YOU:

How can you know so much??

MAGATHA:

Oh, I can tap in to many information channels. Scent, vibration, layer ripplings... I can even eavesdrop on the gossip of those nasty worms, though I can't say I appreciate the unrotten little hooligan's naughty vocabularies, or their mangling of the Queen's proper squirmlish. When I was a wee instar, we enunciated our wriggles, and we certainly never ended an undulation with a writhe!

YOU:

Oh, uh, right, of course not...what's with...

MAGATHA:

The worms? They are a basal manifestation of life-concept. Their forms are infinite. You and I are, in a sense, only very specialized wormkind.

YOU:

Huh. Okay. So-

MAGATHA:

A mysterious book, you say? Interesting! That's for something with an optical sense. Apprentice Maggie has been my eyes since I embedded. She will no doubt be happy to take a look at it.

YOU:

O...okay...do you kno-

MAGATHA:

-w anything about Celia? Hm, well, fungi are close sisters to us wormkind, but she is a secretive one. I only know, from her chemoscent, that she is fairly troubled. I would keep an eye on her, for both her sake and yours.

YOU:

I see. So what about...

MAGATHA:

Of course. The "anomaly." It's a strange flavor indeed, seeping down from the Northwestern tubes. The worms say they've tasted something like it before, and the gwarls and ripplers are avoiding the zone altogether, not that we'll miss the likes of those brutes! I'm afraid I can't pinpoint an exact location, but you can, as an unripened branchination of this very world!

Take a moment to turn around, slowly.

YOU:

Er...alright? ...I...oh...ugh...

MAGATHA:

You felt it, didn't you? A juicy surge of nausea. Only you will taste it. That is your compass.

YOU:

Greeeat.

MAGATHA:

Isn't it? Follow the nausea, and you'll find what you seek.

YOU:

But then what? I mean...do you know-

MAGATHA:

The embalming machine, bless his nasty little heart...he is indeed your one certain ticket back to The Hospital, and he may very well keep his word, but he is under frightful pressure. There's never any telling what he'll stoop to for the sake of his many investors, or his employers.

YOU:

Who are-

MAGATHA:

Quite a bit beyond the grasp of your sensory range, but nor are they of any direct concern. You have been sidetracked enough from your true dilemma.

YOU:

Do...do you mea-

MAGATHA:

Your offspring. Yes. I'm afraid I know little more than yourself; the worms whisper of a strange miasma, a chemical reverberation wafting from The Hospital and slowly but surely bleeding through the zonal barriers. It is this which has drawn comparisons to the nameless contamination of our own realm, hardly surprising given your biological relationship.

I do not doubt that this quest you have undertaken will provide integral pieces to your greater puzzle.

YOU:

I...I hope so...I don't know if I can help him, but I need to see him. I don't care what happens. Every second I can't is like a knife in my back. I need to be there, no matter what.

MAGATHA:

You certainly do. I do not want to frighten you, but there is something... amiss... about The Hospital.

YOU:

You don't say.

MAGATHA:

Especially amiss. Not merely your son's condition. They should not have separated you, and under normal circumstances, they would not. Nor would you be left in such confusion, or have needed to respawn as many times as I am smelling. I daresay that there may be outside forces interfering with their operations, perhaps even their very perception of the situation. To what end, I cannot imagine.

I wish I could offer anything more reassuring, but I cannot predict distant outcomes. At the very least, you are not presently losing time. Return to The Hospital, and it will be as you left it.

YOU:

Thank you. That's one small relief, at least.

MAGATHA:

I must say, it has been a delight to chat with such a compassionate world. You are truly as sweet as the many flavors leaking from your remnants!

YOU:

uh........thanks........