Actually taking him at his word, she turns and looks at the ziggurat for a moment, focusing harder, squinting until the answer suddenly reaches out to her.
"There's no mana signature… at all," she observes.
"Wait, really?" Navigator Minion asks as he looks over and squints. "Hey, you're right! Nothing! Not even a latent background signature. There's no residual magic coming out of this structure at all. It's like… it's like nothing's ever been around it, or it's just… wedged in there!"
Explorer Minion nods as he tosses a bauble aside and turns to them all with a superior grin. "Just so. All living things produce a sort of residue with their signature."
"We know," Scout Minion says.
"—They make a sort of background projection with it. But with our mana-sighted eyes, we can see plain as day that there—"
"We know. We're literally ethers." she attempts to interrupt again.
"—is simply no imprint of a mana signature anywhere on the structure… just so we're on the same page here."
There's a slight pause as Scout Minion tightens her fists, closes her eyes, and nods in solemn acceptance.
"So, that's how the folks in Science Tower found it," Navigator Minion says.
Explorer Minion joins his hands behind his back. "Just so, my dear Navigator. It was not a large and sudden blip of a signature that they spotted. In fact, they noticed, thanks to their latest algorithms, that this place across the verses is particularly quiet—and it's no quieter than in the recesses of this specific structure."
Scout Minion's expression droops. There's no more sassiness in her face, no more irritation. Just worry.
Even with her initial thought that it must lead to some kind of portal, a portal also goes to a place on the other side, one that should, by simple reasoning, also have a mana signature. This is unprecedented. It's like a spot out in the middle of outer space, or perhaps even less, because even interstellar travelers, Titans, ghosts, and other greater beings of mysterious qualities, still travel among the stars and leave faint marks of their passing… but not here by the looks of it.
It's as if a pair of interdimensional scissors had come by and cut all magic out from this one spot perfectly in the shape of this spiritless building.
"Kinda messed up," she says after a long pause.
Navigator Minion nods. "There's something wrong about this." He turns toward Explorer Minion. "Are you sure we're going to be enough?"
Explorer Minion gives a foppish wave of his hand. "Oh puh-lease. It was guarded by a bunch of stupid kin savages. No challenge at all. They wouldn't guard something if it wasn't valuable to them, so if it was them in the way, then it must not be that valuable."
He turns with a smug glance over to Mime Minion, who's making an invisible flute to try to play to the birds that appear to already be gone. "I mean, if Mime Minion could scare them off like that, then what in the world could be so terrible? Important things need important guardians, after all."
Scout nods, but her expression remains unchanged. "I guess I don't know," she says. "This all feels a little… wrong." She takes a deep breath, preparing to say the words. "…I think maybe we should call for help," she admits.
Navigator Minion winces as Explorer Minion brushes off, ready to go with a few new trinkets he's placed in Mime Minion's pack. He gives Scout Minion the sort of look that she'd have expected to see on herself—it's humiliating.
"Oh, need some help from Big Daddy, do we?" Explorer Minion asks, placing a hand against his chin in mock consideration.
She flinches. "No, that's not it. We don't need Poppi in here. Just… I don't know. Some extra…" She waves her hands around, trying to think about the least embarrassing way to state the fact that she's actually kind of afraid about what they might find in there. But once she comes to the realization, she can only ball her blacker-than-pitch hands back into fists.
"Nah, never mind. We're good."
"Are you sure, dear?" Explorer Minion says with a truly punchable tone.
"I ain't a bitch," Scout Minion says. "Let's go in there and do this. It's probably just a weird-ass relic or some stupid fluke," she explains.
Entering the unknown structure, the air changes. The golden hues of the jungle mists turn into a dull gray, hinting at something very old within, or at least very dead. Scout Minion sharpens her senses. She twitches her antennae about as if trying to get a read on the place as Mime Minion's antennae shoot straight up.
Scout Minion shakes her head. "Absolutely nothing," she says. "I can't even see down the hall." Even as she says this, Mime Minion begins looking around quickly, as if seeing something outrageously peculiar in the walls.
"It's not just you," Navigator Minion says, squinting. "It's like there's some kind of noise. I can't see anything in here."
Explorer Minion brushes his chin with a fascinated look. "Our eyes should be able to spot anything, even in pitch black—"
"We know!" both Scout and Navigator Minion snap back. For the first time today, Explorer Minion actually flinches, coming to an ineffectual shrug.
"…I've never heard of something we can't see. Some kind of magic?" Navigator Minion says after a pause.
"Dark magic bullshit," Scout Minion suggests, causing Explorer Minion to puff in disbelief.
"Well then, what do you intend to do?" Explorer Minion asks, crossing his arms.
Scout Minion glances over. "What do you mean, 'what do I intend to do?' This place is messed up beyond comprehension, and you're asking me to just figure it out? Is that what you're trying to say?"
Explorer Minion guffaws, his tone dripping with superiority. "That's exactly what I'm trying to say, my dear Scout. After all, you are the little security detail of our expedition. Surely you should be able to see what you're going to be defending us from."
"Bet, mustache," she says, raising her fist just in time for Navigator Minion to lift his finger into the air and finish speaking a spell.
"Lichtos!" he cries.
His index finger shines with a silvery light, completely denying the darkness its charge. Scout Minion looks over at Explorer Minion, who scoffs back with relief, then both Scout Minion and Explorer Minion stare at Navigator Minion as if he has rats on his face… then back at each other… and then back at him.
"Uh, hey, Nav?" Scout asks.
"Yes?" Navigator Minion asks, starting forward with a smile.
"Why in the world would you waste your time learning a light spell when we can see in the dark?"
"Couldn't see in the dark this time," he says as he passes them by.
The duo stand stupidly for a moment before following.
Perhaps he does indeed have a point, they realize.
"First time for everything I guess," Scout mumbles as she catches up to Navigator Minion.
Navigator Minion stops at a fork in the hallway. It splits off into two even corridors. He hums and glances over to her. "What do you say?"
Scout and Explorer Minion weigh their options as Mime Minion puts something that looks like goggles made out of air over his face. He double-takes as if he can suddenly see everything and more—it's rather cute, in a goofy sort of way.
There are some strange hieroglyphic-like inscriptions along the surface of the walls and the group examines them closely.
To the right is a bunch of dragon kin celebrating, gold surrounding one with a grand gauntlet that seems to have some great power attached to it.
To the left, the relief displays hordes of dragon kin crying out as they're vaporized into golden corpses.
Scout observes, "So which one will it be, fellas? 'Awesome Party' or 'Horrible Death'?"
"Well, I don't know about the rest of you," Explorer Minion says, shaking his head, "but I'd imagine we should go for what we came for."
"So the obvious-trap-slash-party?" Scout Minion says, pointing at the inscription denoting the amazing party.
Navigator Minion chimes in. "I don't know about that, Scout. I think you're probably overthinking this. This is a culture from a really long time ago, right? Pre-war Dragon Kin. I highly doubt they'd risk—"
"Look, all I'm saying is that this looks like the kind of thing I'd put up there if I were an ancient civilization and wanted people to not find the treasure," Scout states matter-of-factly as Mime Minion starts heading down the direction of the horrific slaughter mural.