He flicked through menus for a moment, and then pointed at each of them and summoned them to a position just in front of himself. "Okay, I'm out," he announced, and vanished.

The celestial prison released ZipZing and Ais.h.i.+n a moment later. The three who had just been teleported looked confused. "Lin Hao brought you out," Danika explained.

MatchlessMinion and Shrubbery both understood, and MatchlessMinion said, "I guess logging in and being trapped like that is kind of buggy."

"What about those two?" Little Tortoise questioned with a confused expression.

"Which two?" Danika asked.

She turned back to survey the now dark gla.s.s hill and saw a light flickering within it once more, as well as a softly glowing fox outline. Mench Frest and Jakyl had apparently just logged in. It was also possible that other players had logged out last from that part of the miniature village.

"Umm," Danika said blankly. "Too bad we can't teleport our Mark to us. I already marked the gnome."

Ais.h.i.+n gave a short laugh and said, "That's easy then, just teleport in, load them into your stone s.p.a.ce, and teleport out again."

Shrubbery looked at ZipZing's expression and said kindly, "It's OK, we're all tired."

After the captives were released, one of the other villagers asked, "Do you know a wizard who could melt this gla.s.s hill so we can use our houses again?"

Danika asked doubtfully, "Even if you got a wizard, an etain, or even a genie like Saaki, who might be able to melt gla.s.s, wouldn't the houses burn?"

"Oh, it might still work, since they are mostly stone," someone else replied.

As though speaking of him had summoned him, Saaki appeared before them in a dramatic puff of flame. "I wasn't sure about the change to my racial skills, but this is kind of awesome!" he exclaimed. "I can either travel in a windy line of sight like before, or spend a lot of energy and poof, right to you!"

He flashed an offended look when they all laughed at him, but he laughed when they explained that they'd just been talking about him.

Saaki shook his head when the villagers asked if he could melt the gla.s.s safely. "I don't think so. I could melt it, but I think it would pour into the houses? Maybe one of the better dwarven craftsmen?"

Danika wondered if any of the better dwarven craftsmen had survived. That thought made her wonder where the King of Cats was, and how many he'd actually saved to 'play with later'.

One of the gnomes replied a little dryly after a moment, "The dwarves learned from us, nevermind, we'll manage somehow."

Saaki shrugged and told Ais.h.i.+n, "Everyone else will be here soon, I just came ahead."

Danika looked around and then zipped straight upward. In the distance to the east she could see a wriggling line of tiny figures. To the north a mountain rose, but it didn't look quite right. It was because it wasn't the mountain that had been closest to the desert in the expansion test area, it was the one that had been just beyond it.

Nabatea, and the mountain that had held it, was gone. She'd watched that in the video, but she stared at the unplanned expanse of desert that had replaced the dwarven capital. A wave so tall that she could see it even at this distance splashed up against the edge of the pawprint shaped hills, where the new ocean met the desert a bit northwest of where the gla.s.s hill stood. Something sparkled out there, in the first light of day.

Danika dropped toward Ais.h.i.+n and landed on his outstretched palms. "I'm torn between exploring the unplanned area where Nabatea stood, or the new coastline where there's something s.h.i.+ny first. What do you guys want to do?" she asked.

"We should go for the s.h.i.+ny thing first," MatchlessMinion declared authoritatively.

"We should wait for the rest of Endless Song to arrive and vote," Shrubbery chided.

"I don't think we should wait," he argued. "The flying types will start arriving any time now, and they'll see the s.h.i.+ny thing too!"

Shrubbery hesitated, but then nodded.

Ais.h.i.+n suggested quietly, "Let's put another Mark on one of these NPC villagers. The players might wander off, but the NPCs seem to already be starting to work on rebuilding their village. ZipZing can carry us out, and we can teleport back to meet everyone." He put actions to his words, and flicked an invisible mark at the NPC who was examining Little Tortoise's stone where it was half embedded in the gla.s.s.

Saaki corrected, "Zippy and I will carry you. I can speed her flight up with my winds, so we'll be even faster."

Ais.h.i.+n nodded and touched the pebble strapped to ZipZing's back. "Dragonheart," he said, and vanished. Shrubbery and MatchlessMinion quickly followed suit, and then Danika zipped to the northwest.

Saaki turned into a hot dervish wind that blew her forward even faster, instead of catching and spinning her. "Cool right!?" he shouted as they streaked away from the dawn.

"Yeah!" she called back.

Since her flight was smoother than expected, she pulled out the little mirror so that her pa.s.sengers could see and hear too. Within minutes they arrived at the new sh.o.r.e, at the place where Danika had spotted the s.h.i.+ny thing.

Saaki spun to a halt beside her and shouted, "Whoa! They added mecha?!"

"Er, not that I know of?" Danika answered with confusion.

She wasn't entirely certain that she'd have called the s.h.i.+ny robot-like figure laying on the sh.o.r.e a mecha. Her impression of mecha was that they were as tall as buildings. This figure would only be as tall as one of the small elemental races' buildings. It was bigger than Saaki's small genie, but she didn't think it was bigger than a human.

The figure asked conversationally, "Are either of you any good with salt.w.a.ter corroded latches?"

It emitted a puff of steam as Ais.h.i.+n and Shrubbery exited the stone s.p.a.ce that had contained her garden before it had been completely trampled.

"I healed your tree," Shrubbery said as she reappeared.

"What?" asked the metal figure, as the sky behind them brightened from soft sunrise into full daylight.