Malik stepped through the portal and back into the Root World, and the Spire's cold white walls had never looked so inviting. The sensation of the portal remained on her skin - it was like stepping through something that felt like water but didn't behave like water, and her skin was wondering why it wasn't wet right now. She was never going to get used to that eerie feeling.

She leaned heavily against the wall for a moment, catching her breath. That had been far closer than was comfortable. "Come on, Malik, get yourself together." She must look like a mess, and she didn't want to know what the state of her make-up was right now. She used the wall as support and limped her way down the long hallway.

Malik paused in the doorway to the living room. Sitting on one of the couches was the Keeper, he was leaning forward and staring intently at Pi's box. "Don't you have more important things to do than stare at that box all day?" Malik asked.

"You have made this observation many times before, the answer remains the same." He didn't take his eyes off the box.

"Well you- oh nevermind I don't have the energy for this." She let herself fall on one of the couches and put her sprained ankle up on the coffee table. Honestly she was lucky it was only sprained, the height that she dropped from. It could have been broken. Or it could have been her neck that broke, she got off lightly.

"I sent you out 5 hours, 43 minutes, and 13 seconds ago, what happened?" He finally took his eyes from the box and looked right at her. She now wished he would go back to staring at the box, those eyes were unnerving. 

"It was an ambush. Zhu knew I was coming and her agents were waiting for me," she said. "Why do they always seem one step ahead of us? It's impossible to look for Pi this way, we've been trying for months."

The Keeper looked troubled for a moment before he turned back to Pi's box. Seems that was as much energy as he was willing to expend on her worries. "I take it you did not compromise the portal?" 

"Of course I compromised the portal, it's why the Spire is currently swarming with Zhu's goons," Malik said, but it was a weak and tired attempt at sarcasm. Her heart wasn't in it. The Keeper looked at her again, saying nothing. Malik held his gaze for a long minute before looking away. She always lost that fight. "I got to the portal alone, it's uncompromised, the Spire is safe."

The Keeper stood up and walked to window overlooking the city. It was all that was left of the Root World now, a weird mixture of all the cities that had existed before. "It is time to wake a new group of Seekers," The Keeper said.

"What- no!" Malik tried to stand up but pain instantly shot up her ankle and she sat back down hard. "No that's not necessary, I can do it alone."

"You have proven countless of times that you cannot do it alone, Ahn Malik, and it is not the way of the Seekers. Seekers work in pairs. You have been by yourself for too long."

Malik clenched her fist and took a deep breath. She knew this had to happen sooner or later, she just hadn't wanted to acknowledge it. She supposed it was foolish to hope that the Keeper would let her keep going at it alone, especially since she hadn't accomplished anything in a long time. Zhu's grunts kept getting in the way of her search, she'd only found Pi once in the last three months and the grunt had killed her as soon as Malik had found her.

The Keeper tore his gaze from the window and looked at her once more. "Heal fast, you will need to find them and wake them." With those parting words he left the room and she was finally alone.

Malik dropped her head into her hands for a moment and took one deep, shaky breath. There, that was all of the reflection she could afford. She took quick stock of her injuries. Her ankle was definitely sprained, her arms were scratched from when she'd run through the brambles and -she gingerly poked at the skin around her eye- yep definitely a black eye. Could be worse. Could be much worse. And now she would have to wake up more Seekers.

God she needed a coffee.

author's note

Here's a teaser of what's to come, just to show my writing style and start setting up some questions. Who's Zhu? What is the deal with the Keeper? Did Malik ever get her coffee?? These are the questions that keep us up at night.