Fifteen minutes later, Kaldalis and Ess settled in at one of the outdoor tables of the cafeteria. Kimhan had been ecstatic with the size and visible health of the fish Kaldalis had provided. Even as she still seared the bug steaks with one pan, she greased another, cleaned one of the fish, cut it into two filets and got them dredged and fried faster than Kaldalis would have believed. They were so large they overfilled the plate, which seemed to suit Ess just fine, who couldn’t express her thanks to the bhogad chef emphatically enough.

The fish itself was delicious. Kaldalis could taste that what she had greased the pan with wasn’t butter or oil, but some sort of animal fat. He wanted to say pork fat from the taste, but it had a smokey quality that reminded him more specifically of bacon. Despite being dredged in a finely-ground grain and fried in fat, it had a leaner taste than the meaty texture suggested.

Ess was on cloud nine from the first bite. Despite the size of the giant servings, hers was gone in a flash. Kaldalis split off a chunk of what was left of his to share, when she started eyeing it eagerly.

“Could use some spice,” Kaldalis said between bites.

“I don’t think so,” Ess said, speaking around a mouthful of fish. “Pepper would cover the flavor of the fish. I think it’s fine as-is.”

“I guess I just always think things could use some spice,” Kaldalis said with a shrug.

Ess smirked at that. She knew his eating habits from serving at his favorite restaurant. He didn’t need to tell her he liked his food with some kick.

“So you wanted to talk about something earlier,” Kaldalis said, drawing the topic back to what she had been puzzling over on the beach. “Any progress on the phrasing?”

“I think so,” Ess said. She took another bite of fish as she looked around cautiously, checking for anyone close enough to listen. When it was clear she leaned over her plate and lowered her voice. “So, it’s about the Infernal Horde.”

Kaldalis wasn’t the most perceptive person, but the way Ess said “Infernal Horde” made it easy to guess that she wasn’t talking about the Infernal Horde.

“What about them?” Kaldalis asked, curious.

“You know how they seem intelligent?” Ess asked. Again, the emphasis made it clear she wasn’t saying what she was saying. “Almost like real people?”

Kaldalis started to understand what she meant. She wasn’t talking about the Infernal Horde, obviously. They weren’t even animals. They weren’t led by instinct or emotion or thought. They were forces of nature. More than that, they were unnatural forces of nature. They were a weird byproduct of Monsoon’s meddling in this world.

Ess was talking about the people in this world. The NPCs.

“Yes,” Kaldalis said carefully, trying to make clear he understood without being weird about it. “I think I know what you’re talking about.”

“Do you?” Ess searched his gaze for a moment, and nodded, seemingly satisfied that they were on the same page. “Okay. So them being like that makes me feel uncomfortable with being here. I feel unwelcome.”

“You’re not alone,” Kaldalis said. “Their behavior really makes me feel like we don’t belong here.”

“Not just that,” Ess said quietly, looking down at her plate with visible anxiety. “I thought that the ones who were particularly aggressive towards us were just assholes, you know? But they’re right. We’re… We’re invaders. We don’t have any right to be here.”

Kaldalis winced with a grimace. “Yeah. I’ve been wondering if the morally right thing to do is just… Find somewhere new where we’re not in anyone’s way, where there isn’t any… Infernal Horde to displace and just settle in. Maybe try and be more productive than destructive, you know?”

“Or just… Go home,” Ess said.

“I wish we could,” Kaldalis said, pressing his lips together into a thin line. “That does seem like the most morally right action. But I don’t think it’s possible.”

“What do you mean?” Ess asked. “Couldn’t we just…” she hooked her thumb up to the sky and made a clicking noise with her tongue.

“I don’t think so.” Kaldalis took a moment to consider how to phrase his argument. “I think trying to pull us all out of the region would be too costly. It would mean abandoning the connection between the Islands and the mainland. I don’t think Zara would be willing to give up this toehold. Even if they could. It’s possible that now that the roots have been dug in, it’s impossible for Zara to pull us out even if they wanted to.”

He hoped his emphasis and tone made clear what he was saying. The extended metaphor between the Islands of Ulun and the world of Rundan was getting a little thin, but he thought he was as obvious as possible. Zara represented Monsoon. The islands and the mainland were Rundan and Earth respectively. He was suggesting that Monsoon might be unwilling or unable to bring them home and sever the connection between dimensions.

“I think maybe they could,” Ess said, nodding to indicate she understood, “but if they cared enough to do so, they wouldn’t have barged in here in the first place.”

“I don’t know that we can make them, though,” Kaldalis said. “What are we going to do, go on strike? I’m pretty sure there are enough assholes who would cross the picket line for profit to keep things running without us.”

“I just don’t know if I can keep going like this is all I mean,” she said with a scowl. “I feel like we’re setting ourselves up to be the bad guys here. Like in five hundred years, there’s gonna be a federal holiday dedicated to us for ‘discovering’ this place. And fifty years later, the whole world will know that we were unwitting colonists complicit in a genocide.”

Kaldalis stared down at the last few bites of fish on his plate. His appetite was gone now. He pushed the plate away, but Ess didn’t take it. Her appetite must have suffered a similar fate.

“I think you’re right,” Kaldalis said. “I think we need to figure out a way to do the right thing here. I just don’t know how.”

“Before all this started, I was wondering when the main plot of this game was going to start,” Ess said wistfully, looking up at the cloud-streaked sky. “Like it didn’t seem like enough to just be blundering around an unspoiled island discovering ruins and shit. There has to be a narrative, right? Now I’m terrified. I think about what I’ve already unwittingly participated in, and wonder what else I’ll have to do just to keep moving forward.”

Kaldalis felt his eyebrows draw together in thought before he even realized he was having an idea.

Something about her saying “main plot” tickled his mind.

“Maybe there’s a way,” Kaldalis said quietly. “We can’t make them close the connection from their side. But the rules are different here. Maybe there’s a way on this side. A questline. A storyline. Some way we can take control out of their hands and do what they won’t.”

“How?” Ess asked.

Kaldalis opened his mouth to say the first thing that came to his mind, but snapped it closed. A pair of guards walked by, flanking a green-robed cleric. He watched until they were out of earshot before speaking.

“How else?” he whispered with a smirk, hooking his thumb at the cleric’s back. “Evil magic.”

Ess laughed. She thought he was joking. He wasn’t sure if he was or not. The existence of The Contender and his strangely powerful authority over the Zaran government implied very strongly that there was real magic in this world. Stuff that he had been appointed to fight. What was magic besides breaking the rules of reality?

It was possible that one of the rule-breaking things it could do was close shut the jaws of Monsoon.

“Well if you figure out how to master the dark arts,” Ess said, standing up, “then let me know. I would love to go back home.” She dropped him a wink. “You owe me dinner, after all.”

Kaldalis felt his face heat up at that. He took a moment to shove the concern down. He had indeed promised Ess - Amy, back on Earth - a date when he got back from Rundan. That had been before she had joined him in this world, but she seemed set on the idea of making good on their deal. Their friendly banter at the restaurant had always included a little bit of light flirting, even if he didn’t always recognize it until later. But now he had… A girlfriend? Maybe? He didn’t know what he had with Heluna.

And, once again, Heluna was maybe a real flesh-and-blood woman and not a convincing simulacrum made of pixels and code.

“Where are you off to?” Kaldalis asked, keeping his seat.

“I’m going to try and catch up to Reno and Courbois,” she said with a smile. “Finish off this level, you know? Want to come with?”

“I think I need some fishing time,” Kaldalis said quickly, though he returned her smile. “Maybe put some work into mastering the dark arts, you know.”