Zann's friends headed toward the wormhole. Zann noticed that Gliss' arms and legs were shaking.
He winced, remembering how painful it had looked when she'd ripped off the magical goggles.
"Wait," he said to his friends. "Are you sure you want to come with me?
I mean, really sure? It could be dangerous. Especially if Morb is involved."
"Of course we're sure," Perda said. "Right, guys?"
Gliss was still trembling, but she smiled.
"You'd better not quit now, Zann. I don't want to think I defied Wyssa's command for nothing!"
"Yeah." Darb took Gliss' hand. "Besides, we make a good team. And we want to help."
"Okay. Thanks." Zann glanced at the wormhole.
"But we don't have Wyssa to guide us anymore. We need a plan."
"Good point." Perda paced back and forth in front of the wormhole. "Does anyone have any good ideas?"
"Wyssa said Morb left a bunch of terrified worlds behind him," Darb said.
"Maybe we could start visiting worlds and asking people about Morb. That might give us some clues."
Zann shook his head. "I'm not sure we should visit worlds randomly.
We might end up back in that no-magic world again."
Perda shuddered. "Or Fardark, or stinky Niffia, or that crazy cloud world."
She was still pacing. Just then her foot hit a stone, which tumbled toward Zann.
"Hey, check it out," said Zann, bending down to pick up the stone.
"This looks just like my message stone!"
Perda shrugged. "So what? It looks like a stone."
"No, I mean I think they're the same type of stone."
Zann fished out his message stone. It still felt warm.
He held the two stones side by side. "See?"
"Weird," Darb said. "They do look alike."
Gliss glanced around. "Look, there are more stones like that!"
She was right. Dozens of similar stones lay near the wormhole.
"I assumed my stone came from the Cave of the Unknown because I'd never seen one like it anywhere else in Magica," said Zann.
"But maybe it actually came from this world."
"That makes sense," Darb said. "This is Wyssa's home world, right?
That's probably why she used that stone to communicate with your parents."
"And with Morb," Perda added. "It also explains why none of us had ever heard of message stones before."
"Teplo and Boz knew about them," Gliss pointed out.
Perda shrugged. "They're Magic Masters. It's their job to know lots of obscure stuff."
Zann squeezed the stone in his hand.
If his stone came from this world, that might explain why he'd had that extra-vivid dream here earlier.
"I think we should look for a place to play my parents' message again," he said. "There might be more clues."
"Clues? Like what?" Perda sounded dubious.
"I don't see any place to plug in the stone," said Gliss, looking around.
"She’s right,” Perda said. "Anyway, I just thought of another plan.
We should try to follow Wyssa. She's looking for Morb, right?
And Morb is looking for Zann's parents.
So if we can catch up to Wyssa, we might find Zann's parents too."
"Wyssa left a while ago, though," Darb said.
"We'll never find her in the vortex now."
"Besides, how do we know we can trust her?" Zann asked.
"Wyssa was the one who brought those flizzes to Morb.
She also tried to bring him a scatter beast."
"That was earlier," Perda said. "She's not working with Morb anymore."
Darb shrugged. "Still, she may not be on our side.
She broke Zann's Shackle spell and put that nasty spell on Gliss, remember?"
Gliss nodded. "Plus, she used a Truth spell on Zann without his consent, and—oh! That's it!"
"That's what?" Perda asked.
Gliss pointed at Zann's forehead. "Look! When Wyssa touched Zann's face to do the Truth spell, she left purple fingerprints on his skin!"
"She did?" Zann said, reaching up to wipe away the marks.
"Stop!" Perda leaped forward, grabbing Zann's hands before he could touch his forehead.
"Don't wipe them off. Maybe we can use that purple stuff to track Wyssa the same way she used it to track Gliss and Darb!"
"I was thinking the same thing," said Gliss with a smile.
"You mean we can figure out which wormholes have been used recently, and see if she's in those worlds?" Zann said.
Perda looked excited. "It's the only good plan we have. What do you say, Zann?"
Zann turned his message stone over in his hand.
"You're right," he said. "Let's not waste any more time."
"Okay." Gliss glanced at the wormhole. "We'd better make sure we're all shackled together this time.
We don't want to get separated again."
"Good idea." Perda held out her hands. "Join friction, everyone.
We'll make this one a Mutual Shackle spell so any of us can break it if we need to."
"Just don't do that in the vortex," Zann warned.
Soon the four of them were shackled together.
Zann even conjured a harness for Zing.
"Everyone ready?" Darb asked.
"Let's go!" Perda said, leading the way toward the wormhole.
Zann held his breath as they all dived into the vortex.
It felt much scarier being there without Wyssa.
But he tried not to think about that.
"It's working!" Gliss cried, staring at Zann's forehead. "The fingerprints are glowing!"
Zann's left hand was shackled to Perda.
He used his right hand to grab the nearest wormhole.
"Hang on, everyone!" he cried as he yanked his friends through.
He felt the familiar sensation of passing through the wormhole. It felt weird but not unpleasant.
Splash!
"Drat! Aah!" Zann screamed in horror. They had just landed in a pool of boiling water!