“Let’s go over what’s happened and what we know.”

  When we all finally reconvened, Jesse stayed standing, addressing us all seriously as we sat around on cushions and stools. Lee Wai Meng tried to lord over us in the armchair but we all ignored him.

  “The details of this scenario so far have been: I’m playing Vasilisa, and I needed to visit the witch Baba Yaga –” she nodded to me, “- receive a torch from her, and then make it home. Lee Wai Meng is the doll –”

  I snorted. “He’s the what?”

  “What?” he grumbled. “Don’t you think I’m pretty enough to be a doll?” He struck a pose.

  We all turned back to Jesse.

  “Peach is a wolf –” Peach cleared her throat theatrically and uttered a diminutive howl, fluffing her fur hoodie. “- and Calvin is a mercenary.”

  “And I’m a witch who’s supposed to get Vasilisa to do a bunch of things for me and then ‘light her way’, which I assume means to give her a blessing? Are you all travelling together to assist Vasilisa, the main character?” I asked.

  “Basically,” Peach replied. “Although I had the option to eat her at the start!”

  “What are your tasks, exactly?”

  “If I spared Vasilisa, that was considered a hidden task completed. Now I have to stay by her side as a companion until she completes her quest.”

  “Calvin?”

  He frowned. “Mine’s… weird. I found Jesse in the forest, just before the wolf attack. I had a task to kill the wolf. Since I didn’t, my tasks became ‘spare the wolf’ which was considered completed, and ‘defend Vasilisa’s choice’.

  “‘Defend Vasilisa’s choice’,” I echoed, mystified. “One thing’s obvious, though. We don’t necessarily have to follow the tasks we’re given to pass the scenario. There are hidden tasks that give us options… I saw that clearly in my last scenario.”

  “How so?”

  “I had the option to stop taking the side of the ‘hero’ and join the ‘bad guy’ instead, which probably would have been easier but…”

  “But what?” Lee Wai Meng demanded impatiently. Four sets of eyes turned to glare at him.

  “But he… he killed Rohan. In the second scenario.”

  “Striking Red Crane?” Lee Wai Meng seethed. “He’s supposed to be some famous streamer, isn’t he? God, celebrities are the worst.”

  “I met him too,” Peach said quietly. “And I said this to Mik Tsaam, but I don’t think he’s the real Striking Red Crane. I’ve never met the real person before, and maybe his chat style is different from his real speaking style, but I’ve streamed with him before, and it just seemed off. Besides, didn’t you say he had a Chinese name, Mik Tsaam?”

  “Wen Yong.”

  “And Striking Red Crane is for sure Japanese.”

  I glanced at Jesse. “I should probably be clear to you all, I have an ability that lets me see some information about other characters. I can see usernames or NPC names, a person’s real name, their HP, and a one word description of their emotions. That’s how I know Wen Yong’s real name. But it seemed like he had some kind of concealment or deception skill – one time I looked at his information and he had changed his ‘real name’ to a Japanese one. I had to get a Blessing to boost my stats enough to break past his deception.”

  “I knew I didn’t like him,” Peach said, shivering. “But he’s dead now, right? And it was Han Sung-hyuk who killed him – I saw the feed.”

  “Oh, that handsome guy?” Lee Wai Meng interrupted. “So you were in a scenario with him again, were you, Ah Tsaam? How was it?”

  “What do you mean, how was it?” I snapped. “We’re fighting for our lives out here, Lee Wai Meng, in case you hadn’t noticed. Rohan and Poppy are already dead!”

  “But it’s still a game!” Wai Meng responded dismissively. “It’ll be fine!”

  “Would you like to die here and test out that theory?”

  “Alright everyone,” Jesse groaned. “Calm do-”

  “What’s your deal, Wai Meng?” Peach demanded. “You’re always saying stupid stuff! Can you be serious for once? You’re an Administrator, use your privilege!”

  “I’m sorry, okay? I don’t know why I’m an Admin, I work in marketing! I don’t know how this game is supposed to go!”

  “God,” Peach grumbled, looking away. “Why are you so useless?”

  A tense silence gripped the room. Jesse broke it with a sigh. “Alright, let’s take a break and come back to this in a bit. I’ll make some more tea.”

  “We don’t really need it,” I said quietly.

  “That’s fine, you don’t need to need it.” Jesse stirred the wood in the stove and filled the kettle. We all watched her in a dazed trance, mesmerised by the soothing sounds and movements.

  As she finally set the cups in front of us, Peach said in a small voice, “Sorry, Wai Meng. I didn’t mean that. I was frustrated. I don’t really think you’re useless.”

  “Eh, that’s okay,” Wai Meng said chirpily, slurping his tea noisily. “I know I’m not useless. I was the one who found Mik Tsaam after all.”

  “Did you?”

  “Yeah! The doll’s job is to lead Vasilisa. It’s like I’m seeing a giant Objective Arrow that no-one else can see.”

  Peach looked even more guilty. “And I still said something mean…”

  “Yeah, but Wai Meng is always saying mean things,” I pointed out lightly. “So it’s fine.”

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “Hey!”

  “Am I lying? The first thing you did when you arrived was criticise my appearance and the house!”

  “Because it’s true! You look like a hobo and this house is a dump!”

  Peach handed me the clothes she had fixed, waiting until I had equipped them to take the ones I had been wearing.

  “Thanks, Peach! It’s got an additional Charisma Point.”

  She nodded, pleased, as she carried my tattered Acolyte Robes to her sewing machine.

  “Come on, you,” Jesse grabbed Lee Wai Meng by the back collar of his shirt and pulled him upright. “Instead of complaining, come and help me clean this place.”

  “Why? We’re not even going to be here much longer!”

  “We need to stop you from complaining somehow.”

  “But I don’t want to…”

  Jesse shoved a broom into his hands and began to move furniture, lightly kicking him each time he seemed to be slacking off. Calvin slowly finished his tea and joined them, easily lifting heavy trunks and tables so Wai Meng could sweep under them.

  Peach gestured for me to join her in the armchair, and we sat together watching the cleaning group, still cradling my cooling tea.

  She handed me my fixed robes. “Do you like her?”

  “What?” I twisted to look blankly at Peach. The inflection in her voice suggested she was talking about someone, and talking about something beyond pure friendship. “Jesse? She’s a girl,” I pointed out, severely, “in case you didn’t notice.”

  “So?”

  “I’m not gay, Peach.”

  Peach seemed unimpressed by this declaration of fact. “Are you sure about that?”

  “I admire her a lot,” I said honestly. “But I’ve had crushes on boys before, and this feels nothing like it.”

  “You’ve also had female friends before, Mik Tsaam. Does it feel like that?”

  I laughed at her stubbornness. “I’ve never had really close female friends before. Besides, I think you’re cute. Does that mean I’m gay for you?”

  Was that pity, in Peach’s eyes? It didn’t seem to be the right term to describe that emotion. She opened her mouth to speak, but I cut her off harshly. “I know you think you’re helping, but you’re not. You don’t really know me, Peach. We’ve barely spent a month together.”

  The words left my mouth before I could staple it shut. I wished I could staple it shut, the way the expression on Peach’s face coalesced into deep hurt that I recognised all too clearly.

  I didn’t address it. She had said some very strange things that I couldn’t understand, and if I tried to soothe her now, she might think she’d been right. I couldn’t have that.

  “Huh, what’s this?” Jesse pulled a small board out from behind a trunk, brushing dust from it. Gold paint glittered through the cobwebs. “Wow, this is impressive.”

  She brought it over for us to see. It was a picture of a woman and a baby, painted in that weird medieval style that suggested the artist had never seen a child before. But they both wore detailed robes, decorated with pearls and tiny gems, and they each had jewelled haloes around their heads.

  “I guess this is some kind of religious icon,” I said, tentatively rubbing the pearls until they shone. “Like the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus or whatever.”

  “You should sell it – it’s probably worth a lot!” said Lee Wai Meng. We decided not to consider his advice.

  “Here, it’ll probably help with your class,” Jesse said, handing the painting to me.

  The days were short in this part of the world. The sun was already setting as Jesse finally surveyed the cabin interior and nodded with satisfaction. “Looks good!”

  It did. The cabin had been cosy before, but now it was also neater and cleaner.

  “Alright, now that we’re done with that, what is it that you need to get me to do, in order to finish your first task?”

  I thought about it. “I… I think you’ve already done it, actually. You needed to work for me for a day.”

  “Is that a day as in while the sun is up? Or twenty-four hours?”

  “No idea.”

  “If you try to complete the second task, you should know,” Lee Wai Meng pointed out.

  “Okay, then I need to give you a blessing.”

  “I also need to take a torch from you,” Jess added, “which I assume means taking one of those flaming goat skulls. Metal.”

  I walked outside and pulled down the post with the skull that I had used to fight the witch-hunters only a little over a day ago. The skull was lashed to a wooden crosspiece, yet nothing seemed to burn.

  “Here…” I realised that everyone had come out with me. Something in their air made my heart stutter.

  Oh. They’re about to leave.

  “Wow… This, um, was somehow a very easy scenario for me. I thought it was supposed to be ‘Very Hard’ difficulty.”

  “It was easy because Jesse was the lead character,” Peach laughed. “Do you think it would have been easy if Lee Wai Meng were Vasilisa?”

  “You had to fight alone for a long time before we arrived,” Jesse said softly. “I don’t think it was that easy.”

  Still, this somehow felt unfinished. I was uneasy, now that I had reached the end of my tasks. I hesitantly handed over the torch, then brought the Holy Icon out of my Inventory.

  “Wait, is ‘lighting your way’ just giving you a torch?”

  “Is the game saying you’ve completed the scenario?”

  “No. So I suppose it isn’t… Alright, let me give the blessing then.” I placed my hands together, but didn’t close my eyes, frowning at my fingertips.

  Jesse’s hand appeared at the top of my vision, holding something. I opened my palms and a small object was dropped into my hands.

  A hagstone.

  “I picked it up… back when…” Jesse couldn’t find the words. “I thought you should have it.”

  “… Thank you.”

  I closed my eyes and Prayed.

  I opened my eyes. The scene before me was already fading, but I could see that everyone was staring at me, eyes wide. Jesse’s face seemed to be bathed in light; she looked at me like she was looking at something extraordinary, and I wanted to look away, burning under that gaze, but I couldn’t –

  And then, I was in the darkness again.