"That's something," Sophia muttered as she stared at the ornate pitcher. "I'm not sure what, but something. Why is it leaking magic?"

"Leaking magic?" Othala sounded puzzled. "I'm not sure what you mean. Issvako's records say that the glue evaporates with time, even with the assistance of the pitcher; that's why the vial is used to completely contain it. It's supposed to be partially contained and far easier to use in the pitcher."

"Is that what it meant when it said that the conductive glue had to be contained at all times? I thought it was worried about early hardening. It does say not to open the vial early, but I didn't think that meant the glue would disappear." Xin'ri sounded annoyed.

She moved over to Scout and made a considering noise. "Hmmm. How much glue did you make? It looks like the pitcher's less than half full."

Othala had to translate the question for Scout when the android seemed confused. Once Scout understood, she gestured at the pitcher about a third of the way from the top.

Sophia's lips tightened. That meant they'd lost a good bit of the glue since it was made. She hoped it was still usable; magical materials could be weird and she really had no idea what this one was. "We'd better get moving, then. Unless we can glue the pieces together here?"

"The glue won't set outside the interspace," Xin'ri said with a shake of her head. "It'll just evaporate, and quickly. We can glue them together once we're inside, though."

Scout led them to the entrance again.

Once they stepped through, Sophia turned to Dav. "Was that the same route as last time? I'd swear that it wasn't, but it was long enough that I'm not sure."

"It wasn't," Dav confirmed. "I'm pretty sure neither way is the direct route and that it's a lot closer to Othala's room than it seems, but it would take a while for me to go through it all and get an exact location. Even then, that doesn't get me another route there."

Sophia nodded. She wasn't interested in another route, she just wanted to know if she was imagining that they were being led in circles. Now that she knew she wasn't just imagining it, everything was fine. "Can't really blame them for it, Othala seems to really value this place. A little annoyed to be led on the long route while we have glue evaporating, but - oh, right. Glue!"

Sophia pulled the rods out of her pocket, then looked at the pitcher in Dav's hands. "Xin'ri? Was there something special we're supposed to do? And which rods should we start with?"

Xin'ri tapped two of the rods, one of the ones she'd made and one of the ones Scout made. "Which ends you put together doesn't matter, but the ones I made should be on the outside; I did some additional shaping to follow the outer bridge protocols."

Sophia nodded and put the other two rods back in her pocket. She was ready.

"Dip the end of each of the rods in the glue, making certain the entire connective surface is covered, ,even the side that will not touch. Do not dip the rod in farther than is required; glue on the main rod segment can cause accelerated connection degradation. Spin the rod lightly in the glue to ensure proper adhesion of the glue to the rod end." Xin'ri paused while Sophia followed the directions.

"Remove both rod ends from the glue and press them together carefully. Maximize the connection distance on the slanted surface but do not impinge on the barrel. Uneven connections at the barrel edge can cause interspace leakage points and lead to additional false-rock formation. Hold the rods in position until the glue solidifies. Do not set the rods down." Xin'ri shook her head with a smile. "It doesn't say how long that will take or why the rods can't be set down."

"Probably because they'd glue themselves to the floor," Sophia said. That much seemed obvious. As for how long the glue would take to set, she didn't think it would be long at all. She could see both mana and essence. The essence in the black goo that coated the ends of the rods wasn't moving, but the mana was. It swirled and eddied for a moment, then seemed to shift into a wavelike pattern that ran in the direction of the length of the rod.

"It's changing color?" Xin'ri sounded puzzled. "I've never seen mana change color like that. It's turning blue like the crystals?"

"Only in lines," Dav countered. "At least, that's what I see."

Sophia frowned. To her eyes, it was still pulsing a little. As she watched, the mana seemed to dissipate. As it did, she could see that it had somehow separated the essence of the goo into either different materials or maybe just different states. Most of it was the same color as the goo was originally, like polished black stone, but there were strips of blue crystal along the interface. It was clear that the "glue" wasn't simple at all. It was almost certainly made with the properties of the interspace in mind.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"I think it's done." Xin'ri glanced at both Sophia and Dav and waited until they both nodded before she continued her directions. "Now we pour some more over the connection, so that it's as wide as the central rod. It is allowed to spill onto the barrel of the rod during this step, but spillover is to be minimized. It also says to pour slowly while slowly spinning the paired rods so that the glue can begin to harden immediately in place without clumping or creating places of separation. Performing the additional pour in a single step is preferred."

Unlike the first step, this turned out to be harder than it sounded. Dav handled the pouring while Sophia ever so slowly spun the connected rods. They had to be careful to stay extremely consistent in how they moved to keep the thickness steady and while doing it really, really slowly slowly made it easier to get things even, it also quickly grew tiring, especially for Dav.

When they finished, the end result was only slightly lumpy on one side. It wasn't bad for a first try, and Xin'ri seemed to think it was good enough.

They took a short break before their second attempt, with the other mismatched pair of rods. It was easier, though they did have to deal with one bobble near the end when Dav let the goo pour out of the pitcher a little too quickly. He tilted it back to the slower rate while Sophia slowed down her rotation to match that amount. A single thicker layer was better than a wide spot.

Xin'ri insisted that they rest longer outside the interspace after that. Sophia had them move well down the corridor, away from the leakage, before they stopped. She didn't think it was particularly harmful, but she didn't want to risk it.

Naturally, that was when Xin'ri admitted that her shield was down almost a quarter of its maximum. That was far more than either Sophia's or Dav's. Dav offered to loan her his shield-sharing bracelet, but Xin'ri refused on the grounds that re-attuning equipment often damaged it, especially if it was soon after the equipment was previously bound.

That wasn't something Sophia had heard before, but she wasn't about to argue with Xin'ri. Her specialty was equipment, after all. That fact was made more obvious when Xin'ri pulled a clearly enchanted jacket out of nowhere, put it on, then told them to watch her while she restored her shield. It took her a couple of hours and she was unable to do anything else, but that was far faster than Dav or Sophia would recover shield.

When she stirred, Dav asked her, "I don't suppose you'd be willing to sell one of those?"

Xin'ri shook her head. "Not one that works this well. Most of my best Abilities make items that work for me, they're attuned by the process of making them. I have a higher than normal attunement limit, but everything I do works through my items." She paused, then admitted, "That's why I'm not considered Called, even though I'm as good at fighting as someone who is. Well, almost as good and a lot more flexible as long as I have time to prepare. I have a lot of stuff already prepared, too."

"Why does using items make you not Called?" That didn't make any sense to Sophia. "I've seen you pull items out of nothing, so it's not like they can be taken away from you. On top of that, most Called have to use items to fight. Armor and weapons if nothing else. That doesn't make any sense."

Xin'ri shrugged. "I make things, therefore I'm on the Professional side. That's just how the Guide categorizes people. It's useful, sometimes, since it means my Abilities aren't reduced when I'm in a limiting Nexus."

"I don't understand that either," Sophia admitted. "People aren't equal to begin with; reducing Abilities doesn't change that, especially when other things aren't also limited."

Xin'ri shrugged. "It doesn't matter in Izel, but I used to travel. I've seen a lot of different places. I doubt I'll see that many more; I'm second upgrade and the odds of making it past that are very low without a team, so I should probably find somewhere to settle down. I'd have already left Izel if Lan'ti hadn't requested my assistance. Not that there was much here to work with until now."

Sophia glanced at Dav. She liked Xin'ri, but she knew that wasn't a request to join the team. In any case, she couldn't add someone to the team without everyone's approval. If she got everyone's approval, though, it ought to be possible; Taika and Cliff didn't count as independent people when they entered a Challenge and the "standard" group seemed to be five people. "Would you be interested in joining a team? We aren't really looking, but we could check with Taika and Amy…"

"I told you I'm not Called. That's why I've never had a real team," Xin'ri objected. "I don't advance the way Called do. I need to make things that can be and are used in appropriate places. With my Abilities, I can't make them for other people; I have to use them. That sounds like it should work like a Called, but it doesn't. I have to take time to make things when they could be doing things to improve and I still always get Wisps slower than everyone I've worked with. People always move on."

Sophia shook her head. "That's not important. Wisps are not that hard to get, and anyway, Dav, Ci'an, and I all have enough to get to the next upgrade already." She didn't need to worry about Taika or Cliff; they leveled and upgraded when she did. She didn't actually understand how it worked, because they also had separate amounts of Wisps that they could use to buy or upgrade Abilities. She hadn't asked, but her bet was that they had as many as they could hold; the Wanderer would surely have taken care of that when he granted them their upgrades, the same way he had for Dav and Sophia.

"I'm still interested in a shield-restoring jacket, even if it's not as good or you have to use it on me," Dav added. "As for adding you to the team, we'd all have to talk about it, but I don't see why we couldn't. Who cares if making things takes time if it lets us deal with things we haven't planned our Ability set around? We've gotten through a lot of Challenges by using tools, like Sophia's climbing kit. If we're ever going to get home, we have to get into the Maze, that's where Gateways are supposed to be. Someone who can help us adapt is only going to help with that."

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