{-Myr-}

Oh, she certainly didn’t like hearing what ultimately meant “they’re dangerous and we have every right and reason to get rid of them.” That didn’t help anything, seeing what they’ve done so far, and what they might keep doing…

But that wasn’t quite the end.

“I’d advise you to leave now,” Rachel said slowly. “There’s nothing left for you to find here. I don’t think you should try pulling something like this again, either. This isn’t going to work twice—you’re lucky it even started working once.”

The players seemed unwavering, at first, before she added something else.

“You should probably keep an eye on the twins. If Mr. Mair realizes the three of you are here, he’ll know they’re close, too. You’re going to need to make sure he never sees them if you’re really willing to make sure they don’t get hurt.” Then Rachel backed away, muttering orders to some of the nearby workers.

While the players were having a hushed, almost urgent, discussion of their own, Esaphi gestured for the twins to follow her again. They went back to her cave and waited in silence for the players to catch up with them.

It was obvious they thought something, though perhaps what it meant didn’t click to the twins. They both seemed to forget that it had never mattered.

So, Llewel said something before any of the players could. “We overheard what Rachel said.”

“Well, I’ve got one word to describe all three of our feelings and I technically can’t say it here,” Zetai remarked casually.

“Simply put, it doesn’t matter,” Reynneak said with a soft smile. “It never did and I don’t think it ever will.”

“Really?” both the twins asked.

“Give yourself some more credit,” Tinath mumbled. “Did you really think we’d listen to what she said, just like that?”

“But what if there’s some truth behind it..?” Llewel questioned.

“It’s not like no one’s ever gotten hurt because of something we were a part of…” Myr added in a mumble.

Zetai was having none of it. “First of all, you didn’t do anything. I still don’t think this has anything to do with you—it never has. You’re just as caught up in this as everyone else is. Second, I don’t care what they say. Quite frankly they could tell me you’re both walking death traps and I still wouldn’t abandon you or, worse, let them do what they plan to.” She gave them a grin. “So, it doesn’t matter what we know. We’re sticking together until the end, alright?”

Slowly, the twins nodded.

“There’s… one thing I think you should be aware of,” Esaphi said cautiously after a moment. “It’s kind of related to what she said and something I mentioned to the twins earlier. I thought you might have known about it by now, but the twins didn’t seem to know, so…”

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

When she knew she had everyone’s attention, she continued. “You’re not random players anymore—you’re starting to get recognized and not just by the other NPCs. Other players are starting to realize you’re all together and that leads to becoming more than a little bit more obvious.”

“But we haven’t done anything prominently,” Reynneak pointed out. “There’s not really a reason for players to give us more attention than any other party here.”

Tinath shrugged. “Well, you’ve got me, for one. That’s definitely going to draw some attention—especially since most of them know this is what my avatar looks like here now.”

Esaphi nodded. “Then there’s the twins. I don’t know the specifics—I’ve only ever heard it from other players’ mumbles—but they know there’s something different about them. Glitched players, I think it was—something that kept their Player IDs from showing up, even though they actually don’t have one.”

“I’ll look into it tonight,” Zetai decided. “Figure out how much of a problem it’s going to be further down the line…”

…

They did a couple more quests together without mentioning any of it. For better or worse, it felt like the whole detour hadn’t existed at all. The next mention of it was before Zetai left, promising to see what she could find about the five of them; otherwise, they just left the twins in the inn, returning sometime the next day.

Zetai was last, but that just meant that no one had to start the conversation. She waltzed right to the table the rest of them were sitting at and declared, “We’ve got a problem.”

“Is it that bad?” Tinath asked casually. She didn’t seem to think it was that important.

“Well, for one, they think you’re the leader for some reason. You weren’t even there in the beginning!”

“Oh, yeah. To be fair, I’m probably the most intimidating of the six of us. And I’m the one people would’ve recognized beforehand.”

Reynneak, a bit more cautiously, prompted, “So, is this a serious problem or more of a personal one..?”

“I don’t want to hear it from you, either. Apparently people think we’re dating and that is not okay.” Zetai seemed somewhat appalled at the thought. It gave the answer to his question, though; Myr could see Reynneak and Llewel relaxing a little more to hear it.

“I have a non-serious question of my own,” Llewel announced. “Do they really think we’re players?”

Zetai nodded. “I know you probably don’t like it, but it’s probably for the better that’s what they think. While it won’t stop Nankohm from figuring it out, it’ll keep other players from realizing the extent of it. I don’t really know how they’d take the truth of it.”

“I think one of the most important parts of this conversation is how the two of you build a fanbase without even realizing,” Tinath remarked. “Neither of you knew that before now?”

“Reynneak’s social circle basically consists of old people,” Zetai retorted.

“What’s your excuse?”

“I’ve got more important things to do than wait to see if someone mentioned it. It’s not like I expected it. I figured those kinds of details were against co-op rules.”

“Doesn’t take much to start an urban legend.”

After a moment, Myr decided to ask, “Is there anything else they say about us?”

“Oh, there’s all kinds of stuff.” Zetai paused. “I may or may not have gone down a rabbit hole getting all of them. We’ve somehow achieved ‘subsection of the fandom’ level of attention and there’s a lot to say about that. I can tell you some of them once we start getting around to quests.”

“What does this mean for staying out of trouble, though?” Llewel asked.

She was honest and replied, “I don’t know. I figured we’d learn that sooner or later. We’ve just got to wait and see.”