N'Bayan gave a long look at the Arena that had been the focus of his duties for the past decade. It was a bit over a decade, in truth; he was two tendays short of completing his twelfth year as the man who managed the Arena itself.

For all that he was called the Arena Master, N'Bayan knew there was a lot in the Arena that he wasn't responsible for. He only had oversight over the fighters and their schedules, including the already-captured monsters and the summoners. His purview didn't extend to the healers, the vendors, the monster-catchers, or any of the other functions that made the Arena as a whole work. He didn't even control the practice areas, unless they were being used for a tournament's elimination rounds. Even then, he had to work with the Training Master.

Not that that mattered anymore. The true Master of the Arena, the Master of the entire Arena, had decided he was going back to the Maze. He wasn't even entirely sure why; yes, the Flying Stars were one of the more impressive groups he'd seen and they were doing well, but that often didn't translate into performing well in the Maze. In the Arena, you could choose your enemies, at least to an extent. More than that, you knew what the space was like. That wasn't at all true in the Maze.

N'Bayan knew that well. It was why he didn't want to go back to the Maze. He'd once been part of a group that did well in the Arena, then fell apart in the Maze.

He had a choice, a clear one. He could either escort them into the Maze as the Broken Blade demanded or he could leave Mazehold. Staying in Mazehold after flaunting the Broken Blade's will was not an option. He wasn't sure which way he'd choose, but he was definitely going to look into what caravans might be thinking about leaving Mazehold in the next tenday, just in case.

After he finished the Broken Blade's immediate demands.

"Arena Master? They're here." The paymaster used N'Bayan's old title as he informed the worried man of his charges' arrival to pick up their pay from the expedition. N'Bayan considered correcting him, but let it go. It wouldn't matter for much longer.

When he followed the paymaster into the dispensation area, there was only one other person there: Jaycen Deepmist, the formal leader of the Flying Stars. That was both good and bad, but N'Bayan thought it was overall positive. It gave him one person to talk to; Jaycen could handle the others. "Jaycen Deepmist of the Flying Stars? I'm pleased to tell you that your duo passed the proving trial for your entire team. This means…"

Sophia stared at the crowd that surrounded her. This was not what she expected when she thought about an expedition into the Maze. Sure, she knew the Arena usually sent larger expeditions. That didn't mean over a hundred people. She knew exactly five of the others here, her own party. Even Jax seemed surprised by the chaos that surrounded them.

It wasn't long before they found out why it was chaos: no one could find the man who was organizing everyone. They'd all been told to meet at the Arena's outer plaza for a multi-day expedition into the Maze, but that was all anyone seemed to know. All they could do was wait.

It felt like hours later when an older man with pointed ears, curling black horns, and green eyes dressed in a pristine cream-colored robe began making the rounds of the people gathered on the pavilion. His head reminded Sophia enough of the tales of satyrs that she checked his legs, but as far as she could tell they seemed human under the robe.

After the man spoke to each group for a few minutes, he had them gather on the far side of the plaza, just inside the gate that led towards the Maze. When he reached their group, it was with an obviously well-practiced introduction. "I'm Arak Shade, one of the Arena's healers and the new leader of this expedition into the Maze. I've been on more expeditions than I can easily remember and led half a dozen; while this is a surprise to me, it isn't unwelcome. Which group are you?"

Sophia blinked. If anyone knew how to keep people alive in the Maze or why the Arena seemed to do better at it than the Registry, Arak Shade seemed like the right person to start with. Why hadn't she heard of him?

Maybe Jax had already looked into him?

"We're the Flying Stars," Jax answered. "Ah, what happened to N'Bayan?"

Arak shrugged with a resigned look on his face. It was obvious he'd expected the question. "I don't know. We're looking into that now. My guess is that he left Mazehold with the caravan that departed last night; that would certainly explain why his rooms have been emptied. He managed it without anyone realizing what he was doing, but that wouldn't be hard when arranging an expedition. So far, I've been able to tell that he did a passable job of selecting people to go, but his other preparations were somewhat lacking. We will be opening the storehouses so that we can head out in a few hours, and bringing a few additional summoners since he completely forgot to arrange for draft animals."

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The new expedition leader chuckled, then smiled. "Admittedly, that is probably less of a delay than the fact that I will have to gather my things after I get us set up for the initial entry into the Maze. We'll do a more complete arrangement once we're camped for the first night, but if I don't get us moving the first encounter will be a night encounter, and that's never a good place to start."

Sophia frowned. "Couldn't you just tell us all to come back tomorrow, then, when you're ready?"

Arak shook his head. "We'd have to delay several days if we did. One or two groups would back out, either because they can't muster the courage to try again or because they're worried about scheduled Arena events, maybe even the Arena expedition I was planning to lead in a tenday. I'd have to find replacements that fit the holes or come up with a way to work around them. That usually causes a cascade. I can probably get around that by shortening the expedition, but we're already only planning to spend two nights in the Maze. That's shorter than I like for any expedition, but that's what N'Bayan planned. It will be a decent introduction to the Maze for the new groups, at least; perhaps some of you will want to attend the expedition in a tenday."

"I didn't hear anything about another option for a trip to the Maze," Jax protested.

Arak Shade sighed and shook his head. "Of course you didn't. As far as I can tell, N'Bayan had no idea how expeditions are usually arranged and he didn't get someone who's ever led one to help him. The one thing he did get right was to invite all of the Arena competitors from an expedition a couple of months ago and gather all the supplies they said they needed. It's more than enough for a short trip. The Arena…"

Arak trailed off and looked up at the large main Arena Building. He shook his head, then corrected himself. "The Broken Blade doesn't like sending people on expeditions that are too close together. It means you're not in the Arena. I'll see if I can get an exception made this time, since this isn't really a full expedition. There are a couple of other groups that also expressed interest in a longer trip."

He paused, then frowned at the book in his hand. "I swear I've seen your name … ah, there you are. Listed first, interesting. Wait, you're all mid-second upgrade, here because two of you were able to handle a proving trial?"

Sophia got a sinking feeling at his words. An unusual person leading the expedition and an incompetently planned trip to a dangerous place were bad enough, but that wasn't enough to really set off any alarm bells. Finding out that her team was first on the list, as if the entire expedition was planned around them, was enough. "Are we the only team that's never been to the Maze before?"

"I'm not sure," Arak admitted. "I usually assume there are some new teams and make certain there are enough experienced teams to cover them, but I haven't had the time to go through the list of teams I don't know. There are enough people to handle things in the short term, certainly enough for a couple of nights."

He was clearly trying to be reassuring yet honest. Sophia found the honesty somewhat reassuring but the rest of it fell flat. The one thing she could be pretty sure of was that if there was a deeper plan, he wasn't in on it. That, combined with the fact that he was probably exactly the sort of person they should be looking for to find out how to survive in the Maze, made Sophia feel a bit happier about the situation.

"Please check." Dav set a hand on Sophia's back as he spoke. "I'm beginning to think this was set up quickly after we won, and that's starting to worry me."

"You don't need to be worried," Arak reassured Dav. Sophia noticed that his attention was on his book as he spoke. "Although I suppose I can see why you are. This is a mess, and not really a good place for newcomers. How about this: if you want to back out of this trip, I'll make sure you can come on the next expedition I lead. That's planned for a tenday from now, and it's supposed to be a full two tendays in length. You won't be the only first-timers, either; there are two new teams currently signed up. One is a new group that recently reached the third upgrade, all Hallowed and placed together to support each other, while the other is more like your group. The Chains of Prometheus are at the top of the second upgrade."

Sophia knew of the Chains of Prometheus. They were one of the teams that the Flying Stars were often compared to, since they were an established second upgrade team at the Arena. In some ways they were similar to the Flying Stars, but in others they were quite different; while the Flying Stars had a lot of people who could fill different roles as needed, the Chains were far more specialized individually.

Blazing Bonds was their team lead; she could literally manifest burning hot metal chains that she could manipulate as she chose. They were slow to hurt whatever they came into contact with if they couldn't set it on fire, but she could tie down multiple monsters at the same time from a distance. Her Ability had to be the origin of their team name, since the others were not nearly as flashy. Bulwark kept everything from itching the rest of his team, while the Eagle and Flamebound killed whatever Blazing Bonds restrained. Sophia was pretty sure they had a fifth member, as well, but her name was rarely ever called out by the announcer, so Sophia couldn't remember what she did.

There was one other thing Sophia was sure of about them: they'd been a team for a lot longer than the Flying Stars had been competing, and the Flying Stars had been at it for a good three months now. "I thought they'd have been into the Maze by now."

"They've only been here a couple of years," Arak stated with a shake of his head. "That's really quite fast to be ready to dive into the Maze. You're rushing things a lot." He paused, then added, "Which means that either you're going to get yourselves killed quickly or you're going to do very well. I've seen some of your fights, so I'm expecting a lot out of you."

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