We turned a corner and moved into a new room. Instead of the sterile lab I'd been expecting, we found ourselves in what looked like a game room.
I blinked.
A pool table stood on the right, with colorful balls scattered across it.
The rest of the room was decorated with comfortable couches and bean bags. One wall featured a massive screen with gaming consoles beneath it, while another held a dartboard and what appeared to be a vintage pinball machine.
Well. Not what I'd expected.
"Sorry about this," Tiernan said. "Our analysis rooms are all occupied with artifacts we're processing. And honestly, they're not nearly as nice anyway. You can set your little friend here." He gestured toward the pool table.
I placed Penguin gently on the green felt. He immediately waddled across the table, peering into one of the corner pockets.
At Tiernan's call, a younger guy poked his head in through a side door.
"Oh—new arrivals!" he said brightly, before zeroing in on the pool table. "Is that… a penguin?!"
He quickly hurried in with a wide smile, nodding at Llewellyn in greeting and shaking my hand, introducing himself as Roan; but he was already half-turned toward Penguin by the time he let go.
A second later, he was at the side of the pool table, rolling balls across the felt and watching Penguin skitter after them while Tiernan explained the situation.
"Got it," Roan said.
While Penguin was distracted, he quickly grabbed what looked like a small handheld scanner from one of the bean bags and rushed back.
"Is it okay?" he asked me. "It just reads his levels."
I nodded. "Yeah, go ahead."
I mean, that was why we were there after all.
Roan showed the scanner to Penguin, before passing the device over him and asking him to switch forms.
Penguin chirped, seeming happy to comply.
Tiernan shifted closer to the pool table, leaning against it as we all watched Roan coax Penguin.
"So," he said, turning to me. "How's Llewellyn treating you? Is he still doing that thing where he jumps into danger without explaining what he's doing but expecting you to keep up?"
I snorted. It looked like they knew him well.
Llewellyn eyed us, arms crossed, like he was deciding whether to dignify that with a response.
I was about to answer when the door behind us opened, and a disheveled guy with headphones around his neck stumbled in, looking half-asleep. He yawned widely, nodding in our direction.
"This is Shea," Tiernan said. "Our resident sound genius. Also notorious for keeping vampire hours."
The guy mumbled something unintelligible, making a beeline for the coffee machine in the corner. He poured himself a cup, took a long sip, and turned back toward us.
He saw Penguin then and his eyes widened.
"Is that the multi-elemental entity?!" he asked, walking over immediately, all traces of sleepiness gone.
"His name is Penguin," I said.
Penguin greeted him by shifting form five times, before going back to being a penguin, chirping.
They all ooh'd and aaah'd and Penguin waddled in a circle, clearly enjoying himself.
I grinned and glanced at Llewellyn, who was watching the proceedings with amusement.
"Is this normal for them?"
"Completely," he said. "This is their version of restrained."
Shea flopped down onto one of the bean bags, somehow managing not to spill his coffee.
"So you just found him in a Distorted Realm?"
"Yeah. Sort of."
I explained about the wristwatch and what had happened in my flat the following day, as well as the bond.
They seemed particularly interested in Penguin's little experiments around my flat.
"If he's as powerful as Llewellyn said, he was probably learning to tweak his powers to use only a small amount," Tiernan said thoughtfully. "That's very clever of him."
"He really is that powerful," Roan said, frowning at the screen. "Can you ask him to change form again?"
We watched as Penguin shifted through a few, while Roan took screenshots of the various readings.
"Yeah," Roan said, "he's not just mimicking Elemental forms—he's actually changing his Elemental composition entirely."
Shea frowned at that, coming to see. "That shouldn't be possible. Elements don't just convert into each other."
"They do in Wuxing, right?" Roan asked.
"Sure," Shea said. "But that doesn't include Ice or Air at all, so the fivefold conceptual scheme is already not applicable. This doesn't seem to be the case here."
"Neither the Eastern nor Western system include Ice," Tiernan said. "It only appears in Dungeons in which both Air and Water elements are present and interact. People can't summon pure Ice either. Right?" Tiernan turned towards Llewellyn. "Correct me if I'm wrong, you're the expert here."
"I can use Ice if I summon both Water and Air together," Llewellyn said. "But not as a single Element. Combining them into Ice on the spot is also not ideal. Summoning both elements separately, even if at once, is much easier."
"Easier," Shea snorted. He patted Llewellyn on the shoulder like he was being ridiculous, then went to put the now empty mug in the dishwasher under the coffee machine.
Tiernan looked at Penguin, fascinated.
"Have you ever seen anything like this before?" I asked.
Tiernan shook his head. "Never. Most Elemental entities are fixed to a single Element."
Llewellyn crossed his arms, his expression thoughtful. "The emergence of the System is relatively new. But Magic itself is ancient. What if he's something from before the System showed up?"
The room fell silent as everyone considered this.
"That's a fascinating theory," Tiernan said slowly. "But you found him in a Distorted Realm, did you not? And Distorted Realms are always the result of a Knot."
"That's my point," Llewellyn said. "Knots are raw magical power. The System can only create Dungeons. We get Distorted Realms when the System cannot step in, so they're the result of raw magic."
"True," Tiernan said. "But you still only find the usual seven Elements in Distorted Realms—a combination of Eastern and Western ones—and no other kind of magic at all. They only have Elemental Magic, as far as I'm aware. So the System must still be filtering Distorted Realms creation, somehow, or they'd include different kinds of magic too."
Llewellyn hummed, thoughtful.
"I'll try to look into this," Tiernan said. "I might have a few texts on the topic that I haven't had a chance to read yet."
Penguin, oblivious to the philosophical discussion going on, was trying to sit on a pool ball without falling off.
"Can you confirm he's stable?" Llewellyn asked.
"Yeah," Roan said. "Not just stable, according to my readings, he doesn't appear to be an artifact at all. You said you bonded with it?"
I confirmed.
"I can't detect it," Roan said, scratching his head. "So I think you should be safe. It's not out of the question that KARMA might be able to identify him as an artifact, if they have different tools, but I don't think they'd suspect he's one, unless they've seen something similar before. And they've never cared about Elementals."
"Is the bond dangerous?" Llewellyn asked.
"I don't think so," Tiernan replied. He took the scanner from Roan and tried another reading. "If anything, it seems beneficial to both of them. Penguin is stabilizing through the bond, and Ryo's Elemental sensitivity is likely being enhanced. Did you get any boosts or powers?"
"I got a few notifications about it, and a Water enhancement once, but we haven't had a chance to test this properly yet."
Penguin eventually got bored and waddled back toward me. I stroked his head.
"Mmh," Tiernan said. "Do test it, and maybe let us know, if you don't mind. This is completely unprecedented and we'd love to monitor it."
I suppose that might help.
"Can you keep the data anonymous? Or use a codename?" I asked. They seemed alright, but I was still worried the data would end up in the wrong hands.
"No problem," Tiernan said.
"I can also encrypt it and scramble it for extra security," Shea added. "We'll keep everything safe."
That was great.
"So, what's the verdict?" Llewellyn asked.
"He seems to be fine," Tiernan said. "But I'd like to run some more tests, if you have the time."
We were already there, so…
"Alright," I agreed. "But no poking or prodding. He's not a lab specimen."
"Of course not," Tiernan said. "He's a pers— Well, a person-like entity, I suppose."
Penguin chirped in what sounded like agreement.
"Great!" Roan clapped his hands while Tiernan muttered something about having to find the other scanner. "Now that that's settled, who wants coffee? Tea? Sorry, we were too excited, we should have offered when you arrived."
We heard a door open in another room somewhere and Shea yelled, "Ahn Jihoon! You're missing all the fun!"
"UH?" came the reply. A few seconds later, a tall guy strode in holding a VR fishing rod. He looked confused, before he saw Penguin and his eyes went wide. He ran over and started cooing at him, asking what his name was.
"Can I see him do the Fire thing again?" he asked after a few moments.
Penguin perked up at the request and burst into flames—transforming into his fire fox form.
"Whoa!" Jihoon jumped back, then leaned back toward him again. "Little Penguin, you're so cool."
Penguin chirped.
***
A few hours and several tests later, we were finally ready to leave.
"Remember what we discussed," Tiernan said, handing me a card with his number. "Call if anything changes or if you need help. And keep an eye on those new abilities. They might come in handy."
"Thanks," I said, meaning it.
My shoulders finally relaxed.
They'd treated him like an interesting new friend and Penguin had clearly had fun. So all in all, this couldn't have gone better.
Still, I felt more exhausted than if I had to fight the Hydra again.
"I could go for that Destabilized Whiskey now," I muttered as we walked away.
Llewellyn snorted. "I wouldn't recommend going back. They were definitely spying on someone."
"Uh? What?"
He eyed me. "Why do you think they own a pub serving Destabilized Whiskey to begin with?"
...I mean, how would I know?!
I was still considering why they'd need to spy on anyone, when my phone buzzed.
I frowned and looked down at it. Maybe Altan had changed his mind?
"..."
It wasn't Altan.