“…and if you happened to be able to confirm it was safe, I could send Chicken your way, to pick up the gear. He’ll get instructions on how to handle it. And while he’s there, he can test something for Tattletale and I.”

I thought about asking, but then I thought back to how I owed Tattletale one.

“How is he getting here?”

“Company of mercenaries and minor capes,” Imp said. “We’ll requisition a portal. If it’s for Peep’s tech, and she’s the one who has a say when it comes to the portal tech…”

“Peep?” I asked.

“Lookout. Oops. That was my inside voice becoming my outside voice. I think she should go by Peep if she’s on a team called the Chicken Tenders.”

I shook my head. “Where do I meet him?”

“He’ll find you. That’s ezhhzyer.”

I made a face, shaking my head. The place was so vast, and I could fly, but…

I didn’t want this to interrupt the ongoing investigation.

“Okay. Have him keep an ear out. If I can’t find him, I’ll make some noise.”

“Gzzzt hzzt,” Imp said, saluting. Her hand bled into her head.

The image disappeared.

“I guarantee you, whatever she was fiddling with, thinking she was doing an okay job, is going to take six hours to get working right again,” Chris said.

“Probably,” Rain said. “My arms aren’t even great, and seeing people try to use them is like watching someone using workshop tools without the proper equipment. I wince every few seconds.”

I leaped over to the wall, grabbing an outcropping of crystal. My bandaged hand didn’t give me a good grip, and I slipped. I used my feet to propel myself back.

On a second try, I managed to get a grip. I could use flight to make it easier, but climbing was better than the inch-by-inch flying that I could manage down here.

The higher I got, the easier it became.

I floated up, above the crack, and onto the plain. Once I was high enough, I put both feet on the ground, and jumped, to give myself momentum, while my flight kept me going.

Out of the invisible tar that slowed me down, and up to a height where I could just barely see any people, but I could maximize how much of the environment I could see. It didn’t help that things were dark.

I flew for minutes, in expanding circles. I had a false call, when I spotted blobs of something solid on the crystal, descended, and found only rubble from high above.

A crow cawed, and I found it in the gloom.

It flapped noisily, then turned around, then flew in a specific direction.