TYRIA'S REAL!?

Summary: Dun dun dun! Sorry, no summary for this chapter, because I had a cliffie last chapter. I'm afraid that'll become the norm - cliffie last chapter means no summary. But, Logan has a good think at the end.

Chapter 10: Reunions and Realizations

Author's Notes:

Here we gooo!

Oh, and as of 6/10/2019 (or the day before or after if you live across the International Date Line from America) reread the Author's Notes at the bottom of chapter 9, I updated that little bit rather than put it here cuz that would be confusing.

So, remember: "Mom and Dad played an elementalist and a thief!"

Guess what? Perspective change! This is out of the eyes of - the Tassof family! (at least for the first part.)

This is a long chapter - longer than the last chapter, I'm quite sure. And a lot of information revelation.

Okay, here's the story now:

"That looks weird..." Fiona says in a creeped-out tone of voice, taking a step back. "I'm sure something's wrong with it."

The glow grows stronger, and brighter. Both girls stumble back, shielding their eyes. Then, as quickly as it started, it is gone. So are Tiffany and Fiona... kind of.

Harrison shrieks. "Mommy! Daddy! Come see this quick! It's magic!"

"Let me see! Harrison, what is it?" a little boy comes running into the room, but stops short. "Are they ghosts?"

"What is it, Harrison?" Joslyn calls from the next room.

"The map Tiffany and Fiona got started glowing, and now it's not, and Tiffany and Fiona are ghosts!" Nate hollers.

"Mommy, come see! What's wrong with them?"

"What is it, Harrison?" asks an older boy, entering the living room from the hallway.

"Look, Falcon! They're ghosts! The map they got started glowing, and now they're ghosts!"

"Mom!" Falcon shouts suddenly. "Tiffany's a ghost and now she's fiddling with the map - what! She turned into Zojja!"

Joslyn enters the room, expecting to see Falcon dressed up as Fiona and Eden dressed up as Tiffany dressed up as Zojja, but what she sees is entirely different.

Zojja is standing, in a misty ghostlike form, on the rug in front of the wall, facing her, with her back to the back door. She seems to have just turned from looking at the wall. Between them is Fiona, who is looking at Zojja. Both are laughing, but Joslyn can't hear any noise. Then, Zojja turns and pushes an invisible button on the wall, and she turns into Tiffany.

"Phillipe! Come here! Something's happened to Tiffany and Fiona!" Joslyn calls. It's a Saturday, so the head of Tassof family is home.

"Yes?" he opens the door of his bedroom where he'd been catching up on some work.

"Look!" Joslyn nods at Tiffany and Fiona. "They've gone all... and Tiffany looked exactly like a Guild Wars character!"

"Let me guess, she looked totally rediculous and started laughing her head off."

"No, she did look exactly like Zojja!"

"Mommy, look what - wait, what's wrong with Tiffany and Fiona?" says Eden, as she runs into the room. "They look weird!"

Tiffany and Fiona had started changing. Their bodily features - how tall they were, how long their hair is, and other things. It seemed associated with how they moved their hands on seemingly invisible controls on the walls. Phillipe drew a large square on the white board, and tried to figure out where their hands were when they changed, and so what the control did. There was one control that made both girls start laughing, but the Tassof family couldn't figure out what it was. Other than a couple others like that, Phillipe charts out the control panel pretty easily.

Tiffany and Fiona are still changing - and Falcon is laughing his head off, same as the girls' silent laughter. "They're turning into other people, too! Ooh, it's funny!"

Then, a voice echoes through the room, and Tiffany and Fiona seem to hear it, too.

"Create a character that will represent you - forever. Once created, you will enter Tyria as a world. It will be real life from then on. You are smart enough to know what that implies."

Tiffany seems surprised, and says something that the Tossaf family can't hear. Both girls get to work on creating a character that looks just like them. One button, when pressed, readjusts their hight to match. Some buttons don't seem to do anything. After some discussion, they start moving their fingers in a familiar pattern - that of a keyboard. Tiffany and Fiona, each girl typed in respectively. Then, they both hit a button in the lower-right corner that hadn't been touched before, and the ghostly images of Tiffany and Fiona warp and twist, spiraling into each other as if a reflection in a bowl of water being stirred by a spoon, and then they disappear. As if an echo, the same voice from before speaks:

"Remember, this is real life... there is no such thing as an NPC... "

The Tossaf family is staring in shock.

Laura runs up to the map and starts hitting it, making baby noises. "Uh! Uh! UUH!" she says.

Vinn approachs cautiously her, as if curious.

The rest of the family slowly approaches the map, now hanging limply where Tiffany and Fiona had tacked it up. It seems innocent enough.

The family starts investigating the map, running their hands over it, looking at the underside of it, but nothing.

"They got pulled into Tyria, as real life." Falcon says at last. "That's what the voice said. Forever."

"Forever?" Harrison asks in seven-year-old awe.

"Can we go into Tyria?" Nate asks. "It sounds fun."

"Even if we could, you shouldn't, Nate. You'd probably have to kill people." Falcon tells him.

"But I'd only kill bad guys!" Nate protests.

"You're six, Nate. No way you're killing people." Joslyn says authoritatively.

"But what about us?" Harrison asks. "Can't we get into Tyria? What's Tyria anyway?" he asks, confused.

"Tyria is..." Falcon stops. "Tyria is Guild Wars."

The family looks at Falcon in silence.

"So we go into Tyria when we play Guild Wars? It's not like what happened to Tiffany and Fiona," Harrison tries to clarify.

"No, they are playing Guild Wars like it's real life," Falcon corrects. "At least, that's what I'd assume."

"So it's like Virtual Reality, for them. Except it's not." Joslyn says.

"Yeah, I guess," Falcon shrugs. "I don't know much about VR, but I'd suppose so."

"So we should be able to interact with them if we play Guild Wars, too." Phillipe says.

"They're both humans." Falcon says. "Me and Harrison already have characters, and didn't you and Mommy used to play?"

"Yes. I'll have to make a new character, though, I was a sylvari and I never explored the human starting zone. I'll see if I can find a way to have the computers use sound - "

"Tiffany's laptop has sound, and so does yours, Dad," Falcon tells him. "That leaves Mommy's laptop and the computer in the alcove. You could also do the other one in the computer room, but we only need two fixed."

"Actually, only one. I have two laptops for this project," Phillipe tells Falcon. "But, what about Nate? He wants to play."

"Nate would have trouble with it, but he can try," Falcon shrugs.

"Why don't we just use headphones?" Joslyn says. "The audio ports work. And you don't need sound for Guild Wars, anyway - you've been doing it without 'till now."

"But we don't know how Tiffany and Fiona'll appear," Falcon argues. "Will they be like NPCs, or players? Will they be a mix? It's hard to pay attention to NPCs unless you're on a quest if you don't have sound. Mainly because they don't matter unless you're on a quest."

"We'll try it without, first." Phillipe says.

"Let's get on then, what are we waiting for? They're probably done with the tutorial already!" Falcon says. "I'll use Tiffany's laptop."

"No, Nate'll use Tiffany's laptop. She doesn't want you on hers, but she always let Nate play." Harrison tells him.

"I'll need someone to type in the password," Nate says.

That stops everyone short. "Only Tiffany and Fiona knew Tiffany's password," Falcon says with wide eyes.

"I could probably guess it," Phillipe offers. "Is there a hint?"

"It just says 'me'." Falcon says flatly.

"So, we'll try all her usernames," Phillipe says brightly. "And if that doesn't work, I could always wipe it. Like we did for your phone, Falcon - erasing all the memory."

"Tiffany won't like that at all. None of her fanfictions are saved to the cloud," Falcon tells him. "Except the ones she's already posted, which is like one eighth of what she's got. She would be maaad..."

"Didn't you hear the voice?" Phillipe says, his voice breaking a bit. "Forever, it said. She won't be back to use her laptop."

A hush falls on the group, interrupted only by Laura and Vinn's playing. They're too little to understand.

"What do you mean, Daddy?" Eden asks uneasily.

"Tiffany and Fiona are gone forever, Eden," Phillipe says sadly. "We won't see them again."

"She doesn't understand, Phillipe. She's only four." Joslyn says softly to him.

"We should tell Tangwen," Falcon says suddenly. "She'd want to know about something like this."

"Yes. We'll tell Tangwen." Joslyn agrees. She gets up and goes to the phone.

"I'll find the headphones we used with EverQuest. The rest of you get on your computers and get on Guild Wars," Phillipe says. "First, I'll see if I can unlock Tiffany's laptop."

"You know how Tiffany and Fiona are always talking about Guild Wars?" Joslyn says. "They bought a map, and it pulled them in. They'll not be back, but we're logging in to Guild Wars - or creating a new character, if Phillipe can't find our old account - to see if we can locate them. You want to come on over and get the details, or create an account of your own and play?"

"They got pulled into Guild Wars?" Tangwen says, stunned. "I'll be right over."

"I got it!" Phillipe yells. "Her password is [blank]!"

"Can I get on now, please?" Nate begs his dad.

"Just a moment, I want to see what happens when I log onto her account. Anyone know her account password?"

"Yeah, it's [blank]," Falcon tells him.

"Really? For Guild Wars? As much as she obsesses over it?"

"She obsesses over the NPCs, not her account," Falcon says dryly.

"But - but that's, like, Tassof default!" Phillipe protests. "Eden could log onto her account!"

"Eden can't read, Dad. She's four. But yeah, if she did know how she'd get it. I'm sure there's a change password button somewhere." Falcon tells him.

"Okay, log in... wait, what?"

"It says the account has been deleted or temporarily suspended," Falcon notes.

"Okay then, Nate. Do you have a Guild Wars account?"

"No," Nate says. "But I watch Tiffany, and Fiona, and Falcon, and Harrison play, and I think it's fun."

"Okay then. Falcon, can you create an account for him? I need to find those headphones for you."

"Sure," Falcon agrees easily. "Okay, Nate, what's your username..."

Knock knock.

"Tangwen is here!" Harrison yells, opening the door.

"Hey, Harrison! What's up with Tiffany and Fiona?"

"See that map?" Harrison says, pointing to the wall, off to the left. "It started glowing, and then Tiffany and Fiona were kind of ghosts, and then they kind of twisted, and disappeared."

"Wow, that's impressive," Tangwen tells him. "Where's your mom?"

"She's in the alcove, trying to locate her and Daddy's old Guild Wars account."

"I see. So, you're all logging on to try and find them?"

"Yep."

"Falcon made me a Guild Wars account!" Nate yells, running in the room, followed by Falcon. "Now I can play Guild Wars on Tiffany's laptop!"

"That's great, Nate!"

"Hey, you rhymed!" Harrison tells her. "Great, Nate!"

"So I did," Tangwen says. "Isn't that cool?"

"Anyway, we're almost ready. Do you have an account?" Falcon asks her.

"No, I think I used yours, but I don't remember anything," Tangwen tells him. "I'll start out with a new account. Can you show me how to make one?"

"Sure. You'll want to install Guild Wars on your computer at home, though, because I doubt you'll have time to come here every time you want to see Tiffany and Fiona." Falcon tells her.

"Yeah, I'll probably do that. Is your dad busy?"

"He's looking for the headphones we used with EQ, so we can have sound. We don't know if they'll show up as NPCs or PCs or somthing in-between, and it's hard to notice NPCs unless you have sound. They probably don't have a chatbox or anything. If you just want to talk to Daddy, he should be free, he'll just be looking while he's at it. Or maybe he's found them already." Falcon informs her.

"Thanks."

"But Tangwen, I want to show you my account!" Nate says.

"I can do that in a few minutes, okay Nate? But I need to talk to your dad real quick, first."

"Okay."

"He's probably in the shed, Tangwen," Falcon tells her.

"Thanks, Falcon. I'll be back in a minute."

In the shed, she found Phillipe going through the old desks that were in there. He'd already laid one pair of headphones to the side, apparently.

"Hey, Tangwen!" he says, straightening up from peering inside a drawer. "Joslyn told you what happened?"

"She did, but I don't have too many of the details. She's busy trying to resurrect your old account, so I thought I'd come ask you."

Phillipe sighs, and leans against a wall. "Well, how Harrison says it, the map started glowing, and then Tiffany and Fiona were replaced with ghost-like things. He called Joslyn, and Joslyn called me, and we watched Tiffany and Fiona fiddle around with what appeared to be character customization controls, and it was affecting them. They click a button - we can't see the buttons - and they get taller, or their hair turns a different color, or something like that. Some buttons don't do anything that we can see. They're obviously talking, but it's like there's a mute button on. Then, this... voice starts talking, which we can hear, and they obviously can too. It says to create a character that will be them, because they're being pulled into Tyria and that's where they'll live from now on. So they create their character - and they look like normal, I suppose there's a default button or something - and then it's like they are a reflection that gets stirred by a spoon, before vanishing."

"Just like that?" Tangwen asks.

"Just like that. We combed through the map, but it didn't... I don't know what we were looking for, but it didn't do anything other than be a map. Falcon came up with the theory we could find them by logging in to Guild Wars, and we haven't got any other theories."

"Seems like a sound theory to me. Tyria is the name of the world?"

"As much as Middle-earth is the land the Lord of the Rings takes place in, yes. Tangwen, they're gone. The mysterious voice said 'forever'. I..."

"Don't worry. If we don't find them in Tyria, it'll just be like they're dead. We'll see them in heaven."

"I suppose..." Phillipe barked a laugh. "I always teased Tiffany about how she always said 'I suppose', and here I am saying it."

"There's no reason we won't find them in Tyria, though. It'll be fine. I know my brother's got some spare headphones, maybe we could use those?"

"That'd work. Come to think of it, I doubt we even have enough headphones. I got two for playing EQ with, about a year ago, but they were flimsy and stuff and are probably broken. I've got the ones I normally use, I think there's a pair in the computer room, and there's these. That's three out of... hm. Well, we only have three computers that don't have sound, that should be enough."

"Do you have enough computers for all of you?" Tangwen asks.

"From what Falcon said, I think Nate'll get discouraged easily. I've got two laptops on this project, which me and Joslyn'll use, Tiffany's laptop is used by Nate, which leaves the two computers and Joslyn's laptop, which don't have sound. Falcon and Harrison'll use the laptop and the one in the computer room, I suppose you can use the one in the alcove?"

"How're we going to communicate? I don't think there's enough room in the computer room for all of us."

"Tiffany's laptop has TeamSpeak3 on it, if Nate turns the sound up we'll all be able to communicate just fine. My laptop has it, too."

"What about the one in alcove?"

"We'll just have to install TS3, then. Let's go, I forgot we only needed three. That's if there is one in the computer room."

"Found it yet, Joslyn?"

"No. We'll just have to make another account."

"Oh well. We'll need two, you can't be two on the same account. Can you do that, along with one for Tangwen?"

"Sure."

"Okay, let's log in this game," Phillipe says into his computer.

"Got it." comes clearly through Phillipe's laptop's speakers.

"Create a character that looks as much like you as you can, we're all doing humans since that's what Tiffany and Fiona are, and if we look like us we'll be more recognizable."

"Great. Names?"

"If you don't use your real name, use a recognizable alias. This is Tiffany and Fiona we're looking for."

They all appeared, one by one, over the next couple minutes. After joining up as a group and completing the tutorial, there was still no sign of Tiffany and Fiona.

"Okay, let's spread out. Don't approach things too far from your level, or you'll die. Tiffany and Fiona have had a long time to be doing things, completeing the tutorial and stuff, so just look for them. They look like themselves, remember, and they didn't dye their armor."

"On it."

Over the next hour or so, the group combed the countryside, gaining levels as they went.

"Still no sign of them!" Falcon says frustratedly. "They can't have gone far."

"No hope of them following the 'stay where you are and we'll find you more easily' rule?" Tangwen asks.

"Nope. This is Tyria, they know this land pretty well, and they probably haven't thought much about the repercussions of this."

"It's time for me to get off and make dinner, children, what do you want?" Joslyn asks

"Just stick some pizzas in the oven, we need to keep looking." Phillipe says.

"It's dinnertime already?" Tangwen says in surprise. "I need to be going home. I'll install Guild Wars 2 and TS3 on the computer at my house, and I'll log on and look whenever I can. It won't be often, though, and probably not at the same times as you guys. I'll send a message over Slack when I do get on."

"See you, Tangwen. Don't forget to log out and remember your password and things." Phillipe reminds her.

"See you." the connection to the computer in alcove falls silent, and Phillipe hears her leaving.

Over the next week, the group logs on in every spare moment, leveling up and combing the zone of Queensdale. But still no sign of the girls.

After a few days, Nate had stopped getting on, since all the others wanted to do was find the girls, and only Harrison wasn't as devoted as the rest of them.

"It's still odd, not seeing Tiffany and Fiona around the house, smiling, and babbling about Guild Wars. Just... odd." Joslyn says to Phillipe one day.

"I keep expecting to see Tiffany chatting on Slack with the grandparents and Tangwen, and commenting on things in the different channels." Phillipe replies. "But everyone's more subdued."

The pair are using the video call function on Slack to talk, as Phillipe is out of town.

"Laura likes curling up in Tiffany's blanket nowadays," Phillipe says, recalling the antics of the baby for he left for the week.

"Oh, she liked doing that even before Tiffany disappeared. She just... does it more, now." Joslyn sighs. "Eden has started complaining that the room is too quiet at night. Tiffany's not sharing new bits of lore with Fiona, there's no one to remember to leave the light on to charge up the glow-in-the-dark snowflakes on the wall, no one to keep the room clean... I'm starting to think we should maybe get one of those little-kid mattresses from the trailer and have her sleep in our room. It's not right that four-year-old sleep in a room alone, but the boy's room is full."

"Yeah, you should do that. Remind her not to wake up Laura, though."

"And I'll unlock the girls bathroom to the boys. There's no use leaving it open to the girls room and not the boys, when it could be both and nobody's in the girls room anymore."

"Yeah, do that."

"You think they are in Guild Wars?" Falcon asks Joslyn and Phillipe one day. "I mean, it's very complicated - there's instanced zones for the personal story and stuff, there could easily be a separate instance that Tiffany and Fiona are in. I mean, it's been a week!"

"We'll just keep trying."

"I'm starting to hang behind, guys - I just can't keep up with you in levels and exploration radius. I'll keep looking, don't worry - you have to keep coming back to the home instance, don't you? I can cover that place. See if they ever pop up."

"That's a good idea. I think you do keep hanging around Shaemoor and to the west of there for a while, too, you can cover that."

"What makes it confusing," Falcon says one day - one of the rare times they're all on at once. "is that there's so many players, and so many NPCs. And it's not like someone who's in-between'll look different."

"So what're we doing, looking at all the humans - NPC or not - and seeing if they look like Tiffany and Fiona?" Harrison asks.

"Pretty much."

"This is so cute, but also kind of annoying - in the home instance, there's this gang of kids running around screaming 'whatever' at me, and saying I'm cursed to be a whatever forever." Tangwen says.

Joslyn switches tabs to Google Chrome, and looks at the wiki page for the Salma district home instance. "There's nothing on the wiki about that. The children simply walk around, and there aren't even that many of them."

"Odd."

"Alright, it's been nine days. Let's all get together by the Fields Waypoint - I linked it in chat - and discuss things more. It'll just be different if we're face-to-face." Joslyn says.

Phillipe is near to that waypoint, and just has to run over the bridge. Like usual, there's PCs and NPCs alike on the bridge, but he's not concerned. He simply goes near to the wapoint, where the rest of the team pops up.

They gather in a circle, and Joslyn starts speaking.

"We've been looking for nine days," she says. "Still, no sign of Tiffany and/or Fiona. The only thing of note is that the children are behaving oddly in the home district."

"In the storyline, you have family." Falcon speaks up. "I wouldn't be surprised if the girls went to visit them. Maybe they stirred the children up?"

"As we haven't seen hide or hair of them, I doubt it. And as the children are NPCs, I couldn't ask them who put them up to run around screaming 'whatever'." Tangwen tells them.

"Think we should go investigate it?" Falcon asks.

"Nah, it's not worth it. They're NPCs, we can't interact with them meaningfully, as such." Phillipe says, shaking his head, even though they can't see it. He sighs and types /me shakes his head [enter].

"Tiffany!" comes a shrill shriek from halfway down the bridge. Phillipe spins around, and glances up and down the bridge. He espies two girls staring at their group having just started up from leaning against the railing. The names over their heads are the color of friendly NPCs, however - dark green. He wouldn't have noticed it was them if it wasn't the actual names - Tiffany and Fiona Tassof.

"Tiffany! Fiona!" he yells, running over to them at full speed.

"Dad!" Tiffany shrieks, running over to him. She hugs him tightly, but it's not right... "You didn't get pulled in, did you?" she says, looking at him. "It doesn't feel right to hug you when you're not you."

Phillipe scrolls his screen in to first-person view. "No, we didn't. We're just playing. We thought we might find you."

"It's been nine days!" Joslyn says.

"Same for us." Fiona says.

By this time, the rest of the group came over.

"We could only tell it was you because we know you and Mom used to play elementalist and thief. I suppose these two are Falcon and Harrison? And - Tangwen? You're here!"

"Of course I'm here! I wouldn't not!" Tangwen says. "You disappeared into a video game, what was I supposed to do, not ever play a video game again as retaliation?"

"No. It's just we're so excited to see you all. We didn't see any PCs at all until a minute ago." Fiona tells her.

"Really?" Joslyn asks.

"Nope, just people." Tiffany sighs.

"Huh?" Harrison asks.

"They're not NPCs, they're actual people. Not computer programs. We've already changed the storyline - at least for us - quite a bit." Tiffany says proudly. "Destiny's Edge will get together sooner, hopefully."

"So I bet you don't call them NPCs."

"Nope. If we did, we'd have to tell them that an NPC is a computer that doesn't have feelings and it doesn't matter if they die, which we're not doing. Because they're not."

"I see."

"Hmm. We really have a lot of computers, don't we? The whole family can play at once, down to Eden, if Dad lets somebody use his laptops. Not counting us, of course. Are you using TeamSpeak or something? Because you sound like you."

"It would be a nightmare if we weren't." Tangwen says. "We're talking out loud, and apparently it transfers into the game noise, as well. That's cool."

"It is. And it's... interesting, no NPCs."

"And we made friends!" Fiona pipes up. "And - hey! We can't introduce them without explaining the whole game thing!" she groans. "Well, we can introduce them from a distance. PCs can 'hear' things from farther off than they should be able to, right? Even if you don't hear us, it'll still show up in chat. I'm not sure if their names will show up as children or as Mat and Ayla, though."

"Was it you that put all the kids in the Salma district up to screaming 'whatever' at me all day?" Tangwen asks sternly.

Tiffany and Fiona look at each other and burst out laughing, holding onto the bridge railing for support.

"Y-yeah, that was us," Tiffany says after a moment. "Us and Deborah."

"Who?"

"Our sister, in Tyria. We're twins, and Deborah's our older sister. We saved her, she was a prisoner of the bandits. Another odd thing that happens is that we have all memories from lives before we were here. A lot like us, so nobody's been like 'what why are you acting weird'. It's... nice. Oh, and we cleared out the Bandithaunt caverns about a week ago. Has it been a week already?" Tiffany turns to Fiona.

"Wait, a whole week? Yeah, it is! Wow. Feels like yesterday."

"We need to visit Mat and Ayla, anyway. We'll introduce you from a distance - hey, Mat and Ayla are the same age as Eden and Nate! and Ayla has Eden's hair. Kinda. You'll see. Watch only, though - I don't know how people in Tyria see PCs."

"So, there's PCs, but not NPCs?"

"Yep. There's PCs and people." Fiona nods.

"It's a very good thing I studied lore before we came here, though," Tiffany says as they walk through the village of Shaemoor. "I had a hard time recalling how Fiona can heal."

"Healing..."

"Yeah. Mine is just a shout, so I say the words, but Fiona's default is just click 6 and heal, but there's no method. It just happens. But then she remembers she's got an option to use a signet. And it's the only one we can do. My bow is super-cool, though, and since we're not PCs, I can do crazy things, like hitting people on the head with the shaft. Or stabbing people with the arrows."

"And you've got knives," Fiona adds.

"Yep. I copied Thom Merrilin, Mom."

"Let's see it," she says.

The group is at the end of the bridge now, by Trainer's Terrace, which Phillipe notes is a point of interest. Tiffany picks a tree and scratches a target. She backs off and turns around.

She spins, and knives fly from her sleeves. They all hit the mark - on the hilt.

"Hitting with the hilt doesn't do much good."

"It does if I don't want to dull my knives," Tiffany tells Phillipe, picking up her knives. "Fiona, gimme a real target."

A copy of Fiona appears.

"Not you, like, a centaur or somthing," Tiffany scolds. "I'm going to kill it."

"How about Tra - "

"Don't you think about it, Miss. Careful of the people."

"Fine, fine. Here, take a centaur."

Tiffany looks at the centaur, and back at Fiona. "Make it realistic, Fiona! I mean really! It's no fun if it doesn't fight me."

Fiona rolls her eyes, and centaur gallops in to attack. Tiffany whirls around the centaur, striking it fatally here and there. The centaur attempts attack, but Tiffany keeps dodging out of the way. Eventually, she stabs it through the heart. Then, she realizes other centaurs are on her. She throws knives this way and that, striking them through the heart.

"We heal as one!" she cries, vaulting over a centaur that Beorn is mauling.

She pulls out her sword and finishes the last centaur with a flourish, before stowing it again.

"Hoo! You've gotten good at this, Fiona!" Tiffany says, inspecting a cut on her arm. "You had to poison me, didn't you? Beorn!"

The brown bear roars, and bits of green dust evaporate out of the wound, before Tiffany heals it. "Forgot about Beorn, didn't you?"

"You named your pet bear Beorn?" Tangwen says delightedly.

"After the skin-changer in the Hobbit, yeppers." Tiffany agrees. "Gwahir, too." Beorn vanishes and Tiffany's pet eagle unstealths. "Meet Gwahir the Windlord. I actually named them this in the game, before I got pulled in. There weren't enough space slots to name him Gwaihir the Windlord, so I took the first i out, because it was one over the limit. But I suppose it doesn't matter about space slots, because we live in Tyria now."

"Do you have any other pets?"

"Oh, several, but they don't have names. I can't recall any named spiders in anything I've read, can you? Ohh, but there's Shelob, the gigantic spider Frodo and Sam encountered on the pass to Mordor! I forgot about her. Those three are really the only pets I use."

"You've got a knack for naming, I see," Tangwen says.

"You wouldn't say that if you'd known what I was going to name my kids before we got pulled in here," Tiffany says dryly. "I'm a big old copycat."

"How so?"

"I stole Mom's tradition of using family names for second names, and the first names are the major NPCs." Tiffany says flatly. "And there's no way I'm doing that here, ohh no. People like Canach would kill me if I named my kid after him - " Tiffany starts laughing at the thought. "Zojja, too. And Rytlock. The rest would either think I was weird, or be honored." she thought for a moment. "And the family names that were on Earth aren't the ones I have here. Here, I have Deborah, and Petra, and Andrew. And Fiona. And that's all, because Anet doesn't like giving people ancestry. And this world functions like Anet told it to. Hey! Fiona, we were adopted! In the lore, Andrew and Petra adopted us, and they did for real, too! Cuz now we live here, not there, and..."

"Wow." Fiona says after a moment of thought. "Yeah."

"Anyway, let's 'introduce' you to Mat and Ayla." Tiffany says.

Captain Logan Thackeray is thinking things over. It's a foregone conclusion in his mind that the young girl - Tiffany - didn't know she was quoting his former friends. If she did, she wouldn't have quoted Rytlock. He snarls at the desk in front of him at the thought of the charr.

He sighs and leans back, staring at the ceiling of his office. The sergeant - Deborah Tassof - had given him valuable information about Falcon Company, most notably those of the elite group who weren't with them - off duty, or in the hospital. He had sent some of his more senior officers to question them, to get to the bottom of the demise of the Screaming Falcons.

But he found he couldn't concentrate on that, now he had some free time to think. Some of his Seraph lieutenants in southern Kryta were friends with the Lionguard in the area, which were complaining about Risen further south, along the Tarnished Coast, but closer than usual. They would start terrorizing Krytans, soon, and the dragon probably wouldn't sleep for at least several decades. The Seraph weren't strong enough to face that. The Captain knew all this.

But Tiffany Tassof's words earlier had sparked the unbidden idea that, although the Seraph couldn't deal with Zhaitan's minions, Destiny's Edge could try. They'd almost succeeded against Kralkatorrik. Logan snarled at the tabletop again. 'But we don't have Snaff', he thought. 'Or Glint. And Rytlock wouldn't agree to help Kryta - he's more concerned about his precious Ascalon.'

Unbidden, the thought forms in his head that he feels the same way about Ascalon - if Kralkatorrik came back, and Zhaitan didn't, would Logan care if the Ascalonian charr were wiped out?

'Of course I would care,' Logan tells himself. 'Kralkatorrik would come after the norn, and then humans, once it'd conquered Ascalon. I can't afford to ignore that threat. However Rytlock's acted in the past, it doesn't define all charr, and the Queen's trying to do a peace treaty with them. They're not monsters.'

Logan sighs. He recalls the Queen's words to him, one day soon after the breaking of Destiny's Edge. "You're too noble for your own good, Logan." She'd said those words many times over the years.

He recalls Caithe's words - and, more recently, Tiffany's: "May you never dwell in darkness."

He thinks over what it could mean. He'd always assumed it to mean the darkness of the Nightmare of the Dream the sylvari had, and that it was perhaps a traditional sylvan greeting - or farewell - but it took on a slightly different meaning, now. The darkness of uncertainty is just as bad as the darkness of the Nightmare. The darkness of uncertainty in the face of the darkness of Elder Dragons, however, was much more vast.

'Am I uncertain about anything?' Logan asks himself. Logan realizes that uncertainty is a big weakness. If he'd been uncertain about going to save Queen Jennah - or later, uncertain that he'd made the right choice - it would have just been all the more hard to bear Snaff's death. If he'd been uncertain, he would have blamed himself, the same way Zojja and Rytlock did. But he wasn't uncertain, he was firmly decided. Even the fact the Snaff had died because of choice didn't sway his determination that he'd done the right thing - which was what Rytlock didn't understand.

Logan snorts to himself. 'Rytlock is being contradictory. He is a charr, his very culture is embedded in the loyalty to the chain of command - the higher up the rank, the more loyalty you show. Sure, most charr are more loyal to warbands than to legions, and maybe that's all Rytlock expects from a human, but the Queen and I are as close as most warbands, I suppose. Rytlock's problem is that he thinks Destiny's Edge is closer than that.'

Logan thinks about that. Saying Destiny's Edge isn't closer than that - that's its further - sounds wrong. 'Destiny's Edge is as close as Jennah is,' Logan concludes. Unbidden, the thought arises - 'Then why did I choose Jennah over Destiny's Edge?' He ponders that for a while. He thinks about Destiny's Edge and their adventures, and about the Queen and their magical bond - the one that had called him away from his group on that fateful day.

'The road is long. I wish you well.' Logan thinks about that a bit - Eir had said it many times. He'd thought it to mean a literal road, a traveling one. But it could also mean the road of life - 'Life is long. I wish you well.' It subtly implied that however long life lasted, the people she said it to would always receive a well-wishing from her. She'd reserved that farewell to her closest friends. Logan had never thought about that before. She'd said it to Snaff, to Zojja, to everyone. 'Eir doesn't hate Zojja,' Logan realizes. 'It's Zojja that hates Eir. I know Eir cared about Snaff, and still cares about Zojja. About all of us.'

One thing Caithe asked him a lot was whether he had wisdom to share. It was worded many different ways, but the core was the same. She wanted trust between the group, for everyone to know everything so that they could play to everyone's strengths. Logan hadn't talked it over with the group, as was customary, before making a decision. He'd rushed off to save Queen Jennah with barely an explanation. When he returned, everyone was angry at each other, and none of them explained anything. They'd just shouted at each other before going their separate ways, each angry at another. Caithe's idea of 'sharing wisdom' had not let them astray, it was not listening to her reasoning that split them.

None of them had listened, they'd argued while Caithe tried to tell them to calm down. They hadn't listened, none of them had. Logan hadn't asked for advice when he left, he hadn't explained why he hadn't - or anything - and neither had anyone else. Zojja had flared up and cursed Eir into oblivion, and Eir had reacted by blaming herself and withdrawing into a shell. Rytlock had blown up at Logan, accusing him of desertion and of being a traitor, and Logan had retaliated by leaving - again. He was only the first, Eir left soon after, followed by Zojja storming off, and Rytlock had disappeared a while before that, all ignoring Caithe's pleas for calm and order.

'For all Rytlock knows,' Logan thought, 'I am a deserting traitor. I didn't tell anyone anything when I left - I simply left. Rytlock's a charr, and that's how charr react to deserters, I suppose. Maybe they react worse, and Rytlock restrained himself, thinking how I'm not a charr. If he had been right, then the things he said were totally appropriate.' This revelation was a shock to Logan. 'And Kralkatorrik was right on our doorstep. Eir probably made the split-second decision, without talking it over with the rest of the group. Zojja's always had a fiery temper - it's no wonder she blew up at Eir as she did. Eir is smart, she probably realized too late the wisdom of Caithe's words, and that's not her fault. Caithe had probably realized the one error we all made, and was trying to fix it with the same words of wisdom that worked so well before. But none of us listened.' Logan was surprised at his own insights. 'Destiny's Edge fell apart because of the lack of communication.'

Within the Seraph, communication is key. Ranks are always used to avoid confusion, soldiers always identified where they are stationed when they report for the same reasons. They speak clearly, and when they want to voice an opinion on something, rather than fact, they made sure that is understood. Commanding officers, if their wording is unclear, will clarify sometimes by telling their subordinates, 'that's an order'. Locations are identified very specifically - instead of saying 'southern Kryta' they will say 'Triskell Quay'. Different units are referred to by different names. The Screaming Falcons were an example. They had gone down when the enemy had done something unexpected, and there was no time to issue commands or communicate.

Communication is key everywhere - within familes, in the ruling of cities, in everything! The peace treaty with the charr requires delicate communication. And part of the reason for the war with the charr in the first place is communication - charr ears aren't tuned to hear human's voices easily, and proved to be a great irritant. That is part of why you couldn't get into a war with golems - the communication they received was precise and to the point - you can't tell a golem to vaguely 'patrol this area'. You tell a golem 'go from point A to point B, and if somebody with this description or who acts this way comes near, attack them by doing X,Y, and Z'. You can't misunderstand communications like that. And if you misheard, well, there's a reason the word 'what' exists. And after a communication fail, communication still exists to figure out what the problem was, how to fix that particular problem, and how to avoid misunderstanding a second time. 'Communication is how it gets communicated that communication is important!' Logan thinks dryly. 'You can't live without communication.'

Logan wonders why he'd never thought about any of these things in relation to Destiny's Edge before, and concludes that the breaking of the group was too painful to dwell on, and so he'd avoided the topic even within his own mind. Logan sighs. 'Communication is hard', he thinks. 'How do I tell everyone that I'm willing to communicate now?' he wonders with a snort. 'Since when is Rytlock going to listen to a single word out of my mouth, either?'

The door bangs open. "Captain Thackeray?"says a soldier.

Startled, Logan sits bolt upright. "Is there a problem, soldier?" he asks.

"N-no, Captain," the soldier reports, puzzled. "Queen Jennah has sent for you."

"Thank you for reporting, soldier. You may go back to your station." Logan replies.

The soldier salutes and leaves the office.

Author's Notes:

How do you like it? I... I may have taken the 'Logan thinks about things' sections farther than I intended. I also found a pretty solid reason for Logan to not have thought about all this before, but Tiffany's words got him thinking - as intended - just perhaps more than she expected. And perhaps it happens to fast - I'm not sure, because it took me forever to find the right way to word it so it didn't seem like he was making super-powered leaps from one conclusion to the next, but maybe it seems like that anyway... oh well.

I eat reviews for lunch, breakfast, and dinner. One chapter is one meal, which means I've gone three days and a morning with barely enough food. Feed me, please! I'm at your mercy, just feed me!

And no copyright infringement of the series 'The Wheel of Time' intended, the character Thom Merrilin is not mine.