Half an hour later we all reconvene in the meditation chamber. Jumble and Euro don't seem too shaken, but there's a frustration etched into Jumble's placid expression that definitely wasn't there an hour ago. Yet somehow Clutter and Pearl are the ones who take the longest–with a catalyst filled with grey and blue magic carefully tucked under the former's arm.

Clutter walks right up to me and puts a hand on my shoulder so Pearl can use him as a bridge. She settles on my shoulder with a pleasant nod, then turns to Jumble and Euro. Euro still seems like they can't believe their eyes. Jumble's just looking at me.

I quickly fill them in on everything Click told me, which is both overwhelming and fully expected at the same time. Much to my surprise nobody has any questions, and after a few clarifications on my wording, everyone's on the same page. So much so that nobody has anything at all to say. Until Clutter clears his throat.

"We managed to get it working." He says, breaking the silence. "Obviously we didn't want to try it without talking to you first, though."

I give him a nod of thanks. "We'll check it out together after this. Thanks for waiting."

He grins and hands Jumble the catalyst. She blinks and hesitates for a moment before accepting it and bringing it close to study it. A small frown spreads further across her lips the closer she looks.

"Is this you telling us to find our own tower?" She asks.

"What? No! I just figured you'd want to see it." Clutter explains. "But… now that you mention it, I guess you could use that to anchor another tower."

"No… not just a tower. We could probably use that to anchor another district to our tower." I cut in before anyone else can say anything. "Alright; since this is a quest item, each of us takes one of these wherever we go. That way we don't have to backtrack if we find somewhere they could go."

Jumble's worry melts away as she hands the anchor back–and Clutter accepts it easily. He sends it into his Class Card with a thought, then nods back in the direction of the workshop.

"We figured that, as long as we give the magic somewhere safe to go, the drops are perfectly safe to use." He says. "The only problem with that is 'safe'. I want to try with one of your purifications next; see if that works."

I nod in confirmation. "I'll give you a few coins to play around with. Make sure you leave at least one of each colour unused–just in case we find a way to duplicate the stuff."

"Gotcha!"

"I'll make sure he's okay." Pearl says. "Worst comes to worst, we can always have a bucket of grey mana out so the drops don't make a run for the pipes."

Euro looks between us like we're speaking a different language. "I don't know what any of this means."

"Don't worry; I'll fill you in later." Jumble assures them with a smile. "So while they're doing that, what do you want me to do?"

"Same thing you've been doing; making sure the rest of your friends won't betray us. Except now you've got a few more people to look after." I gesture at the wall that I'm pretty sure leads in the direction of the other lighthouses. "The other people that came here at the same time as you are a mystery to us right now. I need you two to introduce yourselves and see if they're trustworthy enough that they'll work with us to complete the quest."

Jumble nods eagerly. "We can do that easily. Oh, but what if they're not friendly? Do we kick them out?"

I shrug. "Depends on how 'not friendly' they are. Don't hesitate to defend yourselves if they attack you, but if they're being cagey, prioritize finding out why. There's a good chance at least one of them is working for the horizonguard."

"Probably more than one." Pearl agrees. "Obviously prioritize your safety, though. Send Shelby a message if you need quick relocation."

"Gotcha." Jumble confirms. "Any messages you get from me means I'm in trouble. Don't even bother reading them first."

I'll have to remember that. And… that's it for now. The next step can only happen when we're all ready–and 'all of us' might end up being a bigger number than before. Everyone else splits into conversations about how they're going to do their half of the plan, which leaves me with nothing to do. Nothing except find a way to send a message back to Miss S. for some confirmation. I have absolutely no idea how long that's going to take, or if it's even possible to communicate outside of the quest.

I clap my hands to get everyone's attention, and once they're all focused on me, I clear my throat. "Let's see what this catalyst does, then everyone has their assignments. One last thing before we move–Jumble, are any of the others a risk to us?"

She instantly shakes her head. "Not a risk, no. At least not now. I'll try to make sure the horizonguard never meets them, but I can't be sure Dani won't be tempted to betray you. Not me and Euro, though. Just you three. Which I guess is the same as betraying me and Euro now. Um… right?"

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"Say it with a little more confidence." I assure her with a good scratch between the ears. "Your enemies are our enemies and vice-versa."

"Perfect." She giggles happily. "We'll make sure they know that."

Euro sighs and looks away. "It might be the only thing that stops him from doing something stupid."

I raise an eyebrow at the comment, but before I can ask about it, everyone starts to move. It's not hard to assume what stupid choices Dani might make–like attacking his literal creator for one–but it's worrying that he might do something so stupid that I can't even imagine it. But that's not my problem right now. As long as Jumble thinks she can keep the peace, I'm going to trust her.

Yet as we trek the relatively short distance to the tower itself, I can't shake the feeling that something else happened. Dani has the book for a reason. Whether it's his own sense of leadership, a rotating possession, or just pure selfishness, it's going to be important. Because I want that book in Jumble's hands. Only problem is convincing her that that's the best thing for all of us.

Or maybe it won't be a problem. It all depends on what she decides for herself.

"Alright, just a little more." Clutter pants excitedly as we round the top of the stairs. "Okay, here we are. Eject this, put this in, and we'll upgrade our tower. Probably. Hopefully."

I nod in agreement as Jumble and Euro take spots to both of my sides. Clutter turns to me as the pillar rises from the floor, exposing the catalyst and the smell, then tilts his head in an ask for permission. With another nod I give it to him. He smiles wide, takes a breath of anticipation, and pulls the empty catalyst free. Everyone flinches at the strengthened smell in the brief moment before Clutter puts the new catalyst into the pillar and presses it down into the floor. It hisses quietly as the tower locks onto it, then the entire building thrums with magical power.

Catalyst Absorbed: Blue Magic.

Your tower's security and defence capabilities increase.

All magic not linked to allowed peoples will be weakened within your tower's area.

'Guest' added as possible designation.

Guest: cannot affect anything in the tower without permission from a full member.

Convenient how that shows up right when we're thinking about recruiting people. Damn quest must want us to do this for some reason that'll definitely bite us in the ass down the line. For right now, though, this is exactly what we need.

I open my Class Card, and much to my surprise, there's a list of everyone currently living within our tower grounds that also wasn't there a second ago. Nobody's listed as a name, just 'person' one through five, then everyone else we already know. Good to know nobody's skipped town, since that probably means the horizonguard hasn't poached them yet. Sure, it could mean he already has, but I can't account for that.

With a few gestures, I set everyone as guests. A new popup appears, asking me if I want guests to be able to open the tower themselves. I instantly hit no, then send it away and turn to Clutter who is also nose-deep in his Class Card.

"Anything new for you?"

He nods. "It's asking me to… well… make the tower grounds bigger."

I raise an eyebrow. "How?"

"Well, either by making the walls and everything else taller or by actually pushing them out further." He shrugs and turns his Class Card so I can see. "I have no idea which is better, but I'm leaning towards making bigger grounds. It gives us more rooms for facilities."

Sound reasoning. "Go for it."

"Alright." He taps his Class Card, then sends it away. "It's done. Well… it's working, and it'll be done in twelve hours. Not that long, honestly. How long does the quest think we're going to be here if it's having us do all this base building?"

"That's what I'm worried about right now." I sigh. "With all those new subquests in this district alone, we could be here for months. Maybe longer. Hell, probably longer. The quest went through all the effort to make time pass here faster than outside; that should've been our first clue that this wasn't meant to be a week-long thing. So now we have to shift gears into raw efficiency mode."

Jumble nods in understanding. "So that's why we're talking to the other five."

"Because we can use them to get quests for the meditation chamber." Pearl finishes for her. "It's a good plan, but even that'll take a long time. Weeks at least."

"That's assuming we're going to have everyone do every quest. Which we're not." I clarify. "We've been lucky that the two we've done un-greyed parts of our system, but there's bound to be a lot of duplicates or quests that just don't give us anything important. And since it seems like the facilities we get aren't tied to specific quests, if a quest doesn't instantly give us anything good to complete it with, we just abandon it and move onto the next one."

Pearl taps her legs against my shoulder at an increasing pace. "Until each of you have a fully unlocked Class Card like Jumble does. Then you can just focus on the main quest–which should differentiate itself as soon as you find it."

"Exactly." I snap my fingers, then scan my four allies. "It's going to take a while, but if everything goes smoothly, we'll have more facilities and unlocked Class Cards in just a few days. We have to make a move before the horizonguard finds out how to capture the districts around his own tower and steals the quest progression from us. As long as we're the ones creating progress, we control this quest. And as long as we control this quest, we can make sure the system doesn't get what it wants while plucking every last morsel of value from this place."

Everyone nods in agreement as a sort of excited energy spreads through the group. Jumble and Euro share a look, then hurry down the stairs with a parting wave and pair of smiles. I hold out my arm to make a bridge for Pearl to run to Clutter, then they too hurry to do their part. Leaving me alone at the top of the tower with the last, unspoken part of the plan. The part that could be the absolute difference between life and death if the horizonguard ever decides he'd prefer we end up dead.

Enough time has passed.

It's finally time to try and relocate Illumisia.

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