Frost had grown used to the attention by now. It was no longer rare to see people fail to recognize exactly who she was. People flocked to her the moment they spotted her golden eyes, paired with the same short-cut hair that dangled just barely above her shoulders.
Golden eyes were almost unheard of, after all.
People of the Derma Layer recognized her as she passed through a district where the air smelt of coffee, and where casually dressed civilians roamed. Compared to D-Q, D-J housed fewer official personnel and primarily contained common folk invited by the Faustian Bargain.
Surprisingly, it was also where people of the Derma Layer ended up. Waiters and waitresses of cafes waved over at her with tears in their eyes, some calling out her name whilst others watched on with reserve. Carriage drivers hailed her, as well as Inner City Defenders. Some of them had given a piece of their soul to join the Golden Index whether out of thanks or repayment for taking them in.
Frost thought they were all living inside of the walled off villages in D-Q, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. They had integrated into society, working jobs as they cherished the life the Impuritas had robbed them of.
Many were just thankful to have their limbs and organs back. This area was a newly developed one, so it made sense to see them here. It was a nameless district bordering the walls of the Outskirts, defended heavily due to the emergence of the holes nearby.
Interestingly enough, however, was that Jury was also recognized almost too familiarly. Jury never interacted with them as much as Frost did, so she wondered if they were just happy to see the face of another one of their saviors.
But that was only half of the truth.
Past the stores laid the residential areas, unwalled unlike the private villages elsewhere. Tiny eyes feasted upon them through windows and in the shadows as they ventured past, following the golden light of the distant Carpal Tower.
Up ahead was an internal transit network used solely within the inner Sectors. They were in perfect order and would be sent directly to the main strip of Carpal Tower. Before that, however, Frost wanted to address the stares as she scanned the streets, watching as adults paid them little heed compared to the children.
She looked over at one and waved, but they did not respond until Jury tilted her head, curiously pointing at herself. A bright smile formed on the child’s face as they suddenly waved at her, as if they knew her on a name-to-name basis.
“… Ominous. The happiness feels artificial.” Nav stated.
“They’re mistaking Jury for someone else again. Half recognize us from the Derma Layer.” Frost followed; her mind now fully immersed in the thoughts of the ‘White Rabbit’. “Weird. Jury’s [Time Seer] can’t peer into the physical origin of it either. Is it because it’s all purely mental? Aside from lacking enough Nex to stimulate it?”
The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
“I don’t think so.” Jury whispered, bringing a finger to her bottom lip. “People have touched the fluff of the White Rabbit’s tail, so we know that it at least exists. [Time Seer] works just kind of like how you were able to see the past in S5. The problem is [Time Seer] can’t see specifics, so we ultimately have to study what we find. I doubt we’ll outright see a White Rabbit.”
She was adamant about this, and as if to prove it, she used the magic in small quantities on several children, disguising it as a healing magic. Jury, Frost and even Nav surprisingly were able to see the aberrations form around the children as the world temporarily shifted, depicting the caverns of the Derma Layer.
It was like peering into a wormhole, with the caverns seemingly appearing like the watercolor paintings made by a child. However, it did not detract from the horrors of it.
Bloodshed, disease, and agony were the prevailing thoughts of these children even until now. The White Rabbit could not be found unfortunately. It was a fundamental flaw that managed to show both the whole as well as a small facet of a person, if that made any sense.
Jury could dig deeper, but doing so increased the risk of unintentionally Corrupting them. Because those memories she saw would also be seen by the person in question. Letting them remain buried was sometimes the better option.
She stimulated them just enough for it to be a fleeting thought, hence why the depictions did not appear full and seemed to be drawn from imagination rather than memories. Jury’s hands began to tingle, her heart wrenching as an audible ticking could be heard from her.
“[Time Seer] paints the picture. It’s our role to critique it.” Nav said something the Objet D’Art would be proud of.
“Good metaphor.” Jury commended. “Just not the full picture. It’s like… looking into a fractal. The more resolution we have, the closer we can zoom it. I’ve been testing it out on some of the black marks on the Nexus. I feel like an idiot sometimes because you can zoom in over and over again and end up in the same spot.”
“Like a pseudo time loop, huh.” Frost answered.
“Exactly~!” Jury leaped, happy to hear that Frost was on the same wavelength. “When think of that it takes me back to the doors in the visions I had of the past.”
“The way you explain it makes it sound like you don’t know the extent of it yourself.” Nav stated as the moved on, patting the head of a young boy as they entered an empty tunnel that cut through the underside of the district.
The trains here operated underground but were protected thanks to Caldera Industries’ Root-Pillar Complex. The Root-Pillar Complex was less dense towards the inner Sectors, creating massive voids that made it impossible for the Impuritas to invade.
Frost remembered the giant sewers that led to seemingly nowhere. One such well was found to the side just past a safety rail, which led to a catwalk that crossed to a nearby district. It was closed off and used as a dumping ground to remove waste from the city.
Sewerage spilled like waterfalls from gargantuan pipes, as steam rose into the air. Small, pale wisps captured the smoke and delivered it elsewhere to be reused, likely for pneumatic systems.
They continued down the brightly lit tunnel; all the while Jury’s eyes were strangely fixated on something within the darkness of the well.
It was as though she had caught a glimpse of a creature. She rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand, then her tail as she stared inquisitively at the passing pit.
“Feeling tired?” Frost didn’t ask if she saw something, because Frost would have seen it too. This was the only thing she could think of after a long day of outing.
Jury, however, uttered:
“… I thought I caught a glimpse of myself just now.”