"So you're saying you can control your scryer by mere thought?" Scaff took a step back with fear in jur's eyes and almost knocked over one of the parked spinnerbikes. We were assembled in a small grassy clearing among the small white-barked trees. A dry creek bed led in and out of the clearing. The trees were thick enough in all directions that we could not see far, even with the bright magelights piercing through the thick darkness.

I immediately knew that telling the team had been a mistake. Skids had taken it well enough, but the others wouldn't give me a chance to explain properly before jumping to conclusions. "Uh, it's not... I mean yes but not exactly... You have to understand..." The parts of my brain that should have been helping me form an effective explanation was preoccupied with cursing myself for being unable to form an effective explanation, or else they were busy noticing what my brain was doing instead of doing anything useful, like forming an effective explantion.

"Sometimes, but it's very difficult," Skids said, jumping to my rescue.

I made a weak smile, which grew stronger as I felt some of my tension release. "I need to be under stress to do it, and it's not as simple as merely controlling my scryer. It's almost like there's a scryer in my brain," I explained. "But not really!" I quickly added.

"Was that meant to reassure us?" Punnt asked, looking like dro was about to do something decisive. I glanced at the ground and spotted several rocks within easy kicking distance of dro's booted foot. "If you can only do it when you're stressed, that makes it more likely to go wildly out of control and damage something.

"She managed just fine in the Rainbow Rage match," Skids said defensively, which helped me relax again after Punnt had made me worry again. "Yeah she did go a little out of control in the Wonambi championship match but that actually increased my safety. She's not gonna instinctively hurt any of her team, got it?"

The feeling of a warm smile lit me up from within. Even though the 'he' designation for hexmages was unrelated to maleness, I hadn't realised how uncomfortable it had felt until being called 'she' again. It was like a component of some complex mechanism had clicked back into place and was running smoothly, when I'd been so used to some strain and squeaking that it had become normal.

"What's all this 'she' business?" Swipe asked, sounding perplexed. She was rarely perplexed, in my experience. "Is Drift a seer now?"

"Drift was originally—" Broth began, but Skids hushed rarm.

"Charity is using Pure language for herself. That's what she's most comfortable with as we go to meet the Titans, got it?" Sa's tone allowed no room for argument.

The smile within me grew stronger. It was great to see Skids standing up for me and to hear sarm call me my name in front of everyone else. While I had to admit that I'd chosen the name Drift, it was founded on a personal flaw that often caused me trouble. Nandy and Wunno were among the extremely few hexmages who'd ever said that name with respect.

"If we could get back to the topic at hand," Swipe cut in. "What do we need to know about this supposed 'brain scryer'? And what evidence do you have to support this hypothesis and how certain are you about what you think you know?"

"And when did this start?" Punnt added, dro's voice straining aggressively.

I became equally defensive. "There's nothing you need to know. With a lot of effort I can control my scryer without using my hand, and at a greater distance. That's about it. I expect I should be able to get information back from it, but I haven't figure that out yet. Also, I've been unusually good at remembering facts, for years. I think that's connected. Skids, can you explain what we discussed about the evidence?" I didn't want to repeat any of it myself.

Skids stood up straighter and cleared sa's throat. "Right, the evidence. Not long after I first met Charity, I detonated an ABAM to force open a locked metal door and disable some guards so I could retrieve my belongings. Charity was not far from the aethermagical blast and fell unconscious. She says her senses were overloaded and her memory wasn't as perfect for some minutes after. I later used an ABAM to free her from... well the details aren't important, but she was waking up from an unexpected nap when I found her. And she reports seeing or sensing a lot of symbols, plus she had some memory trouble for a while after."

Everyone was listening intently, even Scaff who was trying to look disinterested. Skids was telling it in such an engaging way that even I found my own story fascinating.

"The third time was after she used an ABAM herself to knock out the last demons attacking her city. She doesn't remember the train crash, or anything after the moment of detonation. She says she thinks there was something especially strange about the dream she had before waking up three days later, but she doesn't know how exactly. What she does know is that the 'voice in her head' reminding her of the Pure laws was gone after that, and hasn't returned. What she did have was the homing beeper feature of our riding helmets, even though she wasn't wearing her helmet. That stopped after she was brought near to me and our gear. When we were close to being executed, she heard her parents talking from across a massive room. She actively and intensely wanted to hear what they were saying, and they were close by my scryer. She could only hear them while the magic-blocking cage containing the scryer was open."

"Parents?" Swipe asked the question, but some of the others looked equally confused.

"Not important," Skids said. "What is important is that nothing else like that happened until the chroma armour safety incident."

"You missed the tanning incident," I quickly interjected. "That was when I was working on my big hex for quickly making a hex out of a technical description of what the hex should do, because the process is slow, tedious and completely predictable. I had a technical description of what the most rudimentary version of that hex should do, but... well, the process of actually making it was slow, tedious and completely predictable. I dozed off during a tanning session while thinking about that, and when I woke up the work was complete."

"Thanks," Skids said. "I never could have explained that part properly."

"Strange," Swipe said, and the others agreed with nods and glances. "But our break time is over, so we'd better get back underway. If we need to keep discussing this we can do it over ventril."

"We've told you what we know," I said. "All we have left to discuss is speculation and worries about what might happen. It's my head we're talking about, so no amount of discussion is going to make me be any more careful than I already am."

"Charity hasn't hurt anyone or damaged anything yet, and that doesn't look likely to change. She's not going to do any experimentation outside of a controlled environment, unless we're already in enough danger that she can't make it much worse. Does that seem reasonable to you?"

"It'll do," Swipe said, but she looked to the others for thall's input.

"Fair enough," Broth said, looking up from ensuring everything was securely stowed in ra's bike. We'd unpacked a light meal of food bars and bottled juice to refresh ourselves. Leaving packaging material behind would be wasteful and might attract demons.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Punnt and Scaff exchanged meaningful looks and some slight hand motions. I held my breath until both agreed on casual shrugs. "Whatever's going on, I don't like it. But you've got an alright head on your shoulders," Punnt said, sounding as gruff as a dropbeast looked.

"That means we're trusting you not to kick the situation down a mineshaft," Scaff explained.

"Got it," I said as I climbed on our spinner-bike behind Skids. I locked my wooden arm back around sa's middle and braced for acceleration.

We were leading this leg, which meant Skids had to give the utmost attention to the way ahead. I held my tongue until we came to a long straight uphill slope. "I think that went well."

"Yeah, could have gone worse and wasn't likely to go better," Skids replied through the ventril. Even though sa was as close to me as two people could be, sa's voice sounded distant and artificial in my helmet. Sa's actual speaking voice was drowned out by the whine of the aetherspinner. "Not sure if thall understand everything but explaining everything in detail would take all night and probably wouldn't help. Good thing Swipe cut it off before the discussion got bogged down with pointless circular arguments and worries about what you might do."

"I'm worried enough already," I agreed.

"Right, though I really doubt being worried about what damage you might cause is going to actually cause that."

I shrugged, knowing Skids could feel the gesture in the movement of my arms, both flesh and wooden. "Best not to find out. And speaking of finding out, I still haven't seen your tattoo."

"Next break," Skids promised. "No more chatter, this next bit looks rather technical."

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We made our second stop after leaving the hilly region behind. A winding river was mere minutes to the north of our route, so we took a slight detour to sit by the water as we rested and ate. Picnicking in the dark seemed pointless to me, but I chose not to argue the point.

Each spinnerbike carried the food for two of us in case we were separated, so Skids and I started preparation immediately. Punnt and Scaff were close behind us, while Swipe and Broth had lagged behind by over a minute. Sticking close together didn't matter so much on open, flat territory. There was no way to lose sight of the cone of brilliant magelight extending in front of each vehicle, and red tail lights marked the back of each just to be sure there were no accidental collisions.

Our meal was a mixture of fish and cheese wrapped in pastry. These would have been quite unpleasant to eat cold, but a portable heater powered by our bike's aetherbottle took care of that problem.

"Sorry we fell behind. Broth wanted to look at a plant," Swipe said as she pointed she's bike at our backs and rested it on the kickstand. A new set of shadows extended our in front of us, and I knew not to look around or I would be dazzled by the light.

"Can we make those lights less bright?" I asked. "They're more of a nuisance than practical."

"Sure, fine," Swipe said, and made a gesture which resulted in dimming one of the lights. The other drivers did the same, or to use a metaphor I'd picked up from learning about playing cards, 'followed suit'.

"Much better, thanks," I said. While there was less light overall, there was not such a stark contrast which made it easier for my eye to adjust and actually see things.

"How close are we?" Broth asked as ra started heating ra's and Swipe's food.

"We're about 45 kilometers from the coast in a straight line," said Punnt, who was in charge of navigation. "Not that we're going in a precisely straight line. But we're also not going all the way to the coast. It's about half as far south of here as it is east."

"Sounds good," Skids said in a way I knew meant sa didn't really care about the details. "Do you think these are done, Charity?"

"They're browning a little, so it looks it."

Skids scooped up all the food and started walking into the darkness. "This way."

"Um... sure. Just a moment." I concentrated on the darkness of night and the ingrained reaction of every Pure girl to the claimed danger and evil. Even after living underground for a year, it was not easy to grasp for that feeling. Darkness was my foe, and could only be banished by the light. The light...

"What are—" Skids started to ask just as the magelight in my glove turned on in response to my mental command. "Oh, good thinking."

I hurried after sa, past a few trees which lined the riverbank. Sa stopped on the far side of one of the thickest trees and set down the food. "Take one," sa said, and started unfastening sa's black riding jacket.

"Oh." Sa was showing me the back of sa's shoulders. I almost ignored the food, but I was hungry and knew it would get cold quickly. That forced me to chew and swallow very quickly so I could voice my reaction to the intricate orange and red linework. "Wow, that's big!" The scaly design wasn't only large, but familiar. "Scales? Is that one of the Great Maker's bright messengers? It looks a lot like Skögul." That didn't seem like something Skids would want as a permanent decoration.

"I get how you'd be confused, but no. It doesn't have a human head."

I peered closer and changed the angle of my magelight until I had the best illumination. "Right, it's reptilian. Like the rest of its body actually, what with the scales and claws. But did you know that legends say the messengers wore helmets of 'terrible reptilian visage' when they rode into battle?"

"Er, no, I didn't know that," Skids said, definitely off balance after my revelation.

"So... what does it mean to you?"

"Well the colours are for my drone and caster roles, of course. The creature is something I've seen in a dream a few times, actually. Maybe it was partially inspired by Skögul, I don't really know, but it felt like something powerful to me. And I simply like it and it kinda represents how I feel, sometimes. So that's what I picked."

"The artist did a great job," I said, examining the linework again.

"Yeah, ra's done plenty of tattoos similar to this. It's actually a mythological creature, called a 'dragon'. But the myth is so ancient no one remembers more than its name."

"Oooh, interesting." An almost forgotten ancient myth, which also looked similar to the Great Maker's messengers. That had to mean something. "Tell me more about this dream."

Skids was already putting sa's jacket back on. "Nah, gonna stuff my face with pastries."

"So the dragon represents you, and your roles," I said, passing the plate to Skids. "That explains why it's holding your aetherrailer."

"Crdth," Skid said around a mass of half-chewed food.

"Oh, right, it was originally Cards' aetherrailer," I remembered. "I couldn't help but notice that you brought it along."

"Nod tagen yrr owda d..." Skids began.

"Please stop," I said, and started another pastry myself.

Skids chewed carefully for a while until sa could swallow. "I said, I'm not taking you out of the hive without a weapon."

I opened my mouth to protest, but realised it was a futile argument. On top of that, I did feel safer knowing sa was ready to face threats to our safety. Additionally, I was in the middle of eating, which was compounded by sa pushing the last pastry into my mouth.

"We'd better get back to the others before thall worry."

I was sure it was already too late for that. Communicating that thought without opening my mouth proved beyond me, but I decided that didn't really matter. Skids knew as well as I did how easily the team became worried about us.

"Hope we're not holding back our departure," Skids said as we joined the others by the riverbank. I watched thall's expressions and saw Punnt give us a long appraising look before exchanging headshakes with Scaff. It seemed as though we'd been suspected of something but had proved ourselves innocent.

"No, some of us are still eating," Broth said. "We're not all as fast as Punnt. You normally aren't as fast as Punnt."

"Ate all mine at once to make up for all the talking," Skids said, and brushed a flake of pastry off sa's leg.

"Talking about what?" Punnt asked.

"Punnt," Swipe said with palpable reproach. "Sa deliberately had a private conversation, so what makes you think sa's going to tell you about it?"

"Hey, sa might've wanted to drop a hint," Punnt protested.

"Alright I'm done eating," Broth said with exaggerated loud calmness. "Make yourselves useful, or take the opportunity to examine another tree."

----------------------------------------

The remainder of the journey was uneventful. We didn't say much as our dots on the scryer map grew steadily closer to the symbol marking our destination. Actually, it wasn't our actual destination, merely the end of the aetherspinner trip. We would be travelling the rest of the way through an entirely different method. That knowledge frightened me a little, but not as much as it excited me.

"Anyone see anything?" Punnt asked through the ventril.

"There's no visible signs of the entrance," Scaff replied. "It's not a demon-safe zone, so there can't be. Maybe it's a descending platform like hive entrances, but better hidden."

"Could be," Swipe said. "Everyone keep your eyes... oh. There it is." The final words were simple, but laced with increasing awe.

A circle of ground about six metres in diameter had silently started rising. It continued to rise, pushed by the roof of a circular room or capsule. The sides of the capsule featured upright white struts and long curved pieces of glass. The glass was thicker than any I'd seen used for a window, and all our windows were flat. The overall appearance was simple but it was obviously beyond the Pure's capability and was styled very differently to anything the mages would make. It was also three metres high, which was beyond either of our needs.

"Here it is," Punnt said. "The entrance to the Loop."