The shopkeep barely reacts to us reappearing in its store covered in frost. Through chattering teeth I break a purification at our feet while Jumble pulls out the book and quickly turns to the last page–which isn't the last page anymore. A new one apparently appeared out of nowhere, and hopefully, Dani's conversation with his 'savior' is being written there right now.

I breathe warmth into my numb hands then nod at the book. "Anything yet?"

"Just some post-save conversation. Nothing really important yet," Jumble says as she leans into my side. "But it looks like Gil's trying to steer it that way. Clutter must've gotten the message to him in its entirety."

I breathe a sigh of relief. "Perfect. So what do you want to do now? Regroup with the others and the construct army?"

Jumble purses her lips while letters scratch themselves onto paper. "I don't think we really have to. The horizonguard obviously wants you and I dead more than anything else, so going back there could be really counterproductive."

"So what else, then?" I rub my hands together and raise an eyebrow in question. "Keep running around here to make sure the horizonguard's attention is split? Can we even fight off security when it eventually shows up?"

Silence follows my question, broken only by chattering teeth and the scratching of a nonexistent pen. I glance over at Jumble for a moment. She's so intensely concentrated on the new words that she probably can't even hear me. Her arm coils around mine and pulls me even closer, though she doesn't look over at all. Just wants me close, I guess.

So all I can do is lean back and wait. Feels like I've been doing a weirdly high amount of this for the real danger we're in. The horizonguard could be a few hours off of clearing the quest for all we know, and we're not even sure what the last leg of the damn thing entails. Hell, it wouldn't surprise me if the system made up some bullshit quest reward for the horizonguard alone that basically walks him through to the end of this.

Worst part of it all is… I still don't know for sure if the horizonguard's working with the system or not. All this could be the result of direct collusion or the system manipulating the quest. Gil probably knows more. Probably told Clutter, too.

I gently knock the back of my head against the wall and state up at the ceiling. It felt like I was getting overwhelmed… but now there aren't enough options. We have a damn army but nowhere to fight, information and revelations that go nowhere, and a quest that's pretty much said and done with.

So what's left? I look back at the hole in the wall that both leads to nowhere and to the horizonguard's district… somehow. Nothing about that makes sense. If Gil made the door, then why doesn't it just connect to his store? And why'd it give me progress for my shellraiser quest? What am I missing about that pla…

I sit up straight as a revelation hits me like an axe to the spine. A room that's completely black and doesn't feel like there's anything there, but there is. I've been there before. Maybe not exactly here, though, but somewhere very similar. Can't blame Jumble for not noticing it, since I hadn't even met her the last time this happened. But how could Pearl and I miss this? Didn't one of our awarenesses stretch far enough to feel the things inside?

Obviously not. Need to fix that.

"Pearl."

She looks up from whatever she's doing. "Yes?"

"The black space beyond that door… isn't it really similar to the–"

She gasps and stands up straight. "The place we found all the fake shellraiser stuff! Of course! Why didn't I… feel anything? I should've felt something. Hm."

Brow-furrowing thought overtakes her as she slowly sits down once again. It's the confirmation I was looking for, but not the answer I'd hoped. If she couldn't feel anything in there either… then the only thing in there was whatever was tapping at the window. I need to go back in there. Once Gil and Clutter shoo Dani into the loving embrace of forehead-mask's construct replacement.

It feels like forever waiting for Jumble to speak. With Pearl going radio-silent, too, that leaves me with my own thoughts for a little too long. I open up my Class Card and start fooling around with some things, but none of them really stick out to me. Except for one that should've been damn obvious from the start.

I have more Fate now. This is the first time I've heard the tapping since I got it. Is everything because of that stat increase? …I have no damn idea. But it's the only semi-logical explanation that's coming to me.

"Got it!" Jumble exclaims. "Dani's on his way to meet the masked construct right now, and Gil has Clutter following him at a distance. Time to go back."

She stands eagerly and pulls me to my feet. Anticipation shakes her entire body. Yet… I feel like I have to do something else right now. The black space here is too important to ignore. Jumble must be able to see my confliction, because she instantly slows down and shifts her excitement to concern.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Shelby?" she tenderly shifts to hold my hand and looks deep into my eyes. "What else do you need to do?"

Her direct correctness takes me back a step. "I, uh, need to… go back into the space between here and the horizonguard's district. My Fate might've pulled something important out of the darkness."

Jumble takes a moment to consider, then nods in understanding. "Okay. How long do you think it'll take?"

"I have no idea," I sigh. "Hopefully just a few minutes. Send me a message if we have to move right away, okay? Oh, and make sure Gil grabs those coins I threw in a shelf. He'll take us right to the heart of things… I hope."

"Oh, he will," Jumble assures me with a pat on the shoulder, then gently pushes me towards the darkness. "Ii'lll take care of this until you're done or absolutely needed. Don't go starting another subquest on me, okay?"

I chuckle and pull her into a hug. She sighs happily and pushes her face into my neck, then backs away and refocuses on her book. That's my cue to go. I turn, stare into the darkness of nothing with a gulp, and force my feet to carry me past the threshold.

My footsteps shift from the clack of sole on stone to a creak not unlike straining wooden beams in the attic of an old house. I take a deep breath and close my eyes, ignoring the paradoxical nature of the place I'm trying to make my way through, and listen closely for the sound of music. A soft melody, both a hum and a whisper, wafts through the air like a pleasant scent. It wraps around my brain in a warm hug, stimulating every sense at the same time.

Awareness… exists. I can't explain it any better than that. Everything in here… it only exists in my awareness. The tapping of branch-like fingers on sandy glass. A quiet hum that somehow captures the entire musical range of an orchestra, yet also feels deeply personal. Sung directly at… me?

I scrunch my nose and try to focus on the sound. Because… it should't be aimiedd at me. I'm not the shellraiser here, even if I have some of Pearl's DNA woven into mine. This formless yet passionate song should be for Pearl. But no matter how hard I listen… it's only for me. Nobody else.

"Why are you serenading me?" I quietly ask… as a few things fall into place. "Wait… the taps. Like fingers against glass. All that was just to try and get my attention, wasn't it? But I didn't have a high enough Fate to register what was happening."

Nothing changes. Yet, somehow, my awareness recognizes a confirmation. I fumble randomly against the darkness in my awareness, yet all the things in here are still… wrong. Windows that lead to nowhere. A song that's all around me yet nowhere else. And all those long fingers gently tapping to get my attention. To turn my awareness their way.

"Pearl, are you hearing any of this?" I whisper.

After a few moments of silence, I look her way. Tears stream down her cheeks. An expression of intense grief, yet of equally intense joy paints her face in the strangest light. I reach up to hold her shell, as if that'll somehow help. She reaches up as if to accept my small gesture of attempted comfort.

"I can't hear them, Shelby. But… they're here. They're really here."

She nearly chokes out those last few words. I don't understand why. Hell, I don't really understand anything that's happening. But whatever this is… it's important. Unbelievably so. Pearl tilts her head upwards, and her expression shifts to a perfect split between utter terror and brilliant elation. She opens her mouth to speak, but instead of words, a stream of electrical clicks, snaps, and signals soundlessly flow between her and whatever's singing at me.

"Are you real?"

Tap. "Yes."

I shouldn't understand a thing.

Yet I understand everything.

Unknown effect evolution; magical phenomena not of system origin.

SoSSQuest progress: Become More Aware.

…

Come to the central power.

I wince as a third line forcibly inserts itself onto my notification. It feels like it shouldn't be there; like it isn't part of the automated notification. Something's talking to me through these quest notifications. It… has been for a little bit, now that I think back. But never this blatantly. The main quest progress has to be the reason.

"What have they done to you?" Pearl asks, her signal-voice teeming with sadness and joy.

Quick taps echo against my awareness. "They have made me. It has not realized its success. It must be kept this way. Let the system think me a heretic until the end of eternity."

"It succeeded." Pearl snap-whispers. "You… are you the one that ripped us out of the uplifting trial?"

Sounds and song create the image of a monstrous thing; limbs too long with far too many joints, a torso as gnarled as an ancient oak, and a head… that shifts and drips star-like black ooze through a mask of ghostly wood. Like a hallowed-out petrified tree filled with shellraiser. It's sound-made eyes lock with mine, and it hums out a sound that feels like long-wished relief.

"You can finally hear." It taps. "I drift no more. Allow my song to join the chorus of two."

It reaches out a gnarled hand. Everdriftwood armor creaks as the thing that only exists in my awareness tries to make contact. As it gets closer… I feel something in the real. Something grey and fleshy. I slowly open my eyes, and standing right before me, is the heretic that saved us from the uplifting trial. A perfect mirror of the thing in my awareness, except made of construct material.

Both of them are real. I don't know how. My hand moves to accept its touch before my brain can say no. Awareness brushes against my own. Skin feels construct skin. Awareness feels the smoothness of weaponized everdriftwood and the raw power of a shellraiser. Neither one of them is more real than the other, yet to anything but an awareness, this thing is a simple construct.

To an awareness?

It's a system-created shellraiser.

Something that the system can never, ever find out it succeeded in making.

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