Denmary well. That’s just a jumble of the words on the wreath we got at the graveyard. I patiently wait for Clutter to finish screwing around with the stone… thing… and when he takes a little too long, I lean into what was previously the egg and start gathering stone spears. There’s dozens of the little things, all exactly uniform, and none of them give off even the smallest twinge of magic.
“Who put all the magical toothpicks in here?” I mutter to myself as I summon a shield to hold the things. “And what about the egg? Did we somehow fulfill the phase requirements just by being here, or does the stone… I don’t know… keep reappearing every time the monster regenerates?”
Clutter looks up from the stone with wide eyes. “This thing regenerates?”
“Well…” I gesture at the plastic residue on the ground. “It did. Not sure if we screwed that up, or if it’s just going to make another egg in a few minutes.”
“Wow. Did you actually see it… is die the right word?” Clutter taps his chin with a finger in thought. “Actually, can this plastic stuff even die? Is it alive in the first place?”
I shrug. “Maybe we’ll find out during the quest.”
He nods in acceptance. “That makes sense to me. Well, it shows a few signs of life, but it definitely doesn’t work like any life I’ve ever seen before. Do you want to see the stone now?”
“Yes, please.”
“Alright.” He rubs the stone with his sleeve one more time, then extends it to me. “Here you go! It’s a lot less interesting than I made it seem.”
I grab the stone with one hand, and sure enough, I don’t feel any magic from it at all. But aside from magic… it feels like… the sphere and wreath. Not magical, but something close to it. Hell, maybe it’s shrouded, just like those attackers were. It’d explain a few things, that’s for sure. But that’s enough stalling–time to actually look at this thing.
In my hands I hold a perfectly square slab of simple stone, exactly like the stuff from the graveyard. Most of it is smooth, but not so smooth that it feels like someone smoothed it out, but more like a rock that’s been at the bottom of a river for a long time. Aside from a few markings around the edge, which almost look like they could fit the stone spears, there’s only one feature that draws my attention.
The words ‘Denmary Well’, written exactly like that, etched into the stone square at a seemingly random place. It’s not at the top, or in the middle–just haphazardly written there in slightly curved lettering about two-thirds of the way between the center and the edge. I lightly run my fingers over it, hoping that it’ll trigger some kind of reaction, but all it does is send a shiver of slight discomfort down my spine.
“It’s… nothing.” I frown and turn it over, but the underside is completely blank. “There’s absolutely nothing here. I guess that means we have to put all the spears into the indents first.”
Clutter tilts his head. “Spears?”
I sigh and pull one out of its protective shield. “You really weren’t paying attention to anything but the big stone, were you? These things were all around it in the egg, and they look like they can go–”
“Right in the indents!” He interrupts by snatching the spear from my fingers. “I wonder if it’s going to point us somewhere just like the wreath is. Ooh, maybe we have to combine the two to find where we actually need to go!”
I hold the stone out for Clutter, and he excitedly places the spear in an indent. It fits perfectly, just like a puzzle piece, but absolutely nothing happens. Undeterred, Clutter reaches for my shield and pulls out a handful of the spears, then yelps in pain as they go flying.
“Yes. They’re sharp.” I chuckle and bend down to gather the tossed spears.
He whines as he glares at his hand, then tentatively gives his bloody palm a lick. “Maybe I got a little too excited. Sorry.”
“No worries, it’s less than a minute of delay. See?” I rise to my knees and present the handful of spears he dropped. “Already done. You still want to do the honours?”
Sheepishly, he nods and carefully opens his non-bloody hand for me to place the spears in. Once he has the pieces, he pinches a single one between his claws like a pair of tweezers and gingerly moves it over one of the indents. With the precision of someone who just hurt themselves and doesn’t want to look like more of an idiot he lets go, tamps the spear into the indent, and nods in satisfaction at his work.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
All in all, it takes him nearly twenty seconds per spear. Now I consider myself to have pretty average patience, but there are, like, sixty of these suckers. I’m not waiting an hour for Clutter to play reverse operation because he cut himself a little bit. He grumbles a little when I start placing spears of my own, but less than two minutes later, we’ve completed it.
I pull one spear out, just to make sure they didn’t snap in, and it comes out easily. “Looks like this is all it does. Let’s get out of here.”
Clutter brushes off his pants with his good hand and summons a small health potion in his other. “Alright. I guess that means we’re off to the jewelry store next, right?”
“Let’s take a little break first. There’s a new job I need Illumisia to do, as long as my damn skill will let me give the order.” I shake my head, then gesture for Clutter to leave the monster first. “Fair warning, there’s probably going to be more people coming after us soon. Not sure exactly how soon, but the people who attacked me were just gathering info to sell.”
With a tentative look around with just his head sticking out of the monster, Clutter seems to decide it’s safe. He steps out, turns to me, and waits for me to leave the monster before saying anything.
“Is it safe to look away from that thing? Or do we still need something from it?” He asks without looking away from the monster. “Because the second I look away…”
I glance upwards. Pearl focuses for a second, then shrugs. “I can’t feel anything else. If we’re actually looking for these stone things, and not the plastic inside of the monster, then we definitely have everything we’ve been looking for.”
“We’re good.”
Pearl rolls her eyes at my very brief summation of her words, but a small smile betrays how she actually feels. Clutter barely glances over at me, and little by little, peels his gaze away from the monster. I turn away as well and start to walk towards Palastia, and soon enough, the monster simply disappears from my awareness. Seconds later Clutter jogs to my side and spares one last glance to where the monster had been.
“It feels like such a waste.” He says quietly. “Whatever it was, it had to be based on something. Maybe even some extinct species that would’ve shed a lot of light on pre-system history. At least Dizzy would’ve said something like that.”
I hold back an amused chuckle; he doesn’t know how right he is. “Maybe we’ll see in the actual quest. So, do you have any idea what this thing is?” I raise the stone square for emphasis. “The words are a jumble of the same ones from the graveyard, so there’s no way they aren’t connected. But the thing from the graveyard didn’t point us here at all, so wouldn’t it be impossible to go from one location to another?”
“Sure. Honestly, we don’t even know if these are how we find the quest or if they're how we find the way to find the quest.” Clutter crosses his arms and hums in thought. “Marywell Den sounds like a person’s name, and Denmary Well sounds like a place. But I could be wrong–they could both be places, or they could both be people, or they could be the opposite of what I’m thinking. But all we have are general directions and an inert stone slab–it feels like we’re supposed to go somewhere from here, not that we already solved a puzzle.”
“Then we just need to hurry.” I glance behind me, just to be sure we’re not being followed, then hand Clutter a relocation coin. “We’ve already got an anchor this time, so I’ll cover the travel expenses. Then we’ll do lunch, see if Dizzy or Nibble have some free time, and after that we’ll find the jewelry shop. That work for you?”
Clutter nods and takes the coin. “I am pretty hungry.”
I smile as he hands the coin back. “Lunch it is. See you in ten seconds.”
“See you!”
His vigorous waving is the last thing I see of the fields before relocation flares, transporting me back into Palastia. All of the spears on the stone rattle as one for a split second, just like how the sphere and wreath freaked out in the starway, but they settle down instantly. Illumisia looks lazily up at me and cocks her head to the side at the sight of my two new stony acquisitions, a single question gleaming in her eyes.
I hold up another coin before she can say anything. “Let me get Clutter here first, then I’ll fill you in while we get lunch.”
She huffs out an annoyed breath, but motions for me to go on. “I have already waited long enough; what is ten seconds more?”
“Unbearable, if your reaction is anything to go by.” I chuckle, then toss Clutter’s coin on the ground and flare the relocation inside. He appears mid yelp of surprise, and takes a few disoriented seconds to right himself.
The pedestrians around us all give him some kind of side-eye. More than a few seem concerned, but Illumisia rising to her full height–for the form she’s in right now–stops most of them in their tracks. Clutter sheepishly turns and apologizes to them anyway.
“I’m okay. I’m fine. Sorry for scaring you.” He rubs the back of his head and bows just a little at all the stares and murmurs. “It was only teleportation, and it was completely consensual. Thank you all for being worried about me.”
From the grumbles and glares that follow, a good chunk of them definitely weren’t worried about him. He, however, doesn’t seem to notice the annoyed undertone and turns back to me with his hand on his hips and renewed enthusiasm.
“Let’s get that lunch!”