"Nothing makes us so lonely as our secrets."

  Paul Tournier, Author

  Milly walked a pace behind Xavier as they marched through the tall grasses of the plains, the four towers of the Castle of Glass growing distant behind them. The heat from the sun poured down, the steady dry breeze doing little to relieve the warmth growing beneath her black hoodie. Sweat beaded on her brow as she picked another tick off her worn jeans, crushed it between two fingers, and flicked it away.

  She glanced south, where the shade of the jungle canopy and gentle rain seemed to call to her. Its shade was a stark contrast to the stifling heat of the tree-sparse prairie they strode through.

  “Tell me again why we didn't go to the jungle.” Milly asked, her legs already sore. She wasn't used to this much walking.

  “Because then we would be soaked. I don’t know about you, but these are the only clothes I had at work, and I don’t feel like getting them wet. Plus, it’s a jungle. It will be hot and humid when the rain stops. You'd be begging for the dry heat of the prairies after that.”

  “You think you are so smart, don’t you,” Milly sulked, grabbing the front of her hoodie and flapping it to move air across her chest and back.

  “Yes, I am,” Xavier said confidently with a laugh. “At least in this regard.”

  Milly could not help but laugh with him. Ever since they had stepped out of the tower, Xavier had the largest smile plastered across his face. She'd even caught him humming once. Humming, of all things. It was as if she was seeing the real Xavier for the first time.

  “Are you…are you enjoying this?” Milly asked curiously.

  Xavier stopped in his tracks and turned to face her. He planted the point of the sword he had been carrying in the dirt, leaning on it casually.

  “Milly, I am a shut-in and a weirdo. I work, I exercise, and I play video games whenever I am not doing one of those other two. I have no friends, my father disowned me, and I am broke. My life is barely worth living. It is barely a life.”

  He took a deep breath, leaned his head back, and stared up at the beautiful cloudless sky. “But now I'm in a video game brought to life, filled with the thrill of the unknown. It’s everything I’ve ever wanted. My dreams become reality. So, yes, I am enjoying this,” His smile filled his face, eyes glistening with child-like wonder.

  Milly stared at him as if she were meeting a stranger. He'd never talked about his personal life before. Never mentioned his hopes and dreams. Never knew he had that level of personal insight.

  She did not realize just how similar they were.

  “I…I guess I never thought of it that way,” Milly replied softly. “My life is not anything spectacular either. No friends. No family. Just a dead-end job with my depression to keep me company.”

  Xavier closed the distance to Milly and, very tentatively, gave her the shortest, most awkward hug in the history of hugs. “Then choose to embrace a new life here. It's not like we have anything to go back to.”

  “Xavier,” she whispered. “I don’t want to die here. I’m afraid.”

  “So am I,” Xavier admitted. “But doesn’t that make you feel alive? And what is to say we would live longer back home? A bus could hit you tomorrow and poof! That's the end of Milly Brown. The next week someone else is living in your apartment and has your job, and the world continues uninterrupted. No matter what happens here, it will be better than that.”

  “You should be in the sales department, Xavier,” Milly said. She was still afraid, but Xavier’s outlook was a refreshing alternative to fear.

  “With those jerks? No way. The only person I can stand around here is you. Why do you think I took you with me? You are the only one I trust.”

  It was quite a compliment coming from Xavier. “Thanks Xavier. I…I’m glad you took me with you.”

  She stopped short of saying she trusted him. She didn't know if she trusted anyone.

  The last person I trusted was my foster father and he…he was not someone I should have trusted.

  “Unless I die, of course,” she added with an awkward laugh. “Then I hope I can come back as a ghost and haunt you.”

  Xavier snorted in amusement, “You would make a great ghost. You’ve got the personality. Though you might be too introverted to haunt anyone. That would require human interaction.”

  Milly slapped his shoulder playfully, and they continued walking through the grass.

  “So…why did your father disown you?” Milly asked curiously, trying to focus on anything besides the danger they were stumbling into. As she said it, she realized what she asked and tried to take it back. “Sorry Xavier, you don’t need to answer that. It was insensitive.”

  “No, it's fine. I don’t tell people because no one asks, and I don’t care to enlighten. People have enough reason to hate me without adding more fuel to the fire,” he said reluctantly. “He disowned me because I changed my name.”

  “Seems like a very petty reason to disown you,” Milly said sympathetically.

  “Yes, well, he thought it was pretty fucking unforgiveable. As if it was my fault he was so attached to the name Vivian. Fucker kicked me out of the house the moment I told him.”

  Milly mouthed a silent “Ooh”, realizing what he meant. She didn't know what to say. She'd never noticed before, but now that she knew…maybe…

  “He... he sounds like a terrible father,” Milly finally replied awkwardly, breaking the uncomfortable silence. “Xavier suits you better.”

  “I like to think so,” Xavier responded. He left out a tiny sigh of relief. “Now it's your turn.”

  “My turn for what?”

  “To tell me your biggest secret,” Xavier said casually, bending down to look at something in the dirt at his feet. “You know mine now, so it seems only fair.”

  “You’ve never asked anything about me before,” Milly said, trying to stall. Could she be that brave? Xavier had trusted her with his secret, after all.

  “Well, we were just work colleagues before. Frankly, I didn't care to know more about you. People come and go so fast at Acicentre that I don’t like to get attached. But our situation has changed, don’t you think?” He stood back up, adjusting their course to the north. “We are getting closer.”

  “Closer to what?” Milly asked, trying to change the topic.

  “Our first encounter,” Xavier said simply.

  “Our first what?”

  “Our first fight,” Xavier clarified. “And don’t think you can avoid the question. Come on, Mildred Brown, reveal to me your deep dark secrets.”

  “Ummm…I guess so… I….,” she stammered.

  “Gods, Milly, you don’t have to tell me. I don’t really care that much,” he laughed as she grew uncomfortable. “Keep your secrets.”

  “No…I…I’ll tell. We could be dead tomorrow, anyways,” admitted Milly, and she started to roll up the sleeves of her hoodie. “Just…please don’t judge me.

  Milly rolled until her sleeves were past her forearms. She turned her arms outwards towards Xavier, showing the deep scars across her wrists.

  “I was fourteen,” she started, her voice low but steady. “My foster father was abusive. He would get drunk, and then he would get violent. Or worse. It was after a really bad night. I filled up the tub and climbed in and…you know. I remember feeling dead inside and laying there, wishing my outside would match how I felt inside. They found me before the end and took me to the hospital. Police got involved. It was a whole thing.”

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  She paused, waiting for him to respond, fearful of what his response might be.

  Xavier shrugged. “That’s shitty, Milly. Looks like we both drew the short straws when they were handing out parents.”

  Milly looked at him, then burst out laughing.

  Of course Xavier would make such a flippant comment. What did I expect? Sympathy? Even if he were capable of that level of empathy, it would only have made me uncomfortable.

  “Yah, I guess we did,” Milly said after she'd stopped laughing.

  “Are we done being all deep and emotional and shit?” Xavier asked with a grin. “Because we’ve got adventure ahead of us.”

  Milly nodded and they continued walking through the grass. Except this time, Milly had found a bounce in her step to mirror Xavier’s.

  Despite everything, she felt lighter than she had in a very long time.

  * * *

  An hour after leaving the tower, as the sun reached its zenith in the prairie sky, Xavier suddenly stopped. Ducking down behind the tall grass, he pulled Milly down beside him.

  “That’s what we’ve been looking for,” he whispered, pointing ahead.

  Milly raised her head carefully above the grass. Thirty paces away, a small green creature, humanoid but with sharp fangs and claws and covered in warts, crouched over the body of a deer. Milly watched as the creature ripped hunks of flesh from the deer’s body and ate them raw. Blood streamed down the creature’s face and chest.

  Milly gasped when she saw the deer struggle to stand, only for the creature to strike it in the head with a rock.

  Milly ducked back down, eyes full of tears. “That poor deer is still alive. It's eating it alive,” she whispered, horrified.

  Xavier rolled his eyes. “Lots of creatures eat their prey alive, and if we are not careful, we will be next. Now, what did you see that was useful? Did it have weapons? Armor? Anything else nearby? Every piece of knowledge is critical for our survival.”

  Milly frowned. The gruff, obsessive Xavier had returned. She pictured the scene again, trying to forget the deer. “It has a rock. And a spear at its side.”

  “Which side,” Xavier asked impatiently.

  “His…right side?” she said, uncertainly.

  “What was it wearing?”

  Milly scrunched her face in confusion. “Why does that matter?”

  “It's equipment raises its defense, of course. If we go up against something heavily armored or enchanted, we’re dead. Come on Milly, get your head in the game.”

  “It is not a game,” she countered. “This whole thing might be designed around a video game, Xavier, but this is real life. Do we really need to fight this thing? We can leave it alone and go around.”

  “What was it wearing?” he asked again impatiently.

  “Just a loin cloth covering… not enough. But…”

  Milly did not get a chance to finish. Xavier moved into the tall grass, holding his sword at his side with a fierce grip. “Stay here if you are scared. This will be easy. I can do this alone.”

  He stayed low and disappeared into the tall grass.

  Milly opened her inventory, grabbed a rusty spear and held it tightly to her chest. Her heart pounded wildly and sweat dripped down her forehead. Her hands were clammy, making it increasingly difficult to keep her grip on the spear.

  “Come on, Milly. Come on. You can do this. You can't let him do it alone. Move. Your. Feet,” she whispered to herself.

  But her feet were not listening. They felt glued to the ground, and her knees felt weak. Her breaths were shallow gasps, and her eyes darting around at every sound. The few seconds seemed to stretch agonizingly slowly.

  Suddenly, she heard Xavier erupt from the tall grass near the creature, the rush of parting grass and heavy stomps in the dirt breaking the spell cast by her fear. Without thinking, she stood, desperate to see what was happening.

  She saw the creature’s rock strike Xavier hard in the forehead before he'd closed half the distance, a resounding crack carried to Milly’s ears. Xavier collapsed in a heap, his sword skidding across the prairie soil. Blood trickled from above his eye and flowed down his face as he lay unmoving in the soil.

  “Xavier!” Milly shouted before she could stop herself. It was a mistake.

  The creature looked up and spotted the young women in the oversized hoodie standing in the grass. It smiled, a wicked grin of sharply pointed teeth, as it slowly picked up its own spear and strode in her direction. It licked its tongue over its blood-soaked face, eyes intent on death.

  Milly stood frozen in fear as it slowly took each step forward. She was a deer in the headlights. Her heart pounded in her chest so fast that she thought she might pass out. She swayed on her feet.

  Milly, get moving. You need to run. Run!

  Her feet refused to comply.

  The creature sprinted forward, spear held outwards to skewer Milly through the naval. The motion triggered Milly as instinct cut through fear. She stumbled to the side just as the creature thrust out its spear. The tip of the spear sliced open Milly’s hoodie from side to side just above the front pocket, narrowly missing Milly’s stomach.

  The creature was thrown off balance, shocked by the sudden movement of its prey. It turned to face Milly, eyes shooting daggers of intense anger, just in time for Milly’s right foot to connect with its shin. It was a weak and feeble kick, but nonetheless caught the creature off guard.

  Milly retreateda dozen steps, never taking her eye off the creature as she tried to catch her breath. She felt the wind blowing through the large hole cut through her hoodie, bringing a small but welcome sense of release from the heat. She gripped her spear tightly and pointed it at the creature.

  Okay, Milly. Be brave. You can do this.

  “Stay back,” she shouted at it, though it came out closer to a squeak. A mouse commanding a cat. “I’ll use this if I have to.”

  The look in the creature’s eyes told Milly everything she needed to know. Its hatred burned bright, without a single ounce of fear in its eyes. Milly felt its intent to kill – its need to kill – and knew she only had one option left. To fight.

  As the creature rushed forward, Milly hurled her spear at it as hard as she could. The unexpected attack surprised the creature, and it could not move fast enough to dodge it. The spear struck the creature in its unprotected shoulder, driving deep into flesh and popping a massive wart that shot green puss across its arm. The creature howled in pain and rage as a sickening smell of rot and decay permeated the air.

  Milly held her breath, wanting to vomit, but kept her mind focused. “Inventory,” she thought, and the screen appeared in front of her. As the creature resumed its rush towards her, his approach visible through the translucent screen, Milly reached for the first stored weapon she saw.

  A wooden mallet, three feet long and heavy, appeared in Milly’s hands just as the creature reached her, off balance from the spear still lodged in its shoulder. Milly grasped the handle hard and swung recklessly with all her might. The mallet struck the creature in the side of the head.

  Milly heard the snap of its jaw and felt its skull crunch beneath her mallet’s blow. The creature tumbled, and there was a terrible squelch as the creature struck a jagged rock where it hit the ground. It lay there, twitching, as it died, its fractured skull seeping its contents into the soil below.

  Milly dropped the mallet, covered her mouth in shock, and proceeded to vomit into the tall grass. Her vomit stuck to the front of her hoodie and trickle down her chin. When she gasped for breath, her mouth filled with the diseased stench of the creature’s ichor, and she vomited again and again, until she had nothing left in her to expel.

  She stumbled towards where Xavier lay unmoving.

  “Xavier, no,” Milly cried, wiping the vomit off her chin as she knelt at Xavier’s side. “Come on Xavier, hang in there.”

  He was breathing, but his inconsistent, shallow gasps were quickly growing weaker.

  Milly looked around for some way to help. The Castle of Glass was over an hour away. She didn't have time to find help. She didn't have time for anything.

  “Please, there must be something I can do. I can’t just let Xavier die. Think, Milly, think,” she said frantically.

  A screen materialized before her - a message.

  Milly read it quickly. “I don’t understand. How does any of this help?”

  The message closed and another, far larger, screen appeared. It was the Talent Map that Tutoria had mentioned.

  “Is…is there a talent that will help here?” she asked.

  Responding to her thought, the screen zoomed out, showing giant web of thousands upon thousands of interconnected talents. Some talents flashed softly, ready to be selected, while others were obscured, unavailable until prerequisite talents had been achieved.

  In the top right corner of the map flashed the message 'Available Talent Points: 1'.

  Milly didn't have time to read any of it. “Just take me to a talent that will help me save my friend,” she demanded, growing increasingly desperate as Xavier’s blood dripped down his face.

  The screen shifted again and zoomed in on the bottom left corner of the web to the category labelled Healing. She scanned the options.

  “Healer’s alchemy. Nature’s bounty. Regeneration (self)…” she read aloud, dismissing each. “These all take too long.”

  Xavier started spasming, and Milly placed a hand on his chest in a panic.

  “Just give me something that will help him now,” she pleaded, tears streaming down her face.

  The screen zoomed in further, highlighting a single option.

  “Healer’s Touch. The player harnesses the power of magic within herself to heal others. The amount of time and energy required is dependent upon the severity of the injury,” she read.

  “Fine. I select that one,” she said desperately. “Just help me save him.”

  The talent’s lettering turned gold.

  Suddenly, a wave of knowledge entered Milly's mind, causing her to grasp the sides of her head in pain. It felt as if someone was shoving a week’s worth of training into her brain through her ears.

  It lasted only for a moment. As the pain faded, Milly sprang into action. She placed her hands against the sides of Xavier’s head, feeling the depth of his injury through her palms. She could sense a pool of power within herself, sitting between her heart and her stomach, and opened herself up to it. Her hands glowed bright blue as she began to channel the power and let it cascade into Xavier’s injury. His spasming stopped and breath steadied. Milly could feel his head wound slowly closing.

  Half an hour later, Xavier's injury was scabbed over. It looked like the injury had happened a week ago. He was still unconscious, but Milly knew he would recover with a bit of rest.

  Milly’s hoodie was drenched in sweat by the time she finished, her hands shaking with the effort. She felt emptied inside, the power within her completely drained. She struggled to keep her eyes open. With a final look at Xavier’s steady breathing, she felt her eyes close as she drifted off to sleep, her body falling protectively over Xavier’s unconscious form.

  The Non-Canonical Aftermath: