By This Shield

Prologue - The Real Me

“Dalton?” Damnit, I hated that name… The intercom drew my attention away from my computer, but the water cooler was sealed so the processor was in no danger.

“Dalton, your father and I will be going out to the country club, the Fairchilds are entertaining tonight. Do stay out of trouble, and if you get hungry have Rosalie make you something. Good night!” Of course they would be going somewhere, why stay home with your disappointing kid when you could be drinking champagne that costs more than most families make in a month and sneering at everyone?

I didn’t bother answering, they were already gone anyway. All the better, I needed to focus and get my rig back together before Unfolding World Online launch, and that was only an hour away. I was all set and ready the day before, but then of course a new video card line was released and I had to go buy two of the highest-end cards, because no way in hell would I be playing UWO release on anything less than the absolute best computer possible.

I worked feverishly to finish the assembly, get it up and running and update the drivers, but with ten minutes to spare I got it done. Ten long, agonizing minutes of being stuck in hell, waiting for my real life to start back up.

See, when UWO was first released as a Beta test, I knew is was gonna be special. A full-immersion virtual reality massively multiplayer online roleplaying game. The first of its kind, with some of the most sophisticated artificial intelligence ever created. By all rights, this kind of tech should be discovering cures for diseases and mapping the human genome and the entire universe, but similar machines were already working on those. It was only fair one be devoted to making life better through entertainment.

Knowing this, I bought a Beta key off some schmuck on a game forum. Paid him more than he was asking so no one else could outbid me, and I still got the better end of the deal because I had the key and he just had money. That string of digits was the beginning of my life. The Beta release was everything it promised and more, though there was no small number of bugs in the code. My character was a Paladin I named Wilhelmina because well, the randomized appearance looked like a Wilhelmina to me. I spent the entire month of the Beta test wrecking monsters and saving people, NPCs desperate to have their flocks protected from wolves or their homes from bandits and the like. I even helped NPCs that needed help but didn’t actually have quest markers. The first one, a kid being chased around town by his sister, tripped and scraped his arm. I’d watched them run the circuit several times in that first day and they never once changed course, until the kid tripped. He had some real road rash, and his sister was freaking out, but the basic healing spell available to paladins fixed it right up, and he smiled and went right back to running.

After that it started happening more often. A farmer’s cart breaking down and needing repaired. Invading orcs breaking a wall that the game didn’t stop me from helping to fix. It started out like almost any other MMO, but I watched it grow and change as I played. The puzzles started out simple enough, but as I leveled up they started getting so sophisticated I had trouble figuring them out at all!

And most importantly, it felt real. Real in some way that other VR games just didn’t. I’d tried all of them, I was sort of an expert at trying to escape reality, but something about UWO was just… more. I thought about that, fingering the silvery ring of the integral immersion headset, wondering just how much more real it would be after this! Then I saw the ready light was on. I checked the clock, it was officially release time, I’d successfully distracted myself from the wait! I kicked back in my ergo chair and slipped the ring onto my head, settled onto my temples, and my personal hell faded away.

The loading screen didn’t look any different than before, like I could just touch it. So I did, just filled in the name and password fields with a quill pen that appeared in my hand as I reached for them. The long scroll of the end-user license agreement and terms of service felt like a decade I could have spent getting started, but I just couldn’t sign them without at least skimming them, signing at the bottom with that same handy quill pen.

“Welcome back, Wilhelmina!” The voice echoed in empty space for a brief moment, then a castle faded into being around me, leaving me in a small dressing room with stone and mortar construction, a banded oaken door, and a mirror. The mirror was lined around the edges with options, and a vague shadowy reflection figure with nothing set yet. I knew I wanted to keep the name, but I really wanted to do better on character design, the randomized settings I used in the Beta were just not good enough for the real me anymore.

Human. Female. Brown hair, long, curly. Brown eyes, almond-shaped, heavy lashes. Olive skin. Cheekbones a little higher, lips a little wider and fuller. Muscular, but sleek with serious curves. Taller than average. Scar below left eye. I looked through every option trying to sculpt the perfect appearance, because changing it later might be difficult at best. Long minutes later she stood before me, a veritable goddess given digital life. And she was me.

After a looong moment spent admiring myself, my real self, I turned away to find a table had appeared next to me, and on it lay a scroll. Unrolled, the scroll turned out to be a contract. It looked like the same contract I read during Beta character creation, with the addition of one special clause at the end.

“Upon signing to this agreement you signify that you understand that your rewards from Beta will be transferred to this character. This transfer is a onetime deal. Any subsequent alts you may play will not benefit from these rewards.”

Alts. I knew people who made tons of alts, and somehow managed to get them all to raiding specifications and keep them there, but that wasn’t me. I had a habit of hyperfocusing and making my main, my *one* character as perfect as possible instead. So I didn’t even hesitate to sign with that same appearing/disappearing quill pen.

Once the contract was signed I heard a click, and with a sudden rushing dizzying noise that I felt to my core, I *was* Wilhelmina. It was amazing the way my head cleared once the noise passed. I could feel her soft skin under the generic dressing room outfit. I could feel the iron muscles under that soft skin. The Beta had been really immersive but this… This wasn’t virtual reality, this was alternate reality. This game was officially my personal heaven.

Then I realized the door to the dressing room was unlocked. It was time to enter the game. I reached for the handle and stepped into the Unfolding World.

Chapter 1

The first thing I noticed was touch. I could feel the sunlight on my skin, the breeze blowing through the badly-made generic starter clothing, the simple bracer on my left arm that hid my access to the user interface. Then came the smell of bodies in a crowd, the cacophony of activity.

The entry zone was swarming, buzzing with a crowd of new characters, apparently I spent more time on design than many players. Ah well, it’s not like a few minutes put me far behind the curve. Looking around the town of Threefold, three main structures dominated the scenery, just as in the Beta. The Guildhalls; the Arcane Halls, the Fighting Grounds and the Explorers’ Tower. They were all fairly swamped, but I didn’t need to explore them right now anyway, I knew their layouts from exploring them before. What I did need was to get into the Fighting Grounds and get my class sorted.

“Wilhelmina, good to see you made it. I have have these for you.” The boy I healed that first day of the Beta, the one running around the city, tugged at my shirt hem and held up a small backpack. When he handed it to me, my interface bracer pinged the addition to my inventory.

“Thank you, Georgie! I’ll make good use of them.” I figured there’s no harm in treating the NPCs like people, after all, that was what they were supposed to represent. As Georgie trotted off back to town, I peered into the bag and found a pair of memory-skill crystals. Excellent, these must be bonuses from playing Beta that would give me a leg up! Grinning like an idiot, I grabbed them out and pressed them to my forehead, one after another, to activate them and implant the skills within. I couldn’t help a little thrill of joy at the few jealous faces in the newbie crowd still trying to reach their guildhalls.

[Folk Heroism: Due to your efforts in helping NPCs in Beta, friendly NPCs have a favorable reaction to you, Also grants the title, “Odd Jobber”]
[Valorous Defender: NPC enemies remember and hate you from Beta, slightly increased threat generation]

Blinking, I shrugged. There’s a title I was never going to set active. And neither of those were really usable skills, but they could definitely make tanking a little easier. Who knew helping with things aside from actual quests might have a long-term effect? That struck me as some serious next-level game design.

I took my place in line to enter the Fighting Grounds. The ‘Grounds were a gathering place for combat-oriented classes, both damage and tanking roles. I originally chose Paladin because of the versatility of the class, depending on how I played I could be a tank, damage dealer or a healer. But as great as it felt to help Georgie that first day, and to destroy evil monsters, the simple fact always held true that tanks were in the most demand. I considered that given the realistic nature of the full immersion, there might be even less tanks than usual. After all, who would want to take up the front lines in combat, knowing you would actually feel every cut, break and even death?

And with that thought in mind, I went through the settings to set them the way I like. I always hated the inventory change ping, so I set it to notify me privately. There were a number of new settings, detail stuff like what appears visually like health and mana bars, and feedback options. One that caught my attention was “Pain Feedback.” I dialed that one down to 30% or so; I wanted to feel it when I was attacked so I could respond but no way did I want to really know what it feels like to get stabbed.

For the most part I set all of the notifications to private so that they’d show in my field of view for a few seconds, and set everything else to hidden but health bars and mana bars. I really wanted the whole game to seem as real as possible.

My turn came up at the doors as I mused on this, and the tough-looking bare-chested man in simple trousers guarding the door waved welcomingly.

“Wilhelmina! It’s Arron, remember me? Wow, I’m so glad you’re back! You know I won’t hold back against you, right? Hey, if I win, you can buy me a round at the tavern later, huh?” This was a bit of a surprise, I remembered the bouncer at the door from the first time around, he was a tough fight to get into the ‘Grounds, but he was treating me like a good friend!

“I won’t hold back either, Arron! And I’ll join the guards at the tavern this evening either way. But you know there’s no way I’m going to be denied my rightful class.” I offered in a friendly tone, squaring off with him at the entryway.

The hybrid combat system of UWO allowed a player to fight using the statistics and abilities of the character, even if they were not especially fit in reality. By using skills deliberately, one could dodge, or hit critical areas, or cast spells, but otherwise it was actual real time fighting with your own digital body. As a beginner character I had exactly no skills, but I built up reflexes for using skills in the Beta. So when Arron threw a haymaker, I tried to use the dodge skill instead of just dodging, and it hit me like a truck.

Arron danced back warily, expecting a counterattack from the apparently great Wilhelmina, and thankfully bought me a moment to shake my head clear.

“Not bad, Arron! But that’s the last one you get.” Sometimes bravado could overcome humiliation, but this time it didn’t really help much. Instead of waiting for his next move, I ran in with a wide haymaker, just like he threw a moment ago, but feinted instead and kicked him in the belly. He bent over for a moment coughing, and I gave him exactly as long to recover as he gave me. Our health bars looked about equally depleted, and there was no way I was going to lose this fight, but Wilhelmina had a reputation to preserve apparently and I wasn’t going to sully it now with dirty moves.

Arron, to his credit, recovered quickly. He tried to tackle me instead of punching or kicking, but I rolled backwards with it and threw him like a ragdoll. Getting to my feet as quickly as I could, I leaped on his prone form and locked his legs in mine and got an arm behind his back. It was a move I remembered from when Father forced me to take a year of wrestling, but there was no way I was going to ever admit to him it came in useful.

“Do you yield, Arron?” “Rrrgh… Yes, Ma’am. I yield!”

I released him and offered a hand up. “That was a great match! Good luck testing the rest of the newbies, huh?” Arron grinned and gave me a thumbs up. The system pinged a message to my bracer, [Skill Acquired: Basic Unarmed Combat +10 STR].

“Don’t forget you said you’d visit the inn tonight and share a drink!” Oh crud, that was something I promised. Ah well, nothing to be done but live up to it.

“Sure thing!” And then I entered the Fighting Grounds. The entrance to the ‘Grounds was a large open hall, with vendors along the sides selling foods and potions and all sorts of fighting gear along a pathway for a short distance, enough to lead a little beyond both the Explorers’ Tower and the Arcane Halls to the Colosseum. The Colosseum was reminiscent of the real one in Rome, a large bowl shape with tiered seating surrounding a wide field. Around the edges of the seats above, a series of structures ringed the topmost tier. Mostly tents of different kinds, with a few wooden buildings depending on the needs of the teacher. Each housed a fighting school, with its own combat master. By the time I reached the top steps to make my way to the Paladins’ tent, my legs were nicely warmed up for exercise.

Around the top tier warriors of all stripes trained against practice dummies, or sparred with each other. It was fairly easy to tell PCs from NPCs for the most part, because players rarely have the patience to practice the exact same move over and over on their own. After all, that’s what skill crystals were for! Several waved to me or called out my name as I passed, it seemed that Folk Hero thing was going to follow me. Ah well, there was something to be said for celebrity!

Finally, I reached the Paladin training tent. It was brightly festooned with red and blue banners of medieval european style, and racks of swords, shields, polearms and maces spread out beside the open flaps.

“Wilhelmina! Welcome back! I’m glad you decided to rejoin the Paladins, you were one of the best, and I know you’re going to do us proud.” I could actually feel myself blush at the praise from Sir Edwin Montrege. He was the head of the order, and he remembered me too! I offered him a salute.

“Thank you, Sir Edwin! I will do my best! If I may, I would like to take my vows and begin my training.”

“Of course, Miss Wilhelmina. Kneel, and I will hear your vows.” I dropped to a knee before him and considered my words. The actual vow didn’t really alter anything in game as far as I knew, but the act of taking them marked a character as a Paladin, and I thought it would be a good idea to take them seriously.

“I, Wilhelmina of Threefold, hereby vow to uphold the principles of Justice, Equality and Compassion. I vow to shield and assist those in need to the best of my ability, and to guide and lead those who wish it to those same principles. I vow to speak no untruth, except under duress, and to atone for any intentional disobedience to these vows in whatever way I may. So it is sworn.” I realized I should have thought up and maybe written better vows before launch, but those seemed reasonable at least.

“So it is sworn. Welcome back to the the ranks of the Paladins.” He nodded and beckoned me to rise, then handed me a small bag, causing my inventory to ping again. “Inside you will find equipment and crystals that will impart the basic skills every Paladin knows: [Challenging Call], [Holy Smite], [Divine Protection] and [Lay On Hands]. Practice these until you are comfortable with them, then go forth and bring Justice, Equality and Compassion to the world. Oh, and with that in mind, the Williams family is having some trouble on their farm, if you have time could you look into that? We’re all counting on you!”

I recognized the quest hook and dismissal so I saluted before getting out of the way so the next player could take their vows. I remembered the skills from the Beta, but I used the crystals to be sure, in case something had changed between versions. They did seem somehow more real, more complete. Then I checked the equipment in my inventory using my bracer, because no way was there any armor in that little bag, or a weapon larger than a pocketknife.

I’d been given a simple breastplate, a small round shield and a sword, and a spear. I touched the armor and it materialized on my body. I felt the weight of it, the heavy padding underneath and the cold smoothness of hard steel. Two more touches on the bracer and I was holding sword and shield. The shield was maybe two feet in diameter, and the sword slightly longer than my forearm. Basic equipment, but with the game’s gear system they would likely last me a fairly long while.

Looking around, many other players were doing much the same. Collecting their classes, gear and checking their settings. Several NPCs waved, quest markers showing their needs. It seemed like an awful lot of quests actually, but as people accepted quests those NPCs would lose their marker and go find places nearby to wait, and before long another would come offer their own.

Still, I already had one quest, and it seemed like I might have to fight through a morass of various warrior-class players to get a chance at another right now. So instead, I made my way to a target dummy to try out my new skills and equipment.

A few swings of the sword taught me that it was a well-crafted if simple weapon. The edge was sharp, the weight balanced just a little past the hilt, and it felt sturdy. The blade bit nicely into the practice dummy without losing any sharpness. I smacked it with the shield and found that sturdy too, it felt incredibly real right down to the wood grain on the inside.

“Holy Smite!” I called out the attack, not really a necessary thing but it just… felt good to do now and then. The sword glowed brightly with the strike, and left a scorch mark where it struck, flaring out around the place where the sword bit in. I could feel the drain in my mana, leaving me feeling a little bit more tired in a way that had nothing to do with my muscles or my emotions. I could see it on my bars, too, that spell took up about a fourth of my mana pool.

I tried some more practice, getting a feel for how my current mana pool refreshed and my own fighting capabilities, which were actually pretty decent as far as I could tell. The experience of playing in Beta translated to a fair bit of actual skill already. I was interrupted from my musing on this however, by a growing hush among the crowd. I turned to see what everyone was looking at, and spotted a pair of Paladins of the Order of the Golden Hammer on horses, opening a path through the crowd by sheer intimidation. They escorted a large horse-drawn carriage to meet a single elven woman in a purple dress. It looked like they might want to arrest her, though in retrospect Golden Hammer paladins always kind of looked like they wanted to arrest everyone.

The elf woman in the robes looked horribly out of place in the sea of newbie warriors, she was clearly a caster. But no way were they going to arrest her for not fitting in! Except, the Golden Hammer were the kind who liked people to fall in line. I groaned and started wading through the crowd to try and see if I could help, but the press was far too thick and before I could even get close an elderly man stepped out of the carriage. The Herald of the High King. What in the world had that poor girl done to get in this much trouble on day one?

But to my surprise, a young man followed after and presented the elf girl with a chest, giving some speech about great deeds and accomplishments. It turned out the elf’s name was Lady Alvia. Did the Golden Hammer really serve as guards for court functionaries? And why all this fuss to give the girl her Beta achievement rewards? Wilhelmina was suddenly very grateful for sweet little Georgie.

The girl, Lady Alvia, looked surprisingly like a deer in headlights, especially with those big elven eyes. “Dear Sir, may another collect this reward for me?” The question made little sense for someone who must have been playing hardcore to get the level of ceremony on display, maybe someone else got into her account or something… But some other players took it as an excuse to heckle her, because of course they would; no matter how great the game they were still internet randos.

Wilhelmina was about to track down the heckler who called her an idiot and challenge him, but before she could, someone else pointed out that the girl must have rolled an alt first and it started to make sense. Wow, that was pretty sucky, but that sort of thing did happen to people who didn’t even skim things before signing. Still, she couldn’t help but sympathize. The rewards would either go to waste, or this would be her new main, possibly one she didn’t even know how to play.

I watched her put each one to her head looking like someone had kicked her puppy. It was almost physically painful. Maybe it was the really expressive elven features, but I really felt for her. And what’s worse, I was starting to think I knew who she was, because the Epic Feats were fairly telling, all realm firsts and major raiding achievements… And the killing blow on Arch Demon Vosdar…

“That’s Col?! Holy… Umm, by the three!” It was stunning. Col, the leading tank from the Beta, and all those bonuses going to a caster alt. I almost said something that would definitely break character but caught myself in time. Then I realized… I might have just shouted out her deadname. In a crowd. Well, fuck. I looked up just in time to hear her yell in frustration, “Fuck me!”

Yup. Definitely shouldn’t have deadnamed her. And with that crowd around her, as vulnerable as she looked, someone was definitely about to offer to take her up on it. I surged through the crowd, no longer caring about bruising people, planted my feet in front of her with those mountainous mounted Golden Hammer drones on the other side, drew sword and shield and yelled out at the crowd.

“I will beat bloody each and every person that offers to take her up on this. I swear it by the three virtues to which I gave my oaths!”

I was greeted by deafening silence for long moments. I was sure several people would take me up on it and probably kick my ass, but it was the gesture that mattered anyway. So I glared at every eye that would meet mine with my best evil eye.

“You would do well not to challenge Wilhelmina on this. You can not win.” The deep voice startled me, and I found myself looking back and up at the Golden Hammer paladins. The shorter of the two threw me a wink, but otherwise held that intimidating stony demeanor. That was… unexpected. I honestly hadn’t been aware they could think on their own. In fact I was sort of surprised the server didn’t crash right then and there. After that the crowd backed away, there was some grumbling but no real challenges. I tried not to look too relieved.

“So this is the twilight zone, right?” Lady Alvia queried, sounding a bit shell-shocked.

“Yeah, that was really weird… I bet it’s because of my Beta bonus. NPCs like me. Still, wow. Umm, anyway, I don’t want to get in the way of the rest of the event, but would you be willing to talk a bit after? I’m Wilhelmina, like he said.” Well, that didn’t come out awkwardly at all… Well, considering the situation, awkward was actually a pretty big step up.

“Ah, sure.” I nodded and looked down at the incoming friend request on my bracer interface and accepted it, while the Herald of the High King said something or other to Lady Alvia. I waited patiently as they finished their business, still watching the lingering bits of the crowd. It seemed like most of the people who stayed were bottom feeders, tactless assholes who would get in their jabs the moment I turned away, so I had no intention of giving up any ground.

“Send me a Whisper later. I got to take care of something.” I turned to nod and wave her off, saw her tapping away at her interface, and then she was gone. I pondered that, watched the carriage and Golden Hammer paladins trot away, shrugged and looked back at the crowd.

“Show’s over, everybody.” I unequipped my sword and shield and started walking toward the tavern. The place was likely to be overrun for the first few weeks, but I made a promise and I meant to keep it.

~o~O~o~

The tavern was exactly as busy as I expected. I unequipped the breastplate to better squeeze through the crowd and try to find where the guards sit when not working. I figured I could guess what salmon felt like, swimming up waterfalls to find a place to lay eggs, but I did eventually push through to where Arron and the rest of the NPC guards on break were relaxing.

“Hey guys, how fares the day?” I usually tried to talk like a Renaissance Festival playtron, though Father would never approve of me going to such an event so I probably sounded more like an idiot than a medieval English-speaker, but it was fun to at least try anyway.

“Better now that you’ve joined us, Miss Wilhelmina! I see you’ve taken up the shield again, that was a daring show you put on this last hour.” Oh boy, that was gonna be a popular story, I hadn’t even considered it.

“Well, I mean…” I coughed nervously and Arron passed me one of those tall wooden cups of ale you see in every single roleplaying game tavern everywhere. It was full to the very edge, and when I sipped it it tasted of dark secrets and vaguely rotten fruit and burning. I considered the flavor and decided it was good.

“I… wasn’t trying to create a scene or anything. Just, well, you all understand, when someone is especially vulnerable you protect them, right?” I peered around the table and received several nods.

“And you did. We’ll all drink to that!” I gamely lifted my cup and took a deep drink. “But Miss Wilhelmina, you’ve always been like that. Not just protecting people, but helping. Not too proud to heal a child with a skinned knee, or carry brick for the masons after an attack when other heroes would be celebrating.” I could feel my cheeks flushing, reminding me how real, how right I felt in the now, but he continued.

“We’ve run into a problem. And not the kind you ask a proud hero to solve, the kind you ask a decent person for help with. Someone we can actually trust. It’s a… rather sensitive situation.” This sounded serious, like a special quest or something. Probably to do with that Odd Jobber thing…

“Of course, I’ll be happy to help in any way I can.” What else could I say? Special quests were rare, and getting one this early in the game was… Well, it made me feel pretty damn important. Arron leaned over and murmured in my ear, and I received a private notification of the quest and a whisper from Arron at the same time.

I surreptitiously looked down at my bracer to read the whisper, apparently meant for my eyes and or ears only. “As I said this is quite embarrassing, the mining town of Gelwihr has had repeated shipments of vital garrison supplies robbed in transit off the southern highway from threefold. The situation has become quite dire. The garrison captain no longer has the funds to feed his troops, let alone pay them. Their equipment is in total disarray from constant kobold attacks. If was a simple matter of robbery a new supply shipment would be sent. But the Baron Alester has refused to authorize the quartermaster the expense until the highwaymen have been dealt with. I fear there may be more afoot than just robbery. The supplies have been intercepted three times already, but no other wagons on that route have been robbed. And the obstruction from the Baron just doesn’t make sense. That lack of support from Quartermaster Rendon is quite odd as well . There’s no evidence, just my gut, so I cannot bring this to just anyone, especially with the Baron involved.”

Once I finished reading the whisper, I looked up to Arron, who offered me a very serious look. “A toast then, for our good friend Wilhelmina, to her continued health and success!” He held up his cup, and I matched it with mine.

“And to Justice, to Equality, and Compassion. May we all find them in abundance!” Arron drained his cup with a grateful smile, and I matched him, noting the heat filling me from the strength of it. I spent a half hour just hanging out and talking. The guards has lots of fun stories about challengers for Fighting Grounds entry. Creative wins and crushing defeats. It turned out they had specific rules for testing newbies, not so much to really keep people out, but to show them a hint of what they would face as fighting classes. Get in a hit or two, and if the applicant still wanted to go, take a dive. Even Arron had held back against me, in spite of what he said. It made sense, guards that could actually be defeated by beginning classless players wouldn’t be much use to the city.

“Well, I hate to break this up, but it’s almost time for us to get back to duty. More applicants to test, and another shipment to load before it leaves in the morning. Thank you, Wilhelmina, for joining us. It means a lot.” I nodded and stood with them to leave. The hint about the supplies going on the road let me know when to be ready, and I didn’t want to forget the Williams family were having a problem with their farm. So I fought my way back out of the tavern and re-equipped my gear.

Checking my interface map I set the quest tracking marker. As much as I didn’t like reminders that this was a game, it was important to be able to find things. I turned until the blinking marker appeared in my field of view, and started walking.