Before I even finished manifesting inside the link, I knew this was going to be different from the links I'd done before. This wasn't dipping my toe into the shallow jacuzzi; this was like taking a leap straight into the cold deep.

I reached out for help, and something reached back, more than one something, in fact, but by the time I became cognizant of that, I was already lost in the ship's mental expanse.

Normally, it took a bit of wrangling from all the wyrms involved in a link in order to assemble space and time into something concrete where the linked wyrms' avatars could appear and interact with one another. This time, however, all of that had already been done for me, and without so much as a drop of effort on my part.

Had the ship been waiting for me? Or had the link tapped into something that was already there, out of view?

Whatever the answer was, it was certainly a vivid one. I stood on something like an island, in a world without a sky, only with a labyrinth of corridors in place of a sea. The corridors were a dream of mica and malachite, like the walls of an icy cavern hidden deep underground. Their walls glowed with an inner light that seemed to follow me as I moved. The ground itself curved slightly, giving the impression that the labyrinth was on the underside of a bowl. Looking out over the walls and the curvature, I saw a tower in the distance, volcanic and crystalline. It emerged from the surrounding labyrinth like a castle from a hedge maze, and seemed taller than the sky. If the tower had a roof, it was lost in the brilliant column of light that streamed up from it and into the darkness overhead.

"Genneth?" Mr. Himichi said.

I turned to face him. He was standing where my feeling for help had been.

I must have summoned him by accident. I opened my mouth to explain myself, when my senses went and tossed out their limiter, turning my mind into a superhighway for more information than I could ever possibly comprehend.

It was the very definition of "overwhelming".

Groaning, I dropped to one knee. I grabbed my head, worried it might explode.

Whether it was a spirit or another wyrm, I was used to the brief rush of awareness that bombarded me every time I entered another mind. Now, it all seemed like child's play. You could have glued together every consciousness I'd ever entered and jam all that data into me and it still wouldn't have captured one one-trillionth of what I was currently dealing with. But it didn't stop there. This torrent of consciousness was alien, through and through. It was like I was a colony of ants—every ant, all at once—drowning in their labors' minutiae. Two-thirds of every impression reified inside me in ways my mind simply couldn't comprehend; basically, sensory syntax errors.

Speeding up my thoughts didn't help; it just made the current come in more quickly. Slurry is slurry, no matter how slowly it passes you by.

Desperate, I tried to reach out for anything that made even a lick of sense. I gravitated toward sounds. Somehow, in the depths of it all, there were sounds that I could actually understand.

"Genneth!"

"Dr. Howle!"

Through the mental fog, I realized I'd pulled two other spirits out along with Mr. Himichi: Suisei and Ileene.

I couldn't respond to them even if I wanted to. I flung my thoughts at the barrage, grabbed one, and squeezed it out my mouth.

"They…" Groaning, I rubbed my temples. "…they call themselves the Vyx."

Just forming words was a struggle. "They—"

"—Who does?" Ileene asked.

Unable to bear the strain anymore, I choked off my connection to the ship's mind. The pain and sensory overload instantly went away.

Sighing with relief, I fell to my bottom and leaned back against a wall. I let my legs stick out, reveling in the sensation of having knees and bending them.

Knees can be a real pain in the neck (especially if you have arthritis or a terminal youth deficiency), but boy, were they nice to have when you needed them.

I'd really missed them.

The wall of the corridor was neither warm nor cold to the touch, and despite its turbid appearance, was as smooth as glass. I focused on breathing while I waited for the dizziness to abate.

"What happened?" Mr. Himichi asked.

I pushed myself off the ground. Ileene skittered forward and offered a helping hand, but I politely declined it with a playful grumble.

"I'm not that old."

I dusted myself off and straightened my white doctor's coat.

Ileene was in gym wear, drawstrings and all, with her hair tied back in a ponytail. It wasn't the most modest dress (she had sleeves, but they could have been a little longer), but it certainly looked comfortable. Beside her, Mr. Himichi was wearing his classic slacks and vest combo, topped with his supple black beret.

Suisei, like me, was still in his work clothes.

"Are you alright?" the old mangaka asked.

"I will be… I think."

"As am I," Suisei said.

Ileene crossed her arms. "That's not really reassuring."

While Ileene and Mr. Himichi were more focused on me, Suisei had already devoted his attention to our surroundings.

Now that my head didn't feel like it was going to explode, I could get a firmer grip on where we were. Most of the information-torrent had come and gone without a trace, but a few remnants still sprinkled over my thoughts. It was with them in mind that I took a second look at the maze we were in.

"Maze" couldn't have been a more apt description. The bifurcating corridors slithered along as far as the eye could see. As I think I already mentioned, the "ground" underneath us had a gentle curve to it, which let me see the tops of the walls further ahead as the floor dipped toward the central tower. I had no clue how far away it was, beyond, well… far. Industrial sorts of noises thumped and clanked in the distance. If I closed my eyes, I could imagine it was the sound of metal vats jangling and other great bulks settling into place.

I knew the noises were significant—as was the tower—but, for the life of me, I couldn't have told you why.

Exhaling, I turned to face Mr. Himichi.

"You asked what happened?" I said. "Well, I was trying to soak up as many of the Vyx's thoughts as I could, and it was just too much for me."

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"There's that word again," Ileene said. "Who—or what—are the Vyx?"

I crossed my arms and pondered that for a bit, flicking my thumb through my beard. Finally, I just had to admit my ignorance. "I don't know. Maybe it's the collective name for these extraterrestrials. Maybe it's the name of their religion. I know it refers to something that lives and thinks and dreams," I gestured toward the tower, "but at the moment, that's all I can tell you."

"Regardless of what these Vyx are," Suisei said, "how can their thoughts be too much for you to handle? Wyrms' mental capacities are—"

I shook my head. "—I don't know if it's because the ship's mind is too alien for me to comprehend, or if the ship's transformation hasn't progressed enough for us to easily interact with one another."

"It could be both," Ileene said.

Mr. Himichi nodded. "That it could."

"Are we trapped here?" Suisei asked. He viewed our surroundings with suspicion.

I closed my eyes for a moment, checking to see if things were still working within my mind in the ways I was used to.

"No," I said, "thank the Angel."

My Main Menu was still intact. Wyrmsoft 2.0 was still fully operational though I couldn't help but wonder if, perhaps, there might be an unforeseen compatibility issue at work. It could explain my trouble with accessing the ship's thoughts.

Or it could be wild mass guessing on my part.

"Next question," Ileene said, "why are we here?"

Suisei and Mr. Himichi turned to face me at nearly the exact same time.

I fidgeted with my lucky bow-tie. Then, clearing my throat, I raised my hand, though not super high up.

"That would be my doing," I said. "I panicked and reached out for help. I guess I dragged you guys along with me."

"So, what now?" Ileene asked.

I glanced down the hallway. "Now, we walk," I said, "and explore. Unless you want to go back to—"

Ileene looked up at the darkness overhead. "—I wouldn't miss this for the world," she said.

Fair enough.

We set off on a walk. It was an unnerving experience, to say the least The sporadic symphony of clonks and clanks echoing in the distance never let up, leaving me with the dual certainty that something important was happening, and that I didn't understand a word of it.

Suisei pointed at the beam of light rising from the distant tower.

"At the risk of pointing out the obvious, what is that?" He glanced at me. "What is this place?"

"From what little I could understand of the ship's thoughts, I think it's a… coping mechanism?"

My explanation sounded far less confident than I would have liked it to be.

"What?" Ileene said.

"We're seeing something that our minds—but, specifically, my mind," I pressed my fingers on the side of my head, "isn't quite capable of comprehending. Wyrm minds, like human minds, work on a predictive basis. If we can't understand something, we pull up any prior experiences that feel relevant and plaster them over the strange new thing, in order to make it more accessible to us. This plays a role in everything from racism to PTSD."

Ahead, the path forked into thirds. We took the branch on the left.

"So, as best as I can describe it," I continued, "what we're walking through here is a visualization that my subconscious whipped up to represent the ship's mental architecture in a way that our minds can understand."

"Okay," Ileene said. "So… what are you understanding about it?" She looked up in worry at the dark, cloudless, starless sky overhead. "Because, I've got nothing."

Pale lightning spidered through the dark where the tower's beam pierced through.

Stopping in place, I put my hand on the wall. The light glowing inside the wall gravitated toward my palm, like a hungry cloud.

I drew from the residuals I'd gotten from the information dump, as well as from the ambience of emotions that pervaded this place.

"I…" I pursed my lips. "I feel… community. And yet, also… isolation."

"That's not very helpful," Ileene said.

I frowned briefly, but then looked up the height of the wall. It had to be at least three times my height.

"When I tried to tap into the ship's mind, the first thing that came to mind was ants. Specifically, a colony."

"Ants?" Mr. Himichi said. He turned to Dr. Horosha. "Perhaps the ships are some sort of hive mind?"

"But how can a hive mind feel isolation?" Suisei replied.

"It could be lonely," I suggested.

In hindsight, that comment of mine more than deserved the stares it received.

Mr. Himichi pursed his lips. "Hmmm… what about the tower?"

"I'm pretty sure the crystal tower of light is a crystal tower of light, and so it's probably important."

The old man pouted at me.

"This place is a meeting of two wyrms' minds," Suisei told me. "Shouldn't you be able to shape it as you see fit?"

I looked up. "Normally, that requires some cooperation between the wyrms party to the link…" I looked around.

Nope, no sign of the ship, or anything that might have represented it.

"…and I don't see any sign of that happening right now. As far as I know, this whole place might be the ship's attempt to communicate with me." I turned to Suisei. "It's a spaceship, right? So, what do spaceships usually think about?"

"In science-fiction, they're usually a lot like ALICE, though, in many stories, they have a habit of trying to murder their crew."

I rubbed my forehead. "That isn't very helpful."

"You can use your powers somewhat, right?" Ileene asked. "Enough to get us out of here?"

"Yes," I said, "but—"

—Somewhere out of sight, there was a loud crack, like the snap of a whip, or an avalanche breaking free. The ground briefly shook.

None of these sounds inspired confidence.

We turned our heads in unison.

The crack couldn't have had better timing.

"I think we're being watched," I said.

Suisei nodded. "Agreed."

"What might that mean?" Mr. Himichi asked.

"The interpretation of dreams has always been touch and go, if not outright unscientific, but, if I had to fathom a guess, I'd say this maze is a darn good representation of anxiety and the feeling of being lost. The only thing missing are some blatantly symbolic labyrinth monsters."

"Don't tempt fate, Genneth," Mr. Himichi quipped. "You're not alone anymore."

He had a point, there.

I fidgeted with my bowtie before setting off in a walk again.

After a moment, I remarked: "I can't help but compare this place to what my own mind feels like. All these passages…"

"Where do you think they go?" Ileene asked.

Just then, we came to a sharp turn. Around it, a portal came into view, and, suddenly, all the other mysteries lost their import.

The portal in question was a hole in the labyrinth wall. The portal was wide enough for two people to stand in it side by side. Light fell into it, trickling inward from all sides, soughing softly, like a creeping wind.

More importantly: it was familiar to me.

I pointed at it. "I recognize this. It's one of the teleportation portals from Vaults of Moránn."

"Vaults of what?" Ileene asked, blinking in confusion.

For some reason, her question flustered me more than I would have expected.

"An excellent fantasy RPG," I said, blushing slightly. "You can play it real-time-with-pause or turn-based, and can switch modes on the fly."

She smiled, wagging a finger in understanding "That's right, you're kind of a dork."

I merely nodded. "Yes, that's one of my most appealing qualities."

Mr. Himichi stepped up to the portal to get a closer look. "Should we go through it?" he asked.

I shook my head and stuck out my arms, which I waved in an X. "No. No no no no no no no. In Vaults, these are portals to enter or exit the dungeons in the titular vaults. I suggest proceeding with caution."

"So… you're going to just pass it up?" Ileene said.

"I'd happily whip up some cool RPG nonsense for us right now, but I'm worried how the ship might react to that. Honestly, if I'm going to have to take a leap of faith, I'd prefer it to be a smaller one," I gestured at the portal, "rather than whatever entering this thing entails."

"Still," Ileene said, "maybe there's—"

—Once more, the ground shook. Suddenly, the hallway split down the middle. The crack threaded its way from one side of the corridor to the other, dashing between Ileene's legs. The section of the hallway behind us—where the portal was—rose up like a cliff as the side we were on got pulled away from it. Ileene tottered and fell as the gap widened, as if to claim her.

All I could see down it was an endless dark.

"Ileene!" I yelled.

Suisei and I rushed to grab her, but she slipped through our reach. Without a second thought, I channeled my wyrmly might. Mental power coursed through my limbs, warm and pleasant.

It tickled slightly.

"<Teleport>," I muttered, making sure to visualize my desired outcome.

Ileene popped into existence a couple feet beside me a moment later, shaken and disheveled (particularly when it came to her hair), but otherwise in okay shape. All the while, the gap continued to widen, with the separated part of the hallway rising higher and higher as it pulled away from us, like a mountain taking root. The further away it got, the more I could see.

Bracing myself against the wall, I leaned over the edge and looked around the wall at my right.

"Angel's breath…" I said.

It wasn't just this one part of the corridor that was moving away. An entire section of the labyrinth was breaking off and drifting away, like a fracturing iceberg.

I pulled away from the edge and turned to face my companions.

"Those sounds we've been hearing… They're…"

Mr. Himichi nodded gravely. "This place is breaking up,"

I peered over the edge one more time. It was a long way down, and if it had a bottom, I didn't see it.

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