What? Are you kidding? It’s a ste ring – of course it should be Soulbound to your mana. Yes, it’s more expensive, but do you really want any random oaf poking through your stuff?

  - Giddy Clicksprocket, Jewelcrafter, Myrin’s Keep.

  Aliandra

  Ali walked the rest of the way to the Adventurers Guild with the discerting prig itch between her shoulder bdes that kept makiurn around suddenly, certain someone was aiming at her back. It didn’t help that she had barriers, nor that the others were also on the alert.

  The crossbow bolt had been aimed at her back. If not for ’s sharp eyes and quick reflexes, it would have been Ali’s heart that exploded blood across the wall instead of ’s arm. She had grown substantially stronger sihen, but the shock of the surprise attastantly transported her back to the level eight Fae, lost in the darkness, suffering from domain withdrawal, deathly afraid that just around the er a Kobue would spring out of the shadows with a dagger aimed at her bad end it all before she even noticed.

  The sense of relief as the guild doors thudded shut behind her alpable.

  Focus. Even with the traumatic events just outside fresh in her mind, Ali still recalled ’s pn. As soon as they walked up to the reception desk, and the stylishly dressed Elvish administrator, Ali was on high alert.

  Mieriel gnced up with a frown. A subtle formation of magied around her eyes, and well before she was in range for Identify, Ali saw the magitly toug ’s head. To Ali’s intense surprise, his alert vigince vanished instantly as his body began to rex.

  What magic is that? Ali was certain she had never seen anything like it. But somehow there rickle of familiarity in the back of her mind. As if she couldn’t remember some minor detail that might have been important. Déjà vu?

  The magic flickered once more, and Mato rexed, grinning at , and then making a teasing ent.

  Mieriel’s magic was most certainly affeg her friends. It fred again, substantially stronger as it settled on Malika. The formations pulsed as it seemed that Malika struggled against it before she too finally relented, and her body rexed.

  What is she doing to them?

  Ali hesitated, pausing her approach.

  Spy – Sun Elf – level 49 (Mind)

  Mind magic! Suddenly it all made sehat subtle magid the effe her friends’ attitudes and demeanor. Mieriel was attag their minds! She met Mieriel’s eyes and saw her mouth firm into a determined line as the magic fred once again.

  Shit. She wasn’t quite far enough.

  A wave of disorientation aigo hit her, and she stumbled as she fought against the subtle but powerful magical forces assaulting her mind. Her will felt dragged down as if hooked to an anchor tossed overboard, her mind filled with trivial details, but she bore dowing the attack. A wave of ease crashed through her as she suddenly wondered why she aying attention to this anyway, but in the moment, she reized it as atack, sapping her focus and willpower.

  Mieriel’s frown deepened, and her magitensified dramatically. Ali struggled against the onsught, feeling her willpower and resolve slowly dissolving iorrent.

  No! She pushed back as hard as she could. Get out of my mind!

  In a sudden fsh, she saw herself in the meeting room with Vivian Ross, and Mieriel looking down on her. Her heart filled with a bottomless well of helplessness and grief, entirely at the mercy of the cold hard eyes of her captors. In the sudden rush of shod despair, her will crumbled and shattered.

  What…

  Analyst – Sun Elf – level 18

  What was I doing? She had the disturbiion of having suddenly fotten something absolutely and critically important. Why is my heart rag?

  “Wele! gratutions on reag silver rank!” Mieriel’s cheerful voice cut through her inexplicably ragged breathing and dizziness. “Would you like to upgrade ys?”

  Oh, that’s what it was…

  “Yes…” Something was still not quite right, but she couldn’t put her finger on it. Is it hot in here? Even the cool and stylish Mieriel seemed to be flushed and had a thin sheen of sweat on her brow. We did e here to get the new silver rings, but then we were attacked outside…

  “We were ambushed outside the guild hall,” said.

  “Oh, I’m sorry. I haven’t had a ce to tell you yet, but the Guildmaster has discovered that there is an assassination tract out on Malika and Aliandra.”

  “What? Why?” Ali stammered. Who would want to kill her?

  “We believe it’s Kieran Mori, the stated reason is revenge for the deaths of Adrik and Edrik. There’s a one gold reward for each of you.” Mieriel seemed horrified as she expi.

  “I thought we were doh them,” Malika said, a look of frustrated determination on her face.

  ***

  “Nevyn Eld! Are you certain?” Vivian Ross’s voice rang with shod incredulity as she reacted to Ali’s reting of the final development of their tale.

  “Yes, I’m sure. I’ve met him before. Lich, pitch bdead flesh, aura of despair, and a scarlet blindfold.” While Ali managed a calm and trolled outward delivery, within her, a maelstrom of anger, frustration, fear, and grief erupted, crashing against the barriers of willpower she erected around her heart.

  Inexplicably, Mieriel flirying unsuccessfully to hide her rea behind a cough.

  Ali chose to ignore her and finish the tale. “He appeared, and removed the dungeon shrielep away when he was dohe shrine had his mana signature on it. So, the dungeon is gone, and so is the Lich. We’re stuck with the life drain and the ambushed on the way to the guild.” The tale sounded hard to believe even ing from her own mouth, but Vivian was still listening ily.

  “This is serious,” Vivian said. “If Nevyn Eld is on the move, I o involve the Elven cil immediately. The Lich is an evil that is well beyond any of us – if he returns, Myrin’s Keep is doomed. We will all be raised as livio serve him.” Ali had never seen the Guildmaster anything but calm and collected, but right now she seemed shaken by their news. Havihe lich, and personally experienced his power, Ali had no doubt Vivian’s assessment was the fearsome truth.

  It took a few moments, but the Guildmaster finally collected herself.

  “You have done a great service eliminating the dungeon, so thank you. And gratutions on reag silver rank to all of you.” Vivian’s voice was back to normal, her uainty magically vanished.

  “Life drain is a serious problem. I don’t reend leaving it ued – on its own it usually resolves in a couple of months, but sometimes it never fully heals. I reend sulting with Eliyen Mistwood – she’s the town’s most advanced herbalist. Also, with the hit out on you two, I reend staying off the streets as much as possible until you recover. You’re wele to stay here at the guild if you need a pce to stay.”

  Malika

  “Hi, Weldin,” Malika said, walking into the open-pn guild store, her eyes rapidly evaluating and appraising the new wares she saw on dispy. The resourceful Gnome had been busy, and much of the junk they had sold him from the Goblins and Kobolds was gone, repced with a variety of items suitable for adventuring that must have e from various crafters and epic deals with visiting merts in the market. She leased to see several of Lydia’s pieces promily dispyed on mannequins and a nice array of Thuli’s daggers and swords.

  “Malika! My favorite er!” Weldin excimed, hobbling over to her, leaning heavily on his e.

  “Nonsense,” she smiled. “Everyoh money is your favorite er.”

  “True enough,” he said with a grin. “But you have money, do you not?”

  He has a point, she thought, ughing with him.

  “I have somethier,” she decred, dramatically.

  “You have something to sell?” Weldin’s good eye lit up with excitement and the anticipation of making a deal.

  “I do indeed!”

  Malika slipped her mind into her brand-new silver guild ring, s through the items she had transferred from her old ohe new ring’s ste ositively enormous, fully six times the capacity of the bronze ring. She only wished she had had it when they were stog up in the armory. The Eimuuran steel was more valuable, but it was way heavier than the boems that made up the bulk of her iory.

  No matter, we always go baow that the dungeon was truly dead, the undead monsters would not be respawned. Weldin had no idea Ali could make some of the items, so they had an effectively unlimited supply. That was a card she would py as close to her chest as she could, for as long as she could.

  Silver Guild Ring – level 3 signifying silver-level membership with the Adventurers Guild.Owner: MalikaQuests:Eliminate hostile Goblins in and around Myrin’s Keep – 0Eliminate hostile Kobolds in and around Myrin’s Keep – 0Mana: Store or retrieve an item. Capacity: 155 / 330lbsQuality: MagicalValue: Soulboued by Giddy Clicksprocket.Ring

  “What do you think of this?” Malika asked, retrieving the Ironwood Staff of Shadows, twirling it in her hand, and activating the shadow entmeure briefly before setting it on the low table for Weldin to i. It was the opening a her py, desigo hook the i of her prey.

  “Three entments, very will be the first unon-grade item for the store,” Weldin said calmly, but Malika could tell that he was excited by the gleam in his eye and the careful way he hahe staff.

  “What do you want for it?” With the question, his voice turned serious and businesslike.

  “Just because I trust you, how about I show you the rest of the items, and we egotiate the whole deal?” Malika he happy smile on his face at her suggestion, but she had a rather practical reason for this approach. She was certain Weldin did not have the funds to buy all of it, and she would rather take a little less on the deal if she could motivate him to take a loan and move everything she had to sell. Selling their haul through the guild store came with some rather attractive bes – in addition to helping the guild, and savihe hassle of w the public market, she would earn some nice dists and preferential access to quests iure.

  “Ok, show me what else you want to try aice me with,” Weldin said, taking the bait with a clearly affected dubious disi.

  Malika produced her trump card, summoning the level forty-one Bone Sword of the Wight and ying the gleaming ented bde carefully o the Ironwood Staff of Shadows.

  Weldin coughed as he opened his mouth and closed it again, a look of pure avarice crossing his face before he quickly schooled his features. The look was there for such a brief moment, that Malika was certain ah slower reflexes would simply have missed it. Weldin Thriftpenny was a masterful mert, but Malika knew she had him with this deal.

  With that settled, the rest of the exge simply o py out. She began unloading equipment from her ring, armor, ons, and arrows – the selected spoils of aire dungeon. She let his disfrow as she kept adding to the pile until she had everything id out.

  She suggested a price for the entire pile, enjoying watg him squirm for a few moments while she imagihe maations that must be going on through his mind as he struggled to e up with a way to close a deal well outside of his buying power and not let it slip out of the door to the marketpce.

  Only then did she dahe final carrot – the closing act of her carefully pnned py.

  “I don’t he money immediately, so how about I leave all this with you, and you leave the money for me in my guild at when you get it? Say in one week?” She gave him the sweetest smile she could jure.

  “Well pyed, Malika,” he said finally, accepting her offer. “You win this round.”

  She grinned and shook his hand, closing the deal, knowing that even though she had won, with his savvy and skills, and just a little patience, he was going to make a fortune off what she had given him.

  Vivian Ross

  Vivian sat in silence, but within, her mind was rag with the implications of their reting of their experiences underground.

  She’s a dungeon.

  Vivia her stomach ch painfully with the fresh surge of ay and – she was even able to admit it, fear – that her thought spawned within her. She had never imagihe day she would sit in her meeting room, versing with a living, breathing dungeon. She could taste the bile and bitterness as her body respoo the powerful emotions her memories dredged up.

  A Mieriel’s simple words stabbed deep into her heart, twisting this way and that, a pain she simply could not resolve. Do not bee those who you hated. Could she really kill Aliandra? She was a dungeon, and every fiber of her being told her to sh out aerminate her before she destroyed everything. A, she was that inprehensible impossibility – a duhat hadn’t yet hurt anyone.

  An i dungeon? The phrase felt ingruous and impossible. An oxymoron.

  But when she imagined drawing her sword to kill the Fae, her heart filled with sutense self-loathing and guilt that she broke out in a cold sweat, hands trembling.

  I ’t… Mieriel was right.

  Yet, somehow, Aliandra had brought a revetion of vastly more significe than a mere dungeon. The Lievyn Eld, the betrayer, and evil inate had appeared here. Could the vile entity be w through her? No, that did not seem possible either. Mieriel would have said.

  “She was telling the truth?” Vivian asked, swallowing to steady herself and gripping the tabletop to still her shaking. “About the Lich?”

  “Yes.” Mieriel’s answer was short and carried no uainty. “I have never experienced such overwhelming dread and fear as her memory of that experience.”

  Vivian fell silent once more, aloo wrestle with her thoughts. She was certain about one part of her path – the Elven cil had to be informed. Only their Archmages and Pathfinders would be able to stand up to the evil of the Lid his minions. But inviting their attention would e with sequeoo, and she wasn’t certain it would work out for the best is of Myrin’s Keep.

  “What will you do about Mori’s bounty?” Mieriel asked.

  “I don’t know,” Vivian answered truthfully. It was not unheard of for the crooked captain of the Town Watch to put out hits on people he didn’t like, but this time it was directed at her and her fledgling guild. Already she had lost several members and it seemed hardly a stretagine Mori might be the one behind it all. On one hand, it would be so o have Mori take care of her dungeon problem without any personal involvement on her part, but…

  “I’m with you, whatever you decide,” Mieriel said. “But politically, I think it would be a disaster to let him kill yhest-level adventurers.”

  “For sure,” Vivian admitted. Mieriel’s insights had steered her past so many traps and pitfalls that she simply didn’t questioruth of it anymore. Aliandra and her group were now clearly the most advanced and successful members she had in this fledgling guild. If she were ho with herself, they had admirably stepped up to fill the role she had envisioned when she had first fou. They were growing fast and being powerful members of the town. The fact that they had already performed valuable services defending the townsfolk against the Goblin siege and eliminating a dangerous dungeon underground recisely the kind of vision she wanted for her guild.

  If only she wasn’t a dungeon herself. My head hurts. What a mess!

  Mieriel was right, though. Allowing Kieran Mori to pick off her adventurers would hamstring the guild’s autonomy and power forever, permaly hobbling it and snuffing out her vision for what she wao build.

  I must support her. The clusion twisted her gut once again, but it was inescapable. She found herself forced to protect a dungeon. It was either that ive up her vision for the guild and admit failure before she had even started.

  “I will protect her. I ’t let Kieran Mori take trol.” Vivian finally spoke the words out loud, feeling a disturbing sense of fate settling on her shoulders as her resolution became crisper, more real somehow. But she knew deep in her heart that Mori was just an excuse. She couldn’t kill Aliandra without also killing the person she had fought so hard to bee.

  “Then you will o decide when to tell her,” Mieriel said.

  “What do you mean?”

  “The ime she levels up, I will not be able to keep my secret.”

  “This soon? How is that possible?” It had always been part of the pn they had made together, but it was an aspect Vivian had beeain would take much longer. At some point, the adventurers would level beyond Mieriel’s skill level and her css and affinity would bee known, but Mieriel’s subtle magic usually worked against people substantially higher level than she was. She had hoped to be much more ected with the guild members before that happened so she could mahe shock appropriately.

  “I sed her with the panel’s advanced Identify again. She’s level thirty-seven, but she has more than four thousand mana. That is not possible for a normal css, she would need more than four hundred wisdom to support that amount of mana. The ser thinks she has less than one hundred and fifty. She must have some aptitude or skill that boosts the effectiveness of her wisdom, whicreases her willpower aance against my mind magibined with the impressive work of Lydia Avery that she’s wearing most of the time, she was very nearly able to resist me when they came in today. Also, I think she’s beginning to recall our interrogation – based on the emotions I was reading when she fought me.”

  “That’s a problem.” Vivian was not certaily how Aliandra would react to the news, but she knew she would be pissed if it happeo her. She raised her fio massage her temples. How did it e to this?

  “I’ll trust your judgment,” Mieriel said, deferring the decision. “But if you want a ce to salvage the retionship, I reend ing before she figures it out on her own.”

  “I wish I had more time…”

  “Is it so hard to accept her?”

  “You remember what happened.”

  “I do. But that wasn’t her. She is one of your top adventurers. Not to mention that Aiden and Havok, and the entire group of new members are the result of her and her css shrine.”

  Mieriel was right. If she could just ighe inve fact of her being a dungeon, in all other ways Aliandra was a gift from the gods to an aspiring Guildmaster. She could mint new adventurers with incredible csses, she was a summoner who could learn new minions whenever she entered them, and she was already well-established on a team with a track record of extraordinary successes against raid-level threats.

  A she simply couldn’t shake it.

  She sighed, turning her mind to other, more urgent, issues. Priorities. She would have to e back to the thorny problem of Aliandra – after she’d dealt with the terrifying appearance of the Blind Lich. She pulled out a piece of paper and a pen and began posing a letter.

  “ you drop this off at the Novaspark Academy of Magic?” Vivian asked, pushing her note across the table to Mieriel. “Send it to Archmage Nathaniel Sunstrider directly. Please pay for a telepath or teleportation courier service.” It would be expensive, but the guild could now afford the cost, thanks to the small pertage they took from the store transas and the guild fees for the increasingly popur quest board.

  “The Pathfinder Guild?” Mieriel asked, st the note.

  “He’s also a promi member of the Elven cil. He will ehey’re informed about the presence of Nevyn Eld in Myrin’s Keep.”

  “Ok. I’ll take care of it immediately.” One of the things Vivian loved about Mieriel was how she always grasped the importance of things intuitively. It came with her css, but it always made Vivian feel instantly uood.

  “One more thing. you let know I’d like him to do a strategy lecture for the guild this week? If he’s up for it.”

  Mieriel raised an eyebrow. “Isn’t he a bit shy?”

  “He has a keen mind for tactid strategy, and they have two raid fights uheir belts. I want him to share his insights with the guild. It’s time to begin growing the whole team. The earlier we cultivate the mi of sharing valuable experience across groups, the faster the newbies will grow. I have a feeling it will be good for him too.” would probably need a bit of a push, but this was a great opportunity to get him to e out of his shell a little.

  At least when it came to , Malika, and Mato, Vivian had absolutely no doubt they were on track to being the bae of an effective guild – the kind of guild she had dreamed of building all along. All they would need was a little guidand encement, and she was at least fident in her abilities to mentor effectively.

  If I haven’t screwed it up with Aliandra already…

  timewalk