“W-wait! Please, won’t you give us your guidance, Great Spirit?” Jiran looked over his shoulder to find that it was the Matron of Belief who had worked up the courage to yell after him. She held her hands outstretched and cupped.
“I’m not ‘Great Spirit.’ It’s Jiran and I’ve no desire to decide the fate of your entire race. I’ll be back before nightfall. If you have any questions, I’ll answer them then. Oh, there are four Forkara who are innocent and are currently scouting beyond the valley. If they return, do not harm them.” Jiran warned, his tone turning deadly serious as he locked eyes with each matron in turn. One by one, they either nodded or dropped to their knees with cupped hands. He studied the movement of their mana. Upon finding none who appeared suspicious, he turned and left. Niya was at his side as they rejoined Mayalyn and Lulu.
The Matrons all look so similar. What an interesting race. No charisma either, so prepared speeches don’t seem to be effective for raising that attribute.
When Mayalyn felt his aura harden to block sound, she confronted him with her hands on her hips, “I thought you said you planned to help them?” She cocked her head with raised brows.
“I am, but I don’t want them to know that. They’ll end up relying on me for everything if I constantly fix their problems.”
“Mmn, good,” She smiled and reached out to pat his forearm affectionately. “What is your plan now? You told them we would be back before nightfall. Are you going hunting again?” Mayalyn was looking behind him as she talked. Jiran followed her gaze to see the Matrons moving together toward the massive dome of ice. He had left a door-sized hole in its side, and they shuffled toward it, apparently wanting to see the captives before making their decision.
“Nope, I don’t want to go far from the valley again until we see what kind of response the Forkara are going to send. I earned an… I guess you would call it an acclamation a while ago that opened a new teleporter location. I think this is a perfect chance to go poke around. Interested in a quick adventure to someplace called Sanctuary?”
“Oohh, that sounds fun! Think there will be another race there like the Timberlings?” Niya questioned, instantly on board, their previous squabble long forgotten.
“No clue, but I can’t wait to find out. You coming, Lulu?” Jiran’s question caused the girl to jump, large, panicky doe-eyes trained on him.
“I-I can come with you? Through the portal?” Jiran nodded and her surprise quickly morphed into an excited smile. “Yes, I very much would like to go!”
“Alright, that’s the spirit!” She cocked her head at his strange use of the word, her mouth opening to reply when Jiran lifted her and Mayalyn into the air. Her question turned into a gleeful squeal as they raced above the trees. He used his map to find the portal, which wasn’t far from the edge of the woods. In the daylight, the forest was beautiful, reaching far and wide through the walled valley. The boughs reflected the sunslight with a dozen shades of violet and cyan.
The shore around the pond was still occupied by hundreds of Timberlings who came to worship. They pointed and gasped before falling to their knees. Jiran huffed and rolled his eyes, causing Niya to laugh at him. “Get over it already, they’re worship-obsessed crazies. It is what it is.” She shrugged.
Lulu looked between Niya and Jiran with a quizzical expression, “Does the reverence of my sectmates upset you?”
“Not upset. It’s more of a nuisance. Maybe it’s because I don’t understand them. Niya’s right, I should get over it. To each their own,” Jiran shrugged as he set them down on the platform that was submerged a few centimeters beneath the surface of the water.
Lulu pursed her lips in thought before responding slowly, building confidence the more she sang, “We have awaited the coming of the Great Spirit since the transcended only covered the innermost center of the shelterwood. They’re excitement is mirrored in my heartwood as well. Birthers have sung of the Great Spirit to their saplings for each generation since. Those who are good, will be blessed by him, those who are bad, shunned. Everything we do and think is colored by the shade of his coming,” She blushed at the end but her silvery eyes met his gaze, refusing to break away.
“The prophecy’s that old? I didn’t get that impression before,” He ignored the pointing and whispers as he placed his hand on the pedestal and charged his mana into a portal to Sanctuary.
Lulu nodded emphatically, “Oh yes, every generation has dreamed of meeting the Great Spirit and coming closer to the Absolute Root. To be alive at this time is a great honor.”
“The Absolute Root? Of course the name of your deity would rhyme, why wouldn’t it?” Jiran shook his head with a chuckle as twelve percent of his mana was drained to open the portal. “Dang, this place is expensive.” Jagged lines within the platform lit with an inner glow as a deep thrum sent ripples through the water. Mana Omnis and Jiran’s aura watched with interest as a bright, lateral tear appeared in the air above the platform. It grew in size to reveal a portal that led into inky darkness.
Dang, was hoping seeing this again would give me some clues on teleporting but the mana is just appearing from the framework. Good to know these portals use the framework too, I guess.
Jiran added all three to his party and Lulu gasped, taking an instinctive step away from the hole torn in space. Niya leaped forward, diving into the portal before Jiran could stop her. “What the shrelkshit, Niya!” Mayalyn was hot on her heels and Jiran grabbed the shell-shocked Lulu, leaping in after them.
He crashed into Niya’s back as he landed on a smooth stone floor. His aura instantly billowed out in every direction, searching for threats in the pitch-black area. The air directly around them was so empty it was practically a void. Not a single mote of dust entered the perceptions of his aura. He could only detect the gases making up the breathable air. His aura quickly reached the edges of the space and slid through the solid walls which were completely unlike the stone teleportation platform beneath their feet.
Jiran frowned as he tried to identify the material the walls were made from, quickly realizing they were in a large room that had been hollowed out of a massive crystal. He had to form his aura into a long spear and stretch it out to its full length before only barely piercing through the entirety of the crystal wall closest to them. Beyond the incredibly thick material, there true emptiness—a complete lack of anything perceivable.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
Mana Confluence pulled a layer of mana from inside his body to rest on top of his skin and Elemental Castigation converted it into elemental light, filling the room with reflective brilliance. The walls themselves were so thick that the light from his skill failed to penetrate through to illuminate the emptiness beyond.
Everything in the room was one form or another of clear crystals. There were easily a hundred waist-height pedestals, each perfectly uniform and clearly crafted for a specific purpose rather than naturally formed. The room was octagonal in shape, and along one wall was a row of a dozen crystals with flat tops that were angled to face the center of the room. Their placement and angle instantly reminded Jiran of a memory from Earth. That memory, combined with the emptiness he sensed outside, gave him an idea of where they were.
Putting his thoughts and the random memory aside, he knife-chopped Niya on top of her head hard enough to make her yelp. “Please don’t ever do that again. I get that you’re having fun, but there’s no way to know if a tier ten is waiting for us on the other side of these portals.”
Niya spun around to face him, when she saw Lulu’s terrified visage, her anger evaporated and she sighed while rubbing her head. “I honestly didn’t even consider that. I’m used to thinking that most beasts are third tier or lower. But that’s just in the empire. You’re right, who knows what we’ll find through one of your portals. I won’t go rushing in again.”
“Thanks,” Jiran turned to Mayalyn’s bobbing blue hair as she walked away from them, “That goes for you, too. I was going to try and send some aura or mana through to scout first.”
“Mhm, I promise,” Mayalyn responded absentmindedly, already having moved off the platform to examine one of the chest-high crystals nearby. She ran her finger along its perfectly smooth surface, leaning closer to peer into the material that was so clear of imperfections that it was more translucent than water.
“Is this the realm of the spirits?” Lulu asked, her eyes not staying still for a moment as she tried to look at everything at once.
“No clue, all I know is the name. This place was clearly made with some purpose in mind. Stay sharp, whoever created all this could come back at any time and I doubt they’re tier three,” Niya had the decency to look guilty at Jiran’s pointed comment.
He stepped down from the platform to stand near Mayalyn. With curiosity every bit a match for hers, he reached out to run his finger along the top of the crystal pedestal. The moment his skin touched it, an incredibly faint current of density slithered through his skin. He barely stopped himself from claiming the energy and instead observed it as it worked its way up his arm.
Once he realized it was planning to move all the way up to his head, he grew more cautious. He trapped the tingle of energy in his shoulder, surrounding it with his mana. It pressed against his blockade, stopping instantly as it had no real power to resist him. Centimeter by centimeter, he allowed it to move up through his neck, not at all intending to let it into his brain if that was its goal. When it reached his skull and slithered along the outside of his jaw, he let it continue until it nestled into his right eye.
Suddenly, a blinking notification appeared in his interface.
[Keynote Prime Detected.]
[Accept Command Authorization?] [Y/N]
“Uhh, I got a notification to accept command of something. I’m going to accept it, everyone come over here first, just in case.” Mayalyn looked up at him sharply, her brows furrowed in concern. Lulu practically sprinted to his side, eyeing the walls like they would come alive and eat her at a moment's notice. When Niya reached his side, he focused on the confirmation prompt in his interface.
The crystal nearest them that he and Mayalyn touched shimmered as an orange light blossomed in its center. The light seeped into the translucent floor before splitting into a hundred smaller lights that zipped into every crystal inside the room. Each crystal began to hum as they vibrated at an ultrasonic frequency that made his teeth itch. He couldn’t hear the hum, but his aura certainly picked it up. The lights within the crystals expanded until each one was glowing softly with an even radiance. Jiran cut off the light he was producing, since the entire room was now illuminated.
The vibrations oscillated between a slow, deep frequency that ramped up to a high pitch before slowing once more, almost making it feel like they were inside a giant, beating heart. All four of them were crouched and watching every direction at once, ready to bolt toward the still active portal. When nothing new happened for several seconds, Jiran relaxed with a sigh, finally lowering his eyes to look at the crystal next to them which had started everything. On its surface, a perfectly square section the size of his thumb was flashing with a white light that stood out sharply in contrast to the orange, inner glow.
Ahh shit, it’s a button. I really shouldn’t press it. Damnit, who am I kidding? I’m so going to press it.
Jiran’s pointer finger landed on the white square and an infinitesimal spark of electricity arced to his finger and spread through his body. The entire slanted top of the crystal—easily the width of his chest—shimmered with white light. Suddenly, unknown hieroglyphs sprang to life across its surface and hundreds of lines of text appeared in his interface. The text in his interface was a garbled mess of letters, numbers, and symbols that flew across his vision far too quickly for even his enhanced perception to track. Within only a second, thousands of lines had passed and just as suddenly, vanished to be replaced by only a few matching lines that appeared in both his interface and on the flat crystal surface.
[Authorization Accepted. Welcome Keynote Prime.]
[Sanctuary Primary Systems: Unpowered.]
[Sanctuary Subsystems: Unpowered.]
[Sanctuary Tertiary Systems: 3/7 Functional.]
[Sanctuary Organic Support: Functional.]
“What is that?!” Niya pointed at the clearly legible Imperial dialect that appeared on the crystal.
“Some kind of interface, similar to your status,” Jiran responded while pressing his finger on the tertiary systems message. The Organic support message beneath moved fluidly out of the way to allow the tertiary systems to expand into a list.
[Sanctuary Tertiary Systems.]
[Teleportation Node: Functional.]
[Stasis Chamber: Functional.]
[Basic Conversion Module: Functional.]
[Accessways: Unpowered.]
[Tertiary Habitat Module: Unpowered.]
[Remote Interface Module: Unpowered.]
[Diagnostic Module: Unpowered.]
“Woah! The letters moved?! How is it doing that?” Her voice was full of wonder as she jabbed a finger at the organic support button. Much to her excitement, it expanded into another shorter list.
[Sanctuary Organic Support.]
[Current Power: (8%) 10 Million C.D.U. Of 120 Million C.D.U.]
[EMERGENCY: Low Power Mode Activated.]
[Primary Systems Re-routed To Organic Support.]
[Subsystem Re-routed To Organic Support.]
“So awesome! Any idea what this stuff means?” Niya asked, completely unbothered by the seeming severity of the messages.
“What does it say, Jiran? I do not recognize many of those words.” Mayalyn's voice was brimming with impatience as she pulled on his sleeve.
“It’s a list of the available systems and a message that most of them are shut down to maintain the organic support system. I’m assuming that’s what’s making the air in here breathable.”
“Why wouldn’t the air be breathable?” Niya scoffed like he was talking nonsense.
“Because I don’t think this place is on Madra’s surface. I think we’re in space.”