Pieces of Sonder

“I think we went in a circle again,” Infamous Biscuit said, frowning at their surroundings.

After an hour of walking and fending off several wolf attacks, everyone was impatient to reach their goal. The spirit of the King’s brother was supposed to be near the shipping docks, but just finding the ocean was proving difficult. Either the port district of Soliya had a lot of identical streets with shops on them, or they had indeed come back to where they started. When they saw the train station again, it confirmed the latter.

“I know there’s fog, but how can it be this hard to navigate when we have maps in our head?” Heilong said, making a motion to enlarge the map on her screen.

Freya thought it was perfectly reasonable to get lost, given her terrible understanding of the map function. However, in all the time she had been traveling with the experienced game players, she had never seen them lost. It was also suspicious that they happened to circle back to where they started twice.

“Perhaps…” Freya began, scrutinizing the space around them.

Infamous Biscuit raised an eyebrow, “Do you think something more is going on?”

“It’s something I never thought I would see in a city, but given the terrible management we’ve seen so far, maybe it’s possible.” Freya sighed.

“Wait,” Nightscythe said, “Can I take a guess? I think I’ve heard of something like this on the game forum. People kept getting turned around in this certain patch of forest. No one could figure out what was going on, but then one of them discovered a tiny monster was actually responsible. I think it was called a greater plex or something like that.”

Freya blinked in surprise, “Yes, that’s it. They’re usually seen in forests. Their more common name is a plexplex.”

“Cute name,” Heilong commented.

“They do look cute,” Freya shrugged. “They look like little chubby frogs. But they can develop powerful spatial magic. If left alone to grow, their magic can take over an entire forest. They can warp space, making anyone who wanders into their domain trapped in an endless loop.”

Everyone hung on her last words. 

“They can warp space?” Heilong asked, “It’s not just an illusion?”

Freya shook her head, “They don’t warp perception; they fold space. I don’t understand how. But you can see it in the juvenile ones. If you fire an arrow inside their trapped space, the arrow can circle and hit you.”

“Should I try it?” Heilong asked, grabbing her bow.

“You can try it, but I don’t think we’re dealing with a juvenile plexplex. The folded space we’re in might be too big to see your arrow come back.”

“You should try it!” Nightscythe encouraged, “I’ll look for the arrow with my Translucent Field.”

Stringing an arrow, Heilong aimed down the street. To Freya’s eyes, the arrow flew straight and disappeared into the fog. Nightscythe cupped his hands over his eyes and looked into the mist in front and behind them. He frowned.

“It looks like it landed in front of us.”

“Maybe it’s not a plexplex, or the folded space we’re in is gigantic,” Freya said. She sighed, “If it is a plexplex, it would also explain the number of demons here. They often form a symbiotic relationship with other demons. In return for trapping prey in their domain, they take a little energy from the demons in their space.”

“How do we escape their folded space?” Infamous Biscuit asked.

“We just have to find the monster, right?” Nightscythe said, looking to Freya.

The shaman nodded, “We need to kill the plexplex in order to release the folded space. They’re pretty defenseless once found but are difficult to find. They like to hide in small damp places, but that could be anywhere given this fog.”

...

After an hour of turning over stones and ripping off loose wooden boards, Freya felt like they were looking for a needle in a haystack. Nightscythe’s Translucent Field skill helped, but he could only activate it for so long.

Typically the demons inhabiting a folded space would be the biggest problem, but so far, there were not many powerful ones. As they combed the area for the small plexplex, Freya reflected how frightening this situation would have been for her just a few months ago. She would have been clutching a petrifying potion, hoping it might buy her enough time to run from the demonic wolves roaming the area. Now, the massive wolves were only an annoying distraction.

When a single lone wolf approached them, Freya told the others to keep searching and ran after it herself. In the past, she would never try to face a demon of this size head-on. She would strategize, plan, and carefully avoid being noticed until the last possible second. Now, she wanted to draw its attention, so it didn’t run away.

Gathering up her qi, she whipped it out at the wolf and then leaped on the stunned demon. 

Punch! Punch! Kick!

Poof!

She stared at the smoky remains. I’ve come a long way, but I couldn’t do this without my Player Card. Wouldn’t it be good for other shamans to get Player Cards? If we ever find the Player Card Aziza had…

Freya picked up the silver coin the wolf dropped. As long as you know about the game, there’s not a downside to it, right? Players don’t have to go to dangerous dungeons. They can just level up skills like I have and get stronger. 

“Hey Freya, are you alright?” Infamous Biscuit called. Freya jumped out of her daze.

“Sorry, I was just thinking about something.”

She jogged back to the group, her mind still considering all the possibilities. Then on top of a building, she noticed a pair of eyes.

The small creature’s ears pricked towards them. Its white chest blended into the fog, but its red pelt stood out. The fox cocked its head to the side, then dove off the building. It vanished for a moment, then appeared on the ground. It looked at them again and then bounded off down the street.

Freya scratched her head, “What’s a fox spirit doing here?”