Outside of Cristak’s walls, a large swath of forest had been cut down to accommodate large pastures of cows, sheep, goats, and horses. Guards patrolled dirt paths which criss-crossed between the fields—hired hands meant to keep out wildlife and thieves. Ayn, Neu, Rav, and Tayla huddled at the edge of the sprawling farmland, hidden behind a thick cluster of brush and trees.

  Kasson’s farm. The sheer size of it always impressed Ayn, even if the barnyard smell got to be a bit much. Each Rebirth character, if not felled by something else, had one hundred years to live. While The System forced Rebirth at year one hundred, characters never aged beyond adulthood in strength. Kasson was a lifetime non-combatant who’d devoted his strength to keeping the best, and most expansive, farm Cristak had ever had.

  Ayn took a moment to admire it more as the four of them caught their breath. Scaling Cristak’s walls was exhausting, especially for the youngest of their gang. Still, they could hardly walk out of the front gate in the dead of night. The gate guards knew them by sight.

  “Why’d we even come out here?” Rav said, the words hissing out between her teeth. “Most of the old man’s chickens are inside Cristak. You planning on stealing a whole cow?”

  “Nah,” Neu said. “I heard the guards had a little game going before shift change. Some bets about how quiet the night would be. Apparently, it’s been pretty boring lately.”

  “Right. So, naturally, you have to make sure that changes. Are you going to tell us why you dragged all of us out here?”

  “For fun, right Ayn?”

  Ayn smiled. Neu had a plan. He always had a plan, and it was always fun. She just had to wait for it. “Sure. What part of the fun do I get?”

  “Ha! The proper question. You have one of the most important jobs of all." Ol’ Kasson just hired some new guards. Highly recommended, and not from around here. The codger told them about us, but not one of them has seen us before, and we all know his descriptions aren’t the best. Your job is to tell them where we are and what we’re up to.”

  Ayn tried to figure out if Neu was serious or not as Tayla clamped onto the back of her shirt.

  “No, I don’t want you to go!” Tayla said.

  Ayn turned, looping her arm around the girl to pull her into a hug. Tayla had only been a Rebirth for three years, making her the equivalent size of a six-year-old. The way she acted made Ayn wonder if she wasn’t at a similar age when she died in the original world. But, with Tayla’s completely closed data preventing her from remembering anything from her old life, it was anyone’s guess.

  “It’s just a bit of troublemaking,” Ayn said. “Riling up livestock is something we’ve done plenty of before.”

  “And the runt’s complained every time,” Neu said.

  “Maybe that’s because your hare-brained schemes always lead to trouble,” Rav said. “Or maybe it’s because you’re expecting too much from a literal child.”

  Neu snickered. “Literal? Says who? Besides, it’s Ayn dragging her around. Not me. We don’t need her.”

  “Then why do you keep giving her jobs?”

  “Because she’s here. She can stay right there, all hidden and cozy. Hell, she can even go back home. I’m sure those worthless parents of hers care she’s gone.”

  Rav’s jaw clenched. “You’re a real piece of work, you know that?”

  “You and me both, babe.”

  Tayla cried softly in Ayn’s arms. Nothing Neu said had been wrong, yet it seemed unnecessarily cruel to say it in front of a Rebirth who had yet to see any of the good side of her new life. Rav clearly felt the same, and Ayn could see an explosive retort building up on her tongue. If Ayn didn’t do something fast, they’d get caught. Ayn was fine with consequences for a night of numbing adrenaline, but getting punished before they’d even done anything sounded like a torture she couldn’t handle.

  “Tell me what you need me to do,” Ayn said flatly. “Tayla can stay here.”

  *****

  Ayn’s derailment of Neu and Rav’s argument had worked, just barely. Rav had tried to convince her to give up on the scheme for the night. There was no way. After all the tension, Ayn needed the rush more than ever. In the end, the older Rebirth gave in, just like she always did.

  Ayn jogged down one of the dirt paths criss-crossing through the farm, fixing her face into the best look of concern she could muster. The adrenaline hit as soon as a guard spotted her.

  “Hey,” he called to her. “You’re not supposed to be here.”

  The guard wore basic leather armor with a long sword at his side. His face and build were unremarkable. Kasson liked his money too much to hire high-level adventurers, so young Crawlers in low-level gear populated all of his workforce.

  “I know. I’m sorry!” Ayn threw her hands up as she pleaded. “But I saw some kids run into the farm.”

  “Kids other than you?”

  “I just followed them. It was Neu and Rav, I’m sure of it, and Kasson’s been so nice to my family. I can’t stand the thought of those criminals causing him trouble!”

  Ayn almost gagged at the praises she sang the old farmer. The miser hadn’t spared an egg for her family, even after all the materials her parents had gathered for him before her father died.

  The guard frowned and looked around. “I haven’t heard anything.”

  “Don’t you know? Neu and Rav stole gold straight out of Crawlers’ inventories while they slept in the inn. All eighteen rooms, and no one noticed until the next morning at market.”

  “Really? They’re underage, though. It’s not like they can increase their stats that much.”

  Ayn repressed a sigh. She had to pick the stubborn one. “They’re Old Souls. They are capable of crazy things.”

  The guard’s eyes went wide at her words. Any Rebirth who’d been around more than a lifetime had heard about the unnatural feats, and mental instability, of those who’d spent far too long in the digital afterlife.

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  “Kasson didn’t mention that.”

  “Maybe he didn’t want to scare you. But I’m telling you, they’re here, and if you don’t do something about it, they’re going to put him in the poorhouse. Then where will you be?”

  “Right! Right. Where did you see them, Miss…”

  “Farah. I saw them in the pig pasture. Don’t go alone, though. They brought crossbows.”

  The guard’s face blanched under his helmet. They’d done no such thing, nor could Neu and Rav use any Crawler weapons that Ayn knew of, but the stories of Old Souls had spiraled over the years, and the guard bought it all too easily.

  “Of course. Thank you, Miss Farah, but I’ll have to ask you to leave now.”

  “Oh. Okay.” Ayn feigned disappointment. “I’d kinda hoped to see you guys catch those criminals in the act.”

  “It will be far too dangerous for someone your age. Although, how about this—find me in the guardhouse tomorrow, and I’ll make sure you get rewarded. My name’s Henry.”

  Ayn nodded curtly and left the guard to scramble his comrades and rush to the pig pasture. She wouldn’t have to wait for her reward. The adrenaline already surged through her veins. It cleared the dark thoughts always lurking at the edge of her mind and sharpened her focus to a razor’s edge.

  With her main task complete, Ayn slipped into the shadows and angled toward Neu and Rav’s actual target—the horses. The beasts were old Kasson’s pride and joy, his latest, and priciest, addition to his sprawling farm. While they couldn’t hold a candle to the purebred steeds of the large cities, in a mere three generations his broodmares had become well-known for producing the best long-distance steeds you could buy so far out in the middle of nowhere, and at a fraction of the cost of a big city horse.

  Neu, of course, had latched onto the claim as soon as he’d heard it, and together with Rav, had gathered convincing intel that Kasson’s breeding methods weren’t above the table. Despite Neu’s own methods being less than scrupulous, the whiff of another’s dirty deeds activated his obsessive tendencies. He didn’t care if they were caught. He only cared that they were harmed by his hand.

  Ayn found Rav crouched next to a gate leading into the broodmare pasture. She’d already picked the lock and was cursing in hushed whispers when Ayn approached.

  “Damned idiot. Where is he?”

  It wasn’t hard to figure out who she was talking about.

  “Neu not doing his part?” Ayn asked.

  “How the hell should I know? He said he was going to spook the mares. Get them to run out of the gate. I’ve been sitting here for damn near ten minutes. How long does it take to spook a horse?”

  As if in answer, a man yelled from a neighboring pasture.

  “The hell?” Rav glared at Ayn. “You were supposed to get the guards away from here!”

  “I did! I mean…I thought I did.”

  Rav didn’t answer. Instead, she grabbed Ayn’s hand and pulled them both into the shadow cast by the open gate. Rav’s eyes darted back and forth, no doubt trying to see where the guard was, and where the best escape route would be.

  “Stop right there!”

  Both Ayn and Rav flinched at the command, but it wasn’t aimed at them. A dark shape shot over the fence around the yearlings’ pasture. Ayn recognized Neu’s off-kilter gait before he got close enough to see.

  “Look sharp,” he yelled as he passed by.

  An explosion punctuated the end of his sentence. The yearlings’ barn went up in flames.

  “Shit!” Rav took off after Neu, dragging Ayn behind her.

  Ayn’s mind reeled. They were supposed to let some horses out, cause a headache for Kasson and his guards. They weren’t going to destroy anything. That was the plan. Neu always stuck to the plan.

  Another explosion heated Ayn’s back. The mares’ barn, and this time, she could hear the animals cry out. Ayn slapped her free hand over one ear and tugged at Rav’s grip. The older Rebirth held tighter and pulled her toward the woods.

  A howl rose over the din of fire and death. It wobbled like a siren, yet a sinking feeling told Ayn the warning was less for the guards, and more for them.

  The three of them hit the treeline at full speed. Ayn’s foot got tangled in a branch. It snapped up and scraped along her calf, sending a rivulet of pain down her leg. She stumbled, but didn’t dare slow down.

  “Ayn!”

  Tayla’s desperate call halted Ayn in her tracks. Rav slid to a stop as well, her hand still gripping Ayn’s arm, as Neu ran on. Tayla’s cry had come from a spot near to where they’d entered the farm. It wasn’t that far away. Ayn opened her mouth to call back.

  Rav slapped her hand over Ayn’s mouth. “Don’t. You’ll give us away. Go. Get her quick and be quiet.” She let go of Ayn’s arm, and with a wan smile Ayn had never seen on her face before, disappeared into the forest.

  Ayn rushed toward Tayla, ignoring the scrapes of the forest brush and branches as the girl called out again. A loud snarl came from her left. Ayn slid to a stop as a dog-like familiar darted in front of her. The thing was the size of a pony, with horns and spikes protruding from its yellow fur. Ayn’s heart skipped a beat, but it didn’t even look her way. It crashed farther into the trees in the same direction Ayn was headed. Straight toward Tayla.

  “No!”

  Ayn yelled, not caring if the guards heard her or not. The creature didn’t look back. It disappeared in a flash, and a second later, Tayla screamed.

  Ayn never could remember what all happened after that. Only blood. Tayla was gone. A Rebirth’s death took all of their equipped belongings and inventory with them. A Death Toll, and one which insured there was nothing left to bury. She remembered little of the next day, too. Miit had got injured, the wolf bite on his back a clue to Ayn as to how. He’d given her space with Neu’s gang, but he still showed up when it counted. Ayn wished she had thanked him for it. Instead, she’d stumbled around in a daze, dragged to admin hearings she couldn’t recall, until they all received their verdict.

  Neu’s parents gave him up for punishment with glee. The admins removed him from the server. Rav’s parents stood their ground and haggled her sentence down to exile. She’d be branded and cast out, never to be accepted by another, locked into her character’s life and unable to progress until the end of her hundred years.

  Ayn, somehow, had avoided both. She never understood why. Sure, she’d not hurt anyone, or anything, but she’d condoned the gang’s actions. She’d got Tayla killed. To add insult to injury, Tayla’s parents seemed relieved to lose her. They’d always complained about their bad luck getting a new Rebirth who acted like an actual toddler. When the admins gave them compensation for her death, they took it with smiling faces and moved to a big city, no questions asked. Ayn could only grasp onto the hope that Tayla’s next digital life was good enough to cover the injustice she’d lived in her first.

  Unlike Tayla’s parents, Ayn had lots of questions. She pestered the guards until Kasson threatened to get the admins involved again, then she pestered them more. The thing that had killed Tayla hadn’t been wildlife.

  *****

  Ayn paused and took a deep breath. Telling the story had let her push her emotions down, add some separation between her and her past. Now that she was nearing the end, she could feel the weight descending like a ton of bricks.

  “So, what was it?” Kayara asked.

  “A…familiar.”

  Ayn grimaced as the words left her mouth. She’d wanted to talk, hoping that giving a voice to the ghosts haunting her would help them settle down. She hadn’t even thought of Kayara’s reaction. Ayn braced for the inevitable look of horror.

  Kayara’s face remained neutral. “Using a familiar to attack a Rebirth is grounds for banning.”

  “It smelled all the explosives Neu had placed and led its master there, which was the guard Rav and I heard. The guard got injured in the first explosion, and his familiar went berserk because of it.”

  “Oh.”

  “I mean, maybe the admins banned the Rebirth in the end. I don’t know. That character died that night, and the familiar dissipated.”

  Somehow, Kayara’s expression didn’t change. Perhaps it was a boon of being a performer. Ayn didn’t believe for a second the ranger was as calm as she looked, though. Not after how she’d reacted to Miit, and not after what she’d said about her past. Ayn hoped her need to talk didn’t destroy what little progress they’d made between her and Miit.

  “Is that why the other villagers dislike you?”

  Ayn choked out a laugh. “Dislike is a nice way of putting it. But, sure, mostly. I can’t say I’ve made their lives easier on my own, either.”

  “It sounds like plenty of them don’t deserve an easy life. What about you? Why stay here?”

  “Miit’s life is tied to this place. I tried to leave after what happened, and plenty of times after. Miit has to follow where I go, and every time he did, he’d sicken within hours. After all I’d done, all the death because of me, I couldn’t add him to the list.”

  Kayara looked like she wanted to protest, but after a few seconds, her face relaxed back into neutrality, and she nodded. She waved her hand across the table. Two steaming tankards appeared. Kayara pushed one to Ayn. It smelled of flowers and calming herbs found around Cristak. Ayn held her tankard close as they sat in the cool quiet of the earliest hours of the morning, neither of them willing to break the silence.