“I need something to write with,” Maya said. She’d been reciting the words over in her head the whole run back to the mage academy so she wouldn’t forget: 1400, 3200, inversion warden.

“Here,” said Raidah, tossing her a pen. She nodded thanks and pulled out her folder of information, scribbling the notes onto the corner.

“You know, you can always type into your journal if you need to take notes,” Raidah said. "We only use physical paper so we can share it with each other easily."

“Journal?” She focused on the word, and a diary interface displayed in the air before her. “Standalone 1400, Inversion Warden, Dragon 3200.”

The words displayed exactly as she’d intended, stacked in a neat column.

Standalone 1400, Inversion Warden

Dragon 3200

“Well, that’s handy.” She wished she’d known about it earlier, then she could have copied down the exact numbers instead of an approximation. “Do you know anything about the Inversion specialization?”

“No, never heard of it.”

“It had a name before it too, like some of the deity-based specializations. Kane’s Inversion? Something like that.”

Raidah shrugged. “I haven’t really looked into the pantheon system personally.”

“One more thing I should research.”

Maya flipped to a new page of her journal and started writing a quick to-do list.

-Find a way to deal 1400 damage to a level 49 player.

--check other Fire team members damage output? Learn new spells?

-Research pantheon.

--Standalone’s deity, (Kane?) rival of Trickster. Strengths/weaknesses? Repaired window. Something to do with inversion.

-Find way to eliminate or neutralize dragon(s), hydra, and other creature guarding Standalone's house.

--shield spell, progress?

Well, Raidah was right here.

“How’s the progress looking on the dragonfire shield spell?” Maya asked.

Raidah shrugged. “We have dozens of theories, but since we've yet to arrive at any real unifying understanding of magic, it’s going to be basically impossible to guess which ones could be right or not. Cloak of Flame can absorb 50 damage, but that’s not going to be anywhere close to enough against a dragon. It doesn’t have an overcharge option, it covers only the caster, and it takes 25 energy and 4 seconds to cast. Even if we all cast it constantly, we’d be dead before we could more than scratch the thing.”

“And that’s not even taking Standalone or the other mythical creatures into consideration,” Maya said dejectedly. “What about damage dealing? Do we have anyone capable of dealing 1500 damage?”

“Tahpa is extremely versatile. The problem is, most of us are here to research, and we’ve saved most magic we find for testing theories, not learning base spells. So while we have a wide range of abilities, most of our players aren’t going to have more than one or two spells to use, and not very powerful ones either.”

“Do any of the other groups have powerful spells we could—”

“No. The more powerful a spell, the more complicated its casting and the harder it is to get correct. We’ve got a wide range of simple spells, a handful of decent ones, but nothing truly powerful apart from the three generic ones that come with the game.”

“That magma throwing one, the thunder paralysis, and. . .” Maya couldn’t remember the third.

“Heart of Magma, a sustained attack stance allowing hurling of magma globes, one per second. Chill of the Depths, a touch-slow spell with no upkeep cost, lasting as long as touch is maintained, which slows the target and doubles incoming cold damage. And Voice of Thunder, which binds caster and target in immobilizing lightning while dealing a small amount of damage throughout the sustained duration.”

Maya imagined a group of mages all casting Heart of Magma at once. With 5 players, that would be a significant amount of damage every second. Even if the dragon had the same 50% fire immunity as the Phoenix had, she was sure they could bring it down.

Of course, that was assuming it didn’t finish them all off first. But it was better than she’d been imagining a minute ago.

“How many people can cast those spells?”

“Fridget, Ranon, Tahpa, and I all have Heart of Magma. Fridget also has Storm Grasp. Tahpa is the only one with all three.”

That sounded promising, assuming they could maintain damage output and not die in the process.

“So the four of you will be the core offense of our group, while the rest of us focus on shielding you?”

“Probably. Assuming we can get the shields to work. None of us has the kind of health we’d need to survive a dragon without them.”

Maya sighed.

There wasn't anything she could do to help. Was there?

The silence stretched out. Raidah returned to work. Maya stared into the distance, trying to think.

“Wait. You said something earlier, about how your research goes? Something like you'd have to guess what would work?”

“Yeah, we all have theories. But in the end, we mostly just try things until one sticks.”

“Would you say there’s a lot of chance involved? That it’s sheer luck you ever learn anything that works?”

“I’m not sure I’d put it in those words, but. . . well, it’s a complicated game and we haven’t even scratched the surface of the magic’s rules. We have too few points of data. Most of our ‘new’ spells are just variations of existing ones, not truly anything original.”

Maya felt herself smiling. “What time is it?”

Raidah glanced around the room, empty but for the two of them, and the darkened sky visible through the window beyond the glittering structures of the mage academy. “Late. Do you need to log out?”

“No, I just have something I need to go do by midnight.”

Raidah crossed to the window, glancing up at the sky. “Then you’ve got. . . about an hour and a half.”

“Do you have all your research material here?”

“Not all of it. Some people keep their parts in their inventory, which means they’re not accessible until they log back in. But most of it is here.”

“I know I have no idea what I’m looking at, but can you give me a quick crash course in how your spell-making works? I need time to look over what you’ve got before midnight.”

Raidah appeared perplexed, but stated sorting through pages and describing each. There was an awful lot of math involved, some more than others. A few were very physically descriptive, one with detailed drawings of poses and hand motions. Others had pages of abstract equations which Maya couldn’t begin to comprehend.

“Just explain each of these in general. I don’t need to know the specifics, just an overview. As quick as possible.”

Raidah complied, but with a frown that grew more pronounced every time Maya spoke.

Granted, each time she did so it was to say something like, “No, not this one. Next?”

She wasn’t sure what she was looking for, until she found it. One set of instructions felt almost right, just a bit off, and she pulled it toward her and started absently doodling corrected hand poses. Her artistic ability was mediocre at best, but even a stick figure could convey the information.

She motioned Raidah to continue while she worked, discarding three more theories before finding another almost-right one.

“That one. Give.”

Raidah hesitated, glancing down at the scribbled-over page she offered in return. “Do you have any idea what you’re doing?”

“No, and we’re running out of time. Hurry.”

She snatched the papers and immediately started crossing out any numbers or letters which felt out of place. She didn’t understand the equations as she corrected them, didn’t know what they symbolized, just that the whole thing was out of balance until she did. . . whatever she was doing.

She was nearly done, just beginning the fourth and final page, when her pen ran out of ink. She continued writing for several seconds before noticing the lack of marks, then threw it aside with a screech of irritation. The pen bounced off the desk beside her, then hit her point-first in the arm.

-2 health.

She stared down at the incomprehensible page before her with a sudden urge to tear the whole thing up. Whatever she’d been thinking, her train of thought was shattered and she couldn’t even remember the last letters she’d been trying to correct, let alone why.

She grabbed the page in frustration, when Raidah’s hand came down over hers and stopped her.

“Woah, what’s wrong?”

“Oh, crap.” Maya stared, stunned at how quickly she’d almost destroyed their hard work. She dropped the page and stood, hastily backing away. “So sorry. Um, by any chance, is it past midnight now?” She knew it was. A quick glance at her luck showed it sitting at a solid -100.

“Yes.”

“Why didn’t you warn me?”

“You seemed focused. I didn’t want to distract you in case you were onto something.”

“I was. And now I’m late. Sorry I couldn’t finish, but I have to go. I’ll be back as soon as I can, but I don’t know how long that’ll be.”

She ran out, smacking face-first into the wall on her way as she tripped over her own feet (-3 health) then started off in the wrong direction at first as the brilliant lights somehow dazzled her into heading for Shardlord’s tower rather than Sapphire Hall.

By the time she reached her room, she was thoroughly tired of misfortune. She rolled her die.

27. But with the -35 still hanging around for 18 hours, that meant she’d be at -8 for most of the day.

She’d been making so much progress. Or, she thought she had. She was fairly convinced that her good luck was helping. And the instinctive understanding, just out of reach, but hovering there. She could have done it. Understood magic. Figured out something essential, something that connected all the spells together, that allowed her to create even more powerful abilities.

No. She needed to be in the positive, at least a little. -8 wouldn’t be acceptable.

She rolled again.

-21. Which meant -61, after penalty. Absolutely not, no way.

Again.

-79. Even worse. Well, at least it bottomed out at -100, even with the penalty. But between the pen and the wall, she’d gotten a good idea for what a -100 day would be like, and she refused to deal with that.

Again.

-26, for a total of -76. Better, but not by enough. There was no way.

One more try. It had to be positive. Had to. The chances against rolling four negative numbers in a row were minimal.

-54, again bringing it down to the absolute minimum of -100. Her penalty was up to -55 now, and the timer read just over 66 hours.

No, no, no. Not now. She’d been so close to. . . something, she couldn't quite describe, but if she could just get high enough luck she could finish. She had to get to the positive.

But every time she rolled, it got harder and harder. Even if she rolled 60 now, a very high number, it would only bring her to 0. Less than a 20% chance of ending up in the positive, and it would only get worse afterward. She’d have to roll every day, if she didn’t want to end up at -100, and that would stack the penalty higher and higher still.

Maya hissed, hesitated, but there was no other choice. She rolled again.

49. Thank goodness. That set her total at -11, but at this point she wasn’t going to risk going lower again. She glanced at her new luck total, her new penalty countdown, and wished she’d thought to accept the -8. Then she wouldn’t be stuck with -60 or worse for the next three days.

It was only -11. She could live with that. She’d have to.

But it meant she couldn’t go back to helping with the research. She didn’t have any idea how to interpret the theories she’d been correcting, she’d just let luck and instinct guide her. And right now, she definitely couldn’t trust her luck any more.

She’d have to do other things to help, or work on improving herself. With that in mind, she checked her mission for the day.

New mission: Trickster Day Five. Visit a higher-level zone and defeat an enemy more powerful than yourself.

Well, that would be a good idea in any case. Leveling herself to a competitive level - or at least something better than the absolute lowest player on the server - would be far more helpful than blundering about in everyone else’s way.

-11 luck. She supposed it was inevitable. She couldn’t outrun chance forever. Her first four days had gotten progressively better and better.

She was not looking forward to the next three days. Something told her -11 was the best she could expect.

Character Maya Starborn Average Androgynous Harpy Level: 8 Affinities: Magical Physical Tier: 1 Class: Trickster Specialization: Seer Attributes Base Equipment Modifiers Total Strength: 8 0 0 8 Momentum: 11 2 3 16 Agility: 8 2 1 11 Control: 8 19 0 27 Attunement: 17 0 1 18 Focus: 8 0 1 9 Intelligence: 15 0 2 17 Flexibility: 8 0 1 9 Luck: 49 - -60 -11 Unassigned: 2 Derivatives Health: 80 of 80 Will: 18 of 18 Stamina: 143 of 143 Energy: 116 of 116 Speed: 1.31 Switch penalty: -33%, 8.3 secs Stealth: 0.71 Chain bonus: +5% Awareness: 0.9 Cooldown: 95.5% Max abilities: 4 Abilities Abilities: [5 of 4] Wind Whisper

[5 energy] Blow into cupped hands, then push the air toward the target.

Creates a light breeze, a quick gust, or a damaging slash.

[Overcharge: +5 energy, +0.2 sec cast time, +50% force/duration/dmg] 1.9 sec

5 dmg

(wind) Throw Knife

[5 stamina] Throw a knife at a target with high accuracy. Requires a knife. 0.8 sec

3 dmg

(physical) Windborne Blade

[45 energy, 5 stamina] Cast Wind Whisper in a loop up and behind, aligning with throwing arm.

Throw knife straight at target with wind as augment. 4.3 sec

33 dmg

{physical} Spark

[5 energy] Draw magic into palm and snap fingers to ignite into a spark of fire.

Can be used as a light or thrown at a target. 1.1 sec

3 dmg

(fire) Sense Balance Discern if an area is lacking in or has an excess of any materials, creatures, etc. Perks: Quick Strike Decrease one ability’s activation time by 30%.

Lasts 3.5 minutes.

1-hour cooldown. Oracle’s Blessing Discern the truthfulness of any speech or writing you encounter.

Lasts 10 minutes.

Once a day, Inventory Item Name Slot Str Mom Agi Con Att Foc Int Flx Minor Chestpiece of the Dancer Body 1 1 Ordinary Gloves of Control Hands 13 Minor Waistwrap of the Dancer Legs 1 1 Footwraps of the Acrobat Feet 2 Lesser Bracelet of Control Arm 1 4 Trickster's Mask (Mage) Special Money: 70 Gold, 6 Silver, 12 Copper Quality Item name Details Flimsy Newcomer Tunic Flimsy Newcomer Leggings Soulbound Trickster's Dice Soulbound Trickster's Orb 2/5 uses remaining Flimsy Orchard Map Normal Apple x2 Rare Diviner's Orb 2/3 uses remaining Normal Throwing Knife x9 3 damage (physical) Special Key - Arrival Plaza Apartment Expires in 27 days Special Key - Room 6, Sapphire Hall Special Arena Equipment Token Registered to Maya Starborn Uncommon Juggernaut’s Collar Level 29, +12 mom, +11 str Uncommon Boots of Fluidity Level 29, +6 mom, +6 con, +6 flx, +5 foc Uncommon Deceitful Sickle Level 29, +8 str +8 agi +4 con +3 foc Rare Crimson Flame Token Level 30, +12 agi, +12 foc, +6 mom Rare Crimson Flame Charm Level 30, +12 att, +12 foc, +6 int Legendary Ring of Concentration Level 29, +24 Int, +12 Con Legendary Necklace of Acuity Level 29, +18 Flx, +18 Foc Legendary Circlet of Acuity Level 29, +18 Flx, +18 Foc Missions Mission Description

Time Reward Trickster Day 5 Visit a higher-level zone and defeat an enemy more powerful than yourself. 23h 57m Trickster's Reward

??? Making Reparations Find someone who has been wronged by a trickster and offer to make things right. Oracle's Reward

??? Diviner's Destiny Find a worthy candidate and pass the Diviner's Orb on to them. Oracle's Reward

???

+1000 reputation with The Oracle A Private Grudge Claim Standalone's house in Conquest and hold it for at least 10 hours. Personal House Trickster Day 4 Claim in Conquest the home of the next player you see.

Once claimed, hold it for 24 hours. 5d 23h 57m Trickster's Reward

??? Arena (Shadow) Spend at least one day every week fighting in the Arena Ongoing Variable Trickster Day 3 Lose a fight to another player in the Arena DONE Ordinary Gloves of Control

+5 reputation with The Trickster Gazebo Construction Construct a new gazebo for Maylon the Poet

[Optional] Also varnish the entire structure once built DONE 3 silver 50 copper

+5 reputation with Maylon the Poet Trickster Day 2 Lose a fight to another player in PVP DONE Lesser Bracelet of Control

+5 reputation with The Trickster Windy Creek reconstruction Locate the missing workers' tools

Construct a new dam by Windy Creek

Help clear the wreckage of the old Windy Creek Dam

Help construct a new bridge over Windy Creek DONE 5 silver, 80 copper

+25 reputation with Windy Creek village Trickster Day 1 Side with a person who is losing an argument or disagreement. FAILED -5 reputation with The Trickster Help Shary the Produce Merchant Find the missing apple delivery boy. Ensure his safety and the successful delivery of apples to Shary's Produce Stand. DONE 5 copper

3 apples

+10 reputation with Shary and Elaph