Maya hurried to the beginner plaza, then into Harold’s shop without hesitating. And smacked right into the back of another player.

“Watch where you’re going, noob,” the vibrantly green lizardine man said, scowling at her. He had a somewhat snakelike head and quite the intimidating glare.

“Sorry, I just need to buy a unique item before someone else gets to it,” Maya blurted, then immediately realized that was absolutely the last thing she should have said aloud. Stupid luck. Why would she say that?

The other player stepped to the side, blocking her way. “Unique item, you say? Here in this rinky little shop?”

Maya almost nodded in confirmation, but stopped herself and shrugged instead. “Please let me past.”

“You know that there are a limited number of unique items in the world, right? That no matter the stats, they’re insanely valuable?”

“Yes,” Maya said, trying to push past him. But he stayed where he was.

“How about this. Since you know where it is, and I’m here first, I’ll buy it and put it up for auction. We’ll make a fortune, and split the profits.”

Maya almost laughed in his face. Like she was going to trust some rando to come through on a shady deal like that. She barely managed to constrain herself.

“I don’t plan to sell it, I plan to wear it,” Maya said. “It’s just what my current build is lacking.”

The player snorted, glancing her up and down. “I’d say you’re lacking basically everything right now.”

“Which is why I’ve come here to upgrade.” Maya tried to dodge past him again, but once more he blocked her way.

“Where is this unique item?”

Maya snapped her beak closed and shook her head.

“Is it magical?”

Maya shrugged.

The player started toward the bookshelves, watching Maya the whole time. She crossed her arms and glared down her beak at him, waiting. He inched toward the display case of rings and amulets. She didn’t react. He started for the wardrobe, and though her heart sped up she didn’t react. He glanced over the shelf of wizard hats, watching Maya for a reaction, then took a step toward the rack of staffs.

Maya lunged forward, trying to knock him out of the way.

“Hah, nice try.” He backed up, blocking her access to the staff rack, and pushed her away. She ended up beside the display case, unfortunately the wrong direction from the wardrobe.

“This is so stupid,” she lamented aloud.

Harold crossed to the wardrobe, rummaged for a moment, then pulled out the solid black agility-boosting unique armor. “I find myself inclined to agree.”

Maya reached for it hopefully, but Harold shook his head and returned to his counter. “Since you both seem to want this item very much, how about you make offers? My original price was 100 gold. Feel free to increase that.”

Maya had 153, thanks to her trip with Sevard. But that was all she was likely to get for the rest of the week, and she hated the idea of spending it all so soon.

But the armor increased agility to 100. That would practically triple her speed. She couldn’t think of any other way to gain an edge over players who were always going to be higher level and technically stronger.

“I can pay one hundred,” Maya said, just to start things off as low as possible.

The lizardine glanced between Harold and Maya. “Do you accept payment plans?”

“I can, but full payment is required within one month. I don’t hold things longer than that.”

“Then I can pay 105.”

“106,” Maya said at once.

“120.”

“You know you can’t take the item until you pay it off, right? You can’t take it, sell it, and then pay for it after,” Maya said.

The lizardine shrugged. “I’ll find the money somewhere. If you don’t want to partner with me, I’m sure there are dozens who would.”

He was probably right.

“121.”

“130.”

“131.”

“150.”

“151.”

“200.”

Maya sighed. So much for that brilliant plan. Stupid, stupid luck! If only she’d managed to get in here without blurting it out and making a fool of herself!

“No further offers?” Harold prompted.

“Five hundred,” Zarene said from the doorway.

Maya nearly fell over in shock, lost her balance, and then actually did fall over.

The lizardine player took one look at Zarene, decked out in complete, matching, clearly high-level gear, then laughed nervously. “All yours.”

Zarene tossed a bag of gold casually at Harold, who caught it and handed over the armor without hesitation.

“You, little bird, come with me.” She turned and left, obviously expecting Maya to follow.

Maya followed. She didn’t have anything else to do in the shop, now that her one plan was ruined. She had several hours before her final arena match.

Still, she’d been looking forward to a day with minimal trickster interference.

"Don't you have anything better to do?” Maya snapped, once they were out of earshot of the shop and the other player. “Shouldn't you be raiding high-end dungeons, or making alliances with those fey-harpies or whatever? Why are you wasting your time harassing me? What, my massive negative luck isn’t bad enough? I'm literally the weakest player in the entire world. And you're following me around?"

"You are also a fellow trickster, one of the few I’ve met. You wouldn't believe how rare we are."

"I've done the math. Probably about five or six active at any given time. The trickster keeps a ranking, he mentioned there being 30 I think on his list, but that has to take historical players into account. They probably just freeze where they are on the list, or else continue to lose favor for not showing up. I'm guessing the former, since otherwise the more active players would automatically be in the top 10. Which they aren't."

"My, I admit, I expected less of you. But that’s not the point. It occurs to me… that I may have acted in error today.”

Maya stopped walking. “Really.”

“Bullying weaker players was never my style. I’m not cut out to play the villain. Sure, it can be fun for a little, but then. . . then I just started feeling bad about it.” Zarene held out the armor. “I’m sorry, I already sold your friend’s amulet for a personal quest, but I hope this will help make up for it. One unique for another.”

Maya didn’t move to take it. They stared at each other for a long moment.

Then Zarene sighed. "You know, I was having a really bad week. And then your mission comes up. A chance to redeem myself. Clear the board. Undo all my past mistakes, for once. Finally. And I thought… you know, harassing a noob isn't normally my thing, but you know how the Trickster is. If it wasn't me, it would be someone else. If someone was going to do it, and I need the rewards more than anyone else…" Zarene sighed, again. Then shrugged. "I'm sorry if I was too over-the-top about it. I just thought, maybe if you knew the kind of overpowering agents the Trickster can send after you, you'd recant. But it seems to have only made you more stubborn."

"Don’t worry, you didn't make me stubborn. I've always been stubborn. It only made me more determined on this particular point."

"I don't suppose you'd change your mind? If you tell me, it'll be a big help. I made a few mistakes. Well… More than a few. I've never been cursed, thankfully, but… It hasn't been good."

"Have you considered just changing your class and leaving it all behind? I'm a pretty passive person in general, so being a trickster is helpful because the quests push me to explore the world in directions I would never think to go. But if it's not helping you, if it's not worth it, if you're not having fun anymore, what's the point?"

"Zarene is my highest level character, and she's soulbound here. I couldn't switch classes if I wanted to."

"You know, the more learned about the Trickster, the more sinister and unpleasant he seems."

"But the power he offers is without equal. No other class can come close. One day you'll see. Even this, even your most unfortunate days, have a vibrancy to them. No one else will experience this. If you think that you are supposed to have good luck all the time, you're doing it wrong. We are as powerful in our misfortune as we are in our good luck."

"Hm. And what does it mean, being soulbound?"

"Just that. I can't change the class. It's like the items you get, that you can't lose by dying, but it's a class that I can't lose by any method whatsoever."

"But you're permanent, right? You’ve got plenty of time. Just make a new character."

"Ha. Easy to say when you're at tier 1. Do you have any idea how hard it is to break into higher tiers? There's a reason Shardlord and Domitius are the only two to have reached tier 6. The tier trials get progressively harder the higher you go. I'm at tier 5. Only the two leaders have a higher tier than me. Think about that. Only the two leaders have advanced another tier beyond me. I'm not giving this up. I worked way too hard to get here, and if I have a chance at tier 6, that's worth way more than a few months being unlucky."

“Then suck it up. Accept your misfortune and move on. That’s what I’m doing, to the best of my ability, curse and all. You only lose when you give up.”

Zarene shook her head. “That is such a naive attitude. You have no idea.”

“And your attitude is helping you how?”

“Look, I’m trying to make amends, alright? I’m willing to do whatever you want. Just tell me.”

“That armor, it may be awesome for a low level player, but I’m willing to bet it would be a severe downgrade for someone on your level. So while that may make it up to me, you still need to make it up to Sevard. And if you sold off his amulet for some stupid quest, that’s going to be considerably harder for you to accomplish.”

Zarene shrugged. "You don’t need him, and he doesn’t need your charity. I know things that rogue never would. Besides, you know he was only using you for your luck. You don't owe him anything. I can teach you trickster secrets. If it's knowledge you want, I have so much. I could share it with you. I can…" She shrugged. "Just tell me. Right now I'm desperate enough to do anything. Tell me what you want, and I'll do it."

"Hah! Then you should have started with that, instead of making yourself our enemy. As it stands, I have no interest in helping you. No matter what you offer. Make it up to Sevard first, then you and I can start over. Until then, I'm going to consider you an enemy. So go tell your sob story to someone else, because I don't care.”

Somehow, the idea of Zarene being even more pathetic and desperate than Maya, for all her power and status, was incredibly satisfying. Perhaps it was petty to laugh at her misfortune, but Maya didn't care anymore.

"Don't be unreasonable! I told you, I was just following orders. I need to get back on the Trickster's good side, or…" She trailed off, her voice choked.

Zarene looked like she was about to cry.

Maya scowled at her. "Oh for crying out loud. Come on! You can drop the stupid weakling act. I'm not falling for it. You are one of the top 30 players in the game, and you're going to break down just because the lowest level player doesn't want to tell you her little secrets? How pathetic can you get?"

"I can get very pathetic," Zarene said, her voice trembling. "In fact, I think I have been pathetic for a very long time now."

Maya pressed the back of her hand against her forehead. "See, if it were only me that you hurt, then I could forgive you. But it's not. Sevard has been nothing but helpful to me, and you were absolutely horrible to him. Until you make it up to him, one way or another, you and I are done. You can beg, you can bribe, you can threaten, you can fall over in a pathetic heap and wail like a baby, but I'm done with you."

“At least take your stupid unique armor with you,” Zarene said, throwing it at Maya.

Maya caught it instinctively. The item appeared in her inventory at once.

“You’re right, it’s useless to someone as strong as me.” With a faint sob, Zarene turned and sprinted away.

What.

What?

Maya stared after her for a long time. She’d been so sure it was all a trick, some clever ruse to get her to spill her secrets. But now, she started to wonder if Zarene were more fragile than she’d guessed. Maya knew all too well how overbearing and manipulative the Trickster could be. If Maya herself weren’t so stubborn, she may well have ended up in the same position. In fact, she still might. It had been less than a week already, and look where she’d gotten herself.

She almost ran after the other trickster, but finally decided against it. Instead, she equipped her new armor and hurried back to the arena to prepare for her final match of the afternoon.

On the way, she thought at length about how to assign her new stat points, eventually putting four into momentum to bring her speed up to an even 6, and the last into attunement. She’d need to switch back to intelligence soon. If she ended up with any more decent abilities, she would have to worry about the switching penalty for reslotting them in and out of her action bar during combat. And she absolutely did not need any more penalties. But right now she needed to focus on speed. She’d set some points aside for int next level.

But for now, it was time to see if all her tricks were worth the price of admission.

Maya Starborn Average Androgynous Harpy Level: 9 Affinities: Magical Physical Tier: 1 Class: Trickster Specialization: Path of Life Base Equipment Modifiers Total Strength: 8 6 0 14 Momentum: 15 10 3 28 Agility: 8 91 1 100 Control: 8 6 0 14 Attunement: 18 58 1 77 Focus: 8 14 1 23 Intelligence: 15 21 2 38 Flexibility: 8 12 1 21 Luck: -25 - -45 -70 Unassigned: 0 Health: 286 of 286 Will: 46 of 46 Stamina: 234 of 234 Energy: 282 of 282 Speed: 6.00 Switch penalty: -46%, 9.6 secs Stealth: 3.09 Chain bonus: +9% Awareness: 2.67 Cooldown: 89.5% 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. Inventory Item Name Slot Str Mom Agi Con Att Foc Int Flx Mage's Circlet Head 3 1 3 1 Midnight Armor of Agility Body 85 Mage's Gloves Hands 1 1 1 1 Leggings of the Mage Legs 1 1 1 1 Shoes of Attunement Feet 15 Armband of Intelligence Arm 1 4 Armband of the Mage Arm 2 1 1 1 Mage's Pendant Necklace 1 1 1 1 OceanBlade Held 1 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 OceanBlade Held 2 Ring of the Mage Ring 1 1 1 1 1 Ring of Attunement Ring 2 6 Ring of Attunement Ring 3 6 Ring of Improvement Ring 4 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 1 Mage's Hooded Cloak Shoulders 2 1 2 1 Badge of Motion Misc 1 4 3 Attunement Trinket Misc 2 3 Attunement Trinket Misc 3 3 Attunement Trinket Misc 4 3 Attunement Trinket Misc 5 3 Trickster's Mask (Mage) Special Money: 153 Gold, 2 Silver, 91 Copper Quality Item name Details Flimsy Newcomer Tunic Flimsy Newcomer Leggings Soulbound Trickster's Dice Soulbound Trickster's Orb 2/5 uses remaining Normal Apple x2 Rare Diviner's Orb 1/3 uses remaining Normal Throwing Knife x481 3 damage (physical) Special Key - Arrival Plaza Apartment Expires in 26 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 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 Normal Peach Normal Pear Normal Mango x3 Rare Shirt of Meditation Level 15, +8 flx, +7 att Uncommon Minor Chestpiece of the Dancer Level 4, +1 mom, +1 con Normal Monkey Pelt x70 Uncommon Crimson Coil Scales x5 Normal Short Sword x3 Level 19, +7 Flx, +6 Mom, 1 damage (physical) Uncommon Broadsword x4 Level 22, +6 Foc, +5 Mom, +5 Str, 3 damage (physical) Rare Longsword Level 20, +5 Att, +5 Int, +5 Str, +5 Flx, 2 damage (physical) Rare Tiara of Vision Normal Leather Armor of Agility Level 19, +13 Agi Normal Leather Leggings Level 19, +3 Int, +3 Flx, +3 Foc, +1 Agi, +1 Str, +1 Att, +1 Mom Uncommon Dust of Recall Uncommon Universal Dye Uncommon Survivor’s Bracelet Level 5, +1 str, +1 foc, +1 int Uncommon Bronze Dagger Level 7, +2 agi, +2 int, +1 con Normal Acrobat’s Ring Level 7, +2 agi, +1 foc, +1 flx Normal Dancer’s Ring Level 5, +1 mom, +1 foc Legendary Greater Ring of Focus Level 7, +16 foc Normal Cape of Deceit Level 7, +1 str, +1 agi, +1 con, +1 foc Legendary Athlete's Talisman Level 5, +7 agi, +7 con Exceptional Rogue’s Jacket Level 4, +3 agi, +2 con, +1 foc Normal Rogue’s Belt Level 8, +2 agi, +2 con, +1 foc Normal Cheap Ring of Strength Level 4, +1 str Nomal Footwraps of the Acrobat Level 5, +2 agi Exceptional Lesser Bracelet of Control Level 2, +4 con Legendary Ordinary Gloves of Control Level 4, +13 con Uncommon Minor Waistwrap of the Dancer Level 4, +1 mom, +1 con Missions Mission Description

Time Reward 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 9h 11m Trickster's Reward

??? Arena (Shadow) Spend at least one day every week fighting in the Arena Ongoing Variable Trickster Day 5 Visit a higher-level zone and defeat an enemy more powerful than yourself. DONE +5 Reputation with The Trickster 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