Grey magic twists around the hexagon. It splits free from my handprint and runs along the perimeter of the rock, a series of sharp beeps and clicks sounding as the magic hits each of the corners. Seconds later the grey magic line connects with itself to create a perfect outline of the hexagon, and magic barely drips out of the handprint to splatter on the ground.

  “Is this a scanner?” Clutter steps up and carefully leans in to get a better look. “Oh, it’s a hexagon! Just like the rock Dizzy and I found! Do you think it’s going to open up like ours did?”

  I hadn’t even considered that option. “No idea, Clutter, but it’s leaking some magic onto the ground. Whatever it’s doing, it isn’t done yet.”

  “Definitely not.” Pearl confirms. “You definitely activated something. Do you want to go see what it is?”

  I turn to Pearl. “Is it doing something somewhere else?”

  She nods. “There are some magical connections in the wall that just opened up. They go down a few levels, around a few tunnels, and then I can’t trace them any more. So… should we go–”

  “Let’s follow it!” Clutter cuts in eagerly. “I want to see whatever it opens up! This is… like… the entire reason you go on quests in the first place!”

  I nod, and Pearl gestures at the ground. Clutter takes a step back as his tail swishes over the floor, brushing away the debris from the destroyed wall like a very inefficient broom. I bend down and open up a doorway to the next level down, which is nowhere near as infested with roots, but still has thin strands of blue magic shot through every surface. Slipping through is easy, and Clutter jumps down right after–just barely avoiding landing on my head as I lurch out of the way.

  “Um, sorry.” He apologizes meekly. “I got too excited.”

  “I get it, but don’t lose focus.” I look around the tunnel, and… wait. There’s a line of grey magic leading down from the upper floor. “Oh. I guess this isn’t going to be that hard to follow.”

  “Apparently not.” Pearl pouts. “Now anyone could’ve found this place.”

  “Because it’s a quest open to anyone.” Clutter says giddily. “Look–it still goes down. I’ll open the door this time!”

  I motion for him to go ahead. “You can open all of them from now on if you want.”

  “Yes, please! Thank you!”

  Clutter smiles at me, then falls to his knees and presses his hand to the floor. Magic swirls into a circle below him. I open my mouth to remind him that the door’s going to open right underneath him, but before I can get a word out, he yelps in surprise and disappears to the next level down.

  “Ouch! I’m okay!” He calls from below. “And I definitely won’t do that again!”

  I chuckle in amusement and step down into the doorway before it can close on me. Clutter rolls out of the way and gets to his feet in one practiced motion, eyes scanning the tunnel for the magic grey guideline all the while. My awareness can feel it already, but it seems like he really wants to lead for now. And since there’s barely any risk involved, I’ll happily step back for a few minutes.

  “There!” He points to the exact same spot as on the floor above. “We need to go down again!”

  He slams his hand against the ground, but this time, far enough away from himself that the door can form away from his feet. As soon as it opens up he jumps down, and I follow almost immediately after.

  “Down again!”

  My feet barely touch the ground before Clutter opens up another door and jumps through. I raise an eyebrow at his mounting pace, but follow him anyway. We aren’t necessarily short on time, but I get wanting to go as fast as possible.

  He watches me land, and before I can get a word out, he gestures off down the hall. A ninety degree turn from the grey line marks that as the direction to go, and he looks at me pleadingly as he hops impatiently from foot to foot.

  I wave him on. “I’ll keep up.”

  A smile blossoms over his face, and he sprints off. Pearl grabs onto my ear as I run after him, my body groaning just a little from the remnants of my workout. He laughs and spreads his arms as I slowly gain on him, and when I’m finally within arm’s reach, he looks over his shoulder with one of the happiest expressions I’ve ever seen.

  “Doesn't it feel great to run inside? No roots, no people yelling at you, and the floor is perfectly even! I guess I have to thank whoever trapped this place for not trapping everything, or else I’d have to put a lot of thought into this!”

  “Not sure I’ve ever really thought about it, but… sure.” I shrug, which gets a cute little ‘eep’ out of Pearl. “Not a huge fan of running outside?”

  He vigorously shakes his head. “I love running outside! But it’s completely different than running inside! You have to think more, but you get to climb things and jump over things. Here, all I have to think about is how fast my legs can take me! And you—you can actually keep up with me! So I have someone to run and talk with for once!”

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  “We already talked in the starway… actually, no, we didn’t. Huh.” I glance at the wall to make sure we’re still going the right way. “I guess you’re right.”

  His tail thrashes through the air while he laughs and runs like a giddy little kid. Words flow out of his mouth in a constant stream of random ramblings, and though I do my best to respond to all his hypotheticals and preference questions, he never runs out of things to say. Minutes fly by, and when the grey magical line points us in a different direction, Clutter barely stops to shift.

  We drop down two more levels, run for what feels like close to an hour, and still I don’t feel any closer to wherever we’re being led. Clutter doesn’t give a shit–he’s just happy to be here with free reign of an empty tunnel. But Pearl and I… well… once the blue roots disappear from the walls, we get a shared sensation that something’s off. Not necessarily that something bad’s going to happen, but that something’s changed.

  “There’s residual magic here.” She whispers while Clutter rambles about how breakfast foods shouldn’t just be eaten for breakfast. “Not just from the line in the wall, but in the tunnel’s air. And… the air itself is stale.”

  I nod in agreement. “This feels more like what I’d expect an ancient city to smell and taste like. Do you think we’re finally out of the spawn area, if that even makes sense?”

  She hums in thought, tapping her chin with her fingertips. “Maybe. Check your map; are we still in range of the tower?”

  “I don’t see why we wouldn’t be. We’ve only been running for… an hour ish.” I say, but the sensation of Pearl staring through my skull makes me pull out my Class Card anyway. “But it wouldn’t hurt to check.”

  “No. It wouldn’t. So why were you even thinking against it?”

  My breath catches in my throat, and I skid to a stop. Clutter turns as the sound of my footsteps disappears and tilts his head when he sees that my legs aren’t moving. Thing is; Pearl’s right. Why wouldn’t I just pull out my Class Card and check? It’d only take a second, and it risks absolutely nothing. Normally I wouldn’t even hesitate.

  But I did. Something made me hesitate.

  “Clutter, fall in.” I say seriously. “There might be another psychic around here.”

  His eyes widen, and he sprints to my side. “Really? Why? Does your brain feel weird?”

  I grimace. “I don’t know. But I made a decision that I normally wouldn’t, and I don’t have an explanation for it right now. So we need to play it safe.”

  A purification coin appears on the ground, and I stomp it into a salty mist. Clutter shudders as he breathes it in, but the expression on his face doesn’t change. So there’s no immediate recognition of anything being wrong from him… and none from me. Maybe it’s just the new ambient magic setting me on edge. But I can’t risk it when there could be another psychic in play.

  I open my Class Card, focusing most of my mental ability on my awareness for any signs of attacks. A soft, shrill noise kicks up in the distance. My awareness flickers as something hits the very edge of it, and I instinctively throw up a shield encasing all three of us. Three thuds splatter on my shield. A spray of coloured… material… coats it, and starts to eat away at the magic like a very weak acid.

  Memories of fighting the plastic mound from the graveyard explode to the forefront of my mind on geysers of thought. They’re so visceral, painful, and fresh–that these things barely feel like anything in comparison. I set my jaw and motion for Clutter to stand back, then create a second shield just a few inches further than the first.

  No more things shoot out of nowhere. I glance around, fully expecting something to slink out of the ceiling or the floor, but nothing happens. Pearl and I share a confused look that Clutter joins in on a moment later, then all three of us lean towards the splatters that are slowly sliding down my shield.

  “What the heck are they?” Pearl wonders aloud. “They kind of look like the plastic stuff if you squint hard enough.”

  Clutter steps past me and puts his hand to the shield. “They’re… dull, grey, and pulsating. Doesn’t this remind you of that huge two-legged monster?”

  I nod in agreement. “Like the plastic stuff that’s somehow alive-ish. Does that mean these were alive before they splattered against my magic?”

  “I think so. They were shaped like rolled-up worms when they were flying through the air.” Pearl confirms. “Well, they were shaped like disks at first, but then they unfurled right before they made contact, and those unrolled things looked like worms with a lot of legs. But it’s weird that they launched three of them, isn’t it?”

  “Uh… no?” I motion at Pearl, myself, and then Clutter. “Three of us, three attacks. And from the way they’re really slowly eating away at my shield, they’re probably meant to suck out magic somehow. Like plastic leeches.”

  Pearl shakes her head. “Technically, it shouldn’t even register that I’m here. And if it reacted to magic, then…um… fired is the right word for it, I guess. Fired a leech at each of us, then it should’ve attacked when you used the purification. Not before.”

  “But it happened when you opened your Class Card.” Clutter points out. “Maybe they aren’t sensing magic, but our Class Cards?”

  “If that’s true, then maybe the reason I didn’t instantly open it is because my awareness was subconsciously detecting that.” I raise my Class Card, which is still open, and swipe over to my map. Shortly after, three more leeches splatter against my shield. “You’re right, Clutter. It is my Class Card that’s triggering it. But why?”

  He shrugs. “Quests are weird. This is either its way of telling you not to use your Class Card here, or warning you that using it can have much worse consequences later on. I think it’s the second one, because it’d just make your Class Card all grey if it actually didn’t want you using it.”

  Or… it’s showing us that the plastic can react to our Class Cards. For better or worse. I look down to take a quick peek at my map, and sure enough, we’re just outside of our tower’s range. We must’ve been running faster than I thought to cover this much ground so fast. Illumisia would be proud, then immediately set me a new, harder goal.

  I send my Class Card away. Even that triggers a splattering of leeches–but only two this time. “Pearl, can you feel the end of the line yet?”

  Much to my surprise, she nods. “It stops about ninety percent of my awareness’ range up ahead. Without going down or up any more floors.”

  “Then what are we waiting for? Let’s get moving!” Clutter grins eagerly, but his glances at the plastic-y leeches can’t be missed. “I… uh… kind of want to keep moving. Is that okay?”