Maben didn’t ask, and Maya didn’t volunteer any information.

They walked on up the corridor for another half hour in silence, the faint echoes of their footsteps the only sound.

Maya began to wonder if this tunnel would ever stop. They hadn’t seen any more side doors or turnings since leaving Uvlan’s creepy little ritual room.

“Where are we going?” Maben asked.

Maya shrugged. “I’m honestly not sure, but I think this is the right direction.”

“If this is leading to a dead-end and we have to walk all the way back. . .” Maben trailed off threateningly.

“At least it’ll be downhill,” Maya replied without missing a beat.

Maben sighed. “True enough.”

They continued walking, pausing to rest when Maya’s stamina reached almost empty again. Then, finally, they arrived at the end.

A second doorway blocked the exit, solid black and with only a single familiar space. Maya put the black star in without hesitation. This time the door didn’t even ask for confirmation, it simply faded away, leaving her riddle tile to drop to the ground. She picked it up and stepped through.

Beyond, the passageway widened out into a proper cavern, probably half the size of the one back at the compound. But this one contained something very, very familiar.

A leypillar, metallic-black and flickering with lightning.

Or, at least, the bottom half of one. It speared straight upward through the ceiling. Cracks in the stone walls on the far side of the room painted brilliant streaks of sunlight across the floor, lighting the cave sufficiently that the torch became unnecessary.

Maya circled they leypillar hesitantly, wondering if she’d possibly crossed into a different zone. She’d completely lost track of direction, and her mini-map didn’t have a compass, but had they really gone so far?

“It’s the city.” Maben said, standing by one of the cracks and looking out.

Maya did the same.

Nirsym City, unmistakable, sitting by the edge of the ocean. Brilliant morning sunlight glinted off the sea and set the sand to sparkling.

The angle was almost exactly the same as when approaching it from the leypillar plateau. . .

Maya turned and looked back at the solid black pillar splitting floor to ceiling, and she suddenly realized the truth.

This was the same leypillar. Not a new one, not a different zone. This cave must be inside the rocky formation the leypillar sat atop.

They’d just walked all the way back to the city underground.

Well. That certainly explained why it took so long.

Maya put a hand on the leypillar.

Transit location unlocked: Nirsym City (2)

The usual transit menu appeared, showing both Nirsym City and Kalyx City as possible destinations, as well as her origin point in grey.

“Can you use the leypillar?” Maya asked.

Maben touched the leypillar with one hand, tentatively. “What is supposed to happen?”

“A menu for quick transit. Do. . . you have menus at all?”

Maben seemed confused.

“Right. Dust of Recall, then. I’ll meet you up top?”

Maben nodded and threw the glimmering dust into the air, stepping forward and freezing in the usual wait to transit.

Maya selected Nirsym City and stood atop the plateau, sunlight dazzling her for a moment at the dramatic difference. It was fully daylight up here, and she wondered if Domitius and company would be coming back soon. They should get into the city and find someplace to lay low.

The only thing nearby was a faint cloud of slowly-coalescing Dust of Recall that she assumed indicated where Maben would appear. She’d never had the chance to see Dust of Recall in use from this side, so it was interesting to watch. The faint glitter of distant light slowly grew clearer every second. Then Maben stepped out. The dust lost its ephemeral floating quality and dropped toward the ground, fading away as it fell.

“Come on, we need to get somewhere out of sight as soon as possible.”

Assuming Domitius’s expedition planned to discover Zone Seven’s leypillar, then she had no idea how long that would take. Any minute he could be transiting back right here with all his minions in tow.

Maya started toward the city and Maben followed.

As she walked, Maya considered whether she should change her mask persona, but right now no one who’d seen her was around to tattle on her. By the time the NPC guards they’d taken out respawned at midnight, she’d have long since finished and moved on.

This much magic was going to attract attention, no matter what she did. No one just walked around with so much, not even Shardlord. He’d worn maybe half this much. This was literally as much as would stick to her without drifting off, thick enough that she could probably fill another terrarium with some left after.

So, first priority, get to the magic shop, buy more terrariums, and find a place to store them. It wouldn’t matter what physical appearance she wore as long as she was the only person carrying around hundreds or thousands of drams of the most expensive trade commodity in the game.

No one even tried to stop her.

Maya reached her destination without any problems, though she thought a couple of passersby had come a little close. She wouldn’t be surprised to find that they’d subtly swiped off a handful or so of her magic the moment her back was to them.

She didn’t care enough to raise a fuss. She still felt like everything had to fall apart sooner rather than later and things couldn’t possibly keep going so well. Her current goal prominently included staying unnoticed by as many people as possible.

She’d gained several gold from killing the local monsters on the way to Domitius’s cave, but not enough to recoup the cost of hiring the mercenaries. Most of the loot had been in the form of equipment that she wouldn’t be able to use for another twenty levels, or crafting materials whose usage and value she didn’t know.

“Do you know anyplace I can sell large quantities of random items for a good price?” Maya asked.

Maben was local, after all, and a rogue. That had to necessitate some degree of familiarity with the Nirsym economy.

Maben shrugged. “Any shop will buy most items. They trade with each other all the time, there are standardized prices for anything common.”

“Here?”

“No, specialist shops are less likely to accept non-specific items.”

“Excuse me,” said the merla behind the counter. “Were you going to buy anything, or just use my shop as a gossip meet?”

“I’d like to learn every spell you have, please.” Maya grinned at the look of surprise on his face. She thumped the terrarium down on the counter dramatically “And another one of these. As you can see, I’m over capacity at present.”

Maben smirked.

“Um, yes, of course. That’ll be 193 gold, 5 silver. And it’ll take you 468 drams of magic, but I can see that won’t be an obstacle.”

“I am somewhat low on gold at the moment,” Maya admitted. “I don’t suppose you’d accept magic in trade?”

The shop owner smiled. “I think we can work something out.”

After several minutes of haggling, Maya gave him all her remaining money and a bit less than half the magic from her terrarium in return for another large terrarium and a full set of eight Spell Ability Tomes.

Wind Whisper, Frost Bolt, Stone Ward, Flame Hand, Magestrike, Chill of the Depths, Storm Grasp, and Heart of Magma. She already had Wind Whisper of course, but by the time she realized it was included in the purchase she didn’t feel like trying to haggle further. It was the cheapest by far, and 25 silver wasn’t so much in the long run.

Then she spent another several minutes transferring some of the magic coating her body into the terrarium to replace what she’d spent, as she still felt uncomfortable wearing that much wealth out in the open.

She’d be conspicuous enough carrying the bulky terrariums around, let alone looking like she’d, well, climbed out of a pool full of magic.

She’d seriously underestimated the amount that could fit on her body though, because the terrarium was refilled completely and she’d hardly started. The second managed to hold a bit less than half of what still clung to her.

Half.

With each terrarium holding over 900 drams, that meant she’d escaped with well over three thousand, not even counting what she’d traded to the shopkeeper.

She should probably stop treating it so frivolously. Not every day would be this lucky. She couldn’t rely on being able to repeat her infiltration. She had to assume this was all the magic she’d ever get. Treat it sparingly.

But there was just so much of it! It was hard to be stingy when she couldn’t even store it all. She couldn’t wait to get back to the mage academy and start tinkering.

Which brought her to a problem she’d been trying to ignore. If she transited to Kalyx now, there was every chance she’d be noticed by whoever had been sent to collect her for questing. And if anyone in Domitius’s circles saw her sneaking around with this much magic, it wouldn’t be hard to guess where she’d gotten it.

Regretfully, it would probably be unwise to take any of it to Kalyx today. It looked like she’d be on her own for this one.

“Could I rent storage space in your shop, by any chance?” Maya asked, looking up from filling her second terrarium. “Or, barring that, do you know anywhere I could rent a secure location nearby? Also, I think I’m going to need another of these.”

“I’m sure we can arrange something.”

Another round of bargaining, and she arranged to store her three terrariums in a currently-unused storage room to which he gave her the key. That left her with a reasonable amount of magic on her person. Not enough to cast every one of her new high-level spells, but enough to get started without feeling conspicuous.

Almost as an afterthought, she traded her extraneous Wind Whisper tome for some notebooks, pens, and loose leaf paper.

Then she unlocked the storage room - a basement; like most Nirsym structures, the shop was only one story high - and entered her new workroom.

“Is this something you really need my help for?” Maben asked, after setting down the terrariums of magic beside the one Maya had carried in.

“Actually, not at all. Unless you know much about magic?”

Maben laughed. “Not at all.”

“Hmm. How are you at bartering?”

“Pretty good. I know people.”

“Then I want you to be in charge of getting rid of my excess items for gold. Or other coins. Try to get the best prices you can, I don’t care if it takes the rest of the day.”

Maya did a quick check through her inventory, keeping back one of anything that seemed remotely useful for any of her current or future personas - mostly anything of Rare quality or better - and transferred the rest of it to Maben. Thankfully, NPCs still had an inventory so she didn’t have to worry about Maben carrying a huge pile of obvious loot or anything silly like that.

She also held back the crafting materials; she figured she might be able to get something cool made by Dalra or other player crafters. Better not to waste an opportunity, at least.

Once Maben had been authorized to handle any transactions, and given a secret knock for Maya to open the door afterward, the rogue headed off and left Maya alone.

Just her, some new spells, and all the magic she’d need.

Maya first transcribed everything she could remember from the student projects she’d corrected for the academy on her last high-luck magic inspiration binge, which turned out to be very little. Not enough to even get an idea of what the spells were for in most cases, let alone how to cast them correctly.

Shardlord’s demonstration of the actual casting should have been more informative, but she’d been too distracted at the time to pay attention to the details. Sure, she could replicate the general movements of his body, but with magic the specifics were as important as the generalities. Perhaps more so.

She doodled some stick figures in a rough approximation anyway, figuring she could come back and correct them later.

Was there anything else she needed to do before she tainted her memory of what had been with the details of the new spells?

She made a few notes on the spells she’d seen the fire team use during their dungeon dive, but apart from ‘Eleona’s awesome shield’ none of it seemed too far from ordinary.

So, without further ado, she picked up the first spell tome and readied her magic.

She read through it, instinctively following the instructions without conscious effort, and then before she knew it the book disintegrated into dust and she received the new ability prompt.

Frost Bolt. 2 sec cast time, 10 energy; 12 cold damage. Overcharge: +.6 sec, +5 energy; +4 cold damage.

Maya frowned. She had no idea how it actually worked. She couldn’t remember a single thing about how to cast the spell. But. . .

She triggered the ability, and her hands twisted through the motions. A sharp spike of ice fired out from her hands and shattered against the far wall.

What had she done to cast it? She looked down at her hands, and suddenly understood why the mage academy did things the way it did.

Shortcuts were just that. Short. Cuts. Faster, and lesser.

Sure, she could cast Frost Bolt now, but unlike Wind Whisper or Spark which she actually understood, Frost Bolt was as opaque now as it had been before. It would take frustrating hours of observing her own system-guided actions to reverse-engineer it from the automatically created ability.

She seriously considered giving up on the tomes entirely, but with the mage academy currently in an unknown state of disarray and Domitius’s agents probably around prowling Kalyx she didn’t see any other alternative.

Sure, it would be slower and less effective than working with mages who’d already done the groundwork of reverse engineering the base spells into their distinct parts. And a week ago she’d probably have held off in order to do just that.

But she’d wasted too much time lately waiting for ideal circumstances, saving resources for the perfect time to use them, holding out for best when good would do. That had gotten her nowhere.

Inefficient was better than stagnant, and that’s what she’d be if she kept putting things off unless they were perfect.

So she went through all six remaining tomes, learning every base spell in the game and nothing whatsoever about the nature of magic. That done, Maya settled in to what would prove to be a very long morning of careful, frustrating, essential self-observation.

The main problem with premade spells, Maya decided, was that they were too fast and efficient. It made it very hard to reproduce them independently of the ability system.

At the same time, though, she almost regretted not keeping the Wind Whisper tome now, wondering how quick that would have been, how much more efficient. But she only had a limited number of ability slots and more versions of the same spell would be largely pointless so long as she had to juggle her spells between anything she might conceivably need to cast.

“Maya Starborn; Emma, limited, reply. Where are you?” The voice was unfamiliar, female, and sounded frustrated.

Maya looked up from her notes. She considered responding, but then shrugged. She’d deal with the repercussions later, right now she was busy.

“Emma, answer me.”

Maya cast Flame Hand, watching carefully. She’d almost finished the notes on this spell.

Flame Hand: 3 sec, 30 energy, 20 fire damage. Sustain: .2 sec, 2 energy, 2 fire damage.

Unlike Wind Whisper or Frost Bolt, instead of an increased chargeup time and cost with an extra-powerful attack afterwards at a generally decreasing degree of energy-efficiency, Flame Hand was like a weaker close-range version of the Heart of Magma siege spell, dealing continued damage at a sustained rate of energy drain.

“She’s not replying. Do you think she’s logged out?”

The main drawback of Flame Hand was the fact that its range was touch only. If Maya was too far away to grab hold of someone, the spell would be basically useless.

But what it did provide was an extra data point for how flame spells worked. Spark used friction to ignite magic, while Heart of Magma drew on the mage’s internal body heat. It was a subtle distinction, since once ignited the spell was entirely fueled by energy or magic, but Flame Hand was different. It relied on neither external nor internal heat sources, instead utilizing direct manipulation of magic’s inherent properties.

The ability to basically start fires with only her mind helped justify its place in the canon of official spells. She had initially wondered why there were so many fire spells, but each actually was cast and also performed differently.

It was absolutely fascinating.

She wouldn’t even scratch the surface today. The afternoon wore on and even with all her focus and her max luck she’d only analyzed two of her new spells so far.

“Emma, if you’re there, meet me in Kalyx right away. We have a new project. Hara out.”

Maya ignored the voice. She’d almost finished compiling her notes.

It took a moment, looking over the concise summary she’d created, then Maya grinned as she realized the implications.

She could ignite magic non-somatically.

She grabbed a handful of magic, enough for a Wind Word, and went through the casting process. She did it a little slowly, concentrating on her intended outcome.

It took two tries. The first, she blew up the spell in her own face, knocking her health down by a significant fraction. The second?

A blast of flaming wind burst forth, leaving a large circular scorch mark on the far wall. She was glad none of Nirsym’s structures were made of wood, or that could have been a problem.

She converted it into an ability, depositing the conversion magic, and sat back with a smile.

She’d just officially created her first new spell, all by herself.

Flame Word, 6 seconds, 65 energy, 35 fire damage. Overcharge: +50 energy, +1 sec, +50% dmg.

She spent several minutes dancing around giddily, casting her new spell and fangirling over it. Then she made a weaker version, Flame Whisper, in case she needed something faster, and giggled some more when it worked perfectly. She tried not to get too loud and disturb her landlord, but it was hard to control her excitement.

She didn’t care how childish or undignified she was behaving. It’s not like anyone would see her.

Once her impromptu celebration died down and she was able to think straight again, she grabbed her notes on Frost Bolt. If wind could ignite. . . perhaps it could also freeze? So many possibilities to explore.

Finally, she was making her own magic!

Abilities: [15 of 6] Wind Word

[50 energy] Blow into cupped hands, then push the air toward the target.

Creates a forceful burst or damaging slash.

[Overcharge: +50 energy, +1 sec cast time, +50% force/duration/dmg] 5 sec

30 dmg

{wind} Frost Bolt

[10 energy] Condense power into a frozen spike, then propel toward target.

[Overcharge: +5 energy, +.6 sec cast time, +33% dmg] 2 sec

12 dmg

{cold} Flame Hand

[30 energy] Spread magic to cover hand, then ignite.

Deals damage on contact, and continuously so long as touch is maintained.

[Sustain: 2 energy every .2 sec, +2 fire dmg] 3 sec

20 dmg

{fire} Flame Word

[65 energy] Blow into cupped hands, then ignite while pushing toward the target.

Creates a concentrated blast or fiery slash.

[Overcharge: +50 energy, +1 sec cast time, +50% force/duration/dmg] 6 sec

35 dmg

{fire} Flame Whisper

[7 energy] Blow into cupped hands, then ignite while pushing toward the target.

Creates a quick fiery gust, or a damaging slash.

[Overcharge: +5 energy, +0.2 sec cast time, +50% force/duration/dmg] 2 sec

7 dmg

{fire} Wind Whisper

[5 energy] Blow into cupped hands, then push the air toward the target.

Creates a light breeze, a quick gust, or a damaging slash.

[Overcharge: +5 energy, +0.2 sec cast time, +50% force/duration/dmg] 1.9 sec

6 dmg

{wind} Throw Knife

[5 stamina] Throw a knife at a target with high accuracy. Requires a knife. 0.8 sec

3 dmg

{physical} Windborne Blade

[45 energy, 5 stamina] Cast Wind Whisper in a loop up and behind, aligning with throwing arm.

Throw knife straight at target with wind as augment. 4.3 sec

33 dmg

{physical} Spark

[5 energy] Draw magic into palm and snap fingers to ignite into a spark of fire.

Can be used as a light or thrown at a target. 1.1 sec

5 dmg

{fire} Sense Balance Discern if an area is lacking in or has an excess of any materials, creatures, etc. [+5 more . . .]