The tree rumbles, sways, creaks, and disappears. I take a step back in disbelief. It didn’t just… there’s no goddamn way. After I got rid of a problem it’s had for months? How the hell can it abandon me without saying anything?!

No. I refuse to believe it. There wasn’t even any Worth for destroying the mound. It has to be leaving to check something. Yeah. Maybe it has a ledger book or… a list of everyone that’s been buried here. All it has to do is go check it and report back.

I stand in that spot for close to a minute. A fake smile crawls up my lips the entire time until it feels like the edges of my mouth are going to rip open and crack all the way up to my ears.

“Shelby.”

“Nope.”

Pearl purses her lips. “I know you don’t want to hear it, but…”

“I am very aware.” I say tersely. “It’s pretty much just proving a point now.”

“Then we should get moving, shouldn’t we?” Pearl gestures in Clutter’s direction. “Just because the tree wasn’t any help, it doesn’t mean the other leads won’t be. Heck, maybe they’ll even tell us more about Marywell Den.”

I nod ever so slightly. “I know that’s the right thing to do.”

“...But you’re really pissed?”

My nod grows in intensity.

“Yeah, I get it. It’s worth getting pissed off over. You just did something huge for it, and it rewarded you with a little bit of sap and water. No Worth, no information, nothing else.” Pearl crosses her arms and frowns. “Wait, the only reason it gave you anything at all is because I told it to. The dang tree was going to run away without giving you anything for your troubles!”

We both seethe in grumbling silence for a few minutes, all hope of the tree coming back slowly withering away. I look down at the strange combination of sphere and wreath in my hand, the words Marywell Den stuck in place just like a compass. At least I got a little bit of information out of this.

I sigh and send it to my inventory. It disappears completely instead of going into a slot, which means it is a quest item. Just for a quest I don’t have yet.

“Let’s go. I’m getting sick of looking at this place.”

Pearl nods in agreement. “Good riddance, too.”

I chuckle lightly and walk over to a still cowering Clutter, grab him by the shoulder, and haul him up to his feet. He yelps in surprise and claws at my shoulder, but my remaining shields block anything he could do to me. Once he stops thrashing and snapping his neck around like a tourist trying to take in all of a theme part at once, he lowers his hands and tilts his head to the side.

“What happened to everything?”

I sigh and shake my head. “Set up the next starway. I’ll fill you in while we walk.”

“...That means we’re leaving, right?” His lips curl upwards as his eyes brighten and his tail starts to wag. “We’re done here? So no more tree? We never have to come back?”

“Never say never, but yeah. We’re done here.” I glance back at the graves and sneer. “Damn tree is one of the stingiest bastards I’ve ever seen. Couldn’t even give me a few leaves or seeds as thanks for clearing out all that plastic shit.”

Clutter nods vigorously as he grabs my wrist. “They’re known to be horrible hosts and extremely selfish. Just another reason to get away from here as soon as possible!”

With a growing chipper demeanor, Clutter’s spell weaves itself onto the world. Before I can take a step forward he drags me into it, leaving the graveyard behind as what’s going to become a pretty shitty memory. I–

“Ow!”

Heat rises from my palm. I shake my hand in confusion as something drops out of it–for a brief second hope rises that the tree actually left me something, but as I hiss in discomfort, that hope drains away. Because on the magically–tempered ground is a small sphere and a wreath; the exact same one I just sent to my inventory.

Except the wreath’s spinning fast enough that I can’t make out the words anymore.

“The hell?” I mutter and lean down to carefully pick it up by the motionless sphere. “Pretty sure it’s not supposed to be doing this.”

Clutter winces and moves in to get a closer look. “If that has location magic built into it, my spell messes with that kind of stuff. It’s probably getting readings from everywhere all at once and can’t decide where to point.”

“Doesn’t explain why it leapt out of my inventory, but alright.” I stand up and summon another shield to contain the thing, then hang it off my belt. “You ever heard of anyone named ‘Marywell Den’, Clutter?”

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“Nope.” He tilts his head to the side. “Should I have?”

I shake my head. “Apparently not. Let’s check out the–”

He winces once more, and I roll my eyes as I cut myself off mid-sentence. Clutter already set the destination for this thing, so I’ll just walk until I find out. Being quiet’s gonna make it really damn difficult to explain what happened, though.

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

As we reach the end of Clutter’s third starway of the day, he eagerly opens the exit and hops through. He looks back at me, nearly vibrating out of his fur as he stands in the middle of a field of grains, and motions for me to hurry up. I don’t move any faster, since I’m a whole six steps from the edge. He whines quietly as I leave the starway, then bursts into a mess of words the moment it closes.

“Sowhathappenedinthegraveyard?”

I hold up a hand for him to wait. “Just making sure, this means we’re checking out the monster first? Because I have some healing backlash coming soon-ish, and it won’t be pretty.”

Clutter furiously bobs his head up and down. “It’s just rumors of a monster–no tangible proof. Just a little bit of plastic that anyone could’ve dropped, which is why I left it for so long. There’s a really good chance there won’t be any fighting. So so so… what happened in the graveyard?”

“Walk first. Talk while walking.” I gesture at the general area around us. “Set us on the path, then you’ll get your story.”

“Okay… um… okay…” Clutter trails off as he turns in place to scan the area. “All these plants look pretty much the same, and my mana’s running kind of low. Give me a minute and I’ll find the right way.”

Works for me. I take a step back to let Clutter do his thing, which apparently costs mana even though I haven’t felt him using any, and pull out my Class Card. With my free hand I take the tiny bauble filled with a no longer spinning wreath and sphere, which points away from Palastia’s walls to the… north? West? It’s perfectly tangential to where I walked in from a few months ago, so whatever direction that is.

“Wonder if this would actually point us to Marywell.” I muse as I spin the bauble in my fingers. “Depending on how big the landmass is, we could use Clutter’s spell to get close-ish to wherever it’s pointing us.”

Pearl considers my words for a few seconds, but just before she can open her mouth…

“Starways are hard to make!” Clutter cuts in. “And the country’s really big. If we only have a few days, we’d have to hire a bunch of people and make copies of that thing to find the right place.”

I raise an eyebrow. “Even if it’s pointing directly where we need to go?”

Clutter nods. “Magic things like that usually aren’t simple. It could point us to one place, then switch and start pointing somewhere else. Like a connect-the-dots but with really long walks instead of a pencil.”

“Mm. Good point. Get back to looking.”

He salutes and does exactly that. Pearl waits a few seconds while staring at his back, as if Clutter would burst into conversation once more, and slowly turns her focus over to me.

“Unfortunately, I think he’s right. But we have something other people don’t–the beacon. There’s a chance I can transfer all the magical data from the sphere-wreath into the beacon, but there’s also a chance it’ll just get destroyed. Do we want to risk that?”

That’s a good question. On one hand, it might lead us directly to where we want to go. On the other hand, there’s a chance the thing isn’t even done yet. Hell, it could be a complete red herring. Hmm… yeah, not worth it yet.

“Let’s wait until tomorrow before trying that. Just in case one of these other leads gives better… leads.”

“Wait for what?”

“Not you, Clutter. Keep looking.”

“Okay!”

After a good ten minutes of studying the weird little contraption, Clutter’s ears finally perk up. I hear his tail swishing through the grain as he turns to inform me before he speaks, and his eyes glitter with accomplishment.

“I found it! The boy said the monster towered over the stalks, but he was standing on a big rock, and I found the big rock!” Clutter hurries over and grabs my wrist, then starts insistently pulling me away like a kid who really wants their parents to see something. “I thought it was really weird that I didn’t see it right away, since I’d see a big rock from anywhere, and a farmer wouldn’t let it stay in their fields for very long. Then I thought–what if it wasn’t really a rock at all? What if it was a pile of something kept in stasis so it stays fresh longer?”

That sounds like a waste of magic when you can just teleport things. “So what was it?”

“Oh, it wasn’t that at all. It’s just what I thought it was. After that, I thought it could be a lot of things–but then I realized they were all pretty stupid and went back to looking for a rock.” Clutter rambles on as he drags me into the thick stalks, shoving them aside with one hand without a care for any that scrape him. “But not just any rock–a rock that doesn’t really exist, so the farmers couldn’t deal with it. A phase rock.”

“A phase rock.” I repeat flatly. “Please, explain what the hell that means.”

He tilts his head to the side. “I thought it was pretty obvious. It’s a rock that doesn’t always exist–only when you look at it the right way. So I started looking for signs that kids would ignore because they’re dumb. And tada–there it is!”

I look around, but all I see are plants. “Where?”

“Oh, it’s not for another thirty seconds or so. But it fit with how I wanted to end that paragraph, so I said it anyway.” Clutter says happily. “Just pretend I got the timing right when we… break… into… the…”

Before he finishes, the stalks suddenly flatten. Dozens and dozens of them pressed to the ground like thin sheets of paper which form a solid fibrous carpet for us to walk on. It’s a good thirty feet wide, and the shape of a deformed oval with one perfectly flat side.

“Dang it.” Clutter mutters under his breath as he walks up to a sign just out of the flattened zone. “I missed the timing again.”

“Clutter, what the hell is this?” I ask as I carefully step further onto the carpet. “Is the rock here? Can we just not see it?”

“Technically, yes. Just read the sign and it’ll explain everything to you.”

He taps the sign, which is a simple square of metal bolted onto a wooden stake and driven into the ground. All the lettering is in a language I don’t understand, but there’s another square welded onto the first with symbols that I recognize from back on Earth.

‘Beware of falling rocks’.