Mash held the plate as they followed another string to a different location. They had talked for a while about the situation, but none of them were able to place where they had seen the weird symbols before. Like the previous one, this symbol wasn’t magical, nor was the plate itself. It was just a common dish. Mash tried waving it about and tried to look at it from different angles. He still didn’t recognize it. The next string took them to a closet, and like the previous Mash couldn’t detect anything within. Inside they found another identical symbol painted on the floor within. It was done in the same red paint as everything else too. The closet was unremarkable, but he noticed that it was strangely empty.

“Where are all the cleaning stuff?”

Mash couldn’t see any mops or brooms or anything. There were some things like soap and stuff against the racks that lined the walls. However, it seemed like anything that could be used to clean the floor was removed. Whoever placed the symbol here, clearly wanted to leave the symbol unblemished. Why though? It wasn’t magical, but the clean design let him make a replica easily.

They moved on after Mash made a replica of the mark out of wood. When he made the replica, he realized that it wasn’t the same. The circle itself was a little larger, and thus the pattern had repeated an additional time. Was it just because of the size of the initial circle or was it a mistake? Mash thought back to the one in his room, and it had even more repetitions than the one here. It was definitely intentional, but what did it mean? The symbols didn’t feel harmful. Maybe it was a message?

“Do you think it’s a message?”

Mash noticed Red’s head slightly bend down in agreement.

“It makes the most sense, but why would someone bother with all of this? And what happened for them to do this now?”

Mash considered her questions and the many events of the day that could’ve led to this situation. Then he realized that there were a lot of possibilities.

“It could be for anything. The stuff with the god, or the trouble with my race, or it could even be the stuff with foreign spies. Literally any of them.”

Mash doubted this had to do with the foreigners. That felt too recent, and he doubted that they could’ve prepared something this extensive so quickly. As he thought about his day, he tried to imagine when the house had been empty. That was probably when they set it up, whoever they were. It must have happened when he had been kidnapped. There would’ve been servants around, but it would be easy to get around them. The real question would be how they got around the house’s detection magic.

Mash thought about it as they searched through the rest of the house. They ended up finding ten more of the symbols. Some were painted on things they could move like chairs or tables, but many were just painted on the floor or wall. Once they had collected all that they could find and confirmed that no intruders remained within the building they regrouped in Mash’s room. It hadn’t taken all that long to get all the symbols or copies of the ones that were on walls and floors.

“Any idea what to do now? I did my job.”

Jill spoke as they all sat around a pile of the symbols. The paint on the ceiling remained where it was, and Mash continued to try and read it. The pattern was almost recognizable. He had seen it before. After seeing the other symbols, he was certain of it. Turning his thoughts inward, he decided to sort through his memories like he had done before. Although, he didn’t make it such an emotional hurdle this time, and just had Priscilla recreate any of the writing he had seen in the past. She had a perfect memory and could look through his past with the same skill.

Priscilla responded by sending him a series of images. Hundreds of symbols, letters, and even drawings flashed through his mind. She worked fast and different memories passed through his mind each second. He continued to search through them but was shaken out of the trance when Luke tapped his shoulder. Mash opened his eyes to see Luke staring into them. Luke’s eyes darted about as he checked Mash’s condition.

“Are you okay?”

Luke spoke and his magic slowly flowed through Mash, as he scanned him for any injuries. Mash felt his concern but didn’t understand why.

“Yeah, why?”

“You just froze up and just stopped responding. I thought something happened.”

Jill was sitting across from him and sounded concerned as she explained. Mash hadn’t told him what he was doing, and he felt a little bad as he saw the gentle looks on all of his friends. They were all worried about him, and he had left them in the dark again.

“Oh… I was just looking through my memories with Priscilla. I was uh…”

Mash struggled to explain what he was doing, and he tapered off as he realized that he owed them a little more than an explanation. They probably didn’t care as much for that. He took a small breath. It wasn’t as relaxing as he had hoped it was. It was the same mistake he made before. He always repeated his mistakes. People always said that they learned from their mistakes. They made it sound so easy, but that was a lie. He shook his head and remembered Priscilla’s words. He would do better eventually, even if took him his entire life. Although, he would start right away.

“I’m sorry. I should’ve told you guys what I was doing. I am really sorry.”

The day was weighing on him. He didn’t feel broken by it though. He didn’t dwell on his mistakes either. He let them affect him and then moved forward. His gaze didn’t drop once, and he stared forward at his friends.

“It’s not really such a big deal, we just wanted to make sure you were good.”

Jill coughed awkwardly before replying. She realized that Mash had taken her words more seriously than she intended. For his part, Mash’s face colored a little as he got embarrassed. Everyone just stared awkwardly for a solid minute. The silence of the moment quickly became suffocating for Mash. The one who was least bothered by the atmosphere was Red, and she broke the quiet bluntly.

“Mash, we wanted you to make another replica of the one on the ceiling. In fact, can you just make some replicas for all of them? Maybe we can figure something out by laying them out?”

Mash nodded his head rapidly. He was grabbing at the opportunity to move on. That awkward moment had meant a lot to him. He felt like a fool as the wooden replicas started growing from his arms. They didn’t just come from his hands but along his entire arm. He remade every single symbol, some from his memory and others from the objects they had gathered. Before long he had made an entire set of the strange symbols. While he made them, the others cleared the room of the clutter. They pushed the piles of things to one of the corners of the rooms and laid out the wooden replicas between them.

“We could try and order them by size. The original size.”

Luke shrugged his shoulders as he offered the suggestion. Mash had made all of the replicas the same size, and he stared down at the wooden pieces. He still couldn’t piece it together. Priscilla was still looking through his memories, but he didn’t join her this time. Jill began rearranging the pieces as Luke had suggested, and Mash bent down and started helping her. The wood slid against the carpeted floor. He didn’t care much for the luxurious carpet. It was nice to look at, but he didn’t feel like it was worth it. He slid the final of the patterns into place. They had made a circle and they stood around it. Mash walked around the symbols but kept thinking he was missing something.

It was like a nagging in the back of his mind. It felt important too. That was the bigger problem. He knew that it was important, but he didn’t know why. With the way they were laid out now, Mash could see it like a clock. The circles were partitioned at slightly different angles as the size of the pattern increased. Red stepped into the circle, and Mash wondered what she was doing. She bent over slowly and grabbed the one with the most circles in it. She turned it, and it took a second for Mash to realize what she was doing. The largest of the symbols was a rubric, not a part of the puzzle. She lifted the piece out and moved the others so that they followed the guide.

Red slowly turned the final piece to fit the pattern. None of them were worried about anything happening. There was no mana coming from the symbols, not to mention that neither he nor Jill had seen anything suspicious. The final piece slowly slid into place, and then Red was gone. Mash had been staring at her the whole time, and still didn’t grasp what had happened. As soon as Red finished the pattern, and then she just disappeared. Mash’s eyebrows rose, and he belatedly held out a hand to grab her. The gesture was pointless, there was nothing but the air there.

Mash tried to understand what had just happened, but it felt like his mind wasn’t working. She was there one second, and then she was just gone. There had been no magic involved. Within his domain, his vision expanded to look at Jill and Luke. Both were staring at the space in disbelief. He saw as Jill slowly shifted to look at him.

“What happened?”

“I don’t know!”

Mash started to reply before Jill had even finished. His panic was quickly drowned out as Luke stepped toward the formation.

“We need to go!”

He shouted the words but didn’t leave them any time for discussion. He thrust into the circle and vanished as soon as his foot had entered the space. It was the same as Red’s sudden disappearance. No mana at all? How? Mash couldn’t feel anything from the pieces of wood, and his instincts weren’t telling him anything either. Things weren’t supposed to work like that. Jill stepped into the circle an instant later. There was no hesitation in her movements. Mash paused only for an instant.

[Priscilla, tell my brother everything.]

She gave him confirmation, but she hadn’t sent any messages. She was scanning his memories, but Mash knew that she was probably already sharing the details with Arthur. Maybe she had been doing it from the start. He hoped that was the case and walked toward the strange thing. He stared at the supposedly non-magical symbols, before stepping in himself. His foot seemed to move more slowly than normal, and Mash got a better look at the symbol from up close. He loomed over it for an instant. When Red had moved them around, she had to shift the entire thing, as she had removed one of the pieces. It was only now, moments before stepping inside did he finally remember the symbol.