Core. Everything strange happening went back to that.
Cores were what processed the ethereal and vital energy in the body; but also what held the instructions of what the entity could do. It was a little silvery or black square, like the tiles you'd see in a bathroom wall, and it used aurichalcum to transfer that information across the body.
It elevated something higher than a mere flesh organism, but it was lesser than what truly ascended entities, such as humans, had, which was the framework. A collection of arcane organs that were attached to the physical body but existed in a different, intangible, almost imperceptible state. A human's frame contained many specialized parts, some of which were equivalent to a core. It was like the difference between a unicellular organism, and a multicellular organism.
Or so it had been explained to Qullqi, when her issues with her frame became apparent, and her father took her to visit an arcanist to test the imperceptible half of herself.
While she had issues with her frame, she was not truly without it. If she had, she would have a much weaker body. It was said humans without their frame would struggle to lift 1 to 2 times their body weight, would get easily bruised and hurt, and would have a short lifespan of about 70 or so years.
It was an important aspect of entities, the ethereal and biological body was often thought of as a double helix, intertwined and unified.
When something broke those concepts on a fundamental level, they would be called "anomalies".
Sefi, an automaton with human-like intelligence, adaptability and the ability to speak, while having a core, was an anomaly. Cores were linked to magical animals, spirits, and computing.
Being an anomaly was bad, because many nation states wouldn't even recognize your rights, and even the ones that did, would often pressure you. Living in the wilderness was also not an option because out of the cities, the laws became suggestions, and the great powers would fight over everything they found useful or interesting, with anomalies often being both.
This brought Qull's mind to the bigger issue.
A dog having a frame was an anomaly.
She had gone over every other possibility, and she had to admit she still did not understand the full picture, with Alana playing so safe over her past, but in her mind, and in her heart, there was no doubt that what happened when Alana lost her choker, when she became a small, orange furred dog, was that she returned to her original shape.
The biggest hint something was up was Chalry. She didn't know the woman nor her family, but from what Mazeline said, she had power over memory, and she seemed smart, unusually smart, with multiple degrees over multiple fields without looking older than 20-something.
And now she was playing coy, constantly asking Rumi what she thought of Alana, even prodding about her history with questions to Qullqi and Mazeline. The latter making it almost too obvious, because they hated each other, saints know why, and even so Chalry insisted, her tone becoming far less venomous as she tried to milk info from Maze.
This sucked. This really, really sucked. This was, in fact, terrible.
She now knew what Alana had meant, back in the mall, when she was talking about getting what you wanted and realizing it was stupid. Qull wanted adventure, she wanted risks in her life, and now she had gotten it. A strange, unknown noble, showing interest in her friend.
No, worse than that, a noble deciding the fate of her friend.
There was nothing Qull could do to counter Chalry she did not even know why the noble was bothering to play that little game of not admitting her interest in the open. Maze and Rumi didn't even realize what was going on, Qullqi did see the game, but she was not invited to it, she had no idea what to do with the information that Alana was a dog with a framework, she did not know how that came to be or what to do with that information.
But there had to be a reason.
Then it all clicked, Qullqi's ears shot up as she understood it. Chalry didn't want anyone else to realize it, nobody else asking questions, that information had some value, but she couldn't act upon it, or still had to do further research. In that scenario, the more people knew just how odd Alana's case was, the more chances there would be for third parties to start investigating it as well or even making moves against the witch.
Therefore...
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"So, if I understand correctly, the joke is that you send a hyperlink to a friend, but instead of having the content they desired, you send this video of a music clip from 11987?" Sefi asked, tilting her head.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
"Bwahaha, yeah, isn't it amazing." Rumi had a wide smirk, showing her friend the screen of her laptop.
"I do not think I understand the comedic factor in that."
"Maybe artificial beings do not get the humour."
"That statement is false, I do laugh at jokes that are sufficiently funny."
At that moment, Maze entered the house again, carrying a bag filled with chips and other snacks. "Hey. Got some stuff, since we will be waiting here all day."
The schoolgirl and the automaton waved at her, and Alana barked.
"Yo." Rumi stretched, putting her laptop aside. "Did Miss Floppy Ears sleep last night? She has been staring at the table for like, half an hour now, just frowning at nothing."
"Ehh, she does that sometimes." Maze shrugged.
As the snacks were opened, Qull, in a mindless robotic manner, took a potato chip and ate it. Doing it with a very dramatic bite that snapped the chip in half.
"That is so ominous, my agent does that as well," Rumi said. "Her eyes gain a shine, her glasses glow, and she just stands in there, doing nothing, smirking and holding her chin."
Maze smirked and relaxed, sitting down by Qull's side. "Yeah, some people just love to brood and overthink I guess."
There was a knock on the table as Qullqi slammed her hand down, now fully out of her little world, her teeth gritted as she took a deep breath, trying to hold back.
"Love to brood? I do like to think Maze, you should try it sometimes." Qullqi barked. "But you know what I don't like? When I am forced to have to strategize a whole situation, worry about the safety of my friend, because someone is an inconsiderate, stubborn, bastard."
"Wow, wow, hey, I get it, I am an idiot. I never pretended I wasn't."
"Of course, you don't. It's way easier to just not hold yourself to any standards, Say, oh I am trash, the world is trash, so you can continue being trashy without a conscience." Qull said. "But your problem isn't that you are an idiot, everyone here is an idiot. Your problem is that you are self-centred, you have zero empathy, that is what renders you incapable of stopping your brain from putting your claws and what doesn't belong to you."
"What do you mean no empathy? I almost died against that slime because I didn't want to see you girls sad."
"That is sympathy. It's your desire to not see others sad, as you said. But if there isn't an emotional hook for you, then you just don't care, you forget others are people as well. When you stole my medicine, that was haha funny, when you didn't tell us about how you had offended the Tengu, that was annoying. But now, you have actually hurt one of us. What if that choker was one of a kind and Alana had to stay a dog forever? What if Chalry hadn't been punched into giving us her services for free?"
Mazeline's face soured, her eyes darting around, there was even a hint of anger at times, that pride of hers, Qullqi knew the type, someone who knew they had messed up but still felt attacked when others pointed that out. Ultimately, however, the werewolf didn't take an aggressive path.
"Okay. I understand. If you want to dissolve Cerberus, I will understand, if you want to continue, it will be fine as well. I just want to say, that, look, at least it all ended well."
"Ended well? It got better, yes, not thanks to you. But it's far from over,.."
As she previously realized, Qullqi had nothing to lose from expressing her concerns to the others, Chalry's game was keeping the information secret until she could do something about it, Qull assumed, so opening up was the path ahead.
"That woman, Chalry de Bourgogne, I do not know her. I do not know what she wants, I also do not know what Alana's transformation means, if it's something rare, if its something good, if its something bad. Do you realize Alana is an anomaly?"
Maze tilted her head then her eyes widened. "Oh. She is, isn't she? But she is just... an animal that becomes a human? Or vice versa? I..."
Qull didn't need her answer beyond that. "Still an anomaly, even a lame one is still valuable."
This caused Alana to give a slightly annoyed Bark.
"I didn't mean you are lame, Lana! It was an example!" Qull was pleased before focusing again on Maze. "What matters is that she is one, she had it as a secret, kept by her grandma, Then you exposed it to someone who, according to your own words, is a power player, Maze, someone you even hate, apparently."
Mazeline shifted her instance immediately, all of her aggression, her attempt to keep her pride, melted. To Qull's surprise, Maze even started to tear up.
"Alright." Rumi placed her hands on the table. "This is just too awkward, don't you think girls? We are still here you know."
Alana barked in agreement. She had taken the chance created by the argument to climb on the table and sneakily try to grab a snack.
"Lana, that isn't good for your health." Qull pouted.
"Bark!"
"I don't care you will be a human by tomorrow, who knows how your little dog organs will react to all this trash food," Qull added.
Maze stayed quiet, now it was she who was lost in her thoughts. Qull hoped that she took that as a chance to change, if only a bit.
"About Chalry, I don't think you should be worried," Rumi said in the softest tone she had ever used so far, but she was lying.
"Then why did you also hide Sefirah's nature as an anomaly from her? Clearly, you don't trust her either."
Rumi pouted. "Okay. Fine. I don't fully, 100% trust her. But, first, if she did something to Alana, then I would no longer associate with her, and neither would Sefirah."
The automaton nodded, and Qull could see the logic in that, a real magical girl and an anomaly that involved precursor technology were more valuable than whatever Alana was, Qull assumed.
"But she can just wait a few years, right? You will not be a magical girl forever."
"That is right. And that brings me to my second point. No matter what, I will not let anything happen to her. I am giving you my word. Not as the shaman of the storm or some magical girl, but as Rumina." She said, radiating an aura of confidence and shining like the protagonist she often was, her hair was even swinging in a cool way, despite them being in a closed room inside a cave.
Qull thought that was so unfair, how could she overthink and use logic in face of that level of thoughtless confidence? She had been burned so many times, and yet she felt like that child again, hearing the pretty ladies on the screen make promises, and then she would learn their show was cancelled by greedy agents. In real life, it was no different, Iro had been proof of that with her depressed lines about the reality of the job. And yet, despite that logical conclusion, Qull smiled and nodded at Rumi.