Chapter 43: Purpose
Vina reclined on the fragrant, sweet-smelling blue grasses of Valanire, their scent stirring unwelcome memories. She fought to suppress them, knowing they weren’t hers, but their intrusion was relentless. Despite her best efforts, images of Siany flitted through her mind as she looked out at the landscape surrounding Valanire’s plateaus.
Instead of focusing on the horizon, she glanced back briefly at the assembled crowd behind her, still held captive by Riza’s lecture to her Dedicated. Her head guard was taking her turn at demonstrating blood weapon forging abilities and how they tied in with skill development. While something Vina herself could probably benefit from learning, she was enjoying the time on her own as best she could.
Her own lectures were already done for the day. Her instruction had been long, with numerous reinforcements on the basics of blood runes. She was frustrated with her Dedicated’s progress, but not specifically with them. Already twenty-two of her people had managed to incapacitate themselves with blood runes, nearly draining themselves beyond the point of rescue despite Trina’s barrier. So disappointed was she in their forgetfulness of her warnings that she had gone about the city of Valanire and carved the rules into the sides of every building along the main street as a reminder.
She sighed, trying to force herself to relax, but the voices of her guards echoed in the distance. “You were right, Seassa. Never truly alone.” Though she lay in a field behind the lecture area, her guards were still within range of her Blood Sense. It had taken a heated argument to convince Riza to station them as far away as they were. Even an isolated city, shielded by a protective barrier, wasn’t enough to ease Riza’s relentless standards for Vina’s safety—standards that had grown even more stringent after the failed assassination attempt.
Vina rolled onto her other side, moving her still-lit lantern out of her way. “Ruminating like this isn’t going to solve anything,” she told herself. But she knew what was really bothering her. Stine’s words were like a thorn in her mind.
"A question I’ve never heard you ask is: What is an aspect?"
She opened her backpack and pulled out the Aspect of Nature. She held it gently between her bare fingers, looking at it closely. The bright red stone was no bigger than a dime. The cut appeared much simpler than others she had seen before. The stone was circular with a dark red border, but the facets on the stone numbered just fifteen, providing a clear look through it.
Next, she pulled out the Aspect of Divinity. The stone held a similar reddish-copper color, but Vina immediately noticed a difference between the two stones. This stone was cut into the shape of a triangle. She twisted it in her fingers, trying to tell if one side was supposed to be pointed upwards, but every side appeared to be cut equally.
Closing her eyes for a moment, she tried to remember what the stones looked like that she had returned to Trina. It wasn’t hard. She remembered each of them vividly. The Aspect of Sanctuary and the Aspect of Memories were colored identically to the Aspect of Nature. “This is a stolen aspect from The Severing,” Vina said, looking at the circular Aspect of Nature in her hand. Looking at the triangular stone, she frowned, not as certain. “You’re the wrong color red. The Aspect of Life wasn’t stolen from Trina, but rather she gave it to Shan. Does that mean Trina gave the Aspect of Divinity to someone too?”
She brought the stones closer, tilting them to catch the sunlight. The warm glow of the sun through the crimson facets brought no answers, only more questions. “What are you, really?” she whispered, the weight of Stine’s question heavy in her mind. Someone stirred at the edge of her Blood Sense, and Vina immediately closed her fist over the aspects, placing them back into her backpack.
“Don’t worry. I’m not going to take them,” Caja called out in a teasing tone. “Mind if I join you?”
Vina waved a greeting as she moved to a sitting position. “Please, save me. I’m drowning in my thoughts.”
Caja settled beside her, her presence warm and familiar, but her words cut through Vina's thoughts like a blade. “Why haven’t you returned those to Trina?”
Vina groaned. “I said save me, not hold me under.”
With a laugh, Caja threw an arm around her and pulled her close, just as she had done on the island where they had first met. “You’re going to have to confront her someday. If the system is trying to kill us just for our classes, you’re going to need to talk to her about that.”
With a heaving sigh, Vina silently agreed. She had confided far more in Caja in the last few days than anyone else. Riza was too busy with all of her responsibilities to be a confidante right now. “And Oyna…” Vina thought. “She doesn’t need to deal with all of this right now.” No, the only person she felt was able to help shoulder her burdens was Caja. “I don’t know if reviving Trina is worth the risk. She might not be able to be reasoned with. I’m considering letting her remain where she is, hidden away and forever sleeping.”
Caja nodded. “The rest of your people might not like that, but you won’t hear an argument from me. How will that protect us from The System though?”
“It won’t. That’s why I need you to save me from myself,” Vina laughed, but then her tone turned more serious. “I met The Supreme, Zel'alor. It had an aspect of The System embedded within it. What if I can get it and find a way for us to control the system?”
Caja stiffened at her words. “That’s ambitious.”
Feeling her vibrance, Vina voiced Caja’s feelings. “You’re scared of that idea.”
“Lar sentira dimasti ena ser larasar,” Caja muttered, and Vina cast her a confused look. “Whether it is a real Valchara or not, fighting Zel'alor is dangerous. The Darkness and The Supreme have fought for hundreds of years. What chance do we have of killing either of them?”
“I don’t need to kill Zel'alor. I just need to get the aspect from its body,” Vina said carefully. “Besides, I defied Stine, and it didn’t manage to kill me,” she added with a reassuring smile.
“You defied a creature controlled by The Darkness,” Caja corrected with a wry smile. Her hand slowly slipped from Vina’s shoulders down to her back. “And it still left a permanent mark on you.”
Vina shivered from the cold chill that ran up her spine at Caja’s touch. They had tried to remove that black spot without success. No matter how much they cut from her, the mark reappeared as soon as she was healed. “Ugh. Don’t do that. Feels weird every time.” She leaned forward and wrapped her arms around her legs. “If I don’t do anything, nothing will be done.”
“You are doing something, Vina. You’re building a community. By the time something has to be done about the system being a danger to us, there will be far more people like us to figure out what needs to be done. You’ve set things into motion. It’s okay to relax now,” Caja encouraged.
Vina let go of her legs and pushed off the ground, standing up. She snagged her lantern. “No. It just means I can focus on something else.”
~~~
Vina eyed Caja as she fed the runes carved on the wall, bringing her rules back to life once more for everyone to read. She watched her Dedicated’s life slowly drain and almost interfered when Caja abruptly yanked her hand back.
“Don’t give me that look,” Caja said, narrowing her eyes as she changed her blood back to Stigandorian. “It’s almost impossible for any of us to bleed out here with the barrier and your warnings everywhere.” She gestured with her bleeding hand at the wound she had inflicted herself. The barrier, designed to protect them from external harm, had a strange limitation Vina had discovered through several experiments: it didn’t prevent self-inflicted injuries. “If your handwriting wasn’t so elegant, it’d be like ymalk smarath on the walls.”
Vina couldn’t help but smile as she adeptly grabbed Caja's hand and healed it. “I have no idea what that means, but I can imagine it.”
“You’re probably still wrong,” Caja said with a grin. She cast a sidelong look at Vina. “You’re not taking us back to Alora, are you?”
Vina shook her head. “I’m getting security reports that she has half of the city’s sympathy right now. I doubt I could corner her again without some kind of confrontation.” She gestured toward the castle gates, indicating Caja to follow. “It may have been a mistake bringing her back here. I won’t get an opportunity to interrogate her until I have time to change her situation politically.”
“So where are we going?” Caja asked slowly.
Vina could tell Caja was hesitant, and she couldn’t help but inwardly smile at her unease. “We’re visiting my special project.”
Caja gave her a pained look. “Uhm, there’s just one issue here. I’m not allowed on the castle grounds.”
“Yeah. Who do you think made that rule?” Vina asked with a mischievous grin. She had a sneaking suspicion that Caja wasn’t being entirely truthful about that bracelet, so she had Riza keep an eye on Caja’s movements around Valanire under the guise of a training opportunity. To Vina’s great delight, Riza had confirmed that Caja was simply curious, often poking her nose into places she wasn’t supposed to be. However, despite this curiosity, Caja had shown no indication of doing anything more than just looking around. For now, Vina was willing to overlook the fact that Caja had once again swapped the bracelet back to its original arm, in favor of having someone she enjoyed spending time with. “Come on.” Vina led the way to the gates and the two guards there. “I have a visitor today. Caja is permanently approved for the castle grounds now.”
The guard nodded, and they continued through.
“Are you building something?” Caja asked, her tone tense as she eyed the workers.
“Deconstructing something,” Vina said cryptically. She turned to one of the workers who appeared to be struggling with a heavy stone. “You should take a break,” she said, tapping him on the shoulder. “Go talk to Jan, and take anyone you want with you. We’ve made good progress.”
The man gave her a weary nod and removed his leather gloves.
Vina pressed through another large room, then nodded at her guards. “We’re going alone from here, Caja, but you know this already. You’ve gone through this process a few times,” Vina said quickly, watching for her reaction.
Caja’s jaw dropped, and she opened her mouth to deny Vina’s claim. “No, I haven’t!”
Vina waited for a moment, but no deception notification appeared. “Holy shit… you are good at lying.” She put a hand on Caja’s shoulder. “It’s okay. I know you can’t resist being left out. Riza and I turned your curiosity into a training exercise for the guards. We’ve been teaching them to detect disguises and vibrance masking. Right, Riza?” Vina called out down the hall.
“We’ve caught you a bunch of times, Caja.” Riza’s voice echoed from the hall, and she entered the room a moment later. “Lady Esca told us not to interfere, though. We rotated the guards to practice detecting you.” She cast a glare at Vina. “You left with only nineteen guards.”
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Vina turned and quickly counted her guards. “Shit… I thought you gave me twenty,” she said, a hint of panic rising in her voice. The last thing she wanted was to be trapped in another security review meeting.
“Twenty including me. We’re going to review the security protocols later. In detail. Together.” Riza said with a sullen look on her face.
“But I can quote them to you!” Vina groaned. Then she sighed deeply, seeing Riza wasn’t deterred. “Fine…” She cracked open the next door leading to the great hall. Riza led the way through, followed by a blushing Caja. Vina softly closed the door behind herself as she looked out over the massive room.
The vast expanse of the great hall stretched out, a stark reminder of the castle's former grandeur and the power of those who once controlled it. Towering stone pillars, each a marvel of craftsmanship, lined the hall at regular intervals. These monolithic structures, intricately carved with age-old patterns, rose to the ceiling, supporting the levels above.
Despite the hall's inherent magnificence, it bore the marks of recent upheaval. The once-pristine stone floor had been torn apart. Massive slabs, some cracked and others whole, were heaped haphazardly against the hall's vast walls, awaiting transport. Between them, the raw, rocky foundation of the castle was laid bare, revealing the earthy bedrock upon which the fortress stood.
But what truly captivated Vina every time she entered this hall was not the gaping absence of the floor but what had been uncovered beneath it. Imprinted deep into the rocky substrate was an elaborate runeform, aglow with an ethereal blue luminescence. The runes, intricate and delicate, swirled and twined in patterns too complex for most eyes to follow, weaving an otherworldly tapestry. Their shimmering light pulsed and danced, casting undulating patterns of illumination throughout the chamber, bathing the stone in shades of azure and cobalt. The mysterious glow turned the hall into a cavern of wonder, each rune hinting at ancient intent and long-forgotten secrets, waiting to be deciphered.
For a long moment, no one spoke. Vina stepped fully into the room, her blood lantern glowing softly at her hip. “Ynaya? Tral?” she called out as she walked onto the runes with deliberate care.
“Here!” Tral called out from behind one of the pillars. “Just looking at the….” His voice trailed off.
Ynaya’s spoke up, “We’re looking at how the extension points off the main are authenticating with the primary structure to receive divinity. It doesn’t make sense.”
Vina approached them, her voice thoughtful. “I was looking at that yesterday too. Trina gave an identity tag and a numerical identifier to each extension point. She bundled both into the runeway, but then she abandons the identity tag partway through. She just uses the numerical identity.”
“Respectfully, that’s not entirely true,” Tral said, his voice careful. “The identity tag does appear to be dropped at the authentication point, but…”
Ynaya suddenly interrupted him. “She actually slips the identity tag into the numerical identity stream like water in a waterskin and it makes it past the authentication runeform which unwraps it. The identity tag continues on past the authentication structure.” Ynaya finished. “We just can’t tell where it is going.”
Vina snapped her fingers as she rounded the pillar. “I’d bet it’s feeding into what we’re calling the divinity well. I read that it expects something before it will deliver divinity to a runic path. Maybe it’s this identity tag.”
Ynaya looked up at her, realization dawning. “That would mean…”
“Every barrier has a unique identity tag,” Vina finished. “We need to record every identity tag for these extension points, as well as the primary, in case something happens to them.”
“Something… like what? You’re not going to destroy one of the extension points, are you?” Ynaya asked, suspicion lacing her voice.
Vina gave her a wounded look. “Not planning to, but someday we’ll move beyond studying into experimentation.”
“Okay, I admit it. I’ve sneaked in a few times…” Caja spoke up suddenly.
“Twelve times,” Riza corrected, cutting her off.
“More than that,” Caja said with a grin. “I was curious about how expansive the runes were. It was a lesser-known fact in Randar that the refuges were covered in runes. Our runecarvers made practically no progress in understanding them.” She looked at Vina with a mix of admiration and curiosity. “You… seem to be deciphering them…?”
Vina shrugged and started to move away. “I need to check something,” she muttered.
Ynaya began to whisper something, but Vina had already activated her Listen skill, catching fragments of the conversation as she moved out of earshot. “…very humble, but she’s doing something entirely different from any of us. We couldn’t read this section at first until she came back from one of her excursions. I think…”
Vina moved out of range entirely as she approached her target. Kneeling next to another runeform, she extracted a small amount of blood from her locket, even less than a drop. She slid the blood close to the swirling rune pattern, an experiment of her own devising. Her blood pulsed, repelled as if by a magnet, as the large well-rune rotated, pumping out divinity from an unknown source. Counting the time between pulses and feeling the resistance against the blood, Vina repeated the experiment at several other places around the rune, always the same distance away, testing for any variance. She had no need for a notebook; she mentally recorded the sensations, the timing, and the distance from the rune’s center.
Vina slowly stood as she heard Caja approaching. “What are you doing?” Caja asked softly, her tone laced with concern.
“Learning as much as I can,” Vina said shortly, her voice tight with focus. “I’m calling this a well-rune. It’s feeding divinity to the whole structure, but I don’t know the source yet.”
“You know that’s not what I mean,” Caja said, her concern deepening. “What’s going on with you?”
Vina hesitated, then spoke. “I don’t trust these barriers. I know they’re keeping us safe, but either Trina or the system controls them. I don’t trust either of them.”
“That’s the real reason you don’t want to return her aspects,” Caja said, the realization settling over her. “You’ve lost all trust in her.”
Vina nodded slowly. “Maybe.” She pointed down at the runeform. “This is one point of control. You know I have this damn binding quest. Pretty soon, it’ll be able to kill me if I step outside of a refuge. I have no idea how much time I have left to try to destroy Langternem before that happens.” She placed a hand on Caja’s shoulder, her voice softening. “Also, you know the system tried to kill me once before. I don’t want to give it more tools if it tries again. I worry it might have a way to turn off this barrier while I’m inside of it. I need to make sure only I can control this.”
Riza had started to walk over as well, and Vina lowered her voice further. “She can’t know yet. Not until I’m stuck here.”
Caja nodded. “Yes. Of course. I’ll keep it between us.”
Vina looked over Caja’s shoulder. “Hey, Riza. I need to make a measurement at the other location.”
Riza squinted at Vina suspiciously. “Okay, but you know the time limit.”
“Yes, I remember. I’ll be back before the time is up,” Vina said with a reassuring smile. “Caja, you can stay here if you want. I’m sure Ynaya and Tral would love for you to fetch them more drinks,” she added with a wink. Then she stepped back and activated Refuge Recall. The familiar pulling sensation centered in her abdomen, and she once again felt herself pop out of existence, reappearing in another location.
The vibrance of life around her was exhilarating. The tubes that pumped life throughout the structure and the blue runes that glowed on the floor filled her senses with a strange mix of comfort and unease. “That never gets old,” she whispered to the silence of Norphany. She strolled slowly over to the hole where the multiple tubes and racing runes converged. The intricate blending between the two fascinated her as she knelt to trace the runes backward. She moved quickly, aware of the limited time Riza had imposed on her.
“There,” she muttered as she passed into the fully blue runed section of the halls, still within the refuge. The well-rune here was written in her mother’s handwriting, but it was much smaller than what she had seen in Valanire. She bent down to repeat the experiment she had just tried, measuring how much divinity was being extracted to maintain the barrier. The blood she placed near the rune barely moved at all. “Such a weak reaction,” she mumbled. As she stared at the runeform, she imagined Valanire’s runeform overlaid on what her mother had created, and she began to glimpse details her mother had omitted. “Or maybe functions she couldn’t implement?” Vina mused aloud.
She bent down and gently moved her fingernail against a portion of the uncarved stone next to the structure. She carved slowly, adding a single rune she had found in her mother’s book to the edge of one of the strands that fed divinity into the well. “Scaling…” she muttered as she drew the line between. Then she held her breath as she connected her new, regular rune control to the well-rune. Though she had no divinity herself, the entire rune structure, absent of any authorization or identity tags, was more than willing to power her modification as soon as she connected it.
Skill Level Up: Blood Runes has reached level 32: Blood runes can be drawn 90% faster and take 90% less blood to activate or maintain. Blood runes can store 64% more blood. You have gained 600 experience points from leveling a skill.
Looking around, Vina waited for a memory rune to assert itself and obliterate her construction. She brought up her lantern and compared the divinity regulation rune on her lantern in the soul matrix to the runes she had just manipulated. She pressed her lips together, concentrating intensely. “It’s converting my blood to divinity, but how?” she wondered aloud. She tried tracing the runes once more, but they remained beyond her understanding, even if she could now read them. “Getting closer, Mom,” she whispered softly.
Ever since she had learned where her mother was, she had power-leveled her understanding of blood runes, advancing from a skill level of twenty-two to her current state. The skill point she had earned at level thirty constantly tempted her, but after the system’s last attempt on her life, she didn’t dare view her options.
Finally, enough time passed that she knew her mother hadn’t added a memory rune like Trina did to all of her refuges, and Vina reached out to the scale rune she had made. She pressed gently against it, sliding it down, watching one of the threads that fed divinity into the well dim.
She repeated her blood experiment, discovering a further reduced reaction. Then she slid the scale upward, watching the thread turn from a bright blue to a searing white. She quickly conducted her test once more, finding a stronger reaction, and scrambled to turn the divinity feed down again when the rune’s lines started to crackle. “Close one,” Vina muttered as she fell back in relief, her armor clattering against the stones. “But I succeeded in adjusting the well’s divinity production.” She ran a hand against the scales. “Anything you want to do while we’re here?” Before the armor could respond, however, Vina received a notification that popped into her vision.
World System Notification
Inhabitants Of Palitern, the world recently navigated an experience anomaly. As part of the adaptive measures, a minuscule fraction of your life experiences will be collected to restore balance. Your experiences are invaluable to me, but this action was crucial to uphold the world’s continued harmony. You have my eternal gratitude for your understanding. -Trina
Alarm bells went off in Vina’s head as she immediately reactivated Refuge Recall and selected Valanire as her destination. The familiar pulling sensation centered in her abdomen, but when Valanire’s stone walls appeared in her vision, pain struck her abdomen as if she had been stabbed. Her binding quest’s consequence reasserted itself, and she grabbed at her stomach, groaning at the sudden fire burning through her. “Fuck!” she screamed, her voice echoing back at her.
> System Error: Experience Adaptive Measure failed due to Traveler Exemption. Your experience will not be collected.
Vina reached into her backpack, fumbling for a Sildown Leaf, desperate for any kind of pain relief. She gritted her teeth through the agony, but then remembered she had to chew the leaf to receive its benefits. She knelt on the floor for what felt like hours, clutching her abdomen, though her timer showed it had only been a few minutes. Finally, she received a new notification.
You are in Trina’s Refuge. In this place, no harm can come to you.
“Fuck. You. Trina!” Vina screamed, her voice hoarse. “You haven’t killed me yet!” As she turned over, preparing to get to her feet, what she saw nearly stopped her heart. “Caja!”
Caja lay crumpled on the runed floor, bloodied blue sores covering her skin, triggering traumatic memories of Langternem in Vina’s mind. She rushed to Caja’s side, immediately healing her body, but her first Dedicated remained unresponsive. “Caja!” Vina cried out again, tears blurring her vision as she lifted the woman’s head. Blood Sense wouldn’t let her focus on just one Dedicated, however. She felt others in the room were bleeding as well.
Vina gently laid Caja back down and ran to Riza next, healing her sores as well. Tears flowed freely as she saw the same wounds covering both Tral and Ynaya. Slowly, the reality of the situation began to dawn on her. Trina had struck out against all of her Dedicated. She rushed out of the castle, healing everyone she saw as she headed into Valanire proper.
Title Under Threat: Asharaina
You have become aware that all of your people are in danger. You have an obligation to help them. Save as many as you can or risk losing your title.
For the first time ever, the warning in her vision felt more like a threat. The implications of Trina’s control and the danger she represented to her Dedicated were suddenly undeniable.