Chapter 40: Locked In

Perspective: Peter Graves


Fire had regained consciousness only minutes after the Entity had let go of him, if only a very vague semblance of consciousness. Fire was not like Claw who'd stay in a dormant state while he was in his mind-prison, instead he became increasingly aware of himself as time passed.

Inside of the cage Fire was his real-world human self, Peter. This version of him had short, brown hair and green eyes. While tall by human standards, he was nowhere near as tall as his alter ego Fire. He had used his real name on the server too in the first few hundred years until his transformation into the first Mencur-Besh, after that it had been Fire. He was just as much Fire as he was Peter, however since he had his human appearance in the mind-prison, he'd use the appropriate name.

As Peter became more aware, the cage itself changed, from the very cramped, animal cage it transformed into an environment he was more familiar with, still a cage but more of a metaphorical one. Peter's mindspace had become the very place that had been the site of actions that shaped the fates of so many, including his own: The Graves Manor.

The Graves Manor in the real world was located some distance outside the capital, relatively hidden in a dense forest, the back of the building resting against a rock cliff, which was part of a large mountain range. Unlike most manors it was no old building passed down through generations, the Graves Manor was no older than forty years and looked the part. It was three stories tall and had two wings next to its main block. All windows were one-way mirrors, making it impossible to see what was going on behind them from the outside.

Peter's parents had built the manor when their first profits from the weapons they produced for the war came in, wanting both privacy as well as a new site for their research. As such the manor had a vault door at the back of the entrance hall. This door led to a laboratory hidden inside the cliff the manor was built against. They had known how to play to the stereotypes at least. That was where they'd perform their experiments and where they constructed their prototype weapons, it also featured a library full of research documentation that Peter regularly studied.

The Graves Manor in Peter's mind was quite similar to its real equivalent, only that it was far from uniform. Each room was fragmented into different versions, drawing from memories from all over Peter's life. The entrance hall alone was a mess of light, shadows and different states of modification.

Since he had nothing better to do, Peter spent his time walking the hallways and rooms, trying to unify them to the version of them he liked best, which was the version from last summer, just after the extensive renovations he had organized.

The left wing and entrance hall were already done. The only thing that he couldn't change was what he saw outside of the windows, no matter how hard he tried, it stayed the same. Eternally locked in time, one window would show the forest in the deepest winter, another during a thunderstorm, lightning frozen dramatically in the distance.

Peter made his way over to the right wing of the manor, it had gone mostly unused over the years, which was why he saved it for last. The wing would have had rooms belonging to Peter and his sister, had their parents not died while both of them were still young.

Peter went down the left side staircase of the entrance hall, taking a look at the display cases that were lined up along the sides. Each held a different weapon prototype, or at least a replica of one if the prototype in question was an explosive device or too large to fit in a display case. Above the display cases were photographs of the weapons in use, Peter had removed the ones that depicted actual battles, only the test range photos remained. He had never tried to hide what his parents had done but having photographs of people dying in your house was far from appropriate.

The vault door loomed ominously at the back of the entrance hall, Peter knew the code that would open it by heart, but he already knew that this version of the door would not open, no matter how many times he entered it. Peter moved on, ascending the right-side staircase and approaching the double door that led to the right wing.

He was met with a fragmented view of the corridor, some parts were lit by bright sunlight, often coming from different angles, others were shrouded in darkness. Half of a jackhammer leaned against nothing, the tiles below it noticeably older than the others. A cold breeze blew in from a window that led to the middle of winter.

Peter got to work, summoning memories and forcing them into this mindspace, pushing the fragmented ones away. It was exhausting but nevertheless satisfying, especially if he considered the fact that he probably was not even supposed to have the manor in his mind. The Entity probably thought Claw's cage could contain him, in which case it had thought wrong. As opposed to Claw, Peter was a fully formed personality with thousands of years of memories. Of course, this changed nothing about the situation at its core, Peter was unable to act on the outside world and Claw was currently out there serving the Entity.

He shook his head, no sense worrying about something he had no control over. The jackhammer disappeared along with the older tiles, replaced with the newer tiles that Peter had spent a good deal of time deciding on during the planning stages of the renovation. The winter window closed, and the cold breeze stopped.

It was difficult to tell time in the manor, clocks were either stuck on a certain time or moved erratically, Peter preferred the former over the latter. After an unknowable amount of time, the corridor and most of its bordering rooms were consistent with Peter's preferred version.

He was too exhausted to continue, perhaps he'd go and check the front balcony again. Peter had discovered that if he stood in a certain spot, he could catch fragments of the outside world through Claw's senses. At first it had only been single images and sounds but as he brought the manor in line with his memories he could see longer and clearer fragments. Aside from having something to do, this was Peter's main motivation for "cleaning up" the manor.

Peter pushed open one of the balcony doors. When he looked through the glass of a window or a door it was just like any other window, showing the balcony frozen at some point in the past. Once he stepped outside a different scene presented itself: everything past the railing was unending gray static, just like when the Entity had tried absorbing Peter. This was the first thing that clued him in that something was special about this place.

"Alright, let's see what you're up to, Claw." Peter said.

He had been looking before too of course, but all he had gotten was that Claw was collaborating with the Ender on some kind of plan. The fragments had never been long or clear enough to make out what it was about. Maybe he'd find out more now.

Peter positioned himself exactly in the center of the balcony and leaned against the railing, his head only centimeters away from the grey static. He closed his eyes.

Immediately a loud noise pierced Peter's mental ear, clearer than ever before: "Astro! Get back!"

This was Kay, without a doubt. A second later Peter also got a mental image from Claw's point of view. The scene presented to him was not a pretty one, Claw was currently in the process of skewering Astro with his claws. Peter's mind raced to try to figure out what was going on.

Kay was there, Astro was there. Was the Shelter being invaded? No, there was too much grass for that, the high plain before the Shelter was mossy more than anything. Peter realized that they were standing on the Prophet's hill. Claw's vision whipped around, focusing on a figure that stood a bit further up, the Prophet. What exactly was going on here? Peter thought back to his last hours before getting caught. What had he sent back and how could it have led to this?

Then it clicked. There was the sound of distant battle. The hill was near the village that he had found to be fortified. Kay was trying to establish a forward base and Claw was here to assassinate him! Before Peter could contemplate more, a fierce fight broke out between Claw and Kay. Not before long Kay called upon the Book to create portals, something that Peter knew would not work as well as Kay hoped it would, any form of magic used for teleportation created energy impulses, which could be sensed by a Mencur-Besh. Predictably, Claw saw Kay's attack coming.

Moments later Claw stood before the Prophet, who said a last sentence before being slain. This made less sense, why would the Prophet be the primary target of the assassination? Was there something Claw knew that Peter didn't? It definitely was a possibility. Before Peter had time to think deeply on it, Steve had already fallen to Claw. Now it was only Kay left, and he disappeared into a portal, only to reappear moments later.

This was not a fight Kay could win, with or without the Book. Peter knew this body and its potential too well, and by extension this also applied to Claw. Mencur-Besh were each aligned to one of the seven elements the server's magic system used, in Peter's case it was fire-aligned, which manifested in greatly increased strength. Kay could not hope to withstand Claw's attacks, not with… Peter's thoughts paused. There was no red glow coming from between Claw's scales. Any Mencur-Besh could drastically increase its body temperature to enable a different mode of muscle operation, one that offered vastly increased power output at the cost of enormous energy consumption, fire-aligned Mencur-Besh had an especially powerful version of this and yet Claw was not using it.

Something occurred to Peter, he knew how Claw's memory operated from some experiments conducted by the scientists that had created the server. Claw had access to any factual knowledge, but it needed to become relevant first. He was quite handily beating Kay so there was no reason for his mind to bring forth that information, but it certainly would eventually. Once that happened, Kay would be truly done for.

Peter acted fast, reaching within his own memory, which technically was also Claw's, and started concentrating on the muscle overdrive as hard as he could. If his theory was correct, this would prevent Claw from discovering the information while he kept it up, which only needed to be long enough for Kay to gain some kind of advantage and force Claw to retreat.

Tense minutes passed as both combatants tore at each other, at some point Kay briefly disappeared again, only to return holding what looked to be a handful of coins. Silver, of course, that was the advantage that Kay needed.

The actual resolution came as surprisingly to Peter as it had come to Claw, it was not Kay attacking Claw with the silver, but Astro breaking Claw's arm with his spell, an impressive feat considering the hardness and density of Mencur-Besh bones. After losing some taunting words, Claw was teleported away to the inside of the fortified village.

Peter stumbled backwards in exhaustion, the images and sounds in his head disappeared. He was fully and properly drained but satisfied. Kay and Astro lived. Moments later the realization of the Prophet's death sunk in, this would bring some real complications to the rebellion, having lost not only their champion but the one who named that champion as well. Claw showing up fighting for the Entity would also be difficult to explain, for an outsider it would look like their commander turned coat.

Peter sighed. Kay would have some truly difficult times ahead of him, now it was left to see what he'd make of the situation.

As for Peter, he made his way to his bedroom in the left wing, he still hadn't tried if he could sleep in this mindspace, but he would damn well try.