The small inscribed metal tag grew warm in Eli's hand as they approached the collection of huts. This time, they came from the north—unexplored territory—whereas they had approached from the southwest before. Every single trap was still active. Thankfully, the tag worked, rendering every trap inactive within an area around Eli. The party clustered close to him, moving through the darkness without light sources. If Solomon saw any orbs of light, he would surely flee—and that could not be allowed to happen.

As their feet touched the grass, they moved with even more apprehension, the memory of the net trap still fresh in their minds. That trap, too, lay dormant, and they passed through the safety perimeter and into the middle of the houses. All four huts faced the center, and tools outside two of them suggested dedicated workshops.

“We need two people behind the houses in case they try to run,” Eli whispered. “Maybe Cruella and Simon.”

“We need everyone we can gather here,” Amy said quietly. “Don’t worry, I’ve got the back covered.”

With a silent command, Bill the Moose, a group of four wolves, a trio of birds, Princess the enormous bear, and a host of other animals appeared out of thin air, summoned from Amy’s stables.

“Can you control all of them at the same time?” Eli asked, his voice low but tinged with awe.

Amy smiled. “Once they’re my friends, yes. Taming them isn’t enough, though. You have to build a relationship with each one.” She patted a wolf’s head.

Suddenly, a loud blaring sound echoed from one of the huts, and glowing lights bathed the entire area. The female goblin appeared at the edge of the clearing, cupping her hands around her mouth to shout, “Intruders! Intruders!” She paused, caught sight of Eli, stuck out her tongue, then turned to run.

“Should I send a wolf after her?” Amy asked.

Eli shook his head. “What’s done is done. She’s a researcher, specialized in agriculture, not some evil maniac. Let her be.”

Amy nodded, and her animals fanned out, surrounding the houses. Four goblins of varying ages stepped out of one hut, while a single goblin exited the other. It was Solomon. He walked toward them with a casual ease, like he was out on a pleasant stroll.

“Eli and Amy, was it?” Solomon asked, glancing around at the members of the party.

Amy’s eyes narrowed. “Where’s Sasha?” she barked, skipping the niceties.

“Who?” Solomon replied, his goblin face showing honest confusion.

“The woman you took,” Eli said. “The one who stepped on one of your traps.”

Recognition flashed in Solomon’s small, yellowish eyes. “She is safe. What brings you here, Eli? I’m guessing it’s not just about her.”

“It’s not,” Eli confirmed, glancing at the rest of the goblins. They looked like any group roused from sleep: disoriented and wary, surrounded by people with hostile glares and wolves in clear view. They hadn’t yet spotted Priscilla or Bill. If they had, they might have fainted on the spot.

“You’ve manipulated us humans and your fellow goblins into attacking and destroying each other,” Eli said. “Why?”

Amy’s owl tilted its head toward Eli as if listening, just like the rest of the party. Solomon chuckled, then mockingly clapped a few times.

“So, you figured it out, did you? Well done, Eli. Not just the bumbling fool I met before.”

“No, still a bumbling fool,” Samantha muttered, butting in.

Eli gave her a look, then turned back to Solomon. “You killed your own kind and blamed us, ensuring they’d attack us. Then you warned us, so we’d be prepared—barely. A lot of humans and goblins are dead, and I want to know why.”

“I did not kill those scouts. I merely found them. As to why I made the choices I've made? Research,” Solomon said simply, gesturing to his fellow goblins. “My colleagues here have nothing to do with any of that. They joined me to further their research. They hold no blame in anything else.”

“How noble,” Cruella sneered. Everyone in the party had their weapons out, while the goblins stood unarmed, looking anxious and confused. Solomon’s words seemed to ring true. These goblins appeared unaware of their leader’s schemes.

“I want to know why,” Eli repeated firmly.

Solomon sighed. “It’s simple. I did it in the name of research. To fight against stagnation.”

“You’re going to have to be a lot clearer than that,” Simon said darkly. “Someone’s going to pay for putting me in a cage.”

Eli glanced at his friend, the Crusader, to ensure he wouldn’t act rashly. Then he asked, “Research into what? War? Battle?”

“Nothing so crude.” Solomon waved a hand dismissively. “This group, with me at its head, stands at the forefront of goblin research and knowledge. We each have our own specializations, but all our expertise shares one thing in common. It’s prohibited by the greater goblin council. Not just here, but everywhere.”

“Prohibited?” Eli asked.

“It means it’s not allowed.”

“I know what 'prohibited' means,” Eli snapped.

"Then don’t interrupt me, boy,” Solomon shot back. “The council is merely an extension of the goblins’ reluctance to embrace change in any form. Humans, on the other hand, accept the world as it is, but long for what it could be. My use of shaping, melding goblin ingenuity with latent mana is seen as obscene among my fellow goblins.” He gestured toward his goblin friends again. “We believe the way forward is to meld the mundane with the arcane, creating something new, something beautiful.”

“Hold on,” Eli interrupted. “Your entire city was powered by mana.”

Solomon snorted derisively. “Simple railcars and lights. They’ve had those for a thousand years, but dare not take another step forward.”

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“It wasn’t enough for me,” Solomon continued. “I ignored their warnings until they forced me out.”

“They kicked you out?” Eli asked.

“They might as well have.” Solomon’s eyes glinted with anger. “They forbade my research. My research is my life. They may as well have asked me to destroy myself. So, I left. Some of my fellow academics chose to join me. Our plan was to perfect our areas of study and defy all sense of goblin ‘propriety,’ and to share our vision with a larger human society.”

Eli frowned. “That’s all well and good, but it doesn’t explain why you manipulated goblins and humans into war. If anything, shouldn’t you have wanted to join us?”

Solomon shook his head. “You are not from here. I know not from where you have come, but we have observed you well enough and know you are foreign to this land. You change too quickly, grow stronger too easily. You are not regular humans. You are... unpredictable.”

"You want to change society while you're afraid of us growing and changing?" Eli asked, befuddled.

"Too many factors to predict."

“In time, we could have come to an understanding,” Eli argued.

“Perhaps,” Solomon allowed.

“You still haven’t answered the question,” Simon said, his tone dark. “I still haven’t heard a good reason for all this death.”

“What would you consider a good reason for all this death?” Solomon retorted bitterly. “Look around you. This place is no proper workshop. The ambient mana here is tainted with nature itself, making research arduous. We needed to return to our true homes and places of study, but the council would never allow it. So, I created a situation—where we would either find an empty settlement to rebuild properly or a council so weakened we could step in and take over.”

Simon took a step forward, his hand clenched around his sword. “Do you know how many are dead, you little green parasite?”

Solomon shrugged.

“The council wants you returned,” Eli interjected. “For trial, I imagine. If we've figured this all out by now, the council must've done the same.”

“I’m not going back,” Solomon said. “You are free to go, and you can deliver my message: every mana-powered device in the entire city will fail within the next year. None of those incompetent engineers will fix it. The cavern will become inhospitable—its air toxic without ventilation. Either the council steps down, or they’ll have to abandon the city.”

“I don't care about any of this!" Amy suddenly shouted. "Where is Sasha?!”

Solomon pursed his lips, giving her a long look before replying. “I needed a test subject. She’s safe in a separate place, but I cannot bring her back just yet.”

“But with the right conditions and more time,” Solomon continued, a glint in his eyes, “I would master travel beyond space. True, stable teleportation would be in my grasp..”

Eli frowned. “You made Sasha travel somewhere else, like with the trap?”

“Yes. The one you triggered must've been a dud, unfortunately, but that is what I'm working on. Conquering space itself."

“It wasn’t a dud,” Eli said. “I teleported somewhere else.”

Solomon’s eyes narrowed. “What do you mean?”

“I have a spell that lets me teleport,” Eli explained.

“Fish heads you do,” Solomon sneered.

“I’m not lying,” Eli said, stepping forward.

“Then prove it.” Solomon extended his hand, revealing a device in the palm of his hand. The same orange glow as before enveloped Eli, and the world around him fell in on itself. Eli once again found himself in a different place, but this one was unlike the village. It was a cube of light floating on an endless sea of darkness. The space was about the size of a room, or perhaps a cell—and he wasn’t the only person in it.

"Sasha?" he called softly.

A woman was sitting in the corner, her legs pulled up with her arms resting on her knees. Her head was tilted forward, hiding her face behind a veil of hair. She blinked, then slowly raised her head.

"Who are you?" she asked, her voice barely a whisper.

"I’m Eli," he replied gently. "I’ve come to bring you back to Amy."

She blinked away a tear, rubbing at her eye as she clumsily got to her feet. "Amy’s going to kill me for going off alone."

"Something tells me she won’t," Eli said, smiling as he extended a party invite to her, which she immediately accepted.

Together, they warped back to the clearing.

"Sasha!" Amy cried out, throwing her arms around the woman.

While the two hugged, Eli turned a sharp glare on Solomon. "You kept her in a little box?" he demanded. "Is that the enlightened future you want for the goblins?"

Solomon's eyes widened, and he licked his lips nervously. "You really can teleport. Long range magic teleportation is unheard of! This changes everything! You have to let me study you, Eli."

"Why was she in a cell?" Eli's voice was tight with anger.

"It's what happens if I don’t set a destination. I'm not quite sure why."

Solomon tugged at one of his long ears, looking flustered as he fell into his own thoughts. "This changes everything," he muttered again, almost to himself. "If we can bring them back—"

"So you knew you couldn’t bring her back?" Eli interrupted.

"I couldn't bring her back yet!" Solomon argued, raising his hands defensively. "If you help me, I’ll be able to bring them all back."

"Cruella?" Eli's voice was laced with barely restrained violence. "Maybe we should show the goblin what we're capable of?"

Solomon took a step back, looking wary. "Look," he said, his hands still raised, "I might have done some things a researcher shouldn’t be proud of, but my teleportation will revolutionize travel! And if everything goes according to plan, I’ll be able to offer housing for almost no cost at all. People could live in those rooms. I should know, I've spent plenty of time in one myself!"

Eli’s eyes narrowed. "Housing?"

Solomon’s face twitched with excitement. "A room just for you where time does not flow!"

"Why should I help you after everything you’ve done?" Eli continued, crossing his arms.

"To further goblinkind, of course," Solomon answered eagerly. "And humans, I suppose. Maybe even the elves."

"Elves?" Cruella asked, her interest piqued.

"Probably not the elves," Solomon admitted, shaking his head. "They don’t trust anyone. But there are others who would benefit—many others! Think about it. You could travel from city to city in an instant, without risk. You could have houses built in the endlessness of space! The possibilities rise above the puny cost of a few lives!"

"Not if we put you in a cell back in the goblin city," Eli retorted coldly.

"If you do that," Solomon replied smugly, "the goblins will have to vacate the city soon. Like I said, they need me more than I need them. Why do you think they actually sent you after me?"

Eli was about to respond when Solomon raised a finger. "How about we sweeten the deal? We help each other," he suggested. "You convince the council to take us all back and allow us to continue our research—all of us—and you’ll help me with said research."

"I'm not tasting anything sweet in those words," Eli said, eyeing him suspiciously.

Solomon chuckled. "Perhaps sour would be a more apt description. If you don't help, I’ll scatter everyone in your wizard tower to the winds."

"What are you talking about?" Samantha asked, frowning.

"You all like to stick together," Solomon said, his voice oozing satisfaction. "I took the liberty of rigging your tower, just in case. With the press of a button, you’d all be sent to different locations all throughout the world."

"He's bluffing," Cruella said, her voice hard. "Eli, we should kill him."

"Am I?" Solomon taunted, a gleam in his eye. He removed something from his coat pocket, squeezed it, and a shimmer ran across the entirety of his body. When it disappeared, he suddenly stood almost five feet tall and looked human. "Humans, like I assumed, have a knack of ignoring each other in a crowd." Even his voice sounded human, without that rasp Eli had come to associate with goblinkind. The shimmer came back and a second later, he'd returned to his old self.

"The bastard is a shapeshifter!" Cruella shouted.

Solomon shook his head slowly, looking at Cruella like she was a child. "So simple minded. It's just an illusion. Crude, yes, but it's all that's necessary when dealing with you people."

"I still say we kill him," Cruella said under her breath but still loud enough for everyone to hear.

"If my heart stops beating, your friends will be gone in a matter of seconds. The beauty of mana sensors, you see."

Eli's first instinct had been to use Light's Seal to keep Solomon from doing anything at all, because Silence probably wouldn't help. His mention of whatever device he'd concocted going off if he died, though, made Eli reconsider. That sort of solution would not work in the long term. Instead, he glared down at Solomon for a long moment before finally relenting. "I'll be back soon, Solomon. Don’t think this is over."

With those words, he cast Warp and brought the entire party to the entrance of the Temple of Rizari.