I wrapped my arms around the girl’s midsection. That must have been the first time I was hugged ever since I left home all those years ago. For a moment, I was filled with a warm feeling, but I knew it could not last. Like an albatross around my neck, the deer mask weighed heavily upon me, reminding me of the work that still needed to be done and the sin that I had committed.

“Come on, we can talk more while you rest,” I said, supporting the girl’s weight and leading her towards her bed.

Even her meager weight was too much for my body to move unaided. It was only once she started walking back toward the bed that her body started moving. I deposited her gown-draped body back onto her bed and quickly turned back toward the bed on the other side of the room.

An adolescent corner of my brain dared my eye to notice some of the girl’s other physical attributes, but I snuffed those thoughts out the moment they appeared. Though the girl was older than my body, she was still far too young for my mind.

“What’s your name?” she asked excitedly as the bed creaked under my weight.

“Thale Feldrast, Lord of Gwynedd and Heir Apparent to the Realm of Northwind,” I said with a confused frown.

“No, no,” the girl said with a laugh, “I mean, what’s your real name?”

Real name? Oh, she meant my name from before I died. “Johan,” I lied, “Dr. Johan Fost.”

“Were you German?” she asked.

“No, I was an American. Though, most of my family came from Germany,” I said, more interested in talking about her and the situation surrounding the attack. It was strange to me that she wanted to talk about the real world so much. Ever since coming to Ferrum, I had found thoughts of Earth profoundly uninteresting, except for those places where Earth intersected with Ferrum.

I continued, saying, “What about you? What’s your name? You know… your Earth and Ferrum names.”

“Katya Indirovich,” the girl said, taking a moment to enjoy the sound of the words on her tongue. I could tell that she had not had many opportunities to speak her old name out loud.

“Russian?” I asked.

“No, Lithuanian.” In the past, that distinction held some significance to her, but not anymore. To us, these nations and family names no longer held any significance. They were simply artifacts of a hallucination shared by two strange teenagers.

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“The name I was given sixteen years ago,” the girl began, “was Haydith Thorn.”

I struggled mightily to prevent my shock from appearing on my face, but I could tell that I was unsuccessful. Haydith peered at me with a confused look as I said, “Haydith Thorn, oh no. Please excuse me, I have to confirm something.”

[Observe, Lvl. 1]

Name: Haydith Polaris

The System still recognized her by her birth name, “Haydith Polaris,” the fifth child of King Theophrastus. She was an exceedingly important piece in the Etronian civil war and the source of a major questline in [Ferrum Online].

“What do you mean? Do you recognize my name?” Haydith asked, confused. Realization sunk in a moment later, and she asked another question, this time with much more enthusiasm. “Do you know why the men in masks targeted me?”

The weight of the world reasserted itself. It was as if she had forgotten all of her problems and anxieties for a moment and those stressors returned in that instant. The images of ancient European nations disappeared, and Haydith remembered that she was a scared little girl running from a force she didn’t understand.

“I recognize your name,” I said in English. Speaking in that half-forgotten language became difficult, and I realized that I had forgotten the English words for many of the concepts I would have to mention in our conversation. “Can we switch to Common? I’ve forgotten a lot of English words.”

“Okay,” Haydith said in Common, though her disappointment was obvious.

“You were targeted by the Lich Cult,” I said quickly, gesturing to the mask still hanging from my belt. “They’re an organization of Necromancers that wish to integrate Necromancy into the government and military of Etronia. More importantly, they wish to create a new form of intelligent undead called a lich.” I unconsciously gestured to myself as I said the word “lich.”

“Okay,” Haydith said, clearly uninterested in the specifics of the Lich Cult. “Why are a group of Necromancers after me?”

“Well, the leadership of the Lich Cult happens to coincide heavily with the current leadership of Etronia. The current leaders are probably: Olofir Vulpa, Orion Arcturus, and Tybalt Mandelbrot.”

Haydith made an expression making it clear that she had no idea what I was talking about or who those men were. She said, “I don’t understand.”

“Okay, I’ll try to simplify, then,” I said, squinting my eyes in thought. Summarizing my point succinctly was so much more difficult than just speaking at length about the current political structure of Etronia. “The Lich Cult is aligned with an anti-monarchy political faction. They’re after you because you’re the daughter of King Theophrastus.”

“I’m the…” Haydith muttered, unable to finish her thought. “I’m a princess?”

“Yeah,” I said, clearly unhappy about that fact.

“Oh, God,” Haydith muttered in English. For a moment, her eyes glazed over as she re-lived a moment from the attack an hour ago. “When he called me ‘princess,’ he wasn’t just mocking me.”

“I’m sure you understand that this is not a good thing,” I said. Haydith nodded quietly and pulled her nightgown tight against her shoulders. “The King has a plan to tell the world of your lineage when he dies. The whole world will try to use you as a political bargaining chip if a succession war breaks out.”

Haydith let out a quiet chuckle, saying, “You really know how to make a girl feel special.”

“Yeah, I’m a real ladies’ man,” I said without hesitation.