Needles of empty air prickle down my neck as the arrow turns abruptly to the side. I look over in the direction–right into a weapon shop that looks like any other–and grit my teeth. Shops only appear in connected districts. We're in somebody else's territory now, and it isn't the one Gil said the horizonguard was in.
So this has to be one of his associates'. A simple construct stands idly behind a counter, but deeper beyond them is a long stretch of simple metal weaponry. Beyond even that is a set of practice dummies that're already slashed and hacked to high heaven. And just beyond that is a set of double doors. Wooden doors, like the kind you'd see leading to an old house's backyard patio.
"Someone's skill," Jumble states.
I nod in agreement. "Probably no way to get in there, then. Think they just locked off somewhere that already exists with the door, or did they make some kind of pocket dimension?"
Jumble tilts her head to the side. A string of whispers escapes her lips in a strange series of noises that don't fit the motions. Magic coils around me like a hug from a loving snake that can't quite put aside its instinct to squeeze the life out of anything in its coils. Words cement themselves into my being; obliterate, hyperaware, and indestructible. Each of them carries a loud, confident whisper of Jumble's magic.
I flex my fingers at the sensations. "Still can't believe you can make buffs like this."
"Only for the right people," Jumble replies with a smile. "The people I care enough to write about. Do you feel weird at all? Should I tone anything back?"
I shake my head. "Everything feels fine. So does that mean I can't count on you debuffing whoever's in there with Dani?"
"No, I can do that. It's just a little complicated to explain. But if we're about to go in… then I guess you should know." Jumble lets go of my arm, takes a step, and turns to face me. "The thing I did to… Euro… that's one spell. The buffs are another, and they're actually… well… part of my… um…"
She blushes furiously and looks away. "N-nevermind! You don't need to know! Let's just go in there and get Dani for everything."
I raise an eyebrow at the sudden shift in demeanor. If it's that embarrassing to explain, why isn't it embarrassing to use? From the crimson hue that's colouring the tips of her ears and right around her eyes, she's not going to budge on the explanation. No point pressing her, then.
Just have to focus on Dani. I glance around as I scan the area with my awareness, but aside from the shopkeepers, I can't feel anyone else. No defence constructs, either, so whoever's in charge here hasn't sicced them on us. Either because they're otherwise occupied and haven't gotten around to it yet… or some other nefarious reason. Like wanting us to walk face-first into a trap.
I summon some coins and hand half of them to Jumble. "Two shields, a purification, a relocation, and an infusion. All primed to go when you need them."
Jumble nods and hands the relocation back. I toss it at a wall along with my own, then signal that I'm ready to go. She balls her hands into fists and wastes no time thundering past the clerk–who barely looks up at her–and makes way for the doors. I follow closely behind.
The clerk snaps to me the moment I cross the shop's threshold. It follows my movements with strangely alert eyes… but doesn't even try to make a move. No alarms go off in my awareness, either, and no security constructs appear out of nowhere. If the thing wasn't still staring at me I might be able to convince myself I was seeing things.
Pearl taps on something in her void of a room to get my attention. "The doors are extremely well-protected. One of your purifications should be able to do the job, but it'll take a few minutes. Get ready to hunker–"
"As our heroes approached, the doors crumbled to dust."
Jumble's voice mercilessly slashes through reality like a scythe. An unbelievable amount of magic pours from her smaller frame, and somehow, I can feel how much Worth those few words just cost her. Can she just… do that? Say something and it'll just come true? Part of me says 'no way in hell'.
Reality's rebuttal comes in the form of two doors crumbling to dust. At this very moment–as I watch Jumble confidently walk through the threshold of dust with a shroud of whispers protecting her, it finally sinks in. Everything I've seen Noland do–that was just a show of power. Ursula, too. But this… this is reality-bending. Could she just say 'and then we found Dani'? Shit, could she say 'and then the quest ended'?
…No, obviously not, or else she would've already. There's some other restriction aside from pure Worth spent. Maybe it's the same reason she used that more passive version of this skill to find our tower in the first place. I shake my head and hurry to catch her; pondering her powers isn't any reason to leave her in potential danger.
She looks over her shoulder as I come to her side. "It's called 'to be continued'."
Was I being that obvious? "Your skill?"
Jumble nods. "It lets me change the last sentence of the story it generates so it can keep creating the story. Obviously it's insanely powerful if it ends the right way, but if it's open ended or we're not actually close to the end, it's close to useless."
This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.
"Useless. Yeah," I chuckle sarcastically. "The ability to warp reality is definitely useless."
She raises an eyebrow accusingly. "It can be. Isn't that the reason why you're not using your reality-wrapping skill? Because you can't be perfectly sure how it's going to change things?"
…Yeah. It is. I offer her an apologetic nod as my awareness adjusts to the… to the… wait. My brain hasn't adjusted to anything at all since we walked through the doors. No visuals, no tactile feedback, no nothing. I look over my shoulder at the shop behind us, but… it looks like we're still standing right before the doors. Yet when I turn and try to look forward…
Nothing. So much nothing that neither my brain nor awareness can pick up anything at all. It's not even like walking through an empty room, either; there just isn't anything here. My heart ramps up to a pre-thunderous pace. I can't control the speed of my breaths.
TAP.
A lance of pain and panic shears through my thoughts. I flare a shield out of reflex more than anything else and wrap myself in protection. The twisted paindne? But I… I've gotten used to their horribleness when there aren't any real paindne around. Why–
TapTAPtap.
Long, sinuous fingers scratch down my shield. They don't leave any scratches behind. Just trailing stains of blackened, dead flesh sloughed off from crumbling bone. I stifle a scream of pain and fear with a gurgle of anxiety-ridden panic.
"Shelby. Close your eyes."
Jumble's voice cuts through the panic. She's calm. Extremely calm. Way too calm. I slam my eyes shut and scratch the hell out of my neck–the pain makes things clearer. The blood seeps into my clothes. Jumble stifles a yelp.
"Shelby!"
"I'm fine," I grind through clenched teeth. "Where the hell are we?"
She pauses. "We're… not technically anywhere. The doors were an in-between. Now there's a lot of space between here and where the actual place is."
That doesn't make any sense. If the doors were teleporters, then this should be a piece of random wall. Not a void. I fumble around until I pull out the beacon again. My awareness lets me know the arrow's pointing off to the right now instead of straight ahead. Wherever we are… it is somewhere. No matter how nonsensical that must be.
"Then everyone… they're not safe."
Jumble's expression hardens. "Why?"
I latch onto the sensation of all their relocation coins. Nobody's messaged me yet. Doesn't mean they're not in trouble. "I thought I destroyed the door that led to the rollercoaster district when I left. But if this is possible, then they're not safe there. I need to send them a message."
"Wait–when you destroyed the door, what happened?" Jumble grabs my wrist and pulls my hand away from my neck. "Did it collapse into something like this, or did it just show what was supposed to be behind it?"
"It showed what was behind it, but–"
She breathes a sigh of relief. "Then you're fine. This is… not what normally happens. Not unless you do something really weird to the magic. Everyone else is going to be safe. Well… as safe as they can be while the horizonguard's after them. At least they won't be in immediate danger."
TAP.
I snap to the source of another horrible noise. With my eyes open I couldn't see anything. But with my eyes closed… I see fingers. Tapping on the window of reality, begging to be let in. Not the same rotting, bony fingers that trailed down my shield, either. These are… they are…
Gooey.
Another shudder. This time… for a reason I can't explain. More taps echo out until a cacophonous roar of sounds drown everything else out. Jumble doesn't react. Pearl doesn't react.
I don't react.
Because, for some reason, they're not there. My brain recognizes that they don't exist. That these images–these sounds–shouldn't even be registering in my grey matter. But they are. Just like before. Just like the first time I heard them. But now the sound has visuals to go along with it.
All the pain. That was the constructs harmonizing to whatever the hell this is. Maybe… maybe it isn't that the twisted paindne always look like this, but change whenever there's a real paindne around. Maybe the form they take around everyone else is normal and the off-putting, disgusting tap-monsters are for me alone.
I slowly let Jumble move my hand down. My heartbeat thunders in my neck, forcing rivulets of blood through the self-imposed scratches. Something's trying to communicate with me. Something that can't exist in the real world. Tapping at the window of reality and begging for the only person that can sense it to turn its way.
"I hear you," I whisper. "What do you want?"
The taps stop. All the pain, all the anxiety, it stops too. Everything melts away, leaving only a soft, almost melodic emptiness in its wake. The beacon shakes in my hand. A quiet, loving whisper echoes through the shells.
"We're… here?" Jumble furrows her brow and looks behind her. "Open your eyes. We're… here, somehow."
I do exactly that. The music quiets, but doesn't stop. Like the quiet burbling of a stream or the soft caress of a slight summer breeze, I know it exists. The sound is so quiet–so far off–that it feels thousands of miles away. But now that I've heard it?
It refuses to go silent.
Quest progress made: Serenade of Shattered Shells.
It sings.
You've heard it.
Now things cannot be stopped.
Foreboding is the first word that comes to mind. Yet somehow, it feels like a monumental relief instead. My face relaxes, I put on a pleasant smile, and I follow Jumble's cautious lead through the other end of the void. We emerge into another weapon shop. But right across the way is one that I recognize all too well. Even if Gil isn't there right now to give me a warm welcome.
Dani nearly kicks over his chair as he struggles to get up. Rina readies her axe. Gnash… isn't there, at least not that I can see. The relief from a moment ago widens my smile as Dani opens his book and bristles with magic.
A message pops up in the corner of my vision.
'Couldn't risk sending this before due to reasons I'm explaining to Clutter right around now, so an automated message when you got close enough is the best I could do. Doors are keyed to open up for you and you alone. I don't know what they did with your other friend, so maybe try to beat some information out of them before you splatter them on my pristine shelves.
-Your buddy who really hopes the horizonguard screws off soon, Gil.'
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