The Price of Silver

Introduction

This novel deserves an introduction of sorts. I want my readers to know where it started and where it's going.

In January 2012, I joined an email-based RPG known as Ethera. I knew two players at the time, and one of them was a moderator. This story is mostly about the player, Jason. 

You see, he had created this Dragon Rider character, and the first dragon created to pair with the rider didn't work out. So the moderators gave me a chance and let me step in to create one, even though this was literally my first RPG. 

I don't exaggerate in the least when I say that this character changed my life. My dragon was young and playful and fit with her rider perfectly. I'll never understand how Jason and I did it, but we were always on exactly the same page with those two. I had never felt so proud of something I created before, and I've never felt quite the same feeling since.

There we were, ready to begin a game day. It was exciting! But it also wasn't long before Jason disappeared because of issues happening in his "real life". He told me I could write for them both. He told me I knew the rider well enough.

That was the last time we ever wrote those characters together.

Even when he was back in the game, he stuck with one character at a time and it wasn't his rider. Finally, we made a plan to keep the rider out of the picture temporarily and let my dragon grow on her own. But then, the game slowly got quieter. Then the mods decided to put it on hiatus until they had more time.

Jason joined us for a short time in a new game, one that was a variation on a modern fantasy game we were in together. Then, things came up and he disappeared again.

I was angry for a long time about so many things. He left me with a character that I was scared to write with, scared to think that what I wrote wouldn't be truly him. I told him once that his character really would be mine if he didn't come back by a certain point, because it wasn't fair to disappear again and again like that. 

I finally sat down to write for his rider, to test the waters. It took me months to get a chance to have Jason read it. He told me it was spot on, that if I wanted to write their story, I should go for it.

I should have written that story for NaNoWriMo. I should have kept trying to find ways to talk to him about it.

Two days before my four year anniversary of joining my first RPG and creating that crazy little dragon, Jason died of a heart attack. I didn't find out at first because I had a lot going on in my own life and our mutual friend decided to wait to tell me.

I have a lot of regrets, but that's why this story is here. Jason always did believe I could write for his character, that I knew him well enough. He is most of the reason I have a dragon to write with in the first place and I've learned so much because of that one choice to create her.

So, this book is solely dedicated to Jason's memory and all the words he had left inside him to write. All the words that we should have written together, that I am left to share.

Enjoy.