Noem sat a little straighter. “The goddess’... I guess it’s a prophecy. So the world’s going to end in ten years, and Mona’s going to deal with it somehow. How do we help her?”
“I have absolutely no idea.” The Artisan said bluntly. “All I’ve heard about it is what I saw through your interface and cameras. But it can’t be a coincidence that more Djinn are appearing, and that she showed Mona–is it alright if I call her Mona?”
“Sure. I’m already calling her that, so feel free.”
The Artisan nodded seriously. “Well, Mona saw seven different scenes. I cross-referenced all the pictures when you told your own system to do it, and I narrowed down their surroundings to places on seven of the ten different continents. Six if you don’t count the Great Quarry, which I think was meant to represent me.”
“Makes sense to me.” Noem agreed. “Does that mean the other six are hiding places for powerful Djinn like you?”
“That’s my leading theory for now. I’m not in contact with any of them, and my influence dulls the further away from the Great Quarry it gets. I lost the ability to look into Mona’s interface when she was exactly one-hundred kilometers away from the center of the Great Quarry, to give you an idea of my effective range.”
The Artisan crossed her legs and frowned. “I saw that look on your face. That doesn’t mean I can’t do anything outside of that range; it means I stop having completely access to anything electronic and just have normal system access. The access inside of my range isn’t admin access, either; it’s more like read-only.”
Noem glanced down at his arm and thought of all the security cameras he’d installed. “So it’s like… advanced monitoring. I don’t have my central network up and running right now, but can you access all of my security stuff anyway?”
“Not unless it’s powered.” The Artisan said, which brought a swift end to that possibility. “Why? Do you want to see what the people who raided your house are doing?”
“That was the plan.” Noem sighed.
The Artisan stared blankly at him for a few seconds. “...You realize I can access anyone’s electronics, not just yours? Like, say, the interfaces of the people who attacked you?”
“Oh. Duh.” Noem chuckled. “Yeah, obviously. I don’t need to see it right now, but can you look through it and skim any conversations you think might be important? Or send all of it to me and I’ll have my system look through it.”
“No, no, it’s much easier if I do it myself. And I’ve already taken over your system, so I’d be the one doing it anyway.” The Artisan waved her hand through the air, and a hologram followed it. “I’ll send you the raws anyway, and if you want to look through them, have at it. Now, back to the real issue; Terret’s destruction. The other Djinn must be part of this, and the destruction’s going to start there somehow. So, got any ideas?”
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
“You’re the all-powerful spirit. Shouldn’t you be the one with ideas?”
“I have no idea what to do, since there isn’t any information on what the goddess was talking about online. And by zero, I mean absolutely none. Zip. Zilch.” The Artisan tapped on one of her holographic screens and flipped it around so Noem could see what was on it; a picture of a crater corundum shaped into a multi-sided sphere. “That’s the only picture I found that’s even slightly relevant, and it’s from eleven years ago. So either everyone’s being perfectly secretive, which is not possible, or the goddess is lying, which makes no sense, or this is somehow a new thing.”
The Artisan swept her hand over the picture, and it turned into a small rotating slideshow of crater corundums. Ten seconds later, the multi-sided sphere returned to the spotlight.
Noem carefully scoured the pictures, but most of them were of anchors or jewelry that had been carved from the stone. And they were all dated at least ten years prior. “I thought you said only one picture was relevant.”
“Only one is. All the others are like the anchor you made for Mona; powerful and rare, but not the same as the key.” The Artisan closed her screen to punctuate her sentence. “Whatever you and the person who made the sixty-sided sphere did, you created a nucleus of Qi inside of the crater corundum. Each stone wants to be made into a different shape, and I have no idea how you knew it needed to be a cube. I saw your reasoning, and watched you do it, but I didn’t feel anything you said you felt.”
“Really? It was beyond obvious to me.” Noem mused. He brushed off his sleeves and shot a longing glance at the bath. He hadn’t had a proper relaxing soak in over four years. “Do you care if I get completely naked? Because I really want to hop in that bath.”
“I have access to your home security. I’ve seen everything.”
“Good point.” Noem laughed awkwardly. “The fact you’re still talking to me after seeing… all that… is a miracle.”
He threw off his jacket and marched right over to the glass. He shed the rest of his clothes as he went, and before The Artisan could say anything about him dirtying the floor, he sent them to the bench next to the rest of his stuff. She hummed in interest somewhere behind him, and Noem hoped it was for his mastery over the system, not his last article of clothing leaving his body.
Noem stood before the glass, pressed his feet to the stone, and took a deep breath. He felt the malleable matter against his skin, and he let his Qi drain out with the intent of shaping it to let him through the glass. It didn’t relent. His Qi dissipated like a drop of water in the ocean, but more than that, Noem felt that he didn’t have the right stuff to change its shape. The stone would respond to his skills. Only his skills.
“So I’ll need some kind of… carving skill if I want to shape the stone. Hm.” Noem said as the glass opened before him from The Artisan’s command. He glanced down at her, but she’d changed the shape of her statue. It now looked like a mixture between a fox and a mink, with a few dashes of cobra thrown in for good measure. “Is that right?”
“Sorry, don’t know.” The Artisan said through her new form without her voice changing at all. “I’ve always been able to do this, and I don’t think it’s a skill. Just Qi mastery and enough Qi that I don’t have to think about how much I’m using.”
Noem cautiously stepped into the bath. It was deeper than he expected, and he hissed in a mixture of pain and relief at the near-scalding heat. The Artisan walked around the edge as he lowered himself until only his shoulders and up was visible through the murky water, and only then did the shock of Qi soak into his body.
“Ahh, that’s nice.” Noem sighed and sank down until the bottom of his chin touched the water. “You know, I don’t think I’ve relaxed in…”
“Three years and four months.” The Artisan finished. “And you paid for that relaxation ten times over.”
“Yeah, that’s it.” Noem nodded. “Hey, do you think I can actually break through the ninth realm without a bond?”
The Artisan took a second to respond, but when she did, it was only one word. Though it was filled with such certainty and confidence that Noem didn’t question her at all.
“Yes.”