"So, did they say if our access request was accepted?" Rex asked as the group made their way back to the academy's administrative offices, weaving their way through the crowd of students headed to their second classes of the day.
They had woken up bright and early that morning, hoping that they would receive word that the letter of recommendation Morag had given them had been accepted sometime soon. None of them had expected it to have already arrived when they woke up, of course—such administrative tasks were only performed during the daylight hours—but they had at least been hoping to receive a response before noon.
Despite that, they had all still been quite surprised when a courier from the academy had turned up halfway through breakfast with a letter from the access requests department. Nia, who had largely taken it upon herself to handle the interactions with the academy's administrative staff, had given the letter a quick read-over before informing the rest that they needed to head back to the academy's offices.
"Didn't say." The Gormotti girl shrugged. "I'm betting it has been, but all the letter actually said was for us to head back over."
"Tora think rude letter not say." The nopon huffed in between bites of a scone. Still not being used to getting up as early as the others, Tora had been late to breakfast, arriving only just before the courier had passed the letter along. Rather than delay the rest of the group, he had opted to quickly eat the main portion of the food there and finish the more mobile parts of his meal on the way to the academy. "If make friends come all way out to academy, at least should give reason why."
"Inn not far from Academy, Masterpon." Poppi pointed out flatly. "Only fifteen minute walk even with crowd."
Her creator flushed, which Rex considered rather impressive, seeing as the nopon was covered in a layer of fur. "It principle of matter!" Tora insisted, waving the scone around in one wing. "Academy ask friends for meeting, but not say why? Is rude!"
Nia rolled her eyes. "It's fine." She insisted. "They probably just have some follow-up stuff to cover before they give final approval."
"And I'm sure that the source of our letter of introduction also makes them rather hesitant to include details in a simple summons." Azurda surmised. "Discretion is important, after all."
"That too." The Gormotti girl nodded, walking up the steps to the door of the administrative building. "Although I imagine that's part of the reason they used a courier."
She walked through the doors, followed closely by the rest of the party. They didn't bother checking in at the front desk, the letter having specifically instructed them to return to the access requests office.
When they reached their destination, they found that they were expected. Rather than a sleepy clerk behind a nearby desk, there was instead an older-looking Gormotti man standing in the middle of the room, apparently waiting for them by the way he perked up at their entrance.
"Good morning!" He greeted, offering a hand to the group. "You must be the ones the Special Inquisitor recommended."
Nia hesitantly reached an arm out, grabbing the man's hand with her own. "That's us." She confirmed.
If he noticed the slight discomfort the girl was displaying, he didn't mention it, instead offering Rex a handshake as well. "You will be happy to learn that the Ardainians confirmed the legitimacy of your letter last night, so we were able to approve your access request this morning." He said cheerfully.
Leading the group over to the counter, he gestured for the clerk behind the desk, a young Urayan woman, to hand over a file. "This file contains your access passes." He said, pulling out three cards and handing one each to Rex, Nia, and Tora. "You'll have to present it at the desk whenever you enter the building."
Glancing at the Blades behind them, he added, "Your passes will allow your Blades access as well, but they will need to remain with you." The man said. "If you require them to access the library resources on their own, we can arrange for them to get their own passes, but the procedure will take longer than yours did."
Tora frowned at the statement. "Tora think may want individual pass for Poppi." The nopon spoke up. "Friends have specific information looking for, but Tora think Poppi want learn more in general."
"Poppi want learn all library have to offer!" The mechanical girl chirped. "Not everyday get access to such big repository of knowledge!"
"I see." The Gormotti man replied without even a hit of hesitation. "In that case, we'll begin the process to have a secondary pass issued."
Rex gave the man a bright grin. "Thanks for that." He said, taking his pass from the man. "What sort of rules do we need to follow while we're in the library?"
"We will have the secretary at the front desk of the library give you a full rundown of the rules." The man replied, glancing at Rex with a curious expression. "But the primary concerns are standard for most libraries: be mindful of the noise levels; do not interrupt others who are in the middle of research, especially students; don't damage any of the books…" He trailed off for a moment. "As Drivers, we have the added stipulation of not drawing your weapons while inside the building. In fact, we would prefer you not bring them in at all."
He wasn't completely pleased with the idea. While he didn't technically need to cart the Aegis Sword around, seeing as he could always summon a new copy if needed, the new weapon wouldn't have the false weapon core Tora had made for it.
"That seems a little counterintuitive." Nia spoke up, using the same polite tone as yesterday. "Drivers are able to summon new copies of their weapon at will, so leaving them behind doesn't hinder the potential danger one could cause, should they wish to. By carrying our weapons around, at least it is more obvious to outside observers that we are Drivers."
"Yes, hence why it is only a suggestion." The man replied with a note of disapproval. "Regardless of whether or not you bring your weapons with you, we do request they remain inactive at all times."
"Shouldn't be a problem." Rex shrugged. "We're not here to fight, after all." Even as he said that, a thought crossed his mind. "That being said, if someone does try to cause trouble, what do you want us to do?"
The man stared at him, an unamused eyebrow raised. "I would advise you not to get involved and to disengage and find a guard if you cannot." His eyes flicked over to Nia before returning to Rex. "You're not anticipating that you will find yourselves in such trouble, yes?"
On Rex's shoulder, Azurda laughed at the man's concerns. "Considering my Driver's luck, it's an important question to settle ahead of time." The Titan replied.
"I… see." The man replied, his own genial look slipping slightly. "In that case, I would be remiss to not remind you that, due to being recommended by the Special Inquisitor, your own actions here will reflect back on her." His voice hardened slightly, though still remained polite. "I would advise you be on your best behavior."
Nia inclined her head. "We will do our best to not betray the trust she has placed in us."
"See that you don't." The man replied, giving a bow of his own. "Enjoy your time at Tadbir Academy."
He excused himself, quickly making his way to a door on the far side of the room labeled 'staff only'. As he departed, Nia allowed her professional demeanor to falter. "Pleasant guy." She commented with more than a little sarcasm, watching as the door closed behind him.
At her side, Dromarch rumbled in disagreement. "I suspect he was forced to divert from his primary duties to engage with us and merely wishes to return to them now that we have been assisted." The tiger observed. "Additionally, I have observed that the common people are frequently… disquieted by situations that Drivers consider mundane. For us, the idea that we may be assailed while making use of the library is a mere annoyance, but for a man in his position, the possibility represents a nearly incomprehensible danger to an important resource."
"Good point." Rex replied. As a salvager, he had been accustomed to a certain degree of inherent danger even before his encounter with Mythra, but even compared to that, the sorts of situations he had found himself in since becoming a Blade Eater had been rather… excessive. He couldn't imagine how large of a contrast it would be for someone like the man they had been talking with, who was most likely an administrator.
Shaking her head, Nia turned around, her eyes glancing over at the door. "Well, we might as well head out." She said, idly scratching Dromarch's scalp. "Those books aren't gonna read themselves, after all."
Tora scratched his chin thoughtfully. "Not read selves yet." He said, his eyes beginning to shine as the possibilities came to him. "Tora wonder how hard would be to make machine that-"
Nia walked past him, cuffing the nopon on the skull as she passed by. "Library now, crazy inventions later." She said, walking out of the room.
"Should we do anything about them, Mik?" Cressidus asked, watching Nia and her companions cross the academy's campus from the roof of a building just beyond the walls.
His Driver shrugged slightly, trying his best not to move too much, least he draw any more attention to them than Cressidus' massive form was already prone to. It had been hard enough to find a position that would allow them to watch the main exits of the building without making them too apparent to the students crossing the campus as it was. The last thing they needed was to actively draw attention. "There's not much of a point at the moment." He replied. "If we try to jump them now, we'll get swarmed by the academy's guards."
The burly Blade flexed his muscles. "You think that will be a problem for the two of us?" He asked, fully confident in the abilities of himself and his partner. "Most of the guards won't even be Drivers! We can take them!"
Mikhail sighed, shaking his head at the Blade. "Enough of them will be, and even if none were, I wouldn't want to be fighting them and the brats at the same time." He insisted, his eyes still fixed on the brown-haired salvager. "Malos may not have thought much of the kid's fighting skills, but Nia's at least competent, and the nopon is an unknown." Particularly because of his Blade. He had already been suspecting it, thanks to the orange ether return on Obrona's trace, but that was definitely an artificial Blade, seemingly the same class as the maid that followed Bana's pet overseer around, rather than the mass-produced ones the corpulent nopon was producing for them. Where had he gotten that from!?
"Besides, a fight like that will draw the headmaster's attention, and I'd rather not tangle with his Blade if we can avoid it."
He'd fought her once before, back before her Core Crystal ended up in Tadbir. After that fight, he didn't fancy his chances of taking her without an ambush, and at least Akhos or Patroka and their Blades backing him. That woman was scary, even when taken by surprise.
Cressidus wasn't impressed by his hesitance. "Fine." He grumbled disapprovingly. "Be like that. It's not as if we're trying to capture the salvager kid or anything."
"In case you forgot, no, we're not." Mikhail replied, sighing in annoyance. "That's the overall goal, yes, but our main reason for being here is recruitment."
Not that they had any leads on their potential recruits, of course—all signs that he could find indicated that their return on Obrona's tracking had originated from somewhere beneath the academy's grounds, but his admittedly pitiful attempts at subtle snooping around had failed to locate an actual means of reaching them.
And discovering that Nia and the Aegis kid were also here hadn't exactly made that any easier. He had been enjoying being able to wander around without a disguise beyond a change of clothes—his identity may not be known to the authorities, but Tornese Driver armor wasn't exactly common these days. It would draw attention to him, especially considering that Malos and Jin wore similar armor—but with Nia about, he needed to be more careful, lest she identified him.
Not that it really changed much, he supposed. Without authorization to access the campus, he was going to need to do even more sneaking if he wanted to find a way to wherever they were; maybe having Nia around to force him to be subtle was a good thing in the long run.
"To hell with the recruiting, then." His Blade grumbled. "If we can capture the boy now, we won't need the recruits! It's not like anyone will be alive for very long afterwards anyway."
He had to admit, Cress had a point. It would pretty much invalidate their whole reason for being there, but on the other hand… "We'll need to talk to Jin first." He insisted, watching his former comrade from afar. "There's no way he doesn't know they're here, what with Akhos tracking them."
It really was a good thing that they hadn't taught Nia how to shield her signal return from ether tracking techniques like Obrona's. At the time, he hadn't understood why Jin had insisted on waiting until she had proven her loyalty, instead making the girl rely on the static protections Mikhail himself had installed on the Marsanes and their ships. He must have realized there was a chance that she was too soft-hearted to do what was necessary.
A shame, really; she was pretty cute. Not exactly what he was after—even if he wasn't actively trying to pursue Patroka, the Gormotti Flesh Eater was too young and inexperienced for his tastes—but cute enough that he felt it would be a waste to kill her. The world was ugly enough without him actively destroying what beauty remained, after all.
Cressidus snorted in reply. "You'd think they would have at least given us a warning in advance." The bulky Blade said, smacking a fist against his chest. "They almost ran right into me yesterday when they were blindly wandering around the markets."
Fortunately, it hadn't been Nia who had nearly run into him, but the nopon, who had been rushing to check out the same mechanical goods shop he and Cressidus had been. It had been a nasty surprise, to be sure, and Mikhail had spent much of the next hour cursing his Thespian comrade for not warning them that the kids were headed to Tadbir as well.
Nia apparently hadn't given her companions an in-depth description of what the other members of Torna looked like; otherwise, they would have been caught then and there. It was still enough of a fright for him and his Blade to make a hasty retreat, careful to not be spotted by the Gormotti girl or the tiger.
Sighing, the Blade Eater stood up and stretched, his eyes still fixed on the kids as they walked up the steps to the academy's library. "If they've not contacted us yet, then Jin probably has something in mind." He said, before amending, "Well, unless Akhos doesn't think Tadbir's an 'appropriate stage' for us to capture the kid."
The burly Blade laughed at that. "He would do that, wouldn't he?"
"I'd hope that Jin would be able to keep him on track if it came to that, but…" He trailed off, watching as their targets vanished into the library. "Well, I guess it doesn't really matter why."
He leapt down from the roof, landing silently in the deserted alleyway below. The Blade Eater had barely so much as touched down when Cressidus landed behind him, his giant form—still bearing a strong resemblance to the Garlus that had served as his previous Driver—causing the paving bricks to shatter under his weight.
Mikhail sighed. He didn't know why he bothered sometimes.
They quickly made their way out of the alley, hoping to avoid anyone coming to investigate the tremors that Cressidus' landing had caused. They had enough to worry about without having to deal with the local authorities too.
"Regardless of what Jin had to say, we'll keep an eye on them." He assured his Blade. "Even if nabbing the kid from here isn't part of the plan, there's no sense in just letting them go when they're right in front of us, after all."
Knowing Jin, the Flesh Eater probably had a plan for how to deal with them. If he took his own initiative here without checking in first, there was a good chance he would end up screwing up whatever the others had planned.
No, it would be best to coordinate with the rest of Torna first. If they wanted him to nab the kid if the opportunity arose, then he would. But that didn't mean he wasn't still going to complete his primary mission first.
Regardless of whether or not those potential recruits were willing to join them, he was at least going to break them out of wherever they were being held. They deserved better than to spend the last days of Alrest stuck in a cage.
"Man, this place is enormous!" Rex exclaimed in awe, looking wide-eyed around the interior of the academy's library.
"Quiet down!" Nia hissed, shaking the boy's shoulder. "You're going to get us tossed out of here in the first five minutes!"
The boy deflated slightly, sheepishly scratching the back of his head as he looked around. The secretary, who had given them a rundown of the rules just a moment earlier, was glaring daggers at him from the other side of her desk. He really needed to stop letting his enthusiasm get the better of him in situations like this.
He could hardly be blamed, though; this place was amazing! While he had never actually been to a library before, he at least had an approximate idea of what one was supposed to look like: a large, open area filled with bookshelves. That had turned out to be roughly accurate, but he had vastly underestimated just how big that place was.
The library's main room was at least the same size as Goldmouth's central hold, where both the bazaar and the cargo storage were. Towering bookshelves, no less than three stories tall, stretched from the floor to the ceiling of the room, with sliding ladders and even the occasional catwalk allowing access to the books on the higher shelves.
At a guess, there had to be hundreds of those shelves, too; between the shelves, he could see rows upon rows of further ones reaching back further into the building. He couldn't even imagine just how many books were stored here.
Rex would be the first person to admit that he was hardly a reader. He certainly had kept a small collection of books in his cabin on Azurda's back, but he mostly read to pass the time between salvaging jobs, and even then only when he didn't have any maintenance to do on his gear or had already exhausted himself training with his sword under Azurda's watchful eyes.
But even he couldn't help but be impressed by this place. It held so many books, contained so much knowledge… he could practically feel the library's presence, as if the very concept of it carried physical weight.
"Sorry… you're right." He muttered, looking around the front section of the library. The center aisle of the room, between the rows of shelves, was filled with tables instead of books, giving both students and researchers a place to read and properly study the books that they had pulled off the shelves. Most of them had already been taken, even this early in the morning. It was a testament to how important the building was to the academy as a whole.
Nia sighed, shaking her head, before looking around as well. "So… where do we start?"
"Presumably by asking someone for directions." Dromarch replied dryly. "Unless you are familiar with the categorization method they employ in this library, I do not believe we will be making much headway without assistance."
"Yeah, yeah, smartass." She muttered. "I get that, but…" The girl trailed off, gesturing out across the library. "Even if we ask one of the librarians for help, where are we supposed to start? What, are we just going to say, 'hey, I know that the World Tree is off limits by order of the Praetor, but we want to read up on everything you know about the big snake guarding it'?"
Her Blade gave her a disapproving look. "My Lady, you do not need to be so sarcastic." He chided. "I am fully aware that there will be difficulties posed in trying to locate the information we seek."
"Perhaps it would be best if we began by asking about folklore related to the World Tree." Azurda suggested, cutting in before the two began disturbing the other denizens of the library. "I suspect that it is where most information regarding the serpent will have ended up, and it will give us a reasonable excuse to look further into more concrete facts should we not discover what we are looking for."
"Sounds reasonable to me." Rex agreed. "I'm pretty used to the sorts of tales that sailors tell, so I can probably help weed out the useful tidbits from the tall tales."
Tora looked skeptical about the idea. "Will stories really have information that help friends find way to sneaky-sneak past big snake?" The nopon asked, scratching his head with one wing. "Tora not understand how stories of drunk sailors help."
"Oh, they won't on their own." Rex noted, leading the group further into the library. There had to be a librarian here somewhere, right? "Sailors like to tell exaggerated stories when they're in port, but they're not completely made up. Like, you'll always hear stories about how a merchant escaped a fleet of pirates after their goods, or a fisherman caught a full-sized Marrin in their nets that got away, and you can tell pretty easily that they're not telling what actually happened.
"But that's the thing. It's an exaggeration, not something that was completely made up." He explained. "The merchant might have actually run into pirates, but probably only one small ship, or the fisherman may have lost his net along with a catch, but it was probably a monkfish instead of a Marrin. They're mostly real stories, just made to sound more impressive back at port."
Nia frowned at that. "I don't see how it helps us, though." She pointed out. "If they're an exaggeration, then we won't be getting anything useful out of them, right? Even if we work out what actually happened, we'll have to guess how much they've been exaggerated."
"That's where I come in!" He boasted, puffing out his chest. "I've had years of experience extracting the nuggets of wisdom from tall tales like that!"
She glanced back at him, a mischievous look in her eyes. "Oh? Is that so?" The girl said, her lips curling into a smile. "I guess that explains where you got all that dopey 'salvagers code' guff, then."
"H-hey! It's not guff!" Rex sputtered in response. "I'll have you know that the Salvager's Code is a time honored-tradition back in the guilds!"
"Keep telling yourself that." Nia replied, grinning in success at the boy's reaction.
Beside them, Poppi swiveled her head around, a hand shielding her eyes in an exaggerated 'searching' pose. As she stared down one of the nearby aisles, she suddenly paused before calling out to Tora.
"Masterpon," She reported, pointing between the bookshelves. "Poppi see librarian."
Rex, who was about to snap back at Nia, turned to look at the artificial Blade, his bickering with the Gormotti girl forgotten. "Really?" He asked, his eyes following the direction the artificial Blade was pointing. "Where?"
Partway down the aisle, surrounded by a stack of books, was a turquoise-haired woman wearing what appeared to be an off-white dress from this distance. For a brief moment, the boy believed that she was in the middle of restocking the shelf, but as he was registering her appearance, the woman pulled a book off of the shelf instead.
She glanced at the cover for a moment, her face too distant for the boy to be able to determine her expression, before carefully placing it atop the pile beside her. As she leaned down to do so, her angle shifted slightly, allowing Rex to make out more of her appearance.
What he had thought was a dress was, in fact, some sort of coat, almost like the sort one would expect to see in a lab. It was accented by bronze-colored armor that ran across her shoulders and arms, and a giant book bound by a chain floated beside her, partially concealed from their view by her body.
He assumed that meant she was either a Driver or a Blade, although he couldn't tell which from the distance. There weren't many people outside of those categories who wandered around with what was probably a Blade weapon, after all.
"Um, Poppi?" He said hesitantly. "I… don't think she's a librarian." Personally, he suspected the woman was probably a researcher, and considering one of the rules had been to not disturb them…
The artificial Blade furrowed her brow. "Poppi go ask." She declared, marching forward with sudden intent that took the others by surprise.
"P-Poppi!" Tora cried, hurrying after his Blade. "Wait for Masterpon!"
Rex and Nia glanced at each other in surprise, taken aback by the artificial Blade's forwardness, before rushing after her. "Hold on a moment!" Nia hissed, trying to keep her volume down. "We're not supposed to-!"
Before she could finish, Poppi reached out and tugged at the woman's sleeve. "Excuse me?" The artificial Blade asked politely, putting on what Rex could only describe as 'Pippito eyes'. "Is friend a librarian?"
"Hmm?" The woman mused, looking down at the source of whatever had broken her concentration. "Nopon speech pattern, but with a slight aural distortion indicating a mechanical source…" She mused as her eyes fell on the artificial Blade.
She blinked, her eyes widening as she registered what she was looking at. "Oh my…"
Poppi shrank in on herself at the woman's reaction, suddenly looking rather uncomfortable. "Poppi apologize if disrupt, just want know if-"
"…Goodness!" The woman finished rather abruptly, dropping the book she had been holding as she fully faced the artificial Blade. "You're a robot, yes? Not a Blade that has taken the appearance of one?"
The mechanical girl nodded uncertainly. "Y-yes. Poppi is-"
"Oh, how wonderful!" The woman gushed, cutting Poppi off as she circled around her, examining the poor girl. "I have always speculated that we would be able to create such lifelike simulacra with our current level of technological sophistication, but I never expected to encounter a specimen in the wild, such as it is!"
"Um…" The artificial Blade muttered awkwardly. "Poppi just want-"
But the woman wasn't nearly done. "And that crystal… it isn't a Core Crystal, but it's designed to emulate the appearance of one… are your functions designed to mimic those of a Blade? I've seen research that implies it would be possible to generate an artificial affinity link, but the power requirements were exorbitant for the potential form factor of any carrier. What sort of power system are you employing to be equipped with an artificial affinity link while operating a child-sized body? It must be remarkably compact, moreso than even modern Ardainian military-grade ether furnaces, if you're able to operate an-"
"Friend excuse Tora!" The nopon called out, coming to Poppi's rescue. He placed himself in between his Blade and the inquisitive woman, waving his wings frantically as he tried to draw her attention away from Poppi. "Tora happy that friend is so excited about Poppi, but humbly ask that direct questions about to Tora."
"Masterpon!" The artificial Blade breathed a sigh of relief, smiling at her creator's back.
The woman stared at the nopon, her eyes quickly assessing the equipment he was carrying. "Oh, are you her creator?" She asked, her eyes practically glowing with eagerness. "You really wouldn't mind answering a few questions for me?"
He puffed out his chest, wings curled like fists against his waist. "Of course!" He preened. "Tora more than happy to talk about development! Poppi product of many many years of family of Tora work to make artificial Blade!"
Before the woman could actually begin asking, though, Nia stepped in. "Hang on just a moment, Tora." She said, placing a firm hand on the nopon's shoulder. "Is this really the time to be doing this?"
Rex turned to the woman, offering her an apologetic look. "Sorry for disturbing you." He said, scratching the back of his head. "We've been looking for a librarian, and Poppi thought you might be one."
Now that he was close enough to see her, it was pretty obvious why the artificial Blade would have thought so. The woman, very clearly a Blade, carried a strong 'book' theme. The large tome that was floating beside her was not a Blade weapon as he had suspected, but part of her outfit, connected to her bronze shoulder armor by a sturdy chain.
The coat she was wearing only made it even more clear, as it appeared to be made of overlapping sheets of weather-yellowed paper, occasionally rimmed by ether lines. As he apologized to her, a sheet gently shed itself from the hem of her coat, gently drifting up to the book and settling into place amongst the other pages. Almost as if the outfit itself was constructed from the tome itself.
Of course, the real giveaway was the fact that a large portion of her torso, as well as the ends of her legs, seemed to be… missing, the edges of the gaps fading into the sharp, blocky edges of tessellated paper. Gentle motes of luminous blue ether floated serenely in the spaces where her body was missing. He wasn't entirely sure how he hadn't seen that earlier.
She turned to look at him, only just realizing that Poppi and Tora's group was actually larger than the two of them. "Don't worry about it." The woman insisted. "I was just gathering some supplementary research material for my Driver. Frankly, I could have provided the information for him if he really needed it that badly—I've memorized all of these books, after all."
Looking back at Poppi and Tora, her eyes filled with burning curiosity, she continued. "Compared to that, getting to meet your friends here—a truly autonomous robot and the engineer capable of creating one? That's far more interesting."
Grinning slightly, she added, "Also, technically, I am a librarian. That's just not my primary job here."
"In that case, can book lady assist friends?" Poppi asked. "Poppi and Masterpon happy to talk, but not want leave friends waiting." She glanced over at her creator, giving him an expectant look.
Without even the slightest bit of hesitation, Tora nodded in agreement. "As said, more than happy to answer questions! But must agree with Poppi, would be rude to indulge self while friends left waiting".
The woman chuckled mirthfully. "Of course, I couldn't possibly deny a pair so eagerly seeking knowledge just to satisfy my own curiosity!" She declared.
Clearing her throat, she introduced herself. "I'm Adenine, a researcher with the anthropology department, and assistant librarian. What can I help you with?"
Rex and Nia looked at each other for a moment, silently debating who should speak, before Rex took the initiative. "We're looking for information on the World Tree." He said.
"I see, I see." Adenine replied, leafing through her massive tome. "Is there anything specific you're trying to research? Legends about it, perhaps? The current Indoline doctrine regarding the origin of the World Tree is currently the most prominent, but it is hardly the first. At last count, the library contains a minimum of one thousand, six hundred and twenty-four separate mythological tales regarding the creation or exploration of the World Tree."
"Do you know if there's anything a bit more… concrete?" Nia asked. "We're more interested in actual information regarding it, if any exists."
"What did we just say?" Azurda grumbled from Rex's helmet. "'Asking directly will be suspicious', she says, only to just come out and ask. Honestly..."
Adenine bit her lip. "Factual information, you say?" She quickly passed over a dozen pages of her tome. "Tricky, tricky… yes, I believe we have some, but most of that is older, from before the Aegis War."
"Because the Praetorium doesn't allow anyone to approach it anymore, right?" Rex asked for clarification. "That's the sort of stuff we're looking for."
Like Azurda was grumbling about, he had been concerned that speaking so plainly about what they were looking for could be construed as suspicious. After all, even he could see how asking about the details of why travel to the World Tree had been banned could be seen as a potential interest in bypassing said ban, yet if anything, the wind Blade seemed to approve of their interest.
"Yes, a travesty of the highest order, in my opinion." Adenine nodded, running a finger over one of the lines of her tome. "On the eve of the Aegis War, Alrest was just reaching the level of technological sophistication to adequately investigate the truth behind the World Tree." She noted, a melancholic note in her voice. "There are even stories from that era, reliable stories, that during the opening days of the conflict, someone even managed to successfully climb it."
"Seriously?" Nia blinked, surprised by the idea. "Someone actually had the balls to climb that overgrown shrub?"
Behind him, Rex could hear Azurda mutter something, but even from his helmet, it was too soft for the boy to hear. Did the old Titan know about that story already? He had been alive during that time period, as he was more than happy to remind everyone.
"Indeed, and had things gone differently, perhaps he would have only been the first of many." The woman said. "However, after the conclusion of the war, Praetor Amalthus, in one of his first acts in office, declared that none may approach the World Tree." She frowned, closing her eyes. "Few of the nations at the time were willing to defy him; the Aegis War had taken a great toll on everyone, and it was only thanks to the Praetor's swift actions and diplomatic acumen that many were able to recover as quickly as they did."
Dromarch rumbled in agreement. "I suspect that the dangers that lurk in the waters surrounding the World Tree were, at the very least, a contributing factor." He stated. "If the price for assistance in recovering from such a disaster was to agree not to approach certain peril, I do not believe many nations would decline."
"'Certain peril'?" The woman asked in confusion, her head askew, before understanding. "Ah, yes. The Great Void and the alleged 'Guardian Serpent'. I can see how that would constitute a certain peril for those who approach."
Her finger came to a sudden stop, resting atop a short string of words printed in a font far too small for Rex to read. "But those are all matters that you will be able to research on your own." She stated. "If you're interested in the post-Aegis War treaties and legislation regarding access to the World Tree, I would recommend 'The Shadow of Amalthus: A Legacy of the Longest Reigning Praetor' by Calcema. You will find it on the ground level of the 'law and politics' section on aisle twenty-seven, shelf number two."
Immediately, that finger traced four lines up to another string of numbers entirely. "If you are more interested in the facts of the World Tree itself, then you should begin with 'The Pillar of the World: A Qualitative Assessment of the World Tree' by the Auresco Institute of Sciences. It's an older book, but I still consider it to be the seminal work on the subject."
Azurda nodded in agreement, his arms crossed. "I should think so. They did good work back in the day."
"Yes, I've always found their works to be meticulously researched." Adenine agreed. "A shame how few of them survived the fall of Torna." She went silent for a moment, a sorrowful look on her face, before she immediately perked back up. "Regardless, you'll find that book in the 'natural history' section, aisle fifty-four, shelf three."
Rex quickly took down the locations of the books. "Thanks!" He smiled at the woman. "If there's anything we can do in return..."
"Please, I'm happy to assist." She replied. "Knowledge is meant to be shared, after all!" A sly smile worked its way over her face as she looked back at Tora and Poppi. "That being said, I would be very interested in picking your friend's brain."
Tora matched her smile with an enthusiastic one of his own. "Meh heh heh! Tora more than happy to! Been too long time since meet someone able to understand intricacies of Tora's work!"
Glancing over at Rex, he offered the boy an apologetic smile. "Friends not wait on Tora, may be talking for long time." The nopon said. "Will catch up with later."
"Don't worry about it." The boy shook his head. "We'll be grabbing books for the next bit, so take your time."
Rex and Nia, along with their companions, walked off toward the main aisle. Behind them, they could hear the sound of Adenine beginning to question the nopon. "You said she's an artificial Blade, yes? Does that mean she's able to generate an affinity link? What about her intelligence? She seems to behave like a traditional sophont… is it merely simulated, or is she truly intelligent? And if she is, what method did you use to create her intelligence? Is she top-down or bottom-up? And the power system, you must be using some sort of modified-"
"Eager one, isn't she?" Nia commented as they walked away, Adenine's questions fading into the distance. "I don't think I've ever seen someone as exuberant as Tora is about Poppi."
"At least Tora seems all for it." Rex noted, looking down at the directions to the books the wind Blade had recommended. "Should we split up to grab these? It might be faster."
The Gormotti girl nodded in agreement. "Sounds like a plan." She said, leaning over Rex's shoulder to read the list. The boy started at her sudden closeness, his cheeks coloring slightly, but if she noticed, she didn't make any mention of it.
"I'll hit up the book about the Praetor." She mentioned, tearing the top half of the slip of paper off. "And we'll meet back here in a few minutes. Sound good?"
"Y-yeah." He muttered, pointedly looking down at the sheet of paper. "See you in a minute."
"Ugh." He groaned, rubbing his head. "What happened?"
It was clear from the pounding headache that consciousness had only returned to him with great reluctance. It was like none that he had ever felt before, less a pressure against his head, and more like a subtle, rhythmic pulsing that was none-the-less impossible to ignore.
(Not even the food he had made that one time Miss Maia had tried teaching him how to cook had hit him this badly, and that soup had ended up nearly half-salt by weight!)
His mind struggled to piece together exactly how he had gotten here. He had been in the cell along with the others, checking to see if there was a potential way to escape that didn't involve the drainage channel, but at some point it all became a bit… hazy…?
(Why did the idea of haze, or… smoke? Make him feel a sudden dread?)
Reluctantly, the Osirian boy rolled over onto his side, slowly opening his eyes. Almost immediately, he was forced to squeeze them closed again as the light on his retinas sent a lance of pain through his head.
"Mrgh." He groaned pitifully, rolling again to rest face-down in the damp hay lining the bottom of the cell. That had been a terrible idea! Why hadn't he thought to let his eyes acclimate first!?
Actually, why had it even happened in the first place? The dungeon shouldn't have been bright enough to have caused even close to that amount of discomfort! There wasn't even a light in the cell, just one outside of it!
"Ewan, what's going on?" He muttered. "Why is it so bright?" He felt a bit bad relying so much on the Ardainian boy—he was always working so hard to keep everyone else calm, just like Etene did back home—but he was the most likely to be nearby.
(A bit of projected guilt, perhaps. More often than not, he had been quite a brat towards Etene, never respecting the older girl who was doing her best to help Miss Maia take care of them until after they had been abducted. Understanding that, he couldn't bring himself to treat the Ardainian boy the same way.)
He waited for a moment, blowing a piece of straw that was poking him in the cheek away, but there was no reply. That wasn't right; Ewan wasn't the type to just ignore a question like that…
Something wasn't right here. Now that he was paying attention, he realized that it was too quiet. The normal buzz of soft, fearful conversation between the other kids, huddled in the corners for safety, was entirely absent.
In fact, the only sound he could discern was a low, thrumming hum that seemed to emanate from all around him.
Fear crept back into his heart at the realization that something new had changed. Whatever had happened during the time that was still fuzzy to him (but was starting to slowly come back. Something about smoke… a fire, maybe?) must be connected.
Was… was he still in the cell with the others? He had to be, right? Their captors had thrown them all together, after all; they wouldn't have done that if they could hold everyone in individual cells, right? He… he wasn't alone, was he?
(Maybe he was the only one left. Whatever had happened, maybe they had all been killed, and he had been left all alone.)
Rolling onto his back, he slowly cracked his eyes open again, this time only just enough for the tiniest sliver of light to enter his retinas. He winced again, the shooting sensation as his eyes registered the input still unpleasant, but it wasn't nearly as bad as it had been.
Through the tiny gap, his vision was largely obscured by his eyelashes, but even like this, he could tell he was no longer in the old cell. For one, it was much, much brighter than the old one. Rather than a single, dim lightbulb illuminating both their cell and the one on the other side of the corridor, it was clear that there must be multiple light sources. It was too even to be anything else, and the bolts along the sides of the metal plates were barely casting a shadow, implying they were lit from multiple angles.
Oh, right, that was the other obvious tell. The old cell had been made entirely from stone, but the masonry of this one seemed to have metal plates bolted to the ceiling, at least.
He opened his eyes wider and wider, gradually enough to allow them to acclimate to the light level, but probably faster than he should. There was still a noticeable discomfort from the light, but with how anxious he was about the situation, he didn't dare delay any more.
Soon enough, he was able to see clearly enough that he couldn't justify waiting any longer. He leaned upright, dreading the possible sights he could be about to subject himself to, but still driven by the absolute need to know what had happened to the others.
The Osirian boy's eyes traced around the room, taking in all of the details he could. The new cell was similar to the old one: It was the same size and layout, a long rectangular room with three walls made of stone. The floor was covered in a thin layer of straw, except for a drainage channel set into one of the corners.
But there were differences, too. Instead of solid stones, these walls had metal as well. Intermittently, a series of devices had been set into the walls, their circular metal caps with a glowing aquamarine ring nearly flush with the masonry. The stone around them had been plated over with sheet metal, giving the impression that the walls had been damaged by their installation.
Maybe it was something that could be exploited? It might not be the best idea; something about those machines gave him a bad feeling. (The lights on their surfaces were pulsating, seemingly in time with his headache. But they couldn't be connected, could they?)
The wall that separated them from the corridor was the most altered. In the old cell, it had been a set of rusted iron bars that afforded them no privacy, with a door of matching construction in the center. Here, that wall was mostly covered in sheet metal, like the kind bolted to the stone of the others, that supported even more of those mysterious devices. The door, set dead center of the wall, was still the same plain iron bar, but that was now their only means of seeing outside of the cell.
Perhaps most importantly, however, was the fact that he wasn't alone. Laid out across the floor around him were the unconscious forms of the other kids. Well, he hoped they were unconscious, at least. They seemed to be breathing, which was a good sign so far as he was concerned.
(It certainly settled some of the knotted fear in his heart. If he had been alone, or, Architect forbid, stuck in a room with the bodies of the other kids, he didn't know what he would have done.)
He quickly took stock of who was there. Ewan was laid out to the right of him, while Rhys was on the left. Rhona was on the other side of Ewan, while Leon and the two bronze-skinned girls that had only joined them hours before his memory stopped, as well as a few others, were at their feet. Near his head were the two Urayan boys and the other three Ardainians. So far as he could tell, they were all fine, but…
Wait, there were supposed to be three more people. He looked around, trying to see if there was anyone near where his head had been. There had been fifteen of them, himself included, but he was only counting twelve now. Ermias and Seble, the other two kids from his orphanage who had been in the cell with them, as well as that Urayan girl that was always helping Ewan… Reene, he thought her name was? As far as he could tell, none of them were in the cell with them.
(There was no way that boded well for them. Why would they have been separated from the rest of the group? He had a sinking feeling that he knew.)
Frantically, he placed a hand on Ewan's shoulder, vigorously shaking the Ardainian boy in an attempt to wake him up. "Ewan, Ewan!" He hissed, keeping his voice low. There was no telling whether their captors were listening in or not, and considering the changes in circumstances, he didn't want to draw any attention if he could avoid it.
"Ugh." The blond murmured sleepily, rolling over slightly. "S'too early, mom." He said. "L'mme sleep a bit more."
"Ewan!" He shook more vigorously, frustration coloring his voice. "Wake up! Something's happened!"
(Why was it always so hard to wake kids his age up!? He only ever had to do it in an emergency, but every time they just dawdled around sleepily!)
Slowly, the Ardainian boy leaned up, rubbing his eyes blearily as he reluctantly awoke. "W-what's going on?" He yawned. His eyelids fluttered as if to open, reminding the Osirian boy about something important.
"Hang on, open your eyes slowly." He warned. "It's a lot brighter in here than you're expecting."
"W-what do you-" Ewan muttered, not comprehending the warning. Before the Osirian boy could get another word of warning in, his Ardainian counterpart opened his eyes, only to immediately squeeze them closed with a hiss of pain. "Augh! What the-!"
"I told you!" He grumbled, pushing his glasses back into place. Given the rough treatment they had been getting since being abducted, he was surprised they hadn't been damaged. Miss Maia certainly hadn't cheaped out on them, had she?
The Ardainian boy grumbled, squinting in an attempt to quickly acclimate his own eyes to the light. "Why is it so bright, anyway…?" He muttered, looking around. "Where are we? Did we get moved after…"
Without warning, Ewan shot straight up, looking around frantically. "The bad men! Are they still around!?" The boy cried in panic. Around them, there were a series of grunts as several of the other kids reacted to the sound. "They didn't…! We're… okay?" He said, sounding almost surprised by the concept. "How… but… then we…?"
"Ewan, what are you…?" The Osirian boy asked, completely lost. "They're not around. They must have moved us while we were asleep."
His companion's head shot around, looking directly at him. "'While we were asleep'!?" Ewan asked incredulously. "Don't you remember what happened!?"
"N-no, I don't." He shook his head, a sinking feeling of dread in his gut. "I was trying to find a way out, but I can't remember anything after that." The boy mumbled. "There was something about smoke, and then…"
As he spoke, the memories flooded back to him. Their captors slowly walking down the hall, the nightmarish Blade entering their cell, the incense smoke that robbed him of his reason. Marching down to the operating room, where that man with the cruel smile watched from the window above.
It felt like the breath had been stolen from his lungs. The operation, laying the Core Crystal on his chest as he struggled desperately to escape. He could still remember the warm sensation as it shone, like a burning star set atop his torso. But then it had exploded into a cloud of ether, and then...
He felt a shudder as his headache pulsed again, but as it did, he could feel an itch on his chest, right where that Core Crystal had been… (What had they done… he hadn't resonated with it, had he? The glowing cloud of ether hadn't become a Blade, it had…!)
Before he even realized what he was doing, his hands scrabbled at his chest. He could still almost feel the agony as that cloud had seeped into his chest, burning like molten metal as it ran across his body. The pain had faded, but it had left behind a hollow, almost hungry feeling…
Beneath his fingers, he felt something hard and smooth, almost like glass. It was warm to the touch yet completely alien on his chest. And worst of all, it had sensation. He could feel the pressure on it as his finger pressed against it, as if it were his own skin.
Looking down, he didn't know what to expect. It couldn't be a callus or a scab; it was too smooth for either. It had felt almost like a fingernail, if the nail had nerves running through it rather than beneath it.
(It must have been some sort of weird science thing they had done to him! Were they trying to turn them into weird Igna-people, like the mad scientists in those books some of the older kids liked to read? He didn't want to have scales!)
What he saw, though, made his eyes widen. His torso was bare, his shirt nowhere to be seen. (That one adult had cut it off of him, hadn't he?) With nothing covering his chest, it made the new addition to his features all too obvious.
He… he had a Core Crystal.
It was a long, thin, inverted triangle, almost like a crystalline sliver, gently nestled between his pectoral muscles. The soft blue glow illuminated his dark brown skin, even under the harsher lights of the new cell, pulsing softly in time with his heartbeat.
"I… but… what?" He muttered in shock, his eyes unable to look away. How… how was this possible!? He wasn't a Blade, he was a Human! He shouldn't have a… he shouldn't be able to have a Core Crystal!
"You… you're?" Ewan murmured, just as surprised as he was. "You're a Blade?"
The Osirian boy's eyes shot up, looking at Ewan's in terror. "No! I'm not!" He cried. "I swear! I'm a human! I… I…!"
(Was he, though? Humans didn't have Core Crystals.)
Pinprick tears began to gather at the corners of his eyes. "I was't… they must have!" The experiments the adults had been performing… they had activated a Core Crystal bound to him. He had no doubt about that; even if he didn't know how it was supposed to work, there was no mistaking the connection he had felt with it as it shone, as if the Crystal was peeking into his very soul.
But then, they had done something to it. It hadn't awakened a Blade, but had instead gone inside of him. He had felt the fire running through his veins as it did, and now he was waking up after it with a Core Crystal. And if he had one, then maybe that meant…
"E-Ewan…" He muttered fearfully. "The bad men… they did the same thing to you? Strapped you to a table with a Core Crystal?"
The other boy nodded slowly, his eyes briefly flicking over to one of the other kids who was just beginning to move. "Y-yeah, with the creepy Blade and all the wires." He confirmed. "They did something with the Core Crystal, and then…" He trailed off, his eyes widening in understanding. "Y-you don't think…?"
"I…" He nodded hesitantly. "Lift up your shirt. We need to check."
Uncertainty flashed through the other boy's eyes as he looked down. Slowly, quite clearly dreading what he might find, Ewan grabbed the hem of his shirt. He looked up at the Osirian boy for support before closing his eyes and pulling the shirt up.
"D-do I have one too?" Ewan stammered, his voice far more fragile than he had ever heard it before.
He didn't answer, his eyes locked on the Ardainian boy's chest. There, set just below his clavicle, was a shard of glowing blue crystal, an elongated hexagon that shimmered placidly despite Ewan's fear, as if it were meant to be there.
"Y-yeah." He said. "You do."
Ewan rolled his shirt up, staring down at his Core Crystal with a look of disbelief. "Then… that means we're…?" He said, his voice wavering. "We can't be… I can't be…!"
Tears rolled down the boy's face as he hugged himself, falling to his knees in shock. "O-oh… Oh Architect…" He whimpered. "What have they… what do they want with us!?"
As the other boy began to break down, he didn't know how he was supposed to react. He had never been particularly social with the other orphans, preferring to stay by himself and read. He had seen kids break down before, but it had always been Miss Maia or, later on, Etene who did the consoling. Now, with neither of them there and the rest of the kids still unconscious, he found himself not knowing what to do.
(Maybe if he hadn't insisted on being such a loner, he could fix this. He had always turned his nose up at the other kids when they offered to play with him, insisting that their tussling and their toys were beneath him and his books. But now, when all he had in the world was the others in this cell and they needed him, what could he do to help? What experience did he have to bring them comfort? None. He had nothing.)
(Pathetic.)
On the other side of the Ardainian boy, he could see Rhona stirring again. Ewan's crying must have gotten through to her enough to wake her up. For a brief moment, he was relieved; she was a much better choice to help the other boy than he was.
But… what if she was just as panicked? Waking up in a new cell, with some of the others missing (The Urayan girl, Reene… she had become something of a friend to the Ardainian. How would she react to the news that the other girl was gone?) She probably had a Core Crystal too… there was no way she would take it any better than the Ardainian boy was.
She was going to need Ewan's support; he had no doubt about that, and if Ewan was going to be in a position to help her, then it was up to him to help Ewan.
He thought back to how Miss Maia would comfort the children under her care. What did she do again? He wasn't exactly the most common recipient of it, after all.
Gently, he reached his arms out to the other boy. Physical contact, that was the thing he remembered his caretaker doing the most. Sweeping them up into a hug or letting them lean against her as she offered soothing words… he could manage that, right?
Ewan barely reacted as he awkwardly placed his hands on the crying boy's shoulders. "Look," he said, trying to think of what would calm his… friend(?) down. "It's, umm… going to be alright?"
(That wasn't convincing in the slightest! What was he trying to do—make Ewan even more upset!? This was a terrible idea!)
"We'll figure something out." He continued, slightly more confidently this time. The cell, despite the obvious modifications, was of the same general design as their old one, including the drainage channel. He had been confident it was a weak point in that one, and although he hadn't had the chance to check this one, it might be as well. "I promise, okay?"
Without warning, the Ardainian boy shuddered before lunging forward into him. The Osirian boy let out a squawk of alarm as his friend sobbed into his chest, clinging to him like the rest of the world had vanished.
He awkwardly wrapped an arm around the other boy, stiffly patting him on the back. (This was so far outside of his comfort zone, he would need a Cloud Sea compass to find his way back!) He wasn't entirely sure what he was supposed to do, but this seemed to be working, so… success?
Over the other boy's shoulder, he could see one of the sheet metal plates bolted to the wall. It was difficult to see from this angle, but the corner of the plate seemed bent. The bolts affixing it to the wall looked like they had been applied haphazardly, weakening the structure of the plate.
Maybe enough that, with some determination, it could be broken off.
Possibilities swam through his mind at the thought. The biggest obstacle to escaping through the drainage channel in the old cell had been a lack of methods to dig out the mortar. But a jagged bit of metal, bent a little to make it easier to scoop? That could work.
"I'll get us all out of here." He swore, his eyes hardening. "No matter what."
"Masterpon look in good mood." Poppi observed as the pair made their way to the center aisle of the library. "Poppi glad had chance to talk with Adenine."
The nopon quite literally bounced with every step, a brilliant smile on his face. "Poppi not knowing just how long Tora go without talk to intellectual peer." He said cheerily. "There nothing like discuss details of work with friend who understand what saying!"
His Blade nodded thoughtfully, shifting the large stack of books she was carrying so they wouldn't fall. They were not related to the investigation the rest of the group was doing but were instead focused on the in-depth history of the Nopon Trade Guilds.
It hadn't been the plan to pick these up quite yet, since they did have a task they were trying to accomplish, but when he had mentioned to the academic wind Blade that Poppi was interested in nopon history and culture, the woman had been more than happy to give them recommendations on books the artificial Blade could start with.
And they had all been on the way back to the others, too! How could he deny Poppi when that had practically been dropped in their laps?
"Poppi thought Masterpon happy with friends, though." She said, tilting her head. "Poppi not understand why need to go to friend Adenine."
"It not like that!" He waved off as the pair reached the end of the aisle. "Rex-Rex and Nia-Nia bestest friends of Tora!" The nopon insisted. "That said, friends also not very smart when come to technology."
He sighed, his exuberance faltering slightly. "Tora try and explain why Poppi special, but not truly understand. Rex-Rex make attempt, even grasp basic from time to time, but Nia-Nia know nothing about topics of interest to Tora."
"So Masterpon happy to talk with friend Adenine because can appreciate work of Masterpon." She surmised, her head swiveling as she looked for the others.
Tora nodded. "Exactly! Can explain details of artificial Blade project without need to make simple! Talk with Rex-Rex and Nia-Nia fine, but not same as talk with intellectual peer on even level."
Giving the artificial Blade a knowing look, he added, "Poppi too young to understand, but Masterpon know will one day."
Poppi nodded slowly, not quite getting it, but willing to accept that it was just one of those things that Tora hadn't programmed into her. She continued to scan the room, looking for the others.
After a moment, her head locked in place. "Masterpon, Poppi has located friends." She reported, pointing further down the line of tables.
They were a dozen tables further from the front of the library, alone at a table surrounded by a large stack of books. Rex was writing something in a notebook beside him, transferring information from the book he was reading, while Nia seemed to be engrossed with the tome she had chosen.
"Very good! Let's rejoin friends!" Tora announced, running up to grab Poppi's hand. He was a little too loud in his exuberance, however; a student at a nearby table shot the nopon a glare as he passed, holding a finger up to his lips while making an exaggerated shushing sound.
"…Perhaps less loudy-like." He amended, slightly embarrassed that he let his mood get the better of his good sense.
Wandering over to the table the others were at, Tora was treated to the novel sight of Rex, a self-proclaimed blue-collar worker who claimed to only pick up books when he had exhausted all other options, dutifully studying over a tome almost as thick as Tora's wings.
"No, no, that's not relevant information for our needs! Copy the line under it!"
Granted, he wasn't particularly adept at it, seeing as Azurda was sitting on his shoulder, correcting his attempts. Perhaps it shouldn't come as a surprise; according to the boy, he had never received proper schooling, instead being taught basic skills by Azurda and his foster mother before leaving home to become a salvager at the age of ten. That sort of life wasn't exactly conducive to teaching studying skills.
Almost as much of a surprise was how upset Nia appeared to be by her own book. Tora didn't doubt the Gormotti girl's ability to pick out relevant information; just a quick glance over her own notes—concisely written in a hand far neater than Rex's—spoke to a deep familiarity with academic note-taking.
Yet the dark look on her face as she turned the page made it clear that something about the contents of the book was setting her off. Considering that the book was emblazoned with a stylized depiction of the Indoline Titan, he assumed it had something to do with the Praetorium. Funny, he hadn't realized the girl held such strong opinions about them.
Clearing his throat, Tora jumped onto one of the empty seats around the table and, still mindful of his volume after being told off a few moments ago, announced his presence to the others at a setting-appropriate volume. "Friends! Tora and Poppi return!"
Rex looked up from his notebook, pausing halfway through jotting down a note. "Hey Tora." He greeted with substantially less energy than he had displayed earlier. "Have a good chat with Adenine?"
The nopon puffed out his chest, wings curled at his waist. "Tora have amazing time!" He said, grinning as he thought back. "Friend Adenine have many wonderful insights into project! Tora not want wait to test if work!"
He had been considering possible upgrades for Poppi, of course. There were a number of features that were supposed to have been baseline for the artificial Blade that he had been forced for shelve for various reasons, mostly power economy. Poppi's ether furnace had an impressive maximum output on paper, but in practice, her actual capacities were limited by the fact that he lacked an external power source capable of cold-booting more than one of the four generators it contained.
That power economy had ultimately been the reason he had settled for a child-sized body for Poppi rather than the teenage one he had originally designed. With the power output she had available, moving a body the originally planned size would have limited the number of functions she could have used at once.
Even the last-minute modifications he had made after Rex had pointed out a calculation error in the power distribution system hadn't made her original body viable yet, even if it had freed up enough power for her to use a power-consuming module like her jet boosters without having to drop her affinity link with him. That would require him to bring at least one more generator online.
He really hoped he would be able to at some point. Otherwise, adding in the expansion joints to allow her chassis to reconfigure into the original teenage design would turn out to be a waste.
More importantly, it would also allow him to try some of the modifications that Adenine had suggested, like her multi-elemental core idea. He had already designed Poppi with the ability to have her elemental conversion core swapped out on the fly, but the wind Blade had pointed out that, with sufficient power, there was nothing stopping him from installing multiple cores at once.
They wouldn't be able to function simultaneously—interactions between elemental ether of differing alignments could be volatile without proper moderation—but it would allow her to chain ether attacks of differing elements.
Poppi was already designed to be the Bladiest Blade ever, so what would prove that more than giving her the ability to freely swap between ether elements in combat? He didn't think that was something a normal Blade could do!
"Glad to hear it." Rex nodded, looking back at his notes with a frown. "Hopefully you've had better luck than us."
"Friend having trouble?" Tora inquired, tilting his head. "But not been at very long. Is Rex-Rex sure not just getting used to research?"
Azurda chuckled. "You've hit the issue on the head, my friend." The Titan replied. "Rex here severely underestimated the time investment such research requires."
"That's not the problem." Rex denied. "I figured it would take a few days, maybe even a week or two; I just wasn't expecting it to be this dull."
His nominal guardian shook his head fondly. "I'm afraid that's just the way it works." He said. "You'll have to get used to it if you're serious about finding a way past the serpent, though."
Glancing over at Nia, he added, "You could stand to learn a thing or two from her. She's been nose-deep in her book the entire time, and she's hardly complaining about it!"
The only reply he was met with was a seething hiss from the Gormotti girl, her hands shaking slightly at whatever she was reading.
"My Lady, perhaps it would be best to take a break?" Dromarch offered his Driver. "You have been doing a laudable job, after all. A minute or two to calm your nerves would not be out of turn."
Slowly, Nia lowered the book to the table, placing it face down so as not to lose her place. Closing her eyes, she let out an exhausted sigh, rubbing her face with both hands.
"Architect, I don't know what's worse." She muttered angrily, shooting the book a heated glare through her fingers. "The absolute... drivel seeping out of every page, or the fact that it's still an easier read than some of my tutors made me…" She trailed off, resting her head in her hands. "How does a book about the first century of Amalthus' reign as Praetor manage to piss me off so much yet explain so little!?"
"That's just the Indoline way, young lady." Azurda shrugged, jumping down to the table. "Did you at least manage to find any information about the ban on approaching the World Tree?"
Nia raised a hand away from her face, skewing it slightly. "A little bit." She admitted. "It's mostly off-handed references, but from the sound of it, the restriction was put in place as part of a series of treaties resolving a political crisis in Tantal a few decades after the end of the Aegis War."
"I can't say that surprises me." Azurda nodded, crossing his arms. "Tantal was rather badly savaged by the war. One of the fiercest battles between Mythra and Malos took place in the kingdom's capital, up by the head of the Titan. Malos ended up razing the entire city… a quarter of the kingdom's population, including the entire Tantalese royal family and much of the nobility, were killed before Mythra managed to drive him off."
The Gormotti girl shuddered. "That explains why Amalthus was so heavy-handed… with the line of succession gone, the remaining nobles probably went to war over the ashes."
"Indeed." The Titan agreed. "I'm just glad something was worked out; after saving them from Malos, the Tantalese people became some of Prince Addam's strongest supporters outside of Torna itself. They deserved better than a civil war for the throne after the devastation he wrought." He paused for a moment, a contemplative look on his face. "That book didn't happen to say how they resolved it, did it?" He asked.
She shook her head. "Not really." The girl said apologetically. "There was a single line reference that implied the Praetor installed a foreign noble on the throne, but didn't say who, or what his claim was."
Azurda frowned. "Curious, the Tantalese royal family preferred to marry within local noble lines. I wonder who…" He trailed off before shaking his head. "Oh well, I suppose it isn't important in the end."
Glancing over at Tora, he changed topics. "Well then, perhaps you would be willing to give these two a hand?" He asked Tora, pulling a thick book from the top of the pile with both hands. "We were… oof… able to find a few more that looked promising."
Tora looked at the cover of the tome the tiny Titan was attempting to drag across the table, depicting a stylized serpent consuming its own tail. Across the front, emblazoned in thick golden letters, was the title of the book, 'Myths and Monsters of Ancient Morytha'.
He had to admit it looked promising. He had heard the name 'Morytha' before… a legendary land that salvagers claimed lay on the bed of the Cloud Sea, filled with wondrous treasures and deadly monsters. He couldn't help but wonder if Rex had ever seen it before.
"Tora think good place to start." He agreed, pulling the book out of Azurda's grasp. "Can pass notebook to Tora?"
As Rex pulled out stationary for him to use, he flipped the cover open and began scanning the first page. Considering that the serpent was so mysterious, perhaps it was a monster from that mythical land.
Well, there was only one way to find out.
Author's Notes:
I have to admit, this chapter went in a far different direction than I had planned when I began writing it. That isn't to say I'm disappointed in how it turned out—quite the opposite—but it's always interesting to see how my plans change during the writing process.
As stated last week, this is the last chapter of the year, as I will be traveling during December. I hope everyone reading has a fantastic holiday season.
See you in the new year!