Princess Luna of The Moon Light Kingdom

chapter 2

Once the light finally dies down, I find myself in the middle of a crumbling city made out of white stone that glows brilliantly against the night sky under the twin moons' light. Moss and vines cling to the little dirt that managed to find a place to rest upon the walls. I can sense the magical energy emanating from the stone; it must be how it's stayed so clean.

All around me are other specters of different colors. None of them are players, though, so I can just ram into them to absorb them. That will be the fastest way to get to level ten, but it won't give me the form I want later on. Specters are a combination of magic and memories; the purer the memories, the more powerful the specter. Though for a player, it just means they are limited in evolutions at level 30.

While exploring, I find a specter that looks just like me and ram into the thing. When I hit it, the world around me changes. The streets are filled with people cheering as I pass by on some open-top carriage. Next to me is an elegant rapier... no wait, it's technically a side sword given that it has a simpler hilt and can still cut well. Then, as soon as I can focus on the details, things go back to the crumbling ruins.

What just happened? I've read a lot about different races and especially about the one I am now and found nothing about seeing visions of the past. Also, why do I feel a sense that I've seen this before? Maybe it's due to hitting a perfect match for my character, or is it a rare specter that flashes a vision?

I continue looking for specters to munch on, getting a glimpse of memories with every second orb. Then I find one in an open field beside what looks like a barracks. I brace myself for the memory that I might see. Once I consume it, things change again. I'm surrounded by young nobles training with wooden swords. In front of me is a young boy, about the age of ten, lying on the ground covered in dirt. My body also seems to be about the same age.

"Luna, could you at least give me a chance to fight back?" the boy says, pushing himself into a sitting position. "It's not going to help either of us get better if you keep just knocking me down."

I stand still for a moment, breathing as if I just got done doing a light workout. This might be some kind of cutscene that I have to act my way through.

"Ruddy, if you don't work on your sword skills and lean on your magic, you'll never get any better." I reach down to pull him up off the ground. "Adding to that, you have no sense of spacing."

"I don't have the time like you do to devote to training," he says, looking down at his feet. "That and you're extremely talented to start with."

"You have more free time than I do; mother has me taking dance classes, and father wants me to learn the piano. That's on top of court etiquette and book studies." I turn to give him my back as I walk over to a nearby bench. "Thinking about it, learning to dance yourself might actually help with your spacing." In reality, I have no clue what I'm talking about, just spouting out things I've read online.

"Where did you hear that from? What could dancing and swordplay have in common that learning it would help?" he says with a look of surprise. I might have misremembered, but I'll just power through.

"I heard it from a traveling adventurer a while ago." I close my eyes while reaching for a cup tucked underneath the bench. "Both require careful footwork to do correctly, and when you have a partner, spacing between your feet and bodies becomes important."

"I'm not even going to bother asking how a princess got the chance to talk with an adventurer," he says, placing his arm behind his head. "Last time I asked questions like that, I ended up being stuck in a room for several hours."

"Yeah, sorry about that," I say, taking a sip of water from the cup and glancing over at the barracks. Over to the left side, there's a small building with stone walls sitting over some stairs leading into the earth. Is that there in the present? "I like getting out of the castle walls every once in a while, especially without flashy bodyguards. I want to get to know my subjects, not scare them with painted metal."

As those words left my lips, the memory comes to a sudden end; it's a fragment after all. Still, even though this is meant to be a lifelike game, that interaction felt a little too real. I called him Ruddy, and he didn't correct me nor question what I was saying other than the thing about dancing. It's probably nothing other than his AI being programmed to go along with what I was saying. I'll need to keep this in mind to flesh out my character's lore later.

I float over to where the building in the memory was, only to find rubble and dirt in its place. I think about squeezing through an open gap that leads down into the earth, but I glance over at my menu to see my current level is six, a little over halfway. Definitely don't want to lose my progress or these weird specters.

I start floating towards the white castle off in the distance, making sure to stay well above the street. Some players have gathered below to swing at low-flying specters with swords and staffs. Strange, I haven't encountered anyone up to this point, but they might just take me as another bit of starter exp.

As I get closer to the castle, I can start to make out the stone statues lining the courtyard just behind its crumbling walls. Strange that I feel like I recognize it from somewhere. It's a classical white castle that I was infatuated with when I was younger. It's probably just similar to one of the old photos I filled my mother's computer with.

I lower myself down into the grass and start looking for another orb to eat, which doesn't take too long. The courtyard turns into a withering garden with a fire burning over the horizon.

"Princess Luna, we have reports from the front lines," says a man in plate armor painted with a red double cross on the left breast.

"Those on the front lines are keeping the undead at bay alongside the fire mages from the Eldar Kingdom. We have knights in reserve ready to deploy at a moment's notice."

"Make sure everyone has evacuated from their path, and let the men up front know once the evacuations are complete that they can fall back," I say, clutching my fist. "While that's being done, move everything you can to the vaults. My family has spent generations creating and collecting powerful magic items. Many of those will cause a lot of havoc if the wrong person gets a hold of them."

"Are you not going to put everything we have to keep this kingdom alive?" He slowly approaches me and hands me the same sword I saw in the first memory. "It's your home as well as ours."

"Over half our land has been taken over by monsters and undead. Not only do we not have the manpower to take it back, but when it

's all over, the other kingdoms will attack us while we're down." Where am I pulling these lines from? I don't know what's happening, but it's like I have all the context. "There is no point in dying for a dead kingdom. Also, I would like you to take my half-sister Elsa and hide her away in another land. At least she can work to keep the family alive a little longer."

"What are you saying? Are you going to stay here by yourself to fend off the horde? You can take her yourself and settle down with her." His eyes look like they are about to burst out of his face while his back is hunched over as if he is about to pounce.

"I appreciate the concern, but as the final crowned member of the royal family, I must stay behind." I look down with a sad look. "Our enemies will no doubt use that to belittle our kingdom long after it's a footnote in history. If we are remembered at all, let it be for fighting till the bitter end rather than for the last ruler running away in its time of need."

The memory ends there, leaving me with more questions than answers. Why are these memories fitting so well with my loosely written-out bio? Princess Luna of the Moon Light Kingdom, the last leader of a nation that was attacked by monsters controlled by an enemy kingdom, though she didn't know the truth at the time. It's all too perfect; the game must use a person's bio to customize their experience. I log out to call off a bit to eat and peruse the forums.