Two purchases and all our bone credits are gone. Jumble's supplies weren't strictly necessary, sure, but the drops Clutter's currently cradling in an impromptu cloth bag are a real mess of possibilities. If they work as well as they claim to, then we'll have newfound magic to play around with–and almost definitely progress the quest with. But even if they do work, then there's the possibility that the warning on the label will be a damn significant roadblock.

Oh, yeah, and then there's the possibility they don't work. I'm not bothering with that.

"Drops, drops, drops. Fix our problems, make us some more, show us what you have in store." Clutter hums happily. "Thanks for buying the second jar. Now we don't have to make another trip if they do work!"

"No problem." I say with a nod. "But you still have to activate a relocation."

He nods right back and holds out his free hand. I place the coin in his palm, then give one to Jumble. They both accept the spell and hand them right back to me, and then I turn around and put them on the construct's counter.

"Can you put these behind the counter for me?"

It makes its noise and bends down over the coins.

I take that as a question. "They're teleportation coins. If we want to come back and buy more stuff, I just–"

The construct quickly scoops up the coins and drops them behind the counter. I guess the promise of continued business is tantalizing even for constructs. With a wave of thanks we set off on the long-ish walk back to the tower. Of course I could just teleport us back, but there's something else that needs to happen first.

"Jumble, when you get back, I need you to talk to your party. See if Dani's cooled down any, and if he hasn't, you need to do something about it."

She sighs in agreement. "I know. I'll make sure he's not making allies with the people trying to hurt the rest of us.

I pat her shoulder with an assuring smile. "I know you will. But I need you to do it before Clutter and I get back–and you need to make Dani know that we're not there right now. See how he reacts when we aren't around."

"You're teleporting me back first?" She half–asks, half states with a tilt of her head. "Um, okay, I guess. What should I do if the horizonguard is waiting for me?"

I hold up my Class Card with a flourish of my wrist. "Send me a message and we'll relocate right there with you. See you soon."

Jumble pulls me into a quick hug, then steps back and smiles. "See you soon!"

With a thought I flare my spell and Jumble disappears from sight. The spent coin appears for a fraction of a second in her place, then that too disappears into nothing. Clutter stops as if he's expecting me to tell him his own part to play, but that's not what I have in mind right now.

"Let's just walk and talk." I say without stopping. "So, now that you've seen the real her for a few hours, I want your opinion on Jumble."

He raises his eyebrows as he jogs to close the short gap. "What's there to tell? She seems nice. Way nicer than she has any rights to be after being stuck in here for so long, that's for sure. Anything in particular you're wondering about?"

The word 'loyalty' hangs on the tip of my tongue, but I swallow it down before I can say it. If anything, Jumble's proved that her loyalty to me is stronger than her loyalty to her party. There's something twisted in that, but I'm not a psychiatrist, so I'm not even going to try unraveling it. So… what do I want his opinion on?

Because, honestly, I'm already getting used to having her here. Eventually, after a good few moments in my own thoughts, I shake my head and sigh.

"I don't know, Clutter. Part of me feels like this is all too convenient; the quest wouldn't just let Jumble meet us knowing I'm a Worth Class. It'd try to keep us as far apart as possible."

"Oh. I hadn't even thought of that." He says, then shrugs. "Who knows and who cares? The system definitely wouldn't work with a Worth Class either, so there's no risk of that, right?"

He makes a damn good point. It's just that some part of me doesn't believe that things are going this well. Something's going to break eventually. Whether the system, the quest, or the horizonguard is that thing I can't say. But I guess I have to accept that Jumble isn't a part of it. Which is… a weight off my chest. A pretty damn huge weight, too.

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I glance over my shoulder back down the hallway. "How long do you think Jumble's going to be caught up with her party?"

Clutter shrugs. "A few hours, probably. Do you want to go get some more bones?"

"That's a side benefit, but not the main." I pull out my Class Card and check the map. "We need to find some way to connect our tower to the other districts. Pearl, did you feel anything strange at all while we were out there?"

"Definitely. So much weird stuff." She pops her head out of her shell so Clutter can hear. "It felt like the district was constantly changing. Almost like it wasn't sure what it's supposed to be yet."

"So why didn't you say anything?" Clutter asks.

"We were busy doing other stuff, and I was busy looking for a concrete answer." Pearl replies. "It was a constant weirdness, so I didn't think it was worth interrupting your flow. Honestly, I still don't think there's anything you'll be able to find without knowing what to look for."

Yeah, that's what I was afraid of. The quest didn't give a specific name for the new district designations, so there's a possibility it hasn't been finalized yet. But if this is actually how the main quest progresses, then there has to be something we can do about it. Maybe we just need more people. Fifteen, to be exact, since that number was important before.

Or… hm. Maybe we're still missing something. Because all those other districts with towers somewhere in the city don't have fifteen people. But they do have all the shop changes. That has to be important. Hell, maybe Clutter's drops are the next step.

"On second thought, it's time to go back." I decide. "We'll see what your drops do to the magic heads and go from there."

Clutter makes a confirmatory noise, then freezes. My awareness spikes at the exact same moment, but I can't actually feel anything. I was always ready for something to follow us–but I wasn't expecting them to take this long.

"What do we do?" Clutter whispers. "Teleport back, or fight?"

My neck twitches as Pearl retreats to her shell. No magic whirls up out of nowhere, but that's almost worse. Because it means they aren't just out to attack us. They're waiting for something else. Something we just showed them that we have.

"They're after the drops." Pearl says, putting my worries to words. "I can barely feel them through whatever magic is keeping them secret, so they're powerful. If you're going to fight, you have to remember your coin count."

Shit, right. Completely forgot about that. If this presence–or these presences–end up being on the same level as the assholes that attacked me at the farm with the tall two-legged things, then I just don't have enough firepower to fight them. Not until I either evolve the spells or get more Worth.

I summon two more relocation coins and hand them to Clutter. He accepts them wordlessly and touches them to the jars, forming the connection instantly. My awareness flickers the moment he shows the jars, and a lance of magic bursts free from nowhere. For the briefest of seconds, I see the wicked implement–a wrist-thick spear of a thorn barbed with smaller pricks that ooze a deep red liquid. A single drop of the stuff hits the ground, and though the material doesn't falter, the air above it seethes with a miasma of magic so poisonous that my brain refuses to believe it.

Clutter's eyes widen in terror as he comes to the horrible realization that the spear is aimed squarely at him. I make eye contact with him at the last possible second, and right before the thing slams into his chest, he tosses the cloth bundle with the jars inside at me. Relocation whisks him away to safety moments before the thorn runs him through, and the bundle with the jars hits me in the chest a second later.

Just enough time for me to gather my wits and realize that he also put the relocation coins linked to the jars in the bundle as well.

"Fight back." Pearl says. "If you don't, they're going to take the jars. And I know they'll camp out here so we can't come back and get more."

I grit my teeth at the frustration of knowing that she's right. These people are obviously skilled, and if they're working for the horizonguard, they know exactly how my skills work. In the moments between my relocation to the tower and activating the jars' coins they'll do something to break or dismiss the spell. Or just destroy the jars outright.

Two empty coins slip into my hand as I sling the bundle over my shoulder. Not the best time to try out something new, but if it buys me a moment of confusion, it'll all be worth it. I push a purification into one, then fill the other with my newest acquisition; infuse. Instead of filling the coin with a spell, something… shifts about the thing. Not just in a metaphorical sense, either; a small hexagon in the center of the coin just disappeared into nothing.

And in its place is a vacuum. One that feels like it can take absolutely anything inside of it. I grip the hexagonal coins in my palm and lunge for the thorn embedded in the ground as another whizzes right past my head. A sound like a clicking tongue thunders through my brain, briefly turning my thoughts to a pasty white mush. I try to move my hands, but nothing responds.

"And there you have it." A slightly familiar voice breaks through the air. "Not sure why the boss thought this was worth our time, but it's his money."

Another familiar voice snorts in amusement. "Not his money for much longer. Hey, girl! What happened since last time? You didn't even bother throwing up one of those shields. I was looking forward to seeing how much stronger they'd gotten before I absolutely obliterate it again."

Two shapes bleed out of nowhere, each bristling with a different form of invisibility. Pollen the colour of the background clings to one, and the other shimmers as their skin seems to blink into existence. I can't instantly tell the species of either one of them, but their masks are instantly recognizable. Or rather, the chunks of their masks, held in place by simple metal bands.

One on the forehead. And the other right on the nose. Forehead flicks a pocket knife open, and nose reaches to the side to call a lantern that's more plant than anything else.

Two of the three assholes that attacked me at the farm. My fingers wrap around the thorn in anger. Sharp, poisonous pain lances up my arm and screams towards my heart. Purification bursts first to protect me. Then infusion devours what's left.

Let's see how this works.

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