"The heads! The heads!" Clutter cries from just next to a growing stain of red magic. "That's the explosive one!"

I grimace and flick a purification at the puddle. Magic that roars through the red is swiftly clenched by my spell, but now it's completely useless. Clutter nods at me for a split second before he runs to the shelf and starts to play a very dangerous game of 'keep the magic-filled heads from shattering'.

My own spell turned monstrous locks onto me, and with another reverberating roar, charges. Each step leaves tiny salty particles on the ground that roll in my direction with the same viciousness as the creation they fell from. I can almost imagine tiny voices squeaking high pitched battle cries as they follow their leader into battle.

It'd be cute if it wasn't so immediately dangerous. I pull out another purification and an infusion as backup plans, then try to get a mental hold on the transformed shield. Much to my surprise I feel a tug–but it's ripped free from my mind by a much stronger force. In the absence of my command, a mental image imprints itself directly into my thoughts.

A shadowy figure distilling magic from a massive reservoir of colors. Thousands upon thousands of headless delivery constructs waiting in an orderly line for their turn to be bestowed with a glass head full of magic. Including me. I step forward twice, my vision growing clearer with each one until I'm standing right next to the figure. They hand me a glass head full of blue magic. I lower it onto my body. Commands lance through my body, ordering me to bring the liquid magic to… a place. A marking on an unmarked map. And the figure suddenly shifts from shadow to… to…

The oldest, most exhausted-looking paindne I've ever laid eyes on. Their entire silver-grey body shakes as they move limbs that are more bone than muscle to gently pat me on the head with a melancholy smile, then gestures off into the distance. I turn to follow their hand. A group of colourful constructs waits for me; two green, ten red, three blue, and four yellow. With me, that makes the exact right number. A perfect group.

My eyes clear and I take a step back. No more than a heartbeat has passed. Whatever the hell I just saw, I definitely wasn't supposed to see it. Not like this, anyway. I rub a hand down my face and flick the infusion coin at the charging soldier-spell. Pearl eeps at the thing's outstretched arm, but infusion devours it completely and utterly before it can touch her. She blinks in surprise, stares at the now filled coin on the floor, then turns to me with a question burning in her eyes.

"If infusion can do this, what's the point of purification?"

I rub my eyes and bend down to pick up the coin. "I've used it twice, Pearl. That's nowhere near enough to know."

"It's probably the amount of magic." Clutter says from his post with four heads precariously balanced in his arms. "Like, if there were two spells, I don't think infusion could take both of them. Or if you wanted to use it for an extended period of time."

"But that's just speculation." Pearl says. "Infusion could just be way better than purification."

Clutter shrugs as he carefully sets the heads in their rightful places. "Maybe. But my spell ledger says they're both pretty strong, so I doubt it."

"Not now, you two." I groan. "My head feels like I just finished a week-long study and caffeine binge. Pearl, you stay here with Clutter. I need to… see Click about something that might be important."

Pearl raises an eyebrow. "Did I miss something? I must've missed something."

She missed something, all right. But until I can confirm if this is a pointless vision or actually important, I don't want to say anything out loud. Mostly because Clutter's so excited to fiddle with the new untainted blue magic that I don't want to rain on his parade. And I need Pearl to watch over him.

"No more droplets until I get back." I say and start walking for the door. Pearl jumps from my shoulder to the table and gives me a strange look. "It's nothing serious, Pearl. Just don't want to jump the gun on something that might end up being nothing."

Suspicion colouors her expression as she narrows her eyes, but eventually Clutter pulls her attention elsewhere. She gives me one last glance before hurrying over to his side to stop him from rushing ahead with a machine I'm pretty sure he has no idea how to use. I take the momentary distraction to slip out and make my way back to the tower, then into the room with doors where Click sits absentmindedly humming to itself.

At the sound of my footsteps, it looks up. "Shelby. To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"I saw a strange place when I connected to the magic in a construct head." I say quickly and close the door behind me. "It looked like a huge vat of magic with a bunch of colours in it that didn't mix or muddle, and it was run by the oldest paindne I've ever seen. Does that description ring a bell?"

Click raises an eyebrow. "It does, yet it doesn't. As in I should have complete knowledge of it, yet I only have a vague sensation of remembrance at your words. Which means it's probably part of the quest."

"Shit, of course it is." I sigh and shake my head. "If I… say… drew you a map, would you be able to tell me where in the city that is?"

"That depends once again." Click says with a shrug. "Most likely, yes, unless that too was purged from my database. Speaking of aiding you, if you can add a district to your tower's influence I should be able to find all the subquests in that district."

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"And you can't do it now because…?"

Clicks sighs and rolls its eyes. "Because the quests are a part of the quest, obviously. So I have to compare the map in my database with the map you provide me to see the differences."

I ignore its snippiness and cross my arms. "What about uplifting trials? Do you know where all those are?"

"Yes, of course. Would you like me to pinpoint those on your map?"

With a wave of my hand I summon my Class Card. Click shakes its head, then mimes a sphere with its hands. I raise an eyebrow and summon the wreath-sphere, which gets a nod from Click and a motion for me to get a little closer. Once I hand the thing over to Click, it stares deep into the sphere with hexagonal facets and starts tapping away at the surface.

I lean in and watch for almost a minute of nothing. "Having trouble there?"

Click twitches its head to both sides. "No. If you want to know what is happening, I am extrapolating the map from the two districts whose names you know. Before you ask; no, I do not have to do this, but it will be a massive boon for you. Especially with how the other groups are progressing."

"Other groups. Since when do you know about other groups?" I ask with more than a little suspicion.

"Since they just recently cleared their own uplifting trials turned subquests." Click responds calmly and hands me back the sphere. "It is done. All the districts with uplifting trials are marked with an outline on their hexagon, and the place where they once were is marked just like the other subquests. Now, did you have a portion of the map to show me?"

I push my worries down and swipe my Class Card to the messenger function. Using what I remember from the vision I scribble a quick approximation of the map–which could be the destination or the starting point–and flip it so Click can see. It squints and leans in close, then raises its eyes to ask if it can hold it.

"Just don't swipe through it." I say.

Click nods and takes my card. It studies my simple drawing long and hard, its brow furrowing with every passing second. Just when it seems like there's no hope, Click gestures for me to give it the sphere.

I eagerly hand it over. "You can tell where it is?"

"I can give you an… approximation." It says slowly. "Even though the city is very repetitive, the districts do have their own unique maps. If I am right about this, the district you're looking for is very far away."

That's not a good start. "How far?"

Click hands both things back to me. "If we call the distance between your tower five hours, then it would take close to two-hundred hours to get to this district. And that's relying on the quest to not shuffle the districts since I was connected."

"Shit, it can do that?" I grimace and send both items away. "How do we know your trial locations are right, then?"

"You don't." Click says bluntly. "I've recorded the district names on the sphere. If they don't match up with what the quest tells you, then it either switched the names or the locations. Both of which are very plausible options thanks to you saving me."

Damn it. But I guess I should've expected something like this; the only reason we have this information is because of Click. It tracks that the quest would do something to prevent us from making use of it. As long as the whole 'quests are fair' thing is being respected, it means that none of the changes the quest's making can unfairly screw over other people. So it can't just be making horrible traps for us.

I shake my head with a sigh and turn to leave. "Thanks, Click. I'll tell you if things go well."

Click nods and goes right back to humming to itself before I even get the door open. I shoot it a parting glance before I shut it back in the room, then pull out the sphere and study the thing's surface. Dozens of tiny blips that weren't there before litter the surface of the hexagon that designates our district.

New subquests. Way, way too many of them. Almost like the main quest is trying to keep us from getting to the meat of things. I pull another hexagon into view–the one we were just hunting in–and there's just as many subquests there as there are here. It has to be a side effect of the quest progressing, but… it's just too much. How many of them are actually useful, and how many will give us tiny rewards for an overwhelming investment?

"We'll have to split up for this." I mutter in annoyance. "Perfect timing for the horizonguard to go on the offensive. I bet the bastard's got his entire force out clearing subquests to find the best rewards right now."

Well, everyone except nose and forehead mask. Their job is to make sure we don't get to those subquests. I'm pretty sure Clutter is the only person who could safely explore the halls for us… so… guess it's time to talk strategy. And time to meet the other people who've set up shop in the lighthouses.

I send the sphere away and hurry back to the workshop. Clutter and Pearl are in the middle of a bunch of experiments–but true to their word, they haven't used the drops again. Or if they have, they found a way to easily deal with them.

"Team meeting time." I declare. "Finish what you're doing, then meet in the meditation chamber."

Pearl nods. Clutter raises an eyebrow.

"What did Click say?"

"That the quest's getting way too long for my liking." I pull out my Class Card and turn to leave. "I'm sending Jumble a message and asking her to bring Euro with her. Clutter, did it seem like any of the others would be willing to work with us?"

He frowns in thought. "Do you mean without scheming to stab us in the back?"

"Obviously."

"Then no."

I shake my head in disappointment. "About what I expected, but sucks to hear nonetheless. I'm going to go see what our other guests are like, but push comes to shove, we might have to lose the privacy of our tower to get this done this year."

The suggestion sours the mood instantly. I don't blame them, either; having strangers in our tower opens us up to some real danger. We'll have to play around with permissions to see how we can keep the place safe and well-stocked. Because as long as we're a team of three–no, four now–we can't race the horizonguard.

Because something tells me he won't hesitate to do exactly what the system wants. No matter how horrible it ends up being for literally everyone.

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