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Click. Diamond boots against blackstone; high arched ceiling overhead; endless black tunnel in front of him. Click. Footsteps echoing into nothing, an endless maze in front of him, a puzzle that he’ll never solve. He walks with the practiced stance of a fighter: eyes looking straight ahead, footsteps calm and measured, chest puffed out slightly. Doesn’t stop the twitching of his fingertips, the urge to call out Egg and wait for a reply. It would be suicide, he knows, but it’s still tempting.
Around another corner, surely Egg will be in this one, met with the same old blackstone hallway. Passes a ballroom, a bedroom, chandeliers blurring together. It doesn't matter, none of it matters because there's no Egg. Egg isn't here. So Egg must be in the next one, or the one after that, or the one after that. Assuming Egg is here at all, a traitorous part of his mind whispers. Assuming he isn’t far away from this civilization, or hidden deep underground, or dead. He walks faster.
Hallway after hallway, guard after guard, nothing after nothing. All the desperation that was boiling inside him while playing Arachnid’s lovely little soldier is rising to the surface now, clawing at his insides, desperate to get out. Think think think. His mind is a blank slate of buzzing panic. Maybe if he turns this wa-
Clack. Netherite boots against blackstone. Walk with confidence walk with confidence, he reminds himself as he looks straight ahead. In his peripheral, he notices a netherite-clad guard stepping out from between a set of bookshelves. His fingers tap an incessant one-two-three rhythm on [Gambit]. He’s still in control, he can kill them if he wanted to and find Egg-
“Hey, Wemmbu. Didn’t know you were upgraded to royalty. Congrats.” Wemmbu risks a glance into their eyes and sees no ill intent.
“Thanks,” he replies curtly.
“Speaking of which, Arachnid wanted to see you.”
“Why?” He found out about me, I won’t have another chance to slip away-
“I don’t know, he just said so. So, coming?”
“Okay,” Wemmbu says. As if he had another option.