"Sounds like neither of you are convinced," said Theodore, unimpressed by his collaborator's attitude towards his proposal.
While it was true that the evidence he had on hand was not substantial enough to prove his hypothesis, he did not believe that the idea was without merit. The lost art of golem construction had at least shown it was possible to animate nonliving things. Granted, these golems never quite had a self-repairing mechanism quite like what the brick had displayed.
Nevertheless, it did not matter whether or not the others were convinced. He was merely bringing it up for the record, something that could be referenced later if it ever became relevant with new discoveries.
"Well, let's leave that aside for now too," said Theodore, moving on with the meeting.
He then pointed towards a jar that was already set on the table when Albatross arrived. Theodore had been investigating it throughout the morning, stopping only to eat breakfast.
"Is that slime in a jar?" asked Albatross, quite confused as to why Theodore would have a slime, a rather common sight in the city, captured within a jar. "Is there something special about this one?"
"From what I can tell, it functions more or less the same as the others," said Theodore, pausing in the middle so that he could be coy. "Which is why it's so interesting."
Albatross shot Theodore a look of annoyance. She did not like how smug he was being, not a single bit.
Theodore, on the other hand, quite enjoyed the unfiltered irritation. After having his hypothesis about the sewers dismissed as some sort of fever dream he was having, this small vengeance was rather sweet.
"Well, go on, don't keep us in suspension," Kalman urged, quite aware of what Theodore was playing at.
With a smile of satisfaction, Theodore went ahead to clarify what was on his mind.
"Other than the function of seeking out wastes and breaking them down, the slimes also appear to have a way to communicate with one another their locations. It's likely so that they could summon others when there's more waste than a given slime can handle. At least, I'm quite sure that was the intended use of this function originally."
"Is there another use for it?"
"I do believe there is. I can easily think of a few off the top of my head, in fact. But first, I need to confirm something."
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Theodore reached out for a thick tomb on the table, bounded with strings and labeled 'Albatross Notes', completed with Albatross's signature and fingerprints just so that there would be no mistake that she's the one with all the 'dirt' written in this document.
Flipping through the document, Theodore arrived at the page he was looking for and pointed out a name.
"Yelena Lysanthea, she's the elder who had you deliver that map to a master, right?"
"It wasn't *a map* it was many maps, a whole stack of them. But now that you mention her-"
"Of course!" Kalman exclaimed, cutting off Albatross. "Yelena used to be in charge of the magic forges before Anne-Marie took over. These days, she keeps herself out of the Circle's business and is focusing on her own research. Her father was the one who created the slimes we use today and she was in charge of their maintenance before becoming an elder. Theodore, are you saying-"
"Indeed," Theodore cut Kalman off, not willing to let the old alchemist steal his spotlight. "If the slimes have proliferated to all corners of the sewers, it is possible to use their location data to form a map of the sewers."
Their eyes were all on the jar of slime on the table, the possibilities of what this little thing can do expanding in their minds.
"Unfortunately," Theodore then proceeded to put a damper on the other two, "the range of a single slime is limited, so with just this slime we have, it's not possible to have a map of the entire sewer structure. However, if a slime could receive information on where the other slimes within a given range are, they should be able to transfer that information as well."
Theodore then began to speak of the mother slime, and about how the slimes would deposit the Aether they've absorbed into the mother. With that information, he proposed that the locations of the slimes that reside within the sewers could have been gathered by the mother during the Aether transfer.
If he could only come into contact with the mother's core, then perhaps he could get his hands on the information and would thereby be able to form a map using said information.
"So that's the plan then?" Kalman tried to confirm. "You'll be returning to the mother slime to steal the information it has?"
"That's right. We're going to need to prepare, of course. If an average slime can absorb Aether and breakdown matter, then just diving into its body without protection can't be wise."
"Understood, I'll get concocting then. I think we can finally put those roots we got from the Dandelion Mandragora to good use. Other than digging that tunnel, that is."
"You're heading there from the above ground this time, right? I'll give you some pointers on which route you can take so that you won't have to bumble around to find your way this time," offered Albatross, a help that was much appreciated as Theodore certainly did have a hard time finding his way back the other night.
Though he had confidence in his sense of direction, it was much harder to find his way around in the dark and when he was in a hurry. Not to mention, Lancea could be quite labyrinthine once you leave the main streets, though not as much as the sewers were. A part of that likely has to do with the city being rebuilt many times over during the last five hundred years., resulting in a confusing arrangement of buildings old and new.
Regardless, a new plan was finally hatched and the collaborators were eager to get to work.
***
End of Chapter 101
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