His thoughts were interrupted though as an Imperium Soldier opened the door and came up to him. “Sir,” he announced, reminding Lucas that he actually had a title now. Those without one were only called “mister.” The soldier continued: “I apologize for disturbing you, but Lady Xun Guan has arrived and is seeking an audience.”

“That’s fine,” Lucas said, gesturing with his hand as he added, “Send her in.”

“Right away, sir.”

“Sir . . .” Lucas let the word roll off his tongue after the guard had disappeared to fetch Xun Guan. He was happy with the word, more than he thought he would be. It was the sign that he had succeeded. “I like the way it sounds.”

“What’s that, sir?” one of the guards he had stationed in his room asked, looking back at him.

“Nothing,” Lucas answered, settling back into his throne. He had been on his feet for most of the day, and even though the game meant he didn’t wear himself down the same as he would in real life, this was a nice chance to take a moment to sit down and get off of his feet.

A few minutes later, Xun Guan came in, pausing as she entered the room to look at him seated on the throne. “It suits you,” she said before finally walking forward again.

“Perhaps,” Lucas answered with a dismissive shrug. He wasn’t sure exactly how he was supposed to take that. Is it a compliment to say a throne suits me? His eyes involuntarily darted away from Xun Guan. After his conversation with Kegan, however short it had been, it was hard to look at her face—hard to look at the perfect image of his deceased wife walking around as if she were still alive. He had managed to put her loss out of his mind for brief moments every now and then as he worked on this little project, this diversion; however, now she was once more looking straight into his eyes.

“So, this is much quicker than I expected, I must say . . . but where should we begin? The way I see it, you have three tasks to do now: get a class, do something reprehensible enough to generate a reason for people to kill you, and work on your dungeon.”

“I don’t think I can do the latter until I do the second one,” Lucas said, using the topic as an excuse to bury his head in the information sections of his dungeon master tools.

“Agreed. We can’t have you ending up like Kegan, now can we?” She was most likely referring to the fact that Kegan had been defeated by three players with incredibly low levels. The group wasn’t even good at fighting as a team yet, and yet they had managed to struggle their way through what, if it had been a proper dungeon, might have been an incredibly difficult fight.