Interlude:
Maya Ramirez looked around the safe zone and let out a long sigh of relief. This place looked like some kind of castle courtyard, with stone floors and walls, and a gorgeous fountain placed right in the middle. At the moment, it was the most beautiful place she’d ever seen.
“I think that water is glowing,” Ace said, pointing to the fountain. “Are we sure this is a safe zone?”
Turtle opened a treasure box and said, “Found the food. It’s definitely a safe zone.”
Maya nodded at that. While not all safe areas had food provided, enough of them did that it was a sure confirmation. After all, the Labyrinth didn’t provide food for you anywhere but one of the safe zones.
Then she looked around at the others, noting that everyone had bloody welts on their hands and faces. She resisted the urge to scratch at her own tiny wounds or even look at them. Those insects in that last area had been voracious and nasty, with Maggie being the only one to escape their hunger unscathed. At that moment, Maya truly envied Maggie for that bug zapper ability.
“Canteens before washing up,” Maggie reminded everyone.
“Good reminder,” Maya admitted as she pulled out her own canteen and went to the fountain. As Ace had pointed out, the water was glowing. However, since this was a safe area, she knew that the water would be clean and safe.
Once Maya’s canteen was filled, she cupped her hand under the flowing water and got herself a drink. As she expected, it was crisp, clear, and refreshing. Then she felt a pleasant tingling spread through her body, followed by many of her aches and pains fading away or vanishing entirely.
Maya looked at the back of her hands, noticing that the bloody welts that had been on them were gone. Her eyes widened at that and she looked around. As everyone washed off their bug bites, the wounds all closed up and vanished, not leaving a single scar.
“It seems that this water is exactly what we needed,” Maya said with a smile.
A minute later, she grabbed some food and then sat down with her back against a wall, enjoying this chance to take a break in safety. The Labyrinth was a nightmare, with risk to life and limb hiding behind every corner. She needed this break, for her own sanity if nothing else. They all did.
“Too bad we can’t enjoy it for long,” she reminded herself. Unfortunately, they still had an ongoing mission.
Maya began looking over her gear and weapons, making sure that everything was still in shape and ready to use before she went back out into the Labyrinth. She looked over and saw that Maggie was doing the exact same thing with her own gear, which was a clear reminder of who Maggie used to be.
Maggie was…amazing. She was beautiful, confident, and capable, with just a bit of an edge to her. In fact, Maggie was exactly the kind of woman that Maya liked. Maya had been drawn to her even before finding out who she used to be.
After Carl Upton had died, Maya had done her research on the man. Between what she’d read and what Simon had told her, she’d come to respect him. She’d even developed a bit of hero worship, not that she’d ever admit as much to Maggie. That would be far too embarrassing.
One thing that Maya had come to realize was that Maggie was not Carl. She had all of his memories and experiences, but she didn’t behave the way she would have expected from the founding Warden. Maybe the stories she’d heard about Carl hadn’t been quite accurate. Maybe dying and being respawned with a new body changed her in ways that Maya simply couldn’t understand. And maybe, maybe the woman that Maggie had once been, Magdalena Malice, was having more influence than they realized.
The whole reincarnation thing complicated things, but Maya also found it comforting. The existence of respawned players proved that there was life after death, but this greater reincarnation thing was additional proof. Life did exist after death, and it made sense that the person you were in one life would influence who you became afterwards, even if you couldn’t actually remember it. However, it also made sense to judge people by who they were now, not by who they’d been in some previous life, remembered or unremembered.
“Maggie is,” Maya whispered, giving Maggie a surreptitious look of appreciation. “Maggie is Maggie.”
Maya smiled at that, then quickly looked away and schooled her expression so as not to be caught staring. These things she was feeling were unprofessional, ill-timed, and complicated. She couldn’t afford to have them right now. However, that didn’t seem to stop them from coming.
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Wolf trudged along behind his companions, trying to keep his expression impassive when he really wanted to scowl and glare at the others.
Raze led them from the front, taking on any monsters that they came across. The berserker seemed to enjoy the challenge, or at least, the triumph of destroying anything that got in his way. Wolf took that as a warning of what would happen to him if Raze thought that he stood in the way.
The invoker thought of the short grey people that his companions had slaughtered. He’d expected that kind of brutal massacre from Raze, but not the others. Admittedly, Mike had only killed a couple people, almost halfheartedly blasting them with his scepter. Jace, on the other hand, had enthusiastically helped, as though embracing the opportunity to unleash all of her pent up rage and frustration on targets who wouldn’t bring any consequences. Even Godiva had joined in, making people sink into the ground as though it was quicksand.
Wolf was the only one who hadn’t contributed to the bloodshed. However, he was well aware of the fact that he hadn’t done anything to stop it either. He’d been too afraid of Raze and what would happen to him if he’d spoken up. The very thought of his cowardice made him stick to his stomach.
After all that unnecessary death, they’d found what Mike’s mirror ball had led them to. And as soon as Mike had touched the artifact, the mirror ball had melted back into a shard of broken mirror, then flew away.
Wolf glanced at Mike, who bore a deep scowl on his face. The artificer had acquired the treasure that he’d been after, but he wasn’t happy with it. The treasure had been a strange book, one with metal covers. Inside the book, pages showed diagrams of several different artifacts, along with a lot of writing. But unfortunately for Mike, the writing was in a strange language that none of them knew. Mike had the knowledge he wanted, but he couldn’t read it.
“Yet,” Wolf reminded himself. Mike couldn’t read the book YET.
There were artifacts that could translate different languages, and there were players with abilities that could do much the same. It wouldn’t be too difficult for Mike to get that book translated. It would just take awhile.
With that, Wolf held up his own mirror ball, which was tugging insistently.
“I think we’re close to mine,” Wolf said.
He hoped that Raze wouldn’t ignore this and just continue ahead towards his own goal. That would be just like Raze to do, regardless of how close they were to Wolf’s treasure.
To Wolf’s surprise, Raze responded almost pleasantly, “Sure. Let’s see this thing you’re looking for.”
“I think we’re close to what I’m looking for too,” Jace offered a little hesitantly. She held out her own mirror ball and stared at with a hungry expression. “Yeah, that way…” She pointed the same way that Wolf’s sphere had been leading him.
“Maybe they’re in the same place,” Godiva suggested, looking amused by the idea.
“That would make things easier,” Mike agreed with a grunt.
Just then, Wolf felt the hair on the back of his neck stand on end. He immediately tensed up and activated his ability ‘Invocation of the Wolf’ to increase his sense of smell. There was a pungent scent close by, one that made him want to growl in warning.
“We’ve got trouble,” Wolf warned, barely managing to use words instead of the growl that wanted to come.
Something suddenly moved up ahead of them, something which had been sitting right beside the path, but which had been completely unseen. The creature was humanoid in shape, but had the same green and grey coloring as the background, almost like it was a chameleon. Then Wolf noticed that coloring was shifting and changing as it moved. It was still trying to blend in.
The monster rushed straight at them with blinding speed, but Raze reacted even faster. The berserker stepped forward and swung his axe, splitting the creature in two. It’s body collapsed to the ground in two pieces, neither of which blended in anymore.
“That thing was fast,” Jace said in surprise.
“And sneaky,” Mike grumbled. He gave Wolf a nod of acknowledgement. “Good catch.”
“With that speed and stealth,” Godiva commented, looking a little disconcerted, “It probably could have gutted half of us before we’d even realized it was there.”
Raze just snorted. “It was weak. All it had was tricks.”
“But tricks that can kill,” Mike admitted.
Wolf looked at the monster, taking in the details now that it was visible. It had been some sort of reptilian humanoid, with long black claws that looked like they would have done a LOT of damage. He was just glad that he’d spotted the thing. Then again, he glanced at Raze and wondered if it might have been better to remain silent.
The invoker checked his mirror ball again and noted that it seemed even more insistent. Jace was doing the same thing. By this point, it was becoming obvious that he and Jace were both being led to the same place. They were close. Very close.
It only took another ten minutes before they found their destination, a cave which appeared to have been the lizard man’s lair. Just outside the cave, there were small piles of armor and weaponry, all of which had been casually discarded.
“It was hunting travelers,” Wolf said as he scanned the area. “Bringing them back to its lair…” He shrugged at that. “I bet that if this wasn’t in the Labyrinth, we’d be finding piles of bones along with this stuff.”
“Then its fortunate for us that the Labyrinth likes to clean up after itself,” Godiva said dismissively.
“We need to go inside,” Jace stated, staring down at the mirror ball in her hand. Wolf checked his, which also tugged in the direction of the cave entrance.
Jace stared at the cave entrance, then hesitated for a moment. She looked down at the sledge hammer in her hand, and then at one of the weapons that had been discarded nearby. With that, she absently dropped her own weapon and picked up a new one, a large maul type hammer which was a larger version of a sledge hammer, and would require a great deal of strength to use. Jace grinned triumphantly as she casually slung the larger hammer over her shoulder and stepped into the cave.
Wolf remained where he was for several seconds, giving the cave entrance a suspicious look. The Guide was supposed to lead him to a primal, but he didn’t feel any primals nearby. Then with a shrug, he went into the cave so he could actually see for himself.
He’d expected the cave to be dark and damp, but Wolf was surprised to find it was dry and surprisingly well lit. Several glowing crystals were placed around the cave, and they provided enough light to see everything clearly.
Off to one side, there was a pile of grass and leaves which was obviously the monster’s bed. However, that was the least interesting thing in the entire cave. Everywhere else that Wolf looked, there gleaming and shiny items.
Gems. Gold. Glass bottles. Shards of mirror. Treasure and junk were carefully placed around the cave, positioned where they could catch the light from the glowing crystals.
“What is this?” Godiva asked as she looked around.
“Shiny,” Wolf said as he picked up a shard of broken glass. “I think this thing was collecting shinies… Like some kind of magpie.”
“Keep anything shiny,” Mike said with a nod, “and toss everything else outside the cave.”
“We don’t have time to gawk,” Raze said, not looking impressed by the wealth that surrounded them.
Jace blurted out, “I FOUND IT!”
The woman held up a metal box, about the size and shape of a Rubik’s cube. It appeared to be made of polished bronze, though there were glowing symbols on a couple of the sides.
As soon as Jace held up the box, her mirror ball suddenly floated away from her. It hovered in the air for several seconds as it melted and turned back into a small shard of mirror, then the shard suddenly vanished. This was the exact same thing that had happened to Mike’s mirror ball after he’d found that book.
“I guess you don’t need that anymore,” Raze mused with a chuckle.
Jace stared at the box with a look of hungry anticipation, though that was quickly replaced by confusion. She looked up and asked, “How do I use this thing?”
Mike chuckled. “Just because the Guide led you to what you were looking for, that doesn’t mean it comes with instructions.”
Godiva looked pointedly at Mike and smugly added, “Or that you’d be able to read the instructions even if it did.”
“I’ll help you figure it out,” Mike offered as he gave bronze cube his own hungry look.
Wolf had no doubt that Mike was more interested in playing around with a new artifact than he was in helping Jace. However, in this case, that might work out in Jace’s favor anyway. Assuming the artificer didn’t just steal the box from Jace.
With that, Wolf held out his own mirror ball, which led him to what appeared to be white stone ring. It was about seven inches across, all rounded, and apparently carved from something like marble. Thin veins of glowing crystal lined the whole ring, giving it an eerie appearance. It was no wonder the lizard man had put this on display.
This ring was clearly not the primal that Wolf had been looking for, but he could still feel primal energy coming from the ring. It was some kind of primal artifact, though he didn’t know anything more than that.
Mike took the ring from Wolf and examined it, before saying, “The description says that it’s a celestial made key.” He shrugged. “But it doesn’t say what it’s a key for.”
“Interesting,” Wolf mused.
He looked at the mirror ball which remained in his hand. Unlike with Mike and Jace, his hadn’t changed shape and vanished. Instead, it was now tugging him in a different direction.
“This isn’t the primal I’m looking for,” Wolf said in realization. “But I think that I needed this to get to the primal.”
Then, Wolf saw Mike putting the stone ring into his own pack instead of giving it back. He was about to say something when he noticed the smirk on Raze’s face. In that instant, Wolf suddenly understood why Raze had been so accommodating about looking for his prize first. They’d just acquired one more thing to hold over Wolf.
With a faint growl in his voice, Wolf asked, “Okay. Where to next?”