Time had no real meaning inside the destroyed sub-realm. Neither could tell how much time had passed since they wandered amongst the differently-sized chunks of a destroyed world.
"Simbad!" Ceiline called out as they were on a slowly spinning rock with a sharp, spiral tower built on it, looking and acting like a spinning top.
"Did you find something?" He asked, walking up the stone stairs, following her voice, trying not to look out or he would start feeling dizzy. None of them could feel it spinning as long as they did not see the quickly moving scenery. It was evidently a torn chunk from another, bigger piece, maybe sent into its never-ending spinning motion by a collision with another meteorite.
"I think! Look at this mural!" She pointed at one part of the intact and washed-clean wall, a happy little blue peashooter bubbling before it.
“Mmhm… interesting…” Simbad whispered, watching the surprisingly colorful picture. "Let's clean off everything!"
Ceiline's little workers made it easy to clean the room and reveal the vivid image behind the layer of dust only after ten minutes had passed. It displayed a peaceful garden with a sea of beautiful flowers in almost every color of the rainbow. The sky was painted black with the same star formations visible right now on the outside.
"Seven," Simbad said after studying it for a minute.
"Seven?" Ceiline flinched but listened carefully, expecting him to continue.
"The sky here is different, but this image also has seven bright stars." He pointed with his index finger, and a gentle light flew out, hitting one of the indeed, more brightly painted ones on the wall.
The moment it did, shutters rolled down over the open windows, and the light dimmed inside before an image of an elegantly dressed woman appeared before them. She was almost as tall as Simbad. She had long, jet-black hair and golden, shining eyes and wore a violet robe with star-like symbols dotting its surface.
"Is t a soul?" Ceiline asked, but she felt nothing coming from the image.
"No… I don't think so…" Simbad whispered, watching the figure that was somewhat similar to the projections they were used to seeing when interacting with the bracelets back in the Academy.
“Észlelt probléma: Nyelvi akadály. Elemzés folyamatban. Nem elég információ. További grammatkai minta szükséges a megfelelő adaptációhoz.”
"What did it say?" Ceiline asked, hearing the woman talk but understanding none of it. To her ears, it was like the gurgling of someone choking to death underwater.
"I don't know…" Simbad replied, just as stumped. "It's probably their ancient language. I had never heard a dialect like hers.
"Is it a ghost? Or some kind of… magical imprint?"
"Maybe both. It does look like it's waiting for us to ask her something." Simbad walked around the projection, seeing it move her head, tracking both of them.
"Excuse me," Ceiline stepped forward, and the woman snapped her head straight at Ceiline. "Do you understand us?"
“A fordító algoritmusom jelenleg is dolgozik a mágikus mátrixom frissítésén. További bevitel szükséges a megfelelő válaszadáshoz.”
"I don't think she understands us," Simbad joked, but then the woman turned towards him, surprising the two. "Or… maybe she does. Or it is drawn towards the speaker."
"She does answer us when we ask her a question… let me try again!" She watched her golden-colored eyes before forming a new question." Can you nod if you understand us?"
"Ah…" Simbad stopped in his tracks while watching her nod affirmatively. "Damn…"
"Do you understand everything?" Ceiline asked again, now watching her shake her head.
"How interesting!" Simbad walked back to stand next to Ceiline, not taking chances and ready to protect her if necessary.
"What is the… date?" The woman asked slowly as if she was still learning the language, unsure if she formulated the words correctly and her pronunciation was weird.
"4th Era, 342," Ceiline answered after exchanging a glance with Simbad, and he nodded at her.
“Does not… align.” The woman said, falling silent for a moment then speaking in her own language, “Az utolsó aktiváció óta eltelt idő túl tág. Új nyelv, új időszámítás… újraépítési esély… bizonytalan.”
"Well, it's back to gibberish once again." Simbad shrugged, annoyed that he was not getting what the woman, or whatever it was in reality, tried to convey.
"Can you cast a spell?" The projection asked, now with a more fluent rhythm, and Simbad snapped his finger, letting golden light fly off from his hand and dance in the air a little before disappearing.
“A jelenkori mágia használata teljes mértékben divergens a rögzített mintákhoz képest. Újjápítési esély… zéró.”
"Simbad… don't you think she looks… somewhat sad? Disappointed?" Ceiline whispered, seeing the light change in her eyes before the projection let out a small, audible sigh.
"I am." She nodded, speaking with a slight accent. "I have a rudimentary understanding of your language by now, and I will improve as we speak. Welcome outsiders to the Realm of The Eternals!"
"The… what?" Ceiline asked as Lia had no chance to tell them about her experience with the Golden Claw. Not even if she wanted to, but if she was here, she would have known the name as it was one of the pillars of the ancient world.
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"It was what our empire called itself. We were the Eternal Empire, standing strong for 20 000 years."
"No way!" Simbad and Ceiline gasped as it was a number that was hard to imagine. Their own, 4000 years seemed incredibly long, hard to keep track of everything… than what it was like to live for five times that?
"We were the oldest rulers, although the Kodai Clan argued against it. They were dating themselves back 30 000 years. But their proof was shaky at best, nonsensical at worst. Not that it matters anyway…"
"Wait, wait… we are not getting this at all!" Ceiline waved her hands as she was highly intrigued but also distraught. Did they stumble into something weird, hidden, and buried? Were they having a conversation with someone who lived in the forgotten past of Meriath? A being that hasn't left any clues behind and was part of an empire that didn't have any proof of its existence? Were they previous victims of the Undead? A civilization eradicated by them?
"I can see the questions in your mind." The woman smiled bitterly, watching Ceiline's eyes dart left and right, trying to think what to ask first. "My name is Hajna; I am an imprint of the last Empress of the Eternals."
"Imprint?" Simbad asked, raising one eyebrow.
"Yes, we are in the Recollection Spire… Although I can't sense the rest of the Royal Palace."
"It's probably everywhere…" Ceiline murmured, "The whole world has been broken into pieces."
"Very much likely." Hajna nodded, agreeing, "This spire served as a place where Empress Hajna would retreat when in deep thought. She created me personally, reflecting her image, intellect, and knowledge. I was here to help her clear her mind and devise our strategies and solutions to our problems."
"It's like the system in the Academy, only it's much more advanced!" Simbad exclaimed, marveling at her.
"I don't know what this system means, but I am a magical construct, yes. My existence is tied to the Royal Palace… or… what remained of it. I can't access the rest anymore. I was woken up by the magic you cast upon Kürtgyarmat."
"Bless you." The two replied in perfect union.
"It's the 'star' you pointed at." She continued, unbothered, glancing at Sion. "We had seven dominions in the Cosmos. We had the most out of all Sects, although many were small. Only a quarter of the size of Meriath."
"The Cosmos…?" Ceiline mumbled, vaguely recollecting the legends she read about, the place that is supposedly in the outside world… somewhere beyond the sky. "The sky?" She bit onto her thumb, and Hajna nodded.
"The night sky is a window into the Cosmos. What you see inside here is the view from all seven of our colonies, superimposed on itself."
"Why?" Ceiline asked, expecting a deep and profound reason, but Hajna just smiled like a mother would.
"Because it looks beautiful."
"Just… That is it?" Ceiline blinked her eyes feeling surprised and… a bit let down.
"Why would it need any other reason? It was our pride; no other forces could match up to us."
"Yet you were destroyed." Simbad countered her at once.
"A valid observation." Hajna tilted her head gently, "My apologies; as I said, I am a construct mimicking the Last Empress; our personalities are the same. Yes, we had been destroyed. The Thunder Immortal stripped us of our stars… one by one… Megyer, Nyék, Kürtgyarmat, Tarján, Jenő, Kér, Keszi.”
"Again, with the weird names…" Simbad groaned, rubbing the insides of his ear.
"All of them were stripped from us." Hajna continued, unbothered by his reaction. "Then, she sent down her Beast on us." She shivered, and her eyes closed a little.
"What Beast?" Ceiline gulped, seeing all of that happening before her mind's eyes. The wanton destruction as a monster rampages and breaks apart a whole world.
"I can't tell its species. But it could devour everything. That Beast swallowed the sub-realm of the Kodai Clan!"
"No entity can do something like that…" Simbad whispered, refusing to believe it.
"We thought so too, yet it happened. It was a crippling blow to them, losing their ancient home. Then it came for us. I don't remember how it ended, but the… Beast forced itself into Meriath, rampaging through the Realm; after what happened to the Kodai Clan, it immediately started breaking into here. My last memory before today is its enormous head breaking through the fabric of space, its mouth opening up, black and white mixing together, and then the releasing of the flames that none of us had ever seen before. Then everything went dark."
"What happened to the… the Beast?" Ceiline asked softly, trying not to tear against old wounds as, unlike Simbad, she believed her.
"I don't know. She forced her way in... She was naturally repelled by Meriath. A place like our Realm is not something you can just enter, ignoring its laws. Yet she managed to stay for a considerable time and deal enormous damage to us before she was repulsed. The fact that you don't know about it means that something else happened after our defeat. I can't tell you about it."
"Any ideas?" She tried to insist, mesmerized by learning about lost history, even if it sounded farfetched.
"My guess would be that the others forced her out. My suggestion was the same from the start…"
"Your suggestion?" Simbad cut in, still suspicious about her presence and motives.
"Sorry… Empress Hajna's suggestion." She corrected herself with a sad smile, "Seal Meriath and reorganize. If that Beast was expelled, I guess they did just that. Drawing conclusions from your reactions, I am 95% sure it happened. That is the most logical judgment and answers why you are so… different."
"How do we get out of here?" Simbad asked, having enough of a tale he did not believe to be true. Or at least not 100% true.
"Through the Eternal Gate." Hajna answered matter of factly, "You need to activate the Seven Obelisks that correspond the anchoring temples with the outside world. In the order of the conquest of the Seven Realms. Megyer, Nyék-"
"Got it!" He interrupted, waving a hand, "No need for those weird names; we have our own designations; thank you very much!"
“Yeah… numbers…” Ceiline murmured, holding back a laugh, making Simbad smile wryly after hearing her.
"At least, that can be pronounced…" He whispered back before clearing his throat, "Where are those obelisks?"
"I can't tell." Hajna answered honestly, "This place had been destroyed. They can be anywhere. You would have to take me with you, then I can locate them and identify them for you faster. If you activate them in the wrong order, it won't work. Try it too many times, and it will activate the security measures in the outside world and lockdown the entrance."
"How long would it remain locked?" Ceilien asked, gulping audibly.
"Until someone from the Royal Bloodline cancels it. Which is… currently impossible."
"Great…" She bit her lips, watching Simbad, who wasn't keen on the idea of being stuck in here.
"If I were an Undead, I would also ask to be taken along. You would have a better chance to occupy a body when its guard is down."
"I can't occupy any bodies. I am tied to my formation matrix. It is built into the floor. If you break it apart, you will find a golden disk the size of a plate. Just take that away, and I can guide you."
"Yeah, sure…" Simbad answered, waving at Ceiline not to do anything yet, "If it is that easy, why would you be built into the tower itself?"
"I was part of the Palace." She corrected him, "There were hundreds of such disks. I could appear at any part of it… but this was my central zone. My brain if you need something organic to relate to."
"Ah…!" Ceiline suddenly gasped as it hit her.
She was doing the same thing! She was doing the exact same thing, only with plants, with her peashooters. She was on the same road, creating artificial intelligence, something that was made not by nature but by a mage. These… Eternals succeeded in it. She was talking directly to something that she was working towards. If she could see that disc… When Ceiline's eyes turned towards Simbad, he quickly read her thoughts. He was still highly wary of their new discovery, but there was little else to do. If she was telling the truth, they needed her help. If she was lying…
"Okay." Simbad nodded, "We will get it out!" Then he looked at Ceiline, telling her via sign language, "I will hold it. If it affects me weirdly, destroy it. If you can't, kill me instead. Be on the lookout!"
"I won't kill you!" She replied at once with her own signs. "Worry not; we will get through this together!"