Maya took a deep breath.

“I want to stop by the city first. I have loot to sell and shopping to do.”

It wasn’t rational for something so simple to feel like defiance, nor something she ought to ask permission for. but it was still a struggle not to qualify her statements with ‘please’ or ‘if it’s alright’ or ‘but we can just go now if you’d prefer’.

The fact that it was mostly a cover for checking on the mage academy if at all possible might have had something to do with that.

“Of course.” Hara fell into step beside Maya, heading toward Kalyx.

The leypillar was relatively close to the western gate, the route taking them through player housing areas outside and then even more player homes once entering the city itself. Maya personally preferred to approach from the north, which would put them much closer to the mage academy, but couldn't see any reasonable way to suggest they alter course. She began to think that this trip would prove to be an utter failure.

Maya saw guards on patrol, but very little else. It felt sad, somehow. So many homes, some still the same default shape, but many bearing obvious customizations, all but abandoned.

How many players had come through, made their mark on the world, and then left never to return?

They reached the central crossing, where the east-west road intersected the north-south road - south led to the arena, north to the academy, at least roughly - and there Maya started to notice signs of life.

In fact, more than just signs.

There had always been a few players coming and going, and a lot of NPCs going about their everyday business, but Kalyx had never felt exactly busy. Now, as soon as they left the housing district and neared the market quadrant, Maya saw players everywhere. Jogging past alone, walking in small groups, or paused to browse a shop’s wares, most wearing the familiar tan newcomer’s tunic and leggings.

Maya stopped walking.

“What’s wrong?”

“I’m not the weakest player anymore, am I?”

Hara shook her head. “Ah. No, you won’t have the noob areas to yourself any longer. Which is part of the reason we’re moving you up. With the unlock of Zone Seven, that also increased the universal player cap, so we have a lot of newcomers who’ll be in and out until the casuals get bored and leave room for the more committed players.”

“How many more?”

“Every new zone increases the max by fifty.”

Maya couldn’t help wondering how many of those new 50 were permanent; how many would be tricksters. How many would be vulnerable to Cydrin or Zarene or someone else discovering and exploiting them.

She glanced at Hara. The lizardine woman stood watching the noob players with a distant expression, giving no indication that she was impatient with Maya. But she was also a trickster herself, so Maya couldn’t very well start checking the newcomers for being tricksters, try to unite them into her own faction in opposition to Domitius, with Hara right there.

She really had to find a way to increase the Oracle’s power. If she could break the stupid soulbinding entirely, and more importantly protect Maya from any future attempts at similar constraints, then she wouldn’t have to be quite so afraid of defying Domitius publicly.

Which brought her mind back to the Diviner’s Orb. As much as she wanted to hold onto it indefinitely, as convenient as it was to have easy access to a non-Trickster deity, she had promised to seek out a worthy candidate. She hadn’t had much time to get to know many other players, but it shouldn't be too hard to find someone who could be a worthy Diviner. Right?

After all, Hara seemed pretty reasonable, once you got past the grumpy-lizard-trickster-who-works-for-Domitius part. Even Julios wasn't a bad person, just an annoying one. There were lots of good people around.

How to physically access any of them while her movement was restricted to being escorted everywhere, though, that could be a bigger problem.

No, there was a very easy way out of all this. Just put all her other plans on hold and play along. Any amount of sneakiness or clever sidestepping would only prolong her probationary period. If Domitius thought she was a good little contact point who'd toe his line and follow orders, he'd stop sending other people to watch her.

As much as she wanted an easier, faster way out, that really seemed like the most realistic way forward. Put in the time, play along, and don't cause any more ripples unless absolutely necessary.

So she resumed walking, visited the first shop that looked interesting, spent a few minutes browsing before buying a cheap spear - since it was inexpensive and something she didn't already have - then nodded to Hara.

"I'm ready. Let's get to grinding."

They returned to the leypillar, where Hara initiated the transit and invited Maya to join her. Maya was somewhat surprised to find that she recognized the new area to which they'd teleported. It was the same zone as where she and the fire team mages had fought the Crimson Flame dungeon.

Was that really only zone two? It had seemed so dangerous at the time, but she supposed it made sense. Much higher, and they'd have wiped for sure.

But Hara didn’t head for the Crimson Flame dungeon, instead setting off roughly southeast. Maya followed. She hadn’t actually seen much of this region, apart from the route to the dungeon. And, she realized, being carried across it in her captivity. This must be the connecting zone between Kalyx and Nirsym.

After about twenty minutes of walking, they crested a ridge and Maya saw where Hara was heading. An encampment filled the valley below them, clustered around a small pond. The water was in constant motion, fed by a waterfall to the north and then disappearing into a crack in the rock to the east. Maya counted around twenty tents, about half open to the sides and the others fully enclosed.

The slope became very steep, making any descent basically a one-way trip. The valley seemed more like an extra-wide canyon or ravine, with the only exits being the crack in the mountainside carved by the stream’s departure, or a narrow set of ledges progressing up with the precision of stairs - but definitely not stairs. More like artificial climbing holds.

Either way, there would be no fast escape.

“What are we doing here?” Maya asked in a whisper.

“These are a notorious band of thieves who rob from the roaming traders,” Hara explained. “Removing them - and most importantly their leader - will make the region safer for several days and greatly increase our reputation in the area.”

Maya nodded. Clearly that last item was the most important.

“But can we take them all out by ourselves?”

Hara smirked. “I can take them all out alone. Especially today. I’m at +39, they won’t be able to touch me.”

“So why am I here?”

“First, because apparently you’re a person of interest and keep disappearing at inconvenient times, so I need to keep an eye on you. And also to level, because a level 10 is a lot less useful than a level 19, and the sooner we can get you working on your second tier trial the better.”

“How long will you be following me around?”

Hara shrugged. “As long as I need to. It’s not like I was doing anything important. I’m between trials at the moment, so any experience is good experience. Slow and steady still reaches 39.”

“So you’ll just follow me around all the time? Are you permanent?”

“Of course. Only permanents can become tricksters.”

“I don’t really like being followed.”

“And I don’t really like grinding low level quests in boring zones I’ve already gone over a hundred times. But it’s not about what you or I want, it’s about the greater impact we can create! You saw those new players running around Kalyx, right? Every single one of them was able to log in because we cleared the way for them.”

“Well, yeah, but—”

“No one else is even trying! Everyone else is happy just playing for themselves and who cares about the hundreds or thousands of players who’d love to give 9352 a try, but haven’t had a chance because it’s so small and always full? If it weren’t for Domitius, bringing us all together and keeping us on task, you know we’d be just as scattered and useless as everyone else.”

“I guess when you put it that way it sounds kinda noble, but I—” Maya cut herself off. She’d almost said ‘I don’t agree with Domitius’s methods, and think he’s kinda evil’ but that didn’t seem like the sort of thing Hara would agree with.

“You what?”

“I don’t see how I’ll be much use. If you’re basically going to carry these fights, why bother bringing me along?”

“To level you up so you will be useful. It’s got to start somewhere. If we only accepted members who were already useful, already powerful, already skilled, how would that make Domitius any different from any other guild? We take anyone, and we put in the effort to make them stronger. Even if they’re the sort of player no one else would waste their time on.”

“Do you get many of those?” Maya asked.

Hara laughed. “Not a lot, no. Most casuals take one look at 9352 and run the other way. Trolls aren’t as interested in messing with people if they can’t stream it, and 9352 does not play nice with standard integrations. Even screenshots are a pain. But there are the occasional, ah, intellectually challenged individuals who really believe they can do things better than they can. They just require a particular form of management.”

“Is that what you do, shepherd problem players?”

Hara glanced sideways at Maya. “Not always.”

They reached the edge of the slope and stopped, looking down on the encampment. Maya saw one of the figures point their direction, and a moment later several others came out of their tents and clustered around the gesturing figure.

“Looks like we’ve been spotted.”

“They’ll try to recruit us, so we don’t have to worry about being shot at,” Hara said, then took a step forward and slid dramatically down the slope in a cloud of dust and small pebbles.

Maya followed, a bit less skillfully and with more arm flailing, then lost her balance toward the bottom when she stumbled over a larger stone and went flying. She landed face-first at the bottom, -3 health. She got unsteadily to her feet and rubbed at her sore beak.

“You’ll get the hang of it,” Hara said. “We’ll do this again every time it resets. One of the best quests in the region.”

“Oh joy.”

“Hail visitors,” called the spear-holding man at the head of the party. Maya saw that they seemed to be primarily human or sprite; this was a human. Or, no. Upon closer inspection, his eyes gleamed a pale blue, barely detectable in the sunlight, but just a bit too vibrant. And when he spoke, his teeth were just a bit too pointy.

Vampire. Of course.

“I challenge you for leadership of this tribe,” Hara said without preamble.

“You have no right to—”

Hara was already moving. She sprinted forward, then jumped, spinning in midair, and slashed the vampire across the chest with her claws as she collided with him. They both went down, the spearman underneath, Hara on top. She grinned, one hand pressed against his chest, the other planted on his spear.

“You were saying?” she hissed.

The others hesitated, no one attacking, no one moving.

“She has no rights here! Attack!”

Hara shrugged. “Worth a try.” Then she burst into motion, slashing the downed vampire across the face before grabbing his spear away and leaping up, bellowing a challenge that attracted everyone’s attention.

The remaining thieves charged her with everything from knives to swords, axes to clubs. There were easily a dozen attackers.

Maya equipped her sword and started swinging wildly at the back of the group surrounding Hara. She already knew that there was no such thing as party experience - if she didn’t personally participate in a fight, it wouldn’t matter if her team won. So she skirted around the edges of the group, slashing and stabbing, but switching targets fast enough that she never pulled aggro from Hara.

If Hara said she could take them all on, then Maya would take her word for it.

And, indeed, the battle seemed to be moving entirely in their favour. Hara kept pausing to stab down at the fallen vampire whenever she had a spare moment, or if her hands were occupied at least kicking to prevent him getting to his feet.

Once half the group had fallen, the leader grabbed something from around his neck and screamed, smashing it to the ground. A shockwave blasted out from him, knocking Hara back and scattering his remaining underlings.

“ENOUGH! Face me properly!”

“Gladly.”

Hara sprang forward, spinning and stabbing out, but this time he took a step forward and grabbed at her. It might have worked, if she hadn’t been a rotating ball of fury. Instead, it simply resulted in her slashes cutting even deeper as his momentum carried him into her blade.

Maya considered stabbing him from behind, but thought this might be a good time to try out her new high-power spells. She had nothing better to do.

Storm Grasp seemed ideally suited. It had a 2.5 second full activation, costing 70 energy initially and dealing only 10 damage, but its secondary effect was the important one. It also immobilized the target - or targets, if they were close enough together.

Neither the boss nor Hara were moving too fast for Maya to track, so she targeted the boss and started casting. It was one of the higher-level spells she hadn’t had a chance to fully analyze - or at all, really - so she was not entirely familiar with the casting requirements. The initial motion was clapping, twice, inverting the direction and angle with each time. She had a distinct impression that the exact angle was very important to success, but had no chance to pause and dissect it now.

Then spreading the hands slowly apart, a nearly-invisible bubble of crackling electrical power grew between them, vibrating and fragile. Then, with a quick shove, she snapped the bubble out into the boss’s chest, strings of lightning maintaining the connection between him and her.

She couldn’t move, the vibrating power binding her as firmly as him, but it worked. He snarled, but couldn’t move as Hara stepped up her attack tempo now that she didn’t have to worry about defending herself.

Unfortunately, the remaining half-dozen thieves took this as a signal to resume their attack. A shower of arrows thudded into the area, missing Hara entirely, but two hit Maya. One solidly, the other less so. -7 health.

Which wouldn’t be a problem, if she could dodge or retaliate, but as long as she stood maintaining the Storm Grasp spell, she couldn’t do either.

The thieves seemed to recognize this, and focused their attention fully on Maya, standing motionless. Another three arrows hit her in the next second, dropping her health another 13.

“How much longer?” Maya grunted.

“Twenty,” Hara started counting down slowly. “Nineteen.”

The thieves seemed to be getting their range, because this time Maya was hit with eight arrows, two in the face. And she couldn’t even remove them, not without dropping the spell. Which she’d have to do soon enough anyway. The upkeep cost was 20 energy per second, so her max time was six seconds. She could have dropped it sooner, but it felt more important to hold up the boss than worry about a handful of archers.

When Hara hit seventeen, Maya’s spell dropped and the boss resumed his assault. But that also freed up Maya to charge the archers. Their continued assaults had brought her health down by nearly 15%, but Maya wasn’t terribly concerned. She had a good amount of health, thanks to Path of Life, and the arrow attacks were more annoying than deadly.

She was not looking forward to the melee confrontation, but having spent her energy already there was little else to do. She wanted to avoid too much crossover between identities. The more she could discourage casual observers drawing parallels between her personas the better, so she’d avoid knife-throwing—

She froze as she realized something. She hadn’t even thought of applying Wind Word or, better, Fire or Frost Word, to her Windborn Blade. Could she change her damage type to fire or ice?

Or, for that matter, could she do something with fire or ice without needing the modified spells? She understood the principles of manipulating magic well enough, she could theoretically ignite or frezee anything.

She stared at her sword, then at the magic she carried. She grabbed a little magic, ran it down the blade of her sword as she ran, then mentally ignited the thin veneer of power.

Her sword burst into flame, just as she’d hoped. It didn’t last long, only long enough for her to slash once, but it was something.

She tried again, more confident now, with a larger amount of magic as catalyst. This time, the blaze remained active for several seconds, long enough for her to get in several quick attacks.

Once more, this time with a good handful, and she solidified it into an ability. Of course, it would be inactive until swapped in; she’d have to settle on her primary ability list at some point, or she’d start running into problems with switch penalties.

But for now she could run around with a flaming sword, and that was enough.

Maybe working with Hara would prove to be productive in more ways than one.