* * *
Cordelia bounced into the office, skipped over to the coffee machine, joyously poured a cup of the
sludge that she called coffee, and danced to her desk.
 Then she quite seriously sat down and logged onto the demon database to begin the day’s
work.
 Angel, Wesley and Gunn were each standing completely still, staring at her, trying to
process the highly undignified entrance she’d just made.
 Finally she looked up. "What?"
 Angel just shook his head and sipped some sludge. He winced at the taste but didn’t put the
cup down.
 Wesley stuttered something unintelligible and emptied a sixth pack of sugar into his sludge,
and then took a sip without wincing quite as violently as Angel did.
 Gunn doubtfully glanced at the cup of sludge he held in his hand and then walked over to
Cordelia’s desk.
 "Is there any reason you’re all staring at me like I’m possessed?" Cordelia asked tartly,
raising a perfectly pencilled eyebrow.
 "Are you?" Gunn asked as casually as was humanly possible.
 "What?"
 "Possessed?"
 Cordelia’s mouth dropped into an impeccable O. "No! Of course not!" She made a
disgusted sound in the back of her throat and turned back to her computer.
 "Because your entrance was a little...unusual," Gunn continued.
 Cordelia narrowed her eyes at him for a moment and then shrugged. "I felt happy. Is there
a problem with that?"
 "No!" Gunn said, holding up his hands to convey ‘no offense meant’. Cordelia ‘hmphed’
at him, but took a sip of her sludge. They were both silent for a moment as Cordelia made a face,
and then Gunn said, "Any particular reason you were so happy?"
 Cordelia’s face broke into a huge grin. "Willow’s coming to visit!"
 Angel turned towards them from where he was re-organizing the file cabinets. "Willow’s
coming to visit?"
 "What’s that?" asked Wesley, looking up from where he was disorganizing the papers
Angel has taken out of the file cabinets.
 "Willow’s coming to visit," Cordelia said. "She’ll stay at my house for a week, and we’re
gonna go shopping and clubbing and maybe--" Cordelia lowered her voice for dramatic effect--"go
to the Black Widow!"
 The lowering of her voice made no difference to the content of her dialogue as none of the
men had nay idea what she was talking about. She stared at them disbelievingly for a moment.
"Not even Gunn knows what the Black Widow is?"
 He shrugged. "Nope."
 Cordelia growled with frustration. "The Black Widow! It’s only the coolest place to be! It’s
a club that only the most elite people are let into, and it’s for roleplaying, but it’s live! They can
create alternate realities where you can really be the characters you make up!" She reacquired the
grin again. "And Willow is so well known the Occult world that she can get in--and bring me!"
 A long moment of silence followed this statement.
 "Oh," Angel said finally. "Cool."
 Cordelia looked ready to burst. "Cool? That’s all you can say? Cool? This is beyond
spectacular. You know what I think?" She pursed her lips and glared at all of them. Then she
seemed to make a decision, and took out her cell phone. "One second."
 She stepped into the courtyard of the hotel, out of their earshot, and dialed a number.
 "Roleplaying?" Wesley asked. "What’s that?"
 "It’s kinda like Dungeons and Dragons, the game David Nabbit always plays," Angel said.
"You pick a character and pretend to be them, and you can interact with other characters and
everything. There are levels and limits and rules, and there’s always a Gamemaster, someone who
keeps the game within the boundaries of reason and plays backup characters."
 "You seem to know roleplaying quite well, Angel," Wesley commented. "Do
youÑDungeons and Dragons?"
 "Dungeons and Dragons? Heck no," Angel scoffed. Then he grinned. "No, Vampire: the
Masquerade is the game for me."
 Cordelia stomped back in. "Maybe you losers would appreciate it if you came with me,"
she said, irritated. "Saturday night, meet at the Black Widow at 5 o’clock."
 "Early," Gunn commented.
 "Deal," Cordelia replied. "The game has to be set up, after all."
* * *
 Willow shifted nervously from foot to foot. Tara glanced at her and grinned. "Calm down,
wiggleworm," she said.
 "I can’t," Willow argued. "I mean, you’ll understand when you meet them, but Angel is
soÑunbelievably and untouchably gorgeous, and Cordelia’s overwhelmingly just...Cordelia, and
she tells me Gunn is pretty hot too, so..." she let the sentence hang.
 "Well, once the Game starts, that won’t matter," Tara pointed out sympathetically.
 "Yeah," Willow said. She leaned over the counter of the bar and gestured to the bartender.
"Pepsi, please," she said, and looked to Tara.
 "Nothing for me," the blonde assured her friend, and Willow nodded to the bartender and
tried to relax.
 They both sat quietly in the tumult of the club for a while as Willow stiffly sipped her Pepsi
and then ordered another. Tara peered across the sea of people before the door and noticed the
three people who entered together, looking around uneasily at the crowded club. Tara poked
Willow. "Is that them?"
 Willow sat up a little straighter and looked in the direction Tara was pointing. "Yeah.
That’s them. Let’s go." Tucking a strand of hair behind her ears and wishing she’d brought clips,
she took Tara by the hand and led her through the club to Angel, Cordelia, and the man she
assumed must be Gunn.
* * *
 Angel shifted his weight from side to side, distinctly uncomfortable in the crowd. Cordelia
and Gunn ignored him, choosing instead to look through the throbbing masses for Willow and her
friend.
 "Red hair, right?" Gunn asked.
 "And green eyes," Cordelia said. "About 5’8", loves fuzzy sweaters."
 "Not anymore, she doesn’t," Gunn said, nodding towards the two girls who were crossing
the floor towards them. Cordelia looked towards them and her eyes widened, and then she smiled.
 "Willow!" She waved, and the redhead waved back. Angel turned to see her and his eyes
widened too.
 "Willow, behind you!"
 She frowned and turned, and then laughed at Spike, who seemed to be preparing to leap at
her. She smacked him playfully on the shoulder, and she and her friend stopped to talk to him for a
moment.
 Cordelia took a step back to ask Angel, "Is she making nice with Spike?"
* * *
 After Angel and Spike had been respectively restrained, Willow introduced to Gunn and
Tara to everyone, they walked together to the room in the back of the club where they would sign
up for the Game.
 A tall, slender woman with white-blond hair and black eyes looked up from her desk and
smiled slightly. "Hello." She rose in one fluid movement and walked over to them, a long-fingered
hand extended in greeting. "I’m Arachne, and you are Angelus, Charles, Cordelia, Tara, William
and Willow." She paused, as if listening to a voice none of them could hear. "But where is the
seventh one? You always need seven to Play a Game."
 Spike and Angel, who had both had to be gently restrained (again) at the flippant use of the
names they despised, stiffened. "Since when?" Spike demanded. "I play VTM all the bloody time
and there was never a friggin’ limit..."
 "How do you know we don’t have an invisible girl with us?" Angel said crossly.
Arachne looked at him as if he were ridiculous. "Nobody remains invisible in my Web, Vampire,"
she replied.
Angel felt another surge of inexplicable anger flood him, and only Willow’s light hand on his
shoulder brought him back to reality.
Arachne observed this silent communication with a shrewd eye, and then commented, "If you’d
like to Play any time tonight, I suggest you fill out the Form."
Tara smiled. "Yes, of course." She held out her hand, and Arachne placed a single sheet of white
printer paper in it. Tara looked confused. "Aren’t the Forms usually--"
"ÑMuch longer?" Arachne finished for her. "Yes. But I have an idea of what this Game will be
like, so there are only a few questions to answer. But," she added, "that does not mean you must
be any less careful deciding what you want."
* * *
"Right," Arachne said. "The rules are: don’t do stuff you know is impossible. Act only within the
limits of your power. Unless you’re supernatural and it’s in your power to jump off buildings and
land on your feet without a scratch, you don’t jump off of buildings and land on your feet without
a scratch. Don’t address players by their names from this world; don’t conspire with them to ‘win’
the Game, especially as you don’t win."
"So what, exactly, is the point of all this?" Spike asked, leaning over the table as he lit a cigarette.
"And no smoking, either," Arachne said, taking the Marlboro from his lips and pressing her
fingers to the glowing tip to snuff it. She didn’t flinch as it burned her fingers. "You’ve all filled
out your forms, and I’ve read them. I will tell you a little bit about your characters. You are all
connected in some way."
She stood and pulled down a map from its rolled-up place on the wall. "This is Imani," she said,
indicating the map. "It’s a world. As you can see, there are three main continents; the one large one
is the one that concerns you." A ruler appeared in her hand as she gestured at the map. "This half
of the continent," she said, pointing at the upper right corner of the continent, "Is a country called
Ayr, but known generally as Ayrkris, because ‘kris’ means ‘country’. This halfÑ" she pointed to
the lower left corner of the continent "Ñis called Dorkris. These countries are divided by the Phyrr
River, and they are rivals. There are terms for land that I think you should know. Kris is country,
as I said. Garth is a large region of the countryÑa state, I suppose, or in a larger country a time
zone. Each garth is named, but in general... for instance, if one were referring to garths within
Ayrkris, you would refer to them as Ayrgarths. Feths are regions within garths, more like counties
or even zip codes, if you will. Feths are tiny holdings, and they are ruled by earls, barons or
dukes. Garths are ruled by counts, and kri are ruled by Kings and Queens. A King is a Krisha, a
Queen is a Krish.
"Charles, you are the Krisha of Ayrkris. Your name is Jordan, as you requested. You are married
to the former Princess of Dorkris, Cordelia. Cordelia, your name will be Brenna, as you
requested. The union was made to prevent war between the two countries. So far, it is barely
working.
"William, you are Brenna’s brother, heir to the throne of Dorkris. Your name is Karl, as I did not
deem ‘Strangler’, ‘Ripper’, ‘Slasher’ or ‘Killer’ as appropriate names. You are known well by all
of the esteemed ladies. Don’t cause trouble.
"Angelus, you are the half-brother of Brenna and Karl, baron of a small Dorfeth. Your name is
Aaron, as you requested. You share a father with Brenna and Karl; however, you are illegitimate,"
(here Spike snickered) "and he has given you the feth to guarantee your silence. Although your
holding is small, you have loyal serfs.
"Willow, your name is Lisha, as you requested. You are the countess of a small Ayrfeth. Your
father is dead, and you inherited his holdings partly due to the kindnesses of your cousin-by-
marriage, Jordan. You maintain direct contact with the capital because of Jordan and because of
Brenna, as you and Brenna are close friends. The assets you requested have been granted, but I
think they are unnecessary.
"Tara, you are a practicing Magician at the capital of Dorkris. You see Karl on a daily basis, but he
grates on your nerves. You are Lisha’s older sister and maintain direct contact with her. Your name
is Gili, as requested.
"Each of you requested certain twists in the plot of the story; most of these have been granted, if
not quite as you expected. Keep in mind the rules I mentioned, and good Luck."
Arachne gently put her ruler in a niche in the wall next to the map that had previously not existed
and rolled up the map. It had reached to the floor; on the wall behind where it had hung was a
door.
"The Game does not take more than an hour, although in Imani it may be years. If you die, you
may watch the rest of the Game on screens. Step through one by one, please. I will be there as
mediator and Master of the Game, playing all other characters."
They all stood, Willow nervously tucking a nonexistent strand of hair behind her ear. Cordelia
worried her cuticles and Spike looked for a pack of cigarettes, which were nowhere to be found.
"It may be easiest for you to forget about this world for a while," Arachne said with a hint of
caring in her voice. "It will make it so much easier to let go..."

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