Maya respawned at Nirsym’s empty plateau. She worried for a moment that everyone else had left, but then realized that, of course, as the lowest level she had the shortest lockout period of anyone.

She still couldn’t quite believe how completely and thoroughly they’d been defeated. Everything the whole team did had hardly dented the boss’s health.

And what was a boss doing there anyway?!!

She paced impatiently, wondering what was taking so long. No one had survived, if the lack of a boss-room spawn point was any indication. Assuming it was a boss room. But it had to be! Somehow. Domitius had somehow attached a boss fight to his back door. Probably as a direct reaction to having discovered that his team no longer had exclusive access to it.

Which made it entirely Maya’s fault for being caught.

Would she ever stop making stupid mistakes?

She had all these grand plans for far-reaching projects, but what use was that in the face of moment-to-moment foolishness? If she kept ruining her life in the short term, was there any hope for the long term?

Thankfully before her self-destructive spiral could progress any further, Venix respawned.

“Yikes. Is this the usual sort of trouble you get into?”

“What happened?” Maya asked. “Did you survive the special attack?”

“No. Last I saw, we were all dropping fast. I don’t think anyone survived.”

“Did they manage to do any significant damage, at least?”

Venix shook her head. “Not that I saw. Unless that last guy had some serious damage output that he never told anyone about, we barely dented it.”

“It shouldn’t have been there at all!” Maya exclaimed, starting to pace again. “I’ve been through there before and it was always just an unbroken straight tunnel. This whole stupid dungeon just came out of nowhere!”

“It’ll be fine, this isn’t the end of the world.”

“I’m beginning to wonder if we might be better off hiring NPCs and charging the front gates,” Maya muttered. “At least then we wouldn’t be so out-matched.”

“You’re sure we didn’t take a wrong turn?”

“What turn? There never used to be any turns at all!”

“Maya, calm down. Take a deep breath. Relax. We’ll think of something.”

Maya huffed out a breath, too tense to think about being calm.

This was her one chance to save everyone and prove herself, and apparently all her luck wasn’t enough to keep the stupid game from screwing her over.

“Why can’t things just go right for once?”

Venix sighed and nodded. “I don’t know. That’s just life, wherever you go.”

“Not very comforting.”

“I could always lie if you prefer.”

Maya shook her head. “No. Lying is my job, remember?”

Xyborg reappeared, followed a moment later by Alwyn.

“Sorry, I’m out,” Alwyn announced without preamble. “Good luck, Bert, but I’m not going to be any use here.”

“Fine! We don’t need you!” Xyborg shouted after him, as he touched the leypillar and vanished. He snorted, waved his hand dismissively, and turned to Maya. “I know what it is. It’s the Madman’s Maze dungeon. It’s been an active quest for months, but no one ever found its entrance!”

Maya stopped short. “It’s an actual dungeon?”

“Yeah, real dungeon. Do you know what this is worth? The max-level Nirsym dungeon? It’s basically a legend! No one has ever seen it. We’re the first, and we can sell that info to anyone.”

“Um, we do still need to get through it, though …” Maya pointed out.

“Not necessarily! That’s the great thing about Madman’s Maze. We don’t know for sure what’s on the other side of the boss room. It could be that whatever you’re after isn’t what the boss is guarding.”

“Well, that’s true. We may have taken a wrong turn, I suppose.” Maya stopped herself before adding ‘not that there should be any turns at all,’ in an attempt to stop repeating herself excessively before she drove off her few remaining allies.

Systerian reappeared, but he didn’t stay long before transiting away somewhere without speaking to the rest of them.

“Is he going to get equipment, or is that his way of saying he’s out?” Maya asked.

Xyborg shrugged. “I don’t know Sys well enough to say.”

They waited for a time in silence, then Systerian reappeared. With Farrison in tow.

“I maintain that this is foolish,” Farrison said, arms crossed, “but I’m still not leaving you to do it alone.”

Systerian grinned smugly. Xyborg made a surprised, approving sound.

“Nice to have you back,” Maya said, feeling better now that the team was reassembling. So far they’d only lost Alwyn, and apart from her he was the lowest level they had. Not exactly about to be tipping the balance.

“Kurod and Circe won’t be rejoining us though,” Systerian said, before she could get too optimistic. “It’s just us.”

“Oh.” Maya floundered for a moment, trying to reorient her mental plan. “Well, then, I guess we should get going.” As long as they avoided the hydra’s boss room, they should be fine.

She touched the leypillar to transit everyone down into the underground chamber. The black door had reappeared, but it vanished at her approach. She glanced back, half expecting to see Circe and Kurod joining them, but of course they wouldn’t be able to even if they changed their minds. She was the only one who could transit down here.

“You guys didn’t have this as a spawn or transit option, right?” she asked, just to verify. She half hoped she was wrong, that there could be reinforcements coming.

But …

“Nope.”

“No.”

“Not me.”

“Right. Well, here we go.” She started off down the hall.

They arrived at the first branching. Maya still felt the tug of her luck insisting that she should head left, that the right route was dangerous and should be avoided, but she didn’t entirely trust her luck’s judgment right now. It certainly hadn’t helped them with the traps or the boss room.

She headed right, though the sense of pervasive danger grew constantly stronger the further she walked.

Her luck really wanted them to turn around.

She hesitated. Should she? So far the tunnel had been long, straight, and empty, the silence broken only by the regular snapping of her team refreshing their Sparks to see by.

But could she be leading them into something worse?

No. No time to be hesitant. She pressed on, ignoring the warnings. What could happen? They'd already died once.

She hurried onward, alert for any turnings, but the corridor continued straight and unwavering. She frowned as they moved further and further down the dark tunnel without anything happening, without any doors or off-shoots, Yet her luck’s warnings grew steadily stronger. It wasn't overpowering, still felt distant and separate from herself sufficiently that she could choose to ignore it, but it was insistent.

Bad idea. Turn back. Not this way.

But why? It was just empty, and long.

Then she saw a familiar door, and suddenly everything became clear. That was Uvlan's workshop. Right there.

“Hah!” Maya kept her voice low despite her sudden excitement. “This is the right way, we’re in luck!”

She very much agreed with the instinct warning her to avoid the door, and hurried on past. The moment she was beyond it, the danger sense fell off sharply. Whatever threat Uvlan represented, it lessened significantly the further she got from him.

The hall continued on as she’d remembered, before arriving at the stairway up to the chamber below the prison.

There, they encountered their first major obstacle. The door was sealed.

“Anyone know how to open this?” Maya asked when the knob failed to turn.

“Let me try.” Systerian grabbed the handle and strained, but it didn’t move.

Maya tried tapping her black star tile against the door, since it had unlocked so many other things in this compound, but there was no change. It must only work in puzzle doors.

“I think it’s bolted from the other side,” Systerian said, shoving on the door with his shoulder. “Xy, help me.”

Xyborg squeezed past Maya and up to the top of the stairs, though it was a tight fit. There wasn’t much of a landing. Together, he and Systerian slammed their shoulders against the door in sync. The door rattled, but didn’t budge.

“Again.”

Maya tossed her Spark against the door, and was pleased to see it smolder for a moment before going out.

“Guys, it’s a wooden door. I think we can burn it. Stand back.” She slipped into Heart of Magma stance. Systerian and Xyborg threw themselves against the door twice more while she charged up, but when it failed to break they took the hint and retreated behind Maya.

Under a steady barrage of siege-level flaming missiles, the door survived less than half a minute before being obliterated. The metal bar on the other side fell to the ground with a dull clang. Maya stepped forward, grinning.

The room beyond lay empty but for the huge glass cylinder. Now that she knew what she was looking at, Maya recognized the silhouettes of the prisoners inside.

She stood for a long moment, wondering how she’d managed to overlook it before. Had she really been that oblivious? Or had it simply been emptier then, with fewer prisoners to show against the darkness?

“What is it?” Xyborg asked. “Water?”

“Magic,” whispered Maya. “The whole thing is full of magic.”

“What?” Farrison burst out. “That’s insane! How could they possibly get this much together and keep it from dissolving? It’s so fragile.”

“It clings together as long as there’s something alive within contact,” Maya said. “And there’s a lot of living people in there.”

“But why haven’t they switched to alts?” Xyborg asked. “Who would stay logged in in such a circumstance?”

“I can understand it,” whispered Maya. “Stubbornness, in my case. Perhaps a sense of pride.”

“Well, it’s their lucky day. So how do we break them out?” Xyborg equipped a spear and started smashing against the glass cylinder. Uselessly. It didn’t even scratch the thick glass.

“No, from above. I don’t think we can break this, it’s too thick. The top is open and they have a climbing stick to pull people out. We’ll use that.”

“If we’re so close, should I switch to Yinon?” Xyborg asked. “Or will there be guards?”

“Yes, there are guards. At least, there were last time. NPCs too, so being PvE flagged isn’t going to be enough to protect us.”

She really wished she could have brought her mercenary team.

“I’ll wait, then. It won’t really matter if Xy is stuck here so long as we get Yinon out.”

The other door was also barred, but from the inside. They broke it open and proceeded up the stairs to the closed puzzle door. Like the other one she'd unlocked once, it disappeared at her approach without needing her to do anything further.

"Oh!" Systerian exclaimed, stumbling back a step.

The guard standing outside the door spun around, and Maya mentally cursed. Of course Domitius would have set a guard on this door once he found out they could go through it. It wouldn't do to leave an unguarded secret entrance.

"Intruders!" the guard shouted. "Come help!"

Oh, not good at all.

Maya started charging a Wind Word instinctively. Xyborg drew his sword and flung himself at the guard bodily, and Venix started swinging her hammer to charge her special attack.

Systerian was the slowest to recover, but soon added his own spells to the conflict.

It was only as Maya fired off the Wind Word that she wondered, was this an NPC? Or a player? It would be really embarrassing to have thrown everything they had at someone they couldn't harm.

As it turned out, their instinctive reaction of attacking was the correct one. The guard was quite capable of injuring them. He drew two large axes and set about flailing into Venix and Xyborg with quick precise slashes that sent the two players stumbling back toward the stairs. Systerian paused in his casting to back them up, physically interposing himself between them and the steps before they could fall.

Which gave Maya an idea. They couldn't stay here, he'd already called for help, they couldn't afford to delay. They had to get to the prison quickly.

"There are four of us, just push him down the stairs!"

She wasn't sure it would work, but if two players could carry her, she had to assume that four players could overpower one person.

The guard laughed, widening his stance to prevent them from getting past him, but Venix grinned. "On it."

"If you can't get around him, stay to the sides," Maya warned, then began overcharging her Wind Whisper with everything she had left.

It wouldn't do enough damage to take him out, but damage wasn't its only use. She'd seen what it could do in the arena against Venix.

Venix smashed her way past the guard, forcing him to back up to the wall to avoid being surrounded. And cleared space for the others to move around him. Maya sidled past slowly, her focus on not disrupting her charging spell.

The guard scowled. "You won't--"

Maya fired the Wind Whisper in its force mode, lifting him into the air and throwing him away from herself. He didn't just fall down the stairs, he flew out over them entirely and smashed into the ceiling where it started to slope downward, and then fell down the stairs.

"Quick, let's go before more show up."

Maya led the way as they ran through familiar passages, but she'd crossed less than half the distance to the prison when a group of four people came around the far end of the hall, hurrying in their direction. One, at least, was obviously a player. The others, she couldn't tell. Their equipment seemed to match and wasn't obviously high or low tier.

"Grab them," ordered the player as he charged. "Don't hurt them. They'll be needed later."

The other three charged. Maya's energy hadn't recovered enough to do anything major, there hadn't been enough time and they technically weren't out of combat long enough to trigger faster regen.

Venix had no such problem. She charged, swinging her hammer above her head, ready to smash it down. Systerian started firing off spells at the leader, and Xyborg drew his sword as he ran to meet the charging guards.

Maya hung back, hoping that by not engaging she could let her energy regenerate enough to do something useful. She really should have investigated potions. Were they even a thing in this world? Why had she never looked into ways of healing or regenerating resources?

"Sys, stop attacking the player, you're not even in PvP!" Xyborg shouted. "Help me with this one."

"Oh, you're right. Sorry!" Systerian switched targets, but they weren't making much headway. Their opponents were too fast, too good at evading. If they'd been fighting to kill instead of capture, Maya was sure their little band would have already started dropping.

If only they still had Circe and Kurod! This was where they really would have been invaluable.

Venix managed to smash her way through to the other side, but surrounding the group of guards was only so effective when they were seemingly unconcerned by any of their attacks.

Maya was so focused on the fight ahead of her she completely failed to notice the second group coming up from behind until someone grabbed her around the throat, covering her mouth with one hand.

Mayon's instincts kicked in and she twisted, throwing the assailant to the ground, and slammed her elbow down on his throat. She was mildly gratified to recognize him as one of the tricksters who had kidnapped her.

"Stop," commanded an all too familiar voice from behind her. Domitius. The guards stopped at once, backing away. "So, Emma Stader, I understand that you've decided on your true allegiance?"

Venix, Farrison, and Xyborg didn't let up, pressing the attack against the NPC guards, though they didn't retaliate and only blocked or evaded, the attacks forming a weirdly dissonant background to the conversation.

Maya kept her attention on restraining the trickster beneath her, though he tried to slip free.

"You know that I do not tolerate defection." Domitius's voice was cold and hard. "You will never leave this place again."

Maya's heart was racing, but she tried to sound casual. "It's a pretty nice place, I could get used to it here."

"You will be very used to it," Domitius said. "Ren, deal with the others. Pizza, bring her."

"No," Maya said firmly, holding down the trickster. She still hadn't turned to face Domitius. "Leave them alone."

"You are in no position to make demands."

The player in charge of the patrol group, presumably Ren, signaled to the guards. They moved with concerted effort to overpower first Venix, then Xyborg. Systerian didn't even try to resist, he simply logged out. Maya mentally wished him good luck.

Unfortunately, neither Venix nor Xyborg had the extensive hand-to-hand training that Maya had undertaken, so they were unable to fight back once pinned.

"Go ahead and log out," Maya said. "I'm sorry I got you into this. I really thought we had a chance."

Xyborg and Farrison nodded and disappeared a moment later. Venix did not.

"You realize that we'll simply capture them the moment they return?" Ren asked, as he held Venix's arms to prevent her attacking anyone.

"Quiet," Domitius ordered, and the hallway immediately fell silent.

Ren shrugged, then he and his group dragged the fruitlessly struggling Venix off toward the prison.

"Pizza, stop slinking around and bring her."