Melia the Magnificent

The ocean sparkled with the stars as night fell around them. Now that the dragon’s wrath had faded, the debuff afflicting everybody had disappeared and the sky lost the crimson hue. Afternoon had slipped firmly into evening, even if it was a touch more somber and quiet than usual. Even monsters dared not tread where a dragon rampaged.

Melia cradled the bubble containing her friends close to her chest as she flew, not daring to let it fall. Not that anything would happen to the people trapped within; they were heavily protected. But Melia didn’t even want to think about it…just like she didn’t want to think about what she’d just done.

From the perspective of a girl raised in a modern, civilized society, she was appalled. Some of her earliest lessons were moral tales or good advice, like be nice to each other or the golden rule. Kindergarten and cartoons taught her how to share and be patient. Her excursions at the playground told her the world wouldn’t always follow the same rules, but she should always count to 10 and try again…in other words, try to think things through rationally.

Nothing from the last several hours seemed rational to Melia, and now that she had calmed down and could see her actions with the benefit of hindsight, she felt like a failure. Her shame was so great that it threatened to swallow her whole, and she wasn’t sure how she could ever show herself to her friends, let alone Moeldywn or anybody in Horizon, ever again.

“Melia, stop,” Brandy called out.

Brandy’s words floated up to her despite the speed at which they were traveling, making ordinary conversation impossible. At first, Melia pretended not to hear her, electing to continue flying into the night.

“I know you can hear me, Melia,” Brandy said. “And you need to listen.”

Despite having the power to ignore anybody in existence, Melia obeyed. She slowed down, but as they were flying over an endless expanse of ocean, it wasn’t like she could set them down. She stalled out and settled for a hover, floating listlessly in the sky.

“You’ve gone silent, Melia. I know you’re not some mindless drone acting on instinct, because you’ve been reacting when people talk. But I can’t help you unless you tell me what’s going on.”

Melia squeezed the magical orb tighter, but the words wouldn’t come out. What was she supposed to say? They had seen. They already knew! She was a monster. A freak, she didn’t deserve their help-

“Melia!” Brandy commanded. “I can feel you spiraling! Put me down so I can look you in the eye!”

Melia could not disobey Brandy, despite how much she wanted to crawl into a dark hole and hide. From the corner of her eye, she spotted a small deserted island floating in the ocean and obeyed. Melia gracelessly dunked herself in the water, uncaring of the small tidal wave that washed over the barely elevated mound of sand, and stared at it. Brandy told her to put them down. All she had to do was stretch out her arm and pop the magic bubble. And yet it was one of the hardest things she had ever done. Her body was reluctant to let go, even the thought of letting the treasures out of her grasp made her clam up with worry…and that, perhaps, was what did it.

Melia closed her eyes and gritted her teeth. She wouldn’t let her instincts control her. Slowly, reluctantly, she reached forward. The ball slipped from the tips of her claws, and she drew her hand back as if it were burned. She let her body sink into the water until just her head was visible. Now that her rage was gone, she wasn’t world-endingly huge. She’d shrunk back down to her normal, manageable largeness, which was still scraping against the base of the underwater mountain.

Melia dispelled the magic protecting her friends and heard them let out a sigh of relief. She kept her eyes clamped shut, because she feared to see the faces they were making…but as she slowly peeled them open, she found they weren’t huddled into a tight ball at the furthest point on the little atoll, cowering before her grotesque might.

If anything, they looked relieved.

Tired, extremely tired, but relieved.

“Now,” Brandy said, rubbing her neck as she stretched. “What is this all about?”

“What do you mean, what?” Melia whined.

“You’re huge and you just scooped us up like a kid who’s done playing, and they’re taking their toys and going home. Your [Retainers] looked like they were going through hell, and from the sounds of things, you stomped through the entire city with the most powerful woman in the city chucking spells at you. What's going on?”

“I…you…somebody attacked Jessica,” Melia flared. Her eyes sharpened before instantly casting themselves down at the sand.

“And I rampaged through the city.”

“Did you?” Brandy asked. “We heard the stomps, but would you call that a rampage? Sure, there was a lot of smoke, and I could see some flames, but with the exception of the guardhouse you demolished, everything else was still standing. Honestly, part of me is a little flattered that you’d do something like that for one of us.”

“You don’t understand!” Melia wailed. “I’m a…a…a….”

“A what?”

“A monster,” Melia said in a small voice.

“You’re not a monster. You’re a dragon.”

Melia jolted at the voice, stunned to hear Jessica talking. She tilted her head so she could gaze at the [Hunter] through an eye and found her sprawled on the sand, staring into the night sky.

“Listen,” Jessica sighed. “This title? Freaks me out. I don’t know if I’ll ever get over being labeled as a possession. It’s like the system is telling me I’m not a person.”

She shook her head and covered her hair with sand.

“But knowing who it comes from, and like Eluna said, it’s incredibly flattering. I’ve seen your vault. You’ve got more money than a lesser god. You’ve got enough power to make your own damn leyline. You’re a master at every craft. Your sense of treasure isn’t like a normal dragon’s. And that’s the thing…you aren’t a normal dragon.”

“Huh?” Melia blurted. Obviously, she agreed, but she had no idea where Jessica was going with this.

“A normal dragon would have killed that jackass without a second thought. They’d have eaten him, stomped him, burned him alive, anything. So long as he was extra dead, extra fast, they wouldn’t put two thoughts into it. All you did was bark at him. And that’s another thing…Horizon was still standing. Even if I didn’t see your entire path of destruction, the fact that a single building remained upright before you flew off with your goods means you're not normal. Don’t get me wrong, that’s a good thing, and I’m glad you didn’t destroy the capital. But if we’re talking about monsters…I think most dragons would consider you pretty tame.”

“You’re…taking this very well,” Melia said.

“I’m extremely tired,” Jessica shrugged. “And I think my brain is coping with watching the [Destroyer of Worlds] nearly go on a rampage because of me. Who knows how I’ll feel tomorrow.”

Several seconds passed before she continued.

“I admit,” she said, “You scared the shit out of me.” Jessica paused. “Actually,” she amended, “I don’t know if I can ever use that saying normally again. All I can think of is that asshole who stabbed me. You literally scared him shitless and, well, now it hits different.”

“That…!” Melia growled, but even as her anger at the thought of Jessica’s attacker flared, it was also instantly doused. Melia hung her head and whined mournfully.

“Look,” Jessica continued. “You reacted. Sure, it’s crazy and more than mildly terrifying, especially if I stop to consider the fact that all of this happened because I got stabbed. That’s the most bizarre part; believe it or not, this isn’t the worst scrape I’ve ever been in. This one time, I was at a bar and things got serious and somebody smashed a bottle into the side of my head. I spent several weeks at the healers getting shards removed…but look at me now. Have you ever seen a more perfect face?”

Jessica’s smugness was unreal. Until Ellesea murdered it ruthlessly.

“Yes.”

The noble girl turned to the dragon and stared at her coolly.

“I won’t lie. I’ve had enough of people trying to own me today. But if it’s going to happen anyway, I’d rather it come from a powerful creature that wants to protect me rather than somebody who sees me as a pawn. So…thank you for that.”

“It’s hard to say what is or isn’t going too far,” Alastair said, “When we were stuck inside a cell for most of it. Perhaps, tomorrow, we can see things in a new light.”

Several seconds passed before Melia couldn’t take it any longer.

“But what if I killed people?”

That was her biggest fear. She knew she hadn’t done so intentionally. But what about those people caught in her wake? Innocent bystanders, lost because of her ignorance? Melia once again fell into despair.

“Then it was an accident,” Brandy said at length. Melia turned to stare at her best friend, dumbfounded. “We’ll grieve their loss and do what we can to make things right. We’ll learn from our mistakes and we’ll move forward. We won’t let it happen again.”

“What do you mean, we?” Melia groaned. She needed to be locked up, caged, shut away from vulnerable innocents…!

“Melia,” Brandy sighed. “I know what you’re thinking. You feel like a failure and you think you’re worthless. By the law, justice would probably say you’re right. You’d be condemned and punished or whatever happens to people who break a city.”

“A whole city, Brandy….”

“I get it, it’s big. And, actually, chances are you could fix an entire city by yourself; I wouldn’t put it past you, but if you’re really worried about people you might have injured, you’re going to need my help.”

“What?” Jessica laughed. “Can you bring people back from the dead?”

“There’s a non-zero chance that yes, I can.”

The others stared at her, shocked, but she shook her head.

“Now’s not the time. Right now, we’re dealing with the dragon in the room. I don't know about you, but I don’t plan on spending the rest of my life on this little heap of sand in the ocean, and our best shot at avoiding that is making sure Melia doesn’t shut herself away and become a hermit.”

“No, I think that’s a rather bold claim,” Alastair began, but he clammed up at Brandy’s severe glare. She turned her massive eyebrows towards Melia and sighed.

“There’s something I think you need to see. Honestly, I’m not 100 percent sure it’s actually there, but everything else from before seems to be and I think it’s worth the risk. Are you up for flying?”

“What do you mean?” Melia asked. “From before, you mean….”

“Yes, a hundred years ago. A little after you, ah, went to sleep, actually.”

“What is it?” Melia asked, her curiosity rising.

“I’m not going to say until we get there,” Brandy shook her head. “And honestly, I’m not exactly sure where it is…or how far away. I just have a general idea.”

“So long as it’s on the continent, I can probably get us there in a couple of hours,” Melia agreed.

“On the continent,” Jessica muttered. “Only a small jaunt.”

“What direction are we heading?” Melia asked, lowering her head. Brandy climbed on first and the others quickly followed.

“North of the dwarven lands. The mountain slopes into highlands before turning into the tundra plains, yes? What we’re looking for is on the coast of Alpine Crest.”

​

Melia made sure her passengers were secure before taking off again. The moon was high in the sky, but she didn’t bother trying to stay hidden. Her obsidian scales melted seamlessly into the inky blackness…so long as nobody was staring at her belly. They were in the middle of the ocean anyway, and when they returned to land, she followed the coast.

She flew fast, but not so fast that they couldn’t tell where they were going. She kept Deepholme, the dwarven mountain, in her sight at all times, watching as it moved from in front of her, to the side of her, to eventually behind her. The weather was colder so far north, no thanks in part to the Frost Giants and the world boss. The mountain range continued to be covered in snow, but it leveled out from rocky ridgelines into an expansive forest. Towering redwoods rose into the sky, peppering a touch of green into an otherwise snow-white blanket.

“Look, there’s a city,” Brandy said as Melia slowed her approach. As they were passing over untamed lands, they didn’t bother to watch their speed, but now that they were closer to their destination, they didn’t want to zoom right by it.

“Will we be stopping at Wintermark?” Melia asked. A large gap in the trees easily gave away the position of the zone’s biggest city, but it would have been hard to find on foot. Without taking the correct trails, these woods were difficult to navigate.

Not that Melia would have had any difficulty finding her way around, even walking in the dead of night. After a brief orientation, she recognized exactly where they were. Alpine Crest wasn’t the most popular zone in the game, due to its substantial size and limited settlements. There were two main flight paths at opposite ends of the region, and it took players a solid 5 minutes of mounted transport to get from one end to the other in a straight line. For a level 40 to 50 zone, there were easier places to grind.

But Melia visited this zone often, and she didn’t do it to gain experience. She didn’t even do it for the wealth of rare materials or loot she could get from monsters. Her pulse quickened as she realized they were very close to one of her absolute favorite areas in the game, though it wasn’t likely anybody else knew about it. It wasn’t on the beaten path and it didn’t offer anything tangible to players who sought it out.

Melia wasn’t even sure the developers intended for it to be reached.

But, much like with her mansion in the hills, Melia often wandered where the road did not take her.

On the coast of Alpine Crest, where the elevation finally dropped to sea level, were rocky cliffs. Most parts of the coast weren’t accessible, and if somebody jumped off a cliff, they were either in for a very long swim to one of the beaches, or else it might be faster to drown and respawn. Tiny little islands were scattered along the coast, mostly decorative for background scenery. They weren’t meant for players to wander into, and most of them were almost like tall spires of rock jutting up from the sea like poles. There wasn’t a way to get on top of them, and even if there was, all a player would find was a single tree, maybe a patch of grass, or a boulder or two.

Except, there were two rocks that were lower than the rest, rising maybe 30 feet into the air, and they had a rounder, gentler shape like a mound rather than a spike. These, players could climb on top of, though reaching them had been an ordeal. Fortunately, they were located at the base of one of the valleys leading to a sandy beach, not randomly placed along the jagged cliffs, but even then, a player had to swim out to them. Much of Ebonvale’s oceans had been labeled out of bounds, and swimming too far out would rapidly fatigue a player, draining their stamina and quickly drowning them. However, there was a narrow path leading to these rocks that Melia was able to navigate, zigzagging her way through “hazardous” waters until she came to the base of the hills.

One held a tree and three rocks, while the other had a grassy surface with a ring of flowers. Melia always wondered if the developers intended to use this hill for something, since the flowers were obviously placed in a ring, but in all her time playing the game, they never did.

Instead, she liked to come out to the lonely rocks and watch the sunset. No monsters appeared on these rocks, and as it wasn’t located near any major city or point of interest, there was no jarring background music. Only the sound of the lapping waves, a few cries of waterfowl, and Melia’s internal thoughts.

It was peaceful.

Technically, Melia could watch the sun go down anywhere in the game, but she liked to think the developers paid extra special attention to this location in particular, as the sun glistened on the ocean and every wave felt like a tiny lick of flame.

This small mound in the middle of the ocean was Melia’s respite. A place she could visit and just…be. When the world became too much, when her real body threatened to overwhelm her even inside the game, when she felt listless and hopeless and bleak…she could come here and let it all go. She didn’t need to be anybody special. She didn’t need to be Meliastraza, the antagonist of a budding player storyline. She didn’t need to try to mediate for her friends when they squabbled over petty politics. She could just be Melia Marcus, the sick little girl with limited time on the planet, and she could cry where nobody could see her. She didn’t have to be strong.

“Are we heading to Miracle Rock?” Ellesea’s voice broke Melia out of her contemplations.

“What’s that?” Y’cennia asked.

“Warden’s Vigil,” Alastair said solemnly. “Legends say that the gods have blessed this spot on the coast. There’s an island where no monsters can spawn, and no matter what time of day it is, if you set foot inside the Vigil, it’s perpetual sunrise. Time doesn’t pass inside the Vigil, they say, though I’m not sure how true that is. There’s a monument on one of the hills that rises out of the ocean, surrounded by a ring of flowers. I don’t know if it’s real or just a legend. I don’t know if anybody’s actually swam out there to find out; they say swimming out there is just as dangerous as fighting all the monsters on the road leading to it.”

Melia nearly froze in mid-flight as Alastair explained. That sounded almost exactly like her favorite spot…though she didn’t remember any memorial. Maybe the developers added something at the end? After she passed?

“Yeah,” Brandy sighed, “That’s where we’re going.” She paused for several moments before musing out loud, “Perpetual sunrise. Fitting, indeed.”

Melia quickly located two identical outcroppings about half a mile off the coast of a familiar beach. She landed on the frozen sand, crunching through snow that persisted even in the height of summer. In her real form, she would never have a chance to fit on either of the tiny mounds, so she waded into the water and began slowly paddling her way out to sea with her travelers on her head.

As Melia neared the two islands, seeing the familiar tree and rock made her breath hitch. There was something on the second island, something that had never been there before, but in the dead of night, she couldn’t make out what it was. Her pace quickened and she paddled faster, eventually running right up against the submerged coast.

Melia leaned her head forward and her passengers clambered off, leaving her alone. She could have easily taken flight and vanished without a trace, but she wasn’t about to abandon her people in the middle of nowhere. She sighed, and for the first time in hours, returned to her gnomish form. She scrambled up the side of the small hill protruding from the water, only to find everyone transfixed, staring at an incredible sight.

The moment Melia reached the top of the hill, night turned to day. More specifically, the break of day, just as the sun was cresting over the mountaintops in the distance. The top of the hill was covered in a short, almost manicured grass, ringed by a halo of wild flowers. In the center of the ring was a copper statue, glinting golden in the sunlight, as pristine as if it had just been placed there, not a hint of oxidation from the proximity to the sea.

The statue featured a young human girl, holding the hand of a small female gnome. Both had huge smiles on their faces, grinning from ear to ear, sparkles in their eyes that weren’t just tricks of the light. So full of life, joy, and unbridled happiness were the pair that it was like two real people had been frozen in time. The painstaking lengths some unknown artist must've gone through to recreate these images were overwhelming, as laugh lines dimpled the girls’ cheeks and, if Melia wasn’t fully mistaken, the faintest echo of laughter permeated the clearing.

The statue stood upon a base of [Honey Onyx], lit internally by some unknown source, making the stone glow faintly. It was not overpowering, and on a sheet of pure [Truesilver], an engraved memorial could easily be read.

​

“What does it say?” Ellesea asked.

Melia nearly jumped, having forgotten she wasn’t alone on this enchanted island, while Brandy shook her head.

“It’s not a language you could ever understand. And I’m not sure you were ever meant to. Actually, I’m sorry, but this is rather personal. Would you mind waiting on the other island? This could, ah, take a while.”

“In that case,” Jessica asked, “Why not send us back? You can do that, right?”

She turned to Melia, who was unable to tear her eyes away from the two figures on the statue.

“You’re a [Mage]. Can you teleport us back home?”

“Yes,” Melia said out of pure instinct. It was like listening to her friends and acquaintances back in the game. Melia made a familiar motion, and suddenly, there was a portal leading back to Horizon. Though curiously, if she had thought about it, she would have realized she had set it to Moeldywn’s residence, the guest quarters they had stayed at. It was a place she was familiar with, and she felt her friends would be safe there.

One by one, each member of [Sunrise] gave Melia a speculative look, but thanked her and stepped through, disappearing on the other side. Once they were all gone, it was just Melia and Brandy, standing alone.

“This is…me,” Melia said at length. Her voice was dry and scratchy and it felt like she hadn’t used it in months.

“Yeah,” Brandy nodded. “After you passed away, a representative from FabSoft visited your parents. They collected hundreds of photos and built a body they believed would have matched your real one. They stayed for your memorial service. People traveled from all over. Your folks were confused at first, but eventually they understood how many lives you touched. Hundreds of people came to your funeral. Afterward, E-Vale had a minor update. It got hidden in the patch notes, but they added this.

“Melia, I won’t pretend to understand all the pain you’ve gone through. I don’t know what it’s like to have my body destroy itself. I don’t know how it feels to die. I do know that I’ve wished, in my darkest moments, that I was dead.”

Brandy took a deep breath and crouched in front of Melia, pulling her chin up to look her in the eyes.

“Those thoughts aren’t ever right. No matter what you’ve done, no matter how much you screw up, how big the consequences might seem…you are valuable. You have worth. You might feel like crap, like a failure, like you’ve messed up so big the whole world is going to hate you. And, I won’t lie, sometimes things get pretty bleak. But in all of that, you need to stay strong. You, Melia Marcus, are strong. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. You’re the strongest person I know, and that’s not because you can sit on a city and crush it.”

Melia gave a weak laugh even as her eyes began to sting.

“Do you know how many lives you’ve affected just by being you? How much good you’ve done, how much light you brought to the world? Did you know there’s a Melia Foundation dedicated to helping terminally ill youth experience the best life they can through virtual reality? That people went into medical and technical fields because they were inspired by you? That none of this would have happened if you hadn’t been the most human of us all? Melia, look. You aren’t a monster and you aren’t worthless. Maybe,” Brandy chuckled, “We might need to get you a few lessons on how to be a dragon. But never stop being you. Most of the time, we never get to see the effects on all the lives we touch. And for you, Melia Marcus, if you could see them all? You’d be blown away.”

Melia took another look to consider the two young women captured in copper. The human version of her was taller than she remembered, and not just because she was currently a tiny person. She wasn’t a girl, as Melia had been the last time she walked on two legs, but a genuine young woman. Maybe 20 years old. Her face was shapely, like she’d lost the last dregs of baby fat, and her limbs were slender.

In another life, perhaps she would have looked just like this.

As Melia considered the gnome, she realized both statues were technically her. The small girl had twin ponytails, a round face, and soft features. It was like looking in a mirror. And yet, the artist had managed to catch something Melia never dreamed possible. The way the two girls held hands, fingers interlaced as if they were about to go skipping to some unheard beat, showed that these two figures were closer than two random people. They were closer than friends. They were family…they were one.

Melia felt the reservoir of tears burst as she leaned forward and read the words in a language she never dreamed she’d see again. English. Honest to goodness English. Not one of the many, many make-believe languages of complicated sounds and dialects that had somehow been planted in her brain. She ran her finger over the plaque, feeling the roughness of the letters as she traced their bumps.

​

[Here lies Melia Marcus, in spirit, if not in body. Taken from us so soon, 15 years was far too short. For the lifetime of wonder, sadness, and joy you’ve given all of us, the lives you’ve touched will be forever changed for the better. You will always be missed, but never forgotten. Sleep well, our friend.]