Zuls on the back of Pioneer went to scout the lake and find the portal or stairwell or however the exit to the next floor would manifest. Hyren, Sovereign, and Gliya were practicing flight maneuvers while they searched.

  While she was looking for their way out, Kumo went to gather the rest of the group from the inn. They debated about leaving them alone until morning, but it had already been hours since they were left there, and daylight was about to break.

  Lillian offered to host them until Zuls returned and things were figured out regarding travel. She confessed that she didn’t care much whether they figured out what happened to her grandmother or not. She had never met the woman and there just wasn’t some emotional connection there. Synexus had fixed her backdoor and the whole time she stood there impressed, telling him that there was a career in the creation of props if he was ever interested. She continued to talk his ear off about it as they waited for everyone to reconvene at the mansion.

  It took hours for Kumo to return with a group of half-awake people. They shambled like zombies as they filtered through the gate. Kumo was standing off to the side yelling at them like a drill instructor. When they finally got inside, she sighed and fell onto a couch.

  “Lazy, all of them. It took me an hour to get everyone out of bed and out of the inn.”

  “Give them a break, Kumo. That was probably the first bed they’ve slept in and warm meal they’ve had in decades.” Vorin voiced while looking through his bag.

  “Half a warm meal.” Belle murmured.

  “What was that?!” Kumo nearly shot up from the couch before Belle scurried off into another room. “Any word from Zuls?”

  “Oh my!”

  They all gave each other a this-can’t-be-good look before heading into the main entertainment room. Inside, Lillian was there holding Twinkle to her chest.

  “You didn’t tell me you were friends with a fairy! Brilliant!”

  “We didn’t know that you would want that information.”

  “How could I not? Fae are well known in the drama community. Fae magic and classes tend to center around creation. They can bring plays to life for the audience. The Drama Guild is led by a family of fairies.”

  “Twinkle creates the best games!”

  “Twinkle? That…is…the…best name! And what do you mean by games?”

  “Any game! I can poof it into existence with my magic and people have to follow my rules! Except Kumo.”

  “We could work with that. It would take a little bending to fit in a play setting, but we could make so much money together! How would you feel about working with me?”

  Twinkle looked around the room before meeting Kumo’s eyes. She simply nodded to her to say it’s your choice.

  “Working sounds boring. I want to play games!”

  “Oh, but Twinkle! Thousands of people would come to watch your games every night. Imagine! And I could introduce you to the fairy families here in the city.”

  “More Twinkles? We could all be friends and play games! Twinkle, Kumo, you, and all the other Twinkles!”

  “Oh…uh Twinkle, I have to go. I can’t stay, but this sounds like a good opportunity for you to be with others like you. I’m not sure if we have fae on Motholo.” She looked over to Gene.

  “Not that I’m aware of. Fae are rare as they come from a different plane of existence all together.”

  “See? This could be your only chance, and it sounds like a sweet gig to get to use your magic up on stage every night.”

  “Kumo leave? Will you come back to play?”

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  “If I’m ever on this planet again, I will visit you before doing anything else. I’m not sure when that will be, but we all will live long lives. We will see each other again.”

  “Okay...if other Twinkles are mean then I will come find you.”

  “Sounds good. I bet Lillian here has a ton of sweets for you to eat too.”

  Twinkle shrieked loudly and sped off to find the sweets. Lillian just stood there covered in sparkly dust.

  “Just take care of her, yeah? She’s been through a lot.”

  “Oh, they are practically royalty here. She will have a good life.”

  “Ma’am.”

  They all turned towards the timid voice to see Belle standing there.

  “Yes?”

  “Some of us were talking and we know there is a spaceport on this planet. From our conversations with Zuls, it doesn’t sound like their planet has reached that point yet. Would it be too much to ask to stay here for a few days until we can figure out how to get back to our planets? We just want to go home.”

  Lillian sighed deeply.

  “I mean I have the room, but you’ll have to work to earn your keep. Tickets on a space ferry are expensive.”

  “Thank you. We will do our best.” Belle turned from Lillian and faced the party. “Thank you all as well. We hope you understand why we want to stay behind.”

  Vorin approached her and smiled.

  “We understand completely. Finding your people is more important than anything. We will leave some money for you all to get started, but it won’t be a lot. How many of you are staying?”

  “All of us. Well except for Dancer.”

  Vorin turned to Dancer.

  “Are you sure? We can’t promise that we will get you home.”

  “I’m positive. Your party has given me a purpose once more, and more importantly, you’re good people. You said the Coalition is active on your planet, I shall hunt them and use them to get off world. I want answers.”

  Sekra stepped from the wall he was leaning against and approached Prith.

  “Even though we are seeking our homes, you have our eternal gratitude. We can’t speak for our people, but we have all agreed that if you ever need our aid, we will be there. I’m not sure how we will communicate. Just know you always have friends in us.”

  Prith grabbed the man’s chitin covered hand and shook it.

  “Same goes for you. We must stand together.”

  Lillian sighed again.

  “I’ll get some rooms prepared.”

  She walked off looking defeated. Belle swished her tails around and followed her.

  Zuls took another six hours to return. Everyone was relaxing inside the mansion when an alarming cackle rang out in the sky. Minutes later and more cackles filled the air. Vorin led everyone out the newly fixed backdoor and looked up in the sky. Pioneer had recalled all the pathfinders from their explorations of the city. Zuls jumped down from the sky activating her flight right before landing in front of Vorin.

  “Wow, everyone is here. I found the portal. It’s just a spiral staircase that appears to go down into the lake. It was hard to spot, but it’s actually not far from here. The pathfinders are ready to take us all.”

  “Good job, Zuls. Unfortunately, everyone except for Dancer decided to stay which means this is our time for farewells.”

  “Even Twinkle?” Zuls face fell into a frown.

  “Even Twinkle.”

  Hearing her name, the green fairy flew fast and nearly tackled Zuls because she couldn’t stop herself.

  “I’m going to have thousands of friends!”

  She looked at Vorin who told her they would explain later.

  “Well, that sounds amazing! Have fun and play lots of games with them.”

  “I will! Lillian said we can meet the others tomorrow! She also has lots of sweets and milk!”

  Zuls laughed while brushing all the sparkles off her clothes. Vorin stepped forward and turned around.

  “As class chosen, we have a duty to protect those that can’t protect themselves. That’s always been my philosophy, and I’ve tried to follow it every day. Being able to help all of you out of that awful prison is an honor. My hope is you can all find your families alive and well. If you can’t or you find your people are in trouble. Find us. You will always have a place on Motholo.”

  Everyone cheered. Synexus stepped up next to make an announcement.

  “My friend Gene here has decided to give you all a gift. We can’t communicate long distances, and it might be impossible to find our planet, but if you plant these seeds on your planet then we may be able to figure something out. They will grow a tree and that tree will be something that my friend can sense. Be careful of the Coalition. They took my planet from me. I will do anything to prevent them from doing that to anyone else’s.”

  More cheers and then everyone started to walk up and say their goodbyes. People were hugging and shaking hands. They all received some Progress Credits from each member of the party. Fifteen minutes later the murmuring quieted down once again. The members of the party hopped onto the back of a pathfinder and looked back towards the crowd.

  “Farewell everyone!” Zuls called out.

  “No Zuls, farewell for now. I have a feeling we will see them all again.” Synexus smiled and waved as the pathfinders took to the sky and shot off toward the portal.

  Just as Zuls said, there was a random spiral staircase that barely breeched the lake’s surface. Instead of getting off and walking down the steps, the pathfinders—with a little coaxing—shot down into the water.

  Main Objective Complete!

  Welcome to the last floor of The Shadow Labyrinth!