I floated for an eternity in a sea of crimson light. Formless, shapeless, without care or concern. In time, the edges of conscious thought flickered back to me, nibbling at the perimeter of my deep, endless calm. Distant chanting, soothing in its repetition of words only a little too soft to hear, reverberated through my spirit. The chant pulled at me, irritating me, reminding me of something important half remembered; something I was, somewhere I was needed.

…this isn’t right…

…Brianna…

…where am I?

I blinked, and once more had a body, though I still floated amid the yawning void. I gasped for breath and found that I could breathe. I looked down and saw that it was me—the real me, Michael Peters the regular human and not the paladin—floating in this void wearing only my favorite pair of blue checkered boxer shorts. For some reason, this observation made me feel even stranger and more vulnerable than everything else occurring.

This was definitely not cool. The dragon statue had obviously brought me here. But how had it lured me in, and why? Where was here? And what was going on? Was this a step back toward the real world, or another step deeper into my bizarre fantasy?

For a moment I was furious at myself. I should have been vigilant for traps, physical or magical, and instead I’d done the moronic thing and walked right into one! And now I was… well, I didn’t know. Hopefully not dead. I couldn’t be dead. I wouldn’t accept that. Not with my sister still in danger. Besides, I believed that death was nothingness—unawareness. So as long as I was aware, no matter how strange my surroundings, I needed to think and fight my way out of here.

I tried moving my limbs and flailing through the void, but without a reference point, couldn’t be sure I was going anywhere. I would have tried to propel myself further through the air if there was anywhere to go, but emptiness loomed in every direction I turned. Not even ground was below me. I found my voice and shouted.

“Hello? Is anyone there?”

No one replied. I cupped my hands and tried again.

“Haley! Daniel! …Brianna?”

Still no response. The sound of my voice was muted to my ears, no matter how loudly I shouted, like I was screaming into cotton. I shivered in the void, though I was neither hot nor cold. This was all very strange and dreamlike, and I had no idea what to make of it. There had to be some way to free myself. The distant chanting still teased at me, coming from everywhere and nowhere, and I held my breath and strained to hear it. If I tried very hard, I almost thought I could make out snatches of it, murmured over and over in a voice that was both one and many:

“…of dreams, of kin…”

“…three tortures forge…”

“…endured to temper…”

But it was no use. No matter how much I focused I could only hear fragments. I sighed and tried to figure out what to do next. But then my attention was diverted by something strange.

A distant, moving pinprick of black color against the rolling void of dimly glowing red caught my eye, like an errant fly. The fly began to grow, becoming first a blotch and then a rapidly shifting shape. I quickly realized that whatever it was, it must be traveling toward me at a high speed through the void, and it seemed to be going faster as I stared, almost like it was encouraged by my attention.

Moments later it arrived to stand before me—or rather, she arrived before me. The pinprick had expanded into a fuzzy, indistinct human form of what I took to be a woman—something about the height, shape, and posture suggested femininity—and it now waited just a short distance from me, observing me. While I was floating, she appeared to be standing on a flat surface, and as I stared at her, her obscured form flickered through a series of more defined shapes: a dark-haired sorceress with skin as white as milk, a brown-skinned ruler with jealous, haughty eyes, a warrior clad in shimmering scale with all the colors of the rainbow, a woman swollen with child, hair caked in salt and sea, and finally settled on a form with elements of all of these.

A dark complexioned, long-haired woman with high cheekbones and sharp, hungry eyes regarded me, wrapped in a dress that shimmered in the red light like a living flame. It seemed now green, now purple, now orange and blue. Her lips twisted into a possessive smile, and she inclined her head to greet me as she placed her hands on her hips. They sparkled with dozens of rings in silver and gold which gleamed and glimmered as she shifted.

“Hello, Chosen One.” The woman emphasized the words like proper nouns, just as Marutuk had, and her nostrils twitched as she closed her eyes to inhale deeply. “You have the smell of destiny about you.”

“Uh, hi…” I replied, not knowing how to respond to this crazy lady and wishing I had my HUD handy to tell me who the hell she was. I decided to tread carefully and get as much information as I could out of her. “Is it possible for me to stand like you are? This weird floating is really getting to me.”

Her eyes flicked open wide and she roared with laughter. “Is it possible? Do as you will, Chosen. You stand in the domain of raw potential. The realm of the gods themselves.”

I didn’t believe in any gods, so I didn’t know what to make of that at all. Which is to say, I didn’t believe her. Someone with a real belief system, someone like my parents who’d been raised as Protestants, might have latched onto that claim… they’d raised me that way too, albeit in the lazy, 21st-century way that meant we were culturally Christian but only went to church on Christmas and Easter to make mom happy. But it’s funny how all the faith gets sucked right out of you when something horrible and random like your family getting cut in half by a freak accident happens. Where’s the bigger plan in all that, huh? Why would a deity who was all about goodness and love rip apart the only source of goodness and love I’d ever known?

If there is a god, and he lets things like that happen, then he’s an asshole, and I’d decided a long time ago that I don’t want anything to do with him.

I certainly wasn’t impressed by any claims this random lady was gonna make about this being the “realms of the gods” or whatever. When it came to matters of faith, I put mine in what I could see, feel, and test for myself: facts, experimentation, logic, and the scientific method. Sure, a lot of crazy shit had happened to me lately, but whatever this place was, I still had no reason to believe it was anything but a hyper-realistic game. There didn’t have to be anything supernatural about that at all.

“What did you say your name was?” I asked the crazy lady. I wanted to know what to call her so I could warn the others about her once I figured out how to get back to them.

Her lips quirked again into an amused smile. “You may call me Marina, Chosen.”

“All right, Marina. I’m Michael. Michael Peters. Nice to meet you. So how do I ‘do as I will’ like you say?”

“You truly are a child in the ways of this world… how to explain something as natural as breathing? Focus yourself. Impose your desire on the world around you. Visualize your intent. Make your will known.”

It was a strange directive to give someone, and it reminded me of the same cryptic language the Elohim had used: “do as you will, lest you do as you must.” But rather than question her further, I tried an experiment and concentrated on visualizing my feet resting on solid ground.

To my immense surprise, I was no longer floating! There wasn’t even any transition… I was simply resting on solid nothingness, standing before Marina and staring at her in surprise as her smile widened. I now stood several inches taller than her, but felt smaller and shorter because of how exposed I was in my boxers. I wished I had something to wear other than my underwear. But maybe that was something I could will up here, too?

Again I concentrated, picturing myself in the clothes that had always made me feel the most confident at work—a suit jacket, slacks, black tie and crisp button down. I imagined the clothes draping over me, my blond hair carefully combed and parted, and wasn’t incredibly surprised when I stood wearing them a moment later. Nice job, Michael. You’re getting the hang of things. I straightened my sleeves with a few gentle tugs, shrugged my shoulders beneath the heavy wool jacket, and stared Marina in the eye, newly confident now that I was decent.

“Got it. Thank you. I see now. It’s like a dream. Or a lucid dream, I suppose.” I’d had lucid dreams a handful of times in my life, and when I became aware I was dreaming, I’d always been far more fascinated in testing my environment than in doing stereotypical things like flying or having sex with everyone in sight. Dreams had always seemed excessively weird to me—what’s up with humans vividly hallucinating for like four hours every night? It’s bizarre—and it was even weirder when you were aware of them, able to interact with your environment, and capable of shaping the objects and people around you.

Marina cocked her head at me. “A lucid dream? I am not familiar with this concept. But the realm of the gods exists to both honor them and claim their honor for yourself. You must be very lost indeed to have entered so unprepared.”

“I didn’t mean to. There was a dragon statue and it seemed to be calling to me… and then I was here. But I need to get back. My friends need me and my sister needs me.”

Her gaze became sharp. “You were called to this realm? The smell of destiny indeed… Only those who are truly important to the weave of fate are called here.”

“Uhhh… sure. Look, I think it’s cool that the game is feeding me some Harry Potter ‘chosen one’ nonsense and all that, but how do I get out of here?”

I didn’t have time or patience for this bullshit. Clearly I’d triggered some kind of mechanic, either randomly or as the group tank and leader, that brought me to this weird place and started me on some kind of chosen one epic questline. Even if we were all “chosen ones” like Marutuk had suggested, it made sense that the game would offer group leaders a chance to differentiate themselves somehow and become stronger. But I wasn’t interested in playing the ‘savior of mankind’ quest or whatever this Marina questgiver lady was offering me. I just wanted to get back to the rest of the group, look for clues that might lead me to Brianna, and level up in the meantime since it looked like I was going to have to do that to survive long enough to find her and rescue her.

“Nonsense?” Marina arched an eyebrow at me. “Guard your tongue, Michael Peters, as you prefer to be called. I do not speak lightly of destiny—”

“Yeah, yeah. And I don’t speak lightly of getting out of here.” Normally I’d jump on the chance to grill someone with questions, but I could tell just by the way she was talking I wouldn’t get any real information out of her, and anything I did get I wasn’t sure I could trust. I guessed I’d be better off just getting away from her, whether she was a quest giver, part of the trap, or something else entirely. “Look, you seem great. But what would speed this along? Would it help if I just said yes to your quest or whatever?”

The woman folded her arms and regarded me cooly, her mirth fading. She stared at me for a long moment with a neutral expression, and I just stared back at her and waited for her to answer my questions. Finally, she spoke again.

“I have no quest for you. And I could lead you back if you choose, but why would—”

“Enough,” I cut her off with an annoyed gesture as her response confirmed that she wouldn’t be able to help me. She was probably an NPC and part of this trap, whatever it was. When Marina opened her mouth again I willed her to be silent using the same technique I’d used to summon my clothes, imposing my will upon her like a person in a dream. Her mouth snapped shut and she stiffened, eyes bulging. I’d partially done it out of curiosity, but what was interesting was that when it happened, it felt like I was pushing against something, somehow; like I’d shoved an amorphous thing with my spirit.

I was about to order her to tell me how to leave when I felt the amorphous thing push back on me, and cold shot through my stomach as Marina’s eyes blazed with fury, her face now stormy, and her hands curled into fists at her sides.

“How dare you,” she hissed. “You choose to challenge me here, in the ancient realm of the gods?”

I drew a startled breath, taking a half step back and trying desperately to silence her again. But this time it felt like my will was meeting something much larger than itself, and without quite knowing how to describe the things I was feeling, I sensed my frantic efforts being batted away again and again.

“You mock my wisdom and attempt to silence me in a world you know nothing about, and assault me in the realm of heroes where my will is infinite?” As she spoke, her voice grew in depth and power, and the edges of her eyes began to swarm with snaking tendrils of blackish-purple color.

It occurred to me that I might have made a serious error by dismissing this lady. I raised my hands defensively and tried to soothe her. “Whoa, whoa! I’m sorry, I’m sorry. It’s just that this is all very new to me, and I’m a little preoccupied looking for someone… I just want to leave.”

For three long beats I wasn’t sure if she was about to smite me or not, but then Marina’s fists uncurled and the weird, terrifying eye-tendrils receded. I couldn’t help but think about the hideous chaos beast we’d just defeated, even though the color in her eyes had looked subtly different.

“I understand your confusion, Michael Peters. And I will forgive your transgression this once. But know that I am not to be trifled with.”

I nodded and then asked a quiet, hesitant question: “What are you exactly?”

“I am what you see before you at this moment. No more and no less.”

And just like that we were back to being weird and cryptic. I decided to humor her a bit, now that she’d shown that she had a little more power than your average NPC… or so I hoped, anyway! If every NPC was this badass, I was in for a real rough time here in this world.

“Okay, so… you said that those truly important to the weave of fate are called here?”

She nodded. “Indeed. It marks you as important. Special. And you do smell of destiny.”

“And what’s with the chanting?”

Another flicker of surprise flashed across her face. “You can hear them?”

“Hear who?”

“The Elohim,” she murmured, looking thoughtful.

“Is that who’s chanting? I wish I could hear it better. It’s just out of earshot.”

Marina glanced upward, and then extended her hand. “Come with me, Michael Peters.”

On the one hand, I wasn’t super excited about the prospect of accepting an invitation to go with a random, terrifying crazy lady who spoke in riddles. On the other hand, I was both curious and eager to leave this weird red void, and going with her appeared to be my best bet.

“Where do you want to take me exactly?” I asked.

“To the Elohim, of course.”

Well, they were the ones who had provided us with our awesome weapons, and even if Marina seemed kind of crazy, they’d shown their goodwill already. It didn’t seem any more dangerous than anything I’d done so far, so I grabbed Marina’s hand and gave jerked a quick nod. She smiled, and suddenly we were somewhere else.

We were still in a strange, barren void, but the endless red previously surrounding me had taken on more of a golden hue, and we were no longer alone: High above us insubstantial robed beings like the two which had accompanied Marutuk flitted back and forth in dizzying movements, and their roaring chant was now so loud that I had to cover my ears. Again and again they repeated the same four haunting verses, chanting them over and over and rattling me to my core.

“When the days of punishment are done,

and the children of Nammu are ready once more

to rejoin the great game,

one shall be called to cleanse the sin of the slain betrayer

and carve open the gates of heaven.

Three tortures forge the holy blade,

three more endured to temper:

of dreams, of kin, of love long lost,

of body, mind, and spirit.

Amid fire, ash, and blood will the children of Nammu be freed,

bathed in the fading darkness,

washed in the blood of the dragon,

with the elders bound and broken

for their arrogance.

Rejoice in your suffering,

and delight in your punishment,

chosen ones.

You may yet claim

the birthright of your fathers.”

After the third repetition nearly drove me to my knees with the force of their voices, I shook my head and tried to scream over the din: “Marina, take me away from here! This is too much!”

She’d stared at me impassively, apparently unaffected by the booming recitation but watching me carefully, and nodded in response to my words. She crouched down and touched my shoulder, and suddenly we were back in the endless void of red, with the chant once more sounding far away and barely audible. Marina continued to stare at me and ran her tongue along her perfect white teeth, as though considering something.

“You could hear them. Fascinating.”

“Damn right I could hear them! You’d have to be deaf not to. What are they?” I demanded. I was tired of her weird riddles.

“They are the keepers of this realm and the stewards of the game,” she said matter of factly, as though it was the most obvious thing in the world. “But players as low in level as you cannot usually hear them. Their chant is eternal and has not changed as long as Ataraxia has existed. You intrigue me more and more, Michael Peters. You hear the words of the keepers, you were drawn to the realm of the gods, and you had sufficient will to silence me, if only for a moment. Quite interesting, indeed. I would like to make you an offer of aid to help you on your way.”

“An offer?” Her words set off alarm bells in my head. Every story I’d ever heard about making deals with the devil came back to me. “Thanks, but I’m not interested in your offer.”

“You don’t even want to hear what I have to say? You disappoint me, Michael Peters.”

I sighed. “Could you please just tell me how to leave this realm? I don’t want any offers from strangers. I’m sorry, but no.” I wasn’t sure anymore if she was an NPC or a player, but she didn’t seem like someone I wanted to be making deals with. My head was still reeling with the Elohim’s chant, and I couldn’t begin to wonder what any of it meant. It was pseudo-mystical mythological gibberish. I wasn’t about to get sucked into some kind of prophecy-fulfillment mythic quest.

“This is part of what I wish to offer you,” Marina continued, tugging at the shoulder of her multi-hued dress. “This realm is deep and confusing for the uninitiated, who know not what they seek. It is possible you will find your way back to your friends on your own… it is also possible that you will wander here for millennia, or die, or go mad.”

I shivered, glancing again at the endless red void, and again it had nothing to do with the temperature. I hesitated, trying to decide what to say next. I didn’t know if she was telling the truth, but could I take that chance right now? She’d shown me how to use my will at least, so as Faustian as she might appear, she hadn’t yet harmed me or given me anything but guidance… maybe I ought to hear her out instead of spitting in the face of the only being who had appeared in the void to help me.

“Okay, fair enough. What is your offer?”

“An offer of aid. I too am a player, far advanced from where you are. I will lead you out of this realm and back to the safety of your friends, bless you with my powerful magic to dramatically increase your abilities, and offer you my amulet to aid you on your journey here in Ataraxia.”

That was interesting, but accepting gifts from strangers made me nervous. “Can you just lead me out?”

She cocked her head at me. “Why would you not want my boon, as well? Don’t you wish to be as powerful as you can be in this new realm? I have never met a player so quick to reject an offer of help from the more experienced.”

Marina did have a point. I thought of all the times in the online games I’d played where I’d found a confused newbie, helped them out, and given them items, buffs, and gold. Was that was happening here? It would be pretty dumb of me to fall into a trap and then reject gifts that could speed up my leveling just because I was being overly cautious. If I thought about it carefully, she was just talking about things I didn’t understand and being kind of weird, but who was to say what normal was anyway when you’d been sucked into a game with seemingly real consequences?

Then Marina sighed, disappointment rippling across her face. “I see you do not want my aid. Your irreverence pleased me, Michael Peters, and I don’t often meet a new player who has such potential as you. So many players arrive and meet a grim end because they are unprepared for the trials ahead of them, and I did not wish to see you meet the same fate. Interesting players are worth helping. But if you do not wish to accept my gifts, I will not force them on you. Come. I will lead you out.” She held an upturned hand out to me, rings glinting.

But now I just stared at her, feeling stupid. Here was a high-level player in this weird game who seemed to know an awful lot about everything, who gave every indication of wanting to help me, and I was being kind of an asshole just because I didn’t know what was going on. I’d already seen how terrifying and rough the game could be when Trees had been shredded before my very eyes by the horrifying shadow beasts, so I knew the danger was real enough. Was I making a dumb decision? What if her offer really could help me survive and find my sister?

I took a deep breath. “I’m sorry I’m being so rude. I’m just nervous in a new environment. Can you tell me a little bit more about your… uh, your ‘boon’?”

Marina withdrew her hand and nodded solemnly. “Of course. As an experienced player of Ataraxia, I can extend a portion of my power to you at no cost to myself. Become your patron, as it were. You will become stronger and hardier, and receive other benefits, such as a power emblematic of my own powers, though they will develop with time and I cannot say precisely what form they will take for you. I also have an amulet that will protect you and allow you to call upon me in moments of great need, if you hold it and choose to call for me.”

“And this patronage… can I renounce it at any time?” I asked. But then, fearing she might take that the wrong way, I quickly added: “Just trying to understand, sorry.”

Marina nodded. “You may renounce your boon or discard the amulet as you like, of course.”

“And you don’t want anything from me in return?”

She shrugged. “Not for such a small token, no. Only that you remember my assistance in the future. When you become more powerful, you will need to choose allies. Players who smell as strongly of destiny as you… well, I would rather fight with you than against you.”

I saw now that what she was doing was almost like building goodwill to recruit me into her guild one day. It changed my whole impression of what was happening. Clearly there was some kind of war going on. But I needed to tread carefully. It wouldn’t do me any good to make both an ally and enemies before I understood the battle lines.

“Are you allied with Marutuk?” I asked carefully. “He came to us in the starting area and introduced himself.”

“All human players face the darkness together,” Marina replied with a slight edge to her voice.

“The darkness?”

“Khthon. Chaos. Spawn of sin. He must be destroyed if we are to ever win this accursed game. But I now have other matters which require my attention, Michael Peters, as intrigued as I am by you. You must choose quickly. I will help you leave this realm either way, but do you wish to accept my boon or not?”

It was a risk. A definite risk. I had no reason to believe her… but she was clearly powerful, hadn’t hurt me, and hadn’t done anything except help me so far. The gamer in me wanted to say yes, even as my conscience urged caution. But if it would help me find Brianna…

“I accept your boon, then,” I said decisively.

“A wise choice,” she replied. She stepped closer—close enough that I could smell the strange, intoxicating scent of her hair and skin, like exotic flowers and foreign spices. She laid a hand on my breast, crushing the soft wool of my jacket to my skin, and murmured, “Yield your will to me, Michael Peters.”

Again I felt the immense, amorphous force I had felt when applying my will to Marina push on me, but differently this time. It was less of a forced push and more of a request. Not knowing quite what I was doing and not completely sure it was wise, I did as she had asked and yielded to it. I suddenly felt an immense rush of what I could only describe as raw power flow into my body, and my jaw dropped at how invigorated I suddenly felt. It was amazing! It was like I now wore an aura of strength all over my body.

After she withdrew her hand, an amulet suddenly appeared in her grasp, and she reached up to drop it over my head. It was small and golden, a simple disk engraved with a small dragon head, and it slipped easily beneath my shirt. As it fell onto me, I immediately felt as though a second aura descended upon me, only this was one of protection. She stepped back and smiled as I flexed my arms, curious at all of these sensations and wishing I had my HUD back to identify them.

But then Marina spoke: “I must go now, Michael Peters. Shall we leave this realm?” She extended her hand yet again.

I nodded, taking it, and before I could even ask how she was going to lead me out, everything around me faded to darkness. I felt wobbly, weird, and disoriented. My vision blurred, and then I realized that I was lying on my back with my eyes closed.

“Unnnh…” I groaned at the strange transition. My eyes fluttered open and a wooden ceiling swam into view. My body felt strange once again—large and bulky, and I realized that I was back to my paladin avatar, lying in a bed somewhere.

“Michael?” an excited voice asked. Haley’s cheerful face popped into view, and then she squealed and hugged me. “Michael, you’re okay! I was so worried, and I felt so guilty, and I’m so sorry… and my god, after what happened to Trees, and then you were unconscious and we carried you back because you weren’t dead even though Paige couldn’t heal you back to consciousness and…” Haley’s babbling trailed off into choked sniffles, and I felt warm wetness on the side of my neck. When she pulled back, her cheeks shined, and she scrubbed furiously at her face with the sleeve of her robe.

“Wow,” I muttered, my cheeks getting hot. “You really missed me, huh? Thanks for dragging me back. I assume this is one of the wooden houses we saw in the starting area?”

“Yeah, it is. Daniel and Victor helped bring you back. I’ve been waiting here for you to wake up for several hours.”

“Several hours?” That was a surprise! My whole trip to the weird void realm had only taken minutes, as far as I could tell. I wondered what had happened to Marina. It hadn’t just been a wacky dream, right? I didn’t feel quite as powerfully charged as I had when she’d blessed me. I just felt like I’d felt last time I was in my paladin avatar, which was a bit of a disappointment.

Haley sniffed and nodded, looking alternately embarrassed and relieved. “I should… I should go let everyone know you’re okay. I’m so glad, Michael. I’m so sorry I dragged you into that mess, but now you’re okay and we can get back to figuring out what’s going on.” She vanished through the door before I could protest, leaving me alone in my simple shirt and breeches in the rumpled bed. That girl is so weird sometimes… but at least I’m back!

It was great to know that Marina hadn’t been trying to trick me or screw me over, and also comforting to know I wasn’t dead! I’d been a little worried for a while there. Now that I was awake again, I could get back to looking for Brianna and leveling my avatar up. The first thing I’d need to do is come up with a leveling plan and see if I could figure out whether Marina had actually given me anything useful or not. But then I noticed a cool metal feeling pressing against my chest.

I reached into my shirt and drew out the same golden pendant the strange woman had placed over my head in the void realm: the small, golden dragon-engraved disk. As I stared at it, my HUD bead appeared, identifying it for me in a welcome and familiar display of floating, light blue information:

Minor Token of Patronage [Unique] [Marina]

Amulet

- Strength +50

- Vitality +50

- Life +100

- Use: Call upon your patron for assistance in times of great need.

“Damn,” I murmured, boggling at the stats and rubbing the cool disk thoughtfully between my fingers. “I guess it was the right call to let that chick hook me up, after all.”

Then the murmur of excited voices from beyond the door distracted me. “Michael?” Haley called from the hallway. “Come on out! I’m telling you guys, he just woke up.”

I looked at the token a moment longer, and then shook my head. Talk about a serious advantage! But for now, I wanted to keep this my little secret. I didn’t know how the other might react to news that I’d been given a special perk like this, and we didn’t need a repeat of Victor’s power struggle with Haley.

I slipped the amulet back inside my shirt, climbed out of bed, and went to meet the others.