The Wisp was not prone to panic and fear, but apprehension had slowly become a familiar feeling as they prepared to leave.

It had been perfectly ready to incarcerate Numi before Hazel had forced control, that much was true. Though it still didn’t have a perfect way to separate their soul entanglements, ever since the day it had been stuck with its other half it’d been trying to brainstorm up a few good ideas. And though it kept those thoughts carefully shielded from Hazel, it had come up with a few plausible ones to try.

Still though, Hazel wasn’t alone in her curiosity about the outside, behooved though the Wisp would be to admit it. How could she be? If the stories Numi’s guardian’s had weaved was true, there was supposedly a deeply magical society living under the umbrella of a constant typhoon. If the people were capable of living in conditions like that for a decade, the Wisp was even entirely sure they’d need a refuge like the one it could build, especially not if magical theory had advanced since the age in which the Wisp had been born.

No, the Wisp was pretty sure by this point that its activation had been a fluke of archeology or accidental by the hand of a collector. The only sticking point to that theory was the Hafel, but the Wisp had decided it would need more information before it made any assumptions on that path.

Rummaging through the storeroom, the Wisp absorbed enough wood to fill its internal stores, which wasn’t much. Hopefully it would be able to fashion whatever it would need on the trip out of stone it could find. It wasn’t holding out hope on too much plant life existing after a decade of storms.

The Wisp packed up the last of what it would need and flew out to the room holding the wolf, the last and most irritating piece of the puzzle. Opening the door, the Wisp nodded at the two stone guards.

[Leave us.] The Wisp telepathed privately. Shielding one’s communication was the first thing it had impressed on everyone in the loop. The elder wolf watched the two leave and shut the door behind them, a hatred burning behind the eyes. Patchy fur had already recovered a good portion of the burn wounds, even after just a score of hours. The fur that had come back was pure white, a departure from the mottled brown it had been. Even his muzzle seemed a few shades grayer.

[His fur grows back quickly.] Hazel muttered. [Magical regeneration perhaps?]

The Wisp stared at the wolf for a second, sizing up the restraints it would need if this failed. Hopefully they could store enough food in the room if they did. It wouldn’t do for it to starve and kill off the engine anyway. The thing was already malfunctioning as it was.

[Emberwolf 1.] The Wisp began. [I am displeased to make your acquaintance.]

“Stop head-speak.” It growled, sending a faint rumble through the stones. “It’s unnatural.”

[The nature of my construction renders phonic communication more so.] The Wisp replied. “But if you wish.”

“Why alive.” The wolf bared its teeth. “Family-death not enough? Now I suffer?”

“I’ve been told it’d be rude to kill you after Numi went through all that effort.” The Wisp said dryly. “Though that is not a pass for future aggressions.”

After talking about the problem with Chip and Hazel, it had been decided that it would be better if the wolf never actually learned of his soul connection, lest he commit suicide in spite. The Wisp had made sure the others kept their telepathic connection with him a secret as well, though they’d decided that the Wisp having the ability to do so would seem more natural.

The wolf glared at it, but lowered its head again to rest on his paws.

“You see, we have found reason to leave the fort for a time, and your incarceration has presented problems.” The Wisp continued. “So I have come to offer a deal.”

“Just kill me then.” The wolf interrupted. “No traitor-deals.”

“As I’ve said already, my companions have vetoed that option.” The Wisp said. “But you also represent valuable research data. That is not an option.”

It wasn’t entirely a lie of course. Even if Numi hadn’t protested against the Wisp attempting to separate its connection to the engine and killing him, it probably would’ve left it alive to test defensive strategies against. At least until the Wisp had perfected a method to sever it.

“Stories paint Wisps brutal. Seems to me lies.”

“I have simply been cordial.” The Wisp said. “But we digress. The deal is that you’ll accompany us to nearby human settlements as a guide. You should know the area well, and my companions are no orienteers.”

The wolf narrowed its eyes. “Nothing in deal for me. No.”

The Wisp flickered. It still had some other duties to care too before they left, and the wolf was eating into the precious little time it had left. Maybe it was time to pull out the threats.

“The other option.” The Wisp replied. “Is to store you in my internal storage until we return. But I wouldn’t be able to bring along much else with me, so I’d rather not.”

The wolf snorted. “Good. Suffer.”

“The other problem with that of course…” The Wisp continued. “...is that my internal storage is not large enough to hold all of you.”

The elder looked up.

“Meaning that I would have to leave some of you behind.” The Wisp gazed at its legs, calculating. “I might be able to get you to fit if I cut off the appendages. You’d probably lose your ears too. I wouldn’t worry though.”

The Wisp flew down to eye level. “I am an expert at stopping blood loss. You wouldn’t die from the procedure. Though I doubt your regeneration extends to whole limbs.”

The Wisp shot backwards to avoid the resulting enraged snap. The wolf stood up, its hairs standing on end, but it didn’t attack.

“Don’t threaten me, star-theif.” It growled. “I would die a thousand deaths before aiding you.”

The Wisp sighed. All three of the organics it had met in this age had been woefully stubborn in opinion, and it was starting to irritate the old wisp. It was certainly making it question the bother of saving them if they all liked to pick the path to the quickest death.

“You might notice the lack of restraints I’ve put you under.” The Wisp began. “You could’ve swallowed your tongue or chewed off a leg already, but you haven’t.”

This was a bluff of course- the Wisp would’ve come running at the first sign of such an action, but the elderly wolf obviously didn’t know that. For all it knew, staying alive was more harmful to its captors than not. And judging by the glare it gave off, the Wisp knew it wasn’t that tied to its convictions.

“So the two options remain: either you walk among us with your own legs, or I’ll carry you without them.” The Wisp didn’t have actual eyes, but it met the wolf’s gaze regardless. “It is your decision.”

That earned him another growl, but after a minute of the staring contest the elder backed down, the hatred in his eyes burning like a miniature star.

“No real decision.” He finally said. “I walk.”

“Acceptable.” The Wisp replied. “I will retrieve you shortly then.”

With that the Wisp exited the room, leaving the two horrified guards who had been eavesdropping to scamper back into the room before shutting it again.

[By the void, Azu.] Hazel said. [Did you really mean that about the storage? That’s horrible.]

[No.] The Wisp admitted.

[Thank the light, there're some things we shouldn’t…]

[I probably would’ve had to cut off half the torso as well.]

[...]

The Wisp chuckled as it flew towards the entrance hall, satisfied to check another item off the packing list.

…

“Tempest! Purelight!”

Numi hopped around clutching her stubbed toe, knocking into the dresser and wall as a bonus.

[My lady, please.] Chip carefully avoided her frenzied hops, even ducking under an irritated kick. [Calm down.]

“Calm down‽” Numi finally got a handhold on the dresser and stopped, massaging her foot with the other hand. “Would you be calm if you’d just smashed your pitching foot for the third pitching time today?”

[The master didn’t give me any nerves there.] Chip sighed. [And could you please stop cursing? You know the master disapproves.]

Numi pouted. “Dad never told off Wiggles about that.”

[Master couldn’t hear the captain.]

“He can’t hear me right now either.”

[My lady, the cane.]

Numi sighed and pat the bed until her hands came around the smooth staff. She ran her hands down its length, feeling the deep runes and ridges the Wisp had carved into it. It wasn’t a channeling staff though- the Wisp didn’t have a spell-coding station here, so it was sadly mundane. Despite that however there was very little doubt in Numi’s mind that it was probably exceptionally pretty with all of the craftsmanship that went into it. Or it would be if she could see it.

Numi sat down on the bed and looked up to watch the strange white clouds in the blue sky above. It still fascinated her, so unlike the sky she had known all her life. Numi wondered idly if this place actually existed somewhere in the world.

“You know, I shouldn’t have to use a cane.”

[And why is that?]

“Canes are for blind people.” She watched as one of the clouds split into two. “And I’m not blind.”

[You’re blind to this world, my lady.]

“Hmmph.”

Numi heard the new captain plod across the floor and jump onto the bed beside her, depressing the mattress with his weight. Numi knew that most people underestimated how much the stone foxes weighed after seeing how gracefully they moved, but that was a lesson she’d quickly learned after picking them up a few times.

“Why do you think it showed up like this.” She asked. “The mana poison.”

[Mana poisoning, mana isn’t a poison in normal levels or types.] Chip corrected. [But I can’t say I know. Maybe the master knows.]

“How come he didn’t get teleported here? Why was it only us?”

[I probably know less about magic than even you do, my lady.]

“Then I have some advice.” Numi turned other to gaze at where she though Chip was. “Don’t cast spells you copied from a magebook used by wizards six years your senior.”

[The bigger mistake was probably doing it in the circle.] Chip replied. [Though that connection probably saved that wolf from the Wisp immediately killing it.]

Numi stared at the ceiling, thinking for a minute.

“Then that wasn’t a mistake.” She said firmly. “Because I’m not a killer.”

Chip didn’t respond beyond stirring himself from the bed.

[Come on, my lady. Let's finish packing, the Wisp’s waiting.]

She stretched all her limbs into the air before closing her eyes and getting to her feet.

“I'll be fine. There wasn’t that much to pack anyway.”

…

As the party gathered around the outer gate, the Wisp had to admit they seemed like an unlikely bunch.

A Wisp split in two, a sentient wolf, a dozen stone foxes and their now blind master. The Wisp had only been alive for a short time, but it didn’t think it could’ve guessed that short time would’ve led it here. It seemed a little too similar to one of those stories it had heard Whitepaw telling the young foxes while the Wisp had worked on the project for Numi.

The gates had long since been destroyed at this point, and the thundering rain and wind was almost deafening in the entrance hall. The floor was under a small length of standing water with little ponds formed wherever the floor had cracked.

[How long?] The Wisp asked under shield. It hadn’t seen fit to disclose the fact of Hazel’s existence yet, though it was certain they suspected something. The Wisp wasn’t quite sure exactly why, but it just felt like something to keep close to one’s core. It would be horrible to lose its credibility if they took it poorly, and so a secret it had kept.

[I’m almost done.] Hazel replied. [It's gonna be pitching hard to dig through this when we get back though.]

The duo had decided to collapse the entrance hall while they were gone, a method that Hazel had said was sure to disguise the fact that a refuge lie there, though the Wisp privately held reservations.

[Acceptable. We should’ve done this when that wolf first showed up.]

[I mean, we did.] Hazel said. [We just didn’t collapse enough.]

The Wisp blinked its coreflames and turned towards its assorted comrades. They all shuffled impatiently, the wolf taking the middle flanked by a majority of the foxes while Numi sat on a small mushroom-wood sled pulled by two of the larger canines. She seemed to be holding on dearly to the staff, as if she was scared it would be ripped from her hands en route.

“I am ready for departure.” The Wisp announced. “Is everyone else prepared? There’s no going back once I collapse the ceiling.”

[If we return.] The marble pawed fox telepathed.

Except for the elder wolf, the rest nodded.

As the Wisp turned and took the first step into the tempest, it took its first proper look at the sky and land around the entrance. Only now did it gaze at the lattice of lightning dancing through the skies, the upper clouds constantly illuminated by the arcing of playful electricity. It looked to the Wisp remarkably like the soul connections between the group, though more dramatic in effect and sound. Though the wind outside of the tunnel was a tad quieter, the rumbling and cracking of the skies had reached up to match, and no four seconds passed without the blast of a cannon shell, or more often two.

The grounds as well became more clear against the background of the lightning strikes, and now the Wisp could finally see the gravel and mud plains. Foliage was nonexistent, as was any obvious fauna. A thick river ran down from the far north, the copious rainfall feeding its seemingly infinite hunger for water. Farther to the west, the Wisp could barely make out cliffs and flooded plains silhouetted against the horizon. Despite its internal clock telling the Wisp it was morning, no sun graced the sky, leaving the land in what felt like an eternal and unending gloom.

As the rain sizzled against the core flames and the rest of the group joined it, the Wisp sent a signal to Hazel, and she activated the bursting of the flow she’d set up as a charge, and the entrance room began to collapse behind them. It was over in just a second, though the Wisp didn’t bother to look back as the sound of the falling rocks briefly challenged the skies.

“Alright.” The Wisp shouted over the din. “With luck and light.”

[With luck and light.]

“With luck and light.”