Maya quickly realized that Spark wasn’t going to be enough to melt through the layers of ice covering the door and walls anytime soon.

With nothing else pressing, though, she continued snapping Sparks as fast as the cooldown allowed, popping them against the ice around the doorframe. To minimal effect.

“Maya Starborn. Emma, limited, report. Where are you?”

Maya jumped in surprise at the voice. It wasn’t anyone she recognized at once, but used both her Domitian name and the password, so she couldn’t ignore it.

“Um. Right outside my room,” she whispered. “The door is sealed shut with ice and there are a lot of mages downstairs.”

“If you can, get out. If not, head to Nirsym once you respawn. We’re pulling out of Kalyx entirely.”

“What?”

“It’s time to move on. If you have any favour tokens, bring them. We’re meeting at the western gate, in ten minutes.”

“I’ll be there. Emma out.”

She waited for the disconnection, mulling over her options. She wanted to warn the mages, but couldn’t risk giving away her fledgling new identity.

Well, she could do one thing. She didn’t have any paper with her, but she did have universal dyes. She wouldn’t be needing her newcomer tunic, now she had multiple better options to wear for armor, and it would work well enough for sending a message.

She sliced it into pieces, triggering a quick Are you sure you wish to destroy item: Newcomer Tunic? to which she replied Yes and received 4x Rough Cloth Scrap in exchange. She hastily wrote 'Nyrsim west gate' on one, then glanced out the nearest window slit to try and figure out the time. No use. She couldn’t tell, apart from it being afternoon. Well, she could add that.

'This afternoon', she added. 'Top priority. Everyone must attend.'

There. If that didn’t sound worth investigating, she didn’t know what did. Hopefully at least enough to convince them to send a scout or something. Going off with all the Domitians and having no one know where they were going just felt like a bad idea.

She rolled the scrap of cloth into a scroll shape and tied it with another strip torn from the demolished tunic.

Now, for a bit of an act. Maya started toward the stairs.

No, wait, wait. She was still wearing no equipment. Maya forced herself to slow down, though she was excruciatingly aware of the time passing. A quick check of her inventory showed that she really didn’t have enough duplicates for a full alternate identity. Either there would be significant overlap, or her combat potential would be severely hampered.

She could re-equip everything else later. Her current plan didn’t require her to survive.

Tossing on only her Newcomer Leggings and Rogue’s Jacket, she peered out from behind the corner. The hallway lay empty, the ice beginning to take on a wet sheen as it slowly melted. She sprinted across the lumpy and slick surface, fortunately without slipping once, and reached the stairs.

Hurrying down the stairs, Maya hardly noticed the alert.

Defenders remaining: 1

She stepped out onto the second floor landing, then stopped, feigning startlement. She dropped the scrap of rolled up cloth, equipped her non-unique dagger and held it before her in both hands.

“Why are you here?” she asked, projecting her voice higher. It wasn’t difficult to fake nervousness.

“Sorry about this, but we’re going to need this building for the day,” said one of the mages, while Tahpa slipped back into his Heart of Magma stance. “If you want to leave, go ahead. Otherwise, we’ll finish this here.”

Maya charged. It would be far quicker to respawn at Nirsym directly than to walk all the way to the leypillar, even with the character lock.

Defenders remaining: 2

Before she could register the notification. Tahpa started firing. And either Maya was much worse at dodging than she’d thought, or he was an incredible aim, because every single one of his missiles hit her. Molten ball of fiery stone after molten ball of fiery stone slammed into her in a steady rhythm, knocking her health to nothing within seconds.

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

Maya wasn't sure what the mental equivalent of bouncing in anticipation was, or she'd have been doing it while watching the seconds tick down. She may have no idea what was going on, but this was her first time actually properly following through on her ‘play both sides’ idea. And it was surprisingly fun! Even if all she’d done so far was drop a secret note.

When she respawned at Nirsym City’s leypillar, she found her heart already galloping, her beak curving into a smile.

She hurried toward the west gate, excited to see what Domitius was up to. She glanced back a few times, but didn’t see anyone else arrive at the leypillar. There was no large gathering waiting for her, but a number of people stood around in a seemingly casual scatter, by ones or twos. She didn’t see anyone she recognized, but the population density certainly seemed above average so they couldn’t all be NPCs.

She found an empty wall and leaned up against it, waiting for whatever everyone else was waiting for.

Maybe this was where Domitius himself was coming, instead of to the Kalyx fortress?

The next person to enter wasn’t Domitius, it was Sevard. He casually joined in a group conversation clustered by a small tree. Then, a few minutes later, a pair of strangers entered and also took up positions seemingly casually, but within sight of the gate.

Maya definitely thought this whole thing was taking longer than ten minutes to assemble, impatient to find out what was so important that they’d recall every Domitian from the entire zone.

Rominian raced in next, but from further within the city, not the gate. He approached one of the people Maya vaguely remembered seeing at the meeting, exchanged a few rapid words, then rushed off again.

Several minutes passed without further development. Maya began to envy those standing beneath trees. The heat wasn’t dreadful, but Nirsym definitely had a hotter climate than Kalyx and she’d prefer someplace cooler. Or at least a little wind.

Julios arrived, along with several others she recognized from the barrier defence. He glanced around until he saw Maya, then narrowed his eyes and started for her.

“Where were you?” he hissed as soon as he reached her. “We weren’t able to receive instructions because you left us.”

“There was nothing I could have done!” Maya protested. “There were too many attackers. Besides, by the time I got any instructions, you were all dead!”

“See? This is why I wasn’t supposed to leave you on your own. Gah. I’m so stupid. Why did I listen to you?”

Maya suddenly felt guilty, though she knew she shouldn’t care. But, just because she didn’t trust Domitius, was that any reason to take it out on Julios?

“I’m sorry," she said sincerely. "But I had things to take care of in the city. If you’d been with me, we would have both been too far away to do anything.”

“At least I wouldn’t have been desperately trying to defend a structure we were planning to abandon anyway! I didn’t know the plan until Domitius showed up! We were dying over and over, respawning and hiding to hold them off, and you were here, enjoying the sun!”

“I don’t really enjoy the sun,” Maya said, and knew it was stupid the moment she spoke. “You’re right, as a contact point, I didn’t do my job. But I’m even newer at this than you are! How was I supposed to know we’d be attacked today?”

“It’s not our job to know the future, it’s our job to follow orders.”

Maya huffed in irritation. “I don’t do well with following orders. I never joined this game to play the pawn in someone else’s plots. I’ll do what I have to, but you can’t expect me to put my own life on hold for this nonsense.”

Julios’s wings twitched with obvious frustration. “Then why join? You have to have known what Domitius is like. If you didn’t believe in our cause, why are you even here?”

“Because I was kidnapped and forced into it, maybe? Listen, Julios, I get that you’re a true believer or whatever, but I’m not. I don’t care about these PvP battles. I just want to play solo and level up, and then I get saddled with you and a cause I could hardly care less about, just because otherwise my character would stay locked up and I’d have to restart somewhere else. I don’t want to restart, but just because I have to play along with Domitius don’t mistake me for another one of your true devotees.”

“That’s absurd. I would know if we did that sort of thing. You’re delusional.”

Maya laughed harshly. “Me, delusional? What rock are you living under? Oh, I forgot, you’re only level twelve, why would anyone tell you anything?”

“Thirteen,” he said, lifting his chin. “I’m level thirteen.”

“Yeah. Woo. Practically top ten already. I'm surprised you don't know all Domitius's secrets by now.”

For once, Julios didn’t say anything. He just glared at her, then stomped away.

Maya fumed for another minute, annoyed that he’d ruined her mood, and even more annoyed that he was kind of right. She had left them without any way of communicating, trapped in their own base, with the assumption that they were the last line of defence.

Even more than she hated messing up, she hated everyone knowing it. She’d have to put more effort into maintaining her identities properly, even if it meant she’d have less time to herself. Making more enemies wouldn’t help anything. And she knew she'd been kind of petty to Julios, but he'd started it!

That excuse didn't make her feel any better about it. One of these days, she needed to start thinking before reacting. But that was the sort of skill she didn't know how to attain. There were no tutorial trainers for maintaining composure.

Cydrin the Bold strode into the assemblage, drawing her thoughts away from her self-recriminations. He made no effort to hide, but raised his voice to a carrying bellow.

“Welcome everyone. You are here as witnesses and participants in the next phase of our ascendancy. Today, we unlock Zone Seven!”

Maya gasped, and a cheer went up from the gathered Domitians.

“Many of you have been working very hard towards this end, and I must emphasize that without every single one of you, we would not have reached this goal nearly as quickly. We have another twenty-three applicants queued and ready to join us as soon as the slots are opened, which means we have room for another twenty-seven. If any of you have friends on other worlds, or outside of the game, who would be interested or could be persuaded to join us, now is the time. Log out, contact them however necessary, and get them ready to log in. Right now, we have the advantage of numbers and determination. Our aim is to maintain that advantage.”

Another cheer, but this one less unified, as though they were distracted and hadn’t realized it was expected of them until they heard others doing so.

“We will meet back here for the actual unlocking in eight hours. It is not required that you be present, but the offer is open. For any allies you manage to bring in, we will be offering our usual incentive packages. Domitius and I will be moving into Zone Seven, so anyone able to farm Zone Six should prepare to do so.

“Our ratios will be adjusted once we know the requirements for Zone Eight, but you should assume your assignments to remain unchanged moving forward unless informed otherwise. Kalyx is going to be particularly important. Rominian, Havi, and Clawd are already running at capacity, so we’ll need to split the zone further if we’re going to continue to increase our outputs. Not to minimize anyone else’s work; the requirements are simply getting ridiculous.

"If you’re willing to volunteer to take on this task, talk to myself or any other contact point. We know this will be a sacrifice, particularly to those of you capable of running higher level zones, and you will be compensated accordingly. Additionally, anyone working with us on a temporary basis, you may consider your contract to be extended indefinitely.”

Maya immediately glanced at Sevard, who seemed taken aback by this.

“As stated, the requirements are simply absurd at this point, and we’re looking to build a solid team to farm Zone Six while Domitius and myself advance to Zone Seven. If you require additional incentives, get in touch with me or Domitius. As well, if any of you have contacts with players in tiers four and five who could be persuaded to join us, let me know. Both you and they would be eligible for a significant signing bonus.”

Maya immediately thought of Zarene. The other trickster may have figured out that Pizza and whoever the other thug had been were tricksters, but she didn’t seem to realize they were Domitians. As one of the highest level tricksters - besides Cydrin, of course - she should be in high demand. Maya couldn’t help wondering why she hadn’t been signed on yet. Either traditionally or forcefully. But perhaps it was more difficult to kidnap a tier five player than a tier one.

She didn’t say anything, of course, simply waited while Cydrin finished his speech and dismissed everyone. Most of the players headed back to the leypillar. But not all.

Sevard approached Cydrin, and Maya drifted that way herself. More from curiosity than any real desire to speak with the third most powerful player in the game.

“—at the outset, I have other obligations,” Sevard was saying.

“You needn’t concern yourself with the timing,” said Cydrin. “We know your rate and will cover it.”

“I still need time to myself, I’m close to cracking my tier trial, I know it.”

“You are not close. You have solved, what, half the chambers? They grow progressively harder. Trust me, Sev, you just need to wait for a 90+ day. There’s no point wasting your effort otherwise.”

“Then how’d Domitius do it? Or Shardlord?”

“They haven’t said. I suspect it was a combination of happenstance and stubbornness. But either way, I’ve attained the formerly unattainable in a quarter of the time. So whose advice do you really think will be most helpful?”

“I know the answer, just not how to input it,” Sevard insisted.

“If you do not know how to input it, then you do not know the answer,” Cydrin answered in a tone of forced patience. “The answer will be obviously correct once you find it. And that is only one door. There will be more beyond it. In the meantime you’re needed here.”

Sevard didn’t speak for a long moment. “My rates have increased,” he said at last. “First ten hours in a week are standard, but for every ten after that it increases by 50%. Compounded. I don’t do long-term, you know that.”

“And that was fair enough while you still had advancement to work towards. But you’re stuck, admit it. And right now, your time is far better used helping us than bashing your head against your trial.”

Sevard’s eyes flickered to Maya for an instant. “I’m not without resources. Ten hours. After that, the rates go up.”

“And I suppose you still refuse to introduce us to your friends on your other world?”

“I’m a mercenary, not a sellout. They’re happier where they are.”

Cydrin narrowed his eyes, raising a hand for Sevard to wait. “Emma, do you need something?”

Maya started. She hadn't meant to move quite so close, but had naturally gravitated toward Sevard while she listened. “Oh, no, just wanted to know, um…” she cast about for anything to say. “Do you still want Julios and me doing Kalyx stuff, or are you assigning someone more powerful there?”

“Yes. We do not have so many permanents that we can disregard even first and second tiers. The pair of you will become very valuable in the coming months. Your top priority should be completing quests and reaching tier three as soon as possible. You may work in Kalyx or Zone Two at your preference. We need all the faith tokens we can get in both areas.”

“What exactly are faith tokens?” Maya asked.

“A currency representing an amount of favour traded in,” Sevard explained. “Usually, gaining favour with NPCs or regions increases their attitudes toward you and can sometimes access special options or secret quests, not to mention information and discounts. Much like a reliable luck bonus, actually. But if you choose to drain that favour back toward zero, you can receive tradeable faith tokens for the region instead. They aren’t as versatile as actual favour, but they’re required for major things like private dungeons.”

“Or unlocking new zones,” said Cydrin.

So that’s how Rominian must funnel his favour gains toward Domitius, instead of hitting the ceiling and simply maxing it himself. Interesting.

“Thanks,” Maya said. “See you in a few hours, I guess.”

“Good luck,” Sevard and Cydrin said in unison.

Maya smiled. "The same to you."