Noon came and went. Maya lay gripped in intense internal debate, trying with a desperation she’d never before felt to reconfigure who and what she was.

She’d always thought of herself as a generally nice person, doing more good for the world than harm. She didn’t hurt anyone, she didn’t espouse dangerous ideas, she did her job capably if not with any particular passion.

But with everything else stripped away, no obligations, no societal pressure, no family expectations, nothing but the purest core of herself, given a virtual world where she could do anything …

She was a selfish, self-centered idiot. She’d already realized that she was basically running away from herself, but she hadn’t understood just how dark and empty that self was. No wonder she was always alone. If she met herself, she wouldn’t want to stay around either.

If she were a little smarter, a little more focused, she might have become exactly like Domitius. Putting on a facade of friendliness and welcome, only doing what was necessary behind closed doors, uncaring for anyone she left broken in her wake.

And realization struck.

She’d broken into his compound. Been at his prison. Known that there were at least one or two other players down in the prison. Which was hardly guarded. Which she could have easily brought them all out.

She hadn’t even thought about it. Hadn’t for even a moment considered that she could have freed them.

Heck, even the NPCs had more empathy than her! They’d immediately assumed this was a rescue mission. But no. In the end, it was all about her. Her chance to study magic mattered more than the lives of fellow players who were being imprisoned and coerced into slavery.

How was Maya so completely oblivious?

No, more than that. Heartless.

Realization struck again.

The huge glass pillar below the prison, wasn’t below the prison. It was the prison. The flickers of light, the vague shapes … that was the magic flickering and silhouetting the people inside it.

She closed her eyes and focused in on the memory of when she’d walked around it, studying it. Now she knew what she'd been looking at, she could recognize the patterns in the outlines.

Domitius had a whole lot more than one or two people in there. Maya herself had never been too far from the surface, but the prison went down and down. And it had been full.

At least a dozen players, probably more. And she’d walked right past them.

“Help the Oracle,” she said aloud, to dissuade herself from the stupid stupid idea that had begun growing in her mind. “Escape Domitius. Then …”

But those were selfish goals. Help the Oracle … so she’ll help me. Escape Domitius, but just me, who cares about anyone else.

If anyone deserved the chance at freedom, it was those who she’d left behind.

It was a new day. Her mercenary team would be respawned by now, ready to head out again at a moment’s notice. She'd hire them if no one else would help, even if she had to sell off some more of her magic to do so.

She took out the Diviner’s Orb and looked at it. She’d planned to search the city, find someone worthy to give it to. But the more she thought about it the more she believed she should prioritize this rescue. It felt important in a way simply pursuing her own goals hadn’t.

Her luck was only 63, and Domitius’s dungeon compound was sure to be better protected now than it had been before. It would be an altogether more risky operation than her last infiltration.

One advantage, though. She had the secret back way in.

Oh. Wait. NPCs couldn’t use leypillars, could they? So while the back door could be used to get players in, the NPC mercs would have to come in the long way.

That complicated things. The only players she trusted were the mages and they were all pretty low level. In the 20s to low 30s if she recalled correctly, while Domitius had players of every level including insanely high.

Was there any chance of convincing Shardlord himself to help her? He could probably at least delay Domitius and Cydrin while she helped everyone else to the secret tunnel. But he also thought she was a traitor, and had kicked her out of the mage academy entirely.

She’d much rather sneak a group in the back way than fight in through the front. And, unfortunately, that meant she had to find other players.

“It’s worth a try.” If she couldn’t find anyone at the mage academy willing to help, then so be it. She’d broken in the front way once, they could do it again.

Maya opened her journal entry and added ‘Free prisoners’ into the list before ‘Help the Oracle’. That way, she didn’t have to lose focus on her plan, she was just adjusting the priorities a tiny bit.

She had a good feeling about this. It felt right.

She renamed her save and set out for the mage academy.

On the way, she paused to glance at the leaderboard by the east gate. She had to do a double take when she saw the top two names.

Domitius, followed immediately by Cydrin the Bold.

Shardlord had logged out. And not just logged out, switched to another world for a few hours, back by dinnertime; players still showed as active in the leaderboard so long as their slot remained reserved for them, as Sevard often did. But no, Shardlord was logged out as in Trixyceratops disappearing from the list without a trace, gone.

Could it possibly be … had Domitius managed to capture him? Force him to leave the server?

Was it over? Had Domitius finally outnumbered and overpowered the mages so completely that the world was basically his now?

Maya set off running toward the academy. She had to know for herself. The speculation and uncertainty would drive her crazy.

The doors didn’t bounce her out, to her surprise. She should have been relieved, but she couldn’t help a bit of worry. Was this because Domitius had taken them over, and she remained identified as officially Domitian for the moment? Or something to do with Shardlord leaving? Had it reverted to city control?

The guard held up a hand to stop her, so she halted. She didn’t need her Seer save to see that he was far higher level than her. After all her time spent shopping, she’d started to get a feel for the different tiers of equipment quality, and the guard wore obvious tier-6 getup. The sort of person you’d send to kick Domitius out of the city if he were being unruly. In a group, probably, but still.

Maya had never seen the mage academy so busy. There had been a handful of people walking about on her first day, but nothing like this. She didn’t recognize anyone in particular, they could have been anyone. At least half wore mage-style attire, so that was somewhat encouraging.

“I don’t recognize you. What is your business here?”

“Is this the mage academy?”

“Indeed it is.”

“Then can you send for Desi or Raidah or someone else from the Fire team? I need their help.”

The guard gestured for her to wait, then turned to the crowd. Already, three players were walking toward them.

“What’s going on here?” demanded a merla in high-tier robes. “Who’s this?”

“I’m Stader, I joined a few days ago, but then everything was crazy. Can I talk to Desi or Raidah?”

“Desi?” The merla glanced at the other two players, who both shook their heads.

“Desmerelda Phoenix, I mean.” Maya rolled her eyes. She kept forgetting that apparently no one but her and Trixy were allowed to call her Desi. “And, speaking of, is Trixy back? I thought I saw her name on the leaderboard again.”

The merla shrugged. “I’m getting James. This is over my head. Wait here.”

The other two players nodded. “Sure, Vini. We’ll keep an eye on him.”

Maya didn’t bother correcting them. It didn’t really matter what they thought of her.

She felt a weird sense of deja vu, the same setting, the same uncertainty, but all the players were different. Instead of Trixy watching her while the guard fetched Shardlord, there were these other players watching her while Vini fetched James.

She really should have attended their group dinner more often, then maybe she’d recognize more than a handful of the mages. Still, she relaxed a bit more. No one looked or acted like they were under Domitian control. They seemed wary, on edge, but that was what she would expect in the wake of a mutual conquest push that caused upheaval in everyone’s lives.

“What’s been happening?” she asked one of the watching players, a human in leather armor. “Everything went really crazy there for a bit, and to be honest I’ve been hiding out until it blew over.”

“I wasn’t online at the time myself,” he replied. “But from what I’ve heard, Shardlord got wind that Domitius was going to try unlocking a new zone and take over the mage academy at the same time. So he decided we’d get a jump on him and take over his castle while everyone was distracted. It worked, kind of. We took out a bunch of his minions and took the castle, but …” He trailed off and turned to the other player, a female vampire. “Well, you were there, Nira.”

She nodded. “Partway through the battle, Shardlord had to leave. He grabbed Yinon and Hua and the three of them rushed off somewhere. We held the castle for a day or so, then Domitius came back so we let him have it. No one has seen Shardlord, Yinon, or Hua since then. Hua is still on the leaderboard, but the other two have disappeared completely.

“Anyway, we came back here, and no one was even trying to guard it, so we reclaimed it and have been getting word out for everyone to log in as much as possible since. Until some of our high levels show up again, we’re on our own.”

“James says not to worry about it, but … it’s not easy to overlook something like that.”

“Nira, Systerian, if I’m not worried, you shouldn’t be worried either,” said a new voice, deep, male, and confident. Maya turned, and saw the newcomer was a dark elf. Deep purplish-black skin offset by gleaming golden hair that reached halfway down his back and brilliant white and gold robes that were clearly custom made. She couldn’t guess his tier, but it had to be high.

He regarded her with an unreadable expression.

“James, there you are,” said the vampire, Nira. “Stader here says he joined a few days ago, but none of us recognize him. He asked for Desmerelda by ‘Desi’ though.”

“Stader? An unusual name. Have you checked the leaderboard? What’s his level?”

“We haven’t.”

Oh. Maya hadn’t even considered the fact that she wouldn’t appear on the leaderboard as her false names. It would kinda make it obvious she was lying about who she was, if anyone paid attention.

She sighed. “You won’t find me there. My character name is Maya Starborn, but I’m trying to hide from Domitius so I’d rather go by my RL surname, if that’s alright. The longer it takes him to track me down, the better for everyone.”

“Oh? A defector? How very non-suspicious.” James sounded extremely skeptical.

“Listen, this is important. I have a lot of info about Domitius. I’ve been sneaking around his prison in Nirsym, he’s got a lot of players held against their will, and he has a rogue soulbinder who can actually force them into staying loyal to him. Actual players, being actually enslaved. This is really important, we have to do something about it.”

The human in armor, Systerian?, snorted in disbelief. “Right. Domitius has a secret prison right in the middle of the biggest trading hub on the continent and no one’s noticed? Also, soulbinding is for items and mounts, it can’t be used on other players. Trust me, it’s been tried.”

James held up a hand and Systerian fell silent. “Come with me, Maya Stader. I would prefer we conduct this discussion in private.”

He led her to the crystal tower, which opened for him at a gesture, then inside and up halfway to a well-appointed room somewhat similar to Shardlord’s at the top. This one wasn’t triangular, though, and probably only about half the size. Still, it had a matted area for practicing and a bookshelf-lined sitting corner off to the left. The floors and walls had similar decorations, though the chandelier was nowhere near as elaborate. The far wall contained two crystaline windows through which the midday sky was visible.

“Have a seat.”

“I’m in a bit of a hurry,” Maya protested, but James gestured toward the sitting nook and she obliged, feeling anxious. Everything about this visit so far felt like an echo of the past, and she didn’t like it. She half expected him to start lecturing her about how she shouldn’t be hanging out with Hara, or something.

“In Shardlord’s absence, I am in charge of his academy. I am one of the few who can communicate with him outside the game, so when I tell you that I have information directly from him you can rest assured that I am not making up stories. And you, he has taken care to specifically mention by name.”

Maya sighed.

Here we go again.

“I don’t need a recap,” she said testily. “He thinks I’m Domitian because of a bunch of dumb coincidences. Well, that’s old news. I am Domitian now, at least as far as anyone else knows, because Domitius is an actual slaver. He threw me in a pit of magic — weird workaround for preventing players from doing anything, but it works — and kept me there until I would promise to be loyal to him. Thankfully, I have a perk which lets me evade oaths made under duress, but if it weren’t for that I’d be another one of his mindless followers right now. If you can contact Shardlord, tell him he needs to get back online ASAP, he’s the only one who might be able to hold Domitius off while we rescue his prisoners.”

James slowly sat down opposite her, leaning his chin on his fingertips. “I’m afraid that isn’t possible right now. Until he can return, you’re stuck with me.”

She found herself sizing him up, weighing the potential benefits against the risks. If Shardlord trusted him enough to put James in charge while he was away, surely that meant he was responsible. Could she give him the Diviner’s Orb? Or would that divide his loyalty between the Oracle and Shardlord? She hardly knew him. She really couldn’t rush into this. She had to keep it in mind, yes, keep looking for the right person, but not just hand it off to the first halfway responsible person she met.

“So, what now?” Maya asked. “I’m planning to break in through a secret back entrance and rescue as many people as possible before he can force them to his side. I can take as many players as are willing to accompany me—”

“No.” James cut her off.

“No?”

“Absolutely not. I am not sending any of my mages into enemy territory via an alleged secret entrance to an inescapable prison on the word of an admitted sworn follower of Domitius.”

“What if he has some of your mages captive? We could rescue them too. As well as all the other normal innocent players who don’t want to be on either side of this.”

“I know for a fact that Domitius has several of our mages captive. But while your information, if correct, is valuable, I still cannot justify authorizing a mad attempt to infiltrate the heart of our enemy’s base. Even to rescue them. Once they realize there’s no escape they’ll log off and return on new characters, and we can work together to get them back up to level. We’re not risking anyone else.”

“Shouldn’t you check with Shardlord before dismissing it out of hand? I know he’s suspicious of me, but—”

“I’m sending him a live transcript of this conversation as it occurs. He has said nothing to indicate that my decision is in error.” James paused for a moment, then smiled. “In fact, he emphatically endorses my choice to keep our mages safe.”

So much for that idea.

“What about a frontal assault? I could hire on some NPCs to help, and we can just force our way in …”

James was already shaking his head before she’d half finished. “You said yourself, with Shardlord gone there is no one strong enough to hold off Domitius. A frontal assault would be sheer idiocy.”

“And where has Shardlord gone, anyway? How can he just up and disappear when we need him the most?”

“I am here to ensure the academy continues to run smoothly. Apart from a full attack, we are perfectly safe here so long as we stick together in groups and don’t wander into enemy territory. If I’m not mistaken, Domitius will be largely occupied with his new zone for several months if the past is any indication. He only attacked the academy when he did as a distraction to slow us down, not because he genuinely hopes to destroy us.

“He’s clearly hoping that by putting Shardlord out of the picture for days or weeks, he can claim a solid lead in the race to tier seven. But Shardlord hasn’t kept up this whole time by relying on flash and sprints. Domitius will get tired of staking out a random cavern sooner or later, or his high-level players will refuse to waste their time, and Shardlord will slip away and come back stronger than ever.

“In the meantime, we just keep doing what we always do. Teach magic, study magic, and increase our knowledge. That’s why we exist, after all, not to engage in petty territorial disputes with powergamers with personality cults.”

Maya shook her head. “You’re severely underestimating Domitius if you think he’ll agree with that assessment.”

James shrugged a white-robed shoulder. “I don’t care if he agrees. Our goals are so completely foreign to him, I can’t see why he’d bother interfering with us unless for a specific gain. He’s off rushing to open new areas, frantically searching for an endgame, while we’re still living in the starter city, searching deeper, not wider.

“There’s no reason for us to get in each others’ way at all, except insofar as Shardlord himself is also trying to claim the top player spot. But that’s a matter of personal accomplishment, not something he’s going to drag us all into with him. Unlike Domitius, Shardlord doesn’t need an army to help push him to the top. He’s here to help us, not the other way around.”

“I’m sure Domitius’s followers would say the same about him,” Maya said, before remembering that Rominian at least was very forward about the fact that they were expected to suborn their own gains behind their leader’s. She briefly wondered if Cydrin was an outlier, then, or if perhaps the trickster were angling to take over the top spot for himself. After all, he was on an even playing ground now, same tier as Shardlord and Domitius. Cydrin was in the tier-7 race as much as anyone else.

Unaware of the train Maya’s thoughts had wandered down, James shrugged. “As I said, I don’t particularly care what they think or say. They can play their way, we can play ours, and most of the time our paths have no reason to intersect.”

“Well, thanks for hearing me out, at least, even if you refuse to do anything about it.” Maya stood. “I’ve got a rescue mission to undertake, so if you don’t mind I’ll be heading out. I hope to return soon, hopefully with your captured mages if they haven’t logged out by then.”

James rose to his feet as well. “You assume you’ll be welcome to return?”

Maya shrugged. “Right now, I don’t care. Honestly, I just want to research magic and make friends with other players in peace. But until I’m free of Domitius’s soulbinding, there’s no way for me to do that securely. If you insist on kicking me out, then I suppose I’ll set up shop elsewhere. But I really hope you don’t. I like this place, I like the atmosphere of it, I like the people you have here, and I don’t see any reason in us duplicating each other’s research independently.” She grinned. “I do have a handful of custom spells I created which I’d be happy to run over with your fire and ice divisions, when I return.”

James’s eyes narrowed. “Custom spells? Really?”

“Yes. Though it’s quite probable that you already have them. They’re modifications on the base spells, nothing too fancy. Just recombining elements in different configurations. But, like I said, that’ll be another time. For now, I have a rescue to perform.”

“Well, I am curious to see what happens next. So long as you return alone and not as part of an invading army, I will not rescind your access. Good luck.”