After a meal at the farm house and a chat to get to know each other better, the group headed to the walled off pipe nexus.

  Alex wasn’t quite sure that Ariel was a good person to have around with her suggestion about kidnapping and stealing being a viable option. However, she cimed to be a pirate magical girl so it should have been obvious.

  “Are you coming with us?” Alex asked the sea elf. “Is it bad for your health to be away from water?” Hopefully the st question was not racially insensitive, her voice sounded a little unsure.

  “I was wondering what happened to my friend Aqua.” Ariel smiled. “The other nereids say she went looking for her new slime girl friend. We go way back, the water nymphs and I have done quite a bit of heists together. They always have all the juicy gossip. As for the water. I can be out of water for a day or so without discomfort. But I like to take at least an hour submerged every day otherwise I tend to get chapped lips and skin problems if it is more than a day.”

  “You can tag along if you want.” Alex wanted to have a good retionship with the second magical girl she met, so she put on a positive front. “Though, knowing Merumeru we might be in for some surprises.”

  “I love surprises!” Funi cheered.

  Bob and Martha waved them off.

  Everyone donned their plumber uniforms and picked one of the pipes that they hadn’t explored before. The group exited in an arctic white out.

  “Ack!” Ariel screamed, and scrambled back through the pipe.

  The weather was white out. The world had vanished, the ground, sky and horizon all swallowed by an expanse of white. Snowfkes danced like spectral wraiths, whispering secrets in their icy code.

  Alex’s breath hung in the air. “Nope!”

  The two fmingos stood still, stunned by the sudden change in scenery. They should have taken the hint from the storm singing its mournful bald, or the sea elf making a quick exit. But the shock paralyzed them.

  “Funi, Fufi.” Alex waved a hand in front of their faces, but then didn’t notice. Given that they were birds though it didn’t take but a moment to scoop them up and carry them back through the portal. “We should avoid that one for now. I think I know where it goes and we are not nearly bundled up enough to go that way.”

  “Wow, that was quick.” Bob commented, sounding a bit surprised. “Are you okay?”

  Fufi regained the ability to speak. “Everyone is fine. It was just the sudden change in scenery that was a bit of a shock.”

  “Where did that pipe go?” Funi asked her fellow fmingo.

  “It is near the temple of Catalina that we visited a few months ago.” Fufi waved a wing.

  “Catalina?” Ariel sounded surprised. “That is a name I haven’t heard in some time. Is it a ruin? What did you find?”

  “Dozens of the same two people.” Alex frowned. “They’ve been using demonic rituals to transform harpies back into humans but at the same time to make copies, albeit imperfect versions of themselves.”

  “What were their names?” Fufi clicked her beak, thinking.

  “Something that starts with an ‘E’ and the woman started with a ‘Y’ I think.” Alex furrowed her brow. “Ekta and Yuti if I remember right.”

  Ariel’s eyes widened. “Those are the names of some of the clergy that summoned Hiroshi, the hero. They should have passed on long ago. They were already old when they summoned the hero to fight the demon queen.”

  “They found a way to cheat death.” Fufi answered. “Just not a good one. If the maids want to go back there like Ki said, I don't think they’ll get what they are looking for.”

  “I don’t think Ki would want to send the maids to be mind wiped.” Fufi offered, though she didn’t sound sure. “If only we could find another noble. Really, I think Ki was just joking when she said that. She just didn’t want a bunch of humans being her maids.”

  “Wait wait, so where exactly is this temple located?” Ariel sounded like she didn’t care about the maids that much either.

  “It takes weeks to travel to the north through rugged forest and gcier covered mountains.” Alex answered, pointing in the direction north should be by the position of the sun.

  After everyone finished brushing the snow off their plumber outfits, they headed into the next unknown portal pipe. As expected, the portal pipe led to yet another unpleasant surprise. The pipe was pced sideways so the fell face first into a dark pit of water with a spsh.

  Well, Alex fell with a spsh. The two fmingos fluttered to the water and just floated there. Ariel, being a sea elf and a magical girl with water powers made an elegant dive that hardly disturbed the water.

  Blub blub

  Splish spsh

  A webbed hand helped Alex out of the water. “Don’t tell me you can’t swim? What were you doing taking boats up and down the river?”

  “I can swim.” Alex took the offered and was pulled up onto a not-finished stone floor.

  This was some kind of castle in development. The entire basement swirled with water, creating a murmur that filled the air. The water was clear so there must be an underground stream or something simir going through the foundation of the castle, not a great idea for protecting the foundation of the building but Alex wasn’t a building inspector. The foundation consisted entirely of stone melted together in the style a certain slime girl favored. The walls rose unevenly, some only reaching waist-height while others soared like forgotten promises. Oddly, the shape of the blocks that hadn’t been altered reminded Alex of cement barrier that road crews would set on the sides of highways to keep cars from driving into oncoming traffic or falling off a cliff.

  Peering through an unfinished archway, a vast expanse of gray mourned the castle’s incompleteness. Raindrops occasionally fell, tapping against the exposed stonework.

  “What is this pce?” Alex wondered aloud, standing to her feet and inspecting the yout of the pce. It looked familiar.

  Surprising everyone, a blue haired Nereid popped out of the water. “Boo!”

  Startled, the two fmingos fpped their wings rapidly, taking to the skies.

  “Aqua?” Ariel recognized the woman immediately and jumped into the water to give her a hug. “How have you been?”

  “Allright.” She beamed. “Welcome to this floating isnd of otherworldly intrigue!”

  “Otherworldly intrigue?” Aqua tilted her head. “How so?”

  “It is part of another pnet!” Aqua made her voice sound mysterious. “The greatest magical girl brought it here to protect it from debt collectors!”

  “Cosmos was here?” The two fmingos shouted in unison.

  “Yep yep.” Aqua spshed at the fmingos but because they were flying it didn’t get anywhere near.

  “Is she here now?” Ariel kept peppering the nereid with questions.

  “Nope.” Aqua shook her head, blue hair sending droplets of water flying about the room. “She was gone before I got here. Merumeru told me the story though. The two of them were up here building a castle together before she got called away.”

  “How can she be here?” Ariel pressed. “I thought that because of the accords she wasn’t allowed on Terre. Does this pipe lead us to another world?”

  Aqua shrugged. “Sorta? From what I heard from Merumeru she got here by flying up from a pipe that she set up near the temple of purity. She isn’t sure if the isnd stays in pce or not.”

  “That’s weird.” Alex crossed her arms. “Because we just checked the pipe that came out near there and the pce is a blizzard. Wouldn’t it be colder higher up?”

  Aqua threw up her hands. “Hey, I don’t know. The powers of magical girls of her level are beyond my comprehension.”

  “So where is Merumeru now?” Alex joined in the peppering Aqua with questions sessions.

  “She’s back at the cabin.” Aqua paused for dramatic effect. “Babysitting.”

  “She’s not even a year old.” Alex blurted out, worried. “Why is she babysitting?”

  “They are not actual babies.” Aqua chuckled. “They are a family of discarded nobles.”

  Ariel piped up. “Let's go check out this cabin.”

  “Okay.” Aqua climbed out of the water and banced along the stone walls popping up where the floors hadn’t been finished. “Follow me. But watch your step. This is an active construction site with materials in ydown everywhere.”