“What’s going on with the little guy’s scales, anyway? They look different,” the male disciple said, pointing at my scales and peering closer. I preened, knowing that he was admiring my ingenious use of [Spore Puppeteer] to defeat the Lesser Core. Unfortunately, his [Little Guardian’s Totem] was pressed up against the outside of his ore-flesh, so I wasn’t able to bask in the waves of [admiration]. “The color’s off. Is that…?”

He trailed off, overcome by the beauty of my accomplishment. I sent out a thought-hiss towards the spores that infected my body, causing me to turn upon myself until I could see my own scale-flesh.

Though they were always pleasing to the eye, designed and developed by the Great Core and its blessings as they were, there was something satisfying about the way that gold and blue interwove themselves through the shiny black created by [Illusion Spark].

If it hadn’t been for the way every action forced me to mentally command my spores before I could do it, I might have even wanted to keep it. Another thought-hiss pulled me away again, and I looked back towards the Coreless.

“Did he grow spores inside himself as protection against the mist? That’s…” the Coreless muttered, still peering closely at my scale-flesh. One of his brows was raised to the point that it was nearly floating off his face. Just when I thought that it couldn’t rise any higher, it somehow did.

The Coreless was so impressed that he had lost control of his own brows.

I wasn’t surprised, since I was very impressive.

“A bit gross,” he finished, having gathered himself enough to sing my praises. “Still, I guess if you’re going to have horrific plant abominations grow under your skin either way, it’s better to have ones that aren’t going to turn you green and against everyone you know and love.”

“Everyone you know and love, huh?” I heard The Grateful One say, oddly [amused]. She had placed her [Little Guardian’s Totem] in its proper place again after the other Coreless finished healing. “This is all just a little too fast for me, Rowan; I feel like we’ve only just met!” One of her hands came up, waving at the air and fanning her face.

The male Coreless snorted loudly, almost choking on air, and placed one hand against his chest. It brushed against his [Little Guardian’s Totem]. There was a flux of new emotions as the connection reestablished; [amusement], a bit of [worry], and the remnants of a slowly-decreasing [fear].

“Guess I walked right into that one,” he said, moving his hand away again and wiping at one of his eyes.

When he finally stopped laughing, The Grateful One leaned in and made a few more noises. They were laced with [concern], quiet enough that I doubted the other once-corrupted could hear it. “Seriously, though. Are you alright, Rowan? I know that it wasn’t for long, but you were captured by those things. Speaking from experience, it’s not very easy to handle. If I wasn’t immune to them like I am now…”

There was a brief tremor, like a shudder aborted before it could become more than the smallest of vibrations. I wouldn’t have noticed it if I wasn’t perched on her shoulder; even then, I barely did. The tiny flash of [anguish] in The Grateful One’s [Little Guardian’s Totem] was far more obvious, though it disappeared just as quickly - as vulnerable to The Grateful One’s strange abilities as anything else.

The male Coreless bared his teeth lightly, the edges brittle and a slump at the corners. “Maybe not quite as alright as I’m pretending to be, but there’ll be time for all that later. The jokes do help though, so thanks for that. Keeps things feeling more normal. That’s important, when you deal with the things that we Seekers do.”

“Of course,” she hissed softly, the sound barely brushing past her lips.

Before they could make any more noises at each other, one of the once-corrupted Coreless chimed in. Her voice was wavering and tremulous, nervous - as if part of her thought that the mist was still there, ready and waiting to swallow the sound whole.

“Exc-excuse me,” she said, making me wish that there was a [Little Guardian’s Totem] around her neck so that I would have a better method of interpreting the noises. “Do you have a way out? I don’t...we don’t want to stay here anymore.” The female once-corrupted drew in a ragged breath, and one of the others - the one that kept rubbing at his jaw, as if trying to reassure himself that it was still there - moved forward and wrapped his arms around her. They must have been very moved by their newfound knowledge of the Great Core to wrap their arms around each other like that. The Coreless mostly seemed to do that during times of high emotion; I had seen it quite a few times before.

My two Coreless looked at one another quietly, some sort of silent conversation held within their eyes. I didn’t catch any of it, though I made sure to add my own gaze to the mix in a show of support.

“Not right now,” the male Coreless said, the noises calm and even. “Elara here can resist its effects, and should be able to clear a way out if given enough time. Unfortunately, she’ll have to do what you already saw - find and destroy the sources of the spores. That can take some time, and there are other Seekers trapped in the mists as well that still need to be found.”

I sent out a thought-hiss, forcing my body to look around again while the Coreless spoke. The other once-corrupted had begun to gather, hoping to hear what the Great Core’s Coreless had to say. All five of the once-corrupted, excluding the male-disciple-who-was-stolen, were gaunt and bedraggled; their cheeks sunken, their skin covered in grime. I could see the places where mana-water had recently washed the grime away in their hurry to drink, forming trails that dripped down their flesh.

They didn’t look good, even for a creature as poorly designed as a Coreless.

“There’s really no way for us to leave now?” one of them asked, the noise reedy and weak.

“Not unless you want some spores of a different color,” the male disciple answered, motioning towards me. I gave another hiss, sending a few more thought-hisses to pull my body slightly higher in response. “And uh...I don’t think you want that.”

“You mean…” the once-corrupted squinted at me before he suddenly stopped talking. His skin turned the color of bone, and his throat constricted in an audible swallow. “Uh...no. I’d rather not have to go through that again. I’ll wait. But, uh, you’ll protect us right? That’s what you do. You’re a Seeker. You fight monsters.”

“Yeah, kid. I’ll protect you while we wait,” the male disciple said, letting out a heavy breath and knocking the darkwood rod that he carried against the ground in a muffled thump. “I’m stuck here, too.”

The gathered Coreless made some more noises at one another for a time. Eventually, The Grateful One put a hand to her [Little Guardian’s Totem], forcing it to tug towards the [Little Guardian’s Focus] hidden away from view. She turned in its direction.

“I should get going. I’ll move in the direction of the Guardian Statue while I search for the others. Hopefully I’ll manage to destroy some of the sources while I do it; might as well start on clearing out a path out of here for everyone at the same time.”

“You won’t get lost?”

“I’ll make sure to dig my tracks deep enough that I can find them again. As long as I don’t take too long, it shouldn’t be too hard to follow them back. Best case scenario, I’ll be able to clear enough of the mist that it doesn’t even matter.”

The Grateful One started to walk, waving a hand at the other Coreless.

“I’ll try to be back soon, everyone. Rowan will keep you safe, make sure to stay close by.”

There was a chorus of varied sounds, cutting out with a disturbing immediacy the moment we stepped back into the spore-mist. The Grateful One murmured something under her breath as we walked, her feet digging deeply into the mass of spore-flesh below.

“Now, where are you hiding?”