Benton pulled his headset off and set it down with a little too much force. He groaned and tilted his office chair all the way back. He looked at the ceiling and let his mind spin out ways to help Zarn.

His employee's found him sitting like this so often that one night they stayed until dawn to paint the ceiling tiles above his desk. His art director, Matty, said that she drew the outlines to everything, then she let the rest of the non-artists in the crew fill in the solid colors. She and her group of artists, then came back through a couple of hours before the office opened for the day, to add all the shading and details.

The work was beautiful, and he loved it. The picture was of his favorite Tavern team. Sunshine, the little fairy tank, was hitting a gossamer lich with her giant sword. The fairy's golden hair streamed behind her and the little wings hummed with the speed of a dragonfly. Zarn, with his cat ears and tail, was throwing a healing spell, his arms were raised, his cloak and cloth robe swirled around him, and glowing runes raced about his figure. The rest of his team dodged and fired at the lich, and each one was a work of art in and of itself. It was still the best present he'd ever received. He was humbled that his employees would spend an entire night making the art, and he didn't even mind the paint splotches that managed to find their way onto the carpet, even though they'd placed tarps on everything.

It was the artwork that inspired his idea. Each character on the ceiling was played by a person who worked at his company, SlideRuleGames. Everyone except Zarn. He ran his hands through his light brown hair and tried to think logically about the idea. He knew that Zarn went to school for programming and that the boy was more than capable of an entry-level position. But what if Zarn felt it was a betrayal, that Sunshine wasn't played by a girl?

Benton never implied he was a girl, and they'd never talked about gender in any of their many talks. Without meaning to, he'd become the confidant of the little healer, and he'd found himself looking forward to their conversations. What if bringing the boy in to work for him caused Benton to lose that connection? Their friendship was one of the things that kept him sane and kept him loving Fantasy Tavern Online, which was the main game developed by his company.

Zarn had shown up right after his team lost their healer to a real-life car accident. Sky had been one of the employee's in their music department. She had been the mothering one in their little band of misfit gamers. She'd been the heart of the small company, and everyone couldn't even think of playing the game without her for over a month.

Finally, Benton had logged into the game. He'd left his fairy character out in the wilds when he'd gotten the news of Sky's death. Once the loading screen dissolved into the actual game, there was a fight right in front of him. A little Neko healer was all alone, and he was being beaten on by a couple of scrubs. Scrubs were like jackals. They were players who liked to gang up on solo players who, by themselves, were weaker than the group.

Healers, in general, weren't meant to fight anything alone. They were intended to be protected by a group, and it was a challenging class to play. The little healer would defend himself, attacking and running back and forth to get out of range of the scrubs. He'd cast a healing spell on himself in those little moments he was out of reach, then he'd begin dodging, and he'd even occasionally manage to seriously wound one of his opposition. That wasn't supposed to be possible, and it impressed Benton.

The moment he figured out what was going on, Benton had thrown out a party invite to group with the healer. Zarn had accepted it immediately, and the tank jumped in front of the healer to take a hit that would have one shot killed the neko.

Skuzbucket1: Awwwe did the poor widdle priest find a widdle girl to pwotect him? What a cute widdle worthless tank. Everyone knows that fairy tanks suck. They can't hold aggro, and they can't hit for sh*t.

Of course, the scrubs would also be internet trolls. The two went hand in hand. He didn't reply to the taunt. The number one rule of all gaming interaction was: Do Not Feed the Trolls! Instead, he leaped into action. He hit a macro that allowed him to run through his holding and aggro spells as the cooldown timer's finished.

Aggro was gamer speak for gaining the attention of the enemies around you. Fantasy Tavern Online was unique in the fact that these aggro spells worked on enemy players, as well as monsters. The stronger the aggro, the less the opposition could see the other teammates. They literally became invisible to anyone not on the team. The other teammates could still be damaged by area of effect abilities and splash damage, they just couldn't be hit by a direct onslaught.

While his macro was running, Sunshine hit them with attacks. Now that he didn't have to keep interrupting his casting to dodge the scrubs, Zarn quickly fell into his role of healer and kept spells going continuously. His technique was flawless, and the boy would make an excellent professional gamer with how quickly he adjusted to a new tank player.

It didn't take long for the scrubs to realize they were outclassed. With a few censored crass comments in world chat, they both ran using an instant portal potion. It was a ridiculous waste of resources to use an instant pot just to keep from dying to their prey. They wouldn't be able to use another one for forty-eight hours.

Sunshine: Nice job healing.

Zarn: Really? I don't usually get compliments. LOL.

Sunshine: Then you're running with the wrong crowd.

And just like that, Zarn became a part of Benton's favorite team of players. He talked the healer into joining the Nevermore Tavern. Taverns worked like guilds from other games, with a few differences. Taverns were necessary where in other games, you could play without a guild. Each Tavern had its own set of rules and a set of world rules. It was set up similar to the U.S. Government, without the fails. Each Tavern acted like its own governing state, the players in the Tavern set its rules by vote, but it had a set of rules that couldn't be overturned too. Those base set of rules came from the game itself, and all Tavern's had to follow them.

Zarn's original Tavern was called Noob Tavern. It was a starter Tavern that didn't get counted in the ranks. Every new character was automatically placed in Noob Tavern when they first started. It gave the new players a chance to get used to the perks of being in a Tavern without the hassle of demands from the leaders of the player ran versions. Sunshine couldn't believe the healer had made it to level one hundred and fifty without being recruited into a real Tavern. It was like Zarn was meant to be in Benton's group. It was like he was a gift from Sky, herself.

Benton stood from his office chair and went to find his employees for a special emergency meeting. He was grateful that the guys in the office wouldn't laugh at his reason for a meeting. They'd all miss the little healer if he wasn't around. Zarn was such a good kid that not a single person at SlideRuleGames, who had met him online had a bad thing to say about him, and that was every employee except three. Benton didn't require his people to play every game that SRG came out with, but most of them did.

Once his twenty-two employee's gathered in the company's meeting room, he began with their emergency code, “Houston, we have a problem....” Everyone's gaze sharpened and the room fell silent. It was time to let his gamer family know the situation. Together, they would decide how to help their Tavern mate.