You take a handful of stones from an open crate of them. Pebbles that were likely for use as a building material that must've been left over from some construction effort. Why they would bother to store pebbles is beyond you, but for now, it's helpful. You cut one of your fingers and trace a Berkano rune on one of the pebbles before you infuse the rune with some of your magical energy and toss all of the stones on the ground.

"Mister Shinji... what are you doing?" Abby sounds worried by your sudden decision to injure yourself, but you give her a reassuring smile. You don't want to worry her with some simple rune magecraft, after all. You're still keeping an eye out for anything that might attack, but whatever this shapeshifter is, it seems like it is happy with just observing you for now, and isn't showing any signs of attacking. Though you aren't leaving yourself open to any attacks regardless, and you're prepared to pounce backwards to save Abby from any attacks immediately if you realize anything is wrong.

"I'm just using some magic, Abby, if I had ink or some other means to mark the stones on me, I would've used that, but it's not like I've got a limited supply of blood to use." Honestly, with how fast you heal from any wound, a tiny amount of blood loss is nothing at all. Abby seems to be happy with your explanation for now, so you turn your attention back to the stones on the floor as they start to form into an arrow shape, pointing at an angle and hovering ever so slightly upwards to show you your target, a single unlit wax candle that has melted onto the sides of one of the crates. It's so unassuming that you never would've noticed it otherwise. "Alright, the game is up. Whatever or whoever you are, you can stop with the hide-and-seek act." You start talking to the candle, you can only imagine how strange you must appear to Abby right now. "If you can hear me, and you're actually alive, give me some sort of sign, otherwise I'm going to melt that candle into a puddle."

The candle suddenly lights itself at your threat. Doesn't look like this shapeshifter, whatever they are, is capable of speech.

Part 22