“Um, no. Haven’t really had the opportunity. And honestly, I kind of forgot that option.” He was embarrassed to admit it, but he had truly forgotten the help option that had been on the first screen he had pulled up on his own. “Huh, hold on. I’ll see if I can find anything else about it.” He focused his attention and his screen appeared.

  He chose the Help option and was greeted with a simple notice.

  The “choose help topic” option was followed by a blinking cursor. With no keyboard as he was used to with a computer, he focused on the screen and thought, Fate.

  Shane reread the description a few times. Not a lot of detail. Kind of like a crappy Wikipedia. He focused on the Fate type and was presented with a new list of information.

  Damn! That all sounds crazy and still not a lot to go on. As he read, he peripherally noticed the others doing the same. How about Bind Fate? He searched the help files for a description of his spell.

  Shane sat in thought about the implications of binding someone’s Fate. The description was, again, lackluster in its depth. He also wondered what the difference was between a Fatebound and a Boon Companion.

  He wondered about his ability to grant a Greater Boon seeing as he was only level one but chalked it up to maybe a perk of the Fatebringer class.

  Shane closed his screen and wiped his eyes. That is a lot of information. He looked at his status screen again and realized that he had three points to distribute among his stats and two skill slots unclaimed. Willpower, Wisdom and Vitality were his three main stats. None of them were physical stats so he knew he would have to place some of his free stat points in Strength, Endurance and Agility if he wanted to maintain a balance of sorts. Especially seeing that his was a hybrid class and was meant to be combat worthy. He already had seen the effect of increased strength with Brom, so he knew there was a visible aspect to increased Body stats. The boost he got to his Mind and Spirit stats, though, he did not seem to really feel. Would he feel it? How do you quantify something like Willpower or Wisdom? This entire thing was crazy and yet here he was casually thinking about his stats, skills, and spells like it was a normal everyday thing. He finally decided to place his free points one each in Strength, Endurance and Agility. A warmth flowed into his body and his skin momentarily felt tight, but the feeling passed quickly. Did he feel stronger? He wasn’t sure, but his Strength was now at 11.

  “Hey Brom.” Shane asked out loud, turning towards his friend. “I just upgraded my Strength by a point to eleven. What’s yours at?”

  “Sixteen.” Brom answered casually.

  “Damn! What did you start with?” Shane was impressed.

  “Twelve.”

  Malcolm sputtered while sipping his drink, “You started at twelve and now it’s sixteen? Holy crap!”

  “Mal, language.” Kenzie admonished.

  “Seriously?” He directed a look back at his sister.

  She raised an eyebrow, “Just because the world has gone crazy is no reason to have a potty mouth.”

  A bit perturbed, Malcolm replied, “Now who’s the pot and kettle. I distinctly remember some choice words out of you earlier.”

  Kenzie smiled, “That’s cause I’m older and you should do as I say, not as I do.”

  Shane patted Malcolm on the shoulder, “I think it’s a losing argument kiddo.”

  Malcolm huffed and muttered, “We’ll see.” But he capitulated and changed the subject. “Hey, when we fought the zomb…” He caught himself as he looked at Brynn, “Um, monsters earlier, did anyone else get a notification after you, uh, finished one off?”

  Brynn smiled and said, “It’s okay Mal, you can say killed. I understand. I just don’t have to like it even though it’s true.” She squished Harvey closer to herself who let out a little squeak.

  “Okay, thanks.” Malcolm returned Brynn’s smile.

  Both Brom and Kenzie answered yes to his question. Brom added, “It said…, hold on, I can find the actual message.” He took a few seconds to consult his screen, “You have slain human zombie level one. Ten Aether rewarded.”

  Kenzie spoke, “Mine’s the same.”

  Malcolm, visibly excited continued, “Cool. So, if you look at your status now, do you see that you now have an entry called Aether?” Brom and Kenzie said they both did, however Shane and Brynn did not. “I looked it up. Aether is like experience points only a bit different. When you take down a monster or creature it awards a certain amount of Aether depending on its level and doing quests and dungeons also gives it out. In fact, there are quite a few things that award Aether. And, once you have enough Aether, you can use it to level up. But!” He emphasized, “You can also use Aether to power a Refuge!” He was getting more excited. “You know what that means?” As the others shook their heads he grimaced at their lack of gamer expertise, “It means we can make a base. A safe place to live where monsters can’t spawn!”

  Happily, Brynn said, “Oh, I like that. We should do that.”

  “Yeah, but not here.” Brom spoke, “We should get home first.” On this everyone agreed.

  It was Kenzie that asked Malcolm, “So how much Aether does it take to level up?”

  Smiling big and feeling important, Malcolm answered, “From level one to two is two hundred and fifty Aether. How much do you have?”

  “Forty-five.”

  Brom consulted his screen, “I have a hundred and thirty-five.”

  “Wow!” Shane expressed. “Probably from you taking out the majority of the zombies.”

  The next few hours were spent discussing each other’s abilities and speculating on the System. Shane also brought everyone up to speed on his ability to bind a Fate. This caused a long round of discussion with everyone deciding to sleep on the idea. While Shane was not in a rush to bind anyone to him, he did get a notice.

  This he sat and pondered for a long while, even asking the group their opinion. Brom and Malcolm were for it. Brynn still did not seem to really grasp what it was so had no true opinion and Kenzie sat with him for a long time trying to figure out the pros and cons of doing so. Finally, he decided to wait until morning after he had gotten some sleep.

  Eventually, the group felt that it was probably eight or nine at night and decided to try and get some sleep. Even though they were all wound up from the day, they all felt emotionally tired. Brom, with the highest endurance, was not as tired as the rest, at least not physically, so he opted to stay awake for the first half of the night to keep watch. Harvey, being a construct of magic did not need to sleep so he also volunteered to stay on guard as was his purpose in order to protect Brynn. Brynn fell asleep snuggled against her brother with an arm draped over Harvey. She knew that with the two of them watching over her, there would be no monsters.

  She was wrong.

  Deep in the night the rain and the wind had diminished, and Shane had taken the watch. He spoke quietly with Harvey for a while, surprised at how smart the teddy bear was and how quickly he himself adapted to speaking with an animate toy. There had been a long lull in the conversation as Shane had roamed the aisles of the market, making note of the things they would need to take with them in the morning. As he made his way towards his friends, he happened to glance at one of the windows and saw something move. He froze and stood still; eyes plastered to the window. Just when he thought that he had imagined it, he saw it again. However, this time it was two figures that had crossed his vision, and they were headed for the front door.

  As quickly and quietly as he could, he reached Brom and gently shook him awake, covering his own mouth with a single finger. Instant understanding flooded Brom’s face, and he began untangling himself from Brynn. Shane then went to both Kenzie and Malcolm and repeated the process, noting that Harvey was now standing at Brynn’s feet, staring at the door, his cartoonish eyebrows narrowed. Everyone woke quietly and quickly as the doorknob was slightly rattled and something pushed against the door. Finding the door blocked and unable to open, the intruder seemed to back off. That was when Brynn came to groggily and saw that everyone was watching the door intently.

  “What’s going on?” Her voice pierced the darkness like a bullhorn. Brom clamped a hand over her mouth and everyone else shushed her in fear.

  But it was too late as something slammed into the door. The group could hear the wood of the door crack and the shelving they had slid in front of it began moving. Things happened rapidly after that. Brom and Shane dove for the shelving to brace it, Brynn screamed (again), Kenzie and Malcolm grabbed their weapons and Harvey stood in front of Brynn, emitting a very cute growl. A second slam against the door happened, which slightly pushed Shane and Brom back, and was accompanied by the long growl of some kind of beast.