Ruwen quickly walked through the opening in Shelly’s side and immediately understood what Tremine had meant. Ruwen had expected something like a cave, but instead, he found the ceiling and most of the walls were transparent. Thankfully, the floor remained dark. The only other dark patch was on the wall toward the tail side. Whiskers sat in the middle of the room.
Looking around in wonder, Ruwen headed for the doorway in the dark wall. It led to a hallway, with faintly glowing walls that contained other doors. He opened a door and found a bedroom.
One last time Ruwen whispered at Sift’s portrait. “Doomed.”
Turning around, Ruwen reentered the main room. Sift stood near the door. Or where the door had been. It had disappeared, along with the view of New Eiru and pine trees. The only thing visible right now were clouds.
Ruwen’s stomach turned, and he walked to the center of the room to stand next to Whiskers. He had no desire to see how far off the ground they were. The ridiculousness of the situation washed over him. He stood in a flying turtle. How safe could this be? What happened if Shelly returned to her tiny size, or twisted sharply and they fell out. Could they fall out?
“Are there walls there? Or just…nothing?” Ruwen asked.
Sift pressed himself against an invisible wall and twisted his head back and forth as if searching for something. “Have you ever heard of a Toidi?”
Ruwen forgot about his deathly fear of heights and smothered a grin. “Oh yeah. They’re horrible. If they latch on to you, your life becomes a nightmare.”
Sift faced Ruwen, his eyes wide. “Is there any way to get rid of them?”
“Why are you asking?”
Sift shrugged. “Just curious. Tremine brought them up.”
“Oh well, I’m not sure. I think I read silence buys you time. Like you shouldn’t talk at all.”
Sift nodded at Ruwen, his lips pressed together.
It took all of Ruwen’s will not to smile. This trip would be blissfully silent.
You are a terrible friend, Rami said to Ruwen.
“What?” Sift asked.
There was a moment of silence, and then Rami spoke again. Sift, this is Rami, can you hear me?
Ruwen and Sift locked gazes.
“Rami?” Sift asked.
Chapter 12
“Why can I hear Rami?” Sift asked.
“Uh…”
Sift pointed at Ruwen. “There aren’t any toidi, that was you.”
Rami spoke up. Sift, I’m going to say some numbers, and I want you to tell me the ones you hear. Okay?
“Okay,” Sift said while glaring at Ruwen.
Rami counted from one to fifteen. Sift, what did you hear?
“Three and seven,” Sift said.
Interesting. It seems if I communicate with no focus, Ruwen’s Chat ability sends it to everyone in the group. The other way for you to hear me is if I focus on you explicitly. Ruwen, how many numbers did you hear?
Ruwen spoke out loud. “One through fifteen.”
Even more interesting. I counted to twenty. It seems I can exclude people as well. This is a powerful ability that links us all. I’ll have to warn Fractal and possibly Lir. Ruwen, try focusing just on Sift and speak.
You stink. Ruwen sent to Sift.
Sift smelled his armpit. I do not, he said across the mental link.
Sift’s voice sounded exactly the same, and if Ruwen hadn’t been looking, he’d have thought Sift had spoken out loud. Ruwen had another idea. Sift, focus on my portrait and tell me who will win the Step Championship.
Sift’s eyes lit up. The Sand Sharks are—
Ruwen pictured the Chat symbol and thought of silence. The portrait around Sift turned red, and his voice disappeared. Ruwen smiled, thankful that this new ability wouldn’t come at the cost of constant conversations. He thought about how they should use their time in Shelly, checked his map to see when they’d arrive at the mine, and then removed the silence.
Thirty seconds had passed, but Sift hadn’t stopped talking, and his voice returned inside Ruwen’s head.
“…which is why they’re underestimated. The competitive division—”
Ruwen held up his hand and spoke out loud. “Let’s finish later. We have about six hours before arriving at the mine. My guess is you could ask Shelly to go faster, but we can both use the time.”
“For what?” Sift asked.
Ruwen looked around the large room. The walls and ceiling were transparent, and it felt more like floating through the clouds on a platform. “I think you should use this privacy to practice your Cultivation. Have you refined any Air Essence yet?”
Sift shook his head. “I haven’t had a chance to try. After I created my Core, you said it was too dangerous to use.”
Ruwen nodded. When they’d left the Spirit Realm and crossed into Uru’s Divine Realm, both of them had been wearing Aspects they’d found in the Plague Siren’s lair. His had looked like a scarecrow and Sift’s like a falcon. Now, whenever they touched their Spirit, their Aspects reappeared.
Many people had seen those Aspects in the Spirit Realm. So if they reappeared here, it would raise questions Ruwen didn’t want to answer. In fact, if anyone figured out that Ruwen wore the Aspect and could use Spirit, it would trigger an apocalyptic war between the gods. Which is why he’d been so adamant with Sift about not using his Spirit either.
“While we can see out, I bet no one can see in,” Ruwen said. “I’m going to confirm that right now.”
Ruwen closed his eyes and focused on his center. His Core surrounded him, unmoving and not very dense. In the Spirit Realm, he had tried to compress his Core, but without Harden it had proved difficult. He would fix that in a moment, but first he needed to see what Shelly looked like from the outside.
With a thought, Ruwen accessed his Scarecrow Aspect and created a clone outside of Shelly. Intense cold made the clone shiver, and it immediately fell. Twisting the clone around, Ruwen looked for Shelly, but only clouds were visible. He released the clone and created another, this one higher, and facing Shelly from the beginning. Again, nothing but clouds filled
