My mouth fell open.

  “You left me gold?” I swallowed as I turned back to look at the old man.

  The image of my grandfather threw back his head and laughed. “I guess that’s what you’d see, my boy!” He ran his hand through his well-trimmed salt and pepper hair. “And yes, it is gold, but trust me, you don’t want to sell it.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “I don’t?” I looked back at the large gold ring. “Why not? That has to be worth thousands.”

  “Only thousands?” My grandfather chuckled. “That ring weighs more than half a ton. It’d be worth over a hundred million.”

  I heard my heart beating in my ears. With that much money, I’d be set for life. “So why don’t I just melt it down and sell it?”

  “Because of what you can get on the other side of that ring!” The older man barked. “You have no idea how many riches await just on the other side of that ring.”

  I leaned back towards the opening in the wall and looked through the ring. There was nothing on the other side of it but a concrete wall. I turned back to my grandfather. “What exactly am I supposed to see?”

  “It’s a gate ring.” My grandfather sighed. “You have to power it up and it can take you to worlds all over the universe!” He waved his hands in the air. “Think of all the treasure out there…” He bounced his eyebrows at me. “And the women.”

  The image of a gray-skinned alien with big black eyes played in my mind. Then a purple one with tentacles and a huge mouth. Little green people with bug antennas played next. I shook my head to chase away the images.

  “Nope, I’m not interested in any alien babes.” I tilted my head. “Wait, so aliens are real?’

  “Not aliens like you see on those UFO shows.” My grandfather scoffed. “I’m talking about Elves, Dragons, Fairies, and Mermaids.” A grin spread across his face.

  “Wait, what?” I leaned against the opening. “Those aren’t aliens; they’re fantasy races.”

  “Oh, it’s a fantasy alright.” He grinned. “And once I get you trained up, they’ll be lining up and begging you to take them home.”

  “Trained…” My eyes went over to the swords. “Wait, why do I need to train?”

  “So you can be a dungeon runner!” My grandfather laughed. “I was one of the best dungeon runners back in my day.” He motioned at the house. “That’s how I paid for all of this.”

  “Did Mom know about any of this?” I swallowed as soon as the question left my lips. I had a feeling I already knew what the answer was.

  “Your mother had the same take on the games as Margret did.” He sighed. “Margret didn’t have a problem with the games until little Grace came along; then they were too dangerous.” He mocked the last two words. “I took your mother to a few games to let her see what I used to do. Oh, those were the days…” A smile spread across his face. “But Grace grew up and met your dad and then there was the accident…” His lips turned into a frown. “She changed after that. When she found out she was pregnant with you, I thought it would give her hope, but she was paranoid you’d get hurt and she had no interest in going off-world anymore.” He paused. “When Margret passed, I started going back out to the games just to give myself something to do, but your mom was furious. Told me that I had to stop being so reckless and think about what it would do to the two of you if something happened to me…”

  I swallowed and waited for him to finish. It was uncanny how this image or memory or whatever it was of my grandfather could display emotion. If I hadn’t swiped through him, I would have thought he was actually standing in front of me.

  “But I couldn’t stop.” He sighed. “And it cost me my daughter and a relationship with you, little Nolan.” He shook his head. “I was off-world when the call came that she’d passed and I didn’t get it until almost a month later.” He hung his head. “After that, I was too ashamed to reach out. I’d let you drift away and I was too much of a coward.”

  “That doesn’t sound like Grandpa.” I chuckled. “He was never that introspective.”

  “Well, I’m not your grandpa, am I?” He winked at me. “Sure, I’ve got all his memories, but I don’t have any reason to hold onto pride. Plus, I can analyze why he did what he did and express regrets that he could never give a voice to.”

  “That’s…” I searched for the right word. “Weird.”

  “He knew that it would be, but he hoped that you’d be able to understand.” Fake Grandpa tilted his head. “But he also had faith that you’d be able to see what it is that I’m offering you.”

  “I don’t know…” I glanced at the swords. I really wanted to learn how to use them, but when you combined runner and dungeon together with swords, I couldn’t picture anything that wasn’t dangerous.

  “Why don’t you go watch a game so you can see for yourself?” My grandfather walked over to the wooden cabinet beside the swords. It opened when he waved his hand over the panel.

  “How…” I shook my head and moved so I could see better.

  Inside the cabinet were a few stacks of coins, a digital watch, and a black medallion with the picture of someone running on it.

  “You’ll need the pad.” My grandfather pointed at the watch. “It’s got enough credits on it to get you into the game and do a little light shopping if you feel like it.” His eyes narrowed. “Do not lose it. This watch is the only one that can connect to this portal, so if you lose it, you can’t get back home.”

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  “Can’t I just tell whoever is running the gate on the other side that I’m from Earth and get them—”

  “NEVER TELL ANYONE YOU’RE FROM EARTH!” The image of the old man loomed over me. He pounded on his chest as he cleared his throat. “Sorry. Tell them you’re from New Tera if anyone asks.”

  “New Tera?” I scrunched my eyebrows. “What’s that?”

  Fake Grandpa waffled his head. “About two thousand years ago, Humans expelled all the fantasy races from Earth. The other races didn’t take kindly to that and stripped humans of their magic.” He waved his hand. “That’s not important. What’s important is that some Humans got caught up in the spell and expelled from Earth back then too. Those Humans created a colony on a planet and named it New Tera. No one has seen a Human from Earth, that they know of, in the last two millennia.” He eyed me. “If someone figures out you’re from here, then they’ll discover the portal and then we’ll all be in trouble.”

  “Gotcha…” I didn’t understand, but I figured it would make sense later. I reached into the cabinet and grabbed the watch. Once I picked it up, I could see why he called it a pad. It was more like a wristpad than a watch, considering that it was three inches wide and had a tiny keyboard on the face. I motioned at the coins. “Should I take some extra money—”

  “You’ve got all you’ll need on your pad.” He growled as he waved his hand at the door.

  I jumped back as the door to the cabinet closed on me. “Hey!”

  “You have to learn how to move faster if you’re going to be a runner.” He moved over to the golden ring.

  “How do you know I’m not going to be like Mom and hate the games?” I eyed him.

  “Your mother loved the games; she just…” He took a deep breath. “Loss can do things to a person.”

  “And losing Grandma, Mom, and you won’t do the same thing to me?” I smirked.

  He turned around and looked me over. For a moment I wondered if he was able to see through my clothes with some sort of x-ray vision or something. I suddenly felt very naked.

  “You’ve got the hunger.” He nodded his head. “You’ve kept up your training from high school and I can tell by your physique that you still love the run.”

  Yep, definitely can see through my jeans. I glared at the invasive image. I’d run track back in high school and the coaches had said that I had what it took to go all the way to the Olympics, but that was too competitive for my taste. I liked running because it was fun, not because I was racing against other people to prove I was better. I got more out of running down the trails around the lake than I did being out on the racetrack.

  “I think you might be wrong about why I run.” I watched as he waved his hand over the golden ring. Light swirled from the edges, twisting until blue liquid filled the inside of the ring, then the liquid vanished, revealing a dark room through the ring. My jaw dropped as I turned back to my grandfather.

  “Now he’s interested!” The hologram of Alistair walked through the ring, then snapped his fingers.

  Lights hummed as they turned on, lighting up the metallic walls of the other room. I took a cautious step towards the ring and looked around. The room the hologram was in now was empty, save for the lights that ran around the top of the walls like crown molding. I could see a closed door on the wall opposite the ring, but nothing else gave me any indication as to what was on the other side of the ring.

  “Coming?” The hologram smirked as he motioned for me to follow him out of the basement.

  “Where is that?” I waved my hand behind the ring to verify that it wasn’t another room that was built off of the basement.

  “It’s your personal spaceship.” The hologram folded his arms. “And before you ask, no, I’m not going to let you fly it until you learn how.” He gestured towards the door. “But you’re free to walk around the ship.”

  “Is this in the basement?” I stuck my head through the ring.

  “We’re in empty space just outside your solar system.” My grandfather gestured at the room. “You need a transfer point between Earth and the rest of the universe to keep the location of the gate in the basement a secret.” He tilted his head. “Also, you really need to come in or out; just like the front door, it’s irresponsible to leave the gate open for long.”

  “Oh.” I stepped through the ring and heard a POP! as the portal closed behind. I spun around to look at the bare metal wall of the other side of the ring. “I can still get back home, right?” I looked over at the hologram.

  “Of course!” He pointed at the fancy watch on my wrist. “Your pad will allow you to connect the gate back home, but don’t do that now.” The hologram motioned for me to follow him through the closed door like a ghost.

  The metal door slid into the wall as it opened, revealing an empty hallway. There were five closed doors on the other wall. The hall ended in another door to my right, with a single door on the wall beside me between where I was standing and the end of the hall. The hologram turned to the left and walked the remaining thirty feet of the hall and through the closed door at the end.

  “Wait!” I grumbled as I hurried after him. I ignored the closed door on my left but made a mental note that I was going to come back and figure out where all these doors went.

  The door at the end of the hall opened, revealing what I assumed was the cockpit. I hadn’t seen any windows, so the arched window opposite the door gave me my first look outside.

  There was nothing on the other side of the glass but stars. Like a clear night out in the woods, it was breathtaking to look out the window. The view didn’t last long as screens filled the windows, displaying information and news that I was too unfamiliar with to understand the importance of.

  “You’re in luck!” The hologram of my grandfather pointed at one of the screens. “There’s a game starting in a few minutes on Rashka.” He turned around, a big smile splitting his face, which turned into a frown as he sighed. “I forget, you have no clue who the Sortocs are or about their planet.” He shook his head. “Don’t worry, I’ll fix that later, but for now, we’ve got to get you planetside.” He shooed me out of the room and back into the hall.

  “Wait!” I flinched as the image of my grandfather moved through me. “I have no idea how to do any of this!”

  “I know.” He put his hand on the wristpad on my arm and vanished. His voice filled my mind. “As long as you’re wearing the wristpad, I’ll be able to converse with you like this.”

  “WHOA!” I winced at the voice invading my mind.

  “You don’t have to speak out loud.’

  Can you read my thoughts? I did my best to think about nothing.

  “Just the surface ones.” My grandfather clicked his tongue. “We’ll need to work on your mental defenses too, I see.”

  Just… I sighed. There was a small part of me that wanted to tell him to take me back to the house, throw the wristpad in the fireplace and watch it burn. But I knew I wasn’t going to do that. There was something about the chance to be something more than anything I’d ever been that called to me. Whatever part of my grandfather was inside of the hologram had grabbed my interest, and he knew it.

  Show me how to work the ring.

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