The quest was set in River City, a random settlement on a less-popular planet in the Cresca Sector. Basically, the city was sprawled over two river valleys toward the East that merged into one great river in the West. The ruling palace was right on the merging point of those rivers. And the landscape was that of the Steam Age; the city was not one of the inter-planetary hubs. This lay under a smog-filled sky and was criss-crossed by railroads and cobblestone streets lined with brick-and-mortar homes and businesses. The setting was basically a grim, wintry, industrial wasteland.

The objective was to stop a mysterious guild of spellcrafters from finishing their agenda, which involved breaching a plasma tank near the bank of the river and using its contents for making a weapon to destroy the forcefield protecting the region from the Aredon Empire to the West; and this looked more and more like an inside job.

It was just me and Meghan's avatar at the moment. We were scout-assassins set out for an undetermined amount of compensation to locate the headquarters and try to assassinate the ringleaders. We were on foot at the moment, having just got off a trolley at Station Square on the Southern Bank. We had made our way up the adjacent avenue but turned and went back, empty-handed. The whole city was silent in an unnerving way, but nothing happened, thus far, to be cause for alarm. We were about to get back on the trolley when an unusually dark shadow from below the awning underneath the Station Square platform caught my attention. I grabbed Meghan's avatar by the hand and led her toward it.

We cast a Concealment Spell on ourselves and quietly made our way under the awning and toward a door I spotted directly underneath the tracks. The silence was "pressing" even harder here.

"This is it," I mouthed to Meghan's avatar. I put my ear to the door and listened. Sure enough, I heard quiet but tense murmurs from the other side, from what sounded like a group of people. My heart started pounding. I nodded to Meghan's avatar to arm herself and to be ready to pounce. I gave the count-off:

Three. Two. One.

I kicked the door, which swung open with ease.

And the next thing I saw was the inside of Meghan's dorm room. I looked around and down at myself. Where my avatar garb and gear had been, there was now just me and my normal clothes. "What the hell!?" I exclaimed as I looked back at Meghan's Immersion Console.

I had been kicked out.

A terrible glitch, I thought to myself as I fished my comm tab out of my pants pocket and logged into the Ticketer app. I tried to send Meghan a private message explaining what happened. But the app had me locked out of that. I then noticed that I was also barred from making posts on the Ticketer Bulletin. At the bottom of the main screen was a Help Desk icon that I had seen before but never used. I clicked on that and initiated a call.

"Your account is showing suspended," said the agent on the other end after a moment of verifying my account information. "Looks like it was an authorization from Central Admin. You'll have to call them or appeal to the Bookkeeper."

"Monika," I said to myself through gritted teeth after I ended the call.

Meghan emerged from the Immersion Console. "What happened?" she asked.

"I just got kicked out of the Arturian Realm," I said, still angry with the situation. "Monika has me suspended."

"Find yourself a Caucus Advocate as soon as possible. They have a list of them on the Bulletin."

"I don't have access anymore."

"No. I mean the physical one. Also, message your brother."

I stopped to think for a moment. "Actually, I'm going to talk to my brother first, in person."

"Might be best," said Meghan. "He might be roped into this too, might have some insight."

We both went out the door and followed the corridors outside en route to my place. The warmth hit us as we proceeded through the outer door and into the summer air; it was already dusk. Over the next few moments, Meghan and I walked in silence. Finally, I asked, "What about the quest?"

"It...might've been them, might not have. They were very low-level fighting skill, but there were like fifty of them. I had to respawn unfortunately..."

"Dammit."

"No worries. We'll hit it again once you're restored."

As Meghan and I entered my living suite, we saw Aledon pacing around the common area. He looked up at me and said, "You were right not to trust Layda."

That statement stopped me in my tracks. "So they kicked you out too? And all because of Layda!?" I said.

"The whole lot of us," replied Aledon. "You, me, Bernard, Maggie, Madison, Elisabeth...Check that email Sara sent us."

I logged into my comm tab again and into my email account. Sure enough, signed by Sara March, there was a message sent to me and the others Aledon mentioned: we had all been suspended from participating in the Arturian Realm, from taking part in Caucus meetings, and from participating in online discussions on the Bulletin. The message also explained that there was a good possibility that we would all be banned from the Society permanently, and that we had the option of going through due process under Bookkeeper Vera Swann.

And then, sure enough, a footnote at the bottom of the email warned us to keep away from Layda. "Or otherwise we will involve the Campus Watch?" I read aloud.

"Best, at least, to listen to that," said Aledon helplessly with a shrug.

"Have the others heard about this? Maggie? Bernard?"

"I will open a group chat between us on OCEA tonight."

I looked over at Meghan. "I'm so sorry about this," I said.

Meghan said nothing but gently grabbed my shoulder in sympathy.

***

Bernard replied to the group chat, advising us to follow Monika's warning regarding Layda but to otherwise fight back as hard as we could against the ban.

And then a realization occurred to me: Monika's term would end at the end of this year. Dungeonmaster terms lasted only a year; we were more than halfway done. And the election was in November.

Maybe, perhaps, I thought, Aledon could run again, and unseat her.

However, such a feeling of hope had been spoiled by feelings of dread and pity. Whoever was in the Dungeonmaster position next year would have to contend with fallout from the Headmaster elections, to take place next month, whichever way they went. This election cycle, I knew, involved numerous issues omnipresent throughout the University- within every organization, especially the Society, after Stamp's remarks...

I don't even want to think about it. I need to sleep, for goodness sake.