The fog lightened around the three of them. It wasn’t merely the illusion of walking through fog, where the fog in the distance appeared thick, but the fog near the walker appeared thin, but an actual thinning of the fog. Ike had drawn in enough that it began to clear around them, and from the way the strange energy flowed around both himself and Wisp, she was doing the same. Mag hopped along at his own pace. Whether he drew the energy in or not, there was no indication; but then, the bird fluttered around so much that it was impossible to tell.

  Lost in his thoughts, Ike walked on autopilot. For a while, Wisp walked quietly alongside him, perhaps spooked by the mist, but as they continued, and nothing popped out of the gray, she leaned forward, peering at his face. “Ike?”

  Her whisper elicited no response. A grin appeared on her lips. She danced in front of him, walking backward as he walked forward. His eyes remained glazed, body moving forward on full automatic mode. His aether scanned the world around him to ensure he didn’t run into anything, and his eyes were basically turned off.

  She hopped up onto his shoulder, perching there in human form. Ike was strong enough by now that it didn’t matter whether she ‘held her own weight,’ in Shawn’s terms, or not; whether she exerted her spider weight or her monstrous-spider weight , or even struck the middle with her human weight. He couldn’t feel her if he wasn’t paying attention.

  “Free ride, free ride,” she sang happily.

  “Hey, what’re you doing?” Mag asked, fluttering up alongside her. He was in his usual form, mostly human, but with wings instead of arms so he could make use of both of his usual methods of conveyance.

  “Isn’t it obvious? Getting a free ride. Unlike some sucker who’s walking like a loooo-ser.” She stuck her tongue out at Mag with a smug grin.

  Mag immediately pouted. He peered at Ike’s other shoulder, but Shawn rode there in his usual sleeping form. There was no room for another person.

  “Turn into a spider,” Mag demanded.

  “What, so you can sit next to me? No. I don’t want to share my perch with any stinky birds,” Wisp taunted. She slapped her rear at him mockingly.

  “Then I’ll sit on your shoulder.” Mag spread his wings and fluttered up toward Wisp’s shoulder. He transformed mid-flap and stretched his claws out for her shoulder.

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  Wisp vanished. Mag’s claws swept at the air as a tiny spider took her place, still sitting on Ike’s shoulder, but now several feet below where he’d been aiming to land. He whiffed, flapping about wildly to try and reclaim his position. Before he could, however, Wisp had retaken human form, and once more perched on Ike’s shoulder with a smugger grin than ever before.

  “It’ll take more than that to claim his shoulder from me,” she taunted him.

  Mag clacked his beak at her in annoyance and whirled about, clawing at her again. This time, Wisp didn’t transform, but instead met his claws with her clawed hands. The two of them battled, exchanging a thousand blows in midair. Mag continuously flew backward, matching Ike’s pace, his claws little more than a blur of martial might. Wisp matched him blow for blow; if anything, she was taking it easy on him, striking his claws away with deft flicks of her wrist and taps of her fingertips rather than use her full strength. Neither of them fought seriously, but they did fight up to the limit of their respective strengths, battling with the utmost of their ability.

  As a result, when Ike snapped back to reality, it was to a ferocious blast of feathers in his face and a quick riposte from Wisp that hammered him in the jaw. Ike shook his head and peered around, lost. “What the hell?”

  “This bird just started attacking me out of nowhere! Quick, Ike, slap it down!”

  “Wisp is sitting on your shoulder!”

  Ike sighed. He rubbed his temples. “What the hell, you two. Aren’t we in a dangerous foggy land, on the far side of a mysterious wall? Where’s your seriousness? What if we get attacked, huh?”

  “I’m already under attack!” Wisp pointed out.

  “She started it!” Mag snapped, annoyed. He fluttered over and landed on Ike’s head, fixing his wings with a harrumph.

  “I don’t care who started it. Both of you, quit it.” Ike swept at his head and shoulder, dislodging the bird and the spider both. “Go play around somewhere else, okay? I’m not a playground.”

  “Aww, but it was super funny when you were.” Wisp hopped his casual sweep, but stepped free anyways.

  Mag burst off his head in a flutter of black-and-white down. “I didn’t get to ride for half as long as she did!”

  “And that makes Wisp in the wrong, not you in the right,” Ike said, tiredly. “You know, I was working really hard to figure some really important things out, just so you know.”

  “And? Did you?” Wisp asked.

  “Maybe?”

  “That’s better than no.”

  Mag took human form once again and thumped down to earth with a harrumph. The red sleeves of his outer coat floated down behind him. “Bunch of idiots. Won’t even let me perch. How lame, how lame.”

  Wisp nudged Ike. “What were you figuring out? Anything I need to know?”

  “Mmm. Just trying to figure out where I fit into Brightbriar’s plans. I guess we don’t need to know it, but you know. If we can figure out why he’s spawning off lots of ‘children,’ then we’ve got that advantage, at least.”

  “Yeah. It gives us fodder to taunt him, if nothing else.”

  Ike nodded. “And that’s always important.”

  Mag looked up. He quieted, his whole body stilling to listen more closely. A quiet hum sounded out of the fog a moment later. Ike looked up, and Wisp followed suit.

  “…What’s that?” Wisp asked.

  Ike shook his head. “Only one way to find out.”

  The three of them walked deeper into the fog, following the hum.

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