Kahli looked at the map intently, seeing a rough rendering of many regions of Nomachiato - Clathalia, Gifflenberg, Blandia, Glunguplunk, Hretchingtonshire, Bl'addaire, Plaith…

Marked with a gold, embossed circle were eight different structures. Checking the legend on the map, these were to signify the ruins wherein different obelisks waited to be activated.

"Oh, wow... There are so many of them!" said Kahli with a bit of a shock in her voice. She hadn't expected there to be so many obelisks to activate even though she did know that there was no dirth of ruins in Nomachiato, within which the obelisks were apparently to be found.

"Yes, of course. It can't be had any other way, you see," replied Sch'laong. "Quantimidas knew, or thought they knew at least, that their brother had their back before going into a deep slumber, and in truth these obelisks were configured only as a failsafe. I just hope your intentions are pure - that being said, you are an envoy of the Supreme Time Protector, so I will defer to their judgement on this. Still, there is much you still have to learn about this map, as it should come quite in handy for you in your further journeys."

Kahli squinted at the map and pointed at one of the ruins in a large patch of terrain between Clathalia and Gifflenberg, noticing that the circle surrounding it was not embossed with gold but instead with a kind of white, spectral hue. "Is this the ruin we're at now, Sch'laong?"

"Yes. You'll notice that its coloring has changed slightly due to the fact that you've activated its obelisk - it will stay that way until such time that the obelisk either becomes deactivated again, or Quantimidas awakens."

Kahli suddenly had a nervous thought. "Um, how exactly does an obelisk become deactivated?"

"It's not a big deal," replied Sch'laong. "Well, not a big deal to anybody but the person who activates it, I guess you could say. To clarify, the obelisk stays activated until the person whose system activated it dies."

Kahli felt her hearts drop. "OH. That's... Good to know." She sure was thankful for her new [class] - hopefully being a [Time Manipulator] would keep her alive. That being said... Wouldn't being the sole reason for the obelisks being activated put Kahli in grave danger? Wouldn't her having activated the obelisk cause bad actors who may or may not want Quantimidas to wake up to take actions against her? Malicious actions? Actions like, well... killing her? Kahli asked this of Sch'laong.

"Oh, well, ugh... I don't know, that seems a little paranoid. Have you been going through a tough time, recently, miss envoy? I mean, surely you had Time Approval to activate the obelisk, what with your envoy status. I'm sure that, should anyone want to take action against you, you could easily enough destroy them. After all, I'm fairly certain that you could destroy me in an instant if you so chose to."

Kahli thought over this. She had indeed seen a timeline wherein she nearly destroyed Sch'laong, however, she'd also seen Sch'laong kill her to death in a timeline scenario. Maybe she'd just keep that to herself, though.

"I can see by the awkward expression on your face that I'm right. It's okay, I know you're powerful."

Kahli sighed, and Froufrou squelched.

"Hey, Sch'laong, I've got a question," said Kahli.

"What?"

"Have you seen a tauman with living wood claws for hands and the most flawless jet black hair that ever existed on Nomachiato?"

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Sahdi was screaming at the top of her lungs. But this much was understandable, considering she was wrapped in the terrible vines of some sort of awful, tauman eating plant-insect hybrid with thousands of little, hexagonal eyes and huge, gnashing jaws with hundreds of rows of teeth that were constantly rotating around endlessly. It was not a fun sight to behold, that much was for certain.

Sahdi remembered a whole lot of how she got to this point. In fact, she remembered more than anyone else - she remembered more than G'athoong, more than Unit 5a23, and more than Kahli.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

With that considered, the easiest way to impart her current experiences is to allow a glimpse into her inner monologue.

Hey. Sahdi here. You're probably wondering how I got to this point, where I'm about to be devoured by a terrible Cenus Tauman Trap. Well, don't worry - unlike Unit 5a23, I remember the whole thing.

It all started when I was lying on the back of the water dragon G'athoong beside Kahli. Kahli kept staring up at the stars, and then down at the forest and historical ruins under us. She was musing about something, muttering about history and theory and the terrifying existence of the universe, but I was only hearing one thing, and it wasn't at all what she was actually saying - I was hearing the beautiful cadence of her voice. It was.. bewitching.

I don't know how long I've loved Kahli. I don't even know if I actually do love her, as much as I'm just terribly infatuated with her. It's everything about her - the way she walks around lopsided staring at her left foot, the way she carts around an eldritch horror and talks to it like it's a housecat, or maybe it's the way she seems to simultaneously have absolutely no confidence in herself at all and yet at the same time she wears her hearts on her shins like nobody I've ever seen. Truly, she is a monumental tauman.

Regardless, it's not really her fault I'm in this mess, the only thing she did was steal my heart... I mean, the only thing she did was distract me. Anyways, really this isn't about Kahli at all.

So I was laying there next to Kahli on G'athoong's back. It was pitch black outside. Unit 5a23 was meditating, but that fucking robot was a meditation addict so he pretty much just always meditated. I bet he had some sort of crazy, creepy pleasure palace or something in his mind. It's the only explanation for the obsessive amount of meditation that crazy bot did.

So I was really cold as I laid there, because the wind was buffeting and G'athoong was flying really fast, and I almost asked Kahli to kind of, well, to get closer to me. So that we could share body heat. Of course this would've been completely a functional request, I was only considering it as a last ditch effort to keep from dying of wind chill.

But then everything changed. See, a storm was brewing in the sky, and soon enough we found ourselves well encroached by a dread circle of malevolent clouds. Rumbling and crackling the clouds spooked G'athoong, and soon enough we were flying, no, soaring through the sky at a jerky, accelerated rate that made me feel like I might spill my stomachs at any moment.

And so I got up. I couldn't risk waking up Kahli by barfing all over her, that was far too embarassing. She'd never think I was cute if I woke her up by emptying my stomachs all over her, that much is certain.

Knowing this, I decided to run across G'athoong's back and head as far away from Kahli and Unit 5a23 as possible. I was hoping to completely conceal my need to relieve myself through foul use of my esophagus. However, I soon found that my refuse and bile were bubbling up far sooner than I'd expected, and soon enough I found myself emptying partway digested food and stomachs acid all over G'athoong's eye. This of course had many dreadful and unintended effects, mainly that the poor water dragon was soon zooming through the air at breakneck speeds.

I remember holding onto one of her scales as she screamed and screamed. I remember worrying dearly for Kahli's safety, only to see that strange, tendril-clad beast she kept housed in her purse latch onto a scale and onto Kahli with a dedicated tenacity that kept the both from flying of the side of the spinning and thrashing dragon.

Unit 5a23 had no such luck. I remember watching him, deep in meditation and hovering about half a pace above the dragon's scales, get sent flying off into the air, spinning like a top as he tumbled down to the forest ground. I had no idea what would happen to the automaton, but I didn't think that it was going to be good. None of the vibes in this situation read as good, that much was for certain.

And so I watched the automaton tumble away, and I was glad to see Kahli's [paired] companion protecting her as we all sailed down, down towards the ground. G'athoong had lost her balance, and all was truly not well. Soon enough the dragon slammed into a cluster of trees, sending them flipping up and away through the air like pinwheels. As this happened, we found ourselves swarming with tamaven. They were everywhere, and they were pecking at everyone with a malicious squawking.

That was the last of what I saw of Kahli, Froufrou, and G'athoong, for as we crashed into the ground the scale I clung to shot off the dragon's hide and soared through the air. The impact itself is a bit of a blur to me, though I know that I was sent flying off the dragon's back and soon slammed into the side of the ubiquitous ruins.

Impacting into the side of the ruins was painful and difficult to experience. My side was searing in pain as I tumbled to the ground and groaned. It was not moments later that I was grabbed by malicious vines and dragged unwillingly into the shadows of the ruins, and later afterwards found myself stuck to a wall, wrapped in vines and leaves and being drained like a smoothie. At some point, some sort of switch flipped in the mind of the awful plant creature, the Cenus Tauman Trap, and it decided it wanted to eat me whole. And now, here I am.

Indeed, there she was - being prepared to be devoured by a sinister, carnivorous plant. It was all she could do at this point to scream out for Kahli and hope for the best.