The world didn't end, but no one noticed.

The King of Cats complained, "The empire is small and boring now. I want to go look around outside." He demanded, "Open the door for me!"

The Jade Emperor had been ignoring the cat as he searched for the reason that the world had become so constricted, but he looked up at that, and asked, "What door?"

--

Danika looked around Kit's property, and wondered if it was the only place in the City of Sand where you couldn't see even a glimpse of the vast desert beyond the city.

"Oops, I'm up," ShinZing said suddenly, and he logged off.

She glanced at Tundo, who had also stayed behind. She still didn't know him very well, but he just grinned at her and said, "Don't worry about me, I'll keep watch while you catch up on the theatre plan."

"Alright, thanks!" she replied, and began scrolling up the guild board.

It really was a theatre plan. MatchlessMinion and the three new members had expanded "a stage" into a full blown entertainment venue. The double borders had been set up for a small temporary stage, that would eventually be replaced by the kind of amphitheatre that Danika had imagined. If they were allowed to build the extravagant layout that they'd designed, it would be literally walled by smaller 'booths' and have only two public entrances.

A new message popped up: "We lost them, we're on our way back."

Danika swiped over to her friend list, and checked Smoke's location. His compass spun like the King of Cats had when he was nowhere. She eyed it thoughtfully.

MatchlessMinion's large round ears seemed to droop as he followed SilentSky silently back into the square of desert where magic didn't work. Tundo turned to watch them, instead of the surrounding area, but Danika didn't scold him. He looked anxiously back and forth between the three founding members, but he seemed to be afraid to ask.

"What's wrong?" Danika asked calmly.

"I was so sure that we could ambush them if we needed to, and track them with no problem. I figured Sky's assassin's mark would work even if I couldn't keep them in sight. Ugh, I'm just…" MatchlessMinion complained, and then shook his head.

"You still have the other stone space right? Try going inside it for a minute," Danika suggested.

SilentSky shot her a sharp glance, and then flicked his own menus open and shot an invisible mark toward the chinchillamin.

MatchlessMinion walked back over to the flower bed, and entered the stone. He emerged a minute later and asked, "Was that it? But there weren't any lamps around where they disappeared, I checked."

"I think so," Danika replied. She glanced at Tundo's startled expression with amusement. His ears turned pink, and he spun back around to watch the area around them.

"That was it," SilentSky confirmed.

"But I don't think that they necessarily entered an item," Danika continued. "I was actually thinking of the hidden path that little cat led us along when we did the elder's challenge."

MatchlessMinion brightened. "Shrubbery told me about that, but I didn't think of it. Shouldn't they have gone through an entrance though? She said you guys went into a hole?"

"Well, yeah," Danika agreed. "But I don't know how it worked. What if it was simply that we entered a dark shadow? Or it was like an automatic portal that cat NPCs could use, and we just passed through the frame?"

"Hmm… if it was just a dark shadow there were actually plenty of opportunities," he said almost cheerfully.

"I think it was the string," SilentSky spoke up.

MatchlessMinion clicked his fingers and nodded. "Yeah, that's where I lost sight of that Smoke."

Danika was curious, but before she could ask, SilentSky said, "Oops, I'm next. But Shin should be back soon." He vanished a moment later.

"Hey," Tundo turned back to them and asked suddenly, "do you think that when we log out, our disappearance looks the same as when you went in and out of an item, to an NPC? I mean, I've never seen one look as surprised as I feel when watching that."

"Maybe?" Danika agreed uncertainly.

"Why? What are you thinking of trying?" MatchlessMinion asked.

"No, I mean, I don't have any brilliant ideas about how to use that. I just wondered, because that lizard there ran for it when it saw a bird shadow, but it totally ignored you guys disappearing and reappearing," Tundo explained quickly.

Danika narrowed her eyes and examined the lizard he had pointed to suspiciously. Her identify skill reported it as being merely one of the small lizards local to the desert.

MatchlessMinion scratched an ear and then shrugged. "I don't think I've ever seen an NPC surprised to see me log in," he agreed.

Danika tried to remember if any of them had ever reacted around her. "I don't think I have either," she agreed after a moment. "And I'm pretty sure that I've never seen any of them surprised that someone logged out."

"Actually, I've been wondering, what's our goal?" MatchlessMinion asked. "I'm curious about who was trying to make gold with the philosopher's stone, but these cats aren't even necessarily working for that person."

"You sure you're not just jealous because that cat's got the 'prince of thieves' title?" Danika asked teasingly. He made a face at her and she answered more seriously, "I don't know. I feel like there's some big puzzle here, but there's no reason we have to keep after it. We can just wait for Logical Heart's report on the other stones I guess?"

Nao1 logged on instead of ShinZing, and wrote on the guildboard before logging off again. Danika read the message with a puzzled expression: "Underneath concert in game in October? Zippy, stay subtle. Shin's still busy until later."

"Ew," Tundo said, as he looked at his own menu screens. "I hope she doesn't mean that literally, as in, the band." Danika and MatchlessMinion both turned to look at him with startled expressions. "Sorry, uh, are you all fans?" Tundo asked nervously.

"I wouldn't exactly say that," Danika replied cautiously.

MatchlessMinion laughed himself sick. "Haha, no, I wouldn't say that either!" he agreed gleefully.

"Oh, good, because I can't stand them," Tundo said seriously.