43 – Threshold Invitation
Having left a Waypoint at Earth-Refuge moon base, this time I went directly there instead of the old M2 moon base.
In the end, I chose to spend the grain for the trip because I needed to test whether the corrective force even truly existed on other planes, and experiment with the threshold invitation ritual itself, with people I knew I could trust before I tried it with others.
Experimenting with Shinsoo, collecting some things I thought the Builder might be interested in, and refueling Derf were all secondary objectives.
I'd have liked to test whether Worm was a high frequency leak place for grain as well, but I couldn't stay long enough to do that. I already confirmed that there was still more grain here to siphon, but whether it was enough for a full unit was an open question.
But when I checked in with Enduring Witness, I was surprised to learn that only three days had passed in Worm despite nearly a month passing in Tower of God. It was only June 21.
Why was there such a huge time disparity this time? If ToG's time was still running at the same speed differential, I'd only have less than 36 hours to do everything before it was time for the final test, since it was in two weeks of Tower time.
I quickly prioritized my objectives in terms of both efficiency and importance, then set out.
First I went to M2 to see the copy of Offensive Bias that was in charge of rebuilding it and ordered it to check for any Simurgh flesh still lying around the base ruins. Taylor was back in school, so I decided not to bother her, and then I told Offensive Bias to use his Hydra identity on behalf of CRUCIBLE to try arranging a purchase of a Cauldron vial from Accord for a reasonable price.
Next, I opened a portal to Earth M2B, arriving at the HQ lounge, taking a seat and waiting for Enduring Witness to call for Amelia and Paige.
Amelia came through a portal, arriving first. Then Paige walked over from her soundproofed singing room that was right next to the main control center. After a quick greeting we all sat down on the couches while Enduring Witness brought some snacks and food.
"So did something happen for you to be back so soon?" Amelia asked. "It's only been a few days, I thought you were planning to be away for at least a few weeks again?"
"Actually, it's been more than a month for me. I'm not sure why time flowed so differently in the new world I went to, but I won't be able to stay long if time is running much faster over there."
"A whole month? How was it?"
"Worthwhile, I'd say. It was a very different sort of world—it was inside of a tower filled with a substance called Shinsoo…"
I gave them a basic summary of what happened during my adventures there. Meeting Headon, the tests I went through and how the Tower works, training and taking lessons, and then the fight against a Ranker. But left out the details of who I'd teamed up with and the conspiracy.
"…Derf put up a good fight, and taunted the Ranker until he broke the rules of the test and our team won. Just from that fight alone, I could tell that the people who earned the title of Ranker after reaching the highest floor discovered, really might as well be gods compared to Regulars, let alone your baseline human. Quant wasn't anywhere near the strongest, but I could easily imagine him fighting an Endbringer solo, at least for a while anyways, like Lung did."
"Wow, and there's supposed to be thousands of these Rankers?" Paige asked. "It would be amazing if we could get any on our side to fight against Scion, or even the Endbringers."
"That's right, and they live for a very, very long time. I don't know if they even have a limited lifespan, as long as they're in the Tower and have Shinsoo. It's a miraculous substance, almost like liquid mana, but with unique properties of its own."
"Did you bring any Shinsoo back with you?" Amelia asked.
"Of course I did, it's all in my body though. It can't seem to maintain pressure when exposed to normal air, and just evaporates instantly. I also brought biological samples from the first creature I fought."
Amelia got up and came over to me. "May I?" She asked, reaching a hand towards mine.
I nodded, and she held my hand to observe the changes in my body.
Then she sighed. "I can see even less of your biology now. And what I can see, it's not making any sense. I haven't even figured out anything useful from the magical blood you brought back last time yet," said Amelia.. "I tried all sorts of tests with Enduring Witness already but it just seems to be completely normal."
"Can't say I'm surprised. I'm pretty sure now that magic is just something that exists outside of the natural physical laws. And many things don't work the same way, or not at all, on different worlds. In fact, I learned something very important at the end of my time in the Tower—it's not just magic that gets suppressed, but anything foreign to its common sense, including planeshifters like me, who bring strange powers with them. This is, in fact, the reason I came back—because I started getting suppressed."
"What does that mean, exactly? What happens if you get suppressed?" Amelia asked.
Then I told them about meeting the Builder's will, the process of getting flagged, and the two methods of stopping it.
It was a complicated topic and their lack of familiarity with magic made some things difficult to explain, but eventually they got the gist of what I needed their help for–the threshold invitation ritual contract.
"So…you need us to 'summon' you into our world, in order for you to have permission to use other strange powers? And it'd be a continuous bond between the host and agent…kind of like how our shards work with us? Except we give you the energy, and you're the one that uses your powers to fulfill our orders," said Amelia.
I nodded.
"But we don't have magic of our own…so will that even work?" Asked Paige.
"I don't know, but I intend to find out."
"Okay, sure. We should get Taylor to try too though, doing a magic ritual sounds like something she'd be into," said Amelia.
"You're probably right. I'll go get her after school ends."
"You're kidding. She really went back to school?" Amelia asked with disbelief. having been cut off from contact with Earth Bet since no open portal was kept to the secret worlds. "I couldn't imagine doing that after everything if I were her."
"Oh she did. Probably still trying to keep her civilian life separate from the cape business. Her dad can't be too happy about her missing so many classes while you guys were hiding after the Simurgh fight either."
"School might seem bad when you're there but once you're out for a long time you might miss it. Some people say it's the best time of our lives. I wouldn't go that far but it doesn't seem like such a bad idea to go, even if she won't pursue a normal career," said Paige.
"Yeah but it's Taylor we're talking about. Her school life was terrible. Even if her bullies are gone now, it's just…such a shitty place to go back to, you know? I don't get it."
Paige looked lost. "She was being bullied? I never would have guessed. It's hard to imagine her as a victim of any sort, she's so intense and commanding."
"Oh wait, you don't know. I guess she never told you and it never came up before, huh? Yes, it was extremely awful. They almost killed her and caused her trigger, even," said Amelia.
"What…what did they do?" Paige asked.
"I really shouldn't say without her permission. But every cape's trigger is the worst day of their life, after usually already having shitty lives. You probably hadn't met many capes while you were a rogue, but you should be able to get an idea of it if you think about your own trigger. Come to think of it, you have a really strong Master power too, so I imagine you might have even had similar triggers too, since that's apparently how the shards figure out what powers to give out, according to what Kaleidus told us."
Paige looked distinctly uncomfortable.
Amelia hadn't noticed and went on, looking up as if reliving a memory. "My own trigger was when my sister got shot and I was desperate to save her. And so I don't really mind talking about it, because she was saved and everything was fine after. But most other capes I've heard about aren't that lucky, the powers weren't nearly as helpful, and there's usually lasting trauma there."
"Umm…I…" Paige muttered awkwardly. I stayed silent and just listened, wondering if Amelia would realize why on her own. I was quite sure I'd mentioned that Paige was a vial cape when I'd rescued her, but apparently Amelia forgot about it.
Amelia saw Paige's discomfort but misinterpreted it. "Oh, you don't have to tell me yours just because I told you mine. Don't worry about it. We've gone off topic anyways." She turned back to me.
I waved a hand. "Oh I don't mind. In fact, it might even be helpful to talk about these things. In a way, shard triggers are quite similar. One of the requirements for the ritual is that the host must believe that the world is wrong—or has wronged them, and have a great desire to correct it. You've both suffered grave injustices in life before. You might need to draw on those old feelings."
"I don't know about that. A lot has changed since, my feelings about my trigger just don't really register anymore," said Amelia. "It would probably be easier to think of something else…maybe you should try it with Paige first? Because I'm not sure I feel strongly enough about anything right now. I feel like I've kind of…come to terms with it all?"
"Won't know until we try," I said. "The summoner has to call for me, and if it works, I'll feel the summons and be able to answer and sense whether a bond can be created. So both of you should do the ritual."
O O O
We set up some summoning rooms where the girls could draw magic circles and perform the relevant sacrifices and ceremonies. One for each of them so that they could have some privacy, the feelings they'd be drawing upon might be intensely personal after all.
The ceremony itself wasn't really necessary, but like all magic, it wasn't so much the exact process but the ritualism, symbolism, and self-hypnosis that made the magic happen. One could draw upon symbols with meanings and links to other things, or histories, icons or idols that strengthened the ritual, but in the end it was more of an art than science.
The very act of performing a lengthy ritual could help make the spell more effective, and for them who had no mana or spiritual powers of their own, we needed to go the extra mile.
I waited in the same room as Amelia while sending Agate to Paige, though in regular wand form for 'sense projection', not as Agatetron.
"These lines are completely embarrassing!" Amelia said, reading over the suggestions I transmitted to her own visor HUD. "And He Who Sees Beyond? Prince of Duality? Why not just use your name, or Polychromic?"
"You can use your own lines if you prefer, whatever works," I said. "I suggest the titles because I might not want to use the same name in other planes. But it's probably a good idea to establish a personal history with some titles I can use, to make future rituals easier to answer if another summoner uses the same titles for me, especially if they don't know much about me. They probably won't always be already a close friend or teammate like you."
"Fine. Okay. I'll get started," she said, and started preparing the props and motions.
Meanwhile, Paige was already walking around the circle she'd drawn, incense lit, candles arranged, and chanting in a low voice.
"One soul aggrieved to yearn. One flame to light the way. One circle to open the door. One soul aggrieved to yearn…"
After pacing three times, she lit a single candle with a lighter, and repeated the chant.
She dropped to her knees and held up her hands. "…and one call to the great beyond! I call upon the great lord who gave me life anew, who holds my heart and my sins! Please come to me, O' Lord whose spirit rests in me! I call upon He Who Sees Beyond, Prince of Duality, Lord of the Infinite! By my summons I invite you into the threshold, Lightbearer Who Carries the Stars!"
"…" I observed the ritual closely and there was definitely something there, but it was too weak, even when I was right there and actively trying to reach out with my own mana to make the connection. Paige maintained her posture for a while, until I told her it didn't work.
What followed with Amelia went similarly, though her chant omitted the invocation of the contract Paige previously formed with me in the Birdcage.
We tried again with different variations and not much success, until I left to pick up Taylor.
As Amelia suspected, Taylor was quite enthusiastic about participating in a ritual after we explained the situation to her.
Unfortunately, that enthusiasm did not translate into any more success than the other two.
There were two probable causes—one was their lack of personal magic and mana, or any other spiritual energy source, and the other was their 'willpower', or the strength of the desires in their souls.
We worked into the late night, trying to solve each issue. The first, by using some animal sacrifices, to add to the power of the ritual, and the second, by having the girls practice eliciting strong emotions while doing the ritual.
All of us needed only a few hours of sleep thanks to Amelia's augments, but eventually we took a break anyways, gathering at the lounge again.
"So why do you think it's not working? Is it just because we don't have any magic of our own?" Amelia asked. "Or is the whole ritual a dud?"
"No, I can feel the ritual trying to create a connection, it's just not strong enough. The animal sacrifices helped a bit, and more might be better, but I don't think that's all. If you were trying to summon me when I didn't know you or I wasn't already here, that would probably be more of a problem. But either way, I think it should be possible to establish the summoning connection initially—even if the contract couldn't be completed or sustained because you don't have the energy. As it stands, the problem seems to be with establishing the connection at all, so I think our issue might be more on the emotional side of things."
"You mean we don't want it enough?" asked Taylor.
"That, or a lack of belief and self-hypnosis. Magic only works if you can convince yourself it's possible, after all," I said.
"I think I've seen enough magic to believe that it's possible by now, even if in a scientific way. Just based on the evidence," said Taylor.
"Maybe it's because we've gotten over most of our issues by now? Like I mean, everything has been going great since I met you. I don't feel like I have much to be angry at the world about anymore," said Amelia.
"What about the fact that the world might end within ten years?" asked Taylor. 'Isn't that something to be angry about?"
"That didn't stop you from going back to school and acting as if everything is normal," said Amelia.
"I haven't forgotten about it or anything, it's just, it isn't something we can do anything about in the short-term. And there isn't much heroing to do in Brockton Bay either, Hydra and the Coil clone have everything covered," said Taylor.
"But it wasn't enough for your rituals either, was it?" Amelia asked, to which Taylor shook her head.
"Could be something subconscious holding us back?" Paige suggested.
"What do you mean?" asked Taylor.
"Because we know we're just experimenting?" Paige said hesitantly.
"That could be a contributing factor," I said with a nod. "Or maybe something else entirely…I have a few more ideas we can try."
We brainstormed a while, then continued again with some different adjustments.
To stop potential interference between the rituals, we started doing them one after the other instead of separately in different rooms.
Then Paige used her Master power to amplify Amelia and Taylor's emotions, but that too didn't work—in fact, it had the opposite effect, and the connections got even weaker. I could guess at why that might be, the host was supposed to have free will, and the desire was supposed to come from their soul. What exactly that meant was unclear, but temporary emotions caused by external forces evidently made the whole process worse. So perhaps rather than "emotion" as measured by activity in the brain, it really was something deeper within the soul.
It that sense, I wondered if it was incorrect to separate the concept of mystic or spiritual power of the ritual and the host from the strong desires component. That maybe these two were closely linked—that the "strength" of the soul's desire was also affected by their possession or lack of some form of spiritual energy.
We even tried a group summoning ritual, but that also failed, despite increasing the power of the ritual itself. The call was clear enough for me to answer, but the mess of different intent between them made it impossible to offer a contract to them as a group, nor did any of them individually qualify.
"We should take another break first, longer this time. You all look exhausted," I declared, after the failed group summoning.
All of them had immediately sat down on the ground after the ritual failed, panting. It seemed that repeatedly attempting the magic had drained their energy despite the failures.
O O O
While the team ate and took naps, I did some simple experiments with Shinsoo.
I had carried with me several sealed live cell pouches of Shinsoo within the Armoriont, and a bottle of "water" which was actually just some liquid Shinsoo from the Regulars' cafeteria, and a few bottles of gaseous Shinsoo contained in non-living containers.
When I unsealed a pouch, the Shinsoo dissipated almost instantly. It had already been in a gaseous state when I had collected it in the Tower from the air, so this was not a surprise. What did come as a surprise, was the fact that the water spirits were unable to recollect it. It seemed to just disappear into nothing, rather than actually dispersing into the air. Similarly, it disappeared from my own mana sense. But it was impossible to determine if it truly did disappear or if it merely evaporated to such a low concentration that it couldn't be sensed anymore.
Still, the fact that it remained stable while sealed was a good sign, that it could be potentially studied, and that it was only the transition from keeping it contained to a low pressure open air environment that caused it to disappear.
I tried again, but this time asking the water spirits to maintain control of the Shinsoo, and when they drew it out, it did not dissipate.
The liquid "water" I got instead stayed normal upon release, but incredibly, the mana signature they emitted disappeared as soon as I opened a bottle.
It was at that point that I realized something very strange was going on, which reminded me of a particular physics phenomenon, the observer effect.
I set out to test this by going to the Earth Refuge moon base where I'd kept some sensitive scientific equipment for exactly this purpose.
And when I placed the still sealed but transparent Shinsoo bottles under an electron microscope, the same thing happened. The mana signature disappeared from my senses immediately when I looked at it through the microscope, and what I saw appeared to be completely normal water molecules.
So it wasn't really the phase transition from a pressurized to depressurized state, but perhaps the Shinsoo which held magic potential to be anything, actually became ordinary water once "observed" or interacted with anything that was from this world and not the Tower.
I therefore repeated this experiment, but with the water spirits controlling the Shinsoo and placing that under the electron microscope.
An even more peculiar result occurred: I was unable to see any molecules at all. It took me some time to figure out exactly what I was seeing, but eventually I concluded that in this "controlled" state, the Shinsoo was acting as a form of pure energy, and it did not have any particles. This was true whether I used the gaseous form or the liquid water form, the deciding factor was whether or not the water spirits were in control of it or not.
The instant that control was released, it seemed to "become real", and observable.
Unfortunately I couldn't attempt the iconic double-slit experiment or any of its variations because the water spirits controlling it rendered it meaningless. Even if it functioned as a "wave" or non-particle, it's path was technically well-defined simply because it was being continuously controlled, whereas an interference pattern could only happen as a result of free moving waves after the beam was initially fired. It would be more probably more accurate to say that this was some form of third "semi-magical" state, in which energy somehow had a physical form yet was not comprised of matter-particles, yet not totally undetectable through direct physical observation like mana was—a sort of "magical-physical" duality.
But I confirmed that so long as there was an active intent controlling the Shinsoo, it retained its original properties.
Within my own body at least, the Shinsoo circulation that the water spirits did and my own absorption of Shinsoo at the cellular level seemed to work as normal—placing my own living tissue under the electron microscope yielded a similar "semi-magical" result, where the Shinsoo itself could not be directly perceived yet blurred the image of cell molecules.
Of course, there was also the possibility that the particles were so small as to be at the subatomic level or lower and my instruments were incapable of perceiving them, but ultimately from a practical perspective, what mattered was knowing how to store and use it.
And it confirmed the strategic value of working with Shinsoo—it was something that I could continue to use in planes other than Tower of God, and that it could have lasting effects on my body's base capabilities. On top of its ability to act as a store of mana, even if converting it was pretty slow.
Now what about Shinsoo based items and technology?
I had with me the common Needles, Hooks, and Reels that we were given during the Fishermen classes. But there wasn't really anything special about these things, they were controlled by the user via Shinsoo rather than having magical properties of their own.
The one thing that had special properties of its own was the Rank F Arms Inventory that became available for purchase using Points for Fishermen that passed the Position Test, which I'd bought shortly before I left the Tower.
It was basically a single flat strip panel lined with holes that served as a weapon rack, but it had several features that were similar to a Pocket. It could float in Shinsoo, turn invisible, and compress its size along with all of the weapons carried on it.
The behavior of these properties was quite intriguing in a Shinsoo-less environment. Normally, the low-purity Suspendium of the Arms Inventory meant that it couldn't fully float on its own and needed the user to help manipulate it with Shinsoo. But contrary to the intuitive behavior of buoyancy—the higher the density of the Shinsoo, the harder it was for the same quality of Suspendium to float. This was because, despite gravity seemingly attracting things to the ground, Shinsoo density went in the opposite direction, such that the pressure increased the higher you went.
And now in a Shinsoo-less environment, it reverted to a more intuitive behavior. The Arms Inventory managed to float fine by itself on actual water, but fell down extremely slowly in open air as if it were in a low gravity environment, although it couldn't be controlled since there was no Shinsoo around.
On the other hand, the ability to turn invisible and compress itself did not work without Shinsoo. They did work when I got the water spirits to submerge the Arms Inventory in a bubble of Shinsoo though.
That compression feature seemed like it could be very useful if I acquired better storage items. These experiments seemed to suggest that as long as I had Shinsoo available, all Shinsoo-based items would work normally, and I had long wanted a mobile inventory system that worked on other planes.
With my experiments done, I went to refuel Derflinger by going to the Armoriont farm I left on Earth Refuge.
I had asked Amelia last time to make a super organism I could use for draining purposes, but that turned out to be quite ineffective. In order to do the drain, the organism had to have a close enough connection to me to be considered a part of me. It was possible to sacrifice other living things as part of rituals, but I couldn't extract their mana to myself that way. And it was not as simple as converting glucose or fats, either—the process of draining afflicted the living cells and tissues that were being drained, it was not conventional sort of energy conversion process. That meant that cells were broken down or killed mysteriously as their microscopic spiritual energy was taken.
But because the energy was from the spirit and not just a purely physical thing, its level of complex sentience and spiritual connection to the primary host mattered a lot. The larger the body of the symbiote, such as the chimera titan which the Armoriont could meld into and control, the less it fit into the concept of "me" and so the less useful they were.
When draining the Armoriont farm, I had to limit each Armoriont's size, and re-sync up with them one by one to drain them.
It was incredibly boring and tedious work, and made more difficult by the fact that both me and the Armoriont I'd taken with me to the Tower had apparently diverged significantly from the ones I'd left in the farm, and I'd similarly found it more difficult to magically subsume the older ones.
I could've had my Shinsoo improved Armoriont split new copies, but I suspected that would actually not be a good idea since each copy would dilute the Shinsoo-enhanced properties as any biomass they consumed here wouldn't have any Shinsoo. Refilling Derf was not really such a high priority issue that I'd consider sacrificing the potential enhancements that Shinsoo could provide over the long-term.
So now it took a little longer per Armoriont to drain them, and I couldn't even do all 256 each hour.
Last time I'd spent a little over 2 full days of doing this mind-numbing work to refill Derflinger back from empty. This time Derf was missing about thirty percent of his reserves, and after the first hour I'd estimated that it might take a day and a half just to refill the thirty percent, at 440 MP per hour if I kept up this pace.
Unfortunately, I didn't have anywhere near that much time. After all the ritual testing with the team, I'd had maybe 22 hours left if I wanted to get back to the Tower in time for the final test. What's more, the time tradeoff wasn't necessarily worth it, because even though I could get MP faster here relative to my personal time, what actually mattered was how fast I recovered relative to the Tower time.
Because I could also instead spend a longer amount of personal time in the Tower and recover MP through Agate and converting Shinsoo with the water spirits. And Derf himself could probably use the practice himself, to absorb mana from getting hit with Shinsoo attacks or from the environment, even if we wound up recovering MP at an overall slower pace.
"What do you think, Derf? This is boring as hell, want to refill back at the Tower instead? If we have any extra time once we finish with the invitation spell testing, we can go back early instead of doing more of this," I asked him.
"Sounds good to me. I don't even really care if I'm full on mana or not. I've got some ideas I want to try with Shinsoo, got some inspiration from our last fight with that Ranker guy, I feel like there might be a way for me to use it, just not like the Wave Controllers we learned about."
We continued for a while since the team was still resting, but since Derf was awake I talked to him about the Builder and the ritual we were trying to test.
"If the issue is really just that they have no mana of their own, that's going to make things a lot more difficult for me, on similar planes where people don't have magic. Could there be any other reason we haven't thought of?"
"What about the things that are connected to them? You said they might have magic, right?" said Derf. "That's why you want to try trading the vials that give powers?"
"You mean offering a contract to a shard instead?" I asked. "That might be possible but I don't think it's a good idea, even if I could do it somehow."
"No, I mean, they're connected to your teammates, aren't they? Mentally and probably spiritually. So what if that's causing problems, because what they want aren't the same thing? Like how the group ritual failed because of their willpower was mixing. I remember my maker complaining about something like that for her spirit magic, because the spirits hated Brimir for being…well, you know, the same reason other planes hate us now, haha."
"Damn, you're right. That could be it. I bet none of them want their hosts to get any help from anything else," I said. "Their whole purpose is to make their hosts use their own powers as much as possible and encourage them to get into bad situations. We'll have to try doing the ritual outside of their range then."
"We could also try to give them some magic power directly during the ritual."
"A mana transfer? Like if they imbibed my blood?"
"Yeah, or if they let me Boost them," said Derf.
"An outside influence like that might make it worse though, we saw that when we tried to use Paige's power."
"I don't take over their minds though, it's just sharing some energy. Though you might be right still, if the magic is tainted by another source, it could disrupt things. Even things like blood carry spiritual residue from the original owner," said Derf.
"But worth a try, anyways, if moving them outside the shard range isn't enough."
O O O
A couple of hours later, I set out with Amelia on the AAPV into space beyond the moon. It was still the only one we had as the facilities for making another AAPV were still being reconstructed and wouldn't be ready on the M2 base for several more days at the earliest, and even longer at the secret worlds.
There was not much space to begin with and the lack of artificial gravity made the ritual setup extra complicated, so we had decided to do this one by one, rather than having the whole team come along.
Then Amelia did the ritual. At the end of her chant, the magic fizzled out again. She sighed.
"Sorry, I think this just isn't going to work with me," she said. "The shards might be part of it, but I don't think I'm the right person to be your host even if every other condition was there."
"Why do you think so?"
"Isn't it obvious? You know what I really want, Kaleidus. There isn't anything specific I want you to do for me."
"I thought that would make you the best choice. If your wish is for me to stay here," I said. "I'd be fulfilling the contract just by being here."
"Yeah but I know you won't stay for long, even if this contract works. And I don't want to hold you back from leaving either," said Amelia. "Isn't that what a contract with me would really mean? For me to order you to stay with me."
"You do realize that if I can't get an invitation here, it'll be hard to even visit? I could avoid using any foreign powers and stay under the radar, but that's not a sure thing. Without a contract, even if I were able to reset the suppression a few times, eventually I might reach the point of not being able to come back at all."
"But that isn't happening today, and if that does happen, what I really want is for you to take me with you. What's so great about staying in a world that's doomed to end sooner or later?"
"I don't know if that's something I can even do, I've recently learned that I know very little about the way I travel, and everything is too risky to test, because bad assumptions probably mean we die," I said honestly, thinking of the fact that I'd still been too afraid to test whether I could bring anyone with me. And it wasn't just the possibility of facing another Beast, but the fact that my spell had never actually been tested with two souls riding in the unformed creation bubbles. If something went wrong and the bubble broke down or I lost control of it mid-transit, there was no evacuation plan, nor could there be any. And it wasn't like I could just test with a random expendable person, because I was also in the bubble and at risk.
"But I suppose you're right, either way, whether it's to figure out how to defeat Scion or how to bring others with me, I can't find the answers here."
She nodded, but remained silent, and we headed back to the moon base.
Once we got back, she announced that she was heading back planet-side, and asked Enduring Witness to make a portal for her. When Taylor and Paige looked confused, I waved them off.
O O O
"You're my last hope, Taylor," I said to her once we blasted off into space. "We need to make this count."
"What do you mean? Couldn't we just keep trying with more adjustments? What happened with Amelia?"
"She doesn't have the right mindset to make this work, unfortunately. It isn't her fault, but we can't do anything about it. I believe you're the only one that can muster the necessary will to form a contract with me, because only you have something you need my help to achieve," I said.
"What about Paige? I'm sure she'd keep trying no matter what," said Taylor. "She's very dedicated."
"But it is a different kind of dedication from yours, and I suspect that it will never work with her either. To her, the ritual is a way to help me, because I asked for it. But it doesn't work unless she wants it for herself. I'm not sure if she even has any wishes of her own. She'll listen to whatever I say, but this contract needs her to be willing to command," I said. "To believe that she has the right to force the world to listen to her."
"Alright. Is there anything you think I should focus on?"
"It's up to you, really. Whatever you think is unfair about the world, that needs to change. That you need my help for. Feel free to take some time to think about it if you need to. The ritual will be better for it."
"There are lots of things. Scion and the Endbringers, obviously. And for my dad to let me fight. To keep him safe. For the city to get better. I want my best friend back, even though that's stupid, I just can't help it. When I went back to Winslow it was so strange, not seeing Emma and the trio. Somehow I got used to them being there. It was almost…worse that there was nobody to bother me anymore, and everyone else seems to have forgotten all about them, about me, and what they did to me. Like everything I went through didn't even matter."
I kept silent, but nodded, encouraging her to continue.
"I don't know what I expected. Apologies? From the school, or maybe from all the people who stood by and did nothing. The teachers who failed to do their jobs? They could barely meet my eyes, and all the other girls that hung out with Emma, they all got off with a slap on the wrist. They just went on to target other people. Nothing changed, and I still have no friends, nor do I want any of them to be my friend. It really isn't fair, is it? The police got the proof they needed, the bullies were punished, I won, damn it…so why doesn't it feel like I won anything? Where is my happy ending?" She said bitterly.
"Instead, I missed a month of classes after we risked our lives to fight the Simurgh and had to hide in another world, and I can't even really explain why, so it's just truancy. Or maybe they think I'm just a traumatized victim, a lost cause, a problem that will just go away soon if they ignore it, because people fall by the wayside and this is just normal in the Bay? Now the year's almost over and I might actually fail some of my classes. I wish I could say that I'm happy that they're processing a transfer to Arcadia for next term, but I don't want to have to repeat a year just to catch up. And who knows if Arcadia will even be much better, I still won't have any friends there."
"Do you want Amelia and Paige to go back to Brockton Bay with you?" I asked.
"I can handle it, summer's about to start anyways, so I won't have to deal with it much longer. But we were talking about the things I'm not happy about, so there it is. But it isn't so much about me, as it is the fact that everything will just happen all over again, to somebody else. There will be another trio, and another Taylor. How many capes trigger every year? How many others never trigger, never get any help, and never get their comeuppance?"
"Far too many. This world is locked in a constant cycle of endless misery, a struggle between good and evil with only temporary victories," I said. "Powers and Endbringers have only magnified what has always been there, tilting the scales towards complete destruction."
"Exactly. That's what's wrong with the world, and that's why our team exists, right? To push the scales back. To make the world a better place. It isn't any one thing or enemy to defeat, but to do what we can to make things right," said Taylor, nodding to herself, then held a hand out towards the magic circle.
"That's why we need you with us. We need all the help we can get, all the powers you can bring to the table, no matter where they come from."
She lit the first candle.
"One soul aggrieved to yearn. One flame to light the way. One circle to open the door…"
Something seemed different this time as the chant was repeated. I felt the air become heavy with an unknown pressure.
She poured a vial of my blood out onto the circle, and instead of floating in the zero-g environment,, it actually slowly fell towards the circle as if being drawn in.
"By my summons, I invite you into the threshold, Lightbearer Who Carries the Stars. I call upon He Who Sees Beyond, to help me find the answer. I beseech the Prince of Duality, to bring the scales back into balance! Thrice I invoke your name, so answer my call, and form a contract with me!"
Then she cut herself and let her own blood fall into the circle as well.
The magic circle alighted. Then the chain of candles around the circle lit by themselves.
I felt the connection reach out, and I responded with my own mana. There was a tug on me, and I let it take hold, even metaphorically grabbing it back and pulling myself towards it, then I suddenly found myself inside the circle.
There was an invisible presence of some sort, that seemed to fix its gaze upon me, blanketing the area in a pulse that gave a feeling of scorching my mana. The plane's corrective force, I assumed, its attention having been drawn by my reaction to the ritual.
"Who dares to call upon Erkshminialhhathrr? A mere human?" I said imperiously.
"The Queen of Bugs greets the mighty Prince, may your light that eclipses novas vividly echo until the end of time."
"I'm surprised Amelia remembered precisely enough to tell you even the supposed translation, and that you also remembered."
"We thought you might do something like that again, so we had to be ready for it," she said with a grin.
"Very well, I offer you a contract. As my host, you will become my anchor in this world, and your energy will sustain me. In exchange, I will carry out your commands and use my powers on your behalf, according to the energy you provide me. The contract shall end if either of us wish for it. Do you accept?"
"Yes."
The bond fully formed, and then that smothering presence vanished.
And then Taylor fainted.
O O O