"Over there, by the bank," Delia said, pointing. They hurried over to where Jeff sat, crouched against a rock. Delia stopped a few yards away.

"I'd bet you good money he's dead," she said.

Neal took a few steps closer to where the younger man was crouched, then paused. Crouching down, the Darkling picked up a small pebble and tossed it at the cops back. The pebble hit its mark followed by the figuring teetering slightly before falling over... in the same crouched position.

"He's dead alright."

Delia walked forward and looked at Jeff, then wiped her fingers along his shirt, rubbing them together.

"He's covered in dust," she mused, examining him. "Looks like he inhaled quite a lot of it, whatever it is. I'm guessing ash--it mixes with the natural excretions of the lungs to form an impenetrable coating. Anyone who experiences it will actually suffocate while they are still breathing."

She stood up and wiped her hands off.

"That leaves four of you, and me," she said flatly. "Best keep moving."

"This is absolutely unacceptable!" Cynthia said, stumping after Decker and Delia. "He was the only member of law enforcement around here, and now he's gone off and died! And he was the only one to show any consideration towards leadership or proper hospitality. When we get back to Ditto Town, I am logging a formal complaint with the committee responsible for this little shindig of death."

"Enough!" Delia exclaimed, stopping short and turning, coming toe to toe with Cynthia and glaring down at her. "Statistically, you have about a twenty-five percent chance of dying next and having your soul vaporized. If you want to have any chance of living through that, you will shut your trap. If you want me to try to help you to survive at all, you'll stop whining and start applying whatever is left of your brain to the situation and see if you can figure something out. Now, I think I see the a reflection off of something, probably the building on the map. We're going to go there, and you're going to take your mind of animals and faux furs and committees that don't exist and apply it to the situation at hand. Understood?"

Anna set off in the direction Delia had pointed without comment. As she got closer, the building's form became clearer. It was a weirdly-shaped building that resembled a half circle or a whole circle halfway buried in the ground. It made from something that looked like frosted glass. There was a door set into its front, one that Anna stopped at. She hesitated for a second to allow the others to catch up and then turned the knob and entered the building.

"I'd heed her warnings if I was you... miss." Neal told Cynthia before walking past the woman, giving a slight nod to Delia for finally standing up to Madame Vegan.

Decker stopped just behind Anna examining the new structure. "I've got a bad feeling about this." With a sigh, he followed Anna into the building... thing.

The interior was completely different from anything the company had come across so far. Everything was glass and had a nearly hand-blown look and feel. As was to be expected of a place like this, the interior seemed larger than the exterior made it out to be. Roughly in the middle of the "room" were several tables (again, made from the same clear glass) with what appeared to be light panels under the tops.

"Well, this is most peculiar..." the Darkling muttered as he tapped the top of one of the tables.

"Should we start breaking things?" Anna asked, running a speculative eye over the delightfully fragile furniture.

"No...there must be some use to them. These are sturdy tables...they're meant to be used," Delia mused, crouching down and looking up through the glass. "But used for what?"

Kia gave a short moan, reached out to steady herself, then fainted and fell onto one of the glass tables. It gave way, a large shard protruding from her midsection. Delia sighed and threw her hands up in the air.

"She faints, then falls so she dies. Though I suppose with the luck this group has been having, she would have died even if she didn't fall onto glass."

"Fantastic. If we needed that table, we're in trouble now. Wild guess, teleportation platforms? Um, maybe they're projecting something on the ceiling? Maybe they have to be touched in a certain sequence," Anna was rambling, thinking out loud and spitting out every idea she could think of.

"Wait! The keys. Are there keyholes in the tables? Or try placing the keys in the light panels."

At this point the sudden death of another member of their group bearly fazed Neal. With a nonchalant shrug the Darkling began examining the glass tables again.

"Oi! Cynthia! Hand me that key you got from the old woman..."

Delia looked at Anna for a moment, then shook her head.

"Why on earth would you put keys inside lights?" she said. "I'm about to give up on you people, and just cross over the dimensional thresholds. I'm not about to dump this body."

"Here you are, Mr. Decker," Cynthia said, producing the key from her purse and handing it over. "Do take care of it."

Neal took the key that was handed to him and turned back to the tables. He suddenly stopped, made a few gestures as if he was contemplating something, then dropped the key in his pocket while digging around in another.

"The map pieces. If you have one on you, lay it on the table... now."

"Oh...OH. Of course. You're genius," Delia said, digging through her pockets and pulling out the map Neal had handed here earlier. "Here's mine."