Clare opened her eyes.
Listened.
Astrid was fishing Diplurans, so there wasn’t any music. Puck was harassing Duchess, with Achilles of all people, but she was giving as good as she got so Clare wasn’t worried.
There was someone missing.
The slimes—and specters, she noted—were at the jungle gym, discussing philosophy. Arachne and Atalanta were hanging out with Van Gogh as he fixed the statue-base. Snake-worms snapped at the trio lazily but weren’t hard to avoid.
Clare swallowed, anxiety building. There was no clicking of claws within the mind-space. No thoughtful humming or irritated muttering at the System.
Kepler hadn’t returned.
She sat up. Checked the System-proved clock. It had been 10 hours since the incident.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
Astrid noticed her stirring, and let the diplurans be for the moment. They began singing ‘The Lion Sleeps Tonight.’
[Mum?] Their adorable water-giant looked towards the core. [Are you awake?]
Yeah.
Astrid shifted from foot to foot. [Where’s dad?]
I… Clare tried to gather her thoughts. She couldn’t feel Kepler’s conscious self anywhere in the core, not even formless in their joint subconscious. He went out for a bit. He’ll be back.
[What do you mean ‘out’?] Astrid frowned. [Dad can leave the core?]
Clare forced down a swear word—she hadn’t counted on Astrid being able to feel Kepler’s conscious presence. Had meant to suggest Kepler was in the subconscious by omission.
His conscious self is out, that’s all. He’s still here in the core, so he’ll be back.
Astrid scowled at the floor, mouth pincers showing. [Yeah, okay.]
Her creator tried to find something to say.
[That stupid old man better come back.] Astrid said, before Clare could respond, and dove into the moat. Snake-worms attacked her, but she beat them down with unusual enthusiasm before disappearing into the water tunnels.
Clare put her head in her hands. Crap… She wanted to use stronger language but didn’t want to teach anyone new vocabulary on accident.
Then she froze.
Dropped a word she shouldn’t have.
At the entrance of her territory, there was a trio of footsteps. They had delvers.