Nia sighed and nestled further into the embrace she shared with her lover. She enjoyed the warmth and comfort that Sarra provided, knowing she’d have to go out and lead loyal members of the Order to their deaths. She tried to project a calm front when she was around most people, but here with just two of her closest friends, she allowed herself to relax and become vulnerable.

She felt Sarra stir, like she might say something, but Farden beat her to it, “You ever feel like there’s a hole missing in our party? In our story?”

Sarra made an inquisitive little noise and asked, “What do you mean?”

“Sometimes, I feel like there’s something wrong with what happened. From the moment we found Nia, it’s like I notice a discrepancy in everything that’s happened. A hole. Back when we were Pathfinders, why did we think we were a whole party when there was only four of us? Me, you Sarra, then the twins. A Pathfinder team is five people,” he said with a depressive sigh.

“But I was there! That’s five!” Nia said with a frown.

“Before that though. You two don’t feel it? A hole in your life?” he asked morosely.

Sarra shook her head, “No I don’t… I don’t know? Maybe? I always felt like… hmmm.”

Nia furrowed her brow and thought back on the dreams she’d been having lately, “I think… I think I might know what you mean. Do you remember the disaster at Shale five five three?”

“How could I forget?” Farden grimaced.

Gulping Nia, started to tell them, “Well, I’ve been having dreams lately, I can’t remember much, but, there’s one scene that is different…”

”It was that portal. It opened in the middle of Protectorate lands, disturbingly near a large population center. We’d tried to close it through normal means, but whatever mechanism that was keeping it open was doing so from the other side. So we’d marched through with a company of the Order of the Orchid and set up a defensive position. The world we found ourselves in was desolate. There was no life, just the ruins of the builders.

What struck me when we stepped through the portal first, was how grey it was. How it seemed like the very colour had been leached out of the place. The second thing I’d noticed, was that the corruption had torn this place apart. The usual elegant decay of a builder ruin was replaced by utter mind bending chaos.

If you’ve ever seen what the reality corruption does, you’ll know what I mean. It looks like a wild crystal formation mixed with M C Escher’s nightmares. This world was like that, only… more. It was as though our enemy had begun to work on an industrial scale. The world was wrecked beyond repair.

Things had gone well at first, we’d established a perimeter and gotten to work. The creatures of nightmare that our enemy wielded had caught on halfway through though, and so had begun one of the most intense battles of my life. They’d swarmed over the surrounding warped buildings like ants, charging our lines with reckless abandon.

We’d held them back, it had been tough brutal work, but we had. It was near the very end that it had arrived. It was perhaps twelve feet tall and made of smoky glass. It’s skin would ripple and change configuration at random, and its face was a flat plane of the same material. It’s eyes twisted the mind in ways I cannot even begin to describe. We’d fought it, but it had brushed off our attempts to harm it, as though it was simply strolling towards the portal through a heavy gale.

Our mages were faster than it, and we’d closed the portal before it could pass through. Our evacuation had begun, but we were losing people. In my waking memory, the creature had paused then, seeming to lift something up, but there was nothing in its hand. In my dreams however it held a woman. She was short, with long curly blond hair whipping in the wind. She was pretty in an angular way, her terrified but determined eyes taking cover behind prominent cheekbones.

She blasted the creature who clutched her straight in the face, and it roared like a cracking bell. What happened next was… terrifying. I say this literally, because I felt a wave of dread lash out from the creature, and it leaned forward with that flat face it possessed. Lines of barely visible energy lashed out of its eyes towards the woman, like the writhing tendrils of some deep sea beast.

The tendrils curled around her and through her as though she were made of so much air. Then, it tugged, jerking its head back like it was tearing a chunk off a prime hunk of meat with its teeth. The woman writhed, screaming in horror as… nothing. There was no woman. There had never been a woman. Finished with it’s feast on nothing, it turned and grinned, though it had no mouth, nothing but two impossible eyes.

My mind vomited, something was wrong, where was… she? Who was she? Why did I think there had been a woman?

**Sylanna**

What an intense battle! Wow, like… I know that was actually a real thing that happened, but my gamer mind couldn’t think of anything other than how much fun that had been! My friends had been so cool, carving their way through the hordes of creatures and stuff. I loved it. I guess we could save the world and have fun doing it.

I looked over at the people who had dragged the train through the huge glade we had set up shop in. There was six of them, and they were just as crazy looking as we were. A darkling woman who wasn’t wearing a whole lot sauntered over to us.

She openly gave Amra the once over and said, “Damn girl, you’re scrumptious.”

Before any of us could speak further, Liam growled, “She’s sixteen.”

“Right…” the hot Darkling girl said, a dark blue tinge coloring her light blue cheeks, “Well anyway, thanks for the save.”

“You’re welcome,” he nodded, “Can I ask what you’re doing all the way out here?”

“We got pushed out here by those dick head Blackfeather folks. Couldn’t make it back into the city and now we’re stuck in the wilderness,” she said, motioning in the vague direction of the city with a sigh.

As the newcomers explained their story, I slid up behind Karen and peered around her, using her as a shield to protect me from the newcomers. She must have felt me come up behind her, because she turned and smiled down at me.

“You okay there?” she asked gently.

I nodded and whispered, “So long as I don’t have to talk to them.”

“Well then I’ll do the talking for you,” she smiled, pressing a kiss to the top of my head.

Karen was amazing. Her presence near me had a calming effect on my wild and anxious mind. It was like she emitted an aura of calming energy that was keyed specifically to me.

Having finished their tale of woe, the other party introduced themselves, and we did likewise.

There was the tall darkling woman who’d been their mouthpiece thus far. She had blue skin and purple horns that gleamed brightly in the morning sunlight. Her luxurious black hair was tied up in a messy ponytail and she wore a very skimpy leather outfit.

“Heya friends, my name is Alexia, I’m the leader of this lot, and I’m a warlock,” she told us with a grin before motioning for the rest of her party to say hello.

Their tank was a bear. Literally. He walked on two feet and had armour made of solid stone, his voice was this rumbling thing that shook the earth as he spoke. He was almost three times as tall as me. I was terrified.

“I am York. I am a bear and I stand in front of things that would hurt this bunch of squishy meatbags,” he growled.

Their healer was a timid middling height elf girl with the traditional robes and staff combination. She had white hair and large blue eyes that danced between our faces like she was searching for something.

When it came time for her to say hello, she gave us a bright smile and stutteringly introduced herself, “My n-name is Yure, I’m the healer!”

“Yeah, and my name is Yoms, I’m the wizard. The real damage dealer for this lot,” the small fourth member of their team told us gruffly, impatiently interrupting Yure.

He was a gnome with the biggest wizard’s hat I’d ever seen. I’d expected him to be cute and charming, but instead a blistering grimace was directed at his party members.

“Be nice you menace or I’ll punt you back to Blackfeather and his goons you bloody cretin,” the fifth member of their party told him with a roll of her eyes.

She was a tall and impressively muscled woman of a demonic style race I hadn’t seen before. Her legs were goatlike, her forehead had two small horns poking out through her fringe and she carried a huge mace. She smiled and cockily introduced herself as Xero.

Nodding to sixth member of their team stepped forward and gave us all an easy bow.. Unlike the rest, who were dressed in practical adventuring clothing, this human woman wore tight black trousers, vest and peacoat. Her bright white shirt made the black clothing seem all the more dark by contrast. Her weapon of choice was a rapier, and she held a hand casually on it like it was nothing but an armrest.

“And my name is Melli, duelist at your service. I hope we can all become fast friends,” she said with a pleasant smile.

When we went through and introduced our own party, Karen stepped in and told them about me while I stood back and tried not to look too scared. I don’t think it worked.

When we finished with our introductions, Alexia asked, “So what are you all doing out here? It’s a bit isolated isn’t it?”

Liam looked back at us for a moment before responding, “We’re building a base on that hill over there while we grind for levels and do our best to catch up so we can fight the Blackfeather’s back in Dialsil.”

“Really? You think you can get enough experience out here on your own? What about repairs and such?” asked Xero, looking thoughtfully up at our hill.

“Well, we all took professions to that effect. We might not be the best at it right now, but we’re hoping to get there soon,” Dana supplied.

“Wow, that’s actually such a cool idea!” Yure exclaimed, her eyes wide and enthusiastic.

“Yeah we thought so too,” laughed Amra, twirling some of her hair absently.

Wow she was really getting into the whole hot horny airhead thing.

“We’ve built a lodge so far, and plan to expand as needed from there. Exploring and fighting monsters will come once we’re sure things are safe and secure around here,” Liam told them.

“Damn, I wish I’d thought to do this,” Alexia said still staring up at our hill.

This was a perfect chance to start something bigger! If this party joined us on the hill we could get more and more people to come and then once we were all trained and leveled up we’d totally be able to take on the assholes back at the city!

“Liam!” I whispered, and scurried over to murmur in his ear, “What if we invite them up with us. We can start a settlement or something. Get more allies against the Blackfeather people!”

“Yeah that’s what I was thinking,” he nodded, then turned to the other party, “Would you like to join us up there? We’ll help you build your own cabin and then we can work on leveling up and helping each other out. Eventually get some payback on those bastards.”

Alexia opened her mouth to speak, then turned back to her companions and arched an eyebrow in question.

Her party nodded in agreement and she turned back to us with a grateful smile, “Yeah, that sounds sick. What’s the details of the arrangement and stuff? I’m actually the leader of a clan…”

Turns out that the people before us were the core party of a moderately sized gaming guild that was making its home here in Pellan. Alexia asked if she could tell more of her people about this place, and after some deliberation we agreed that having more friendly players around would improve things, so long as we retained ownership of the hill.

Alexia and her friends agreed, and we all decided it was time to get to work looting the creatures around us. There was so much to harvest from the corpses, from magical components from the tree things, to meat from the regular animals. It was fascinating how I could now see clothing and construction uses for the materials we were collecting now. It was interesting, apparently the more mushy insides of the tree things could be treated in a certain way to be used as a glue. Those creatures sure were an endless source of useful material.

Eventually, with our inventories all conveying various weight penalties on us, we trudged up to our cabin and showed our new friends around. Xero told us about how she had also taken the smithing profession, and she was keen to build a forge with Amra and get to work. The gnome was a miner apparently, and I couldn’t help but laugh at the idea of his little body carrying ore to the surface. The other newcomers had various real life and ingame skills that would be of benefit, including herbalism from Yure, who was keen to see the garden.

****

Our new friends would be staying in the main room of the cabin for now until they built a cabin of their own. In aid of that, I bounced off to look for and stake out a place for them to build it. I was in the middle of this task when Col found me.

“Hey Syl,” he said, a strange tone to his voice that put me instantly on edge.

“Hi Col?” I asked, confused.

He shuffled his feet a little and gazed into my eyes, “So I was thinking about what you said.”

“What I said?” I prompted.

“About how you had a crush on me,” he said, schooling his expression to neutral.

I grimaced and broke eye contact, looking back down at my work, “Um… yeah?”

“Why do you not like me anymore? I mean, like I just don’t see a reason why it happened,” he said with a note of sadness.

“Because I don’t like guys anymore… I told you C- I told you Jeremy,” I said quietly.

“I know… but ugh, can you try and like guys? I have so many feelings for you now and I don’t know what to do with them,” he said, stepping towards me.

“Try and like guys?” I replied in a deadpan, stepping backwards to maintain distance between us.

“Yeah! I just… I really like you and I think we should try!” he said, nodding enthusiastically.

“No Jeremy! I don’t want to. I know I don’t like guys, and plus I’m with Karen!” I said, somewhat annoyed now.

“But she can’t even be with you outside the game!” he said, a note of frustration colouring his tone now.

“So? I care about her, and she cares about me. She makes me happy just to be around! That doesn’t happen with you, at least not in the same romantically coloured way!” I exclaimed, backing up another step.

“This is so dumb! I just want to try!” he said heatedly.

“You want to try jeremy? You. You, you, you, you, you. At what point did you think telling me to try and like you would work? You can’t just go up to a girl and expect her to give you a go because you have feelings for her! Come on!” I said, my voice rising in tone as I got agitated.

“I’m not saying that!” he said angrily waving his hands in the air.

“Listen to yourself! Listen to how you’re speaking! You haven’t once asked my opinion, you’ve told me yours and expected me to follow along because what you’re saying must be right. I know we’re only sixteen, but come on this is fucking basic shit!” I cried, throwing the sticks I had been holding down onto the ground in disgust.

“So you don’t want to? Just like that?” he said, shaking his head patronisingly.

Narrowing my eyes at him, I sighed, “Just like what? Why are you being so fucking dense? I’m with Karen! She’s my girlfriend! I’m her girlfriend! Even if I wasn’t a lesbian, I’m still not single!”

“Have you even tried to think about being with a guy?” he spat back, taking yet another step in my direction.

“Of course I fucking have you dumbass!” I said sarcastically rolling my eyes to cover how nervous this conversation was starting to make me.

Col was meant to be my friend. I’d heard girls complain about this stuff sometimes, friends getting a crush and suddenly becoming pushy and upset or aggressive when turned down. I never thought it would happen to me though, especially from Jeremy. He was better than this.

“D-dumbass?” he sputtered, “Syl, you haven’t even tried! How do you know?”

“Alright dude, I’m done. I’m so done here. I’m going to go find Karen while you think about how much of a cunt you just were. Bye,” I said walking away from him.

“Hey, come back!” he cried, racing after me.

With a little skip, I danced up into the air on pulses of light and slid away to find the girl I was falling in love with. Bitterly, I realised that this had just been a rude initiation into one of the many shitty things that lesbians had to deal with.