I went back to the plaza in front of the Knight’s Tower and called it a day.

  When I logged in the next day I saw something was off.

  First of all, Athos was furious. I've never seen him mad before.

  "Hey, Paladin!" he called out to Lothras, who was just as surprised as me.

  "Do we have a problem?"

  "You tell me, Lothras," the Swordsman stood in front of him. Lothras was half a head taller, but that didn't stop the Blade of the Sea.

  "Do you know about your guild ganking the players in front of Tidemark city?" his hand fell on the grip of his sword. "Threatening them not to join Second Wind, or you're going to hunt them down?"

  Lothras looked him straight in the eye.

  "I have no hand in the official matters of the guild." He straightened, making the height difference even more apparent. "However, you should get used to it."

  "Oh, don't you act all high and mighty–"

  "Stop it." Lothras's eyes were burning. "The only one acting high and mighty here is you."

  Athos didn't like that response, but the Paladin continued before he could react.

  "Your guild handled it, right? I've heard your Vice Guild-master put Crimson Court members through heavy breathing."

  "Yes, but–"

  "But what?" Lothras stepped an inch closer. "Power dynamics will always be part of this game. And you know what? Second Wind is more powerful here in Tidemark than Crimson Court."

  Athos let go of the hilt.

  "You have the majority of heavy hitters in the county. All-stars like Blue and Cyrus are handling guild business while you're here with us, clearing the dungeons, aren't they?"

  "That has nothing to do with this."

  "It has everything to do with it!" Lothras kept his voice down, despite his emotions building up. "They handled it! Why are you in my face, crying about it? It's part of the game! Why do you think the PK rules are so light outside of towns? As long as there are no NPC witnesses, it doesn't tank your reputation to kill other players!"

  He took a deep breath.

  "This is the intended way to play. When guilds form, everyone will scramble for superiority. Crimson Court embraces that from the beginning. You can stay up on your moral high horse for as long as you want, or you can do something about it!"

  "It's still an ass thing to do, Lothras!" Athos said.

  "Yes, it is," the Paladin agreed. "But it won't be the last time. And if you want to lead, you have to understand that people will be out to get you. It's Crimson Court now, and later it will be rival guilds from other regions, and then from other kingdoms. Or it could be NPCs like the Count's nephew or whoever it was, wanting to undermine everything you ever built! This is not a farming sim."

  The fire in Lothras's eyes dimmed, and he sighed. "You have strong lieutenants here, Athos. All Crimson Court has running around is that fool, Lorrando. I'm sure you could spend your energy better than whining to me about it."

  Athos stood there, silent for a second.

  "Why did you join them?" he asked after calming down. "You're clearly not like Lorrando. And it seems you don't even like him."

  "Crimson Court isn't just Lorrandos and Caines. But even if it was," he stated, "I choose my immediate party based on how I feel around them. I'm choosing the powers that back me based on efficiency. And Crimson Court isn't crying about getting killed in a game meant for PvP."

  He rolled his shoulder. "Well, Lorrando probably is. But he is of no concern to me."

  The tension between them didn't fully dissipate, but it settled into something manageable. An understanding, if not an agreement.

  Kara caught my eye and mouthed: *What did I miss?*

  I shook my head. Later.

  "If you two are done," I said aloud, "we have a knight to meet."

  Calian was waiting for us in the Knight's Tower, standing before a large map of the county spread across a heavy oak table. He looked tired; whatever business had called him away yesterday had clearly taken its toll.

  His eyes lit up when he saw us enter.

  "You've returned," he said, and there was relief in his voice. "I was beginning to worry. The Burial Site, and especially the Catacombs were said to be incredibly dangerous by the mages."

  "We were prepared," Lothras replied. "But it wasn’t easy."

  "But you succeeded." Calian's gaze swept across our group, assessing. "The key?"

  "We have it," I confirmed.

  I produced both key pieces from my inventory and held them out for Calian to see. The silver-blue shard from the Twinfire Burial Site and the gold-green piece from the Ravenmere Catacombs. They hummed with resonant energy, as if recognizing each other after centuries apart.

  Calian reached out, his hands hovering over the fragments without touching them. Light gathered between the two pieces, thin tendrils of energy reaching across the gap.

  "They wish to be whole again," he murmured. "After so long..."

  He gestured, and the fragments floated from my hands, drifting toward each other. When they touched, the light flared brilliant white. I shielded my eyes, and when I looked again, the pieces were reformed into a key once again.

  "It is done," Calian said softly. "The key is whole. Now, at last, we can reclaim what was lost."

  He moved to the map on the table, pointing to a location: a small island not far from shore, separated from the main city by a narrow channel of water.

  "The Sunken Sanctuary," he explained. "When the Trident was sealed away, the Count's ancestors built a vault beneath this island to house it. The entrance's location was discovered by Count Vizgrad not too long ago. Other than him, his court mage, Cathe and me, no one knows of it."

  "We do now," Athos said.

  "Now, you do." Calian met his eyes. "I cannot accompany you inside. The vault works the same way as the catacombs and the burial site. Only adventurers can enter. The magic recognizes something in your kind that it does not see in us."

  "More content for us,” Athos said nonchalantly, forgetting that Calian didn’t know we were playing a game, after all.

  "If that is how you understand it, then yes." He took the key from where it floated and pressed it into my hands. "I do not know what awaits you inside, but I have the utmost faith in you."

  "Hopefully a nice and easy stroll, right?" Kara asked.

  Calian smiled slightly. "That is also a possibility."

  The Sunken Sanctuary was accessible via a small boat that Calian had arranged for us. The island itself was unremarkable: a rocky outcropping covered in sparse vegetation, with the ruins of what might once have been a watchtower crumbling at its highest point.

  But beneath those ruins, hidden by centuries of neglect, was a staircase leading down into darkness.

  "Charming," Kara muttered as we descended.

  The stairs went deeper than I expected, spiraling down through solid rock until even the faint light from above had faded completely. I summoned Lune, her Foxfire illuminating the passage with soft radiance.

  At the bottom, we found a door.

  It was massive, easily four meters tall and half as wide, made from a metal alloy that resembled Athos’s sword. The surface was simple and smooth, with no intricate drawings or carvings. Nothing that would scream “there’s a legendary trident hidden in there.”

  And in the center, there was a keyhole.

  I inserted the key. It turned with a satisfying click, and the door began to open.

  The vault beyond was not what I expected.

  I'd anticipated something like the catacombs: dark, oppressive, filled with traps and hazards. Instead, we stepped into a chamber of breathtaking beauty.

  The ceiling was high and domed, covered in a mosaic of blue and green tiles that depicted the ocean in all its moods. Calm seas, raging storms, sunlit shallows, and abyssal depths; every aspect of the water was represented. The walls were lined with alcoves containing artifacts of obvious value: ancient weapons, jeweled crowns, chests that probably held fortunes in gold.

  I went to see if I could loot them, and sure enough, rare, epic, even unique items appeared in front of me.

  With the prompt: taking this item will reduce your reputation with all factions to the minimum.

  We tried not to look at any of the equipment after that, so it would hurt less.

  And at the center of the room, on a raised platform beside an empty throne, stood the Tidemark Trident.

  It was beautiful.

  The weapon was nearly two meters tall, its shaft made from sea-green metal that seemed to amplify the ambient light. The three prongs were a bit more silvery, wickedly sharp, crackling with faint energy that even made the atmosphere heavier. Runes were carved along its length, pulsing with a soft blue glow.

  Even from across the room, I could feel its power.

  "That's it," Athos said quietly. "The Trident."

  We approached slowly, as if the relic could disappear at any moment. The empty throne beside it drew my attention. It was massive, carved from coral and stone, clearly meant for someone of great importance.

  But whoever had sat there was long gone.

  "Who was the throne for?" Kara asked, voicing my thought.

  "The first Count, perhaps," Lothras suggested. "Or whoever was meant to wield the Trident."

  I stepped onto the dais and reached for the weapon.

  The moment my fingers touched the shaft, a notification appeared.

  I pulled my hand back, frowning.

  "What is it?" Athos asked.

  "It's dormant. Depleted." I read the notification aloud for the others. "We can't take it until it's recharged."

  "Recharged how?" Kara moved closer, studying the Trident without touching it. "What does 'fed with the essence of ancient rulers' even mean?"

  "The essence of Tidemark's ancient rulers," Lothras repeated thoughtfully. "That suggests a lineage."

  "The Vizgrad family?" I suggested. "They've ruled Tidemark for generations."

  "Perhaps." Lothras's eyes were focused, as if he was calculating our possibilities. "The notification doesn’t mention anything else."

  I checked my quest log. Sure enough, a new entry had appeared.

  "The quest says we could claim it as our own," Kara said. "That sounds fun."

  "Judging by the other loot here," Athos replied, "we would have to flee to the other continent if we did that."

  I took one last look at the Trident. We were so close, yet it was still out of reach.

  I stepped back from the dais.

  "We should report to Calian," I decided. "He might know more about these ancient rulers and their essence. And even if he doesn't, the Count probably does."

  "Agreed," Lothras said. "The Trident isn't going anywhere. We have time to do this properly."

  We made our way back through the vault, past the treasures we couldn't take and the artifacts we couldn't use. The door sealed behind us as we climbed the stairs, the key remaining in my inventory for future use.

  I had a feeling this was not going to be as easy as we had hoped.