It had been a while, since a message sent over the Pantheon-Entertainment Forum managed to catch my eye. Mostly, I received a mixed bag of hate, mindless adulation and people feeling entitled to the information I had gathered in Road to Purgatory, which I routinely ignored, slowly configuring the spam-filters to work to my satisfaction.

But a message from Tobiuno, a former rival from my Craft of War-Days, was a bit of a surprise, I had read some of his posts before, and had received a positive message while the initial dumpster fire around my departure from Craft of War had been raging, but other than that, there was little direct contact. Even more interesting than the message itself, however, was the content, as he was searching for confirmation that it had been me in the last Highlight-Reel and if it was, if I would be willing to discuss the content, which would also include the other two parties in that Highlight-Reel.

Knowing what I knew about the Arms of Helios and their troubles with the spiders, it made me wonder what was there to discuss, especially in private. If they were aware of my involvement in their troubles, they wouldn’t seek a private conversation, unless they were planning to engage in some bad-face acting and publishing the conversation with their own slant and if they weren’t aware, well, that made me wonder what was there to discuss.

And so, given that I was a little sick of wandering the mountains of southern Aretia, I decided to agree to the discussion, if the specifics were handled to my satisfaction. The reply came quickly, and introduced me to a feature of the capsule-space I hadn’t been aware of, the conference-mode. It turned out, you could install an “anywhere door” within your space, allowing people to enter your space, provided you gave permission, even giving you the option to ban them from individual rooms within your space. It was an interesting feature and I already had an idea where I would install such a door, namely at the bottom of the staircase I had used in the introductory video I had made a while back. Maybe not the most convenient, and I had a feeling if I actually wanted to use the feature I would change it, but for now, I thought it would send the right message. Luckily, to leave a capsule-space, whether it was your own or the one you visited, didn’t need the door, only a simple interface-command, otherwise I’d be the first to put that door into a more convenient space.

Thus, a couple of days after we had killed the Lycantroll and been travelling through the White Mountains for a few days without seeing anything more interesting than a couple rather large chamois, I was sitting on my throne, within my capsule-space. Befitting the occasion, I had deliberately altered the Avatar I was using, instead of using a reflection of my actual body. While there most likely were pictures of me out on the Internet, some with my real name attached, others linked to my former gamer-tag, I wasn’t about to simply give my private information to other gamers if I could help it. The information-conscious part of me still had a slight headache after considering how much and how deeply private information Pantheon Entertainment might be able to gather using their capsules, despite their assurances that all personal data was stored locally and could neither be leaked nor deliberately used. But there was no way around the Capsule, if I wanted to play Road to Purgatory.

At the appointed time, a blue screen, quite similar to the ones used in Road to Purgatory, informed me that Tobi Kramer - aka Tobiuno, had invited me to his capsule space. Nodding to myself, I pressed the accept-button and there was an almost nostalgic feeling of vertigo, similar to the feeling I had experienced during my original character-creation.

It only lasted a brief moment, before the world around me appeared, only that I now was in a curious mix between a conference-room and a medieval castle, the walls and the ceiling made from hewn stone, braced with untreated timber, the floor carpeted while the conference-table and the chairs were obviously modern and looked quite comfortable.

“Greetings, Morgana.” the person at the head of the table greeted me. I remembered meeting him during the few in-person events I had played at, the captain of our strongest competitor and currently the host of this gathering, Tobiuno. His dress was quite similar to the room, an obviously deliberate mixture between medieval noble’s wear and modern business-dress, with suit-pants, a light-blue dress-shirt and a black, long coat made from rougher cloth.

“Greetings, Tobiuno, it is a pleasure to be here.” I replied, a polite smile on my face. I wasn’t the first to arrive, other than him obviously, but I wasn’t the last either. At the foot of the table, dressed in a similar fashion to Tobiuno, was a pair of humans, one of whom I recognised as the leader who had been fighting those oversized Trolls in the Highlight-Reel, the other one a woman unknown to me.

“If you like, you can use the window behind you to display images.” Tobiuno told me, and a blue box informed me that I had been granted limited editing rights to that window, a wide expanse of glass more at home in a modern skyscraper than in a medieval castle. It was mirrored across the table from me, with a pleasant, grassy meadow currently on display.

“Certainly, I’ll do that.” I nodded, quickly mirroring the view one would have from the open meditation-area I had created in my capsule-space, looking down on clouds and windswept cliffs. It didn’t quite fit with the aesthetic of the room, but I thought it was good enough.

Before additional introductions could be made, another pair of people, one of them obviously using an Avatar out of Road to Purgatory, who I also recognised as the Pan-Spellcaster who had been with the Travellers when they had been scouting and attacking the Arachnids, the other a woman, looking incredibly out of place in her modern loungewear. Everyone else was either partially or fully dressed in medieval garb, with muted, almost drab, colours, making her, in her hot-pink sweatpants and crop-top look ridiculous.

“Hi Tobiuno, hi Morgana, nice to meet cha’” The woman greeted, her voice sounding young to my ears, almost as if I was talking with a teenager. “I’m Maggy, Grand Poobah, Guild Master and overall high muckety muck of the Arms of Helios, and this is Josh, the Organiser of our Ladrin-Branch. Kem sadly couldn’t be here.” she added, a wide smile on her face.

I wasn’t quite sure how to take her whole demeanor, forcing myself to keep the polite smile on my face, as I introduced myself as Morgana, while Tobiuno demonstrated that he was a people-person, as he dropped some of the formality he had used with me, instead greeting the woman more like one would greet a friend.

“I greet you, too. I’d prefer to be called Ardros, if you don’t mind.” The Pan introduced himself, his actions formal, as I would have expected someone to act in Mundus.

For a minute or two, the room engaged in small-talk, during which the other two humans were introduced as parts of the Blades of the Realm, Tobiuno’s guild. The Captain was called Droram, the other one his second in command, a Thunder-Spellcaster named Raia.

Finally, once I felt that enough niceties had been exchanged, I decided to bring the meeting back on track. Clearing my throat, I got the attention of everyone and spoke up.

“Now, Tobiuno, I would like to know why I am here, what you feel needs to be discussed regarding that Highlight-Reel.” I asked, studying the rest of the room.

“Certainly, we can get to business.” he agreed, “Why don’t we all take a seat and I’ll explain.” he suggested and for a moment, only the rustling of clothes was heard, as everyone took their seats around the table. For a moment, I regretted not having my Throne, but not only was the space not mine, the Throne wasn’t suitable for negotiations between equals.

“Raia noticed it first, and brought it to my attention. If you could explain?” he asked, giving his subordinate a nod.

“Of course. I noticed that the Highlight-Reels always had a bit of a theme around them, from mass-battles to attacks on singular foes, to crafting, that kind of thing. But this last one had no such theme, not obviously at least, and maybe more importantly, it ended before the fights had played out. I know what happened with you guys,” she nodded to Maggy and Ardros, before looking over to me, “And I somehow doubt that the monster you were fighting simply keeled over after charging you, which makes me wonder what happened. In our case, I don’t mind telling you that we were fighting so-called “infused” trolls who had been raiding farms in the area we are working in, but we have no real idea what the infused part means. They were bigger and stronger than normal trolls, but lacked any semblance of reason.”

Her explanation was interesting and there was a part of me that wanted to ask questions, a lot of questions, but somehow, I didn’t feel that she was telling us everything. Luckily, there was someone here who seemed to eschew every notion of conventional negotiations, instead acting as if we were on a school yard. I didn’t need to wait for more than a few seconds, before Maggy started to blurt out questions and information.