Navigating the crack passageways of Gellorn Keep was a challenge at times. They weren't only smaller than most of the crew, but Gargoyles could traverse the rough inner walls of the passageways as easily they could walk. This access to a third dimension meant that even if the floor of a passageway was difficult to pass, there was often an easy path available simply by climbing the walls over it. Meanwhile, the visiting pirates were left behind to squeeze their way through tight gaps and step across uneven piles of rock.

Iris was struggling with one such passageway, with rough marble scraping across the leather chest piece she had donned for the task, when she finally saw an opening up ahead. Without thinking, she blipped.

She looked up with wonder and nausea at the impossibly huge hallway she now stood in. At this scale, the crack she had emerged from was only a feint blemish on the wall that probably went completely unnoticed by the giants. The floor stretched out before her while the ceiling towered so far overhead she was surprised to not see clouds. She stumbled slightly as the ground rumbled, and she backed against the wall for balance and safety as a pair of giants walked by. Each step reverberated through her body to the point of almost hurting, but they had thankfully soon passed.

Beside her, the base of the crack abruptly expanded to twice its width, and Autumn stepped out.

"Did you really just widen the whole passage?" Iris asked.

"Just the tight parts at the bottom," Autumn shrugged.

"What if the gargoyles get mad?"

"Why would they get mad? I'm doing free labor for them. Now come on, let's go!"

Autumn took off across the giant hallway, angled towards a crack in the wall across that would serve as their next passageway. Iris panicked and quickly snapped her head side-to-side to check for approaching giants, but seeing they were quite far away, Iris blipped after Autumn.

Crossing the hallway reminded Iris of crossing frozen lakes -- she had never actually seen a frozen lake in person, but she had seen several illustrations -- the wide, impossibly flat expanse of polished marble reflected light like smooth ice, yet no small number of imperfections pock-marked the surface. Iris imagined that, to the giants, these imperfections were too small to notice, or perhaps even see. As they crossed the vast expanse, Iris stopped to watch a giant approaching in the distance. After deciding he was far enough away not to worry about, Iris caught up to Autumn with a blip.

"So what are you after, anyway?" Iris asked, "looking to try some gargoyle food?"

"Absolutely not," Autumn said, "I've seen what Killup likes to eat. Did you know he likes his spices unground? Says he likes how it feels on his teeth!"

"What the fuck?" Iris made an appalled expression.

"Right?" Autumn asked, "anyway, no. I actually tagged along to talk to you."

Iris was surprised, "What about?"

Autumn leveled a lingering gaze on Iris for a moment before speaking again, "how are you doing?"

"I'm fine," Iris shrugged, "why?"

Autumn sighed and shook her head, "Iris, what happened a week ago?"

Iris thought about it for a moment, retracing the memories of the week before. Before the giants had picked the ship out of the water they had fought a Chimera, and before that she had explored her bag, which she had to wait to do because she was injured -- a vivid memory of a trident extending from her chest flashed through her mind. She snapped her eyes shut for a second, then spoke casually.

"Oh, the mermaid fight? Yeah, I'm good. You saw me whack that chimera, I'm back at it like nothing ever happened."

Autumn once again lingered on an expression before speaking again, this time a grimace, "I see what you're doing, and I don't recommend it."

"What do you mean?" Iris was starting to grow defensive.

Autumn sighed, "you can't just not think about the stuff that bothers you. It works for a while, but not forever. Do you think I haven't noticed how often you keep checking over your shoulder?"

Iris hadn't realized she was doing that a lot, but immediately felt the pull to glance behind her. She felt a wall going up in her mind.

"I'm fine," she insisted.

"Alright," Autumn held her hands in defeat, "I won't push it. Just -- consider talking to Titus about it. He knows the effects that repeated near-death experiences can have on people."

They walked in silence for a while, the only sounds were the clomping of their boots and the clacking of Iris's walking stick on the marble.

"Has Eli said anything about it?" Iris asked.

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Autumn let out a laugh before she could stifle it, "Eli doesn't even know what to say at this point."

"I was safe!" Iris defended, "I calculated the risk and I took it, and everything worked out. I didn't even need my last resort!"

"That's what Titus told him,"

"Can people start taking me seriously, already?" Iris was beginning to shout, "I mean, I'm pretty sure I saved the whole ship by stalling the mermaids, I don't see anyone thanking me for that. No, it all has to be about how reckless I am."

"I don't care if you're reckless," Autumn stopped and turned on Iris, "Eli might, but I don't. And you’re right – you do deserve a thank you. But what I care about is that you're pretending you're okay when you're not."

Iris locked up for a moment, saying nothing as she stared at Autumn. Finally, she spoke, "you said you wouldn't push it. I knew what I was doing, and I survived like I expected. That should be enough."

Autumn sighed, "okay, I'm sorry. Let's just drop it."

Iris nodded and blipped ahead to take the lead.

When they reached the far wall of the hallway, they paused as a voice called out from the way they'd come.

"Chef Autumn! Please wait!"

Adan had just emerged from their last passageway, and after seeing them turn towards his shout he broke into a sprint. He lunged one leg in front of the other and swayed his arms in perfect sync as he raced across the gap. He moved so quickly and methodically that he almost seemed to glide over the floor, and his pace held throughout the entire sprint. He arrived before Iris and Autumn with an abrupt stop, immediately transitioning to a still, upright posture. There were no signs that he had just sprinted hundreds of feet, his chest wasn't even heaving from breaths.

"What's wrong?" Autumn asked hurriedly.

"Nothing is wrong," Adan said.

"Then why did you shout and run after us?"

"You were very far ahead of me," he answered.

The girls looked at him with confusion for a moment, and then chose to let it go.

"Well, come on," Autumn said, "we have shopping to do."

The next passageway started off much like the last, but didn't continue level with the floor. Instead the base of the crack steeply rose upwards. Iris blipped between ledges while Adan deftly climbed, and Autumn molded herself foot and handholds in the marble. After a short climb, the crack leveled out again, and they continued following the ravine-like passage now at a higher elevation.

Soon, they stepped out of the crack onto a large block of marble extending a few hundred feet in both directions. Countless structures of both marble and wood lined a long path that stretched down the lengthwise center of the block, essentially creating a market street. A shorter path, also lined with shops, led from the opening of the crack and connected to the main street a few dozen feet ahead. Other marble blocks made up three walls and the ceiling, while open air took the place of the fourth wall. Behind the edge of the blocks, Iris saw another giant hallway, and the lower legs of giants passing by.

"I love it here," Iris remarked.

"It is quite unique," Adan agreed.

Gargoyles scampered all about. They stood in line at stalls, hurried in and out of buildings, and climbed on roofs. Most seemed to come and go through a few passageways within the walls, but occasionally a brave gargoyle would take a running leap over the edge and fly off into the hallway -- though she noticed they never did this while a giant was near.

They first shop that caught their attention was stood out distinctly from the gargoyle architecture. It was built from raw lumber with the bark still attached, which was used as poles and beams to hold an elaborate web of red and gold cloth to create a partially open-air tent and awning. Inside was a collection of mismatched shelves containing arrays of completely uncategorized items, from every day tools to weird weapons and even fresh jerky.

Manning the shop were three goblins. One had grey skin, another had burgundy, and the third had green. They each wore fine clothes made with brilliantly dyed fabrics, and carried friendly expressions on their face.

"Welcome to Goblin Wonders Trading Company!" The green one announced as the trio stepped into the tent.

"Gellorn outpost," the grey one added, not looking up from the coins he was counting.

"Right," the green one gave an annoyed glance to the grey one, "as our guests might have guessed, being in Gellorn Keep, after all."

"Do you have free samples of jerky?" Autumn asked.

"Treg, do we have free samples?" the green one asked the burgundy one, apparently named Treg.

"Half piece per customer, self-serve," Treg answered.

Autumn quickly picked up a piece of jerky from a bowl and broke it in half, shoving one piece into her mouth as she offered the other to Adan, who politely declined with a raised hand and a headshake. She shrugged, and ate his piece too.

"Bit dry, good spice though,..." Autumn observed, deliberating if she wanted to buy more.

Iris stepped up to the green-skinned goblin and offered a hand, "hi, I'm Iris."

The goblin shook her hand with a firm grasp of spindly fingers, "I'm Don, pleasure to meet you. You folks come from that ship the giants carried past earlier?"

"Yep! All the way from Giantrock City."

"Oh! I have a brother who sells clothes in the city."

"Wait, is his name Fal?" Iris asked.

"Yeah! That's the one! Good guy, Fal. Really knows his way around pigments."

"I bought some clothes from him a couple times. He was definitely a nice guy. He was surprisingly patient with Grell, too--"

"You met Grell?" Don looked nervous at the mention of the name, "please don't let him color your impressions of our family, he's always been a bit -- wrong."

"Please don't insult my father," Adan asked politely from across the tent, where he was methodically picking up and inspecting items one-by-one.

"Kid, I don't even know who your father--" Don's eyes shot open wide, "y-you're that creation of his--" Don grabbed Iris by the shoulders and stared fearfully into her eyes, "is he here? Is Grell here?"

"Yeah," Iris said, confused, "he came on the ship with us--"

Don spun on his heels, grabbed a knapsack from behind a counter, and started tossing his things into it, "Treg, Roy, I'm going into hiding."

"Come on," Treg dropped his shoulders and complained, "we have a huge traveler rush coming!"

"Nope, can't do it," Don shook his head, "I am not dealing with that motherfucker."

Don was out of the tent before anyone else could speak, hurrying off through the market to a passage on the far side.

"Great job," Roy looked up from his coins and spoke flatly to Iris.

"Hey! How is this my fault?"

Roy ignored her.

"There she is!" someone hissed a whisper from just outside the tent.

Iris instinctively tensed, her mind immediately running down a list of who might be looking for her. She whirled around to find a trio of gargoyles standing just outside the tent, one of them was pointing at her.

"Oh great wizard!" one of the gargoyles threw himself onto the floor before her, "please, help us!"

Iris's face froze in a look of shocked uncertainty as she looked to Adan and Autumn for help or explanations.