"These two flirt even more than you two," Gilded said, "which I didn't think was humanly possible." He turned another page.
"Can we trust these journals to be genuine?" Llewellyn said, frowning.
"Who knows," Gilded said, still going through the one I'd been reading. "But… if they are, it looks like he thinks Innishae didn't come to be naturally and is trying to reverse-engineer how it was created."
Now that I thought about it…
I turned toward Caerwyn.
"Didn't you say that that room held Innishae's Foundation Stones?"
"I did, yes."
"So… who founded it?"
"No idea," Caerwyn said cheerfully. "When I first coalesced on these mountains, the island was already here."
I sighed. I mean, even if Innishae had been magically created instead of being a natural geological formation, then what? It didn't change anything for us anyway. Still, it was interesting that Yoon Juhyung had been curious enough about this to do all this research.
"Wait, but why were the Stones in that room?" I asked.
"Why not?" Caerwyn said. "They'd done their job; they needed to be put somewhere."
Um. I mean, fair enough, but…
"You're telling us that they can just be removed?" Llewellyn said. "You wouldn't remove a building's foundations."
"This is different," Caerwyn said. "The Foundation Stones were just needed to start the whole process; then the place would have had to be stabilized for some time. Now it's completely self-sustaining."
Still.
Llewellyn had taken the book from Gilded and was going through the annotated pages. Looked like he could read Korean too.
…Really, now.
"I don't think he meant to steal what's missing from the room," Llewellyn said after a few moments. "Look at this. I think he was worried about something."
He turned the journal toward us.
My translation skill was still on cooldown, so I could only take his word for it, but Gilded leaned in.
"Mmh," he said. "You mean because he keeps mentioning the Magic protecting the land? But that could be for any number of reasons. It's not clear what he's referring to."
I sat down on the nearest flat rock and looked around at the rest of the books.
"System," I called. "Can I learn these books the usual way, even though I don't speak the language?"
The System pinged.
[System Notification: Negative. Understanding the content is required for learning purposes.]
Well, damn it. That said…
"But Llewellyn could, right?"
[System Notification: That is correct.]
Mmh. I suppose I could sit in my Core Partition and tackle some books using my translation skill while Llewellyn nap-learned them.
"What was that?" Gilded said, frowning. "Learn books the usual way?"
"You don't need to worry about it," I said, waving my hand. "Just some ability I get through the System. Which you'd refuse anyway, since you don't want to sign a contract."
"Ugh!" Gilded said, and sat down on the floor, annoyed. "I suppose I can help with the Korean ones. I'm stuck here anyway."
"How generous," Llewellyn said.
Gilded ignored him.
"You should know," he told Caerwyn instead, "that if I'm not back home for Friday dinner, my mother will likely excavate this whole mountain and then some."
"Oh dear," Caerwyn said. "Then we'd better start your flying lessons soon."
"I can help make sure you don't fall!" Gléonwon said, excited. "I'll catch you!"
"I'm not paying you more gold," Gilded said. "Just so we're clear."
Gléonwon deflated a little, then just said, "But I didn't ask for any."
Penguin looked up at me and chirped.
"I know, but Gilded is way behind you anyway. I'm sure that, even if he starts today and you start tomorrow, you'll still be the best student. At least you have flippers."
I spoke loudly so Gilded could hear, and he glared at me. I grinned. Unfortunately for him, he was really fun to rile up.
"You're lucky that I like Penguin," he said, sniffing.
Well, maybe I was overdoing it a bit. I suppose I could tone it down for a while.
It was getting really cold all of a sudden. I watched Gilded shiver in his silk pajamas.
"Fuck, my Magic is tapering off. Let me do it again."
He waved his hand and it felt like the heating had suddenly been turned up.
Damn. I hadn't even noticed it was active; he must have had it on yesterday too.
"Really impressive," Caerwyn said, nodding. "You'll learn to fly in no time."
Gilded groaned.
Just as we were collecting some of the books in Chinese that Llewellyn was going to take home, the System pinged.
[EMERGENCY ALERT! Distorted Realm Detected!]
[EMERGENCY ALERT! Distorted Realm Detected!]
[EMERGENCY ALERT! Distorted Realm Detected!]
[EMERGENCY ALERT! Distorted Realm Detected!]
Oh, for fuck's sake!
"What?!" Gilded said, startled when we both cursed out loud. He wouldn't have seen our notifications, after all; he'd just watched us both scramble up.
"Distorted Realm," I told Gilded. "We need to run."
"Just like that?"
"That's usually how it is," Llewellyn said. "System, can you teleport us from here?"
There was a pause.
[System Notification: Negative. The System cannot bypass teleportation constraints.]
Shit!
"This is your domain," I told Caerwyn. "Can't you just let us teleport from here?"
"Mmh," Caerwyn said. "Not really. My Blessing sustains the domain when I'm dissolved, but to make that happen I had to give up some control over it."
Goddamn it.
"Never mind," Llewellyn said. "At least we're not inside the cave complex anymore. We just need to step outside."
He was right. We only needed to get out of this cave and teleport from outside the temple.
[EMERGENCY ALERT! Distorted Realm Detected!]
"We get it!" I told the System.
"See you tomorrow," Llewellyn said, as I picked up Penguin. "Maybe."
"Hey!" Gilded called after us.
No time for that.
[EMERGENCY ALERT! Distorted Realm Detected!]
Fine, fine!
"Goodbye!" Gléonwon said, tail swishing. "Come back soon!"
"Will do!" I said, holding Penguin close. He chirped goodbye too.
We ran outside.
[Relocation in 3… 2… 1…]