The low buzz of voices pulled at Ryan, both dragging and shoving him deeper into the station section. As we turned a final corner, doors stood open more than midway down the corridor. I swore time dilated, because suddenly I stood looking at the team working within. Security, medical, all the usual suspects.

Cyne’s brain ached. Ticks remained in her first cycle on Vaudia 11 and she wanted to collapse in her bunk. Duty kept her the drift cursed molded chair, pad resting across her legs, and a polite smile locked in place.

I’d lost. Darkness swelled around me, not in an absence of light, but in a totality of it. Not one pixel of hue remained. The game world I’d spent months carefully conquering had withdrawn beyond my reach leaving me… here.

The Brink was no place to get lost and the only place on Minerva Terminal. In the last hour Lia became more familiar with the fact than she’d ever hoped for.

Siraxe ignored the fire rippling through the grasses beside them, focusing on Keleskull instead. The fire would vanish soon and only marked recently departed adventurers and not a threat. Keleskull plopped onto a downed log.

“What?” I snapped slapping the pad onto my desk.

Gage stood in the doorway, mouth hanging partially open, tempting the malfunctioning detectors to slam the door closed on him again. “I…” was his stunning comeback.

I grew up in the aeon of infamy. How many generations spanned the aeon depended on who you asked.

Save the world.

The alarms tore the thought away in dissent scream until I only knew this was too familiar. I forced air in my lungs, dragging my gaze from the floor.