“What is the inscription?” Jeweler asked.

“It’s a map…” Grandmother started to say, but she stopped. She turned to look at the inscription as she spoke. Instead of the decrypted version of a map, she saw thousands of tiny, multicolored symbols written in the Egyptian font incised into the stone of the free standing wall. The wall was set in a shallow pond. Copper, silver and gold fish swam through the water. “It's changed,” Grandmother observed.

“Has it?” Todd asked from where he was adjusting his load for the run. They all just arrived in the north gallery and were getting ready for the long run out to the entrance. As everyone adjusted straps and loads, Jeweler was inspecting the gallery. This seemed perfectly natural for someone on their first visit, so Grandmother forced herself to ignore it.

“Yes,” Grandmother observed. “We didn’t come this way last season, because of the carts. It could have changed anytime in the last year.” Grandmother wanted to just ignore it and keep on with their current plan.

“Didn’t we come through here when we got the books for Enchanter?” Todd questioned. “That was about half way through the last season.”

“Yes, we inspected it really close on the way back,” Grandmother remembered. The problem with ignoring it was the first inscription translated to a map that led Grandmother to Home Square. She took a nap before translating it. She barely made it back to Home Square before the Migration hit. She always wondered if she skipped the nap would less people have died? With a sigh, Grandmother leaned her staff against the sofa and swung her pack off her back and set it on the floor. “I’d better decrypt it before we go,” she announced to the group.

She sat down on the sofa in the central furniture group. She transformed its tan fabric into a tapestry of fish swimming years ago. Ever since she reached tier six, furniture transformed when she sat on it. She didn’t like how it made her feel, so she tried to only sit on things she already changed.

Everyone stopped tightening straps and started loosening them. Companion laid down half in the end of the central pond, frightening all the fish away. Within moments he gave every indication that he was asleep, defiant of the fact that even the short hop from Home Square in the transportation system left them all feeling wide awake.

Jeweler continued his tour of the gallery, asking Ellen questions. Some of these questions were about her apprenticeship, while others were about the gallery. Todd noticed how the not-selkie wove the two types together. Sarah settled on the floor. She pulled out a stylus and notebook and began to write. Alex sat at the end chair of the furniture cluster and started trying to convince Sarah to redraw his instruction booklets.

Todd wasn’t certain what to do with himself. Usually in situations like this, he cooked. The transportation system also left you feeling full. Todd doubted anyone would even want a cup of tea for hours. He took off his pack and sat down on the edge of a chair, so his large Speedwell knife didn’t catch on it. He spun his spear in his hands and tried to think of something to work on.

“Is that the ring spell encoded in those fish,” Jeweler asked Ellen. He’d spotted the spell encodings on the sofa right before Grandmother sat on them. The two of them were approaching the rest of the group.

“Ring of Death, yes,” Ellen responded to her master crafter.

“What is the spell on the third fish?” he asked.

“Ring shield,” Ellen responded. “It protects you from a ring of death cast. It is only tier three. If a tier three casts it, the spell protects the caster. Cast by a tier four it affects everyone within a three foot radius. So if a group stands close together a single cast will protect an entire group. What is really interesting is that it lasts a really long time. Grandmother casts it on Home Square about once a season and the protection lasts until the next season.”

“How does she do that?” Jeweler asked, “Does everyone in the square stand close together?” He was trying hard to hide his astonishment at this discovery. Ring of death was the bane of his people's existence. Entire squares were killed by it in sneak attacks. The only thing that limited its use was that the rebound destroyed the protection crystal in the caster’s home square. Many attempts were made to try to redirect the rebound to a square the caster didn’t care about, or actively wanted to destroy, but Oversight always seemed to know which square was the caster’s home.

“Oh no, at tier six a single cast of ring shield affects a radius larger than the square, although we think the built-in square shields limit it to just the square. We did a little testing of that, but decided it didn’t really matter and let it drop,” Ellen responded.

“Sarah,” Ellen said, turning to look at her sister. “Did you ever get the butcher to demonstrate her nimble spell?”

“Yeah,” Sarah said, sitting up from her work. “It wasn’t a sixth tree spell, it was a second tree. But,” Sarah paused dramatically, “it has a six in it.”

“Really?” Ellen quizzed. “How does she cast it?”

“She uses her foot for six,” Sarah explained.

“How?” Alex asked.

“Well…” Sarah trailed off, gathering her thoughts. “She is casting the spell on herself, but she does that like how we cast utility spells on non-integrated items. Think of how we cast fire on a stick. We tap our fingers one at a time, then tap our palm and that is the start symbol. The end symbol is to tap all our fingers at once. Tiny taps her off foot, then she uses her off-hand to tap our start symbol on her knee. She taps out the rest of the spell on her knee, but when she gets to the six value she taps her foot again, then all her fingers. Her end symbol is all her fingers together with her foot.” Everyone thought about that one for a moment.

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“I guess I can see how that could work,” Ellen said skeptically.

“Well it works for her,” Sarah said. “I’ve been too busy to try to learn the spell myself. The spell is actually really neat. You know how when you imbue a weapon with any element, the fighter's skill improves? Like the weapon is actually controlling the direction of its movement? Nimble gives you that improved aim without the elemental power. It lasts longer too. Tiny uses it to control her blade when she is cutting through joints or making very thin slices, without having to worry about ice or fire damaging the meat. Todd, you should learn it to increase your speed at cutting tubers.”

“Maybe I should,” Todd agreed. Sarah pulled her pack closer to her and dug through it. She pulled out a magic book and tossed it to Todd.

“Here,” she said. “Give me the book back when you learn it. I want to add it to the library in the rest.” Todd caught the book and read the title. It read, Spells used in Butchering. Todd picked up his pack and headed to the food prep area. He had a bag of tubers with him for the trip. Working on learning this spell would at least pass the time. Alex got up and followed him.

“Accuracy seems like a good combat spell to me,” he commented when Todd looked back at him. “Maybe I can cast it on myself using song.”

Todd agreed that it was worth a try.

It took Grandmother three hours to decrypt the inscription. She was quite proud of herself at that short time. The inscription was another map. The section on the wall showed a very sparse arrangement of halls that were strangely crooked. The halls in the structure were usually straight with ninety degree turns. Six different levels were shown using different colors. The crooked halls snaked up and down through the levels in an almost random pattern. There were vertical shafts that dropped from above and continued below the section given. At first she thought they were stairs, but there was something about how they were drawn that made her doubt that. None of the shafts intersected the halls.

Near the center of the map was a large room. It appeared to be full of some kind of equipment, indicated by vague blurs. That was it, one room. It wasn’t even connected to the halls or the shafts.

Grandmother closed down her interface and opened her map. An inscription like this would add the area to her own map. She scanned through her map looking for the new section. In her near fifty years in the structure she uncovered a lot of it. It took a while to find the new part. It was in the far south, deep below the south gallery. Looking at the location made Grandmother realize why the halls were so oddly shaped, they were tunnels or caves. This was a map of the underground.

She closed her map and blinked herself to full alertness, wondering where everyone was. Even Companion was missing from the pool. She vaguely remembered Todd telling her they were making a run to the nearby green. She also vaguely remembered Todd reporting that they were back. Grandmother rose to her feet with the unnatural grace of a tier six. She really wanted to stretch to get the kinks out of her neck and back, only there were no kinks. Her nanobots would never allow them to develop. She stretched anyway, remembering how sitting still for so long would have left her virtually crippled when she was young.

Laughter mixed with shouts of encouragement were coming from the food preparation area. She walked over and looked into the door. Some kind of contest appeared to be going on. The entire room was littered with apple peels, all very thinly and expertly removed from the fruit. Grandmother arrived just as Ellen appeared to be facing off against Todd. Sarah called go. Both contestants tapped out a spell on their leg and stamped their foot. With the spell cast the knife in their other hand flew forward to start peeling an apple. The first peeled apple was tossed aside to be replaced by another, and another. Eventually the spell faded and the contestants stopped.

“Four!” Ellen said proudly.

“Four and a half,” Todd countered.

“It's just not right,” Ellen pretended to pout.

“I should have some advantage, considering how many I’ve peeled for real,” Todd responded.

“May I ask what is going on?” Grandmother politely from the doorway. Everyone in the room froze into a tableau of naughty children, even Jeweler who along with Alex and Companion made up the cheering section.

“It's Tiny’s nimble spell,” Sarah said in explanation.

“Tiny? You mean Tina, the butcher? What is all the foot stamping for?” Grandmother asked.

“That is how she indicates the six symbol,” Alex explained. “Companion and I can sing it too.” Grandmother noted that Jeweler wasn’t included in that group. Did the not-selkie already know this spell and didn’t want the other to realize it?

Grandmother ran her hands down her leathers, straightening them. She stepped forward into the room.

“I guess I’d better learn it too, so I can compete,” Grandmother commented. The tension left the room.

Grandmother could peel five apples before the spell faded from Todd. The spell lasted much longer on her and she could peel even more if she kept going. She didn’t because they were running out of apples. Grandmother consoled Todd by telling him she’d peeled a lot of apples for real too.

The day was half over by then. Todd put together a meal for them that was heavy on apples. Companion was vocal about his dislike of them, but managed to eat them all the same. Grandmother mentioned that Earth apples were commonly fermented into cider. Todd wondered if that would qualify as another brew for the six beer flavors he was working toward. Jeweler ate the meal without comment.

“What is the inscription?” Todd asked as they were finishing up.

“It’s a map of a location underground below the industrial area,” Grandmother explained. “I’ll try transferring the solution to you before we go,” she said. “I don’t think it could be too time dependent, so after we finish eating I want to push on to the Speedwell.”

As everyone packed up after the meal, Grandmother tried to transfer the inscription solution to Todd. The transfer failed. It appeared that for this one tier four was too low. Grandmother offered to transfer it to Jeweler, but the not-selkie declined after he watched Grandmother hold Todd’s hand for the first attempt. Grandmother realized the not-selkie avoided contact. Remembering the odd way his selkie face contorted to sip from the teacup, she thought contact might distort his disguise.

Of course he was still pretending to be only tier four. Perhaps he just didn’t want to blow his cover among the other members of the party.

She also noticed that Jeweler did not touch the crystal. In this gallery you had to stand in the pool and get wet to touch it. Masquerading as a selkie and living in Seagrass his disguise had to stand up to water, so that wasn’t the reason. The rest of them all waded in to give the crystal a pat. It was part of their routine to try to keep travel costs down.

Grandmother thought she should take the time to open up this gallery's interface and look it over, but they’d lost so much time already, she decided to do it on the return trip. She hadn’t managed to check the square’s crystal either with all the activity of Challenge day.

“We’ll do a slow start,” Grandmother commented as they all moved in the direction of the gallery’s far doors. “And let Jeweler adjust to the pace.”

“Yes, Grandmother,” came the calls of agreement from the group. Alex stepped off at a slow trot, Ellen right behind. Jeweler followed her with a slightly too wide gap, Grandmother ran close behind him, pushing him forward with her presence to close up with Ellen. Companion, Sarah and Todd brought up the rear.

When Jeweler closed the gap, Alex stepped up the speed.