Maya missed clear air.

She drifted in the magic, waiting eternally.

She probably shouldn’t have wasted her defiance on keeping the useless Dust of Recall. It would probably be interruptible anyway.

Sevard called again. She managed to say his name. She’d been practicing it for days, after all.

“Maya! Are you alright? Where have you been? I haven’t seen you in days.”

“I’ve been kidnapped and am being held in a cave underneath the area between Kalyx and Nirsym, but to the west and south a bit,” she tried to say.

She hadn’t practiced that.

“Alba came came where? I’m sorry, I don’t know why your connection is so bad. I really can’t understand you.”

Maya tried to sound it out very slowly and carefully. Sevard listened.

“Am prison near some. . . wet? You’re a prisoner somewhere wet?”

Maya shook her head. “Nirsym. City. West.” She tried to make it very slow, very clear. It still came out garbled.

“I know a lot of wet places. Can you be more specific? Is it a lake, the ocean, a river?”

“Desert. Cave.” But even as she said it, she knew it was hopeless. Even if she could direct him to the general area, he could search the region for weeks without finding the right crack in a rock.

“You don’t have to apologize, I know it’s not your fault you missed our appointment.”

Maya changed tacks. “Zarene.”

Sevard growled wordlessly. “Of course. The wretched woman. Don’t worry. I’ll find her and make her pay for this. I’ll find you. Just hang in there.”

Maya nodded, though he couldn’t see her. She couldn’t even see herself. “I’ll be here.”

But what use would he be? Zarene could kill him on her own, let alone with two minions.

She had to find her own way out of here. No one she knew was strong enough to rescue her.

This time, when they poked her with the climbing stick, she handed over her Dust of Recall without resistance. She didn’t cast any spells. She went where directed without speaking.

They washed her down, removing any trace of magic from her body.

“Do you know who I am?” Maya asked.

“No. That is not part of my job.” Someone took her hand. She jerked back. “Come with me.”

“It’s dark, I can’t see anything.”

“Then give me your hand.”

Maya did as instructed.

Two more days of the Trickster’s Curse. Three days left to finish the Standalone quest.

She wanted so badly to ask for the Oracle’s help, but Maya seemed to be the only person around who couldn’t see in the dark. She couldn’t be sure who was watching. The increasing desperation was probably just a trick of her misfortune, trying to ruin her secrecy streak by any means necessary.

She resisted the temptation. Barely. The isolation was definitely getting to her.

At least Sevard’s calls kept her from going completely crazy, even if her attempts to communicate were an exercise in pointless frustration.

They walked for some time, Maya occasionally stumbling over the ground in true -100 luck fashion.

Her energy remained at a flat 0 of 120, even once they were well away from the pool of magic. She wondered what was the cause, then decided it was utterly unimportant compared to everything else.

“Here we are,” her guide said, giving her a gentle push forward. She stumbled, of course, fell to her knees, (-1 health) then felt a door ahead of her as she got back to her feet.

“Apologies, I did not mean to knock you over.”

“Not your fault.” Maya stood, waved away the concern, then pushed the door open.

Beyond, light dazzled her. She blinked, blinded by the sudden unexpected brightness after so long in complete darkness. But her eyes quickly adapted, and she saw a large well-appointed chamber, stalactites and stalagmites carved into decorative pedastels around the edges.

The centerpiece of the room was a long table with a throne at one end and easily a dozen seats along its sides, nearly all occupied by people staring at her. The throne was empty, but she recognized Pizza and Viros, her two thuggish captors, seated midway down the table. She didn't recognize anyone else.

“What is this, a trickster convention?” she asked. “Is Zarene here?”

“Sit,” said the man by the head of the table. The seat opposite him was unoccupied.

Maya frowned. “Up there? In the middle? Or on the floor?”

“Here.” He had an accent she couldn’t quite place. Almost slavic, but softer.

“Why?”

“You are given a rare honour, and you choose to question it? Sit.”

Maya sighed, but crossed the room and sat as instructed. “Okay, I’m sitting. What’s this all about?”

“Zarene gave you into our care,” the player opposite her said. He had a very ordinary appearance, brown hair, medium skin, indistinct eyes, leather armor without ornamentation. She wondered what he’d done to be seated right beside the throne. “She had her intentions, but we have ours.”

“Like dumping me in a tank of magic for days on end to drive me crazy in isolation?” Maya snapped. “Whose plan was that?”

No one at the table reacted to her outburst. So they must all be in on it.

“That is standard procedure when recruiting dangerous magical individuals,” said the not-quite-slavic guy across from her. “Technically a two-day immersion should be sufficient, but in your case we decided to be safer rather than sorry.”

Maya laughed mirthlessly. “Safer? With me? I’m literally the weakest player in the world! There’s no need to play it safe with me.”

“Indeed? Maya Starborn, that is you?”

Maya facepalmed. “Uhhh. Really? You agreed to kidnap and imprison me without even knowing my name?”

Viros sighed, and Maya saw Pizza give him a brief shake of the head. So, the two of them knew, but hadn’t shared with everyone else? Was there any way she could exploit that seeming rift? If the tricksters were working with this. . . Council? but didn’t see fit to trust them, maybe Maya could—

“Thank you for waiting,” said a deep sinister voice. A dark-robed figure swept into the room. He had incredibly pale skin with a faint purple hue, lips parted to reveal excessively blatant vampire fangs, and black hair swept back from his face. His eyes were a crisp green, glowing faintly even in the clearly lit room.

He took his place in the throne, nodded to his council, then turned to Maya. “Welcome.”

“Um, thanks? Can I leave?”

“Not yet. It has been brought to my attention that you are a potentially priceless resource, currently being squandered by the ignorant. I seek to correct that egregious error.”

“Oh?”

“Join me. I will provide whatever you require so long as you swear to advance my aims.”

“Well, that’s very straightforward of you. But, um, who are you?”

He laughed, a dark rich laugh. “Indeed? You have not heard of me?”

“I may have, but I don’t know you by sight,” Maya said, glancing away from the intense green of his eyes.

Her gaze snagged on one of the men who’d been sitting with his back to her before. She recognized him. But not as a trickster. Rominian.

The pieces fell into place.

Of course.

“Domitius.”

“Who else?”

Indeed.

“So much for staying out of the inter-player conflicts,” Maya sighed. “I really hoped to play for more than a week without getting mixed up in the high-level players’ feuds.”

“Not every new player has the resources you do,” Domitius said. “So, what do you say?”

“I say I definitely need some time to think about it, by which I mean ‘time alone and free’ not ‘time dumped back in the prison pit’.”

“Ah, but I have a reputation to maintain. How would it look if you, the self-proclaimed weakest player in the world, were to escape me unscathed? No. You will remain here until you choose to join me. You needn’t return to the pit more than once a day so long as you refrain yourself from violence against me and mine, but you will not be leaving until you have sworn yourself to my cause.”

“And what’s to stop me swearing and going back on it?”

“It will be a soulbinding oath, naturally.”

Maya sighed. At this rate, would she have any choices left at all? Her class bound one way, her allegiance another?

“No. I will not do any such thing.”

She kept her hands under the table and pulled the Diviner’s Orb from her inventory, hiding it between her hands.

“I urge you to reconsider," Domitius said. "If you wish to have a future in this world, your only option is one at my side.”

“Can you protect me from the tricksters?” Maya asked.

Domitius’s elegant eyebrows rose in surprise. “Tricksters are my strongest assets. So long as you are sworn to my cause, I will not tolerate infighting. There is no safer place than at my table.”

The Oracle has invited you to visit Seer’s Glade. You have one minute to accept or decline.

Maya hesitated. Maybe Domitius would be a better choice than gambling everything on the Oracle's help. She couldn't rely on the fickle deities for everything.

“No matter what they do, how they may upset the Trickster with their scheming?” she asked Domitius.

“Those sworn to me are under my protection. That includes from each other. They would know better than to invite my wrath by breaking faith with one another.”

The man seated across from Maya smirked.

“Yes, even you, Cydrin. Your new status is not enough to protect you should you betray anyone here.”

Cydrin? The highest level player aside from Shardlord and Domitius.

No wonder Shardlord was hesitant to give any ground. If both of the other two of the three leaders were allied, his mage academy had an increasingly tenuous hold on their equal status.

And if Domitius had no less than three tricksters in his council, possibly even more?

Shardlord was going to need all the help he could get. Maya couldn't add one more obstacle, become one more obstacle to their success, not when that was where she most wanted to belong.

Accept.

The world began to shift around her.

Domitius leapt to his feet.

Cydrin pulled out his Trickster’s Orb.

Then they were gone, along with the meeting hall.

Maya stood in the moonlit clearing of Seer’s Glade, the Oracle waiting for her in her usual guise of stars.

“I am confused," the Oracle stated.

“Is there any way to change where you return me to when I leave here?” Maya asked, her heart still racing with adrenaline. “Because otherwise, I’m going to have to swear another stupid soul-oath and I’m getting tired of these restraints. You're the only option I have, even if there's a good chance you'll turn me away, I had to try.”

“Do you imply that your oath to my liar of a brother was not given freely?”

Maya snorted. “By some definitions of the word, maybe. But he doesn’t seem to care that much. Last time I spoke to him, he said he’d treat me the same as someone who tore Asgard from the sky and enslaved his family.”

“Alas, I cannot unbind what has been bound. But you came to me for help, and I do not like to turn away the unfortunate. Those who earn my brother’s enmity rarely prove valueless to me.”

Maya smiled hesitantly. This was different. “So you can help?”

“You already bear my sight, and I cannot now offer you more than that. But I have no champion left, no others to draw upon my power and bring truth to the world. You say you will be soon bound by more unwanted oaths?”

“I’m a prisoner until I give in and swear,” Maya said.

“An oath given by threat is not truth,” the Oracle said. “I cannot undo what has been done, but I can shield you from the power of the lie you must make to reclaim your freedom.”

“Really?”

“I do not lie.”

“Of course not, I wasn’t meaning to imply… I’m just… wow. I was just hoping for a quick teleport somewhere else. But if you can break a soul-oath? That’ll do it.”

“I cannot break it, only protect you from its power,” the Oracle corrected. “And only so long as it is made of necessity without sincerity.”

“Will that dissolve it? Erase it?”

“No. Perhaps if you were my champion, if my power were great and influence wide, I could do such a thing. But you are not, and I am weakened by many years forgotten by those who once followed my ways. Only a remnant survive, and they are as weak as I.”

Maya’s hopes sank. “So I’ll still make it, and it’ll still be real, but I can ignore it as long as I don’t mean it?”

“So long as the choice is not freely made, the oath will hold no power over you. Should you ever once choose to accept it, it will become truth and I will no longer be able to hold it back.”

So, not as perfect as it had first sounded, but not as bad as it could be. And far better than she'd expected when coming here.

“I’ll take it. Thank you. I don’t know what I’d do without your help.”

“Come back when you are able. If you hold to your course and keep faith, I believe we can continue to work together.”

“Thank you.”

Perk gained: Truth Shield

Maya glanced at the description.

Truth Shield: Oaths made under duress and without honest commitment cannot be enforced. Lasts until the promise becomes truth.

Maya activated the perk as Seer's Glade faded around her.

She arrived into a scene of complete chaos. Half the chairs were unoccupied - two were even overturned in haste. Several of those present had spread out around the room, and Rominian was nowhere to be seen. Cydrin was also absent. Domitius stood at his throne, glancing around the room with narrowed green-glowing eyes.

Maya dropped the Diviner's Orb into her inventory, then stood sharply.

“I accept your offer,” she declared firmly.

The room fell still.

“If you can protect me from the Trickster’s petty nonsense, if you will allow me to go about my life unmolested, I will take your vow.”

Domitius considered her, then nodded once. “Come with me. The rest of you, return to your seats.”