Orka placed a consoling hand on my shoulder.

“Well,” I said, more to myself than to Orka, “my brother at least knows now that I am alive and in this world.”

“But why would your brother come to attack us with the others?” Orka asked.

“He is a player, though I am not,” I said. “They came on a quest."

Orka took his sword and stabbed the players to ensure they were dead. I had thought that their gored bodies would disappear, which did not happen. I reckoned, the players had already respawned in the town. The bodies left behind would probably be subject to decomposition.

We proceeded up the steps to the minor door.

“I hope this works out,” Orka said. He glanced at the party of dead players. “I do not think I could have dealt with them alone. So thank you.”

I inclined my head.

I had fought well, despite my lack of any combat experience. I was more or less proud of myself. The small door opened with a light push, showing us a second chamber. Immediately a blast of icy air hit us. We had to withdraw to the bottom of the steps, shivering. My body seemed to go numb from the brief exposure to the extreme cold.

“Why is it so cold?” I asked.

“Because the founders sleep in that chamber,” Orka said with conviction.

We went up the steps again. It was still as freezing as before, but at least we were not surprised by it like the first time. Nevertheless, my teeth clattered as we entered the chamber. The glow of Orka’s torch fell on a great block of ice at the center of the room. And inside that slab of ice was a fused Skhite couple.

Orka let out a wild gasp and ran to the giant ice cube.

“It’s my parents!” Orka cried, as he embraced the block of ice, seemingly unaffected by the cold. “It’s them! They are the same faces that come in my dreams! I thought I would find the founders here, but my parents are here… so…”

“So the founders of the first dynasty were your parents?” I said.

Orka went rigid at the possibility.

“I don’t know. But we need to get this block of ice out. It will never melt here,” Orka said. Tears were running down his face, and I was afraid that his tears might freeze. “If we can get the ice to melt then my parents will revive!”

“Revive?” I asked. Was Orka in a delusion? The petrified couple inside the rock-hard ice was dead without a doubt.

“This is no ordinary ice,” Orka said. “It nourishes the body, not letting the person die. Over time, the Skhites have forgotten how to create this magical ice. I was probably in an ice cube myself, before it melted.”

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We began to slide the slab of ice as best as we could towards the door. It was a tedious job. Pushing the ice desensitized my hands, and I could only hope not to get frostbitten, but finally we were able to get the block to the door. It was relatively easy to lower it down the steps. Orka had to kick the corpses of the players out of the way and then we transported the ice to the main door. The entire process took us not less than an hour.

Once in the warmer cavern, the ice slowly started to liquefy. But Orka was impatient. He ran the flame of the torch near the ice to hurry the melting process.

“Why don’t you use all of them?” I asked, pointing at the lines of snuffed out torches on the walls.

“That’s a good idea,” Orka said brightly. We collected and enkindled as many of the torches we could and surrounded the ice with them.

In about half an hour the ice had reduced enough that we could touch the unibody of Orka’s parents. And in an additional half hour the ice was gone, leaving behind a small pool.

And then we waited. Orka was rubbing his hands together, muttering prayers for his parents to revive quickly. Another hour dragged on. I wondered if it was already morning. Most of the other Skhites must be awake by now and going about their daily morning chores. Nora and Nadir must be surprised to find my chamber empty.

I was absentmindedly splashing water with my foot and observing the ripples when I caught Orka’s mother blinking her eyes. Only a few seconds later his father stirred too.

They sat up, as though in a haze, confusion written on their faces. Orka gawked at his parents, biting his lips so hard they bled, while his cheeks convulsed with emotion. The parents eyed me with uncertainty.

“Has the cold left?” the father asked.

Orka nodded as tears flooded his eyes.

“Yes… father,” Orka said. His mother touched his face with a quivering hand.

“Is it you, Orka?” she asked. He nodded earnestly.

“You were so little only some time back,” the mother said.

“A long time has passed,” Orka replied.

Orka hugged his parents.

“But what is a human doing with you?” the father said and it was clear from his severe expression that he did not trust me.

“He is a friend of the Skhites,” Orka replied. “He helped me. Without him I would never have been able to awake you from your sleep.”

“Well, thank you,” the father said to me, the crease on his forehead softening. I did not know what to say so I just smiled and nodded clumsily.

“But what about the other Skhites?” the mother asked.

Orka explained that the Skhites had returned to the village a long time ago. But they considered him an outcast because he could not prove his lineage.

“They do not accept our son?” the father said, infuriated. “Our son? Us, the founders, without whom this place wouldn’t even exist. Take me to your present king, let’s see what he has to say.”

The parents stood up. I felt something funny in my head. A wave of nausea poured over me. I almost fell face first to the floor, thankfully Orka caught me.

“Hey, are you all right?”

“I… I don’t know what is happening to me,” I said. My head was spinning and I was struggling to differentiate the roof and the floor of the tunnel. A shudder took hold of me next. Something inside me was readying for an explosion. I pushed Orka away. And then the strangest thing happened-- I began to levitate.

“You are flying!” Orka said.

As if that wasn’t strange enough, my body began to glow. The light intensified so much that Orka and his parents had to shield their eyes with their hands. I closed my eyes too.

A word appeared in my vision. A word in a white box.

Congratulations!

More boxes appeared. All the boxes had the same word in them. They cluttered up my sight.

Congratulations!

Congratulations!

…

***