Sophia's attention was drawn away from the possibly sentient robot when one of the mobile bushes chomped down on another feather. It didn't hurt, but it still got her attention; she suddenly had one fewer spot where she could influence the world.

It wasn't the only one she'd lost, either. Her feathers were her biggest protection and her offensive weapons, but they were also very fragile individually, and the bushes seemed to have decided they were treats. They were challenging treats, with as high in the air as Sophia was keeping them, but that didn't seem to dissuade the fake bushes.

Sophia grumbled to herself and started Force Blasting the largest groups she could, any time she could make sure she wasn't also hitting someone she cared about. More than once, she had to stop herself when Xin'ri or Jax or the robot was buried under a pile of bushes; she didn't have the mana to deal with killing the bushes one at a time.

None of her allies were ever really in danger; the bushes were dangerous only because of their numbers and everyone had a way to get them off if they were overwhelmed. Xin'ri used the fiery staff she had out to create an expanding sphere of flame that crisped the bushes that overwhelmed her, while Jax's shield spread to cover himself in tiny knives of light that slowly snipped the bushes as they tried to take advantage of his fall.

The robot's method was particularly unique. It caught Sophia by surprise, though as soon as she saw it, she knew she should have expected it. The robot continued to squish the bush-beasts one at a time until they completely covered it, then detonated its head and sent bits of flaming meat and fur flying away from itself. It flailed around, occasionally squishing bushes but mostly missing, until some sort of black goop stretched up from the body and formed itself into a new head.

Sophia watched as the Hidden Bush Biters overwhelmed Dav and knocked him over. It was just as effective as the attack on Jax, which meant it wasn't very effective at all. Sure, twenty of the little bush gremlins could knock him over and bury him, but none of them could really hurt him. When he began to glow with purple flame, Sophia wanted to giggle.

That was when she felt yet another of her feathers disappear. She checked and found that she was down to only seven feathers, when she'd started with twenty-two. It annoyed Sophia that she was probably the most vulnerable person present, because her feathers weren't protected by anything other than the space they spread across. She needed to do something about that.

Sophia quickly picked a feather close to Dav and reformed herself. She needed more feathers, but she could take a moment to appreciate his surprisingly fiery Spiked Shield Call.

For a brief moment, a hedge of black and purple spikes formed around the pile of bush-monsters that covered Dav. They disappeared almost immediately, leaving small critters that leaked blood from new holes and no longer moved unless Dav pushed them out of the way.

Sophia cheered, then reached into her bag and pulled out a handful of feathers, then another and another. She didn't have a shortage of feathers and this was the absolute perfect time to see if using feathers that came from an elementally-aligned monster affected her Force Blast at all.

A half dozen Force Blasts later, Sophia wished she'd started the testing when she was full of mana instead of after she'd used half of it; she was starting to get low and she wasn't really entirely certain what she was seeing. Using a magical feather as her focus seemed to strip it of its magic and make it hers, as if it were created by her Ability instead of merely animated.

It also seemed to affect the spell a little, but the effect was small enough that she wasn't entirely sure it was worthwhile. A single Force Blast still killed as many Hidden Bush Biters as she caught in it, so at least it wasn't making them weaker, but she couldn't really say what it did do. So far, the answer seemed to be "not much, really," but that might just be because the fake bushes were incredibly weak.

An explosion pulled Sophia's attention down the side street, in the direction the bushes and balls originally headed. She expected to see more of the exploding balls, but instead she saw flame fill the alley. A moment later, it cleared and Sophia was able to see the person behind the flame.

An androgynous figure covered in swirling tattoos and fire strode towards them holding a fiery metal ball. Long hair and large earrings made Sophia think the figure might be female, but there was something about the way the fire mage moved that screamed male.

A pair of horns made of literal fire crowned his - or her - head, while eyes glowed with fire that made Sophia think that this might be the Broken Lands' version of a fire demon. Tattoos swirled down the demon's limbs and a pendant glowed with inner fire against the well-muscled chest. An odd black outfit held in place by a pair of buckles at the shoulders and a belt at the waist added to the dissonance.

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"You're not locals," the fiery figure stated in a surprisingly deep voice. "I don't know you, but you shouldn't be here. Not on cleanout day."

"Cleanout Day?" Dav sounded significantly less confused than Sophia felt. If anything, he sounded offended. "Does that mean you're trying to kill the monsters? How were we supposed to know to stay away?"

The fire mage sighed. "Outsiders never ask when they enter the district. Cleanout day is once every fourth tenday, and if people quit skipping it, we wouldn't have problems like this."

A gesture at the fake bushes was followed by a gout of flame that washed across a group that was starting to gather together to charge the mage. They fell just as quickly as if Sophia hit them with a Force Blast, but unlike her relatively invisible magic, the fire left them smoking and even burning in a few spots.

"I knew something was going on when my exploding balls quit exploding. I guess I should be happy it's strangers instead of a worse failure. Come on, let's get you off the street. They should revert to their more effective form once you aren't here to be endangered. At least I know that part works for someone other than me." The mage turned and started walking the other direction. "Good to get something out of this I guess. How did they find out you were here?"

"One of the Happy Fun Balls bounced off Jax's shield," Sophia answered. She took a moment to pull her feathers to herself before she moved; they couldn't move at even a slow walk, so she'd need to carry them if she wanted to follow the mage. "Did you make them?"

The mage snorted. "What did you call them? Happy Fun Balls?"

"Uh, yeah." Sophia faltered. She'd never be able to explain the decades-old reference, not really. "Because they make fun explosions if you look at them wrong?"

The fire mage laughed. "Not what I usually hear about my explosions. I do like the name, though. Happy Fun Balls. Yeah, that'll work."

"Where are we going?" Dav moved quickly until he was more or less even with Sophia, then matched his pace to hers.

"My place," the mage answered. "Sweetfire Armory's the only place I know is really safe from those little bitey sneaks. We have an infestation of the things but no, they aren't dangerous enough to justify a full cleanout supported by the Cooperative, the locals have to keep their streets clear of pests. Well, that works until everyone else cleans their streets by pushing the pests onto mine."

The mage Sophia guessed was probably Aloysius Sweetfire shook his head and grimaced. "Not dangerous, pah. Tell that to a Professional who loses a finger or a kid with a missing hand. They're why we hide in the tunnels and those things aren't afraid to head into the tunnels. That's why my Happy Fun Balls can join together like that, have to have a safe way to guard the doors that won't hurt the kids."

"Are you Aloysius Sweetfire?" Sophia figured she'd better check.

"Yup. Do call me Alley, though. Hate the name Aloysius. Who sent you to me? No, wait, don't answer that yet." Alley Sweetfire jumped forward a couple of steps, then bounced up several steps to a heavy iron-banded wooden door. It was completely unlike the entrances Sophia had seen so far in Mazehold; the roof only hung out over the entrance enough to keep dry in a light rain and there was no colorful sign out front. Instead, there was a charred inscription in the wood of the door that said Sweetfire.

Alley pulled the door open. It was even thicker than Sophia had first assumed and had to be heavy, but it really wasn't surprising that a blacksmith would be able to open even a heavy door.

Sophia was just close enough behind Alley that she saw him toss the flaming ball of metal at the open door of a large metal oven. Most of the flame that surrounded him vanished, leaving only his odd eyes and the pair of horn-like peaks of flame in his hair. It wasn't until he turned to face the group that Sophia was able to see that his pendant no longer glowed with fire; instead, it looked like dull, unpolished metal.

Sophia glanced around the room. It was as unlike the sales room at Ebayne's shop as possible. There were no items mounted on the wall with little tags saying what they were; instead, there was a wall covered in tools mounted on pegs, probably to make them easy to find. There were a number of obviously half-completed projects set out in their own space on the floor, but it somehow managed to look organized. It was probably the space between each of the projects and the way they were all pushed together, as if they'd been set aside to wait for something.

There was no counter, either; nothing separated the obvious work area from the entrance. The size of the room and the fact that there was both a bed and a small kitchen area, complete with a table and five stools, told Sophia that this was where Alley Sweetfire spent most of his time. There were a couple of doors at the back, so it wasn't the entire building, but that probably meant it was storage for raw materials and finished products.

Sophia wasn't sure what else would be back there, other than an entrance to the underground routes that Jax said were all over the city. It made sense that one of the doors would lead to that, too.

"Please close the door … thanks. Now that we're out of the way, the Happy Fun Balls can get back to doing what they're supposed to." Alley clearly liked the name; he smiled when he said it. "It's obvious you're here to see me or you wouldn't know my name. Who sent you?"

"Rinata. She didn't say much about you, other than that you buy unusual things." Sophia paused, then decided that it was a good time to ask the question that burned in the back of her mind. "Are the Happy Fun Balls actually sentient, or do they just imitate it for some reason?"

Alley Sweetfire stared at Sophia for a long moment, then laughed. He seemed to relax, as well, even though Sophia hadn't realized he was tense. "That's not the usual first question. I like that one more than are you really a guy?. They're about as smart as a dog; loyal, too. A little too happy about exploding for my taste, since I have to rebuild their outer shells afterwards, but they really love killing monsters so I guess it evens out."

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