Five years after I'd successfully completed the conquest, the System suddenly pinged. [The other player, Seraphina, is dead.] The teacup in my hand slipped, shattering on the floor. Seraphina was my best friend. To pull me out of this medieval world, she had voluntarily bound herself to the System, agreeing to help me conquer the two main targets: the Archmage and the Crown Prince. When we won, I chose to go home. She, however, had fallen in love with the Archmage. She chose to stay. That was five years ago. How... how was she dead? I finally heard my own voice, shaking. "Send me back." "I'm going to drag that useless woman back home." 1 The world spun. When I opened my eyes, I was back on the familiar, foreign streets of Avaloria. But in the bustling crowd, there was no one to grab my hand and say, "Don't be afraid, Luna. I'm right here with you." I found a horse and galloped toward the High Temple. The System said her body was still there. In the temple's back hills, I found it: a single coffin, covered in fresh snow. I stumbled from my horse, running toward it. When I brushed the snow off the lid, I saw the dark, spattered stains. Blood. My chest tightened. My hands were shaking. "Frost... what did they do to you..." I pushed the lid. It grated open. The stench of rot hit me. I held my breath and looked inside. She was just... lying there. Her face was paper-white. Her beautiful hair had been hacked off, left in ragged clumps. Her body was a roadmap of injuries, and her right sleeve... her right sleeve was empty, the stump at her shoulder horribly clean. They had cut off her arm. I saw it, and my legs gave out. I collapsed. A thought, cold and sharp, cut through the grief. Where was Kaelen? The Archmage? When I left, they were disgustingly in love. She was pregnant. How could she be here, and he... he hadn't even come to claim her body? I forced myself up and rode for the Archmage's Tower. The wind was a blade against my skin, but it was nothing compared to the ice in my heart. The tower was... decorated. Red banners and lanterns. It was a celebration. It was so wrong. I stood there, frozen, thinking I'd gone to the wrong place. "What is this?" I grabbed a passing servant. He yelped. "The... the Archmage is getting married! It's his wedding day!" Married? All the blood rushed to my head. Seraphina's body wasn't even cold, and he was getting married? I shoved the servant aside and kicked the doors open. Kaelen was there, in ceremonial robes, standing before a strange woman. He was smiling. I saw his smile, and all I could see was Frost's empty sleeve. I lost it. I stormed the altar and slapped him. Hard. The woman in red screamed, "Who are you? How dare you strike the Archmage!" I backhanded her, too. "Don't worry. There's plenty for you." She stared, her eyes filling with tears. She grabbed Kaelen's sleeve. "Kaelen..." He shielded her, his expression a complex mess. "Luna? How... why are you back?" "Did she send you?" he snarled. "Did Seraphina send you to ruin my wedding to Lyra?" You son of a bitch. He moves on, and he dares to slander her name? I hit him again. "You don't get to say her name, you bastard!" "She's dead! She's lying in a box on the mountain, and you're here getting married!" Kaelen froze, his face draining of color. "What... what did you say? Frost... she's dead?" 2 My hand stopped, hovering. He... he didn't even know? Before I could speak, the new bride, Lyra, whispered, "Kaelen, don't listen to her. You know how Seraphina lies." "She... she cut up her own dresses last month, just to blame me." Kaelen's eyes sparked. He believed her. "That... that woman," he seethed. "I never knew how manipulative she was. She's faking her own death just to stop me from marrying Lyra?" I was shaking with rage. When Kaelen had overused his magic, shattering his own life-force, it was Frost who saved him. She'd traded her own life-source, her system points, for his. She had been wasting away ever since. She made me promise not to tell him. She didn't want him to feel "burdened." And this... this was his gratitude. I hit him again. "Say her name one more time, and I'll rip your tongue out." Lyra shrieked and lunged at me. "You witch! You're just doing her dirty work!" I dodged, grabbed her wrist, and twisted. She screamed. A small body shot past me like a cannonball, tackling me at the knees. "You hurt my mommy! Get out, you bad woman!" A little boy. Five, maybe six years old. He was beautiful. And he looked... he looked just like Seraphina. Her son. Kaelen's son. And he was protecting this other woman. "Frost... what kind of hell were you living in?" My heart shattered. I looked at the boy. "You're Frost's son. Why are you calling her 'Mommy'?" The boy's face twisted with a hatred far too old for him. "Don't say that! She's not my mother! Lyra is my mother! You can't hurt her!" Oh, Frost. Do you see this? I laughed. A horrible, broken sound. I grabbed the kid, my whip lashing out, and tied him to my side. "Frost was too soft to teach you. I'll do it for her." If he were my kid, I'd have abandoned him. But this was Frost's. I had to at least try to save him. Lyra was hysterical. "Kaelen, she's taking Ash! Stop her!" Kaelen was furious. "Let him go, Luna! This is between us! He's just a child!" I pulled the rope tighter. "He became 'between us' the moment you let him call another woman his mother. Do you even remember what Frost went through to give you this child?" We weren't supposed to be able to get pregnant here. She had to trade more of her life, endure a blood-magic ritual... just to have his baby. She was so happy. "I'm not just saving you, Moon," she'd said, "I'm finding my true love." Now she was a corpse with one arm. Kaelen flinched, but his voice was hard. "She's a thief. I will not let my son be raised by a thief." "She stole what?" "She stole Lyra's title! She stole her power, her credit, everything!" 3 I stared. This world never had a "Goddess." Frost and I, we used the System to predict disasters, to stop famines, to change the weather. We created the "Goddess" myth. If Lyra was the Goddess, it was a lie they had built. "Proof. Now." The boy, Ash, spat at me. "That bitch stole it! I saw Mommy Lyra bleed for the rain spell! And that bad woman took the credit!" "He's a child," Kaelen said. "He wouldn't lie." The two people who should have been her world were speaking of her like she was poison. A snowflake landed on my cheek. It was snowing. Hard. I remembered Frost, alone in her coffin. I left the tower. I had to bury her. The cold had preserved her, but... not perfectly. Her face, at least. Her face was still beautiful. I brushed her mangled hair back. My hand was shaking. "I'm sorry, Frost. I shouldn't have let you stay. If it wasn't for me, you never would have met this bastard..." The first scoop of dirt hit the wood. The sound was so final. My throat closed. I tried to scream, but only a choked sob came out. I was about to jump into the grave with her when a golden light threw me back. A familiar, mechanical voice. [Player Luna, do not self-terminate. Seraphina left a file for you.] "What? What is it?" A letter appeared in my hand. [Moon, I have no one left here. Take me home. Just me. Don't let anyone else come. They'll just dirty the path. -Frost] She must have been so broken. "I'll get you justice, Frost. I promise. And then we'll go home." I asked the System to show me her final moments. [ACCESS DENIED. INSUFFICIENT PERMISSIONS.] 4 I put the burial on hold. I used the System to freeze her body. The snow fell for five days. The city was panicking. On the sixth day, Lyra arrived at the High Temple in a wave of incense and bells, dressed in white, looking every bit the divine. She lit the incense. "In three days," she announced, "the snow will stop." The people cheered. She walked into the back room, her face pale. "Seraphina. In three days, you have to..." She saw me. "Who are you? Where is Seraphina?" "You're the Goddess," I sneered. "Why are you asking me?" She looked panicked. "Just... just tell that bitch to get out here!" I slapped her. "The bitch? You're talking about yourself." "Frost is dead. Your little show is over." "Dead?" she shrieked, panicked. "She can't be dead! You're lying, get her out here!" The door crashed open. Kaelen and Ash. Lyra immediately crumpled, running to him. "Kaelen! This woman... she hit me! And she's saying... saying awful lies about Seraphina..." "Luna, that's enough!" he yelled. "Where is she? Tell her to stop this ridiculous game!" "Are you deaf? She's DEAD." "Liar! The High Priest saw her just yesterday! You're just jealous I married Lyra, so you cooked up this 'fake death' plot! I'm not falling for it!" I laughed. I grabbed him, my magic flaring, and teleported us to the back hills. I threw him at the frozen casket. "Open it. See for yourself." He kicked the lid off. "This is pathetic. If she was really... really..." His voice died. The coffin was open. Frost's pale, mutilated body was lying there. He just stared. The anger, the denial... it all shattered. 5 Kaelen fell to his knees. He reached out a trembling hand, then snatched it back, like her skin was fire. "No... no, it was just... I just sent her here to reflect... I was just teaching her a lesson..." Lyra and Ash ran up. She saw the body and her face went white. Ash ran up and started hitting the corpse. "Bad woman! You made Daddy leave Mommy!" Kaelen turned and struck his son. "She... she is your mother!" Ash wailed. I threw Frost's last letter at Kaelen. He read the six words. I have no one left here. He howled. A raw, animal sound of grief. Lyra saw him breaking. She tried to touch him. "Kaelen, she's gone, but..." He lunged, his hands wrapping around her throat. "YOU! This is your fault! You did this!" She choked, clawing at him. "Kaelen... no... I'm the... the Emperor's Goddess... I saved... I saved your life..." The Emperor? My blood went cold. Rhys. My target. The only other person who knew we were Players. Did Rhys do this? Kaelen's grip loosened. "If you hadn't saved me... I'd kill you right now." He threw her to the ground. He turned back to the coffin... and he saw the empty sleeve. His breath hitched. "Luna... her... her arm..." "Now you believe me." His voice was a broken whisper. "It's my fault... I shouldn't have... I shouldn't have..." "Moon." A new voice. I turned. Rhys. The Emperor. In his full golden armor.
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