I was bewildered by the obscuring mist and started flailing my arms blindly in a vain attempt to disperse the fog. Mentally, I knew that I was inside the Dream Land and Morpheus was not going to attack me while Lady Luck was around. However, I was having a panic attack and I hoped that a quicker removal of the fog would release me from my condition. Thankfully, the fog dispersed shortly thereafter and I found myself sitting on the bench at the bus stop again. This time, though, I was not alone.

"Where are we?" my companion asked.

My ears perked up at the familiar voice and I turned toward the person sitting to my right—it was Amelica! Purely on instinct, I gave her a tight hug.

My girlfriend was startled but reciprocated and patted me gently on my back until she no longer felt me shaking.

"I just had a panic attack," I admitted shamefully.

She hugged me again and then kissed my forehead. "You're okay, now." She smiled.

"Yes, thank you." I smiled back.

Seeking to turn the conversation, Amelica looked around the unfamiliar scene. She was sitting on a bench and to her right was a pole attached to a white, rectangular sign with the words, "Bus Stop," in red letters. "What is a bus stop?" she asked while pointing a finger at the sign.

"Oh!" my eyes stared at it for a moment as I tried to gather my thoughts and simplify the concept for her benefit. "On my world, we built great machines from iron and steel to handle various tasks that improve the daily lives of the commoners. A bus is similar to a wagon except that the box is three or even four times as long, and it is used primarily to carry people along a designated trade route. The bus makes periodic stops along the route to allow passengers to get off and come on, and these are called bus stops."

"Anyone can ride a bus?" she asked.

"If you have the money to pay for the bus fare, then yes you can ride the bus," I answered.

"It must cost a fortune to ride a bus!" Amelica thought aloud.

"Actually, it's quite affordable for most people. This is because the government provides money from taxes to cover part of the operating costs for buses and other forms of public transportation," I said.

"Wait!" My girlfriend suddenly interrupted me. "There are OTHER ways that people travel in your world?"

"Sure! Along with ships, we also fly through the air in something called an 'airplane,'" I answered.

"Wow! Your world must have very powerful magicians!" she exclaimed excitedly.

I laughed out loud. "Sorry, I didn't mean to laugh at you. We don't have magic in our world, at least not in the way that you have magic in your world. Flying is done entirely through man-made machines. No magic is involved, I'm afraid," I shrugged.

Amelica clapped her hands together. "Oh, how I wish I could visit your world someday!" She stared at me dreamily, imagining all the wonders that must await her!

"I wish you could visit, too," I replied with a deep sense of melancholy. My heart ached, not with pain but rather it was weighed down by a reminder that this wonderful woman was a non-player character, and it would be impossible for her to leave this gaming world and come over to my real world. Amelica was like a security blanket; having her in my life made my world feel just right. If I ever found a way to win the game and be granted passage back to my home world, will I be able to part with Amelica permanently? The thought was ever present in the back of my mind as it was a reminder of my issue with making deep, personal commitments to others.

Amelica noticed my sudden mood shift. She put her hand on mine and squeezed.

I squeezed back. Suddenly, a thought popped into my head. It was a curiosity based on a revelation from Bishop Canterbury regarding the ownership of The Noble Lady. "Um, Amelica, can I ask you something about where you work?"

"Sure," she nodded uneasily. My angel had no idea why I would ask about the inn at this moment.

"When the Bishop gave me a mission to perform for the Church, he mentioned that Vern was the 'nominal owner' of The Noble Lady. What does that mean? Who's the real owner?" I asked.

My girlfriend bit her lip and looked at me with a neutral expression.

With her mean poker face on, I had no clue what Amelica was thinking.

Finally, she took a deep breath and spoke. "It is a closely guarded secret, one that very few people outside of Tregome know of. If I tell you, it will be another burden for you to bear. But I'm willing to tell you the truth about myself. In exchange, I want to know why the god chose to show you this place. While the three of you were having a discussion, I was floating nearby. I could see you but I wasn't able to hear anything. I suspect that Morpheus has some sort of plan for me, but I can't figure out what he intends to do," Amelica said.

I looked at the beautiful woman and studied her in silence. When I first met her at the common room inside The Noble Lady, I was dazzled by her pretty face and yes, I was physically attracted to her. But as I got to know her better, I found someone with a radiant soul. The people in town loved her and they were also very protective of her. There was something odd about it if I thought a bit more, actually. In fact, she was the only dual-class character I've met, and I suspected that it was rare for humans to dual-class in this gaming world. The reason she switched to the barmaid profession may have been tied to her background. I really wanted to know more about Amelica and I believed that if I declined at this moment, she would never offer to talk about it again. Thus, I nodded in acquiescence to her demand.

Amelica smiled and said, "Go ahead."

I laughed. "Okay. Well, I'm sure you noticed by now that I have a fear of making commitments. Part of it came from my childhood experience," I began.

"Like this one," she interrupted while pointing down on the ground to denote the bus stop.

"Yes," I nodded. "The dog's name was Old Yeller and he used to sit here with people waiting for the bus during the day. But one day, the dog sat right in front of the door to his owner's house. It's that white house directly across the street." I pointed at the house and continued. "When people walked by, Old Yeller would moan and whine but never leave the spot. Finally, after two days a neighbor asked a local Watchman to check on the owner, an old man named Harvey Dressler. It turned out that the man had passed away inside the house. The dog realized something was wrong, but couldn't get anyone to intervene in time to save the owner's life."

"That's terrible!" Amelica gasped and covered her mouth in horror.

"And it gets sadder. The dog apparently felt guilty that he was away when his owner needed help; after that, Old Yeller refused to leave that spot in front of the door. We tried giving him food but he refused to eat. He just sat at that spot until he died," I explained. "After Old Yeller died, whenever I waited here for my bus to take me to school, I would stare at the house across the street until my bus arrived. I would think about my friend Old Yeller and what his sense of loyalty and commitment to Mister Dressler meant. I thought about this every single day for the next two years until my parents moved to another place. And my conclusion was that I should NEVER commit myself to anything or anyone. To commit myself is to give my life to the commitment, and I didn't think I would ever find anything worthy of that ultimate sacrifice."

Amelica hugged me and shook her head at my extreme conclusion. "No one is asking for your life," she refuted.

"If it's not worth your life, then it's not worth the commitment," I answered back.

"Oh, milord," she hugged me even tighter. "A commitment is like a glass of water. It can be hot or cold. There is a wide range in temperature. Similarly, you can give as much or as little of a commitment to something that interests you," she explained. "It's a question of importance in your eye."

It was my turn to shake my head. "I don't like to do anything half-hearted."

Amelica pushed me back and looked into my eyes. "Then that makes you passionate about your goals. It is a very admirable quality, and something that I noticed right away." She looked away for a moment. "It reminded me of Gendun's father, and it was what drew me to you in the first place," she admitted.

"Tell me more," I requested politely.

Realizing that it was her turn to confess, my angel looked down at her lap for a moment. "I came from a long line of knights named 'Kingsbury.'"

"You're actually a noble?" I blurted out in surprise.

"I was," she admitted sheepishly.

"What happened?" I was really curious now.

"I lived in a manor in the eastern part of the kingdom. My father is Sir Galvin Kingsbury, who was an officer in the king's army. My mother is a priestess of Musa, and I was expected to follow in her footsteps. Gendur was a commoner whose family were hunters. When my father started seeking out a suitable marriage for me, I decided to elope with Gendur. After my father found out, he disowned me and arranged for the Church to remove my name from the Kingsbury lineage," Amelica explained.

"So why did you end up in Tregome?" I asked as I patted her arm reassuringly. It must have stung my angel deeply to be cut off like that.

"Well, it was for two reasons. First, Tregome is a frontier town and beyond the gates, there were plenty of game for Gendur to hunt. Second, we happened to have a distant relative who owned The Noble Lady. When I showed up and explained my situation to Uncle Alston, he was very sympathetic to my plight. He was already in his sixties, and he never married for whatever reason. When I begged him to let me and Gendur stay, Uncle Alston agreed. He also decided to make me his heir, and when he passed away I took over the establishment," she continued.

"If you're the real owner of The Noble Lady, then why have this fiction with Vern as the public owner? Why the deception?" I asked. It didn't make any sense to me.

Suddenly, Amelica's face turned angry and bitter. She took a deep breath and started talking again. "Vern is forever linked to a tragedy with Gendur. As you know, Vern was a war chief of his orc clan. Back in his younger days, he was very aggressive and self-confident. He pushed the rest of his clan to make war with a rival clan. As the two clans were fighting, Gendur was out hunting when he heard the sound of battle. He investigated and found himself caught in the middle of a war. He saw an orc child about to be killed and fought the attacker. By intervening, Gendur was no longer a neutral observer. He inadvertently sided with Vern's clan. Gendur fought bravely but he received a grave wound, and he was too far away from home to reach our healers in time."

"Vern was the only survivor of the clash between the two clans. He asked Gendur, who was on the ground and dying, why the human would intervene especially when it was a clash of nonhumans. Wouldn’t Gendur take delight in seeing the orcs kill themselves and thereby reducing a threat to the nearby human town in the future? Gendur said that he wanted to protect the orcish child, who ended up being killed anyway. Vern was astonished by this answer because the human didn’t see a monster to be killed; instead, he saw a child to be protected from harm. It moved the chaotic being deeply. Thus, when Gendur made a dying request of Vern to watch over our son until he reached the age of apprenticeship, Vern readily agreed to serve as Gendun's guardian. Soon, the orc arrived at Tregome carrying no weapon and wearing no armor."

"When the large orc appeared at the gate, the Watchmen refused to let him enter Tregome. However, since Vern asked for me specifically by name, a runner was dispatched to fetch me. When I appeared before Vern and he read my caption to confirm my identity, he revealed the bittersweet way that my love, Gendur, had died. Vern also revealed his new mission in life to protect my son. When the Watchmen persisted in refusing entry to the orc, I decided to make a gambit and prayed to Lady Luck for aid. I went to the Church and created a deed transferring legal ownership of The Noble Lady to Vern. The deed was notarized by a Church official and then filed with the Church to make the transfer of property official."

"I then went back and hand delivered a copy of the deed to Vern, who was still at the gate. I showed the deed to the Watchmen on duty and noted that as the owner of The Noble Lady, Vern was now an official resident of Tregome. Therefore, the guards could not deny the new owner passage through the gate. However, they still saw the orc as dangerous to the inhabitants of Tregome and could not permit entry into the town. The Watchmen sought to break the dilemma by sending a runner over to Bishop Canterbury, who ruled that my transfer of ownership of the inn was valid. The Bishop also confirmed that this ownership conferred legal residency in Tregome. Thus, Vern was permitted to enter Tregome on the condition that the Watchmen will keep a close eye on him. It took a long time for the town residents to feel comfortable with Vern, but now the commoners have accepted him as one of their own."

"Wow!" I was blown away by the intricate web of events that tied Vern, Amelica, and Gendun together. "How could you accept having Vern watch over your son when the orc was an indirect cause of Gendur's death? And now that the dying request has been fulfilled, why is Vern still in Tregome?" I asked. If I was in a similar situation, I wasn't sure that I would have agreed to allow Vern to be anywhere near my son, much less protect him.

Amelica stood up and turned toward me. She offered her hand and pulled me to my feet. "It is essentially a matter of trust. I trusted Gendur to make the best decision for our son. I trusted Vern to honor his commitment. The Church was very angry and upset with the presence of a hated orc inside Tregome, but as a frontier town Bishop Canterbury believed that Tregome must be open to all races that entered the town in peace."

"But the Church still made it impossible for nonhumans to enter Church grounds," I pointed out.

"Unfortunately, the bishop has limited authority over church edicts and he could not remove the magic without permission from higher authority within the Church," she answered. "As for why Vern is still here, I've asked him that question directly. His response was that he had nowhere else to go as a war chief without a clan. Other orc clans will not accept him because Vern had led his old clan to its very doom and the orcs were fearful that the same fate awaits them," she explained.

Suddenly, Morpheus popped in front of us. "It's time for you to return to the Awakened Land," he said. Before we could respond, we were again blinded by mists.