There was a bright white. The whitest white that she had ever seen. Then she found herself in the darkest black. Realizing her eyes were closed, she opened them to reveal a bedroom around her.

  All the walls were a cream color and there were all sorts of decorations to make it feel homey. Not her home of course, but someone else’s. She never had time or money for the comforts of such things.

  Morning light was shining through thin curtains and her eyes wandered further around the room. There were three doors, a dresser, two small tables, and the bed she was laying in. The sheets, blankets, and pillows were incredibly soft and warm. She pulled back the covers and realized she was wearing some type of sleeping gown. It was made of a shiny, slippery fabric.

  After wrestling to get out of the bed, her feet sank into a carpet. It was a much different experience than that of a wooden ship. The warmth was welcome even though she was starting to panic a little with the confusion she was feeling.

  One of the doors was open and led to some type of bathing room. She inspected one of the others to find it was a closet filled to the brim with both men’s and women’s clothing. The final door finally led to somewhere new. By new, she meant that it led to a hallway with the same cream-colored walls and incredibly nice carpet.

  Slowly, she made her way down the hallway and into a staircase that went down a floor. There was the smell of some type of meat in the air like something was cooking. Carefully, she peaked her head around the corner and saw Drackenn in front of a strange looking stove.

  “Uhh, King Captain, what are you doing?”

  Drackenn turned around in surprise. “Well, there you are. I was starting to get worried. You slept in quite a bit. I figured you’d be hungry, so I decided to make breakfast before I head out. I also have some coffee for you. Wait, what did you call me?”

  “Uhh, King Captain? What is C-o-ff-ee?” She said it by slowly pronouncing the word.

  “Wow, that extra sleep must have done a number on you. Normally you jump at any chance for coffee. Why don’t you come over here and sit down.” He had concern in his voice.

  Minily sat down and Drackenn handed her a cup with a steaming brown liquid inside.

  “Here, drink that. That should fix you right up!”

  She sipped it and instantly regretted it because it burned her mouth. “Ow! That is so hot! Wait, why did that hurt so much?!”

  “Honey, you don’t seem well at all. Why wouldn’t you wait for it cool off? Are you okay?”

  “No, you don’t seem to understand. That shouldn’t hurt me or you. The System must have done something to my stats.” She tried to pull up her status screen, but nothing showed. Panic filled her and she tried to use one of her skills. Nothing happened. “Drackenn, my class is gone. No, no, no. This can’t be happening. This has to be the dungeon. Wait, what the in twelve seas did you just call me?”

  Drackenn was staring at her dumbfounded with her panic attack. He put his hands on her arms to try and calm her down. “I called you honey like I have since we got married five years ago. It’s a much better name than King Captain. Where did you even get that? And I’m not sure why you are talking about classes. You haven’t been in school for almost a decade now.”

  Minily realized this wasn’t actually the real Drackenn. This was an echo made by the System for her trial. This was all part of her trial and that helped calm her down. “Right, sorry. The dream I had last night has me a bit confused. It felt so real, you know? I’m going to get something cold to drink, to help with this burn.”

  Drackenn was suspicious but nodded. “Well alright. I haven’t had a dream like that in ages. I can’t say I’ve ever had one that felt quite so real though. Hopefully you will start to feel better later. I have to get to the office. Bye, Honey. Love you.” He leaned in and kissed her on the cheek before getting up and leaving.

  Once he was gone, she looked up and exclaimed, “Seriously, System?!” which she instantly regretted due to her tongue being in pain.

  She decided to go explore because there weren’t clear instructions on what she should be doing. Her hand reached for the doorknob, but something stopped her. It was a feeling in her mind. A little voice was telling her not to go out in her gown. Then she had an influx of information about how to dress and how to do her hair. Overall, the sensation was strange, but she took it as rules from the System.

  After an amazing shower, some excellent breakfast, and some more of that coffee, she went upstairs and dressed. She looked in the mirror and the feeling went away which to her was approval.

  Nothing stopped her from opening the front door this time and out she went into the artificial sunlight. The air was fresh and the breeze on her face made her think of the high seas. She opened her eyes and realized it was nothing like the high seas.

  There was a paved road and along both sides was a sea of identical houses. They all had the same manicured lawn which was different from the wilds she had explored. Each lawn was surrounded by a white fence that wouldn’t keep any monsters out.

  She stepped out onto the pathway and the tug in her mind came back to direct her on where to go. Following the feeling, it led her down the road a couple of blocks to a market of some kind. It was massive and unlike anything she had ever seen.

  Stepping inside she found the air to be much cooler than outside. There were other women dressed in a similar fashion as she was, and they all had some sort of cart with various things inside. Taking that as a clue, Minily grabbed one of the carts and followed the feeling around the store gathering various things. Her amazement never stopped at the variety of what this market sold. Everything was packaged weird, and the meat came precut.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  Her cart was full and the feeling drug her to a line at the front of the market where it seemed like someone was taking inventory of the items you took and taking payment for the goods. She realized that she didn’t have any guins on her at all. Suddenly, pieces of paper appeared in her hand with funny markings on them. The feeling told her to hand it to the person working at the market once she was at the front of the line. As she waited, her mind drifted to how in her life she wouldn’t need to wait in any line at a market. This line was taking ages since all three people in front of her had full carts like she did. Finally, she got to the front.

  “Hello, did you find everything okay?”

  “Yes, thank you.”

  “Good to hear!” The worker was using a device to scan each item, and a ding happened every time. “Alright, your total comes out to sixty-two dollars.”

  Minily handed all the paper to the lady assuming they were whatever dollars were. The lady smiled and opened a drawer full of the paper and handed some back to her.

  “Have a nice day!”

  “You too!”

  As she walked out of the store, her thoughts were about the worker. Wow, I would be miserable if I had to sit there all day listening to that ding. I wonder how she stays so positive and kind. She also didn’t seem to be protective of the paper. If it is valuable, then they should keep it more secure than a drawer.

  The feeling led her back to the house where it helped her to put away the groceries. She was amazed by the icebox since they are rare in Motholo. Only the wealthy could afford one. Was she wealthy here?

  She figured the feeling would give her a hint of what to do next, but it seemed she was on her own and she was bored. So far, this life has been dull. There was no adventure or danger. Everyone was the same or at least from what she saw so far. It almost seemed fake like a masquerade, but only one mask existed. The only thing she was kind of excited for was the fake Drackenn. She had always felt something towards him. Of course, the real Drackenn wouldn’t reciprocate the feeling due to the complexities of the death of his wife. This fake one would let her explore something that she might never get to in the real world. With that thought she decided to go see what he was doing.

  The System seemed to approve because the feeling in her mind came back and tugged her in various directions until she came to an office building. It took an hour of walking and without her stats, her feet were killing her.

  The building was four stories, and it took her nearly twenty minutes to find her fake husband. Sadness overtook her when she saw him sitting at a desk in a sea of desks staring at some sort of tablet. He called it a computer before nearly pushing her out of the building.

  “Honey, what are you doing here?”

  “I wanted to come see you and see what you were doing all day. What’s wrong?”

  “You know I have to focus on work. My boss will get upset if I’m taking work time to talk to you.”

  “Aren’t I your wife? Also, you aren’t the boss? You’re actually taking orders from someone?”

  “We’ve talked about this. If I keep my head down and focus, then I could get a promotion to assistant director of sales in a couple of years. You know I want to provide for you. We barely can stay ahead of our bills right now. This promotion would be huge for us.”

  She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She had seen this man do incredible things. People were crawling over one another to follow him. This version was pathetic. As soon as that thought passed through her mind, she realized how wrong she was. To immediately assign value to someone’s life when you don’t understand the intricacies of it, is ignorant at best. Her perception was skewed from the privileges her adult life as a damn good pirate had afforded her.

  “I’m sorry. I’ll head home and wait for you. I just wanted to see you was all.”

  He leaned in and kissed her on the forehead which was one her favorite moments in her life.

  “It’s okay. I’ll see you when you get home. Here’s some money for the bus.”

  She followed the feeling in her mind to a bus stop, and a large vessel came to pick up her and three others standing at the spot. It had an unpleasant smell, and the seats were completely full except four. Walking down the narrow aisle, she found a seat next to a young lady.

  She turned to Minily, “hi, I’m Lily.”

  “Hello, I’m Minily.”

  “Wow! What a pretty name! Do you take the bus often?”

  “Thank you. Your name is pretty as well. This is actually my first time.”

  “Really? Well, you aren’t missing much. I only take it when I have to. My mom is sick, so I have to take it to visit her.”

  “I’m sorry to hear about your mom. Will she be okay?”

  “The doctors don’t know. She has cancer and its late stage. We caught it too late.” The girl wiped her eyes and continued. “I’m sorry. You don’t want to hear about a stranger’s problems.”

  “No, it’s okay. We don’t have much of a problem with illnesses where I’m from. Why can’t your healers rid your mom of it?”

  “Cancer isn’t curable. Sometimes it goes away for a bit on its own or they can cut it out of you, but it’s too advanced in my mom. It feels like life became very real suddenly. We were having an argument just last month about how we couldn’t afford a car for me to use. Now there is a good chance she won’t even be here in a month. I’m a little lost to be honest.”

  “That’s understandable. My parents died when I was young, so I understand more than you know. We were also poor, which made my childhood rough compared to others my age. It was a pain that I wish others wouldn’t ever have to experience.”

  “I’m sorry to hear about your parents. It does sound like you understand more than most. My peers at school have been teasing me on petty things like the quality of my clothes or my lack of the newest technologies for as long as I can remember. Now it doesn’t even matter. They don’t understand how trivial all that becomes when something real like this happens. Even now when they bully me the whole time I’m only wishing they never have to go through this pain.”

  “That is incredibly mature of you. You have a good head on your shoulders. I’m sure your mom is proud. Back then, I think I was wishing a lightning bolt would come down to strike my bullies. I had lost my way though. It took someone showing me kindness and believing in me for me to come back to who I actually am. Even those bullies have something going on that makes them act like that. They lost their way and one day will regret it when they find their way back.”

  “Thank you. Praise means more to me than you know. I hope my mom is proud of me. I don’t know how I will survive without her.” With that, tears started to flow down her face, and she fell into Minily who embraced her in a much-needed hug.

  “It’ll be okay, Lily. Things will get better, and I can tell that you are going to walk a very special path. Right now, you just need to go be with your mom. Spend every minute with her that you can and make sure you remember those moments. She will always be with you in your memories. Carry her forward by living your life and doing the best you can. Even from our short talk I know you can do it.”

  After another ten minutes, the feeling tugged at her mind to let her know that her stop had arrived.

  “This is my stop. I wish you the best of luck. It will get better even if things take a dark turn for a while. We always come out stronger as long as we survive. Survive, Lily.”

  “Thank you, Minily. I promise you I will. I just need to go see my mom.” She let a smiled slip and Minily exited the bus.

  ***

  Once she went inside, the feeling led her back into the kitchen and started to give her information on how to prepare dinner. This was the first time she had cooked a meal this elaborate and the whole time she was thinking that it was too much food.

  Her mind feeling told her to set the table and after she set out two plates, it urged her to do more. After two more, it went away. At that same moment, the door opened, and two kids ran in the door. Simultaneously, they both yelled.

  “Hi Mom!”