I awoke to the sound of Nora's quiet, sound snoring. It had to have been no later than 5 AM, but sometimes you just didn't need that much sleep, y'know? In any case, I always loved hearing her sleep. We'd split up a few months back, but it didn't effect our relationship much. Just didn't mean we were dating anymore.
Now, though... I combed my fingers through Nora's dark hair, and reconsidered things. A lot of romance was just that: romance, not sexual attraction. It was a choice we made to label ourselves as dating. So, hey. Maybe this would change things. It could be a nice change of pace!
I'd wanna wait for her to wake up to talk about that, though. But before we could wake up, an alarm blared in both of our heads before being snuffed out like a candle.
It was disconcerting as hell, and I couldn't stop myself from yelping. Nora had jolted to being awake, a look of concern on her confused face, and I was just as confused as she was. What had just happened? It felt like a system alert, like when your party member was getting low on health, but it only lasted for a split second before going dark. Argh.
I rubbed my head. Thinking about this hurt. I probably should just leave well enough alone, but... who could be in danger in our party? Everyone was here. Nora and I had slept in the same bed as Cyl, just in case she'd gotten another like, night terror or something, so — wait. Cyl wasn't here.
Where was Cyl? A part of me said that she was fine, that she was just taking a walk. But then I remembered the HP alert sound. And, come to think of it, there were two things I'd never seen Cyl with: a mana bar...
...and a HP bar.
Shit. What if her HP bar was tied to her "style meter" or whatever, too? I looked at Nora. "Cyl's probably in danger right now."
She nodded. "Figured. Wanna go help her out?" Wait, huh?
"How? We don't have time to get a scryer, and I dunno where she'd have gone."
Nora bolted out of bed, starting to equip her armor from her inventory and check it for tears and rips. I stepped out as well, lacing up my boots and grabbing a few of my more advanced spellbooks and weapons. "I'm pretty sure since she's supposedly in our party, I can trace her through your sendgem connection." Shit, I'd forgotten about that.
"Isn't that a player-only thing? I thought she was a player."
My friend winced. "Dunno. She sounds different. Let's help her first and deal with the existential ramifications later, okay?"
I'd gotten ready in half the time it took her to check on all her gear. We'd taken fifteen minutes. Hopefully, Cyl was in a respawn zone... or she'd have to hold on for a while longer. "Okay, cutie." I gave Nora the littlest kiss from the side — as a friendly gesture, I swear! — and she went an adorable shade of red that really complimented her looks. "Anyways, get ready to trace. I have a feeling this is gonna be an existential nightmare."
Nora stammered for a bit before huffing and storming out, and I was left to follow her. She pulled up a few of her windows, and we were able to track her movements to what looked like a normal plaza fountain, where Cyl had then walked in circles for a good two hours or so in the center.
It was concerning. Neither of us knew quite what to do, and after a few minutes of inspecting the fountain for any obvious lever or button, both of us sat on the edge.
"Myriad. It's like she just disappeared, dammit. I don't know what could have happened," Nora swore. I could concur with her there.
"Dunno either. You have any other bright ideas? This fountain's pretty obvious. What could Cyl see that nobody else could?"
We both stiffened up. "That nobody else could, huh? She was always talking about how spells were more than just tradition or the swooshy bits, right?"
I nodded. "Right. She really paid attention to em'. I kinda assumed a lot of it was unrelated to the spells beyond simply feeling similar, but apparently there's this whole code to it? Er, a language of sorts."
Excited, Nora leaned in. I had a kind of headache, but I was honestly just as excited as her. "If she sees everything in spells, then..?" She waited for me to finish, and it came to me in a flash.
"Then she sees spells in everything!" The answer had been waiting just before us this whole time — it was probably fairly obvious if you knew the trick, but nobody honestly gave a fuck about the decoration of these fountains and it wasn't a recognizable spell sigil beyond being vaguely similar in shape to some of the ones I'd known about. But it was a spell sigil nonetheless, which meant Nora and I were both channeling mana into it on our own.
We'd put up defenses, and once we'd finally found the sort-of resonant frequency of the spell sigil, those defenses lit up like the sun. The moment of blindness soon passed, and both of us let out a simultaneous exhale of relief. If those anti-spell wards weren't there, we would have both more than died.
In any case, we didn't have enough time to wait to descend a spiral staircase for three hours. It was time for the Flurry Descent System, or in other words:
A big fuckoff drill, spun by magic, pointed directly downwards.
Cyl only had to hold on a little longer, I thought, as me and Nora tunneled down using the drill. I believed in her, as much as the headache plaguing me told me I shouldn't. The sound of breaking rock and clanking metal slowly gave way to an echoing rumble, and then the clashing sounds of lightning and sizzling flesh.
Just what was she doing down here..?
