Welcome, to Glitch City

“Please, be safe.” Entomo’s mother said as she handed him his travel sack for the journey. It was glitched so that it could store any number of items without weighing him down. It held ten swords, three shields, enough food to last until the next winter, and enough clothing for the entire town.

“I will. I promise I’ll return once I find the Dev room.” Entomo glanced at his sister lying in bed, her face warm, her eyes closed. He gently placed his hand on her forehead and said a small prayer before leaving.

The other townspeople clapped as he left, handing him a few cooked items or potions that helped ward off paralysis or poison. The Dev room wasn’t just a solution to Entomo’s quest, but to all the quests in the land that couldn’t be solved with glitches. If he could find it, it wouldn’t mean peace just for him, but for everyone in the land.

His first stop was Glitch City, a bustling new metropolis that was situated right outside the Ascent Springs. The path there would be filled with monsters, usually impossible for a normal townsperson to take out, but if he properly utilized the glitches, he would be safe.

As he left his hometown and walked toward the Black Forests, Entomo passed by the Goddess’s Church, now abandoned except for the Priest who still believed in the eventual Her return. Vines and dirt and accumulated over the Goddess’s face, turned to the side, her hair blowing in the breeze. She abandoned us. He thought. Why should anyone care for her?

Entomo shook his head and readied his first glitch.

He quickly equipped and then unequipped his shield, immediately followed by drinking a speed potion, before then also re-equipping three swords at the same time. Normally this would be impossible, but somehow instead the swords melded together, increasing their attack power ten fold. The Glitch Sword made an odd buzzing noise as he held it, but that was simply proof the glitch was working as intended.

As the black trees around him began to smother the sun from the sky, a Hungry Wolf snarled at him from the darkness of a tree’s shadow, lunging at him with a drooling snout. However, almost anti-climatically, a quick slap from the Glitch-Sword killed it instantly. A few more wolves howled at their fallen comrade before all falling equally as quickly to the Glitch Sword. Almost too easy.

He came to a large rock wall, almost one hundred feet high. Normally, he would follow the path as it led around the wall and snaked its way up, but it added hours to the trip, something Entomo couldn’t waste time on. But that’s where the next glitch came into play.

He took out a regular wooden box from his near endless bag and held it against the rock wall. Then, he jumped onto it while somehow also continuing to hold the box under him. Against all common sense, the box became stuck against the completely vertical wall. Entomo jumped and the box came free, raising itself up with him, and then becoming stuck again, allowing him to quickly and easily gain height.

He hopped off the box one last time and onto the top of the rockwall, glancing down at the hundred foot fall behind him. He thought about testing his own glitch that he had been working on and hoped would impress the people at Glitch City, but he remembered he was in a time crunch. He double checked his map and continued on his way, whacking any other monsters in one hit, no matter how powerful they were.

Hours later as the sun set, he set up camp in a clearing. This would normally mean death by monsters once the Sun fell below the horizon, but there were glitches for that as well.

Enotomo brought out a few sticks of firewood from the countless he had stashed in his bag. Next, he built a few fences in specific spots around his camp site, creating multiple triangular openings that were just big enough for the monsters to fit into, but not get out.

Then, he waited.

As the Sun lowered, a few Dire Wolves, which were stronger than Hungry Wolves, came out of the growing shadows. They stayed low to the ground, their eyes glowing red in the nightlight. Entomo stood in a specific spot as they approached, not attacking or defending, just waiting.

One Dire Wolf lunged at him, but immediately got stuck in the fencing. Entomo smiled at his success. He moved over to the other triangular opening as another Dire Wolf lunged at him. Then the next, and the next, until he had six Dire Wolves stuck in a circle around him, all of them snarling and trying to break free, but would never be able to do so.

It was extremely odd to look at. The Dire Wolves still moved as if they weren’t stuck, their feet were frictionless on the ground as if they were running on ice, but stuck they were.

As with most glitches, it wasn’t exactly known why having any six monsters in one area stopped other monsters from appearing, all that mattered was that it did work. Of course, there was the constant over-lapping growls and snarls, but that was a small price to pay for complete safety during the night while traveling through the Dark Woods.

The next day, Entomo left the wolves, as he knew the fencing would magically disappear once he was far enough away, and headed toward Glitch City, full of determination. If he moved fast enough, he would arrive by sundown.

He continued to walk through the Dark Woods, one-shotting any monsters that attacked him with his glitch sword, until he came to the Duindeh River, his next obstacle. Its quick currents would be impossible to swim through. He’d be battered against the rocks in seconds. There was a bridge a few miles away, but again, he didn’t have the time.

That’s where the next glitch came into use, however it was not one of Entomo’s favorites to use. Still, I have to do this. He mentally prepared himself as he took out five fire resistance potions and a flint.

Entomo drank all five potions and lit his clothes on fire. Then, he put his glitch sword away, instead equipping a large ax. He stood at the edge of the river and started doing a charged spin attack, slowly moving towards the river as he did so.

Any sane person would have thought Entomo would fall straight into the water as soon as he stepped onto it. But, as with most glitches, the complete opposite happened. He continued to spin right above the fast moving water as he continued to make his way to the other side of the river. He wasn’t necessarily levitating, but it was as close to it as one could get without using magic, which most natives of the lands couldn’t use. He spun and spun, all while still on fire, but slowly making his way across.

As soon as his feet were on hard ground again, he threw the ax away and stepped back into the river, putting the fire out and then changing into a fresh pair of clothes. After throwing up his morning meal, Entomo threw away his burnt clothes, double checked the map, and hurried down the beaten path.

Right as the sun was beginning to set, Glitch City appeared on the horizon. Thousands of lights were strung up, all eternally burning thanks to yet another glitch. Most buildings in most towns were only one or two stories tall, but in Glitch City they went hundreds of floors into the sky, the same two story building stacked on top of one another, repeating until they reached some unseen limit in the sky.

People from all over the land were wandering through the streets, drunk and awing at the sheer size of the city. It was easy to tell the tourists apart from the locals since they wore glitched-clothing, which was odd to look at. The normal fabric, which was usually made with simple colors like brown, red, or green, was instead purple, with black and rainbow colored squares randomly spread out across it. It still felt like normal fabric, but the visuals were like nothing else in the land.

Then there were the glitched locals. Entomo’s mother had warned against them, but there were a few glitches that allowed people to change their physical bodies, although the outcomes were sometimes ghoulish. However, it did succeed in making some people taller or longer-limbed, some had their hair glitched to be a different color, others made swords and shields into clothing. There were even rumors of a few back alley dealers that knew how to make someone invisible, but that becoming visible again was sometimes impossible. Bumping into “nothing” was a common occurrence in Glitch City.

As Entomo got closer, there were a few… abnormalities in the area, most likely caused by glitches that had gone wrong. One building had another stuck inside it at an odd angle. There was the sound of rushing water near the path to the city even though no rivers or streams were nearby. His foot struck against an invisible wall, causing him to hop in pain.

The Church of the Goddess was still there as there were no known glitches that could remove already existing structures, but it had become derelict. People had painted over it, leaving profanity and their true thoughts on what the Goddess had done.

But finally, he was in the Glitch City. But that was the easy part, now the hard part. Since it was the end of the day, he decided to stay at an inn called The Ladybug. It was incredibly tall, probably holding over a hundred rooms, but Entomo guessed only three rooms were taken.

Since the duplication glitch became common practice, the only real bargaining chip anyone had was their time. A person could get a room at an inn for an hour of work, cleaning or fixing something. Or, if you knew a glitch the inn owner somehow didn’t, you could trade them for a room instead.

But Entomo didn’t want to share his own glitch. Not yet anyway.

He walked up to the concierge and said, “I’d like a room with a single bed, please.”

“That’s two hours of work.” The Hostess replied.

Higher than normal, but it wasn’t like any other places were going to be better. She brought him up to his room, which was no doubt identical to the others, and closed the door. Entomo glanced out his window, the view unlike anything he had ever seen in his small hometown.

The next day, after his two hours of work, Entomo asked around about the Dev Room, but everyone he spoke to just shrugged him off and said he was chasing a legend. Still, he pushed on and learned as much as he could. The only substantial thing he learned was that it was whispered to be in the clouds, the Goddess’s domain, not on the ground with the commoners.

However, Entomo’s real point of intrigue was Baroness Mushi, an apparent fountain of wisdom when it came to glitches and the Dev Room. It was said she was the first one to figure out the duplication glitch, as well as a decent amount of others, even withholding some of the most powerful ones for her own uses. But she was held up in the tallest building, locked behind multiple rows of guards.

The only way to get an audience with her was if they had a glitch that was unknown to her. And that was exactly how Entomo planned on meeting her.

He walked up the main tower in the center of the city. Two guards stood by the entrance, chatting, until they noticed Entomo.

The larger man asked, “You need help with something, kid?”

Entomo simply said, “I’m here to speak with the Baroness.”

They glanced at each other with a raised eyebrow. “You got a glitch to share?”

He nodded.

“Alright, you can go in, but we gotta no-weapons policy.”

Entomo handed them his bag and after a quick pat down, he was let in.

The place was filled with art and golden statues. Well, it was better to say it was the same golden statue placed over and over again, but it still looked ostentatious. Entomo passed by another set of guards as he went up the stairs, then another as he got to the third story. He was out of breath once he made it to the very top of the tower.

A final pair of guards stood outside the entrance to Baroness Mushi’s office. After yet another pat down, they nodded to each other and opened the doors.

The Baroness’s office wasn’t much different than the lower floors. More golden items were strewn about, same with sculptures and engravings. Thousands of books lined the walls along with weapons and armor that would have gone for high prices before the Duplication Glitch had been discovered.

And on the opposite side of the room, sitting in a large chair, was the baroness, reading a large volume. She had a modest amount of makeup, along with well manicured nails and hair. But the most salient thing about her was her eyes. They were glitched to somehow be outside of her head. Entomo did his best not to shiver in disgust.

She closed the volume and intertwined her fingers on the table. “It is a pleasure to meet you, Entomo.” How did she know my name? But the answer quickly became obvious. She probably knows the name of every single person that comes to visit Glitch City.

Etnomo bowed.“Thank you for taking the time to meet with me, Baroness. I’m sure you’re very busy.”

She smiled. “Not as much as you’d think. But please, let’s skip through all the formalities. What have you come to Glitch City to tell me?”

Straight to the point then. “I need any information you have on how to get into the Dev Room.”

She half-smirked. “A common request. And do you have a new glitch to share?”

“I do.”

“What does it do?”

Entomo took a breath. This is it. If his glitch didn’t impress her, then he had come all this way for nothing. “It lets you fall from any height without taking damage.”

Both her eyebrows went up, although with her eyes the way they were, it was almost comical. “Sounds promising. Please,” she gestured to the open window, “show me.”

Entomo internally sighed with relief. He hadn’t been sure if his glitch was already known or not. “I’ll need a weapon to do it.”

She squinted, her stuck out eyes narrowing. “Gerald, give him your broadsword.”

Gerald uncrossed his arms and sighed. He unsheathed his sword and handed it to Entomo with a death glare. “You better not break it. It has sentimental value.”

“I won’t.” Entomo walked toward the windowsill. He had done this glitch numerous times, but never this high up. He took a breath and jumped.

As the wind whistled past his ears and the ground quickly came up to meet him, he equipped the sword. As soon as he was ten feet away from the ground, he threw the sword, but before it left his grip, he un-equipped it, letting it fall to the ground instead.

Immediately, all of Entomo’s momentum was canceled and he fell the remaining ten feet without injury. He calmly picked up the sword and walked back to the tower’s entrance, much to the confusion of the guards.

One of them asked, “Didn’t we just let you up?”

Entomo simply nodded and said, “Yes.”

The two guards again glanced at each other as one mumbled, “Some crazy glitches out there.” Then opened the door again. “Go on in.”

Entomo walked back up the stairs, with each set of guards looking more confused than the last, until he was back in Baroness Mushi’s office.

She grinned. “Impressive. You really did sustain no injuries. How does it work?”

Entomo handed the sword back to Gerald. “First, I need you to promise me information on where the Dev room is.”

The Baroness nodded. “Of course, you have my word.”

Good enough for me. “Before you hit the ground, you have to throw a weapon and unequip it at the same time.”

Gerald scoffed, “How the hell does someone do that?”

Entomo shrugged. “You just do it.”

“Interesting, very interesting.” The Baroness said. She leaned forward. “How did you figure this glitch out?”

He shrugged. “Completely by accident.”

The Baroness rolled her eyes, their odd properties making it look almost insect-like. “As is the case with most glitches. But how?”

Entomo sighed. “I was with a friend on top of his house, playing pretend sword fights with sticks, but I lost my balance and rolled off the side. As I fell, I thought I could cancel out some of my momentum if I threw my stick away but realized how dumb that was halfway through and just put it away to break my fall with my hands. But instead of hitting the ground, I just sort of dropped onto it.”

“Incredible. Your glitch was exactly what we needed to make it to the Dev Room and back.”

Entomo’s eyes went wide. “So it’s real? You actually know how to get there?”

She laughed. “Getting there isn’t the hard part. The really hard part is getting back.”

“Why?”

“Because it’s not a normal room in some building, there’s no secret password or hidden entrance to get in. It is quite literally hundreds of feet up in the air.”

Entomo gasped. “The rumors are true then? It really is in the Goddess’s domain?”

“It seems so. But like I said, we’ve known that for quite a while. I’ve tried to keep it under wraps so idiots don’t go trying and killing themselves. But with your glitch, we might just have a chance. First though, I need to make something clear.”

“What?”

“When you get to the Dev Room, there’s an item I need. An antidote potion that cures Basilisk Venom.”

“For what? To duplicate and sell?”

She stood and walked toward him. “Doesn’t matter what for, I don’t care what else you take from the Dev Room, just as long as you come back down with that, we’re golden. Got it?” She held out a hand.

He nodded. “Understood. As long as you help me get there, I’ll do whatever you need me to.” They shook on it.

“Great.” She put on a great big smile. “First stop then, The Ascent Springs.”

***

The next day, Entomo, the Baroness, and her entourage arrived at the top of the Poiland Mountains where the Ascent Springs were located. Geysers shot hot water into the air, misting their surroundings. Drops of dew hung from every available branch and blade of grass, and the slightest hit to any tree would cause barrels of water to come falling down.

There were a few monsters on their way, some Maleficent Water Spirits, a few Great Hawks, and a fair amount of Acid Plants, but the Baroness’s entourage dealt with them easily enough. They walked toward a large pond in the center of the mountain’s crater where the original Hero Message was.

“We’ll set it up here.” She said, “Entomo, how much do you weigh?”

“Um, around 130 Units.”

She muttered, “So we’ll need around fifty of them.” She snapped at Gerald, “Build the fencing and Walter you count them out.”

“Count what out?” Entomo asked.

“Watermelons, of course.” Entomo raised an eyebrow. “What? You’ve never heard of the Watermelon glitch?”

Entomo shook his head.

“Hm. It’s useful, but incredibly dangerous if you don’t know what you’re doing. Basically, if you squeeze enough watermelons into an enclosed space and a person jumps into them, they are immediately shot out at an incredible rate. Fastest enough to get to the Dev Room.”

Entomo raised an eyebrow. “And where would that be?”

“Right above us, of course.”

Entomo squinted up but couldn’t see anything. “Where?”

“Don’t look up, look down.” She pointed at the pond’s reflection. “Right there, see?”

Entomo crouched and peered at the still reflection of the sky. Right in the center of the pond’s reflection, floating in the sky, was a room, bricked up on all sides. “Goddess Above, it is there. But how?”

She shrugged. “Who knows? All you need to know is that it’s there and so is the Basilisk Antidote. You remember the path I told you?”

Entomo nodded. Getting into the Dev Room wasn’t as simple as opening a door. There were invisible walls and ceilings all around and above it, but there was a path to get in. That’s all he needed to know.

“Good. Just keep trying and you should slip in. Are the watermelons ready?”

Gerald threw one more in, “Yes, ma’am.

“Good. Entomo, it’s up to you now. Ready?”

He took a deep breath. “I’m ready.”

“Fantastic. Gerald, Walter, toss him in there.”

The two beefy men picked up Entomo like he weighed nothing. They counted together, “Three, two, one!” And tossed him into the pile of watermelons.

Entomo didn’t immediately fly away like he thought. First, the watermelons bounced against each other, the sound almost deafening him.

The Baroness yelled over the noise, “Remember to keep your eyes straight up!”

Then, all the watermelons pushed against him and the force propelled him into the sky. It felt like his limbs were going to rip off his torso. The wind blinded him, but he pushed through and stayed focused.

As soon as he flew above the Dev Room, it became visible. He took a sword out from his inventory and dropped it. Since he couldn’t see the invisible ceilings, he would need a reference point of where to stop.

The sword landed on seemingly nothing about twenty feet above the Dev Room, right as Entomo arched in the sky and began to fall down again. He aimed his body as close to the sword as he could, praying there weren’t any other invisible walls in his way. As soon as he was ten feet away, he took out another sword. Then, he threw and unequiped it at the same time. His momentum completely halted, and he fell the remaining ten feet as if he had hopped off of a short ledge.

He stood on nothing, but he could feel walls and floors around him. The Poiland Mountain and Ascent Springs were hidden beneath the clouds. He was on his own now.

The Dev Room was less than thirty feet away, but in reality it would take some time for him to get there due to the invisible walls. He equipped two swords, one in each hand, and held them out to feel his way through the invisible maze. Left, then right, then straight. Drop down, then, right, right again.

It took some time, but after half an hour, he made it to the bricked up Dev room. He walked around it, but the only door was locked and Sealed. It looked like it could only be opened from the inside. Still, the Baroness said there was a way in, Entomo just had to be assertive about it.

He followed the brick wall until he came to a corner. The Baroness had said if he stood at just the right angle, he could see through to the other side. He took out a wooden box and pushed his back to the corner. Holding the box low, he continually walked backward into the corner, praying it would work.

After a few seconds, his right foot slipped through. He tried not to get ahead of himself as he focused on getting his left side in as well. A minute later, his other foot squeezed through the walls.

Entomo’s heart beat against his chest. He held the box against his chest in a jerking motion. After three attempts, his entire body clipped through the pinprick opening and he flew backwards, hitting hard ground.

After a quick check to make sure he had all his extremities with him, he smiled and jumped up to see what the Dev Room looked like. Throughout his journey there, he had grown countless ideas of what it would look like inside, expecting a golden choir and everything to be gilded.

However, if he didn’t know any better, he would have thought he was just in some windowless room back in his hometown. It was all fairly underwhelming except for the fact that every single legendary item was right there in front of him.

Diamond and ruby encrusted swords hung in rows on one side of the wall, the wall opposite held every impenetrable shield in the entire known world. Half were useless since they had been found and duplicated a thousand times over, but a fair amount were ones that had been locked away behind Seal Charms, unopenable since true magic was needed to undo them.

In the potions section was everything from increased stamina and defense potions to lightning and poison potions. He scanned them until he found the one for the Baroness and the antidote for his sister. As soon as he grabbed one, another magically appeared in its place. Huh.

He grabbed whatever else he thought would be locked away behind Seal Charms and put it in his endless inventory. After double checking everything, he walked toward the door and turned the knob.

It easily swung open.

With a big smile, he took a step forward, but stopped as a femanine voice called out to him, “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

He frowned and turned around.

He somehow hadn’t noticed, but in the far corner between the swords and shields was a woman with long, flowing golden hair and an impossibly white dress. She was staring at him with a mixture of confusion and what looked like pity.

“Who are you?”

“Come on, you don’t recognize me? There has to be hundreds of statues of me around the place.” She flaunted her hair, staring off to the side while a breeze from nowhere blew her hair to the side.

Entomo’s mouth went slack. “The Goddess?”

“One and only.” She walked toward him. “Sorry if I startled you, but I wanted to see how and why you came up here. And, I’m even more sorry to tell you but, you can’t leave here.”

“What? Why?” Entomo equipped the best weapon he had. “Do you know how many people are suffering down there because you won’t help them? How many people have died because you abandoned us?”

“Approximately three thousand eight hundred and forty two.”

“So you do know? And you still don’t do anything about it?”

“I can’t do anything.” She sighed and looked down. “I’m trapped here.” She frowned at Entomo, “And so are you.”

“What, you think I can’t get down? I don’t know how long you’ve been here, but we’ve learned down there without your help. We’ve figured out glitches and have beaten almost every dungeon using them.”

She furrowed her brow. “‘Glitches?’ I’ve never heard of such a thing.”

“Doesn’t matter. Point being, we don’t need you anymore. I’m going home to my sister to heal her, so I don’t care what you do.”

He was about to take another step, but The Goddess used real magic to stop him. She mumbled a spell and his leg froze with a blue outline. “I told you, you can’t leave. If you step through that door, you’ll be inflicted with a curse.”

“I’ve got every potion cure in the world in this thing.” He hefted his limitless inventory bag. “I think I can survive a status effect or two.”

She kept her spell on his legs. “You are not listening. I am trapped here, and so are you. The Creators of this world made it so. You cannot enter the Dev Room and leave alive.”

Now Entomo paused. “The Creators?”

She shrugged. “The real Gods of this world. You think I did not know my people were suffering? I do not know why the Heroes left, but when I heard my people crying out in pain, I immediately went looking for the Dev Room. And I found it. I thought it would solve all their problems. I was foolish.”

She cut through the air and blew. A glowing dust spread out through the room and went out the door, revealing a black and purple mist surrounding the door.

“If you go out that door, you get cursed. And this isn’t any normal curse. It’s a Death Curse. No way to heal it, no way to get around it. Even I can’t survive something like that. And If I die, so will all the life in the world.”

The reality of the situation slowly began to weigh down on Entomo. The Goddess hadn’t abandoned them, she had simply been trying to do the same thing he was, but now they were both stuck in this box in the sky.

“But I have to get this to my sister. She’s going to die.”

She eased off the restraint spell on his leg, freeing him. “I know and I’m sorry, but you won’t be able to make it to her alive, no matter how many ‘glitches’ you have under your belt.”

Entomo stood still, gazing outside the doorway, his mind racing. “How long will it take for the curse to kill me?”

The Goddess raised an eyebrow. “Less than a minute.”

“And how long do you think it would take me to make it to the ground?”

She frowned. “Maybe twenty seconds, perhaps thirty. But there’s no spell for negating fall damage.”

“Then there’s enough time.” He gave a deep bow. “I’m sorry for doubting you, Goddess, I’ll try to let the others know you did not abandon us.”

“What? Don’t tell me you’re going to actually-”

But Entomo didn’t hear the rest. He ran and jumped out the door. As he flew through the portal, he felt the curse take a hold on him. His skin became unbearably hot, his mouth dry, but he pushed on and equipped a broadsword as the wind blinded his eyes.

He spotted the campsite slightly off to the side and shifted his body to fly towards them. The heat became more intense, the wind doing nothing to ease it. A black vapor covered his body, leaving a trail like a dark comet.

When he was ten feet from the ground, he threw and unequiped his sword at the same time, halting his speed. Two of the guards saw him coming and caught him, helping him to the ground. He tried to stand but his legs wouldn’t hold up his weight.

“Entomo, what happened? You look terrible. Did it work? Did you find it?”

“I did…” It came out more like a cough than words. He dropped the bag full of items and grabbed the Baroness close. “Don’t send anyone else. Dev Room…” He took a raspy breath, coughing out black phlegm, “is a trap. Goddess is stuck in…”

“Entomo? What are you saying?”

“Please… give my sister the antidote. I won’t be able to.” The black vapor was beginning to turn to smoke. Entomo’s skin had become shriveled like a raisin.

But thankfully, The Baroness seemed to understand. “I will. I promise.”

Entomo smiled. “Thank… you…”

His skin continued to shrink away until all that was left were his bones.

The Baroness stood and glanced up. “I don’t know what the hell happened, but no one else goes up there. Understood?”

“Yes, Ma’am.” The guards saluted.

“Good.” She rummaged through the bag until she found the one potion she wanted. “Finally. After years of looking, I have it.” She checked the rest of the items and whistled in amazement. “Goddess Above, the Room really did have everything. We’ll make a mint of time off these things, but first,” she frowned at Entomo’s skeleton lying in the dirt, “dig a grave for this poor guy, will ya?”

“Yes, Ma’am.” They pulled out a few shovels and started digging.

***

A few days later, the Baroness and her crew returned to Glitch City. Hundreds of eyes watched her as they walked through the streets, whispers of what had been accomplished floated through the wind. Before anyone got any crazy ideas, she addressed the city.

“It is true. We have come back from the Dev Room with every item.” A deafening round of applause and cheering went through the city. “However,” the noise subsided, “someone sacrificed himself for this to happen. His name was Entomo, and you should all remember him.”

The crowd looked confused for a moment, before starting to chant his name, “En-to-mo! En-to-mo! En-to-mo!”

The Baroness smiled as she walked into her tower and went up the thousand steps to the hidden room at the top. She pulled on a gold statue that looked identical to the others and a secret door opened, revealing a small room with a single bed, and on that bed was the Baroness’s husband.

She took out the Basilisk potion and held him up as she poured it into his mouth. His body glowed white for a moment and then faded. He took a large inhale, and after five years of keeping them closed, opened his eyes.

“Pumpkin? Is that you?”

Her heart melted at the sound of his voice. “Yes, it is.” She couldn’t tell how long they simply sat together, holding one another. Long enough that she woke up the next morning in his arms. It was like a dream.

The next day, The Baroness stayed good to her word and personally took the Dragon Potion to Entomo’s village and sister. Well, first she duplicated it over a hundred times, then she left, but same idea.

After asking around, she found their home, and after a few explanations and many more tears, she gave Entomo’s sister the potion. Less than ten seconds later, she woke.

Groggy but seemingly healthy, her first question was, “Where’s big brother?”