"Uhhh… yeaaaa," Kristi replied to Nessy just as we reached the parking lot. She pressed a button on a key fob and the doors of her pink glider van slid open for us. "I wouldn't call it a 'house' at this point though."

Ten minutes later, we were soaring over the forest in Kristi's Strand Glider. The vehicle was quite spacious inside, offering plush leather seating and panoramic windshields that offered stunning views of the landscape below. Kristi tapped a button and the floor became transparent too.

"Whoa," Nessy breathed, looking at the Ferguson valley below our feet. "Dis' the fanciest car I've been in."

"Eh, daddy's got fancier shit," Candace commented, draping herself over Adelle and me.

"But would he let you fly it?" Addie asked.

"Noppers," Candace clicked her tongue. "His entire fleet has dedicated human drivers as is tradition for the rich n' wealthy these days. Fuckers never let me drive anything. 'Oh no, Miss Rhinehart, I can't possibly let you fly her, this legacy glider is bound to my soul and… bla bla blah.'"

"It's just a standard Glider family model," Kristi said with false modesty, though there was a hint of pride in her voice as she guided the vehicle through a cloud bank. "Nothing special."

"Nothing special," Candace repeated with an eye-roll. "Just casual anti-grav tech with weather-shielding and what looks like military-grade cloaking and barrier shield capabilities to plow through a small dragon. Uh-huh. Totally pedestrian."

The raptor huffed at the fox from the driver's seat.

As we approached the farmhouse, I could see the familiar landscape of twisted metal and strange wire sculptures through the windshield. From above, the property looked even more bizarre, the random-seeming piles of junk creating strange patterns across the clearing.

"Holy shit," Nessy said as we descended. "What happened to this place?"

"My grandfather happened," I explained. "He apparently went a bit... eccentric before disappearing."

"Eccentric is putting it mildly," Candace said, her nose pressed against the window. "Wait... What in Slayer's name… Kristi, can you take us higher?"

"Higher?" Kristi frowned. "Why?"

"Just do it," Candace insisted. "I wan' a better angle of this thing."

"Mmmkay, this better count towards my team-support points," Kristi grumbled.

"It will," I smiled.

Kristi complied, pulling back on the controls and sending the Glider climbing into the afternoon sky. As we gained altitude, the view of the property expanded, revealing something neither of us had noticed from ground level.

"By the Slayer's sword," Candace breathed. "Do you see that?"

From this height, the seemingly random arrangement of junk and wire sculptures formed a perfect spiral pattern, centered on what remained of the farmhouse. The wire webs, bone chimes, and metal structures weren't chaotic at all—they were meticulously arranged in a massive fractal design that only became apparent from above.

"It's... beautiful," Nessy said softly.

"Uh-huh. In a really creeptastic, effed up sort of… way." Addie added. "Loops, you recognize this shape or something?"

"Maybe! Take us down," Candace commanded, her voice tight with excitement. "I def' need to scan this thing in person."

"Down it is," Kristi said, making the glider descend.

As we landed at the edge of the property, Nessy's eyes widened with recognition. "I've driven past here before," she said. "Years ago, when my parents took me on a hike to the Northern pass. It wasn't like this then. There was a real farm here—fields, crops, even some animals."

"What happened to all the plant life?" Adelle asked, gesturing to the barren earth surrounding the junk spiral. "Nothing's growing. Not even weeds."

I had no answer for that. The absence of vegetation hadn't registered that much during my first visit, but now that Adelle pointed it out, the unnatural barrenness of the soil was definitely disturbing.

"Mega high magrad release," Candace sniffed the air, her eyes lighting up silver as she jumped out of the van. "Whatever happened here fried everything alive within the radius of about a thousand meters. A good thing that this place is in the ass end of town close to the mountains."

She darted between piles of scrap with frenetic energy. Her eyes flashed continuously as she cast Identify on everything she passed, touching the random piles of rusted metal and wire webs.

"Where's my bike, dude?" Adler asked, poking Krysanthea.

"I'll take you to it," Kristi replied and the two departed, leaving me in the van with Nessy.

The husky also sniffed the air, choked and then slid over to my side.

"What?" I asked.

"Bad vibes," she said. "Very, very bad."

"You can smell vibes?" I asked.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"I can smell lots of things," she replied. "I'm basically a young Scrutimancer. My second core skill after Riffweld is Scrutiosmia."

"So… is this stuff dangerous then?" I asked.

"Not exactly," Nessy replied. "It smells like a dead battery—still contains residual magical energy, but not enough to do anything significant. Whatever your grandad built here, it required insane amounts of power to activate. Basically, everything living died, was turned to ashes when this thing… was activated. I can smell the echo of Death clinging to everything. It smells like sacrifice… like a greater arcane gate…"

"A gate?"

"A path to elsewhere," Nessy nodded.

"Manchester?" I muttered.

"I don't think that this place is connected to the United Kingdom," Nessy shook her head.

"Def' not our Manchester," Candace appeared, darting back to the van.

"I thought the farm burned down," I said, glancing at the blackened shell of the house. "But maybe it wasn't an ordinary fire?"

"Definitely not," Nessy said, wrapping her hand around my elbow.

"Yeeee," Candace nodded. "Those burn patterns are consistent with soooper high-level magical discharge, not conventional fire. Seems like your grandfather left in a hurry. The kind of hurry that doesn't give a shit about the other locals. Everything here got slanted sideways."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning it was dipped in and outta VERY deep Astral," Candace said. She kicked at a pile of junk making it topple backwards. "Check it out." She pried a rusted metal car door away from the ground.

Beneath the rusted door the ground was partially glassified. Crystalline-metallic silver glass stalks were blooming from broken glass.

"Huh," I said, climbing out of the van to examine the small, strange looking plants. "It looks like…"

"Dungeon-edge life," Candace nodded. "The magical gateway-opening nuke that basically went off here caused a miniature, localized Systemfall blip. Things that REALLY shouldn't bloom are blooming, becoming aligned to Syntropy, Entropy and Infinity at random."

"That's… great!" I smiled.

"What?" Nessy blinked at me. "Alec, dungeon-edge life can be incredibly dangerous, poisonous… deadly!"

"It's fine," I said. "I can go through these plants, test them on myself, see if I can find something that heals me."

Candace and Nessy stared at me like I was completely insane.

"What?" I looked back at their shocked expressions. "I did it at the edge of Highway 69. It worked out. My Syntropic Fusion skill can fuse magical grass together to amplify its effects."

"You… you went to the edge of Highway Sixty Nine?!" Nessy choked.

"He sure did," Candace sighed. "Would not recommend. Ten thousand out of ten. Almost died. Lost my bike, all of my artifacts and jacket-armor."

"Alec, WHY?!" Nessy barked.

"Yeah, why?" Candace repeated the husky's question. "When I felt that you went there via our bond link… I freaked out pretty bad, made Addie get off her ass ASAP. I thought that you were going to go in and that I'd never see you again!"

"Because I needed to heal," I said. "Because… I wanted to do something, anything to help you, Ness."

"How the heck does going near that horrible place help me?!" Nessy demanded.

"Because I thought I could find dungeon-edge plants there to make healing artifacts," I explained. "I was sliced up, exhausted, and claimed by drunk bikers. I needed to heal so I could... I don't know, function properly, think clearer. Be strong enough to save… you."

"Save me?" Nessy blinked, crossing her arms. "I… I don't need saving, Alec! I'm not some damsel in distress trapped in a crystal tower."

"Mhmm," Candace nodded. "Our brave, immovable Alpha was quite distresso about… Some husky girl tail. So, he went right up to the edge of death and taunted the Magnetic Lynx. TAUNTED the Butcher of Delvers! Called her names, n' shit!"

"You WHAT?!" Nessy's voice rose to a near-howl. "Alec, that thing is a legendary-tier Sentinel! People don't even take photos of Highway Sixty Nine for fear she'll sense it and hunt them down!"

"She seemed nice enough," I shrugged, trying to downplay the encounter. "Just a bit misunderstood."

Nessy stared at me with a judging look.

Kristi and Adelle returned, the cheetah looking annoyed as she kicked at random pieces of scrap metal.

"Can't believe you dumped my baby in this heap," Adelle grumbled at Kristi.

"Your baby is clearly fine. What's going on here?" Kristi asked, noting the tense atmosphere. "Why does Nessy look like she's about to bite someone's head off?"

"Cus I am!" Nessy growled.

"We're collectively shaming Alec," Candace nodded. "I just explained to Ness how he went to Highway Sixty-Nine, picked flowers at the dungeon edge, and had a friendly chat with the Magnetic Lynx. You know, as one does when feeling a bit under the weather."

"Yeah that was pretty whack," Adelle smirked. "I'm not gonna lie, boss, am hella impressed with ya, but also hella pissed about the state of my bike."

"Look," I said, starting to feel defensive under the collective scrutiny of four prads glaring at me, "Highway Sixty-Nine has been around forever—so the edge vegetation had to be potent. It was a calculated risk."

"Calculated risk?" Nessy repeated incredulously. "The Magnetic Lynx has killed professional delving teams! Entire packs of high-level pradavarians! And you just... went up to her domain and picked flowers?"

"And insulted her blue vest," Candace added helpfully.

"Magnetic fucker forced a quest on him through me as Quest giver," Kristi muttered. "To reach the end of the highway and to kill its avatar."

"WHH–WHAT?! YOU DID WHAT?!" Nessy flashed to my side, claws digging into my leather jacket. "ALEC! Please tell me she's joking!"

I raised my hands in surrender. "Okay, yes, it was incredibly stupid now that I think about it. But, it allowed me to get all of you together, so there's that. Silver lining! And now we know this farm is full of similar magical vegetation, so I won't need to go back there."

"You will have to go back there, idiot," Kristi growled. "Because if you don't, the Lynx will murder everyone in Ferguson."

"WHAT?!" Nessy spun to Kristi. "WHEN DOES HE HAVE TO GO BACK THERE?!"

"The Magnetic Lynx didn't specify a timeline," Kristi shrugged. "Welcome to team Alec, dog. Hope you enjoy the existential dread with a side dish of inescapable cosmic horror."

Nessy stared at me, her blue eyes wide. "Is that true?"

"Yep," I let out.

"You… you don't smell like you're kidding," Nessy shuddered, eyes darting from me to Kristi, to Candace to Addie.

"Yep, he's supposed to reach the heart of Highway Sixty-Nine and break some time loop or something, or she'll systematically murder everyone he's ever met," Adelle added, walking past the distraught-looking husky and climbing back into the van. "But I reckon we've got time to figure it out n' sheet. Right, Sweet-Loops?" She glanced at the fox. "Kay, I'ma have my nap now that I know that my baby's fine here. Wake me up if something tries to eat me."

She flopped onto the wide leather seat and curled into an orange fur ball, eyes closing.

Nessy let go of my jacket and sat on the edge of the van's door, burying her face in her white paws and trembling.

"Slayer. This… All of this is my fault, isn't it?" she let out, her eyes filling with tears.

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