“That Were-Fox was . . . That was Bella, wasn’t it?” Lars asked quietly, looking over at Aaron.

“Definitely was,” Prax agreed without hesitation.

Aaron nodded. “It was either Bella or someone who had her exact same look. She coulda been a carbon copy.”

“But . . .” Lars’s eyebrows scrunched together as he tried to process what he had just seen. “She doesn’t play this . . . game . . . I thought.”

“No, she doesn’t,” Aaron answered. He remembered all too well exactly how strict her parents had always been. Aaron had known Bella since they were young children, and practically every moment of her daily life was regimented down to the exact amount of time she was allowed for “personal uses.”

There was no way any single moment in her daily schedule would have been allotted for “play time,” much less the amount that would have been needed to take part in a game as expansive as this one. Indeed, one of the main reasons that he and his group of friends hadn’t started sooner was that simply suggesting that they all waste time on a videogame would have been viewed as blasphemy of the highest order, high treason fit for execution. So, instead of virtual worlds filled with perfect recreations of all the things Bella’s parents hated, his small group had grown up doing other things instead so that they could include Bella, which usually meant studying as a group or the occasional trip to a museum or concert under strict supervision. Moreover, even though she was now an adult, Bella had been rigorously pressed into an elite master’s program so as to “broaden herself” and expand her views on the world.

Aaron remembered exactly when Bella had announced that she was going to be leaving home to take part in that program since the news came immediately after he had finally summoned up the courage to ask her out on an actual date. For all these reasons, he was certain that the young woman whom he had just witnessed commit such a grandiose act of thievery and villainy couldn’t possibly be the same young woman whom he knew as Bella. There was absolutely no way that she ever would have been allowed to dress so provocatively.

Aaron and his friends each searched for clues as to what was going on, but they were ultimately just as befuddled by the event as everyone else present. Everyone in the chamber was talking in quiet, hushed tones, but the murmurs quickly grew louder and louder as they talked over one another, fighting to be heard.