Just like the entrao the hallway, the stairwell was hidden in pin sight by the walls simuting the outside. It would have been much easier to see if they had beeivated, but Ollie figured that this was kind of the point. Navigating this pce required an uanding of it. More importantly, most of what he had already seen in the living room alone was clearly experimental. He sidered his thoughts on Sonya ovna’s inner circle, the people w with and around her. She was very close with her lead stist so it would be no surprise to him if she let Dr. Carter turn her home into a pyground.

  He g the hallway that the other four had gohrough, The stuff above ground is probably mundane if not a little more advahan what we’re used to. He looked dowairs. The iing stuff is down here, he thought with a small smile.

  A movement nearby caught his attention and pulled him out of his thoughts. He blinked and looked up into the pierg blue eyes of Cassiopea Hanks. The blonde girl was looking at him with a bit of mild , her head tilted a bit to the left as she crossed her arms. It wasn’t a judgy look, more like she was unfortable. “You um…” She started and cleared her throat before shaking her head, she turned away a dowairs, “...just finish p whatever as go,” She said hastily.

  He blinked and watched her desd, I think… she was about to say something rude, He gnced back at the couch where Lily and Snow were rexing. Lily clearly had no i in sneaking through the pow that she’d found a pce to y her head and Snow was attached to her at the hip. His lips thinned, Lily said that Cassiopeia was trying to open up. Maybe she’s als to be more careful with her words too. He blinked, Oh, she was going to call me out about standing there quietly and grinning to myself.

  He felt a bit of heat rise to his ears, Oh that’s embarrassing. He thought and rubbed the bridge of his nose as he started dowairs. He resisted the urge to get lost in thought again, taking a deep breath and clearing his mind like Madame Rouge had taught him. Sometimes ay head was good for seeing things objectively. Get rid of preceptions, biases, everything else, just breathe ahings for what they are. He thought as he exhaled only to stop when he nearly ran into Cassiopeia’s back.

  “Oh! Sorry!” He gasped, taking a step back before freezing in pce. “Oh.”

  Cass didn’t look back at him, “Yeah, my thoughts too,” She murmured as they looked into the rge square room, about the same size as the room above. Instead of pretty walls made of illuminated ss, the walls were made of an off-white metal that gleamed a bit against the very simple lights that lihe ceiling. The metallic walls were affixed with numerous ons, mostly knives, held within protective gss gs. There were three exits leading out of the room, each of them had doors made of the same metal of the walls and looked like they were desigo open into the walls rather than swing. “This is where she trains.”

  “I knew she took it seriously but…” Ollie trailed off as he stepped into the room. He looked down at his feet, “The floor feels strange,” He said.

  Cass stepped onto it with him before frowning as well, “I don’t- wait,” She tilted her head, “It feels solid but there’s something wrong.”

  He tapped his foot against the floor and it sounded like a normal floor. He g Cass and then raised his foot high before bringing it down hard, stomping on the floor. Immediately the flave way like a fluid, cushioning the impact. He gasped and pulled his foot out of the small impression he had made and it simply resumed its inal shape, “What the heck is this stuff?” He gasped, looking at Cass who shook her head. She stomped her foot as well and the same thing happened, she grinned.

  “Could you imagine sparring in here?” She said eagerly, “You wouldn’t evehe falls.”

  “The walls are still made of metal,” Ollie pointed out, walking over to one of them only to feel himself run into something that he couldn’t see that stuck out a few inches from the wall. He blinked and pushed against it and it agai solid like the floor, a lot like the floor. He pulled his fist bad puhe wall and it gave way a little. “The walls are coated in it too!” He gasped, “It’s just transparent!” He paused and looked down at the floor, “No, the floor is dyed.”

  “Knives are just for decoration then,” Cass murmured thoughtfully and sauntered past him. She gnced over her shoulder, “Well, there’s nothing else in here, ing?”

  They approached the door to the left of the entrand after a moment it slid open of its own accord, revealing a dark room. They g one another before the lights in the room began to e on of their own accord. Inside acious office. Ollie froze as he stepped iaking it all in. I think I’m uimating how serious this woman is, just a bit. Ollie thought.

  The room was circur with a desk in the dead ter. The desk was ft and spartan and made of the same reinforced white material as the walls. There was nothing on the desk but a small gss dome taining a mana crystal that looked like it had exploded from the inside while somehow staying whole. He wao walk over and check it out, but he had other s. The walls were ss like the room above, but they weren’t showing generic world news and sports. There were feeds from across the p monit vilis, herress, there was a live feed from Dharan, numerous financial trackers, a whole portion of the wall was dedicated to a dozen different news sources. Last but not least there of the world showing the current carter radar readings including dungeon locations.

  “She’s keeping an eye oire globe,” He breathed, “She said she was dedicated to helping humanity and heroes but this is… incredible.”

  “I knht?” Cass said happily, walking further in and turning around on her heel, “This is just… breathtaking,” He swallowed a bit at her enthusiasm before walking towards the desk, going to check out the odd-looking crystal. Cass gnced his way, “Don’t touything. This pce is special.”

  He pulled his hand away from the objed nodded, shoving his hands in his pockets and leaning forward to look at it. It looks like ttices, little hairlihways throughout the crystal. They’re all eg. What is this thing? He wondered.

  He pulled out a small notebook and wrote a few things down about the object before shoving it ba his pocket and gng over at Cass again. She was watg one of the ss. He looked past her and saw the scowl of Liberty. The blonde woman was in a full suit of armor and shouting something from a podium. There were dozens of people wearing mismatched clothih her, all raising their fists. He saw Cass’ shoulders tehe girls body shaking a little bit. This isn’t good for her, he thought and hurried over. He tried to get her attention but her eyes were fixed on the s. “Cassiopeia?” He called, “Um! We should-” Nothing. Her eyes were gzed over with a mixture of hate and terror. He sighed, Damn it. He thought and grabbed her by her hand and started to pull.

  A momehey were ba the on area. It was only then that Cass jerked and looked down at him. He was huffing, hard, resting his hands on his knees, “You are s,” He wheezed, “Goodness!” He panted, gng up at her. He paused, his eyes going a little wide. She had so many threads ing out of her, some of them thicker than others. There was a bck thread that went off into the distand was as thick as a bridge cable. There was ahat looked like it was made of silver. He’d seen one like it before. ing out of Sonya ovna. What-

  Cass immediately grabbed him by the arms, “Are you okay?” She gasped, “I didn’t hurt you did I?” She asked, panicked, looking him over. “I bcked out and you were- are you- did I?”

  He held up his hands, pulling out of her grip and forcibly g his power. Now was not the time to be thinking about karmic threads. He waved her hands away, “I’m fine! I’m fine! See? No injuries, just a little worn out fring you out of the room,” He ughed, “I’m okay, miss Cassiopeia. I was just a little worried because of what you saw, it looked like it affected you quite a bit.”

  She stared at him, fused, then blinked a few times and cleared her throat. She looked aulled back her hair, crossing her arms. “You guys are too nice, you know that? First Lily, now you. There's a thing called self preservation, you know?” She huffed before looking down at her feet, “Thank you for doing that.”

  He scratched the back of his head, “From what I’ve learned, a good hero has a bit of a hard time with the whole survival instinct thing,” He pointed out before scratg his nose, “You’re wele.”

  She turned back to say something when abruptly the flan to liquefy beh their feet. They looked down, wide eyed, “What the-” Just as the words came out the floor re-solidified, eng their feet in hard material. “Oh no.”

  A faint hum caught his ears and he looked up to see a sphere floating over their heads, a red light fshing on one side. “And you two are the st, shouldn’t have sit still,” Sonya’s sing-song voice called down to them, “Time’s up, time to pay the piper, you little sneaks!”