text: Dhane jolted awake and sucked in air, his heart racing, sweat covering his entire body. The transition from life to death to life again was so abrupt, he felt nauseous, weak, and in good need of a long, hot bath.
  
  The room spun, full of familiar murals, painted across ceiling and walls: armies of men fighting the armies of monsters. It worked. He was in the cemetery of Light, just outside the Hall of Guilds, alone, as if everyone was stuck in the above arena, their doorways crushed.
  
  But he had to go. Chunks of stone wouldn't slow all the kingdom's challengers and guards much. In fact, it might not slow them down at all, not with all the different classes and skills everyone had.
  
  Dhane rolled off a slab of stone, commanding sluggish legs to move, and instead slid down to the floor.
  
  Loud and fast footsteps echoed just outside the room, a sound that mixed with a series of tiny ringing bells. There were shouts, then someone barreled through the doorway, breathing hard.
  
  Dammit! Of course, they were already here. He pressed his back against the stone slab, hidden, if only for the moment. With a mental thought, tendrils of smoke formed into his Cobalin sword.
  
  He reached out for Octoralis, though she was gone . . . a hole in his soul, slowly—to the point of nearly imperceivable progress—piecing herself back together, an emptiness that promised he was on his own.
  
  "Dhane? Hells, man, are you there?"
  
  Devron? The betrayer, the man that sold a friend to the Veritai. . . . Did he not get enough gold the first time? Or . . . it was fame. He wanted to be the one who caught the King of Shadows.
  
  Devron stepped into view and Dhane threw his Cobalin sword with all the force he could muster, which happened to not be that much, not with his noodle-like arms, muscles half asleep. The small blade flew far from its mark and clattered against the floor.
  
  "Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Devron whispered loudly.
  
  Dhane focused on his Exploding Spider skill. The mana swirled within him and inched down his arm, slow as gooped up sludge.
  
  "Stop, man. I'm here to help!" Devron had his arms up, wearing . . . huh? A concoction of tan and purple linens twisted around his form in an utterly quirky outfit, all with a dozen tiny bells hanging at the ends of pointed fabrics.
  
  A . . . jester?
  
  Devron quickly grabbed the Cobalin sword, bells ringing with each movement. He pressed the handle into Dhane's hand, then summoned a phone. "We don't have much time."
  
  "What are you doing?"
  
  "Obviously, getting you out of here."
  
  "You betrayed me!" Dhane said, almost in a growl. The feeling in his legs was returning. He needed to escape down into the labyrinth, a maze of tunnels he just so happened to have memorized on his last trip from the menagerie.
  
  "I didn't! Or at least it wasn't intentional. What was I supposed to do? Huh? They cornered me, asked questions, and . . . well, I didn't know! They determined you were of Shadow and forced me to go along with it lest they take Aaliyah, too. You think that's what I wanted?"
  
  Dhane didn't say anything, didn't know what to say.
  
  "Hells, man, I've been working to break you out this entire time. I've got sleep bombs and a jester's license. Here, put this on," he said. White and pink clothing materialized in the air. "You're my assistant, alright? Oh, and I have a mask, too."
  
  "Stop, Dev."
  
  "I can get you outta here, I know it!"
  
  "I don't want out!" And that was the truth of it. Now that he had made up his mind to save the Cobalins, to reject that, to instead save himself while they suffered under the command of their masters? It was too much. He could do something, could ease some of that suffering.
  
  Devron stared with an expression of shock and confusion, then said, "But I have too...."
  
  Someone else ran into the room and Devron reached back behind himself, grabbing power from his invisible bag: White waves of energy clashed within a forming sphere.
  
  "Ma-Ma-Master?"
  
  "Tom?" Dhane asked. It was beginning to become a damn reunion in here. Who was next, Reditus Leon . . . Penny? No. . . . He couldn't think about her, not now, not with what he had planned to do.
  
  "No-no time! The . . . others are coming!"
  
  Shit! Dhane pushed himself to his feet, still feeling a lingering weakness, like his body was heavier than it should be. Instant respawn was no joke.
  
  Devron looked between Tom and Dhane, then shoved the jester's costume and mask into Dhane's arms. "Take it anyway. Ain't got a clue what you're doing, though it might help. And, Dhane . . ." he said and stared at the ground for a moment, then looked back with determination, "I'm sorry that—" Shouts and the pounding of dozens of armored feet, cut him off.
  
  Tom paled, face spotted with sweat. He summoned a giant shield that reached from his head to the stone floor. Then, breathing to the point of hyperventilating, he left.
  
  Dhane deposited the jester's costume and sword to his inventory, then paid for his third translation ball. It materialized in a puff of smoke, glowing at the tips of his fingers. "I'm destroying the cemetery of Shadow."
  
  "Hells, man...."
  
  "Dev, if you want to help me, help the Cobalin. Without a cemetery of Shadow, they can escape."
  
  "But—"
  
  "I-I-I am a wa-wa-wall!" Tom's voice echoed, appreciably loud and commanding, despite the stutter. "You shall not pa-pa-pass!"
  
  Dhane handed Devron the translation ball, then took his arm and gave him a single nod, hoping that it communicated everything Dhane wanted to say: Thank you, and Don't beat yourself up, and I'm so damn glad you're not my enemy, and . . . Goodbye.
  
  He sprinted out of the room, out into the great Hall of Guilds, an army on one side and no one on the other, the side that led into the labyrinth.
  
  Tom slammed his shield down and white cracks shot through the floor, forming a line from wall to wall, then a transparent, glasslike barrier rose up.
  
  The leading guard—not one of the standard guards, but a Royal guard with gold and white armor—jumped forward and pierced the wall with a fancy sword. It slid right through the barrier, shattering it to fractured pieces of light, then punctured out from Tom's back, glistening with the silvery-white of his soul.
  
  "There he is!" a large man called, pointing at Dhane. A good twenty guards charged, some shifting to flashes of light that shot forward, quickly closing the distance.
  
  Dhane turned and descended the stairs to the labyrinth, diving down into the darkness of dim light crystals. He triggered Web Wall, giving it 30 mana to materialize thousands of spiderwebs, thick and thin. They filled the narrowing hallway at the bottom, a good four feet thick.
  
  The first of the Royal guards tried to ram her way through the wall that, by any reasonable calculation, would have cleared the mess of webbings. Instead, she slammed against a wall as solid as stone, crashing to her back, dazed.
  
  The other guards started cutting, slicing chunks of the wall away with every passing second. It wouldn't hold for long. Dammit! He sprinted, passing forked turns and small rooms, following his mental map.
  
  The guards wouldn't be far behind. He needed something else, just a distraction to give him enough time at the cemetery to destroy it, which . . . well, he didn't even know what was required for that: magic, a ritual, or could he simply break the stone slabs?
  
  If there was ever a time for the Mother of Shadows to provide an itty-bitty bit of assistance, now was that time! Did he have to pray? Or maybe the only way to talk to a divinity was to travel to their realm. With that thought, the knowledge at the back of his mind confirmed it: The divinities could only observe the physical world unless Gameus summoned them.
  
  Dhane passed a well-lit tunnel, one with light crystals that weren't on the precipice of failure, the stone floor smooth and well-traveled. A heaviness pulled in that direction, a sense of gloom, of despair.
  
  What the hell were they doing down here? Actually, why was there a labyrinth beneath the arena at all? The place reeked of damp mildew, the tunnel walls were once carved and decorated, but now they were cracked and ruined.
  
  It didn't matter. What mattered was this tunnel looked liked an ideal direction to travel, even if it wasn't where he wanted to go. And if the guards thought that. . ..
  
  Dhane triggered Web Wall again, feeding it 30 mana and filling a portion of the well-lit tunnel in webs.
  
  The guards were seconds away, racing to catch up while others—by the vibrations of their armor, ghostlike through all the stone—split off down forks, forming their own sort of web to fish him out.
  
  Dhane sprinted toward the next fork. He turned the corner just as the stone walls glowed with a vibrant light, then immediately darkened: Flash Step.
  
  "He went through here!" a man called, followed by the sound of a blade slicing through impossibly dense spiderwebs. Others showed up, grunting with the effort to clear the way.
  
  Dhane didn't wait. He shot down tunnel after tunnel, carrying an ember of hope that this might not need to be his end. He could have his cake and eat it: destroy the cemetery, then hide within the labyrinth until he could escape under the disguise of a jester.
  
  Thank you, Devron! There was so much he still wanted to do, so much to live for, so much to explore. It was these thoughts as he sprinted into the cemetery of Shadow, these happy, exciting thoughts that nearly distracted him from the tiny scraping vibration of a page being turned.
  
  Dhane whipped around, and there, sitting back with his legs propped up on another chair, was Challenger Terry.
  
  He arched an eyebrow, then slowly shifted a bookmark into his book titled Please, Please Me.
  
  Fuck! Of course, the cemetery of Shadow had a guard, though why on earth did it have to be Challenger Terry?
  
  "You're not supposed—"
  
  Dhane summoned Exploding Spider, draining 30 of his already diminished mana from casting Web Wall twice. He barely had 38/110 left, only because of mana regen.
  
  An ugly spider in black and red, shot out of his palm, leaving behind a nearly overwhelming desire to smash the thing, or flee, or burn the damn labyrinth down, should stone burn so easily. It landed on the man's face and Dhane stifled a scream of horror.
  
  Challenger Terry jerked back, tumbling out of his chair, swatting at the spider. But it was quick and small. It following Dhane's intent and crawled across the man's neck, down into his armor, and toward his back before exploding in a ripple of blue energy.
  
  A -83 backstab damage in white, slipped up and over an enraged man, blond hair a mess, teeth locked together like a dog, growling and ready to pounce.
  
  Dhane couldn't do anything without mana, and to use all of it here and now in a desperate effort to take on a high ranked challenger, would only hit him with the Mana Drunk debuff before he died.
  
  And so he did the one thing he was getting so damn good at doing, he ran. He sprinted down tunnel after tunnel until he burst into the vast darkness of an empty menagerie, its door still lying on its side, bent and splintered.
  
  Challenger Terry wasn't far behind. "You want to attack me! ME!" His voice echoed in the tunnel. "I fight challengers, not monsters pretending to be human!"
  
  Every two or three seconds, Dhane gained a point of mana, and every second he ran, he lost stamina. It was a race between two shifting stats.
  
  He ran across the massive room, silent with its complete lack of monsters in pens. Near the middle, there was a cage, Tom's cage, a cage made of thick steel bars, built to hold a shadowling, and a cage he just so happened to still have the keys for.
  
  Footsteps slapped the cold, dark stone, only seconds away.
  
  Dhane bolted toward the door, grabbed it, and slammed it shut while materializing his set of keys.
  
  The lock clicked and Challenge Terry halted just outside, nostrils flaring, eyes angled in the darkness, appearing more as vibration lines than anything.
  
  "You're wrong," Dhane said, more to delay the man than anything.
  
  Challenger Terry drew his sword, the edges radiating a molten red. He slashed it across the steel bars, and a loud clanging vibrated throughout the cage, leaving behind a line of red, the metal hot, as if it had just been pulled from the furnace.
  
  "Wrong?" the man yelled. "Wrong wrong wrong? You can do better than that, you damn monster." He slashed again, cutting deeper into the metal.
  
  "Why are you so against those of Shadow?"
  
  "You're the enemy." Slash. "You're evil." Slash. "Your kind destroy villages, burn farms, and torture the innocent." Slash.
  
  "I've not seen anything like that. The Cobalins don't—"
  
  "Cobalins! Fucking fodder. They'll try to carve you up if you let them. Evil little pricks, but weak. I'm talking about the Scelkris, the Veetamors, the Delorkins."
  
  There were others of Shadow? Probably more people simply misunderstood, locked in an eternal battle. And if Veritus Scyla was telling the truth, it was a battle they were slowly losing.
  
  "And you. . . ." Challenger Terry said. "You're some kind of witchdoctor's puppet, claiming to be king. You can fool everyone else, but you're as weak as the Cobalins, trapped in your little cage."
  
  He slashed with his sword again, and three short bars broke off. They clattered against the stone floor and rolled, their ends glowing red, casting a haunting light across Challenger Terry's scowl.
  
  Dhane's mana ticked upward, now 98/110. He summoned an Exploding Spider, letting it crawl its way down the inside of his pant leg, entirely out of sight.
  
  He swallowed hard, jaw clenched, eyes locked onto Challenger Terry, not wanting to give the slightest of indications that he was up to something devious and dishonorable, biding his time for his trap to be ready.
  
  "If anyone's a puppet," Dhane said, summoning another spider and working to keep his voice level as it tickled its way down his leg. "It's you, sir. You dance at the end of your strings for the priests."
  
  "I follow with pride!"
  
  "Open your damn eyes! Do you really not see what they are doing? Can't see how corrupt they are?"
  
  "Corrupt?" he shouted so loud that it echoed back twice, perhaps loud enough for the roaming Royal guards to hear. . ..
  
  "They are killing people, Terry. Not for them to Return, but for—"
  
  "Enough! I will not listen to your lies."
  
  "You're a fool."
  
  The word seemed to have physically punched the Challenger in the gut, throwing all the respect this man didn't deserve out the window. There was no reasoning with someone so brainwashed.
  
  "You. . . ." Challenger Terry said in a low growl, stepping forward.
  
  Closer . . . just a bit closer. . ..
  
  "I'm going to kill you slowly. And when you Return, I'm going to do it again and again until the priests take pity on your soul, if you have one. And, shadowling," he said in a whisper, taking another step forward, "I don't think that will ever happen."
  
  Now! Dhane triggered Exploding Spider and the two spiders he had summoned, the spiders that were now on Challenger Terry's back, exploded. Blue ripples of power blasted out from behind him, dealing a combined 166 backstab damage . . . all in white.
  
  What the hell was needed to hurt these people!
  
  Challenger Terry lurched forward by the force of the explosion and slammed into the bars.
  
  Dhane summoned 1x Lightning Rope, then wrapped it tightly around the man's wrist and a solid steel bar before triggering Shadow Shift. The world changed and smoke whipped through him, then he was forty or so feet away, out of his cage and closer to the doorway.
  
  Challenger Terry yelled, then worked to pull his sword free. The rope zapped his wrist and sent crackling energy through the steel bars, jumping and arching as it did.
  
  Dhane charged back toward the cemetery of Shadow, listening to a molten edged blade cut into steel bars, over and over, chiming in rhythm with enraged shouts.
  
  Someone was going to hear that, and even if they didn't, the challenger would be free in a minute or two, and he still had armor. There was just no chance fighting a challenger without any decent gear or Octoralis.
  
  Dhane sprinted down the tunnels and barged back into the cemetery of Shadow. It was empty except for six well maintained light crystals, casting an even glow across four stone slabs.
  
  He barely had 33/110 mana left. It ticked upward with the passing seconds, each mana point a warning that his time was slipping away. He summoned his Cobalin sword and drove the tip of the blade down onto a slab of stone.
  
  And . . . of course, that did nothing other than fill his hand with a numbing vibration. He didn't have a magical weapon like everyone else, no red glowing edges that could cut steel bars, but there had to be some other way.
  
  An exploding spider might damage a slab, though he only had enough mana for one, and there were four slabs! Maybe there were magical symbols carved into the stones? Or some sort of power crystal?
  
  He quickly checked the slabs and found that each had a tiny symbol carved into its base. When he touched one, knowledge awoke from the back of his mind.
  
  These symbols directed the intent of some other form of magic. If he destroyed the symbols, the cemetery would still work, but people may form anywhere, potentially in a wall.
  
  He pushed a single point of his pearlescent mana into the symbol. A thin stream of glowing blue vapor shifted out and toward an individual stone block that made up a part of the wall.
  
  The block held no other adornment or carvings or anything that marked its importance, though he could feel the workings of magic beyond. It was almost like a vibration, but not physical. It was a vibration within a different layer of reality.
  
  Dhane hurried to the wall, sliding fingers over the cold, coarse stone. It had no give and felt identical to any of the other stones, all connected with lines of grout.
  
  He dug the tip of his Cobalin sword into the grout, breaking the softer material, letting it crumble and fall to the floor. Each hit sent vibrations into the stone, carving little vibration lines that formed into a hollow space maybe a foot deep.
  
  Footsteps echoed down the tunnel.
  
  Shit brownies! All he needed was a minute or two, but Challenger Terry would be there before then. Dhane triggered Web Wall, paying the 30 mana, which drained his total to 12/110. Thousands of silvery lines flowed into the tunnel's entrance.
  
  He went back to work, frantically digging his blade into the grout lines, chiseling chunks of it free, and working his way around the block. It was taking too damn long!
  
  Challenger Terry crashed into the wall of spiderwebs and grunted. He was seething. His blade glowed in the dim tunnel and sliced through webs like a hot spoon through ice cream. . ..
  
  Oi. . . . It was Dhane's last moments of life and now he had ice cream on the mind. Why the hell was ice cream such a curse for him? Maybe it was all a sign that death here would land him in some other heaven. . .?
  
  But none of it mattered if he couldn't destroy the cemetery. He couldn't die in peace or move on to another plane of existence knowing he accomplished nothing here, just suffered along with all the others and perhaps made it worse for them, gave them hope only to then snatch it away at the last moment.
  
  Challenger Terry carved his blade through the webs one last time, dealing enough damage to dispel the wall in its entirety. Silvery lines dissolved to a pearlescent glow and fizzled away.
  
  It was then that Dhane had an idea. He stopped digging around the stone and burrowed down one side, knowing full well that he couldn't hope to remove the entire stone. With one last strike, the blade broke through, opening a tiny gap that radiated with swirling, violet lights.
  
  Challenger Terry grabbed Dhane and threw him across the room.
  
  He hit the opposite wall, a dense pain shifting through his back and head. The room spun and doubled. He was on the ground, fist clenched around the hilt of his Cobalin sword.
  
  Out of instinct alone, he shoved off the ground with the agility of an arachnomancer assassin and rolled just as two blurry, red-edged swords descended where he was.
  
  Dhane stood and his vision cleared in time to see Challenger Terry advance with a series of well-practiced attacks, each pushing Dhane back toward the adjacent wall.
  
  He dodged and dodged, and when he found no room to dodge again, he raised his sword to block, only for red-edged steel to slice through his blade, tip gouging a thick line across his chest.
  
  Pain. Deep, swelling, burning pain erupted through him. Half his health dropped as a -43 in red text slid upward. The Cobalin sword turned into hundreds of rainbow-colored, transparent blocks that then burst apart.
  
  "You can't even block a simple attack," Challenger Terry said, shaking his head. He sheathed his sword and grabbed Dhane's armor, then slammed him back against the wall. "I did promise I'd kill you slowly so you can feel every bit of pain you deserve."
  
  Dhane's mana ticked up to 30/110. He couldn't breathe, couldn't focus, and just when the pain would stop, Challenger Terry slammed Dhane against the wall again.
  
  He desperately used every point of mana to summon Exploding Spider. A deep heat burned through his chest and down his arm, leaving a tingling cold behind. The spider formed, blurry and tiny, down on the floor.
  
  Mana Drunk hit immediately. Gravity shifted, pulling him back and to the side. The room elongated. Challenger Terry's eyes, carrying a spark of excitement, grew bigger as his nose shrunk. His mouth took up his entire bottom half of his head.
  
  "Oh . . . not feeling well?" Challenger Terry asked, faking a voice of concern. He then punched Dhane right under the chin, snapping his head back against the wall.
  
  He fell forward with a grunt, bells ringing, feeling a sense of urgency, a need to be somewhere, to do something. Did he give the spider his intent—did it know what to do—or was it just sitting there on the floor. . .?
  
  He crawled up the slanted floor toward a spot of importance, but why it was important eluded him. His thoughts were everywhere and nowhere, a fevered dream, a void, a pressing alarm of imminent death.
  
  Something moved him right where he needed to be. It was Challenger Terry, holding Dhane up against the wall again, the man's giant mouth of white teeth, spread in a magnificent smile.
  
  Such an expression should only elicit a sense of hatred, of rage, though, in this very moment, only a calming peace flowed within, a feeling of accomplishment.
  
  Dhane smiled.
  
  "Ah, you like this, do you?" Challenger Terry asked. He took Dhane's chin and pinched impossibly hard. Little -1s slipped out of his mouth. His jaw seemed to bend under the force, his teeth grinding.
  
  Dhane, sensing a piece of himself, of his soul, in the opposite wall, triggered Exploding Spider. A small explosion set off a chain of reactions. The powerful magics that formed the cemetery of Shadow, all released, escaping toward the only direction it could go, toward the block of stone with most of its grout removed.
  
  That stone exploded across the room like a cannonball, propelled by blue and violet swirls of glowing power. It crashed into Challenger Terry's back, forcing him to let Dhane crumble to the floor.
  
  A -270 in white shifted up and over the Challenger, but then a -106 in red also escaped him, chasing after the other number as they both danced toward the dim ceiling, light crystals drained of their mana, flickering.
  
  Terry arched forward, both hands holding the wall as if it were about to collapse. He breathed rapidly through clenched teeth, a wounded beast, stuck in a cycle of rage.
  
  After three seconds, the man spun and attacked with a growl. He landed on Dhane's chest, knees like daggers pressing against his ribs, hands wrapped around his neck. "I HATE YOU!" Challenger Terry screamed, squeezing, cutting off Dhane's airflow, face tingling from blood loss.
  
  All Dhane could think of as his health slipped below 10/85 and his armor shattered and flaked away like his Cobalin sword had, was how he succeeded. Against all the odds, all the impossibilities. Against a king, his Royal guards, and a challenger . . . he won.
  
  Now for that ice cream. . ..
  
  Now for death and potentially a new start somewhere else. Maybe he didn't have to be public enemy number one. Maybe he could just be a normal person in a world of wonder, surrounded by friends.
  
  That'll be nice. . ..
  
  7/85 . . . 6/85 . . . 5/85. . ..
  
  Something scuffed the stone down a dark hallway. No doubt, the Royal guards had found their way here by now, just in time to see him turn into a screaming soul of smoke.
  
  Challenger Terry looked up. His eyebrows ascended his forehead and his mouth dropped opened. He released his grip, and Dhane coughed, sucking in air.
  
  Maybe it was the lingering effect of Mana Drunk, or perhaps he had already died, and this was just some glitch in heaven, but there in the hallway was a slender, naked woman with unbelievably massive breasts.
  
  She spoke in a high pitched, grating voice, "Helloooo, strong adventurer." There were tiny, almost imperceivable purple, flickering sparks around her form as she moved, hips swaying.
  
  Then, out of nowhere, flying with all the courage of a berserker charging into battle, was Knock . . . little green Knock. He landed on Challenger Terry's back, ramming a new Cobalin sword down with all of his weight.
  
  The attack hit for 26 damage, and the Challenger stiffened, eyes round in shock. His silvery-white soul leaked out of his back, and a moment later, he was gone.
  
  Knock, eyes pinched shut, his blade's tip now balanced against the floor, screamed out, "Did, I, kill it?"
  
  Dhane grabbed the Cobalin and laughed, truly laughed, a laugh full of relief and joy and peace. He pulled Knock into a hug. "You killed it, great Shadow."
  
  "I? I great Shadow?"
  
  Dhane released the little man and asked, "How are you here?"
  
  "I come. Save my woman!"
  
  "Desley? She's with you?"
  
  Knock shook his head. "I looked but big man in ugly clothing say you here, say all Cobalins should help, all Cobalins should fight."
  
  Someone was running in the tunnel that led toward the Hall of Guilds. The footsteps vibrated in rhythm with tiny bells and screeching shouts, yelling, "Go left," then from someone else, "No no, he wrong! Go right!" followed by, "Yes, right, that's what I meant!" and, "I no believe you, dummy."
  
  Devron appeared, sprinting and gasping for breath, four Cobalins clinging to his back "The . . . guards," he said between breaths. "I hit 'em with my . . . sleep bombs, though it only worked on . . . a few of them."
  
  Kuby hopped off. "Hope bringer!"
  
  "Kuby?" Dhane said. "But why are you all down here? There's no way out."
  
  "That be wrong," Knock said. "Mahai . . . poor Mahai, he leave powerful items in case of attack."
  
  "What happened to Mahai?"
  
  Knock pinched his eyebrows together and shrugged. "He gone, taken. I no know where." He summoned an original Gameboy, then pressed buttons before revealing the green, pixelated screen. There were two items in his inventory.
  
  Targeted Waypoint // Epic // Single Use
  
  A stone created with a specific location. Upon use, the stone will expand into a small waypoint platform and offer instant transportation to the assigned coordinates. May only be used once.
  
  Village Seed // Legendary // Single Use
  
  The village seed may be used to claim unclaimed territory for the purpose of building a village. The seed provides all necessary village systems and buildings to get started, including a cemetery, matching the affinity of its user. May only be used once.
  
  They had a way out. . . . They could live, start again in some new place far away from everything here. But what of Penny, what of Desley and Tom and Leon and the hundreds of Cobalins still enslaved?
  
  Shouts echoed down the tunnel. The Royal guards, in their clanging armor, were charging toward the destroyed cemetery of Shadow. There was no time. . ..
  
  Dhane held his hand out. "Give me the items," he said.
  
  Knock didn't even hesitate. He summoned the items and Dhane took them, then activated the Targeted Waypoint. The stone dropped and splashed into the floor like a drop of water into a pool. The ground rippled and symbols sliced into the stone, forming around a circle just big enough for three regular-sized people.
  
  "I no go," Knock said. "I find woman! She here, I find her."
  
  "Nah, man," Devron said, "I'll find her."
  
  "No one is staying," Dhane said. The Royal guards turned the last dark bend, outlined in vibrations. "We will come back. We will save all of them." His words, said with stern confidence, seemed to slice away all the fear and uncertainty that lined Knock's face.
  
  "They're just ahead!" a woman called, her voice accented by the ting of her drawn sword. She flashed stepped, appearing in the room, her blade swishing through the air.
  
  Dhane triggered the waypoint stone and everything changed.