Three years. Jumble looked for three years, and didn't find a trace of the people she was looking for. I hate to say it, but that sounds like those people don't exist any more to me. Or… well… maybe they're preserved like our buddies in the tubes.

"So how do you do that now?" I ask. "And why'd it lead you to us?"

Jumble gestures broadly at the room. "Things like this. The quest repurposed everything that was left behind in the city, so if there's even a trace of the people I'm looking for, they'll be part of the quest eventually."

Hm. I guess that's logically sound. Probably means Jumble wants this quest to last as long as physically possible, though, which isn't necessarily what I want. A few months, even up to a year–sure. But she looked for three years. She'll definitely want more than that now.

I click my tongue. "What happens if you can't find them in a… timely manner?"

"You mean before someone ends the quest. Honestly… I don't know." Jumble shakes her head. "Until I found my way back into this place, I thought I'd put everything behind me. Made peace with what's lost being dead and gone, you know?"

She sighs. "Look where that led me. I'm at the quest's whim, just like I was at the system's whim so long ago. I… always wondered why I stayed where I did before all this. Why I stayed near the megalodane before the system destroyed our old home to tear a chunk out of her. Maybe it was some twisted sense of responsibility, or pure awe at this one being that showed what any painted dane could become with enough time and skill."

I lean forward, my interest piqued in a brand new way. Of course Jumble knew Illumisia–if not personally, then by reputation. Illumisia held a grudge against all the paindne who abandoned the shellraisers, but… I don't think I ever heard her talk about the ones who stayed. Maybe they're one and the same to her–I can't pretend to understand what it feels like watching literally everyone you knew be slaughtered or abandon you.

But… some paindne think Illumisia is their progenitor. Which is funny in a twisted kind of way; the people Illumisia hates thinks she's the one who created them. Though from how Jumble put it… maybe there's some twisted truth to the statement.

"Jumble, do you remember what kind of painted dane you were before?"

She raises an eyebrow. "In our old language, we were named differently. Now… the system called what I was closest to a 'sun-drenched howler'."

"Not a cherry corpsedragger?"

Jumble shakes her head. "Corpsedraggers had more magic than I did. You almost sound like you fought some of my… branching cousins."

"You could say that." I laugh. Jumble winces apologetically, but before she can actually verbalize it, I stop her with a wave of my hand. "Don't apologize; I met someone who explained everything a while ago. Maybe you'll meet her when I'm confident the horizonguard here can't kill people I'm trying to keep safe on the outside."

"Someone from way back then?! Who? Who?! Tell me, please!" Jumble says with childlike excitement, placing her hands on my knees and leaning into my personal space. "Did they ever talk about this place? Did they–no, they obviously didn't talk about me, or else you would've recognized me instantly. Wait, nope, I did the celebrity anonymity thing when I accepted the quest. Oh, who cares! Someone else is alive! That's… that's…"

Her words catch in her throat in a moment of overflowing emotion. "That's wonderful."

I plaster on a smile, not wanting to destroy Jumble's moment. "I'm sure she's… going to meet you too. You said something about a megalodane; I've heard other paindne talk about her as the progenitor of the species. That's obviously not true, right?"

"Um, no, that's perfectly true. And don't think I didn't catch you changing the subject there, you sneak, you." Jumble grins and leans back into her spot. "The megalodane–or Illumisia, as the overmonarch of the shellraisers called her–was pretty much just a god. All I know about her are the stories and myths that were already super old when I was born; and that the system used her flesh and blood as the base for the wave two paindne–that's why it couldn't control us. The megalodane's hatred was too strong, and her interwoven maelstrom of different painted dane DNAs meant the system couldn't pull one out and make us… weak like the wave ones."

Pearl smiles to herself as Jumble speaks. "I'm not sure if Illumisia will be happy or devastated to know she's the reason the paindne have free will."

Happy. Overjoyed, even, to have spit in the face of the system. But some part of me already knew she'd found a connection with Clutter–so maybe she found out way before we did. She doesn't feel the need to share all of her thoughts and findings with the rest of us, after all. But it does bring up one question; why?

Stolen story; please report.

"If using megalodane… flesh… for you made you stronger yet immune to the system's control, why'd it even bother in the first place?"

"Ooh, I actually have the answer for that one–power. Raw, overwhelming power." Jumble flexes one arm and pats her bicep. "We're the pinnacle of paindne evolution. All the wave ones have to be artificially strengthened by the system to even come close to us, and the system always just thought of us as test subjects anyway. I bet we were all supposed to die out eventually, but… the event… changed everything. Did you know that there were no wave two paindne in the world before the thing I can't say happened?"

I raise an eyebrow. "Literally none?"

Jumble makes a '0' with her fingers. "Nobody at all. But the system had been planting wave ones in the world for a really long time before that, so they had a good head start. That's not important right now, though; what's the person's name you met? Where did you meet them? Did they tell you about this place at all?"

She leans in again, her enthusiasm dissolving her sense of boundaries with every word. I stare her in the eyes, looking for a single sign that she's doing this on purpose as her body gets closer and closer to mine. All I see is someone who's been alone for way too long and is relishing in having someone else she can actually talk with and connect to.

"They didn't say anything about this place." I say slowly.

I expect it to numb Jumble's enthusiasm, but she just nods. "I don't blame them. Most of us didn't live long enough to be… around anymore. Heck, I thought I was the last one of the wave twos that was still alive–it's been so, so long after all. What about my other questions?"

Pearl giggles as Jumble nearly lies down in my lap, her eyes twinkling as she stares up at me. She's just… damn horrible at giving people their personal space. I close my eyes and let out a long breath, rubbing the bridge of my nose with my fingers to silence all the reminders that simmer at the tip of my tongue.

"It's… technically two of them. Pearl, and… Illumisia." I admit as I crack open one eye to gauge Jumble's reaction. Much to my surprise, she barely does.

In fact, she just nods. "Named after the megalodane and a pretty common shellraiser name. Honestly, it sounds like they told you fake names; pretty much all of us wave-twos have names like mine and Clutter's. The system thought it was funny, so we took it for ourselves to spite it; carefree names for the paindne it can't control."

I smirk and pat her between the ears. "Yeah, sure, let's go with that. As for where I met them… that's the same place I first appeared here; the seasky shores."

Jumble murmurs happily and pushes her head against my hand. "That's close to where we used to live. Before the system destroyed the seafloor ecosystem that we lived in. Could you… um… scratch a little?"

"Like this?" I lightly press my nails through her fur, barely scraping against the skin underneath. Jumble lets out a contented sigh and nods with a dreamy look on her face. "Glad you're feeling better. Today was probably pretty intense for you, huh?"

"Yeah, it really was." Jumble sighs. "But… in a really good way. I could go on for hours about how this place worked, and how it tried to get rid of all our culture, but… I can tell you all that when we're not stressed for time at all. When we're… done. When this place is done."

Jumble opens her eyes and stares up at me. There's an intensity in her gaze that speaks volumes–of a mind that's already made up, a resolve to take the hard way out, and a hatred of the system that's so deep that it might as well be etched into her DNA. I raise an eyebrow even though I already have an idea of exactly what she wants.

"Not 'the quest is done', but 'this place is done'." I clarify. "Tell me what the difference here is."

"The difference is that when we're done here, this place disappears. For good this time." Jumble says, her tone deadly serious. "I'm not letting the system start up experiments again no matter what. This place was almost completely destroyed once before, and I'm going to make sure 'almost' gets removed from that descriptor. Will you…"

I nod as Jumble trails off. "As long as we all make it out of this alive, I'm all for reducing the system's work to atoms."

The smile Jumble shoots me is as brilliant as any sunrise at the resort. She giggles to herself in utter happiness, grabs my hands in hers, and presses my fingers deeper into her fur. I scratch as her tail swishes faster and faster over the edge of the couch, proving just how efficient the backless design actually is.

"Thank you. Thank you so much." She whispers. "I promise you won't be disappointed in me. And… as soon as the system says I can tell you the last little censored bits, my memories are your stories. It's probably the most interesting part of my entire life while I was stuck here, and I promise I'll embellish them just enough that you won't mind if I take ten hours to say everything.'

I place my free hand on my chest to feign shock. "Ten hours? Are you sure that's going to be long enough to recount your noble deeds?"

Jumble giggles again and closes her eyes. "My deeds are anything but noble, but my story will tell a different story. Um… can we sit like this a little longer before we finish up the subquest? It's really nice."

Pearl squeezes out of her shell. "Shelby is really good with her hands."

"Yeah, she is." Jumble coos happily. "It's been so long since someone just… cared for… me?"

A frown of confusion spreads over her face as she cracks one eye open. Pearl waves with an innocent smile as she sits down on my shoulder in all her gloopy shellraiser glory. Jumble's eyes fly open and she stumbles over words that she struggles to find.

"Hi Jumble, I'm Pearl." She says. "I have a few questions Shelby forgot to ask if you're not too freaked out from seeing a shellraiser to answer."

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