Somebody knocks at the door. “Just a minute!” I say as I wipe my hands on my rag apron. I put the saucepan on the counter, next to the stew pot, and check the time on my holo-bracelet. They're early. I leave the kitchen and walk through the living room to the entrance. Halfway through, I stop, line up the cutlery on the table, and light the candles. I take off my apron and place it on the back of the chair.

The knuckles sound again on the wood of the door. I walk to the entrance, grab the knob, and open it.

“Idrial, Antaeus,” I greet them. “It's good to see you. Come in, make yourselves at house.

“What a cool house!” Idrial says to me. “And in the heart of Citadel. It must have cost you a fortune.” Idrial is not wearing her armor, but rather a purple dress that contrasts with her silver hair. She looks quite fetching. Her brother ducks as he enters so as not to hit the lintel with his head. He has exchanged his breastplate with the boar emblem for a red and blue plaid shirt and suspenders. He looks rather ridiculous, as if he were a lumberjack out of an old movie.

“Make yourselves comfortable,” I tell them. “You're the first ones.”

“I love the wooden floor,” Idrial says.

“Thank you very much. I tried to find something that looked as much like hardwood as possible among the materials available in the Game.”

Idrial smiles.

“So you finally got your freedom,” she says.

“Yes, but not in the way I expected. It's kind of complicated. If you want when we're all here I'll explain it in depth.”

They sit in the armchairs by the fireplace. I offer Idrial a glass of wine, though in Antaeus' case I give him a jug, as the glasses I have would be ridiculous in his hands. I pour one for myself and sit down with them.

“You look very changed without a beard,” Idrial says. “For the better, of course. Level 58 warrior! Wow! I know one who's been busy the last few months.”

Idrial must have checked my avatar's properties. I smile at her surprise.

“We haven't heard from you in months,” she tells me. “Imagine our surprise when we got the invitation. How did it take you so long to get in touch with us?” says Idrial.

“It turns out …” Knuckles against the door interrupt my explanation.

I walk to the door and open it. On the other side I see Lance, smiling, and behind him a dark-skinned girl in a red dress and a silver crescent-shaped medallion around her neck. She leans out and I recognize the features of her face and the two braids of white hair.

It's not possible.

Lance and Hara look at me and smile.

“Hara?” I ask. The dark elf smiles. I hug her.

“I can't believe it,” I say. “You are alive! But how is it possible? You disappeared, you were updated, and they changed you to a standard NPC. But of course, come to think of it, I was updated too…”

I look at Lance.

“You wouldn't happen to have a mysterious black box plugged into your house in the real world right now, would you?” I say.

Lance laughs. I think it's the first time I've seen him laugh since I've known him.

“We were wondering why you weren't in the Game,” Lance says. “We thought something had happened to Marcel. We tried to contact her, but she wasn't there, and she had deleted her avatar.”

“She was in the hospital, getting prosthetics. Now she has cybernetic legs,” I say.

“Wow! That's great! I'm so happy for her,” Lance says.

Hara walks by and greets the two siblings. Lance gestures for me to step aside and talk for a moment in private.

“Hara doesn't remember anything from the waiting room,” he tells me. “She knows who Gabriel is, but her memories have been altered.”

“I suppose Gabriel would change them to protect himself,” I say.

“I don't know,” he says.” I tried to track Gabriel down. I asked the tournament organizers if they knew anything about the AI program, or who was running it. I found nothing. Not about the program, not about Gabriel, not about the board of developers. It's as if they didn't exist.”

“I think the board doesn't really exist,” I say. “And about Gabriel, intuition tells me that he has to be very high up inside the company that controls the Game, but we'll most likely never hear from him again.”

“Do you think we should say something to Hara?” he asks me.

“I don't know,” I say. “Maybe it's better if she doesn't remember anything. It's hard to say.”

We go into the living room and join the two siblings and Hara.

“By the way,” Idrial asks me. “Where's Marcel?”

“She'll be here in any moment, she should have arrived by now,” I say. “She's fine, although you'll see that she's somewhat changed. She's decided to change her avatar. But gee, I won't say anything else otherwise I'll spoil the surprise.”

As if it were a premonition, I hear someone knocking at the door. I go over and open it. It's Marcel, bringing a box wrapped in colorful paper.”

“Sorry I'm late,” she says. “I got caught up shopping at the Citadel market.”

She goes to the living room and puts the box on the table.

“Marcel? Wow, what a change!” says Idrial.

Marcel is no longer a dwarf with a red mustache. She changed her avatar to a human elemental sorceress. She is a dark-haired girl, dressed in a black robe with gold embroidery. Of course, she still has her red boots. She wears her hair short in a boyish way. She says she has spent many years enjoying wearing it that way, and now long hair feels strange to her.

“Level 62 elemental mage,” says Idrial. “I see you both have been busy lately.”

“What's in the box?” I ask Marcel, who smiles.

“It's a present for you,” she says. “You're going to love it.”

I walk over and unwrap the package. I open the flap and discover two kittens, one black and the other white with black paws. I stand there with my mouth open. I pick them up and they meow.

“It's a new feature of the Game,” Marcel says. “It's in the testing phase, but when I heard about it, I didn't hesitate for a moment. Do you already know what you're going to call them?”

“Colonel and Socks,” I reply without hesitation.