"BIND! CONTAIN! GREATER WARD! GREATER RAY OF ORDER AND PURIFICATION! WANDERER'S RETURN!"

Lee rapidly fired spells towards Rosie. Binding ropes of lights and multicoloured spells encased her before she could speak. Crimson sparks occasionally sparkled and petered out.

"What the f*ck!" Tabby exclaimed. "She's just a girl!"

"This is a common Eldritch Horror infiltration tactic. They disguise themselves to seem as helpless as possible before corrupting whoever's near them," Lee insisted.

"An Eldritch Horror would have burst into pieces once you used any divine spells," Tabby rolled his eyes. "All you've done is made an already confused little girl cry."

Lee looked at Rosie. While her mouth was tightly bound, her teary eyes were enough to show her fear.

Sighing, Lee tapped the floor with his feet. As glass-like magic walls surrounded Rosie, she was gently lowered to the ground and the binding ropes vanished.

"Where are you fr... " "WAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH~"

"Idiot," Tabby hissed. "Which part about 'confused little girl' don't you understand? Go outside."

After pushing Lee out of the door, Tabby beckoned towards Sparky. Despite her fears, Rosie quieted down a little when she saw the yellow phoorumph fly towards a fluffy cat.

Tabby whispered something to Sparky who puffed up in disagreement and tried to fly off. Unfortunately, Tabby caught Sparky's tail and pulled it back. Moments later, Sparky had obviously lost the argument and went limp.

Rosie watched the pantomime in front of her with interest. To her delight, the yellow, noodle-like creature suddenly blew up into the size of a bolster and slowly flew towards her. It bypassed the magic walls and hovered around Rosie's head.

"Hey kid," Tabby spoke. "You play around with Sparky for a bit. I will be back shortly."

Squealing in delight, Rosie grabbed Sparky and rubbed its fluffy body, the yellow phoorumph resigned to its fate.

* * *

"Dinnertime!" Eleanor shouted from the kitchen. "Rosie!"

"Ros?" Eleanor was surprised when she couldn't hear her daughter's eager steps.

Perhaps she's too busy playing, Eleanor thought.

Eleanor went up to Rosie's bedroom. Careful not to disturb the arrangement of plush toys and wooden blocks, she checked if Rosie was hiding underneath her bed or in the cabinet.

"Ros, Ros? Where are you?" Eleanor started to get worried at the lack of response.

Where else could she be, Eleanor wondered. Recalling that she asked Rosie to bring the box to her office, Eleanor figured that Rosie might be there instead.

Eleanor floated up as she stepped into her office, thinking that perhaps Rosie climbed up the bookshelves as a prank. However, she couldn't find traces of Rosie even as she looked around from such a high vantage point.

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Eleanor tried casting a locating spell on Rosie. Her worries only grew as the spell failed and fizzled out.

"That should have worked," Eleanor mumbled, "...unless..."

Eleanor descended and approached her astrolabe. Rather than using another spell, she channeled her powers through the astrolabe, causing the astrolabe's rings to rapidly spin.

The rings eventually slowed down and stopped abruptly. Within the astrolabe, light motes gathered to show a reenactment of the earlier events. Eleanor frowned when she saw Rosie being abducted by the box.

"D*mn Marge and her box...," Eleanor mumbled under her breath. She tried channeling a locating spell through the astrolabe again, sighing in relief when one of the outer rings light up and pulsed gently.

Thank goodness she's safe. It will be difficult to pinpoint where she is though.

Eleanor fell deep in thought as she reclined slowly in her chair. While she is slightly relieved that Rosie is alive and unharmed, it does not mean that her daughter will be always safe from danger.

But why that place out of all the other dimensions?

Eleanor stared blankly at the astrolabe as she considered her decisions. Standing up decisively, she decided that it's time to take a trip down the Rabbit Hole.

First things first, she will have a long talk with Marge about the d*mn box.

* * *

As Sparky nobly did his best to cheer up Rosie, Lee and Tabby were discussing their current situation outside the shed.

"I don't understand how this could happen," Lee said glumly. "I mean, I know that something might go wrong, but having a random child suddenly pop up from an inter-dimensional portal is definitely not normal."

"You possess a variety of world-ending weapons, are staying with two mythical creatures, and are one of the most powerful individuals residing in this dimension." Tabby's tone was deadpan. "Normalcy is the last thing you should expect."

"But," Tabby pressed on before Lee could interject, "... the girl isn't exactly normal either."

"I literally said that moments ago," Lee retorted and rolled his eyes.

"I don't just mean her popping up, you idiot," Tabby sighed. "Think about what spells you have used so far."

"Bind, Contain, Greater Ward, Greater Ray of Order and Purification, Wanderer's Return...," Lee paused. "... was there some red sparks during my earlier casting?"

"Indeed," Tabby nodded. "And if I am correct, red sparks only appear when..."

"... Magic is used against divinities or beings possessing a physical constitution strong enough to repel the effects of lower-dimensional magic," Lee finished. "Since she didn't get empowered by the Greater Ray to break free from Bind and Contain, this means that the repel effect was from Greater Ward."

Lee grimaced.

"She's from the Upper Levels, isn't she?" Lee asked. Tabby silently nodded.

"Sh*t. No wonder Wanderer's Return didn't work as well," Lee rubbed his forehead. "The amount of energy needed to send her up is far beyond the limits of Wanderer's Return."

"Given that you have the largest amount of mana in this dimension, can't you just make something to send her up?" Tabby asked.

"Unfortunately no." Lee crossed his arms. "I can use brute force to open a portal, but the ambient energies of two different dimensions are highly volatile. She will be blasted to pieces as she goes through."

"Well, what can we do then? We can't let her stay with us forever." Tabby frowned. "While we may find it difficult to send someone up, it is worse if someone forces their way down here. This dimension is stretched thin as it is."

Lee silently looked at the shed. Tabby knew Lee enough to stay quiet when Lee racked his brains.

"There are two things that we can try," Lee said. "One, I try to extract her memory of what happened and recreate the object that sent her here. Given that inter-dimensional portal items are quite rare, we might be able to create a resonance and reopen the portal to send her back."

"Two, we try to find a dimensional passage that is still existing. Hopefully we can reinforce it to be stable enough to send her up safely."

"What timeframe are we working on?" Tabby asked.

"Since we know that the girl is from the Upper Levels, we really need to gain her trust for any memory recall spells to work or we risk being mind-wiped ourselves. I also need to tweak the spell to work on a being with so much mana," Lee winced. "Then there's the process of recreating whatever device transported her here which definitely isn't simple."

"For the second plan, I roughly remember where there's a stable dimensional passage, but undoing its seals won't be easy. So both plans will take at least six months to a year?"

"Seems like we're screwed either way," Tabby said after weighing their options. "Which plan is more likely to succeed?"

"I don't know, Tab," Lee sighed. "I don't know."