Garble stumbled in the snow, catching himself with his arms.

“You alright?!” Smolder rushed to his side.

“Yeah there was a rock or something,” Garble said, kicking snow at the part. “I’m fine.”

“... Maybe we should go back now,” Smolder said. “We haven’t seen anything.”

“I’m fine,” Garble repeated. “I’m not tired, I hit a rock.”

“Yeah but if we’re tired when we go back we won’t be able to get back.” She pulled at his arm, helping him up. “C’mo-- Wait, what rock?”

She bent down and unearthed a… thing, which Garble had tripped on. Grabbing it, she repeated, “Yes, let’s definitely get back.”

Pulling himself up and patting himself off, he just made a “tch” noise and followed as she moved.

“You see anything?” Came Tabitha’s response as soon as they half-stumbled into their little hideaway from the snow. "Tell me you saw something."

"Actually, yeah." Smolder tossed up something and caught it with her other hand, thrusting it forward. "Bro found it by tripping over it."

Spike lifted on his wings, peering at it. "That's a funny thing." With a funny symbol engraved on the stone. "What's it mean?"

"You don't know?" Eyes turned to Tabitha. "What? It's an old timey rune."

Sandra nodded. "I recognize that, but learning what each rune meant wasn't… a thing my parents went over."

"Your parents, maybe." Tabitha hiked a thumb at the floating rock. "That's a border rune. Tell me you know where you found it?"

"Wasn't far from here." Smolder pointed back outside. "Like a few minutes that way?"

"If we can find another one like it…" Tabitha folded her arms. "They're protecting it, hiding it. We go between them, we find it. C'mon, time to get moving!"

“Wait, you’re saying we were going the right way?” Garble groused. “And we just came back?”

“We’d have to come back here for everyone else anyway.” Smolder grabbed more food from the back. “So, cmon.”

Sandra stood up. “Okay, should we make a beeline to start, or what?”

“Hold off on it,” Tabitha said. “We might need you with Aiden if a fight starts.”

“I won’t let it go as far as it did last time,” Sandra said. “I’m no good to anyone like that.”

Tabitha smirked and cocked an eyebrow. “Good.”

They headed out into the storm, trying to find any sign of the second rune, in the same direction. Sandra jogged in place as the dragons thumbed through the snow, shuffling around trying to find anything. “Isn’t there a… better way to do this?” Sandra said, trying to keep her heat up.

“I mean, is there?” Tabitha said, shuffling around herself. “I don’t know of any way other than this.”

Sandra looked down at Tabitha’s pouch, and thought a thought. “Can I… see the rune?”

Tabitha pulled it out, and almost threw it, before thinking better of it and handing it over. “Knock yourself out, if you think you can figure something out.”

Sandra looked at the rune. She knew the shape, and knew vaguely that the magic of it would be linked to other runes. Surely they would, wouldn’t they?

She closed her eyes, and reached out the same magic sense she used to link up with Aiden… feeling around. The magic in the rune had no life, no will of its own. It didn’t speak to her. But it did… tug at her. “Guys! I think I have something.”

It was a subtle thing, but still a thing. "This way." She marched into the blizzard, just a bit more confident than when she had started. "I think it wants to be with its friend."

Spike jogged to keep up with her energetic pace. "It's still a rock, but alright, if we can find the other, then we can get things mo--ving!" He flopped forward, scrunching the snow under him.

"Found it." Smolder squatted down where Spike had tripped, plucking up another stone from the snow. "So… That way?" She pointed in the direction between where the two had been.

Tabitha bobbed her head. "Let's go, and expect a fight."

A fight was exactly what they didn't get, coming on a camp, fire blazing and holding back the storm. Around it, a gathering of four people suited for adventure. A warrior of some sort, a rogue twirling a dagger, and two spellcasters. A classic combination. Spike approached with a little shrug. "Uh… I'm going to guess you're not just another group up this high." They hadn't heard of anyone being that high at the moment, and news of that would have spread.

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One of the spellcasters cocked his head. “Well, no--”

“Arguably,” the rogue interrupted. “We are indeed a group of adventurers that got this high.” He waggled his eyebrows.

“So… you reached the top, then?” Sandra said.

“That’s right,” the rogue rocked himself back and forth and popped up on his feet. “We lot were sent here to end your ascent. Or not end your ascent and be a speedbump. Something like that.”

“Could you show a little respect,” the warrior groused.

“Why? Ain’t like either of us is in a pickle. We lose, they go up, we go back to sleep or whatever it is. Easy.”

Spike glanced between the mighty warriors of yore. "Pretty bored of it, huh?"

Sandra frowned with thought. "A common trend. This tower… makes things so much more organized, for the good…"

"And the ill," completed the mage. "We are a small price that protects this city from far worse, were magic allowed to have its way unchecked."

"Are you a divine lord?" asked the other spellcaster, lifting an ankh into view. "I'm a vitawizard!" An advanced form of vitamancer. "I don't like getting all up and personal, but it's nice to see another healer. Two of you in one party?"

“I focus on healing!” Spike said, holding up his staff. “And spreading damage and redirecting it. And er,” he coughed. “Taking the damage myself.”

“Hm?” the spellcaster scratched his chin. “I’m afraid putting myself directly in harms way is not quite what I am looking for.”

The fighter flicked a finger towards Garble. "You. You crush things, smash them under your weapons. My position hasn't changed, standing the test of time."

"Yeah, mostly?"

"Mostly?"

Smolder snickered softly. "He lays down wicked rhymes as he pounds the beats into their backs. It's great!"

"I… see." He did not see. He did not see at all. He went quiet instead.

The wizard shook his head. "I will spare my feelings. There is no ded... " He didn't finish, sighing. "I will tempt it. You, young lady." He was looking to Sandra. "You are dressed as one of mine, but I am not fool enough to imagine this is true. What path do you walk?"

Sandra looked back and forth, flicking her finger to bring out her firebird. “I summon monster spirits… and other things I have bound to me.”

The wizard furrowed his brow. “So you do not actually wield the arcane might… but command something else to wield it for you?”

Sandra offered an apologetic smile. “Not exactly, but that’s kind of what attracted me to it in the first place, so yes.”

He stepped back with a groan.

A pause held in the air, and the foreign party all looked to their dagger wielder. “Wot?” he said, looking around. “I don’t care.” The stares continued. “Fiine.” He stepped up. “Oim the rogue!” he said, playing far into an accent that wasn’t quite his. “I do the stabbin and the sneakin' and sometimes I steal real strange things, and you,” he looks down at the orange dragon, whose armor had a bandoleer of spices. “Probably do something like cook the enemies and eat them.”

Smolder nodded. “Got it in one.”

“I--what…” he was knocked out of his accent, and shook his head. “Your classes are weird.”

Spike suddenly clapped his hands. "Got it!" All eyes turned on him at his outburst. "Uh, sorry, but I get what's wrong. The tower, it keeps you all alive and well and that's good, great even on some angles." He had his hands out flat and parallel as he mapped the directions. "But isolated. Super isolated. So the world changes outside, and you don't know. You can't know. So you end up, you know… Splitting from it. I bet it happens to everything in here."

Tabitha's eyes widened. "Like the original divine lord… It was… discouraging to see him so crushed by time. But what would they, or us, do about it?"

The fighter nodded towards Tabitha. "She's asking the right question. From where I'm sitting, you may as well be from another tower, alien and a complete puzzle. I hate puzzles…"

“You guys ain’t lookin at this right,” the rogue said. “I’m fine with a little culture shock. Life moves on, y’know… except ours ain’t. We ain’t got no life, tower ain’t even got the decency to let us die. We live and live and nothin’ happens and we’re probably some kinda damned battery for the tower or somethin, elsewise the tower gets off on seeing us suffer!” He stepped back almost immediately, closing his eyes and brushing himself off. His daggers were in his hands lightning fast. “Let’s get this goin, alright? I’m tired of this.”

“We don’t have to fight,” Sandra offered. “We can just move on forward. All of us, not just… us." She gestured at her own party. "This isn't right. No wonder the guy at the top is… miserable. It all makes sense now. I get it. I know what my wish is."

The air grew tense around her. A palpable sense that all could feel, though none could name. "You heard me! I know what to ask for."

Spike turned a finger on himself. "Not to be selfish or nothing, but it gets us home, right?"

"Well…" It would fix a lot of things, but would it also get them home…? "I won't do it without your permission. I got you all into this, with some help. I made my promises."

Garble grunted, flame licking between his teeth. "Enough hinting, get on with it. What's yer big idea?"

"I agree with my future warrior copy." The old-fashioned warrior rose to his feet, grabbing his axe from where it had been embedded in the ground. "Speak your idea, so we get can get on with it."

"Okay okay!" She thrust her hands placatingly. "The tower is important. We can't not have the tower, or the city becomes way more dangerous and people die. We don't want that, so that's out." She made a motion of tossing something over her shoulder. "But the tower isn't really the problem. The problem is not that it wants to hurt anyone involved, it just doesn't care. It doesn't think about about you, any of you." She waved at the old party. "You're just pieces of it, like… my finger. I don't ask my finger how it's doing today, it just is."

Tabitha scowled a moment, but it cleared, understanding replacing it. "Wait… You want… You want to make the tower care about them?"

"Anything smart enough to want to be cared about," agreed Sandra with a little smile. "And, once it does, I bet it'll stop being mean, which means… They get a life."

“Don’t you want anything from the top?” the wizard asked. “Don’t you have your own desires, your own need to change the world.”

“There are two things I need, one of which is personal, the other of which is…” Sandra stopped smiling, looking back at the dragons a moment, and grimaced. “Well I guess I’m not sure. That… crap…” She looked crestfallen, her brilliant plan drug down to reality, but shook her head. “I’ll figure it out. There isn’t just one way to word things, nor just one way to do it.”

“That’s the spirit, and you’ve got a whole floor left to figure it out,” The rogue said, flipping his knives. “My blades’re itchy, so I’m starting. Don’t get lost in thought, lass.” He tossed one of them directly at Sandra.

Tabitha leapt in front of it, the dagger clanging off of her shield, and the battle was begun.