Jay allowed the quiet argument to continue for several moments. Nobody answered him, which flabbergasted him, creating uncertainty about how to respond. Both were glancing at him as they spoke.

Finally, once he’d tired of it, he spoke again. “I try to be a patient guy, but this is seriously annoying. I’m right here. Can one of you tell me what you’re whispering about? You’re about one step removed from pointing at me like crazy people.”

Claire spoke up first. “I need to talk to you.”

“Same here,” Taylor Lynn added. “I need to talk to you, too.”

Jay made sure to exaggerate the motion as he sighed with his avatar. The move was entirely for the benefit of the two staring at him. Luckily, nobody else was on the roof, which meant one of two things. They were careful enough for the two lieutenants to argue privately, or everyone else had already departed.

They stared at him, seemingly waiting for who he would speak to first. “This feels like a trap.”

Neither budged, so Jay finally shrugged. “Fine. Dive into the trap it is. Claire, come on.”

Taylor Lynn didn’t move from her spot. She crossed her hands over her chest, leaned back on one foot, and cemented a stony look across her face. She was clearly pissed. That was a problem for later.

Jay led Claire down the stairs a little ways, hoping the sound wouldn’t echo. The first words out of his mouth were a repetition of his previous question. “What’s going on?”

“I was standing on top of the roof, minding my own business, when I saw Taylor Lynn walking down below,” Claire explained. Jay braced himself for a longer story. “She caught my eye, so I followed her. You know, I know she’s one of your friends. I watched her walking all around until something started to seem fishy.”

Jay’s eyes narrowed in surprise, but he didn’t understand what fishy meant. Claire paused, giving him a chance to speak, but he waited for the rest of the story.

“So, anyway,” she continued, flicking a piece of her bangs out of her eyes. “I watched Taylor Lynn walking all through the grounds. She was acting weird, inspecting the whole place. Finally, she entered the keep, and I lost sight of her. I went back to minding my own business and enjoying the view. Mentally, I was just getting ready for the coming battle. It’s gonna be intense. When I heard someone come up, I glanced over.”

Jay internally grimaced without reacting on the outside. He could see the rage building up in the lines of Claire’s face.

“She asked me what my look was for. I didn’t like her tone since it was really condescending. I asked her what she meant by that. She said I had the same look as someone who was forced to eat an onion whole. Then, we started arguing about what she was doing wandering around like that. I have no idea how we got there, but I accused her of working for the enemy.”

“You what?” Jay asked. “Why would you do something like that?”

“Well, she was wandering around looking for weaknesses in the fort configuration.” A dark look fell across Claire’s face, and she asked, “You’re not going to take her side, are you?”

“No,” Jay said firmly, leaving out the part that he couldn’t take a side since they weren’t fighting about anything real. “I’ll go talk to her about it. But everything is probably fine. She’s a lieutenant, just like us.

“I think you should remove her,” Claire said, a twinge of jealousy in her voice. She seemed to notice it immediately. “I mean, I think you should remove all of us. We don’t want anybody messing with the fortifications once the game starts.”

“I don’t want to limit the options if I get killed,” Jay pointed out. “It’s a real possibility I’ll get targeted, even though I’ll be on the roof.”

“But why would she be so rude to me?” Claire asked. Her anger was starting to fade into confusion.

“I don’t think she’s mad at you,” Jay admitted as his face fell. “I think you were just a convenient target. I’ll go figure it out, don’t worry about it.”

He kissed her on the cheek to convey his goodwill, although the action was awkward inside the game world. She returned the gesture and left the game after informing Jay of her intent to cool off. Steeling himself, Jay went to go meet Taylor Lynn.

“You’re making a real habit of choosing her over me,” Taylor Lynn observed, though with a tone more like how someone pointed out chilly weather than a lovelorn friend.

“What were you fighting about?” Jay asked, closing the distance to keep the conversation private. “Claire made it sound like a couple of drunk people having words at a party. Something about looks and tones.”

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“I don’t trust her,” Taylor Lynn said. Her arms were still crossed over her chest, and she refused to meet him in the eyes.

He tried to keep the words from sounding frustrated, even though part of him wanted to call out her possessive attitude. “Can I ask why?”

“Claire worked for Tumult. For all we know, she’s still working for them. They could easily be feeding our plans or trying to mess with you again in who knows how many ways.” She muttered the last words. “That and a healthy dose of jealousy.”

“You still work there,” Jay cautioned. His intention was good, meant to inform her that they could still be listening. Despite the dissolution of the contract, Jay knew they could still be watching.

That was the wrong thing to say. Taylor Lynn was upset. That was clear on her face, but Jay honestly couldn’t tell if she wanted to scream or cry.

“Wait, I’m just saying,” Jay called after her. “They could fire you.”

Taylor Lynn never turned back. He worried that their friendship would be over once he completed his goal to liberate Angela. Strangely, sitting with the idea caused him less difficulty than it once had. Even though he felt she was overreacting, Jay knew he needed to choose his words more carefully.

***

During the few hours of preparation, Jay spoke with a whirlwind of people whose names he could never remember. Person after person expressed various emotions about the coming battle, and he did his best to alleviate their concerns. On the other hand, he was grappling with his own feelings.

Fighting on through the game felt pointless. Sarah would likely be forced to change her medical care once again. She could return to her old doctors if all went well, but the costs were back to being on the Miller family. Sarah needed to focus on her education, which left the burden on his mother and himself.

Jay figured he was unlikely to be welcomed back by his previous employer. As much as he found the owner entertaining, his direct boss disliked him. Jay reciprocated those feelings.

The game wasn’t enjoyable anymore. He was stuck with guild leadership, though he never really wanted it. The position challenged him in some ways but wouldn’t aid his applications in the real world. The goal was to retrieve Angela. Then again, he couldn’t be sure how much of his feelings stemmed from the friction between Claire and Taylor Lynn. His friendship with Taylor Lynn was dissolving.

He wanted to give up on the game, but Jay knew he needed to forge on. He didn’t want to leave the stone unturned, ceding the artificial intelligence to the court system. Something about the situation told him they would ultimately win, which aggravated his sense of justice. He wasn’t convinced that James Miller was the right person, either, but at least his claim was based on being the individual to create it.

With five minutes on the siege timer, Jay told everyone to leave him alone. He needed to look over his loadout. The slotted abilities inside his Bestiary would be fine for the coming battle. The vine shell could save him from an early knockout, and his temporary flight was a vital strategic asset.

Jay had slotted several options into his enchanted ammunition. His currently available enchantments were zinger bolts, swamp traps, and slime bolts. They provided area of effect damage, battlefield control through traps, and a debilitating movement debuff.

His dwindling supply of potions hadn’t been refreshed since he was sitting at the back of the battlefield. He would be safe from the rooftop magic circles. Sarah had pushed back, but his arguments finally won her over. It was a rare win, and he wished for more time to think it over.

And yet the clock ticked.

The minutes dwindled to seconds until, finally, the clock struck zero. At first, nothing seemed to happen. They weren’t in the outer edges of the city, but ten minutes into the siege, Red Player’s Society caught first sight of enemy combatants. The Ilra was already breached.

Jay sent a message to the guild chat: Be ready. They aren’t likely to get unlimited respawn, so take any opportunity to get a kill and gain experience.

The message was lost in the flood of others as people cheered and jeered about the coming conflict. Jay sent the same message again but left it at that.

Another minute passed, and the first members of the assaulting factions turned onto the street where the fort was located. Jay didn’t know their objective, but it seemed plausible that they needed to capture forts. The government buildings would also be defended, but the NPC guards would protect those. That wasn’t even factoring in the defenses around those buildings.

There were several from the Lizardmen faction, several Demon faction members, and even a few humans. The collection of enemy players, about twenty strong, turned onto the street. They carried a sizable battering ram in their hands, clearly destined for the fort gate.

The battle began in earnest. Next to him, Lurian started firing down into the crowd as they approached. Jay did the same thing, not using abilities but focusing on landing hits. The magic circle did extend range possibilities, but aiming from so far away remained impractical. The only option involved aiming for the moderate group instead of the individual players.

All around the battlefield, other Red Player’s Society members flung spells, knives, javelins, and anything else they could muster at range. In the front, Jay saw the telltale signs of Taylor Lynn laying waste to the enemy with her lightning spells. Another Evoker joined her.

The collection of enemy players did not fare well against the lightning, but the twenty-strong group wasn’t alone. More enemy players came to replace those who had fallen until their numbers grew. There were more present than necessary to bring the battering ram. The amassing enemy players showed no signs of slowing.

Jay sent another message to the group chat: Focus on the battering ram; let the other players come.

The guild did as he had bid. They focused their attacks on the battering ram, but the group was well-coordinated. Players knew when to come and take the place of a fallen ram-bearer. Slowly but surely, the ram made its way to the gate.

The Red Player’s Society mustered a strong defense, doing everything possible to slow the enemies. Jay switched to swamp traps and saw other players following his lead. The traps slowed the march but could not halt it. Enemy players trapped in the swamp would simply hand off their load to others. Once they climbed out of the swamp, they continued on unabated.

Eventually, though it cost them dozens of dead players, the sieging faction made it to the gate. Promptly, the ram started to batter against the gate. That was bad.

Worse was the group of ranged-capable enemy players who had climbed onto the top of neighboring buildings since it offered them the proper angle to shoot defending players on the outer wall.