"I'm here! I'm here!" Clutter huffs as he stumbles into my awareness range. "I can barely see anything, but I'm here."

I raise an eyebrow. "You can't see the light?"

He shakes his head. "Nothing. Why? Is there something here I'm supposed to see?"

That cements it–the light is pure magic. Now whether we need to wait for something to happen or just step into it… that I'm not sure of. But I definitely need to fill Illumisia in on the details.

"Illumisia. I think I found an entrance to the quest. Can you bring Vesa and Briony to safety, then come to my position?"

An annoyed growl fills my mind. "Unfortunately, no. Do whatever needs to be done, then relocate me to your location. I will inform you when it is safe to do so."

"Roger that. See you in a bit." I say, then turn to Clutter. "Any idea how much time we have left before the quest's supposed to start?"

He shrugs. It doesn't really matter–there's less than a few hours left, if even that, so leaving here isn't an option. I guess all that's left to do is see if this light needs anything else from us. And that starts with removing the shield.

With a thought, the rest of my shields disappear. Nothing changes, which was to be expected, but still a little disappointing. I carefully take my bloody hand away from the beacon, wave the blood into the air, and send both it and the nearly empty core back to my inventory. Air stings the open wound, but it doesn't look anywhere near as bad as all the blood had me thinking. Whatever Pearl did, she did it in a way that hurt me the least.

Speaking of… I've still got my exhausted little friend right here. "How're you doing, Pearl? Slipped off to dreamland just yet?"

Pearl lazily shakes her head. "Not yet, but I'm almost there. Do you mind if I… you know… nap until something else important happens?"

"I don't see any issue with that. Thanks for the save back there."

I carefully maneuver Pearl close to her shell, and she crawls in with a cute groan of effort. Clutter stares at the space beyond us with wide eyes, his ears and nose filling in what his eyes aren't telling him.

"It's no problem at all, Shelby. Goodnight."

"Night, Pearl." I grin, then turn to Clutter. "Alright, now it's our time to shine. Get some plastic out of your inventory; we're going to somehow get access to this thing."

He twitches at my sudden shift to talking to him, then raises his hands as two large clumps of plastic appear in his palms. I do the same, albeit with only my uninjured hand, and walk up to the grey light. Staticky magic snaps against my perfectly dry clothes, and a low hum like an old CRT Tv set to a dead station fills every corner of my mind at the same time. Clutter flinches as the stuff hits him, which was probably more of a surprise since he can't see it.

"I'm going to touch it, and I'm going to keep talking as I do. If I tell you to run, you run. If I don't say anything at all, grab me by the shoulders and drag me a few feet away." I look over my shoulder at Clutter. "You got all that?"

"Yes, everything." He says seriously. "Um… what should I do if you just disappear?"

…Hrm. He can't see the magic. But the pillar also isn't here. Does that mean the absence of the thing is the 'phase' state, and by him not seeing it, that it'll stay gone? Or would it theoretically disappear with me if I got… teleported, or summoned, or however a quest with an unknown amount of starting points actually starts.

Well, there's one easy solution. "Good point. Clutter, you go first. And everything I said–you do that instead of me."

"What? You–I–yes, of course!" He ecstatically rushes past me and runs… right through the light, tail wagging up a storm. "Am I in the right place? Where do I put the plastic? Ooh, this is so exciting!"

I grin and hold back a laugh as I motion him back. "Take, like, two and a half steps back. Then you're good."

"...Oops." he says sheepishly and takes two and a half steps back, which puts him perfectly in front of the light. "Is this good?"

"Perfect. Now hold out the plastic and… do whatever you normally do to accept a quest."

Clutter cocks his head to the side. "I normally just accept whatever notification the system gives me. Did we already get notifications? Because I didn't feel my Class Card get a notification."

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"None here. Well, maybe the quest just hasn't opened yet." I step forward and gently nudge Clutter out of the way. "Let me–"

Prerequisites met.

The City of Memories and Replicas opens its doors in: 00:04.

When it does, for each entrance, one hopeful will be taken every (1) minute. The time between acceptances doubles with every person, but the count is unique to each entrance.

This will continue until (200) people have been accepted, or 24 hours pass, upon which the doors will close until the quest is completed.

Current occupancy: 0/200.

Oh, shit. Four minutes. "Clutter, it's happening. You didn't see this?"

"See what? Did I miss something?" He leans in desperately and waves his lumps of plastic through the light. "Nothing's happening! Is it a notification, or a popup?"

"I… guess it's a popup, since I didn't open my Class Card. And it says here 'Prerequisites met'; maybe you haven't met them yet. Which is weird; you're here and you've got the plastic. That should be enough." I tap my foot in thought and send the plastic back to my inventory. The popup doesn't disappear, so that isn't it. "Alright. What do I have that you don't?"

"Fashion sense."

I blink, then frown at Clutter. "Not the time for jokes."

"Um, sorry." He glances dejectedly at the ground. "I wasn't joking, though."

I roll my eyes and actually try to focus on the problem. If we're looking at things I have that he doesn't–or things that I did that he didn't–there's definitely more than a few. There's the fact that the tree gave me the wreath-sphere, I fought the mass of plastic on my own, I incapacitated the two-legged atrocity, I talked to Scooch and Clamber, I got the map installed into my Class Card…

Really hope it's not that. Um… what else… oh, right! The jewelry! Stonestep Solutions went after Well for a reason. The fact that he was at a jewelry store must've tipped them off to this part of the quest, or maybe he just told them flat-out. Luckily for us, I've got two pieces–the armlet Clamber made specifically for me, and the ring they let me keep.

"Here." I pull my ring off and shove it into Clutter's hand. "Put that on."

He wraps his fingers around it with a frown. "What is it?"

"Right, darkness. Give me it back and I'll do it for you." I grab his hand and pull it towards me, then slip the ring onto his finger. A spark of magic flickers inside of it, and he pulls his hand away with a theatrical gasp. "Looks like that did the trick. Now touch the light and let's make sure we're all ready to go."

"Um. Uh. Okay." He murmurs and timidly walks up to the light. "Shelby… please don't leave me alone here."

"What? Why?"

He shakily gestures at the light. "Because that feels like one of the trees."

I snap to the light, my eyes focused intently on the sensation of the magic. He's… almost right. The tree felt powerful, ancient, and… alive. This feels almost like that, but 'alive' is replaced with 'unknowable'. Maybe whatever energy made the trees is making this quest entrance. That doesn't bode well for whatever we're going to see inside.

"Alright. Read up, then tell me if you want to go first or second."

A nervous whimper squeaks past his lips. "First? Second? We can't go in at the same time?"

"Not unless the description's completely wrong. Just take a look." I gently push him towards the light, and though he trembles like a brittle leaf in the wind, he doesn't resist. "No matter what you choose, I'll leave you enough powerful shield coins to guarantee your safety."

He looks back at me with puppy-dog eyes, then sets his quivering jaw in a straight line of resolve. It doesn't change how the rest of him shivers and trembles, but it's his resolve I need right now.

"Okay. I trust you."

My lips curl in a real smile. "Good man. We'll deal with this together–and in a few hours–with Illumisia backup."

"That's reassuring." He says seriously, then swallows hard. "Okay. I can do this. I'm strong enough for this. And if I'm not, Shelby is here."

Somehow, that visibly reduces his tension. It's both flattering and a little unnerving knowing how much trust he has in me, even after everything that's happened the last two days. I bite my lip to keep my mouth shut as he struts into the light with as much confidence he can muster. His body goes rigid, tail sticking straight out like a thick tree branch. Mumbles and rapid eye movement give away that he's reading the exact same thing I am, except he mouthed the word 'zero zero' right after 'time remaining'.

A flash of grey magic takes hold of his ring. The plastic on the ground swirls, twists, and grows, forming a mass that's exactly Clutter's height directly between him and the light. He yelps in surprise, his voice cut off by facial distortions that blur together rapidly until his body evaporates in a spray of grey sparks.

The mass of plastic squelches off to the side. I watch it move in stunned silence, pieces of it falling away in massive chunks as it carves itself into something almost recognizable. First comes the tail. Then the legs, torso, arms, and finally the head. It even managed to reproduce the strangely adorable and innocent expression that Clutter almost always has on.

Clutter's plastic duplicate stretches its arms, wraps a finger around the replica of the ring I gave him, and freezes once more. The number '1' carves itself into his chest, and a holographic popup intrudes upon my vision before I can fully process what I just saw.

The City is open.

Current Occupants: 24/200.

To progress the quest, you must be in possession of the piece of refined ________ you used to gain access to this quest.

If your access is stolen or lost, you cannot leave.

If your access is destroyed, you will be replaced.

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