Princess Hannah of the Jade Harem CH 36

“What happened?” Breanne asked as Frank laid Hannah on the floor of the dusty room. She was dizzy and confused about where she was as the others gathered around to see if they could help.

“I don’t know,” Frank said. “She came through the portal with her arms over her face while mumbling my name.”

“She was a second behind us,” Quinny said. “What could have happened to her that fast?”

“Let me to her,” Blackbast said as she kneeled beside the stricken woman. She put a hand on Hannah's forehead, chanting a healing spell to drive away negative effects like fear or terror.

Hannah didn’t respond except the clutch Blackbast’s arm as her eyes went wide with panic. “Franks dead!” she said, then looked around in surprise to see him very much alive.

“I’m dead?” Frank asked as he stepped back.

“Maybe she means undead,” Legeis suggested as he scratched at an ear. “She looks like she just woke up from a dream.”

“No, it wasn’t a dream,” Hannah replied as she put a hand to her face, struggling to drive away the confusion. “It was another vision. I had it the second I tried to pass through the portal. It was so vivid I forgot where I was.”

“She sounds better,” Breanne said in a thankful tone.

“Just lay still,” Blackbast said. “Do you remember where you are now?”

“Hopefully, the necromancer's tower,” Hannah sighed as she dropped her arm and looked at Frank. “I'm sorry. I didn't mean to say that.”

“Why did you say it?” Frank asked as he reached down to help her up.

Hannah did her best to recount her final seconds in the dark world and what she saw when she entered the mirror. She even explained how she felt the spear strike her as it seared through her body with ease. She insisted it hadn’t been a dream, but what else could it be?

“A memory,” Quinny suggested. “Going through the mirror must have triggered one.”

“But why now?” Hannah asked as she leaned on Frank. “We have used the mirrors before.”

“Hmm,” Frank replied as he put an arm around her. “Maybe this time it’s different because you accept that you are Hathlisora.”

“I think it’s the crown,” Umtha stated, turning all eyes to her.

“What?” Hannah asked as she reached up to run a hand over her head. “What about the crown?”

“You have never gone through the mirror while wearing the goblin crown before,” Umtha clarified.

“She's not wearing the crown now,” Breanne stated, pointing to the horns that marked Hannah as a devil.

“Yes, I am,” Hannah sighed and waved a hand over her head. “I am using a spell to hide it.”

To their surprise, the illusion faded, leaving a crown of iron spikes along Hannah’s head, framing the green stone that marked her third eye. She ran her fingers along the metal, reassuring herself it was there before turning to Umtha.

“Why did you choose to be straightforward now?” she asked.

“Because I love you,” Umtha replied. “And I didn't want you to waste time trying to figure this out. The crown is trying to restore your memories, and I can only guess that while in the mirror, the magic stopping it failed for just a second.”

“So, you think it might be a flaw in the protection,” Hannah replied as she considered the concept. “I wonder if we can use that.”

“Can we please focus on one task at a time,” Blackbast insisted. “We came here to show Legeis the room and map table. Let's not get distracted by this incident. We will make a note of it and ask Gisley to take you to the memory of it later so we can all look at it.”

“That’s a good idea,” Hannah said with a nod, but she wasn't sure she wanted to see Frank lying in a smoldering crater again.

“Nothing about you is normal, is it?” Legeis asked as Hannah took a moment to compose herself.

“I wish it was,” Hannah replied. “But then I always did like a puzzle to solve.”

“You do seem to enjoy them,” Breanne agreed. “How is that puzzle box the rogues gave you going?”

“I haven’t a had a chance to mess with it,” Hannah said as she considered the box that one of the rogues from the guild had given her. He said some kind of mad wizard made it, and he hadn't figured out how to open it. He gave it to her as a symbol of how much he admired her. She returned his gift with one of her own and put the strange box in her hidden study room. All the rogues had given her gifts that day, including Santos, who gave her a guide to dark magic that he stole from another wizard's library. Hannah liked the idea of the rogues doing daring missions for her and the reward she would give for their service. She had already read some of the book but hadn't had time to play with the puzzle box.

“Are you sure you are alright?” Blackbast asked as Frank took the lead, taking them through an old stone tower whose halls were thick with dust.

“I am fine,” Hannah replied. “It felt so real that I needed a second to recover.”

“You needed more than a second,” Blackbast insisted. “You could barely stand.”

“I saw myself die,” Hannah explained. “Or, I think I did. All I know is it felt like that spear was burning me from the inside out, and then I was here. It was very disorientating. It was like I was dreaming.”

“You can take more time to recover,” Blackbast insisted. “You don’t have to push yourself on our account.”

“I'm not pushing myself,” Hannah insisted as they navigated to some old stairs and began the climb. “It was just a flashback, and all I needed was a few seconds to reorientate myself. It helps that Frank is still alive, too.”

“I am glad,” Frank called from the front.

“I’m sorry,” Hannah called back. “I know the last thing you wanted was for me to come stumbling through the portal, insisting you were dead.”

“I think this means the crown is still trying to work,” Umtha said. “That makes me happy.”

“But can we afford for her to start having random visions that cause her so much duress?” Blackbast asked. “What if this happens someplace public?”

“It’s only happened the one time,” Quinny reminded.

“For now,” Blackbast agreed. “But maybe those tests in the goblin machine weakened the barrier. What if there are many more episodes like this to come?”

“Eh, it really shouldn’t work like that,” Legeis replied as the stairs went on. “None of those curses were altered, just identified. Whatever triggered this had nothing to do with the machine incident.”

“No, I think Umtha is right,” Hannah said as she held up her hand. “The crown is trying to break through to my memories, and let's not forget the ring.” She turned her hand so they could all see it. “I have never worn this in that place before. Remember, It triggered a flashback of its own, and it's somehow linked to that mirror world.”

“I wouldn’t think it's linked to that world,” Breanne said. “It's just the memory it triggered that was.”

“Maybe,” Hannah agreed as they navigated the dark tunnels under the ruined tower. They had come here almost a year ago looking for adventure but found something unexplainable. When a player built a home, the location was tied to them. If that player ever abandoned the home or was reset, the old home would crumble, rapidly becoming a ruin. Anything purchased with points inside the structure would vanish, leaving behind nothing to be taken. In a matter of months, there would be little left but some tumbled stones, and a few months after that, it would be like it never existed. This tower defied that process, persisting long after its owner had died. It was one of the mysteries of the necromancers, possibly linked to how players failed to respawn as a result of the undead curse.

Frank took the lead again, taking them up a stairwell to a floor that held small rooms. They had investigated these before, finding a smashed laboratory and a room full of metal cages. The cages had been destroyed, with part of the wall so scorched by fire, the stone had actually melted. The final room was a library whose books had long since rotted away. They didn't bother to investigate these rooms again and instead went up to a room Hannah was looking forward to seeing.

Eight round pillars of white stone stood perfectly spaced around a circular chamber. Each pillar stood forty feet and connected to an arch that stretched to the center of a domed ceiling. In the center of each arch was a red sigil of magic power that glowed with a dull light, lending a menacing quality to the chamber. The walls were smooth green marble, but the floor was pure black, like the void that held the crown. It was a smooth sheet of black marble, so perfectly cut that it had a mirror-like surface. Its only imperfection was an inlaid silver pattern like a star whose points each radiated out to a pillar. The star was enclosed by silver rings, inside of which were magic runes. Smaller circles, triangles, and patterns radiated from the center, creating a complex magical design.

The magic circle was part of a program the necromancers were working on, but none of them knew why. All they knew was these black marble floors were laid in odd places around the world and then etched with enchanted silver to create complex magical patterns. Any necromancer spell Hannah cast from inside the circle became much more powerful than it should have, allowing her to cast spells even if she had almost no mana. Aside from that, they had done very little testing of how these worked, or research into why they existed.

Chandice stepped forward, going to the pattern on the floor and looking over the design. She paced the room as Evalynn asked if this was like the one in the hidden cliff lair. Hannah explained they were identical in every detail, and Breanne recounted her part of the story. The banshee woman had been a part of the necromancer kings empire, and knew some of what was happening. In this case, she knew the necromancers had formed teams to begin building these magical circles. Likely, every necromancer had one in their tower or hidden lair, but Breanne didn't know why. She was just a citizen of the empire and had no connection to what was happening behind closed doors. The necromancers kept many secrets and went to great lengths to hide their plans.

“Something about this is familiar,” Chandice said as she paced the room. “I know I have seen this before.”

“Seen it where?” Frank asked as they watched Chandice pause at a point in the circle.

“Look here,” Chandice said, drawing attention to the pattern. “These lines form a triangle, and at every point is a smaller magical circle. The pattern focuses the three smaller circles into a conjoined spell that powers the larger circle.”

“But what does it do?” Quinny asked.

“I have no idea,” Chandice replied. “I can only identify one in ten of these symbols. It’s like the thing was written in every school of magic, woven together like a massive tapestry of power.”

Hannah looked over the circles as they tickled her memory. She had seen these smaller patterns before, and it was recently. In fact, she felt strongly that Chandice had something to do with the patterns and then it hit her.

“The sacred grove!” Hannah gasped.

“What?” Frank asked as Hannah leaned over one of the circles.

Hannah traced the pattern inside the circle and then explained where she had seen it. A few weeks ago, a high-level druid had moved into the Lovewood, creating what was known as a sacred grove. This magical forest didn't exist in the real world; instead, it was a sort of other place anchored to the forest by an odd type of magic. Hannah and Chandice had gone into the forest together to see if they could find it and learn how that magic worked.

“The symbols,” Chandice nodded. “You're right, they are the same.” Chandice went to a small circled and pointed to it with her wand. “Dislocation.” She then went to another point, identifying it as translocation and the final point as disjunction. She stood back amazed while taking in the whole image and shaking her head.

“This thing is a multipurpose magical portal,” Chandice said.

“So it goes someplace?” Hannah asked.

“It's hard to say,” Chandice replied. “It's set up like a summoning circle as if it's focusing power to a particular point.” She paused to study the image and moved to a triangle at the side where one point bisected the circles. “Here,” she said. “The person using the circle stands here, and then the portal effect draws extra power into the spell being cast. I would imagine that since it's a summoning circle, anything you summoned would come out much more powerful.

“That certainly explains your bone champion,” Breanne said. “You made him significantly stronger by using the circle in the mountains to summon him.”

“Yes,” Hannah agreed. “But how interesting that the same magic that powers the druid's sacred grove is being used here. If this is a portal to draw power in, would it be possible to send something out?”

“Well, first of all, it isn’t the same power as the grove,” Chandice cautioned. “It’s the same powers as the portal to the grove, and as for your second question, I couldn’t tell you. A normal summoning circle is a single ring, but this has five rings, each doing something different.”

“And there is no way to know what?” Hannah pressed. Chandice insisted that it was impossible to know just by studying the symbols. She suggests that each ring adds something to the power while focusing it on the next smaller ring. Chandice then looked up to see the metal chain hanging directly over the center with a brass bowl at the end.

“That’s oddly placed,” Chandice commented. “I wonder why they would put that directly in the center.”

“What’s above this room?” Legeis asked as he pointed up.

“A bedroom,” Frank replied. “Where the dead necromancer’s body is.”

“I want to see it,” Chandice said as she looked at the chain hanging over the magic circle again. “I have a suspicion.”

Frank took them to a narrow stairwell that twisted around the tower's outer wall. Every step disturbed the dust that seemed to have erased their previous time here. The stairs arrived at what used to be a bedroom with opulent but rotting furnishings that included a bed, tables, chairs, some bookcases full of decayed books, and a broken mirror. In the center of the room was a skeleton in a rotting robe. He had the remains of a black beard glued to his chin by dead flesh. His arm was broken, and so too were several of his ribs, as if somebody had kicked him relentlessly.

“So you think this skeleton is a necromancer?” Legeis asked as Hannah kneeled beside the body.

“It would make sense,” Hannah replied as she flinched to touch the skull. “We found a necromancer amulet in his bones, and of course, we found a book of necromancy in the summoning circle.”

“We also know that the caves in the swamp were part of a plan to help Hathlisora,” Frank added. “If the swamp was a necromancer lair and it’s linked to here by the mirror tunnel, then we can assume this is a necromancer stronghold as well.”

“Chandice,” Hannah called before she touched the skull. “Can you detect anything on this body?”

Chandice stepped forward to wave a wand over the bones before shaking her head. There was no magic at play on the bones and nothing to be learned other than he was dead. Hannah picked up the skull that would feature so heavily in her plans. She turned it in her hands, noting the dark smudge down one side before handing it to Quinny, who was carrying the other skulls in a sack.

“If that’s the necromancer who built this place, why is it still here?” Legeis asked. “He should respawned years ago and kept up the tower, or this place should be gone.”

“We think he didn’t respawn, and that’s why his lair is still here,” Hannah said as she considered the dust-covered furniture that looked like it had been here for fifty years. “I know it sounds crazy, but we think he's stuck in the buffer, so he can't respawn or reset, and his home just lingers.”

“Makes sense, but can that happen?” Legeis asked as he waved a small scanner about. “I don't get any reading from this place.”

“Like I said, it sounds crazy,” Hannah repeated. “But your workshop is in caves that should have vanished as well. If those belonged to me when I was Hathlisora, they should have gone when I reset.”

“You didn't reset,” Umtha insisted. “You were locked away. You would never have returned if not for the magical statue.”

Hannah nodded as Umtha reminded them of the strange statue of Hathlisora hidden in a temple near the spawn. Umtha and her goblins tended the temple as part of their agreement to work with the necromancers. They were to keep it a secret while waiting for the statue's magic to draw Hannah back into this world. It caused her to respawn as a new person where the goblins could find her.

“Hey,” Hannah said as that memory triggered another. “Didn’t you tell me that the reason there are goblins near every spawn is to help the necromancers?”

Umtha nodded and explained that the goblins were looking for new necromancers. They were to help them hide from the rest of the players and secretly move them someplace safe. Umtha’s tribe of goblins was moving them here, where they were supposed to be aided by the pile of bones on the floor.

“Wait, did you know this guy?” Frank asked as he pointed to the bones.

“No,” Umtha replied. “I wasn't always the queen of that village. Remember, I came here from the far north after everything fell apart. Hannah told me this was where I should go and wait for her to return. When I got here, I made contact with a few necromancers, but they were always running and never stayed long. The one group arrived to deliver the statue and told us to keep it safe, then intentionally went to find their pursuers and lead them away.”

“So you have no idea who this is?” Hannah asked.

“The previous goblin chieftain told me that this area was protected by a necromancer named Istavan. But I never met him,” Umtha said. “We never had a necromancer spawn to sneak away to the meeting place where I could have.”

“There was a location to bring him?” Frank asked. Umtha explained it was a stone ring a few miles from here. The goblins were supposed to sneak the player to that location and then use a small hand mirror that Umtha had. She was supposed to put the mirror into a slot on the stone at night, which would signal the necromancer to come and collect the new player.

“Do you mean the small hand mirror I took from your hut the day we met?” Hannah asked. Umtha nodded and explained it was her only link to the local necromancer, but again, she never had to use it.

“Well, well,” Breanne said as they considered the new information. “What a tangled web this is.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you any of this already,” Umtha said. “It’s so hard to know what I can tell you and what I can’t.”

“It’s ok,” Hannah assured her as she pulled Umtha into a hug. “I know I made you promise not to tell me things. Nobody is mad at you for being afraid I might go crazy if you told me everything.”

“Crazier,” Frank laughed as Hannah let Umtha go and turned on him.

“Oh, don't you start,” Hannah growled. “You're mixed up in all this too. That vision I had is proof that your memories are just as messed up as mine.”

“That’s true,” Quinny agreed. “We should put Frank in the goblin machine and see you detect any of those spells.”

“Let's focus,” Blackbast interjected. “We can debate all this later. Right now, we need to do what we came here for and show Legeis the map room.”

“One moment,” Chandice said as she circled the room, using her foot to drag rotting rugs to the side. “Look at this floor.” She drew attention to the odd pattern of blue and white rings that made up the floor. Hannah had assumed it was just decorative, but Chandice waved her wand, and glowing runes appeared on each ring. She pointed out that this was part of the room below, a second layer of the magic at use. She looked at the dome shaped ceiling to a single point where something once hung but had long ago been ripped out.

“What was up there?” Chandice asked.

“Up on the ceiling or the room above?” Hannah asked.

“On the ceiling,” Chandice clarified.

“Nothing,” Frank replied. “It was like that the first time we came here.”

Chandice nodded but asked Legeis to use his detector to scan the peak of the ceiling. He did and looked surprised when his device began to beep, and buttons light up.

“I am showing remnants of an engineering device,” Legeis said. “All that’s left are conduits.”

“Why would there be engineering devices here?” Evalynn asked.

“Because this place was working with me,” Hannah replied. “And so were the goblins.”

“Can I assume the map room is right above us?” Chandice asked.

“It is,” Frank replied. “But there is no way up.” He explained how Breanne had to use her spectral form to fly them through the floor, but Chandice thought otherwise.

“There has to be a way up,” Chandice insisted. “I bet this room used to open a doorway that went up. That’s probably why he died in the center. He came through it only to die where he arrived.”

“So the placement of his body is because he was using a magic door?” Hannah asked as Chandice used her wand to make the rings glow with magical runes again. She clarified that it was only a theory, but nothing in the runes helped explain how it worked. They settled on Breanne using her powers to carry them up, so she removed her collar, allowing her Banshee powers to return.

“I forget how beautiful your natural form is,” Frank said, causing her to blush and smile.

“I appreciate that,” Breanne said as she ran a hand over his cheek. “But, let's get this over with.” Her appearance withered as she faded, becoming a ghost-like image of a dead woman. She then took his hands, and he faded too, becoming like her as they floated into the air and through the ceiling.

“That’s a useful power,” Chandice remarked.

“It sure is,” Hannah agreed as Breanne returned and grabbed Quinny. She carried them up one by one, taking Hannah last as they hugged.

“I can’t believe we have come back here,” Hannah said as she passed through the ceiling with a sensation of moving through cold water. A moment later, she stood with the others as they took in the room they had come all this way to examine.

Motes of dust danced in rays of sunlight that streaked into the room through a massive hole in the wall and ceiling. The sudden shift in brightness was distressing, causing Hannah to shield her eyes.

The room was full of twisted metal objects and ruined books. There were shelves on one wall that long ago collapsed with age, dumping the moldy tomes to the floor. Rotted work tables lay collapsed to the floor in disheveled heaps. Scattered across them were shiny objects and metal items lying among other trash.

In the center of the room was a raised stone platform. It was perfectly round and filled the bulk of the room. There were narrow metal lines laid into the surface, forming an eight-pointed star. It reminded Heather of the room below, but there was one important difference. The surface was polished flat except where etchings were carefully made on the surface. They created a map of a vast region of the world, marking prominent locations and regions of interest.

The sight immediately enthralled Chandice, but Legeis moved about the room animatedly.

“This place is littered with engineering stuff,” he said while poking through objects in the trash. “This is a gear rotor, and this is a copper piston.”

Hannah was glad to see his coming here would be useful, but she was more interested in the others who stood around the central stone table.

“This map is amazing,” Chandice said as she leaned over the table to brush some gravel away. “It’s too bad it’s damaged.”

Hannah felt the same way as she noted a large gouge in the surface and a few places where fallen stones had chipped it away. She described her reaction to seeing it for the first time as somewhat muted. Breanne added that she had a very different reaction, believing some important mystery of the necromancers had been discovered. She got emotional and hoped Hannah could learn something that would improve the future.

“Wow, do I feel like I dropped the ball,” Hannah laughed.

“I didn’t appreciate your mindset at the time,” Breanne said. “It was hard to understand the pressure you were under and the detachment you felt toward the world.”

“I suppose it would be,” Hannah agreed as she looked over the table and the names etched into places.

“This is crazy,” Legeis said as he approached the table with his detector. “This table reads like the magic detector we built to scan your crown.”

“What do you mean?” Hannah asked as Chandice moved to Legeis and looked at his scanner.

“It’s different magics, but it works the same,” Chandice said.

“Yeah, this is a blend of technomancy and traditional magic,” Legeis replied. “I would love to have seen what was in the frame that hung over the table.”

“Any guesses as to what this was for?” Frank asked.

“Well,” Legeis began as he adjusted his goggles. “It obviously did something with the map, but all the parts are missing. I can't tell from twisted bits of the metal frame.”

“I might be able to shed some light on this, “Chandice said as she waved her wand over the table. Suddenly, the air in the center shimmered and folded, becoming almost fluid. A rough diamond shape the size of a pumpkin floated over the table with a slow bob. Hannah gazed at the shape that seemed to warp the air around it, creating a strain to even look at it.

“What is that?” Frank asked as they considered the object that faded away.

“I think that’s a proto portal,” Chandice said. “That’s why the magic circle channels the same magic as the druid portal. A caster downstairs casts a spell in the circle, and the magic channels up that chain to the floor in the bedroom. I think it syncs with whatever was over this table, creating a portal in the bedroom itself.”

“A portal to where?” Hannah asked, now fascinated by where this was going.

“I have no idea,” Chandice replied.

“Well, if we took the table itself into account, I would say the portal could probably be projected to any point on the map,” Legeis suggested.

“Wait, so this might have allowed you to send a portal to any location on this map?” Hannah repeated.

“It's just an educated guess,” Legeis said with a shrug. “But my scanner says there are power condensers inside the table itself and that they are creating the diamond thing.”

“Imagine if you could open a portal to anywhere without somebody first establishing a portal anchor,” Breanne said.

“What does the portal anchor do?” Hannah asked.

“It's how people can portal to major cities,” Frank replied. “Like our city has the portal plaza, and inside it is an invisible anchor that marks it as a destination. You can't just portal to anywhere unless somebody has established an anchor of some kind. Some classes can create anchors, and some can use a home point as an anchor, but for the most part, there has to be something to connect an incoming portal to.”

“So this table might be a way to project a portal without an anchor at the destination?” Hannah asked.

“We are only guessing,” Legeis insisted. “We can't be sure of anything without seeing what hung over the table.”

“But you are sure this table was built with technomancy and that it links to the magic circle below?” Hannah pressed. Legeis said he was sure the table was built with some elements of technomancy. Chandice confirmed it was enchanted but couldn't guarantee it was linked to the magic circle below. There was no way to be sure without a means to test her hypothesis. All she could do was point out how the various parts of the puzzle seemed to be aligned and that it all pointed here.

“So, that leaves one last question to ask,” Hannah said as she reached out a hand and began a quick gesture. She opened a hole into the buffer, drawing out the silver disk with the smaller map. “What role does this play in this room?” She placed the item on the table as the others gathered around it, looking for anything that made sense.

“We know it’s a map,” Quinny said. “But of what?”

“Looks like a small portion of the larger map,” Evalynn suggested.

“But can you see where it fits?” Breanne asked as they studied the smaller map, then tried to find what region of the larger one it represented.

“This will be near impossible to locate,” Quinny argued. “There are no major features on the small map. No roads, or rivers we can use to trace the location.”

“It’s like the map isn’t finished,” Breanne offered.

“But where does it go?” Hannah pressed as they began scouring the larger table, looking for a match.

“This looks like everything inside the spawn ring,” Frank suggested as he tapped the larger table. “But the disk is a small area.”

“Does the lack of rivers mean it’s in the desert? Quinny offered as a possible solution.

“I can vouch it is not the desert you found me in,” Blackbast replied. “But there are more deserts than mine.”

“Is this shape on it a town?” Frank asked as he pointed to a rectangular area.

“It doesn’t have a name,” Chandice said with a shrug. “It could be a fort, a house, a whole city. The scale is so small it might be anything.”

“Maybe it’s a treasure map,” Quinny said excitedly.

“Well, there is no way to know where it fits into the machine that was here,” Legeis said as he scratched behind a floppy ear. “I wish we could find one of these machines intact.”

Blackbast took up the disk and turned it over, searching both sides for a clue. It offered no additional information and left them wondering where it fit in.

“Could it be someplace beyond the spawn ring?” Frank suggested.

“This is a possibility,” Blackbast agreed. “Kevin’s kingdom is beyond the spawn ring and not on the larger map.”

“Whose to say it's a map to someplace in this world?” Quinny said, causing the room to fall silent. Hannah looked to Frank for help, but all he could do was shrug. It wasn't out of the question, considering they had come here by a path in another world. Hannah took the disk from Blackbast and held it out as she searched the surface for anything that triggered a memory. Could this be a part of how Hathlisora was said to open doors to other worlds? Was this a key to how she opened the way to Abbadon?

“This is a consideration that is beyond our current knowledge,” Blackbast said. “I suggest we have that map translated to paper and set the harem girls to searching other maps and books for a likeness.”

“That’s a good idea,” Hannah agreed as she set the disk down.

“So what do we do next?” Evalynn asked as they waited for Hannah to lead.

“We go back to the necromancer circle below,” Hannah said.

“What are we doing that for?” Chandice asked.

Hannah looked at the bag of skulls Quinny still carried as she smiled. With a toss of her blond hair, she boldly replied.

“I have a few questions to ask.”