“Welcome back,” Claire stated, bowing slightly. “O captain, my captain.”

“I really don’t want to be likened to a sinking ship,” Jay muttered, shaking his head. “But thank you.”

Claire rolled her eyes. “It’s our first day getting a chance to play together! Isn’t this going to be exciting?”

Jay glanced at the looming timer on the side of his game display. The siege would start in less than four hours. There were endless tasks to complete before the clock struck. His face looked around the makeshift fort, soaking in Red Player’s Society and its current position. He’d heard about it from Claire, but seeing how everything had come together was a different matter. His distinctive lack of attention on Claire did not escape her notice.

“Well, go on, Captain,” she offered. “I’ll go see to the distribution of the consumables. I want to say hi to Sarah, anyway.”

She left immediately afterward, stopping only to squeeze his forearm and smile. Jay turned his eyes back on the fort preparations.

The wall surrounding the moderately-sized building captured parts of the street below too. Looking around, it was clear the game had magically resized the plots around the city. There was far more space in the courtyard area than existed before. The top of the wall was spacious, allowing plenty of room for the guild to marshal for battle. The entire site was created for function, leaving no vegetation—only cobblestone from wall to wall.

A second inner wall surrounded the keep, forcing the enemy to breach two walls to storm the castle.

On top of the inner wall were four shiny new ballistae. As designed, each was suitable for targeting a specific cardinal approach to the castle walls. Jay recognized an individual manipulating one of the devices, so that was the first place he went.

“Hey, Ken,” he said.

It didn’t take the other player by surprise. He sat in a wooden chair beside the firing mechanism, grinning like a maniac.

With horror, Jay watched him trigger the mechanism. He winced, expecting the loaded ammunition to go firing into the street. There was no doubt in his mind the bolt could sail over the courtyard and wreak absolute havoc on the building across the street. But it never happened.

“Sup boss,” Ken said lightly. “Come to micromanage me?”

Jay shook his head. “Not even a little bit. There are so many things to do; I just wanted to say hi.”

He grimaced, adding, “And I’d really prefer you call me Jay.”

“Sure thing, boss,” Ken agreed, firing the trigger with another maniacal grin. Once again, nothing actually happened.

“Do you mind sharing what you’re doing?” Jay asked.

Ken used two wooden handles to adjust the ballista and fire multiple times as he spoke. Each time, his grin widened as he stared off into the distance. “The ballistae have a test mode, which shows me where the shots would land. It’s suitable for practicing the aiming controls without turning the surrounding area into dust.”

“That’s exceptionally cool,” Jay agreed. “Do you mind if I try it out?”

Ken yielded his seat, leaving Jay to spend a few minutes fiddling with the controls. Eventually, he got a feel for how to manipulate the controls properly. Accepting a prompt to enter test mode, he saw a phantom ballista bolt loaded on his weapon.

“Super cool, right?” Ken asked, still glowing, although his leg bounced with the anticipation of regaining the controls. “This thing will absolutely destroy any siege equipment they have.”

Jay frowned, finding the device to be underwhelming. The system showed him the approximate arc of his shot, but he couldn’t target very close to the walls. “How are we going to target the enemy players on the ground? The angle isn’t right to hit anyone trying to breach the outer walls.”

“We need to worry about siege weapons most of all,” Ken pointed out. “So people decided we should build them in the inner wall. That way, whenever the siege weapons are dragged out here, we can target them directly. Ballistae aren’t really for mowing down individual combatants. That’s what the mages are for, I guess. And that lightning tower seems like a nightmare for anyone approaching the gate.”

Jay shot it an appraising look and found he agreed. The resources invested built a tower that doubled the height of the wall, which was a substantial dozen feet, to begin with. Metal prongs shot out at random angles from the building, but even from a distance, he could tell they glowed with magical power.

Lightning Tower, Health: 50,000/50,000.

“Can’t lie to you; that thing is impressive,” Jay admitted. “Has anyone tried test-firing that? I’d love to see what it can do.”

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“Nah,” Ken said, shaking his head. “I thought the same thing. It’s the first place I went when I logged on today. The stupid thing is fully automated. We’ll have to wait for the enemy to appear before we see the lightning bolts in action.”

Jay felt disappointed at the revelation, too. He was curious to see how much damage the tower could do. Given its substantial health, he assumed the output would be powerful. On the other hand, it could simply be a hardy defensive structure.

He wanted to check in with several other people, and Jay hoped Ken knew where his sister was. The Rune Cleric’s healing would be invaluable in the coming fight. She could spread her tags across a wide area, but it wasn’t clear how many people she might be able to affect at once.

“Know where Jenny is?” Jay asked, giving up the chair to Ken’s intense enjoyment. The Scoundrel player immediately retook the chair and started practicing further.

He shrugged, mind on other tasks. “No idea, really. Probably try wherever Sarah is. You can find your own sister, right?”

Jay could hear the needling, sarcastic tone, so he decided to toss some right back. “Probably better than you can find yours.”

Ken cocked an eyebrow, but Jay left him to stew on that. As he walked away, he saw other players at the front gate. Players were testing out the protected kill boxes, where they would rain fire down on the enemy. The gate didn’t provide any unique mechanics like the other additions did. Instead, it stood as an attractive target for trying to breach the outer walls. If all went well, the forces would be funneled into that area. The guild felt pretty thin after the recent player exodus. Worse yet, there was no intel about the size of the force invading Ilra.

The only thing Jay expected but hadn’t yet surveyed were the magical circles. Those had been drawn on top of the keep, so they were most defensible. Several people effective at long ranges would stand within them. Jay wanted to check those out but noticed a few more people he recognized.

Kylar and Lurian spoke to a small crowd in the courtyard. More people would be logging on for the actual siege, but thus far, only a hundred or so odd people were arranged in front of them. The pair were pointing as they spoke animatedly, leaving Jay to assume the process involved assigning positions or tasks.

He made his way closer so he could listen in without interrupting. Kylar spoke to the assembled group.

“...isn’t just to repel the invaders. It benefits us to try and take down as many as we can as fast as possible. The more experience we accrue, the more likely we get abilities to help turn the tides. It’s known that some of our enemies have leveled to sixty and above, though we can’t be sure what kind of force will come here. It’s a big city.”

As he spoke, Kylar made eye contact with Jay. Jay winked at the other player, which didn’t cause him to stumble over his words. He just smiled slightly as he continued to speak. Jay lost track of the conversation as he looked around for Jenny.

Most players were collected in front of Kylar and Lurian, listening to their speech. He didn’t see Jenny, Sarah, or Claire in the front courtyard. Whistling softly to himself, Jay made his way past the inner wall and into the keep.

The keep, previously just a building, had its exterior reinforced with stone during the recent upgrades. This did little to improve the aesthetics of the building and certainly removed any semblance of Elvishness, but it would help protect the building from siege weapons.

The interior of the building was left mostly untouched. Jay moved through the common room area, with only two guild members lounging, and found the section of conference rooms and offices at the back. It was in one of those rooms that he found Sarah and Jenny.

“Ladies, Sarah,” Jay said tauntingly, interrupting a conversation about the distribution of consumables. On the conference table in front of them was a massive pile of potions, but that wasn’t all. There were various enchanted bolts, arrows, and even throwing knives littered across the table, which groaned under the effort of holding it all.

“Wow, speak of the devil,” Sarah noted without humor. “Jenny was just telling me about how much your jokes suck. You’re right, Jenny; brothers are really stupid.”

“I never said that,” Jenny said. The look she shot Jay was pleading. “I wouldn’t say that about you behind your back—ever, really.”

“I know that, Jenny,” he said, patting her shoulder. “That’s why you’re my favorite.”

“Don’t lie to me,” she said sweetly. “Your favorite is Claire.”

“Not you, too,” Jay groaned.

Her voice had no hint of venom as she separated items into small piles. “Yes, me too!”

“I am so proud of her,” Sarah admitted. “So, anyway. What did you want?”

“Well, I was going to help you sort all this out,” Jay said, feigning hesitancy as if he were still weighing the decision. “I don’t know, though. You don’t seem to want my help—need it, really. You’ve got this all under control.”

He was physically pulled into a chair by the two young women.

Together, all three of them spent the next hour organizing and allocating the consumable gear. Jenny had a magic item, which Jay had never seen used, which allowed her to create small kit boxes. The boxes were labeled with character names, so it was clear who the intended recipient was.

“Does that lock down the items to only the player we name?” After they were done, Jay asked, looking at the pile of boxes littering the conference table.

“Nothing like that,” Jenny admitted. “It’s just perfect for organizing items into parcels. Now, we can dump these into our inventory and distribute.”

“I think I hear someone calling my name,” Jay said, although it was nearly silent in the room. “Better check on that. Lots to do.”

He took off before they could involve him in playing mailman with their new stack of packages. Instead, Jay was much more interested in familiarizing himself with the magic circles on top of the fort. He intended to spend the majority of the battle in that area. His crossbows would be invaluable, suffering only the limitations of his aiming ability. Standing at the top would also give him a broad view of the battlefield. Messages could be sent to Kylar and Lurian to control the troops as needed.

There was a commotion when he reached the roof, but it didn’t catch his attention. He figured the players could hash it out. His eyes were firmly on the magic circle. Stepping into it, the new buff appeared on his display. Damage dealt while standing still within the circle was doubled.

If someone were to make their way onto the roof, between his point-blank shot ability, the magic circle, and activating wild shot, Jay could cause tremendous damage. He was almost looking forward to the opportunity. Then again, he didn’t want to discover the penalties for losing complete control of the Elvish trade city.

It was only a few moments later, once his musings on the possibilities of the circle were completed, that Jay recognized the voices had continued to argue at significant volume.

“What’s going on?” Jay asked. Claire and Taylor Lynn both froze, glancing over at him. Their frustrated argument fell into a whispered war.