Approximately one year ago…

Lissa booted up her brand-new computer. With both power and speed, she could now manage the online world of Excalibur Rising with ease. The game was launched earlier that day, and her blind box figure arrived in the mail; this loot was a bonus prize for those that preordered their gaming subscription.

As the screen for character select and customization appeared, Lissa tore open the small box to see which figure was inside. A wizard with light blue robes. She expanded the accordion style mini brochure to find him and check his rarity. She identified the character quickly as blue robe Merlyn; apparently, he had several other incarnations that involved other color robes besides blue, but to her disappointment this particular figure was one of the most common. 

She searched the list of figures to find the rarest prize. At the edge of the long sheet, she found the collector’s dream: Green Dress Morgana. The enchanting sorcerer’s common figures featured purple or red outfits, but the chase figure was special enough to have a different pose besides featuring a new dress style. Lissa had never seen anything more beautiful in her life. At least not until another collection was in sight. She had to have it.

She dumped some trail mix into her lucky bowl and rubbing it like a genie’s lamp, she began to make her wish. But she was interrupted by a violent sneezing session. 

Stupid allergies. 

After she had wiped her nose and her eyes, which were now tearing up, she resumed the wish. 

“I really want that Morgana figure.” She said aloud, “Please, bring it to me.” After she made the wish, she went on her phone and ordered twenty Excalibur Rising blind box figures with high hopes. She was certain her wish would come true somewhere inside this shipment.

Back to the game. She was tempted to choose Morgana, but then the hulking Knight caught her attention. Sir Gawain with flowing hair, shiny silver armor, and a sly smirk called to her. She customized him with dark brown hair and green eyes. Then she scruffed him up with some facial hair, scars, and battle damage on his armor. When she was satisfied with his roguish appearance, she set out into the online world of Hiraeth. Hiraeth? Funny name since they should’ve just used Camelot as the game was Arthurian themed. When she brought up the world map, she saw that Camelot was a Kingdom in the center with a huge castle protected by several surrounding walls. Her starting point was south of this and on the wrong side of a mountain range. Of course. Clearly, she had to overcome many obstacles to make it to Camelot.

“Ready to go Gawain?” Arthur asked her player. This is when she realized that Arthur was the Non-player Character (NPC) tagalong, which meant the game controlled him and he’d give occasional help during fights and prompts towards the next challenge. The game designers probably went this route so that gamers could choose any character and still have the rightful King ready to pull Excalibur from the stone in a dramatic cut scene when they found it. 

Arthur waved his hand at her player. “Let’s go and do some good.”

“That’s adorably optimistic of you, Arthur.” She smiled.

Several weeks and countless hours of game play later...

Lissa rushed to her game after classes, but it was too late. A band of players had killed her while she was stationary and had stolen her loot. When she respawned, Arthur was standing beside her Knight with a sheepish shrug. Some partner he turned out to be. She had to start all over again.

Suddenly the doorbell rang. She checked the peephole and saw a box in the hallway.

“Yes!” She opened the door cautiously because she wasn’t fully dressed and eased the box in, slamming the door shut behind her and locking it. She excitedly cut open the package and found twenty smaller boxes inside of mystery characters. The possibilities were endless. Well, within the collector’s brochure anyways.

She began to multitask between rebuilding her loot and experience points in Excalibur Rising and opening boxes.

After a few dedicated hours she had nearly earned back her lost loot in the game and had a new collection of Camelot themed character figurines. But to her severe disappointment, no green dress Morgana.

While she was ordering another twenty boxes to try her hand again for the rare collectible, she was attacked by a team of players. She sent them a white flag, which besides being a well-known symbol of surrender had a particular meaning in the game; it meant that she was a singular player and couldn’t defend against a group. If they were any kind of decent, they’d leave her alone. A few more attacks later and she realized they weren’t that kind of decent. Unfortunately, she didn’t have the strength to win this fight and when she tried to run, they intercepted her. Royal dirt bags.

She was a slim red line from death, when there was a loud noise like a shock wave and a hazy violet fog covered the edges of the screen. A third-party challenger had entered.

One by one targets started to appear at the feet of players. Lissa tried to get away in the chaos, but a purple circle appeared at her players’ feet, and her controls wouldn’t work. She was toast.

Then the ground shook and knocked everyone over. Everyone except her Knight.

The power bars of the indecent attack team were depleted to the same slim red line of impending death as hers.

They decided to make a run for it.

Then a Morgana player materialized from an invisibility spell and stepped into screen with a momentary hover text that read “ShadowNinja.” A message simultaneously popped up on her screen.

“Turn on your mic.” It read.

She was so caught up in the moment, that she almost knocked her headset off onto the floor just trying to tap the mic on. 

“Thanks for saving me. I thought I was a goner for sure.” She said almost out of breath as if it had been a real fight. “I just barely leveled up again after another nasty team killed me.”

There was a silence before he said, “Oh, you’re a girl.” He then followed up quickly with, “I was going to say, if you’re cool with it, we can team up. I originally thought that I could manage with Morgana because, you know, she’s the most powerful and awesome. But it’s one of those biased games where they believe in teams, so you need at least one magic and one non-magic player to manage all the puzzles and challenges.”

He had a casual, easy tone to his voice like someone that was used to talking a lot. She snorted, grabbing a tissue to blow her nose while pressing mute.

“I hate messing around with texting during game play.” He continued unfazed when she didn’t say anything. “But if you aren’t comfortable using the mic, then that’s fine too. I promise I won’t curse or make a pass at you. I know how uncomfortable that is since, as you can see, I’m a beautiful sorcerer. You wouldn’t believe how many guys I’ve had to disintegrate for disrespecting me.”

She released mute and laughed. “I wouldn’t know anything about that. I’m the kind of guy that’s only in it for the loot. So, as long as you know what you’re getting into…”

“Whaddaya got?” He asked.

“Mostly explosives.”

“Hmm.” He hummed. “A scoundrel knight with a proclivity to explosives? Sounds like the type of guy I could totally trust.

What do you say to a partnership?”

He sent her an invite.

It seemed too good to be true. Plus, this was a bit of luck she hadn’t even wished for.

She looked at his username for a long moment. ShadowNinja.

Only gamers that were serious enough paid for their username when the gaming platform was created five years ago. To have the exact name she wanted, namely BlackEyedBee, without any numbers or weird symbols took a one-time hefty fee. And judging by ShadowNinja’s lack of these add-ons as well, it likely meant he had been willing to pay that price too.

She delved into his profile. It wasn’t filled out, which was a good sign, since she hadn’t filled hers out either. It meant they liked remaining anonymous; it was all about the game. His icon was an anime Ninja with black hair and glowing red eyes. 

“I’m sorry, are you actually thinking of not accepting?” He asked into the silence, “Because I’m a girl with a lot of options and I don’t need to make deals with scoundrels to sleep at night.

Also, I’m working on earning the protect shield so anyone that partners with me can relax while they have to do real life stuff outside of the game and not worry about attacks.”

She clicked accept, laughing. “You had me at not worrying about attacks.”

“That was literally the last thing I said!” He laughed. “Alright, well I hope you’re okay with working weekends, because I’m going to need help getting those experience hours in to earn the shield.”

She didn’t want to admit that not only did she have weekends, but she had from 3pm to daybreak every weekday as well. Winding down after school and work involved playing video games while doing her homework; and since she was a great multitasker, it was nothing to tac on gaming conversations as well. And besides that, her life had become depressingly lonely since she was forced to move and give up all contact with her previous friends; it was just a fact of life since staying in one place too long raised questions and she couldn’t risk anyone finding out about her unusual lifestyle. Thus, the prospect of an anonymous gaming buddy she’d never know in person was the best of all possible options, and she was trilling with delight inside to have someone to trash talk with.

“You don’t do the crime unless you got the time, Ninja.” She answered, imitating a deeper voice. “And I’ve got the time.”

He laughed. “Alright, well let’s go to the tavern and salute our new partnership. I guess I’m paying since you’ve got practically nothing to your name BlackEye.” He paused, then said, “Yeah, okay that didn’t sound right. I think I’ll just go with Bee. Is that okay?”

He struck a nerve. She hadn’t been called Bee in a very long time. She was used to seeing it as her username or having it appear in writing in the game, but to hear someone say it was different. She couldn’t decide if she liked it or not.

“I’m not going to call you Black. Or Eyed.” He continued, “Though I could do BEB, but that’s not as pleasant as… Bee.”

Hearing him say it again made it okay.

“Yeah, just go with Bee.” She agreed, smiling.

“Alright, Bee. Let’s go interrogate some tavern folk.” He continued. “I was there before and one of them wanted me to wrangle some tiny dragons that had gotten out of their pen. I’m not keen on collecting challenges, but I’ll manage if I have someone to do most of the work for me - I mean, half of the work. Totally 50/50.”

“Well, you’re in luck." She laughed. “I actually love collecting challenges, so I think we’ll make a great team.”

Want to learn more about this and other fantasy sci-fi books I'm working on? For more on maps, world building, and stunning art by amazing artists of my two worlds - Drea and Hiraeth - check out my website at: Corrinamp.com