“I guess we’re all set to go then.”

Daniel looked at her. “What do you mean we?”

“If you’re planning to sneak into an enemy camp and kill a necromancer you’re going to need someone who can actually sneak past patrol.”

“Too bad that someone isn’t you because you’re locked up.”

“You’re not thinking this through.”

“You’re not talking your way out of this.” Daniel stepped up to the Chief. “I doubt you guys have a jail cell I could stuff her in.”

The Chief shook his head. “But I have a house where you both can stay until you’ve completed your task.”

“That’s good enough.”

“Marlok will show you where you’ll be staying. Don’t get too comfortable. It’s imperative that we stop the necromancer before his army gets too powerful.”

That was the last they heard from the Chief. Marlok took them to a not-so-lavish house close to the village walls. Daniel left Syrian there, and Cole felt a tinge of pity as they left the girl in chains. He figured she would soon log out or something to pass the time. He didn’t even know how long the quest would take him. It’s not like he planned to log out any time soon anyway. Or at all for that matter. There wasn't much to go back to, and Fate Maker offered him more freedoms than real life ever would.

The Chief saw them off on three horses at sunset. Even though the necromancer would be more powerful at night, there was no way the group would be able to infiltrate the enemy camp undetected while the sun still shone high in the sky. Cole considered if leaving Syrian behind was the best move. She was a thief, after all, she must have some sort of skill that would help get them into the camp undetected.

“She’s a bandit,” Daniel had said when Cole brought it up. The boy’s gaze didn’t shift from the horizon as the horses rocked them slowly forward. “Can’t trust her.”

Cole could understand that. Being in the position she was, it made sense she would try to wriggle out of that tight spot with every opportunity she got. Again, the class you pick in-game has a lot to say about you and your true nature.

What does mine say about me?

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

A broken boy trying to play hero, he guessed.

Besides all that, could you really trust anyone in this game? As far as identities go, everyone here was anonymous. There’s no way to find out another player’s Gamertag without asking, and even then, you can still be lied to. Fate Maker may have good and bad sides, but there’s no true accountability here if death isn’t permanent. Cole himself has still yet to choose which guild he’ll be joining much less which side of the war he’ll be on. And how could he take sides in a war he didn’t even really know about?

As they rode, Cole caught glimpses of Daniel cycling through his inventory. Swords popped into existence and disappeared. Armors came and went. It seemed like he had an endless supply.

“I never asked,” Cole began Daniel’s head turned once Cole caught his attention. “How long have you been playing this game.”

“Four months ago,” he returned to his control panel. “Needed some way to let off some steam.”

“Why did you choose to be a knight?”

Daniel looked at him again. “Because everyone needs someone there to protect them.”

“You’re on the good side, right? Will the war ever end or is it just set to be like this? Are you guys inevitably going to win? I mean the good guys win in every story, right?”

“Good always overcomes evil. It’s bound to happen.”

Daniel’s certainty caught Cole off guard. Even in a dynamic environment like this one, his friend still believed that the script will be strictly followed. Is that how life worked too? Was his script of being crippled forever fixed? He asked the question but blocked his mind from searching for an answer. He didn’t want it. He didn’t want to think about the possibilities, worse the impossibilities. So to distract his curious mind, he queried the oddly silent NPC leading them. If Cole hadn’t been riding behind this man the entire time, he would’ve forgotten that the man was there.

“How much further?” Cole sounded like an impatient child. He didn’t intend for it to sound that way.

“We’re close,” Marlok replied. “Soon we will have to travel on foot. Zuna’s warriors sold their souls to the eagles for brighter vision. We must be wary.” When Cole chuckled at the man’s comment, Marlok snapped at him with a reprimanding glare. “This is no joke. Zuna’s soldiers are no joke. He is no laughing matter even. I doubt a dark soul like that could even fathom the concept of laughter much less produce it. Curse his weak-willed mother for not returning him to the underworld. Women… strong enough to bear children but not strong enough to be rid of them.”

“Why would she get rid of him, he’s her son?” Cole couldn’t understand why a mother would even think of abandoning her perfectly normal baby. His mother never gave up on him even though he was plagued by an incurable disease. Was this some primitive reasoning he couldn’t grasp? No, there’s a reason for everything. Truth in the unknown. A curious mind knows better.

“What son?” Marlok continued. “Zuna was never a baby, only a monster. The moment he left his mother’s womb, he saw this world through pitch-black eyes. A blackness that sucked the midwife in with a soundless gulp. A blackness that painted the sky when his mother ran with him to the wastelands. A blackness that threatens to swallow all of Sonner. And we must stop it before it does so.”

Cole wanted to know more about Zuna, but Marlok halted his next words with a raised hand. The man then signaled for them to dismount and three bodies fell, but only two could be heard. Marlok moved like air over the land as he slowly stepped forward. Daniel was just behind him, just as careful and almost as quiet. Cole was the only one with little to no stealth.

“The ridge has always been a natural barrier against attacks,” Marlok said. “But Zuna’s army found ways around it that we haven’t discovered yet. There’s regular patrol so that we are never caught off guard. We’re about to meet some of those patrol units.”

It was a few minutes before the group came across them. They met four men, and only one turned to greet them while the others peered far over the edge of the ridge. The man who came glanced at Daniel and Cole briefly, without a word, and initiated a conversation with Marlok.

“These are the enhanced warriors?” the man asked. Marlok only nodded as if they’d been having this conversation for a while. The man beckoned him forward, and Marlok stepped closer to the edge of the ridge. “The necromancer's tent sits in the middle of the camp. We believe it’s so that his magic can spread evenly throughout. The guards are ever present as if they never sleep—”

“They don’t need to,” Marlok interjected.