Amelia was currently trying not to lose her mind. Hands in her hair, head thrown back, strangled screams of frustration. She paced back and forth rapidly and continued to throw a fit. Rapid-fire ideas on how to get a hold of the rest of the entry went through her brain. She would have to keep Questing. Puzzle rooms and combat rooms might drop the next parts.

Quark, now that she thought about it, also might have parts of the entry. Hadn’t they been here longer than her? She could ask and trade for them. There wasn’t much in her inventory she wouldn’t absolutely give her roommate for a shot at the next part of that entry. Didn’t Quark also say that the walls and entrances of the cells re-aligned so that they could talk to other cells? Maybe they could trade through cells! Trading wasn’t exactly a hand to hand thing after all. Unless, in this case, the barrier between them prevented it for obvious jail and prisony type reasons.

Non-stop strangled screams and shrieks as she continued to wrack her brain. She needed that next piece. She needed to know how it had even ended up in the obelisk when it seemed like Perifidelia couldn’t be coaxed in there with a raging inferno at her back. Had Ellie gone in with the book? She needed that entry, or entries. Her bibliophile soul demanded it!

If they even exist.

Finally, Amelia sighed, her three second tantrum and brainstorm event coming to an end. She let out a deep sigh and slowly let her hands drop to her sides. The truth was that she could ask Quark, and she would, but her hopes were only an ember that was dying rapidly. The problem with asking Quark if they had an entry was the same as hoping for the next piece to drop in the combat or puzzle rooms. Amelia had no idea how many drops were on the table for the Research Facility, but long experience told her that a place like this had a lot of options. The absolute worst case scenario was that there wasn’t another entry to be had. The second worst case scenario was that it was very, very rare. That part I and II simply had a higher percentage chance of dropping. It was time to be more realistic.

Amelia turned her attention back toward the cottage that was fading to black around her, barely a blurred line of light left. She would re-watch it and hope she was smart enough to wiggle out some useful threads.

The blurred line in front of her pulsed slightly, fading a little more. A second pulse and it brightened… moments later fading even more. The line began to wiggle and shake up and down frantically, like a waveform on a sound file. The last sliver of the blurred cottage squiggle began to frantically bend and twist as if it were physically trying to move off the darkness of the fade to black transition.

“[No Half-Finished Story].”

Chronicle of the Heavens, owner: Perfidelia. Ability activated.

Assessing.

Assessment complete.

Entry incomplete.

Entry incomplete on line 589000.

Repair.

Deploying Part III.

Perfidelia’s voice came through the crack, strong and clear. “[Share Entry Part III.]”

Before Amelia could even begin to formulate any intelligent thought, the darkness began to vanish. More precisely, the fade to black transition was ripped violently away like a giant invisible monster had squeezed through the remaining piece of the cottage image and then wrecked the doorway with their gigantic body.

As the shot came into focus Ellie was still head down over the books on the table, but Perfidelia…was no longer in the chair. Perfidelia was at the shelf, slowly re-inserting that monster Chronicler. The gorgeous tome was dimming slightly as if it had been shining moments before. Perfidelia herself was looking over Ellie’s head straight at Amelia the whole time she was shelving the book. She broke eye contact a moment later and started to smile enigmatically as she moved toward the table where Ellie sat. “Let’s continue, shall we?”

“Continue what?” Ellie replied, looking up with a frown.

The scene paused there, Perfidelia looking down and smiling at Ellie and Ellie looking up with the confused face.

Several screens popped up waiting for Amelia’s attention. Mouth shaped in a big O, she started reading the screens that popped up before she could react to what had just happened.

Local Announcement:

Category: Job - Chronicler of the Heavens

New Skill Available: [No Half-Finished Stories]

Learn? Y/N

“H-hammer that Y,” Amelia stuttered making a slamming motion with her fist.

Learn? Y/N

“Yes!”

[No Half-Finished Stories]

Learned.

Description: You will now have the option to add a tag at the end of each one of your entries that are contiguous to another entry. If only one entry is available the tag will activate a repair function which will complete the entry and all entries attached to it.

Add tags to related entries now?

“Uh, hard yes?” Amelia had barely been keeping up with the text before it asked her if she wanted to add the tag to all her entries. Her Chronicler appeared and jerked out of the holster that housed it, floating impressively as the cover opene. The pages began turning, flipping rapidly from front to back. It slammed shut moments later.

Tags Added to related chapters.

Amelia closed that window after re-reading it about ten times to make sure she hadn’t missed anything and went onto the remaining window.

[Entry Part III - Paused at Start]

Amelia stared at the blinking screen for a long moment and the smile that started to crowd her face was pretty terrible. Spinning around once she held her arms out and started shouting. “Let’s hear it for Perfidelia, Mimi to Ellie, Order of the Black, Chronicler of the Heavens, and STILL champion… and a good friend of mine personally. Show some love! Show some respect!”

Amelia cupped her hands around her mouth and started exhaling noisly through her mouth in a whispery fashion. “Ahhhh. Ahhh. Thank you Perfidelia, we love you!” She put her fingers to either side of her mouth and started whistling furiously.

She straightened up and made a magnanimous gesture with her staff, mimicking Perfidelia’s voice, half covering her face in a coquettish way. “No, no, I love you nerds. I wouldn’t leave you on such a horrifying cliffhanger. Hohoho.”

Not quite done hamming it up, Amelia put her hands on her hips and shouted. “Right? This is where we throw our heads back and laugh! Hahahaha.”

Panting heavily, Amelia finally started to calm down, smoothing her robes down her sides and running a hand through her hair to keep it in check after her… outburst. “Ahem. Well done Perfidelia, we knew we could count on you. Let’s continue.”

[Entry Part III Now Playing]