The estimated travel time that the guides provided was five days, and that would be at an expeditious pace aided by downing stamina potions every few hours. The trip could be made shorter if they didn't have civilians along for the trip—Sabina, Adrienne, Aria—but Lucinda's goal was to get Rosalie to safety, which meant out of Treyhull and under her protection. A delay in travel time wasn't something she would refuse them, though neither did she seem happy by it. A full squad of wayfarers would have cut the trip length dramatically. Still, her goal was Rosalie's safety, and that had been achieved.

There were, unfortunately, no shortcuts through the Fractures—not to Zoey's knowledge, though maybe there were some—and so, the party simply needed to trek through the constantly shifting landscape of pocket dimensions, following their guides.

After the chaos of yesterday, Zoey appreciated the reprieve. Just trekking along. Low-stress and action-free. As was a risk with the Fractures, monsters popped up, but with four wayfarers—much less Lucinda—the creatures were dispatched with little effort. Their guides kept them in the safer areas anyway. While mapping the Fractures was an impossible task, with zones constantly linking and unlinking, the whole purpose of having guides was they were up to date on the local pocket realms. They kept everyone moving in the right direction and avoided the troublesome zones. Though with Lucinda's request, they didn't hesitate to head through some of the more dangerous places, if it meant speeding their trip up—since 'some danger' meant 'no danger' when accompanied by the higher-advancement wayfarer. Zoey still didn't know what progression she was, but it had to be pretty high.

The trek was made more pleasant since Zoey had something productive to keep her occupied. Sabina. Of course, her quizzes weren't quite as fun as the ones she normally held for Zoey in the privacy of her workshop, but being questioned and instructed on various parts of alchemy was better than being left alone with her thoughts for the many hours of trudging along through rough terrain—as came with finding and leaving shards.

Delta liked to hover in on the lessons, too, though Zoey doubted it was because she'd taken an interest in potion-making. Instead, Delta had seemed immediately taken in by the tall, stern antlered woman. Zoey didn't blame her; she'd been drawn by those serious gray eyes too. Sabina, on the other hand, much disapproved of the distraction Delta provided to Zoey during her tutelage—or, at least outwardly, Sabina did. Her first stern scolding of the fox-girl had anything but the desired effect, though. Delta seemed to freeze up entirely when Sabina leveled that serious gaze at her and told her to stop 'sidetracking her pupil' in a firm, but chiding manner. After nodding mutely, Delta shared a wide-eyed look with Zoey, which Zoey could interpret easily: it seemed Zoey wasn't the only one who was weak to the 'serious older teacher' thing that Sabina had going on.

So despite trying to fend off Delta as a distraction, Sabina only roped Delta into even more of her lessons—and the foxgirl constantly tried to get herself scolded by Sabina with silly remarks and ridiculous questions. Zoey honestly couldn't tell whether Sabina was playing into the dynamic by chiding the foxgirl whenever she spoke up, or whether her disapproval was genuine. Maybe it was a bit of both. Either way, the two took to each other in an amusing way.

On the third night of their travels, as they were setting up camp and more than halfway to Mantle—and in Deepshunter territory rather than Striders, for the first time—Rosalie snuck Zoey a message in her notebook. It read:

'We need to talk. The whole team, without Lucinda overhearing. Can you do that with a dream potion?'

Zoey, of course, was instantly perplexed by the request—since Lucinda seemed a very genuine ally of Rosalie's, so what did she have to hide?—but that night, when she settled down, she did as Rosalie had requested.

As with many aspects of her class and the items they'd earned, Zoey hadn't put the dream potions to great use: the downside of limited time and a frantic schedule. But, from what she knew, she suspected she could drag multiple people into the same dream, even if it hadn't been part of her experiments.

When she was sure everyone had drifted off, she took a dose of the strange-tasting concoction, then tucked the vial away and closed her eyes, letting the effect seize her consciousness.

Soon, she was floating high above in that murky blackness. Except this time, there wasn't an ocean of colorful orbs—each a person's dream—beneath her, but rather, just a handful. Her traveling party. There were others sparsely spread in the distance, representing others making trips through the Fractures.

Zoey itched to take a peek at everyone's respective dreams, but she wasn't going to violate her allies' privacy in that way. While she'd taken some liberties to do so with strangers back at Treyhull, she didn't know Maddy, Sabina, Adrienne, or Lucinda well enough to invade on them, as she might Rosalie or Delta—if their orbs were pink. Though, her curiosity was piqued seeing the varying hues, the images in the swirling mist inside the dream orbs.

Instead, she experimented with how to merge dreams. Floating around in her shapeless body, she dragged Rosalie's and Delta's orbs together, using the binding 'strings' that emanated from her to them. Their relationship links. As she'd hoped, it was as easy as that. The two orbs squeezed against each other, then popped into a single larger one. Zoey grabbed Maddy last, then dove into the dreamscape.

She popped into existence in a cramped, run-down, dingy apartment. Her three teammates were there, all of them looking disoriented at having had their dreams commandeered. And also at the boost of lucidity that came with the dream turning 'real'.

"Where are we?" Rosalie asked, her brow scrunched as she scanned the room. With peeling paint, stained carpets, and broken light fixtures, it was one of the more dilapidated living spaces Zoey had seen. There were several mattresses laid out on the living room floor, as if the room was serving as a living space for far too many people.

"My family's old apartment," Delta said, sounding somewhat irritated at answering. She faced Zoey. "Why'd you pick my dream?"

Huh? This was where Delta's family had lived? It was small for a one-person apartment.

"I didn't," Zoey said. She obviously hadn't meant to steal the scenery from Delta's dream, or anyone's. It had picked it at random. Delta was clearly not pleased it had happened. "I just merged them. I think I can probably—"

With slight difficulty, the surroundings fuzzed. She already knew she could manipulate the dream space around her, but changing entire scenery was harder than tweaking one or two things. It would take practice if she wanted better control. One of many things Zoey intended to, but hadn't had a chance to, improve on. Since her target was their old shared room at the Treyhull's guild, the morphing wasn't too difficult: the familiar sight appeared around them.

"There," Zoey said.

"You kept the blood?" Rosalie asked dryly, looking down at the stained carpet and rubbing her foot into it.

"Didn't mean to." With another brief moment of concentration, she cleaned up the damage from their fight against the cultists.

"Uhh," Maddy said slowly. "So…what's going on? Is this real? It feels real. How'd I get here?"

Zoey blinked at their fourth party member. Right. Maddy had never been given an explanation of how the dream potions worked. There were a lot of things their newest addition hadn't been told about, including the most important: the end of the world and such. That was something they were saving for when they'd been through at least a single shard together.

But the dream potion wasn't that big of a deal, so Zoey egave her the run-down. Maddy seemed fascinated, as predictable. She'd consistently been interested in the strange aspects of Zoey's class.

Rosalie reigned them in, having called the group together for a reason.

"So," she said. "It was our plan before Lucinda's intervention that we would finish one more shard before heading to Mantle. Do we still want to do that?"

The three of them blinked.

"You think she'll let us?" Delta asked.

"No. Hence this." Rosalie gestured around at the secretive dream meeting. "She won't see it as necessary and is already delaying more than she wants. But Zoey has that skill that amplifies experience the longer we go between shards. Seeing how we might be stuck in Mantle as we handle—well, everything, we should activate it to let it build up again." Her eyes turned to Maddy. "And, of course, we should get a feel for our new teammate."

"Yeah," Delta said, "but how are we gonna sneak away? I'm pretty sure that woman has eyes in the back of her head."

"It'll be easier than you think. Lucinda won't be expecting it."

"She won't?"

Rosalie pursed her lips. "I don't have a reputation for … being disobedient. She won't expect me to act against her. So, we just have to be quiet and leave while she's asleep. I'm certain it'll work."

Delta seemed to find the claim of Rosalie's obedience delightful, which Rosalie had obviously expected, based on how she'd hesitated before saying it. But Zoey cut in before Delta could start teasing.

"What about Sabina, Adrienne, and Aria?"

"Lucinda will escort them to Mantle. I'll leave her a note telling her I'm headed for home directly after the shard. No more than a day behind. She might try to pursue us, but I doubt that. She'll recognize it as futile. I plan to be in a shard before morning comes."

"You're sure that's a good idea? Leaving them with her?"

"They won't be in any danger. She'll be upset, but on my request—and explanation, in the note—she'll ensure their safe trip to the city."

Zoey hesitated, but accepted the reasoning, even if she wasn't thrilled about the idea of leaving everyone in the hands of a stranger—even one Rosalie trusted. She felt responsible for them. As she should be; she was the entire reason they'd uprooted their lives to head to Mantle.

"I don't have any problems with a quick delve," Maddy offered. "But, we can just go to Mantle, too. I'll do whatever the team wants."

"Hm," Delta said, thinking a little harder on it. "Honestly, it has been a bit. I vote shard. It was our plan anyways. And I could use another rank-up." She laughed. "Can you imagine? I just got one. No way the skill is that crazy, even for Zoey."

Rosalie's expression suggested she disagreed—or at least wasn't so certain. Maybe Rosalie and Delta would reach fourth advancement, this very shard. Possibly Maddy too, but Zoey didn't know how close she was. Probably closer than Delta, who had recently ranked up.

Seeing first-hand the benefits of Zoey's class would be a strong incentive for Maddy to stick with the team. She was looking at Delta as if the foxgirl were joking about the possibility of another boost in advancement after just one shard. The poor girl only knew the basics of Zoey's class; she'd yet to be thrown off the deep end.

Zoey suspected that whatever they found would be a quick way to rectify that. Maddy would become acquainted, rather rapidly, with the absurdity that made up Zoey's life.

"Then it's a plan," Zoey said. "A shard, first."