Kashmir sniffled, sitting down on the ground. Now I’m all alone, too, she thought. She clicked the button on the rectangle again, hoping that another voice might at least soothe her loneliness in this inescapable cave system.

As the voice started back up, Kashmir’s Yiklar Amulet of Open Ears glowed with understanding, illuminating the cave chamber with a soft white light as it translated the foreign words.

“…alright, that’s it for today. Wanna say anything Flufei? …Grooo!…That’s a good girl! Alright, that’s it from me. This is Tanja, signing off…”

Click! Kashmir turned off the rectangle, wanting silence as she fished for a memory in her head. Tanja…? Where did I hear that name before?

She looked up at the goldatinum statue next to her. It was clearly a human woman. The only human I know much about is Vitra… she thought. Vitra… Vitra… the crazy alchemist with a winter foxferret named Bitty. The one with the dwarf friend… Borin… who said that they spent… oh! Spent months in the Frosted Wastes, looking for Tanja!

Kashmir stood up, and began to pace around as she thought. Looking for Tanja, the inventor of alchemy… a woman who loved the Frosted Wastes, had a pet winter foxferret named Flufei, and was obsessed with trying to turn cheap materials into expensive materials!

Kashmir looked over at the goldatinum spiderbat statue she’d seen when she first walked in. She now noticed it had been sawed open, revealing a detailed set of goldatinum lungs, a goldatinum heart, and other internal organs – all carved flawlessly in goldatinum.

An artist wouldn’t carve a bunch of internal organs for a statue, then seal them inside where they would never be seen! Kashmir thought. She turned, looking back at the statue of the human woman.

“Tanja…?” she muttered. Kashmir took off a mitten, and put her hand to the woman’s cheek – causing frost to creep over the smooth goldatinum face.

Kashmir looked down at the rectangular device in her other, mitten-wearing hand. “I think you dropped this,” she said, placing the device in Tanja’s goldatinum grip.

Kashmir looked around the cave, investigating the other statues. “I don’t see any goldatinum winter foxferrets around here…” she muttered. “Or even a skull and bones. What happened to Flufei? Could Flufei still be around somewhere? How long do winter foxferrets even live?”

Again, Kashmir thought back to her conversations with Vitra and Borin, back on Jaiphione’s Crescent. What do I know about winter foxferrets… well, Bitty clearly loves Vitra, so it’s fair to assume Flufei felt similarly about Tanja. Whenever I attacked Vitra, or something bad happened, Bitty would retaliate by sneezing some snow at me, or growing a few inches in size. What was up with that? I think Vitra said they shrink when they’re relaxed, and grow when they’re upset?

Kashmir looked back at Tanja, whose terror-stricken expression could only be that of a scientist that just made a life-ending mistake.

Winter foxferrets get attached to their owners, and grow in size when they’re upset… so, how big would Bitty grow if she watched Vitra die from an experiment gone wrong? Kashmir pondered.

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The purple elf looked up at the cave ceiling, which trembled slightly as the beast took another mighty step outside. The colossal beast… the one with a white winter coat, four fluffy paws, and a long snout. The monster that stood guard at the entrance to Wealth Mountain, which is the grave site of… of Tanja, its beloved owner.

“…The monster’s just Flufei,” Kashmir muttered as the realization hit her. With snowy tears entering her eyes, Kashmir turned to the statue of Tanja.

“That beast outside is just your pet!” Kashmir exclaimed. “Your pet winter foxferret is killing my friends just because she’s upset that you died!” The young elf kicked the statue’s leg, creating a slight dent in the goldatinum.

“You need to fix this!” she shouted at the statue. “I know how this works! A bunch of the humans worship you, just like all the elves worship Jaiphione! That means you should be able to grant a miracle or something, right? Jaiphione saved a whole island’s worth of endangered animals after she died. The least you can do is save a small band of goblins!”

She kicked the statue again, crying from the overwhelming situation. “At least unblock Wealth Mountain so I can leave…” she murmured. “…maybe I can reason with Flufei, now that I know who she is…”

Kashmir sat down, once again resigning herself to stare at the floor in defeat. It didn’t matter if she figured out the mysteries surrounding this place; she was still sealed in this cave system, and there was nothing she could do to save her friends.

Until a moment later, when a faint Hewmish whisper started echoing within the cave chamber.

“…Tanja, Tanja, Tanja…” a faint chant began.

Kashmir looked up, curious to see if the rectangular object had somehow started talking again. However, the rectangle no longer existed – it was warping, transforming into a sphere of radiant magical energy.

Kashmir jumped to her feet, getting a closer look at what was happening. “…Tanja, Tanja, Tanja…” the object chanted, becoming rounder and more magical by the second.

When the transformation was complete, the rectangular device had become a hollow, glass sphere filled with twirling, glittery, goldatinum-colored dust. Kashmir could immediately sense a potent magical hue about it, not unlike what she felt in the presence of Queen Eylbella, who famously kept Jaiphione’s Miracle Orb inlaid into the throne she sat upon.

Kashmir lifted the glowing object out of Tanja’s goldatinum hands, inspecting it carefully. The orb was completely immune to the purple elf’s icy touch – not even a small layer of frost grew over the item as it sat upon Kashmir’s bare skin.

“Are… am I holding Tanja’s Miracle Orb right now?” Kashmir asked.

“…Tanja, Tanja, Tanja…” the orb whispered in reply.

“Wow, I’m kind of talking to a dead person…” Kashmir muttered. “Or… a goddess? I guess?”

She shook the sphere, watching the goldatinum flecks of dust mix around in response. “I… guess I can make a wish, right? That’s how you work?”

“…Tanja, Tanja, Tanja…” the orb continued to whisper.

“Okay… that’s not really helpful. Hmmm…” Kashmir paused, thinking carefully for a moment. “My mother says that Jaiphione’s Miracle Orb only works once every thousand years. Jaiphione sits behind the queen today, but if Queen Eylbella decides to make a wish using that orb, then the magic will fade for a century. Is it fair to assume this is sort of the same situation?”

“…Tanja, Tanja, Tanja…” the orb muttered.

“Yea, Tanja Tanja Tanja. Okay. I’m not going to waste this wish,” she said, tucking Tanja’s Miracle Orb under her arm. “If anyone deserves to see you before your magic vanishes for a thousand years, it’s Flufei. She’s bigger than this mountain, and she’s been howling in pain – in grief, rather. I’m going to bring you to her.”

With the magic item tucked under her arm, Kashmir hustled back to Wealth Mountain’s ice-covered entrance. I don’t know how I’m going to get past the ice blockade, but I’m going to find a way, she thought. I need to bring Tanja’s final gift to Flufei. Help your enemies, instead of hurting them. That’s what Colb taught me to do, and in my gut, I know it’s the right way to end this.