Out in the town, Jafk had spoken with every dead resident he could, following the ghastly Tree Walker, Ms. Baliva, as he wrote down everything he was told, shown, and given. And it was quite a lot, now he had to filter everything through.

Jafk began to write down in a different medium, a larger notebook for concrete clues and helpful evidence as he whispers under his breath.

“Ms. Baliva was from a related family of Sprei Uok, the child of Lake Guard, an aunt who perished during an event she could only describe as “rotting”. This happened during the fall of Tulip Town, so it is probably related to there. Few more dead creatures tell of a horrible sound from one of the abandoned pipes that leaks into the forest, maybe…this was a rot of some kind? Acid? Who knows. Am I correct, Baliva?” he asks as she nods, he continues to write and whisper.

“Other spirits tell of non Living Machines who work with the Timeless Man, though their only evidence is…word of mouth and a red ribbon that fell off someone 2 days before the Living Machines began to attack the forest, breaking through the self-same technology used during the end day of the Timeless City. Now this is a mystery…” he sighs before continuing.

“And my biggest clue right now is someone who claimed to have been a resident of Tulip Town, but it's been long enough that their spiritual connection is deteriorating, and so they began to forget, and with no one but Penny and me to communicate with, likely never got the chance to speak…all they had to say was that Tulip Town is now a ‘hive’ for them. This surely will be helpful, maybe someone has a map of the pipelines, and we could determine the ones leading to Tulip Town, and determine it from there! I knew it was a good idea to stay” he gets really excited as he turns to Baliva, doing a bow with a smile that’s somewhat cute. “T-Thank you, miss, this will help us a lot!” he said as the Tree Walker nods, turning around and walking to the library as she slowly dissipates as Jafk grabs ahold of his excitement.

“Now then…where did they go anyways?”

-

“Alexander. Does a Star Soldier usually have…like…no mouth? Sunken eyes with red dots? Really strange face?” Kade asks as he watches the soldier’s stiff movement, it turns around to continue scouting as Alexander looks over to where he was looking. “Good question, I don’t know”

“Maybe it’s a genetic thing?” Kade suggests as Denny shakes her head. “Usually they are all the same, maybe a few differences but…not like this. Someone should ask”

“I will” Angel spoke from behind them before walking forwards. Kade and Alexander stayed back as the thin figure bent down a bit to speak with the strange Star Soldier as it stiffly turned right back around to look at Angel, the red dots started glowing intensely as it began to…crack. Sounds of cracking echo inside of it as Angel sighs, turning back around as she raises her hand for a moment to the sky, and then letting it down as she walks back to them. “Everything we’ve said so far is basic information anyone can decipher, even disgusting machines. He waited for something new. And he won’t get it, for himself and his master” and as the ‘mushroom soldier’ bursts to reveal tangles of metal wires and metal skin, a literal beam of light fires from far above onto the machine, practically destroying it on the spot as Kade and Alexander cover their faces from the bright light and white blood.

As the beam dissipates, all that was left was a big patch of rotten grass and a burned, scrapped piece of Living Machine, no longer living, just useless scraps. She closes her eyes briefly before opening it back.

“No more spies, I hope” Angel said as the two went to investigate the burned scraps. “Wow, the forest is bountiful for…orbital strike beams, by the stars…” Kade said as Angel giggles at that comment.

“The forest has everything if you look hard enough, friend.”

“Hope it has our clues then, what’s your grand plan to find this leak” Kade asks as everyone circles by the table of planning. “We do not know yet so for the time being, we will hang around the lake itself, and hope someone spots a machine entering the forest.”

And as they continue to speak about flanks, possible weak points of the forest around the lake, and other such measures, Denny would lift her head up, her little ears wiggle a bit as she gently bites Alexander’s arm a bit to get his attention, which it did as Alexander looks down, calling over Kade.

“My friend approaches with your friend” Denny says as Alexander nods, looking to where they initially came from, and sure enough, on timing, Penny and Jafk walk into the camp as the Gorgeous Boy looks around a bit. “D-Don’t think I’d ever spot this on my own…” he said quietly as he walked over to the two. “I-I have information now! The pipes, they are using a pipe directly connected with T-Tulip Town!” he said as Angel and the rest look over. “The pipes? But we sealed all of them, every connection with Tulip Town has been severed? And there is still the natural barrier. I can understand the train but…now just on their own?” Devil said, a bit perplexed even.

“Well, they have to be, the spirits, especially one that was a very old civilian of Tulip Town said it was the pipes, and they are using some sort of ‘rot’ to destroy some parts of the barrier. It must be somewhere yet uncovered, maybe. Does anyone have a blueprint of the pipelines?” Jafk asks as Lisa speaks up.

“As far as I know, the only one to have a guaranteed blueprint would be the missing Jessie…but we have a gamble…Ria Allthoughts, Mayor of Polar Growth, she is…I guess you could say the leader of our group, so if someone could have blueprints, it’d be her, but she is on a business trip up above…something about ‘groceries’ or whatever” she said as Kade sighs, and then a small thought…Kade raises his hands a bit and thinks long and hard…Ria Allthoughts, Ria Allthoughts, Ria…

For reasons beyond him, the blue string has appeared, despite him never having met one Ria Allthoughts, but it looked disconnected. Probably too far away.

“I can find her. How much time do you think we have?” Kade asks as Lisa thinks for a moment.

“Think 3 days could do it?”

“Hopefully.” Kade turns around, signaling to Penny to lead him back to the pipe as she nods. “This human lad will return with the blueprints then. I promise that” he said as he smiled, waving goodbye and following Penny as Alexander nodded. “Brave detective, am I right?” he said to the others with a small tone of genuinity, some nod, some are unsure, but Alex was very sure of himself.

As the camp left their sight, it was just silence between the two for a while as they walked. “So…uh…um” his worst fears. Silence. Just silence. “Read any…good books lately?” he asks Penny as she nods, continuing to walk. “That’s good to know…I don’t think i’ve read books for some time now…yeah…I much prefer experiencing the actions and mysteries myself, in person” he said as they continued on, soon reaching the town as they continue to walk through back to the gate from whence he came, down the forest road again.

“Is there…like a reason to be…silent? Trauma, self purpose, biological inability?” he asks out of curiosity as Penny turns around a bit to shrug, like she herself didn’t know. “Huh…guess that can be it too. Simply not knowing.” a small chuckle as soon enough, they finally reach the pipe entrance back to Polar Growth.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

“Thank you, Ms. Drag, I’ll return soon enough, and…probably have a good idea how to navigate this place myself now…uh. Have fun continuing to read!” Kade said, waving goodbye to her as she giggled oh so quietly, turning around and walking back to town. Kade watched for a moment before staring down the damp tunnel, sighing.

“Come on, Kade…for Silvia!” He began to walk down the large sewer pipe once more, and being a linear path, he didn’t have to worry about getting lost…it was just the dark that was a problem. “I should’ve brought a flashlight, maybe I have one as some Knowledge, heh…” he began to think to himself in his head. ‘Hey, you stars! Got any light?’. And no one responded back. “How disappointing…” he placed his hand on the surprisingly drier wall and used it as navigation so as to not bump into a turn. And it stayed like this for a good few minutes until he finally saw the light.

“Hope I didn’t die” he said to himself to keep himself from boredom as he began to walk faster towards the light before popping out from the darkness into the familiar grass plains, and the familiar town in the distance. “Good, looks the same” he continues to the town, passing by, but decides to visit the workshop first for his order.

Going down the same alleyway to the dead end, he knocks on the wall. 1 knock, 2 seconds, and then twice in immediate succession, and then 3 seconds, and the final knock. The illusion falls apart as the door reveals itself, the lock clicks open as Kade turns the knob, pushing the door in as he enters the now familiar hallway, closing the door behind him as he walks down it to the other side.

The sound of voices grew in volume as he got closer, just two of them this time as Kade grabs the knob of this door, doing a small knock before opening.

"Hello, hello?" he calls out, noticing Bonny, the fairy shop owner he would expect, and another figure he did not recognize. “Oh! Was I interrupting something?” The other person turned around to look at Kade, the man was draconic in nature, with 2 black curled goat-like horns and a green dragon head, similarly colored scales scattered around any naked skin, mostly being his arms, legs, and neck, with golden eyes and a cat iris. Taller than Kade too. How envious.

“You haven’t, my good sir…” he spoke, his voice was a bit higher than one would expect, but it still had that growl you would expect for draconic folks, and behind him, a slow wagging dragon tail, green too, as expected.

“Ah, Kade, I wondered when you would return, but no, nothing important was happening, just friendly chatter between friends. Now most, even those not in the know, would know who this man is…could you, dear?” she asks, as the man nods, doing a small bow.

“Taylor York, sir, of 18 Seconds, and who do I have the fortune to meet?” he said. ‘18 Seconds, huh, so he’s part of the group with Lisa, Jessie, Vincent, and…Ria, that makes 5 of them, but why 18 Seconds, and why is that specific number familiar?’ Kade wonders in his head for a moment before answering.

“Kade Wonder, a pleasure to meet you.” Kade introduced himself back as Taylor nodded. Kade would soon notice a small glint in his eyes before Taylor looked back to Bonny. ‘I’ve seen enough sad people over crimes to recognize that…wonder what happened?’ he thought to himself once more as the two continued talking to each other. Kade decides to leave them be and explore the workshop once more, going back to the necklace with the hourglass and golden sand. He picks it up, examining the hourglass. “The Hourless Glass…such a familiar name, yet it rings no bells or whistles…heh…whistles…choo choo” he shakes his head slightly to catch himself as he puts it back down. He’d turn back around to see Bonny momentarily leave the room as he walks over to Taylor.

“So…18 Seconds, huh? Do you by chance know the whereabouts of Ria Allthoughts?” Kade asks as he looks over, shrugging.

“She never tells me where she goes ‘shopping’, just leaves with a few words told to me, which I soon relay to the others to keep them informed of her impromptu shopping.” Taylor answers as Kade sighs, asking back.

“The hell is she shopping for anyways?”

“Hell would I know. Maybe she searches for people to…get her nutrients all. She is a vampire after all” Taylor notices Bonny walking back into the room.

“I wasn’t informed, that makes a lot more sense…” Kade said quietly to himself and Taylor as he notices Bonny holding a box. “Might I guess that the box is the…device you’ve made?” Kade asks as Bonny nods.

“Hah, another point to my guessing game, I am a master, but not Master, that would be you”

Bonny giggles as she hands him the box. “Sugar already came by with payment, told me to leave a little message for you. ‘Don’t worry about paying back, consider it a business expense’ is what she said” Bonny relays to him as he chuckles. “Business expense? Guess it would be…may I?” Bonny nods as he opens the box. Inside was as he was told, a regular, golden metal monocle, the seeing glass was very clear, despite all the features it would apparently have as he puts it near his right eye.

“Well, it’s a good monocle, I can say that, how does this work?” Kade asks as Bonny thinks for a moment.

“Well, a lot of Knowledge is included, some few Knowledge Imbued books and such, and using my own, I’ve fit all of what I promised into this thin monocle! And I even improved the switching system! It is no longer a voice activated, instead using a Mind Reading Knowledge, it can switch at a literal thought, try it now, try Magnification or Night Visionary” she explained to Kade as he nods, taking a small deep breath as he holds and lets go of the monocle, it automatically floats near his right eye, probably another Knowledge, as he thinks to himself…

‘Magnification’

The monocle begins to vibrate softly as the glass slowly turns, a camera lens appears out of the glass as Kade would chuckle. “Holy fuck, that’s really cool, genuinely!” he thinks to himself again already, another single thought. ‘200%’. And it responds, zooming 200% as he looks at something that was far away, which would be one of the tinier gears on a table, and he sees it well.

‘Night Vision!’

The monocle vibrates softly again as the camera lens melts into the clear glass before it becomes green, and then suddenly he gets blinded in the right eye as he takes it off. “Fuck, I forgot, oh that hurts” he said, holding his eye, wincing a bit in pain as he sighs. “Works very well, I like this, genuinely an engineering masterpiece, but must be just another gadget to you, huh?” Kade continues as Bonny nods, giggling a bit.

“Just one of many, dear~” she would pull out a small guide book, handing it over to him, the title read as ‘The Golden Monocle: Features and Purposes’ as he nodded, thinking of the thought ‘Normal’ as the monocle returns to what it was before before putting it by his right eye, it floats there once more.

“Thank you very much, Bonny…I feel as if this will be very, very useful in the near future” Kade said genuinely as Bonny nodded, looking back at Taylor. “And how are things nowadays, my friend” as Taylor looks away, Kade noticed a single glint in his eyes before he couldn’t see them, as he spoke.

“It’s been fine, Bonny…” he answered, yet something felt off…but it wasn’t Kade’s place to ask as he does a small bow. “I shall be looking for Ria now. Uh…may your days be good?” he said to the two as Bonny nodded, a melancholic smile over at her friend as Kade walked over to the doors, but before that…

“I will solve these mysteries, Taylor, and I will protect these children from him” he said with a smile before leaving, closing the door behind him as he walked through the hallway back to the illusionary door…

These people have stories to themselves. Kade wondered about 18 Seconds. How are they after the events of the Living Machines invasion above ground? What do they feel? Why are…they all…so familiar to Kade? They do not recognize him, but he does recognize them. Somewhat.

As he reaches for the door, something simply…clicks for him. A question.

“Have…I been here before?”

And as quickly as he pondered, he was interrupted by a voice behind him.

“Kade!”

Turning around immediately, Kade would see…no one. Except he was no longer in the monotonous hallway, but a moving train cart. And it was empty.

He immediately looks outside, seeing plains of green grass stretching beyond his vision as the train whistle blows, and when he looks back around the room, it was full of people. Humans, humanoids, mythical creatures and robotic dolls. And many more. It was busy, people talked with each other as he kept himself calm, but he couldn’t. He just couldn’t keep calm. For who sat in front of him on the seats he now sat at, but his mother.

And his father.