“Sally, just wait a minute, will you?”

Sam ducked as another rock pelted through the air at him, hurled by telekinetic force. It wasn’t moving particularly fast, but he’d already been hit with enough to know that they stung.

“I’ll stop,” Sally shrilled as she levitated another rock off the alley floor, “When you figure out what the hell happened to my sister and make it better!” The rock came whizzing at his head, and he had to jerk sideways to keep it from cracking him in the nose.

“It would be easier,” Sam growled through his teeth, “if you stopped hucking rocks at me!” He glanced over at his guards, who were currently doing credible imitations of people trying to hold up a wall with their shoulder blades. “A little help here?”

“Above out pay grade, boss,” Neeber the goblin said, and the others nodded in agreement.

“Yeah,” said one of the orcs with a grin. “Assassins and kidnappers we can deal with. Pissed off lady cores is more your area of expertise, boss.”

“Fat lot of help you are,” Sam grumbled, then brought his hand up and snatched the next stone out of the air. “Sally! Will you cool it! I’m doing the best I can, but I swear if you throw one more rock at me I will throw it back with interest!”

Sally somehow managed to convey that she was glowering at him despite having no facial features whatsoever. She said nothing, which Sam counted as a step in the right direction, and he turned back to Persephone.

The stricken core was quiet and hovered low to the ground, the gold light from her gem dimmed. Sam brought his Essence Vision back up, but quickly scrubbed it. The amount of information contained within the core was simply too staggering to try and parse right now. Maybe if he had a week, and a quiet place to fiddle with it, but here in an alleyway in Melloram? Not a chance.

Then a memory twigged. He’d been able to talk to people in messages during his trips to different Anomalies. Could this be similar? He reached out to Araxes.

Sam: Araxes, can you hear me?

Araxes: Of course I can hear you, lummox. The message system has functioned every time you’ve gone walkabout in one of these places, why shouldn’t it function for me here and now?

“What’s happening now?” Sally asked from where she hovered, vibrating quietly.

“Well, Araxes just insulted me, so he must be feeling alright,” Sam said with a rueful smirk.

Sam: Are you alright?

Araxes: Bloody peachy. I’m in an infinite room painted the color of the sea on a sunny day filled with the knowledge of eternity stretching out before my very eyes, and the thing has a filing system that was apparently conceived by two ill-mannered primates who from birth have been conjoined at the brain.

Sam blinked. Well, at least he sounded okay. He turned and looked at Persephone, still hovering low to the ground, and reached out to her through the message system.

And couldn’t find her.

Oh hell.

Sam: Araxes, Persephone’s not responding out here. Can you contact her from wherever you are?

Araxes: I should hope so. The little chitty is standing right in front of me

Sam blinked again.

Sam: What?

Araxes: Something about projecting a virtual avatar of herself into this space we occupy. I’ll be honest, I didn’t follow all of it. May I assume by your panicked tone that you are unable to contact her from where you are?

Sam: Yeah. She’s out like a light. And Sally’s about to murder me. Can you ask her what’s going on?

Araxes: I can indeed.

Several seconds passed before Sam realized his mistake and sighed out a quiet curse.

Sam: You’re doing this on purpose.

Araxes: I have been ripped from my usual plane of existence and deposited in the most frustrating room I have ever encountered since the Toffee Dungeon. You are absolutely correct in your assessment.

Sam: Fine. Will you ask her?

Araxes: I suppose so.

Several more seconds passed, during which Sam glanced over his shoulder to see Sally picking up a rock and bouncing it up and down in mid-air.

“She’s still there,” he said. “She’s with Araxes somehow. We’re trying to get it sorted out.”

“Sort faster please.”

Sam gave her a Look. “Sally. We’re doing the best we can here. You’re just gonna have to be patient.”

“And what about my sparkling personality suggests that I have any ability at that whatsoever?”

“Point. Then just sit there and panic. We’re working on it.”

Araxes: Without going into all the technical details this trollop just coughed up—because I don’t think I can go into them without my head exploding—her processing power is too limited in her current form to remain active in normal space and also be active within this Blue Room folderol.

Sam: Alright, that’s an answer at least. Can you ask her to come up for air? Sally’s going crazy out here. Talking to Persephone will go a long way to reassuring her, I think.

Araxes: I shall inquire.

Sam glanced up at the rapidly-lightening sky outside the alley. Morning was marching on, and he had an appointment with Milthorne in not too much time.

Well. She could wait. This was more important. Quickly he filled Sally in on what was happening, but had to break off when Araxes came back in his head.

Araxes: Because nothing can ever be simple. Apparently she must remain within the Blue Room as an avatar for the Guardian until he leaves. It is a part of her programming or some such nonsense. While I remain here, so must she.

Sam: Okay, we can sort that stuff out later. Come on back and let’s get everyone back to the dungeon. We’ll figure out where to go from there.

Araxes: A capitol idea. How do I get out?

Sam: What?

Araxes: Well you’ve done this kind of thing before, haven’t you? I assume there is some keyphrase or magical gesture one must make in order to be returned to the real world?

Sam: Uh… Whenever I’ve been in the White Room or anywhere else, it’s been Cora or Sally who brought me back. Can’t Persephone get you out of there?

Another long silence, this one heavy with implication.

Araxes: Let us say, just for the sake of argument, that she does not seem to have that particular power within her set. What other options might there be?

Sam dropped his head into his hand and muttered a string of curses.

Because it could never be easy, could it? Just once, just for one day, why couldn’t things be easy?

Sam: I’ll get back to you on that.