“How do you know all this?” Haydith asked me with some awe starting to dawn in her expression. “I assume the two of us are in the same boat. How did you acquire all this information while still a teenager?”

“Oh, that,” I frowned. “Well, I played the game.”

“Game?”

“Haven’t you ever heard of [Ferrum Online]?” I asked, shocked that she didn’t know such basic information about the world.

“Ferrum Online?” Haydith’s mouth tightened into a line, and her eyes pointed up at the ceiling as she reached for something within the depth of her memory. “Oh, yeah. I remember my dad mentioned it a few times when I was a kid. ‘Video games used to be good, like [Ferrum Online],’ he’d say.” She chuckled slightly at the ancient memory. “He said the servers went down when I was just a few years old.”

“Right,” I frowned. “The servers went down in ‘40, right? And we died in ‘61?”

“We?” Haydith asked. “How did you die?”

“I was in a casino called The Cagliostro. The ceiling collapsed after an earthquake.”

“Oh,” Haydith frowned at the memory of her own death. “It was the same for me. I was a dealer at one of the Cagliostro’s Blackjack tables.”

“How old were you? Twenty, twenty-five?” I asked.

“Twenty-two,” Haydith chuckled slightly at the thought. “I guess that puts me in my late thirties, now.”

“You’ve got it good,” I smiled. “I just turned sixty.”

We both laughed at the thought, both acutely aware of our teenage bodies. After a moment, my laughter effortlessly transitioned to a powerful series of full-body coughs that gave rise to a brief ache that suffused my whole body. Mid way through the cough, I withdrew a handkerchief from my pocket and used it to cover my mouth. When I pulled the handkerchief away from my mouth, it was speckled with blood. I was getting sick again.

“Are you okay?” Haydith asked.

“Yeah,” I said, wiping some of the blood away from my lip. “I was reborn with a particularly fragile constitution. Even after years of exercise, I’m still weaker than just about any adult. I’m sure you could physically overpower me if you wanted to.”

“Well, that makes me feel better,” Haydith laughed.

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“Really?” I said, raising a single eyebrow.

“No,” Haydith said after a moment’s thought, “not really.”

“It seems like both of us need some sleep,” I said, drained by the aspirating cough. “My group is going to make the rest of the trip to Etron tomorrow. You can come if you want.”

“Etron?” Haydith said, fear on her face. “You’re going there?”

“You were fleeing from there, I take it?”

“Yes,” Haydith said, staring into the middle distance. “I was attacked there first.”

“Listen,” I said, looking her straight in the eyes, “I’ve got business in Etron. I need to go there, but I still think you’ll be safer with us. I know how the Lich Cult operates, and I’ll be able to keep you safe, even in Etron. I think you should come with us in the morning, but…” I withdrew a pouch filled with silver coins, “if you would rather stay on your own, I won’t stop you.”

I stepped over to Haydith’s bed and placed the pouch of silver coins next to her pillow. All told, there must have been more than fifty coins in that pouch. If she was frugal with her money, she could live off of the coins in that pouch for months.

“I…” Haydith began to say, but her words were cut off when she looked inside of the pouch and saw those friendly silver coins shining back at her. I could tell her first instinct was to turn the money down, but that instinct was overcome by her need for the coins. “Are you sure I can have this?”

“Absolutely,” I said with intentional casualness. “If there’s anything I’ve gained since I arrived here, it’s money. I’ve got much more of it in a chest around here somewhere.”

“Where did that money come from?” Haydith asked, clearly impressed.

“The drug-trade, mostly,” I said with a self-effacing smirk.

Haydith laughed, thinking my statement was a joke. When she saw that I wasn’t laughing along with her, she asked, “Really?”

“Yeah.”

Haydith laughed once more, this time at a higher pitch. “You’re starting to ruin my image of you as a knight in shining armor.”

“Knight?” I asked rhetorically. “That’s a laugh. I’m no knight; I’m just a sour old man with a medical degree.”

Very interesting. Medical degree, eh?

I had completely forgotten that Thale was listening to our conversation. At least we were talking in English when we were talking about Earth, so he didn’t get too much information. Either way, I realized that I should end the conversation quickly to not give him too much information.

“Anyway,” I exhaled this one word and lightly slapped my thighs in a ritual I had picked up growing up in the Midwest. That was the first time I ever did that in Ferrum. All that talk of Earth reminded me of the man I used to be. “I really need to get to sleep. We can talk more in the morning if you’re still here.”

I stood up and started to walk toward the door. Much of my job over the past few years had been negotiating with people and determining what they would do next, and I knew that Haydith would stay with my group. There would be plenty of time for us to talk on the journey to Etron.

The door was slightly ajar, and I pushed it open slightly to give myself enough room to walk through. I was about to leave the room when I heard Haydith say one last sentence.

“Johan, there’s one last thing I have to say. Thank you. You saved my life.”

A part of my brain wanted to say that I didn’t save her life. The Lich Cult wouldn’t have killed her. No, she was far too important a political asset. Her fate wouldn’t be nearly as merciful as death.

Instead, I spoke two words in English. “You’re welcome.”