A conversation between a Passivity Precept Counselor and [redacted]., age [redacted], [redacted]

“What do you want.”

“I want to know what you did with my brother during the beta test. I want to know why he never came back!”

“We’re sorry. We can’t answer that.”

“Then please, just tell me if he’s alive!”

“This... to your world he’s dead.”

“Then—“

“—That’s all we can say.”

Once we finished hysterically laughing our asses off, I said, “Let’s take a look outside.”

Lore hesitated then nodded. “Alright. Just a short one. We should leave soon since we don’t know how close this city is. If it’s nearby then there is a chance the Ravenborn clan will find us within a few days. We also don’t know where Mossthrorn, Whitedove, and Cho are. If they decided to take a boat and wait right outside the barrier for us then they could arrive here within a quarter-hour.”

A chill ran down my spine. That was right. Still, I wanted to take a look.

I opened the door of the round building. It had a small view of the village but a bush blocked off part of my view so I walked out to take a better look. Lore followed after me.

As I watched, a bunch of NPCs wandered out of the dilapidated houses. I recognized some of their faces as belonging to members of the cult. They all looked very confused and started talking with each other about what could have happened to the village while they were asleep and who they couldn’t find.

A young woman started crying and a man I assumed was her father patted her back. Several NPCs called out names of loved ones that would never respond again. But, at least they had their sanity again. Hopefully, they’d appreciate it once everything calmed down.

I looked to Lore. “Should we tell them what happened here?”

“Now that the barrier is down, there will be other NPCs coming here to do that.” He bit his lip. “Let’s hurry and get out of here.”

I sighed and nodded my agreement. Since I had zero energy to explain to these strangers what happened to them, leaving quickly was the best option. Especially when it might be better for them to forget completely.

We turned and headed back to the building. Just as I was about to step inside I tripped but caught myself before I face-planted.

The fuck tripped me? I peered down at that same fucking creepy doll. Irritated, I kicked it aside and entered the building again.

Lore took out the teleportation scroll and hugged me. Then he activated it.

The world seemed to spin as we plummeted, landing on a stretchy surface that turned into hard stone. We stood on a target platform in a room filled with potted plants, welcoming paintings, and geometric designs that were different from the swirly elven ones I was getting used to seeing.

Near a doorway, behind a podium, stood a young dwarf.

This was the first player race other than elf I’d seen in this game.

He slammed his fist against his upper left chest in a salute, then bowed. “Greetings! And welcome to the Illuminated City. Are you visiting for a short while, moving to stay permanently, or temporarily staying?”

I glanced at Lore and we both said, “Temporarily staying.”

“Then I suggest setting up a residence at your local guild hall.” He glanced at us. “Rogues, right?”

We nodded.

He pulled out a huge map and laid it on his podium. It showed a massive city. At least thirty times the size of Gray Skies Fall on the Weary. It was split with a yellow line at one-fourth of its mass, where the several massive guilds were located.

First, he pointed to a large building. “We’re currently here. To get to the rogue’s guild, you’ll need to go here.” He pointed to another large building several blocks away.

“And just so you know.” He circled the larger slice of the city. This side is for players leveled 1-30 and this side is for players leveled 31-50. You cannot go to the other side, so don’t try to enter. And players from that side can come to our side, but only if they agree to temporarily reduce their level to 30.

“However, this can be uncomfortable to players that high in level so, if you’re meeting with one then we suggest you meet inside the conference rooms at your guild.”

We nodded.

“Now, this is a peaceful, lawful city. While we don’t expect you to know all the laws automatically, we do suggest you learn them fast if you’re going to stay here for more than a few days.” He pulled out two booklets that had the word guidebook written on them and gave one to each of us.

He then explained how to go about requesting a temporary residence.

Once he was finished with that, Lore asked, “Do you mind letting us know what planet we’re on?”

He gave us a sideways glance and said, “We’re on Yuvintis. You didn’t know that?”

Lore smiled, “Of course we did. We were just checking since this was our first time using that particular teleport scroll.”

He nodded. “Then I hope you have a pleasant stay in our beautiful city.”

We nodded, thanked him, and left the room. We walked into a lobby of some kind and traveled out of the door to see our first view of this new city. Tall buildings, like high-tech elven versions of skyscrapers, distorted the view. But there were more than just elven-style buildings. There were blocky ones, spiky ones, and rotating tornado-like ones that looked like they shouldn’t exist because of physics. And they were all lit in a way that emphasized their shape. And all the windows in these buildings were illuminated. Ah, this must be where the name came from.

Above us, I noticed several large rings stretching out and hugging the night sky. I practically stumbled at the unfamiliar sight. There were fewer rings than Saturn by half, but they were just as majestic. Many small moons were scattered across the sky. They appeared to be a tenth to a quarter of the size of Earth’s moon.

As we slowly meandered through this new city, we saw all sorts of different races, like some weird purple alien, half-orcs, bird people, and some kind of giraffe person. There were even one or two humans!

At first, we walked, but it took too long so we rented one of the carriage hackneys to drive us. Even then, it took a long time to reach the guild.

We did as suggested and purchased a temporary residence at the Rogue Guild’s skyscraper apartments.

As soon as we closed the door to our rooms Lore sighed, he took me into his arms and hugged me tightly. It seemed like he was holding something in.

“Hey, what’s wrong?”

“We’re much farther from my home city than I thought we would be. We’re not even on the same planet.”

I nodded. “But isn’t this a good thing? I doubt the Ravenborn clan can reach us any time soon.”

“While that’s true, it might take us a long time to earn enough money to get back to Fiarar.”

My eyes grew wide. “Are you serious? Even with the money, we earned from those last two quests?”

Lore nodded. “We’re... very far away and the price to teleport that far is extremely high.” He chuckled without humor. “We asked for a teleport to a ‘nearby large city.’”

My eyes grew wide. “Oh shit. That guy’s definition of ‘nearby’ and ‘large’ are totally different from our own!”

Lore nodded.

“Then, what are we gonna do?”

He peered out the window of our room. “We’re going to take this as an opportunity to get stronger. This city looks like it has many more quests and possibilities to learn than Gray Skies Fall on the Weary. We also have some money. We’ll level as quickly as possible, and start learning a craft. Then we can make money through selling our work.”

I looked at him skeptically. “I doubt creating things will earn more than adventuring. In most games I’ve played, it costs more to learn and get good at a craft than it ever pays back.”

Well, I could be wrong about that since crafting usually seemed so boring to me in games.

“If that were the case here then no one would learn crafts, and everyone would focus on violence and adventuring. And while a majority of people who stay in this world part-time don’t learn any crafts, it’s due to time constraints more than a lack of a want to learn. If you can produce quality work or quantity work, it pays. At least, that’s what I’ve heard.”

Ah, we were finally getting into territory where Lore wasn’t completely read up on everything. I grinned. Then I remembered. The mirror!

I pulled it out. “Can I use this?”

This was the item I needed to use in order to start on my quest after all.

“Go ahead. I don't need it now.”

“Wait,” I wasn’t always the best person when it came to saying the right thing. And why should I do all the work when I had a bard here. “How should I word my question?”

“You’re trying to find out why your father died?”

I nodded. “Well, more accurately I’m trying to find out who is responsible for the fire that took his life. I want to know why it happened.”

“Do you want to know who is responsible or why, more?”

“Who.”

“Then ask it that.”

I blinked but focused on the mirror. “Who is responsible for my father’s death?”

Error! Illogical statement.

I almost fucking threw the mirror.

“Locate the person responsible for my father’s death.”

Error! Illogical statement.

This time I did raise my arm to throw it but Lored gently pulled my sleeve to stop me.

“Here, try this.” He sent me a draft.

I read it, “I’d like the name and location of any player who knows who ordered the house fire that took my father from me. Someone who might give me the information.”

Calculating! Information will be available in 4-5 days.

I glared down at the mirror and showed Lore. “Did you know about this?”

“No. No, I did not.”

I sighed and leaned against him. At least I had confirmation that I’d learn something soon. I stayed like that for a while. This whole day had been far too stressful.

Fuck, had we only just landed on that island just that morning?! I faced my fear, and while I hadn’t completely overcome it, I was certainly on my way to developing a tolerance for it. I’d also gotten myself a stunningly sexy boyfriend, which I still couldn’t believe. And lastly, I helped solve two major quests earning us 5 levels and a large amount of money.

It had been one long-ass day.

Lore took out his instrument and nervously tuned it for a while then he sighed and threw it up where it disappeared into his inventory.

”Mia, there is something I’ve been keeping from you.”

I froze. This sounded ominous.

He sat on the bed, pulled me onto his lap, and hugged me tightly. His chin rested on my shoulder. Oddly, this sent a comfortable warmth through my whole body and eased the tension in my mind.

”Do you remember how I told you about my clan? How my father’s soul bond basically caused him to destroy my home and family?”

”Does what you’re keeping from me have something to do with your past?”

”No... Well, not entirely.” He sighed deeply. ”Watching that couple really made me despise soul bonds. I wanted nothing to do with them or the cursed people inflicted with them.”

His arms tightened around my waist and the back of my neck seemed to grow hot. ”Knowing what you went through, I can understand that a little.”

His lips brushed against the side of my neck and my brain started to feel warm. Fuck. Was my boyfriend trying to seduce me? Because it was working.

He swallowed then whispered seductively, ”And that is why I couldn't say anything to you... I couldn't admit that we share a bond, what I once thought was a curse. Because we are bonded, Grace.”

His lips brushing against my ear, and his alluring voice made it hard to think. ”Right. Of course, it would be hard to admit something like....” I froze as I processed what he was saying.

I jumped from his arms, grabbed him by his robes, and lifted him up from his seated position. ”Are you saying that we’re bonded like Davis and Ernawen forever bonded... That we’ve been traveling together this whole time and you didn’t fucking tell me something so important?!”

His face burned red. ”Ah, yes?”

I narrowed my eyes at him. ”Is there anything else you forgot to fucking mention?”

”No, just that.” He swallowed nervously. My small bit of anger morphed as I noticed his bare neck. A wave of near animalistic possessiveness urged me to leave a mark so others would know that this man was mine. My bonded. My oneness.

Knowing that that was crazy, I rested my forehead against his shoulder. A shudder ran through me. I really needed to find out what kind of creature my other half was because this feeling was ridiculous. Insane even. Yet it also felt so right. And that scared me.

”Lore,” I finally managed. “Thank you for telling me. I know it must have been hard for you. Or you wouldn't have waited days to admit it.”

He tentatively wrapped his arms around me and it felt good. I clenched my hands into fists so I wouldn’t throw him on the bed.

”You’re not upset?” he cautiously asked.

”Oh, I am upset. But I'm currently dealing with my body’s possessiveness right now. Do you have any idea how much I just want to devour your neck and leave a mark? Like, what the fuck is that? Isn't that fucking nuts?”

”Would doing that help you to forgive me?”

”Shut up, Lore.”

”...”

The urge was only getting worse as if learning that we were irrevocably bound to each other had released a monster hidden inside of me. Lore’s earlier seduction hadn’t helped. I had to find a way to calm myself down. Maybe... ”Tell me, what does this bond mean for us? Will we always be together?”

”Yes. We’ll always be together, even when we’re apart.”

”No cheating?”

”Physically impossible.” The urge to leave a mark on his neck began to ease.

”No lying?”

”About that...”

”Lore!”

“I’ll only lie when it’s absolutely necessary. You’re not exactly good at going with the flow of things.”

“No lies when it’s just the two of us, and you better own up to shit you do have to lie about.”

I glared up at him and he grinned. It wasn’t a sexy smile or anything all that handsome but it was real and playful and I wanted to see him smile like that more. But only at me.

“Okay,” he said.

And for some reason that made me inconceivably happy.

To be continued in book 2, tentatively named, “Tome of Craft”