Maya waited at the Nirsym leypillar for the other mages to respawn. Venix and a couple others did appear; the rest, she was told, had probably chosen to return to the academy itself.

She met Yinon properly, another sprite much like his Xyborg persona but without the robotic skintone. He proved as exhuberant in victory as he’d been vehement about their crusade, punching Maya on the shoulder regularly in cameraderie as he bragged of being one of only a handful of people able to say they’d been there for the escape.

He’d already taken to calling himself and the others who’d been killed in her inferno ‘Phoenixes’ with much grandiosity.

“You interested in joining a study group?” he asked, after he’d finally finished recounting their assault for those who’d been already imprisoned and thus unable to witness it firsthand. “Wind would be happy to have you.”

“I’m already in Fire, actually, but thanks for offering. I would be very interested in joining other groups at some point. I’m hoping to study all the magics eventually.”

“You know, you don’t actually have to pick one or the other. We’re an academy, after all. If you want to seriously study magic, all the entry level classes have their own time slots.”

“Really?”

“Of course. Most players don’t actually want to spend all day attending classes and working on math, so we try to make it as accessible to casuals as possible, but there are serious scholars here. You only have to prove yourself before joining the hybrid studies. Not that any of them will turn you away after this.”

“Assuming James lets me back in at all, then that sounds wonderful. I have some independent research I’ve been working on, I’d love to work with you all and make progress faster.”

“James isn’t going to complain. Everyone here will vouch for you. And I can rally the other phoenixes if he tries anything stupid. Come on, let’s go home.”

While they walked, she brought up her ability list to check on her new spell. It had been an impulsive action, turning her impromptu hypercharged Spark into an ability, but when else would she have access to that much magic to burn?

Inferno.

Surrounds the caster in a solid pillar of flame, burning everything within its radius.

##ERROR## energy cost, ##ERROR## damage, ##ERROR## second duration.

She tried activating it, but it remained greyed out. Ah, well. Even if it didn’t work, it was an awesome trophy.

And, come to think of it, now might not be a good time to engulf everyone nearby in fire. Probably for the best that it hadn’t worked.

Yinon marched them up to the front gates, loudly proclaiming the team’s triumphant return, and Maya was hustled inside before anyone could object.

Of course, it was the middle of the night, so the mage academy was nearly deserted apart from the ‘phoenixes’ who’d been sent to respawn by Maya’s impromptu inferno. Those all came out at Yinon’s loud arrival, introduced themselves, and thanked the team for the rescue.

Well, most of them. One vaguely familiar player started forward happily, until she heard Maya’s name mentioned, then crossed her arms and glowered, before turning her back and stalking off without a word. Maya tried not to let it bother her.

James even condescended to leave Shardlord’s tower, gave a brief speech about solidarity and how glad he was that the mage academy had proven itself, without mentioning or directly addressing Maya in any way, then left again as suddenly as he’d appeared.

“Come on, everyone! This way!” Yinon shouted, and Maya joined the small crowd in following him, a bit uncertainly. He headed straight for the dining hall, lit up as usual for the night. Maya could hardly believe the transformation. While they’d been catching up and exchanging stories outside, the dining room had been transformed into a dance hall. Most of the tables had been removed to leave only a few scattered around the edges, those full of assorted snacks and drinks.

Music started up as they entered, growing in volume until it vibrated through the hall and into Maya’s chest. The genre was incomprehensible to Maya, countless songs alike in style but not anything she could quite describe. Somewhere between swing and techno, but Russian? That wasn’t it either. With a shrug, Maya gave up trying to analyze the unfamiliar music and instead let herself be swept up in the moment.

They’d earned this.

And then word got around, and people started logging in to join in the fun, and before she knew what was happening someone had realized that she was the same person who done the annotations for Sparkburst. She was immediately inundated with other mages wanting her to look over their research, offers of partnership, even a marriage proposal from an elf girl she’d never met before. Explaining that she was very much female, and more importantly completely uninterested in romantic entanglements of any sort, didn’t seem to dissuade Wondrgrl nearly as quickly as Maya would have preferred.

Eventually, she was rescued by a dark elf from Fire team who she’d seen several times but couldn’t remember interacting with before. He was wielding a notebook and pen, countless equations she couldn’t begin to understand, and a calm enthusiasm that made her exhausted just trying to follow.

But at least it was less embarrassing than trying to explain why she wasn’t comfortable randomly marrying someone she’d never met before. Maya felt quite sure Wondrgrl couldn’t be a permanent.

But Rion, as he introduced himself when Maya finally worked up the courage to ask his name, had enough theories and possible explanations for magic that Maya found no difficulty in waiting out Wondergrl’s patience - and her own, for that matter. She finally ended up cutting him off, since he never seemed inclined to stop on his own, with a promise to get together and look it all over when she was less tired. With which concession he seemed content, and sat down in a corner to resume scribbling notes as though he’d never stopped.

Farrison came by to apologize for treating her harshly, to which Maya grinned and proposed that he allow her into the Wind study group to make it up to her. He agreed without reservation, and Yinon winked and gave her a probably-encouraging gesture from behind Farrison’s back.

One thing about the party, the more it expanded, it made her strangely aware of the fact that the mage academy actually had a pretty large population. Usually there were only a handful of people around, maybe a dozen or so on peak hours, but there were actually quite a lot of mages associated with Shardlord's faction.

She'd been feeling overwhelmed, like Domitius had an unbreakable advantage of numbers, that she was alone and largely helpless. But that wasn't the case at all. And once she proved to everyone where her true loyalty lay, she wouldn't have to worry about it again. She could study magic, and leave all the faction confusion behind for good.

"Have you had a chance to look over those spells yet, by the way?" Raidah asked, startling Maya's thoughts back to the moment. “Nalana gave them to you, she said.”

"Oh, no. I mean, yes she did. But, sorry, I haven't had time." A quick glance at the time proved it to be well after midnight. She hadn't bothered re-rolling her luck yet, since the worst that could happen here would be her clumsily falling or hurting herself temporarily on silverware, and she hadn't wanted to let something like her class interrupt the fun. "Just a minute."

But if she was going to be checking magic spells over, she'd need more than -100 luck.

47. But, as she hadn't even looked at her Trickster quest from the previous day, let alone finished it, the -50 penalty and the -5 for rolling brought her down to -8. She sighed. "I won't be able to right now, there's something else I’ll need to take care of first. Check back in a few days?"

"Is it anything we can help with? You were in such a rush—"

"Oh, no. It was a timed quest. I already failed it, so now it isn't important."

She half expected censure, a rant about how she'd wasted their time and resources on nothing, but instead Raidah laughed.

"That's fine. I wasn't looking forward to actually fighting a dragon anyway. Getting this much done on a new project is more progress than we make most months. Just don't forget to look them over. I would very much like to know if they'll work."

Maya marveled at how quickly she'd become the authority on spell viability. If she weren't uniquely placed to help validate their work, she'd have protested. Surely, as a group leader, Raidah shouldn’t be coming to her for help?

But unless they could find more tricksters, she was their best bet for keeping up with Domitius.

"Does the mage academy have a dungeon raid group? Or is it all informal?"

"Informal. If we need rare ingredients, we sometimes team up, but usually we just send our highest levels to collect them from lower level areas. None of us are here for close calls and excessive danger."

"No, I suppose not.” Maya chuckled at that. “It is rather thrilling though."

"More often it's frustrating. From what I understand it, you got very lucky last time."

"True. Absolutely true. But who's to say we can't get lucky again?"

"If you want to start running dungeons, I'm not stopping you. But don't expect me to tag along. I’m far more interested in the theory than the practical applications."

Maya laughed. "Alright, noted."

They talked a little longer, then Raidah departed to talk with someone else Maya vaguely remembered seeing but didn’t know well enough to name. She felt like she needed a cheat sheet to keep track of everyone. Seeing so many of the mages together in one place made her feel overwhelmed all over again. At least there were several familiar faces.

Maya made her way over to where Rion sat. "Sorry to interrupt. I don’t suppose you know where Desi is?" she asked hesitantly. "I haven't seen her around, but she's permanent, so ..."

Rion looked up from his notebook with a faint frown. "Who?"

Maya sighed. "Desmerelda Phoenix. Harpy in charge of Omni? Hangs out with a white felinis named Trixy?"

"Oh, Desmerelda Phoenix. Don't let her catch you calling her Desi."

"Right. But where is she?"

"Probably in her tower."

"Which one is that?" She knew the lone central tower belonged to Shardlord, who apparently shared space with at least one other player in his administration, James. But the shorter towers scattered around the campus were mainly attached to buildings, and Maya had never visited any of them.

"Phoenix Tower is the golden one attached to Ruby Hall. She lives on the third floor."

Maya thanked Rion and stepped outside. All the mage academy's buildings were lit up for the night, glowing like a crystal rainbow, casting multicoloured light all around her. Phoenix Tower was especially easy to locate once she knew what she was looking for, its shifting orange glow exactly the colour of flame.

Maya wondered what she was doing, even as she crossed the lawn and approached the tower. There was no doorbell, so she just knocked loudly on the door and hoped that would be enough.

For a long minute she got no response. She could still hear the music from the dining hall, the faint hum of voices. It felt unbearably lonely, standing alone in the dark outside a tower, but she reminded herself that the celebration was hers. She could go back to it any time. She hadn't been exiled, she'd head back in any minute.

She knocked again, a bit more insistently this time. "Hello!" she shouted up, when no one answered. "Desi? Desmerelda? Phoenix! I'm back. Just wanted to let you know. There's also a party, if you wanted to join us."

"Do you really think I'm the partying sort?" Desi demanded, sticking her head out of a window above Maya. Her feathers reflected the orange light of the tower, making her look more phoenix-like than ever.

Maya felt a pang of jealousy. She wished she'd had such a well-designed, coherent character in mind when creating her own look.

No. Focus.

"You don't have to be a party person to enjoy celebrating with friends."

"There are about 800% too many people involved. I'll pass."

"Did Trixy log out for the night?"

"Yes."

That didn't give her much to work with. Maya cast about for anything to say, feeling suddenly awkward.

"Well. Um. It worked. We freed everyone and destroyed Domitius's prison. He won't be using it again anytime soon."

"Good,” was all Desi said.

She sure wasn't making this easy.

Maya waited for her to say anything more, then conceded defeat. She didn't have the emotional energy for this right now.

"Goodnight, Desmerelda. I'm sorry to bother you."

Desi nodded, disappeared back into the tower, and closed the window behind her.

Maya waited a few moments in case Desi changed her mind, then sighed and headed back into the dining hall.

She had expected to slip in unnoticed, as she’d assumed no one would have cared that he left. But she’d underestimated her fame. So many heads turned her way when she opened the door, so many smiled or waved and she didn’t know even a quarter of them, but they all knew her now. It was simultaneously thrilling and humbling. She really should put some effort into meeting everyone.

Well, no time like the present.

Maya stepped inside. And this time, though still unfamiliar, the music felt as welcoming as the people.

“Welcome back!” Yinon called enthusiastically.

Maya smiled as she danced across the floor toward a group of mages, some she recognized, some she didn’t know.

Yet.

Welcome home.