"Hey," I wave with three projectiles between my fingers. "Didn't expect to see you here."

They can't hear me across the hall. Doesn't matter; from how they're panicking, the intent gets through just fine. Jumble's whispers grow louder and louder until they disappear into the background noise… or, rather, completely take over every other noise so completely that I can't discern them from anything else. She takes a step out of the shop.

Dani silently screams something. Light flares inside of the shop. I grimace and hold up a hand to block my eyes, but just the radiant heat that comes along with it is enough to prickle my skin with dots of pain.

"Can you just take away the book?" I ask. "That'd make things a lot easier."

Jumble shakes her head without pausing. "He's keyed to it right now. The only way we'll get it from him is by ending him."

Figured as much. I crack a purification coin to cloak us in a salty mist of protection and put myself right up against the doors. Absolutely no sound gets out from inside. Gil must be keeping them in with his magic, or else they'd definitely have tried to run by now. The question of how the hell he ended up with them in his store is definitely one he's not getting out of answering, but if this makes sure we get Dani… then I'll ask it after I say thanks.

I tilt my chin upwards in question. "Ready?"

"Ready," Jumble confirms.

The heat of the glass radiates against my palm. Once I open this, there's no way to end it without bloodshed. So we have to move fast; get all this dealt with before the horizonguard sends anyone after us. All the constructs milling about the hallway aren't a good sign, either; soon enough we'll have security constructs on our asses. Just another reason to do this quick.

"Okay."

I set my jaw and focus my awareness. The perfect seal of the doors blocks it right now, but in a moment, it'll be the only thing that lets me see. Rina's definitely waiting to ambush us. If Dani doesn't have a solar flare primed to fire at the doors the moment they open then I'll eat my jacket. Can't do anything about that, though.

An infusion settles in my palm. Jumble puts her hand on my shoulder and glares into the blinding light. Let's do this.

One simple push sends the doors splaying open. Heat and light rain down on us in a torrential deluge of sunny misery as an axe falls towards my neck. My awareness prickles before the blade can bite into skin, and a shield flashes into being to block the blow.

The axe bites deep. Too deep. Magic seeps out of it like a wound in reality–far too strong for what I've seen Rina do alone. Dani must be sharing the book's power with Rina somehow.

"Jumble!" I shout, even though it's nearly silent. "The book!"

She replies by charging full-throttle at Dani. I wince at the hatred in her eyes that burns brighter than the searing light, but turn my focus back to Rina–can't afford a second of distraction. She pulls her axe out of my shield with a grunt of effort, takes a half-step back, and… glares at me. Her entire body warps the air around it with magic so sharp that it feels like it's cutting everything away. Yet somehow, Gil's merchandise is completely untouched.

"You," she snarls. "Everything is your fault. If you hadn't found this quest… if you hadn't gotten chummy with Jumble… none of this would've happened. Euro would still be alive if it weren't for YOU!"

Pearl snorts derisively. "She's lost it."

Looks that way. "So you're not going to try and play the 'Dani forced me to do this' card?"

Rina laughs bitterly and lowers her stance, clutching her axe as if to swipe my legs off at the knees. "There's no point to that. You must've seen the wounds. Dani wouldn't ever touch a weapon he's not used to. So who does that leave? Little old me."

"So it seems."

I raise a projectile and push all the right thoughts into it. Power. Speed. No tracking, since that takes too much of the magic. Just a fist-sized whirl of salt-laced annihilation. Rina shifts back a step and chokes up on her axe. Can't tell if she can see through this–though I'm betting yes–and can't guess if she knows I can see too. If she doesn't know, she's not making any assumptions. That'll make this harder.

"If you're in the mood to chat, I could be too." I offer as sincerely as I can manage. "Because, last I checked, it was your axe that cut away Euro's life. Not anything of mine."

"Fuck you," Rina spits. "You know what you did."

Her axe flashes. With a half-step forward–nowhere near enough to close the distance she made–she appears right in front of me. Blade already mid-swing directly at my knees. Her muscles bulge with effort so much that they look like they're trying to tear their way free of her skin.

I look down at her with disdain. Her eyes widen as my projectile erupts on a murderous path that happens to cut through both of her arms. She tries to pull back. But she's in too deep–followed through too well. Against anyone with a worse reaction time than mine maybe she would've won right then and there.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Annihilation takes her left arm from the elbow-down. She screams bloody murder and yanks her right away, fingers ripping free from the axe's handle as she lets go. I shift my active shield to block the much powered-down attack. Still, it buries itself a few inches deep in my protection.

I click my tongue and reach down to grab it. My awareness screams at me to stop. Then Pearl echoes the sentiment.

"DON'T!"

I pause mid-movement and glare at Rina through closed eyes. The axe is, quite literally, pushing itself airborne to a thousand little screeches like sharp knives scraping against rough stone. Rina swoops in and grabs it with the world's smallest lunge–yet that, too, carries her way too far. Whatever power the book is granting her… she isn't used to wielding it yet. Or else she would have swung and step-teleported at the perfect time to take my legs out–not give me a moment to react.

"Not used to the book's power, huh?" I half-ask, half-state. "Too bad you're never going to taste it again once Jumble's done with the other traitor."

Rina gnashes her teeth and slams her axe's head against the floor. Blood flows openly from her wound, and from the looks of it, she's not used to being injured at all–nevermind this horribly. Her face is blanching, she can't stop looking at her arm on the ground, and she's starting to shake.

"Fuck… you," She spits again, albeit with far less vigor. "Jumble's not strong enough to fight Dani. Once he's done… we'll… he'll…"

I tilt my head to the side and spread my arms. "Sure looks like he hasn't beaten her yet. But maybe I'm wrong about that. Want to check in on them?"

Rina's expression pinches. Seems like she really believes that Dani's more powerful than Jumble. I flip a coin through my fingers and focus on the battle. It's not the tossing of massive spells that I thought it'd be, but Dani's definitely holding his own better than I thought he would. He pulls paindne words from the book that transform into attacks; shackles, lances, bombs, and a whole lot more in the span of just a few seconds. But he hasn't used that massive solar ray attack he used when we were first introduced.

Jumble just whispers a single word per attack. They all get close–so close that I wince every time–but fade away before they can singe her fur. Her maelstrom of whispered magic grows ever closer to Dani with every step. He doesn't realize how screwed he is.

"Stay back. I don't want to hurt you," he righteously declares. "We've been friends for so long. Are we really going to throw that away over… what? A little fling?"

"I could ask you the same thing," Jumble says tensely. "Everything we've been through… and you destroy it all because I'm getting close to someone else. That isn't you, Dani. At least I thought it wasn't."

She reaches out a hand. Euro's body appears on a counter. The light doesn't dim.

Dani snorts. "They were blinded. When we extended our offer they turned us down. Forcing us to run before we could even talk to Ward. Now… he's stuck, just like you are."

"Stuck."

The word rolls around the silence like a rattling stone. Its simplicity betrays the utter malice behind it. Dani finally flinches away, as if just now realizing how much power Jumble is exerting.

"Ward wasn't… stuck," Jumble snaps. "He isn't stuck. You… you don't know what stuck is! All you've ever known is freedom!"

"Freedom? Hah," Dani laughs bitterly. "We're tied to you. Losing you means we lose everything. I figured that out. Rina listened to me and understood. Euro listened and argued. But that doesn't matter to you, does it, creator?"

His words wash over Jumble like harmless ripples, but they hit me with the force of a rogue wave. He… he knew? How? Did he listen in to one of our conversations? Was Euro actually listening… no, that's not possible. He said he told Euro the truth. So he found out some other way.

"See?"

Rina's voice, full of pain and questioning, draws my attention back to her. "See what?"

She laughs weakly and gestures at herself. "We're just constructs. Like everything else in here. Doesn't matter who made us, we're not like you. We're better."

I raise an eyebrow as she raises her axe. "Better? How'd you come to that realization?"

"Because the system… it needs us. It doesn't need you." She shakily brings her axe up over her head as she speaks. "As long as you're gone, Jumble won't have any reason to abandon us. She'll go right back to being our friend. Then she'll remake Euro and we'll all go on adventures again. All this… all this will just be a bad memory."

A step in. A flash of magic and metal. This time I just step forward and gently push my hand at Rina's center mass. She appears right there. Infusion devours the slicing shield of magic that tries to tear me to shreds, and her axe falls on empty space. I shove her away with just enough effort to send her sprawling. But… when I touch her… something feels off. There's more magic in her that doesn't make sense. Magic that doesn't remotely resemble Jumble's.

Her words finally hit me. The system… how would she know it needs her? Dani might've found out they were constructs, but who told him? Possibilities flash through while Rina struggles to get to her feet. I comb my memories for something… anything… that could give me a hint. All my interactions with them. Not many, since all of them except for Euro kind of avoided me. There has to be…

…Something. No. Oh, no, no. One little message. A message someone shouldn't have been able to send. I pull out my Class Card. Rina's eyes go wide.

"Wait, no-"

'Hello', I type. And hit send.

Her eyes dart down to her pocket. Almost like she just got the message I sent her. Yet that shouldn't be possible. Only the book mimics a Class Card's functions, and Dani's got that right now. I step into Rina's personal space, my own anger bubbling brighter than the blinding light.

"Who the hell gave you a Class Card?!"

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