Location: Forest of Village Uri, South of Diptabhumi

Time: 4:00 AM

Day: Healer of Triad (First day of Triad)

For the last time, Eka tried logging in. 

[Access Denied]

Well, unto emergency cue then. Eka concentrated on her disastrous day. Her heartbeats sped up. Her chest rose and fell in sharp breaths. Tears brimmed her eyelids. The hopelessness she had been feeling for the past hours swelled. Her vision blurred. She was one step away from passing out. 

She channelled her last bit of strength to spread the fingers of her right hand and then clenched them into a fist. This effort prompted a robotic voice to take action. 

[Emergency Initializing. Calling 911]

[Error. Player not detected.]

[Error. Call detained. The player was not detected.]

Eka slumped on the ground. It took a toll on her mentally. Physically, she could run up and down the highest mountain on the landscape twice. Her senses had doubled. The soft breeze caressed the nape of her neck. Her ears rotated to the twittering of birds in the distance. The mossy greenery of your forest smelled fresh, along with the stench of her sweaty body. 

Eka cringed and then remembered the messages. 

Failed. Failed.

Everything failed. There should be some response to her body in the real world. She hoped somebody found her. She refused to believe that nobody found her. Her parents, her sister, her friends; somebody should be taking care of her, however reclusive she was.

Eka had a special connection to the emergency cue. Her father. Her biological one. He was a great gamer and a famous international player. It was he who instilled the love of games into Eka. The days that she and he spent fighting countless battles, diving into endless dungeons and looting them. They had the most fun as pirates. 

And then, came the time he was no more. He was there for one-moment scoring points for his squad. He was leading them to the defeat of the last boss. One more strike and boom. It was to be the end. At the last second his character stopped. The boss plunged his spear into her father's character's chest. As if controlled by his character, her father heaved blood while his character also gurgled blood out his mouth.

Eka remembered the silence. It was the most unbearable silence she had ever heard. Her ears had rung. She saw nothing but her father slumped on his desk, his blood reaching every corner of his keyboard. People had rushed to his aid the very instant but she knew he wouldn't get up and say, "I was just joking."  

It was a heart attack they said. It must have begun a few minutes before his collapse. The thrill of finishing first must have reduced his attention. "It was just adrenaline", he must have thought.

To honour her father, she thought up to include this emergency cue. She wanted no one to die of a heart attack again. Or of any disease of that matter. She knew the lifestyle of gamers. She was one herself. She had designs to also set up an emergency helpline department in her game company once she launched her game and had enough funds for it. To have it fail so miserably was a punch to her face. 

She was the only player when she started her beta testing for the World of Ira. Now, she didn't know how many were here. 

Cuuurrrrrl…

Something brushed past her shoulder. Something like a shadowy being. It swiftly moved in light steps. The only indications were the wind and the swinging bushes. Intense raw fear replaced the numbness.

What if it decides to come back? Let's hurry. But where? Eka looked everywhere. Lush greenery surrounded her. She had been unconsciously following the trail the lebrouts had made when they dragged Eka to their grotto. Concluding this was the best idea, she took the help of Eka's memory as an NPC hurried along. 

Eka did not fail to notice how real the biting pebbles into her bare feet felt. Once or twice she lost her way, but somehow her muscle memory of her character guided her when the memory failed her. 

Her memory as Eka, the NPC, wasn't the best and she had trouble remembering if her character even had a home. 

After two hours of slogging several trails, some false, some animal-made and spooking herself and some weird-looking animals she stood in front of the back door of the humble abode Eka's character called home for the past twenty-five years in the game. She gasped up at the structure. 

Is this my home? I mean Eka's home? Mentally shaking all doubts, she hesitantly opened the locked door. The creaking it made sounded like a dying wild pig. Eka winced and waited patiently for any attack. 

However, she wasn't ready for the ball of black that collided with her when she stepped in. The next thing she saw was polished redstone or more specifically red cement floor. 

Every well-established commoner had a red or black cement floor. Eka, while writing up her character's backstory had mentioned she was a struggling fifteen-year-old with a six-year-old brother, dead parents and a crumbling mansion to her name. 

Currently, the crumbling establishment stood tall like a proud mountain. All due to Eka's character's diligence and hard work. Just how much time had passed? 

Eka ignored the twisty feeling and focused on the ball of black in question. A small girl child of probably two was sitting on her chest, hugging her neck in a death grip and wailing loudly. 

Eka awkwardly patted the child on her back. Walking inside the house, she reached the modern designed living room. Locating a soft, comfy sofa, she deposited a somewhat quietened child. 

"Mimi!" The child screamed. 

"Child, what is your name?" Eka inquired in a soft tone. Children should always be approached with sweet gestures. They were precious creatures who could sniff out a bad person easily and were monsters when angered.

"Mimi?" The child tilted her head. 

Oh goodness! She is so cute! Eka cleared her throat, "Child, Your. Name. N-a-m-e. Name."

"Era." (Eee-ra)

"Era?"

"Era."

"Okay, Era—"

"No. Era." The child shimmied down. She crouched and from under the sofa she produced a children's book of animals. She handed it to Eka. 

Eka opened it. On the top right corner was the child's name. It read Hira (hee-ra). On the same page was a portrait of Eka's character, the brother and the child. 

Wow! Eka's character is a mother already? She is not only a diligent person but also a mother.

In the real world, Eka was twenty when she started writing codes for the game. She was twenty-nine when she finished a quarter of the world. Impatient, she had dived in for beta testing. She never had the time or the tolerance to entertain a lover. 

"Hira, why do you call Eka– I mean me, Mimi? Call me Mama." 

"Mimi ", Hira pointed to Eka and then to the brother, "Pupa." 

Horror dawned on Eka's face. She paled, almost becoming one with the white leather of the sofa she sat on. A child at fifteen?! Her inner voice screamed to the heavens. I am the aunt!

She was the older one. What went wrong with the brother's upbringing? She never wrote the story towards this direction. Come to think of it, she never completed her character's life fiction. That restless she was to swoop into the game. 

Searching the memories of her character, she was convinced the child before was her character's niece. What hammered the nail into place were the clear grey eyes same as her character. Clear as diamonds as the namesake. Curly black hair just made her a living doll.

Eka stopped the urge to squish Hira's cheeks. The poor child blinked innocently at the twitching Eka. She would never know the fierce struggle Eka battled inside. 

For some strange reason, the name of the brother escaped Eka's grasp. She hadn't named the brother yet. Now, this character had a daughter and was nowhere to be seen. 

"Hira, where is your Pupa?"

"Pupa?" Hira fished a torn chit from somewhere within her dress folds and handed it to her aunt. "Pupa say. Gone."

Eka spread the crumpled chit on the wooden table. On it were the words— I have seen god. She spoke to me. I have to go. Take care of Hir. I'll be back someday.

Wow. What a father.  If Eka were his real sister, she would have disowned him the second he thought this.

"Pupa?"

"Hir, your Pupa is busy being a dog. As your virtual aunt, I shall take care of you."

A knock sounded on the front door. It boomed throughout the house. The poor structure trembled. Along the corners cracks formed. It startled both the air niece and aunt out of their comforting atmosphere. 

Hira cried out in panic. A headache formed inside Eka. Another knock fell. This time so loud it rang inside Eka's ears. Hira increased her wailing to the next level, Eka swore she could be heard from the second floor of this house.

 It took Eka all her tolerance to not chuck the expensive-looking vase on the floor. She glared at Hira and tried to communicate with her eyes to stop crying. This just resulted in Eka increasing her wailing, if that was humanly possible.

Finding no other choice, Eka picked up Hira and marched the distance to the door. She yanked the heavy door, narrowly missing stubbing her toe. Eyes spewing fire and words promising death, she scowled at the intruder. 

"You—", Eka bit down on her tongue. She almost cursed the foulest words she knew. Then she remembered the small child in her embrace. She cupped Hira's ears and mouthed curses at the person. 

She will surely kill this person someday. Who thumps so hard on a door? The person just smiled sheepishly back at her.