Clint finished up just as Jun had returned with our belongings. We regrouped as water flowed freely into the pit and began to fill what was supposed to be the lake. I was waiting at the opening of the hedge maze, unwilling to go in by myself. I didn’t want to run into whatever had tied Jun up with vines.

“So what’s the plan?” Jun asked, still brandishing her wand. Her fondness for it made me smile.

“I don’t know. The Nothing said that the boss will come back in 24 hours if we are here or not. I think we prevented a massive amount of Blight to continue to spawn. We really need to get back to town to rest and get supplies.” I stretched and looked up at the sky. “It actually isn’t our responsibility, if you think about it. We will be on the second floor. A huge advantage for us.”

I couldn’t look the others in the eyes as I suggested leaving everyone else to fend for themselves in this. I really wanted to be that much of a coward, but I couldn’t. At least, I couldn’t be that much of a coward alone. I could follow these two in such actions. I looked up when Clint let out a deep sigh.

“I can’t. I have t’ help.” He said. “You two should head on down an’ be safe. I wasn’t raised to leave people in trouble. I will kill as many as I can on this side before they take me down.”

“You can’t get many without me. I’m coming too. Plus, I need to test out my new wand.” Jun smirked.

Shit. I had hoped to at least have Jun to be able to hide behind in cowardice. They were doing what I wanted to do, but felt like I couldn’t. I would stand by them, healing where I could. It wasn’t much, but I would do it.

“You know that means we will have to fight this boss again, right?” I flicked some grass off my shoulder.

“Just Jun an’ me.” Clint said. When I raised an eyebrow in confusion, he smiled and put a hand on my shoulder. As he spoke, he turned me around and started pushing me towards the entrance of the maze. “You got a job that needs doin’. Jun an’ me can only do so much from this side. You got to get ‘em coming into the tower from that side and healing people as they come back. If everyone rushes at once, we can get the numbers down. Jun and me will pick off stragglers and get small groups to chase us while you rally people in town.”

“But then… how will you two beat the boss again without me?” I dug in my hooves to keep from going into the maze.

“We’ll be so overpowered from all the mad xp we’ll get from this. It will be easy.” Jun twirled her new wand.

“What if they don’t believe me?” I was stalling. Clint’s plan was a good one. Just as I had been worried about this entire time, they knew they didn’t need me now. I did my best to not let them hear the disappointment and sadness in my voice. “Who would trust a stranger?”

“We trusted you.” Clint said softly.

“I knew you were trustworthy the moment I saw you, needles in your ass and everything.” Jun said with a laugh. “It wasn’t because of your horns and shit, either, you just… you just seem like someone I can trust.”

I looked back and forth at them. Their words didn’t sink in very far as I was still reeling from being sent off like this. All I could think was that they were finally getting rid of me. My eyes started to water and I turned around.

Jun darted forward and nearly tackled me with a hug. She whispered in my ear, “If anyone out there gives you a hard time, I’ll kick their ass. You keep a list of names for me for when we get back.”

I pushed out a forced chuckle. “Will do. Be careful, please.”

I didn’t wait for a response. I pushed into the maze, not following the path as I did the last time. I wasn’t very careful, I let the bushes scratch me up, rip at my dress, and mess up my hair. I didn’t care. I was blind with sadness and bitterness, thinking my friends didn’t want me around. I couldn’t see how thoughtful of a plan it was, that it really would be the only way to clean up the mass of monsters blocking the whole city from entering.

Wallowing in self-pity, I descended the stairs that were behind the door of the small building.

The stairs went on for what seemed like forever before I saw light at the end. At the base of these stairs was a small, square room with a torch. The walls were a slick black stone, made from what I presumed was the same material as the black tower. I reached out my hand to touch the surface and a voice stopped me.

“Wait. I have something for you before you do that.” It was a feminin voice, soft and sultry. It made my skin crawl.

I turned to find a faceless… thing in front of me. I say thing because it was vaguely human and vaguely plant. It had the upper torso of a person, except its arms were vines and the head had no features, just skin. The bottom half of the creature was a mixture of crustacean legs and tentacles. As it stood before me, each of the legs could not stop moving independently of one another, causing the thing to sway and jerk in ways only nightmares moved.

“Peace, Alice. I am here to help you.” It said in that sweet voice.

“How do you know my name? What are you?” My voice shook.

“I am Forgotten and I know you because you have known me.”

“Forgotten… like a god?” I asked, skeptically. My hand clutched my new pendant.

“Not so special as that, just an Idea. Something that is so real to people like you that it comes to life. Just like the Nothing. Unfortunately, I was not given such recognition by the others to gain power and authority like Nothing, but I still can do some things here. It is partly my realm, too.”

This couldn’t be good. I inched back towards the wall, ready to sprint at any moment. This must have been what got Jun trapped in the maze.

“Why would you help me when you hindered me earlier?”

“I was helping. The Tainted Cowl could not see your caster when she was hidden in the maze. Had I not done that, she would have been easily taken out.” One of the tentacles, this one green and rotting, slithered towards me. I kicked at it with my hoof, not wanting to be touched.

“I… uh… see. Thanks, I guess. I should go, I need to rally people and stuff.” I just wanted to get away. Everything inside of me was screaming for me to run, but I was too scared to move or was it curiosity? “I take it you were responsible for the blockage.”

“This is why I am so fond of you. You easily put two and two together. A brilliant mind that deserves to go far. I did that to help you as well, cut out competition for you to get the best loot and the achievement.” She pointed at my bag.

I reached down and pulled open the draw strings. Inside my bag was a piece of parchment rolled up and sealed.

“The first to the floor will receive a scroll. This scroll can be exchanged for a secret or aid from the Nothing. I wanted you to get it.” The lack of a smile on the faceless creature made the smile in its voice feel like it was dripping venom.

“Great. I don’t suppose you are going to not ask something of me in return for all this help.” I stashed the scroll back into my bag.

“I ask for nothing. I demand nothing. My help is just help. I have one more thing for you.” The vines snaked forward this time. A flower bloomed on the end and under it a strange looking fruit. It was somewhere in between a pineapple and a peach. “Take it. Plant the seed. It will help you in crafting powerful potions.”

Hesitantly, I took the fruit and stashed it away. In no way could I actually trust this creature, but I wasn’t going to insult it by not taking what it offered. As soon as the fruit was in my bag, the faceless thing disappeared. I let out a breath I didn’t know I had been holding in.

“Well, this isn’t going to bite me in the butt later.” I said sarcastically before touching the wall and exiting the stairway.

The scene I stepped out on was beautiful. The land was rolling and wide open. Trees grew in small clusters here and there. Wild flowers of every color grew in abundance as far as my eye could see. Off in the distance was a tall, pointed mountain that was smoking. I stared for several minutes before I touched the tower to return to New Beginnings.

The town was a pitiful sight when I returned. There was a crowd around the tower, sitting on the ground and looking defeated. When they saw someone exit the tower, a murmur of excitement started. Questions were thrown at me left and right.

“How did you get out?”

“Are they still there?”

“Who are you?”

“Can we go through now?”

Well, at least I didn’t have to figure out how to get everyone’s attention. I pretty much had it with no trouble. I held up my hands and shouted.

“Woah, woah! I’ll tell you all, but I am starving. Let’s all meet in the inn. I come with a plan and help.”

I saw many skeptical looks, but mostly looks of hope. Several people shouted and cheered. I thought it would be a great feeling to be cheered, but this was just awkward.

I was ushered to the inn with many people chattering this way and that, speculation being tossed about. I didn’t get the chance to collect my own food from the NPC as someone brought it to me and I was pushed to sit at a space where the whole inn could see and hear. My heart was hammering in my chest, so I focussed on eating for a moment. The noise in the inn was deafening and it was very crowded.

I spotted the red headed man and his team in the mass of other players. He was glaring at me, daggers practically shot from his eyes and into my forehead. I forced myself to swallow my bite and hold up a hand to get everyone to quiet down.

“I just came from the second floor.” I said when I didn’t have to shout to be heard. This caused an uproar of conversation. I stood and waved for them to calm down. “The Blight mess has been partially put under control.”

“Blight?” Someone said.

“That’s the plant monsters that have blocking the tower.” Another person said.

“Right. The Blight are attracted to pollen they let off when startled or attacking. You all were going in and causing more to show up because you couldn’t kill them before the pollen was let out. My party took out what was cursing the plants and creating the Blight, so all that is around the tower is the last of them for about 20 hours. My party members are back on the first floor picking off what they can, but you have to help. If everyone rushes in, we should be able to kill the entire hord. We don’t have much time.” The room was silent.

“I’m not going back. I don’t want to die again.” A woman said in the quiet. There were many hollow looks and nods of agreement.

“If you don’t go, we can’t beat this and you will never be able to go to the first floor. You’ll end up sleeping on the streets and starving.” I said, shocked that they would refuse to go back in there. “You re-spawn, it isn’t that big of a deal. It is scary, but it is possible now.”

“Not a big deal?” The redhead from my previous run in said, slamming his hand on a table. “Not a big deal to die? It is fucking horrifying.”

He said more words, but I could not hear them. When he recognized the confusion on my face, he became more enraged.

“You haven’t died here yet. You don’t know! Why the hell should we follow your advice if you don’t know what it is like?”

There were murmurs of agreement around the inn. I looked around for support but found people looking down or frowning at me. I went from the person with all the answers to someone they wouldn’t look at.

“I haven’t died yet. I haven’t because I’ve been careful, smart. I haven’t died because I’m a healer and I keep my team alive. I’ll heal you. Each of you. When you get hurt, retreat and I’ll be on this side to heal you.” I offered, talking carefully. My words didn’t seem to be swaying people. Death here must be pretty traumatic.

“Nah, we can’t trust you until you die and know what it’s like. Do that and maybe, maybe we’ll follow your plan.” The redhead said.

I looked around to see most people nodding. I hated pain. I didn’t want to die again, but it wasn’t that bad. We came back and it would just be a little fear that is natural for things to feel to make them want to preserve their life. I could handle this, I hoped.

“Fine. I’ll go, I’ll die, then we will get down to business.” I agreed and stood.

Most of the crowd followed me to the tower. I laughed softly to myself feeling like I was in a funeral procession, my own funeral.