"Where did you find that group of kids?"

It wasn't the only question Sophia heard shouted at Sweetfire by the group gathered at the bottom of the stairs, but it was definitely the loudest. It came from a man dressed in leather clothing stained by soot. He was clearly older than their team, probably in his sixties. There was enough muscle on his frame to say that whatever he did, it was a physical activity.

"A third your age doesn't mean kids anymore, Ranulf," the woman next to him said as she elbowed him. "I think those are the Flying Stars, which means they're second upgrade, not kids."

"You and your Arena obsession," Ranulf muttered at the woman. "Not everything's about the Arena, either."

"Just the important things," she countered.

Sophia was beginning to think that they were a couple. If they weren't, they had to be good friends.

Sweetfire spoke loudly over the noise of the crowd. "Everyone, get in your search teams; we'll give each team a dozen balls. Orvayne, do you have the search grid laid out?"

"Of course." The woman who scolded Ranulf and recognized them as the Flying Stars sounded almost offended.

Sophia took a closer look at her. She was probably similar to Ranulf's age, but her clothing was neat and undamaged, missing the soot and occasional burn marks that scarred his outfit. She also wore colorful cloth dyed in a pattern that reminded Sophia of leaves, rather than leather like Ranulf. It looked like a dress, but the moment she stepped forward it was fairly clear that the "dress" had a divided skirt. Despite its colorful appearance, it didn't have any lace, ruffles, or embroidery; it looked like a wholly practical outfit, simply a colorful one.

With the way they acted around each other, Sophia couldn't believe that the clothing difference meant a class difference; they were simply too comfortable with each other for that. It was far more likely that it was a difference in Professions. The man clearly did something that involved fire, like the smithing Sweetfire did but without the protection of using fire he completely controlled. The woman's Profession was harder to guess; it clearly required her to be able to move, but it probably didn't require her to work with fire or dangerous chemicals. That was really all Sophia could tell.

"Right. How many search teams do we have this time?" Sweetfire waved Sophia forward as he spoke. "Are there any new ones?"

Orvayne shook her head. "Sivven and Rey took their teams and headed out without waiting for you, but other than that it's just who you see here."

Sweetwater shook his head. "Rey will be fine, he's strong enough and so is Alyssa. Why did Sivven go out? Did someone join his team?"

"Sivven's granddaughter was at the Aquarium," Ranulf answered seriously. "They should be fine in the Aquarium's bunker, but you know what happened two years ago."

There was an aquarium in Mazehold? That was news to Sophia. Where did they get fish for it? Mazehold wasn't near the sea. For that matter, why was there an aquarium in the city at all? Wasn't that a tourist thing?

"That was a Water mazestorm," Sweetfire protested, then sighed. "We'd better go after him first, before we head to the Windows."

This time, Sophia was fairly confident that the Windows was a place, rather than meaning ordinary windows as she'd assumed before. She'd assumed that more magic than usual seeped into the underground because of the storm's battering force breaking openings that were usually closed, but this sounded like it was something more.

"No." Orvayne shot the idea down firmly. "I have Aster's team ready to head to the Aquarium anyway. You know cleaning it out is a two-team job. Drop an extra dozen balls for them to take with them, then head out. You said you could deal with the Lower Gate; the Windows are on the way. The Aquarium isn't."

"Fine," Sweetwater agreed unhappily. "Everyone, please dump out whatever Happy Fun Balls you managed to carry; Sophia, you'll be last since you have more space. We brought enough for every search team to take the usual dozen, plus extras for the teams that already left and three, no, four dozen for local security. Orvayne, do you still have the instruction sheets?"

Orvayne nodded. "I've passed out the search sheets to the teams, they'll be able to give the balls the detailed instructions once they activate them. I have a few extra, as well as the ones for here. Do you need them back?"

Sweetwater shook his head. "Not as long as I'm with the Stars." A wave in Sopahia's direction made it clear that he meant the Flying Stars, their team. "Do you think you'll get any more search teams? This seems unusually light."

Orvayne shook her head. "One of the butcheries in Rostlinn's quad had a door that fractured. They made it into the tunnels but were followed by a horde of stone ants. Everyone we can spare is already headed that way, and if anyone else shows up, I'm going to send them there too. I don't want another infestation."

"Can't be as bad as the grass weasels," Sweetfire muttered.

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"Doesn't matter," Orvayne answered. "I'm not having it."

The next hour, more or less, was filled with handing out Happy Fun Balls to various people who then headed over to a map on the wall, where they talked to Orvayne for a few minutes. After that, they headed out. Sophia noticed that each of them held a single Happy Fun Ball as they left; all of the others were in a bag or pocket. Sweetfire told the Flying Stars not to activate any of them; that was something the search teams would do as they traveled.

The last group of Happy Fun Balls were the ones intended to stay behind and protect the people in the unfinished room below Alley Sweetfire's shop. Oddly, Alley Sweetfire activated them himself instead of having the people staying behind take care of it.

Sophia found out why that was at the same time she found out why he said that sweetfire was the best way to activate them. When they came alive, most of them looked like the same balls they originally saw back in the alley chasing the Hidden Bush Biters outside Sweetfire's shop. Two groups of them did not.

Those two groups were set down near each other at the base of the two openings that led up out of the basement other than the one that led to Sweetfire's shop. Sweetfire activated them all at once in a rush of flame, flame that stayed around the balls as they began to move. The balls stayed together in a clump, almost like the ones that merged into a robot-like defender back in the alley, but this time they were bound by fire rather than liquid metal.

Their eyes were full of fire, but the overall impression was somehow sweeter than any other Happy Fun Ball Sophia had seen, with large dark grins and black feathery false eyelashes. It was the oddest thing; Sophia was certain that they would happily, even cheerfully kill anything that threatened the people they were supposed to protect.

And they'd somehow also do it sweetly. Probably with fire.

Sophia expected it to be time to leave after that. She was, unfortunately, wrong; Sweetfire somehow managed to spend the next ten minutes talking to Orvayne about what else needed to happen to keep the people in the basement safe. Sophia listened, even if it didn't seem particularly relevant.

When they left, Sweetfire led them through the hallway in between the two staircases that led up, the one that led deeper into the ground. It was very similar to the one they'd originally descended; in fact, the only odd thing about it to Sophia's mind was that, like the basement and the stairway down to it, it seemed to be made of concrete rather than stone blocks. That wasn't something she'd seen much of in the Broken Lands. Maybe it was just a coating, but she doubted it; it looked old and dingy but it was still smooth and unbroken, with no sign of a surface beyond the concrete peeking through.

"I should tell you about the Windows," Sweetfire started as he led the way down the stairs.

When he didn't continue, Sophia spoke up. "I assume they're not just windows that look outside?"

Sweetfire barked a quick laugh, but it was several more steps before he answered her implied question. "No, they aren't. At least, I hope they're not looking into a real place."

They reached the bottom of that flight of stairs, went through the first actual door Sophia had seen in this underground, and started down a long concrete-lined corridor before Sweetfire elaborated. "There is an area in the underground, towards the Arena, connected to the Large Underway, that holds nothing more than rooms filled with ancient tables set into the walls. Above each table is a window. Some are small and some are large, but none show what is on the other side."

Sophia frowned at that. Why would you call it a window if it didn't show what was on the other side? What did it show then?

Maybe the better question was what it was a window to.

Sweetfire's next words answered that question before Sophia even voiced it. "Most of the time, they simply show black glass, but when they do not, they can show anything, anywhere. Often, we don't even know where it's looking."

"And so when it breaks …" Sophia could half see where this was going. If the "window" breaking meant that it just couldn't look anymore, Sweetfire wouldn't be so worried about it.

"Sometimes it opens to the other side," Sweetfire agreed. "Or, at least, to somewhere else. They don't stay open for long, but all too often something comes through."

He paused for a long moment before he admitted, "I've read the records of when the Windows were first found. They were behind a locked door that the explorers broke open. There were no monsters there; they found odd black stains on the floor, but that's all. We now know that that's the residue that the monsters leave behind when they're killed, but it's nothing anyone has ever seen anywhere else."

"Then all the windows open to the same place?" Dav sounded just as puzzled as Sophia felt. "I thought you said you knew what some of the places were."

"We do," Sweetfire confirmed. "Mostly by reputation, but a few of us have actually caught glimpses of places we've been. They're all over the place; the Far Desert, the Skylands, Ice Mountain, the Calm Foothills … there are windows for every shard I've ever heard of."

Sophia gasped as she finally made a connection she probably should have made earlier. She had no idea why they'd leave a black residue, but she definitely knew of monsters that weren't monsters. "Did the monsters look like they came from the place the windows led or did they look like they came from somewhere else?"

Sweetfire paused and gave Sophia a puzzled look. "Where else would the monsters be from?"

"The space between here and there," Sophia answered. "Like something coming out of the walls."

"The space between shards?" It shouldn't have surprised Sophia that Dav picked up on what she meant before anyone else did; they'd talked about it more than once, and he'd even seen the Origin when they were originally flung into the Broken Lands. "I hope you're wrong."

There was also the time in the interspace conduit between the Skylands and the shard the Maze was on, now that she thought about it; all of her friends had seen that.

"So do I," Sophia agreed. She didn't think she was, but she certainly hoped so. Something that came out of the Origin might not obey the local rules and it certainly wouldn't be limited by the local mana levels.

At least not until whatever mana it brought with it was gone. Now that she thought about it, that might very well be the explanation for the black stains that were left behind; it sounded all too much like the stuff they'd used to patch the hole in the interspace conduit, and something had to hold the shards together. Maybe it was related.

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