What was a very nice moment slowly devolves into an awkward staring contest. I don’t know why I thought the world transfer thing would show up at that very moment. I mean, it did for Gasp and Ava, so… you know.

I rub my arm and cough awkwardly. “So… uh…”

“You fully expected something to happen, didn’t you?” Fleur laughs lightly and turns away. “Whatever you were waiting for, you do not have to wait here for me. There must be at least one additional preparation you could make that would be worth your time.”

Truth is, I’m done preparing. I can’t take anything with me to the other world except the clothes on my back and what’s already in my inventory. Anything else is just… sending messages that could be way easier to say in person. But I still want something to connect me to Fleur. Not just messages, but something a little more tangible.

“Fleur, can you make something for me that’s purely aesthetic? Preferably something like a… brooch or maybe some hairpins.” I vaguely gesture at my chest and hair for emphasis. “A little reminder that we’re still connected, even if we’re worlds apart.”

A blazingly warm glow lights up the world. I shield my eyes with my hand and try to squint through my fingers, but Fleur’s luminescent emotion is far too strong for my fingers to block out.

“Of course I can! What style would you prefer–floral, leaf-like, or an entire plant?” Two of her hands grab my forearm as her face appears inches from mine. “Personally, I think a water lily would suit you wonderfully. Though it would be a little too large… so that will not work. Pearl is already in your hair, and I do not wish to encroach on her terrain… no, I have the perfect thing.”

Fleur’s many arms whirl around a single point. Salt converges to the perfect center of the whirl as Fleur hums happily to herself, not bothering to look at whatever she’s creating. Barely any magic goes into the creation, just her ability to manipulate salt and a little something that I can’t quite place. Maybe it’s to strengthen it so I don’t accidentally destroy her creation.

The whirl of arms slowly drifts over Fleur’s shoulder and plants itself between us. She waits patiently for a few heartbeats, then reaches into the whirl–stopping it instantly–and wraps her hand around something that glows molten orange. Her own glow competes with it for the prize of brightest orange, and she holds it close to her chest as musical notes that almost sound like whispers flow out of the salt all around us.

Like a proud child presenting her macaroni drawing to her parents, Fleur extends her hands to my chest and pushes something against my shirt. Her fingers fiddle with it for a few seconds, and a small prick of pain touches my skin before warm salt slithers down my neck and does… something to the pin.

“There you go. Something to remember me by.” Fleur steps away, surveys her work, and nods. “I truly hope you like it.”

I look down at my chest, where there’s a coin pinned to my shirt. The edge looks like it’s made up of arms grasping each other by the elbows, and the body is pure black salt etched with scratch marks and symbols that don’t look like anything I can recognize. Embossed onto the center of the coin is a simple fleur de lis, accented by bright orange that gives it a sense of… something more. The first word that comes to mind is ‘divinity’.

It’s honestly pretty simple. But it already feels like I’ve been wearing it all my life. A smile creeps up my lips, and I look up at Fleur who is waiting for my reaction.

“I love it, Fleur.”

Her glow flares, then fades. She raises a hand to her chest, which expands like she’s breathing a sigh of relief. “I hoped you would say that. The fleur de lis is–”

Thunderous noise rips through my mind as my vision goes briefly white. I stagger back a step, completely dumbfounded and blindsided by whatever the hell happened, and splay my arms out to either side as I work my awareness into overdrive.

“Pearl! Can you hear me?” I cry as I fumble blindly in the whiteness. “I can’t feel anything weird. Are we under attack?”

A soft, wet breath trickles down my shoulder. I shudder as my vision suddenly blinks back into focus, but it doesn’t look right. Glassy scenery with massive wooden structures stretches out beyond the horizon, with stains of cosmic black dotting the landscape. Huge blurs blot out portions of whatever the hell I’m seeing, towering above the buildings as they move without disturbing the architecture.

Finally, I look up. Another stain rests above my shoulder, dripping a pure black liquid from seemingly nowhere that trickles onto my skin and slides into my clothes. I swallow hard as my brain tries pointlessly to process whatever the hell I’m looking at, and instead, more sensations greet me. Sticky wetness up to the center of my calves. A headache just on the edge of being enough to take a pill.

And the horrible, gut-wrenching feeling that I should know what I’m looking at. But my brain won’t let me recognize it.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?”

Pearl crawls out of her shell and sits on my shoulder, right underneath the trickle of black. A black that perfectly matches her own body, but without any of the colourful speckles. She sighs wistfully, gesturing at the stains that my brain won’t let me see.

“I don’t know why I’m allowed to remember the details now, but I guess the system can’t hold my memories from me forever. Before this, it was like I knew the description of everything–but now I can see them too. Well, for some things.” Pearl smiles and breathes a soft laugh. “It’s only letting me remember the pointless stuff. The peaceful in-betweens.”

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I reach up and scratch my other shoulder. It feels… empty. “Peace isn’t pointless. That’s what everyone wants, isn’t it?”

“Oh, I didn’t mean pointless like that.” Pearl quickly clarifies. “Um, I meant it more like the ‘this doesn’t help us right now’ kind of pointless. I don’t know where the cities are, what happened to them, or how we did anything in them. Just that they existed, and that we lived peacefully in them for a long time. You know–nice things that you don’t need when the system’s trying to kill you.”

“Ah. That kind of pointless.” I chuckle darkly and shake my head. “There’s no way this is a coincidence that this happens right before we go back to the other world. Did we make progress on your quest while we were on Earth, and it’s giving all of it to us now?”

Pearl shrugs. “Maybe it’s just going to happen every time we go to my world now. The system wouldn’t give it to us if it’s really important, so maybe it’s just trying to distract us?”

Fair point. I wouldn't put it past the system to do something like that. But if it was going to distract us, then why show us this? Why risk me recognizing a landmark and finding a way to wherever this city… was?

“I don’t know–this feels like a quest thing to me.” I say with unfounded confidence. “Hell, maybe it’s not even your quest. Maybe it’s the one it warned me I’d be bringing Nib into. Or the one the book wanted so it would upgrade my Class Card.”

“Forgeries made in shell or the serenade of shattered shells. Maybe.” Pearl sighs. “It’s weird, you know, seeing this place again. I have nostalgia for it but I don’t really know why, and I feel like I should know so much more. But it’s… gone. That much I know.”

She hugs her knees close to her chest and rests her chin on them as she stares out over the city. The black goo from whatever’s behind me rolls off her like it’s terrified to actually touch her, and she doesn’t even react to it. It must hold some significance, but I wonder if she remembers what it is.

“How long is this going to last, Shelby?” She eventually asks. “I don’t want to be here much longer.”

I don’t have an answer for her. And just as I’m about to open my mouth, the world goes white. Pearl gasps in surprise and scurries back into her shell. Fleur reappears right in front of me, her body in the exact same position as before the weird… vision-thing happened. And between us is a pillar. One that looks like it’s made of salt crystals, cosmic ooze, and decorated with golden coins.

“There it is.” Fleur says like nothing just happened. Which, for her, maybe nothing did. “I hope to see you in moments, but if our parting turns out to be for a while, I will look forward to our messages. Good fortune and safe travels, you two.”

Pearl stocks her head out of her shell with a glance of suspicion. “It’s lonely in here without you, Fleur. See you soon!”

“One way or another, we’ll talk.” I summon my Class Card and tap it to the pillar. “See you, Fleur.”

The orange glow dims ever so slightly, and she doesn’t say another word. Her hands all find a twin and lace their fingers together with some emotion that I can’t quite make out, and she nods as I feel the world shrinking in on me.

Everything turns to nothing. Nothing turns to stone, sky, and the chatter of passersby. I crack my neck as I take in nearly the exact same place in Palastia that I disappeared from a while ago. The stones under my feet, all the different non-humans, and a single Paindne leaning against a storefront while he fiddles with his Class Card.

“Hey.” I say with a casual wave. “Looks like you got the message. Been waiting here long?”

Clutter looks up from his Class Card. For a split second, he looks unbelievably nervous. Like someone about to meet their partner’s parents for the very first time. He glances from side to side, as if there was something that was supposed to be there, then carefully pushes himself off the wall and walks over to me.

“I’ve only been back in town for a day or two. Three days, actually. I haven’t really found anything new–well, stuff that’s super important–but I did find some quests that might help you out a little. Not important ones, though.” He looks down at his feet, his tail tucked between his legs. “Did I mention that they’re not really important?”

I raise an eyebrow in suspicion. “What’s with you? Did someone spit in your cereal this morning?”

He meets my eyes for a second, then looks away. “The plastic things are really complicated. I haven’t… really… actually… you know…”

“But you did find other quests, right?” I tap my foot to get him to actually look at me. “Did you find anything about what’s going on with Palastia? Your messages sort of insinuated that they did.”

“Oh, th-that. I, um, kind of found a quest that needs a horizonguard’s permission to start. But nobody’s gotten a horizonguard’s anything since I’ve been here.” He tries to look away again, but I grab his chin to stop him from moving. He whimpers. “Please don’t eat me.”

Eat…? I shake my head in exasperation. “What has Illumisia been telling you?”

“Things. Lots of things.” He swallows hard. “I promise I’m really close to finding out how to trigger the plastic quest. Maybe you can do some of the others I found while I look around some more, or go talk to Nib and see if she’s found anything from the robots?”

“I didn’t know you were in contact with Nib.”

His eyes widen a little. “Of course I know her. I couldn’t research what you asked me to without going to the university, and she knew you, so we just started talking. She’s nice. Way more into shellraiser stuff than I am, though, and kind of scary when she’s angry. Nowhere near as scary as Illumisia, though.”

Pearl snorts to keep in a laugh. I can’t help but smile, either, which seems to confuse Clutter.

“Well, thanks, Clutter. Good job so far–I didn’t expect anything to happen this quickly anyway.” I reach out to pat his head, which probably isn’t a great idea, but it sets his tail wagging. “Meet me at the restaurant for lunch tomorrow, and we’ll hash out all the details. Anything else important I should know before you go do whatever you’ve got to do?”

He shakes his head. “No, miss Shelby. Nothing important enough that it can’t wait another few hours. Bye!”

With that, he turns and jogs down the street, nearly crashing into a cluster of people with shopping bags as he does. I watch with amusement as he apologizes and dodges them at the same time, magic gently floating away from his body like silken streamers.

“I thought we hashed out all the fear.” I mutter to myself as a heavy presence on my awareness presses against my leg. “What did you do to him?”

Illumisia rubs her flank against my leg and huffs. “Nothing he wasn’t able to handle. You smell overwhelmingly of salt.”

“You’ll have to get used to that.” I chuckle and reach down to scratch her head, which she actually lets me do. Albeit with a grumble of annoyance. “Do we have somewhere to stay?”

“I made arrangements through Clutter, yes.” Illumsia confirms, but doesn’t start to move. “We must wait here until the messenger arrives. You should confirm the changes and evolutions that progressed while you were not here before that happens.”

“That we agree on.” I pull four coins out of my pocket, then pat my chest to make sure the brooch is still there. “But there’s one thing I have to try before that.”