Sinestre sits on the edge of the world tree, on her dragon, as she looks at the swirling portal leading to Luin’s room. I have the rare plush between the monitor and keyboard, even though it killed me to remove the item from the box and devalue my prized possession.

An envelope arrived yesterday, and inside a card in another gold envelope. The words are written on the front:

Quest: Slay Luin

Find a Paladin and help him beat Luin.

Don’t let him die.

Reward: See inside

And underneath, ‘do not open until quest complete’.

I quizzed Aaron, who at first exclaimed with mock shock that another suitor sent me quests, as if a guy had sent flowers.

Don’t let him die? Help him? Ha. This will be a Thorsday and Sinestre showdown as much as a boss-killing exercise.

Slaying Luin will be easy, but my real world has hit challenges harder to conquer. My hours at the store have been cut and my income’s set to nosedive. I can’t complain about the store moving towards online sales because I’m an online shopper, plus e-tail is the way forward for the store’s business. This is the extra push I need—I’ve finally applied for my course. I’ve spoken to other artists, at the Con and in groups on Facebook. Maybe I’m swapping one online community for another, but in this one I’m set to move on, and not stay in the game’s vortex.

Tyler has a part-time job at a fast food chain to supplement his income while studying. I guess if the store moving online means losing a staff member altogether, I can find something similar too. I need to—if I return to study with no income, this could mean a move back to my parents. After three years that’ll be tough.

Thorsday’s horse disappears as his character dismounts, and I do the same. “Have you been colouring your armour again?” he asks. “Such a lovely shade of purple—and such waste of gold. How much did you pay?”

“I want to look good in the screenshots I take of me standing over Luin’s cold, dead body. All my armour’s boring brown. You’d think the high-level gear would be prettier.”

Aaron laughs. “Prettier. Be right back.”

I blink as his character mounts the dragon again and travels into the air. “Aaron, come on, let’s get this finished. I want to brag to the others before they log off today.”

“Two minutes. Make me a nice attack bonus potion while I’m waiting, sweetheart.”

“Ha ha.” But my character mixes ingredients as requested, as I smile to myself.

Thorsday lands in front of me a few minutes later and I study the screen. Has my video card messed with the colours again? “Aaron, your armour’s pink!”

“I agree with you, bright colours are better than boring.”

“But... pink. Do you have a thing for pink, Aaron?” I switch my focus from the screen to the man on my Skype screen next to me.

He shakes his head and wags a finger. “Don’t shame me with your gender stereotypes. A dragon awaits.”

I pull a face at him then look back to the screen.

Thorsday and Sinestre make their way along the huge tree branch, where innocuous-looking caterpillars shoot venom, and we squish the wriggling red creatures with spells and swords before they damage us. The huge branch we walk along spirals around the tree, and as we progress, smaller branches attempt to wind around us too.

“Jesus!” I blast a tendril from around Sinestre’s legs.

A large blue and white flower leaps in front of us, then others, all Triffid-like, as tall as Thorsday with gaping mouths. I halt and stare at the words onscreen.

Luin’s Guardians

Elemental

Hostile

Level 50

HP +200

“Uh. Aaron. These aren’t level 20.”

“Hmm. No problem, they don’t have any special abilities.”

“No problem? They’re level freaking 50! That’s the same as us. And more of them than us.”

“Perceptive, my dear Sorcerer.”

I mutter and prepare to zap one out of oblivion with a chain of lightning. Thorsday rushes forward, sword drawn, and whirls around into his opening attack move. Taking the six Guardians down takes a couple of minutes and more damage than Thorsday anticipated. I sit on the ground to eat and regain health, and a thought strikes.

“If they’re 50, what will Luin be?” We edge forward and I glance at his character stats on my screen. “Hey! Hang on... Why are you so buffed?”

“You know I’m a muscly dude,” he says with a laugh.

“Jeez, your humour tonight. No, you’ve taken the attack power potion I gave you and also the most expensive potion in game to boost all your stats. Care to explain why?” I pout at him as I look from Thorsday to Aaron.

He leans back in the chair and crosses his arms. “Who in the guild studies fight strategies for killing new bosses and who doesn’t?”

“You... and I guess me answers the other.”

“Luin is now a Mythical Beast,” he announces. “There’s a limited time event—kill her and earn a Legendary reward.”

“What? You kept that quiet! C’mon, let’s go, we need the guild to help! This is insane.”

He uncrosses his arms and leans towards the screen. “We don’t need others to do this; it’s not a raid. Have faith, Sin. Remember Droog?”

“He was a random elite creature, not an elite boss. Jesus, how many health points does Luin have?”

“I think around 125 thousand.”

“Shit. Aaron. Come on. Let’s go. I don’t want to spend all evening lying on the floor.”

“Oh, but you like to do that with me, Evie.” His voice is low, teasing.

“I end that with an achievement,” I reply. “And it hurts less.”

He chuckles. “Me too. C’mon. Don’t be a coward. I have extra potions for you.” A ‘trade’ box appears onscreen with two potions inside. I take them. “Plus... you have your special quest reward to earn.”

I glance down at the gold envelope again. “Fine, but after five deaths I’m out. Is the fight mechanic the same as four years ago?”

“No. Pay attention.”

I grit my teeth. Aaron explains how the fight works, how we’ll face waves of plants and caterpillars to kill first, and a lot of thick green goo we’ll need to avoid or suffer huge damage, e.g. death. At least because the scenario is based on the early game, they’re simpler. The current game version holds more complicated dungeons and bosses.

The creature greeting us as we enter the her room is not a tiny, cute-looking fairie dragon like the plush in front of me. She’s bloody huge. Monstrous-sized versions of the caterpillars and flowers we faced on our route up to her lair surround her.

Luin

Dragonkin Elite

Hostile

Level 52

HP + 125,000

“I guess she’s all grown up,” says Aaron with a laugh.

“Holy...”

“Want to try still?”

“Okay. Let’s attack and get the first death over with,” I mumble.

We do. And survive thirty seconds as I bite back a retort about Thorsday standing in green caterpillar spew.

“There’s a tree you stand behind when Luin casts the Killing Time spell. Once she stops, walk back out to the left and take down the caterpillars that re-appear.”

I rub my face. I need to find the website explaining this fight’s mechanics. “Can you give me five minutes to read up on this fight?”

“Nah. We got this.”

“Sure, we have.” He laughs at my sarcasm.

Our attempts continue and each time we manage to bring her health down lower, close but so far to victory. Instead, each time we’re defeated and her health returns to full and the fight resets. I swear as a swarm of butterflies appear when we fail to kill all the caterpillars in time. Thorsday manages to stop many hitting Sinestre, but the damage they do from just one hit is enough to drop my health by half. We repeat the exercise over and over until we manage to kill everything apart from Luin.

Death number eight and Sinestre’s armour levels have dropped from ‘Scuffed’ to ‘Wrecked’. Thorsday’s isn’t much better.

“Right. Last try,” I say. “This is not fun.”

“We got this. We get her health lower every time we try.”

“You said that the last four times.”

Aaron doesn’t respond as he charges across the cavern floor towards the caterpillar group, using the same moves as last time, and I cast every single spell I can in quick succession.

Five minutes later and we’ve survived the waves of caterpillars and butterflies, honing our strategy to survive, and begin our attack on Luin again.

The words I expect to hear from Aaron are shouted at me a minute later. “You need to switch to healing me, Evie. My damage is high enough to finish this part of the fight alone— if I stay alive.”

I can’t protest; there’s no choice. She’s 10% health and Thorsday’s is 5%. My healing spells are stronger; I need to take the role.

Sinestre switches from powerful attack spells to equally effective healing spells on Thorsday, watching Luin’s health bar empty as we progress.

“I’m using too much power healing,” I say. “I need to change back to damage.”

“We got this.”

“Will you shut up with your ‘we got this’? Heal yourself until I conjure my Dark form.”

“No, that’ll take too long.” He parries the dragon’s crushing blow.

The goo spews and we duck behind the tree. “Changing now.”

“You’ll use all your mana! You won’t be able to cast any more healing spells.” He huffs and chugs a healing potion, allowing me respite for a few seconds. The wave of Corrosive Dragon Spittle over, we step out to attack Luin again. Thorsday’s health drops as the dragon’s claws critically hit him.

Ignoring him, I cast the slow spell needed to switch from White Sorcerer to Dark Sorcerer, the one whose powers increase but have no ability to heal. The form I played before Aaron came on the scene.

“Heal yourself!” I yell over voice chat.

Sinestre throws a curse on the dragon and time slips backwards, taking us to two minutes earlier into the fight, where Thorsday’s health was higher.

Immediately I launch bolt after bolt of green electricity, pulled from the dark, demonic cloud surrounding me. Each hit Thor takes, with no healing from me, his health drops lower.

“This is not a good idea,” he growls.

“Heal your freaking self!”

“Whoa. Now there’s the old Evie I knew and fell in love with.”

His words throw me off the game for a few seconds, hand shaking as his words ring in my ears. I glance at him but he’s not looking at me, hunched forward and focused on his computer screen. Did he just say...?

“Pay attention!” he shouts. “And okay, but if I die your quest fails.”

“I never fail quests,” I retort.

Thorsday intersperses his attack with the self-heals as I drain my health and magic by throwing everything I have at the creature. My magic bar empties along with my health, when Luin is at 1%, and I’m 5%.

Thorsday? His death cry sounds, simultaneous with the loud chime and onscreen message only we can see:

Luin has been defeated

Another message appears, on a channel broadcast across the world.

Server First: Thorsday and Sinestre defeat Luin.

Thorsday and Sinestre earn the title ‘the Dragon Slayer’.

“Oh man,” I gasp. “Tyler’s gonna lose his shit.” I wait for Aaron’s whooping and cheering but all I hear is a low laugh. “Not funny, I’m sure he will. We’re supposed to take on big challenges as a guild.”

“No. I’m laughing because you let me die. Again.”

I smile. “Oops.”

Morphing out of my Dark form and back into the Sinestre with less Sin in her character, I cast a spell to resurrect Thorsday.

He clicks on Luin’s body; a table containing loot appears and my eyes bug out.

Fabled Mount: Luin

Increases Flight Speed by 50%

“We literally own Luin?” I ask. “We get to use her as a mount?”

“The only two players on the server with her.”

I repeat exclamations of disbelief and victory, losing sight of everything but the surging pride at my achievement. “Screen shots!” I position myself in front of her body.

“You can open your envelope now, Evie.”

“But I let you die. I failed the quest.”

“Maybe I let myself die because I ignored what you told me. Besides, it was after we downed Luin and completed the quest. I’ll allow you this one.”

I glance at him on video chat and he rests back in the chair again, watching me over Skype. I carefully peel back the gold envelope.

Inside, a plane ticket to Sydney. Tomorrow. And a new quest:

Quest: Travel to a New Realm and retrieve the Mythic Item

Travel to Sydney and pay the ransom to Thorsday

Reward: Pink Unicorn Hat of Awesomeness

My heart jumps halfway across the room. In the weeks since he returned home, our next meet up hasn’t been discussed and as each day passed with no mention, my paranoia grew.

“I...” I stammer.

“You...? I want you to come to Sydney. You no longer work Sundays and Mondays. You can stay with me while on your quest, if you like.” He pauses. “Well, I’m counting on you staying with me.”

The flight ticket sticks to my fingers. “I’ve never flown before. Not in real life anyway. And this is tomorrow!”

“Exactly. No time to talk yourself out of the challenge.”

“I know, but—”

“You don’t want to see me?” He mock-pouts, knowing full well the answer.

“Hell, you know I do, but this is out of the blue. We never discussed this... I didn’t think you wanted me to come to Sydney.”

“Huh? I told you I have your hat here, held ransom. How else are you supposed to retrieve your ‘precious’?”

“What’s the ransom? So I know what to bring.”

“You.”

“Obviously I’ll bring me, but what’s the ransom.”

Thorsday leans forward, face close to the camera so I can see his expression. “I just told you. You.”