Landscapes blur by. I lick my lips, a slight numbness touching my tongue for no apparent reason. Maybe that's what people mean when they say 'so close you can taste it', but if that's true, then it shouldn't be giving me a horrible sense of… foreboding. Something's wrong. No… something's been wrong for a while. Realization slithers through the back of my mind as Illumisia's muscles barely strain under me.

"Illumisia… Clutter didn't live in Denmary." I whisper. "That was Scooch."

She doesn't stop. In fact, she says absolutely nothing. Tangy, bitter worry nips at my thoughts, tinging all of them with hindsight that wasn't there a second ago. The unknown psychic. Ashmaw. Vesa and Briony. All of it just feels off. Add in Illumisia's silence and all those sensations fall into the pit of my stomach like a chunk of irradiated lead.

"What am I missing?"

Illumisia snorts. "So close, yet not quite the right question."

I lean into her neck with a frown. "What question?"

"The one you just asked. What you should be asking is 'why am I having doubts', not 'what did I miss'." Illumisia shakes her head, and a normal-sized duplicate appears right next to me. She clears her throat, and the sound comes from the duplicate. "There are people far more powerful than you can imagine. Ashmaw, the horizonguards, and even Miss S are within the bounds of power that can be understood. Yet you have met one single person whose power is… unfathomable."

I raise an eyebrow. "Are you talking about you?"

She doesn't laugh. She doesn't smile, say something clever, or… anything. All she does is press her nose against my chest, and–

Thousands of miles of green stretch out below me, and I look up at a crack in the sky that's growing hotter by the second. I want to scream. I want to call for help. But my voice just keeps relaying imperfect information to the people on the other end of the line. Tears stream down my cheeks. My magic won't listen to me. Nothing listens to me.

The painted dane curled around my entire existence looks me dead in the eyes. She smiles cruelly, and my magic rips away–stolen and gone. I stare up at the crack. Heat and destruction glows like nothing else I've ever seen. Then a smoky voice whispers in my ear–'you are no longer useful. Tell your people that we are through.'.

Everything goes white. It doesn't even have time to hurt.

I jolt back, clutching my chest with one hand as the other feels at my face for tears. "What the hell was that?"

"The last memories of the psychic." Illumisia states matter-of-factly. "Who I took at fangpoint the moment I detected their presence. I thought it to be the perfect test of your competence, and you have failed spectacularly. A simple double-layered suggestion implanted into each of your minds, one of which is resistant to your purification, and you do not so much as question the truth."

"You… what the hell…" I murmur and look down at my hands. "What the hell is the truth? When did all this shit happen?"

Illumisia sighs and shakes her head. "As I said, the psychic's magic was stronger than your purification. Had I not intervened, all of you would have walked straight into their trap. But now Ashmaw has dealt with the single strongest psychic on this continent, and you are safe, armed with the knowledge of how dangerous a psychic actually is."

Knowledge. Yeah, sure, great. I… wow. If Illumisia wasn't here, I'd be under their control. Completely and utterly. And I didn't even realize I was mixing up Clutter's history with Scooch's until Illumisia took away the spell she… took? Honestly, I'm not even surprised she can do that. But why test me now when we're so short on time?

…Wait. Is this why my skill wouldn't let me call for Illumisia? Because that'd mess with her test somehow? I lock eyes with her duplicate, but I can't see anything through the pure red facade.

"Is this why you brought me here? Did I… did I even make the decision to follow the wreath?" I clutch the stone between my fingers. "Why, Illumisa? Why bother with all this bullshit?"

"The answer is quite simple; you have not felt what it is like to fight someone with overpowering mental control. Small suggestions have far more power than grand control machinations. For you, this was meant to give you a glimpse into what it looks like for others. For them," Illumisia's duplicate nods in the direction of Denmary, "it was to show you how dangerous it can be to have allies susceptible to mental manipulation. Vesa, Briony, and Clutter were defeated by the psychic's abilities before you were even aware of any manipulation."

I swallow hard. "So how much of it is true?"

Illumisia tilts her head. "If you are referring to the story, all that is not true is the name of the town. Once I kill the rest of this spell, the only thing that will change is that they will no longer have any memories of Denmary."

"How'd you… I mean… making an entire new set of memories must be pretty damn hard, right?"

"You would think, but no. All I did was survey the town between leaving Clutter and you relocating to me. Then I merely put that familiarity in Clutter's mind when you accused him of being from here." Illumisia licks her lips and takes a step towards me. "Until your purification can protect you and Pearl from psychics, I will not let you out of my sight. And I will not let you return to your planet before this happens."

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Even though it's an ultimatum, and Illumisia's staring at me with a damn intimidating glare, I find myself completely agreeing with her. Sure, I'm pissed that she sprung a trap like this and had the gall to call it a 'test', but if she wasn't here I'd be done for. Since I have the eye of Stonestep Solutions, and maybe other people on their level, I need to be strong enough to be confident in my own thoughts and senses.

"I understand." I say with grim acceptance of my own weakness. "No matter how long it takes, I won't go back to Earth until I'm strong enough to guarantee Pearl's safety."

"No." Illumisia nudges her nose against my chest. "That is not enough. You will be powerful enough to guarantee both Pearlescence's safety and yours. I will not settle for less."

That's… strangely touching. I nod quietly, and Illumisia seems to accept that as a show of my resolve. Her duplicate collapses in my lap, heavy and feeling pretty damn real, as her real body slows down ever so slightly.

"I will give the other three a complete explanation when we return to ease their minds." She says quietly. "They are innocents who have unwillingly entangled themselves with our struggle. Though I cannot guarantee them safety, I can at least give them clarity of vision."

Pearl smiles softly. "That's more than you've given before, Illumisia."

Illumisia huffs and looks away. "Do not mistake this for softness. I simply will not allow anyone to die for circumstances we have placed them in."

As Pearl giggles fondly, I absentmindedly stroke Illumisia's ears and look up at the sky. Somehow, I still completely trust her. Maybe she's still got a bit of control over my brain, or maybe I'm just a little too used to this kind of shit. But the thought of actually being mind controlled and not even knowing it–not by someone who has my best interests in mind–it's goddamn terrifying.

"Yeah, our case is kind of messed up, isn't it?" I half heartedly chuckle. "An almost-god, the potential last shellraiser, and one of the Worth classes. All hated by the system, and we're pulling innocent bystanders into that hate. Maybe we should try to cut everyone but the other Worth classes loose when we get the chance."

Pearl frowns. "I think we should just ask them if they're okay with it. You'd be surprised how many people would willingly walk with us."

"Yes. There is already one in this world, after all." Illumisia agrees. "I gave Clutter the option of leaving when I revealed myself to him. He chose to stay of his own volition, even knowing the risks."

…Oh. That's… wow. "You're not kidding?"

Illumisia shakes her head. "I have no reason to lie to you at this moment."

"Right, after all the lies that just happened." I snort and shift my legs to one side as she slows to a walking pace. "I know it doesn't work with the whole 'secret test' thing, but if you're going to do something like this again, give me a little warning. I thought my skill was trying to murder me."

"There is a very good chance that my involvement had little to do with it. And on the topic of telling you… no." She smiles and shrinks down as I hop off. "I do not think I will. Though know that from this point on, I will eventually test you again when circumstances allow."

"I'll keep that in… mind…" I trail off as I take in the sight of… nothing. I take a few steps forward, and sure enough, the tracking wreath shifts to point in the other direction. We're here. "Where are we? Why's there absolutely nothing here?"

I gesture at the completely blank clearing, with nothing but a few stones and ankle-high weeds dotting the entire place. There's at least a good half-mile of emptiness in all directions, and when I look out, I can't see any roads or landmarks even remotely close to us.

"How am I supposed to know?" Illumisia walks to my side with a huff. "I barely had time to search Denmary before you relocated. Whatever is here is just as new to me as it would be to you."

Hrm. Either we're going to need a lot more than half an hour for this, or we're already done checking this place out. I raise the wreath-sphere into the air and tap it a few times, then grab it by the wreath and try to point it at the ground. The thing resists with all its might, fighting me like a heavyweight champ for the title of 'staying parallel to the ground'.

"The hell is this?" I grimace and try to force it even harder, but it's not moving. "Damn. Illumisia, you give it a try."

She raises an eyebrow. "I will break it."

I think for a second, then pull the thing back. "On second thought, maybe you shouldn't. Can you dig right here and see if there's anything buried?"

"That I can easily do. Please stand back; I do not know what I will unearth." She nudges me away with her nose, then watches as I take a dozen steps back. "No, no, further than that. Far further."

I raise an eyebrow and take another dozen steps. She shakes her head. So I take twenty. Still not enough, apparently. I jog backwards for a good thirty seconds, keeping my eyes on Illuminati the entire time. Finally she nods and looks away, puts her front paws to the dirt, and takes a breath so deep that her chest bulges like an inflating balloon.

"Yeep!" Pearl yelps as she covers her ears. "Shields up, Shelby! Make them airtight!"

Warning flashes through my entire being, and on instinct, I create a five-fold barrier of shields that surround me entirely. Illumisia laughs in my mind and stops inhaling, then lowers her head to the ground and lets out a single, rapturous howl.

A cacophony of noises spill from her maw, battering the ground with so much energy that the dirt flows like water. It sloshes up, up, and… oh, shit, there's a tidal wave of earth coming right at me! I raise my arms and cover my face as the sound shatters the outermost shield, the rumblings of a thousand painted danes screaming at the tops of their lungs battering my magic with an insistence that is just… wrong.

Then the earth hits. It splits around my shield like a viscous liquid, roots and stones and the remains of insects liquified by Illumisia's unbelievably powerful howl. I slowly lower my arms and just watch as things that definitely aren't supposed to be liquids roll over my shield; if it wasn't such a casual display of extreme power, I'd probably be terrified.

Yet for some reason, I'm just not scared of Illumisia. Maybe it's the fact that we share blood, but I trust her completely. It's the only reason I'm not verbally tearing her a new one for messing with all of us just a few short minutes ago. Whatever she does, if she wanted me dead, it'd be so much faster to just kill me… herself… wait, was that a house?

I blink and turn around as a… liquified house… rolls over me. "Illumisia. Stop. I think you found what we were looking for."

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