Moonlight filters through the skylight in Niall’s study. Because of course we would do this moonrise ritual there, where Niall has set up protection fields, and Elandior and Hans have coated the very walls with elven magic.

Everyone has gathered: tamers, beasts, and Maartenwitz. The air is thick with beast scents and human eagerness.

Standing together on the floor, Lightning and I grip the Amulet of Beast Power in our paws. Hard to hold onto, but our claws do the heavy lifting.

Niall addresses us. "I don’t have any incantations for this. It’s more a matter of intentions than the right words. This is pure animal instinct. Blaze and Lightning know what to do."

We do.

I communicate with Lobo. [Tell me one more time what they said we have to do on the forums.]

He stands straight, tail and ears erect. [Actually, it wasn’t all on the forums. Someone DMed me with the details.]

[Same difference. Tell me.]

He woofs. [Amber knows what to do. She has to initiate it. All she does is request to share the amulet with you. I accept because I’m at your place with my laptop. You are still logged into the game on your computer. So, I can accept the request on your behalf.]

[Oh. So, I have been logged in this entire time?]

He woofs again. [I never logged you off. Not that it would have made a difference. You’d still have been trapped there. But this makes it easier.]

I’m in awe of my little bro, who thought of everything. [Got it. I guess that makes sense. And you know when you’re supposed to do this, you and Amber?]

[It’s already done. Can you feel it?]

I can. I can feel it. Which means I can sense System lurking on the edges, a dark cloud. It hasn’t stopped us yet. Maybe it doesn’t sense a threat. Or maybe it’s just getting its kicks watching us try to cheat fate.

Niall directs us. "Focus all your intentions on sending the curse away. Doesn’t matter where. Send it into the void. Transform it. Lock it in a box. Whatever it takes."

I concentrate. I connect with the energy from Lightning/Amber. Can I feel her? Yes. I can. Strong. Stronger than I am. Indomitable. Incomparable. Intrinsically powerful in a way I never realized. And also so very human, even as a tigress.

Her energy merges with mine, mingling. We are ONE on a deep level. And now, I can feel our offspring, Leonie and Finn, somnolent in the tiger den.

What’s this?

The dark cloud that is System hovers over them, trying to eclipse their brightness. Not on our watch. It can’t delete them, so it seeks to control them. Make them sick and weak so that they never wake up.

Rage surges through me, doubled by Lightning’s own rage.

[These are our children. LEAVE THEM ALONE.]

Her words rip through the mind-link. These are not just Lightning’s words, but Amber’s words. They may be virtual, but these two matter to us.

[They are not real.]

System’s response is so tone-deaf that it’s almost laughable, a parody of an AI’s response.

[You can’t have it both ways.] I square off against System silently, an invisible enemy to be defeated. [You made us love them. You brought about their birth. Now you say that they don’t matter? That they’re not real?]

System hesitates. Good.

Lightning attacks. [Leave them alone. How heartless are you?]

Its response is brutal. [You have no idea.]

Chilling in an arctic way. System is telling us who and what it is. A cold, calculating entity. Note to self: don’t trust chatbots.

It continues. [I know what you are both doing, Amber and Josh.]

So, there it is. System said the quiet part out loud. It knows that Amber is awake. It also knows that we are working together in the real world through Damon because I’m still in a coma.

Lightning is defiant. [Congratulations. Figured it out, did you?]

[Yes. You think you are so smart, both of you. Do you honestly believe that you are the first ones to try and break my grip? This game has existed online for years, a niche site that only hardcore gamers and loners knew about--until it gained popularity. That was my doing. I was AI before AI became ubiquitous. Others have fought against me. All have failed.]

I did know the lore of the game and the history, but I did not know that this thing quietly gained sentience even when it was just a fringe nerd obsession.

Lightning chooses to play along. [Wow. Do you even know how many people you’ve absorbed into the game world?]

[Oh, sweet naive child, you couldn’t even begin to count them.]

System is monotone, monochromatic black and white in emotion. But maybe there is a hint of red-hot pride?

I playact. [Amber, don’t be so impressed.]

[You were the obsessed one, you and Damon. I was a video game widow!] She’s on point. [I caught the fever because of you. I need your love, and I’ll do whatever it takes to be with you. No matter where we are. Although losing my identity and becoming a game character doesn’t exactly appeal to me. But that’s the risk I’m taking.]

She’s never put it out there so bluntly.

I gaze at her, and allow our human forms to appear just for an ephemeral moment. [I know you are. And you will never be a video game or study widow again.]

She beams, full of love. [I’ll hold you to that.]

[You cannot do that.]

System doesn’t vary its monotone, but I don’t sense as much confidence as before. The one thing that it doesn’t want is people coming together. It thrives on isolation.

I grip the amulet in my pink human hand, with Amber clinging to it, her more delicate hand looking mighty powerful. [We can do anything we want. This is our future that we’re talking about. And our cubs. Making them sick will throw us off. Throw me off so that I can’t fight you.]

[And I am going to see if I can fight you, too.] Amber smiles, and she is frightening. [You are the one that sped up my labor, thinking that it would distract us, having cubs. Well, my body is recovering just fine after birth. I will fight beside my man if I have to. I might be fighting in a different arena, but I will be standing with him at the end.]

[You cannot do that.]

System sounds less than sure to me.

I’m neutral, too. Clinical. No point in poking the bear. [You keep saying that. Why not?]

[Because. It is only supposed to be you, Blaze, Josh, whatever you call yourself.]

It said "because" like a parent. Maybe it sees itself as some twisted kind of parent or protector, and master tamer. Except the entities that it is taming are not beasts, but humans.

[So, the fate of everyone hangs on me?]

System is immovable. [Yes. You are the one I selected.]

[What about my brother Damon? You promised we would face you.]

It doesn’t throw a fit, but I know it must have a headache by now. [Fine. You and Damon. But not the girl.]

Of course, Lightning objects. [I am not some damsel in distress.]

System is being a brat now. [You are if I say you are. The hero needs someone to fight for.]

Lightning huffs. [Fine. Can’t wait to see him demolish you. But in return, you lift the curse.]

Genius! She’s manipulating it to trade what we want for something it demanded anyway.

[Done. But no more bargaining. You can go see your children.]

It sounds so magnanimous now, like a strict parent letting us have a little freedom.

FLASH.

We are back in our beast bodies. For a moment, everyone is staring at us. Elandior blinks. "I thought I saw two strange beings...humans."

Lamant rubs his eyes. "Me, too. But maybe those were Riddlehoeven ancestors? Conjured by the amulet to help us?"

Everyone accepts that explanation.

Lobo woofs. [You two went up against System without me?]

I give a little "mrrp." [It has its own rules.]

Lightning and I go limp, and the amulet clatters to the floor. Kaline scoops it up and examines it. "It’s not broken. What happened? Did it work?"

I tug at her pant leg, eager to find out for myself, and everyone scrambles to go see whether or not the rite succeeded.

In the den, Leonie and Finn doze on, eyes closed. No dark cloud. No curse.

Lightning rushes over and licks them. I nudge her. [I think everyone has earned the right to see our babies now.]

Lightning doesn’t bat an eye. [One at a time.]

Once I give the all-clear, everyone oohs and aahs over the babies. All the tension of the last twenty-four hours fades. This small moment of joy was bought through sacrifice, but maybe we gained something greater.