Grae didn’t hesitate any longer. His Mana flooded into his hand, and he tried something new, pushing all the Mana he could down into the forming framework of the Water Bullet. Droplets of shining water hovered around his outstretched fingertips, circling, forming a spiral. He could feel…

There was Mana around him.

The air was full of hidden magic, out here.

As he started to use his own, it flooded into him. A single spark drew dozens of others from the air.

Magic was easy, up here.

The Water Bullet formed and leapt from his palm. It exploded into the Ragdoll’s core, blowing it into pieces with a thunderclap of roaring, turbulent water. Soaked fragments of cloth washed against the walls, leaving the thing collapsed in a great puddle.

But Grae didn’t believe that was the end.

The Inspection mentioned it could ‘split and divide.’

And right now, the fragments of cloth were beginning to flutter and pick themselves up, moving slower due to being soaked through.

It also mentioned a heart. Grae might not know what an Estate was, or why it created such a sad little creature…

But everything needed a heart to live.

In the center of the mess of ruined clothing, there was a lump. Shawls and coats and shirts all wrapped around something roughly fist-sized, swaddling it to keep it safe.

Grae lurched forward and stomped down. Something cracked under his hoof, shattering with a brief, bright flare of the most concentrated magic Grae had ever felt. Every hair on his body- and he had many- stood up as electric ripples cascaded through the air and the clothes, waterlogged as they were, caught alight.

Flames licked back and forth, and Grae stepped back.

That ripple of magic was still expanding outwards. It rose higher and higher into the air, a signal going outwards. And something was changing. Smaller flares of magic rose across the city. It was like invisible fireworks bursting in the sky.

Grae had set something in motion. He looked up, around, trying to spot where the threat was coming from. Trying to see what was happening. The chaos and confusion made him feel suddenly vulnerable, in this wide open space surrounded by the wind. It was a paranoid, half-mad feeling. His heart beat violently.

But there was nothing.

Nothing but the buildings, the empty road, the strange lanterns lifted up on metal poles.

A sudden cracking noise split the air. Dust drifted from the rooftop of a nearby house, and Grae watched in confusion as the bricks began to break apart. It took him a moment to even understand what he was seeing…

The house was standing up.

The bricks were rearranging, fitting together like puzzle pieces. They formed legs. They formed arms.

The house lifted its head, which was made from roofing tiles assembled into a tall, conical hood, four windows arranged in a ring just underneath- like empty eyes gazing out in all directions. The door stood in the center of its body.

It picked itself out of the crater left by its foundation and took a single, earth-shaking step towards Grae.

Grae didn’t stop and try to think this through. He turned tail and ran. His long, lanky form dropped to all fours and he pushed his body to run, run, run…

Huge footfalls followed him. The swinging momentum of each step took time to build, but its long legs carried it across the street at terrifying speed. When a foot crashed down, dust emerged, the red dust of cinderblocks leaking from its body; the earth shook and the cobblestones cracked underfoot.

Grae ran and ran. He could see more buildings lifting themselves up, their heads rising above the rooftops. He could hear their footsteps closing in on him.

He reached a crossroads in the street, turned, and one of the house-beasts had already reached him. It swung its fist, the brute stump of its arm filling up the world as it hurtled down towards Grae. With a final desperate lunge of motion Grae flung himself out of the way, wrapping his body in the protective charm of Barkskin.

Fragments of street cobbles exploded in all directions as its fist hit the ground. They bit into the back of Grae’s hide, scraping him over with sharp wounds. Grae stumbled, nearly fell, but recovered. He kept running. There was nothing in the world anymore but the exertion of his limbs, the road ahead, the desperation to survive.

He could see smaller creatures scuttling out of the shadows. Spiders made of windowglass; horses made of wheels.

The entire city was coming for him.

He understood, finally, why there were no humans here. Why the dungeon had dried up; what had happened to the world. The city had come to terrible life. The humans’ beautiful creations had turned on them.

Their home had closed around them like a trap.

He saw a wall ahead, and beyond that wall, a sea of green. The end of the city. Grae pushed his body harder and harder and simply jumped high over the wall, launching himself across.

He crashed down into soft soil on the other side. His feet punched through layers of dried, mulched leaves.

Safe.

Maybe?

Maybe, but he wasn’t risking that. He could still hear the buildings moving within the city. He picked himself up and continued forward on shaky, exhausted legs. On all sides there were pillars of rough, dark plant-matter, blossoming into green as they branched out above; trees.

He knew trees.

There had been a drawing in the dungeon.

But he never knew they made such soft, calming noise. The wind struck their leaves and the world was filled with a gentle sound like paper scraping against paper, shaking through the branches. Grae gazed up in wonder.

Grae wandered with his head held high, over-awed by the beauty of the forest.