CHAPTER XXXIX
Precipice
"Thank you for what you did for us," Elise said as she and Ivory had some tea together on the veranda.
"There was no other choice in the matter," Ivory said. "You and the children were in danger and I acted." She took a sip of the hot tea. "Green tea today?"
"Yes. I thought we might enjoy something from Mistral for once. Black teas can get tiring after a while. Green tea flavors are much more subtle and, in my opinion, that makes them a bit more sophisticated."
"Perhaps."
"You disagree?"
"Not with the description of 'subtle', but 'sophisticated'. A sophisticated tea, like the one we had before, displays different flavor profiles depending on which part of the mouth it hits, the temperature at which it is drunk, and how long it is steeped for, among other things. Green teas, on the other hand, tend to be much simpler and display a narrower range of flavor profiles."
"I just knew I wouldn't be able to keep up with someone who appraises coffee beans whenever she has the chance."
"Oh, I did not mean to—"
"It's okay, Ivory. You were not being rude. I'm rather fascinated by the complexities of finer beverages and cuisine."
Ivory sighed. "To be perfectly honest, I've been reflecting on 'fine dining' and 'high culture' recently. It seems to me of late that it's nothing more than pretentious drivel."
"I'm actually surprised to hear a Schnee say that. Well, a Schnee other than your cousin."
"Yes, Lilly is her own person. Aunt Weiss insulated her from the rest of the family quite well. But even without that sheltering, she's always had a natural resistance to all things pomp. The one thing about her that's strictly luxurious is her taste in high-quality coffee, though that's less posturing and more hobby."
"I think there's an art involved as well. Her description of her favorite coffee blend as floral sweetness springing up from the bitter winter has quite the poetic texture."
"That certainly is my cousin." She looked at her hand.
"What's the matter?"
"Hmm. My hand feels a bit numb."
"It must be because you've been holding your scroll all night long."
Ivory tilted her head, watching as Elise's face began to blur, followed by the rest of her surroundings.
—
Ivory opened her eyes as a strange sensation crawled up and down her hand and wrist. She looked over. Her scroll was vibrating.
Huh? she thought. Oh, right, I was in the middle of texting when I fell asleep.
She opened her scroll, squinting at the brightness and adjusting it to minimum before reading the messages that had piled up.
Leon: u still there?
Leon: hey
Leon: my bad ur probably sleeping by now
Leon: ill text u later tho
Leon: night night
Leon: mooooooooorning
Leon: you up yet?
Leon: just sayin its not really like u to be sleeping in so late lol
Leon: sorry ill shut up now
Leon: oh right summer's about to end
Leon: you got plans?
Leon: i mean besides all the labyrinth work nd stuff
Leon: honestly i kinda miss having summers off
Leon: this whole thing is like having a job lol
Leon: ok ok ill shut up foreal now
Ivory: I highly doubt that.
Leon: oh hey g'mornin princess!
Ivory: Good morning, Leon.
Leon: did i wake u up
Leon: ?
Ivory: You did, as a matter of fact.
Leon: oh
Leon: sorry
Ivory: Are you really, though?
Leon: =/
Ivory: Uh-huh.
Ivory: Anyway, to answer your question from last night, Lilly's fine and so is Demetri.
Ivory: Have you had any luck with Perseus at all?
Leon: nope
Leon: its been months but we havent given up yet
Leon: anything on ur end?
Ivory: Well, aside from what you already know, nothing new.
Leon: i really hope hes ok
"So, is this a daily routine?"
Ivory gasped, nearly tossing her scroll away.
"Flustered a bit, are we?" Lilith said as she jumped into the bunk with her cousin.
"Would it be all right if you didn't invade my space like this?" Ivory sighed.
"Of course I have to invade your space! It's my job! Now, lemme see!"
"Not a chance."
"C'mon!"
"You're acting like Lilly."
"Well, I kinda am her, you know. Legit, though, how long you been talking to Leon like this, hmm?"
Ivory could feel her face warming up. "Not often. We just update each other periodically."
"Oh? Why him and not one of the others?"
"Ariadne already messages Xanthus on the regular."
"Uh-huh, and you have, like, five others to choose from to update, not just him."
She sighed. "Do I really have to spell it out?"
"Oh, what, that you have the hots for him?"
Ivory pushed her out of her bunk. "No, you fool. He's the one I have the most connection with in that group."
"With the exception of Athena," Lilith said, resting her arms and head on Ivory's bed. "And yet you chose her twin brother instead."
"What are you two chatting about?" Ariadne said as she walked back into their room, rubbing her eye.
Lilith spun around. "What the f—I didn't even notice you weren't in bed."
"I was in the lavatory. Anyway, it's already nine o'clock."
"And it's friggin' raining so it's still dark out. I'm staying in for the day."
"I think that's a good idea."
They watched as she headed to them.
"Um, what are you doing?" Ivory said.
"Resting my head on your bed," Ariadne said, her voice muffled by the mattress.
"Why?"
"Cuz it's so soft and fluffy," Lilith said, mimicking Ariadne's pose.
"Our beds are identical," Ivory said.
"Yours is the best, though," Demetri said, his voice also muffled by her mattress.
"W-When did you join in on this?"
"Just now."
"High five, Demetri," Lilith said, to which he obliged. "You, too, Ariadne!"
"Okay," the latter said as she high-fived her. "What are we high-fiving for, by the way?"
"For you guys being awesome."
"Oh. Cool."
Meanwhile, Ivory had retreated from the trio, pressing up against the wall to try and hide her scroll, but when she looked at her text messages, they were entirely different. She began panicking as she realized the sleight of hand Lilith had pulled on her. Confirming her worst fears, she looked up at her elder cousin's Wraith in horror as she read through all of her text messages with Leon. The other two were huddled around her scroll as well.
"He calls her princess," Ariadne said as if stating a fact.
"And she rebuffs every single one," Demetri said, also in flat tone.
"Which means you still have a chance, Demetri Holland!" Lilith said.
Ivory calmly reached over and retrieved her scroll, handing Lilith's back to her, and proceeding to cradle her scroll in her arms as she balled up into the fetal position.
"I think we broke her," Ariadne said.
—
It had been a few days since the last Labyrinth run. The group spent their week mostly lazing about. Ariadne was frequently in the laboratory running all sorts of tests, though she was limited in what she could do without Lilly or Lilith to aid her with the Thaumaturgical aspect of her work. She thus found herself also idling with the rest of the group. It wasn't until the weather finally broke that Lilith had the bright idea to go into the Labyrinth again.
"Why the sudden motivation?" Ariadne said.
"Because I wanna go after that asshole mob boss," Lilith said.
"Huh?" Ivory said. "Wait, you want to go after an actual mafia leader?"
"Isn't that dangerous?" Demetri said.
"More dangerous than every damn Labyrinth we've ever run through?" Lilith said dryly. "C'mon. We have to do this. How long's it been since our last job, huh? A week? Two?"
"Eleven days," Ariadne said.
"That's why I felt like I was putting on pounds," Demetri said. He glanced over at Ivory, who was looking at her own abdomen. "You look as great as always, though."
"Nobody asked you!" Ivory yelled at him. He grinned back.
"What about me, huh?" Lilith said, posing in front of him.
"Of course you look amazing," he said.
"Aww!" She reddened.
"How are you able to control your blood flow to your head like that?" Ariadne said.
"Magic, duh. Okay, let's go. I'm itching to kill something."
"That's much better," Demetri said. "I was beginning to grow apprehensive about your overly cute demeanor lately and your lack of violent tendencies."
"Heh, heh!"
"And now the apprehension has given way to utter fear."
Ivory stood beside Lilith and turned to her. "Let's go, big cousin," she said.
Lilith grinned at her. "Let's go, little cousin."
After equipping themselves and warming up, the trio gathered at the rift in the middle of the underground cavern. Lilith could feel the tear in space-time forming as the rift generators hummed to life.
"Before you all go in," Ariadne's voice sounded in the loudspeakers, "I want to run a test. Those runes we were working on earlier, Lilith."
"Oh, you mean the Gate Runes," she said, "the ones that theoretically should allow us to bring someone back to the real world."
"Yes. I want to see if they work on our end. After all three of you are through, I want Lilith and Ivory to hold down the fort some distance away from the rift circle. Demetri will come back through on his own and if it doesn't work, Lilith and Ivory can come back and retrieve him so you can go Labyrinth clearing."
"I copy," Demetri said, turning to his team. "I'm ready to go whenever."
Lilith responded with a smug nod before leading the way to the center of the rift circle. They stood in a square with one space empty and Lilith willed the group to transition to the other world. In seconds, the people all around the facility vanished and the environment took on a bluish-gray hue. They all turned to Lilly, who had manifested in the empty space they had left open in their square formation.
Ivory smiled at her. "It's good to see you again, cousin," she said.
Lilly returned her smile, though hers was weaker than usual.
"Can you hear me?" Ariadne's voice sounded in their earpieces.
"Loud and clear," Ivory said.
"I'm detecting all four of you. Lilly, do you have a headset?"
Lilith handed her the extra equipment she had brought through the rift with her.
"I can hear you now," Lilly said.
"It's good to hear your voice again, Lilly," Ariadne said. "It's been too long."
"Thanks. I'm all right now."
"Okay, let's go this way," Lilith said, leading the group to the edge of the cavernous room.
"I'm seeing all four of you a good distance away from the rift circle. Okay, Demetri, you're up."
"Affirmative," he said as he walked back to the rift circle.
"Commencing Gate Rune activation in three, two, one..."
The trio watched as Demetri vanished without a trace.
"Demetri, can you hear me?" Ivory said into her microphone.
"Loud and clear," he said. "It worked."
"Thank goodness," Ariadne said. "I was a bit worried you might fall into a void between the two worlds."
"So I was risking eternal solitude with that test, was I?"
"Oh, you're such a drama queen," Lilith said.
"Okay, we're sending you ba—"
"What's happening?" Ivory said as the world around her began to warp in ways she had never seen before.
"Oh, shit!" Lilith said, turning to Lilly. "Is that me or you?"
"I don't know!" Lilly said.
"What?" Ivory said. "What is it?"
Before the three could discuss it further, they found themselves in the middle of a snowy mountain pass.
"What the freezing hell!" Lilith said, clutching herself and falling into a crouch.
"S-S-S-Sooooo c-c-c-old!" Lilly said before pulling out Myrtenaster and projecting a rune in the air. "Fire Rune!"
A fireball began floating in the air and all three huddled around it for warmth, but it was mostly useless with the thin clothing they were all wearing.
"Of all the days to be wearing a fucking tank top!" Lilith yelled.
"I'm just wearing a t-shirt!" Lilly said.
"And I'm in a dress," Ivory said. "Anyway, where the heck are we?"
"I don't bloody know!" Lilith said.
"Hang on a second." She left the group to stand at the edge of a bluff. "What in the...? How are we all the way here?"
"Is this Atlas?" Lilly said.
"Yes."
"We're all the way in Atlas?" Lilith yelled. "Again?"
"Wait," Lilly said, walking up to the cliff beside her cousin. The fireball followed her and Lilith scampered after them. "Is...uh, am I seeing things?"
"Oh, that's right," Ivory said. "You've never been to Atlas before, have you?"
She shook her head, gawking at the sight. The "city" of Atlas consisted of two landmasses, one where any landmass would be expected to reside, and one floating above the rest of the world.
"That's a floating island!" Lilly said.
"You've never seen anything like that before?" Lilith said.
"Well, we've gone through that stuff in Fourth Layers, but we're in the First Layer! Everything here is supposed to be 100% identical to the real world!"
"This is how it is in the real world," Ivory said.
"B-But..."
"The capital city of Atlas is situated atop a floating landmass. The metropolis you see below it is Mantle."
"How does Atlas stay afloat?" Lilith said. "I don't see any other way besides magic. Like back home."
"As far as I know, it's supposedly Gravity Dust."
"Bullshit. You'd need enough of that stuff to fill the entire island of Vytal. They've gotta be using something else. We know magic exists in Remnant, so it's gotta be something like that."
"All I know is that it's been airborne since before I was born. I never bothered to question how."
"Magic it is, then."
"What kind of magic, though?" Lilly said. "I don't know if I have any rune magic that's capable of floating an entire island that big."
"We don't," Lilith said. "To lift a landmass of that size, you'd need High Runes. Several of them. Or a Primal Rune. Or a literal god."
"As I said," Ivory began, "I've never questioned it. Like you mentioned, Remnant does have its share of magical phenomena, but unlike your world, it's very unexplored. As far as I'm aware at least, the only magic we know for sure exists are the Maidens, Professor Oscar Pine, Salem, and the Relics."
"Well, Salem's locked away with five whole armies guarding her tomb. We can rule her out. And Professor Pine, I guess. I doubt a single Maiden has the power to float a whole city. It's gotta be a Relic. Or something else we're not aware of."
"What about the Greater Daemons?" Lilly said.
"Can't be. Ivory said the city's been floating since before she was born. Unless they've been here for longer than twenty years, there's no way for magic from Ecumene to even be involved. As far as we know, dad was the very first thing from Ecumene to be dragged here when mom accidentally summoned him."
"A Relic, then," Ivory said. "The question is, how? If I recall correctly from overhearing conversations between my grandfather and General Ironwood—sorry, Professor Ironwood back when he was still General—Atlas is in possession of the Relic of Creation. If that Relic is capable of this, what else is it able to do?"
"Look, I'm an expert on Ecumene magic, not this shit. Anyway, there's no point dawdling here in this goddamned cold! Let's get to the friggin' city!"
"Wait, I sense a rift somewhere that way," Lilly said. "Should we head back to the real world first?"
"I think we ought to," Ivory said. "It would be very bad to get drawn into the Third Layer or worse without support from Ariadne. Speaking of which—"
"Don't bother," Lilith said. "We're way too far to communicate with her."
"That explains the silence on her end. Very well, then. Lilly, please lead the way."
"'Kay," she said.
—
"No good," Ariadne said. "I'm not picking them up anywhere in the city."
"Hasn't this happened before?" Dr. Cherenkov said as he entered the control room, followed by Orion, Dionysus, and their father.
"Yes," Demetri said, turning to them. "This is not the first time Lilly warped somewhere else. Each time, she managed to return without any trouble."
"But we don't know if those were the rule or the exception," Ariadne said. "It seems their world's magic is very chaotic in nature. Only the runes can be relied on to be consistent in their effects. Otherwise, it's very much fluid. At first, I thought it might be isolated to the Labyrinth, which is elastic due to its nature of reflecting the state of the physical world, but the Nexuses are also random in their effects on the environment and the same goes with the rune extraction we perform with Lilly and Lilith. It's impossible to predict with perfect accuracy what rune we'll be getting, even though they can influence the outcome somewhat."
"What do we do, then?" Dionysus asked.
Ariadne sat in thought for a few moments.
"What about the other team?" Demetri said.
She looked at him. "You're talking about Athena's team?"
"Yes. Why not link up with them? They have four Wraith-Knights. They're sure to be able to help us. Besides that, with Xanthus Xenon and Dr. Hillphire present, I think you'd be able to make major progress with some of your roadblocks. No offense to your family's company, but Hillphire Innovations has been involved in this Labyrinth business a bit longer. Dr. Hillphire himself has personal experience with the original occurrence almost twenty years ago."
"Well, there is something I've been meaning to try."
"What's that?" Orion asked her.
"Dr. Cherenkov," she said, turning to him. "Do you remember the theory we were working on?"
He thought for a moment. "Are you referring to the CCTS tower equivalents in the other world?"
"Yes. We enable communication between this world and the Labyrinth by utilizing technology which also exists on the other side. If those smaller scale antennas work, perhaps larger scale global communication is also possible there."
"Hmm. What are you planning on doing?"
"I'd have to do the work myself over in Mistral, but you know the theory just as well."
"You mean I stay here and supervise the work while you work on that end."
"Yes. We now have the capabilities to operate in the other world, even if that's very limited without beings like Wraith-Knights or Lilly and Lilith or one of our world's Maidens. With good navigation on this side, it should be possible for a team to remain in the First Layer indefinitely."
"I'll handpick the teams myself, then," Orion said.
"You're going in?" Kronos said to his eldest.
"Of course, father. I'm one of the few qualified to do so."
"I can go, too," Dionysus said.
"Not on my team, though."
"Why not?"
"You'll be leading the second team, just in case anything happens to mine. I'll be counting on you to bail me out of any trouble."
"It's kinda boring to be on standby, though."
"Believe me, brother," Ariadne began, "it certainly is not boring, especially once you get to know exactly how the LabNav works and the ever-present threats that the program permits us in this world to see."
"We'll arrange a shuttle for you to go to Mistral, then," Kronos said.
"Thank you, father."
"Demetri, would you accompany my daughter?"
"I'll make sure nothing happens to her," he said.
