Maya slipped into the mage academy without being seen, and without seeing anyone else. Unlike most mornings when at least a few people walked about inside the grounds, the only person she could see was the NPC guard standing outside the main gateway.

She approached Opal Hall, half expecting to be pushed back by a permissions mismatch. She distinctly remembered Nalana needing to input her Fire access permissions, which implied that the individual buildings had separate access lists than the academy as a whole.

But she needn’t have worried. Either her Housebreaker perk was still in effect or her individual permissions hadn’t been revoked, because the door opened promptly at her touch.

Silence greeted her. No faint voices from classrooms, no spells going off in distant practice areas. She hadn’t ever paid much attention to the background ambiance of the mage academy grounds before, but even at its most empty there’d always been something happening somewhere. Now, it seemed utterly deserted.

Maya reached the Fire team’s classroom, which had been restored to a state of semi-order. Some of the desks and tables were still scattered crookedly, but the clear aisle for practicing had been reclaimed by a semi-circle of chairs at a table overflowing with papers and measuring tools.

It felt lifeless and empty, the chaos only highlighting the fact that this busy workspace had been left and not returned to.

Sevard’s warning to stay out of this began to sound very wise. Whatever had happened to the mages, it would be best if Maya weren’t discovered here.

But she wasn’t going to worry about what would be best today. She was going to find her friends, whatever it took.

The door to Sapphire Hall opened to her just as easily. Her room remained as she’d left it, terrarium of magic untouched from where she’d deposited it. She sighed with relief as she coaxed it out of storage and onto her hands and arms. She didn’t like being unable to cast spells.

Wait, she’d loaded another save, hadn’t she?

She checked. Thankfully, whatever debuff prevented her energy from recovering in her Seer branch hadn’t impacted her Path of Life saves. Energy was full, at 180 of 180. Well, now she’d have multiple ways to cast, if necessary.

After a moment’s thought, she tried to put the entire terrarium into her inventory. It would come in handy for storing magic. But that only triggered an error.

This object is owned by another player.

Right. Even if it felt like her room, her home, it still belonged to Shardlord in the end.

She glanced at the ticking-down timer for her Standalone conquest quest, and sighed. She had really wanted to get her own home, and wanted it even more now. She couldn’t rely on renting or borrowing forever.

Then she stopped and stared at her menu. There were two quests. The official, trickster class quest, which counted down. And the secondary one from the guard captain, the one promising a house.

That one had no timer. It could be completed at any time, even after the trickster one expired.

Maya grinned, hope restored. Who cared about a few high-level bits of equipment? She could still get her house, even with the delays. All was not lost. She just had to convince Shardlord to reinstate her, then she could rejoin the Fire team and they could carry out their plan, without the pressure of a looming deadline.

Things really were looking brighter today.

Well, apart from the fact that she was still wandering around the academy alone.

Maya exited into the hall and started down toward the stairs, pausing to knock loudly on each door before continuing.

No response. No response. No response.

She continued to the second and third floors, doing the same thing, but no one answered. She really hoped this was a side-effect of sneaking in, or perhaps a planned vacation day.

Sevard’s warning implied otherwise.

She tried Shardlord’s tower next. To her surprise, she found no guard and a door that opened silently at her touch. She wandered around for a time, poking into doors and hesitantly calling out, but found no one. Finally she found the room she’d visited before, but it was as dark and empty as the rest of the academy.

What was going on?

After checking in every room that wasn’t locked and still finding no one, Maya returned to the ground floor and tentatively made her way to the dining hall. She really, really hoped they were there. But like everywhere else, the building lay dark and empty.

Something had gone wrong. No way every single mage happened to be logged out at the same time. Unless they’d done so deliberately, for some reason?

Alert! This property has been challenged! Gather your allies, conquest begins in: 4m 55s

>Join as attacker

>Join as defender

>Flee

Maya selected defender without a second thought, then glanced around in case this would draw the other mages out of the woodwork.

No one showed up.

The Conquest timer counted down, and Maya found her nerves unable to contain. Why was no one else here? Was she really going to be the only person trying to defend the mage academy? If that were the case, they were doomed.

She made sure her new daggers were equipped, glad of the extra health boost offered by the unique items. 384 was a decent amount of health, considering her low level. It should prevent her from being taken out immediately, at least.

One minute.

She checked Diamond Hall, Sapphire Hall’s fellow lodging unit, but it proved to be as empty as everything else.

Conquest has begun!

Attackers remaining: 17

Defenders remaining: 2

Maya wondered who the second defender could be, but had no time to consider the puzzle.

The air flickered as someone jumped over the wall in stealth. Maya spun toward the motion, instinctively bringing her hands up to begin charging a Wind Whisper. She could just make out the impression of someone crouching in the shadow.

Then the sound of blades clashing split the quiet, coming from the direction of the archway. Maya was almost overwhelmed with curiosity, but she wasn’t going to turn her back on a stealthed rogue just to find out who her ally was. They were definitely better able to take care of themselves than Maya.

She carefully didn’t look directly at the blurry stealthed person, turning slowly as though scanning the area, watching out of the corner of her eye while her heart raced and the spell charged up. The seconds seemed to last far longer than usual, only the system ability assistance keeping her hands steady.

Something hit her from behind. Three somethings, in a familiar impact, followed almost immediately by a knife jammed into her neck.

-38 health

-33 health

She managed to fire the single-overcharged Wind Whisper at the blur by the wall, even as another impact from behind dropped her health another 18.

Maya spun toward her new attacker, then hissed in sudden recognition. "Sevard? What are you doing here?”

The rogue paused, blades raised to strike. “Maya? I told you to stay out of this!”

“Well, I guess I’m not a staying out of things kind of person.”

“Could have fooled me. Nice look, by the way.” He winked. “Black looks good on you. But I thought you were with Domitius now?”

“I’m with everyone now, it seems.” Maya sighed, then remembered the other sneak by the wall. She turned to check, but whoever it was had moved and she couldn’t see them any longer.

“Where’s everyone else?” Sevard asked.

“Don’t ask me!”

“Well, this makes things very awkward. You know I have to kill you.”

“Yeah, defending this place seemed like a better idea when I assumed I’d have more than one ally.” She didn't try to charge an attack. Sevard was way out of her league in a fight.

But instead of attacking, he blinked in surprise, staring off into the distance contemplatively. “One? That guard is the only person here besides you? But—” Then he huffed in irritation and turned away. “If Shardlord isn’t here. . . he’s up to something.”

Before Maya could say anything more, he’d crouched back into stealth and vanished without a trace.

Defenders remaining: 1

Maya snapped around, to see a group of four strangers charging her from the front gate. A crumpled body behind them on the ground showed where her ally had fallen.

Well, may as well give a good showing of it. She missed having access to the info from her Seer abilities - it would be helpful knowing who had the least health to target them.

But then, Maya herself still had nearly 300 health despite Sevard’s attacks, so she wasn't going to complain about being in Path of Life at the moment.

She fired Wind Whispers and Sparks, dodging as much as possible, but before long the attackers penned her in and limited her movement. Even her luck wasn’t enough to save her after that.

You’ve been killed! Character Maya Starborn has been locked for 2 minutes. Future penalties will be doubled for the duration of the Conquest.

Her attacks hadn’t managed to bring down any of the invaders. Disappointing, but not unexpected. After all, if Sevard was an example of the level of attackers Domitius had sent, these would all be far above her own level.

She logged back in as soon as her lockout ended, disappointed not to be able to select the academy as a spawn location. Instead she had to choose between the Domitius castle or her apartment. She opted for the latter.

Conquest defence failed!

>Concede the area

>Attempt to reclaim

As much as she wanted to retake the academy, Maya selected concede. Without anyone else helping, it would be utterly pointless to attempt, even if she could re-enter it.

Which left the question, where was everyone?

Maya sighed, then went to switch her mask appearance back to Emma Domitian. But, of course, that preset was over on her Seer save. She didn’t want to swap back, though, so she made a second version of it here. And, while she was at it, she dyed her markings to match her new brown feathers, disguising their distinctive shapes.

Very convenient that the Path of Life save was the one with all the dyes from Sevard. It made her life so much easier, being able to whip up a new appearance on the spot like this. Though she was getting low on dyes now. Going through them at this rate, she’d need to start buying more soon. Sevard’s decision to purchase in bulk made perfect sense now.

Then she headed back for the castle. There was nothing more she could do here, so the least she could do was exploit her currently high luck to complete quests with Julios and allay suspicion.

She may not care as much about what anyone else thought, but it would still be unwise to deliberately upset powerful players if she didn’t have to. And with the mage academy under conquest, it would be a safe assumption that no one would be returning soon.

Alert! This property is currently under contention in Conquest.

>Join as attacker

>Join as defender

>Flee

Maya highlighted Defender without thinking, but hesitated before committing. Who would be attacking Domitius’s fortress? Could it possibly be Shardlord, and the mages? But to what end?

What was the advantage of both teams claiming each other’s home base? Well, Kalyx base at least. Domitius’s main base seemed to be in that underground cave complex where he’d imprisoned her.

She chose to flee for the moment, and walked around the building in an attempt to determine who was attacking. But that was futile. The window slits were designed for defence, not aesthetic, and the otherwise blocky structure gave no indications of what was happening within its walls.

Well, not like she’d be tipping the balance of power anytime soon. She selected defence.

Conquest is underway.

Attackers remaining: 31

Defenders remaining: 6

As she watched, the number of defenders flipped down to 5.

No point in waiting around outside. She pushed open the front door with her foot, hands raised and already charging a Wind Whisper.

The first hall lay empty, but she heard the distinct clamor of battle from upstairs. She hurried to the second floor, and paused at the landing.

Julios stood atop a makeshift barricade of tables and chairs, blocking the corridor. He fired a heavy crossbow into a group of familiar and unfamiliar mages, grouped together with shields raised before them. She saw a handful of her Fire team members, several people she'd seen around but never interacted with, and Desi, but not Shardlord or any of the group leaders.

Several others stood behind Julios along the barrier, firing bows or throwing axes or the occasional spell at the attackers.

So far, neither side seemed to be moving, both entrenched and trying to outlast the other.

But Maya saw Tahpa's arms beginning to glow in the stance for Heart of Magma, Desi taking the stance for Storm Grasp, and two other unfamiliar mages also in the process of charging up powerful attacks.

With a closer look, she noticed scorch marks and shattered furniture by where the mages stood. This wasn’t the Domitians’ first attempt at delaying the invaders, and the former ones hadn’t fared well.

Maya stood, torn. Positioned behind the mages, she could easily slip away and leave Julios and the others to their fate. She didn’t want to attack her friends, certainly. But she had a supercharged Wind Whisper begging to be cast, one single attack with all her energy charged into it. Over 90 damage, one shot, just waiting for a target.

She continued up to the next flight of steps, holding the spell ready, but not firing it yet. And stopped dead.

The third floor was completely coated in ice. Not smooth ice, rough crackled ice, like it had been shattered repeatedly and then melted back into some kind of shape, with irregular lumps and even icicles hanging from the ceiling and forming uneven blobs along the walls. Every door was sealed closed, completely inaccessible behind the ice.

No one was there.

She backed up and continued up to the top floor, half expecting to see Shardlord and Domitius engaged in an epic duel. Instead, she found a locked door, which did not open whatever she tried. At least, kicking it didn’t work. She couldn’t use her hands, since they were occupied in constraining the eager Wind Whisper that wanted to blast out with hurricane force and send someone flying.

Which thought reminded her: she didn’t have to use it to cause damage, it could be used purely as wind.

She smiled. That would definitely make her seem like a loyal Domitian. She could blow them all over from behind, slow them down a bit in a grand display, while not actually hurting the mages' chances at all.

Hurrying back down the stairs, she almost ran into someone coming up. She didn’t even register who it was, before instinctively pushing out the spell right into their face.

WHOOOSH!

The spell slammed forward with even more force than she’d anticipated, sending the other figure flying down the stairs to land at the very bottom with a sickening crack.

Maya gasped, suddenly feeling ill. She hadn’t meant to do that!

But this wasn’t the real world, and a fall down a flight of steps and being forcefully slammed into a stone wall at the bottom wasn’t enough to kill anyone here. The robed figure got unsteadily to its feet, squinting up at Maya.

She suddenly realized that she’d forgotten to swap out her equipment.

Panic flooded her. She was too new at this subterfuge business!

She immediately unequipped absolutely everything, turned and fled up the stairs. She didn’t know who she’d just attacked, or what they’d think, but she needed space and time to collect herself.

Too much adrenaline. She couldn’t think straight, couldn’t remember what equipment she’d used in any of her different identities.

The trousers were new. They could stay, right? No, wait, they were for Mage Stader, specifically. Aaah!

She reached the third floor, then remembered that the doors were all frozen shut and would not make for a good hiding place. But she couldn’t continue upward, or she’d be trapped against the locked door.

She darted down the corridor, crouching with hands out, ready to catch herself if she slipped. Fortunately, the ice was uneven enough not to provide as much of a slick surface as she’d feared. She reached the far end of the hall and ran around the corner without looking back, heart racing, convinced her pursuer would be right behind her.

Equipment. Fast. She was at 136 health right now without her gear, and that wouldn't last very long in a fight.

The knives were new. She’d used them only in the mage academy. No one here would have seen them. Did she want to dedicate them to Emma? Or could she get away with using them multiple places? No one else would know they were unique, would they? She didn’t have time to check. Did she?

She froze, breath held, listening for footsteps behind her. Nothing. Her energy was recovering nicely, at non-combat speed, so she forced herself to relax a bit.

The mage may have given up, or perhaps had never chased her at all. She was safe, for the moment, though crouched in an ice-covered corridor in Domitius’s besieged fortress wasn’t where she’d hoped to spend her afternoon.

Defenders remaining: 3

Then that number flickered almost immediately to 2.

Maya swallowed, trying not to think about what that meant for Julios. She didn’t really like the kid, mainly because he didn't know how to stop talking. But he didn’t deserve to get caught up in this feud just because he happened to be on the wrong side.

More pressing was what it meant for her. As she now, once again, made up 50% of a stronghold’s defenders, she’d be a primary target.

Then she took another look at the area around her and very nearly laughed aloud. Third floor. Around the corner.

The door at the end was hers. Frozen shut at the moment, but a potential safe haven. She could save, at least, and possibly reload somewhere else as a quick escape, returning later once this conquest nonsense was over with. Or at least it could buy her enough time to figure out her equipment plan.

Maya found her door and started casting Spark.