"You do realize that my low luck interferes with my thinking, right?” Maya asked, shaking her head. “It makes very dumb ideas pop into my head. Not what you want when solving riddles."

"Trust me, I know. But you’ve proven that you can ignore those thoughts when they do occur. Otherwise, I'm sure you'd have gone running off on your own several times by now. Am I right?"

"I suppose you’re right.” She did consider exploring on her own, at several points it seemed like a good idea. But ultimately she managed to remember that such behavior would be suicidally stupid in a zone this dangerous.

"Then it won’t be a problem. See?"

"But how are we going to get there? We’re attacked every time we go more than a few minutes outside of town."

"Simple. We'll use stealth."

"Not sure if you remember this, but I'm only level nine. Not sure how you expect me to hide from creatures in a level, what, 40 zone?"

"You won't be the one hiding. I will." Rend grinned, crouched down, and nodded over his shoulder. "Climb on."

Maya balked. "This is ridiculous. You expect us to escape every scary creature around here while carrying me on your back?"

"I do indeed. And if we fail, you're welcome to say ‘I told you so.’"

Maya shook her head, but climbed onto his back. "You're the one paying me. Let's do this." She felt utterly ridiculous as he slipped into stealth and scurried off down the road.

As they traveled she listened for the rustle of monstrous creatures in the grasses. Maya had a better view than before, the added height allowing her to better detect the creatures around them. Some lifted their heads in curiosity, looking around, but before they could decide if they’d seen anything Maya and Rend were already past them.

Now it became obvious that he’d been holding back before so she could keep up. He moved so fast, even in stealth, that Maya wondered if he could make money as a source of transportation.

Even at Rend's exceptional speed, the trip took nearly an hour.

For a while, they seemed to be roughly following a river upstream toward its source. Not the same one that ran through the town, but a smaller one that met up with it further down its course. Maya knew she saw water creatures in the river, poke their heads up and look around but, much as they'd evaded all the prowlers and other dangers on the plains, the river beasts quickly lost interest and returned to their other business.

They left the river after a little over a quarter hour, and then it was just plains and fields and grasses. And still they moved without interruption.

Then, the landscape slowly began to change. The fields thinned out, transitioning from tall grassland to low scrubland, and finally down to a sandy beach.

That messed with Maya's sense of direction. She could have sworn they were traveling east according to her local map, and now she had no idea where they were. She looked up and down, but saw no sign of Nirsym in either direction.

"Where are we? Is this north of Nirsym? Or South?"

"Neither. Well, technically we're to the north, but mostly due east."

"Is this a different island?"

"No. Same continent." He let her down and she stood unsteadily, then toppled to the ground. As she waited for the brief disorientation to pass, Rend began sketching a rough map in the sand with the point of his dagger. She noticed the weapon was a different style than the ones he carried as Sevard and admired his dedication to his disguise.

Image

"This is Kalyx." She came to stand beside him as he pointed to a large X in the center. “If you follow the coast south and west, you come to Nirsym. We," he jumped his dagger from the rough coastline and far off to the right, "are here. The opposite direction. Closer to Kalyx if anything, but not close at all. We are basically as far away from Nirsym as it's possible to get, in fact. Same coastline, completely different area."

Maya nodded. "And does this area connect with zone six?"

"Frozen Clefts? No. They are north of Nirsym. About equally distant from here, but west and north rather than south.” He stood abruptly, gesturing out to a narrow sandbar. "But that's not why we're here. We're here for my riddle. And I should definitely tell you that I don't expect you to solve it, but I would feel really stupid if it turned out that you could have and I didn't even try."

Maya stared out at the ocean between them and the sandbar which was there to clear goal, not liking the way the water rippled and bubbled. Very unnatural. "How are we going to get out there?"

"We'll need to swim. Or, for the moment, I need to swim, and you need to stay on shore where it's safe until I've cleared the area. We could leave this for another day if we have to, but I prefer that we get it done now. At the very least, you can give it thought."

So Maya waited while Rend swam out into the water and fought beasts and monsters of every description. Though she didn't actually see many of them, being underwater, she assumed they had an equal amount of variety to those on land or in other areas. She threw her spells into the mix whenever possible, any time the fight broke the surface. Both hoping to gain some minimal experience and not wanting to be a helpless onlooker. Not that she didn't appreciate the idea of being paid for doing nothing, but the actual doing nothing didn't seem to have as much appeal. It was one thing to walk around as monster bait, another entirely to walk around as passive monster bait.

It was nice that, for once, she was well out of reach of the angry monsters. Despite their ire, they couldn't come up on land to finish her off.

A few had long-range attacks, from which Maya quickly retreated. Since she was never actually in combat, her energy continued to regenerate ridiculously fast, allowing her to keep up her barrage of spells much longer than usual.

It was a long fight. Nearly a half hour nonstop, before Rend had to retreat and rest to recover his health. Then he dove right back in.

The longer it went on the more enemies had long-distance or magical attacks to bring to bear on her, which necessitated Maya's retreat more often than not. Still, it was better than standing around doing nothing. She figured she probably wasn't too far from leveling up again. Under more fortunate circumstances, she was sure she would have already. But for now she appreciated being alive.

Once the way was clear Maya waded in. She advanced until the water reached about her waist, then the shallow decline turned into a steep trench. Maya took a single step out, stepped off the edge and fell, submerging entirely.

Panic flooded her, the moment the water went over her head she dissolved into thrashing ball of panic. Rend swam back to her and grabbed her, dragging her back to shore despite her flailing.

Maya stood panting and trembling, completely blindsided by her reaction.

"What was that?" Rend demanded.

Maya shook her head, as taken aback as he was. "I don't know. I never had a problem swimming before, not that I remember. This is new."

Or was it? She remembered desperation beneath Kalyx, when she'd been thrown into the deep pool by the weird lizard cult. Her panic then had been unreasonable even by her own standards.

Weight, holding her down.

Struggling to get free. Water rushing by. Rushing in.

Nothing she could do.

No way to escape. No way to save herself.

Panic, despair.

"I didn't realize this would happen." Rend's voice broke through her spiraling thoughts. "Whatever it is, you have to move past it. Here's the thing. Your mind is still the same as your mind before. But your body? That's virtual. And there's nothing to be afraid of here. You've died plenty of times, and it didn't make you panic. So why would this be any different? If you can run head-on at a giant lion you can swim across an open bay."

Maya managed a shaky laugh. "You'd really think so, wouldn't you? But I'm… I'm not sure I can."

"That's ridiculous. Look, I get it. Some things you can't change. But this? Fear of swimming? There is absolutely no reason to let that control you at all." He held out his hand. "Come on, Twinny. We don't want to be late."

Maya stared down at the ocean lapping at her feet. The surface was far too rough for her to see a reflection, but even without the visual proof his words helped to remind her how many steps removed she was from reality now.

She wasn't Maya Stader. She was Maya Starborn. And she wasn't even Maya Starborn at the moment, but Twinkle.

Would Twinkle, the big strong, confident canary harpy mage, run from the fear of getting wet? Of course not.

So neither could she.

She took a step, clutching Rend's hand tightly. Then another. All the way to the sudden drop off.

And then she stopped. She couldn't make herself take that next step.

She couldn't help herself imagining the water pressing on her, closing in around her, and took an involuntary step back. "I can't. I can't! I'm sorry. I just–"

Without warning, Rend stepped forward off the edge, dragging her under.

If she were above water, she would've squawked indignantly. As it was, she clamped her beak closed and thrashed helplessly in an attempt to claw her way to the surface as the panic set in again. She couldn't do this again! Rend dragged her deeper and deeper, swimming forward strong and fast even with one arm and his legs, even dragging her behind him.

She ran out of breath, and her health started ticking down. And it was that, oddly enough, the quelled her panic.

-1 health.

She'd been here before.

-1 health.

Underwater. No breath. Health ticking down.

And she'd survived.

Yes, she died, but she had also respawned, the same as any other death. She didn't fear being stabbed, or crushed, or blasted in the face of fire magic. So why would she fear drowning?

Though she could feel the water pressing in, though she knew she couldn't breathe, it was a weaker panic than that in her memory, a more distant emotion.

-1 health.

Did she drown? Was that how she died? The first time, the real-time, the only time that mattered?

It was the only thing that made sense. The missing piece that made everything fit together. She remembered trees, remembered wind, remembered…

Pressure. Holding her down.

Holding her to the ground? Or holding her underwater?

-1 health.

It didn't matter. It was the past.

-1 health.

Maya stopped struggling and relaxed her virtual body.

-1 health.

-1 health.

-1 health.

She had plenty of hitpoints to spare. Rend knew what he was doing.

-1 health.

-1 health.

She couldn’t have kept up with him, swimming on her own, but she could stop being a dead weight he had to drag behind him. She started kicking her feet and swimming with her free arm to help propel herself forward.

-1 health.

He glanced back, grinned and winked, then resumed his swimming.

-1 health.

-1 health.

-1 health.

They continued to descend, darkness growing deeper and deeper around them.

-1 health.

-1 health.

One of Rend’s armbands glowed faintly, a dim grey light that seemed to emanate almost sourcelessly around him.

-1 health.

-1 health.

Then they reached the bottom, pebbled with multicoloured rocks, coral growing up in bizarre shapes around them, casting deep shadows on the sharp cliffside before them. Rend swam forward, Maya in tow.

-1 health.

-1 health.

-1 health.

A doorway stood carved into the cliff’s base, huge and jade-carved, miraculously clear of coral or barnacles. Rend placed his hand against its center and pushed, and the whole thing slid back with a reverberation that echoed through the water.

-1 health.

-1 health.

Something pushed back the water, like an invisible shield of air. The moment they stepped through, Maya coughed and gasped for breath in the damp, still air.

“You should think about keeping a high-control outfit around for swimming underwater,” Rend said. His voice echoed off the walls strangely, the sound almost metallic. She only noticed that he’d changed his equipment as he switched it back.

“Control is the stat for air?” she asked, once she'd recovered.

“For holding your breath, yes.”

“Good to know.” Maybe all those control items the Trickster kept giving her as quest rewards weren’t so useless after all.

“Remind me when we get back to Kalyx City if you don’t have one, and I’ll see what I can find.”

She looked around the dark chamber. The armband continued to emit its directionless glow, faintly illuminating the entire area with no clear falloff of brighter to darker light.

The interior chamber shone dull green, oceanic patterns swirling across it in ripples of blue and white. Like jade layered with lapis lazuli and frozen seafoam. Or maybe salt.

Maya had the brief fleeting inclination to try licking the wall, but shook it away.

Rend led her through three open gates and corridors, inscribed with symbols or decorated with statues. He hurried past them all unconcerned. Much as she’d like to linger and examine them, she knew they were in a hurry.

The fourth chamber held massive chains, hanging from the ceiling or lying about the floor, each ending in a sealed circle bigger than Maya’s waist. She didn’t want to know what they were made to constrain. Fortunately, it was unoccupied.

Rend hurried through that room as well, and Maya followed.

“Here we are.”

He stood back, allowing her to see another gate with huge words carved into it. They were written in unfamiliar characters, yet clearly formed words and phrases. Four lines of four words, deeply carved into the gate. Below them sat three indentations, much like those in the Crimson Flame dungeon which held the crystals to be charged, only these three were all empty.

“I’ve collected these from across the world,” he said, beginning to set out a collection of tiles on the floor. Each was the correct size to fit in one of the slots in the door, each with a symbol carved onto its surface, in one of five different colours. “I’ve tried them in every reasonable combination I can think of.”

“And you expect me to know?”

“No. I expect you to become familiar with them, and keep them in the back of your mind. Maybe one of us will get lucky.”

Maya sat down beside the ever-growing collection of tiles. Some symbols repeated: a grey stone with the same marking as a white stone, a black stone with the same symbol as a brown stone, one which showed up in all five colours.

Rend set them out in rows, lining up the repeats with each other, clearly intimately familiar with the collection. Maya began to feel overwhelmed. There were probably a hundred stones here, or more.

“How is this a riddle?”

“I’m pretty sure the answer is ‘water’. It fits with this being underwater, and the theme of the former rooms. But I can’t figure out how to convey it with these.”

“Clouds are water.” Maya pointed to a blue stone with a cloud pictograph.

“Yes, and so are waterfalls,” he pointed to a grey stone, “and rivers,” a white and a blue, “and lakes,” black, grey, and red, “and wells,” black. “I’ve tried every combination of the water stones, but none of them works and I’m not sure why.”

“Do you know the right colours? Are there more tiles that you don’t have yet?”

“I don’t know anything. There may be. I’ve not found any more in months, but it’s possible.”

“Why do some show up in all colours but not others?”

“The collection is used for a lot of riddles like this,” Rend said. “Every zone has at least one place like this, and they all have more stones. I think it’ll take unlocking the entire world before the collection is complete.”

“So that’s no help.” Maya picked up the lake stones, since there were three of them, and set them into the door’s slots. Nothing happened. She removed them and tried a different order with the same result.

“It’s not any of the obvious answers,” Rend said.

“Which ones have been used in previous puzzles?”

But he shook his head. “That won’t narrow it down either. The white mountain and red spear were each used in two different riddles. They’re not limited to just one use.”

Maya looked over the rows, but saw no hidden meaning that Rend had overlooked. Sword, flower, grass, river, tree, forest, house, village, hill, mountain, waterfall, spear, shield, turtle, foot, cat, claw, cloud, teardrop—

She pointed to the teardrop, but Rend shook his head at that. “Tried it. Tried it with the cloud and the waterfall, with the lake, with the river, with the well. Anything remotely water-related, I’ve tried it.”

Lizard, mug, chair, box, door, table, lantern, flame—

Rend took the flame, placed it at the bottom, added a cloud above and a teardrop at the top. Nothing happened. He rearranged them several times, with the same result. Then he replaced the flame with the village, and tried every arrangement of those with the water tiles. Again, nothing.

Maya continued looking at the tiles, but though there were a great many items no combination screamed ‘water’ to her. She made herself a list in her journal to refer back to as Rend spent another half hour trying various combinations in his attempt to brute-force the puzzle's solution.

He finally sighed in defeat and began returning the tiles to his inventory. “Well, that’s that for tonight. We've got to get back to Kalyx before Dalra logs out.”

“You brought me all this way, and that’s all?”

“Yes.”

“Anticlimactic.”

“Indeed. Even more so when you consider I've been stuck on this same stupid puzzle for months. I swear, I've tried so many combinations, it's infuriating."

"Sounds like it," Maya agreed.

Rend sighed. "But it's time to head back. Have any dust of recall?”

“Yes, actually. What is it?”

“Use it and you’ll see.”

She brought out the little bag of dust and stared at it.

“Like so.” Rend opened his own bag, then tossed the dust into the air and stepped into it. He froze as the dust settled over him, standing in place for half a minute, then vanished.

“Looks totally safe,” Maya muttered, but she followed his example. The moment she stepped into the glittering cloud, she completely lost the ability to move. A timer began counting down from 30 seconds, with a ‘cancel?’ option glowing in her vision.

She didn’t cancel. When the countdown reached zero, the dust finished its fall and she realized she now stood back in the little farming town, beside the leypillar.

“A bit slow, are we?” Rend teased, putting one hand on the black pillar.

Maya shrugged and accepted the transit offer back to Kalyx.