The pipes ran along the left wall. That happened to be the wall that had remained a wall when the rest of the room decided to become something else during the fracturing. So naturally, I followed the pipes.
The entity moved with me.
Accompanied felt like the correct word for it. It wasn't following me exactly. It wasn't leading either. It just moved beside me the way a guest does when they've decided the conversation is still worth having and we're both apparently going in the same direction.
Several of its eyes were pointed toward me. The tendrils closest to my side had taken up a slow sway. The kind of motion something uses when it's listening.
I'd been talking for a while.
"The thing about surveyors," I said, "is they all independently decide their corner is the interesting corner."
I stepped over a small crack in the stone floor and kept going.
