Rayna glared down at the smooth length of metal in her hand, its untarnished surface reflecting her scowl back at her. "I know what it's supposed to look like," she snapped. "How do I fix it?!" She threw the item across the teleportation room.

The metal part rusted in the air, regaining the three dents Rayna had already noticed, as well as a fourth one as it slammed into the hard stone wall. It clattered to the ground, giving Rayna no new information—except perhaps, the fact that it was unwise to throw machine parts at the wall.

It didn't change anything. The broken parts were unusable, whether they had three dents or four.

"We knew this wouldn't be easy," Phira said. For once, her voice held no condescension as she frowned thoughtfully at the broken teleporter. "This machine is thousands of years old, growing older by the day. We've only been working on it for—"

"I know, I know," Rayna interrupted, running her fingers through her hair. She didn't want to be reminded of the time she had spent wrestling with the teleporter parts, trying to get them to fit into their places despite the damage they had sustained over the years. Every day that passed without a solution made the problem feel that much more hopeless. "I didn't think it would be easy, but I thought we would have made some progress by now."

Her ability to see the future—or maybe the past, she wasn't quite sure how it worked—wasn't helping her in this instance. When she first started seeing the parts as they were supposed to look, she thought it would be the key to understanding how to fix them, but all it did was frustrate her. The ability didn't give her any clues on how to make the old and broken parts work it just kept shoving the images of the fixed parts in her face as if seeing a steaming cherry pie automatically gave Rayna the full recipe.

"Perhaps now would be a good time to take a break," Phira suggested. "You haven't left this room in days. Pycha might still be willing to chaperon a hunting trip if you ask nicely."

"I'm not interested," Rayna said, turning over another part in her hands. The crystal was cracked down the center, the top edge jagged where half of it had presumably been blasted to bits by whatever calamity broke the teleporter in the first place. "I just need to think. There's gotta be some way to fix this thing."

"A way that has evaded a Level 400 Artificer for over a thousand years?" Phira asked. "Rayna, be reasonable. No amount of thinking is going to give you the answer on this one. Your best chance to getting out of this decaying shed within your painfully short existence is to work with Pycha to fix the teleporter, however loathsome you find him to be."

Rayna closed her eyes, refusing to acknowledge Phira's point. She put the broken crystal aside, getting to her feet. "You're right about one thing: I'm getting sick of this damn room. I'm going to get some air."

Rather than follow her, Phira retreated into her stone, likely to save what little time she had left for discussion later in the day.

Rayna leaned against the porch railing, closing her eyes as a light breeze blew across her cheek. She wasn't sure where it came from—perhaps it snuck through the same cracks in the wall that allowed bugs to interrupt Rayna's peace—but it made Rayna long to see the sky.

She had lost track of how long she had been stuck in Pycha's cavern. He refused to even show them the way back to town. Seeing as the cavern had no entrances or exits, they were at Pycha's mercy at the moment, which did not improve Rayna's opinion of the man, no matter how much he tried to sweet talk her into letting him study her core.

"That was nuts!" Corban's voice echoed through the silent cavern as he and Pycha popped into view. After a month of grinding, he had long since surpassed Rayna's measly twenty-five levels, but he still hadn't come across any teleportation spells that could get through the island's wards. Pycha insisted that no such spells existed, but Rayna didn't believe a word he said, nor did she acknowledge his presence unless forced to.

"Good morning Rayna," Pycha said. "I trust you slept well?"

His voice wasn't exactly desperate, but Rayna could feel the inquiry in it. 'Are you going to speak to me today?'

The answer was 'no'.

"You look like you had a productive trip," Rayna told Corban. His level was now in the high eighties, which put him halfway between the Second and Third Ascension. If Rayna wanted to, she could just look at his notifications log to see what he'd been doing, but that felt a little too much like spying and, given the fact that she could only check it when standing within five feet of Corban, it would be really obvious spying at that.

"We took down a snake the size of a skyscraper!" Corban said excitedly, exaggerating as he usually did.

It wasn't that Rayna doubted the existence of a sky-scraper sized monster on Ember, but she highly doubted that there was one that large within the tunnel System they now occupied. Pycha made it very clear that they weren't ready to fight monsters on the surface so for Corban to have met a monster that large, there would have to be a cavern the size of the grand canyan or something equally as unlikely.

"Well, Pycha did most of the work, obviously, but I helped." Corban added, nodding at the hub. "Any progress on your end?"

Rayna shook her head. "I know what everything is supposed to look like. Lot of good that does me…"

"You got some of the parts to fit," Corban said, bouncing up the stairs to join her at the railing. She was fairly sure he was trying to sound encouraging, but in Rayna's current mood, it just came off as condescending. "What was it, fifty percent? That's gotta count for something."

"Fifty percent is a failing grade," Rayna said, moving back inside the hub. She took a seat at the table ignoring Pycha as he passed by.

Corban took a seat across from her, shaking his head. "You shouldn't be so negative. Any progress is better than nothing."

"Phira's the one who made progress," Rayna said. "I just plugged things in where she told me to."

"Speaking of Phira, where is that simulacrum of yours?" Pycha asked. "I had a question I wanted to ask her."

Tell that man if he wants to speak to me, he can address me directly, Phira grumbled.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

That would require me to talk to him, which isn't going to happen. Rayna remained silent, pretending she hadn't heard Pycha's question.

Corban frowned at her for a long moment before apparently deciding against playing intermediary. "Do you have any more of that pickleberry stew?"

Rayna knew that she put Corban in an awkward position with the silent treatment she was giving Pycha, but he didn't complain about it much. To make herself feel better about the situation, Rayna had been slowly feeding him the small stash of stew that she'd purchased from the Essence store back when she still had a way to earn points.

She pulled out a bowl and pushed it across the table to Corban.

He grinned, accepting the bowl and spoon Rayna passed him. He took a bite of the stew, humming in appreciation. "How many more of these have you got in there?"

"That's the last one," Rayna said. "I haven't been able to get more since my last Ascension."

Corban winced. "Meaning this is my last taste of freedom before I'm stuck with Pycha's cooking."

"I'm not a bad cook," Pycha commented.

"Your taste buds have atrophied from lack of use," Corban said. "Have you even heard of the word 'seasoning'?"

Pycha harrumphed. "Well, if you can find some decent herbs down here, I would welcome your input. Otherwise, all I see are a couple of complaining freeloaders."

Let us out of the tunnels and we'll get out of your hair, Rayna thought.

Then he would lose his favorite lab rat, Phira said, her telepathic voice half-amused, half-exasperated.

I haven't let him do any of his experiments. What's the point in keeping us here.

Phira thought for a moment. Perhaps, and I make this suggestion with the knowledge that it is likely false, but perhaps he is genuinely worried for your safety?

Rayna pressed her lips together, dropping the subject before it strayed to close to the 'lets let Pycha poke around in our magic in exchange for our freedom' conversation.

Corban shook his head. "I'm declaring this a state of emergency. Rayna, what do you need to get me more of this?" He motioned with his spoon to the stew. "It's not the best bowl you've given me, but it's edible."

Rayna sighed. "To get Essence Points, my Essence pool has to be capped, which would mean I would have to go hunting." She risked a glance over her shoulder, regretting it when she caught Pycha's eye. She glanced away before he could use the blunder to try to start a conversation. "Since I'm busy with the teleporter, I don't see that happening anytime soon."

Corban's shoulders drooped. "Can't argue with that, I guess."

"It wouldn't be hard to get you Essence Points," Pycha said, not bothering to move within visual range. "Just say the word and I'll get you all the pickleberry stew you can eat."

"I'm going to bed," Rayna declared, getting up from the table and heading toward the stairs.

"Bed? It's not even lunch time yet," Corban said. This declaration didn't stop him from taking another bite of the stew.

"I pulled an all-nighter working on the teleporter," Rayna said. "I need a nap at least."

"Gotcha. Sleep well," Corban said. "I'll be down here when you wake up."

"You'll have to talk to me eventually," Pycha said, standing between Rayna and the stairs. "The only way any of us will make it out of here is if we work together."

Rayna stared stubbornly at the wall until he gave up. Pycha moved aside so she could get to the stairs.

"The offer is still valid," he said. "Any time you want to make that store of yours usable again, you just say the word."

Rayna walked past him without acknowledging the comment, quite sure that she would never take him up on his offer.

* * *

Despite her plans to take a nap, Rayna found herself unable to fall asleep. She stared at the ceiling for more than an hour, her mind still working through the problem of teleportation. Eventually, she gave up on getting any real rest, deciding instead to try to take her mind off of the situation.

She turned to her Menu, pulling up the Essence Store that was currently useless. A little window shopping might help her decompress, and she figured she could make a wish list of items to buy when she eventually managed to earn some points.

She wasn't going to be stuck in this cavern forever… hopefully…

Unfortunately, half the fun of window shopping was being able to browse through the products and see all the things she could buy. The Essence Store was comprised entirely of text without so much as a physical description to make the items feel more real. Rayna scrolled through the offerings, unsure what half of them even were.

Hey System, Rayna thought. Is there anything you can do about this?

The sound proofing on the hub rooms was near perfect, but Rayna wasn't convinced that Pycha didn't have a way of listening in. She hadn't told him that she was the Administrator, nor did she ever plan to.

There was a momentary pause that Rayna had come to think of as the System thinking through her request. The pauses had been getting longer lately and within the last week or so, it was like the System had to process every little thing she asked.

Finally, a message popped up with some welcome news.

Clarification requested: to what are you referring?

Rayna sighed. While she in no way missed Ronari, the System updates had been far more intuitive with an intelligent and sentient mind behind the System's half of the conversation. The System itself was just a glorified AI chatbot with a finnicky set of commands. Sometimes it understood exactly what she was asking for, others it took a thirty minute discussion and an elaborate game of twenty questions to get her meaning across.

About the store, I mean, Rayna clarified. Can I get some item descriptions? Or pictures, maybe? Something to make it more than a long list of product titles…

The Essence Store is already equipped with visual representations of the items available. To access the item preview, focus on the item of query and picture it in your mind. Would you like a step-by-step tutorial?

Rayna dismissed the message. She didn't think she needed a full tutorial for something this simple. Scrolling through the disorganized mess, Rayna found an item that she was sure she could recognize and closed her eyes, picturing it in her head.

The image in her head wasn't detailed enough to be a preview and after a moment she realized that she was just using her imagination. Rayna opened her eyes, planning to ask the System for more information but she stopped short. A three-dimensional image of the item she had been querying—a small white notebook with a tattered cover and a ribbon bookmark—floated in the air in front of Rayna. She held her hand out, pushing her finger through the holographic image. It rippled and disappeared only to reappear as soon as Rayna focused on the item again.

"That's so cool," Rayna whispered aloud, trying it with several more items. She started with items she knew she would recognize, steadily moving on to things that she knew she'd never seen in her life.

A full-sized bookshelf…

A candied jekil fruit…

A crystalline phase dampener…

Rayna stopped on the last one, watching the item spin in front of her. It was a long block of transparent crystal with runes etched from top to bottom. A metal casing rimmed the outside edge of the crystal with a notch on top that looked like it fit into something.

Rayna could have sworn she had seen the item somewhere before…

Rayna sat bolt upright. Launching herself off of bed, she took the stairs three at a time and bursting into the main room like the hub was on fire.

"What's wrong?" Corban jumped to his feet, nearly knocking his chair over in his surprise.

Rayna waved the question away, too focused to answer properly. She angled straight for the teleportation room, excitement bubbling in her chest. She slid the last few feet on her knees, grabbing the broken part where she had dropped it by the main pillar. She compared it to the holographic image of the crystalline phase dampener.

The broken part morphed in Rayna's vision, growing longer and gaining a metal rim that came to a point at the top. Rayna glanced from one image to the other, her eyes starting to water.

The two parts were identical.

There was a replacement part in the Essence Store.

But Rayna didn't have a way to buy it…

"Where did you get that?" Pycha asked incredulously, staring at the hologram as it lazily circled in front of Rayna.

Rayna looked away for just a second, but when she looked back the broken part was back to its normal appearance.

She dropped the part on the ground and dismissed the hologram. "I think I know how we can fix the teleporter," Rayna said, addressing Pycha directly for the first time since he told them they were stuck there. "But I'm going to need your help."

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