Someone was about to offer a rather unusual choice to Emma Campbell, a young woman suffering muscular dystrophy to the point of sometimes struggling to breath, let alone walk. Unlike her soon to arrive visitor, she had long dreamed of being the hero of a story even if it was just a minor hero of a minor story. Maybe getting a job that would let her help people make their lives better. Even then after years of declining health she still kind of dreamed of it, though since her early teen years she’d been living with a prognosis that said the doctor’s equivalent of, “it just ain’t gonna’ happen”.

I began today about like any other recent day. Wake up, call for my computer, and work on my Minecraft art, currently a rendition of the Eiffel Tower, till the nurses bring in breakfast. Some mornings I can’t swallow so well now, so they have to monitor me while I’m eating to keep me from choking. That’s the worst. I didn’t even realize how much it mattered to me to be able to eat without assistance till that was gone too.

Thank god my hands and eyes still mostly work. Games are what I’ve got left. And I think my doctor’s kind of surprised my hands aren’t much weakened yet. I’m just thankful. I’m dreading the day when I’ll have to have someone else type my goodbyes to my guild in Three Moons. That’s the odd thing about today. I’m not logging in after breakfast. Instead, one of my newer guildmates flew in from Europe to visit me.

It’s weird. Not complaining, but who does that? Nobody. That’s why I’m not complaining. I haven’t actually seen anybody except hospital staff in the real world since months ago. And it’s not like I even helped KnightJudge4 all that much. Just walked him through crafting and brought him along with my captains for a few raids. OK, I did heal him a lot during the battles. But to fly in to meet a guild leader who you know can’t even get out of bed and go do anything? Is he really even going to show?

[knock, knock]

Nurse Paul, with some middle-aged guy beside him: “A Lars Jansen to see you, Ms. Campbell. OK to let him in?”

KnightJudge4 didn’t actually tell me his real name. The name sounds familiar? But I was guessing maybe a kid from a wealthy family. Not … some gamer-grandpa or something.

Emma: “Are you …?”

Lars: “Yes, Ms. Campbell, you know me as KnightJudge4.”

Emma: “It’s OK, Paul. He’s my visitor.”

Paul knew I was expecting somebody from Three Moons. Paul’s not a gamer and found it even stranger than I do. But since I was expecting him, Paul showed him in and closed the door for me after double-checking whether he should.

Emma: “Hey, uh, so do I keep calling you KnightJudge4 or …?”

Lars: “Heh. Lars would be fabulous, Ms. Campbell.”

Emma: “OK. Then call me Emma. Thanks for visiting me. I know you said it was no problem. But I still can’t get over that you flew here for this.”

Lars: “It’s really less trouble for me than you might think. And I have a lot to …. But no, first, I’m guessing you don’t exactly recognize my name, correct?”

Emma: “Yeah, sorry.”

Lars: “[chuckling] No. I only intend for my work to be well known. Not myself. Here, may I hand this to you?”

He gestured to my computer. And when I agreed he handed it to me just like the nurses do before sitting himself in the visitor chair.

Lars: “Google Lars Jansen and Three Moons.”

I did because why not. Results included wikipedia for Otherworld Magic Media, maker of Three Moons and a business journal article on Lars Jansen, founder and CEO of Otherworld Magic Media.

Emma: “Oh! Em! Gee! No effing way! Are you? Is this? You make my game?!?”

Lars, grinning: “Well, technically it’s my game.”

So, naturally, I was having a little trouble breathing by this point. But Lars waited patiently and I managed to catch my breath without even having to call for oxygen. I’ll admit I felt a bit proud of myself for that.

Emma: “It’s. It’s great to meet you. And I’m totally freaking also now that I think about it. That I got to raid with my favorite game’s owner. But. I mean. Why?”

Lars: “That’s a very long story. And I hope you’ll bear with me. Do you mind a long story?”

Emma: “<sarcasm>Well, I was going to go out for a jog soon.</sarcasm> Heh. No, seriously, even if I could go somewhere, I’d love a long story.”

Lars: “Good. Let me start off by saying that even though you now know who I am here, I don’t expect you to believe much of this story. Not really. At least not yet.

“You know the lands of Selkir and Novgora from Three Moons. I was born in Novgora. I based the realms of Three Moons on my home world. Back there, I was a Judge with the spell to Banish much like a few of the game’s NPCs have to send players to a penalty realm, a purgatory where they must work their way back out. I knew from an early age that I was not going to be the hero of any epic. But I like to think I was reasonably good at my role enforcing the realm’s justice. However, that stood in the way of another Judge, Bradov, who wished to overthrow the rulers and otherwise upend my world.”

Emma: “Bradov? So the main BBEG character from Three Moons?”

Lars: “Exactly, the Big Bad Evil Guy character. Except the character’s based on a real person from my world. And I’m talking about the actual events. Under the guise of meeting with me to discuss our work, Bradov surprised me and demonstrated a new spell, Incarnate. It sends the user to another world. As far as I can tell, another universe. He sent me here to get me out of his way. And unlike Banish, there does not appear to be a way to work off the Incarnation nor an expiration. Short of finding someone who can use Incarnate upon you again, it is a one way trip. And though I have found a way to use it here, it seems I can not use it on myself.

“There is an interesting side effect of the magic. It grants the Incarnated person a … let’s call it a user interface. Much of the Three Moons interface is based on it, just with some adjustments for being an online game such as adding functions like logging out. From what I’ve been told many years ago by my world’s priests, it is likely similar to the effects of a diagnostic magic they use in the temples. But unlike that, this can be used anywhere and by anyone who has been sent through Incarnate.

“Aside from that, real magic doesn’t seem to be a thing here in your world, at least not beyond connections to my world. If there are gods here, I’ve not been able to contact them or verify the stories of them granting powers. Maybe they just don’t talk to outsiders. I don’t know. Anyway, working with a few other exiles from my world, we’ve been able to develop a means to connect to and use some limited form of the powers we already had. And in the past several years, I’ve managed to access one new spell from studying what was done to us, Incarnate.

“You’re not the first I’ve approached about this. Since I can’t go myself, I’ve been seeking people I could send to thwart Bradov. First, I tried another of those from my world. Although she managed to gather some intel beyond what we’d known when we came here, she was promptly recognized and sent back here again. Then I sent an individual named Jason with … let’s call it a questionable past. He sought redemption, so I figured a hero’s quest could be mutually beneficial. Performing Incarnate grants me some limited ability to occasionally communicate with and check on those I’ve sent. When I was able to check on Jason, I found that our gods apply karma from life in your world to those Incarnated into our world to determine how they will start, with a whole new body as well as new abilities and powers … or the lack thereof and a set of disadvantages as a penalty. The new body for Jason was no surprise; I looked quite different in my world. But I did not expect the rest of the repercussions. Jason was doomed by his past. After that, I’ve sought out people who might have some reason other than seeking redemption to be interested in helping us.

“I heard about you from our employees who play in the Three Worlds game. You founded a guild known for playing fair and helping anyone, especially new players, with no expectation for payment or even necessarily joining your guild. Then I checked it out myself as KnightJudge4 and tried to check your background outside the game, not that I could find much. But aside from your extensive gaming reputation, I found a few other signs of good, such as one person who tells me you volunteered at a pet shelter back when you could.”

Emma: “That’s a little … um …”

Lars: “Stalker creepy? Fair. I’m sorry. But I do have a need to have some idea who a person is before I try to discuss this.”

Emma: “Yeah. Still creepy. But I guess I’ll let it slide for now because you’re the CEO behind my favorite game. Um … as long as … you don’t have some sort of weird thing for invalids, right?”

Lars: “I swear on the Three Moons that I have no romantic intentions here whatsoever.”

Emma: “OK. Th- that’s … cool I guess. Anyway, it’s true I volunteered at a pet shelter. But like, that’s kinda weak altruism, right? Half of why I did was to get to pet more kitties and puppies. For me.”

Lars: “Enjoying doing good does not stop it being good. And that’s just one factor among the many for why I believe you to be a worthy choice for questing to help my world. I would like you to Incarnate and quest to save Selkir, Novgora, and all the realms of the Three Moons world from Bradov’s villainy. And perhaps more beyond that. If you can thwart Bradov, perhaps you can then go on to challenge the greater evil that corrupted him. In truth, the Big Bad Evil Guy from my game is but a bit player in the threats to the world I’m from.”

I literally could not believe what I was hearing. Looking at him from my hospital bed, either he was highly eccentric and a damn good roleplayer – which I could believe from a guy who runs a gaming company – or he was a loon who genuinely believed his own story. Still, over the next few days, I let him talk me into transferring me to a private facility and trying his spell. I’m not sure why. Mainly I figured, he’s a rich guy so it’s not like he’s going to sell my organs or something. So why not go along with it? Once it was just us and a couple Otherworld Magic Media employees he said were also from his world, he rolled out some stuff that looked like really high quality Three Moons cosplay gear along with a funky … uh, techno-wand, I guess. Then in what I recognized from maybe way too much playing Three Moons as a chanting vocalization of the game’s magic system he … well, it sounded just like how a spell from Three Moons sounds, if not an exact pattern I’d heard from the game. Immediately, I got the greatest shock of my life. 

It worked!