“I have one more challenger for you,” Shadow told Maya. “Honestly, I hope you accept just because it’ll be a chance to see something we rarely do. But I completely understand if it’s too far outside your tier range.”

“Who is it?”

“Not a regular duelist. Zarene, unaffiliated, level 45. But I can tell you, a lot of people will be willing to pay just to see what someone that powerful fights like, even if it is a completely foregone conclusion. It’s been a while since Tovedu’s last match, so it’s great timing too.”

Maya groaned. “Why not? My day couldn’t get any worse.”

“You don’t have to. But I will give you a bonus if you do. I’d like the chance to see someone that highly ranked fight, especially an outsider to the arena.”

“I said yes, I’m not very well going to go back on my word if you offer more incentives.”

“Then it’s settled. You’ll be fighting her three slots after Hoortis.”

“Great. Now if that’s all, I have some blade-throwing to practice.”

Shadow nodded and left her to it.

She couldn’t help noticing that no other fighters came in to practice. Perhaps it was just a light day, or perhaps news of her blade-flinging had spread through Shadow’s fighters. She chose to believe the former.

Her aim had continued to gradually improve, but the real gains were in speed. With her new armor, she could sprint across the arena and pick up her blade again in a split second. She was more mobile, which meant her evasion tactics could be that much more effective. Or at least significantly less ineffective.

Oceanblade still wanted to curve, its tip moving with enchanted momentum and its hilt flying helplessly in its wake. Maya really should spend weeks practicing, not a few hours, if she expected to gain any real skill. But this was her only secret weapon, her only unexpected attack. So far, she’d used a combination of wind magic and thrown knives in every fight. So anyone preparing to face her would be likely to gear up accordingly.

She spent half an hour practicing her basic Throw Knife ability. Between the hundreds of blades from Sevard and the fact that she moved easily four times as fast now as she had before, it took significantly less time than previously to improve her attack speed again, bringing it all the way down to 0.4 sec.

She began to understand how Sevard could throw multiple knives in under a second now.

The Oceanblade throwing didn’t come along quite as ideally. The blade’s big, heavy shape, for all its enchanted nature, made it very unwieldy. It lost height quickly, even with the unnatural momentum pulling it forward, so its maximum arc was something like ten or fifteen meters. And nothing she did could make it fly straight.

She tried throwing overhand, which resulted in a very short arc before thudding to the ground. It would always be less effective than just taking a step forward and slamming the blade down on them without letting go of it.

Underhand sent it flying upwards and landing somewhere unpredictable but generally too close to Maya herself for comfort. Frisbee style was too much of a strain on her left wrist and elbow, the awkward positioning for a two-handed blade really unsuitable. Which left her psuedo-baseball-bat-esque side-throw as the only viable option.

It would have to do. She was running out of time to practice.

Hoortis, it turned out, was a fellow harpy, and a ranger. He seemed to move at quarter-speed as he raised his bow, thanks to Maya’s own incredibly increased agility.

She couldn’t help grinning. If only she’d had this armor sooner, she may have been able to give Kittykitty something to think about. It may not be enough to level the field with someone like Zarene, but Hoortis was only six levels higher than Maya.

She’d still never win in a straight fight. But she was faster. A lot faster.

She could do this.

“BEGIN!”

Maya started charging and overcharging Wind Whisper, while watching carefully where Hoortis aimed as he drew back the bowstrings of his obviously custom compound bow. As he released the arrow, she sprinted to the side.

Maya fired her Wind Whisper as the arrow zipped past just shy of hitting her. He tried to evade her retaliatory attack, but even though her chargeup and casting time were slow the slash of wind traveled faster than he could dodge. His health dipped. Not much, just a fraction. She estimated that, as long as her overcharged attack did the full damage amount, he probably had around 400 health.

Time to try out her new secret weapon.

Hoortis stood with his bow drawn, familiar dark power gathering where an arrow should be. The same ability Jaydu had used so effectively against Maya in the past.

But the blue-black bolt of energy only fired where aimed, and Maya kept up her evasive tactics, dodging and abruptly changing direction, preventing him from drawing a bead on her with any accuracy.

She paused just long enough to fling Oceanblade in his direction. Well, indirectly in his direction, to compensate for the spin.

It whirled across the arena, smashing right into Hoortis’s legs and jostling him. He released the arrow of darkness in the same moment, the bump unfortunately adjusting his aim just enough to hit Maya full on as she tried to duck aside.

-40 health.

Ouch! That was over an eighth of her total. But still, she’d brought his bar down by about 5%. She just needed to evade at least three out of every four attacks, and she could chip him down.

Maya sprinted up to him while he prepared to fire, grabbed Oceanblade from the ground, then retreated to a safer distance. She doubted even quadruple speed would let her dodge arrows at point blank range.

He fired one into her back as she ran, dropping her health by another 10.

Maya stopped, turned to fling Oceanblade at him again, then backed away hastily in a zigzag while charging another Wind Whisper.

He growled, but didn’t evade the flung greatsword. “Really? This is your plan?”

Maya shrugged, unable to speak while charging Wind Whisper, then pushed the spell out at him at a quadruple overcharge. Between the two attacks, his health had come down to around 85%.

No time to celebrate. She focused on dodging, waited until he started charging up the long, slow, powerful attack, then slipped in close to retrieve Oceanblade. This time, growing bolder, she took advantage of his preoccupation to slash it down across his body before running back to gain distance again.

The slash didn’t do much, though; less than the throwing even. She wondered briefly why, but didn’t have time for speculation. He fired the dark bolt, and she dropped flat to the ground. It flew over her head, impacting against the wall, but it also left her in an awkward position. His next arrow took another 10 off her health before she could scramble to her feet.

“I don’t think I’ve seen you around the arena before,” he said as he drew back his bow once more. “You new?”

Maya, already charging another Wind Whisper, didn’t reply.

“Quiet one, eh?” He fired, and Maya shoved out her attack and ducked to the side. Not fast enough. Her distraction in aiming her spell cost her just too much.

-10 health.

Maya glanced at her stats in concern, but she’d forgotten just how much health she had now in her full arena getup. 216 of 286. She could last a while longer.

Unfortunately, so could Hoortis.

It was going to be close. She couldn’t let her attention lapse.

So she stopped attacking entirely, stood back, and counted time. She could move fast enough to evade, as long as she acted immediately without even a split-second’s hesitation. Otherwise, he could pin her full of arrows in seconds.

It took him half as long to fire a single arrow as it took her to charge Wind Whisper with no overcharge stacks. His black power shot took five times as long to charge, but also flew faster.

She was still quicker, but there was practically no margin for error.

It took her less than a second to throw Oceanblade, faster than his standard arrow attack. She could charge Wind Whisper with up to twelve extra stacks before he could fire his power attack.

If she timed her attacks right as he was starting his own, she could always retaliate and return to dodging before he could get off his.

She shifted to the new rhythm, waiting until he started an attack, slipping in her own, then focusing entirely on dodging. He seemed to only have the two attacks, and she assumed he hadn’t invested enough points into intelligence to have more than those two ability slots.

And it worked. Unbelievably, it worked perfectly. Hoortis became more and more frustrated, but Maya was faster and her timing was too precise. Even if she slipped up slightly, she’d built in enough margin for errors that she survived.

She didn’t escape unscathed. Even with her full attention, she had to dodge in close to retrieve Oceanblade each time. And he was watching her, too, waiting until she was vulnerable and firing before she could retreat. But, finally, for once, attrition was working in her favor. Even though each arrow took off 10 health, her overcharged Wind Whisper did more. Oceanblade did, well, whatever it did. She had no way of knowing, since it was a freeform attack instead of an ability.

And so, for the first time, Maya stood basking in the cheering as her opponent disappeared behind her. She grinned, waved, and stowed Oceanblade into its sheath across her back.

Finally, a proper honest victory! It was the perfect way to end a day of fighting.

Her happiness lasted all the way to the arena lobby, where she happened to see her name on the schedule board and remembered.

She wasn’t quite done for the day.

She still had to fight Zarene.

Maya entered the arena for her final match, lost somewhere between confusion, resignation, and frustration.

Zarene entered across from her, moving with exaggerated slowness as she sauntered toward the middle. She had her hand-trumpet horn thing equipped in one hand, her thin white-gleaming sword in the other.

“What are you doing?” Maya asked, closing to a near distance. “You have to know this is pointless.”

“No. I’m proving a point.” Zarene brought her sword up, and blew a quick burst of notes. The blade’s white gleam brightened to a pulsing glow. “Go on, attack me.”

Maya shook her head. “I don’t know what convoluted nonsense you’ve gotten into your head now, but—”

Zarene lunged forward and tapped her with the sword. Maya braced herself for a massive loss of health, but nothing happened.

“See? Totally safe. Go on, attack me.”

“Just. . . why? I’ve told you very clearly what I want from you. But no, you’ll do everything except the one thing I’ve asked?”

“Come on. . . fight me. Do it! Just think how great this’ll be for your reputation. Sure, it’ll feel ridiculous at the time, but no one will remember that. They’ll just remember that a tier 1 took down a tier 5.” Zarene jabbed Maya with the sword, a bit harder, but still doing no damage. “Come on, they’ll get bored if we just stand here talking.”

“You can stop trying to bribe me. I’m not caving. Not for anything. And besides, you still haven’t—”

“Yes, yes. Sevard, Sevard, Sevard, that’s all you care about, your rogue boy.” Then Zarene stopped talking, her face shifting into puzzlement. “What?” she asked.

Maya shook her head. “The pathetic act is going from lame to stupid. Fine, I’ll fight you. Let’s just get this over with.”

She drew Oceanblade and stepped forward to slash two-handed at Zarene’s head in an overhand swing. If she had more space, she’d like to give a bit of a run-up and jump to give it more momentum, but Oceanblade itself was able to handle the impact just fine on its own.

Zarene’s health bar didn’t move.

Maya slashed again, while Zarene stood staring into space. “Party?” she mumbled.

Maya ignored her and continued attacking. After the fifth attack, Zarene’s health bar slid downward a tiny sliver.

“Really? Really. This is going to take all day.”

“Wait, you’re a Trickster too. Hang on.” Zarene’s outfit switched from her usual high-level getup to a much more ordinary, townsperson ensemble. “That should make things easier.” Zarene paused, then jabbed her with her sword again when Maya didn’t make a move. “Go on, Maya.”

Maya took a step back. “I’m not sure what you’re hoping to accomplish here, but this is ridiculous. It’ll take me a half hour to kill you even if you just stand—”

“Shut up!” Zarene lunged forward, smacking Maya over the head with her horn. -8 health.

Maya shrugged and started charging Wind Whisper. At full overcharge, using her entire energy pool, she could deal 170 damage. It would take a long time to charge, but it would certainly look dramatic.

Zarene backed away slowly, sword up in front of her as though to guard. It wouldn’t help against wind, but it might look slightly less stupid to the audience. Maybe.

They stood, Maya’s spell charging, Zarene standing in guard, for several seconds. Then Zarene raised her horn and played another few notes. The glow of her sword shifted from white to red.

“If you won’t finish this, then I will!”

She charged. Maya’s spell reached maximum, and she fired.

The condensed slash of wind threw Zarene backwards, dropped her health by over a quarter, and knocked the sword from her hand. Its glow immediately faded to nothing.

Maya ran forward and stabbed downward with Oceanblade, before Zarene could get to her feet. Zarene didn’t try to stand up. She lay in the dust, laughing.

Maya scowled, but continued to chip away at her health far, far too slowly. “You know this is pointless, right?”

“Not pointless. You’ll see.”

“Right.”

“I told your sponsor to bet on you. No one else will. If you can’t beat a tier 2 you can’t beat a tier 5. They’ll be upset, claim I threw the match, but you’ll still get paid.”

“Right. And he just believed you?”

“He should have. If he didn’t, he’ll feel really stupid in a few minutes.”

It did take minutes, but Maya was tired of this nonsense and just kept slashing until the victory gong sounded and Zarene faded away. She couldn’t enjoy the cheers, few and mixed with confusion as they were. If Zarene were trying to prove something, she’d only managed to prove that she had no idea what to do. This was no victory. It only cheapened her true victory by its proximity. Which made Maya angry.

By the time she stomped into the waiting room to confront Zarene, she was livid.

“What was that? This has got to be the stupidest waste of everyone’s time I’ve ever heard of! I told you exactly what I wanted. Why are you so resistant to making amends? All your convoluted schemes are pointless!”

Zarene smiled, pityingly. “Oh, little Maya. You have no idea. Maya Starborn, Maya Starborn.” The second time she said the name, it echoed in Maya’s head.

“What?”

Zarene giggled, the sound producing a mental echo. “It works! Hah. Oh, you have no idea how useful this is going to be.”

Maya walked over to her and slapped her. It didn’t do any damage, but words weren’t sufficient right now. “You’re not making any sense. Go away. Leave me alone.”

“You know what this means? I can find out exactly who is a Trickster. No one can hide from me now! And, I suppose, that’s how he got to you first.”

Maya turned and walked away. Zarene’s voice followed her mentally even after there were several doors between them.

“We may use different tactics, but we have the same goal. You really should think twice before trusting a trickster. He really does have you wrapped around his finger, doesn’t he?”

Maya ignored her voice and kept walking, trying not to think about what was happening, trying not to put the pieces together.

“Come on, you can answer. It’s our special class ability. Trickster communication. So we can coordinate across distances even though no other players can. Just ask him. You’ll see. He’s taking advantage of the fact that you’re so naive, so ignorant of what’s possible.”

“Leave me alone!” Maya snapped, whirling around. But though Zarene’s voice sounded right beside her, Zarene herself was nowhere to be seen.

Maya cut through a side street, emerging by the apartment buildings at the beginner plaza.

“You don’t have to believe me, but it’s true. Sevard is after the same thing as me. He’s just going about it differently.”

Maya stepped into her room and slammed the door. “Save game: 9 dealing with frustration. Load game 3 new specialization.”

Zarene’s voice cut off mid-sentence as Maya’s world shimmered around her. Then she was back in the mage academy, a level lower, and without any of her new items. She sat for a long moment, breathing heavily, trying to regain her calm and equilibrium.

“Load game 9 dealing with frustration.”

She shifted again, back to her apartment, back to her current self. And waited, breath held, but Zarene’s voice didn’t interrupt her again.

She relaxed, leaning back against her wall.

Should she believe Zarene? The woman was obviously losing her mind, coming up with one desperate, stupid scheme after another.

“Sevard, Sevard,” Maya said aloud. “What am I to think?”

“Um. . . Nothing?”

She froze. “You can hear me?”

“Yes. Congratulations. You’ve figured it out. It is a game feature, not a perk. But can you blame me for wanting to keep it secret? If people knew, they’d be demanding we act as telephone relays nonstop. And probably pay enough to make us want to. Ugh. Can you imagine a more demeaning fate?”

“Was Zarene telling the truth? Are you a trickster?”

“I’m a rogue! And. . . well, a liar. You know how it goes. Pretend to be a turtle for long enough, and your shell starts to feel like home.”

“What?”

Sevard sighed. “Look, Maya. Whatever Zarene told you, she’s probably just trying to get in your head. Yes, alright, I’m a trickster. And a rogue. But if you’ll remember, I was helping you before you were cursed by the Trickster and before he sent everyone after you. And I didn’t do anything to turn on you when the mission came in. Like I told her, I’m no troll. Honestly, I feel like as tricksters, we have a responsibility to stick together. After all, the longer we play the more outside enemies we’re going to make. It’s inevitable, with our class. Shouldn’t that be all the more reason to be internally cohesive? There aren’t many missions I’d flat-out reject, but this is one of them. I’m not going to bicker and in-fight in our own, very very small faction.”

“Who else?”

“Who else what?”

“Who else is a trickster? Zarene said she could use this to figure it out. I’m assuming this secret communication is a trickster-only kind of deal?”

“It only works if you call them and they answer within half a minute. So there may be more that I haven’t found. But of those currently active, there’s Cydrin, Galoz, Viros, stonecold, Xaneta, Hara, Zarene, PizzaPyre, and Maya Starborn. And Sevard, obviously.”

Maya opened her journal and noted down all the names, asking Sevard to spell them each until she was sure she had the list.

“But that won’t do any good if they don’t tell their names,” he pointed out. “The only places you can’t hide your name is in group boss fights and the arena.”

“It’s better than nothing.”

“So, what now?”

“Well, I originally was avoiding you so you wouldn’t get mixed up in my trickster problems, but it looks like that won’t be much of a deterrent to you after all, will it?”

Sevard laughed. “No, not much. So where are you now?”

“Kalyx city, beginner plaza.”

“I have a suggestion, if you’re not opposed to some subterfuge.”

“What is it?”

“Well, I’ve never been one for changing my appearance around, I like my avatar and I don’t mind everyone knowing my face. But there’s a lot of potential in these magic masks of ours, besides just hiding our code from NPCs.”

“Such as?”

“Meet me at the leypillar, and I’ll show you.”

Character Maya Starborn Average Androgynous Harpy Level: 9 Affinities: Magical Physical Tier: 1 Class: Trickster Specialization: Path of Life Base Equipment Modifiers Total Strength: 8 3 0 11 Momentum: 15 2 3 20 Agility: 8 91 1 100 Control: 8 30 0 38 Attunement: 18 0 1 19 Focus: 8 21 1 30 Intelligence: 15 3 2 20 Flexibility: 8 1 1 10 Luck: -25 - -45 -70 Unassigned: 0 Health: 233 of 233 Will: 60 of 60 Stamina: 274 of 274 Energy: 127 of 127 Speed: 3.44 Switch penalty: -22%, 7.2 secs Stealth: 2.54 Chain bonus: +6% Awareness: 0.93 Cooldown: 95% Max abilities: 4 Abilities Abilities: [5 of 4] 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

5 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

3 dmg

(fire) Sense Balance Discern if an area is lacking in or has an excess of any materials, creatures, etc. Perks: Quick Strike Decrease one ability’s activation time by 30%.

Lasts 3.5 minutes.

1-hour cooldown. Inventory Item Name Slot Str Mom Agi Con Att Foc Int Flx Midnight Armor of Agility Body 75 Ordinary Gloves of Control Hands 14 Minor Waistwrap of the Dancer Legs 1 1 Footwraps of the Acrobat Feet 2 Lesser Bracelet of Control Arm 1 4 Survivor's Bracelet Arm 2 1 1 1 Bronze Dagger Held 1 2 1 2 Acrobat's Ring Ring 1 2 1 1 Dancer's Ring Ring 2 1 1 Greater Ring of Focus Ring 3 16 Cheap Ring of Strength Ring 4 1 Cape of Deceit Shoulders 1 1 1 1 Athlete's Talisman Misc 1 7 7 Rogue's Belt Misc 2 2 2 1 Trickster's Mask (Mage) Special Money: 153 Gold, 6 Silver, 51 Copper Quality Item name Details Flimsy Newcomer Tunic Flimsy Newcomer Leggings Soulbound Trickster's Dice Soulbound Trickster's Orb 2/5 uses remaining Normal Apple x2 Rare Diviner's Orb 1/3 uses remaining Normal Throwing Knife x481 3 damage (physical) Special Key - Arrival Plaza Apartment Expires in 26 days Special Key - Room 6, Sapphire Hall Special Arena Equipment Token Registered to Maya Starborn Uncommon Juggernaut’s Collar Level 29, +12 mom, +11 str Uncommon Boots of Fluidity Level 29, +6 mom, +6 con, +6 flx, +5 foc Rare Crimson Flame Charm Level 30, +12 att, +12 foc, +6 int Legendary Ring of Concentration Level 29, +24 Int, +12 Con Legendary Necklace of Acuity Level 29, +18 Flx, +18 Foc Legendary Circlet of Acuity Level 29, +18 Flx, +18 Foc Normal Peach Normal Pear Normal Mango x3 Rare Shirt of Meditation Level 15, +8 flx, +7 att Uncommon Minor Chestpiece of the Dancer Level 4, +1 mom, +1 con Normal Monkey Pelt x70 Uncommon Crimson Coil Scales x5 Normal Short Sword x3 Level 19, +7 Flx, +6 Mom, 1 damage (physical) Uncommon Broadsword x4 Level 22, +6 Foc, +5 Mom, +5 Str, 3 damage (physical) Rare Longsword Level 20, +5 Att, +5 Int, +5 Str, +5 Flx, 2 damage (physical) Rare Tiara of Vision Normal Leather Armor of Agility Level 19, +13 Agi Normal Leather Leggings Level 19, +3 Int, +3 Flx, +3 Foc, +1 Agi, +1 Str, +1 Att, +1 Mom Uncommon Dust of Recall Uncommon Universal Dye Exceptional Rogue’s Jacket Level 4, +3 agi, +2 con, +1 foc Missions Mission Description

Time Reward A Private Grudge Claim Standalone's house in Conquest and hold it for at least 10 hours. Personal House Trickster Day 4 Claim in Conquest the home of the next player you see.

Once claimed, hold it for 24 hours. 5d 6h 36m Trickster's Reward

??? Arena (Shadow) Spend at least one day every week fighting in the Arena Ongoing Variable Trickster Day 5 Visit a higher-level zone and defeat an enemy more powerful than yourself. DONE +5 Reputation with The Trickster Trickster Day 3 Lose a fight to another player in the Arena DONE Ordinary Gloves of Control

+5 reputation with The Trickster Gazebo Construction Construct a new gazebo for Maylon the Poet

[Optional] Also varnish the entire structure once built DONE 3 silver 50 copper

+5 reputation with Maylon the Poet Trickster Day 2 Lose a fight to another player in PVP DONE Lesser Bracelet of Control

+5 reputation with The Trickster Windy Creek reconstruction Locate the missing workers' tools

Construct a new dam by Windy Creek

Help clear the wreckage of the old Windy Creek Dam

Help construct a new bridge over Windy Creek DONE 5 silver, 80 copper

+25 reputation with Windy Creek village Trickster Day 1 Side with a person who is losing an argument or disagreement. FAILED -5 reputation with The Trickster Help Shary the Produce Merchant Find the missing apple delivery boy. Ensure his safety and the successful delivery of apples to Shary's Produce Stand. DONE 5 copper

3 apples

+10 reputation with Shary and Elaph