Part two

I escorted the Adventurer into my Father's home, feeling her suspicious glare as she followed me. "NPC?" I asked her as I rested the Iron Sword on a table. She used the term, one I felt a vague memory of but could not define.

"Non-Playable Character," she replied. "That's what you are. Or at least, what I thought you were."

"What does that even mean?" Her words were abstract, meaningless. I understood each word at the individual level, but together they were nothing to me.

She sighed, eyeing me the whole time. "What's your name?" she asked. "What do you do here?"

My brows narrowed in confusion. The change of conversation was sudden. "Theo. I'm the Blacksmith's Apprentice."

She nodded. "And your Father? What does he do?"

"He's the Blacksmith."

"And his name?"

"My Father's name? It's ... My Father is called ..." My brain halted. My Father had a name. Of course he did. A name I should know. And yet, I didn't know. My Father was simply Father. The Blacksmith. "I don't know," I admitted.

"That's what I thought," the Adventurer said. "So, he's the Blacksmith and your the Apprentice. When did that start?"

Again, mouth opened even though the answer was unknown to me. I simply had no idea how long I'd been the Apprentice for. "I don't know," I repeated softly. "I think I've always been the Apprentice."

"Because you're an NPC. You're just a string of data. A set of actions and responses." Her look was one of pity. "Or you're supposed to be. But, somehow, you are so much more than that."

"So, I'm nothing." I slumped onto the ground. "Just a simple character with no goal?"

"You were," she replied. I looked up as she offered me the Iron Sword from the table, my Great-Grandfather's Armour in her other hand. "But now you have the chance to be so much more."