After entering many new routes, my sense of direction is almost completely lost. It's not like we've just been taking lefts and rights. We've been going left, right, up and down. And sometimes gravity shifts in a completely different direction in a new route. Tiss is in a similar position to me. She has no idea how to track our position in a place like this.
Jiji, however, seems to have no issues navigating this place. She tells us each new direction to go, avoids dangerous places filled with STRING THEORIES, and remains confident that she knows where the exit is. I'm putting my faith in Jiji to get us home.
[Wade?] "Hey, Jiji, what are you going to do after we leave?"
[Jiji] "Bawk bawk! Bkaw!"
[Wade?] "Huh? You're coming with us?"
[Jiji] "Bkaw!"
[Wade?] "Well I'll have to find a nice place to live and set your nest up in the comfiest spot around."
[Jiji] "Bkaw!"
[Tiss] "When we get back, I'll help you look for a place in the capital of the Duchy."
[Wade?] "Hm? Won't that be pricey? I don't have any money."
[Tiss] "Well as a reward for saving me, I'm sure that my parents will be willing to give you a property."
[Wade?] "Oh right. Your parents..."
I definitely hadn't forgotten what I had learned from my last conversation with Harold. He let me know that because time flows so differently here, we had already lost 20 years in that world. It's like only a day had gone by for us, but time in our world is moving at a breakneck pace, even now while we're trying to return home.
[Tiss] "We'll make sure you get a nice place, Wade. And you'll have to let me come visit."
[Wade?] "Of course."
Guilt is eating away at me now. I haven't brought up the time difference yet. I don't know when a proper time to do that would be. And it seems that there's isn't a moment to spare for that conversation anymore. Not before we leave, anyway.
Jiji makes us stop in front of a dead end. She hops off my shoulder and then glides over to the wall. After landing in front of the wall, she starts to peck at the surface. Nothing happens at first, but soon enough, bits of the surface chip off. Revealed is a shining golden light. It's not blindingly bright, but it bright enough to illuminate the area nearby.
A couple minutes later, Jiji has finished her task of opening up a chunk of the wall. It's large enough that Jiji can fit, but not someone of our sizes.
[Wade?] "Hey, Jiji... How are we supposed to go through this?"
[Jiji] "Bkaw! Bawk bawk!"
[Wade?] "But it's such a small space."
[Jiji] "Bkaw!"
[Wade?] "You say that like it's just a simple thing to do."
[Tiss] "What's she saying?"
Tiss rests a hand on my shoulder while trying to pay attention to my conversation with Jiji. She still has no clue what Jiji is saying.
[Wade?] "Jiji said to just go inside the portal. The gold light there is a path to the third dimension, where we're from."
[Tiss] "Well that's convenient. If only it were a larger opening."
[Wade?] "That's why she said to just move at least at the speed of light to just warp through it. Apparently it'll just suck us through."
[Tiss] "What? We can't do that!"
[Jiji] "Bkaw!"
[Wade?] "Wait what?"
[Jiji] "Bawk bawk! Bkaw!"
[Wade?] "Hey Tiss, can you hand me your ring?"
[Tiss] "This one?"
She slides off the Superluminal Ring and passes it over to me. I slide it onto my pinky and then try to focus on it. I can't read any information on the item, just like Tiss couldn't either.
[Wade?] "So this ring can let us most faster than light?"
[Jiji] "Bkaw!"
Doing as I'm told, I put my hand forward and channel a bit of mana into the ring. At first, it just starts to shine a bright gold. The light fades after a moment, but then the ring begins to emanate waves of mana, creating a blanket of pressure in the vicinity. Jiji is unaffected, but Tiss and I are having trouble standing.
Jiji waddles over to us while we struggle to stay even up on one knee. She simply pecks the ring and the pressure stops.
[Jiji] "Bkaw!"
[Wade?] "Oh, I see... Apparently it was just malfunctioning."
[Tiss] "Has it been busted this whole time?"
[Jiji] "Bawk bawk!"
[Wade?] "Jiji says yea. But apparently it'll now work just fine."
We both stand up together. Jiji leaps and flaps her wings, landing and perching herself onto my shoulder. I hold my left arm out with the ring on my smallest finger. The ring shines against. I feel the mana surging, but it's not an oppressive force this time. Instead, it feels empowering.
I reach my free arm over to Tiss and wrap my arm around her waist, pulling her in close. She seems a tad surprised, yelping as she's grabbed. But she blushes and just rests her head against my chest while I hold her tight.
Now I can feel mana surrounding all three of us together. Not just the ring is shining gold now, everything is. It looks as if we're being trapped in a world of gold light, but Jiji informs us that we're inside the path back to the third dimension.
I don't feel like we're moving that fast at all. In fact, it feels like we're standing still. Jiji breaks my confusion against on the matter by explaining that the path is moving us, not the ring, so it's more of a gradual entrance into the third dimension.
[Wade?] "Hey, do you know where we're going to arrive?"
[Jiji] "Bkaw?"
[Wade?] "We're not going to show up a thousand feet in the air, right?"
[Jiji] "Bawk."
[Wade?] "..."
[Tiss] "What's wrong? We're going home, right?"
[Wade?] "Yeah... But Jiji doesn't now exactly where we're going to arrive. There's no telling if we'll be safe or not."
[Tiss] "So if we end up a thousand feet in the air..."
[Wade?] "Then we plummet to our deaths."