The smell of Foxphite was starting to get on my nerves as we kept walking through the slums of Talos. Or at least that's what Able called them. These were the nastiest of the areas that he's come across during his residence here. This was the area filled with malfunctioning golems that didn't have a place in the center Talos. It was a bit sad to see some golems that didn't even have hands in the middle of the streets deactivated. Some without heads! This place felt like the real graveyard compared to that area we've been to. Nex held my arm closely, his face filled with anxiety. I wouldn't blame him for being scared at the moment. It was some kind of dystopian area that just kept getting worse the more I ventured in. The buildings were just around to keep these golems away from crowding the streets. This was the dumpsite of where golems that can't work anymore get sent to. A dirty and under maintenanced section of Talos that nobody would've noticed. Despite the structures saying things like "restaurant" or "arcades", they were just deserted. Golems were inside those buildings mimicked exhibits. Some even still holding their tools in their hands. Able casually walked past some of the golems waiving to them even as if he knew them. I could tell that Mother had abandoned this place a long time ago. Not even an ounce of maintenance was kept. The place was so dark that we had to switch on our contacts again. At least the stench was starting to dissipate. We kept our footing close to Able because he managed to avoid the spots where the guardians were looking. My foot was also starting to get annoyed bumping into random scrap parts on the ground.

Able: We're almost there friend! Just a few more minutes.

Arc: This place is disgusting. Nothing's being maintained anymore in this area anymore. Even the golems aren't active anymore. This place is dead.

Able: This used to be the first town of Talos! Everything started out here! Restaurants, information centers, and even repair shops!

Arc: That's a bit hard to believe.

Able: Believe it! This place was fun! This was also where I used to work as a waiter!

Arc: How many jobs do you even have?

Able: I don't remember! I keep getting fired! But having jobs is fun!

Arc: I figured…

Nex: How long are we going to keep walking on the ground? I'm not sure how I feel with all these golems around.

Arc: My watch didn't sense any active golems in the area, so we should be fine. If something goes wrong just port us back to the garage. I'll be sure not to strain you this time.

Nex: It's fine! I'm just glad I could be of help. Though I think I could be even more useful if I could somehow make my limit higher!

Arc: You seem more determined than usual.

Nex: I just want to be more useful…

I patted his head and it seemed to increase his mood a little better. After a couple more minutes, we arrived at an abandoned subway tunnel. This place definitely looked like something from the old world. There was a map of the system too but it was hard to read. The signs was smudged by some oil and bits of Foxphite. It was too muddy to make out anything no matter how hard I tried reading. Able flashed a beam of light like a torch then proceeded down the stairs. Walking down, I couldn't help feeling nervous too. Personally, going down a hole was never my strong suit but someone had to be strong. Nex held on tighter despite this not being our first time going through these kinds of things. The walls were cold instead of the usual mechanical warmth from the constant Talos engines working. A completely abandoned portion of Talos. We kept continuing down until we saw what seemed to be a booth of things. It looked like a barricade except it didn't have anyone guarding it. The thing was only up to our waist. What a strange way to keep people at bay. They should've used higher walls! Able jumped right over ignoring everything while we did the same. Eventually we saw the railway tracks going towards a certain direction.

Nex: Where does this go?

Able: Directly to the library!

Nex: But we were just there. And we kind of blew it up!

Able: That's where Mother does her operations.

Arc: Wait, that's impossible. We were just there. There was nothing there.

Able: Maybe you just went to the wrong one! There's only one library!

Arc: We were just there. That's where I got the book.

Able: Have you searched the basement?

Arc: There's a basement?!

Able: Of course friend!

Nex: I checked the surrounding area. There wasn't anything that would've led to a basement. If so then I would've used my magic to leave a seal there instead.

Arc: Now that I think about it. How were we discovered by the security golems in the library?

Nex: We made a lot of noise didn't we?

Arc: Yeah but that would've meant a golem would've heard us but there wasn't. The golems just appeared out of nowhere.

Nex: She was listening from below…

Able: Oh my! Revelations! There's only one way into her library and this is the direction.

Arc: That means I've sent Terra and Nitra on a wild goose chase. It wouldn't be in a school.

Able: A school! I used to be a teacher too!

Nex: What did you teach?

Able: Driving!

Arc: So you were an instructor. Not a teacher.

Able: I was both!

Arc: Now the girls are missing and we don't have a clue on where they could be.

Nex: I'm sure we'll find them. This isn't the first time that one of us would be missing from a mission.

Arc: It's still distressing when one of us does though.

Nex: Have some faith in your team Arc.

Arc: I'm trying…

We've walked for another couple hours until we've reached a vaulted area. Though it didn't seem to be locked or have any sort of security. Able continued to lead us through the area. The door was made out of complete Dioxinite. This substance was pretty rare for a tropical planet. It's like living ice that regenerates itself. Usually this would be found in frozen moons that went off orbit of its planet. Exceptionally valuable for security companies. These things basically don't have any maintenance expenses. The only problem is transporting it, it's alive. The ice could die and it would just turn into any other water out there. I touched the vault door and it was like it had a pulse in there. Strange how some materials work so uniquely. As we passed through the door, the floorings changed! Even the smell completely changed, there wasn't a scent of anything remotely Talos. The walls were lined with books, all dusted and completed. Endless shelves that didn't seem to have a sort of end. Mother surely loves to read or collect if that were the case. Able continued on while Nex threw out a seal near the Dioxite door. The ceilings were high which made me feel a bit smaller than usual. Chandelier crystals filling the room with a yellowish light. I haven't felt a rugged floor in a while too. This was a completely different landscape change for me that I couldn't keep my mouth closed. Everything about this place reminded me of what a palace would look like. No, perhaps a great library. There were corners and other hallways depending on the section that it felt like a maze. Each genre was a different colored rug so that helped me figure things out. All of this was hidden right under Talos. As we kept moving, a tremor suddenly started to happen. I composed my footing while Nex grabbed my shirt! Able just continued on walking.

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Able: Tremors are common down here! The construction of Talos plus the movement of the Tortoise plates make it inevitable.

Arc: This place is amazing. It's nothing like the library upstairs.

Able: This was where I worked! It brings back so many fun memories!

Arc: What with the library upstairs then?

Able: That's where mother throws out the books she doesn't like!

Arc: Then what about Earth?!

Able: I'm not sure, friend. Mother likes questions! Ask her when you see her!

Nex: What is Mother like?

Able: She's unique!

Nex: How would you describe a unique golem Arc?

Arc: Imagination parameters like artist golems? Or maybe taste modifiers like chef golems?

Nex: There's such a thing!?

Arc: Just kidding.

Nex: Hey!

Able: I wouldn't know about those but Mother is human just like you!

Arc & Nex: WHAT?!

Able: Shhh friends! This is a library! Hooray! I'm doing my job!

Arc: Wait! I thought Mother was a head golem or some kind of local of the area.

Able: She's human! You can even be friends!

Nex: Impossible… A human outside the platform.

Arc: We might need to port out sooner than we thought.

Nex: Should we send our locations?

Arc: We should but I don't want to make the girls rush into their deaths. We can't cancel a signal once we shoot it out. If we fall into a trap then we'll send an SOS. But if things go wrong, just leave me. Find Terra and Nitra.

My eyes narrowed down to everywhere in the room. This was no time for my guard to be lowered anymore than it has been. Nex held onto my arm fearing the worst but we just had to keep moving down this library. Minutes later, Able stopped in front of a door this time made out of red wood. It didn't seem to be like the other strange things we've seen so far. The door was just normal! Able didn't seem to want to move forward.

Arc: Aren't you going in first?

Able: Mother doesn't want golems in her study. She says it bothers her.

Arc: But doesn't she know you the most?

Able: Maybe! I've only seen her when she's outside. She does get lonely, so do your best to be friends with her!

Able gave out another thumbs up. With a deep breath, I grabbed the doorknob. From here, I could hear some music behind the door. That was something quite rare for me to hear. They don't usually allow that kind of thing on the platform. I'd hear them from different planets. Yet this one is oddly appealing. It sounded like it was played from an instrument with strings. The voice was also human. A part of me was scared to know more about humans because of how much censorship it had. Yet, I feel drawn to learning more. Did I like the feeling of danger too much? Humans are more than just killers right? For rotations, we've lived our lives like some kind of scoundrel wherever we went. No matter what planet we came across, their citizens would fear us. They were scared of what we could do. We weren't welcomed anywhere. No place for humans to live but on the platform. I'm just a bounty hunter at this point. For the sake of humanity, stop joking around! We're nothing but killers! Doing nothing but dirty work just to survive another rotation. Nex grabbed the doorknob too. The feel of his hand made me feel a bit calm.

Nex: Are you okay? You're trembling…

Arc: I'm fine… It's just that a human is outside the platform. Don't you know what that means? A human surviving outside.

Nex: I'm not sure… I'm sorry.

Arc: It means that we could have a chance to rebuild our home planet. A place for humans to live if the platform fails. If this Mother is a human, then she must've managed to survive this long on her own. She built Talos. She can be the one that could rebuild Polarity

Nex: We belong to the platform Arc.

Arc: Don't you want to have a home planet? It'll never be like Polarity.

Nex: We're never going to have a planet to ourselves Arc. Humans aren't built for it, that's why we've needed golems for the longest time.

Arc: But she survived without any kind of magic filtration.

Nex: She must be some kind of powerful magician that has filtration magic. We don't know a thing about this person. Don't trust her.

Arc: I know. It's just a chance. A chance that we wouldn't have to do this anymore.

Nex: You already know what happens if we stop or when we quit Arc. There's nothing we can do about that. We can't go rogue either. They have trackers on us.

I bit my lip then turned the doorknob. What was behind that door was just another gigantic room. However, instead of a hallway it was a hexagon shaped room. It's walls once again were bookshelves with different colored books spines. All of them were paper books just like outside! The only thing that was out of the blue was the giant television screen monitoring Talos in the middle of the room. There was also a chair with a person's hands sticking out using the keyboard. That must've been her! We slowly moved in the room without Able. The place even had a dining table filled with strange food. It looked like a burnt carcass of bird and fresh fruit around it. I approached the middle of the room carefully to make sure we wouldn't shock Mother. However as I approached, the chair swung around revealing her! Indeed it was a woman! She was wearing a white lab coat with what looked like a pencil skirt and a green shirt. Her long hair was completely white but she looked like she was in her young adult life span. She adjusted her glasses on her nose then sized us up. The stare of her blue eyes felt like daggers. After a couple minutes, she crossed her long legs and placed her hand on her chin.

Mother: Am I going crazy? It's only been 17 years since my last contact with a human. Maybe I should get some rest…

She turned her chair again as if we didn't even exist. Though I could confirm that it was indeed a human. Most of her features matched the description of what a human would look like. I moved up closer to her chair making sure that my steps were much louder than before. What strange is that I would've known if she was from the platform or not.

Arc: Ahem, Mother?

Mother: Huh?! HUH?! YOU'RE REAL! YOU'RE NOT JUST MY HALLUCINATIONS! HOW THE HELL DID YOU GET IN HERE!? WHAT'S HAPPENING!?

She jumped out of her chair! But from the looks of it, she must've jumped out of her skin too. Her complexion turned pale and legs shaking by the computer desk. As I approached slowly, she just kept shaking even more. Definitely not the person I thought she would be.

Arc: Hi?

Mother: ...H...H… Hello? N… N... Nice to meEEt you… Eeep! I'm so sorry!

Nex: Uh?

Mother: I'm so so sorry, I haven't… spoken with another person in a while…

Nex: You've been here alone for 17 years alone?

Mother: Well… yes! My whole life I've been basically here…

Arc: How did you get everything down here?

Mother: Golems duh! These things are easy to manipulate. Just type down an order on a master proxy and they do what you want.

Arc: Are you human?

Mother: What does it look like to you? Of course I'm human! My name's Eliza Yeok. I'm not quite sure how old I am now actually. But I feel forever 21!

Arc: You're definitely not what I imagined when Able kept mentioning Mother.

Eliza: Able?! You've found a golem named Able?! Where is he?

Arc: Able is a he?

Eliza: Of course Able is a he. The name Able is masculine. It means he can do anything!

Arc: He's right outside, he said that you didn't like it when golems entered this room.

Eliza: Oh geez, he still remembers that? I thought for sure he would've forgotten by now.

Nex: How long was it ago?

Eliza: 10 years maybe.

Nex: What!? That's way too long! He left 10 years ago!?

Eliza: Yeah, I was going through some stuff hehehe. Oh my! I forgot to ask for your names!

Arc: At least now we know where he got that from. I'm the 24th Arc and this is the 72nd Nex. He's a boy if you didn't notice.

Eliza: Oh I noticed.

Nex: YES! I like this person already Arc!

Eliza: How strange… Was I gone for so long that numbers are the new names?

Nex: People have been naming their children like that for a long time now actually. Or at least that's what the government does.

Arc: Back when we were kids we'd have a name but later you're designated a new one.

Eliza: I must've been gone for more than just quite some time then.

Arc: What part of the platform are you from?

Eliza: Platform? What do you mean?

Nex: She doesn't even know the platform? What about your magic affinity? You have one don't you to survive this long. It must be pretty powerful! Like maybe something that has something to do with gravity.

Eliza: What are you two talking about? Magic? Platform? Magic doesn't exist. I've lived here since my parents left Earth a long time ago.

Arc & Nex: WHAT?!

Eliza: Please stop shouting! I know I said it's been a while since I've had company but I don't miss the shouting at all.

Arc: Our apologies but there's something wrong here.

Eliza: What is it?

Arc: Magic does exist. And we've never heard of this Earth until a few days ago.

Nex: Earth is that dirt planet that you kept talking about right?

Eliza: Impossible... You're just joking right?

Nex: Arc would know. He's got the better score for celestial navigation and cosmic geography! He would've known more about Earth if he could.

Eliza: Thats... impossible. Could it be possible?

Arc: What's possible?

Eliza: Follow me kiddos.

Eliza jumped to her footwear then raced towards one of the shelves. Her face was all in a panic while me and Nex were confused. We walked up to her to see what she was flipping over. Documents, star maps, and pieces of unknown wrappers were being flung across the place. Eventually she grabbed out a picture book from a cabinet nearby. I haven't seen a picture book since Modus. Those Icloids did love their pictures. She then ran back to her dining table, we followed her too to see what she was on about. Nex was just amused by it all. She kept flipping the pages furiously as if she wanted to find something important. So this is a person from Earth huh. Are they all like her?

Nex: She's really funny huh. I bet she's just hiding her magic power or something. No one can possibly survive Plaux's terrain without it.

Arc: I think we're about to get out answers.

Eliza: This! This right here! This planet! This is Earth!

She shoved us a picture of a green planet with a bit too much water on it. This was Earth? It looked like a terrible place to live in. Eliza's face was completely drenched in worry while me and Nex looked like she was going crazy. Maybe she was staying here for too long…

Eliza: You're telling me that you don't know this planet! This where all the humans live! You're humans too right?

Arc: Yeah, I'm human but all the humans belong to the platform.

Nex: It's only common knowledge in the universe that humans are almost extinct and live on the platform. Even citizens of Exal know about us and that place didn't even discover flight yet.

Eliza: There are other humans that have been living outside of Earth?! This is amazing! So all this time, we weren't just a coincidence! There were other humans out there too!

Arc: Wait, so there are humans where you live too? Are they almost extinct?

Eliza: No! Not at all! In fact, we are somewhat over populated on our planet. We were sent here to find a way to send people out into space! It takes time for us to travel to space.

Nex: This can't be true! Human numbers were dwindled a long time ago because of a lack of a planet and resources. We've only been expanding the platform because we don't have a planet to live on! How is it that we couldn't find this place called Earth?

Eliza: How am I supposed to know?! I'm just looking at you two and it's amazing. I could almost wet myself from excitement!

Here we stood across from someone that felt like some kind of lunatic talking about this place we've never heard of. Nex was conversing to her about the many contradictions he's known but everything to me was blanked out. I couldn't hear a thing. All I could do was see this woman. I looked at her eyes and all I could see was the hope for our humanity. It almost felt like everything I've done was all for this moment. A moment that I knew that we weren't going to be extinct. Everyone was going to be overjoyed that somewhere out there, there was a place we could finally live in without a worry. No more classes or goodbyes.

Eliza: I can't wait to report this back to mission control! This is an astronomical find! They'll be thrilled to know not only is this mission going to be a success but there are more of us.

Arc: How are you going to do that?

Eliza: I'm not sure yet. I'll figure something out.

Nex: Hey, Eliza. What kind of magic do you have?

Eliza: Are you serious?

Arc: I'm quite curious too on how you survived. What kind of magic did you use to survive?

Eliza: Uh? Rehydratable food and robotics? You guys look serious. Is this like a prank that your humans do?

Arc: We mean like this.

My eyes glowed and I produced a mini tornado that fixed everything that was cluttered. It was a big mess so I just wanted to clean this place up. A few seconds later everything seemed to look all neat and tidy. As I relinquished my power, Eliza dropped on the ground with a hard thud! It looked like she fainted!