Arc 2 | Chapter 49: So Stable

So, problem. Big, fat, heavy ass door problem.

⸂I don’t think it will move,⸃ Rin sighed, the magic she had been using to try and force the door open dissipating around her. ⸂Apologies.⸃

Emilia waved her off. It wasn’t her fault she was still so early in her Risen Guard training that she’d only learned a few of the more complicated magics. She had considered giving her new friend one of the magic gems Zach had given her—he’d made her memorize which would enhance which magic type or activate which particular spell—but he’d also told her mastering them took a while, especially for locals. If the stories his mother had told him were to be believed, the system visitors accessed was far more extensive than the one locals did, which operated more as an organization system than whatever visitors received. Where she would need to practice for a few hours to master each type of magic, once she got access to the system, Rin and the others would likely need months.

Even if she was willing to give the other girl one of the gems—which she wasn’t even sure she was, given they would be permanently bound to their first user—it could be dangerous for both of them. Blowback was the biggest risk—Zach had warned her off trying to use the gems without at least a little training behind her—but there was also the risk they would attract the attention of anyone else in the building.

The last thing they needed was whoever had destroyed the lower levels tracking a disturbance in the aether back to their location. Emilia definitely didn’t want to be hit by whatever had caused so much damage.

“Guess we’re going the long way!” Emilia cheered, doing a little fist pump that simultaneously seemed to confuse and annoy her friend.

⸂I think we should return at a later time,⸃ Rin said, not for the first time.

“You can go back alone, if you don’t want to come along,” Emilia said, turning back the way they had come.

They had climbed almost a dozen more floors before reaching the level that seemed to hold the heartcore. It hadn’t been on that level, though, and they’d eventually had to split up, each going up and down the nearest floors until Rin found the entrance two floors down, at the end of a long hallway filled with ancient, decaying books—literally. It smelled like death and rot, and when Emilia had pulled a book off a shelf, the thick pages had fallen to pieces in her hands.

Unlike the cavern where that first heartcore had been located, this one didn’t seem to have human guards, and instead, magic had been woven into the floor and bookcases. That magic had been disturbed by the quake that had rolled through the lower levels, however, and the few that had still been activated had been weakened enough for Rin to blast them out of existence. They’d then spent a good 30 minutes trying to force the damn door open, failing miserably.

⸂You know I cannot leave you here,⸃ Rin practically growled as she followed Emilia back down the hall to where it had split off between the easy, door entrance to the heartcore and a hall that had dangerous vibes.

Emilia hadn’t liked those vibes, but she wasn’t about to turn back now. Interestingly, Rin hadn’t been able to sense anything, giving her a look of concern when she’d mentioned the

danger

emanating from it. Then again, maybe it wasn’t so weird, given the girl also seemed incapable of sensing the heartcore.

“I’ll be fine. Worst that will happen is I die and wake up back in my real body.”

The other girl tensed at the reminder that this wasn’t her real body. ⸂You do not know that.⸃

“I’m pretty damn sure.”

⸂You cannot be sure. Visitors never return to this place. For all we know—⸃

“You know,” Emilia cut in, her tone tightly amused, “our government can be pretty shit—I mean, they at least partially fund platforms like this and do nothing to stop the utter murder and mayhem we bring with us, so of course they’re shit—but if our real bodies started actually dying in these things? You can bet it wouldn’t stay secret long.”

For all that both the government and the OIC System kept secrets, the OIC was pretty damn nosy and protective. Unless it thought the collateral damage was worth it—or it was being purposefully excluded from whatever was happening, which it definitely wasn’t from official raids like this—it would certainly make no secret of coverups.

The Virtuosi System, with its time skew and ability to simulate the aether, had been built into the original system behind the raids. While the Virtuosi System and the OCI were

technically

different, they were so closely related that keeping the OIC out of anything that utilized the Virtuosi System was extremely difficult, and was almost always accompanied by a note—the Virtuosi System had seemingly been programmed to warn users if the OIC System weren’t currently involved in its use.

There had been no warning; therefore, Emilia would be hard-pressed to believe the OIC wasn’t monitoring the raid.

Then again, the OIC did support the real-world raids, so maybe she had a bit too much faith in its morality—it was just a neural network, after all. A domineering, overprotective and nearly all seeing neural network, but a neural network all the same.

Rin didn’t exactly look convinced, and Emilia couldn’t think of a good way to explain nosy neural networks to someone who lived without any technology. ⸂You should still avoid dying.⸃

“Noted,” Emilia said cheerfully, turning the corner and stopping short. “Well, I think you’re gonna have to come with me, regardless of whether you think it's a good idea or not.”

An echo of

pissed off

annoyance rolled off the former Risen Guard trainee as she came to stand beside Emilia. ⸂I did not think they would return to functionality,⸃ she said, sounding both hilariously defeated and extremely put out.

Emilia tried not to laugh or cry as they watched the aether bending defensive magics vibrate through the air. “I’m guessing it’s not exactly normal, for them to return to working?”

⸂Indeed not,⸃ Rin told her, blinking those muddy eyes at the display of power she couldn’t hope to dissipate before turning down the

dangerous vibes

pathway. Emilia had to hand it to her, she had yet to see anything really faze the other girl. Attacked by a Risen Guard? Didn’t hesitate to help her friends and ruin her career path. Asked to translate for weird visitor person? She hadn’t even blinked. Possibility all her friends were blobs of flesh under a thousand tons of rumbled? Her voice had barely cracked.

Being forced to go the long way around to get to the heartcore? Annoying, but the girl just rolled with it. Emilia liked people who rolled with things, although getting pushback and alternative opinions was always good too. It was probably why she and Payton had immediately clicked as break and enter partners. He was smart and calm and didn’t hesitate to act or look at her like she was crazy.

Emilia eyed up the other girl as they moved down the increasingly dark hallway. She knew very little about her—too little, even her relationship with the Stringer siblings reduced to her and Harmony being

classmates

when there was clearly more to it. Generally, people didn’t betray the organization they had spent a decade of their life with—not to mention been tapped for specialized work for—so easily.

A hand shot out in front of her and Emilia’s steps halted, her short bob swaying with the movement. It was still red, Zach having recharged the illusion magic that Harmony and Rin had cast on her before she left him. His only remark about it was that it had been sloppy, which wasn’t exactly the greatest boost in confidence, considering she and one of the casters were about to face things that she certainly wasn’t prepared for.

⸂

We’ll be going to the excavated heartcores,⸃

Key had explained to them that morning. ⸂

The heartcores have existed as long as anyone knows. Some existed on or in the earth, and were moved to new locations. Others appeared over time. We know very little about them, other than that they offer power to those who commune with them.⸃

Assuming he was still alive, Emilia was going to have to ask Key and the others if they knew about the heartcores offering of power to newborns. He certainly hadn’t implied he knew anything about that, although who knew what that boy did and didn’t know with his constant half-truths and misdirection.

⸂

What we do know,⸃

Key had continued, shooting a cold look at Sk’lar as the man yawned and seemingly paid him no attention, ⸂

is they alter the world around them. Shortly after appearing or being placed in a new location, they create a warped reality. It has been speculated this is to protect themselves, although it could simply be a result of their power. These labyrinths are extremely dangerous and must be passed through in order to access the heartcores.

⸃

He had looked expectantly at Emilia, silently urging her on to ask the question rolling around in her head—the question that a good teacher would have just answered. Apparently, Key was more inclined to be a teacher who needed his students to ask obvious questions.

“There was nothing dangerous blocking the way to the heartcore we visited,”

she had mused, mentally patting herself on the head when she managed to not roll her eyes.

“Was there something different about that one?”

For effect, she had tilted her head, lower lip sticking out just the barest amount, her teeth dragging a corner into her mouth. Key’s cheeks had reddened and Harmony had looked about ready to launch herself across the table at her, so apparently she was pretty damn cute.

⸂

That’s a good question, Emilia,

⸃ he had replied, after Rin had translated for her—Harmony had effectively refused to translate for her. ⸂

The heartcore we visited was excavated. Enclave members worked their way through the altered reality and created an easier way to access it.

⸃

“So~ are there other excavated heartcores for us to visit?”

She had blinked wide, red rimmed eyes at him. If he was going to treat her like a doll, she might as well mess with him a bit. Given the way he coughed and looked away, mission successful.

⸂

Yes. There are a number we can visit, rather than risk the more dangerous, unexcavated ones.⸃

That only worked if they could use the excavated entrance, which, no go. Onwards, down the path of potential no return!

Rin had frowned severely when Emilia had called it that, though, the hallway filling with icy annoyance, and now she was following behind the other girl in silence. The was probably for the best because she had just realized that even when they reached the heartcore they still weren’t going to be able to get out past the wall of magic barriers. Not unless someone showed up with more magic skill than Rin, anyways.

Emilia’s eyes flittered around the dark space. It was incredibly boring, just a long walk of darkness and increasingly powerful vibes of danger. Having nothing else to do, she returned to her moving meditation, each step another chance to practice using her core—to practice so if she did have to use it directly in battle one day, she was less likely to kill herself in the process.

Above them, she could still feel the heartcore, its existence pounding into the aether. Emilia had felt powerful skills before, but the energy the heartcore was giving off really took the cake—and it was only one of dozens, scattered throughout the cities. More interesting than that power, however, was its stability. Emilia had skills capable of rending the world apart, but even the most impressive ones tore and shredded the aether in ways that were wholly unnatural. They didn’t

beat

with the aether, filling and spreading it like it was a part of the aether itself.

It was fascinating, and Emilia was sure that, given the chance, she would be totally down to sit and analyze a heartcore for hours trying to find any hint of the

how

behind it so she could create something just as stable in her own world. That said, there were other, more life-threatening things to search for, and she tried to turn her core away from the call of the heartcore. It protested, shuddering within her, before she swatted it on the butt.

“Behave,”

she mentally chastised it, promising to feed it some of that yummy fruit—apparently from something called a wandering tree—if it cooperated with her. Despite having no expectations that that would work, her core settled slightly, contracting its view to the hallway. Emilia frowned down at her stomach, barely visible in the dim light. Weird. Zach had certainly never said anything about being able to talk to your core, although, what was meditation but bullying your core into cooperating with you? Maybe she just needed to bribe hers?

She

was certainly easily bribable with food and sex and snuggles, why shouldn’t her core be any different?

Even to her core, the hallway was startlingly dark and seemingly endless, the walls a blank canvas of depthless black that only found form when she reached out a hand to touch them. Her core couldn’t touch them at all, instead reaching out into the ominous, empty, black world beyond them.

Except it wasn’t empty, at least, she didn’t think it was. Her mapping skills were sketchy, even if she had something to draw on that wasn’t her flighty mind, but she was positive that there should be a library out there somewhere. She could have sworn they’d been walking straight, and there had been another, just as straight hallway, running parallel to this one some 30 feet away. When she tried to reach out towards it, however…

Nothing. There was nothing.

Emilia turned, walking backwards as she sent her core and aether spiralling back the way they had come, the abrupt rise in her core usage stalling Rin’s steps until Emilia backed past her. Their eyes met before Rin was turning as well, her own core soft as it wound its way effortlessly—beautifully—outwards and—

⸂Where did the library go?⸃

Well, good to know she wasn’t completely losing it.