This city is spinning in its own rut, and not metaphorically speaking. If I sit still and focus on my senses, I can just barely notice the movement under me, a slow and steady rotation. It does not sway in the way of a boat floating on water, and I can’t hear any mechanical engines whirring, giving the energy to spin this city like a wheel.

No, as with almost every enigmatic thing in this universe, magic is the answer. The details of the magic illude me but not in the way of some mystical knowledge kept out of reach, it’s more like the intricacies of mechanical engineering. I just don’t have the time to flick through all the necessary textbooks.

“So, uh, aren’t we going to end up rolling onto the ceiling sometime in the night?” Vii asks, tapping her nervous energy out on the ground beneath us.

“Yes, we are. Didn’t you see the beds?” I ask, waving at what amounts to a series of cylindrical holes in the wall, lined with thick cushioning all the way around. If I think about it, it’s almost like the slowest, softest washing machine to ever exist, tumbling us around so slowly that I wouldn’t even notice it if I weren’t paying close attention.

“Ugh, we won’t get any proper sleep if we’re waiting to fall on our faces halfway through the night!” Vii complains, striding back and forth in the small room that will be our home for the length of our stay on this world. I’m not entirely convinced that our rotation is the real reason behind her spirited complaints.

Since Gehnna left us to our own devices she’s been waiting in a building opposite us, and whenever we leave, she follows at a distance wringing her hands like she’s watching a group of toddlers playing around in a munitions factory. To call her behaviour suspicious would be a terrible understatement.

“Let’s get back out there,” I say, stretching my arms out. “I’d rather that we be on the offensive here.”

“We’re going to pick a fight?” Eshya asks, her playful smile only half convincing.

“We’re going to find out why this place is so strange. I don’t know if you were paying attention but the locals don’t seem wholly in their right minds, almost like half the town is completely drunk.”

“Well, if I looked like them I’d be drinking too,” Eshya shrugs.

“That’s not a nice thing to say,” Adler says, levelling a glare at the elf. “I noticed the same as you Kyra, but more than that, the elvish features are much too common here. I hope that isn’t the reason why they’re unwell.”

“I doubt it,” I reply. “I’m thinking that it might have something to do with this pilgrimage that we’ve been invited on.”

“They’re not going to make us into half-slugs do you think?” Vii asks, freezing in the middle of the room. “What if the townspeople aren’t slugs turning into elves, but the other way around?

“If you take off my wings and legs I’d look like an elf, stuff me into a slug body and I’d look like the townspeople out there do.”

I can’t be sure how realistic her worries are, but it’s enough of a horrifying thought to make the rest of us pause in consideration. The idea of being torn apart and turned into one of those slugs is… unpleasant.

Eshya grips her sword tight as she digests the idea. She seems just about ready to go out there and start killing the ‘monsters’, but she holds herself back.

“That’s probably not going to happen,” I say. “We’ll be on our guard, and if anyone tries anything I have mana on me to mince them. We’re going to be fine.”

“So, what should we do before this pilgrimage?” Adler asks. “I’d like to try and see if we can help these people.”

“Then let’s go for a walk and see if we can’t hear any opinions about all this that differ from our guide’s thoughts,” I say, “I’ll use the time to gather some scouts from the local population.”

“I know a little about healing magic now, not enough for a breakthrough, but I know the theory,” Adler says, biting her lip. “If I get a closer look, I should be able to tell if there’s any tampering with their bodies to give them elvish features.”

“What are we waiting for, then?” I say offering Eshya a hand and pulling her up from the ground where she’s planted herself. “Would you do the honours of watching our backs in case some terrible foe decides to surprise us in a dark alley?”

“I think you’d be the first to see them, but sure,” She replies, standing and stretching her legs. She’s not yet fully back to her best condition but I’ve already seen that she’s competent enough to fight. “Let me at ‘em.”

Her smile doesn’t quite reach her eyes, which are constantly twitching towards the shadows.

Leaving the house behind, we fall the small distance to the streets outside which are a little steeper than when we last set foot on them. It seems clear now the reason why the doors aren’t quite level, and why the street is sloped as it is. The buildings are made to be accessible from the ceiling because the ceiling will soon enough become the floor.

“Is everything quite alright?” Gehnna asks, wringing her hands, her face twisted up with worry. I’m not sure what trouble she expects us to find, but something certainly has her on edge.

“It’s fine. We were going to explore for a little while,” I say.

“You can’t stay out for too long, it’s almost evening already, and the streets will be flooded as the night comes.” She looks along the road towards the darkness where it slopes down towards the unseen depths. If I listen close I can hear a faint splashing of disturbed water. “Your rooms are warded to keep the water out, but the streets will be entirely flooded.”

“That’s quite alright, we’re all capable of handling a little water,” I reply, pausing a moment to reconsider. “There’s nothing unusual about it, is there? It’s not some dangerous acid that’s going to melt us down to nothing, or turn us into slugs, is it?”

“It is salty…” Gehnna says, her expression stiff with worry as if a little saltwater is going to make us melt like the wicked witch of the west.

“That’s fine, then.” I say, “We’re just going to talk to a few people before we find ourselves some dinner, if that’s alright?”

“Oh, dinner!” Gehnna shouts as if just now realising that such a meal exists. “Yes, I’ll take you to the best restaurant in our city. Let’s go, let’s go.”

As she leads us away, talking about the Bakers and their prestigious shop, and the Smiths and their noble work for the neighbourhood, Eshya reaches out to me with a whisper.

“Should we really be trusting her? I get the feeling that she’s trying to hide something.”

“She is,” I nod. “Which is why we need to go take a look at the places she’s keeping from us. Just give me a moment to spread out my eyes a little.”

Gehnna is still discussing the history of her people, waving her arms around quite wildly as she grows excited. She’s quite caught up in her own speech.

“You see when this colony was all on its own, we contended against the wilderness, struggling to make a home that we could defend against the wild beasts. The masons carved out this stone using their own acid. It took decades to carve out just the first street, and then centuries more to build this city into what it is now.

“There aren’t nearly as many beasts in the wild that can threaten us. They all died out centuries ago, but this incredible place remains.”

“The wild beasts died out? How?” Adler asks.

“That’s… it’s nothing worth talking about really.” Gehnna says, not particularly good at lying. “What matters is that we’re safe now.”

Straying from our guide a few steps I approach one of the slugs on the road, looking into his misted eyes, held aloft by sagging stalks.

“Sir, are you doing alright? You’re, ah, limping.” The man turns around to look down at his foot, an elvish leg that’s simply dragging along at his side.

While he’s distracted I wave my hand near enough to use my Skills without having to touch the mucous that covers his body.

He contorts as he sucks the odd limb back inside of his semi-liquid body, but it pops back out again a moment later, kicking out of its own accord. The sight is at first horrifying in the way of a horror movie, but once I set aside my human biases and see the slug as his own person, and not some monster, it’s just depressing.

He’s confused, and not entirely in control of his own body, which seems to be fighting against him. Whatever is affecting his mind, sends him into shock after a few seconds, but that quickly gives way to an unnaturally placid calm.

Adler moves in to try and get a look at the man while Gehnna wrings her hands, her voice warbling hesitantly as she speaks up.

“Please don’t bother them,” She says. “They’re still recovering, they’ll be better in a few weeks, but until then it’s for the best that we don’t interfere.”

“What’s wrong with them?” I ask, broaching the topic that she clearly wants to avoid. “Was he one of the people who went missing?”

“No,” She shakes her head. Between the look of compassion she directs at the confused man and her apparent inability to tell a convincing lie, I’m convinced that she’s telling the truth. “He… I hope you don’t take this the wrong way. I’m not drawing you into danger or anything, so please don’t… don’t misunderstand us.”

“What?”

“The pilgrimage was a little too much for him,” Gehnna says, “It’s not dangerous, and I know that you would be fine. For some, it’s harder to come to terms with what they learn.”

“You can’t explain it to us?” I ask.

She shakes her head, a difficult frown on her lips.

“Any explanation I could offer would only make you more confused, or make you come to the wrong conclusion. You need to see for yourself.”

“Then we will,” I say. “But for now, I hope you don’t mind us talking to others here and investigating on our own. You have to know that this situation is suspicious.”

“Yes, yes, of course.” She nods. “I wouldn’t think of interfering. I’m just worried.”

“You’re afraid of us?” I ask, peering into her expression, but I can’t fully read her.

“I’m afraid of being misunderstood.” Her shoulders slouch and her eyes turn to the trail of mucous that she’s left behind her.

Adler finishes up with her exam in less than a minute with nothing to show for it. According to her, the leg is a normal expression of elvish features on alien species, she can’t find anything wrong with it apart from how poorly it fits the slug’s body. Gehnna doesn’t even try to explain anything about it, trying to distract us with more history lessons.

Dinner is rather average. It’s not so unpleasant that it’s worth remembering, but it’s far from being good. It fits into the rather broad spectrum of bland that fills the in-between.

In the restaurant, I make sure to talk with as many patrons as possible and spread my eyes. About half of them are in that same dazed state, but others are merely reticent and thoughtful. None seem willing to discuss the situation with us, only urging us to go on the pilgrimage and see for ourselves.

Even for all my efforts, my vision of the city is still sorely limited, which is why I’m taken by surprise when we return to our room.

“Don’t shout!” The slug huddled in one corner of the room whispers forcefully, “Don’t let her know that I’m here! Wait, no. She already knows. She’s it and it’s always listening.”

Gehnna is outside, walking to her own home across the street where she can stay to observe us. If she does see the slug in the room with us, then she doesn’t show any sign of it.

“What are you doing here?”

“Please save us,” The slug says, bowing his head in our direction. “Save us from the monster below.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Stats and Skills

~Mana Form:

Current mana density: 42,391 / 60,892 units

Current mana volume: 21,073 / 30,271 shards

Mana volume at crystallisation density (Max. mana volume):

Kyra: 30,271 shards

Kyra’s armour: 20,777 shards

Kyra’s throne: 1,109,298 shards

~Forms

Mana Canon

-Annihilation Heart (Adapted)

-Blood Fuel (Adapted)

-Bone Magic Storage (Adapted)

-Nail Shifters (50,000 mana shards)

Dancer

-Flash Nerves (Adapted)

-Quick Perception Mind (Adapted)

-Burst Reflex Muscles (35,000 mana shards)

-Layered space Muscles (80,000 mana shards)

Turtle

-Rebinding Tissue (Adapted)

-Catalyst Sweat Glands (140,000 mana shards)

-Repulsive Skin (Adapted)

-Prehensile hair (Adapted)

-Fatty Tissue Blood Storage (100,000 mana shards)

Investigator

-Wide eyes (Adapted)

-Wide ears (Adapted)

-Sharp nose (Adapted)

Misc.

-Clean bowels (Adapted)

-Mana Drive (Adapted)

~Favourited Skills:

Magic:

-Annihilation Magic (Customised)

-Fire Magic (Functional)

-Space magic (Broken)

-Force magic (Functional)

-Ice magic (Broken)

-Wind magic (Broken)

Movement:

-Hand-to-hand casting (Functional)

-Mana surge movement (Functional)

-Stealth (Functional)

Senses:

-Eyes of an Empire (Customised)

-Combat Awareness (Functional)

-Watchmen (Functional)

-Hidden bug (Mastered)

-De-tagging (Mastered)

-Anti-stealth sight (Mastered)

Special:

-Spirit Transformation (Broken)

-Conformity (Broken)

-Training mana form (Functional)