Moira frowned. "Brother, are you okay? You seem a bit pale again.

The man smiled and s.h.i.+fted the electric guitar on his back. "I'm doing fine; it is just a bit chilly today."

The girl turned her head. "I don't believe you." She muttered. "I remember you telling the idiot seagull Mike you were busy today. What are you doing and why did you bring an instrument with you?"

Jericho shook his head. "Handling some personal matters," he replied. "Now, hurry up. You don't want to be late."

"Fine," Moira glared and walked off to school.

The man let out a light sigh before looking up at the grey clouds teetering on the edge of sprinkling. "I know you can tell I'm not doing fine. That much I can't hide from you." He s.h.i.+vered as the autumn breeze blew through his jacket. "How can I tell you? How could you forgive me if you knew?"

The musician traveled through the city to visit the graveyard where his parents were buried. The emotions he had been suppressing since Sunday morning burst forward.

Seeing another funeral going on, he abandoned his first plan. He laid down in the gra.s.s and took some time to breathe. "Mom, dad, Moira is doing well. She has good grades. She seems much happier now. We started playing a video game. In that game world, Moira seems so much freer. She can dance whenever she wants. She has monsters and friends to dance with and people love her. Despite his hairstyle you would like her friend Kenneth. He is a nice kid. It isn't hard to see that he likes her. Though I think she is completely oblivious to it. I can already tell you confidently, Moira will be able to live a happy, fulfilling life. I am watching out for her like you wanted. I will do what I can to help her be happy." Jericho stopped talking and lightly started to cry as he could no longer suppress the pain he felt in his heart.

The minstrel walked slowly back home.

Jericho's long bony fingers gripped the door handle. The whites of his knuckles shone despite his pale, sickly skin. His hand remained frozen. "Glaw was right, had I made different choices... I'm sorry." Tears dripped onto his hand as he stood there, unmoving, for a minute.

Jericho slowly turned the handle and took a deep breath. He walked into the house, locked the door, and pulled the blinds shut to darken the front room. He set up the room and picked up his instruments.

***

Once again, it was lunch time on a Monday afternoon at Eisenberg elementary. The three pre-teens were excitedly talking about their new shared like: Freedom Online and their adventures over the last weekend.

Alex leaned forward. "I bet you guys were able to level up a lot over the weekend. What levels did you reach?"

"Ten!" Moira exclaimed happily.

"I haven't leveled at all." Ken replied drearily as he thought about all their misadventures.

Alex paused. "Wait, you spent the whole weekend playing and you only gained five of the lower levels? And you haven't leveled at all Kenneth? What did you do?"

Ken sighed. "Leveling up without killing is a lot harder than you would think. Not only that, but we spent a bit of time outside of game and Moira spent quite a bit of time enthusiastically crafting some items for Jericho. So he and I trained together a bit. I really misjudged him. I can see why people like him so much." He grinned, thinking back to the bro-talks he had.

Moira gave a nod. "Yep, Ken is learning how to dance! It's really awesome!"

The friend adjusted his gla.s.ses. "Oh? Kenneth, you seem to have joined the fan club. It seems I must adventure with Moira's brother soon too so I can comprehend his glory."

Ken laughed. "Can you not be so dramatic about it?"

The girl smiled at her friends.

"So when is it my turn to adventure with you?" Alex asked.

Ken frowned. "You can have your turn after we are done. We have a few more adventures to have before they are ready to hang out with you."

A look of realization hit Alex in the face. "You guys are adventuring in Pren right?"

Moira gave a nod. "Yeah we are."

"You guys should leave as quickly as possible." Alex replied seriously.

Ken's facial expression didn't change. "Why?"

"Right, the two of you have been busy and haven't paid attention to the movements of the larger guilds. Earlier, The Dragoons guild was working on the mist problem, however they recently made a public announcement saying that the EastSeaDrakes have come in to try and solve the mist problem before them. Their guildmaster himself posted the information and said that The Dragoons are leaving the area to not get caught up in the other guild's stupidity." Alex explained as if they knew what half of these things meant.

Moira looked confused. "So what do these two things have to do with us leaving Pren?"

Alex sighed as he remembered Moira was new to gaming world in general. "If The Dragoons are leaving Pren, then that means the guild leader is confident that not only will the other party likely fail but that it will have disastrous consequences when they do. It would be a bad thing for you guys to still be there when it happens."

"Then we will leave after our current quest." Moira replied. "It would be bad for us to leave it undone."

Ken gave a nod. "How long do you think it will take you and Jericho to finish that quest?"

Moira pursed her lips in thought. "It probably will not take much longer to make the music and dance steps, but to add words and teach it will probably take a few days."

Alexander sighed and rubbed his temples. "I don't think you will have enough time to finish your quest. How bad are the consequences if you fail to do your quest?"

"Angering a G.o.d," she replied casually.

The gla.s.ses wearing friend looked at her in shock. "You are only level 10 and you are already doing G.o.d related quests? Are you at some sort of church I don't know about?"

Ken started laughing. "We are hanging out with the satyrs in the northern forests. Jericho and Moira are amazing. The normally hostile monsters have been treating us like friends."

The friend dropped his fork. "Wait, so you really can play in a non-violent manner?"

The girl nodded. "Well, mostly. We were attacked by someone before and we had to fight Ken's new pet for a bit."

Ken gave a nod. "Yep, it is possible. It isn't easy but it does work."

"You have a pet? What type?"

"He is an animal companion rather than a pet. He is a Lynx named Lux. Hopefully he will grow out of his kitten state soon."

Alex smiled. "That is good. I'm glad you had some success with your build, Ken. A midsized feline is a great balanced animal companion. I'm sure you will gain specialized ones later." He turned to face the dancer. "Moira try to finish your quest as soon as possible. The sooner you leave Pren the better."

The girl nodded. "I understand. I'll talk to my brother about it."

Alex bit his bottom lip.

Kenneth sighed. "By the way Alex, why did you talk about your brother like he is a stranger? I thought you two were close?"

Alexander laughed. "Heath and I are close. But, in the guild I am so used to treating him like a stranger I spoke out of habit. With the exception of a few of the higher ranked members, the Dragoons guild doesn't know I'm their guild leader's younger brother. I wanted the guild to respect me for me and not because of my relations.h.i.+p with my brother."

"You joined a guild?" Moira asked. "One of my online friends I talk to said that guilds have a lot of problems with them."

"Yeah, I joined my older brother's guild so he could help me become a much better player. I understand why your other friend said to avoid them. If you joined The Dragoons, my brother would try to understand what you were capable of and to make the best use out of your abilities. He isn't cold, in fact I am actually confident he feels more than most people, but because of that, he is very calculating." He sighed. "For free spirited people, like you and Ken, that don't like having a lot of restrictions in their lives, my brother's guild is a bad fit."

Moira smiled. "Shouldn't you be trying to convince us to join rather than scare us off? I thought that is how most guilds run?"

"When I told him about the two of you, he told me that if the two of you would be unhappy in his guild, not to have you join. He even told me that if I would be happier elsewhere, he would support my choice to leave at any time." He sighed. "I'm not supposed to say anything but since it has come to this, I'm sure my brother will forgive me."

Moria looked confused. "Say what?"

Alex swallowed. "The mist is a type of spiritual poison and normal means won't work on it. It only seems to affect humanoids negatively; other types of creatures seem to be able to live in it just fine. Somewhere in the mist is a creature suffering greatly. I thought I should warn you since you have a high chance to get caught up in it."

Moira shook her head. "The mist also affects creatures negatively. Ken's pet, Lux was originally just a normal lynx. He was almost killed by people who entered the mist. The mist offered him power which in turn cursed him. So a lot of the creatures in the mist are normal creatures at first."

Alex's eyes widened even further. "Where did you get this valuable information?"

"From Lux himself," Ken replied. "Moira and I both have the Speak with Animals ability." He paused. "If you would like, I can talk to Lux and see what he knows about the mist."

"Would you please?" Alex asked.

"Of course, however, get permission from your brother to talk to us about the things he knows." Ken replied. "That way, you don't have to feel guilty for telling us secrets he asked you to keep."

The gla.s.ses wearing pre-teen nodded. "Thank you. I will do that after I make it home later tonight."

Moira smiled. "I noticed you stay after school a lot lately. What are you up to?"

Alex looked a little fl.u.s.tered. "Um… Well you see I wanted to make a request to your brother when I met up with him. I have been staying after school to access the learning pods so I can learn some extra things not normally taught in order to be more ready to make that request."

Ken smirked. "Tell us more."

Alex shook his head at took another bite of food. "I want it to be a surprise."

***

Moira turned the door handle. "He locked it? Did he go somewhere?" She pulled out her key and unlocked the door.

The dark house gave a very oppressive feeling.

The girl frowned. "Speaking of emotional and spiritual poisons..." She rushed into the front room.

Heavy instruments were scattered around the floor. A microphone and recording device stood in the middle of the room. The curtains were drawn closed. The sound of the shower running was heard in the background.

Moira sighed as she opened the blinds and windows. "So you were suppressing the other Jericho this whole time. I thought he only showed up in game and you were able to handle it. Why do you try to hide that part of you from me? I know everyone's deaths have affected you more than me, but I don't understand why you feel the need to act fine in front of me."

Nippy autumn air entered the home and cleared up part of the heavy atmosphere. Light entered the formerly dark s.p.a.ce.

"Who triggered your grief?" Moira muttered as she started carefully propping the instruments out from the middle of the floor.

Moira sent a message to her brother. "Take as much time as you need. I'll see you in game. I left the windows open to air out the house."

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The shower water turned off.

The dancer logged into the game.

Jericho emerged solemnly from the bathroom, read the message from his sister and put his instruments away.