Data Dragon Danika

"Well, why not?" MatchlessMinion asked after a moment. "A dragon sounds as likely as anything to be a God's alt doesn't it?"

Shrubbery ignored him and gave Logical Heart a sharp look instead. Then asked the gnome something else entirely, "Are you also someone who works with ZipZing then?"

"Yeah?" Danika replied questioningly at the same time as Logical Heart said uncertainly, "Um, yes?"

"Isn't it a little weird that your co-workers are joining us all of a sudden?" Shrubbery asked.

"SilentSky also joined us," Danika said defensively.

"He doesn't work for the game company," Shrubbery protested.

"I'm pretty sure she just means that he's Aishin's co-worker," MatchlessMinion clarified. Danika nodded.

Shrubbery put her hands on her hips, but then she nodded too. "Alright, but it feels like he," she nodded at the gnome, "came to investigate Kit and interfere in her attempt to reconnect with the traveling merchant," she explained.

"I want to help!" Logical Heart insisted.

Kit gave them both a tremulous smile and said, "It's OK. It kind of looks like I need all the help I can get? ZipZing made it so that I could fly higher, but even then she could still get higher than I could."

Everyone turned and looked at ZipZing. Danika blinked. After a moment she waved her little clawed hands and said, "I just made us both lighter, and I'm fairly sure that I still wouldn't have been able to get very much higher than I got this time. You could probably get just as high in your fairy dragon form."

"Is there a way to just teleport to the person at the other end of the thread like Aishin and Saaki can teleport to people?" Kit asked hopefully.

"I don't think so," Logical Heart replied doubtfully. "Normally you'd already have them in your friend list at least, but we don't even know what his name will be." He looked at her ring and added, "Although I might be able to get that from the ring if I could examine it's enchantment."

Kit took a deep breath, and then bent suddenly and held out the hand that she wore the ring on, to Logical Heart. "Can you examine it without removing it?" she asked.

The little gnome looked up into her worried face for a long moment. And then he nodded and said, "I can manage." He reached out and squeezed her fingertips briefly before asking, "Would you mind coming to my workshop though?"

Kit straightened, and looked upward for a long moment. Then she nodded, and agreed, "Alright. I guess he did tell me that it would take me awhile to get there."

Everyone followed the gnome as he turned and walked a few paces. He stopped and looked back at them.

Danika asked nervously, "Can't we all come?"

Logical Heart nodded and replied dryly, "Sure, but the portals and the town square are in that direction." He pointed. "I was just going to pick up the measuring devices I was using earlier before we leave."

"What were you measuring?" Danika asked.

"Ambient energy, sort of," Logical Heart replied.

"He said that he might be able to tell if a powerful being had been here," MatchlessMinion added helpfully.

"The traveling merchant doesn't usually leave much trace compared to most high level characters though," Logical Heart commented. "I was just trying to collect as much information as possible."

MatchlessMinion looked around and heaved a sigh before tightening the magically comfortable blanket he wore when they travelled in the desert. "Speaking of collecting information… I kind of want to see the enchanting workshop, but I suppose I ought to be scouting around for a good stage site for those kids, since we're here tonight."

Danika smiled. 'Those kids' were probably older than the little chinchillamin. And despite telling them that they'd have to provide all the information for the project themselves, he was still looking into it.

"You can use the compass in the party menu to come by when you're ready," Logical Heart offered. "It's not far from Antikythera, the gnome racial capital. Just don't wander off of the stairs after you pass through the archway at the entrance."

"Will it really take that long?" Kit asked plaintively.

Logical Heart shrugged. "I don't know that it will, but I think if it turns out to be easy enough that you could simply show your ring to an ordinary NPC enchanter and get his new name, then there's probably going to be some other difficult obstacle isn't there?"

Kit touched her ring again and looked upward, before nodding.

--

There wasn't a teleportation portal set up for Antikythera yet in Tianxia, so they had to spend Karma to return to Fogton first. Logical Heart was startled, but didn't argue when Kit and Shrubbery insisted that he should ride in ZipZing's garden with them, so that only one of the party was paying the Karma cost.

When they exited the little stone space again in Antikythera, Logical Heart said thoughtfully, "I can see why Aishin requested viewports into his new stone space. But I think I should have done it differently. I might be able to add what I'm thinking of to yours, if you like ZipZing?"

"Not today," Danika replied firmly. "Let's focus on getting Kit to the merchant's new incarnation."

"Ah, right," he agreed. "Where does the thread seem to point to now?" he asked Kit. "We've traveled far enough that it should be at an obvious angle."

Kit brushed her fingers over her ring, and then pointed upward. "I guess maybe it's at a slight angle," she agreed doubtfully.

Logical Heart blinked at her, and opened his mouth before closing it. He turned away from them and said, "This way," before trudging upward along the steep mountainside street.

"What did you think of?" Kit demanded with unusual force as she followed.

He shrugged and suggested, "If we can't get his name from the ring, or target him through it, we could just take you to the far edges of the Empire, and measure the angles of the string to get his location."

"If he's not moving much?" Danika questioned doubtfully.

The gnome nodded, but Kit suggested suddenly, "Maybe he comes down to where I could reach him sometimes?"

"Maybe," Danika agreed even more doubtfully. "You could try to remember to check his location now and then and see if it seems to be changing."

Kit gave her a wry smile. "I think it'll be harder to stop checking it every few minutes, now that I know that I can see the thread of light between us again."