Early morning in Pulsa Minoria saw the likes of Valic and a few of his fellow scientists surveying their fair city for places to work on new ideas.
The additional electricity the water generators have provided made the city have an electrified azure glow constantly, which took some time to adjust to.
But through illumination came inspiration, and Valic had never had a more rampant mind than he did these days.
Ideas were constantly flooding in, fitting given what allowed them. But he's kept the general gist of them mostly to himself and led his fellow scientists along with vague remarks and spindly gestures.
A long time ago he would have never imagined cooperating with others, but this wasn't a huge investment. Some helpful hands are always welcome and well, the others can at least "understand" him enough to work.
The only one who pushed the boundaries was, unsurprisingly, Rai.
He kept trying to put aside the duties of his assigned role and was getting really uncontrollable these days. The freedom of thought on top of the possibilities extra electricity provided was as much Valic's boon as it was his bane, as if he wasn't careful then Rai would achieve his dream before him.
Valic kept giving him the cold shoulder but paid careful attention to some of his ideas. He may have been a pest but he wasn't entirely weak in the brain.
He was spending his mornings locked up in his lab, fiddling with metal rods, nuts and bolts to form new structures, but none of them really satisfied his innate drive to improve.
"Still at a wall..." He murmured, flicking down the weakest part to topple the latest monument to his stagnation of progress.
He felt his eyes nodding off and thus applied a light shock to keep his brain going a little longer.
"Hmmm..." He began to pace around the room, gazing up at the blue-lit sky beyond the open ceiling, "If only my usual source of inspiration was here."
With a curt shrug he heard a couple knocks on the door and curiously, marched on over to open it. Partway there he noticed a brief departure from his sunlight and turned around, surveying his surroundings.
Chalking it up to his tiredness, he continued to the door and undid the locks with a few precise swipes on a panel.
The door swung open, revealing an intrepid youth who despite being new to this field of scientific work, was showing some modicum of potential.
He seemed to be inspired by Valic and trailed him like a little robo doggy, but today it was all business with him.
He had a magnetically floating cart in tow piled up with spare parts and brought it into Valic's lab once he stepped aside.
"Mr. Valic, here's the parts you wanted off the third hydrogenerator." The youth said in a chipper tone.
"Ah good, maybe I'll be able to get that spark of inspiration from these," Valic walked over to the cart and started throwing the useless parts off to the side, so deep in focus that his tone came off rather nonchalantly, "So tell me uhh..."
"Charg. You...see me every day in Sector 2." The boy responded with a tone of fondness and anxiety.
"Ah right, well...I'm guessing the third hydro generator is running smoothly then?"
"Absolutely-"
"Then that's all I need you for right now."
"A-Alright. If...if you need me for anything else, I'm here."
Charg was ready to leave while Valic dug into the pile and plucked out a couple sprockets, "Hmmm..."
Suddenly, a few metallic tingles rang through the air. Valic turned and gestured his hand at the youth, "Wait."
He then glanced up towards the open ceiling and looked around, holding his hand towards the advancing youth.
"Did you hear that?" Valic murmured.
"Hear what?" The youth asked.
"That sound...Is a bolt loose in my rafters?" Valic tried to look at them, where the shadows were at their thickest.
There, he noticed the faintest, silvery outline hiding away.
"..." The hairs on the back of Valic's neck stood on end. He felt...penetrated, by the gaze of something, someone.
He was motionless, and cold. His body swiftly turned numb, and he could feel the milliseconds crawling by as blinked.
In the time his vision was lost, he watched as the silver silhouette dove from the rafters straight for him.
And the last thing he heard was a panicked scream of "MR. VALIC...!"
A glint of silver, a face warped like a demon, then...
"SHRRRPPP...!"
Chapter -65: A Murder in Pulsa Minoria
The miners of Oreore were hard at work, but what else was new...?
There'd been a lot of attacks on the ravine and there'd probably be a lot more in the coming days, months and years.
But lately...Ezekiel has felt less weight on his shoulders, ironic, given the added weight he's carrying around on them nowadays.
His son Pitori was growing up healthy into a fine young man, just a few years old and he's already got that Gaia family work ethic.
He's got his grandpapa's black hair all short and messy and wears a nice leather vest to mimic his father's own.
Ezekiel smiled with pride every day he got to show off his son to his fellow men and he was the talk of the ravine cause of where he came from.
Today was ore refining day, so while Ezekiel was strolling through with a hefty chunk of black ore on his right shoulder, his son sat on his left, carrying a head-sized piece on his lap.
The two were laughing and humming the sunlight away until it hit the rise of noon, where it was time to break away from duty and get their bellies full of grub.
The family schedule had the three grown-ups alternating cooking duty and today Cecilia was going to feed them till their stomachs were as bloated as a pregnant Heaver.
If there's one thing Pitori inherited from his mum, it's a love for meat. And now that he was old enough to stomach it, Cecilia chose to be a little more bold in her plates, going all the way back out to her old hunting grounds to bring the juicy, blubbery tenderloins of the Ursines to this table.
It was a perilous journey but one that happened to put a smile on Pitori's smile on his face, and hers in turn, thus creating a domino effect that left this carnivorous family in a good mood.
Ezekiel tore a chunk right off with his front teeth and grinded the juicy half-cooked meat down until his cheeks could push out air again, "Nothing like the taste of the wild to get yer heart feelin' feral!"
It didn't come out that coherently but Cecilia got the message, directing her more...tamed expression of joy towards her son, who was being trained on sharper utensils to handle his meat at her behest.
After swallowing his food he raised his knife and with a juice filled face shouted, "Thanks mom! You're the best!"
Her heart warmed with a flutter and she placed her hands against her cheeks while leaning against the table, "Maybe when you're a little older, you can join me on a hunt."
"Uhhh, ok!" It wasn't the most enthused response, but the thought was being taken into consideration.
This family bonding moment would be swiftly interrupted by unexpected news hailing from one of the miners.
"Lianne! Ezekiel! We got an attempted invader being brought in by our men at the gates!" They shouted from the door.
Ezekiel immediately spat up a really good bite of meat and rose with his hands stamped on the table, "What?! From where?!"
"Uhhh..." The miner swiveled his head back and with a dazed expression struggled to answer, "M-Maybe you oughta take a look at the punk yerself."
"Oyy..." Ezekiel rolled his eyes and then hurried around the table, taking a moment to rustle his son's hair.
Him and Cecilia then walked side-by-side down the stairs to follow the miner. There was commotion everywhere and the person the guards had restrained in their hands was definitely worth the fuss.
It was Valic, but to Ezekiel and Cecilia their first look showed him as a lanky stranger in even stranger clothes strapped for muscles and with a splatter of blood smeared over his face and chest. And in his hand, struggling as he tried to use it, was some metallic thing with a barreled chamber and electrified lighting.
One of the guards looked at Ezekiel to explain, "He came runnin' at our walls like a mad boar he did. Shooting strange yellow flashes with his tiny metal thing."
"Unhand me you barbarians...!" Valic shouted, his eyes whipped into an exhaustive state of frenzy, "Do. You. Understand. My. Words? Then bring me the leader of your...neanderthal lot! I demand his hollow HEAD for this affront...!"
The other guard shook his head and then gestured to Ezekiel, "Should I break an arm? I'm afraid I might take it off."
"Hey, none of that." Ezekiel thrust his finger at him in shame, then tried to approach Valic out of no fear for his attempts to kick his way free.
And slowly, his mind was piecing together a puzzle, "Let's take a crack at ya...Odd clothes, shiny hair, strange tool..."
Ezekiel crossed his arms tightly against his chest and with an even tighter glare looked down upon Valic and murmured, "Oh, I get ya...Yer from that den of thieves, Pulsa Minoria."
Ezekiel simply had no patience nor kindness to spare pressing on from here, "Ain't enough for ya to have robbed us blind with yer metal boxes, guess ya thought ya could come and take us in a straight up charge?"
He then swiftly turned to the guards to ask, "Was he alone?"
The two guards nodded and Ezekiel scoffed, "And by yerself at that?! How dumb are ya?"
Valic grit his teeth and growled, "Be quiet you brutish, brain-lacking hypocrite...You almost thought you could get away with this...!"
"Get away with WHAT?" Ezekiel laughed for a few seconds.
"You've marched on our walls and you've accused us of thievery, only to steal our most valuable resource of all...! A LIFE!"
This was no laughing matter. Ezekiel narrowed his eyes and marched towards him, growling deep under his breath with his fists taut against his hips, "Ya better think yer next words carefully, cause yer slinging heftier accusations than yer wee arms can carry."
"Your Tribe dabbles in crafting bladed weapons, and you've had more than sufficient reason to strike where we're most vulnerable...! " Valic lunged forward, restrained to only a toothy grunt.
He then thrust his head towards the nearest guard and shouted, "Pull the knife off my back! Show it to him! Force him to face the consequences of his actions!"
The guards eyed Ezekiel, who gave a quick, subtle nod. One guard then loosened his grip on Valic long enough to get the knife off his back and bring it over to Ezekiel for study.
Ezekiel nudged it over to Cecilia, who held it atop her hands for them to look at.
It was small enough to still be considered a knife but had a strange, silver crescent blade caked over with deep red blood.
They had to look at each other to confirm they were both equally confused, with Cecilia remarking in a whisper, "The handiwork is definitely close to ours but..."
"We ain't ever utilized such a puny blade! They'd break in our hands like wood twigs!" Ezekiel said, snapping his fingers hard for emphasis.
"You look at me and see a liar...!" Valic swung his head around and then managed to get off one crude gesture before the guard returned to restrain him, "All of you...y-you look at me and think I've gone raving mad!"
"I SAW...!" Valic gasped and his frenzied eyes focused on Ezekiel and forced him to listen, "I saw...it was in the blink of an eye but I SAW...! My life flashing before me. I thought I was going to die...! But that young, so young, so foolish young man...He jumped in front of me...took the knife...!"
Valic then threw his hand down to pick up his tool and before either guard knew what was happening he zapped them both unconscious and ran at Ezekiel ready to zap him with an even harder bolt.
In the next few moments Cecilia was drawing one sword at Valic's neck while his own tool hummed with lethal intent.
This deadlock left the frenzied Valic staring into the eyes of a bear, and he should be thankful that Ezekiel didn't feel like sharpening his claws...
Valic's gaze jolted towards Cecilia then back to Ezekiel when he was ready to speak his mind, the scent of frost whiffing his nose, "H-Ha, so you recruited someone from Cryofloe...a change of tactics is it?"
"You're out of yer bloody mind," Ezekiel murmured, "I ain't yer biggest fan but I'd never, EVER, take my grudge out on yer people directly."
"It's your word against the blood staining my clothes," Valic stated without a hint of fear, "So either you offer me substantial proof of your innocence or I will let the gods sort this all out and TRUST me, you don't want to test a faithless man desperate for justice."
This was a fatal deadlock. One move and someone was going to die or be grievously injured.
Who would throw the first stone? The best people known for it? Or the frantic minded one who already has his hand halfway deep into the trigger.
Nobody would ever find out the answer, because an unexpected, if not divine intervention, began to emerge at the base of their toes.
Their balance disrupted, they broke off their deadlock and hopped away, where a series of mystical roots entangled themselves skyward to get in their way.
"What in the-" Blurted Ezekiel, who swiftly glanced past this towering wood to find an ally of his holding his hand up, signifying he was the root cause of this disruption.
It was Carmine, admittedly bewildered in looks but otherwise steady with his hand until Ezekiel, Cecilia and Valic had their attention on him.
"Carmine?!" Ezekiel blurted, "What in the bloody heck are ya doin' 'ere?"
Carmine gently closed his eyes and murmured, "I wish I had answers, but I find myself with more questions than I can keep up with..."
He then narrowed his gaze, openly eyeing Valic and Ezekiel at once, "So I'll start with the obvious...Why are you two at each other's throats?"
Valic reaffirmed his grip on his device and muttered, "Keep out of our business, florasapien. This doesn't involve you...!"
He then tried to turn his device back on Ezekiel only for a stray root to grow and flick it out of his hand in a playful manner.
Valic stood stunned with sore fingers as the root wagged at him.
"Apparently, it is..." Carmine said following a lofty sigh. He then rubbed his irritated temples and murmured, "You brought me here, the least you could do is say 'Hello'."
Emerging from shadows unseen behind him was Atrax, who needless to say threw the rallied miners of Oreore for a loop with his gentle wave of the hand.
Cecilia stared at him with audible contempt in her voice, "You too?"
"I know...there's already a lot of players involved in this mess, but..." Atrax stood still and felt more like a fixture in the scenery than a presence with a role to play, "Why, when I saw our fair genius rushing here with a death wish, I thought I needed to take some initiative to intervene, and brought along someone who could offer their perspective."
Carmine glanced at him over his shoulder with a bit of narrowing from his eyes. Then he looked back at Cecilia, Ezekiel and Valic and asked them, "I'll ask again...Why are you two at each other's throats? And please, try not to interrupt each other."
Valic took charge over the conversation by explaining in a loud voice, "I was ambushed in my lab, nearly killed for it too...! But another person, just a boy at that, jumped in my way and was killed, stabbed by a knife-wielding figure in silver."
Carmine then gestured his hand at Ezekiel, swiftly picking up on the nuances of the details, "And this led him to believe you did it?"
"And like we were tellin' him, we ain't ever used knives before! Their too...wimpy." Ezekiel stated his view point
Then Cecilia had her own part to add, "But this man here believes my presence has somehow radically altered thousands of years of warfare in a few years time."
"Ok, so we have an assassin wearing silver, and carrying a knife." Carmine summed up the points in a tidy fashion.
"KNIVES," Valic emphasized, "One was..."
He reached around and then spun around in place before facing Cecilia and waving his hand out, "If you don't MIND!"
Cecilia instead flung the knife over his head and towards Carmine who, unaware of what was going on, had to have Atrax catch it for him before it impaled his face.
Atrax then chuckled with a dry heave and gently handed it over to Carmine.
Valic was too tired and limping to muster up much offense beyond a slap to his own face. He then reeled back with a groan and mumbled under his breath, "A knife was found on the body, I saw another in the killer's hand as they fled the scene."
"Ok..." Carmine closed his eyes and with the bloodied knife held in his hand, he had no hesitation making a statement on the facts so far.
"There's no chance that this man, or any of these people, are responsible for the murder in Pulsa Minoria."
Valic's eyes widened and he proclaimed with a lunging shout, "You're wrong! These barbarians have both the motive and the materials to match the killing weapon!"
Carmine opened his eyes with a peek of curiosity, "Motive? You mean the grudge between your two Tribes? I get the disdain runs deep, but it would not drive this man to murder."
"You speak like you're the authority on him." Valic spat smugly.
"I'm not. We're allies, but we hardly know a thing about each other. Our worldviews are nearly incompatible," Carmine looked straight and deep into Valic's eyes and told him, "But Sarajin chose to believe in this man and call him an ally, a friend, and a brother, and I'm willing to bank my entire argument on his faith."
Valic shivered, his expression turning pale as he bit his teeth down and let out a grunt.
With his eyes wobbling he then directed his ire towards Carmine, holding back a bit on the severity of his tongue, "Fine...! I don't care! I want the culprit, and I want them to pay! So if you believe this brutish, dirt-covered man is innocent, then prove it!"
"I will, and I'll do so by sun fall," Carmine boasted with serenity and confidence, "And if I'm mistaken, or fail to find anything in time, then you're welcome to take your anger out on me however you see fit."
Ezekiel and Cecilia both flinched, with Ezekiel advancing forward and mumbling, "Hey, hol' on there!"
Valic stepped forward faster and remarked, "And how am I going to know you'll keep your word?"
"I'll make sure of that." Atrax spoke up, patting Carmine's shoulder in a rhythm.
Carmine eyed him from the side and then after taking a moment to breathe he remarked, "Yes. I'll leave the guarantee of my return in his hands."
He then gestured to Cecilia and said, "In the meanwhile, can you ensure that there's no more blood spilled?"
Cecilia crossed her arms under her chest and whispered, "I'll keep him shackled up in ice so he doesn't get any ideas."
"And just to be on the safe side..." Carmine pointed at the ground and the base of the root tree rose up, then stamped the shiny device down.
"Are we good?" He asked with a tone of innocence.
Valic finished rubbing his sore fingers and then remarked, "Sun fall. Remember that."
Carmine nodded and chose to leave any further trifles in the hands of his comrades. With a knife clutched to his side via some vines, he made his way out of the ravine with Atrax wandering in his shadow.
Once he was out and a good distance away, Carmine stopped in place to take a look at the knife, making a quick glance towards the vine on his shoulder, "What do you think, Ividae?"
The vine wiggled wryly and Carmine sighed, "Thought I'd ask..."
He then caught Atrax creeping by him with a quick remark of, "Well, I'll let you be."
"Hold it," Carmine faced him with a firm disposition, "You have some explaining to do."
Atrax paused and with no flexing of his lungs to sigh or hesitate, he turned to Carmine and chuckled, "Of course. Out of all the people involved in this mystery, I am the most suspicious. Am I wrong?"
"That depends on how you answer my questions," Carmine held his ground and gave him every clear sign he wasn't going to accept any lies or cowardice on the spider's part, "First off, you grabbed me out of Tanglefae and brought me to Oreore right as Ezekiel was confronted by that scientist from Pulsa Minoria."
"Yes." Atrax nodded.
"If you knew when the scientist was going to arrive here and cause trouble, why didn't you intercept him? Why pick me up?"
"...Hmmm," Atrax began to tuck his hands into his sleeves, though bent an elbow partway to tap his chin, "Why indeed?"
Carmine narrowed his gaze and Atrax laid his arms to rest, flicking one hand up in a gesture, "I have no intention of lying. I'd sooner suffocate on my stomach vile."
He then gestured his hand around and laid the palm in Carmine's direction, "It's as you've probably surmised, I am in a rather...deep moral quandary with this little mystery of ours."
"What do you mean?"
"...This feels rather odd, coming from a Sage of Darkness, but one of my favorite Tribes is the Electricity Tribe...At least, in the state it's found itself in now."
"Consider, if you would for a moment, how unchanging the rest of the world is...Has been, rather, for some time now. Yet here you have a Tribe that reinvented itself through sheer willpower and brilliance, and are working tirelessly to create...All for the sake of progress."
"I...find a kindred spirit with their lot, to put it lightly," Atrax said, his voice melodious, "To me, the loss of one brilliant mind no matter how young they are is a tragedy."
Carmine lowered his head and rubbed his chin, deep in thought.
"Hmm..." And given the information Atrax was being willing to provide, he found himself on a path that left him unsettled...
"Ok, tell me...Where is Auris right this moment?"
Atrax left him feeling goosebumps when he answered immediately with, "She should presently be fending off an attack on Pulsa Minoria from the likes of Cryofloe, Vermilion, and Nimus."
"So she's preoccupied," Carmine muttered, having no loss of faith in her ability to succeed against her odds, "And Sarajin is off-world at this moment..."
Atrax stood there, knowingly cracking a smile under his mask as Carmine came at him with the conclusion to his current line of questioning, "The Ten Sages are behind the murder."
"And now you see where my conflict lies," Atrax added, raising a finger to the smile on his mask, "But the question remains...Which Sage is responsible? Figure that out...and all other questions in this mystery shall fall into place."
He then tucked his hands into his sleeves and remarked, "My lips will remain sealed from here on out though. So...where shall your investigation go from here, Carmine?"
"This information is a good start to help narrow down who it could be, but I...just don't have enough knowledge of the other Tribes to put it all to good use." Carmine said, looking at the weird details on the knife as he did.
He then quickly looked back up at Atrax and accepted some humility on his part in saying, "I need help. Can you do me one more favor?"
Atrax nodded.
"Go to Darnia Stratos, and tell him to meet me near the shores bordering Aquamoria and Oreore."
"I hope you know what you're doing. You only have so much time to spare."
Carmine craned his head back to find the sun was already halfway through it's daytime cycle. His heart was a little nerve wracked and Ividae's vine shriveled up against his neck...
He then closed his eyes and with a deep breath he seemed to almost smile in the face of danger, and it was a jolly good one at that.
"I won't fail. Sarajin has only just started to make headway with peace between the Tribes, I refuse to let the Ten Sages ruin it."
"Haaa, if only everyone had a loyal friend like you. But I chatter too much. I'll deliver your message to Stratos Sr."
Atrax then sank into the shadows and with solitude returned to him, Carmine let out a deep, long sigh and forced a smile in the direction of the vine on his shoulder, "Sorry I let myself get dragged into danger, my friend."
The vine bobbed and Carmine's smile became a little more genuine, "I'll be fine. But still..."
He looked up at the top of the ravine behind him with a narrowed gaze, trying to focus on something hiding under the sun, only for nothing to be there.
"This feels like the start of something sinister..." He then began to cautiously make his way to the meeting place...
The mystery...was afoot.
Next Time: Narrowing Down the Culprits