With all that was said, Rose Anne gave me a day to myself to get familiar with and brush up my skills with Lowen.

I was surprised that I did not have to blow dust out of Lowen's spaceship. You'd think something like that would collect dust after all those years. But then again, this is a dymensional plane we're dealing with, not reality.

I had all day Monday to practice Lowen's melee and projectile combat skills, as well as her concealment skills. And of course, I got to fly between the planets of Cresca Minor XXI, Lowen's home planet, and the other planets of the Cresca Major IV Gas Giant System. The next day, I was assigned to rendezvous with Rose Anne Mahathy and fly with her to Mahathia. Thus began the quest.

So as planned, we landed on Mahathia, where I, as Lowen, cast concealment for myself and Rosane. We made our way to the meeting place of Rigor, giving the appropriate signal to have Rigor join our concealment bubble where we would thus begin talks over the funding for the security measures. It was in a secluded location in the grand capital city of Mahathia, right next to the spaceport and hidden in one of the hangar construction sites. It was where we would all least expect to be found by the Gold Empire if they were to somehow make their way to Mahathia. "Hidden in plain sight" as one would say.

Or so I thought.

Rigor shot Rosane, killing the avatar instantly. Rosane's spirit-voice rang in my ear shouting, "They're here! Run away now!" Lowen flew away from the premise, indulging in self-concealment. A flurry of laser-bullets flew from Rigor's gun and those of his accomplices, who spontaneously emerged from the numerous other pallets, boxes, and hiding places on the construction platform.

I ran, ran, ran as fast as I could. Five men stood between me and my ship, and one was breaking into it through its cockpit door. But I flitted around the back and crawled through the hidden hatch I had. I got into the cockpit just as the one Imperial Officer burst into my flight deck. This man shot a ray right at me. But at just the last second, I cast a mirror spell, which bounced the beam right back at him and struck him right at the chest.

Thus, I presumed that either it was a daemon that was destroyed or an avatar that would have to respawn.

As I fired up the engines, I saw his body dissolve into sand behind me, sand that disappeared. Suddenly, outside, right in front of me, his body reassembled. And he was alive and well, right outside and in front of me. He suddenly produced his ray gun again and began firing. I put the ship gyro-buoyancy on maximum as I had my ship float up while frantically starting up the engines.

"Come on! Come on!" I remember myself shouting.

The engines revved up as I heard and felt laser-ammunition scratch the hull of my ship. I hoped against hope that the damage from that was minimal as I powered off and blasted off Mahathia.

I escaped but narrowly.

When I disengaged, I met with Rose Anne Mahathy at the University Library. That was when she told me what I had been dreading to hear: that she was unable to respawn her avatar.

The Gold Empire had single-handedly conquered Mahathia.

Tomorrow, Rose Anne and I are going to meet with the Society Dungeonmaster: Skylar Meredyth.