The slide that materialized was mesmerizing to look at. Whirls of shifting silver moonlight woven into intricate spirals and shifting symbols I could barely understand. Some looked like runes, some looked almost like pictures, at least for a second, and some I had no words for. "That's...amazing." I murmured, reaching out to touch the silvery substance.

Zeke reached out and smacked my hand away. "Not yet. If you touch it you'll get sucked in. Make sure you have everything prepared before you make contact." I shook my fingers, glaring a little, but nodded.

"So...what is this anyway? Did he make this just now?" The music had woven the slide, but something about it seemed too...profound to have been made by the old man. Not in terms of Impact, it was only F-rank like we were, but in terms of complexity. It was like I was looking into an absurdly deep puddle. Even if it was the same size as other puddles in terms of width, the depth was leagues deeper.

Zeke shook his head, looking at it with interest. "No. More like...called it? He gave it a place to connect. The slide is part of the glade. An important part." He shook off the faraway tone. "Doesn't matter. You need to go. The slides don't connect for long, and someone will have noticed." He patted my shoulder. "Be safe kid. I'll be keeping an eye out, but I won't be any good out here." He looked at the others. "Watch his back."

I looked around. "Hey, where is Jessie? We can't leave without her." Our healer was the most important member of our group, especially in a place like the Moonsong Glade, which would be full of wild animals and nature.

Callie pointed out the door. "She's outside waiting for the animals. You didn't think she'd leave without Randall and the wolves did you? It was the whole reason we brought them. It's fine though, she texted them as soon as we got here,and if she went out to meet them they should be arriving any second."

I turned to Abel. "Can you help her get them to the slide? They're too big to fit through the door, but your spatial lubrication should help get around that. Once they touch the silver they'll be snapped up."

He just shrugged and went outside to help. I looked back at Zeke. "Alright. Once that's done we're leaving. Don't drink too much while I'm gone, keep up with Cass's training, and teach Cark a few things too." I paused. "And tell them I said goodbye and that I'll see them soon enough."

I debated telling him about my decision to look for my mother, but I knew he couldn't do anything in the Glade anyway, and I was worried he'd try to talk me out of it. I decided not to mention it. There would be time later. Unless I was dead and then I wouldn't care.

Giving my uncle a quick hug that surprised me almost as much as it surprised him, I stepped back and took up a spot near the silver slide. I saw the air warp as the spatial lubrication created a path to the slide, Abel leading it in so Randall could reach the stream of energy. With one last look around, I reached out and touched the moonlight...and fell.

That's the only word that worked for it. Falling. Despite the slide going straight up for a bit and then curving slowly, as I rocketed up it I felt myself picking up speed. It wasn't anything as simple as gravity reversing, because I didn't feel like I had a body at all, it was like my soul was being sucked down a tube, but the tube had a million curves and twists and turns and was straight as an arrow at the same time.

Every inch I traveled felt like I'd gone through a maze, but at the same time I not only didn't slow down, I picked up speed. Like someone was shoving the impression of having traveled a winding path into my head every inch I moved, but they were all different winding paths, and my brain was having trouble keeping up with them, and then, suddenly...I wasn't.

I was just standing in the forest. The trees were swaying, the leaves were rustling, and I was trying my best not to vomit. There was a flash of moonlight and Callie was there. I had barely enough presence of mind to step in and catch her before she toppled over. Abel was fine, oddly, and it made me wonder if soul strength made it easier to adjust. Benny seemed to do relatively well too.

Nat and her guards looked sick but managed to stay standing, and Jessie landed still on Randall's back. Having four legs presumably helped, because none of the animals fell over. Jin, Rala, Lily, and Rolf, our wolves, all looked oddly energetic and excited actually, and I felt bad that we'd been keeping them cooped up in the city. Randall would want to stay with Jessie, but I would be thinking about possibly leaving the wolves if they wanted to stay.

We were lucky they were able to come along at all, it had been a relief to find out animals didn't count towards our slots. Sapience was a big thing in this case apparently. "Alright." I said with a rasp, my voice not working right yet. "Is everyone ok? No one hurt?"

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"Only mentally and emotionally." Moaned Benny. "I feel like I fell out of an existential dread tree and hit every branch on the way down. That was awful. I'm not sure if I feel like less than when I went in or more, or which of those things is worse because they're both somehow terrifying to me right now."

I grimaced. "Don't think about it. It sucked but it's over, and chances are we won't need to do anything like it again anytime soon."

"Speaking of being over..." Said Jessie from her perch on Randall's back. "Does anyone know where we ended up? Because I feel like the whole danger thing might just be getting started. The puppies don't look comfortable here, and they have pretty solid instincts."

Staring around us, I took in the trees. We'd ended up in a clearing, natural from the looks of it. part of me secretly hoped there would be some Moonglow Dew conveniently sitting around here, but there wasn't. Just darkness, shadow and foreboding thick between the trees. Which was when my brain caught up to the fact that we had our own expert on shadow and foreboding.

"Cal." I called, my girlfriend looking up at me as she tried to shake the cobwebs off from our entrance. "We're in a deep dark shadowy forest, think you could take a listen and get us an idea what we're walking into. See if there are any people nearby, or civilization maybe."

Shaking her head to physically rattle something loose, she grinned at me. "Sounds good. Give me a second." She knelt down, hand pressed to the shadow, and I saw her sink into the darkness beneath the tree, vanishing into the empty shade. I hadn't seen her do that exactly, I'd known she could, but it was still kind of crazy to watch.

As she slipped out, she shot me a frown. "Ok, there isn't much within my range aside from animals, but I did catch the very edges of a conversation somewhere nearby. Just at the edge of where I can listen, which means not close but not far enough for my liking. They're coming this way too. But since they're out of range I just got some noise and voices in a language I didn't know. Can't even give you a number. What do we do?"

I paused. We could run, but we didn't know where we were, and we could easily end up even worse off. Being solidly in place as well as having the numbers and power to protect ourselves, meant this was as good a time as any to run into another team. Worst case we could run away.

"We wait." I said firmly. "Callie, if you have the materials maybe set a few traps nearby, something we can avoid and lead them into if we need to get away." Just because we were going to make contact didn't mean we had to be stupid about it.

She nodded, pulling some materials from her ring. Nothing too fancy, her Trap Skill wasn't high enough anyway. She turned and got to work, and I prepared to greet the other team, whoever they might be. It would be nice to assume we'd know them but we couldn't count on that.

I half wanted someone to make an escape wish, but I might need the ones I had for bargaining. I started hearing them coming pretty soon after, breaking branches and crackling leaves heralding the approach of...I froze. Too many people. More than ten. More than twenty. I panicked, getting ready to tell everyone we needed to go, but as I triggered Eye of Revelation I realized we were already surrounded.

A man stepped out of the trees. Pale with dark hair, in plate armor. He glanced around at us for a minute, before speaking in, surprisingly, completely legible if heavily accented common, the language of the Conglomerate (and from what I'd seen most of the universe). "Outsiders. How...unpleasant." He sniffed disdainfully, and I decided I didn't really like him much. While I'd have like to mouth off because of that, I was the boss now, which meant everyone's safety was my responsibility.

Sadly, that didn't make me a politician or diplomat, but it DID mean I needed to be responsible enough to keep my damn mouth shut. I glanced to Celine, giving her a nod, and she stepped forward politely. "Pardon our intrusion sir. Might we impose upon you for our location? If we've trespassed on sovereign territory we heartily apologize, and would be happy to remove ourselves from your land."

The man's lip curled under his hawkish nose. "Remove yourselves? Why would we allow this. You expect Ladrigan to be the only kingdom without outsiders? Pelegar has already acquired four groups. We will not allow ourselves to be bested. You will come with us. The awakening approaches, and outsiders are the best possible source of the god Dew. You're all drawn to the stuff."

That...wasn't what I expected. Any of it. I knew there were locals, but not that they had fucking KINGDOMS. Not that they knew we'd be coming and wanted to use us as Dew detectors. I forced myself to calm down. We were safe, and if they needed us they wouldn't kill us, or hopefully hurt us if we played along.

"That sounds fine." I said cheerfully. "We'd be happy to help our new hosts, and we appreciate your hospitality. We're quite lost, so it's kind of you to offer us a place as your guests."

His eyes widened, and then narrowed, his face contorting as he presumably started to contradict me, when a musical voice cut him off. "What amiable intruders." Said a girl, stepping from the trees. She had long, cascading aqua hair, and pale blue skin, as well as ears as pointed as Celine's. "But very well, if it will smooth things over, guests you shall be." Her eyes turned to the pale man. "Drakov, escort them to my carriage. I'll bring them back personally."

Her accent was much milder than his, barely noticeable, and somehow much fancier. She gave us a warm smile, her completely blue eyes (no iris at all) glinting like spheres of ice blue metal as she stared at as, then she turned and strolled away, expecting us to follow. I had no idea what the hell that was about, but I was betting it was complicated. Joy.