Jay started his car, texting Sarah before he drove away: hey sis, when can you have visitors?

He decided to contact his mother if Sarah didn’t text him by the time he got home. His lack of a hands-free system forced him to exercise patience.

Jay tossed his phone into his cup holder in frustration. The phone rattled, reminding him that being thrown was not good for them. Silently annoyed about his old car, he turned on the radio and set off for his apartment. Although Claire had taken it as a joke, he did turn on sad boy music for his ride home.

Music about being misunderstood always made him smile rather than bring his mood down. It lifted him. The music wasn’t the headbanging or dancing kind, but the nostalgia brought him a strange, temporary serenity.

While he drove, Jay waited for the screen on his phone to light up. He listened for the buzzing against his cup holder, interrupting the melancholy chorus. Alas, his phone did not interrupt the melodic confessions of feeling nothing—and not caring about it.

As he rolled through his apartment complex, Jay found the spot he always parked in occupied by a sleek, well-cared-for black SUV. He cursed the people with active enough social lives to invite visitors.

With a sigh, he sought another spot in the parking lot. By happenstance, he parked next to his next-door neighbor, Mrs. Rik.

Mrs. Rik was loading boxes into her silver truck. She waved excitedly at him as he pulled into the spot, despite their previous interactions being comprised solely of him petting her dog. Jay waved back.

Grabbing his phone, he noticed there was still no text from Sarah. Instead of stopping to talk, he went inside, already speed-dialing his mom on his way up the stairs. The phone rang several times before she finally picked up.

“Jaybird?” his mother asked. “Is everything okay?”

His mother had given Jay the nickname “Jaybird” when he was a baby. The nickname had stuck, surviving everything, including an embarrassing incident where his mom used the name in front of Taylor Lynn. After that, Taylor Lynn had used the name every chance she got. It had taken him a year to convince her to stop using the nickname in jest.

The name itself wasn’t horrible—it wasn’t great—but it certainly could have been worse. Taylor Lynn’s abuse of the nickname was a whole different story. It was, without a doubt, horrible.

“Not exactly, mom,” Jay said. “I know you’re busy, so I’m sorry to bother you. I just wanted to see if you could send me the address of Sarah’s new hospital.”

“I think I have the address somewhere at home on a sticky note,” his mother said, “but she can’t have visitors yet.”

“Can you get it?” Jay asked, more harshly than he meant to. “I need to go stop by her hospital. Make sure everything’s okay.”

“It’s a hospital,” his mother replied. “Not a prison.”

“I just want to check in on the place,” Jay said, although his voice was still unsteady. He didn’t have a high level of trust in Tumult Corp. or anyone associated with them.

“And demand to see her?” his mother asked gently. “I’ve known you for your entire life, Jaybird. I know how protective you can be about your sister. I remember you panicking for hours the first time she tripped and fell. She cried for five minutes, and you worried over her for five hours.”

His mother’s voice had an overtone of pride to it. Jay knew his mother had worked hard to forge a solid familial relationship between the two siblings. She was proud of her success. It hadn’t been five hours. Probably.

Hearing the story from their youth for the twentieth time opened the floodgates.

“Why can’t she have visitors? Why didn’t someone tell me? Why didn’t I get a chance to meet the doctors? Why didn’t someone tell me where it is?” Jay fired off the questions rapidly, giving absolutely no chance for her to respond.

“I’m sorry,” his mother said, her voice low and worn down. “I meant to call you. She’s going to be in an intensive care program for a week. Some kind of medically induced… something? Sarah’s so much better about the details.”

Jay tried to quiet his thoughts as she spoke, knowing pushing too hard would only create more problems. His mother was dealing with enough between her three jobs without Jay worsening things.

“Coma?” Jay asked, his voice rising despite his efforts. “They’re putting Sarah into a medically induced coma?”

“No, no, not that, Jaybird,” she said, her voice getting even smaller. “I think I wrote it on my phone somewhere. Hold on.”

His mind whirled as Jay gave her the requested moments. He glanced down at the phone, seeing it was shaking. That didn’t make a modicum of sense, which led him to realize there wasn’t a problem with his phone. His hand was the source of the shaking.

“It’s a diagnostics thing,” his mother finally said. “They have her on some long series of tests. And one of them involves medication of some sort. I’m sure Sarah can fill you in on the details in a couple days.”

“Okay.”

“I’m sorry I couldn’t be more helpful. Sarah’s getting better treatment with fancy doctors. I did see her off when she was being transferred. Her doctors seemed very good.”

“I understand,” Jay said blankly.

“It’s all thanks to you,” his mother said with the comforting tone that only a mom can summon. “This is a good thing. She’s going to be fine. More than that, she’s going to be great. I believe that wholeheartedly.”

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“I love you, mom,” Jay said. “I’m sorry. I’m just worried about Sarah.”

“I know, Jaybird,” she said sadly. “I’ll talk to you soon, okay? I have customers.”

The phone clicked, leaving Jay alone inside his apartment. His phone buzzed with a text message causing his heart to skip a beat. He opened the text immediately.

His heart took another blow; the text message was from Taylor Lynn, not Sarah. She wanted Jay to log on to the game and meet with the rest of the group because the twins and Lester were excited to level. According to Taylor Lynn, they were theory-crafting what their level twenty abilities would be. Evidently, the party awaited him outside Nora’s Curiosities, so he texted back that he was jumping online.

Jay started his equipment without hesitation, knowing he mainly rushed getting online for the distraction. While the machine started back up, he ate two breakfast bars, so he wouldn’t be starving later.

He stepped into the machine, diving back into Tumultua Online.

Logging into the game dropped him at the same respawn point Jay had ditched Lucille. This respawn point differed from the one he encountered at the beginning of the game. It was even further from his destination.

Jay barely paid attention to the game world as he returned to the Elvish trade capital, Ilra. The monsters, critters, and plant life rushed by him as he ran. He stopped only briefly to recover from weakness in his muscles. The party was outside Nora’s when Jay arrived, although Nora wasn’t around.

The twins, Ken and Jenny, were dressed as though they had color coordinated to make their outfits clash. Ken was dressed head-to-toe in brown leather, accented by green strips of cloth. He looked like Robin Hood without a hat. Jenny, standing beside him, wore bright orange robes. A silver rod had already replaced her green staff from the dungeon.

Taylor Lynn wore light gray robes and carried a wooden wand and a small glass orb, which all looked rather striking with her red hair. Her gear upgrades had clearly been the kindest. For his part, Lester was no longer wearing metal armor. He wore a leather tunic that completely exposed his arms and cloth pants.

“What happened to our tank’s armor?” Jay asked, still slightly winded. “And good gods, Jenny and Ken, are you okay? What happened to your gear?”

“The cowboy’s talking to us about style,” Taylor Lynn noted, gesturing at Jay’s wardrobe, which remained mostly unchanged.

“I’m thinking about creating a special Cowboy position in the guild for Jay,” Lester agreed.

Jay winced internally, resolving there and then to never discuss the Outlaw skill’s name in front of Taylor Lynn and Lester.

“We all got gear upgrades, but they came from different dungeons. So, there’s pretty much no aesthetic cohesion. We’re dealing with it,” Jenny explained. She was, as usual, the helpful member of the party.

Recognition flashed in Jenny’s eyes as her attention was drawn to Jay’s character name plate. “Did you hit level twenty?”

Ken simply chuckled wordlessly, as though Jay outleveling them when he was supposed to be waiting was the outcome he expected.

“You’ve gotta be joking,” Taylor Lynn said. She didn’t even look mad, just bewildered. “I suppose there’s an interesting story there.”

“Lucille didn’t tell you?” Jay asked, turning to Lester.

Lester shook his head.

“Not a word. Lucille just said there was a story I should ask you about when I get the chance.” With a grin, he added, “Actually, she said it would be funny to watch you try and explain it. So I decided to be patient.”

“Of course she did,” Jay said, facepalming. “I guess I’ll have to explain that before we get you all to level twenty, huh?”

Jay glanced over at Nora’s Curiosities, which confused him. There wasn’t any reason for the party to meet outside the merchant since they were all Red Player’s Society members. Sensing a way to redirect attention, he gestured at the building.

“Is there a reason we’re meeting up outside Nora’s? I mean, I think she’s great, but wouldn’t it be easier to meet up at headquarters?”

“Welcome to you all, by the way,” Lester said, acknowledging their membership in the guild. “I don’t think I ever mentioned it. But yeah, there’s a reason we’re meeting here. We were resupplying for dungeons later today, looking for any unusual potions she might have stocked. Turns out she’s looking for you.”

Jay’s attention was piqued immediately. He remembered leaving the longshot query for her about strange islands. He hadn’t expected her to come up with anything, let alone find something so fast. He dared to hope that his day was starting to turn around.

“Can we meet with Nora before I tell you how we killed the Demon players?” Jay asked, teasing them with part of the story.

“You killed all the Demon players?” Jenny blurted out in surprise. “That’s epic.”

“Most of them,” Jay said with a smirk. “It was pretty epic, although one of them managed to escape. I think we better check in with Nora first.”

Jay turned his back on the party, reaching for the door into Nora’s shop. A chorus of annoyed groans sounded behind him.

“Woah, hold on,” Ken protested. “You can’t just lead with that and walk away. You’re walking away. I hate you right now.”

With a sigh, he added, “He’s closing the door. Why are we hanging out with this guy?”

Jay walked inside, finding Nora at her counter. She jumped excitedly upon seeing him and began speaking in a rush.

“Jay! My goodness. You’ll never believe it,” Nora said. As soon as she said the words, she cocked her head. “Although, you might. After all, you’re the one who was looking for it. I found something. At least, I think I found something related to your strange island. Here, let me grab the item.”

Nora disappeared into her back room before even allowing Jay to respond. He sat there flabbergasted as the rest of the party joined him inside the store.

“Not so fun when it’s happening to you, is it?” Taylor Lynn asked although Jay could tell she was messing with him.

“Much more fun when it’s happening to you,” he acknowledged with a grin.

Jenny was mid-narration of an intense battle from one of the recent dungeon runs, mainly for Jay’s benefit. She was mid-explanation of her climactic moment of “totally saving Ken’s butt” when Nora rushed out of her back room, carrying what looked like a small pocket watch.

She set the item on the counter, but closer inspection revealed it wasn’t a pocket watch. Instead, the object was a small silvered compass with hands made of shiny black onyx.

“Take a look at the item!” Nora said, almost offended by Jay’s patience. “It cost a few thousand gold Prints, so I hope it’s what you’re looking for.”

Seeing no reason to aggravate her further, he pulled up the item’s game data.

System Message: Compass of Mercura. This item is an ancient artifact capable of teleporting ten people to the Island of Mercura. Warning: Once acquired, this item cannot be transferred to another player. Warning: Teleportation is disabled on the island, so alternative means of exiting will be required. Warning: The Island of Mercura is under the effects of Divine Moratorium. Due to this, death on the island is permanent.

Jay stared blankly at the item as his hidden Monster Hunter quest chain was updated.