She stands alone at the center of the field. No one attacks within five feet of Her. Her pixelated right arm is gone, the stub that's left bleeds heavily. In Her left hand is a staff, a purple glow crashing anyone or anything who comes within five feet to the ground.
Nothing can stop Her, but Her firepower is gone and She cannot stop them from getting into Her fortress.
A young girl watches as Her field is penetrated. Me. An enemy warrior attacks me, trying to capture me. I look directly at the screen as I'm supposed to now, screaming, Help me!
I'll just regenerate when I die, that's how it works. There's meant to be no way out. Except to leave me for death. If the gamer tries to save me, She will die. The gamer dies if She dies. The gamer is Her. She is the gamer.
Oh no, She's going after me. The stupid gamer is going after me. Leave me behind. Leave me behind!
Something is special about this one. This gamer deserves to know. I scream, Don't go after me, it's a trap! I'm just bait, you can't win like this!
I'll be punished for this. I'll be punished with a Replacement.
But the damn gamer keeps going on, though She hesitates for a moment, like What's going on with the game? then keeps going.
I'm tied in the chair like I am every time. I send out the Scrolls.
Scroll 0 says YOU'RE TRAPPED! You enter a room, but the door disappears behind you. Must be magic, but you don't know how to counteract it. You have to go in one of the 3 rooms ahead. Please pick one of the three below.
Scroll 1 says Room 1: you see a room ahead, but when you try to walk in, 50 staffs point at your head. Their firepower will not miss, you are sure.
Scroll 2 says Room 2: you see a second room, but it's filled with lions who haven't eaten in 7 weeks.
Scroll 3 says Room 3: the last room is completely dark. You don't know what's inside it, and when you put your staff inside the room and speak the spell to light the room, nothing happens.
Scroll 4 says Select one of the three options to choose from.
Most people choose Room 3, because at least, they think, there's a chance. There isn't. It's filled with the same thing as the first one. Room 2 is the way to go, because the lions haven't eaten in seven weeks. They're dead.
I feel the tag on my wrist that reads Room 3 begin to quiver, indicating that the gamer's mouse is hovering over Room 3. Don't click it, I think. Don't click it.
Room 2 quivers, and then stops shaking. A door opens in my area and I can see the dead lions. She walks into the room and begins to untie me from my chair.
And then fifty staffs appear out of nowhere and fire at Her so many times from so many directions that there's no way of escaping. And yet She shrinks to the size of a mouse, gnawing at my bonds. This is new. I've never seen someone who's been able to do this. The level's supposed to be impossible, even for the most skilled. There's no way the gamer could have-
But she did. And she unties me, and I shrink too, and we escape. I am grateful. Being killed hurts.
She yells at me. For disobeying the First Law. For talking to the gamer. For disobeying the Second Law. For being alive at the end of the game. And then she brings in my Replacement.
But she also tells me a secret. We've found the One of the Prophecy.
