It shouldn’t have been a scary sight.

The… man before him didn’t look dangerous. As in, the gnome. Because that’s what he was. A gnome.

Like the most typical of gnomes ever.

Really. It looked straight out of WoW. Short body, his little pompadour probably only reaching Michael’s knee. Head slightly larger than normal, but with proportional facial features. Handlebar moustache. He was wearing something like a cross between a casual suit and a uniform.

No goggles tough.

And currently looking at them with a look that equally mixed annoyance with boredom.

So, why the fear?

Because Gnosis felt fear. Fear and awe. Michael felt the Academy drawing back, trying to remove itself from this room, to make it not a part of itself. It didn’t manage to or perhaps it wasn’t truly wiling so cut off a piece of itself, but felt like it did its best not to stand-out around the diminutive figure.

“Well?” he snapped.

Kelunad was the first to get his wits back.

“Lord Gnome, your presence humbles us.”

“Lord.” He said and his eyes lit up for a second.

Michael saw flickers of light before his pupils. Not in them. In front of them.

Was that… a hologram?

“Ancient term, used to describe a rank of nobility, used by several races. Not orcs. Child, do you think I’m some kind of ruler?”

Michael thought for a second that the question was addressed to him, but the gnomes’ eyes never left Kelunad.

“I do not know what to think, sir. I- We’ve never met one of your kind.”

“No?” he said, eyes flashing up again. “Removed presence… one gateway left… no contact. Uh-huh. Last known contact… o-ho! Quite a long time. Fine. Is there an adult I can speak to?”

“…adult?” the orc asked.

It would have been funny if Michael’s back wasn’t drenched in sweat.

“Any being older than ten millennia?” the gnome asked, speaking slowly. “A Dragon, perhaps? A Dryad?”

“No. Dragons are… and few dryads are left. None of that age, that we know. Not here, in any case.”

“Great.” The gnome muttered. “And where is here?”

“Gnosis.” Michael said, finding his words at last. “Gnosis Academy.”

The gnome fixed him with a look, nodded and the tell-tale flashing before his eyes appeared again.

“Gnosis… Academy. Gnosis… Ah! Gnosis! But… it doesn’t look right. Hold on.”

His hand raised and a rectangular pane of light appeared before it.

“||Scan||”.

Instantly, Michael heard Gnosis screaming. Even Kelunad flinched. It wasn’t an audible sound, but Michael got the distinct impression that whatever the gnome was doing was hurting Gnosis quite badly.

“Stop!” Michael said.

The gnome just raised an eyebrow.

“It’s just a scan, son. I’m not attacking you.”

“No, not me. Gnosis. It’s hurting. I… have a connection to it.”

“Really?” he asked, skeptically. “You’re some kind of high-level |Mason|?”

“No, I just-“

“Never mind. Stop.” He said, waving his hand and the screaming stopped. “||Scan||”.

The next thing Michael knew, Kelunad was helping him sit up and stand again, while the gnome actually looked apologetic.

“My apologies. I never imagined… It was just Tier 2. In any case, I’m sorry. |Rejuvenate|, |Regenerate|. Feeling better?”

Michael did and nearly said so, but he was stopped by Kelunad’s shocked voice.

“My scars are gone. My… pains. Everything.”

“Yes, it does that. Uhm… do you want them back?”

“…no.”

“Alright. I can see this is going to take a while.” He sighed. “|Scan|.”

Nothing perceivable happened, but after a minute the gnome dismissed the holographic clipboard and nodded.

“Right. Before we get to business, I have a few personal questions, if you don’t mind. Is that alright?”

“Of course.” Kelunad spoke.

“Good. I know now what world this is. We’ve left it some time back. It has since gone to shit! What happened?”

“With… the world?” Kelunad asked.

“Yes.”

“…I- I don’t know how to respond to that, sir.”

“No need to call me ‘sir’. This world was catalogued as having a strong presence of biologically and spiritually attuned species. In good numbers too. On top of that, it also had a good potential for ‘magic’. But I see now only remnants of those species. Most are gone. Those that remain have turned primitive. And the only major source of magic I see is this sorry-excuse. What. Happened?”

“There was a war. Between the… Green and the elves. Magic. The Wild had also been involved. I believe that is what you refer too. Magic… won.”

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“I’m not really sure how this world defines victors, but I see no grand aftermath here. Just signs of extinction and… this. S this truly all that remained.”

“Yes.”

“What a waste.” The gnome muttered sadly. “And this Gnosis. I’ve found the data for it. Wait. First of all, do you know what this wonder does?” he asked, pointing behind him.

“It’s a wish-making artifact.”

“Wish making.” The gnome deadpanned.

Kelunad seemed refrain from speaking again, so Michael interceded.

“Our… elders weren’t sure exactly what it did. But that was their best guess.”

“I see.” The gnome said, passing a hand over his face. “Well, I suppose that is one way of describing it. Albeit poorly.”

His serious look returned when he spoke again.

“We have sensed Gnosis shortly after it has been built. The race that made it had triumphed in a minor skirmish with an ideologically opposite race and had built this place so that their kind would be sheltered and so that their version of the arts could be expanded.”

“Can I ask what you mean by the arts?” Michael asked.

“Just ask, son. Don’t ask if you can ask. Their version, they being what you call ‘elves’, is what you call ‘magic’. There are several ways of changing the world. The arts. Your friend’s race over race used to practice another.”

“The Wild.” Kelunad spoke, distantly.

“Less organized by nature, but with higher wielding results. It seems to have died out, as I said.”

“So the Green is a form of art as well?” Michael asked. “An acceptable one?”

“Acceptable by who’s definition? Ours? Yes. We’ve mastered it and incorporated it. This world’s? Not anymore, it seems.”

Michael nodded and the gnome took that as a sign to go on.

“As I said, we’ve sensed this place since its inception. It was a decent attempt, but inspired. With room to grow. Amateurish workmanship though, which is why we’ve delivered this gift. To smooth out the errors. And I an see here that it has been used exactly two times before. One to sequester a part of the world as its own. Decent. The second… huh. Shoddy. The second was used to create sapience. Sapience…”

The gnome once more looked at the room around him, looking somewhat shocked.

“Did… Precisely who thought was a good idea to create a sapient building? Especially without providing it intelligence?”

The orc and the man looked at each other, but found no answer to give back.

“Of course, you don’t know. After all, why do the sensible thing and keep records?!” he groaned, before calming himself. “It is not my business how you live your lives. Just know that you are all living inside a definitely sapient, maybe-living building, with the intelligence of a critter.”

Gnosis rumbled a little, but still staid back.

“But this explains your ‘connection’ to it.” the gnome told Michael. “Can you control it?”

“No, not yet. But I understand that I could, if I deepen my connection to it.”

“Best of luck with that.” The gnome scoffed. “I can delete it’s consciousness. Would that be of interest? Free of pay.”

“No!” Michael said, even before he felt Gnosis shudder.

“Alright, alright. Just asking. In that case. Do either of you have any idea why the present looks like… this?”

Kelunad spoke after a tense second.

“Have we fallen so short of our potential?”

The gnome might have sensed something in his tone, because his reply was gentle.

“I’m sorry, son. This isn’t your mistake. Any of the current being living here, since I sense no one much older than you. This is on your predecessors. But… yes. We’ve given you this gift, which means we once thought you worthy of our attention. But I have little data for the past few millennia, which means… you no longer posed an interest. Perhaps… in time. I can make no promises. And we do not like to interfere where we can help it.”

“I see.” Kelunad said, seeming older than Michael had ever seen him. “Thank you for telling me this.”

The gnome nodded and looked to Michael.

“One more thing. You’re not from this world. I know yours. No magic and inferior tech. Brilliant in its way, but necessity is the mother of all improvements. Still, it’s not nearly good enough to open a gateway. How’d you got here?”

“I… I don’t know. But wait, you know my world?”

“We know most worlds. We simply don’t keep tabs on all of them. Yours, though, is interesting. High growth curve. If they manage to open a gateway even when lacking one of the constant forces… we may just have to take them under our wing. But even the most optimistic predictions place that event far in the future.”

“Is that something you do?” Michael asked. “Oversee worlds?”

“If not us, then who?” the gnome asked. “I’ll write you down as requiring further investigation. Don’t worry, you’ll never know it’s happening. Now. On to business. I’ve come here because a mismanaged attempt to utilize a wonder has been reported. Nothing malicious or I wouldn’t be so chummy with you two. But. It’s in the manual. Simultaneous restructural attempts can be initiated, but only when the overall architecture is constant. Yours wasn’t. Precisely what were you trying to achieve?”

None of them had an easy answer to that, so Michael stalled for time.

It worker so far.

“The manual?”

“Yes.”

“We, uhm, we’ve never found it.”

“What? But it’s right there. We’ve integrated it into the wonder for easy access.” He said, pointing back at the machine.

The two looked at it and…

Nope. Nothing there.

“Is t defective or…?” the gnome muttered.

He flicked his fingers and the streams of metal once again started to flow. The sphere of light didn’t appear, but the machine once again looked to be flowing in parts.

The gnomes gestured again and the streams quickened, becoming a torrent. Then they slowed to a crawl. They stopped. They resumed their normal speed and stopped again.

“It’s working fine.” The gnome remarked. “The text’s all there. The reading speed is normal. What was the issue?”

It was Kelunad’s turn to pick up the heat.

“We… didn’t know that was the manual. We weren’t aware that was something that could be read.”

“…children. So you just tried to play around with a wonder that you didn’t even understand? Without being sure what it did? And without knowing how it worked?”

“…yes?”

For a second, Michael thought the gnome was going to erase them from existence. Perhaps literally. But he calmed himself down and with the air of a particularly aggrieved kindergarten teacher, spoke to them.

“Aright. I’ll transcribe you a manual later, in whatever language you wish. I don’t normally do this, but since the wonder’s not actually malfunctioning, I’ll help you two out. What kind of change did you wish to do that was so complex you two children didn’t manage to comprehend even together? You tried to add another dimension or two? I’m warning you, I’m not upgrading your wonder to affect the outside world, so keep your wish contained only to this building.”

“Well… uhm…”

“The problem, I believe, wasn’t in visualizing the wish. It was in choosing the method of its manifestation.” Kelunad said.

“Really? Huh. These things were built to help the wisher choose, if they lacked the imagination. Then again it is an older model.” The gnome said, stroking his moustache. “But fine, tell me”

“There is an issue we needed resolved. I will not trouble you with the details. But I have chosen a solution. Michael here did not agree with it, so the machine provided one for him. One tailored to him. And a third one was provided, one that neither of us agreed with.”

“Alright.” He nodded. “That’s standard operating procedure. Was the one you picked to difficult to visualize? Perhaps the wonder gauged you wrong.”

“No. It is simply that me and Michael tried to bring about two wishes simultaneously.”

Michael saw the exact moment the gnome lost it.

“What?” he asked, quietly.

“We-“ Kelunad started again, but the gnome cut it off.

“No. Shut it. Answer only with ‘yes’ or ‘no’. You two have the same issue?”

“Yes.” They chorused and even Kelunad looked afraid.

“And the wonder gave you solutions tailored to your wills?”

“Yes.”

“And because you two fools couldn’t agree, you tried to implement two solutions at once?”

“…yes.”

“Conflicting solutions?”

“…yes?”

Gnosis had finally left the room. Michael was on his own, not withstanding Kelunad, since the orc was also on his own.

“Right. Not your fault. You are children. Children. Idiotic children, but children.”

“We apologize for this.” Kelunad tried, but the gnome waved him away.

“Don’t. Just… By the gears… Good thing we’ve installed fail safes. You two have no idea what you almost did.”

“Sorry.” Michael said as well.

The gnome nodded tiredly.

“Well. I’m sorry you two, but the procedure here is standards. This wonder will be confiscated.”

What?

“You cannot.” Kelunad said. “Please.”

“No. It’s done.” he said, pointing at the machine… as it disappeared. “I’m sorry, but you cannot be entrusted with it.”

“Sir!” Kelunad spoke, anger creeping into his voice. “I’m afraid I cannot let you do this.”

“Do? It’s done.”

“I see. Might I ask, where the wonder is now?”

“Here.” He said, pointing at a prick of light in the palm of his hand. “Taking it back for decommissioning. Or maybe a museum.”

“I see. In that case it seems that |I Cut|!”

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