The gentle nudge on her shoulder stirred Milly from the depths of midnight slumber. She mumbled sleepy protestations at the intrusion into her dreams.

“Milly, wake up,” whispered Rain, her voice low so she would not disturb Calista.

“Huh? Rain?” Milly yawned as she cracked open her eyes. “Is something wrong?”

Rain looked as if she hadn’t slept. Her overly alert eyes with dark bags beneath told the story of a woman who had spent the hours after they had returned to the Castle of Glass in her workshop.

“That depends on your frame of mind,” Rain answered as Milly sat up in bed and rubbed her eyes. “And what you’ll decide to do next.”

“What I’ll decide…? Rain, I’m too tired for riddles,” Milly grumbled as she slowly eased the blanket off her chest. Calista’s snoring was on full display, so there was little chance of her rousing. Passi had decided to finally sleep in her own room tonight.

“Xavier’s awake,” Rain said simply. “Ying just let me know.”

“Xavier is…”

It took a moment for Milly to register Rain’s words through the sleepy haze in her head, but when they finally broke through, Milly was instantly fully awake. Now she knew why Rain didn’t want to wake Calista. Xavier and Calista’s mutual animosity stretched back far before the God Contest.

Rain led Milly out of her bedroom and to their alchemy workshop before she said anything further. The alchemy tables were filled with bubbling brews and there were five bronze daggers set in an orderly row on the side table.

“I’ve been enchanting them,” Rain explained as Milly’s eyes flickered to the weapons. “For throwing daggers. My advanced dagger specialization showed me I needed more diversity in my fighting style. These five are all fire enchanted. This one coats its blade in flame. That one shoots two small firebolts horizontally on impact, which is useful for fighting groups. That one on the end just explodes on impact.”

Milly stared at the daggers, but her attention was on her former friend in the medical clinic.

“What are you going to do?” Rain asked.

“I’ll do what I must to keep everyone safe,” Milly replied with fridged determination.

“He saved my life, Mils,” Rain reminded her. “I can’t forget that. Gorath would have killed me if Xavier hadn’t fought tooth and nail to keep the beast away. Xavier got his head split open because he tried to protect me. That means something. He’s not evil. He’s lost, just like the rest of us.”

“He hurt Passi, Rain,” Milly countered coldly. “She’s so traumatized by her time with him that she won’t speak a word of what happened. I think he…”

“Killed her clan, the Walking Palms?” Rain finished for her. “Yes, I think that’s the most likely scenario.”

“And you still defend him?” Milly accused, her voice raised. “I know you tolerate him better than most, but he’s become a monster.”

“Mils, you can shoot lightning from your hands. I use a dagger that poisons creatures and rots them from the inside. We’ve both seen what Cally can do with that spear. How many monsters have we killed in the past three weeks? How many of those monsters died in horrible ways?”

“We were defending ourselves,” Milly refuted. “Xavier crossed that line with Passi’s clan.”

“Nothing is black and white in this contest, and we can’t afford to separate ourselves into good guys and bad guys. We’re all just trying to survive in this game. A game where only a few of us are likely to make it to the end,” Rain reasoned. “Can you really blame Xavier for wanting to be one of them? He didn’t know Passi’s people were real. We didn’t know that either, until a few days ago. As far as Xavier knew, the Fairies were just another programmed race in an artificial world designed to kill us.”

“So, we should just forget about it?” Milly’s anger seemed to boil within her, ready to erupt. “Xavier goes on being an asshole, and Passi lives her life in fear of him? What if he decides to finish the job? What happens when she goes back to the Fairies and we aren’t here to protect her anymore?”

Rain sighed. “I don’t have any answers for you, Mils. I just don’t think we should be so quick to turn on one another.”

“I’m not going to let Passi’s childhood get taken away like mine did, Rain,” Milly promised. Her Obsidian Fists formed across her knuckles in response to her rage. “I know what she is feeling, and I’m going to do whatever it takes to protect her.”

A tiny squeak broke through Rain and Milly’s argument. Milly turned and saw Passiflora’s translucent wing sticking out from behind the hallway corner.

“Passi, come here, sweetheart,” Milly said, her anger evaporating in an instant. She knelt and held out her hands for the child. “It’s okay. Rain and I are just talking. Did we wake you?”

Passiflora hesitated for a moment, then stepped out from around the corner and shambled into Milly’s arms, embarrassed. She was dressed in blue and purple pajamas they had purchased from the Emporia. Rain had modified the shirt to fit her wings.

“How much did you hear, Passi?” Milly asked gently. She tried to stay calm, but inside her was a whirlwind of uncertainty.

“… he’s awake,” Passi said softly.

“You don’t need to see him,” Milly promised. “He’ll still be in the medical clinic for a few days. I’m sure Ying will pause your training until…”

“No!” shouted Passiflora desperately. “I… I don’t want to stop. I need to do this.”

“Passi…,” Milly said hesitantly. “I don’t want you around him. It’s not good for you to see him.”

Passiflora scrunched her face up with determination. “I can do it. I’m not scared of him. Even after he… even after he killed my clan and kidnapped me. I won’t let him win.”

There it is. She finally said it. Xavier killed her clan. But what do I do now?

“I hate him. I hate him so much,” Passi declared with insurmountable anger. “I wish he was dead.”

“He didn’t know who your people were, Passi,” Rain tried to explain. “He fought to save your people the battle, and he saved my life.”

“I don’t care! He’ll do it again. He’ll kill my new family, and I’ll be left all alone,” Passi said, as she shook with a mix of anger and fear.

“The Chief Elder wouldn’t let that happen, Passi,” Milly assured her.

“What do the Fairies know about keeping themselves safe?” Passi ranted. “They let themselves become prey to the wolves. They forgot about those taken as slaves. They should have fought back. They should kill the wolves, and you should just kill the evil man.”

“Passi!” Rain said, shocked at the child’s declaration.

“I wasn’t talking about the Fairies anyways…” Passi mumbled. “They aren’t my family…”

“Passi, I won’t let Xavier hurt you,” Milly promised, though she knew it would be faint comfort to the child. She needed to deal with Xavier tonight. “Rain and I are going to talk to Xavier now. We’ll talk about this in the morning. Go back to bed and get some sleep.”

“No…” Passiflora protested, tightening her grip on Milly’s gown.

“Get some rest, sweetheart. Why don’t you go crawl in beside Cally?” Milly insisted, but it just made Passi’s grip stronger.

“Cally would agree with me,” Passi said softly, burying her face into Milly’s gown as angry tears fell. “She hates Xavier too.”

Yes, Passi. She probably would. And I’m not sure you are wrong. But I can’t tell you that. You’re just a child.

Except for her choked backed sobs, Passi sat there in silence for a few minutes, until another tension settled over the child.

“What is it, Passi?” Milly prompted. She could see the child had more on her mind than just Xavier.

“I don’t want to leave…” she said, soft as a mouse.

“Leave? Sweetheart, leave what?”

“… leave you. I don’t want to go back to the Fairies after my apprenticeship. I want to stay with you and Cally. Forever.”

“Passi…” Milly whispered, as her heart filled with a powerful, protective love.

“My grandfather raised me,” Passi said, as she forced out each word through her tears. “I… I didn’t know my parents. They were taken by wolves when I was a baby. Sometimes, in my dreams, I can remember how it felt to be held in their arms. It’s the same feeling I get when… when you hold me. I feel safe… and loved. I feel like I belong. I don’t want to go back to the Fairies. I want to stay here with you.”

“Passi, sweetheart, you are loved,” Milly assured her, pulling her in tight. “You’ll always be loved, and I’ll always be here for you.”

“Milly… can you… you…” Passi stammered, as she desperately tried to ask the most important question of her life. “Can… can you be my new mom?”

The fairy child’s question pierced straight into Milly’s heart.

In another life, in another world, Milly had been Passi’s age when she had asked her first foster mother, Becky, the same question. She could remember how anxious she’d been. How desperately she needed the answer to be yes, so she could finally feel like she belonged somewhere. How much she needed the stability and certainty that only love could provide.

Milly had been cared for by Becky for the first three years after her parents died. The thin-haired elderly woman and her husband ran a state-funded foster home that Milly shared with three other children, though the children were constantly rotating in and out of the home. It was her foster mother’s business, but Milly, as a child, didn’t know the difference.

Becky had looked the young Milly in the eye, and a chill had run down Milly’s back.

“No, honey,” Becky had said with a resounding sigh. “No, I won’t be your mom. And you shouldn’t ask that again. You’ve never get the answer you’re looking for.”

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It had crushed Milly to her core, and within the month Milly was moved to her second foster home. She never saw Becky again.

She had learned a valuable lesson that day. Never ask for love.

It was a lesson that had taken a death game in another world to finally unravel.

“… Yes, Passi. Yes, I’ll be your mom,” Milly promised, as she clutched the child and kissed her forehead. “Of course I will.”

In that moment, amidst the sound of Rain’s gasp and Passi’s elated silence, and after so many years, Milly’s family – Milly’s heart – was finally complete.

It all happened so fast. Three weeks ago, I was a lonely girl without purpose. Now, in this new world, I’m a girlfriend and mother. I know it should feel like it all moved too fast, but it doesn’t. It just feels… right. As if this life – this family – was where I was always meant to be.

“I’m so happy for you, Mils,” Rain said, embracing new mother and daughter in a tight hug. Passi was so happy she forgot all about her anger with Rain.

Milly cradled Passi in her arms for a long while they cried happy tears. Eventually, Milly felt her new daughter’s grip on her dress weaken, and the child’s soft snores began to rumble against her chest. The overwhelming mix of anger, joy, and exhaustion had finally claimed the child, and she fell asleep in her mother’s arms.

Milly carefully cradled Passi against her chest and headed to her and Cally’s bedroom. She placed Passi gently on the bed, careful to spread out her wings just how she knew Passi liked, and tucked her in.

Milly looked at Rain. Rain nodded.

“Let’s go, Rain. I need to make it perfectly clear to Xavier what will happen to him if he lays a single finger my daughter,” Milly said with cold determination.

They stepped into the elevator and headed down to the clinic.

* * *

Passiflora waited a full ten seconds until she was certain her new mother and Rain were gone. Sneaking out of bed, Calista’s deep snores providing ample cover, Passiflora headed for Rain’s workshop and grasped the nearest enchanted throwing dagger. It looked oversized in the fairy child’s tiny hands.

She hid it under the pillows in her tent, her eyes blazing with fierce determination.

“I won’t let him take away my family,” Passiflora promised. “I won’t let him hurt anyone ever again.”

* * *

Xaver sat upright in his cot, the small wolf pup on his lap, as Milly and Rain arrived at the clinic. Milly found it disconcerting to see the man absentmindedly stroking his familiar’s furry head while he stared forlornly out the window. It was the most affection Milly had ever seen from her former friend.

“I’m glad you’re finally awake, Xavier,” Rain said genuinely as she plopped herself on the end of his cot.

Xavier glanced over at Rain and Milly. He stopped petting the puppy and ignored the creature’s insistent head bumps that asked for more.

“The healer woman told me you’d survived,” Xavier replied. His voice cracked from lack of use. “You’re a tough one.”

Rain tapped his leg. “I’m not the only one who is tough. Thank you for saving me back there. It was very brave.”

“… Gorath was worth a lot of experience,” Xavier said dismissively, though Milly could see an uncomfortableness in his eyes at Rain’s gratitude. This man – who had been self-centered for as long as Milly had known him – struggled to take the compliment. “It wasn’t all about you, Rain.”

“Well, that just means some of it was about me,” Rain replied, skillfully dodging Xavier’s attempts to distance himself.

Caught speechless, all Xavier could do was shrug.

This isn’t the same Xavier I knew back at Acicentre, or even from the Arena. I don’t know whether that is a good thing or a bad thing. And, frankly, I don’t have the luxury of time to find out. Not anymore.

“When will you get out of the clinic?” Rain asked him.

“Day after tomorrow,” Xavier said. He shifted uncomfortably on his cot, which caused his familiar to hop off his lap. The puppy bounded across the cot, sniffed Rain’s hand, and gave her a lick. Rain started scratching the creature’s head, and it wagged its tail excitedly.

“I like your new puppy. Your prize from Tutoria? I saw this little guy in my own dream, but I went with the grey cat instead. His name’s Anchovy. Did you name this guy yet?”

“… Cerberus,” Xavier responded.

Milly rolled her eyes.

“He’ll be powerful when he grows up,” continued Xavier. “It was the best prize Tutoria had. At least, he was the best I could buy with only five points.”

There was envy in his voice.

Envy and something else? Worry? He didn’t even make it to the main battle. He knows we all got more points and better prizes than he did. He’s realized he is not as powerful as he thought he was, and that scares the shit out of him.

As Rain and Xavier continued to make awkward conversation, Milly studied her former friend.

In truth, Milly didn’t know what to make of Xavier anymore. Before the contest, he had been self-centered but tolerable, at least to her. Like many of their coworkers, Xavier did not have a good life. He was as alone as she was, and they became, at least on the surface, the closest thing to friends that either one of them had.

When the contest began, Xavier was so excited. It was his dream come true – to live his life in a video game. He’d taken her under his wing and showed her the basics. He’d given her the bravery she needed to venture beyond the tower. Without Xavier, she would have been no different than Minerva – scared and waiting for a CEO to kick her from the tower.

Yet as the contest went on, Xavier grew more competitive. More desperate. He’d left her behind – left everyone behind – to go it alone, believing everyone would just slow him down. He’d been so certain that his video game expertise would make him the most powerful player in this game. It had certainly helped, and he had grown quickly, yet it had not been the boon he thought it would be.

Milly had saved him from the goblin. Calista had taken down the giant centipede. Rain had done the critical damage to Gorath and Milly had finished him off. Xavier, the gamer, had been saved over and over again by three women whom he believed lacked the expertise and drive that he uniquely possessed to be the victor, as he had been in so many video games back in their old lives.

Each time they had saved him, it had driven him further away, and let more of his anger take over.

Did I see his true colors at the Arena of Choice when he tried to take all our rewards? Or did something happened in that Arena that drove him over the edge? While the Contest had changed Xavier, as it has changed all of us, it was the Arena of Choice that truly transformed him into what he is now. That was the moment our paths truly diverged.

Milly had seen such a transformation once before when she lived on the streets. There had been a young man that she’d see at the soup kitchen. He had been kind once, despite the abuse he had fled from. But he’d found his solace in drugs. Over the course of a few months, Milly had watched that once kind man deteriorate day-by-day. He became angry and hostile, and abusive in his own right. He’d had lucid, sober moments when his true personality shined through, yet he always returned to the drugs, and those moments became fewer and further between. In the end, the addiction claimed him fully, and no one had mourned his passing.

Xavier reminded her of that man. An addict, only his drug of choice was power. She remembered Xavier’s black blade, and she wondered what god her former friend had met in that cave at the Arena of Choice. What god had sent him down this path of self-destruction?

Milly wished she could help him. She wished she could have her friend back.

But three weeks is a long time in the God Contest. She was a girlfriend and a mother now, and the safety of her family trumped any loyalty she had once felt to the injured man before her.

“If you pop by Rain On My Parade when you get out of the clinic, I’ll fill you in on what you missed,” Rain concluded, giving the puppy one final scratch as she stood up. “I’ve made a potion for you, as well. It’s what we discussed before you left.”

“Yah… sure…,” Xavier said half-heartedly. “We’ll see.”

Rain glanced at Milly, worry in her eyes.

“Be kind, Milly,” Rain said telepathically to her. “We’re all in this together, remember.”

Milly didn’t respond. She gave Rain a quick hug and watched her head over to the elevator. A quiet tension fell over the medical clinic as the elevator closed.

“Some game, huh?” Xavier mumbled, as if desperate to fill the silence. “If we could do it all over again…”

“You killed Passi’s clan,” Milly said coldly as she cut him off. It was a statement of fact that left no room for debate.

“What?” Xavier replied, confused. “You mean that little fucking fairy monster? Why do you…”

The shard of ice that shot from Milly’s palm embedded in the wall behind Xavier’s ear. He reached up and touched his earlobe, and his finger came away with a touch of blood.

“Don’t you ever… ever... speak about her like that,” Milly spat with a fury she had never known. “You destroyed her life. You scarred her more deeply than you could possibly know.”

“Have you gone mental?” accused Xavier, as he healed the cut on his cheek with his healer’s touch. “She’s just a fucking monster!”

“No, she’s not,” spewed Milly, her anger in control of her words. “None of the fairies are. They are real, just like you and me. A new species, stuck in this game alongside us. Only they don’t know it’s a game.”

“That… that’s not… I was told…,” Xavier stammered, his face a mask of utter confusion as Milly’s declaration sunk in. “How do you even know that?”

“It doesn’t fucking matter how I know it, Xavier. It’s true. They are real, and you killed them.”

“Well… how was I supposed to know that? They look like monsters to me, and this game is all about killing monsters,” Xavier tried to justify. “How many monsters have you killed? How do you know some of those weren’t real?”

“They aren’t. It’s just the Fairies and us,” Milly insisted, though Xavier’s questions raised a tinge of doubt within her that cracked through her anger.

Xavier face was filled with both anger and, to Milly’s surprise, an increasingly intense sense of guilt. His anger wasn’t directed at Milly though. It was directed at the black ring on his finger.

“I guess you want an explanation. Or are you looking for an apology?” Xavier inferred.

“No, Xavier,” Milly said coldly before he could try either one. “I want you gone. Tonight. I don’t want to see you anywhere near Passi or Cally. Go back to the wilds and stay away from the fairies.”

“You can’t be serious, Milly,” Xavier protested. “You can’t do that. You’re not fucking in charge around here. You…”

Milly’s shot her arm out, and she lifted Xavier into the air by the throat using her telekinesis. She dangled him there, as his legs flailed and his hands desperately grasped at the invisible force around his neck.

Cerberus yipped loudly and tried to rush for Milly’s ankles to defend his master. Milly used channeled through her second hand and forced the puppy flat to the ground. Xavier glanced towards his new familiar, and his efforts to free himself doubled.

After half a minute, once Xavier realized he could not get free, Milly let the telekinesis fade. Xavier crashed down onto his cot, coughing. The wound on his chest reopened, and a trickle of blood began to soak into his shirt. Cerberus scampered over to his master. He stood defensively in front of the prone man and growled at Milly.

“You… you bitch…,” Xavier spat between coughs. “I’ll… make you pay… for that.”

“No, Xavier, you won’t,” Milly said defiantly. “You were stronger than me once, but I’ve far surpassed you. You pose as much threat to me as that familiar of yours.”

Xavier looked towards his former friend and saw the absolute certainty in her eyes. He changed tactics.

“Give… give me my sword then, and I’ll leave the day after next,” he bargained. “You have it, right? My black blade?”

There it was. Xavier’s addiction. Milly had suspected it could be the source. She had tasted its power once before when she had drained Gorath, and even that small taste had ignited within her a wish for another.

“If you don’t give it to me, I’ll die in the wilds,” Xavier added, growing more desperate. “Then you’ll be the murderer here, not me. You’ll have murdered your friend.”

Milly just stared at him coldly.

“It was given to me by a god, just the same as Rain and Calista. It’s meant to be mine,” Xavier added. “You have no right to take it from me.”

Milly withdrew the black blade from her inventory and held it in her hands. She could feel its dark power in her hands. It called to her, and she knew its connection to Xavier must be that much stronger.

She considered for a long while, watching Xavier’s eyes, fixed on the blade, grow more desperate with every second that passed.

“Who was the god?” Milly finally asked.

This time, it was Xavier that considered for a long while. She watched him subtly slip the black ring off his finger and stuff it in his pocket.

“Cizen,” Xavier finally muttered. “Some Mayan god of the dead.”

The revelation struck Milly like an hammer.

Cizen? The third architect of the thirteenth God Contest? I find Oracle’s memories, Rain becomes Hephaestus’ protégé, and now Xavier is connected to Cizen? This can’t be a coincidence. This is important, and I can’t ignore what it could mean. Do I take the risk?

Milly tossed the blade at Xavier’s feet. He looked up at her with surprise.

“If you use it against any person or fairy – ever – I will kill you. Do I make myself perfectly clear?” Milly threatened, and she left no doubt about the seriousness of her pledge.

“Yah… yah, I get it,” Xavier said, his hands caressing the blade. “I won’t. Only monsters.”

Milly walked towards the elevator, her point made.

“The… the whip,” Xavier said as she pressed the call button.

“What?” Milly asked, not bothering to turn to face him.

“Gorath’s whip. I need it for Cerberus,” Xavier said.

“That’s cruel,” Milly scolded.

“He’ll grow big. As big as Fairy Killer was, and Gorath needed that whip to control the beast. You don’t want Cerberus going after those fairies because I can’t control him, right?” Xavier explained.

Milly opened her inventory and took out the solid black whip. She dropped it unceremoniously at her feet as the elevator doors opened.

As she left the clinic, headed for home, Milly saw Xavier, still cradling the blade in his lap, slip the black ring out of his pocket and place it back on his finger.

She shuttered as she remembered the decayed god from the memory orb.

Cizen. It would explain much. How much of Xavier’s behavior is his own, and how much is driven by the touch of that god?