“We need to talk,” Benson said as I walked down the stairs. The morning air smelled like wet grass and toasted bread. I looked out one of the windows and took note of several blown-down trees on the perimeter of our yard. The hard rain stopped sometime in the night, but a thick dawn mist continued to saturate the world with water.

“Yes,” I agreed with a nod as I walked to the table and took a seat. Tenia carried a small breakfast platter in from the kitchen at the same time. Toast, eggs, and bacon made up an array of colorful food items.

Benson shoveled eggs and bacon onto his plate and said, “Let’s start from the very beginning, then. Tenia, would you care to explain?”

“Of course,” said Tenia with a smile as she untied her frilly pink apron and sat down. “I tried to explain it to you last night, November, but we both know that didn’t really elaborate on anything.”

I nodded in reply while cutting a piece of toast and egg, making sure to get equal parts of both on the fork.

“We were never NPCs, in Xternity,” Tenia said in a flat voice. I paused, and the egg sloped from my frozen fork.

“I’m sorry,” I said before clearing my voice. “But could you repeat that?”

“We were never NPCs. Back in Xternity, I had a soul. I could see, hear, feel, smell, and taste everything that happened,” said Tenia with a quiet voice. “I couldn’t move my own body. I was trapped, being controlled by the algorithms in the system.”

“... Benson, was it the same for you too?” I asked, carefully measuring everything in my mind.

“Yes,” Benson replied mid gulp, as he continued to shovel food in his mouth.

“So were you two sentient AIs in Xternity or…”

“I don’t know,” Tenia cut me off. “I only remember my lives as an NPC in Xternity.”

“Lives? As in plural?” I asked.

“Yes,” replied Tenia. “At first I was bound by the machine. It was a void, if you will. No feeling. No sensations. Just my mind in an endless darkness. Occasionally, from this darkness, I’d be born as an NPC. This body is one of the seven I have occupied in these years.”

“My God,” I mumbled under my breath. The implications of this were both staggering and terrifying. If the NPCs in Xternity were sentient, then would harming them constitute a human rights violation? Are they even human?

Perhaps the biggest question on my mind, though, is how this and my own summoning to this world are interrelated. Clearly, because all of us possess bodies forged in the game that it’s all related…

“I know what you’re thinking,” said Benson, his voice calm and his plate spotless.

“You do?” I asked, jolted from my deep contemplations.

“Yes. You’re wondering how all this is related to your summoning. This, I can answer,” replied Benson.

“You can?” Asked Tenia, as shocked as I was.

“I don’t remember everything, but I have fragments of my time before Xternity. Before I was bound to the machine. This world,” Benson spread his arms out wide, as if to encompass all that was around us, “is my home. My original home.”

Stolen novel; please report.

“You lived in this world before?” Tenia asked the question on my own mind.

“Yes. I had a family, though I can’t remember their faces or names anymore,” said Benson.

“Do you remember how you ended up in Xternity?” I asked.

“A binding. My soul was bound in contract to Xternity. I was sold like a slave. That is all I remember.” The beastman’s voice hung in the air like taut wire.

I muttered, “So that means-”

“-Every NPC in the game Xternity is a soul from this world,” Tenia interrupted me, her voice filled with terror and the awe of realization.

The three of us sat in silence. I looked down at my food and played with it, pushing the eggs around with my fork. At some point throughout the conversation my appetite left me.  

The game Xternity dealt in the trading of souls. Human souls… My soul.

A doubt sprouted within me. I had been so sure that if I could be sent to this world then there had to be a way for me to return… Now I wasn’t sure.

A link clearly existed between Xternity and this world. Now I needed to find it.

After breakfast I helped Benson gather the White Lodestone stored in our makeshift warehouse. Kelding seemed to be keeping up with his end of the bargain. When we returned I started making [Gates] as fast as humanly possible.

We knew our next steps. Benson and I would go to New Hidet, and Tenia would join the Academy in Farrier. If the NPCs in Xternity were being taken from this world, we needed to find out how. As much as I wanted to go home, I’d prefer living on in this world than being enslaved as an NPC in some video game.

Information was our original target, but now there was a sense of urgency behind collecting it. Tenia seemed quite motivated. Benson didn’t change much, though.

With our first goals in mind, we prepared for our journeys.

It took me a week to build six [Gates]. After we retrieved the one I hid in the woods on the night of the thunderstorm, we were left with seven that could be deployed. I spent the last day before our departure making 21 sets of [Keys], three for each [Gate]. I labeled them all using Alphabetical and Numerical systems.

The days dragged on slowly. The work of crafting, while fun, was tiresome. The need for small intricate details kept me on edge the entire time.

Tenia, during the last week, continued to visit the Magician’s Guild and learn as much about the magic systems here as possible. She was also gifted, by Cardinal Reyes, with a letter of recommendation for Farrier’s Academy.

Benson used his time to patrol the woodlands, wrestle wild animals, and expand the warehouse for White Lodestone. He also adamantly badgered me about crafting a new sword. He wanted to try different the different sword styles the locals mentioned.

With the new week coming to an end, we finished our preparations to move on from Golden Thrush Town.