“It’s the name of this game too actually, Pieces of Sonder,” Infamous Biscuit said as they walked to a quiet part of the dock.

Freya remembered Azer had mentioned something about ‘pieces of sonder,’ but she had been more concerned about other things at the time.

“The goal of this game is to find and collect pieces of sonder. Sometimes at the end of dungeons or quests you’ll get a piece of sonder. Story dungeons almost always give them out, but they’re hard to find. Anyway, pieces of sonder usually look like cards or books, but sometimes they’re items.”

Infamous Biscuit called up his inventory and took out a card, “This is a piece of sonder I got while completing the newbie story dungeon.”

“Does it do anything?” Freya asked, looking at the faded white card with a black border. No writing or symbols covered it. Besides appearing to be made from a thick, expensive cardstock, nothing seemed special about it. 

“No, not that I know of, but apparently if you collect all of them you gain something called Sonder. No one really knows what that means or entails.”

He put the card back into his inventory. “You can see for yourself. Open up your inventory. There’s a special shelf just for pieces of sonder. If you touch the little ‘i’ info button near it there’s an explanation about the pieces of sonder. It’s not much.”

Freya followed his instructions. The topmost shelf, which was almost difficult for Freya to reach, had a label on it: [Shelf for Pieces of Sonder]

She touched the small button above it.

[This shelf is for pieces of sonder. Once all the necessary pieces of sonder are on the shelf you will gain Sonder.]

“That’s it?”

“Yep, mysterious isn’t it.”

Freya frowned, “The point of this game is to gain Sonder, but no one knows what it is?”

“Hey, it’s not about the end but the adventure.”

Freya sighed. 

Infamous Biscuit continued, “But still, I imagine it must be something good. It’s probably a super cool ability or something.” 

Staring wistfully into the distance, a smile grew on his face. When he looked back at her, his grin curled into a smirk as he noted her skeptical expression.

“Come on, aren’t you a little bit intrigued? You picked up the gist of your martial artist class well. We should team up and do more dungeons. I’ll show you the ropes.”

Freya shook her head, “No, I got caught up in this. This game is interesting, but I don’t know about all this.” 

Infamous Biscuit looked at her, “Come on, don’t you want some adventure in your life?”

Freya paused. She bit her lip. 

The last few hours were stressful, yet the prospect of more times like them was surprisingly tempting. To battle powerful demons using just her bare fists! And maybe learn more skills like that last one...

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Freya shook her head, “No, I’m a shaman, the shaman of Safka. I can’t go around looking for these pieces of sonder. I have a duty as a shaman.”

She poked the octopus spirit on his shoulder, “I handle things like this. Dealing with spirits is a shaman’s work. I can help you out with this octopus spirit; in return can you get me back to Safka?”

Infamous Biscuit huffed out a sigh. He pulled back one of the spirit’s suction-cupped arms from his face.

“It’ll be easy for you to get back to Safka. You fast-traveled once coming here, you can fast-travel again back to Safka. Here, I’ll show you.”

He walked Freya through the process and how to type in the location of a city.

Once Freya understood how to fast-travel on her own, she turned her attention to the octopus. Throughout the last hour or so they were together the octopus spirit hadn’t flickered or turned more opaque. It must have died recently or had a very strong desire for something.

During her childhood, Freya often watched spirits flicker and fade away within a few hours. It wasn’t until her apprenticeship that she encountered ones that could last for days or even years. 

“Okay, let’s figure out what this octopus wants from you,” Freya said, clapping her hands together. “We should find somewhere indoors. Since it can’t speak, we’ll have to make a mind connection to figure out what it wants. Mind connections work best if the air can saturate with bergue incense.”

“Okay, let’s find an inn.”

Walking off the docks, they entered the cobblestone streets of Pelophia. The rumble of carts and the clack of hooves echoed off the white-walled shops and houses of the main streets. Murmurs of negotiations and friendly greetings filled every street corner and alleyway.

Winding their way through the streets, it didn’t take them long to find an inn. Freya noticed the innkeeper didn’t seem to find anything odd about Infamous Biscuit. To Freya, he stood out–not just his height more so his fancy attire and well-kept appearance. But maybe innkeepers in port towns were used to seeing a wide variety of people. 

Once in their rented room Freya took out her container of different incense sticks from her messenger bag. Sorting through them, she found the bergue infused ones and put two of them onto holders.

“How did it get attached to you?” Freya asked as she struck a match.

“It happened while I was looking for the right dock for that event dungeon. There’s a lot of different piers in Pelophia. I was asking some fishermen where the merchant shipping docks were when this thing suddenly clung onto me.”

While he was speaking about it, the octopus readjusted its position so that its head sat on top of his shoulder. Its greyish red arms gently fiddled with his shirt, suctioning and unsuctioning the fabric. The glowing tip of the incense sticks reflected in its black eyes.

“I tried to yank it off, but it’s really stuck onto me. I don’t have enough arms to pull off each of its tentacles, and I can’t physically cut or hurt it apparently.” Infamous Biscuit gently touched the spirit’s head.

“I feel kind of bad for trying to hurt it now. It doesn’t seem like it's done anything to me. It just really freaked me out at first.”

Freya nodded, “It doesn’t have a malicious aura, so it’s unlikely it burdened you any.”

A musky spiced smell filled the room. Freya checked the windows were sealed shut then sat down, waiting until the room was thick with the smell of incense. 

“Okay, let’s begin.”

She stood up and placed a hand on Infamous Biscuits’ forehead and on top of the octopus spirit. Freya imagined reaching inside the octopus’ mind. Hopefully, the spirit would be cooperative. It was possible to force a mind connection with a spirit, but it was a lot easier if they were willing.

Immediately a warm prodding feeling entered her consciousness. In its mind, the octopus reached out a limb towards her.

Freya quickly focused to open Infamous Biscuit to the conversation. 

We are here to help, Freya thought to the octopus. She imagined a loving and tender feeling toward it. 

Following her lead, Infamous Biscuit also gave off the same aura.

The octopus reached out a curled arm to both of them. Once they touched, Freya found herself looking out the octopus’ eyes.