//------------------------------// // Chapter 7: And Now For Something Wacky // Story: Dungeons and Dazzles // by Eyeswirl the Weirded //------------------------------// Rocks not being super susceptible to fire and lightning, Sunset did not have an especially good time of that mini-boss, but things got easier when Adagio, screaming at the top of her lungs, managed to shatter the crystal ball things holding its arms and legs together at the knees and elbows. Sunset had thought, following standard weak-spot-boss convention, that breaking those was the key to killing it, but once it had nothing but stumps left, it just sort of started hopping around the arena after them, trying to crush them under its torso. With no weak spots visible and no sign that whacking its stony head with an axe was getting them anywhere, Sunset thought to try 'Freeze' as opposed to 'Icicle,' and the result was a cone of sub-zero air that frosted over the golem's entire head. Berserk axe-flailing was much more effective after that, and they collected a nice, big ruby from the shattered remains of the golem's head. Adagio insisted on freeze-shattering all the rest of the golem's body parts after that, both to ensure that they got all the possible loot from it and so it definitely wouldn't be coming after them again, in any capacity. Sunset worried a little that they were wasting mana potions with that, but Adagio's sentiment that they couldn't hold infinite potions and were getting close to their inventory limit, along with Sunset's own Adventurer greed, convinced her to give it a whirl. Besides, she always found it a little frustrating that she seemed to end every RPG ever with a bunch of items she never got any use out of. There were no more gems, but at least they knew that for certain now. Continuing on through the doorway on the other side of the arena (which, they realized, was open the whole time and they probably could have forsaken any potential loot and skipped the golem entirely), it wasn't long before they found themselves in beautiful, crystal-laden caverns, colorful light radiating from the smooth, sharp surfaces. There didn't seem to be any enemies here, not even bats, but the many deep, probably-bottomless pits along the winding path through the cave felt like hazard enough. Standing near a crystal cluster, Adagio raised her axe, but Sunset put a hand on her shoulder. "I know what you're thinking, but those crystals are most likely worthless." "What? Why? Since when are glowing, pretty stones not valuable?" "When there's too many of them to put much value on, and it'd be too easy to get rich if all we had to do was make trips between here and the nearest merchant. I can pretty much guarantee these are just here to be scenery." "Aw." Sympathizing with that feeling, Sunset giggled. "C'mon, bound to be more riches ahead, and if we're getting closer to the end, we'll most likely meet up with the others soon." This seemed to cheer her up a little, so they proceeded with the only path this place had to offer. Sunset worried that it was going to be like the foggy hill they'd ascended earlier, but this time, the way forward visibly changed as they went, with the cave walls and ceiling getting further and further away, the dark pits getting wider and wider, and fewer and fewer crystals being placed along the the edges, leaving them cautiously pacing along a narrow, dimly-lit path surrounded by darkness. Sunset wasn't afraid of the dark or anything, but she did not like where this was going. Luckily, Adagio seemed to be taking it in stride, either due to her borderline night-vision or just not seeing anything that might hurt her yet. Still, Sunset urged a careful pace, wary of cave lizards or something crawling up the walls to attack them. Together, in the dark, quiet cave, they nearly walked as one, their own footsteps and breathing the only sounds to be heard. Sunset could barely see the apprehension on Adagio's face when they walked close enough to a crystal cluster, but if she had any questions for this situation, she wasn't voicing them. The quiet served to enhance the building sense of unease, and while Sunset (secretly) prided herself as a veteran of video games, she wasn't immune to jumpscares, her imagination betraying her completely as it dragged up memories of cave-dwelling horrors she'd met in other games. Needle-mouthed, jumping worms that turn their victims into exploding meat-sacks full of their spawn. Screeching spirits that never found their way out of the cave, and would ensure all future visitors meet the same fate. Croaking, twitchy corpses that spasm and shuffle their way across the ground faster than most humans can run, getting right up in their victim's face before dragging them off to a fate worse than death. Massive, lightning-quick snake-things whose mouths are just a tunnel of fangs, popping out of a hole to chomp someone in half before they can react. Carnivorous meat-moss that absorbs unwary adventurers like quicksand, the eyes of past victims opening once more to stare in helpless silence as they watch their soon-to-be kin sink slowly to their doom. An entire wall of hungry spid- No, no, no, no, no, no, NO, we are NOT doing that right now!! -spiders that all turn to look at you at the same time before they- Brain!! -and then the mother descends from the ceiling to- "Sunset?" Sunset let out a piercing shriek of terror, which startled Adagio into screaming too before quickly looking around, weapon ready. When she didn't see the cause for alarm, she looked back at Sunset, frantic. "What, what is it?!" While she could no longer feel her face, Sunset wondered if her own glow was helping to light the cave at all. "Uh... nothing?" Adagio was not amused. An entire minute passed with them looking at one another in silence, one with a painfully sheepish smile and the other a dull glare, but eventually, Adagio sighed. "Anyway... What do you make of this sign?" "Huh?" She indicated a simple, wooden sign, not unlike the one they saw in the volcano. Puzzle Challenge 4: Memory March! "Um... Well, if the sign doesn't say otherwise, I guess this one is ready. Wanna give it a go? Doing extra stuff almost always means prizes." Grabbing the lever, Adagio shrugged. "Here's hoping." She pulled, the end of a wooden bridge dropping onto the path not far from them, a string of floating, glowing orbs illuminating the path out to a circular, stone platform, then along two paths that ended at cave walls with huge, boarded-up holes. At the platform, another row of lights kicked on to show a long, stone path covered in colorful tiles in rows of three, designs they couldn't make out engraved on each and every tile. The tiles, about one square meter in size each, were arranged in such a way that it wouldn't be possible to get from one end to the other without stepping on at least one at a time, every so many rows of tiles broken up by thin, metal gates, which obscured what lay at the end, and taller gates around the perimeter of the long path, presumably to prevent anyone from falling off. The two cautiously walked along the bridge to reach the platform, but before they could make sense of what was going on, a voice reverberated through the cave. "Hello aaaaaaand welcome, to Memory March!!" Over the sounds of a studio audience cheering and clapping, a goblin (or at least his upper body) on a little cloud floated down from the unseen ceiling, wearing a flashy blazer, sunglasses, and an afro, bearing the voice of a TV game-show host as he spoke. "Nice to meetcha everybody, we are LIVE from the Dark Depths to bring you our favorite, frantic scramble of orcs and traps; Memory March! And here we have our lovely contestants, why don'tcha introduce yourselves?" Stopping just in front of them, he held a little microphone in their direction. Sunset smiled. "Uh, Sunset Shimmer." She looked to Adagio, but only received a comical 'what is this I don't even' kind of stare, all but demanding some kind of explanation. "This is definitely unconventional, but I think it's just a game-show. In a game, appropriately." "'Game-show'?" "People doing something wacky and winning prizes for the entertainment of strangers." "I-I see." She raised an eyebrow at the host, who apparently wasn't programmed to proceed until he had a name from each adventurer. "...Adagio Dazzle. What is-" She jumped with a start when he suddenly, loudly resumed his duties, floating out towards the game board area. "And today they'll be joining us for a race not against time, but against a vicious band of bloodthirsty orcs! The rules are simple: Our heroes will be given a pattern of symbols to memorize at each gate, then they must step on the tiles with the indicated symbols in that order, or else!" He floated over to the two boarded up holes at the end of the two paths leading to the central platform. "Impeding them will be an army of orcs, which will keep coming until the game ends!" He returned to the center, floating in front of Sunset and Adagio. "Should they succeed, they'll be taking home the prize available on the pedestal at the end of the gates: A Wishing Ring! Good for one reality-bending burst of magic, one that could even grant them a new car!" Canned cheers sounded through the cave, which might have hurt Sunset's suspension of disbelief in this lovely little fantasy world, but she was already a unicorn from another dimension fighting alongside a singing mer-horse, so nuts to standard convention. The host indicated a long pulley-chain that dropped from the unseen ceiling. "Just pull this when you're ready to begin." "Hmm," Sunset hummed as she looked back and forth between the game board and the distant cave wall at the end of the two paths, "I'm thinking that if one of us holds off the orcs, the other can get through the puzzle without distractions. Which one do you wanna do?" Sparing the orc tunnels a nervous glance, Adagio hesitated to answer, but given a minute to weigh her options, looked at Sunset as though she were about to volunteer to spend another night in Fatbear's. "I'd like to have you blast the orcs from a distance while I input the proper patterns, but even with all of our mana potions, I'm not sure they wouldn't reach you before I got to the other end, and if you have to fall back and they catch up to us-" "That might get, uh, hectic," Sunset understated, remembering the very recent experience of the canyon ambush, "so... Well, I'm pretty experienced in video game puzzles anyway, so if you can just keep them off me and tank here, I-" "I'm sorry, 'tank'?" Sunset smiled again. "A tank is like a big, armored car with a really big gun on it. In games, it's usually shorthand for a really tough unit, you in this case, that gets the enemy's attention and fends them off while less durable units (usually with more attack power) stab them in the back." Glancing along the paths leading to the tunnels, Adagio nodded. "The one with the most health should be used to absorb the most damage. Efficient, but I confess that I wish that wasn't me in this case." She leaned to one side in an effort to gauge the length of the game board, but couldn't quite see through the many gates. "Alright," she said while tightly gripping her axe again, "if I just, stand here and hold them off, you'll get to the end of the puzzle faster, finish the game, and if they don't go away when that happens, come back and help me?" It was difficult resisting the urge to tease that it might take her a long time to get back to the start, but Sunset managed. "Of course." With the plan outlined, the two took their positions; Adagio in the center of the platform and Sunset facing the first gate. Grabbing hold of the pulley-chain, she gave it a sharp tug, a horn sounded, cheerful game-show music started up and the floating, goblin host let out a shout that echoed off the cave walls. "Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaame, BEGIN!!" The first gate dropped through the floor, the stone line where it had stood lighting up with symbols that Sunset immediately connected to be runic representations of animals. Wolf, snake, bird. Seeing the colorful tiles on the floor past the line, Sunset stepped forward onto the one marked with a wolf, then moved to the one with the snake, then the bird, the next gate sinking like the last one had as a cheerful Ping! sounded to signify a solved gate. "I-I don't see any orcs," a worried Adagio called over her shoulder, "and the holes are still boarded up!" "Don't worry," Sunset called back as she read the next set of symbols, "it's most likely just giving us a head start." She went over the symbols as before. Bear, bird, rabbit, fox. The next gate dropped, five symbols to remember this time. Bird, dragon, bear, snake, uh... bir- AAAANT! The host shouted as the tile beneath her opened up- "Muddy Mess!" -into a shallow pit of mud, which she immediately fell into. Covered in filth and grumbling at the sounds of canned laughter, Sunset rose to her hands and knees, which stirred weird memories of romping around Castle Canterlot's gardens as a foal. "Sunset? Are you alright?" Standing up, she saw in the corner of her vision that she now had the short-lived 'Muddy' status effect, which didn't seem to actually do anything other than make her feel all grimy. To reassure Adagio, she smiled, looked over her shoulder, and made a thumbs-up gesture. "Peachy! How 'bout you?" Blinking in surprise, Adagio chuckled. "I'm, fine, thank you. Still no orcs so far." "Great!" The previous tile was by the side of the board, meaning there were only two tiles she could have reasonably reached without a running jump. If she knew her Anti-Frustration Features™, that meant the correct tile had to be next to the one she was on (in) now; the one in the center of the lane, so she stepped over to it, which dropped the next gate. Just as she was swelling with triumph (despite still having several gates to go), she heard another horn and the distant sounds of splintering wood. Looking back, she saw the boards over the cave doorways at the end of the two paths now broken, with orcs marching out. It wasn't an army of them, per se, just two per doorway, but four orcs at once might be a bit stressful for one adventurer, Adagio in partic- "Keep going!!" She jumped with a start, finding that Adagio was looking over her shoulder at her while awaiting her part. As she returned her attention to the memory puzzle, Adagio faced the incoming orcs, counting the seconds as they made their way towards her. The paths were relatively long and the orcs weren't exactly sprinting, so she estimated that it would take any given orc about thirty seconds to cross from the caves to where she was. Lacking any kind of ranged attack, that information didn't feel especially useful, but in the event that something much scarier came, she'd have some warning, and if she failed to defend the central platform, maybe she could at least use the heads-up to fall back and join Sunset with the tiles. Maybe I could grab and throw orcs at the tiles until we hit the right ones, see if they have a weakness to mud. If there are deadlier surprises waiting, we could let the traps take care of as many as possible until- A guttural growl alerted her to the first orc making it to the platform, its weapon raised as it set foot in the circle. Seeing a solution to him and the orc behind him, she rushed forward, raising her boot to kick the orc straight into the abyss. It worked, the first orc brushing past the second hard enough to throw him off balance, leaving him open to a leg-sweep that sent him plummeting after the first one. Unfortunately, the other two orcs continued to advance, bringing them across the platform and several feet from a ledge. Sunset said 'soft penalty' for long falls, but those orcs aren't coming back up, so this pit must be fatal. If I fall in, she thought as she waited for the other two orcs to reach her, axe raised, I might not come back up either. Fear prickling at the back of her mind, she swung hard at the closest orc's leg, flipping him where he stood and tripping the one that kept walking. She kicked that one hard in the ribs, angled such that he toppled off his partner and into the blackness below, doing the same to the first orc she'd hit when he was no longer weighed down by another orc. Four enemies defeated, she scanned the paths for more, but didn't see anything until another Ping! of Sunset solving another gate echoed through the cave. This time there were six orcs in total. If I fight near the ledge, if I throw as many as possible off, I can keep their numbers under control until this ends. Staying right at the end of one of the paths leading from the orc tunnels, that was what she decided on as Sunset ran through the puzzle tiles. Wolf, fish, bear, bird, fox! Ping! Bird, rabbit, drag- AAAANT! "Fire Fountain!" In an instant, a little nozzle popped out of the tile Sunset was on, spraying flames at her hindquarters and inflicting her with a status effect exactly like the one Sonata had just after the rope bridge. "AAAAAAIIIIEEEEE!!" While incredibly painful, Sunset distantly noted that even with the unseen, nonexistant audience laughing at her again, she'd still prefer this over the realistic approach of burning all over as she sprinted wildly across the tiles. AAAANT! AAAANT! AAAANT! AAAANT! Sunset couldn't begin to make out exactly what the host was saying as his voice lines blurred together, but just scant centimeters behind her were flying darts, falling rocks, and a cloud of greenish smoke before she fell into another mud pit. Mercifully, the Muddy status effect ended her Burning one early. Getting up, she feared she'd have to go back across the traps again, but a cursory glance showed her that the wrong symbols she'd already stepped on had disappeared, though she did have to squint a little to read the order from the previous gate backwards. Quickly retracing her steps, she ran back, then jogged over the correct tiles up to the next gate. Admittedly, this was a lot easier with several options eliminated. Ping! This time there were six symbols to remember! Fox, snake, bear, wolf, fi- AAAANT! Oh, come on!! "Orc Outbreak!" Drawing her spear-tip wand, Sunset quickly looked around, but no orcs burst up from the ground or fell from the ceiling. That left another answer. Adagio! She whipped around to see Adagio swinging and kicking and throwing orcs off the ledge, but past her, could barely make out two masses of green coming out of the tunnels. She had triggered even more orcs, and it wouldn't be long before Adagio was completely overwhelmed. There were just a few more gates between her and the ending and even if she made it back to the platform in time, there was no guarantee that there'd be fewer orcs once they'd dealt with this horde. And that was if she didn't trigger more outbreaks! That in mind, she raised her 'wand,' held it as steady as she could, and repeatedly screamed "Fireball!" She fired until her mana bar ran dry, peppering the distant cave wall with explosive fury to take out as much of the horde as possible before turning on a (high) heel and going through the rest of the tiles as fast as she could. Then she remembered that she'd gotten one wrong and needed to double-check the previous gate before she could go on, which she did! Adagio, in the meantime, was startled by the sudden barrage of fireballs roaring over her head before impacting the wall at the end of the two paths, alerting her to the huge band of orcs closing in on her position. More than half of them were wiped out by what she assumed were Sunset's spells, but that still left a lot of orcs to deal with. She swung as hard and fast as she could, but the orcs from the second path reached her while she was still trying to knock several off the end of this one, forcing her to take a step back, then another and another as she frantically swung her axe. Orcs continued to fall, but more immediately took their place, making Adagio yelp and flinch every time she was struck. It may not have hurt as much as actual wounds would, but who doesn't react when someone swings something at them?! She had been backed to the middle of the platform when an orc with a black, particularly sharp-looking battleaxe slashed at her, which hurt more than the machetes, hatchets, and polearms she'd felt so far. "Aagh!!" Clenching her jaw as she was staggered, she stared at the orc with eyes full of hatred, making a swift motion to bury her own axe in his shoulder before grabbing the handle of his. "Mine!!" With a sharp kick to his kneecap and an elbow to his throat, she yanked the black axe out of his hands, immediately feeling the difference in weight as she brought it through three more orcs. Hurts more. Stronger. Her guess must have been right, because the orcs were falling noticeably faster now. While unable to regain the ground she'd lost or the advantage of the path-choking, cliff-throwing method, she found herself able to hack clean through their legs most of the time now, and utilized that to focus her bubbling desperation into something useful until Sunset came through. Ping! One more gate, one more gate!! She probably should have focused more on the one more pattern. AAAANT! "Stinger Swarm!" The loud buzzing immediately behind her was all the incentive Sunset needed to pick up the pace, but unfortunately, this didn't help her with the symbol game at all. AAAANT! "Muddy Mess!" This landed her face-first in mud again with her rear in the air, allowing the bees to catch up. "OWOWOWOWOW!!" The pain spurred her to her feet, a Poison status effect now slowly chipping away at her remaining health, but at least the swarm dispersed now that they'd served their purpose. "Last gate," she repeated to herself as she trudged along, "last gate!" When she came to the very last tile, her mind went blank. Looking back, she could see that Adagio was surrounded by the orcs now, and probably didn't have much time, so she opted to just charge through, stepping on all three of the last row of tiles if she had to! AAAANT! "Feather Fall!" Down from the ceiling fell a cloud of fluffy, immaculate feathers, which stuck to the mud and gave her a new Feathered status effect. Letting out an irritable sigh at the canned laughter, she hopped to the next tile. Ping, Ping, Ping!! "Gooooooal!" Joyous fanfare sounded, the orcs disappeared in flashes of white, many loud clicks were heard, all of the symbols on the board disappeared, and the traps were disarmed as the game came to an end. "Well done, contestants! Please claim your prize and convene at the central platform to receive your titles!" Not knowing or caring what that meant, Adagio dropped to one knee, leaning on her new axe as she struggled to catch her breath. When she heard approaching footsteps, she lolled her head to one side, then nearly choked, sputtering and snickering as she held a hand over her mouth in the effort to hide her giggles when she saw Sunset tarred and feathered. "Yea, yea," grumbled the mare-turned-mud-chicken, "yuk it up, but we still got the prize!" She held it out triumphantly; a ridiculously shiny ring embedded with a single, glittering jewel of many colors. "Yes," concurred the host as he floated down to join them, "your skill and determination has rewarded you with-" a spotlight shone over them, "a single-use Wishing Ring! Simply equip the ring, speak your wish, allow for the Celestial Bureaucracy to process the request over ten to sixty business seconds, and receive your blessing! Note that even when the magic is spent, you can still look fabulous!" Sunset smiled. Rarity would like this ring, so it was a shame it didn't really exist. "And now for your titles!" A drumroll sounded as the host read from a little piece of parchment. "Contestant Mage, for your performance across the tiles, you have been dubbed... Accident Prone!" "What?!" Adagio laughed so hard that she didn't even hear her title. "Contestant Barbarian, for your defense against the orc onslaught, you have been dubbed... They Shall Not Pass!" He hovered for a few seconds longer as Sunset tried to work out how that was supposed to be funny. "...Other contestants, not found. That concludes our game, seeya next time, folks!" The bridge leading back to the narrow path from which they came dropped down again as the host returned to the darkness above. Getting a hold of herself, Adagio stood up, reached into her satchel, and raised a health potion. Sunset smiled, connecting her hand for the health potion high-five. Looking over Adagio, she scratched her head. "You, uh, might wanna use a couple more on yourself." Glancing down, Adagio saw that where Sunset had white plumes, she had little cuts and gashes. "...This would be kind of horrific if I could feel them as more than a burning tingle." "Heh, probably." Potions administered, the fluffy barbarian was again clean and ready to be on the cover of some slightly exploitative comic book. "Now, what kind of potion cures feathers?" "Huh? Oh, um... Well, probably nothing, but the status effect only has like six minutes left." "Does it hurt at all?" "Only my pride." "I don't think we've picked up any pride potions, eith-oh, wait!" Smiling, she reached into her satchel again, needing a minute to root around for whatever she was after. "I know I saw a-aha! Bravery potion! I don't know how a digital object is supposed to influence the mind, but-" "Th-that's okay," Sunset said through a giggle, "I think I'll be fine." "Ah." The two stood in silence on the otherwise empty platform, the paths, distant tunnels, and game board now somewhat eerie in their lifelessness. "...I'd use the bravery potion on myself, but I keep forgetting I have it." "Might just be placebo anyway; 'I took a potion that's supposed to make me brave, I can totally run up to this boss and smack it!'" "Hm." Another quiet moment. Sunset gestured to the bridge. "Soo..." "I'd rather wait until the feathers go away, if it's all the same to you." Sunset gave her a quizzical look. "Part of it is that I'm worried you'll be more vulnerable to fire like this, part of it is the chance that some beast that otherwise wouldn't have attacked us, like those roving creatures we saw outside, will mistake you for a giant chicken or something-" she chose to ignore that Sunset nearly squawked with indignation, "-and part is that, in this dark cave, you're otherwise much more visible than you'd normally be, which might draw potential attackers straight to you rather than me." "...Is Tactical Fashion Analysis a thing you've always done, or a trick you picked up from Rarity?" "We've never needed to talk about the potential flammability of an outfit, believe it or not." "So Sonata's never dropped by while you were working?" She smiled as Adagio burst into gigglefits over the next minute. "Hehehehehe... N-no, but," she said as she again pulled herself together, "it's funny you mention her; when I saw you coming back, she was the first thing I thought of." "Heh, I'll bet!" "And then when the afro goblin c-called you 'accident prone,' I-I, pfft-" Sunset kept smiling as Adagio again descended into girlish giggles. So she wasn't necessarily laughing at me, just remembering her sometimes-goofy friends. That moment in the dim hallway seemed so long ago now, and Sunset was pretty happy with where things were going these days. "Speaking of titles, I think I've worked out what yours means." She waited until Adagio at least had the composure to look her in the eye again. "If I'm 'Accident Prone Sunset Shimmer,' you're 'They Shall Not Pass Adagio Dazzle.' It's a complete sentence!" "I-I see." Looking around, Sunset didn't see anything that might mistake her for a giant, tasty chicken. "Wanna head out? The rest of the path outta here looks pretty long and uneventful and the feathers should wear off in a few more minutes." "Mm... Alright, but, please be careful." Making their way through the rest of the dark cave, it wasn't long before the area around them transitioned from organic stone to deliberately-placed masonry. When they happened across barrels and boxes, Sunset deduced that they were either in a dungeon (as in the type people are locked away in and left to languish), or a cellar. It proved to be the latter when they found a wooden staircase leading up to two heavy double-doors, which they stepped out of to see the interior of a dark cathedral. Sunset whistled. "High ceilings, pointy architecture, huge pillars, statues of women holding bowls, this is a religious building all right." "Is it the right building? The one we saw from the fields?" "Probably, I don't see why there'd be two of 'em. This should be the last dungeon, which means Aria and Sonata are either around here somewhere, or they're heading here now." Adagio nodded, keeping an eye out for X's carved in things as they wandered the first floor together. There were no enemies so far, living, dead, or anything in between, and she was sure that Aria and Sonata would have left very clear indication that they had come through if there had been hostiles to deal with. Idly wandering around and pocketing some of the shinier ornaments and candlesticks, it wasn't long before they came across a large double-door, which they pried open to see led outside. In front of them was a drawbridge that stretched across a chasm, the dunes of a vast desert on the other side. "Do we go this way, or...?" "I, don't think so. There's most likely a staircase around here somewhere, so this is probably where Aria and Sonata's path will eventually lead them." Adagio briefly checked both sides of both doors. "No X's, so they haven't been here yet." She clutched the wood of one door tightly enough to splinter it, growling. "Or if they have and forgot, so help me-" "I see them!" Sunset jumped with a start as Adagio nearly ripped the door off its hinges with how quickly she whipped around, scanning the sandy hills as though she were a small child looking out a window late at night on Christmas Eve. The display tickled her, but she refrained from commenting as she looked back toward the desert, seeing a black figure with two long, purple blurs hanging from the top and a white blob next to her, both steadily getting closer. Unsure if they could even see her yet, Sunset waved, she and Adagio opting to wait until the pair rejoined them.