Maya crept forward in darkness, wishing for the umpteenth time that it were possible to use both the Seer and Path of Life specializations at once. Flawlessly detecting players and NPCs in the vicinity and reading their exact stats would be so very useful.

As things stood, she had to rely on Maben and Dert for scouting ahead and they weren’t infallible.

She didn’t remember these hallways, didn’t remember which turnings led to her destination. But her luck did. Or so she hoped. She didn’t dare use a Spark to light her way as that would draw attention from anyone nearby. She trusted her luck to hold, but there was no point in taking unnecessary risks.

Maya hesitated beside a draft, listening intently. Someone moved nearby. Hopefully just Dert and Maben returning.

“Two guards,” Maben whispered, confirming Maya's guess. “Should I take them out of the picture?”

“Can you do it quietly?”

“Of course I can. Give me two minutes.” She couldn’t see the elf’s face in the darkness, but Maben’s tone was entirely smug.

“Where’s Dert?”

“Right here,” Dert answered. Maya winced. His attempt at whispering was. . .not very good. But lizardine could see in the dark, which meant he was more useful here than outside as guard, even if his idea of stealth left a lot to be desired.

“I told you not to talk,” hissed Maben.

“Sorry.” Dert tried to lower his voice even further, with only marginal success.

Maben exhaled irritably and grabbed Maya’s hand. “This way, quick.”

She let herself be led off into the side tunnel. None too soon. A moment later a dim glow illuminated the passageway they’d just left.

“Wait here,” Maben whispered, then slipped into stealth.

Maya waited for a commotion, but though the faint light ceased advancing nothing else happened.

Then the light continued forward at a faster pace, and Maya flattened herself against the wall. The flicker of firelight came closer and closer and. . .

Maben came around the corner, carrying the torch and grinning.

Maya exhaled in relief. “Oh, it’s you.”

“Of course. I told you I could take care of them.”

“How? I didn’t hear anything.”

Maben chuckled. “Trade secret.”

“Really?”

“It was Riytehn and Hyden. They know better than to mess with me. I might have suggested they take off for the evening, let me and Dert here take over their patrol route for a few hours. They agreed it would be wise. Throw in a few coins for them to go drinking with, and it wasn’t a hard sell.”

Maya laughed, and made a mental note not to necessarily trust NPCs with anything too important, especially if unsupervised. More reliable than players, maybe, but she couldn’t forget that they had their own lives, their own alliances, their own limitations.

“Those two? So what took so long then?” Dert asked.

“Getting. . . . this!” Maben dramatically unfurled a scroll.

It took Maya a minute to realize what she was looking at, then she gasped. “Wow, really? Is this. . .?”

“Indeed! The complete layout of the compound, complete with which patrol routes are ‘ours’ and which belong to who else.”

Maben handed the torch to Dert, then crouched down and flattened out the scroll on the floor. “You never did say exactly where we’re heading, but I’m assuming it’s the storage room here?”

Maya shook her head. “Nope, actually we’re going to the prison.”

“A breakout? I wish you’d told me that sooner, I didn’t bring extra equipment.”

Maya shook her head again. “No, just the prison itself. I mean, if we see anyone in there, we can let them out, but I don’t plan on letting it turn into an escort quest.”

The faint certainty that they needed to hurry continued to nag at her, the impression that this was stupidly dangerous and becoming more so the longer they took. She didn’t have time for anyone else slowing her down. In and out, as quickly as possible.

“Well, in that case. . .” Maben considered the page for a long moment, then nodded and pointed to a crossing. “This is where we are. ‘Our’ patrol loops around here, up this stairway, across this hall, and back. We don’t want to go this way, I don’t know anything about those guys, though that’s the most direct route to the storage room. The prison, though, has only one access point. Here. And it’s guarded by Dace, plus a live-in soulbinder called Uvlan.”

Dert snarled deep in his throat. “Dace. That bastard.”

“Explains why we haven’t seen him around town,” Maben said with forced lightness.

Maya glanced back and forth between them. Maben’s off-hand rested on his knife hilt, while Dert’s fist had clenched tightly around the torch he carried.

“Someone you know?”

“Let’s just say we have history, and leave it at that,” Maben said delicately.

Dert had no such restraint. “History? He killed me, killed you, killed Layis. There is no leaving it. If I see him, I’m going to tear his face off and feed it to him. And then I’m going to hunt him down, find his home, and kill him again every day until he stops coming back.”

“The Blade of the Worlds—” Maben began, putting a hand out, but Dert slapped it away.

“Don’t you dare! If you say one thing about it not being my place to punish him, I will stab you in the face!” The fact that he wielded only a flaming torch at present did nothing to alleviate the threat.

“There is nothing you could have done. If it was her time, it was her time.”

“And you can tell yourself that as much as you like. It doesn’t change the fact that I’m going to stab that bastard as many times as it takes.”

“Hold on,” Maya said, then flinched as Dert rounded on her. The hatred on his snarling face almost made her stop, but she swallowed and pressed on. “I thought NPCs were immortal?”

“No one is truly immortal. Even the gods live and die. Only the Blade of the Worlds is truly timeless and endless.”

“Cut out your stupid religion crap,” Dert growled. “It doesn’t help anyone and you’re wasting time.”

“Fine. No one knows how many times we can reawaken, but we do know it’s not infinite. It’s different for everyone. Having an heir or apprentice who’s ready to take over for you increases the likelihood of death being final, but that’s just a statistic. I’ve trained countless young assassins and thieves, and here I still am.”

“And Layis had no one and nothing to succeed her, and she still never came back.”

Maya swallowed again. “Does that mean. . . the others?”

“They should be fine tomorrow,” Maben said. “But even if they never return, it is not in our hands so why worry about it?”

“I would’ve been a lot less blase about getting us into danger if I knew there was a chance they’d be gone for good!” Maya protested.

“Good,” Dert said firmly. “Now let us stop talking and go slaughter Dace and rescue your friends.”

“I told you it’s not a rescue mission. I need what they’re storing in the prison.”

“Still. Let us go.”

Maben held up a hand. “Wait. I understand your desire for vengeance, but we can’t rush in without a plan. And I don’t think we need to fight him at all. If we wait until he’s—”

“I need no plan. I will smash his face in until he dies and then I’ll do it again.”

“He’s sneakier than I am! We cannot rush in blindly. If he gets the drop on us again—”

“He won’t.”

“And he’s not alone, remember. We know nothing of this soulbinder.”

Maya nodded agreement. “I won’t be much use on my own, so it would be helpful if you don’t get yourselves killed.”

She vividly recalled the old man who’d helped Domitius in forming her own loyalty oath. Though she knew he was only doing his job, she couldn’t help but despise him for his part in it. And, unless she was very much mistaken, she was far from the first trickster he’d helped Domitius enslave.

Had she looked at his stats? She’d been using her Seer save at the time. She flipped through her journal notes, but of course they weren’t here. She couldn’t remember anything about him. He’d done no fighting in her presence, but if he was one of the primary prison guards then he couldn’t be weak.

“We can take them,” Dert insisted.

“This Dace, he’s a stealth class?” Maya asked.

“Assassin. He’s really not—” Maben hesitated. “He’s less picky about the type of clients he’ll work for than the rest of us.”

“And what he’ll do,” Dert interrupted.

“Yes. Most of the time, if we come up in conflict with each other in the course of our jobs, we all know who would win. There’s no point in killing each other unnecessarily. Like just now with Hyden and Riytehn. Once they knew it was me and Dert, they backed off. But Dace?” Maben sighed. “Dace is a difficult man at times, and he was too confident in his own superiority. Just because he could take any one of us didn’t mean he could face five at once. He should have known better than to force the confrontation, but. . . here we are.”

“We outnumbered him. He should have conceded. But he took half of us down and ran like a coward. And Layis never came back. You should not treat it so lightly.”

“I understand your anger, and I’ll back you up if we’re forced into another fight, but there’s no need to go looking for trouble. Whatever the Blade—”

“I told you to shut up about that Blade of Destiny crap!”

“Can we deal with this later?” Maya interrupted. “I’m sorry, I know this is important to you, but we’re in enemy territory and there’s no way of knowing when Domitius or his minions will be back. Let’s just get in and out for now, and you can argue about whether to seek excessive vengeance or leave it be once we’re safely back to Nirsym.”

“Agreed,” Maben said quickly.

Dert didn’t look convinced, but he nodded.

“Normally, I’d send him to scout ahead since he won’t need the torch, but. . .”

“I’m right here,” Dert growled.

“Can you promise that if we send you ahead to scout and you see Dace you will come calmly back here and report his whereabouts instead of charging in suicidally?” Maben retorted.

Dert’s reply was a wordless snarl.

“Exactly. So you wait here, protect Urg if anyone comes along, and I’ll just run my patrol route and see where it intersects with his.” Maben didn’t wait for agreement, but set out at once.

Maya paused before remembering that, yes, she’d named this persona Urg. This was the first time it had come up.

She waited quietly as the darkness returned, listening to Dert’s slightly raspy breathing. She wanted to say something to comfort him, perhaps dissuade him from this course. He had to be emotionally vulnerable right now, especially when he’d just lost most of his team in the course of their contract.

But she had no idea of what he could be feeling, could think of nothing to say which wouldn’t feel shallow and meaningless.

Finally, after what felt like far too long, Maben returned with the torch.

“There are several side rooms and he’s not checking inside them. I unlocked one. If we go now, we can slip in and wait for him to go past, then continue on to the prison without raising any alarm. I didn’t see the soulbinder though, and if we leave an assassin at our backs it could be a risk later.”

Maya shook her head. “We have to hurry. We don’t have time for a protracted conflict, especially one you can’t be sure of winning.”

“Then follow me.” Maben set off. Maya and Dert followed.

Her unease only increased as they hurried through the dark tunnels. Every now and then they passed side halls or doorways, sometimes leading up or down. The whole place had an odd layout that Maya didn’t entirely understand even with the help of the map. It didn’t feel like a created place, more something natural adapted for use.

Despite her misgivings, they easily evaded the other patrols between the front section and the prison region. Maben pushed open a door, then closed it behind them and crouched by the door to listen. Maya did the same.

Nearly a minute passed, then quick light footsteps passed by in a purposeful pace. No hesitation by their door. Maya exhaled in relief.

They waited another half minute to let him get far away, then slipped out and ran down the final stretch between them and the prison itself. There were only two more side passages here, one that Maya recognized and another narrower tunnel blocked by a heavy black door with two familiar square indentations. A puzzle door, here?

“Hang on, I want to try something,” Maya said. She ran to the door and took out her black star tile. The door had indecipherable writing across it, much like Sevard’s underwater door had. She placed the black star tile in the top slot, though she had nothing to put in the second.

Override accepted. Continue with unlock?

Maya nodded. Yes.

The door disintegrated.

Her tile fell to the ground with a dull thunk. She grabbed it and looked around, but there was no sign of the assassin on patrol. With any luck, he wouldn’t notice the sound. Still, they had to hurry. Maya’s sense of urgency only continued to increase.

Maben followed with the torch, lighting the way. They crossed a gently down-sloping passage, then reached a stair that descended much more steeply into the darkness.

Maya hesitated. This wasn’t why she was here. It was just a side diversion, a curiosity. She didn’t have time.

“We’ll come back to this on the way out,” she decided. “Let’s get to the prison first.”

She’d feel much better about their chances if they ended up encountering anything dangerous after she obtained an excessively massive supply of magic to work with.

She glanced back at the doorway once, curiosity trying to pull her away. After. Magic first.

They passed the final corridor, the one leading to Domitius’s meeting hall and the soulbinder’s ritual chamber, without incident and arrived at the familiar ledge over the rainbow-gleaming pool of magic.

Maya’s breath caught looking at it. Emotions warred within her. Awe at so much power and wealth gathered together, and a visceral repulsion that told her to stay far away.

But she had come all this way.

“Alright. Here we are. That knobby stick-ladder thing there, you’ll need to lower me down and pull me back up after.”

“We’ve got maybe two minutes before Dace loops back here on his patrol,” Maben said. “We need to be either out of here or prepared to fight by then.”

“Then let’s be fast.”

Maya stepped closer to the edge, holding tight to one end of the exit pole. Then she jumped in.

Like before, the surface was simultaneously firm and yielding, power clinging and drawing her down eagerly. For a moment she gasped in the pressing darkness and felt the dull resignation of her long imprisonment as vividly as though she’d never left.

But that was the past. She had a different purpose now.

She pulled out her terrarium from the inventory and it instantly filled with magic. She tried to return it to her inventory, but that didn’t work.

Permissions mismatch.

Oh, right. Magic couldn’t be owned, it was a physical part of the world. It would be like trying to put a tree in her inventory.

Well, that complicated things. The terrarium wasn’t heavy and magic itself was practically weightless, but it was large and awkward to carry, especially with one hand while climbing. And she recalled clearly how hard it had been to pull herself free of the clingy magic that wanted to keep her forever.

But it couldn’t have her. She was done here. It was time to go.

She pulled herself up one handed until she broke the surface.

“Up, hurry,” she whispered.

Maben and Dert helped to drag her up and out, then over to the ledge.

Maya held the terrarium close in both hands, grinning. She almost wished she’d bought more than one. It seemed a waste to only make off with a couple thousand drams of magic when there was so much more for the taking.

Maybe another day. Right now, she had to get out with her prize intact.

“Let’s go check out that stairway real quick, then we’re done here.”

Maben nodded, but Dert hesitated.

“Don’t tell me you plan to attack him on your own?” Maben asked.

Dert nodded. “You two go ahead. I have a score to settle with the assassin.”

“Not today you don’t,” Maya said firmly. “We need to get out without them realizing we were here.” She remembered the disintegrated puzzle door, and amended her statement. “Or, at least, what we were after. You can come back another time if you’re so set on vengeance. We don’t have time.”

Dert’s hands tightened into fists. Maya felt the seconds passing, too much time, she had to move, get away.

“Fine. Another day.”

Maya exhaled in relief. “Good. Let’s get out of here.”