“This temple isn’t really designed for anything other than flavor and a quest where you have to deliver something to the altar,” Van noted as he glanced nervously at the doorway. It wasn’t big enough for the Dragon to fit through, but Trefor was strong enough to kill the both of them for sure.
Sang climbed up the steps and took cover behind the altar, aiming her bow toward the entrance. Van hid next to her. There was silence for a few minutes, followed by the echoing sound of heavy footsteps walking towards them.
Trefor emerged from the entryway, wielding a towering shield and a flaming sword. Sang snapped off a few shots, but the arrows bounced off of his armor and shield harmlessly.
“Alright, you two, that’s enough. You’ve had your fun here, but it’s time to go. Ranger! What’s your name?”
“Sang!” she shouted back, trying to shoot some more arrows. The words 0 damage kept greeting her each time she fired off a shot.
“Well, Miss Sang, my name is Trefor. I’m sure your friend has told you all about what we’re doing. But I’m certainly curious about something here, Miss Sang. I’m curious as to what you have been doing poking around. Are you some kind of corporate spy? Hoping to exploit our servers with a glitch? Or maybe you’re with the government, investigating some shadier things you think we’ve been up to.”
“I’m nothing more than a gaming enthusiast who loves Easter eggs,” Sang called back. This at least elicited a chuckle from Trefor.
“Sure, you are. Here’s the deal, Sang. If you’re willing to come with me and meet some of my friends at Draco, we’ll go ahead and let Van log out. I’m sure you’re well aware that this gentleman is going to die at any moment. We have the power to kill him. Come with me and we’ll leave him here. When we meet my employers, you have my word that he will be set free. Don’t, and… well, he dies.”
Sang glanced at Van. “I don’t like that idea,” she whispered to him.
“Neither do I,” he said, “but what kind of plan are we working on? I can’t log out, and if I get killed in this game, I’m willing to bet I’m going to die for real. I have no clue how we can get out of this thing.”
Sang sighed heavily. “Well, how do I know that you’re going to keep your word?” Sang called out to Trefor.
“You honestly don’t,” Trefor replied. “But what other choice do you have? I mean, neither of you have a chance to defeat me in combat. My Dragon’s outside waiting to cook anyone who leaves without my permission. You’re in a corner here, and there’s honestly no way out for you. So, you have a choice. You can take a risk and come back with me, or you can watch your good buddy die. I know you can log out at any moment, so it’s not really you who’s in trouble here. It’s him.”
Sang gritted her teeth and glanced at Van, who was shaking his head no. “Look, maybe we can figure out some kind of a plan,” she whispered, “but for right now, I’ve got to focus on getting you out of here alive.”
“They’re gonna do something terrible to you!” Van hissed. “Don’t go with him!”
“We’ve got no other choice! I’m not trying to valiantly sacrifice myself for you, Van. You need to figure out some kind of strategy to get me out of there. I know that when I go with him they’ll probably counter my ability to log out. But I’ll buy us time, at least. I’ll go with him and you... you’ve gotta figure something out.”
“Like what?” Van whispered. “I can’t do a damned thing with this character!”
“Well, I’m sorry, but we have no other choice. Either we both get our asses kicked right now, or we comply until we can turn the tables on him. Don’t forget, the CIA’s poking around out in meat space, trying to find the guy for real. If they find him, they’ll drag him out, solving both of our problems immediately.”
“I’m getting impatient!” Trefor shouted.
“I’m thinking about it!” Sang said. “Don’t make me log out!”
“Oh, I know you’re not going to log out, or else you would have a long time ago.”
“Alright, here’s the deal,” she shouted from behind the altar. “You leave this place—get on your Dragon. I’ll follow you out and climb on the Dragon with you. I’m not leaving until I’m certain that Van will be save.”
“You have two minutes before I come in and kill you both!” Trefor said as he walked out of the room.
“Whew, nice!” Van said once they were alone.
“Alright, I’m going to go with him,” Sang said. Her heart was pounding and she was feeling nervous, but she figured that half of the sensations were probably just the prolonged effects of being in the pod. She was feeling woozier and more ill by the minute. All she had to do was make sure that Van was safe, though, and then everything would be worth it. She wasn’t particularly worried about dying, because she had made peace with that decision when she’d climbed into the pod. What she was most worried about was Van getting hurt.
“Alright. Once I’m clear to log out, I’m gonna jump out and get on a regular console and log back in as Sivlander,” Van replied. “He’s got everything necessary to rescue you, and when I’m just using a regular computer, I won’t have to worry about getting killed.”
“That’s good thinking, Van,” Sang said weakly as she stood up and looked at him. He looked back at her, and she felt real heaviness in her heart. This might very well be the last time she’d see him, but she couldn’t let him know that.
“Thanks for coming back for me,” Van whispered as he hugged her. “We’re both gonna get out of this. We survived that stupid jungle, our poor decisions, and our arguments, so we’re going to survive this.”
“Of course,” she whispered as she turned from him. “They’ll jam my communications, too, I’m sure. Stay in touch with the team and make sure they stay updated.”
“You got it!” Van said as Sang walked down the steps, her heart sinking with each step she took. She emerged from the cave to see that Trefor was indeed sitting atop his Dragon.
“Well, I am a little surprised. I was expecting some kind of nonsense from you both!” Trefor said as she walked toward the Dragon. Her pace was a little slow, partly because she was delaying and partly because she didn’t have the strength to keep going forward.
“You’re looking a little pale,” Trefor said as he dismounted from the Dragon and took her hand, helping her get onto the back of the creature. It hissed and roared for a moment as she climbed atop it.
“Calm down, she won’t stab you again,” Trefor replied as he climbed up on the Dragon, as well, straddling its body in front of her. “Because if she tries anything, her good pal isn’t going to make it out of this game alive.”
“When we cross that barrier, you’ll deactivate the controls on him, right? Let him go?” Sang asked.
“Of course. Believe it or not, I do have some loyalty. It might not help him in the long run, but the fact is that Van was one of my best friends in this game. I’m not above killing in order to serve the mission, but as long as you behave, he’s going to be safe. We are far more civil than you think.”
“Right, civil,” Sang wheezed as she slumped against Trefor’s back. She wasn’t sure what the plan was, but her body was beginning to feel like it was growing more and more sickly by the minute. Was she going to die like this? Trapped in some kind of a video game, flying on the back of some fake Dragon in a fake world? What a strange way to go, she mused as she closed her eyes. She had never slept in the game before... after all, when a character went to sleep, their player just log out... but for a few minutes, she drifted off into the unconscious world.
Her dreams were strange and vivid. She could feel some kind of presence talking to her, warning her, but she didn’t understand the language very well. She struggled through each moment, desperately trying to sift through the alien words. They made no sense to her, still. There was one word, however, that did seem to break through their language barrier. It was the word “Dragon” and it came to her over and over again. “Dragon, Dragon, Dragon,” the language repeated. The words were accompanied by a swarm of thousands of other strange words, but she knew they were talking about Dragons. She wasn’t sure what it all meant, however.