The pocket devoid of aether turned out to be a lab. Archie scanned his key card against the door panel and pushed it open to step inside. He didn't bother flicking on the lights, instead using only his mana and aether senses to navigate. As expected, the room was completely devoid of aether, and the mana within was thin and difficult to see. It wasn't the same case as the hall outside, which was very obviously the influence of a dungeon core—or something of equivalent power. The influence in this room was weak and small.

"Hello?" Archie called, keeping his voice to a loud whisper in case he alerted someone else.

Unsurprisingly, there was no voice. Shaking his head in frustration, he set himself to scouring the room for the core. There were large tables dividing the room in thirds, with enough chairs and space between them for multiple people to sit. A large whiteboard was up against one wall, while the tables themelves were made from a similar shiny material. Dry erase markers and erasers littered the tables, along with the hastily scribbled notes of researchers at work.

Archie found a dictation machine sitting on one of the tables and rewound the tape, before pressing play.

"—the specimen shows signs of being able to replicate anything within its area of influence. By keeping the specimen confined to a larger entity, we are able to limit its growth—"

Archie turned the dictation machine off, his nose wrinkling in a sneer. He didn't need to hear more to know they were talking about the core he was looking for.

"Hello?" Archie called again.

This time, a dry eraser dropped out of thin air and landed on the table in front of him. Archie leapt back in surprise, catching himself against the opposite table to keep from stumbling. He stared at the eraser for a long moment, noting that it wasn't moving. Then, it suddenly disappeared, only for another to appear in the air and drop onto the table. It too vanished and reappeared twice more, like it was trying to get his attention.

Archie curiously picked up the eraser and started scrubbing away at the notes on the table. Once a large enough space was cleared away, one of the markers started floating in midair. Before Archie could grab it, the hovering writing tool scrawled a few quick words onto the desk.

Who are you?

"My name is Archie. Might you do me the pleasure of knowing yours?" He asked the question, though he fully expected a similar answer to Matt's.

The marker tapped against the table for a moment, before writing appeared on the table. Iris, it said.

"Pleasure to meet you, Iris," Archie said, bowing politely. He focused his mana senses, and saw the approximate shape of a person standing beside him, holding the marker. "Can you not speak normally?"

Mana's too thin. Can't vibrate it to make sounds, Iris explained, writing quickly.

Archie frowned. So this core knew how to talk. "Have you tried making a wisp out of your mana?"

Wisp?

"My core, Zack. He creates small balls of mana threads called wisps in order to communicate with people. It allows him to talk to them as though they were right next to his core."

The human-shaped mana stared at Archie, as though dumbfounded. Then, all of a sudden, the shape condensed and twisted. Finally, a bright orange-purple wisp hovered in the air beside the rabbit.

"Testing… Testing, testing," Iris said, cycling through a variety of different voices and pitches before settling on one she liked. "Oh, this is much better. Thank you."

"You're quite welcome. I am frankly a little surprised you didn't attempt that yourself," Archie noted.

"I don't normally have enough mana to make that attempt," the wisp bobbed in place in frustration. "The aetherologists usually syphon off my mana throughout the day. I typically can't even write when they're around. You're different, though. Are you a monster?"

Archie smirked and shook his head. "Not as such. I am a mob. A core, like you, created me from his own mana."

Iris considered that for a moment. "Another core… like me? Made you from mana?"

"Yes, that is indeed what I just said."

"But that doesn't make any sense… How do you make living creatures from mana? It doesn't work that way!" Iris insisted.

"I am standing right here," Archie assured her.

Iris's wisp hovered silently in place as she considered that. "True. I've only been able to make physical objects that the researchers let me absorb. I guess it wouldn't be out of the question for another core to make a monster if they absorbed it."

"Actually, Zack created me from scratch. He modeled and shaped the mana manually, then—"

Iris suddenly made a shocked noise, grabbing one of the dry erasers with her wisp and chucking it across the room. "Why didn't I think of that!?" She shouted, clearly frustrated. "If I had a monster—er, mob, sorry—to help me I could have escaped by now!"

"Pardon?"

"I have been stuck in this puny room, getting choked by that mewling child, for almost an entire year!" Iris snarled. "A year, Archie! And not once did I even think to try making a monster to help me!"

Archie frowned. "That seems odd. That was one of the first things Zack learned to do."

"Did he need a monster to help him?"

"I… Yes, I suppose he did," Archie admitted, remembering how Zack was stuck to Alex's neck by a thread.

"That's probably why. I've had researchers to bring me stuff this whole time. Sure, they treat me like a specimen, but at least I'm not lonely. The conversation leaves a lot to be desired, though."

"If you don't mind me asking, ma'am, what sort of core are you?" Archie asked.

Iris considered the question for a long moment. "I'm a library core, according to my status sheet. Why?"

Archie frowned. He was unfamiliar with that type of core, but if he had to guess it was one of the lesser categories. Not a dungeon like Zack or Matt—and Archie was fairly certain Matt was a dungeon. He scratched his chin as he considered that.

This was now the second lesser core that he was encountering, including Ember when she was used as a weapon against Zack. Pieces were starting to fall into place as he considered that.

"Pardon me if this seems a bit rude or forward, but when did you receive that classification?" Archie asked.

Iris quietly contemplated the query before answering. "A couple days after I woke up. The researchers fed me aether to wake me, and from the moment I could think I was being squeezed on all sides by that brat's mana. It took me months to gain this much of a foothold."

Archie had expected as much. "Did you have the option of choosing other core types?"

"Of course, but this one appealed to me. The system message told me that library cores contain vast amounts of information, and are able to access details that other cores can't. I figured it was the choice that was most helpful to the researchers, but do they show me any gratitude? No!"

"Did you have the option of choosing, say, to become a dungeon core? Or perhaps a wild land or flying citadel?"

"What? No. I've never even heard of those."

That cemented Matt being a dungeon core in Archie's mind. With Matt being a dungeon and consuming all the aether in the area, there just wouldn't be enough to help other cores become a greater type on their own. Ergo, Iris became a library core instead of a dungeon core. Odds were she wasn't even able to make mobs, but that would have to wait until Archie got her to Zack.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

"With your permission, I would like to take you away from this place. My core, Zack, has asked that I rescue the cores held hostage in Waterloo. That includes you, if you would like—"

"Yes." Archie hadn't even finished speaking before she answered. "Dear god, yes. I hate it here. I hate being choked like this. Please get me out of here!"

"Very well. Where is your core?"

"In the vault in the corner." Iris directed her wisp over to small safe on the side of the room, hovering above it. "The code is two-four-eight-five."

Archie nodded in gratitude and quickly punched the numbers into the electronic pad. The safe made a beeping noise before the door popped open. Sitting inside was a small red jewelry box, the kind normally reserved for wedding rings. Archie popped it open, and had to hold back a gasp.

Iris's core was absolutely tiny. It was barely a sliver of Zack's starting size, and there was a large chip missing from her side. "My dear, is your integrity low?" He asked.

"Yes. Hovering at about forty percent," Iris admitted.

Archie nodded and snapped the box shut, stuffing it into his pocket. He would need to find a way to help her heal once he got her to Zack. "You may want to suck all your mana into your core. I'm not sure what will happen when we step out of this room, but it may prove uncomfortable."

No sooner had he said it did he feel the mana get sucked into the box in his pocket. Iris wasn't kidding when she said it was thin. Even as her wisp disappeared, Archie could feel just how little mana there really was in his pocket. If he had to guess, she had maybe fifteen points in total—hardly anything at all.

Archie slowly stepped out of the room and headed down the hall. He heard no complaints from his pocket—though whether that was because Iris couldn't talk or because condensing her influence like that knocked her out, he couldn't say. Sticking to the ceiling, Archie made his way down a couple flights of stairs until he came upon another pocket i the aether. This one was considerably smaller than even Iris's room, and it was easy to see why.

Instead of this core's influence filling an entire room, it was stuck in place. The blue-purple core was attached to the top of a large arch inside a lab room. As Archie observed, he realized that it was actually attached to two arches and two identical cores—one on either side, with an identical gem slotted into them.

"Hello?" Archie prodded the first crystal, hoping for an answer. The mana coming out of them was weak and even thinner than Iris's. With a grimmace, Archie carefully popped the first gem out of its arch. It vibrated in his hand, then fell still. He ran to the other arch and grabbed the gem, and it shuddered much like the first.

As he held them in his palm, he realized the two gems could slot together to form a single whole. He attempted to do just that, but was disappointed to find that they didn't stick together.

"Maybe Salazar will be able to fix you, my friend," Archie whispered to the broken core. "I am terribly sorry about this fate…"

The core didn't answer, nor did it protest as Archie stuffed its two halves into his pocket. He made sure they were safe, nestled up beside Iris's jewelry box, and took a deep breath. The last core in the building was Matt, the one he assumed was a dungeon.

Once more sticking to the shadows, Archie made his way to the stairwell and started heading for the basement. The deeper into the building he went, the thicker Matt's influence grew. As he neared the ground floor, he could practically taste the magic in the air. The cores in his pocket shivered as they neared the source of the stronger influence.

Slowly, lest he get caught, Archie pushed the door open that led to the basement level. Almost immediately his ears started ringing with the sound of water boiler and the heating equipment. He figured that was the loud noise that Matt was complaining about.

There were more shadows down here for Archie to hide in, and he quickly ducked into the nearest one, behind a shelf of large white cardboard boxes. He strained his ears, trying to listen for something, anything that might give him a hint as to the core's location.

Then, he heard a voice.

"I can't do it!" That was Matt, desperate and pleading.

"You must do it. I know you have the power. Stop holding back."

That second voice, Archie knew it too. It sent a shiver rolling up his spine, and a horrible pit sinking in his stomach. Cornelius Snow, Dean and Archmage of the Waterloo Aetherology department.

Stepping slowly, Archie slunk around a corner and came upon the very thing he was looking for. Matt's core was big, far bigger even than Zack's, almost three feet tall from where it sat on the ground. It was a deep maroon colour, splashed with vibrant, cobalt blue. The source of his voice, though, was not the crystal itself. Rather, there was a small radio sitting on a table before his core, through which Archie could hear Matt's sobbing.

Dean Snow was sitting on a folding chair in front of the core, a desk between the two of them. He had a pad of paper before him and a pen in hand.

"I can't do it, please sir," Matt whined, his voice crackling through the radio.

Snow sneered. "I saw a dungeon with a fraction of your power able to create creatures from nothing but the mana it gathered. I do not believe for a second that you are not capable of the same."

"I-I don't have any monster patterns! If you just got me some patterns, maybe I could—"

Snow slammed his pen on the desk. "Do you think this other core had patterns? No. He created monsters from scratch! You have no excuse to not do the same!"

Matt made a whimpering noise, his crystal core shivering in terror. Archie could almost picture Snow's furious eye peering into the poor boy's very soul. That was when Archie spotted Snow's cane leaning up against the side of the desk. The crystal atop it glimmered in the faint basement light.

Now might be my only real chance to snag it, Archie realized. Snow was focused solely on Matt, maybe if he was fast, he could grab the cane and get out again.

But that would mean leaving Matt behind. Archie ground his teeth as Snow continued yelling at the core, demanding he cave and do as he was told. Even if he wanted to, Archie wasn't sure he could cart Matt's core out of the building. Not only was it far larger than he expected, if he was a dungeon like Zack, removing him from his area of influence might be dangerous.

What would Zack want me to do? Archie considered, his gaze drifting from Matt to the cane and back again.

On the one hand, Matt was clearly in distress. If Archie could safely extract the dungeon core, he should absolutely do so. On the other hand, though, the core on Snow's cane was the impetus for this entire escapade. In a way, it felt wrong not to take it with him. Zack wouldn't want Archie to take unnecessary risks, but to rescue as many cores as he could and get out.

Realistically, Archie didn't think it was possible for him to carry Matt, as much as he wanted to help the poor core. That crystal was just too big. But now that Archie knew there was a dungeon core trapped in the basement of this building, he could arrange to come back with a larger force.

"I'm sorry," Archie whispered, hoping Matt would understand. "I promise I'll come back for you as soon as I can."

"Now, again. Start with a wisp. Knit your mana together into a sphere," Snow ordered, completely unaware of Archie's presence as the hare started slowly sneaking up behind him.

He watched his step, practically keeping to all fours in an attempt not to make any noise that might alert Snow to his presence. Matt was struggling to do as he was told, condensing his mana into a ball of red and blue fibers that quickly fell apart no sooner had he created it. Again, that was enough to earn him a scolding from the dean.

Snow rose to his feet as he admonished the core, and Archie used that moment to strike. He snagged the cane from the side of the desk, then slowly backed away. Snow didn't even know he was there, he was just so busy yelling at Matt that something as simple as a thief didn't even occur to him.

"I'm sorry," Archie whispered again, hoping Matt could hear him. "I promise I'll come rescue you as soon as I can."

If Archie had a physical heart, it would have hammered in his chest as he backed away, heading once more towards the stairs. He didn't open the door until a loud clang from the boiler echoed through the room, at which point he threw it open and rushed out again. He didn't bother with stealth, now. He had three of the four cores he knew about.

It was time to get the hell out of dodge.

He shoved the back door open with his shoulder and discarded his stolen key card in the dumpster. Finally safe and out of the building, he broke into a sprint. He was thankful to be a creature of mana that didn't technically have lungs or a heart, because he didn't stop sprinting until he made it back to Alex's car, practically sliding through the grass as he came up to its side.

"Mission accomplished?" Alex asked, as Archie threw himself into the chair. His eyes widened as he spotted the cane in the rabbit's grip. "Oh shit, you got it?"

"Drive," Archie ordered. "Drive like Snow is right behind us, because he probably is."

Alex nodded, throwing the car into gear and flooring the pedal to get them out of there.

***

Cornelius Snow growled in frustration as the blasted crystal core once more failed to maifest even the simplest wisp. He pinched the bridge of his nose and stared down at his lap. This was getting him nowhere. He sighed and checked his watch, noticing that it was rapidly approaching ten at night. He had been working with this blasted core for nearly four hours.

"It's getting late, and we're getting nowhere," Snow barked, rising to his feet. "I want you to practice creating living creatures tonight. Start with something small, like a rabbit. When I return tomorrow evening, you had better have something worth showing me."

"Yes sir," the crystal whined, its voice quiet through the radio.

Snow sneered as he reached for his cane, and his heart suddenly leapt into his throat. His hand was grasping around empty air.

"What did you do with my cane, core?" Snow asked, turning his furious gaze once more on the crystal core.

"I didn't take your cane," the core said, a sniffle in his words. "It was the rabbit."

"Rabbit? What rabbit?"

"He said his name was… was Archie. He said he was my friend, that he would rescue me. But he lied…" The core sobbed.

Snow's eye widened in fury. "I beg your pardon but did you just say the rabbit was named… Archie?"

"Y-yes, sir."

"Core, if you're lying to me…"

"I'm not, I swear! H-he asked me where the others were! He promised to rescue me, but then he took your cane and ran away!"

Snow's hands tighetened into fists. He couldn't believe he had missed something so obvious! "When did this happen?" He demanded.

"T-three hours ago!"

Snow snarled and checked his watch again. It would take at least that long to make it from Waterloo to Toronto. He would be exhausted if he attempted to chase after them now. It would have to wait until the morning. "If you are lying to me, core, I will shatter you myself," Snow growled through clenched teeth.

He turned and strode away, unburdened by the lack of his cane. Snow looked down at his gloved left hand and tugged it off, revealing the status tattoo underneath. Next to the number fifty-one was a symbol that most practitioners of magic never saw, the symbol for his elemental affinity.

The crystal affinity might have been the rarest of the high elements, but almost as rare was the two interlocking circles that denoted the magic affinity.

Snow would show that meddling Zack what it meant to mess with an Archmage, even if that meant razing the dungeon to the ground.