“But I must! I have stayed in this village for years observing every itinerant adventurer to pass through our gates, but never have I seen one with both kindness and capability. It is almost always but one or the other, often only the latter, as their deeds and the lengths to which they’ll impose their will on others harrow me with fear and wonder. Yet, here you stand, a paradigm of what a moral man can be, so how could I not divvy out merits where they are due?” She cozied up to him as she spoke, eventually wrapping herself around his arm and then using it pull him along toward the town hall. “Now, come. You have a king to meet and a reward to be bestowed.”

Lucas shirked a little, automatically withdrawing from her touch. The last person who had led him in such an intimate manner had been his wife. He hadn’t realized it until just then, but this was the first time he had felt a non-violent touch like this from a woman—aside from the quick greeting hug he had given his sister-in-law—in months. She was warm and comforting, but that pleasantness crawled across his skin like a centipede of guilt as his brain tried to reject the foreign source of happiness. Yet, despite however much discomfort it gave him, he allowed himself to be directed along. He glanced over at Bonnie to make sure she was ready for her part in this, and she returned a not-so-subtle thumbs up and a wink.

She led him along for some time until they reached the throne room. Lucas’s heart started racing in anticipation of the stunt he was about to pull, and he could feel a slight tremor in his hands from the adrenaline as it built up inside him. He quickly glanced around the room as they entered, mentally taking notes of the guards’ positioning. There were a few stationed at the entrance, along with another pair on each side of the king and Queen, who were seated in front of several long rows of pews, but everyone else was clearly either a civilian or a player. He also noted that there were holes in the floor surrounded by beautifully carved, ornately-decorated fences. Openings in the roof allowed sunlight to stream down through the apertures, directing it toward hanging baskets filled with flowers and ferns and then on to the forest floor.

Lucas looked over at one of the fences and tried to calm himself as he thought about what was soon to happen. He knew that it was going to be difficult, that there would be a chance he’d die, but when he glanced over at the princess, he chuckled. It was both a release of nervous energy as well as a result of what he had just realized. This is what a game should feel like . . . No, this is exactly how a game should feel.