I was surrounded by stone and sand. Everywhere I looked, there were either ridges and rock formations made of a reddish stone, or matching dunes of sand. The whole thing was so monochromatic that I felt almost bored by it.

We walked across one of the stone ridges, keeping our distance from the nearby dunes. As we’d already learned, monsters liked to hide beneath the sand, only to jump out and attack the moment we got too close. We didn’t have time to fight the monsters. Not anymore.

Voices carried on the wind, but not ours. We remained quiet as we slowly approached the source, not wanting to give ourselves away.

Then we came to an area where the ground began to descend into a bit of a low canyon. Up ahead of us, I could see what appeared to be an oasis in this desert, with a large pool of water that was surrounded by bushes and short trees.

Right in the middle of the oasis, beside the pool were our targets. I immediately recognized Raze, the large man who was dressed in barbarian chic, with the fashionable eyepatch. The other man from the nursing home, the stocky one in a leather jacket, crouched down a short distance away from him. Mad Mike.

There were three other people present as well, the ones who’d joined the pair in Gideon Heights. I recognized two of those ones, Jace and Wolf. The last member was a lithe black woman with silvery hair that was pulled back into the longest braid that I’d ever seen.

“What do you want to bet,” Ace quietly asked. “That’s a safe zone.”

“Probably,” Turtle agreed in a whisper. “Those do look like fruit trees.”

“And it looks like the exit from this desert area is just over there,” Olivia pointed out.

I looked further down into the canyon and saw what Olivia meant. There was a large stone arch, and the other side of the arch looked completely different from the desert surroundings. I couldn’t make out any details from the other side, but I didn’t see any of the red stone or sand.

“We’re almost there,” Mad Mike said. “Not much further.”

“Good,” Wolf responded. “I’ve got to take a piss before we go.”

Bunny looked to me and whispered, “That doesn’t sound like they’re forcing him.”

“No, it doesn’t,” I agreed.

Ramirez was watching them all carefully, with the look of a hunter who was waiting for the right moment. Her hand seemed reach towards her hips, to where the crossbow bolts had previously been stored, then she adjusted her grip on her spear instead.

“Finally,” the Warden whispered. “I’ve been after those two since the nursing home.”

“Same,” I agreed grimly. “But this isn’t going to be easy.”

There were six of us and only five of them, which gave us the advantage of numbers, especially when I added Bunny’s rabbits to the count. However, there was also one other detail that changed the calculation. At least a couple of them were higher level and more experienced than us, and that gave them a decided advantage in power.

“There is an opportunity to make things a little easier,” I pointed out.

I indicated Wolf, who’d wandered away from the oasis and his companions so that he could do his business. I wasn’t sure if he’d left the safe zone or not since I didn’t know where the border was, but even if he did run into a monster, he was still close enough that he could call for help.

Ramirez nodded and then smiled faintly. “Good idea.”

This opportunity wouldn’t last long, so we quickly made our way down towards where Wolf had gone. We had to be quick and careful so that the rest of the rogues didn’t see us. A minute later, we caught up to Wolf, right as he was starting to head back.

Wolf suddenly stopped and sniffed the air. He raised his sword and looked around suspiciously, clearly expecting an attack.

I stepped into view and let him see me. “Wolf,” I said, my voice even.

The other invoker took a step back and stared at me for a moment. “Maggie? What the hell are you doing here?”

I was careful to keep my eye on Wolf and to avoid looking back. Most of my team was back around a rock formation, out of sight but close enough to join me if I needed help. Ramirez, however, was much closer. She was using her ability to hide in shadow, ready to strike if Wolf attacked me.

“Looking for you,” I answered. “And your new friends.”

Wolf winced at that as a look of anger passed over his face. “Those assholes didn’t give me much choice. They would have kept killing people if I hadn’t agreed to come with them.”

“They killed six people back in town,” I pointed out. “And a lot more people before then.”

“Damn,” Wolf growled. “I figured. I knew that coming with them would be a bad idea, but like I said, I didn’t have much choice. Raze would have killed me. Hell, between Raze’s axe and Godiva’s words, they were pretty damn convincing.”

“Godiva?” I asked, assuming that he was referring to the woman with the ridiculously long hair.

“She’s a shaper,” Wolf told me. “And she has the highest presence of anyone I’ve ever met. You’ll want a lot of focus if you’re going to be talking with her.”

“Noted,” I said with a nod.

Wolf nodded, then continued, “But Godiva did make some damn good points. I didn’t want to come along, but now that I know what they’re after, I kind of want to see it to the end. I want to know if it’s really there.”

“See what to the end?” I asked, keeping my voice calm and even.

I remembered Margaret’s necklace, which was what they’d been after back in the home. I still had absolutely no idea why they’d wanted that thing, nor had I really cared. I’d been more focused on what they’d done than on why.

“What are they after?” I demanded.

Wolf let out a low chuckle. “You know, there’s an old saying. Just about anything can be found inside the Labyrinth, if you know where to look.”

“Yeah,” I said, encouraging him to get to the point. “I’ve heard the saying.”

“Well,” Wolf continued, “Raze and Mike found a guide, some kind of primal that can tell you exactly where and how to find anything you’re looking for. Wealth. Power. Immortality.” He looked in the direction of the oasis and smirked. “Changing your body. ANYTHING.”

I stared at Wolf for a moment as I absorbed what he’d just told me. “Anything?”

“Anything,” he repeated firmly. “Even if you don’t know exactly what you’re looking for, this guide can apparently lead you to it. It’s like a damn genie, but with extra steps.”

“That’s…” I started to say, only to pause and shake my head. “I can see why people would be interested in something like that. But I don’t think these guys will be looking for anything good.”

“Maybe not,” Wolf agreed. “But I really want to see if this thing is real. Hell, there are a few things that I’d like to find myself.”

I stared at Wolf for several long seconds, trying to decide which way he was going to go. It sounded like he might have thrown in with them and their goals for real. Then again, he had been answering my questions and hadn’t made any move to give me away.

“You know, I can’t let them find whatever they’re after,” I pointed out grimly. “Raze and Mike are rabid dogs, and they need to be stopped.”

Wolf just snorted dismissively. “I don’t know how you found us in here, but you’re wasting your time. I mean, what the hell do you think that you’re gonna do? You’re a rookie. They’d kill you, even if I helped you fight them.”

“Good thing she didn’t come alone,” Bunny said as she stepped into view.

“Yeah,” Turtle agreed as he joined her.

Ace and Olivia joined us as well, though Ramirez remained hidden. In spite of Ace’s name, she was our real ace up the sleeve, at the moment.

“They’ve left a trail of bodies,” Turtle said. “Including people we know.”

“I know,” Wolf agreed with a look of disgust on his face. He scratched at his jaw. “Assuming I help you all, I can still look for this guide afterwards…”

Suddenly, a new voice called out, “I told you he was taking too long for a piss.”

I snapped around, cursing under my breath as I did so. Mad Mike stood there, looking almost exactly the same as when I’d seen him back at the home. He even wore the same black leather biker’s jacket, though it did look like it had been torn and patched in a couple places.

“I just thought you were running away,” Mike continued, his eyes locked on Wolf, “not conspiring against us.”

Raze stepped up behind Mike, looking just as large and imposing as I remembered. He held up his double-sided axe and glared at Wolf with his one remaining eye before looking at the rest of us.

“Kill ‘em,” Raze ordered. “All but our invoker. We still need him.”

Raze leapt at Turtle, who barely threw up his shield in time to save himself. The impact sent Turtle flying backward, his shield now bent out of shape. Before Raze could charge Turtle again, Ramirez jumped out of the shadows and tried to drive her spear into his chest. Raze reacted faster than she expected, backhanding her before she could hit him and sending her flying.

“Crap,” I exclaimed as Raze raised his axe to attack Ramirez.

I blasted Raze with an ‘Invocation of Spite’, making him pause in his tracks as he howled in pain. The sight filled me with a dark satisfaction.

“YOU!” Jace yelled out, pointing at me. “I’ve been looking for a chance to get back at you…”

“You’re welcome to try,” I responded.

Jace came rushing at me, but I didn’t bother trying the same move on her that I had before. She might be expecting me to sweep her legs out from under her, so I did something else instead. I activated ‘Invocation of the Wisp’ and sent an illusion running off instead. Jace took the bait and chased after that.

Sir Fluff and four horned rabbits all chased after Jace and began attacking her. Since Jace was being occupied, I turned my own attention to Mad Mike, who was raising a scepter to attack Olivia. My ‘Invocation of Spite’ was down, so I rushed at him with my mace.

“Hey,” I called out to get his attention.

Mike saw me coming and grinned, which I immediately recognized as a bad sign. “SHATTER,” he yelled. My mace suddenly shattered and crumbled away, leaving me unarmed.

“Ah, crap,” I exclaimed.

Since I was already in the process of attacking, I just continued, only leading with my fist instead of my mace. I punched Mike, which felt satisfying, except for the fact that it didn’t do much. He returned the favor by punching me and proving in the process that he’d slotted some points into strength.

Wolf suddenly grabbed me and picked me up off the ground, lifting me as though I weighed almost nothing. “We don’t have time for this,” the other invoker told Mike. “We have somewhere to be.”

“What?” Mike asked, obviously surprised at having Wolf help him.

“Sorry about this,” Wolf quietly told me, “but they’re going to kill you. Get out of here. Go back to town.” And with that, Wolf threw me

I flew through the air, only to land right in the middle of a sand dune. The sand softened my impact, but I still hit hard enough to leave some bruises.

“Wolf is really asking for an ass kicking,” I grumbled as I looked back towards the fight. I was surprised by just how far Wolf had thrown me.

The fight was going bad for my side. A giant stone hand had emerged from the ground and was grabbing at Olivia, who was frantically scrambling backwards. She fired an arcane blast at the stone hand and blew a hole in the palm, but that wasn’t enough to stop the stone appendage.

Mike and Ace were both firing scepters at each other, and Ace seemed to have the advantage since he had two scepters to Mike’s single one. However, Jace was fighting through the rabbits and making her way straight towards him.

I only caught a quick look at the fight, because at that moment, something emerged from the sand dune beside me. A monster crawled out of the sand, shaking it free as it did so. It looked like a cross between a dog and a tarantula, about the size of a small pony. But as hideous and terrifying as that was, I was even more disgusted by the fact that a hundred smaller ones fell off its back. Each of these ones was tiny in comparison, only about three inches long, but they made up for their lack of size with sheer numbers.

The large monster attacked me and I tried to dodge, but I was caught up to my knees in sand. I staggered backwards, grabbing hold of the thing and trying to push it away. And while I was struggling with mama, all the babies decided that it was time to attack me.

Tiny red sparks kept popping off around me, courtesy of my ‘Blessing of Avexis’. Every time one of the tiny monsters attacked me, my blessing did a tiny amount of damage to them. Fortunately, they seemed to be dishing tiny amounts of damage as well. In fact, they couldn’t seem to really get past my clothes, though when one of them bit my exposed hand, it hurt like hell.

“Damn it,” I snarled, letting go of the big monster so that I could slap the smaller ones away from my exposed skin. “You jumped the wrong man…woman.”

With that, I quickly drew both of my knives, the dagger and the one I’d taken from Nash. When the large monster lunged for me again, I was ready to fight back. One blade went into its eye while the other one slashed its neck. It kept trying to bite me, so I kept stabbing.

The smaller monsters continued attacking me, but I ignored them as best as I could. Most of them weren’t a real threat and my ‘Blessing of Avexis’ was slowly taking care of them. One by one, the smaller monsters were falling down dead.

I drove my knife down into the monster’s skull and it finally stopped moving. It collapsed to the ground, leaving black blood all over the sand. Then I turned my attention to the remaining swarm and finally began to deal with them directly, slapping and stomping at them. They were quickly finished off as well.

Once my monsters were dealt with, I was finally able to turn my attention back to the main fight. However, by the time I was able to do so, I realized that the fight was over. My friends were scattered about on the ground, except for Turtle who was busy fighting off another one of those monsters.

“Where are they?” I demanded as I rushed to help him. I blasted the monster with an ‘Invocation of Spite’, then looked around for the rogue players. “Where did they go?”

“They went…thataway,” Ace responded with a groan, pointing towards the stone arch. “We chased them off…”

“Hardly,” Bunny responded with a wince. She was on the ground, holding her arm with a grimace of pain. “They were about to kill us, then Wolf yelled something about not wasting time and ran off through the arch…” She looked towards the stone arch that I’d seen earlier. “The others all ran after him.”

“Wolf lured them away,” Olivia said. “He probably saved our lives.”

Olivia was on the ground, her legs completely embedded in stone, as though it had grown up and over them. And considering that stone hand I’d seen going after her earlier, that was probably exactly what had happened.

“Now,” she snarled angrily. “Someone get me out of here.”

“No probable about it,” Turtle added with a groan.

I nodded at that and looked around only to realize that there was something wrong. “Where’s Ramirez?”