image [https://i.imgur.com/ZOCXiJM.jpg]

I waited inside the building as dust billowed into the doorway. I wrapped the scarf around my face and kept my eyes shut. Magnetize was of no use with so much debris in the air. Surprisingly, the cloud of dust passed swiftly. The canyons between the skyscrapers created wind tunnels. The dust didn’t settle so much as move to other parts of the city. Not all the particulate obeyed the winds. Eddies caught a small portion of the dust, giving the sky a bloomlike glow.

After the air swept most of the dust away, I stepped outside and squinted through the lingering haze. The tower golem’s legs cratered through the side of a skyscraper, but the basalt column didn’t look like it would collapse. A sweeping line of blue light tracked my trajectory within the giant’s head. After I finished a Rest and Mend, I stood, shook the dust off me, and regarded my surroundings.

Nothing nearby moved, including the artisan zombie. Oliver stood at the edge of destruction strewn across the street, dust powdering his glass armor like a fine layer of ash.

I stood and rebuffed Heavenly Favor.

The zombie made no motion.

I knew better than to ask what it wanted and walked to where my sword’s blue light disappeared into a pile of rubble. Following my sword tip’s trajectory gave me the general location of the giant’s head.

After climbing over the rubble, I recognized the dome that had once topped the giant’s head. Dead flesh golems protruded from the debris, but I wouldn’t find Flagboi’s body among them. Instead, a bundle of his gear lay near the corpses.

I stashed the bundle of gear in my inventory and performed a quick Detect Magic to see if I missed anything. To my surprise, a glow appeared. I walked to it and picked up an orb almost the size of my fist, but it weighed much more than an object of its size should. Though my potion of strength had expired, I could still lift it. It looked like a Fabergé egg, and its appearance on top of the wreckage struck me as very coincidental.

Item

Eye of the Palace

Rarity

Masterwork (green)

Description

Level 15 handheld item

+5 intelligence

+5 willpower

+20 influence

This relic contains the Occulinth, a gem bound to Ratimir the Younger, the last pharaoh to reign from the Yellow Palace.

Item use—For one hour, owner may observe dreams of one living creature sleeping within 1 mile.

Was Oliver’s real name Ratimir? It was hard to guess his age or origin, for none of the lands in Miros applied the title pharaoh to any of their rulers—and that included histories I’d read. I wish I knew this strange zombie’s story.

As far as takedowns went, the loot belonged to me and Fabulosa, and this item bore no curse. Since players didn’t dream, and I already possessed better handheld items, it would be wasted on me. It also seemed fitting to give it back to the artisan zombie. If Fabulosa had a problem with it, then she could take it up with her pet zombie.

I extended the relic to Oliver, but he didn’t move.

“You’re going to make me walk it over to you?”

The zombie did not indicate that he wanted the eye, aside from waiting for me to hand it to him.

“This better not power you up into a lich or some crazy boss monster. I’m in no shape to fight.”

I climbed over the debris, walked to Oliver, and placed the eye in his socket.

Without any gesture of thanks or acknowledgment that I existed, the zombie turned and walked away.

I grumbled as it walked away. “You’re welcome, you ingrate.”

The contest maps showed Fabulosa and I in the same dot. Toadkiller was in dwarf country, perhaps only a day or two away. It was probably hilly, but it wasn’t easy to guess if he rode a mount. Audigger was closer to him, halfway between Grayton and Heaven’s Falls. Duchess was almost where we left her. She was definitely on foot or had found a settlement large enough to host a mailbox. Having not explored Blyeheath, I couldn’t say.

It frustrated me that Darkstep remained at his location. Was he just kicking back in a villa with servants while the rest of us battled one another? Who did he think he was—the master of ceremonies, a fiddler to whose tune everyone danced? And yet, he wasn’t wrong. Whatever he knew about Oxum set me, Toadkiller, and everyone else in motion. If he knew of Toadkiller’s weakness, then perhaps he could play however he wished. Information was currency in this game, and Darkstep had an abundance. By giving it away, he wound us up and watched us go.

Audigger And then there were six.

Toadkiller Grats everyone.

Audigger It still doesn’t have the same ring as the final five.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

Duchess Let’s focus on the final four if you take my meaning. Audigger, Did you get my mail?

Audigger I did, and replied. I’m taking my shortcut right now. Surprise!

Toadkiller Are you visiting me, Dig? How did you catch up?

Audigger I won’t be seeing you unless you’re in a sky castle of some kind. I have a contact in Grayton who has an alternate mode of transportation.

Toadkiller Are you flying? No way? How?

Audigger It’s a secret.

Fabulosa Hey, Apache. Let’s meet at the waterfall.

Audigger There are many city levels next to the waterfall. You’ll have to be more specific. Meet in the center of The Pinions. Everyone visiting The Falls ought to check it out.

Fabulosa Thanks.

Audigger No problem.

Fabulosa Works for me. I got directions from a local. Patch?

Apache Yeah, that’s fine. I’ll find someone and meet you there.

After such a spectacular fight, it irked me to read everyone congratulating one another. It would have been nice if one had thanked me or acknowledged Fabulosa and me for getting us there. It amounted to nothing. With Toadkiller and Audigger coming north, we had more pressing concerns than accolades.

My combat log showed Flagboi dying from falling damage, not from me killing him. With the contest winding down, I worried about not having much of a resume. In terms of the battle royale, I had knocked no one out yet. The aging aura killed Winterbyte, Fabulosa killed Femmeny, Uproar got crushed by Iremont, and Flagboi fell to his death. I’d yet to get credit for a single knockout.

If I pulled off a win, I couldn’t imagine armchair quarterbacks watching the reality show accusing me of coasting. It would depend on how Crimson edited the show, but I doubted they’d omit the takedown of a kaiju.

The ease with which Fabulosa escaped Flagboi bothered me. When we dueled in Hawkhurst, neither of us had our celestial items. Though Gladdy had upped my damage output, it hadn’t increased my chances of hitting her.

One thing that I noticed during our battle on the mountain was that it took her a second or two to flip her hood. While it wasn’t instant, spells and grapple mechanics all took longer to cast. I couldn’t see ways to prevent her from drifting away—always able to fight another day if things got too hot.

But Gladius Cognitus gave me access to a second Compression Sphere, which I could cast instantly. Compression Spheres would greatly affect players drifting away on a breeze.

Yet Fabulosa wasn’t the fleeing type. Perhaps her ego might work against her—if we ever got down to the final two.

I removed the scarf after I left the wreckage and shook off the dust. The onus wasn’t on me to take responsibility for all the destruction. The tower golem had been Flagboi’s doing. He had planned carnage long ago. While many citizens had lost their lives before and after I arrived, I wasn’t about to blame myself and hang around for torches and pitchforks.

I Slipstreamed to shake off the dust from my robe. After finding a fountain streaming down the side of a skyscraper, I washed my hands, hair, and face, ridding myself of the telltale involvement in the catastrophe. It wasn’t good enough to evade modern crime scene investigations, but good enough for Miros.

I put away my weapons and armor for good measure and left the scene before anyone could ask questions. The streets in the vicinity had already grown chaotic, so milling into a crowd wasn’t difficult.

One gnome spotted me, standing much higher than the rest of the passersby. “Did you see what happened? I heard breakage all the way from Front Street!”

“I didn’t. I was inside the whole time. Do you know where The Pinions are?”

My question surprised him. In the midst of emergencies, asking for directions to a tourist spot irritated him. Shaking his head, he waved toward the waterfall. “City center. You can’t miss it.”

I nodded innocently and hurried in the right direction. I summoned Jasper and found the right district within an hour.

The Pinions were a series of platforms—concentric rings moving in opposite directions around one another. Their rate of rotation was so slow that shoppers could barely perceive movement at all. Each ring featured an aisle of selling stalls on either side.

The Pinions solved real estate issues we’d had in Hawkhurst, where one side of the free market was more desirable than the other. Ida addressed the dilemma with a lottery that rotated vendors through the more popular stalls. Random locations solved the problem, but it meant sellers needed to pack up and move with every sales cycle. The Pinions did the same, except its merchants enjoyed permanent booths. The ever-changing layout promoted browsing, at least among those who hadn’t memorized the pattern.

The Pinions covered more ground than our provincial free market. Backdropped by the waterfall’s rainbow auras, it reminded me how far Hawkhurst had to go before it rivaled other settlements.

“Over here!” Fabulosa waved me to one of the many tables in the center section. She offered me a seat facing her. A ceramic bowl with a ceramic lid greeted me.

I lifted the lid, pleased to find a gravy sauce covering rice and vegetables. “Thanks for dinner. I’m starving.” I dove into the meal.

Fabulosa appraised me with a critical eye. “I expected you to be dustier than my dad’s printer.”

“I cleaned myself at a fountain.”

“With all the ruckus, some of the restaurants and shops closed. But at least there are plenty of seats. Can you believe this city? Audigger got to start the game in a town with a food court, and we got a lousy public house.”

“We’re not staying to shop, I hope you know. We gotta shake a leg. Have you seen Audigger?”

Fabulosa stuck out her tongue. “Yeah, I know. I reckon she lit out to Farseed. I asked the local yokels how to get to Oxum. It’s the fastest way there. We’ll have to go back the way we came.”

“Farseed? What’s that?”

“It’s a port where we’ll need to hire a skiff to Oxum.”

“A port?”

“It’s next to Blyeheath. We’ll find a skiff to take us there.”

“I didn’t think we’d need a boat.”

“It’s not exactly a boat. It’s more of a platform that sails over the smother.”

“The smother?”

Fabulosa shrugged. “I learned all about Blyeheath at Ul Itor. The smother is what the locals call the fog blanketing Blyeheath. Apparently, skiffs can sail over it.” A buckled leather strap attached to a concave metal device appeared in her hand.

“What’s that?”

Fabulosa winked. “It’s just a little proof that you were wrong. I had time to do a little shopping. It’s a mask. It’ll help you breathe in the smother if the ocean pushes the fog inland. The smother rises and ebbs like the tide, and the mask will let us breathe if we get caught inside. Farseed caps the end of a peninsula, but if you wanted to get to Oxum fast, I figured we could take a shortcut.”

“And that’s through the fog?”

Fabulosa shrugged. “It depends on the ocean. Or we could take the high road and add a day to our journey.”

The contest map showed Audigger’s progress. She looked like she would get to Farseed or Oxum before us anyway. Cutting off a day’s travel would help, and perhaps we could get there before her. Putting another day between Toadkiller made the most sense. The last thing I wanted to do was to clear Oxum’s dungeon with enemy players around. I played with the breathing device, adjusting the strap to fit snugly over my face.

Fabulosa watched me examine the mask. “You don’t miss anything from home, do you?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know—some things. Why? You don’t like the food?”

“Nah, the food’s good. I don’t know.” Fabulosa changed the subject. “Audigger and Duchess are in cahoots. They’re mailing one another. And thanks to Darkstep, they know where we’re going.”