Alec and Karyl burst through the door not ten minutes after they’d hung up. They both looked like they’d rushed out of the house; Alec had thrown a jacket over the pair of sweatpants and black t-shirt he usually wore as pajamas. Karyl was dressed pretty similarly, wearing a pair of leggings under a loose tunic top. 

“That was fast,” I said.

Karyl rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. “The drive’s a lot shorter in the middle of the night. Anyways, Alec said I had to give you at least five minutes before yelling at you, starting now. Please explain to us what the hell you’re doing out here.”

“Uh, well, it’s kind of a long story,” I began. “You know the world of Soulseeker Online, right? It’s actually real. My um… I guess, long lost sister brought me there? And she coincidentally happens to be one of the sellers for the restaurant space we’re trying to buy.”

Alec spoke up, “Syl, that’s the craziest story I’ve ever heard. But, since I trust that you haven’t gone insane in the hour or so you’ve been missing, can you elaborate a little bit more?”

Anna approached me and my friends, giving us a small bow. “I should be able to help with that,”

“And you are?” Karyl asked.

“This is Anna. She helped us a really long time ago,” I explained. “The elf over there is Kei, and the kitsune is Nina. We actually owe them all quite a bit,”

“I’m pretty sure we haven’t met any of them before today,” Alec thought out loud. “Though, those names do sound familiar…”

“We met all of them ten years ago,” I insisted. “Anna took some of our memories, and-” I let out a long sigh. “Look, I know I sound crazy, but can you just trust me?”

“It’s always an adventure with you, Syl,” Karyl sighed. “Alright, sure. Give us our memories back or whatever.”

Anna nodded. “Gladly,”

The disguised goddess placed a hand on each of their foreheads, and a soft light pulsed from beneath Anna’s hands as she returned my friends’ memories.

“Do you remember us yet?” Nina asked hopefully.

“Give them a moment, Nina,” Anna said. “I’m feeding them their pasts more slowly this time, as to not overwhelm them as I did with Sylvia.”

My sister nodded and joined me in watching Alec and Kei parse through all the new information they were getting. The pair kept switching between confused looks and wide-eyed understanding as the past caught up to them.

Karyl scratched the back of her head. “I saved you two from a… birdcage? I’m not surprised, I suppose. You two are always getting into trouble,”

“We never really had a chance to thank you properly for that,” Kei said. “But you really saved the day back then.”

“Oh no, I didn’t really-” Karyl froze mid-sentence, tilting her head down as if she were suddenly afraid to be seen. To my amusement, her face began to flush as she stammered, “You’re… uh...”

“Yeah… I am.” Kei returned with equal awkwardness. “Uh, nice to meet you- er, nice to see you again, little sis.” There was a deep blush growing on Kei’s face before she finally turned away and stared absently at the ground far away from Karyl. “Damn! How the hell do you say that so casually, Nina?”

“You get used to it,” Nina and I replied in unison.

Alec chuckled. “It feels like we were traveling across Haredo only yesterday,”

“When we’re all back together like this, it really does,” Nina agreed. “At least Kei and I don’t have to mettle anymore to get you and Sylvie together anymore.”

“Well, I did have a promise to keep,”

I punched my boyfriend softly on the shoulder. “Hey! That’s between us, okay?”

Anna cleared her throat. “I hate to interrupt, but if you all have been reacquainted, I’d like to discuss the matter at hand,”

“You’re still gonna sell us the restaurant, right?” Karyl asked.

“Yes, but not for a monetary value,” Anna answered. “I wish for you to turn this place into a safe haven for Lost Souls.”

I tilted my head. “Lost Souls? You mean like, people who have nowhere to go?” 

“Sort of,” Nina corrected. “Remember the Knight Watch? Recently, they’ve begun forcefully taking people out of your world and stripping them of their identities. Then they toss them aside all over Haredo, and the world bends over backwards to create a brand new identity from scratch.”

Anna continued, “Those machines storm the area shortly after and capture or kill the lost soul. This puts enough additional stress on my world that I lose my influence over the surrounding area. If enough damage is done this way, I fear I may lose my ability to support the existence of Haredo as a whole.”

“But, if we had a safe haven outside of Haredo, it’d make it significantly harder for them to capture or kill people without playing it off as a part of the game,” Kei concluded. “In addition to the storefront, there’s also plenty of space to create a dormitory upstairs, at least with a bit of magical influence.”

“How are they stealing people away in the first place?” I asked. “It’s not that I don’t believe you, just, wouldn’t all these kidnappings have made the news by now?”

Nina grimaced. “They target people who they know won’t be missed. Kids who’ve been disowned or abandoned, or people with only have one or two connections that’d be easy to alter or destroy with magic.”

Karyl’s eyes went wide. “You’re not saying…”

“That they’re targeting queer kids?” Kei guessed. “Damn right they are.”

Silence followed as the three of us tried to come to terms with that knowledge.

“That’s so fucked up!” Alec cursed. “Who the hell comes up with a plan like that!?”

“Somebody heartless, that’s for sure,” I stated. “Do you know why the Knight Watch is doing this? I thought it was just an anti-cheat program, not some evil company.”

“I wish we knew,” Anna sighed. “The best-case scenario is that they just want to be rid of my existence as a coding ‘anomaly’, but I fear that it goes much deeper than a simple grudge.”

“It doesn’t really matter why right now. We can figure that out later, after we’ve started saving people.” Alec argued.

“Yeah, I’m in,” Karyl agreed. “We can’t just abandon the kids that society’s given up on, especially now that we know about it.”

I gave a nod to Alec and Karyl before giving my own answer. “We’ll get to the bottom of this, Anna. Do you know where any of the Lost Souls are right now?”

She smiled. “Thank you, children. I believe one resides near my patron city of Kin no Kaigan, somewhere in the Silverbelle woods to the north.”

“We’ll need to check it out first thing tomorrow morning then,” I said.

“I’ll come with!” Nina volunteered. “You’re gonna need someone to identify our target after all!”

“Sounds good,” Kei agreed. “Anna and I will stay here and get to work setting up the shop and warding the place.”

“I’ll stay too,” Karyl offered. “To help with the mundane parts of setting up a cafe, I mean. There’s a lot of work that needs to be done to this place if we want to open anytime soon.”

“Alright, we’ve got a plan then,” Alec beamed. “We’ll meet back here tomorrow morning.”