Maya headed across the hall and knocked at the fourth door. No one answered. She pushed the door open, almost surprised when it actually opened and there was no permissions mismatch. She distinctly remembered that each room in the Opal Hall had its own set of permissions. But then again, since she’d snuck in with Housebreaker, maybe that bypassed all of it? She’d have to investigate further once she’d dealt with all the current chaos.

The room inside was empty and dim. No sign of anyone, angry or otherwise. She slipped inside anyway, but the Wind team seemed to be much tidier than the Fire team. Their desks were empty and pristine, with no papers left lying about and only a small plaque to indicate whose desk was whose.

She read all of them, but none looked familiar. Manten, Tom, TQ, Xyborg, Rinna, Alwyn, and Xan. Farrison Durand, the leader, had his own podium. That was the only place she found any pages, and it was only a list of who had been present which days. She skimmed through it, and saw Yinon had been attending until the day of the attack.

She did learn that today was Friday, March 25th, 2383. She paused for a long moment and stared at the date, feeling more alienated and distant than ever.

But she had a job to do. She sighed, put down the pages, and turned to leave. They were useless.

She’d almost reached the door when a thought struck her. She smacked herself in the forehead for being stupid and hurried back to check over the attendance log again.

Yinon had stopped attending, and Xyborg had promptly begun the same day. Coincidence? Probably not.

Now she had a name at least. No way of knowing if Xyborg was still logged in, but it was a start.

She left the room and exited Opal Hall, surprised to realize how late it had gotten. The dining hall was bright and glowed in the evening light, the other buildings gleaming with their gemlike colours.

She started toward it instinctively, then hesitated. James had told her to not involve anyone. It was one thing sneaking in to talk to Nalana and maybe recruit Xyborg if he’d been around, but to actually interrupt dinner in front of everyone?

Word would get out. She’d be in trouble.

Maya shook away the thought. She still felt a bit reckless, a bit defiant, and she didn’t have anywhere else to turn. She and Venix wouldn’t be enough, they couldn’t do this alone.

She slipped in, just in time for the dessert course. Desi and Trixy sat at their usual table in the corner, no one else nearby. She glanced over the other tables of mages, but couldn’t tell who was who. The room seemed more sparsely populated than previously.

Glancing around, she did recognize one elf as being a group leader, but didn’t remember which team he ran. Pale and thin, childlike in appearance, with black hair and bark-like armor. Probably earth. She didn’t see Raidah or anyone else from the Fire group.

Xyborg wasn’t wearing a giant sign pointing him out, and Maya hadn’t thought to ask Nalana what he looked like, leaving her with no way of matching person to name.

Desi would know. Desi knew just about everything. Her mind made up, Maya crossed the room to where Desi and Trixy sat.

The moment she got close they both stopped talking and stared at her. Trixy looked uncertain, while Desi’s expression was downright hostile.

“Hey, sorry it’s been a while. Trixy, welcome back! Desi, I wanted to ask you if you could help me find Xyborg?”

Desi raised her chin, glaring down her beak at Maya. “That’s Desmerelda Phoenix to you.”

“Oh, um, sorry?” Maya looked to Trixy for help, but the felinis only looked confused, her ears flat. “Is this because of Sevard? I know he’s working with Domitius now, but when I hired him it was just business. He’s a mercenary. How was I supposed to know—”

Desi’s expression had been growing progressively more dismissive and her glower more pronounced. Maya had one hand on the back of a chair, but she didn’t make a move to sit.

“Uh, I mean, well …” Maya trailed off, unsure how to deal with their suddenly cold reaction.

“Nice to meet you,” Trixy said with an obviously forced attempt at a friendly smile. “I’m Trixyceratops, with a ‘Y’, but everyone calls me Trixy. Should I know you?”

“Oh, wow. Hah. Sorry, it’s Maya. From a couple weeks ago? I keep forgetting I changed my look.”

“Ohh, Maya. Right,” Trixy’s smile turned more genuine. “The millenial! Wow, sorry. It’s been a crazy couple weeks. How are you?”

Desi shrugged and turned her attention to the dessert, waving to the servers to bring another, and gestured for Maya to sit.

Maya sat, only a bit hesitantly. “I’ve been …” she’d almost said ‘good’ by sheer habit. “… um, not great actually. That’s kind of why I’m here. I want to rescue the players trapped by Domitius. I know where they’re kept, I have access to a secret tunnel that no one else—” well, except Judah and anyone he’d told … “—very few people know about. But I’m too low level and I can’t do it alone. Nalana said Xyborg lost his main so I thought he might be motivated to help me.”

“Hmm,” Trixy said, slowly taking a bite of ice cream. “I guess I could help you too. I don’t have much to lose.”

Maya caught the note of hesitance in her voice. “You don’t have to if you don’t want to. I’d rather not risk anyone more than I have to.”

“James warned us about you, you know,” Desi interrupted before Trixy could reply. “All the group leaders. You’ve been lying to everyone from the beginning.”

“But—” Trixy began, but Desi held up a hand to stop her.

“We’ve already lost far too many people to Domitius. And now you want to lead another group right into his prison? If you’re trying to sabotage our academy, you’re either incredibly overconfident or a complete idiot.”

“Hey!” Maya protested. “I’m not trying to hurt anyone, I want to save everyone!”

A waiter set down Maya’s dessert, a chocolate pie with ice cream on top and little elegant chocolate shavings sprinkled over it all. She ignored it, glaring back at Desi.

Desi, having said her piece, shrugged and returned to her own plate.

Maya clicked her beak irritably, but tried to stay calm. “Trixy, do you know where Xyborg is?”

“Over with Farrison.” She pointed to the table containing the bark-wearing elf. “The silver sprite. I’m surprised we can’t hear him ranting from here.”

“Thanks. Sorry to bother you. Desi— er, Desmerelda, I promise you I’m not trying to trick anyone. At least, not anyone here. If I had to choose a side, I’d pick this academy. I hope you can all trust me someday.”

Maya stood, smiled at Trixy, whose returning smile was only a little tenuous, and started toward the Wind table.

Once he’d been pointed out to her, she thought that Xyborg should have been incredibly obvious. The silver hue of his skin made it easy to imagine him as inorganic, the effect amplified by the dark tattoos mimicking weld lines and joints. Maya smiled; he’d obviously put a lot of effort into his appearance. No wonder Nalana had thought ‘robot’.

Farrison, the bark-wearing elf and leader of Wind, looked up with a frown as Maya approached. “I haven’t seen you before. Are you new?”

“Not exactly. I’ve been with Fire on and off for a couple weeks. But right now, I need to talk to Xyborg.”

“Yeah?” the silver sprite said, looking up at her with obvious hostility. “About what?”

“I want to help you rescue your main.”

Xyborg’s expression changed in an instant. It shifted rapidly through shock and disbelief, then settled in a kind of manic grin. “Really? I’m in! Who else have we got? I won’t be enough, and by the look of your gear you’re not above tier two yourself.”

“Wait,” Farrison interrupted. “Are you that Maya Stader person?”

Maya sighed. So Desi hadn’t been lying about James warning all the leaders. “So what if I am? I’m allowed to do what I want. So is Xyborg. You can’t stop us.”

“I can strongly advise against it.” Farrison sounded frustrated. “Bert, You know better than to fall for something like this. Isn’t it bad enough you lost Yinon? You don’t want to lose Xyborg too.”

“I’ve been telling you for days that we have to get back there! We can’t just take this and ignore it! Where’s Shardlord? Did he have to reset too? Isn’t his progress worth reclaiming? Isn’t mine?”

“Shardlord is fine, he’s offline for the moment, but not captured. Fran is taking care of him. You don’t need to worry.”

“I’m not worried, I’m—”

“Hey, can I come too?”

They all turned to look at the new speaker, the third and final person sitting at the table. A full-sized elf, he didn’t really have any distinguishing features. Medium skin, dark hair, green eyes, mage outfit in the typical mismatched fashion of low level players.

Farrison sighed. “Al, no. You don’t have to prove anything to—”

“We’re in,” interrupted Xyborg. He stood, patted Al’s shoulder, then stood on his chair and shouted, “Hey, everyone! I’m going to go rescue my main and anyone else still trapped by that crazy Domitius! Who’s with me?”

Maya facepalmed. This was supposed to be a covert mission! Shouting it out for all to hear was—

… actually …

… effective?

Though the room was sparsely populated, several people stood and raised their hands. Maya saw a nearby elf with higher tier gear stand, though the girl sitting next to him hissed and tried to pull him back down.

Desi shook her head but otherwise ignored the hubbub. Trixy looked torn, but didn’t stand.

“This way if you’re coming!” shouted Xyborg. Al, two higher-level elves from other tables, and one lizardine joined Maya and the silver sprite in a cluster as Xyborg led the way.

Farrison sighed, then stood. “It’s stupid, and you’re going to get us all killed, but I can’t let you go alone. If Circe and Kurod are coming, at least we’ll have some chance.”

Maya glanced over sharply when he said ‘Circe,’ but saw he was looking at one of the higher-level elves. She was suddenly glad she’d never told anyone her idea for another alternate persona. She really should check the leaderboard in future to ensure she wasn’t stealing someone else’s identity. That could have been bad.

“Anyone else?” Xyborg shouted as the group neared the doors.

Maya glanced back. Trixy looked like she might stand up, but Desi put a hand on her shoulder and she stayed seated. Maya tried not to feel betrayed.

“Where to?” Farrison asked, once they were clear of the academy.

“Hang on, I need to collect Venix.” Maya hurried around the wall to where she’d left the arena fighter, to find Venix pacing slowly back and forth beneath where Maya had climbed over.

“Venix! This way! I’ve got help!”

Venix smiled and hurried over to join the group. “Wonderful! I’m Venix, I usually play solo and fight in the arena. Would you mind introducing yourselves?”

“Farrison Durand, I lead the Wind spell research team. Nice to meet you, Venix. You do know we’re probably all going to be captured, right?”

“I’ve accepted the risk,” Venix said calmly, then turned to the rest of the group expectantly.

“Xyborg,” said the silver sprite, “though I’ll have to log out once we get there so I can get Yinon out. He’ll be much more useful.”

“Alwyn,” said Al, the dark-haired elf who’d been sitting with Xyborg and Farrison. “I’m a friend of Yinon. Or, Xyborg, at present.”

“I’m Kurod and this is Circe.” Kurod was the typical pale beautiful blond-haired kind of elf, wearing blue robes with a silvery plate armor vest, while Circe had golden skin and auburn hair, an expensive-looking dark red dress and matching maroon cape.

If not for her excessive number of accessories Maya would wonder about the stats. But she’d never actually looked into cosmetic options, so what would she know.

“I think that’s everyone,” Maya said. “Do you need to stop anywhere to get combat armor or equipment, or drop off any valuables you don’t want to risk? We shouldn’t encounter any enemies except for other players, so be prepared.”

“Is it a Conquest? Or can we just turn off PVP?”

Maya hesitated. “I … don’t actually know. I guess there are NPC guards he’s hired, so we might end up fighting.” And Uvlan the soulbinder, who would be a serious threat. “I don’t remember triggering a Conquest, but—” she stopped herself before saying ‘I’m technically a Domitian myself so I can go in no problem’ which would not go over well. “Well, we’ll find out when we get there.”

“Are you all sure you really want to go through with this?” Farrison asked. “I find myself increasingly inclined to agree with the suspicions of our leader. This expedition is foolish and dangerous.”

“You won’t stop me,” Xyborg said defiantly. “I don’t care how risky this is. Any chance of getting Yinon back is worth it to me.”

“But the rest of you?” Farrison pressed. “Circe, I know you’ve got a lot to lose.”

Circe regarded him haughtily. “I am not unwilling to come to my fellow players’ aid. I agree with the harpy. If we give up too easily, we may as well be surrendering. I would rather fight.”

“Hear hear!” shouted Xyborg.

“Oh, right.” Maya realized she’d never introduced herself. “I’m—” she almost said ‘Maya’, but remembered just in time that she was trying to separate her identities, not let them condense together. “Stader.”

If she could somehow make a trickster alt, that would be even better. But Mayon had ended up with some other stat bonus and she didn’t want to delete him. Maybe once she’d unlocked another slot she could try again. It would make things so much easier if she could completely switch between identities. Particularly including the leaderboard, which would be a big giveaway that she was pretending to be someone else. She could only hope no one here would bother looking her up.

“So, Stader. Are we going to go?” Xyborg asked. “Or just stand around here all night?”

“Of course. Sorry. I was thinking. Um, if no one needs to take care of any inventory management? Do you all have Dust of Recall? We may need to evacuate in a hurry.”

Nods and agreement all around, so she nodded. “Awesome. Then let’s go. We’re going to the leypillar, then from there I’ll transit you into the secret tunnel.”

“Hey, wait for me!”

Maya turned in surprise at the new voice, to see a vaguely familiar human running toward them in leather armor, though she couldn’t remember where she’d seen him before.

“I had to grab my gear. We going after Domitius, yeah?”

“Hopefully not!” exclaimed Maya. “I would rather sneak in and out without alerting him, if at all possible. With any luck, he’s away playing in his new zone seven and won’t be on guard.”

“Sys, good to have you along,” said Alwyn.

“Thanks. So where are we going?”

“Leypillar. I know a secret back way in.”

“Suspiciously convenient,” Farrison muttered, but Maya ignored him.

They reached the leypillar without incident, but since it was still within Kalyx city’s safe area that wasn’t much of a surprise. She wasn’t really expecting to be ambushed by Domitians.

She indicated the group to offer transit to, then selected the Nirsym City (2) destination, wondering if there were secondary arrival points for all the zones. Had she already wondered about that? She should put it on her checklist. Later. After everything else. Maybe. If she had time.

“I don’t like this,” Farrison said, but accepted the transit.

A moment later, without fanfare or any dramatic sounds or lights, they stood in the arrival cave beneath the Nirsym leypillar plateau.

“There’s a very very very dangerous NPC living in these tunnels,” Maya whispered, as everyone snapped Sparks on to see by. “We’ll have to be very quiet slipping past him, because I really do not want to have to deal with him today.”

Maya walked to the black door, which disappeared at her approach.

“Which way?” Circe asked. “I’m the highest level, I’ll take point.”

“The tunnel doesn’t branch. Just keep going until you reach the stairs.”

Circe nodded and led the way. Xyborg and Farrison fell in behind her, while Kurod held back to take the rear. Maya, Venix, Sys, and Alwyn ended up jumbled together in the middle.

They’d only been walking for a few minutes when Circe came to an abrupt halt.

“I thought you said there were no branches?”

Maya stepped forward, staring at the three dark passages splitting off beside each other. “I don’t remember any forks,” she said, frowning.

She closed her eyes. Come on, luck, do your thing.

“Straight,” she said, trying to sound confident. Right felt dangerous, left and center gave off no impressions whatsoever.

Circe nodded and led the way. A few minutes later they reached another branching, this one a four-way intersection with passages going at right angles to each other.

“Straight,” Maya said without hesitation. “I know we didn’t take any sharp turns.”

Less than a minute later, they reached another split, but this one had no straight option. Maya stepped forward, but got no particular sense of which direction would be better. She frowned.

“I don’t know what’s going on here, I’ve been here multiple times and it was always just one straight passage that went on and on and on.”

“Do you know your way back to the leypillar, at least?” Farrison asked. “Or have you gotten us lost in enemy territory?”

Maya shook her head. “We can still do this.” She closed her eyes and walked in a slow circle, trying to push her luck into making a choice. “Right.” It was only the vaguest pull, and maybe she was imagining it, but she didn’t regret the choice immediately so it had to mean something.

Then the floor ahead of them exploded into a thousand tiny shards, scattering upward and downward with unexpected force.