromphy, who rarely ate with his companions, insisted that the gnomes needed to learn this style of cuisine. Psycho’s quarter-orc heritage showed through as he added copious amounts of salsa to his food. And, of course, Esther out-ate them all. A few of them had been drained of health several times in the last hour, and while Gromphy’s potions could heal their Hitpoints, only a proper meal would restore their vitality.
After the meal, it took Jace a few minutes to find a travel node, and then he spent a moment studying the navigation display. He had been to so many places that the view looked like his Google Maps account, with pins and location markers everywhere. One stood out as it throbbed red and drew his attention toward the top left of the main continent. The game didn’t have a name for the location yet, but the description labeled it as the location for his divine quest. Jace selected it, and his party materialized on a narrow ledge on a windswept mountainside.
“Why does it always have to be cold,” Psycho said, cinching his cloak tightly around him.
“What are you talking about?” Draya countered. “On this series of missions, we went to a tropical island, hung out on a pirate ship in warm waters, went to a desert that was so hot you took damage, and just left a dragon fire festival.”
Psycho had no meaningful comeback to the young woman’s salient logic and only grunted.
“Wait,” Draya said, putting the pieces together in her mind. “This reminds you of that last quest we went on in the mountains, where Elsa kicked your butt.”
“That was you?” Esther shrieked. “I heard about that. Vithium said someone had . . .” she let her voice trail off as she looked at Jace to see if the player noticed her slip. He wasn’t paying attention, and the two women continued bantering about the Frozen module.
“How close am I to level 20?” Jace said, moving to the edge of the small plateau and looking out over the inhospitable landscape.
{About another 100k,} Gracie replied. {The last module didn’t get you many kills, but the reward for setting the kingdom aright was substantial. Still, you will probably need to kill a lot of high-level monsters in order to get there during this module. Mandatory quests aren’t known for handing out big rewards.}
“So, does it make sense to grind a little before we get to the monastery?”
{Who are you?} Gracie asked. {The Jace Thorne I know of would never partake in grinding. What’s next, staking out a spawn point with a trap spell?}
“I just thought. . .” Jace started. He didn’t get a clear view of any particular predator but sensed movement through the rock beneath him. The snow muffled his senses, but he knew they weren’t alone. The game had notified him that this was a level 15 hostile zone. Danger should be everywhere.
{No,} Gracie diffused the tension. {It’s a decent idea, and getting to level 20 before you have to face whatever lies ahead would be wise, but if the game or your god thinks you are stalling, you’ll start to see banes, and any benefit from getting to 20 will be negated. Knowing how Gandhi treats you, my guess is she’d let you get right to the cusp of level 20 and then pull all the monsters and force you to enter the monastery, likely with a handful of banes.}
Jace nodded, understanding the wisdom.
{Players get mandatory quests right before important levels all the time. The game does it on purpose to force them into these difficult decisions. It’s why many players decide not to follow a deity.}
Snowy walked up beside Jace and sniffed the snow, pointing her nose down the mountain. “Do you see the path?”
“No need to get sarcastic,” Jace replied, remembering when the wolf could barely speak in one-word sentences. Now, she added nuance to everything she said. “Just lead us forward.”
Jace turned to the rest of his group and overheard the women talking about frozen bananas. Despite the temperature, Psycho was turning a deep shade of red. “Guys, let’s go.”
Gromphy had pulled a much heavier coat out of his trunk and was the first to fall in line. The women came next with Psycho pulling up the rear, his bow out and monitoring the potential ambush sites around them.
They traveled slowly. Snowy could practically run down the mountainside, as this was her natural habitat. Jace, too, felt he had better footing than usual. His mind could seek out the best path for his large feet, often hidden beneath the snow. With her dragon staff in hand, Draya had the strength to climb the mountain and had no problem descending. She had flashed a few snow piles with fire, but after creating waterfalls that quickly froze into ice, the others asked her to stop.
Psycho and Esther had the Dexterity to navigate just about any terrain, but they were the least equipped to handle the weather and moved about cautiously. As a goblin, Gromphy was at home in the mountains, but his short legs made it hard to keep up. After they had descended close to two hundred feet from their starting position, they looked up at an equally high path they would have to climb, and Jace suggested that Gromphy climb onto his back.
After nearly an hour in the cold, windy conditions, they reached the top of their third climb, and Psycho brought them to a halt. Jace was beside the ranger in a flash. “What is it?”
“Someone else is ahead of us,” he said, pointing in the distance.
They stood on the tallest peak so far and could see over the next two jagged crags they would have to climb. Over a mile away, lit by the sun setting behind them, a lone figure moved along the path.
“Is it a monk?” Draya asked, reaching the crest.
Jace shook his head. “See how the sunlight reflects off his armor. Monks don’t wear armor.”
“Then who is it?” Esther asked, catching her breath once she reached the top, appreciating the short break.
“Psycho,” Jace said. “See if you can get his attention.”
The archer shook his head. “From this distance, I can’t hit him,” he said, switching to Dragonwing.
“I don’t want you to kill a random character,” Jace said. “I just want you to let him know we are here and see what his reaction is. Either he waits for us to accompany him and maybe has some information about what we are about to face, or he runs away. Either way, we should learn something.”
Psycho nodded and pulled one of the arrows Gromphy had crafted for long distance. It didn’t have much damage potential but could hold a minor spell. He passed it to Draya, who loaded it with fire and handed it back.
The elf took two full rounds to aim and trigger all his bonuses before letting the shot fly, and then it took even longer to make the flight. True to his prediction, Psycho didn’t hit the traveler, but he came close, splashing into the snow twenty feet ahead of the character with a burst of fire. The figure spun around for a few moments, looking in every direction before lifting his gaze up and back. Backlit by the setting sun and standing on the highest peak within range, Jace’s party was hard to miss. Once the stranger caught sight of them, the orc shaman saw a flash of blue on his forehead as sunlight reflected off his headpiece. The distant character spun back around and began running down the trail. Jace dropped to the snow, his face in shock.
Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.
“Do we chase after him?” Psycho asked.
“Why did he run?” Draya asked.
“I don’t believe it,” Jace said, ignoring their questions and dropping his head to his hands. “I don’t believe it. It’s all connected. I’m so stupid.”
“Jace,” Esther said. “What is it? Who was that?”
Jace looked up at his friends. “You didn’t see it?”
“See what?” Draya asked. “He’s a mile away. Psycho barely saw him.”
“That is Kai Morte,” Jace said. “He is wearing a blue diamond on his forehead.”
“Could be a coincidence,” Psycho said but regretted it right after.
Jace shook his head. “No, not in the realms. Not when my god is involved. Nothing is a coincidence.” Jace took several deep breaths and got up. From his seated position, he had lost sight of the distant figure but now saw that Kai was almost out of view, cutting to the left down a valley and behind an outcropping. “Snowy,” he called. “Go catch him. Don’t hurt him, but don’t let him get away either.”
The winter wolf didn’t respond other than to jump nearly 30 feet to a lower ledge and then bound even further down, moving faster than an avalanche. Jace followed at a much slower pace, and the rest of his crew hurried to keep up.
“What are you saying?” Draya asked, hot on the orc’s heels. “Is Kai after the same thing you are? Or does he want to be a monk?”
Jace shook his head. “Esther,” he said, turning to ensure the other woman could keep pace with them. “Vithium is a monk, correct?”
“Yes,” she replied, fighting through the snow.
“What god does he serve?” Jace asked.
“How should I know? I barely met him, just like you.”
Jace sighed. “Esther, I know you’re sleeping with him. Draya told me.” After the lie, Jace’s boots failed him for a moment, and he almost lost his balance and fell down the mountain.
Before Draya could respond, Esther erupted. “Draya, how could you? I told you that in confidence.”
The dragon mage laughed. “You idiot! I didn’t tell him. He just tricked you.”
“Yes,” Jace replied. “And it hurt. Lying doesn’t sit well with me. So tell me, who does he serve?”
“I don’t know,” she replied, sufficiently humbled. “He doesn’t talk about it often. Some guile deity. Shimbobo or Shimbubu something.”
Jace nodded. “Shimbato.”
“Yes, that’s it.”
They reached a broad, level section with little snow where they could walk abreast. Jace spoke so they could all hear. “We are going to Shimbato’s monastery. My divine quest is to restore the stronghold to its rightful owner. A demon has taken it over.”
“So this is about Vithium?” Esther asked. “His god is under attack, and we are going to save him. Has he called Kai to help?”
“Not exactly,” Jace said. “I think Vithium is the bad guy here.” He paused. “Do you know if he has anything to do with someone called Haman? Has anyone ever called him that as a nickname? Or does he have a familiar or NPC named Haman?”
“No,” Esther said slowly, trying to remember. “I don’t know anyone named Hay Man,” she said, stretching the name out. “Though he does have this annoying Strawman ability.”
“Hayman and Strawman are the same thing,” Draya said.
Jace stopped her. “No, not Hay Man. Haman. One word.” He paused in thought. “Well, actually, what does this Strawman ability do.”
“He holds real still,” Esther explained, “like he is Stunned or shocked about something. He will often punch and critically miss on purpose, so you think he actually is Stunned. But if you attack his still image, it explodes into straw, and he is able to catch you Flat-Footed from behind. It’s the only way he can ever get me in a Grappled state.”
“Wait,” Draya said. “You guys fight? I thought you slept together.”
“The fighting is part of the sleeping,” Esther explained.
“What?” Draya was confused.
“Now you are being the idiot,” Psycho interrupted.
Jace ignored them. “Gracie, have you ever heard about this Strawman ability before? I admit I haven’t read up on monks much.”
{I’m searching now and finding nothing,} the operator said. {There is no record of this ability anywhere online.}
“So Gandhi made it up for him to label him as Haman.”
{You don’t think that is a stretch?} Gracie asked.
“On its own?” Jace agreed. “Probably. But with everything else? It would be a massive coincidence.”
“What is everything else?” Psycho asked, having turned his attention from Esther’s explanation of foreplay to Jace’s inner dialog with his operator.
“Literally everything else,” Jace said. “Everything we have been doing.”
Draya and Esther quieted to pay attention. Jace turned to the rogue. “When you and Gromphy went on the mission to curse Draya’s dress, you said that you heard Atrax mention that another player was looking for the fallen angels. That player is Vithium.”
Esther shook her head. “He wasn’t looking for the angels. He was looking for . . .” her eyes widened in shock as the reality hit her. Draya and Psycho didn’t have the inside information and still looked confused.
“Don’t you guys find it odd that Kai was working in the Guilded Swan where Esther was? The angels were supposed to spread out across the realms and hide, yet two of them ended up right next to each other. In fact, they all ended up right next to each other.”
“Leah, Tami, and Delly are the other fallen angels,” Psycho said, the lightbulb going off above his head.
Jace nodded. “Angels of a feather flock together.”
Esther shook her head. “No, we never did that. Jezebel had strict orders. Many of our clients wanted us to, but we always worked alone.”
Jace sighed at the scattered mind of his rogue. “I said flock, Esther. Angles of a feather FLOCK together.”
“Oh,” she replied. “I thought you said . . .”
Jace lifted a hand. “I know what you think I said. Focus.” He watched Draya blush to match her hair. “A magical force drew you all together, and now another force is drawing them here.”
“What?” Psycho asked. “The blue diamond?”
Jace nodded. “Remember when we saw Leah? She had a blue diamond necklace. She said one of the players who tried to solve her quest but failed gave it to her as a consolation gift.”
Esther nodded. “Vithium said he had briefly tried her quest but couldn’t figure it out.”
“And Sir Wallace gave Tami and Shelah a wedding ring with a blue diamond. When I asked her about it, she said she had gotten it from a mutual informant. I think Wallace and Vithium quested together when she got Thursa, and he got Tristan. They are brothers.”
“And Delly?” Psycho asked.
Esther frowned. “Vithium gave me a pair of bracers with blue diamonds on them. He was always trying to give me stuff. I gave them to Delly when I visited her in her cell.”
They had started to ascend another short climb, and everyone had to jog to keep up with the eager orc. “And these diamonds draw them here?” Psycho asked. “To the monastery?”
Jace shrugged. “Something like that. But they must not have worked until the characters were freed from personal quests.”
Easter leaped up a few high rocks to get even with Jace. “So Leah, Tami, and Delly are already here?”
Jace nodded. “I think so. Remember when Wallace came to us during breakfast after we had freed Leah? She said she had gone to the Artist’s Alcove, but Leah wasn’t there. She had just gotten control of the profitable store, and the first thing she does is run off on an errand?”
Psycho nodded. “And when we got back from Delly’s quest, we found Shelah waiting for us after he found Adam. He said that after they had secured their kingdom, Tami went off on a private mission. They had just gotten married, and she had to run away?”
“What about Delly?” Draya asked.
“I don’t know,” Jace said. “Gracie, do you have anything?”
{I’m looking now. Zamora is a pretty popular place after you guys blew it open. Players are finding all kinds of new missions to track down lost artifacts from ancient cities and restore power to the kingdom. It’s like Indiana Jones, Uncharted, and Tomb Raider all rolled into one.}
“That’s great,” Jace said. “We can check it out in the free time the CIA gives us.”
{Don’t you remember,} Gracie said. {They said we can do whatever the #$%@ we want.}
“Right now, I want to know if anyone has seen Delly.”
{Negative, boss. It looks like Sonan is running the show. The barbarian queen is noticeably absent.}
Jace relayed the information to his crew as they headed down a slope, approaching the area where they had last seen Kai. They could all see Snowy’s tracks leading off to the left through a narrow pass.
“So let’s get this straight,” Psycho said. “Vithium is working with Atrax and this demon. . .”
“Karo’Kafellon,” Jace said. “That is the name of the demon.”
“ . . . they are working with Karo,” Psycho continued, “to track down these five fallen angels. The demon wants them for something . . . not good. But they needed to be freed from their quests first, which we did for them under the guise of helping Esther’s friends.”
“I didn’t know,” Esther defended herself.
“None of us did,” Jace assured her.
“Either way,” Psycho said. “They have at least three of the angels now, possibly four if Snowy doesn’t catch Kai.”
“She didn’t,” Draya said, pointing ahead. Down in the pass, the sun was gone, and they squinted into the darkness to see the winter wolf slowly plodding toward them.
“So now they are only missing Esther,” Psycho said. “And we are going to bring her right to them.”
“If you think I’m sitting this out,” the rogue said, drawing her blades for emphasis, “you have another thing coming.”
Psycho ignored the bravado, knowing Jace would have the final say. “Does this narrative parallel something from your world?” the elf asked. “I know many things in the realms do.”
Jace nodded. “Yes, a man named Haman convinced a king to kill a group of people he didn’t like. They had fallen out of favor with their god. Haman got the king’s signet ring to make the edict to kill these people official so that it couldn’t be revoked.”
“And how did these people survive?” Esther asked.
“Or did they?” Draya clarified.
“They did,” Jace said. “A woman named Esther, who was a member of these fallen people, approached the king to plead her case. He couldn’t cancel the proclamation, but he issued a second one that allowed the people to defend themselves against their attackers. When the day came for their execution, they fought back and routed their adversaries.”
“See,” Esther said, looking at Psycho. “I need to be there.”
Psycho looked unconvinced and waited for Jace to affirm. The orc only shrugged his shoulders and focused his attention on Snowy, who had gotten close enough for communication. “What happened? Did he get away?”
Jace squinted ahead but couldn’t see anything yet.
“What about your mission?” Psycho asked as they continued forward. “It looks like Esther’s priorities for this quest are clear. What did your god charge you with? It obviously wasn’t to free the fallen angels, or you would have figured this out already.”
“Shimbatu has only one follower among players,” Jace answered. “And Dex Machi hinted that the player might have already betrayed him. As a diety that promotes trickery among his followers, he might have expected that, though some base-level loyalty should probably be required. I assume the lone follower is Vithium. With the monastery, which is Shimbato’s stronghold, under siege, he can not recruit new followers, and without players loyal to him, he will die. I need to return the monastery to Shimbato’s control.”
“By killing the demon?” Psycho asked.
“By freeing my friends?” Esther asked.
Jace shrugged. “As with most missions, I’m guessing there is more than one way to solve this.”
“What does this demon want with the angels?” Draya asked. “Revenge?”
“Probably power,” Jace offered. “I’m guessing it involves a sacrifice or ceremony. We’ll find out when we get there.”
The group walked in silence for another minute until the canyon opened up, and they found the ruined bridge. A deep gorge a hundred feet across cut through the ground to their left, isolating a massive peak. Looking up, they could see lights and evidence of stairs ascending the slope. The crease in the ground seemed to encircle the mountain, giving no access unless they could find a way across. Two thick wooden posts stood on the edge of the precipice, four feet apart, with ropes secured at the top and bottom.
Jace approached cautiously, the ground covered in ice and snow. He peered over the edge and saw the wooden slats of a bridge hanging straight down the steep drop-off. Peering across the gorge, he saw two identical posts on the far side where the bridge must have been secured and where Kai had evidently destroyed it.
“Draya,” Jace asked, stepping away from the edge. “Can you clear this spot of snow?”
“Gladly,” she said. She moved in front of her leader and released a torrent of fire, reducing the ground cover to water vapor and revealing a wide patch of bare stone. In the process, the fire burned through the remaining ropes, dropping the old bridge in the gorge and reducing the posts to charred stubs.
“I hope you were planning on fixing that,” Draya said sheepishly, halting her spell and stepping back from the steaming rock.
“No,” Jace said. “I wasn’t.” He walked to the edge again, feeling a much stronger connection to the rock beneath his feet without the snow. He called upon his new powers and summoned an arch from the side of the gorge. A 4-foot-wide path crackled and snapped into existence as the stone magically formed and reached out over the expanse. Jace strained under the effort. He had an incredible depth of mana from his new core, but this threatened to drain it all. The structure quivered under the strain of its weight, threatening to snap off at its source and crash into the gorge. Jace narrowed the bridge to three feet wide to reduce its mass, and with a final burst of effort, the rainbow shape touched down on the far side and achieved stability.
Jace stumbled back, and Psycho caught him before he slipped on a patch of ice Draya hadn’t cleared. “Impressive,” the elf said.
“And a lot harder than I thought it would be,” Jace replied. “Punching up with stalagmites is child’s play by comparison. Apparently, as the volume of what I summon grows, the mana required increases exponentially.” After a few moments, Jace found he could stand on his own, and with his feet firmly on the rock, he could sense his second mana core flooding back with mana. If he ever wanted to use a massive stone attack in battle, it would have to be a killing blow.
As the most eager to reach the monastery, Esther tested the bridge first, practically running across the stone structure. Snowy followed after, and Jace let Draya go next. The shaman and mage had the lowest Dexterity in the group, but it wasn’t a difficult crossing. Even at three feet wide, it felt safe enough, and the stone didn’t sway as a rope bridge would have. Psycho pulled up the rear, ready to offer assistance if either Draya or Jace stumbled.
Once across, the group found cut stone leading up the mountain. At first, the workmanship lacked design, consisting of haphazard indentations, facilitating a more accessible ascent. However, after several minutes of climbing, the steps gained structure and formed a proper staircase. Jace looked up and couldn’t see the top from their steep angle. A line of sunlight showed hundreds of feet up where the stairs rose high enough to catch the last rays of the setting sun. As they ascended, that line moved ever higher, letting them know darkness was close at hand.
They never caught the sunlight, needing to stop halfway and refresh with stamina potions that Gromphy passed around the group. Jace didn’t know how Kai had managed the feat. Perhaps the spell that guided him to the monastery had granted him the endurance to complete it. After over a thousand steps, they could see the end of their ascent and stopped before their heads rose above the landing.
“What’s the plan?” Psycho asked. “Do we walk in and try to negotiate?”
Jace shook his head. Too many of his plans involved them intentionally getting captured and then performing an impossible escape. Those worked better when he knew what to expect. “No,” he said. “We kill everything.” He looked at Draya, knowing she would be the most reluctant. “I don’t know what we will face, but everyone in this monastery has signed on to kidnap Esther’s friends and sacrifice them to a demon. I don’t feel we need to question their motives first. Agreed?” Everyone nodded, including Draya. “Good.” He turned to Esther. “Sneak up there and tell us what we are dealing with.”
Esther smiled and tugged on her hat, dropping a cylinder of darkness around her. Night had already fallen, and she could have slipped into the shadows without help, but she liked the flair. A few moments passed, and Esther willed herself out of hiding. “Four giants stand guard at the end of a massive clearing, almost 100 feet long. A high door cut into the mountain leads inside. Two frost giants and two hill giants.”
Psycho looked at Draya. “I’ll take the one on the left; you take the one on the right.” She gripped her dragon staff and nodded.
Jace looked at Esther to see her drawing her weapons and returning to the shadows. A quick check over his shoulder showed Gromphy holding two bombs. By his side, Snowy had a look of determination. Jace nodded. “Let’s do this.”