When ZipZing arrived in Tianxia, she was startled to see how much the city had grown in just a few days. The traveling merchant wasn"t waiting in the town square though, so it wasn"t yet large enough to keep him present throughout the day like he was in Fogton.One of the buildings she pa.s.sed, on the way to where Kit was located, looked both complete and oddly familiar. It was made of grey stone, instead of the local sand colored building materials, and looked rather imposing. She flew another couple of blocks before she realized that it was the rather ordinary and blocky building that had stood beside Shrubbery"s garden, until they"d sold it.
Logical Heart"s little default bird messenger appeared, just as she zipped up to Kit with a request: "Add me to the party?"
Danika immediately asked, "Should we form a party? Logical Heart would like to join us too."
Kit shrugged and said, "I guess I can remove Ryullusion and Silvam and add you two."
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"Guess what we found?" MatchlessMinion demanded.
"You found something?" Danika asked hopefully.
"Nothing," he replied with disgust. "As far as I can tell this is just another patch of desert on what will be another ordinary street."
"Did you discover anything?" Shrubbery asked.
"No, sorry," Danika replied with regret.
Kit invited her, and Danika was relieved to see Logical Heart already in the party when she accepted.
Kit said quietly, "We also stopped and talked to the traveling merchant for a minute. But when I asked how to find his other self, he just smiled and said that I"ll know, but that it may take me awhile."
"He really did only say that," MatchlessMinion agreed without prompting. "You"ll know how, Kit my dearest friend," he quoted. "But it may take you a while to arrive."
Danika frowned. "It really is like a riddle now isn"t it?" Logical Heart arrived a moment later in a puff of flame and she gasped and asked, "You can use a genie"s skill?"
The little gnome looked up at her and said, "Sure? As long as I can get a genie to impart it into a scroll. Where do you think single use skill scrolls come from?"
Shrubbery spoke up and admitted, "I just a.s.sumed that they were system generated, but I guess enchanters would be the ones to produce them in a real economy."
Danika nodded in agreement with the dryad, but then told Logical Heart, "They sort of found a clue while I was logged out." She repeated what Kit and MatchlessMinion had said.
"How is it a clue?" Kit asked doubtfully.
"Locating him will be easy for you once you figure it out, but getting to where he is will either be difficult or a long journey, is how it sounds to me," Logical Heart told her seriously.
"I think so too," Danika agreed quickly when the druid glanced at her with a startled look.
Kit threw up her hands suddenly and complained, "I have no idea how to find him though!"
MatchlessMinion stepped up to her and reached up to pat her hand. Kit looked down at him with a startled expression. "Relax," he advised. "It doesn"t sound like there"s any kind of time limit, and he didn"t give you some epic task to accomplish like a prince or princess in a fairytale."
Danika"s expression went thoughtful as Kit heaved a deep breath and rubbed her face. "I guess that"s true," Kit told MatchlessMinion, "but what if I can"t figure it out?"
Fairy tales were full of searches for the person someone would marry. Sometimes, like MatchlessMinion pointed out, there was a clear, but "impossible" trial to overcome. Other times a series of small encounters led up to what suddenly appeared to be an obvious conclusion.
Kit"s path within the game was that of a druid, who had to solve a word puzzle of one sort or another to advance her skills. When Danika had suggested earlier that the merchant had given her a riddle, she"d just meant, "Let"s solve this mystery!"
"What if it really is a riddle, meant for Kit only," Danika asked.
"Hey!" MatchlessMinion protested. "You"re not helping!"
"No, I mean what if it"s like her path quests?" Danika clarified quickly. "So there"s no penalty for not figuring it out, but she can"t advance until she realizes what he meant?" She looked at Kit and asked, "How long does it usually take you to solve those? I feel like you have been advancing pretty quickly, and you don"t seem to get stuck very often?"
Kit blinked at her, and then squeezed MatchlessMinion"s little hand gently. "It"s OK," she a.s.sured him. "Zip is right, it could be something like those I guess?"
"He didn"t ask you a question though," MatchlessMinion pointed out.
"No," Kit agreed slowly. "But sometimes my skill riddles are really obvious, and other times they turn out to have been just as simple, but it takes me a few days to realize what it meant. A few of them have just been complex from start to end. But I can get help with those, and sometimes they are even really similar to historical riddles? Maybe she"s right?"
"I really hope that it turns out to be really simple and obvious and only takes you awhile to realize then," Shrubbery said fervently.
"Do you have any skills for finding people?" Logical Heart questioned, while swiping through invisible menu screens with an expression of concentration.
Kit shook her head and said softly, "The only way I had to find the merchant was by following the threads of light, that the ring he gave me when he married me would show." Her expression was a little bitter and sad as she rubbed a fingertip gently over the band around her finger.
"But that"s…" Logical Heart began as Kit gasped.
Kit stared at the ring with an incredulous expression, and then looked upward. A second later, without a word, she shifted into her hawk form and launched herself into the sky.