The Lynx Clan’s Chest

On Monday at half past seven in the morning, Marcos switched on his computer before breakfast, as usual. In Amber Kingdoms, the online game he played with his clan, The Lynxes, something was wrong: the clan chest, in the castle tower beneath the lynx banner, was empty. Not a single gem. Not a single sword. Three months of playing, gone.

The chest log made it perfectly clear: “03:12 · Marcos_Linx opened the chest (47 items)”. Marcos felt a chill down the back of his neck. At twelve minutes past three in the morning he had been fast asleep. And only three people had a key to that chest: him, his friend Jon, and Paula, his sister, who had founded the clan.

Jon messaged him straight away: “It wasn’t me! Look at the log: it says your name, not mine!” Paula couldn’t even reply: she was away on a school trip at a farm, with no phone or computer, until Tuesday. Then again, Paula did know Marcos’s password: she had watched him type it a thousand times.

Then Marcos remembered Elf_Guardian. He had turned up in the game on Friday, really friendly, handing out potions and asking to join the clan. On Saturday he sent Marcos a link: “To get 500 free gems, log in with your username and password.” The page looked exactly like the game’s. Marcos typed in his details at 19:35. The gems never arrived.

Marcos opened his email. Among the adverts there was a notice from the game that he hadn’t read: “New sign-in to your account from an unknown device. Saturday, 19:40.”

He looked for Elf_Guardian in the player list. His profile no longer existed. Marcos switched off the screen, took a deep breath and went to find his mum.