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Seeing the other two cross smoothly, Matthew looks into the blade, attempting to lead his packmates across. But he can't take his mind off of his failure to guard the locus.
Spoiler
He sighs heavily. "One of you will have to act as pathfinder this time."
Grip-of-Steel smiles and takes a step closer: "This brings back some memories doesn't it Matthew. Lets see if I can repeat the feat." He comes closer and puts one hand on Matthew's forearm and other to Steven's. Then he looks at the blade, trying to find the focus necessary in it's reflective surface. After a moment everything takes a bluish sheen and Grip-of-Steel feels the change. "We're here."
Spoiler
"Oh, wow, that's a lot more pleasant than going through a Verge." Steven says as he looks around. "So what are we doing here? Pack initiation, or are we going to find a totem?"
Jack look a bit confused, "A pack initiation or a totem?"
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Matthew chuckles. "The only initiation I had planned was getting Jack and Dave at least passingly familiar with the shadow realm. We do need to bind a totem, but not tonight. I have some other business to attend to once we're done here."
He turns to Jack. "A totem is a spirit that is bound to a pack, usually through coersion. Not many spirits are terribly fond of us. The totem bond brings a pack closer together, and the spirit usually grants the pack certain benefits, although in return it expects them to follow a specific code of behavior. To be honest, many consider a pack to be incomplete without a totem." Memories of Tony's words briefly surface, and Matthew pauses for a few seconds. Shaking himself, he continues, his voice showing just a bit of embarrassment. "We've been busy dealing with other problems, and just hadn't gotten around to it. Hopefully that will change soon, but as I said, not tonight."
"Ah, I see." Jack comments. "So what will we be doing now?"
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"I suppose this is as good a time as any to talk about what to do next. My plan was to deal with the Beshilu infestation. They look like rats, but they can gnaw through the gauntlet. It's gotten to the point that humans have started noticing them, although they've thankfully written it off as an unusually large rat problem. They gnawed a hole in the gauntlet at the elementary school, but they were long gone by the time we got there. It seems they've taken up residence in the sewers.
"Or we could hunt down a totem spirit next. We also have several other problems, but they're much more ... nebulous, and for the moment, I'd prefer to work on something where we have an idea of what we're dealing with."
"Well, it's whatever you decide, Boss - I mean I'm just speaking for myself since I'm wholly ignorant of what-whats of our world. If anything, I would suggest we should look for the totem just so all of us can get use to working with another. I mean if we're going take care of this.. Beshilu.. problem, then I assuming teamwork is paramount, and I'm sure that each of us would like to the other's strength before taking on anything."
"When you talk about the gauntlet I assume you are not talking about a big metal glove."
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Matthew lets out a good-natured laugh. "Good heavens, no. The gauntlet is the barrier between the material realm and the shadow realm. It's the reason why we can't cross over just anywhere."
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