Flickering light and rhythmic impacts stir me from slumber, eyes fluttering open to witness a spray of fist-sized red-brown stones clattering against the tower. I grimace and stretch out a kink in my lower back as Pearl starts to stir, flexing her fingers from where she was clutching my jacket. She looks up at me quizzically, then turns to the window and nods to herself.

  “So that’s what that noise is.” She yawns. “How long were we out?”

  I shrug. “No clue. Probably not that long, but I wouldn’t be surprised if a few hours have passed. The construct probably has an internal clock, so I’ll just ask it when we get down there.”

  Pearl wipes her eyes, then yawns again. “Are we going out looking for side quests?”

  “Until the quest gives us another announcement, that’s really all we can do. Clutter, you up?” I turn my attention to him and get a little grunt as an answer. “Good enough. I’m going to go talk to the construct, then we’re teleporting back to the other district to look for side quests.”

  “Unless there are others here that we missed.” Pearl adds as she climbs my torso.

  “Yeah, unless that.” I nod at her while she squirms into her shell. “How long do you need to wake up?”

  He groans and turns on his side. “I’m ready, I’m ready. Just… teleport me when you’re… red… snnzzz…”

  The sound of soft snoring fills the room. I roll my eyes with a fond chuckle and make for the stairs, sparing a look through the glass at the lighthouse with the party in it before I take the first step. They’re all in there, sitting on some kind of quilted blanket as they watch the meteor-like stones lightly smack the glass. There’s even a picnic basket in the middle of them, but it looks like it’s filled with random gemstones instead of food.

  “We should do something about them.” Pearl says. “They don’t look like the first wave the construct told us about, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t under the system’s control.”

  My nose wrinkles as I step down, cutting them out of view. “I think we should separate them. Under some guise of splitting up to cover more ground, but not in groups small enough that the horizonguard would have easy pickings. See if they act any differently when they’re not all together.”

  “Ooh, and we can justify sending the paladin to the other group, since everyone else is pretty weak-looking.” Pearl eagerly agrees. “That way we can see if they’re actually hiding things, or if the paladin is the only one that’s strong.”

  “Seems like a solid enough plan. Clutter might not like going off without me, but he’ll get over it.”

  I round the corner and hop down the last dozen or so stairs, skipping them to land directly in front of the room with doors. The shock ripples up my legs, but it’s no worse than anything else I’ve ever felt. And the restorative properties of the tower are already working to fix whatever little damage there was.

  “We’re going without Clutter? He won’t like… oh, wait, I heard you wrong. He’s going off without you. Nevermind. That’s the right call.” Pearl settles herself in something like a chair and reaches over into empty space. “There’s a good chance the party’s saying stuff they don’t want us to hear, and if they don’t know Clutter’s with them, they’ll say it anyway.”

  “Mmhm, that’s the idea. Finally putting his scout abilities to real good use.” I open the door, and my awareness washes over the construct standing not two feet away with my wreath-sphere in its hands. “Thanks for that. How’s it work?”

  The construct hands me the sphere and taps on the largest hexagon, inside of which is two new pixel-sized hexagons

  “That hexagon is our district. As you can see, there are two signatures in it; my trial, and another. Each district only ever had one major trial–one of the four pillars–so the other is for something minor. I can’t tell you what it is, since the quest heavily modified the contents of the actual trials.”

  I grin in amusement and send the sphere to my inventory. “What, the system didn’t intend to put partially-uplifted paindne in life threatening situations? Colour me surprised.”

  The construct shakes its head with a snort. “No, it saved that for freshly-uplifted paindne. Is there anything else I can do for you now?”

  “Nah, not right now. Just keep digging through that database of yours.” I turn and offer the construct a parting wave, but pause as a thought hits me. “How long has it been since I left the sphere with you?”

  “Two hours, give or take a few minutes.”

  “About what I thought. Okay, one last thing; if we bring people in here that aren’t me or Clutter, do not show yourself to them. You’re too valuable to risk getting hurt or destroyed because we got sloppy.”

  The construct puffs its chest out ever so slightly and stands tall. A small smile graces its plastic lips as it nods seriously. I raise an eyebrow at the motions, but quickly remind myself that this thing has a personality now; pride is something it can have.

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  “Alright; see you.” I wave again and actually step out the door. “Hey, you have a name you want me to call you instead of ‘the construct’?”

  It frowns as the door begins to shut. “I… will search my database for an answer. See you later.”

  “An answer?” I mutter to myself as the door seals us apart. “I didn’t think that was the kind of question it could search a database for an answer.”

  “Maybe it thought you were asking for its designation. Like… ‘trial construct two-two-one.” Pearl says in a mechanical, choppy tone reminiscent of what the construct used to sound like. “It could want a real name, too, just like Fleur did.

  I shrug. “Maybe.”

  Honestly, though, I’m not convinced. The construct sounded… reluctant. Almost introspective. It didn’t seem to mind just being called the construct–at least compared to how Fleur wanted to be called a name–so maybe it just doesn’t care. Eh, it’ll have an answer for me when we get back. Might as well just wait to hear the truth from the thing’s own mouth.

  With a hurry that comes from no reason at all, I take the stairs three at a time and crest the top in no time. Clutter startles at the sound of my footsteps, rubs the sleep from his eyes, and finally stands with about as much urgency as a kid on a snowy sunday morning. He looks at me for guidance through his sleep-haze. I grin and motion down the stairs.

  “Got a job for both of us.” I summon the sphere and gently toss it in the air before catching it with one hand. “How do you feel about tailing half of the party as they search for the side quest we already found?”

  He grimaces, most likely at the remembrance of the plastic stain. “Do I have to run from that thing again?”

  “That depends. Do you think the little room will still work without the construct in it?”

  “With my luck? Somehow, yes.” He grumbles, but moves for the stairs anyway. “All I have to do is follow and listen to them while invisible?”

  I nod in confirmation and follow him. “I’ll tell them where to go, and that I have another spot I want to check out. Two of them’ll come with me, and you secretly follow the other three to see what they do and say when we’re not around.”

  “Mm, that sounds easy enough.” Clutter pauses to yawn, smacks his lips, and hops over a plastic cable. “What’s the other spot you want to look at? Is it another side quest?”

  “Looks like it. Apparently not the same kind as the one we did, but hopefully it’ll give us another tower upgrade or un-grey something in our Class Cards.” I step past Clutter as we reach the bottom and place my hand on the wall. “Make a show of opening a door into the wall below while I go convince the party. We don’t want them getting suspicious about you.”

  “I can do that.” Clutter tugs on one of his hand wraps with a nod. “I’ll pretend to check something on my Class Card for a minute while you talk to them. That way we’ll have a better alibi. Oh, and what do you want to do about the other group? Just leave them here?”

  “Until they show us they’re worth worrying about, they can do whatever the hell they want. Opening the door now.”

  The wall opens up with a thought. I step out and nod back at Clutter, who smiles and waves convincingly as he pulls out his Class Card and starts fiddling with it. Plastic half squishes under my feet as cables of the stuff shift to give me better footing and the attention of the party washes over me like a spotlight. Ignoring the desire to look up at them isn’t easy, but after thirty seconds of walking, I’m standing right at the edge of the lighthouse.

  I shoot a glance over my shoulder to make sure Clutter’s doing alright just in time to see him bend down and put his hand on the plastic-covered floor. It opens up anyway, and he shoves aside a few cables to jump down. His inky invisibility flickers against my awareness as the door closes behind him.

  He’s ready. Now I have to be. I put on as pleasant an expression as I think is suitable for this situation–somewhere between neutral, tired, and curious–and put my hand against the wall. It opens into the space, and I lean only my upper body in.

  “Hey, I’ve got some leads to follow that I don’t want to do alone!” I call up the stairs. “Anyone want in?”

  Hushed voices that I can’t make out just barely echo down the stairs. I wait for them to die down with about as much patience as I can muster, but they’re having a damn lengthy discussion among themselves. After five minutes of near whispers I’m about ready to say screw it and leave these people here.

  “Alright, if nobody wants to, then I’ll go on my own. Don’t murder the other group while I’m gone!”

  “No, no, no, wait!” Jumble’s voice finally reaches above a whisper as footsteps clatter up above. “We’ll go!”

  I roll my eyes and lean against the door as a stampede of paindne rushes down the stairs. Jumble’s at the head and Dani’s taking up the rear, with the other three sandwiched between. Looks like they’re underestimating me if they think Dani at the back is the safe bet. I open my mouth to say something, but the… look in their eyes brings me pause.

  “What’s up? Something wrong?”

  Jumble shakes her head. “Nothing wrong at all. Absolutely nothing. Just… a little issue with some of our stuff.”

  “Stuff?” I frown and lean around her to take in the other four. “What kind of stuff, and what kind of issues?”

  “Don’t worry about it; we got it sorted.” She coughs as four pairs of eyes bore into her back. “Mostly. It won’t mess with our abilities; promise. So what’ve you got in mind?”

  Convincing is definitely not what I’d say she is, but I don’t need to be convinced right now. I pull out my sphere and tap on the largest hexagon, zooming it in so it covers most of the top half of the sphere. Both point of interest pixels shine like tiny stars.

  “I know where two side quests are, and since my friend is busy, I need people to come investigate them with me.” I trail my gaze over the entire party without shifting my expression. “I’m checking out the further one, and I want two of you to come with me. The other three of you can go to the closer one, then we’ll reconvene later and swap info.”

  Jumble stares at the sphere, a contemplative look etched onto her face. Dani, Ward, and Rina, however, have none of that contemplation as they nod at me.

  “Jumble and Euro will go with you. We’ll check the other one.” Dani says and reaches for the sphere. “And we’ll be taking this with us.”