Okay. I'll back it up a little bit. So, after we got the previous orb from Bretony, Healina had quickly deduced the next one would be at an underwater temple or such in the Jade Sea. We had been planning to get to it soon, especially since Melody, Venomheart's leader, had intimated that she and her guild might do so. Apparently they really had, and now we had to rush after them. As soon as I was loaded in at Queen's Haven, I found Maryn and Anhe in the main hall, both of them looking surprised as I began rushing around.

“What's the hurry?” Maryn asked me.

“Where's Lizzy and the others?” I asked in reply.

“Lizzy and Heali are with Derwydd in the Wildlands helping to fend off an attack there,” Anhe told me.

“Snap!” I sighed, doing a fidget-dance before regaining my bearings and racing out to the piers where our ships were. They followed me out, both sensing something was up.

“Lana?” Anhe called in a concerned voice.

“Venomheart went after the Sea Orb!” I told them.

“Oh snap!” Maryn's voice went up in pitch, and the two of them hastened after me as I got to the small longboat and put on the brakes.

“Fyu!” I suddenly remembered, and ran back to get him.

“We'll get the boat ready!” Maryn said to me as I hurried back.

“Thanks!” I called back. Ariana suddenly appeared, and she nodded as I gestured towards the boat. I found Fyu ready and waiting, as if he had sensed something was wrong.

“Master, where are we headed this eve?” he asked me.

“We're heading out to sea to track our enemies; I'm not sure if we're too late or if we'll catch them in time, but we have to try!” I told him, and the dog-beast nodded.

“I understand. It will be hard to find our prey on the waters, but let us try, master!” he said enthusiastically, and he allowed me to hitch a ride on him back to the ship.

“I didn't think this through very much...” I suddenly realized as we set off moments later.

“Belle and Sandra will probably get Dracky to help them.” Ari patted my head.

“It is this one here, yes?” Anhe said as she pointed to a spot on the map.

“That should be it, according to Heali,” Maryn agreed.

“We'll know as soon as we get there.” I nodded. “Their ship should be there.” I said, and then I blinked. “Their ship will be there...” I said to myself softly, and then smiled.

“We can wreck their ship, true, but they might wreck ours in turn, and we wouldn't get the orb.” Ariana reminded me.

“And their entering the dungeon means we can't go after them inside it.” Maryn sighed. “Wait... can they get in the dungeon?” she suddenly wondered.

“What do you mean?” Anhe asked her.

“Even if they know where it is, they couldn't have gotten the quest we have; so even if they entered it, the orb wouldn't show up for them unless one of us was in their party... that's just how the game works, unless there's another quest they could have gotten,” Maryn told us.

“And if they don't know where the dungeon is...” Ariana remarked, and I suddenly understood why Joanna-Melody had dropped her hints earlier.

“Tch! That rotten--!! She was messing with us to make us panic...” I sighed.

“Okay. We can still do this, most likely. The underwater temple is off the coasts of Inyan and Memphani. Even if they have ships waiting, we can let ours sail on while we head below to get the orb. They might have entered the dungeon just to harass us and start a cooldown, but we'll just have to try and come back later if that's the case.” Maryn said calmly.

“That'd be tricky,” I said.

“Oh definitely.” she agreed.

“I just got a message from the others; Lizzy and Der can't come, but Heali's gonna swim and meet up with us as soon as she can.” Ariana said.

“Hah?!”

“S-swim!?” Maryn and I both exclaimed.

“Th-that seems impossible,” Anhe said with a hesitant smile.

“I guess we'll have to wait and see,” Ari grinned.

“Masters.” Fyu then said to get our attention. He was fixated on something to the west; it was our pirate ship... or it should have been, but now it was flying a different flag.

“Why those, rotten...” I shook my head, trailing off.

“Loyalty of coin is no loyalty at all. Remember this, dear master.” Fyu said to me.

“I'll remember, Fyu.” I replied, placing my hand on his head.

“Still... it should have taken a whole lot of coin to flip them...” Ariana mused, and then let out a sigh. “I bet it was Guardians. They probably marked that ship from their last encounter with it, and now that we've crippled their armada they decided to buy our pirates' loyalty.” she said.

“I bet you're right; that is a Guardians' pennant they're flying.” I nodded back.

“Rude.” Maryn frowned.

“They are heading for us, masters.” Fyu noted.

“We can probably still outclass them in speed, at least,” I said as I went to adjust the sails. Ariana came to help me, and so began our latest adventure upon the sea.

Our plucky little longship was definitely still able keep ahead of the pirate's ship. We were lighter for starters; and even though the NPC crew chasing us had a better read on the currents and wind patterns than players, that only made them more predictable. After an hour in-game we still had them at a distance, and now there was a familiar sight on the horizon behind them. A very large dragon with at least two discernible figures upon its back.

“Oh here we go,” I said with glee as I watched Dracuoatlax catch up to our pursuer.

But instead of blasting the ship to smithereens with fire, Dracuoatlax idly whacked it with his tail two times as he passed over, knocking over the mainmast and smashing in the prow. With cries of dismay our former employees began trying to recover, but Ariana had something different in mind; she crafted her own fire-spell, since Dracuoatlax had not put it to flame, and in a moment she cast it towards them, lighting it up. As the pirate ship floundered, our dragon ally hovered above the waters for a moment to allow Lysandra, Belle, and (surprisingly) Myanihia off, and then looked at me with a fierce grin.

“Be well, Lady Lana!” he said, and then flapped higher into the sky.

“Thanks, Draco!” I called back before inwardly tensing up in realization of what I said. But the dragon only laughed, flying off towards the east into the Wildlands.

“H-he liked it, huh?” Ari said with a bemused grin.

“D-dunno,” I returned with a nervous laugh.

“Oh you.” Lysandra grinned, patting my head. “How ahead of us are they?”

“We're not even sure if they are; wouldn't the quest mechanics keep them from getting to it?” Maryn asked her.

“Some quests do,” Lysandra nodded. “Other quests are more open-ended about that sort of thing; this one could very well be one of them.”

“The orb quests... are open, so long as they have been started,” Myanihia nodded as well.

“Dang it!” I snapped my fingers.

“But, also, their dungeons are open-ended as well.” she then added.

“Ohh,” Ari, Maryn, and I said at the same time, while Anhe looked over with surprise.

“Come to think of it, thanks for showing up,” I told Myanihia, who smiled back.

“I was watching the guilds' movements, with a spell; Venomheart, they started off for the dungeon, about an hour past. Real-time, that is. They, should have found it, but, my spell says that they're stalling. Possibly waiting.” she told me.

“Heh, they waited for J--ahh, Melody to show up instead of going on without her.” I said with a satisfied grin.

“Or she had something they needed to get the place open.” Ariana poked me.

“Ah--!!”

“This game really does make things difficult sometimes, hm?” Anhe said with wonder as she took in our exchanges.

“Sometimes!” Lysandra smiled back.

“Where are they waiting, anyway?” I then asked.

“Their vessel stopped, near the dungeon, here,” Myanihia said, tapping a spot on the map. The dungeon appeared clearly on the map for the first time, labeled as the Sea Queen's Castle.

“Sea Queen's Castle, huh?” Lysandra remarked with an almost nostalgic tone.

“You remember.” Myanihia said.

“I almost 'accidentally' slipped your mask off there,” the werewolf-girl grinned back. Myanihia replied with a faint smile.

“True.” she returned with a nod.

Huh, it's good to see they can joke about things now, I thought to myself with a grin.

“Still, it won't, be the same.” the magic assassin then said.

“Only half the stuff is even close,” Lysandra nodded.

“Which means, she, might be different.”

“Lovely.”

“The Sea Queen?” Ariana asked them.

“It was a Sea Elf or Siren in the beta-test,” Lysandra told us.

“A Siren.” Myanihia said.

“We'll have lots of those to deal with anyway. Ugh, it wasn't funny last time with Anthers and Jackedman getting dazed all the time...” her sister groaned.

“Boys are so useless in siren dungeons.” the other twin nodded flatly. Maryn snerked, and Anhe let out a grin.

“Right?” Ariana grinned.

“It's a good thing we don't have Derwydd, then,” I softly smirked.

“What about Fyu?” Lysandra looked over at the dog-beast.

“Fear not, masters; no demon-female of the sea shall hinder me,” he replied.

“That's a relief,” Maryn smiled.

“A more pressing matter for you, masters; what shall we do when we approach this castle beneath the waves?” he then asked us.

We knew what he meant by that. Venomheart was waiting around the place until Melody could join them. What could we do to slip past or thwart them? And are they really waiting for her or is it a trick of some kind? If they can get the orb, shouldn't they have gotten it by now, considering all the time they've had on us? Something's up, I mused to myself with a frown.

“There's no reason for them to still be sitting there unless something's up,” I said aloud.

“Agree.” Ariana said. “They've had all day to get the orb and they haven't done it, or it seems as if they haven't. I don't think they'd be sentimental enough to stick around for ceremony or something like that, despite...” she grinned, leaving the rest unspoken, but I smiled in understanding. Joanna was a theater-student, but she definitely left her theatricality in the real-world when coming to Panarena.

“This... is not, untrue...” Myanihia nodded.

“I wonder if they've added something outside the dungeon...” Lysandra pondered, gazing towards the direction of the underwater dungeon.

Just then, something caught my eye off the starboard side of the ship. It was Healina, and she was definitely swimming -- kind of. A pair of dolphins were giving her a lift. I blinked a few times, not quite comprehending what I was seeing, and then with some squeaks and clicks the dolphins came parallel to the ship, allowing Heali to jump aboard swiftly. She was wearing her swimsuit, and grinned at us as she came aboard.

“Hiyas!” she said.

“Hey!”

“Nice entrance!” Belle and Maryn replied to her. Anhe rushed to the side of the ship, watching the dolphins scurry off into the distance.

“Aww!” she exclaimed with delight.

“That's our Sea Elf healer and tamer for you.” Ariana nodded with a proud grin.

“We get a natural taming bonus for aquatic creatures, after all!” the platinum haired healer returned. “How close are we? I only homed in on Ari's magic pendant, after all.” she then said.

“Ahh, maybe an hour to go?” I looked back at the map. “If there's some sort of sea creature or creatures guarding it, I wonder if Heali could get it or them to let us through... is that why Venomheart is waiting around? Does Melody have some sort of skill or item to defeat the guardians that they don't? I can't imagine she'd have taming skills like Heali...” I mused aloud.

“Don't be surprised.” Myanihia said to me. “Melody, has beast taming skills. She, finds them helpful, for certain aspects, of Venomheart's work.”

“Tch!” I griped.

“Looks like we've got to hurry.” Healina said.

“Ari, I don't want to wear you out from the start... but you have that wind skill, right?” I asked her, and she smiled back at me.

“Hey, it's okay! You'll pay me back later. Hmm... Divine Gale, right?” she said, queuing it up. The skill in question is a special one she had recently crafted for situations just like this, when we needed an emergency boost at sea. It was a toggle-skill, so as long as she had magic power we could head at full blast towards our destination.

“If you would,” I said with a nod, and she positioned herself behind the sail while the others adjusted it.

“Steering us directly toward the dungeon,” Maryn said, and then Ari activated her skill. With a lurch we were off.

Let's hope we make it in time... I thought to myself, gazing intently at the horizon.

***

It got darker as we approached the dungeon. Ari shut down her skill, siting down to recover herself as we furled up the sail and took stock of our surroundings. We had no lights running, but the Venomheart ship, a fierce-looking galleon with green and red coloration, was lit up like a beacon. A sudden fog helped to keep us unseen as we got closer, and when we had carefully maneuvered ourselves into the midst of some sea rocks we dropped our anchor.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

“Masters, I suggest we head down swiftly.” Fyu said.

“Agreed.” I nodded, and Healina cast a spell onto us that would allow us to breathe under the waves and which gave us a swimming bonus. We dove in silently, heading down towards the Sea Queen's Castle.

It was like something out of an old fantasy film; coral-encrusted spires of gleaming white rising up from the seabed, a forest of kelp lining the “path” towards the gates, and a myriad of fish and other sea creatures moving around or about it, like an undersea reflection of Harmonia City.

“It's so beautiful,” Ariana said as we swam down.

“Right?” I agreed.

“There it is.” Myanihia said, and we took notice of a large, skeletal sea-creature with two glowing eyes approaching us as we got near to the entrance.

“Halt, landlings!” it called out authoritatively. “Declare your purpose and prepare for judgment!”

I started to speak, but Healina put a hand on my shoulder, and I nodded to her.

“We have come to seek the Orb of the Sea, that we might thwart a great evil with it.” she said to the skeletal guardian, which most resembled a whale so far as I could tell.

“That orb is a curse upon us; all of her majesty's subjects have become like myself,” he returned, and as we looked around we could see that, without exception, all of the nearby sea-creatures were, in fact, animated skeletons. “Your venturing here is a boon; and you are a Sea Elf of the Southern Oceans. I shall open the gates; but beyond that I can offer no help.” the guardian said, and turned back to the palace. We followed after him, gazing around at the state of decay.

Okay, so the taming thing was unnecessary... unless you approach with hostility, maybe, which we're not necessarily going for--which is probably why Venomheart couldn't get in... this guy is probably a more talkative kill-all mechanic, hence our bad guys waiting around for Melody, I mused to myself as I put some pieces together.

As we neared the gates, the guardian waved his--hand? Flipper? Fin?--whatever. The gates opened, and he nodded to us. We headed inside, and found ourselves in a grand foyer. The door closed behind us. Seashell lanterns and coral chandeliers lit up, and we gazed around at the colorful dungeon now revealed to us.

“Well this is certainly one of the prettiest dungeons we've been in,” Maryn remarked as she readied her gear.

“For sure,” Ariana agreed.

“Definitely different...” Lysandra said with almost a snarl, readying her sword.

“What's got you so grumpy now?” Heali asked her.

“Lana... should see them too,” Myanihia said. I activated Shadow Vision at those words, and saw a host of small sea monsters waiting to attack behind several of the doors around us.

“They're probably not great individually... but as a whole, they're probably ridiculous to deal with.” I remarked.

“Swarms, huh?” Maryn noted.

“They were... later, originally... but now, they're sooner.” my fellow assassin said.

“And there's sirens with them too. Good thing we don't have a boy with us, huh, Lana?” Lysandra said with a grin.

“Ah-heh,” I wryly grinned back as I readied my short-swords.

“Now, now. Don't tease her.” Belle quipped as she sat on Lysandra's head. “But anyway, between me and Heali, keeping the swarms under control should be a cinch!”

“Oh!” the werewolf-girl suddenly brightened up.

“By the way, it doesn't matter, what door we go through. All doors lead, to the queen.” Myanihia told us.

“Then let's go straight ahead!” I nodded, half-swimming, half-walking to the door in question.

Oh yeah. We are still underwater and in the water, after all. And according to the active skills panel that I checked as we approached the door, Healina's skill would last another four in-game hours. That would be just enough time, given our average dungeon runs.

“Even without Wuuki rampaging around we should clear it in at least three hours.” I remarked as I got ready to open the door.

“Pfft!” Ari burst out giggling.

“I'll deduct fifteen points from you for that since she's not here.” Healina quipped.

“Gyeck!?” I froze, and the others laughed.

“Poor Lizzy,” Maryn shook her head.

“Points?” Myanihia wondered, blinking.

“It's a thing. You'll pick it up soon enough.” Belle grinned.

More to the point, I wonder how she hasn't already, I bemusedly pondered to myself as I opened the door. Ariana immediately activated some ice-spells, freezing the nearest mobs in place, while Healina and Belle set off some crowd-controls.

“Whoo! Here we go!” Lysandra cheered, and our melee group charged into the fray.

As we expected, it was not very hard to make our way through the mass of monsters that came our way. Not the first waves of them at least. No special dungeon is easy for long, after all, and as we entered into a large chamber from the winding passage of stairs we had ended up taking we found that it was full of elite swarms and champion mini-bosses. I put on the brakes at once, and the others skidded to a halt behind me.

There were three hours left on our water-enchantment's time; we decided to try and pick off the room group by group if we could, having Ariana prepare a massive spell just in case we got them all at once. Fortunately for us they came to us group by group, and so Ari canceled her spell and helped us mop them up as quickly as we could.

After we made our way through that room, we had to duck out of the way of a sudden kill-all mechanic in the form of a massive undead squid that nearly got Belle, and inadvertently entered a corridor full of traps and obstacles. Belle, Myanihia, and myself had the easiest time getting through it, while the others were ferried through the dangerous course by Ari's teleport spell.

“You picked a different way last time, didn't you?” I remarked to Myanihia as we dodged out of the way of some spinning blades.

“We did.” she replied, jumping up in the nick of time to keep from being split in two. “Lana!” she suddenly cried, pulling me back as a row of spikes ejected from a nearby wall.

“Yeek!!” I squealed in fright, inwardly cringing at how careless I had just gotten.

“Close one!” Belle quipped as she merely flew between the spikes.

“Ugh, I wish I could fly...” I sighed quietly, and I could feel Myanihia silently giggling.

“Quickly,” she then said as the spikes retracted, and we hastened through.

Aside from that near mishap, we got through without so much as a scratch, and soon found ourselves back in an area where we could actually fight back against the obstacles in our way -- more lovely undead sea-creatures. At the far end of the wide hall we now entered, I could see a massive door; above it was a finely-wrought golden emblazonment of what I assumed to be the Sea Queen, a Sea Elf with a mermaid's tail.

I had the others halt a moment again as I quickly scanned the room. Most of the enemies were clustered in the middle, and practically none of them were around the edges. There was a second level, open to the main floor, with staircases or stairwells in some places that led up to it. It did not extend to the far end of the room. I motioned for the others to stay where they were, and then quietly dashed ahead out of stealth, slyly prodding the aggro-range of the monsters in the room.

As long as I stayed low, they didn't seem to notice me. I made my up one of the stairwells, then kept low again as I made my way to the far end. There were no enemies on the upper level. Poking my head up, I looked down near the door I had noticed. There were two elites guarding the door. A few moments later, Ariana and the others had caught up to me. She had grasped at least part of my plan, insofar as I had one, and now we had to come up with a new part for it.

“Dread Sharks.” Lysandra noted as we observed the two guards below us.

“Lovely name.” Healina quipped.

“Isn't it though?” the other grinned back.

“I can probably put them to sleep, though,” our healer said.

“I have a pixie debuff that can help,” Belle added.

“Great!” the other nodded back.

“Belle's small enough they won't notice her, so let's let her do the debuff first,” I suggested.

“Gotcha.” Healina said.

“It'll definitely help them sleep!” our pixie-girl smiled as she fluttered off quietly through the water, activating her skill moments later. She came swimming back, and then Healina ventured out to use her own skill, and when the two guards were down we cautiously prodded open the doors, slipping in and letting them close behind us with a muffled clang.

As we settled ourselves down in a spot near the door to observe, we were filled with a sense of dread. This chamber was far larger than any of the rooms we had been in during our adventure here. There were two upper levels to each side, and a massive window at the far end where one could see the massive underwater kingdom. Just below this window was a grand dais with an ascending set of stairs, and a great throne upon which should sit the monarch of the realm. But she was not there.

I looked around at the magnificent craftsmanship of the room, the coral covered pillars, the ornaments made of various shells, statues holding tridents or conch horns, figurines depicting all manner of sea creatures, special fixtures of light that illumined the cavernous room we huddled in, stained-glass windows that were almost a tapestry in their arrangement, and upon the ceiling a scene reminiscent of a certain Italian chapel, except it was marine-themed with the Sea Queen reaching out benevolently toward her subjects.

But the thing that gave me a sudden case of the “willies” was looking down at where the floor should have been, only to see a dark, abyssal hole looming near out feet. I shivered, and Ari and I clasped our hands together tightly.

“What... comes out... of that...?!” Maryn shuddered.

“This... is not... how it was...” Myanihia said in an unusually concerned tone.

“I see bubbles,” Lysandra softly murmured.

There were bubbles rising up out of the chasm. And following them up I could see two red eyes, glowing dangerously in the murk. They were set in a massive jet-black body that was pulling itself upwards with several tentacles.

Wait... tentacles... ohh, snap...

“K-k-k... kraken...?!” I stammered out, another shiver running down my back.

“Oh boy.” Maryn remarked hopelessly.

“This is not going to end well, is it?” Anhe meekly wondered.

I then slapped my cheeks a couple times, and started looking around the room more carefully as our “friend” began emerging from the hole. There's gotta be a gimmick, there's gotta be a gimmick... there just has to be one here somewhere! I frantically thought. Maryn looked at me, and then patted my shoulder.

“Dunno what's going in in your head, kiddo, but we'll try and keep it distracted!” she told me, readying her gear.

“Right,” I nodded back, and the others, except for Ariana, readied themselves to help Maryn.

“What are you thinking?” she asked me.

“O-kay. So there's this weird corruption thing going on here with the orb according to what our whale friend outside told us. We were expecting the Sea Queen here, but there's this thing instead. Whether it's a corrupted Sea Queen or whether it's hidden the Sea Queen away somehow, our most obvious choice is to defeat it, somehow, but I feel like there should be some sort of gimmick here to help us, either by defeating it or by releasing the real Sea Queen.”

“And doing that will result in our gaining a de-corrupted orb.” she nodded back.

“I think so,” I replied.

“Okay! Let's look around!” Ari said, and we scurried off while our friends engaged the boss monster. I was half-worried that it would be a kill-all, but to my relief (and despair) I saw a health bar over it (that had nearly twenty times the amount of health Maryn herself had). Unsure whether to be relieved or concerned, I quickly shook my head and resumed my attention upon seeking to find what my instincts were telling me should be around to help us win.

As we swam around, I suddenly began paying more attention to the statues and figurines. They were all facing random directions. I looked up at the ceiling mural; all of the sea creatures were looking at the queen. Quickly I dove down, and tried moving one of the figurines; it could indeed be turned. I turned it so it was facing the throne. I looked over at Ariana, who gave me a thumbs-up. We hurriedly began turning the statues and figurines so that they faced the throne. Just as we had settled into a comfortable rhythm for doing so, the kraken released a bellow, and some of its allies began pouring into the room.

“Uhh...” I began uncertainly as Ari and I got ready to fight.

“Keep going!” Lysandra shouted over to us as she moved away from the boss to intercept them, changing to wolf-form. It was almost comical to see her swimming around that way, but I bit my lip and continued with my task as Ariana stayed near to me so she could fend off any who got too close.

“I think we had about a third of them done when it did that,” she remarked to me.

“I think you're right,” I agreed. “It'll probably do it again after we get through another third.”

“Rude.”

“Right??”

“I hope Sandra and the others can finish the first wave off by then...”

“Ahh... I'll try and slow down just a bit... though Healina and Maryn should be solid with Anhe and Fyu there.”

“That's true.” Ari nodded. “That'll leave Myanihia and Belle to help Sandra.”

“Which they are, now.” I noted as I saw two other figures swimming to help Lysandra.

As I continued with my statue turning, I would look over now and again towards the trio that kept the attention of the boss; there was no way they could ever beat it, but I knew they themselves wouldn't go down for a long while. We did have a lot of restoration potions saved up, after all. We'd expected to use them in a fight against Venomheart tonight, but, you know -- rival guild, giant kraken, whichever comes first, man.

The first wave of the kraken's allies was almost beaten when I managed to finish off the second third of the statues, and then a second came pouring in from a different spot. Belle and Myanihia swam over as fast as they could to stall them while Lysandra finished off the first wave.

“Lana!” Healina called over to me. “The attacks from this one are getting stronger! It's breaking through our resistances!”

Snap!!

“Uh-oh...” Ariana remarked anxiously.

“Hahh... forget it!” I said, and vanished into the shadows.

“Lana?” my partner called, and then I glimpsed her eyes widening. “Y-you're not gonna try that, are you?” she said, but I was already on my way. I saw Myanihia swimming towards the boss in stealth as well. She had picked up on me immediately.

“It... might resist.” she said to me when she got close.

“So long as it does something,” I returned, and she nodded.

“You first.” she replied.

As soon as I reached the boss, I used that deadly combo she had taught me. Sure enough, the boss monster counted as something near a world boss. Then Myanihia used the combo -- and wiped out its remaining health in an instant. It bellowed out mournfully, its tentacles flailing wildly in dramatic death throes before it dissolved, leaving a chest upon the grand dais. Its allies scattered, fleeing the room, and we hurriedly regrouped, Lysandra returning to human form.

“Well that was easier than it had any right to be in the end.” Maryn quipped.

“It's probably meant for a full raid group,” Healina remarked.

“That's true.” Lysandra agreed. “A more orthodox raid would definitely have no trouble. But this is more fun.” she shrugged, faintly grinning.

“That is the first time you two have done that, yes?” Anhe asked us.

“I... wanted to test it, on a world boss; but, this, it seems, was close enough.” Myanihia nodded to her.

“More importantly,” I said, “I think we need to finish turning the statues. That chest won't have the orb. None of them do.”

“True!” Heali said in agreement. “They need to face the throne, right?”

“Yep,” I replied, and with that we turned our attention to turning the statues and figurines so that all of them faced the throne.

When they were all oriented towards it, beams of light began to emanate from them, all of them conjoining at the throne and forming a vortex of magic that transformed itself into a portal. The real Sea Queen stepped through it, and immediately the palace became brighter and more lovely. As the Sea Elf monarch in her shimmering silks resumed her seat upon the throne, she looked up at us, and smiled.

“Approach.” she said, and we moved closer to her. “You have defeated the Murkdeath Lord, and gained your rightful rewards for doing so. And you have saved me from his trap; thus I must present you with a reward as well. Take this, the Orb of the Sea, which he had corrupted to use as an instrument of his schemes. And forget not to claim your due from yonder chest!” she said to us.

We bowed as I accepted the orb from her, and then opened the chest. There were some unique spell-tomes inside, as well as some unique items tailored for aqueous adventuring. As her true servants and subjects came into the grand throne room once more, we ourselves made our way out, with the sounds of their joyous applause echoing behind us.

“Three more, huh?” Belle asked.

“I'm pretty sure.” I nodded.

“Let's make the last three locations a priority instead of an aside.” Lysandra said with a sigh.

“Right,” Ariana agreed. “Oh! I bet one of these tomes has something on it, or them,” she remarked with a smile.

“Oh defs. We'll look over it later.” Healina said.

Getting out of the palace was a lot easier than getting in, of course, but it still felt like we were in there a while. When we finally got to the foyer we had arrived in I almost heaved a sigh of relief. I put my hand to the door, and paused.

“Lana?” Ari wondered.

“I feel like I'm forgetting something.” I said.

“Hmm.” she nodded.

“Ehh, it'll come to me,” I shrugged, and pushed open the door.

We headed outside, and at once it struck me. Because right before us was Venomheart, along with several outlaw guilds, including Blackwood Patrol.

“Gyeck!!” I quietly tensed up as my friends readied themselves for a fight.

“Why, thanks, Rachel,” Melody said as she stepped forward. “I forgot about the whale, and the guild was texting me madly before I finally got in; and when I did finally get in you'd already gotten here--then I remembered that there's this nice PvP loot mechanic. The one that ensures the most recent items gathered by an enemy player are one-hundred percent lootable.” she grinned at us, and I frowned.

“The Sea Orb.” I said in acknowledgment.

“That's right. So I gathered up some old friends of yours to help us out. After all,” she said with a laugh, “We know you're all tougher than the average bear, and that it'd probably take at least as many as we have here right now to overcome you.” Melody winked, and more than a few of the outlaws, including Tom Blackwood himself, chuckled.

“I have to pay you back for two defeats, Lana.” he quipped.

“So that's how it is.” Melody shrugged airily. “You're cute here or there, but I have a job to do, hon. No hard feelings.” she smiled wickedly. The outlaws began advancing.

Ah, snap; how do we get out of this? Neither Myanihia nor myself can use our “ninja tricks” down here to get all of us out safely... no matter how you slice it, only a couple of us have a good chance of escaping... tch, that'd ruin our reputation; not that I should really care about that, but... I dunno, maybe I can, just a little? Ugh. What do I do...

At that moment, a horn sounded. I blinked in confusion. I'd heard that horn before. It was Reginleif's horn. We all looked towards the sound; Valiant Maidens was swimming down towards us in a frenzy. Another wild chorus of shouts came from another direction; Mountain Tigers and The Lightbrook Brigade had shown up. Derwydd and Snow Dancer, along with Lizzy, were with them.

“Take one more step towards my girls, Jo, and I'll never let you rest in this reality or the other!” our halberdier and smith bellowed out. The cat-like eyes of our enemy glinted dangerously as her allies looked to her for orders.

“What now? They've got twice our numbers with the Silvernight Queens in the mix!” one of them said desperately.

“We're withdrawing.” she said angrily. “I'll remember this, Ellie.” she spat, and with that our enemies swam off with a sulk. No one cheered. Our allies gathered around us quickly, and then we swam for the surface as well.

“We're going to meet up at Heorot Hall in Ragnarheim.” Wildeye told me as we made our way to the surface.

“Got it,” I nodded back.

“Take your ship to one of the Wildlands' ports and use the wayport to get there as soon as you can.” Jannie added.

“Something up?” Ariana asked.

“You'll see, hon.” Winnie winked back.

Oh boy, I thought to myself with a mix of soft dread and anticipation. Whatever was going to happen next?