So there they were, ducking down side streets and inching through alleyways. It felt like it had been hours, and there was no sign of water.

There was so much else to take in, though, that it was easy to get distracted. They were definitely in the heart of the souk. Everywhere around were the most lavish things imaginable on sale.

“We should probably stick together,” Winnie rushed out as a gaggle of beaming, excitedly chattering women nearly swept them apart. “It’s really crowded here and I—Ahmad?”

Ahmad’s attention had snagged on a shop window.

“No way,” he breathed, plastering his face against it to watch as a salesperson cheerfully waved at a watching family before stepping through a shimmering portal—and reappearing a few feet away, deeper in the shop. “Is that a teleportation device? Do those things really exist?”

“Ahmad,” Winnie huffed, striding over to him. “We’re supposed to be finding that challenge. Okay? Not window shopping.”

Ahmad was entirely engrossed in the wares on display.

“This stuff looks like it could belong in Wakanda! That’s some sort of robot assistant. Or maybe it’s an android!”

It certainly looked human enough. Apart from the visible blue veins shooting down its cheeks and the slight stilted motion of its body as it shuffled through a demonstration of how it could set a dinner table, there was nothing else to distinguish it from the people eagerly clustered around it.

“Ahmad! Ahmad!” Winnie whirled him around by the shoulder, frowning. “You need to focus. On me.” He was still craning his head to see past her.

“Come on, just one more minute,” he said distractedly. “It’s not like I could find a store like this in New York City.”

“Exactly,” Winnie snapped. “You couldn’t. Because this isn’t our world. Listen to me, Ahmad. We promised each other to work together, right?”

Her eyes were wide and worried. Ahmad felt a twinge of remorse. She was right.

“Yeah. I know. Sorry.”

She nodded and cleared her throat. “Me too. I got a little intense. Come on, let’s keep going.”

With one last longing look at the shop of magical wares, Ahmad followed after her.

“I don’t understand,” Winnie grumbled. “I know they don’t want us to win this game, but isn’t this too far?”

“My legs ache,” Ahmad groaned. His brain buzzed like it was tuned in to the wrong radio channel, too. He tried hard to focus and remember his maps, or at least conjure up one of those dream-snatches that were so clear that he could feel the cobblestones beneath his feet. But it wouldn’t give him anything.