Awareness spreads over the scene like a growing mist. Everything's back in focus. I run my tongue against my teeth and spin a trio of split projectile-stars around my fingertip while Clutter fades away once more. There's so much about whatever's happening to me that I can't explain. Starting with how Pearl is… inside of my head.

Maybe literally.

"Pearl, do you know what the hell is going on? Because I'm absolutely and utterly lost."

A pleasant laugh fills my mind. "You probably won't like the explanation, Shelby. Do you still want it?"

I nod in confirmation as a y'tocwa lunges at me. A snap of my fingers sends a projectile through their skull. No–it slams into them and sends them skidding into the wall. They drop their weapon and grab their neck with both hands as they hack out broken breaths. I look down at my hand, at the very sharp crystalline claws that tip my fingers, and remind myself that I'm not putting any more power into these; I'm just shaping them with an incredible amount of skill.

"Sorry, was that a yes?" Pearl asks. "You sort of nodded, but I want to be sure."

"Yeah, it was," I confirm. "Not much else can surprise me at this point."

Pearl taps her fingers together and reclines… in a simple wooden chair. In a simple, if not fairly large, room furnished with wood, glass, and colourful shimmering coral. It's her room. In her shell. Why can I see it now?

"Shelby, reach up and touch my shell."

I set my jaw. Slowly, and with trembling fingers, I raise my hand to the side of my head. It's not there. But there's a little… chunk… of the shell just a few inches down. Right where the mace broke a hole in my skull. My hair covers it if I don't look for it, but there's no mistaking that there's a part of my skull that isn't skull anymore.

"Your shell's in my head?" I ask with utter disbelief. "But the mace didn't shatter your shell. How'd that happen?"

Pearl smiles. "Simple. I did it. To your left."

My awareness flickers as she puts those words into my mind. I raise a flat hand to block a mass of ice, but it explodes on impact and coats my shield in a layer of crackling frost. With an almost practiced ease I summon an infusion coin and shatter it instantly, devouring the spell in a heartbeat. The attacker–the same y'tocwa from a second ago–stumbles backwards in surprise and raises their hands to block their face.

I snort derisively and huck the infusion at them. Their own ice bursts over them, muffling a scream halfway through into a dull noise. My awareness prickles as more and more enemies appear out of nowhere, manifesting from the mists in what could be a near endless supply. Especially if the horizonguard starts throwing constructs at us.

Which means holding our ground isn't enough. I spin my split projectiles around my hand and lock onto six attackers that're trying to surround Jumble. One thought sends them screaming to hit their marks, taking four lives and permanently altering two. Jumble huffs at the corpses and brushes a spray of blood off her chest, then turns to me with a wide smile of thanks.

One that instantly shifts to a look of confused awe. "Um, Shelby? Why do you look like that?"

Clutter appears out of nowhere and shrugs. "It's probably a shellraiser thing. So what's the plan? Follow Dani?"

Jumble's expression changes for a third time. "Right, Dani! Crap, we need to get after him! If the horizonguard decides to teleport him away, we won't have a trail anymore!"

"Then we run?" I half-ask, half-state.

Instead of answering, Jumble flips open her book and bursts into a sprint. Her staticky magic coats both Clutter and I, whispering about speeds that shear the very air to ribbons and create ripples in rock with every footstep. Clutter murmurs in appreciation for the buffs and careens off to follow Jumble.

"Too close to time," I whisper to myself–and, by extension, to Pearl. "I didn't forget how you said you did this. We've probably got a minute or two of reprieve here. Is that enough time for an explanation?"

Pearl shrugs. "Maybe? Technically I'm talking to you at the speed of thought right now. I think that means I should be able to get information to you faster, but who knows? I haven't done this to anyone that wasn't completely a shellraiser before."

I blink. Less than a second has passed since Pearl's first word. It's definitely faster, but not instant–which would be damn scary for a lot of reasons. I breathe in through my nose, ignoring the shapes forming in the mist, and sprint down the hallway to follow Jumble and Clutter.

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"Okay, I think this is the best place to start. So, your brain; it's all shellraiser material now, but the synapses in it are still human. You're not technically a shellraiser for that reason, but you're a heck of a lot more compatible with me than I ever thought you'd be. Even after illumisia and I fixed you up, I never hoped this would happen; because I didn't even think it was possible!"

She smiles fondly to herself, but her attention is focused solely on me. I shift my shoulders a little and summon another projectile coin just in case the horizongurd throws something more at us, then nod for Pearl to keep going.

Pearl drums her fingers against her lap and pops her lips. "How do I explain this in a way that doesn't sound really bad… hm… no, I know you can handle it without freaking out. Here goes; right now, I'm literally inside of your brain. I made my shell bigger, sealed your brain inside of it, and now I live here! Like a worm inside of an… apple… wow, that sounds absolutely horrible."

I smirk in amusement at the imagery. "Come up with something better the next time you tell a human that you're living inside of their brain. Most other people wouldn't be as accepting of it as I am. Uh… weird question… do you have control of some things in there? Or… access… to… um…"

"Yes," Pearl says, her thought-voice deadly serious. "But I'm respecting your privacy the best that I can."

Heat rises in my cheeks as I… um… nevermind, let's not even think about that now. So Pearl's in my brain. That explains the weird double-talk thing and the thought communication, but it doesn't even come close to justifying the insane boost to my awareness. Or… maybe it does. How the hell am I supposed to know what having a shellraiser living in my brain does for me?

"Alright… thanks for ignoring the private stuff, I guess," I chuckle nervously. "So what's with the awareness boost? This doesn't feel like when you boosted my awareness before. Shit… am I going to crash after this, too?"

Pearl nods. "Probably. But we should be able to do this for a while, at least, so don't worry about that just yet. If this takes longer than an hour, though… then yeah, we should start worrying."

I gnash my teeth; an hour isn't close to enough. We don't even know where the horizonguard is yet.

"How bad's the backlash going to be?"

"Um…" Pearl trails off as she taps her lip. "If I say I don't know, does that make you more or less worried? Because I really don't know. To other shellraisers, it'd last for… hm… a few days?"

I nearly choke on my teeth. "A few days?! Completely out of it?!"

"Mmhm, sorry. But hey, you'll be awake for it at least!" she cheerily says. "But we can't focus on what's going to happen in an hour-ish. Right now, your awareness control's being supplemented by mine. So you can shape it, stretch it, and focus it to do what you want instead of just the big bubble of awareness you're normally putting out."

Bubble of awareness. Yeah, I guess that's a good explanation of what it was like before–and what it is right now without me doing anything to it. So what happened back there with the runner a few miles away… I must've stretched my awareness thin to get it to feel all the way out there. And in doing that, I shrunk the 'bubble' around me until it was small enough that a surprise attack could work.

I guess that makes sense. Probably more once I actually put a little time into testing things. Like, did having that intricate control over the projectile coin take away from the awareness sensing things? Do I actually have more awareness like this, or can I just manipulate it way better? And why can I suddenly actually see the things in my awareness instead of just feeling a general shape of them?

All the questions die on the tip of my tongue as Jumble screeches to a stop. Clutter disappears an instant later, and I come to a stop right next to where he last was. Even with my enhanced awareness it's still a little difficult to get a lock on him.

"Jumble?" I ask and carefully make my way to her side. "Is this the place?"

She looks down at her book with a frown, then nods. "Dani was right here up until a few seconds ago, but I never actually saw him with my own eyes. The horizonguard must be doing something with all the moisture in the air."

I raise my chin and focus on my awareness. Aside from Clutter's barely visible warbles of Jumble-aided magic, there's nothing. No footprints, no scratches, no blood. It's all way too clean.

"The horizonguard must've deep cleaned this place before we got here," I say with a glance at the wall. "And he did it damn quick. What does the book say Dani did after this?"

Jumble clicks her teeth in tune to whispering words at herself. "It says here he… went up two levels escorted by two members of the horizonguard's finest. He was just about to be shown the way to the tombs… but the horizonguard sent a message out saying that Dani's being tracked by… my book."

She turns to me and snaps the book shut. "Now he knows. If we can't find the tombs now, we'll have to find another way."

"We don't have the time for that," I hiss through my teeth. "Alright. Up two levels it is."

I crane my neck ceilingward and jump. My palm slam into the ceiling, and the rest of me soars through an opening that just barely opens in time. Clutter and Jumble hurry up after me, and Jumble jumps to open the next pathway. Magic swirls through the now open space, filling the air with a soft buzzing that fills my ears and nips at Jumblee's protection like a swarm of flies.

Clutter whines and wraps his head in Agathe's fabric. It seems to do the trick. Worse, though, is the obvious foreshadowing at who we're about to see up there. Or, rather, what Class they are. Because the last time I felt something like this was when Illumisia took over that Psychic when Ashmaw was hunting me.

But I'm stronger now. With stronger defensive spells and Jumble's staticky whispers to help. I roll my shoulders and jump up through the doorway. My awareness warns me of the three people standing off in the distance-ish before I even get close; one draped in flowing grey fabrics, another in tight-fitting combat gear that looks like it was meant for someone one size smaller than they are.

Finally, there's the third; Dani. Who turns at the sound of me, stares deep into my eyes…

And screams bloody murder.

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