Several days later…
Stunned silence filled the air. "No. That's not possible."
An armored hand punched the wall hard enough to leave cracks. "Who could be evil enough to do that?!"
The wall-puncher was the Hero of Falconreach. He was the most enraged person in the room, followed closely by Jaania, whose disbelief had given way to icy-hot seething. Warlic crept over to Jaania's side and touched her forearm, trying to keep the peace. Also present were all six head technomancers, as well as Ostromir and Vseslava. Ostromir, Veseslava and five of the six head technomancers were normally not present at these meetings because they had to attend to other business. They were present today because it was supposed to be the day that the world was saved. The Soul Puller 9001 was fully charged and operational. Once used, Lore would return to being a world of magic and nobody would have to fear withering ever again.
But it was not going to be used today, because some very important wires had been cut and some very important parts stolen.
"Let's remain calm," Warlic said. "We'll need our heads about us to figure out what happened."
"Oh, it's obvious what happened," Jaania said in a voice sharp enough to cut steel. "The only person who would sabotage the machine is someone who benefits from the current state of the world. The only people I can think of who fit that description organize themselves in guilds."
The leader of the Key guild, the most powerful of all head technomancers present because the Key was based out of Swordhaven, dismissed her lead engineer from the room. He scurried off to organize repairs. In her usual calm and collected manner, she said, "I confess to being…addled by this upsetting news. I do not understand what was just said. Are we ready to proceed to accusations?"
"No," Warlic said firmly. "Nobody is accusing anyone of anything. We do not have enough information for that."
"As much as I hate to say it, Jaania's right," the Hero said. "The machine was obviously sabotaged. The only person who would do that is someone who benefits from lack of magic, and there are very few of those in the world. What other information do we need?"
"I would like to know how this machine was sabotaged," Ostromir said. Warlic shot him a grateful look. "It sounds like this sort of damage could only have been caused by someone with expertise in mana-using technology. A lay person wouldn't have known precisely which parts to take. Most likely, the sabotage was performed by one of the engineers."
"Before delivering this report, I sent trusted subordinates to gather all sensor data from the room the machine is kept in and surrounding hallways, from my personal inspection of it yesterday evening to the moment I was informed of the damage this morning," the Key leader said. Her name was Organa. "The saboteur shall be identified right away."
"While we wait for their reports, I would like to express my displeasure at the lack of trust revealed from this incident," said one of the other head technomancers. "Our guilds have done nothing but provide invaluable assistance to this project."
"Invaluable assistance that was conveniently delayed several times until just after your organizations received some political boon," Jaania snapped back. This was not a new conflict.
"Stop!" Warlic called. "There are two enemies to fight. Neither is in this room. We must not lose our focus. Not now. It's too close."
"I don't care who the saboteur is or how much they've helped in the past; they won't get off easy," the Hero growled.
"Patience!" Ostromir said.
"I agree with Warlic," Vseslava said, raising her hands. "The last moment is the perfect moment for things to go horribly sideways. My sleep has been troubled lately; I've been afraid of something exactly like this. I am saddened, but not surprised, to find my fears realized."
The Hero sighed. "I know. You're right. I just want this to be over. I just want the machine to go off, the emissary to be destroyed, and a chance to…" They didn't finish.
"To mourn," Warlic finished for them. "We all understand that. We all have people to mourn. We all want nothing more than for this to be over. The enemy is not in this room. We must keep our heads on and stay united."
Fortunately, it was not long before two of Organa's subordinates returned. They both were deathly pale, their hands shaking like autumn leaves. "Madame," the one in the lead began. "We've found…the footage from the moment of sabotage."
Everyone in the room tensed. Who would the saboteur turn out to be, and what would that mean? "Does this footage show a person?" Organa asked.
"No, madame. It's blank."
The stares of everyone else in the room terrified her into muteness. The other subordinate stepped forward. "There is a pattern. All visual and auditory sensors went blank in the outermost hall that we pulled data from. Those sensors recovered seconds after all sensors in the next outermost hall went blank. And so on, visual and auditory sensors shutting down in sequence, one after the other, all the way to the room where the machine is kept and on the saboteur's way out. The sensors did not malfunction. They did not stop storing data. It's just that all the data they stored was perfectly blank, as if a bubble of silence was placed over each microear and a black cloth over each mecheye."
The room was stunned into perfect silence again. Organa waved her hand, dismissing them. They left quickly, closing the door behind them. Everyone looked at everyone else. Nobody wanted to be the first to say it.
"Magic," Jaania said. "The saboteur used magic to hide from our sensors."
The Hero looked ready to faint. "That's extra super not possible."
"It could have been very advanced malicious programming," Organa said. She didn't sound at all confident in her own words.
"Anyone who draws power from the Mana Core, for any reason, withers," Ostromir said. "It's almost a fact."
The Hero snorted. "Almost?!"
"Well, you never know if some sudden change has happened."
"We need more information," Warlic repeated. "I believe that everyone should stay on site. All the sensors from all the rooms and hallways in this entire facility should have their data pulled, and all guards and other employees who might have seen the saboteur questioned. Myself, Jaania, and the two former Magesters should personally retrace the route taken by the saboteur; as people familiar with magic, we might be able to detect a trace of it, if magic was used. Do you agree, Head Technomancer?"
Organa nodded. She turned to the other head technomancers and said, "While the former mages investigate the possibility of magic, we shall investigate the far more likely possibility of malicious programming. Set your people to scouring every smallest bit of our systems for a breach. If this involves pulling personnel from other tasks, so be it."
"We are not subordinate to you," retorted the leader of the Magnet guild. The leader of the Lock nodded in agreement. Both guilds were based in Azaveyr; the three guilds that shared a continent with the Key stayed conspicuously silent.
"Do what you must," Organa said ominously. "We will do what we must, and it will be enlightening to find out what each of us considered necessary when all is done." That shut them up. Queen Victoria liked her for a reason.
"I'll round up the guards and other employees," the Hero said. "Let's get moving!"
.
She sat on a ledge meant for houseplants and sympathy cards, watching him. She was known by various titles: the emissary of magic, the doom of Lore, that thing, her, it. She didn't have a name. She did not want a name. If the man lying in the hospital bed showed the slightest sign of regaining consciousness, she would flee at once.
She feared him. Her fear was a deep, primal dread of the unknown. The man in the hospital bed should be struggling on the edge of life right now. He ought to be immobilized by broken legs, arms, spinal column, skull, etc. She hadn't quite found in her heart the strength to kill him, but she'd tried. Her trying should have had results! But she had sat in this exact spot behind an invisibility spell and heard the doctors marvel over how lucky he was. Bones not quite broken, spine badly strained but not quite severed. Concussion, but no split skull. She clenched her fists. Now, while he was asleep, she should kill him. Something this frightening could not be allowed to live. A spear through the heart would do it for sure.
But as frightened as she was, she knew she needed him. Simply by existing, even in a state of unconsciousness, he freed her from the inescapable cycle of despair she had been trapped in for the past two decades. She hated him for that. Loved him for that. Felt so many things about him, things she couldn't have explained to anyone else. Even the person she had once shared a soul with wouldn't fully understand.
She sighed. If she stayed in this room, she'd lose her mind. There was only one place to go, so as painful as it would surely be, she had to go there. Wasn't becoming the soul of the Mana Core supposed to make her all-powerful? Haha… What a joke, just like all her naive aspirations in her previous life. She was not omnipotent. She had no power at all, no choice, no future, no hope. She fled from the hospital room before the man she watched could wake up and tell her otherwise.
Her soul threads were no longer bound to a body. They could travel wherever mana traveled, her soul expanding and contracting freely. They spread out over half the world so that they would not be visible, then came together as they neared her destination. In this form, she could only perceive mana and the threads it flowed in. She located her destination by homing in on the unusual soul connection of one of the people there. She laid down an invisibility spell over the general area before gathering her soul threads all the way together and creating a material form.
She opened her eyes to find herself in a meeting room. A large table a dozen feet long and half a dozen feet wide filled the center of it. Paper printouts, five display screens, maps of the compound and surrounding wilderness, and stacks of papers and books containing whatever miscellaneous information was thought needed filled the table's surface. Eleven other people filled the room: six in matching cowled outfits adorned with pieces of machinery, two in a different matching outfit with vests emblazoned with the flag of Swordhaven, and three other people wearing no particular uniform. She recognized those three people. The so-called Hero of Falconreach wore armor, probably for the symbolism more than anything else - what was there to fight that could be fought with a sword? Jaania, to her surprise, looked very different from her. Jaania's hair was white and untied, the lines of her face rounded with age, her belly slightly more substantial, and her face possessing several additional scars. Her attitude hadn't changed much, though. Warlic was the most different of them all. He wore a stylish white collared shirt under a black vest with black dress pants. He wasn't a mage anymore. Mages didn't exist.
"There seems to be no other choice," one of the cowled figures muttered. Her shirt had a great big image of a key on it, directly over her heart. "From all reports presented, I must concede that there is a strong likelihood that magic was involved."
"A strong likelihood?" Jaania asked, bristling. "We all detected it. Mana was used on those sensors. It's a fact, not a likelihood."
"Agreed," Warlic muttered. He looked shaken and kept glancing around. "If we're all quite finished -"
"Just because mana was used does not mean it was magic," the key lady retorted. "It is more likely that technology was involved."
"There has been research into the development of technology that can draw from the Mana Core without attracting the emissary's attention," said one of the people in the Swordhaven vests. "We've been keeping an eye on it, and there hasn't been any notable success so far, but someone might have had a breakthrough."
"It is your responsibility to monitor such research?" asked another cowled figure. His shirt had a magnet on it. "This disaster is your fault, then. A researcher had a breakthrough, developed technology that could imitate magic, realized that said technology would become useless if the emissary were destroyed, and used it to sabotage the Soul Puller, all without your noticing a thing."
"We communicated with the queen and others of our unit around noon today, asking them to seize all known labs where such research is conducted," the man in the royal vest replied. "If there was oversight on our part, it will be swiftly remedied."
"Um," Warlic tried to say.
"In the meantime, the saboteur has escaped into the wilds surrounding this compound," Jaania said. "The mana-infused wildlife in this area is normally very dangerous, but someone armed with magic might have gone anywhere. On the other hand, if they used magic to fend off hostile wildlife, we may be able to use that to track them."
"Wouldn't the high concentrations of environmental mana foil such traces?"
"No. The wildlife around the Fissure does not wither because the sheer quantity of mana they absorb increases their physical strength and size, making magic unnecessary. Magic feels different from raw environmental mana. As the only magic-using organism for miles, the saboteur will stand out like a firefly in the dark."
"Speaking of which," Warlic said.
"It sounds like Warlic has something to add," the Hero said. "What is it?"
"We are under a spell right now."
The room fell silent. Everybody got a frightened look on their face. The woman in the Swordhaven vest said, "He's right, I can fe -"
Her voice became silent. Although she continued to speak, it made no sound. Warlic tried to speak, but he also made no sound. The Hero drew his sword.
"Relax. It's just a silence spell." The emissary undid her invisibility spell and stepped away from the door. Warlic and the key woman, who stood closest to her, backed away. The whole room filled with tension and fear, as if the material form she wore was not that of a human but rather a rampaging bear. The Hero kept his sword out. The emissary ignored them and faced Jaania. "You can speak. I just didn't feel like hearing anyone else's yapping."
"It was you, wasn't it?" Jaania said bitterly.
"Of course not. My existence is a mistake from every possible perspective. A human soul cannot and should not be responsible for something as great and powerful as the Mana Core. I have known for the past twenty years that this mistake must be undone as quickly as possible, or else all of Lore will wither. I will help you find and dispose of this saboteur."
Jaania narrowed her eyes. "What reason does anyone have to trust you?"
"I don't need your trust. I will find the saboteur and reduce them to a bloody smear on the ground with or without your cooperation," the emissary replied. "If you don't cooperate, I can simply read your minds for all the information required."
Jaania's fists clenched. She glared at the emissary, saying nothing. The emissary saw hatred, revulsion, and regret in her gaze. Some of the people in the room looked likewise, others more fearful. The Hero still held his sword at the ready.
"If you've known our old goals were mistaken for the past twenty years, why have you spent those years fulfilling them?" Jaania asked. "You've carried out a campaign against magic with the ruthless efficiency that I created you for. Your words don't match your actions."
"I did no such thing!" the emissary snarled. Everyone except Jaania flinched. "When I was created, I learned that the Mana Core receives the motives behind every use of magic. Being bombarded with other people's most vile desires, greatest fears, etcetera, nearly destroyed my mind and soul. I recognized how inadequate I was, how small and feeble, how mistaken. I would have let the destruction continue. I would have let myself be destroyed, but…" She paused to collect herself, literally. Her soul threads were vibrating at pitches that clashed, driving them away from each other. She had to deliberately hold them together. "But I couldn't. Living beings reflexively defend themselves. I couldn't stop myself from withdrawing. Over and over and over again, I've tried to master my own reflexes, but I can't. I can't kill the urge to survive."
There was slightly less revulsion in Jaania's gaze now, but no less contempt. "So it's the fault of how you were made? Like a machine, you couldn't help but carry out your programming?" She shook her head. "It changes nothing. Either way, I was too successful."
"It changes my actions now." The emissary hated herself for saying that. She sounded like she was pleading. "I have gained the strength to do more than mindlessly react. I can act with intention. I can use my power to help you."
"To put an end to the torment of your existence," Jaania murmured.
"To put an end to my continual failures. To put an end to this whole sad, sorry, mistaken situation."
Jaania touched her chin, thinking. At last she said, "You will use your powers to help us find the saboteur, punish them, and fix the machine. Then you will peacefully submit to the machine's pull and get what you desire."
The emissary nodded. "My thoughts exactly." After some hesitation, she and Jaania held out a hand at the exact same moment. They shook. It was a deal.
Jaania indicated the rest of the room. "Release their voices, then tell me how much of the meeting you heard."
The emissary's soul grew more discordant, the fight to hold it together more intense. She did not enjoy being ordered around this way, but knew that accepting it was the most practical way forward, and also on some level felt that she deserved it. Conflicting signals traveled this way and that, threatening to tear her apart. She didn't let it show. She released the silence spell, then said, "Your machine was sabotaged by someone using magic, most likely through technological means, who fled into the wilderness."
"That's right," Jaania said. "Have you sensed anything?"
"No. I don't detect any unusual-looking connections in the area, either. Whoever made this machine did masterful work, connecting it to the Mana Core in a perfect mimicry of a human soul."
"Hmm." Jaania's face had not grown any less disdainful and her voice no warmer. It would take a lot more cooperation to win her approval, or a lot more than mere cooperation, or perhaps nothing would redeem the emissary in her eyes. The emissary wondered why she even cared. She should be beyond caring, just as she told herself that she was beyond hope.
"Just use magic to sweep the wilderness for any humans," the Hero forced out through gritted teeth while sheathing his sword. "You're all-powerful. This should be nothing for you."
The emissary gave him just as spiteful a look as he gave her. Warlic stepped in between. "All-powerful or not, it's only polite to offer assistance," he said. "Hero, you interviewed anyone who might have seen the saboteur. Did any of them provide a description?"
"Several people said they saw someone big walking around the compound," the Hero replied. "Tall and muscular. That's our only clue."
"Well, it's something," Warlic replied in his most soothing voice. "Perhaps the emissary can use that to… Um… Are you alright?"
"She knows who it is," Jaania said, surprised. "Who is it? Spit it out."
The emissary could no longer hide her internal discord. Rage, grief, frustration, despair, and a million other feelings coursed through her, causing her soul threads to buck like a team of wild horses who all hated each other. She shook, glowering at anything with the misfortune to be in front of her. "That little rat! I can't believe he - How stupid is it possible to get?! What an idiot! I should have killed him immediately. I should kill him now. That despicable little lying traitorous swine." Her soul nearly came apart. She gritted her teeth and growled, stopping it just in time.
"Hold on. Hold on," Warlic said. He came close to her, nearly touching her. "Take deep breaths. Try to calm down. These insults don't help us at all. We need something more specific. Do you know his name?"
The emissary stopped shaking and looked at him. "Ama's back." She paused to let that sink in, then said, "That idiot returned to Lore, and he brought Akanthus with him."
Saying these words cost her the last of her strength. She gasped. All of her borrowed substance fell off in a cloud of dust. One eye disappeared, then the other, then the rest of her almost immediately after. Her soul threads flew across the world in a race to get as far away from each other as possible. Some of them came to a sudden stop as they crossed through Ama's hospital room and felt the soothing, harmonious vibrations of his soul. At first only a few could gather there. As they fell more or less into harmony with each other, others were able to join them. Bit by bit, his mere existence helped the emissary put herself back together. By the following morning, she was just barely able to manifest in her complete human form. He had rescued her. She hated him for it.
.
Meanwhile, just after the emissary disappeared…
Jaania's mouth hung open. "Ama's back?"
"Akanthus?" the Hero asked.
"Oh dear," Ostromir muttered.
"Ahem." Organa silenced them. Once everyone was more or less calm, she said, "Let us review what just happened. The queen will require a report."
The composing of such a report took them well into the night and resulted in the discovery of a lot of relevant questions that they really should have thought to ask, which the visiting head technomancers took no small delight in pointing out. They shut up when Organa glared at them, but she had no grounds on which to kick them out and they knew it. Those who had known Ama could have defended themselves more vigorously but did not. They all felt rather foolish.
At the end of this exhausting process, Organa sighed. "There is one question that must be answered before all others. Can this being's words be trusted?"
"I vote yes, for the simple reason that she was too unstable to think of a coherent lie," Warlic said.
"I vote no because that thing is evil and has no moral qualms about using its power to get what it wants," the Hero said.
Most of the room sided with the Hero. Ostromir and Vseslava, after some discussion, sided with Warlic. Jaania did not vote. All she wanted to do was go to bed. Everyone agreed with that. The meeting was adjourned.
In the morning, they went over the report, making sure it was clear and understandable before they sent it to Queen Victoria. The five visiting head technomancers helped. A night of rest had helped them realize that they were involved in whatever was going on just as much as anyone else. They had, after all, been witnesses to the deal struck between Jaania and her creation. That made them part of the conspiracy.
"We absolutely cannot let anyone find out about that," Jaania said. "We'd lose all credibility instantly, causing anarchy to break out."
The Hero groaned. "I was hoping it was all a nightmare."
"No nightmare," Warlic said. "The second worst possible scenario has come to pass."
"What's the first?"
"If the emissary had been hostile. She could have killed us all and erased all of our progress instantly."
The Hero sighed. "I should know better than to ask by now."
"If she insists on visiting, she must be persuaded to disguise herself," Organa said.
"With a suitable cover story," added the leader of the Magnet. His name was Tenevos. "She shall claim that she is a researcher from a secret lab that was developing the sort of technology the Queen's servants described. A thief stole a prototype device, and she has tracked them to this general area."
Organa nodded. "That, at least, is easy enough to arrange. Assuming she cooperates."
"Warlic, I refuse to let you take the lead in talking to her," Jaania snapped. She trampled right over his attempts to protest. "I said no. I am the one who created her. I am the one who bears responsibility for Lore's current situation. I am the one who rightfully should die to fix it. I will not permit you to risk your life. If she withers you, that is one more tragedy for me to bear, and I cannot carry the weight of any more tragedies. If you care about me at all, Warlic, don't put yourself in that position. Please."
"Alright," he replied. "But if negotiations turn precarious and my input could be the difference between smooth cooperation and disaster, I won't hesitate." Jaania sighed, but she had no counterargument to make. Warlic held her hand and smiled. She made herself smile back.
"I love being forced to cooperate with the being that killed my dragon," the Hero said sarcastically. "That is my most favorite activity in the whole entire world."
Organa chuckled. "Are we still agreeing to disagree about the supposed heroism of your old 'friend,' Ama?"
"Yes, we are," Jaania said with narrowed eyes. "Most likely, Akanthus forced them to bring him back. Ama is not a cruel person and would not have willingly unleashed a scourge like Akanthus."
"The question was never about their intentions," Tenevos countered. "Whether your lost love intended to cause harm or not, their very nature as a person from another world reliably spawns chaos. Your so-called hero cannot be anything other than a force of destruction."
Organa smiled. "Ah, Tenevos. I remember now why you and I used to be friends." Tenevos made no reply, which was a form of agreement.
The leader of the Bar guild raised his hand. "We have no plausible justification for suspecting that either Ama or Akanthus are involved, nor any confidence that they are. We must continue the search for suspects."
"Yes, that's a good idea," Jaania said, shooting a look at Organa. "Let's focus on what we have in common. That's keeping order among our people."