Mortal Reigns

"SARAH!"

"Yep, that's my cue."

"You got this babe."

Allie kissed my head as I stood, unraveling myself from the heated blanket and once more abandoning my 'Chillachino' mug on a coaster. You know, since having kids, I can't remember the last time I had a hot cup of tea, or got through a full episode of 'Comedy Clubhouse' without some crisis.

I crept upstairs, following the sounds of cries and screams so high pitched that only dogs should be able to hear them. A deep breath first, and a little adjustment to the rope of my dressing gown to get into mom-mode.

"Hey, hey! What are you two doing up here?" I pushed their already open bedroom door aside, walking in to be met by pandemonium. I swear, I just asked them to clean their room the day before, and it was already a pigsty. Toys were in bits and scattered like shrapnel, with paint splotches, broken crayons, scraps of paper, and other miscellaneous art supplies strewn about the place. That must have been what the dumpsters outside 'Which Crafts' looked like.

Sarah, the little devil, was up on her sister's bed with her stuffed rabbit toy in hand, holding it by the legs like a sacrificial carcass and dipping its ears into green paint.

Megan, on the other hand was on the floor, with snot and tears wiped across her face, and what appeared to be a torn, crumpled drawing in her grip.

Their eyes met mine like pups caught in the act of tearing up living room furniture - with Megan resorting to pity-seeking, and Sarah to straight-up fibbing.

"Mommmmmmyyyyy!"

I couldn't help recoiling as Meggy threw her arms around me and buried her sticky head into my leg - leaving a web of snot embedded into the fibres.

"Meg ripped my drawing, I asked for it back and she bit me!" Sarah showed me the teeth marks on her arm. But I could tell they were her own - Meggy didn't have any front teeth at that moment, hers were yet to grow out.

"Sarah pulled Peony Princess' head off, and she said she'd dye Fluffles if I tattled!"

"No I didn't, she's lying!"

They always made it sound so violent. I glanced down to see one of Meggy's dolls from that flower-girl thingy she liked. You know, one of those where the TV show has a new character every episode that you just have to buy in doll form. True enough, its head was stuck on top of a pencil and stabbed into a ball of fundough like some horrible effigy. I had to worry about Sarah's... creativity.

Fluffles the rabbit meanwhile had been spared from the paint pot with just the tips of his ears dipped green.

I took another breath and knelt down to our youngest's level. "Meggy, why did you rip your sister's drawing?"

She stared at me with those kitten eyes, boring into my soul with her adorable innocence. I brushed a stray red curl from her cheek, taking an emergency tissue I always kept in my pocket to wipe her face.

"She... she..." She could hardly form a sentence through her heaving breaths. "She wouldn't play with me, she said she didn't want to play baby games anymore, she'd rather doodle in that stupid sketchbook!"

I wanted to roll my eyes. There was only a year between them, but Sarah always thought she was so much more mature than Meg.

"Well, you never want to play my games either, and if you do, you always ruin them."

"How does she 'ruin' your games, Spud?"

She folded her arms and shunted her nose to the air. "Whenever I make a game, she always comes up with her own rules and makes it boring. Whenever I want to play zombies, she wants to be zombie-princess."

That sounded like fun, why was she so against it? "What's wrong with that?"

Her cheeks burned bright red. "Because then all the other zombies have to be her servants, and we have to have tea parties and teddy bear sleepovers. That's just playing princesses! But I don't want to be a princess, I want to be a zombie!"

"But when we play zombies, you always hit me!"

"That's what they do, genius. Zombies fight, that's what makes the game fun."

I looked between the two of them for a bit, still not used to the conflicts of siblings. It had been years since I'd had it with my sisters, and even then, our relationship was... different. But their arguement did give me an idea. "Alright, I think I know of a game you both can play, one that I loved when I was a kid."

The two followed me downstairs to the sitting room. Allie was still on the sofa, watching our show. We only had one TV in the house, so...

"Hey, come on!" Allie rebelled as I switched the source to the RCA.

"Sorry, hun. I thought the girls might want to try Mortal Reigns."

"Mortal Reigns? Isn't that the one we stayed up playing on our first date?"

I nodded, opening the cabinet under the TV to find a big box of old cables and videogames for the Zcube GameStation. I'd set up the console when we moved in, and tried playing a few old games just to see if they still worked, but between my job and raising two kids, my own gaming time was limited.

I dug to the bottom of the box for the case, taking two controllers as well. I booted up the console, blew the dust from the cartridge, and loaded it in, hanging onto the controls while I got the game set up.

Our girls knelt beside me - Sarah looking unimpressed as usual, and Meg holding her paint-splattered bunny to her chest as she stuck her tongue out at her sister.

"Alright, let me just set you up with a new save file." I deleted my childhood one, finally erasing that embarrassing 62% completion, and my old nickname. "It's two player, so I think Sarah can play as Sorin, and Meg, you can be Esteria." I grinned slyly as I passed them their respective controllers. Allie was in on the joke, chuckling along with me. "Enjoy."

"Wait, aren't you going to teach us how to play?" Meggy gazed worriedly at me.

"What are these graphics? This game looks like it's a thousand years old." Sarah mocked.

"Hey, this game's graphics were state-of-the-art when it came out!"

"Yeah, in the stone age."

I ignored her little jokes. "Not every game needs to look like real life, okay? Just play, after a few hours, you'll hardly notice how it looks."

Sarah rolled her eyes at me and clicked ahead, starting the prologue cinematic. She read aloud. "'Long ago, in the age of Arcana, two kingdoms went to war over the Stone of Centuri, a magical artifact created by the Feldrin Dragons and the great wizard Lorokai. Now, two royal siblings born with the art of'... Oh, is this going to be some princess fantasy game?" She sneered at me, but at least Meg looked excited.

"Give it a chance, I'm sure you'll like it. Oh, and Meggy..." I held out my hand. "Do you want me to wash Fluffles?"

"Yes please, mommy." She passed me her rabbit. I held it at arms length as I took it to the laundry room, placed it in the washing machine, and set it to a delicate load. I heard Sarah yelling and stomping about. She ducked her head through the door.

"Mom, I don't want to play the blue character, let me be the red one. And anyway, Sorin is the little brother, I think I should play as the big sister, not Meg!"

I knelt to meet her furious expression.

"Spud, give it ten minutes, if you still don't like it, you can swap."

"But Meg said she doesn't want to swap, she likes being the princess."

"Trust me on this, ten minutes and if you want to switch, I'll get her to swap."

She remained frustrated, though accepted, skipping back to the other room to pick up her controller. I took a seat on the sofa next to Allie, huddling under the blanket again.

I watched them play through the tutorial with a smirk - as they picked up the basics and made the most of the PVP system. If I had left it much longer, Meg would have been in tears, but I knew what awaited them.

Allie turned to me. "Are you sure this game is age appropriate for Meggy? It gets pretty dark."

"She'll be fine. I played when I was her age."

Seven minutes in, and the story really kicked into gear. The girls watched, aghast and horrified as their wizard mentor was slain, the kingdom overthrown by the enemy army, and the siblings thrown into the river.

"W-What?" Sarah tightened her grip around her controller.

"B-But Banion was our friend, why would they kill him?"

"Well, because they're the bad guys, Meggy." Allie tried to comfort her.

Sarah let out a sigh of relief when the screen lit up again, showing that their characters were still alive. They wandered through the Forest of Grim, finding the two altars that would give them their powers.

Megan was thrilled with hers. "I get a unicorn!"

Sarah was unsure what hers did. "Just a shield? That's stupid."

"Would you prefer a unicorn then?" I asked, and Meg fearfully wrapped her hands around her controller.

"No, unicorns are dumb too. Fine, what can this stupid shield do?" She pressed the action button, finding that her shield could shoot lasers. "Huh... that's kind of cool, I guess."

They played for an hour, doing a few side quests in local towns and story stuff too. They upgraded their skills enough to fight the first boss. Allie and I knew it would be a tough fight for them, because it required a lot of teamwork.

On their first run, they seemed to be losing. Sarah got more and more irritated as Meg ignored her instructions.

"No, stay out of the way, I need to hit him with my lasers!"

"But my unicorn's charge attack does more damage!"

"Girls, girls." I got their attention. "Take a breath, and remember what you learned. Sarah, you have a shield, so you'll need to defend Esteria as she charges up her power attacks. Meg, when the boss starts doing its slam attack, you need to back off, and let Sorin hit it from range."

"Fine, we'll try." Sarah moped.

They started the fight again, loading their last save. Following my advice, they started working better together, and eventually got the boss to its final stage.

"Ah, I'm low on health!" Meg cried.

"I've got that potion the farmer gave us!" Sarah gave up the healing item without a second thought, though by using up an action, she took a direct hit. Meg charged up her last attack, and defeated the boss with a cheer. We clapped for them both.

"I did it! I beat the boss!"

"Nice, just eight more to go!" I grinned, to the horror of our children.

So they carried on for a few hours, earning their new abilities, leveling up, defeating monsters and bosses, following their characters' story, and slowly becoming truly immersed in the world. Meg was overjoyed that her character became a master of beasts, able to summon all kinds of animals, and transform into some too.

Esteria was the heavy hitter of the two, yet remained very much a pretty princess and the older sibling.

Sorin was the healer, and ranged attacker, dressing more and more like a wild rogue but definitely the younger of the pair.

They reached the 'final boss' - actually only the final boss of the main story, there was a whole post-story game afterwards, but they didn't need to know about that just yet. It was getting late. I'd moved Fluffles over to the dryer and ordered pizza in for dinner.

Allie and I loved watching the pair of them, seeing them bond with the characters like we had. To be honest, I'd never had a player two to share the game with when I was a kid. My sisters hated videogames, and me to an extent. My playthrough with Allie was the first time I'd been able to fully experience the game in all its corny glory.

The boss music hit me with nostalgia. I studied our girls' reaction to the big plot twist.

"Banion is alive? And he's Lorokai?"

"But he's the bad guy, he was working for the Kingdom of Quillon!"

"We have to stop him, he attacked our kingdom, hurt our people, exiled the fairies to the Frostlands and awoke the Slumbering Elven Army!"

I was transported. In that moment, I was not sat on the sofa with Allie watching our kids play some old video game. We were all inside Mortal Reigns, and the magical Kingdom of Xerxia within - a band of heroes standing against an ancient evil.

"Lorokai, your reign of terror is over! For Xerxia!" Esteria cried, starting the battle with the use of her Beastflute to summon Galkathar - the Kraken of Eldersea.

"For the Fae Garden!" Sorin called, casting a spell to shield his sister's mount with the Fireweaver's Ward.

Lorokai took their hits, striking back with his Shadesorcery. The siblings fought and defended, cheered on by the disembodied voices of their parents, their citizens, and their fae friends.

"Enough of this!" Lorokai entered stage two, summoning Yzir, the Dragon of the Western Fell.

"What now, sister? Yzir is resistant to water and land beasts!"

Esteria focused, drawing out her Mirage Glass. "I can shapeshift to a Peryton. Dragons are weak to celestial beasts."

"But the oracle said shapeshifting into a celestial would use up three lives. You've already lost two. If you die, you'll lose all your Arcana!"

"That's a risk we have to take! Trust me, Sorin."

He nodded.

"Good. Now I'll need your help. A shapeshift like this takes two turns to cast, I'll need you to protect me."

"Don't worry, I still have my Wondercloak. I can distract him."

With pounding hearts, and the furious clamour of button-mashing, Esteria cast her spell. The Peryton cut down the dragon, leaving only the wizard on his final phase. But Lorokai had a new charged attack. It was unavoidable for the shapeshifted princess, and she fell, her avatar flashing three times before fading away.

"I'll avenge you, my sister."

Sorin howled, punching out a succession of combos as the voice of his sister joined his audience, cheering him on too. A few near misses, speedy potions, perfect blocks, and Lorokai flashed, his pixels burning from red to black before finally he faded to nothing.

The victory cutscene played - with the siblings claiming the Stone of Centuri, and the credits rolling over a scene of them silhouetted against a blue sunset.

Our daughters exchanged a look of relief and pride, hugging each other and sharing their ultimate achievement. Allie and I could only applaud, with tears brimming in our eyes as the doorbell rang - the pizza delivery person handing me three boxes and a bag of drinks when I answered.

"Come on girls, come get it while it's hot!" I set the pizzas on the kitchen table and took out a few plates, portioning out theirs first and letting them take their food back into the other room.

Allie came in to get theirs. "You know, other parents would probably have a go at us for encouraging our kids to sit and play videogames instead of using their imaginations with real toys."

"Well, what have they learned from that game? How to work together, how to understand each other? There are worse ways for them to spend an afternoon." I hesitated as I filled my plate. "You know, when I was Meg's age, my sisters wanted nothing to do with me. I had no friends, and my sisters wrecked all my toys. The console was the only thing they left alone, because they knew how much dad had spent on it. Those characters, that story, those emotions... It was nice watching them get to experience it for the first time."

"Well, maybe tomorrow, we can join in. The sequel is up to four players. Not tonight though, I still want to finish Comedy Clubhouse."

I laughed. I was about to go through when the dryer beeped. Checking it, my heart sank. "Meggy." I stepped into the sitting room with the stuffed bunny in my arms. "Sorry Meg, the paint hasn't come out. I could try running him through again."

She gazed up at me, and sweetly shook her head as I handed him back. "No, I like him like that. With the green ears, he looks a bit like a zombie." Then she turned to Sarah. "Sorry I ripped your drawing."

"That's okay. Sorry I lied, and for breaking your doll. You know, Peony Princess looks a bit like Esteria. Maybe she can shapeshift into zombie bunny Fluffles!"

"Yeah, and she could command an army of teddy bears to fight the evil Emperor Fundough!"

"And then, they can have an undead tea party with the ghost of the Crayon Queen!"

They giggled, swapping ideas back and forth between bites of their pizza as the credits continued to roll on the screen behind them.

"Hey mom?" Sarah looked at the TV, then back at me.

"What is it, Spud?"

"What's an epilogue?"

I glanced up to see the post-story cutscene beginning to play. Allie and I shared a look. If we let them find out, they'd be playing that game all night.