Tyler floated in the stream, lying on his back, gently moving his limbs every now and then to maintain balance as the waves embraced his body. The water traced the grooves of his joints and flowed over the chiselled muscles of his legs. It caressed his lithe torso, pooled in the valley where his neck met his chest, and rounded his shoulders to continue on its path past his ears.

  Nearby, another orb of light hovered – gifted to him by Mira – its soft glow shimmering on the surface of the water. Earlier, he had watched as she’d performed an elaborate dance with her hands and a moment later, without a sound nor a splash, a blinding flash of light had exploded beneath the water. She had headed back to the logs then, leaving him to it. He had cautiously dipped a toe in and found the water to be at that sweet spot between hot enough to be pleasurable but not enough to be painful. It had been like that since and he had a feeling it would remain so until he left the stream. She must still be maintaining the magic, even though she was more than thirty or forty metres from him.

  Above him, the constellations that spread across the night sky looked nothing like those on Earth. Not that Tyler knew that from looking at them. Even on Earth, he didn’t think he was an avid stargazer, but the Gamesmaster had told him this was the Andromeda galaxy, so naturally, the stars couldn’t be the same.

  That’s if the Gamesmaster had been telling the truth.

  He fluttered his arms a little towards the shore as he began drifting with the waves. It was troubling to think that the picture the Gamesmaster had painted for him wasn’t as he thought. There was little thinking done at the time, if he was honest with himself. The shock of seeing himself in that hospital bed had been enough to make his decision but now he was ruing not taking the chance to think longer. Survival was a powerful drug. It was what coloured his decision. What kept him rational enough to survive the Demon Sprite. But like any drug, there were downsides. Sometimes, trying to survive was to seek death.

  The more he thought about it, the less everything made sense but his mind lingered on those missing memories. The connections that had been lost. Or were they merely severed; the remedy yet to be found? If he had had his memories from Earth, would he have made a different decision? Probably not. That image of his broken body would have been enough, he had to admit.

  More concerning was that from what he had gathered from Alina, they had never before encountered people from other worlds on Cytheria. He wasn’t exactly sure what that meant. Did people sent here forget the Gamesmaster entirely, or had the Gamesmaster sent them somewhere else? If no-one remembered how they had got here, then how had they lived their lives. Were there multiple people walking around without any memories at all, except from the moment they arrived on Cytheria? Perhaps nobody had been sent here before at all. Perhaps he was the first. But then there were the other two that Alina had mentioned. Where were they from and how had they got here? Most puzzling was why any of them had retained the memories of their time with the Gamesmaster and why had no-one before?

  Gosh, there were so many things to think about. And as if he didn’t have enough on his plate, he also had to deal with Alina. That was the problem with beautiful women. By the time he’d managed to peel his eyes away from her, he’d already signed his life away and he hadn’t even realised. And not just to any woman. A Princess. One that could have his head chopped off and wrapped as a gift with just a command. And sheesh. Not just any princess either. One that wouldn’t even command someone else but would gleefully remove his head herself.

  Why couldn’t he have bumped into a village girl? Someone simple in their aspirations. Someone who likely wouldn’t be able to command armies. Someone who would faint at the sight of blood, rather than revel in it.

  And still, a part of him was grateful to have found Alina, though her words had been ominous. She would call upon him when she needed him for a war that she was sure was coming. A war that wasn’t his.

  Isn’t that what you signed up for though?

  He chuckled softly. That’s right. That was what he signed up for.

  “I’ll go to Cytheria. And I’ll win,” he mocked himself.

  The hot water lapped over his body and he massaged the pains from his muscles, kneaded the weariness from his bones. He hadn’t quite realised just how much he had needed this but the day’s events had taken their toll, his body as drained as his mind. He closed his eyes, heard the gentle lapping of the stream pass him by as he submerged himself a little deeper until only his nose remained above the water. He felt the heat pressing on his body, soothing knots of tension that he hadn’t even known were there. For a few precious moments, he allowed his mind to drift. To forget about princesses and demons and a wiry, fat old man. To forget about missing memories and impending wars. For a few precious moments, he just wanted to be cuddled by the hot water, like the calming embrace of a mother’s love.

  But peace couldn’t last. Not for him. Not anymore.

  He opened his eyes and stood upright, tilting his head to either side to clear his ears of the water. The stream wasn’t deep but it was deep enough that his feet didn’t touch the bottom in the middle where he was. He swam towards the shore, which wasn’t far at all.

  He seemed a tad faster than before, a tad stronger. His allocated points seemed to be making a slight difference. Of the seventy-eight, he had allocated most to [STR] – fifty points there, with ten in [VIT] and the rest in [AGI]. It couldn’t hurt. He’d also checked his bags before he bathed and was pleasantly surprised to find [Uncommon Pants], [Uncommon Shirt], [Uncommon Tunic] and a [Club]. He’d left them by the rocky outcrop where he had conversed with Alina.

  He emerged onto the pebbled bank, like Alina had earlier, stark naked and he was more than a little aware of it. The orb of light had followed him, but it was off to the side a little, the light too dim for Alina or Mira to see him. He glanced beyond the orb to the campfire, and could just about make out the silhouettes of both women, where they had been seated since he began bathing. He noticed a third person, smaller than them. Kiri, presumably. The figure looked small enough. He saw no-one else. Perhaps the rest were making their own way back. Or perhaps she hadn’t found them, which would be more troubling.

  Water droplets fell off his body, wetting the stones beneath as he made his way to his clothes at the base of the rocky outcrop. Just as he was about to bend down, shadows emerged from behind the outcrop. Four faceless heads rose, growing taller by the second. His heart hammered away, but he was more prepared this time. An invisible chill blew away the lingering steam that clung to his body, as one of the figures began reaching out.

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  Tyler turned and ran, the orb whizzing along with him. He tried to shout out but his words caught in his throat. He focused on the campfire – he couldn’t be more than twenty metres away. He sprinted as fast as he could, his lungs burning, but as he approached, finally they were able to expel the words he wanted to say.

  “Help,” he shouted over to the other three. “Monsters. Demons. Behind me.”

  The campfire crackled and spat, flames flaring. The beast from earlier had been carved and placed in bowls to the side, along with some greens and gravy. Alina and Mira were both wearing nightgowns, whilst Kiri remained in her leathers. All three turned to him, but not a single one rose to help or seemed particularly concerned, though all three had growing smiles on their faces amid clear amusement. Smiles that grew into little giggles. Kiri didn’t stop at giggling. She right out started cackling, arms over her ribs as she rolled around on the floor like a cat with a ball.

  “What’s so damn funny?” Tyler demanded. He put out a finger to point at the monsters coming, “There are-“ His words caught in his throat as he saw what was actually coming. Four silhouettes approached from the direction of the outcrop, but as they entered the light of the campfire, he could see they were four women. One was holding his gear.

  The leftmost was slim and tall, dressed in what looked to be simple cloth, not too dissimilar to the dress that Mira had on earlier, the small gems catching the light of the fire. She held a long, white staff in her hand, inlaid with intricate etchings. She looked a little like Mira too, with the same distant brown eyes, but she looked older and had shoulder-length hair the colour of late autumn leaves. She carried herself with a quiet dignity, the sympathetic smile on her face saying she’d seen this kind of thing before, and offering comfort in the presence of her sisters had become second nature.

  Second from the left was a taller woman, almost as tall as Alina and wearing leather armour like Kiri, but more rugged and weathered as if she’d spent years in the wilderness. She carried a dark bow in her hands, a quiver of arrows at her hip next to a short sword, and all gemmed like the others. Her black hair, flecked with silver, hung halfway to her waist, framing a round motherly face, as weathered as her clothes. There was a slight hint of concern in her blue eyes.

  The third, holding his gear with an amused smile, was also dressed in leathers but here and there, hints of gleaming silver mail peeked through amongst the gleaming gems. She was broad-shouldered and stocky, like she was born to be in a boxing ring and preferred to solve problems directly. At her waist, on either side hung footlong axes, with an even larger axe strapped to her back. She was older than him by a few years and she stood with the confidence of someone approaching their third decade. Her red hair was cut short and bunched out wildly, and she wouldn’t have looked out of place among the crackling flames of the campfire.

  The last was an imposing figure that stood taller than anyone else. She was dressed in gleaming silver plate, the reflections of the campfire dancing across it. The armour looked similar to Alina’s but less ornate, less expensive. Just as many gems. She was even more broad-shouldered than number three. She had a scrunched-up face that perhaps even a mother couldn’t love dominated by a scar down the left side of her face, cutting through not only skin but an empty eye socket too. She seemed to be smiling. At least that’s what he thought. Was it her lip curling upwards or was that the scar? The black hair on her head had been shaved as close as possible without being bald, and protruding above her head were the hilts of two massive swords.

  “The rest of the sister’s, I presume?”

  They nodded as one.

  It wasn’t that he wasn’t aware that he was standing there naked in front of them, his backside to Alina and the other two. It’s just he wasn’t sure what he should do. Grab his clothes and run? Flee back to the comfort of the water? His skin was neither pale nor tan but he could feel it burning with embarrassment like the flames behind him.

  “Don’t worry,” older Mira said in a soft tone as if she thought it would console him. “It’s nothing we haven’t seen before.”

  “Is there anything to see?” one-eye on the right said, looking directly beneath his navel. “I think we might have an eighth sister of retribution here.”

  Axes snorted before throwing him his clothes. “Here, you forgot these. I hope that’s only water pooling by your feet.” Kiri cackled louder behind him. One-eye, axes and older Mira moved to walk past him, older Mira giving him an apologetic nod. The eldest of the group stayed ahead of him.

  “I apologise for my sisters. Kiri told us about you on our way back and that she caught you gawking at Alina this evening. My sisters felt you needed to learn a lesson.

  “Out here in the wilderness, or on the battlefield, you’ll find yourself surrounded by men and women needing to take a piss or shit, needing to bathe, needing to fuck. There’s no need for modesty, even for princesses. You just get about your business, no matter who’s watching. But it’s your choice to do so. I’ve known people to trek a mile, risk attack by man or beast, just because they’re worried about being seen as if nobody but them relieves themselves.

  “What nobody should be doing however, is watching from the shadows. We have ways of dealing with those types. It’s a lot worse than what we’ve done here.

  “Now, get dressed and join us for a meal.” She gave him a motherly smile and walked past him also.

  Tyler heard her words and stood there. He hadn’t really thought that he was gawking at Alina. He couldn’t deny he had seen her naked, though he hadn’t seen much at all but it hadn’t been a deliberate choice. Nothing that had happened to him so far had been a deliberate choice. It was all just happening to him. And he was reacting. Reacting to the Gamesmaster. Reacting to the Demon Sprite. Reacting to Alina. He’d been constantly on the back foot. Scrambling to live, scrambling to survive, scrambling to understand. When was he going to start acting?

  If he hoped to get by in this world; perhaps even to thrive in it, he couldn’t keep being blown here and there like a leaf in a storm. Alina had already trapped him into her service but if he wanted her to take him seriously and if he wanted any hope of taking control of his destiny, he needed to stop reacting and start acting. It might just be the difference between survival or death.

  He turned. Slowly. Deliberately. It was almost as hard as when he wanted to follow the demon earlier. He turned, until he was facing all seven sisters, including the beautiful princess. They had all forgotten him already, as they sat around the fire, weapons by their side, plates in hand. That pissed him off even more. Treat him like a child, make him stand in a corner to learn his lesson and then forget he’s there. Unacceptable.

  “You know what?” he shouted and the camp fell silent, seven pairs of eyes turning to him. He looked at Alina, right into her light-green eyes. “You’re right, Princess. I did see you naked. But I didn’t do it on purpose. I was fighting for my life and you happened to step out of the water at that time. Frankly, if you didn’t want to be seen, perhaps you should have put a screen up or something. I’m sure Mira could have prepared something for you.

  “Am I the one in the wrong for stumbling upon you? But it doesn’t matter, because you’re right. It wasn’t fair to stare at you. So here I am. Take a good look.”

  The others turned away but Alina did look. But she was looking at his face, a glint in her eyes. Her lips curved into a smile, but not of amusement. It almost looked like respect. She held his gaze a moment before she turned back to her sisters.

  He felt a rush of exhilaration. Almost as if letting them see him naked out of his own choice had somehow freed him from some unseen shackles. He turned around and began to get dressed. Behind him, he heard one of the sisters speak. He thought it sounded like one-eye.

  “I like him. Got a spine to him, that one.”