The door slowly and carefully creaks open. A soft wind blows in, carrying a scent of lavender and the woodiness of some badly made vegetable medley. I almost wrinkle my nose in disgust, but catch myself at the last moment. The shadows darkening my awareness would easily notice it.

  The one further behind, who looks like a ytocwa, scratches his face and stares at Clutter. “You’re sure this is the right one? Not the geologist or either of the jewelers?”

  “Perfectly sure.” The closer one, a woman clad in airtight simple metal armor, says tensely. “The info said he’d be with a human with a shellraiser shell in her hair. Unless there’s hundreds of those running around we don’t know about, I’m damn sure that’s her.”

  The ytocwa hums deep in his throat, but doesn’t say anything. He pokes Clutter’s temple and flinches back at absolutely nothing, then laughs shakily in embarrassment. The armored woman sighs, but not in annoyance, and smacks him on the ass.

  “Don’t be so scared; it’s your magic making him like that. Her, too, I guess, but she’s not important.” She glances my way, but turns away a second later. Then she tilts her head to the side and looks back. “Wait, isn’t she the one Stonestep Solutions wants dead?”

  “Is she?” The ytocwa’s eyes open wide and he steps away from Clutter. “Oh, no, she is. Um… what are we supposed to do now? Does Stonestep Solutions want Clutter too?”

  Wait. What? Why does it sound like they know him personally? I press my tongue to the roof of my mouth to keep from making any noises or expressions, but it’s getting harder and more confusing by the second. If these people aren’t here for me, and are only here for Clutter personally, then do they even know about the quest?

  Pearl knocks her knuckles against something. “They don’t have any weapons, Shelby.”

  Yet again, I have to forcibly stop my eyebrows from rising. A closer look at the pair proves Pearl right–the armored woman doesn’t even have a scabbard, her armor isn’t dented in the slightest, and she seems perfectly at ease with the situation. The ytocwa, on the other hand, looks like he’s ready to run away at a loud noise, but he isn’t readying any magic or trying to put either of us in any kind of restraints.

  Something about the pair tickles a thought in the back of my mind. The armored woman in particular–her arms don’t seem perfectly even, almost like she’s concealing something in one of them, but she’s too airtight for me to tell. They both turn away from me to whisper to each other, loud enough for me to overhear, and I carefully blink my drying eyes while they’re not looking.

  “I know we’re here for him, but… what if he actually wants to be here?” She whispers with a frown in her voice. “He seemed excited to tell the woman and the painted dane something. Would he do that if he didn’t like them?”

  The ytocwa snorts. “He’s still with Dell.”

  “Point taken.” The woman grumbles. “He’s not exactly the best judge of character, that’s for sure. But… if he does want to be here, then do we have any right to bring him back to the Drift?”

  “We don’t have a ‘right’ to do anything.” The ytocwa raises a hand to his mouth and bites his thumb claw. “Dang it, I thought this was going to be a heroic rescue. Now I just feel like a huge jerk.”

  “Well… there is a really easy way to solve this.” The armored woman turns and stares at me. “All we have to do is talk to her. There’s been a huge overlap of Stonestep Solutions’ enemies and our allies.”

  “But she’s human. She could be with… them.” The ytocwa shivers as he speaks.

  The woman pats him on the shoulder. “That’s just a risk we’re going to have to take. Be ready to numb her mind again if things go bad.”

  He laces his fingers together, but reluctantly nods. “Okay. I’m going to… undo…” His face falls. Well, that’s the end of the act. “Um. Um. B-Briony?”

  She turns to him. I roll my shoulder, and he lets out a fearful peep. “What, Vesa? Did you forget your own magic?”

  “N-n-no. S-she… she’s…” He stutters and points a clawed finger in my direction.

  Briony, since I’m assuming that’s her name, tilts her head to the side before turning it towards me. Her entire body freezes up as I give her a little wave with a smile that shows just enough teeth to be intimidating.

  “How… you…” She trails off, then snaps into a fighting stance. “Vesa, did your magic even work on her?”

  He shakes his head and shrugs at the same time. “I don’t know! There wasn’t any backlash, so I thought it did!”

  I can’t help the grin spreading over my face. “Let’s leave that little mystery for another time, alright? And with that out of the way; nice to meet you. Why the hell are you trying to kidnap my friend?”

  “Kidnap?! We aren’t… I mean…” Vesa trails off as he makes eye contact with Clutter’s glazed expression. “Oh. I guess we kind of are kidnapping him. But not for whatever reason you think we are!”

  “Right. We aren’t with Stonestep Solutions. In fact, we’re kind of enemies with them, so we should be friends instead! Hahaha… ha.” Briony winces as she trails off. “Okay, I get why you wouldn't trust that. Since there’s all the psychic mind numbing going on, and we’re not just… asking Clutter to come with us like friends would.”

  I nod in agreement. “Seems more like the kind of thing Stonestep Solutions or the Preservation would do to try and stop us from getting to the quest we’re chasing.”

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  Both of them stare blankly at me at the mention of the Preservation. I kind of thought that was who they were alluding to a second ago, but maybe I was wrong.

  “The Preservation? The one with all the humans in it?” Vesa screws his face into a confused frown. “Why would we be working for them? We aren’t human. Now HuSt–”

  Briony elbows him in the chest. “We’re not with anyone you think we’re with. Clutter is an… important person where we’re from, and he has a tendency to get in way over his head. It lost me an eye a while ago, and if you’ve been with him for a while, you know how it is.”

  Lost an eye? Didn’t he tell me a story about that? “Were you with that one group who tried to help at the graveyard?”

  “...Yes, actually, I was.” She crosses her arms and tilts her head to the side. “How do you know that?”

  I gesture at Clutter’s back. “He told me after we went to said graveyard. Damn thing almost killed me, too.”

  “I know, right?” Brinoy sighs in annoyance. “Those stupid trees could easily save themselves, but they’re so obsessed with only being ‘overseers’ that they won’t do anything to stop things that have already happened. Unless it involves killing Paindne, then they’re sure fine with it.”

  “You’re telling me. The plastic stuff knocked me out for a split second and hurt me something fierce, and all the tree could manage was a little bit of sap and some ground water.” I summon a flask and slosh the thick liquid inside for emphasis. “If we weren’t on a quest, I would’ve been royally pissed at the thing.”

  Briony nods vigorously in agreement as Vesa looks between us with confusion. “I’m not sure what happened, but… are we friends now?”

  “Hell no.” I snort.

  “I think so.” Briony says thoughtfully.

  Both of them turn to me while Briony visibly deflates. “I… you two still tried to kidnap Clutter. You think having one shared misery makes us friends? How about you start by un-freezing Clutter, then we can talk like civilized people while we keep looking for our quest.”

  “Um… we can’t do that yet.” Vesa apologizes and shrinks away. “Clutter won’t listen to us if he actually sees us–but he’ll listen to the people who hired us to come get him.”

  I wait a second for him to elaborate, then coax him with a motion of my hand. He grimaces and looks out the frosted glass of the door, warring with himself over how much he either wants or can tell me. After a while, Briony nudges him with her knuckles.

  “Just tell her. It’s not like things can get much worse than this.”

  Vesa hums, then slowly nods. I’m… just… why are people trusting me so openly now? Wait. No. It can’t be.

  “Briony, are you a Paindne?”

  She cocks her head to the side in a very Clutter-like way. “How’d you know? I've even got a little spatial enchantment hiding my tail and rings while I’m in here.”

  Oh, god damn it. Illumisia’s DNA is definitely doing something to the Paindne. It’s working out for me so far, but it’s only a matter of time until it majorly bites me in the ass somehow. I need to find some way to cancel out… whatever it is that’s happening. My silence looks like it’s unsettling the pair, though, so I shake my head and sigh.

  “It’s nothing. I was just… wondering why two ytocwa would be after Clutter, but this makes more sense.” I smile falsely, and even though Vesa flinches, Briony doesn’t even react. “What’s with the name?”

  “My name? What’s wrong with it?” Briony asks, and it sounds legitimate.

  “Uh… it’s… well…” I trail off as I try to find a way to say this without sounding stupid. “Clutter, Nibble, Dizzy, Clamber, Scooch… it’s just that all the Paindne names I’ve heard so far have been…”

  “Oh, that.” Briony breathes a sigh of relief and puts a hand on her chest. “They’ve got more modern names, and mine’s more traditional. That’s all it is.”

  Vesa snorts, which gets him an armored elbow in the gut. It looks like there’s more to the name, but that can’t be important now. We’re running dangerously low on time, and I’m wasting a handful of the precious minutes on small-talk. If nothing else, I need to tell Illumisia to keep searching.

  I take a deep breath and focus on a mental image of Illumisia. “It looks like we’re not going to have any bloody problems here, so we can move on to the more important stuff now.”

  A growl enters my mind, and my awareness feels the door to the butcher’s swing open with a terrible crack. Briony bristles at the sound and swivels to face it, and Vesa stiffens at the sudden alertness of his partner.

  “Something just broke.” Briony mutters. “They must’ve followed us from the camp.”

  Vesa nods and puts a hand on Clutter’s chest. “Then it’s not safe here. We need to get Clutter out right now.”

  “Hey, hey, don’t worry about it. This place is just falling apart. See?” I rap my knuckles against the wall and push a small projectile against the impact. Wood and paint fly away in a slightly more violent whirl than I’d intended. “Let’s just finish talking about why you want to take Clutter away, and then you can leave us alone.”

  Briony shakes her head. “Not here; there’s too many entrances. We can hole up in the system made houses, though. Vesa, you make sure Clutter doesn’t get hurt. You–wanted woman–you’re with me. I’m not as good at protecting people as a psychic or a defender is, though, so you’ll have to stick close.”

  I blink as she puts a hand on my arm and magic swiftly yet insistently creeps down her armor. But not her body. It looks like water cascading over an umbrella, leaving the person underneath completely untouched. Curiosity warms my gut, and in a moment of weakness, I let her magic touch my skin.

  It hits like a shock of caffeine to my exhausted body. My brain whirls and spins with a buzzing flicker in the background that’s just a little too loud to completely ignore. I can’t even feel what she’s doing to me, but it isn’t sitting on my skin–it’s digging through and seeping into my veins where my body takes command and zips it through my bloodstream.

  Everything feels… intense. The air on my skin. Warm metal on my arm, yet somehow, it's as soft as silk. Sounds hit my ears like a powerful and cleansing calming rain. I lick my lips, which somehow feel plumper and healthier than ever before. Honestly, it feels like I just got a rejuvenating magic spa day that’s somehow leaving tangible benefits behind.

  Vesa glances back at me expectantly. I smile cooly at him, and he turns away with a shiver. Apparently I still make everyone uncomfortable except for Paindne.

  “Don’t worry about me. I’m fine.” I say and walk towards the door. “I can protect myself against whoever’s following you.”

  Briony’s hand tightens ever so slightly around my arm. “No, you can’t.”

  I raise an eyebrow. “You don’t know me, so don’t make assumptions.”

  “Yes, and you don’t know our enemies. Just… even if you’re strong, let us protect you.” She pleads, and it seems genuine. If I could see her eyes, I bet they’d be wide and begging. “You’re not even clearance ten. Don’t try fighting jerks with clearance twenty.”