The Chronicles of a Scalebound Sage

WM [93] No Moping Young Lady

Bjorn observed Tanisha and the others as they ate, his golden eyes occasionally glinting in the light. He wasn’t particularly hungry, but when Aurelius placed several plates of garlic-spiced ribs in front of him, two of his heads couldn’t resist digging in. The savory aroma was too tempting to ignore.

At the same time, Bjorn’s mind was elsewhere. He needed to dissect the dream with Failsafe. To help focus, he let Failsafe take control of his rightmost head as usual, giving the construct something tangible to engage with while they spoke. It wasn’t strictly necessary, but it was far better than staring off into space.

“So,” Bjorn began, his tone thoughtful, “why am I seeing things out of order now? That was definitely before Nuriel sent me here.”

Failsafe’s head tilted slightly, “I don’t make the rules, you know and I never promised your memories would come back chronologically. Judging by what we saw, I’d say you were about eighteen in that one. You’d been with Nuriel for a year at that point.”

“Great.” Bjorn said. "So what does that memory even help with? It doesn’t give me anything to work with.”

“Work with figuring out what,” Failsafe asked. “Did you forget I have no idea what we are looking for? You’re not exactly giving me much to go on here.”

Bjorn sighed heavily, leaning back and casting his gaze toward the ceiling. “Oh, right. You weren’t tuned in for my conversation with Laxy. We have to make an Angel Core or something close enough to one that it can substitute one. Otherwise we won't be able to stop this place from opening a hole into the Infernal Planes. Oh that reminds me, do you know what the Divide is?”

“Not really.” Failsafe’s brow furrowed, his expression thoughtful. “Where did we hear that?”

“My mother and Laxy both mentioned it.” Bjorn said. “They said the Great Serpent is trying to breach the Divide. If it does, it could open a gateway straight to the Infernal Planes.”

“Sounds like it’s some kind of barrier.” Failsafe said. “Maybe it separates the Higher Planes from the Lower Planes or even the Lower Planes from each other. Why bring it up now? Are you hoping to use your memories to figure out how to cross it?”

“No,” Bjorn replied firmly. “We need to leave this facility and find the materials to make a substitute for the Angel Core. The stuff needed for a real core comes from the Higher Planes, but since we don’t have that, we’ll have to make do with the purest mana we can find.”

Failsafe’s head tilted in curiosity. “Pure mana, huh? You’re talking about pure mana crystals?”

“Crystals and mana tree wood,” Bjorn clarified. “Laxy said we’d need both and I’ll need to recover the memories of how to actually make a core. Apparently she can’t but Isin did figure it out and made cores.”

Failsafe’s grin widened, his enthusiasm palpable. “Oh, this is good. If we can recover Isin’s knowledge, we’ll finally understand the internals of those things. All that crazy Higher Plane math will make sense! This just got a lot more exciting.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Bjorn snorted, amused despite himself. “Don’t get ahead of yourself.”

“Oh, right!” Failsafe’s head bobbed up and down eagerly. “Remember those glowing lights we saw underground? They weren’t crystals.”

Bjorn’s eyes narrowed. “Stop stalling, Failsafe. Just spit it out.”

“You’re no fun.” Failsafe hissed playfully before relenting. “Fine, fine. Those lights? They were the roots of mana trees. With the land above so corrupted, monsters can’t sense them that deep. After eating the trees, they probably forget the roots even exist. Which means…”

Bjorn’s eyes widened slightly as realization dawned. “Which means those roots might still be viable.”

“Exactly,” Failsafe confirmed, his grin widening. “With a little luck, we’ve already got a lead on one of the materials we’ll need.”

***

The group stopped at the security door following the orange line. Tanisha wanted to take another crack at it since she managed to open her Mind Gate. Bjorn and everyone else watched with intrigue but after a while nothing happened. The group waited for something to happen but Tanisha stepped away from the panel crestfallen. 

“I got much further but it is get way more complicated.” Tanisha said.

“What are you running into?” Fuyumi asked.

Tanisha rubbed her chin in contemplation. “I think the best way to describe it is like corridors that feel like they break off in multiple directions and each one leads to a switch. All of the directions have to be pushed for the main path to open and kept that way. If I lose concentration on any of the other traps or the switches all the Aether I put in is absorbed and I have to start all over.”@@novelbin@@

“How many traps have you avoided before getting to that point?” Aurelius asked.

“Twenty-two,” Tanisha said. “But they are much easier to do now, especially after opening my Mind Gate.”

“Doxy why is this door so much harder to open.” Fuyumi asked. “We are able to go through other doors easily.”

“Query: This door is locked. All other doors you have entered have merely been closed.” Doxy responded. “Tanisha is attempting to gain access by hacking this door's lock mechanism.”

“Hacking? I am not cutting anything, I don’t think.” Tanisha says questioningly. “What do you mean?”

“Query: Hacking in this context is the unauthorized manipulation of a system or program to gain access, alter functionality, or extract information. It is akin to a rogue mage breaching the wards of a protected library to steal or modify its contents. In this case it is equivalent to picking a locked door.”

“Huh, so I am technically an aetheric locksmith.” Tanisha said.

“Opening the door is not going to lock us out of other locations as, like, a punishment, right?” Aurelius asked.

“Query: negative, however areas designated beyond this door are restricted and security personnel will engage.”

“The security has already been fighting us though.” Tanisha said.

“Then there will be no change.” Fuyumi responded. “The sooner we get this open, the better. For now let's go back to Laxy, she seemed to be more willing to talk than Doxy.”

***

As soon as they entered the room with Laxy she immediately disappeared from her position over the fabricator table and clasped the collar around Bjorn’s neck. Everyone was on alert by her sudden motion with weapons drawn and spells already pointed at the android. The only thing stopping them from attacking was Bjorn who positioned himself between the android and the group.

“Tell them that the collar allows me to talk directly to them through you.” Bjorn instructed in a series of hisses.

Laxy bowed her head to the group. “My apologies for the scare everyone. Bjorn had requested that I place this device on him. It will allow for me to communicate with him far easier. There is much we must discuss and not a lot of time to save this facility from catastrophic meltdown.”

Tanisha looked at Bjorn and he gave her a curt nod. In an instant she lowered her daggers back into their sheaths at her side. She trusted Bjorn and the bond which made him happy. He needed to decide what he would be willing to share with her now though. He had no intention of lying to her but now was not the time to discuss his past life as Isin. She had already accepted that as a True he just had knowledge that mortals didn’t. He would keep it that way for now. What was important is that they prevent this facility from killing everyone.

“We can trust her for now.” Tanisha said as she turned to the rest of her team. “Bjorn is fine and he seems to trust her too.”

Fuyumi and Aurelius exchanged wary glances before slowly lowering their weapons, though neither fully relaxed. Their eyes stayed locked on Laxy as the android returned to the fabricator table, her movements precise and unthreatening. The group followed, bracing themselves for answers.

Before anyone could ask Laxy fell into explaining the truth of the facility. She tactfully didn’t mention Isin, or any other names from the past. She did explain that the extraction site was originally designed to harvest Creation from this world and separate it from the energies of the lower plane. Laxy was not privy to how exactly that process worked or what Creation was used for, only that it was extremely important to the Angels and other True Immortals.