Sweetfire heard his door creak open, so he looked up from the remnants of his meal.

The team he'd sponsored the previous day made their way into his large front room. The very interesting Light Item specialist led the way, closely followed by the other swordsman, the one with the internal magic that reminded Sweetfire of his own Sweetfire Manifestation, even though they were clearly quite different. The most interesting one of the group, the combat craftsman, was in the back, behind the Night Owl and the Feather Summoner. "Ah, you're here. I half expected you last night."

"It was too late," Jaycen answered the implied question. "We really couldn't leave until the last team was done, and by then it was almost midnight. We knew where to find you this morning, anyway. So, ah …"

Sweetfire chuckled. Jaycen was confident, but it was obvious he'd never been in this situation before. Sweetfire had; on the rare occasions where he sponsored a team, he always arranged it with the Arena before letting the team know. Some of the teams knew enough about the Arena to catch that he was giving them too much, but the Falling Stars didn't seem to know where the limit was. It was true that he hadn't actually given them anything they hadn't paid for yet, but he had implied they wouldn't have to. "You want to know why I sponsored you?"

Jaycen nodded.

Sweetfire set his cutlery down. There wasn't much left of breakfast, just the fluffed sweetsap he liked to nibble on after a meal, so he lifted the plate with his sweetfire and moved it into his hotbox. The sweetsap was going to be more caramelized today than he normally made it, but it should make for a nice dessert at midday.

"You are by far the most interesting team I've seen in the past year," Sweetfire answered easily. "You came to me with frozen fire; more than that, you respect my Happy Fun Balls." He gave a nod towards Sophia at that. "Two of you specifically use items as part of your Anchor; one of you even makes them. I don't think you know how unusual that is."

"That can't be all." Sophia sounded disbelieving.

"It would be," Sweetfire contradicted her. "But no, it isn't. Not in your case. Not when even I have heard about the elf with feathers who can unlock bound items. I admit I'm less interested in the rest of your team, but when you add the fact that you are far stronger than five who are barely past the second upgrade should be, someone is going to sponsor you. I may as well be the first."

"Does that matter?" Sophia muttered, then raised her voice a little louder. "Fine, but why didn't you ask first?"

For a moment, Sweetfire considered telling Sophia that he had asked; in fact, he'd asked more than once. He simply hadn't clarified what he really meant when he asked if they were certain they wanted his help. He knew that wasn't entirely fair, though, so he gave the more honest answer. "I wasn't certain I was going to until I reached the Arena yesterday. Even if I had known, I wouldn't have asked. The only reason I'd need to get your permission would be if I wanted some of your income from the Arena, and I don't."

Sweetfire waited a long moment to see how much they knew about the Arena, but as far as he could tell, only one of them seemed to know what he was talking about: Jaycen. Sweetfire nodded to himself; that was exactly what he expected. Most of the team was completely new to Mazehold, but Jaycen knew more than the others. He hadn't admitted how, but it seemed likely that the swordsman had a relative who entered the Arena when he reached third upgrade. It was probably fairly recently, as well.

It was, however, clear that while Jaycen knew some things about Mazehold, he wasn't from Mazehold the way Sweetfire was.

Sweetfire sighed. He was going to have to give a better explanation if he wanted them to work with him. "How much do you know about Arena sponsorships?"

"Not much," Jaycen answered before anyone else said anything. "I know they exist, but that's about it. I clearly know less than I thought I did; I thought they were something the team looks for and tells the Arena about, to pay back the sponsor for whatever they provide."

"Some are like that," Sweetfire admitted. "But that's not why I'm sponsoring you. I'm sponsoring you so that the Arena knows someone is watching out for you; they probably haven't tried anything yet, but it's all too easy to get pushed into taking on too many fights without enough information."

"Isn't that what a manager is for?" Sophia interrupted.

Sweetfire shook his head. "Some of them. You're more likely to find a good manager now. If you want, I can find one; I know some people." He hoped they'd take him up on the offer, but he wasn't going to push. He was already listed as their sponsor; that would chase away the managers that were the worst. It might not have been the right choice to get them to work for him, but even if he failed, one of his compatriots might succeed, and that wouldn't happen if one of the managers that was completely focused on the Arena fights got his hands on the team.

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"We'll want to talk to him or her," Jax said, surprising Sweetfire with his easy acceptance. "I can't promise anything until we do. How does this whole sponsorship thing work? What do you get out of it? It can't just be to protect us."

"Indeed not," Sweetfire agreed. "With that said, don't accept any sponsorships that will cost you a portion of your income. That's a pretty common arrangement, but it's usually not in the team's favor overall and you five don't need it. You can pay for your gear ahead of time; if you can't, I'll ask you to do something for me instead of trying to take it out of your winnings. As for what I get out of it, well, I'm pretty confident that the Sponsor bets will be nice … but the biggest thing I get directly out of it is that unless you refute my sponsorship, I can sit with your team in the stands. When you're not on the schedule, there's a sponsors' area."

He could probably have gotten their permission to sit with them by asking, but it cost him nothing to sponsor them. He already planned to work with them on their gear, and that was the biggest thing a sponsor usually did. That still wasn't why he hadn't talked to them about it ahead of time.

No, that was something much simpler and much sillier, something he couldn't tell them about unless he got them into the Undercity. It would let him take them past the Parents' Door … but only if they didn't know what was happening. He needed that if he was going to get Sophia's help, so -

Sweetfire's thoughts were interrupted by a loud, high-pitched whistle from the roof. He looked up to see that it was exactly what he feared: his experimental mana-increase detector was spinning far faster than it was when he started cooking. He swore and headed outside to see how close it was.

The sky above them was clear, but he could see the storm gathering over the Maze. There was no wind, but that didn't tell the story as well as the sharp rise in mana that triggered the alarm did. The storm was headed their way, probably quickly.

"What is it?"

Sweetfire caught similar questions from several of the team. He shook his head, unsure whether he should be glad they were with him or not. At least it meant they'd know they needed to get under cover in time. "There's a mazestorm on its way here. It's like a manastorm, but worse. If you hurry, you might be able to get to the Registry before it arrives. If it starts to rain anything, get inside a building immediately; anyone will accept people sheltering from a mazestorm."

"Shouldn't we just stay here then?" Sophia asked.

Sweetfire started to shake his head, then paused. Was there any reason he couldn't leave them in the shop while he went underground? Everything that mattered was hidden away, and it might teach him something about the group if they were left alone with what they thought were his valuable belongings. He could replace all of it if he had to.

He didn't like thinking that way, but it wouldn't be the first time. There were reasons that the things that mattered were behind sweetfire-infused traps.

If someone showed up now and asked for shelter from the storm, he'd let them in. If he didn't know them, he wouldn't leave them alone; that was all. The only real question, then, was whether or not he should still go underground with the team here.

He shouldn't take them through the Parents' Door if he wasn't willing to leave them alone in his house.

Sweetfire nodded slowly. "That's the safest option. I won't be here, however; I need to head underground."

"To warn everyone?" Unexpectedly, that came from the quiet one. For all that his magic was similar to Sweetfire's, Dav didn't speak nearly as often as Sweetfire knew he did. He was a much quieter person in every way.

Sweetfire shook his head. "That's what the noise is for. No, I need to …" He paused for a moment, then glanced at Xin'ri. He had the feeling that almost anyone else would call her the quiet one of the team, but Sweetfire didn't find her that way at all. She loved to talk about making things. He knew she'd made a wonderful Professional enchanter once she decided she was done with fighting. He hoped that would be after she reached the third upgrade, however; there were some huge advantages to already knowing your Grand Talent when you started your Professional career.

More importantly, she was the only one who was likely to understand what he was doing. "I'm studying the mazestorms. They're all different, and I suspect that has something to do with where in the Maze they come from. I'd like to come up with a better warning system, but tracking the increasing mana is the best I've been able to do; it always means an incoming mazestorm, but it's not possible to detect the increase far enough in advance to help those caught in the Maze. I've tried; all I can manage is something to help those close enough to shelter. In the city or the Arena, that's enough. In the Maze … every mazestorm, there are entire teams lost in the Maze."

That was a very short description of the last five years of his life. Designing the devices, proving them out, convincing others they worked, then selling them to everyone … it was not as easy as it sounded. It did at least mean he wasn't short on aurichalc; the routine maintenance on the sirens could be handled by quite a few people, but no one else could repair the mana detectors. They were sensitive devices; he'd have to check them all once the mazestorm was past to make sure no more had failed. At least he was unlikely to have anyone refuse to pay him this time; everyone seemed to have learned that lesson. When he said the detector needed to be replaced, it was going to fail within a few storms.

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