Domitius led Maya through a twisting corridor, carved stone lit only by the brilliant gleam of his green eyes. Maya wasn’t sure how they emitted that much light, but it was enough to see clearly enough. She still tripped and stumbled, but that was due to her negative luck rather than the darkness.

For a moment, she couldn’t help wondering at the audacity; the leader of a major faction allowing an armed prisoner to follow him alone down an empty corridor. But then she reminded herself that, in a game like this, ambushing someone gave very little advantage, and even her best attack would barely scratch the man.

Curious, she activated Truth Sight.

Silent Soul Warrior

Health: 2540

Will: 400

Stamina: 1571

Energy: 10

She swallowed instinctively. The two highest level players whose stats she knew, Standalone and Zarene, both had 1400 health. Domitius, despite being only a few levels higher, had over a full thousand more. He was practically a boss monster all on his own.

She carefully copied down the details exactly into her journal. And while she was at it, she pushed all the pages of inane rambling from her long imprisonment to the end, clearing space at the beginning for her Seer annotations.

Domitius led her to a polished stone chamber, angular walls jutting out into the room seemingly at random. An old man waited for them, standing in the center of an array of objects.

“Another comes to take the Oath?”

“Yes. And she is a trickster as well.”

The old man nodded. “Deific interference is possible. I’ll be on the alert.”

Maya tensed. Would his lookout for Trickster interference catch the Oracle’s perk as well?

“Stand here,” the old man instructed, and Domitius gestured her forward.

Maya complied, unable to think of an alternative quickly enough.

Domitius quoted the lines of her promise one by one, and she repeated them back without protest, careful to keep thinking, I’m only doing this to get out of here, I don’t care about his stupid cause, he’s plenty powerful without another trickster.

Maya wasn’t sure if that was necessary, but she wanted to take no chances of being actually permanently sworn to this cause without her intention.

Then she finished, “And to this cause I will not be unfaithful,” which she thought was even more overly loquacious than the preceding overwrought lines.

“Hmmm.”

“Something the matter?” Domitius asked.

“Not exactly. The Oath took, but it’s. . . strange. I can’t see any change.”

Domitius’s eyebrows rose. “No change? She was already loyal to me? How?”

The old man shook his head. “I don’t think that’s it.”

“I’m already a soulbound trickster,” Maya interrupted. “Prior oaths may supersede yours.”

Domitius sighed. “Very well, let’s do this again. Uvlan, add this line, ‘Except where it would directly conflict with my loyalty to the Trickster,’ and see if that helps.”

They went through it all again.

“No change.”

“You promised I could go if I took your oath,” Maya reminded him.

“Yes, yes, I have no intention of going back on my word. But neither can I allow you full freedom so long as prior loyalties hold your heart. Hmmm.”

Maya wished she hadn’t given up her Dust of Recall. Perhaps she could have slipped away while he was distracted.

Maybe not - probably not - but she’d never know.

“Very well. For now, you’ll be assigned to travel with another. It will be an imposition on their time, but so long as you do nothing to indicate disloyalty we should be able to clear up this probationary period soon. Do you have any preference?”

“Rominian,” she said at once. “I don’t trust the tricksters.”

“Hmm, indeed. Rominian is very busy, and you’re frankly too weak and slow to keep up with him even if I could spare him. But if you prefer a non-trickster partner, I can accommodate that. I will give the two of you joint assignments. When not actively working toward my current ends, you’ll be welcome to split your time between your own personal aims. If any conflict arises and you can’t get along, call Cydrin and I’ll send a replacement.”

Maya’s heart sank. Even if Shardlord wasn’t already suspicious of her before, this would be sure to make him think twice about allowing her free access to his mage academy. But what else could she do? Insisting on traveling alone would be suspicious.

And even from what little she’d seen of Domitius’s operations, his people were significantly stronger than those at the mage academy. She wouldn’t be able to fight her way out.

“I really would rather go about my business alone,” she said. “I don’t see what use I’ll be to your plans right now, and I’d like to focus on leveling up to at least tier two.”

“I’ll find you someone low level, so neither of you will be holding the other back.”

How many protests would be too suspicious? “Alright. I guess that’ll have to be good enough.” At least it would get her out into the regular world.

“Uvlan, see to it.” With that, Domitius swept out of the room. For a moment Maya could see the glint of green light on the walls as he passed swiftly by, then he was gone.

“Equipment?”

“You can’t go traipsing around in that, it would be a disservice to Domitius’s good name.”

He led her through more dark stone halls, unlit but for the light he carried, and finally to a storage room. Boxes were stacked atop each other, floor to ceiling, surrounding all the walls and forming narrow hallways in between. Each box had writing on it, letters and numbers.

“Level?”

“Nine. No, wait, eight.”

Uvlan gave her a sideways look. “And class?”

“Ma— trickster.”

He pointed to a box marked TX-8. “You may choose any three items from that box, which will be loaned to you until your level increases. I highly recommend going for some armor, but the choice is yours.”

Maya sorted through the items without much of her attention on the task. She was trying to figure out how in the world she could juggle all her loyalties and personae.

Well, one change she could make right now, before she got too deeply into Domitius’s camp. She only had one universal dye, which wasn’t enough to change more than one colour, but that would be a start.

She covertly activated her Trickster’s Mask interface and created a new persona, Emma Domitian. Then she dragged the dye from her inventory into the interface, selected her white feathers and set light brown as the replacement, then verified the change.

Without the ability to restyle her feathers’ style and shape, there was only so much she could do, but that could come later.

For a moment she considered offering to spy on Shardlord, but quickly discarded the thought. Stupid luck. Did she really need one more complication to keep track of? No. Not at all.

She’d have to come up with an excuse to change her main mage academy persona too, as soon as possible. As much as she couldn’t let Shardlord see her hanging around with Domitians, she couldn’t let Domitius find out she was living at the mage academy.

The dyes alone would cost a fortune, but what else could she do?

She had to get away, talk to Sevard alone.

Sevard! He was probably still off on some pointless vendetta against Zarene, when it turned out she had just turned Maya over to Domitius without realizing it.

Well. That she could laugh about. Zarene being tricked by other tricksters somehow felt like justice. Not nearly enough to let her off for her behavior, but until Maya was significantly higher level Zarene was safe from her vengeance.

She scowled. It would probably be best to completely obliterate any remains of her original persona, as much as she’d miss her beautiful white-black-purple. Too many people knew that version for one reason or another. Her original persona, the one Zarene was hunting so relentlessly, she would vanish as thoroughly as though she were still trapped in a pit full of magic.

Zarene was right, it turned out. As much as Maya hated to admit it. Compartmentalization would be essential if she were to survive the tangled lies and loyalties trying to claim her.

She created another new persona, Mage Stader, but didn’t activate it.

She’d have to get Sevard to take her to Nirsym again so she could do the full makeover a few more times. Emma and Stader had to be distinct from each other. Oh, wait, that was easy! Emma the Domitian was already on her Seer save route, so she really only needed to manage two. Emma and Circe. Then Stader and Twinkle were on Path of Life; Stader would be her Shardlord persona, Twinkle for Sevard.

Maya was confusing herself already. She drew out a chart in her journal, scribbling notations for each of the four. She briefly considered dropping Circe, since she hadn’t actually done much toward that version yet and it would be an unnecessary complication, but discarded the thought at once. Circe was going to be the only persona not tied down to one loyalty or another.

“Are you nearly done?”

Maya jumped. She’d been so absorbed in her planning she’d completely forgotten what she was supposed to be here for.

“Oh, armor, yes.” She grabbed three items at random, then nodded. “All set.”

“Then follow me, please.”

Maya’s assigned partner was a sprite named Julios. He had iridescent black wings, shaped like a butterfly’s but semi-translucent and veined in rainbow hues like a dragonfly, and he had only been playing for two weeks.

He’d recently advanced to level 12, and clearly thought he was very cool.

Maya thought he must be very young.

“Julios, this is Maya—”

“Emma, please,” Maya interrupted. “Maya was my name irl, I’d prefer to start over here.”

“Emma, this is Julios. He’ll be your partner for the next few days. He’s permanent, and has volunteered to take you under his wings—”

Julios fluttered them, winking. Maya barely managed not to groan.

“—and escort you wherever you need to go. You’ll be working on leveling together, as well as performing any duties Domitius may ask of you. Maya, you’re the contact point for the team. If anyone claims to have a mission for the two of you, the password is ‘Limited’. If they do not include that word with their instructions, disregard them and report to Cydrin the Bold immediately. Understood?”

Maya nodded, making a note in her journal.

“Oooh, you’re a contact point too? Yes!” Julios pumped his fist in the air. “I get my first escort, and it’s a contact point!”

“She, not it,” Maya corrected tersely. She was not looking forward to babysitting this noob.

“She, of course. Sorry, Emma. There aren’t very many of you, you know?”

“There is in fact only one of me, I’m quite certain.”

“Well, yes, it would be illegal to make copies. But I mean as a contact point.”

“Is that what we’re calling tricksters these days?”

“Trickster sounds so mercenary,” the old man said. “Contact point is much more accurate. Good luck, both of you.”

So Sevard’s fears weren’t unfounded, just behind the times. Domitius had been binding tricksters to his service to use as instant communication for who knew how long. And without his own trickster network, Maya was astonished Shardlord was able to keep up as well as he was.

Rominian had said Shardlord constantly traded in favour with the city factions for access to exclusive dungeons, while Domitius put all his pull toward unlocking new zones. That must be the only reason the two leaders remained tied.

If Domitius did ever put his full resources into leveling himself, he’d leave Shardlord in the dust.

No wonder he seemed unconcerned. No wonder he felt confident delivering ultimatums.

“You okay, Emma?” Julios asked.

“I’m fine. Just thinking about how powerful Domitius really is. I hadn’t realized.”

“No one does until they see it. Everyone outside thinks we’re just a little cult hanging out by that noob city, as if Kalyx were good enough for Domitius.”

“Mmm.”

“Well, we need an outpost there, of course. Keep an eye on number two, in case he gets ideas.”

“Maya Starborn?”

“We can’t focus too much energy there, though, if we’re going to—”

“Julios, hush. I’m getting a call.”

“Oooh! So exciting! I’ll be quiet.”

Maya sighed and shook her head. “Hello?”

“This is Stone. I understand you’ll have limited contact with us for the time being. I have your first assignment.”

“Acknowledged. Proceed.” Maya grinned, feeling like a spy. Secret identities, code-phrases, mysterious missions. . . maybe working with Domitius could be fun. Like Rominian had told her so long ago, it was just a game after all.