“So, I’ve been thinking,” Fallyn said, while they waited in the castle foyer for Murl. The torchlight stretched lacy patterns from her shoulder to the floor.

Matt met her eyes and raised both eyebrows. The castle knew they were there, but none of the doors had opened yet. There was nothing to do but wait.

“The primitive status issue that the Operator mentioned,” Fallyn continued

“Maybe it’s a protective thing? Like how this is a Preserve?” Matt said. He hoped it was.

“Perhaps.” Fallyn tapped a finger to her lips. “I keep thinking back to the previous Operator though.”

“She was a lot nicer,” Val muttered, once again admiring the tapestry of the dress.

“I recall her using the word too,” Fallyn said, “‘primitive.’ She seemed almost surprised by our level of understanding.”

“She did mention media spin, or something, didn’t she?” Kurtis said.

“So the aliens have news. We have news.” Matt shrugged then corrected quietly, “Had news.”

Fallyn tucked her hair behind one ear. “She also talked about the opposite, ‘advanced,’ in reference to Conglomerate membership.” Then she squinted at the vaulted ceiling as if the flickering light and shadows held the words from weeks before. “I just have this pit in my stomach,” she said without looking down.

Matt interlaced his fingers at the back of his head and tipped towards the ceiling as well. She was right. Of course, she was right. His insides rolled over in a lazy turn. He swallowed. “Didn’t this last one say something about violence too?” He closed his eyes trying to remember, pressing his hands against the back of his skull.

“Primitive status due to violence,” Kurtis supplied.

“They fucking set us up,” Fallyn breathed.

“Well that doesn’t make sense,” Kurtis said. “The whole premise of this place is monsters and weapons—quests with those monsters and weapons. No one would believe we’re violence-crazed maniacs for following instructions. They literally told us to do it the first day.”

“Aren’t there kinda lots of other people doing the same thing too?” Val added. “Like, who aren’t us, in that other Continuance we can’t get to?”

Matt nodded slowly. It’ll be fine, he told himself. Maybe I’m not remembering right. Maybe—

“It’s still not adding up,” Fallyn said.

But then Murl burst through the doorway. “Welcome travelers!” he exclaimed, eyes twinkling. “Come this way.”

Matt replayed bits of conversation as he followed Murl through the hallway, feet tapping on the gray stone floor. The Operator had told them about specialization, gone along with Val’s metaphor of a wall, she’d confirmed his worst fears… But when had she mentioned ‘advanced’? He remembered the word ‘membership,’ could picture walking through the grass, the little bendy saplings that sprouted up... The words were just beyond his reach. If only he could stretch a hand into that memory.

“We’re in here today,” Murl said, pausing in front of the double oak tree doors.

Matt halted, then took a step back, realizing where he was. Val gasped. The elegant tree carving stretched over both doors, its trunk split in two by the seam. Gold leaf glittered over branches and leaves. Inlaid green gems caught the torchlight; Matt started to wonder if they burned from within. As he stared into their depths, the design seemed to move, leaves shifting under a phantom wind.

Murl spread his arms wide and the doors opened with a gush of cool air. Matt knew that smell: crisp autumn air and piles of colorful leaves. He remembered raking them into piles for his parents, scooping them into brown paper bags. As a child he’d leaped into those piles, laughing and getting a few scratchy leaves stuck down the front of his sweatshirt.

Murl looked over his shoulder, directly at Matt, and winked. Then he strode into the room. Matt followed.

Bookcases loomed on all sides, rich wood, ancient scrolls and tomes. A round stained glass window streamed jewel-toned light, patterning the center of the floor. Murl moved into that light, beard taking on green and blue. The window was a landscape, three moons above the grass and mountains. Murl becked Matt’s group forward, loose sleeves flapping. Then the door softly clicked behind them.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Stay with me,” Val told Wiggles.

“Wu.”

What did she say? Matt closed his eyes, blocking out the wonder of the room, trying to keep those threads of memory within reach. Application? No. Partition? No, that’s the wall. Why the fuck can’t I remember when I need to?

“Bring forth the crystal orbs,” Murl commanded, demanding Matt’s attention.

Matt opened his eyes and sighed. Fallyn shot him a concerned look.

Kurtis withdrew the spheres from his inventory one at a time, green, then red, then disco ball mirrored. Murl took each and set them in the air in front of him. They spun in place, floating. The disco ball scattered squares of white light. Murl stepped to the side, leaving the three orbs to gather speed in the stained glass light.

The old man cocked his head, observing the globes. He stroked his long white beard.

“What’s happening?” Val asked.

Kurtis shrugged and raised both arms.

Then Murl said, “Hm. Looks like they need a little help.”

A staff was in the old man’s hand a moment later, gnarled and flecked with gold like the door’s oak tree. A golfball-sized emerald was nested at its top in a cage of spiraling wood. It blazed.

Matt shielded his eyes. When he looked again, blinking, the orbs were trading positions. Cool air rushed around them as they moved. They swapped places, rising higher and higher off the ground. Then they stopped, still spinning, lined up with the moons from the window. Light from the pink stained glass moon flowed into the massive red gem. The largest stained glass moon streamed into the disco ball and the middle moon in the window—the one that seemed most like their own—cast its pale light upon the green orb.

“It’s the PvP,” Fallyn whispered, continuing to stare at the spinning spheres.

The light between the orbs and the glass intensified. The bookcases rattled.

“The added pressure of the contest.”

Brightness flared in the three globes. Light flowed in the opposite direction, from the obs to the window. Matt squinted. It kept getting brighter. His eyelashes fluttered. He shielded his eyes with a hand, struggling to see.

“Cathleen said it’s ‘Easy XP,’” Fallyn continued.

Colors faded to white as the brightness increased. Cathleen had said that in the woods that day. But it was all too bright and there was too much spinning.

Or was it just the green orb that was fading to white? Tiny dark droplets hung in the air beside it, as if flung out while it spun, its color leeched into the air.

Murl moved the top of his staff in a circle, bottom anchored to a single point on the floor. He muttered something inaudible and then the droplets began to funnel to the gem in his staff. They followed its circles in a twining stream, around and around. Then Murl stopped and smiled. The orb was white.

“There you have it,” Murl declared.

“They fucking set us up,” Fallyn whispered—the same thing she’d said before.

The orbs continued to spin above and Murl moved to stand beneath them. “You have done well, travelers.” He spread his hands to the orbs above, staff tipping left. “The land may now begin to heal. Things are right in the realm.”

“How is any of this right?” Fallyn demanded.

Murl stared back at her, through her.

“This is our lives. Real people’s lives. How is FRC allowed to do this?”

Matt was all too familiar with the old man’s non-answering stare.

“They destroy our planet, kill billions of people. And now they want to declare a status that negates our right to live?”

Murl blinked.

“The few survivors?” she demanded. “After they’ve completely set us up?”

Matt could feel the rage seething off of her like heat. It rose in him too. After everything they’d been through the last month, everything they’d survived, and how well they’d played along... They followed the damn instructions. They completed the freaking quests. They fixed the fucking gravemist.

“Thanks, Murl,” Kurtis said dryly. “What’s next?”

Matt turned to look at his orange friend’s face. It was blank, completely unreadable. Val was being atypically silent.

Murl had sprung back into action, waving at the orbs and then out toward Matt’s group. “You are to be commended, brave heroes of the realm.” With a flick of Murl’s wrist ‘4,068,900 XP’ floated up through the orbs.

Matt let out a slow breath, watching his XP bar increase. He was now just over 60% of the way to Level 17. They were going to make it.

‘Title granted: Hero of the Realm,’ floated up next.

That’s new. He hadn’t seen anything about titles before.

Then Murl spread his hands and said, “A souvenir,” as a small white gem zipped into each of their inventories, a tiny replica of the now-white moon.

Matt furrowed his brow, searching his inventory for it. He had to scroll the whole list since he didn’t catch what it was called. Matt found it in the M’s, ‘Moonstone.’ All it said was that word and then below it, three question marks. He peered at the icon with that sense that wasn’t his own and knew it wasn’t equippable. He had no idea what it was for.

“You are free to rest in my guest quarters any time, heroes,” Murl said. “I must be off.” Then Murl disappeared into a cloud of white smoke.

Matt moved to where Murl had been standing, waving the smoke away. He peered up at the still-spinning orbs. Val came and stood beside him, Wiggles hanging onto her sleeve.

“You really think they set us up?” Kurtis murmured.

Fallyn nodded, having said her piece.

“If the game is rigged,” Val said, “how do we win?”

Matt was inclined to say ‘refuse to play,’ but that wasn’t an option. They’d been shown it wasn’t an option with Anika. He searched the orbs above like they held the answers. How do we win, how do we win? Soft light hovered around them, focusing into three streams out the window. How do we win, how do we win, how do we win, how do WE win? We win?

“We win,” said Matt, ripping his eyes from the orbs. “How do they know we’re acting primitive in here unless they’re watching somehow?” he blurted, mouth and mind feeling out of sync. “We win—we win. We win the Megabowl. We win the whole fucking thing. We show them the truth. We shove it down their God damned throats.”