The lobby of the Castle of Glass was filled with the rush of activity as players and fairies alike cleared out the remainder of the rubble from the dragon attack. The remains of Freelancer Tower had been sectioned off, and although unlivable, a team of players had already formed a committee to discuss how to rebuild it.

In the centre of the lobby, where leather couches and bookshelves once sat, was a newly constructed, twenty-foot-long table littered with maps, a two-foot tall model of the Castle of Glass positioned at its heart.

Harriet, the Freelancer who had lost her hand at the Battle of Tower Beach, had recreated her means of tracking the location and status of their friends after her first version had been destroyed in the collapse.

Elder Lightpaw stood at Harriet’s side, his little fox nose barely cresting the height of the table. He held a bag filled with small wooden carvings – the latest batch of the six hundred and twenty-two carvings they would need. One for each surviving player and fairy. Digging into the bag, he passed a carving that resembled Whitewing up to Harriet.

Harriet’s artificial hand flashed as she enchanted the carving with her artificer magic and placed it on the map. Under its own power, it slid across the table and came to rest within the magnified map of the Inlet of New Beginnings, atop the stone structure constructed for the shared medical facility and lit up with a faint blue light.

There were hundreds of carvings on the table, each moving in real time as their matched players and fairies moved within range of the map. Harriet had advanced her talent enough to extend its range out a hundred miles in all directions, and she’d incorporated more colors to increase the information available. In addition to blue for healing, red for fighting, and black for grievous injury or death, they now had brown for building, green for farming, and white for rest.

The medical facility was where Passi spent her days alongside Ying, Whitewing, and the other healers. The jointly shared facility was currently just a large stone room that the construction team had hastily erected to accommodate the survivors, but there were plans to expand and improve it.

Calista arrived at Harriet and Lightpaw’s side as Lightpaw pulled out a carving of Elder Tidebreaker and passed it up.

“The next batch of carvings?” Calista asked. She attempted to sound upbeat –her sadness hidden beneath a smile – but it just came across as flat.

“The kids did a good job with this batch,” Harriet praised, as Tidebreaker’s carving scooted over the beach beside Sapphire’s. Calista felt sorry for the woman – no doubt it wasn’t a pleasant conversation. It never was with Tidebreaker.

Lightpaw passed up another carving – this one of Jacob Stone. It skidded across the map and deep into the mountain terrain, where it joined with the Carthage sisters and Frank Fredrickson, her former boss. All three flashed red.

A genuine smile appeared briefly on Calista’s face when she saw someone had carved a prominent scowl on Stone’s figure. He wouldn’t like that, but there was little the former CEO could do about it. Except for a few loyal followers like the Carthage sisters, Jacob Stone had seen his power evaporate after Milly saved the Castle of Glass. With the death of Judy Brass and the abdication of Cosmo Shufflebottom – who, in the wake of the carnage, had finally given up his façade of leadership to pursue his music full-time – the CEO’s stranglehold on the towers had crumbled overnight.

“We’ve got half the carvings done now,” Lightpaw informed her. “We’ve got the kids carving the rest to keep their minds occupied. They should be finished within a few days. Then we’ll need another way to keep them occupied. My people are used to wandering the wilds – staying in one place has required some adaptation.”

“We’ll have that problem soon enough. Did you hear, Cally? Bridget is pregnant,” Harriet gossiped.

“Really? From before, or is this a recent development?”

“Recent. You know Ishaan from the Farmers?”

“No, never met him,” Calista admitted.

“Yah, Bridget barely knew him too,” Harriet giggled. “Guess they’ll get to know each other a lot more now. Though she’s not the only one. Turns out there’s a woman in tower one who’s pregnant too. Pretty far along, in fact, and she’s still level one. Poor thing hasn’t left the tower since we got here.”

The thought of raising a newborn in this nightmare made Calista shiver.

Lightpaw withdrew Elmer’s figure and passed it to Harriet. It scooted across the table, climbed the model of the Castle of Glass, and came to a stop beside Alison’s figure in Tower Four.

Harriet erupted in a laugh. “That’s the one disadvantage of this map. As long as your figure is on this table, everyone will know what you are doing and… who you are doing. Oh, I bet I could make a pink color for sexy times…”

“Don’t you dare!” Calista and Lightpaw shouted in unison.

Calista glanced down curiously at the elder fox, who simply shrugged.

“What? I’m old, not dead,” Lightpaw grumbled. “I’m not even that old”.

Calista let a small but genuine laugh emerge – her first since Milly disappeared – though guilt quickly snuffed it out.

She looked across the map for Passiflora’s carving, expecting it to be in the medical clinic.

It wasn’t there.

“Harriet, where’s Passi’s carving?”

“That’s strange,” Harriet said curiously as she scanned the table. “It was here a couple days ago. Passi was here on a supply run for Ying and was asking me endless questions about it. She’s a curious girl. Such a sweetheart.”

“I… she hasn’t talked to me much since Milly…,” Calista trailed off.

“Being a mom is hard,” Harriet sympathized. “I’ve got two of my own back home.”

“How do you handle it, Harriet?” Calista asked, seeking solace. “Being away from your loved ones.”

“The same way most of us handle it. I throw myself into my work, or seek solace in small pleasures,” Harriet answered. “And at night, I cry myself to sleep.”

Lightpaw placed a sympathetic paw on Harriet’s waist, and Harriet absentmindedly scratched behind his ears.

“I’ll get a new carving for Passi, Calista,” Harriet promised. “It must have been misplaced with all the activity around here.”

“Thanks Harriet,” Calista said, as she left the artificer and the elder and headed for Rain on my Parade.

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* * *

Calista immediately wished she’d spend more time with Harriet and Lightpaw, as a familiar voice wafted out from Rain on my Parade.

“You’re sure it will work?” Xavier asked as he held up a bottle of a thick, turquois liquid. “I’ve been off it for a month, and it has been growing… difficult… to manage.”

“I’m sure, Xavier. Stop fretting,” Rain answered sympathetically. “It took a while for Anchovy to find the ingredients, but I brewed this last night especially for you. It will be an adequate substitute until I can figure out something better.”

“An adequate substitute,” Xavier mumbled skeptically. “It’ll probably have some weird side effect, like growing back hair.”

“It might,” Rain said with a twinkle in her eye. “But given what it’s for, back hair might be a feature, not a side effect.”

“Gross,” Xavier blanched. “I’d rather it grow something else instead, if… Cerberus, will you knock that off!”

Xavier’s wolf pup, Cerberus, had run headfirst into the back wall. Anchovy, Rain’s mischievous familiar, held a boar bone with his Invisible Hand talent above the wolf’s head and led him straight into the wall.

“Anchovy, stop tormenting Cerberus,” Rain said absentmindedly. Xavier had been coming into the store regularly for the past week to talk with Rain, and once Anchovy had learned the wolf pup would blindly chase the bone, there was no stopping him.

“Seriously, Cerberus. Every damn day. You’re letting that filthy cat get the best of you. Show some… Fuck!”

Anchovy hurled the boar bone at Xavier. It bounced off his forehead and into the lobby. Cerberus sped by his master, grasped the bone happily in his mouth and curled into a corner of the store to chew on it.

“Cycle-barren cat,” Xavier hissed, and Anchovy hissed back.

“Please don’t swear at my cat,” Rain requested. “You okay?”

“I’m fine. As if your cat could bypass my toughness. Come on, Cerberus,” Xavier said tartly as he stashed the potion in his inventory.

“Will you come by tomorrow?” asked Rain hopefully.

“I’ve come every other day. No reason to think tomorrow will be any different,” Xavier said simply, and turned to leave.

He collided into Calista with a thud.

“Sorry,” muttered Xavier as he ducked around the Huntress and headed up the elevator of Tower One.

“Did you hear that?” Calista asked curiously as the elevator doors closed.

“What? Cycle-barren?” Rain inquired. “That’s new, though I think I’ve heard that phrase before.”

“No. He said sorry, and he said it to me, of all people,” Calista remarked as she walked up to the counter and opened her inventory. Rain pulled out a box from beneath the counter filled with healing and magic potions, and Anchovy began to shovel the potions, one-by-one, into Calista’s inventory with his Invisible Hand.

“He was buried alive when Freelancer Tower collapsed, Calista,” Rain reminded her. “It’s a miracle he survived.”

“I’ve known Xavier Holloway since high school…” started Calista.

“Where you bullied him…” interjected Rain.

“… where I bullied him, because he deserved it…” Calista added self-righteously. “And he has never, ever, apologized for anything. It gives me chills just to hear the word emerge from his mouth.”

“He almost died, Calista. That’s enough to change anyone. Maybe he’s decided to turn over a new leaf.”

“Rain, he just swore at your cat,” Calista pointed out. “Hardly the behavior of a man looking for a fresh start.

Rain shrugged. “To be fair, Anchovy is a sneaky little bastard.”

Anchovy growled indignantly, and Rain reached over and scratched him between the ears. “You know you are, you loveable little bastard. Don’t deny it. Embrace it.”

The growl turned into a purr, and Anchovy curled up on the counter beneath Rain’s hand as the final potion was added to Calista’s inventory.

“Is he by himself?” Calista inquired. She’d avoided Xavier over the past week, but she knew Rain talked to him every day.

“He’s staying on the twelfth floor of tower one,” Rain informed her.

“Twelfth floor? Isn’t that the floor Stone and his remaining cronies claimed?”

“All the other floors were taken by the time Xavier woke up, and Stone was the first – and only – person to offer him a place to stay,” Rain explained. “It’s not like we can have him stay at Milly’s Meadow with us. Besides, Stone’s cluster is one of the few still fighting in the wilds, so it was natural for Xavier to join them.”

There were forty-eight floors spread throughout the three remaining towers and, after the massacre, only two hundred and ninety-five surviving players. In the days following the funeral, the Castle of Glass witnessed a mass exodus of players from their cramped cubicles. Empty floors were quickly claimed by small clusters of like-minded players, and together, the clusters worked as separate but coordinated teams to enhance the tower and keep it defended.

Calista and Rain had elected to live in Milly’s Meadow. Milly was the only one able to invite people to access it, so it was as secure a place as any to help raise Passi.

“Xavier calls each floor a ‘guild’,” Rain added. “Though I don’t think that’s an apt description. Some of the groups share a common talent, like Kenji and Amir’s construction team, but many are simply friends or lovers. Hey, did you hear about Bridget?”

“I don’t like Stone and Xavier together, Rain. I don’t like that one bit,” Calista said sharply, ignoring the gossip.

Rain handed Calista a thermos of Dark Introspection and a bowl of fruit for Passi. “If they want to fight in the wilds, let them. You’ve got better things to worry about. Small, winged, child-raising things. Remember?”

Calista stowed the thermos and bowl in her inventory and sighed. “Rain…,” she started, filled with doubt. “Passi hates me. She…”

“Stop,” Rain interrupted. “You need to spend this time with her. Your relationship isn’t going to get any better if you keep avoiding each other. Now get! I’ve got other customers to serve.”

“Thanks Rain,” Calista muttered. She started to leave but turned to ask one final question. “Will you join me in the wilds tomorrow? To help search for Milly?”

“Calista…” Rain began, her voice suddenly apprehensive. “I don’t… I don’t know if I’m ready to get out there yet.”

“You’re stronger than anyone here, Rain,” Calista said with concern. “But you’re quickly falling behind. You… you need to get out there. You need to keep leveling up or… or you won’t make it.”

Rain turned her gaze to Anchovy, but Calista could see the shame in her eyes. “Cally, I… I know. It’s just… between the Arena of Protection and the dragon… my body’s been torn apart and I’ve watched so many people die. I just… I just don’t know if I have it in me to get back out there yet. So it’s the same answer as yesterday…”

“Ask you tomorrow?” Calista recited, as her heart broke for her friend.

“Ask me tomorrow,” Rain confirmed, her voice barely audible.

Calista shut the door behind her, just as Rain’s tears began to fall onto the tiles of Rain on my Parade. Her dream. Her sanctuary. Her prison.

* * *

“What do you mean she’s not here?” Calista shouted in disbelief. She ignored the startled looks of the player and fairy healers that darted around the fledgling medical facility. “She’s supposed to be with you – learning from you – from sunrise to sunset!”

“Calista, Passi hasn’t attended her lessons since the dragon attack,” Ying said defensively. “I thought you knew. She said you wanted her to stay in Milly’s Meadow until everything settled down.”

“And you didn’t think to check with me, Ying?” Calista shouted as anger and worry collided. “For fucks sakes. She’s just a little kid. How could you be so irresponsible?”

“I’m not her mother, Calista!” Ying snapped back, her eyes dark with weariness. “You’re supposed to be filling that role. My team and I have been working our asses off over the last week. We’ve still got thirty people here that aren’t fully recovered, and just as many who are so traumatized that someone needs to keep a constant watch, so they don’t jump off a cliff. Frankly, I don’t have time to babysit a truant child, no matter how strong her talent is.”

Calista haphazardly unloaded the shipment of potions onto the ground, fuming at Ying’s words.

“And it’s not like you’ve been around for her either,” Ying added. “So don’t go blaming me.”

“No, I’ve been trying to find her mother,” Calista muttered angrily as she aggressively placed the final potion on the ground and began to search frantically through her inventory.

“Shit… I don’t have anything. Ying, did Passi leave anything behind?”

Ying retrieved a child’s dress from a growing pile of laundry, its front stained with dried blood. “Here. It’s the dress she wore when she was hurt. We haven’t found the time to get these washed and stitched.”

“Thanks,” Calista muttered softly as she snatched it from Ying’s hands. She started to head for the door, until Ying’s hand touched her shoulder.

“If she wants to resume her training, she can,” Ying added. “We need all the help we can get around here.”

Calista left without a response, not trusting herself to hold back a sarcastic reply.

Clutching the dress tightly in her hand, she redirected her Unyielding Pursuit from Milly to Passi. She felt her heart sink as the bonds that searched for Milly without success recoiled. Although she knew the transfer of her target was temporary, Calista couldn’t help but feel as though a small piece of her had just abandoned the search for the woman she loved.

As her talent shifted to Passi, she felt the bonds immediately snap into place. Knowledge flooded into her mind, and a heartbeat later she knew exactly where Passi was.

Before her next heartbeat, Calista was running as fast as she could.

Headed west into the prairies.

Into goblin territory.