"What are we doing in here?" I whispered to Rivi as she padded her hand along the dusty back wall of the Silver Moon Tea House's basement. "And why all the secrecy? Don't you own this place?'

"Shh," She turned back to me, also whispering. "I keep a secret stash of equipment down here, but it's been ages since I last opened it. We don't want anyone figuring out we're gearing up to leave, do you?"

"I guess," I looked around shiftily. I still couldn't really believe I was going along with her plan, but I didn't really have any better ideas.

"Ah!" Her hand shifted further into the wall and we heard a soft click. "There we go." I looked around for some secret door to swing open, but I couldn't see anything. "And now we…" She grabbed my hand and shadows grew up around us as we travelled through the wall and into the secret room beyond it.

When the shadows faded I found that we were at the top of a dusty stone staircase that looked even less used than the abandoned basement we had just entered from. Rivi looked around and found a small stone switch on the wall which she flicked.

Shadows grew up around the walls, sealing the space yet somehow also casting a dim light on the stairway down. "Ok," She stopped whispering. "We should be alright to talk now. What do you think? Cool right?" She grinned. "Ooh! This is my first time showing anyone this. I had to make it myself, cuz, absolute secrecy right?" She gave me a little wink.

"Uh, yeah, pretty cool actually." I looked around at the shadows engulfing the walls. She was right, my inner child was absolutely gleeful at this moment, but there was no way I was going to be the one to lose my cool. "So…the equipment's down here?"

"Right! Yes, let's see what I managed to tucker away."

She led me down the stone staircase and then froze. "What's—" I stopped as I saw what she was looking at.

On the wall in front of us at the bottom of the stairways was written in big red letters. "NOE SUCKS!!!!!!"

"Uhhh…" Rivi stuttered, her face turning bright red in the pale light. "Why don't you stay here. I think I need to. *cough* clean up a little." She rushed to the wall and cast a spell with a wave of her hand to clean off the letters just for them to change until they said "Really?? You're so petty that you have to clean off my wall graffiti!? ( ｰ̀εｰ́ )"

"Oh my god, I forgot I did that," Rivi tried another spell just for the letters to start changing again, but before they could finish, she panicked and summoned a giant ball of dark energy demolishing the whole wall.

She looked back at me, "So, umm…Stay right there!" She rushed further into the room transforming into her spider dragon form to begin rampaging the place.

I followed for a few steps until I was in the room proper just to see her leaping from place to place tearing apart various dolls, furniture, and stuffed animals as she furiously spit out webs that coated every wall from top to bottom. It only took her a few moments before she returned to her human form and came back to me panting and breathless.

"So uhh…" She panted. "Welcome to my place…The equipment…is back here." She gestured towards the one piece of furniture that remained unscathed from her escapade through the room.

"Hehe," I started to giggle. "Hehehehe," it started to break out of me like water from a dam. "Hehehehehehe hehehehehe…You…hehehehe…you…hehehehe…you seriously…hehehe…and then you….EHAHAHAHAHA." I broke down laughing, bending over gasping for air.

She frowned at me. "It's not—hehe, It's not funny! hehehe." My giggles were infectious and she couldn't help, but start following me down the giggle train. "I was bored, ok! Hehehe. I made this place when they first locked me up down here when I was still pissed."

I was still laughing.

"Ok, really, hehe, that's enough, come on, hehe, now."

"Ok, ok," I wheezed, wiping tears from my eyes. "I'll, hehehe, I'll stop I promise." I straightened, finally beginning to collect myself. "Please…hehe…show me what you've got."

She narrowed her eyes at me, though her lips were still caught in a half-grin. "Alright, come on."

She led me to a tall wardrobe in the back which was one of the few pieces of furniture in the room she didn't touch in her rampage.

"Ok, so we got some minor magic resist robes—classic, anti-slashing and piercing leather armour, ooh some boots of leaping, these are kind of cool. Oh my god I had a dragonfly suit? Here look at this one." She pulled out an orange shimmery hood that fell down the back into two translucent wings. "It allows you to fly! Kinda useless for me, but invaluable if you don't have flight magic already."

"Ok, I guess we can set that aside in the maybe pile, what else we got?" I looked at the wardrobe, my eyes shining.

"Ice skating shoes—fun gimmick, but it kind of gets old after a while."

"What does it do?"

"Makes everything you walk on the consistency of ice. Great for ice skaters, terrible for fighters."

"Ah, What else?"

"Let's see, if we're going for protection, probably the best thing would be…Ah a barrier ring! We snagged this baby off of one of Ceren's minions, works great in a pinch, and keeps you stylish." She winked at me.

"Ok, cool, but wouldn't it be best to pair it with some actual armour as well?"

"Sure, but it gives us options…hmmm…like what about…ooh! You know what?" She turned back to me. "We should catch you a living shadow. They work great for clothes. Especially if you're going for that stealthy, ninja build."

"Living shadow?"

"Most of the best pieces of armour are alive to some degree. And as such you can't really keep them in an old storage shed like this one." She pointed with her thumb to the wardrobe we were looking through.

"Some you imbue with sentience through a complicated crafting process. Some, you go out and tame a willing creature and then work with them to form a mutual aid pact."

"So a Living Shadow is a kind of creature then?"

"Yup, it'd allow you to make full use of your Crimson Wraith powers when you get them. Because I'm born from Spider Dragon and have plenty of Shadow magic, my clothes are all living as well." Her clothes morphed into a small ball on her shoulder. "Say hi to Earwig!" She scratched under what might be its chin.

I froze. She was now…completely naked. "The…underwear too?"

She froze. We looked at eachother for a long moment. "*Cough.* Right." She let Earwig flow back over her body. "Up to *cough* individual preference."

"Hehe."

"Hehehehe."

Again we both started laughing our asses off, and for the first time since I had entered Andar, things felt just a little bit normal.

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