Following the road east eventually brought Pithy to a checkpoint, or at least, something that made her think of those she knew. It was a small complex, like a gate arching over the concrete, and a fence made of meshed metal wires extended from its sides, barring the way around the structure.

Aa metal and glass box stood to the side of the road, a place from which she could picture someone sitting and inspecting the incoming traffic. A single bar was held at chest height in the middle of the street, providing little obstacle to any who wished to walk past. The wheeled crate that sat before it would have collided with it were it to inch forward another meter, however. 

Pithy moved closer to the vehicle, recognizing it as the same kind as the one that the badger had attempted to ram her with the previous night. In the light, she could properly see the mossy green coloration, and the thick, rubbery wheels that held its weight. 

[i]It seems serviceable enough,[/i] she thought, deeply aware of her ignorance regarding the machine. Still, the clock was ticking, and it would take time and effort to search the city on foot. [i]This might save me some time.[/i]

The elf jumped over vehicle’s railing and took a seat at the front, clucking her tongue in disapproval at the thing’s interior. The top of the vehicle was open to the air, so rain had pooled on the floor and between the two front seats. Choosing to disregard that for the moment, her eye roamed over the panel in front of her, trying to make sense of the knobs and levers on display. She quickly identified the wheel before her as a steering device, but that was the only component of the machine she was sure of. She discovered the pedals beneath the dashboard when her feet struck it as she tried to adjust her position, but when she attempted to step on them, she received no response from the machine. 

Frowning, she set to experimenting with the buttons in the panel. Several minutes of mounting frustration at her unsuccessful attempts at starting the machine resulted in a surprised gasp when turning an object under the wheel elicited a rumble and a coughing gasp from the vehicle. Encouraged, Pithy turned the key again, but it only repeated the wheezing noise, no matter how long she held the device in place. Attempting to use the pedals or the steering wheel as it wheezed offered no new results, and after a few more failed attempts, Pithy finally let out a frustrated grunt, leaning back on the seat with an irritable expression.

[i]How did the badger get one to work?[/i]

“Maybe it’s just broken,” she muttered, giving an answer to her question. It was possible that the rain had seeped into the machinery within and ruined something she could not see. Pithy glanced behind her, noting something like cloth at the back of the car. It was likely meant to be used as a tarp in occasions such as last night’s storm, but the driver had never gotten the chance to use it.

Earlier, she had assumed that there was something maintaining the citadel in the Justice Hub in good repair, but that seemed unlikely to her now. It seemed likelier to her that the tidy offices, the abandoned barracks, the vehicles left out in the roads, all those things had only recently arrived to this City of Echoes. It seemed possible now that it had not been people who had abandoned this place a long time ago, but that this place had abandoned its inhabitants. Recently enough for the desks to be clear of dust.

[i]Just what is this place? The magic involved to move a whole location from one realm to another belongs to an older Age…[/i] Though perhaps that was incorrect. Even before thinking of the scar it would leave on the source worlds, such a method would not leave the inhabitants of a place behind. Not moving, but copying? Synchronizing?

“Echoing…” she mouthed. But an echo required a source. One may very well say that the location itself would be a source from within its own world, but what could anchor it to[i] this[/i] one? Among myriad realms, why should the echo of one world appear over any other, if it should appear at all?

Actaeon, the beast in the tombs appeared in her mind in a flash of intuition. [i]What if we make the assumption that he did not arrive with his tombs, but that his tombs appeared in the city because of him?[/i]

Then the state of the supposedly abandoned Justice Hub would make more sense. After all, the city had had a recent influx of otherworldly beings. Which could, in turn, mean that each of these had caused an Echo to appear within the city.

Pithy sighed.

Of course, her guess at the logic behind the phenomenon still offered no hints as to its cause. 

[i]But that does not matter. It’s not what I came for,[/i] she roused herself. With some relief, she noted from the position of the sun that her contemplation could only have taken a few minutes. Indulging her curiosity was dangerous. Time lost its grip on her kind much too easily, but there was not enough sand left in her clock to afford such a thing.

Pithy exited the vehicle and ducked under the barrier, crossing the threshold of the Justice Hub.