As they left the store, Sparky said, "Back in there, you said she could ask either of us about our God. I'm not sure I'm ready to answer questions yet."

  "I understand your hesitation, but you can still tell someone about Him. You can speak of your personal experience with Him. If every cross did that, then we would not need to send out so many evangelists."

  Sparky nodded, "I suppose you are right. It still makes me jittery."

  "Totally normal," Lance said.

  As they were walking through an increasingly populated Traville, Sparky bumped into a woman wearing a yellow robe. Her hair was golden white, so blonde her eyebrows were invisible. She was attractive in a soft sort of way but not beautiful.

  As they collided, Sparky's injured leg rubbed against the woman's robe.

  "Oooh, blood," She exclaimed, "You are wounded!"

  "I'm sorry, ma'am. I will pay for your clothes to be cleaned!" Sparky replied.

  As the three of them stood in the middle of the road, Lance glanced at her nameplate, which read,

  . "So you are a follower of Jearian?"

  "Actually, no, they made me choose a god; otherwise, I wouldn't have chosen one. I grew up in church, and that is the way I would like to continue to worship. I would tell you the name of my God, but things are all weird here regarding religion. Can't say names and stuff."

  Lance silently offered a prayer of praise. God was orchestrating events.

  "Wait, you guys don't have a god listed. How did you do that?" Polly asked.

  "Well," Sparky said, "I'm guessing you were not given a chance because healers need to have a god, as healing is all about the gods for some reason. We both chose other classes and then refused to choose a god, and here we are."

  Polly grumbled, "That stinks."

  "We are both worshippers of the man who died on a cross, would you like to join us? That is unless you already have a party." Lance asked.

  "I have had two parties, but the guys in them were all jerks. One of them even gave me a hard time for being a worshiper of our God."

  "Wow, that's terrible," Sparky said, "We would be thrilled if you joined us. We are working on the quest to rid the Eagle and Child's basement of rats. It's harder than we thought."

  "I would love to join up with you guys!"

  Lance invited Polly to their party, and she accepted.

  As soon as he did this, the new Cletus and the old Cletus, the little devil one, appeared in Lance's vision. As they looked each other over, old Cletus said, "Hello there brother, your appearance is not standard."

  New Cletus, Rocket from Guardians of the Galaxy, whipped out his book and flipped the pages, "Check page 2743, near the bottom."

  Devil Cletus took out his own book and his brows went up as he read. He turned to Polly, "Hey boss lady, you okay with me looking like that when we are partied up with Lance?"

  She glanced back and forth between the two versions of Cletus and nodded, "Yeah, I think it would be wonderful if you were like that all the time."

  As she said this, old Cletus was sucked into new Cletus and disappeared. The merged Cletus signed and said, "Aah, glad we can be of one mind on these things."

  Sparky's assistant, Edie appeared in her frilly dress, examined Cletus, and said in her smug, elvish voice, "Well, at least I only need to deal with one of you." She flipped her long golden hair over he shoulder put her nose in the air and disappeared.

  "That was strange," Polly said. "Is the elven assistant yours, Sparky?"

  He nodded, a little shocked by the exchange himself.

  Polly turned to Sparky and, speaking a few words in a quiet voice, reached out and touched his wound, which closed up.

  "I think we are still going to need a fighter to handle the quest," Lance said. "Keep your eyes open for anyone without a god listed."

  It was late in the day, so the party decided to head back to the Eagle and Child. Once inside, they ordered dinner and got a table near the back of the inn.

  "I'm so glad to meet you guys." Polly opened up as they began eating. "There are fewer and fewer gentlemen in the world, but I expected a more civil crowd in a game like this."

  Lance stifled a laugh, "Why would you expect civility in a game like this?"

  Polly glanced at him in confusion, "Knights and dragons and all that stuff, doesn't that go with chivalry?"

  Lance nodded once, "I can understand how you would think that, but the type of guy who plays role-playing games like this is normally not chivalrous. Some guys think of themselves as white knights, defending ladies, but they are being self serving in a different way."

  She looked deflated.

  "But," he continued, "If there is true selfless chivalry to be found, it will be found among those who follow the man who died on the cross. When our society was more like this, it was also more noble, but it has been a long time since that era. But I, for one, count myself as someone who espouses the chivalrous traits."

  "Specific traits?" Sparky asked.

  "An actual list was never published during the medieval period," Lance replied, "But a consensus existed. A guy in the late 1800s compiled a list. In short, it was this: Believe the church and defend her, care for those and be generous to those who are weaker than you, love your country, be brave, keep your promises, kill the infidel, don't lie, always defend the right and the good. As a Protestant, I trust the Word first and the church second and don't think we should be killing other religions, but all the other stuff is solid."

  Polly nodded, "I thought there was stuff in the code about how to treat women."

  "I think that comes under the heading of those who are weaker. In the time of the Knights, women had a lot fewer rights than they have now." Lance offered.

  "Yeah," Polly said, "The weaker vessel."

  "So, I'm not sure if it's rude to ask, but what was your life like before you entered the game?" Lance asked.

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  "Oh, not rude at all," Polly replied. "I grew up in the church and always believed, but as I got older, I stopped going. I went to college and then on to grad school. I ended up getting a PhD in the Maths.

  "The next step was teaching; I landed a job at a public university and had a comfortable life. But after a while, I realized there was only so much studying one could do and that I was lonely. So I tried dating, but I liked to talk about things that interested me, but the guys I met didn't. Most of them were a bunch of perverts.

  "After a couple of years I gave up. Loneliness is a terrible thing, it can eat at your soul, so one day I walked into a church and they became my friends. I'm so grateful for those people, I think they saved my life. But while they were my community I still couldn't talk to them about the things I loved to think about, maths and such.

  "Eventually, I realized I needed something besides math to care about. I needed a hobby. Being a geek, I started gaming, and when this came up, I decided it was time to retire and have a new life. So here I am. I have put maths behind me, and now I have a new hobby. If I ever start talking about partial differentials or irrational numbers, please stop me."

  "Wow," Lance said, "I'm so sorry you had such a hard time finding friends, and I hope we turn out better than the people you hung out with before."

  Polly smiled and nodded, hope evident on her face.

  The party chatted for a while and then decided to get some rest and headed up to their rooms.

  Once safe in his room, Lance checked the time. Seeing it was a little after 6 pm, he issued the command to return to his personal instance and called Pastor Joe. After a few moments, a holographic image of his friend appeared.

  "Hey Lance, how are things going?"

  "Overall things are going great so far. How are things out there."

  "Not much change out here, getting close to the beginning of the semester. A lot of people are hoping to see you in class."

  Lance felt the clear reference to him being out, "I know you want to push me there, but I have met two other Christians and I have a burden for them. One is a baby Christian; the other is earnest. Leaving them," Lance paused for a moment, "would be wrong."

  Joe nodded slowly, "I know you are serious about your service to God. But this is such a divergence from any normal ministry path."

  "Kind of like the first missionaries sent out from protestant churches?" Lance asked.

  Joe laughed, "Yeah, I suppose kind of like that. They left everything they knew to enter the mission field. Many of them never returned home. But for them it was a trip with years of preparation." He closed his eyes for a moment. "This concerns me; taking a vacation like this is one thing, but you are talking about this being a permanent choice. The place you are living isn't real; it's not physical."

  "So you are saying people should not live in houses or drive in cars?" Lance responded snarkily.

  His pastor gave him a knowing stare. "Wasn't it you who said yesterday you would be back to 'real life' and 'real relationships' in a week or two?"

  "But that's the thing. The relationships here are real, and it feels like real life. It's not like God isn't here; He is here, and I believe ministry and purpose exist here. The inmates, welfare recipients, and VA guys have no choice but to be here once they join. Who will minister to them?"

  "God will provide."

  Lance looked up, "He will, but is it me being called to do that? An invasion of the human town is being planned by the evil orc priestess. Should I run away and not help out?"

  Joe did not look convinced. "Well, in any case, you need to make a decision quickly, likely in the next day or two at most."

  Lance nodded, all of the snark gone. "I'm going to pray about this."

  Joe shook his head. "I can't tell you this is a sin, I just don't understand the attraction. I get it for some of the inmates who are moving from being in solitary confinement into the game. But for you, you are leaving a rich life, with friends, goals, everything. But, you are a man and able to make these decisions. Please note my input is that you should eject as fast as you can and leave this place behind."

  "Noted. You are a true friend, Pastor, and I will consider what you're saying."

  Lance changed the subject. "Any news from outside?"

  "Yeah," Joe replied, "The condition of people leaving the game isn't much worse than earlier, but Lance, don't be fooled; everyone is saying it will become worse. Some are predicting negative conditions will increase rapidly soon. A lot of people are wising up and leaving the game."

  Lance nodded. "Anyone who was a tourism player or maybe curious about the game should be getting out immediately."

  Joe said nothing.

  "What about the lawsuit?" Lance asked.

  "Well, this game was national news before, but now, with people coming out injured and a pending religious freedom lawsuit, you guys are on the front page on a daily basis. The legal group presented their injunction today, and the judge's decision is forthcoming. Also, a class action suit claiming fraud on the part of Fantasy Mainline is being put together. They never admitted the chance of physical injury to the players. This isn't hard to prove, and the people affected are mostly wealthy. Lance, people are asking what will happen to this game if they are sued out of existence. What will happen to all of these welfare recipients and inmates who now live in the system?"

  Lance took a deep breath before replying, "Well someone needs to figure this out, real people live here Joe, real people like me."

  Joe nodded, "Oh, before I forget, one of the inmates I have been ministering to is now in the game. He has been forced to play as an orc. I'm going to try to connect the two of you. He is an amazing Christian."

  "That sounds awesome; I can't wait to meet him," Lance replied. "What is his in-game name and class, if you know it?"

  "He is called Grog; I think he said he is playing a fighter or something like that."