Retreating to my stand, I impatiently recover some mana and then skip through the rest of the night with Attunements. This time I do four at a time to make use of that 10% discount. The 8 mana it would typically take gets rounded down to 7, and it reduces my Attunement time from 8 hours to a little over seven hours as well. Hey, I’ll take it.

The next morning, there’s a certain skip in Trenevalt’s step—or stumble—and his eyes are bright and smiling. I am immediately filled with grave suspicion.

He sets his breakfast at his desk (come on, why even have a kitchen table?) and taps me happily. “Today’s the day, I think.”

That can’t be good.

He rubs his fingers together thoughtfully. “It would have taken longer to build a second shell for our little escape artist friend, but given the circumstances I suspect they would not make for a very reliable homunculus. There should be enough spark here for you, at least.”

Oh, shit, he’s talking about the homunculus shell. I quickly Check his stats.

[Name: Trenevalt]

[Species: Halfling]

[Class: Null Summoner]

[Level: 40]

[HP: 20/50]

[Mana: 750/800]

Shit! How had he gotten so much mana back? Last I checked it had still barely recovered. Is there some way to recover mana faster than the passive one point every ten minutes I’ve been limited to?

[Affirmative,] Echo says. [There are a variety of spells, skills, and items which allow for the recovery of mana, at the cost of time, HP, Strength, or—]

Okay, okay, I get it! He did something to recover mana. I just wasn’t expecting it to happen so fast. I thought I had more time to break down the communication barrier—learn flag signs, or get Noli to write something, or—I don’t know, anything. But it’s too late for all of that. Which means now I need to act, or get the fuck out of here.

I guess there’s no point in hiding my glass abilities anymore. I’d rather not be labeled a “Defect” like Noli and be returned Between, but if being seen as a defect means he’s no longer interested in bonding me to that shell, then it’s worth the risk. I summon four pieces of Attuned glass and hold my figurative breath.

And Trenevalt… doesn’t even notice. He’s happily chewing a mouthful of eggs and ham. I wave my tiny limbs up at him. Light skips over the room, reflected off my wiggling glass, but he doesn’t react. Alright, that’s how it’s gunna be, huh?

I angle the glass, turning the pieces slowly so light scatters across Trenevalt’s face like a disco ball. He squints and blinks, turning his head to the side with a grunt. He holds a hand up against the sunny assault, frowning as his eyes dart around for the source—and finally find me.

I wave.

“You…?” Confusion fills his voice. “What in Lorata’s Light…”

Now that I have his attention, a ghost of stage fright passes through me. The last time performing made me nervous was in high school, but my continued existence had never hinged on those thespian acts.

I sign a rough greeting Noli had shown me. “Hello! I am small.” Crap, I have to know something more useful than that. “You are a wizard. I clean.” Er. I scramble to remember any other signs Noli had taught me. “Cat?”

Goddammit, Noli.

But Trenevalt seems more interested in my shards of glass than what they’re saying. He reaches a gentle finger out to tap one of my limbs. “What’s this? How are you moving them?”

“Magic!” There, that one at least is sensible. Again, however, he doesn’t seem to understand. Maybe it was too much to expect other people to understand sign language like Noli. After all, he hadn’t listened to her the first day, either.

His frown deepens and his look becomes dark. “Most irregular. Most irregular indeed. I must not have executed the spell properly. But what side effects…”

He plucks me between two fingers before I can react, lifting me into the air. I mentally tense, keeping my glass close; if they fall out of range at this height, I don’t trust them not to shatter.

Trenevalt swishes me from side to side, sloshing the ink around inside me as my little glass limbs float after like the arms of a jellyfish. It’s a little nauseating (not to mention demeaning), and I’m about ready to vanish my glass back into my inventory when Trenevalt stops.

“Curious. Never seen anything like this before,” he muses. “Yet clearly my intent was imbued into the vessel as desired. You do understand your purpose is to assist me around the house?”

“Yes,” I sign, lacking the proper swear words to articulate my full response.

But even that simple sign seems to fall on deaf ears. Or eyes, as the case may be. He watches my glass move without any indication of recognition, then sets me back down on the stand.

“You appear responsive at any rate. Quite the conundrum, quite the conundrum… Perhaps binding you to the shell will smooth out these irregularities, wherever they might have come from. I shall need to consult my texts.” With a grunt, Trenevalt pushes himself to his feet. Glancing back to shake a scolding finger at me, he adds, “Don’t go anywhere, now.”

God damn it that’s going to be another—

[Command received,] Echo says.

Yeah, yeah, I know. Shit, I shouldn’t have let that happen. Maybe playing dumb would have been the better move. I half-heartedly give a little testing wiggle, and static bursts into my mind.

[Sanity Level: 90%]

It’s painful, blinding, and leaves a ringing in my hearing that lingers even after I flinch back into motionlessness. Fuck. That was a lot more stark than the cleaning Command. Maybe because this one is more clear-cut, whereas the cleaning had been open to interpretation. I don’t know how the magic works. But I’m not tempted to move again.

Which is a problem, since I need to get out of here.

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

My attention is drawn back to the homunculus shell sitting as quiet as ever in the corner of the office. Like a predator, waiting, patient and still. A chill creeps through me. I thought I had more time. I should have come up with some kind of plan, even if it’s just to take my chances out in the wild. But now I’m well and truly helpless. A sitting duck. And Trenevalt talking about binding me to that thing “Smoothing out the irregularities” is exactly what I’ve been worried about.

A tiny thumping and scraping of metal on wood announces the approach of a familiar form. Noli climbs from the floor, to the chair, to the desk, in now-practiced motions. Seems like she’s starting to get the hang of her body, just as I am.

Though it might not be for much longer.

“Hey,” she signs, this time with a more curious than bubbly tone in her movements. “I just saw the wizard head out to his workshop. Is something up?”

Hesitantly, I nudge one of my glass limbs just a hair—I suppose since I’m not trying to leave, the Command deems this movement acceptable. Relieved, I point it toward the homunculus shell. Noli follows the gesture.

“That thing? He’s going to put you in that?”

“Yes,” I sign.

“Soon?”

“Yes.”

“Then it’s time we bust out of here.”

Wouldn’t that be lovely. “No.”

Noli pauses. “No, you don’t want to? Or no, you can’t?”

I hold up two pieces of glass.

“It’s the curse again?” She doesn’t have to wait for me to confirm. “That puts us in a tight spot, then, doesn’t it?”

One of us, anyway. She can still run. She doesn’t have to stick around on my account.

Though I don’t want her to go.

“Not to worry,” Noli signs, some amount of her chipper demeanor returning to her words. “I can carry you. I’ve gotten a lot better with these legs, promise!”

She wraps a couple of her tentacles around me—much gentler than the first time—and tries to lift me from the stand. Immediately I know it’s wrong. My Sanity Level plummets as the Command rears up like a physical force, crushing into my mind, jolting pain through every atom of my being. I lash out, blindly, desperately, flailing from pure, self-preserving instinct—

“Ah!”

[2 points of Slashing damage dealt.]

[Sanity Level: 70%]

Noli flinches back, dropping me back into my stand as she cradles a limb. Just as suddenly, the Command pressure recedes from my mind, as if it had never been there at all. I snap my glass away from Noli, horrified.

I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to. I didn’t want to hurt her.

“I’ll take that as a no,” Noli jokes, but there’s hurt in her tone.

I wish I could tell her it was an accident. I sadly let my limbs sag.

“It’s alright,” Noli assures me, even though she’s the one who’s hurt. “The curse again?”

I sign a melancholic, “Yes.”

“Message received.” She examines a limb. There’s a scratch carved into the surface, but it doesn’t appear to have cut through the brass shell. “Just surprised me, is all.”

Some of that might just be her trying to reassure me, but I’m relieved to see I didn’t do any lasting damage. I guess I’m still just a Level 2 glass bottle at the end of the day. Even if I tried, I can’t be capable of too much damage.

Trenevalt’s footsteps thrum through the floorboards as he reaches the steps just outside the front door. Seems like our time is up. Noli looks at the door, then looks at me.

“We’re small,” I sign. I don’t know what she’s thinking, but there’s nothing we can do. Certainly nothing against someone as powerful as Trenevalt. Even without his magic, we wouldn’t be a match.

“Don’t give up, yet,” Noli signs.

But I can hear the front door open, and fear flutters through me. I aim a shoo-ing motion at Noli, trying to get her to leave. But still, she hesitates.

Trenevalt rounds the corner, half a dozen old leather books loaded in his arms. The tomes are thick and their covers cracked, yellow pages sticking haphazardly out of the bindings which in turn are only kept from bursting open by leather straps. Too preoccupied with his texts, he doesn’t even notice Noli as he drops the heavy stack of books onto his desk.

He removes one from the pile and sets it out, pushing the others to the side and nearly shoving Noli off the edge in the process. Flipping the book open, he leafs through the pages until he finds the one he’s looking for.

It’s hard to make out specifics from my angle, given the text is nearly level with me, but the contents of the page are obvious enough without any arcane knowledge: It’s a series of symbols and round shapes woven together in an ornate pattern. A spell circle, if I were a betting man.

Trenevalt traces his finger over the page, mumbling to himself. From my vantage point, I can see Noli edging her way around the stack of books. I try to wave her off, but this only draws Trenevalt’s attention.

“I’ll be getting to you, not to worry,” he says, which is exactly what I’m worried about. “Just looking for any flaws in my work… So strange, nothing as of yet. But I… forget myself, sometimes. Make simple mistakes. I should think you’re the last homunculus I’ll be able to manage. After this…” He trails off, flipping the pages once more.

Noli peeks around the stack of books, god knows what’s on her mind. But before she can make a move, Trenevalt snaps his book shut, places it back on the stack, and pulls another from the middle of the pile to peruse. As the heap of books collapses back down, one of Noli’s limbs gets caught in the gap. She tugs, but her arm is stuck firmly between two of the tomes.

“Nothing wrong with the circles,” he concludes. “Or if there was, it eludes me. That leaves two options: the forging of the core, or the collection spell.”

Something tells me it was the collection spell.

“I don’t mean to brag, but I’m fairly confident in my artisan skills.” Trenevalt smiles fondly as he settles on a page with a tiny scrawl of dense text. “I once fancied myself a toymaker, you know. However, the collection spell… Hm. I can’t see how that would go wrong. But perhaps if it was not tuned to the correct plane… Or it collected too much, or not enough…”

Yeah, one of those things sounds about right. Maybe Trenevalt’s getting somewhere after all. Maybe we just need to let him lead himself to the right conclusion. Damn, if this was all it took, should we have clued him in from the start? Have I spent the last two days running around doing chores and nearly dying for no reason?

He taps the page, spending a while on whatever line he’s found. “Perhaps that’s the answer. Yes…. Yes, I suppose it’s the best option to try.”

Trenevalt hobbles over to the corner, and I go cold when I see what he’s reaching for. Trenevalt hooks his arms around the homunculus shell’s shoulders, grunting from the effort. He drags the glass doll around the front of the desk.

Shit. He’s going to do it now. He’s gunna stick me in that thing. And there’s nothing I can do to stop him. Panic crawls up my limbs like a swell of static.

Trenevalt lays the body out on the floor, marking squiggling patterns of chalk around its head, hands, feet, and chest. I watch with a sort of detached horror.

Noli redoubles her efforts to escape the pile of books, and something about that movement breaks my spell of dread. I might not be able to do anything, but maybe Noli can, if she can just get free. Shaking away my panic, I focus on shooting two pieces of glass toward the books. If I can wedge them between the stack, maybe it’ll be enough for Noli to squeeze out.

[Range limit,] Echo warns, but I can’t worry about that now. I push them further away, feel my grasp on them slip—

The limbs fall to the table with a tiny clink as one cracks in half.

I wince at a phantom pain.

[1 point of Fall damage sustained.]

Trenevalt stands up, dusting off his hands. He sets the piece of chalk down on the desk, then reaches for me.

No, no, no, not yet! I throw a third piece of glass Noli’s way, keeping it low above the table, firing it off as fast as I can push it—

[Range limit.]

The glass slips from my hold and falls the hairsbreadth to the table, this time unbroken, and continues to roll toward Noli. She stops it with a limb.

There! Come on, you can do it! She wraps a tentacle around it, lifting the glass up to the books—

Noli disappears from view as Trenevalt’s hand closes over me.

[Command nullified.]

I can feel the liquid inside me pushed to one side as I’m swung up into the air. I come to a stop suspended before the wizard’s face.

“Ready?” he asks me. “I’m sure by now you’re eager for an upgrade, hm?”

Not if it means losing my autonomy I’m not! I try to catch a glimpse of Noli, but Trenevalt is turned away. Shit, what can I do, what can I do? Attunement—no. Sculpt—no. My last piece of signing glass? I can stab it into his hand and get him to drop me. The Role Requirement is no longer keeping me stuck in one place. Maybe I can make a break for it. But will I survive the fall?

No. Not even with my Fall Damage Resistance. Not from this height.

Trenevalt leans down and sets me on the homunculus shell, slotting me into the dip in its chest. I desperately wobble from side to side, but it’s too steep to roll out. Panic wells up in me as Trenevalt closes his eyes and begins to mumble words laced with magic. The symbols on the floor around me turn purple. There’s a crackle in the air.

There’s a crackle around me.

There’s no time left to think. I do the only option that’s left to me.

Echo, I call. Add the homunculus shell to my inventory!

[Affirmative,] Echo says. [Adding item to inv—]

And that’s when the world splits open.