It had been just over two weeks since the God Contest tore Milly and her coworkers from their lives and deposited them in the deadly game of survival. Since then, Milly’s life had been like riding a rollercoaster in a hurricane, hanging on for dear life while she waited for the track to break beneath her.

Every day, death and fear mixed with excitement and exploration, yet with every terror that came her way Milly felt herself grow stronger and mature. She adapted to the terror that surrounded her, and although she was still on edge, that edge started to feel less like an enemy and more like a safety blanket, its absence more noticeable than its presence.

Milly didn’t know if that comfort was a source of strength or a sign that she was on the verge of collapse. She tried not to think about it.

It was on this edge – balanced on the blade of a knife – that Milly settled into a new routine. It was a routine very different from her life only two weeks ago, though that span of time felt like an eternity.

Before the God Contest, her routine had been grounded in hopeless isolation. An endless cycle of sleep, eat, and work, and each day took her further away from the woman she wanted to be. A woman with purpose in life. A woman who was loved.

She finally found that purpose – that love – in the new routine she and Calista established in the week after their return to the Castle of Glass. It was a routine as far away from her old life as one could get, and, despite the horrors around them, Milly had followed Calista’s advice and given herself permission to enjoy it.

Each morning, when the first light of dawn gently woke her from her slumber, Milly spent the first minutes of the day watching Calista, who lay spread eagle on their bed with the blankets kicked to the floor after having taken over Milly’s side during the night. Milly would curl along the sliver of bed left to her and listen to Calista mumble in her sleep as she began to wake up.

Milly enjoyed the look of early morning guilt that would wash over Calista’s face as Calista realized she had pushed Milly to the edge of their bed, a hair away from tumbling onto the stained carpet below.

“I did it again?” Calista had asked, embarrassed, after their second night.

“It’s alright,” Milly assured her girlfriend with a giggle. “I slept on a tiny, stained mattress in my apartment. I’m used to not having that much room.”

Calista promised to do better the next night, though that night, and the one after that, found Milly on the edge of the bed yet again. It had amused Milly, until their fifth night, when Calista, in the midst of a nightmare, kicked Milly off the bed and sent her flying across their bedroom, Calista’s enhanced strength sending Milly crashing into their new dresser.

That morning, Milly and Calista had spent most of their remaining gold to upgrade to a King-sized bed. The Emporia Tutoria had a tough time trying to hold in her laughter as she completed the sale. To add to their embarrassment, they’d had to ask Ned, the Freelancer who had specialized in repair magic, to come by and fix their dresser. This led to another round of barely contained laugher, and soon the nightly escapades of The Huntress and The Witch of the Castle of Glass became a regular topic of gossip around the towers.

Milly’s morning routine – once just a quick brush and occasional shower – became far more robust. Suddenly, Milly had a reason to care about how she looked. She spent that first morning fumbling her way through the array of soaps, shampoos, lotions and conditioners that she’d purchased from Tutoria. She’d cut herself a dozen times while she shaved her legs, though she was able to quickly heal the cuts.

Thank goodness The Scarred Witch doesn't effect these small injuries. I'd be nothing but cuts and scrapes if it did.

Her Gown of Moon and Stars had to be washed by hand in the sink to remove the layer of filth that had built up, though Milly learned to use her advanced water magic to siphon away the dirt and quickly dry the gown.

I wish I had learned this earlier. My gown was getting gross.

She attempted to pluck her eyebrows to mimic Calista’s perfect layers, but all she managed to do was make her eyebrows irregular and thin. Milly had snapped the tweezers in half with frustration, momentarily forgetting about her elevated strength.

I never had a mother to teach me this. It’s impossible to figure out. Cally’s going to hate how I look. I bet she learned from…

Milly caught herself before she finished that thought.

No, Milly, Cally didn’t have a mother either. You’re just making excuses. Just suck up your pride and ask Cally how to do it.

It was two hours before Milly emerged from the washroom on that first day. Calista had been waiting, and Milly stood bashfully before her, her hands trying to self-consciously cover her body from the woman she loved.

Calista stared at her as if a stranger had entered their home. Milly’s long, black hair – once frayed, greasy, and wild – now sparkled in the morning light, its tangles tamed and pulled back in a simple ponytail. Her face had a healthy glow from her cleanser and lotion, and the grime of the wilds was washed away, letting her pale and silky-smooth legs shine. Her Gown of Moon and Stars shaped perfectly to her form, accentuating her hips and breasts, as if the gown itself wanted Milly to look stunning.

“I… Milly…”

Calista’s words struggled to emerge, which caused Milly to blush and shuffle her feet uncomfortably.

For the first time in Milly’s life, she had left the woman she loved speechless.

For the first time in her life, Milly felt beautiful. She knew she was still heavy, and that the scars on her wrists were exposed for all to see, but those imperfections no longer seemed to matter as she stared into Calista’s adoring eyes.

“What… what do you think?” Milly asked, as she mustered up enough confidence to strike a playful pose, lifting her gown in a curtsey.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Calista tried to stammer a reply. She almost made it, until the scent of Milly’s lilac conditioner reached her nose.

Milly learned an important thing that morning. When Calista said her favorite scent was lilac, she meant it. Calista abandoned her attempts at speech and pounced on Milly, her kisses quickly turning into something more.

It was well into the afternoon before they left the apartment that day. The first thing Milly did, despite Calista’s protests, was stop by the Emporia to purchase unscented soap and shampoo.

“We’ll never get anything done if I keep using the lilac,” Milly laughed over Calista’s pout. “I’ll save the lilac for special occasions, Cally.”

“That’s not going to keep me from pouncing on you, beautiful,” Calista promised.

* * *

Calista – the reluctant leader – spent her mornings with Elmer and Alison making plans for the safety and sustenance of the Freelancers, Farmers and Fairies. They developed contingencies for monster attacks and how to defend against an attack from within.

They dedicated a floor in Freelancers Tower and The Silo – the tower Alison’s bureaucrats had claimed – for food storage, and it had already started to fill with dried meats and foraged nuts. Elsa, a Farmer specializing in water magic, was experimenting with a way to turn the floor into a freezer. Calista found Elsa’s choice of specialty hilarious, though she’d had to explain it to Milly, who hadn’t seen many movies.

Calista, Elmer, and Alison met daily with Brass and Stone – Shufflebottom showed no interest in actual governing – to design the Castle of Glass’ outer defenses, decide on their next major projects, plan funerals for fallen players, and, inevitably, try to keep their tentative peace alive.

Their sessions were fraught with tension, and Judy Brass in particular began to take a hardline stance against any suggestion raised by the Freelancers. Every day, Brass ranted against the proximity of the Fairies, describing them as a risk and a menace. Calista did not reveal what she and Milly had learned in the memory orb. It would not have changed Brass’ mind regardless.

Strangely, it was Jacob Stone who had a more rational position on the Fairies’ presence, though Calista soon found out why after Stone pulled her aside private conversation.

“I must thank you, Ms. Gale, for the gift of those fairies,” Stone said, confident in his authority. “They will be very useful.”

“Stone, if either you or Brass hurt a single one of them, I’ll…” Calista threatened harshly.

Stone threw his arms up with a smirk. “Why, Ms. Gale, would I do that? With the deal we struck, my employees can now spend their time in the wilds, growing stronger, while the fairies keep us fed. Those monsters are in their proper place, and as long as such creatures stay in their proper place, I shall leave them alone.”

Stone leaned in, his voice a threatening whisper. “Keep that in mind, Ms. Gale. It’s best you and your witch remember your proper place as well. If not… well, you can’t always be here to protect them.”

Despite Stone’s threat and Brass’ overt aggression, they kept the tensions between the leaders behind closed doors. The peace that had settled over the Castle of Glass held that first week, and their coworkers breathed a sigh of relief as they began to bridge the gap between the factions. Joint construction, farming, and hunting teams formed, and soon the land around the Castle of Glass began to be tamed, civilization expanding beyond its glass walls.

Billy’s restaurant – Billy’s Beach Barbeque – had finished construction and was packed with players at all hours of the day. Billy had even started to populate a menu, though, for now, it consisted mostly of roast boar and elk, fried mushrooms, mussels, and a couple species of fish caught off the ocean shore or in the prairie rivers.

An expanded restaurant had been designed and included, despite protests from his fellow CEOs, a performance stage for Shufflebottom and his hastily assembled band ‘The Radicals’. Billy, surprisingly, had supported the idea.

“The man is an absolute wackjob, Calista,” he admitted as he signed off on the design. “But you can’t deny that he’s got some mad skills on the guitar. Once he found a couple other musicians amongst our coworkers, he bought them instruments at the Emporia and started his band. A little music around here will help lighten everyone’s spirits. Besides, wouldn’t you rather have him occupied with that than scheming with Brass and Stone?”

Calista could not dispute Billy’s logic, though Shufflebottom still accompanied Stone and Brass into the wilds each day to explore. The look in the man’s eye made Calista shiver, and she shuttered to think what thoughts lay deep in the man’s mind.

In the prairie outside the towers, the Farmers had doubled the size of the garden, and seedlings grew rapidly under the tender care of the bureaucrats’ nature magic. They had painstakingly collected seeds from the remains of their coworkers’ lunches taken to work on that first day, and now tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers were beginning to grow in the fertile ground. Seeds and wilderness transplants were also added to the garden, and now asparagus, raspberries, fiddleheads, and chickweed had started to take hold, with more varieties arriving every day.

In the north, an apple orchard already had a row of seedlings that reached Milly’s ankle. The orange grove in the south had seedlings twice as high, as Farmers who had taken orchardist skills tenderly administered to the seedlings every need.

A particularly enthusiastic team of players – with representation from all factions – had found a small handful of grape seeds in a garbage can on the eleventh floor of Tower One and now spent hours coaxing the tiny vines to grow. They had dreams of a winery, and the faction leadership had decided to let them continue, if only to provide a distraction for the players. No one reasonably believed they needed to build a winery, but there was a growing consensus amongst the players that they would not be escaping this game any time soon, so long-term projects to occupy players were encouraged.

The outer wall was their top priority, and by the end of the third week of the contest, it was complete. Their home was now surrounded by a wall of thick pine eight-feet-high – their first line of defense. Three gates – Jungle, Prairie, and Mountain – were the sole entry points from the terrains, and a pair of players stood guard at each one. Others patrolled across the wall’s ledge with bows in hand and took down any creature that traversed too close.

Along the beach, a team of players had begun construction of a rudimentary shipyard. Three dockets had been cobbled together from logs and vines and stretched into the bay waters, where the first of the fishing rafts were being deployed. Samson, the shipbuilder who had promised a raft to the girls, shouted orders to his team while he worked on the Castle of Glass’s first canoe.

Each day, the players of the Castle of Glass grew more comfortable with their new home. They were no longer starved for food, and they had grown strong enough to fight off the goblins and ogres that pocketed the area around the towers. Their food stores had started to accumulate, especially after the first shipment of food arrived from the Fairies. A sense of safety finally settle upon them, and laughter became more common than the tears and thick silence that had filled their first few weeks.

Six hundred and forty-five players remaining as the sun set on the third week of the God Contest. One hundred and sixty-two of their coworkers had lost their lives since that first day – an average of eight every day, though the death rate had declined in recent days as players grew more powerful. They still held a nightly funeral for the deceased, but everyone had started to grow numb from the daily mourning. A rumor had started that those that died simply returned home, though all but the most desperate amongst them dismissed that as nothing more than a child’s wish.

As the sun reached its peak each day, Calista would leave the company of the other leaders, emotionally exhausted, grab lunch at Billy’s restaurant, and seek out Milly at the Isle of New Beginnings.

The draw of their new routine was strong, and despite her mornings filled with plans, schemes, and drama, Calista felt herself enjoying each day more than the last. They had developed a comfortable routine, and, for the moment, she allowed herself to enjoy it.

Knowing that someday, very soon, that routine would come to an end.