“You certainly work fast,” Nemendias commented observing the distraught girl on the floor.

“Mhmm,” I nodded. “I better get a crest for this.”

“Hold your hand open,” Nora-shaped avatar said.

I squinted at up at her and opened my palm.

Another crest piece fell from her hand into mine. It was a hexagon this time.

“Miser,” I commented.

Nemmy shook her head at me. She looked back at the sniffling, utterly defeated Gattaca.

“Quite frankly, I have no idea what to do with her,” she said. “I expected a golem, not a real girl. Now that she won’t be… leaping around, I can simply take her outside and kick her out of the ward, I suppose.”

“No, that would work against our interests,” I shook my head. “Her crimes are far too numerous. We cannot simply let her roam free. She can still be of use to us. What we need from her is… information. Lock her in a closet for now and put some shields around her. I know exactly who can shake what we need out of Gattaca.”

Nemmy nodded.

She pulled whimpering Gattaca from the floor and unceremoniously shoved her into a side room, manifesting a whole shield array around the unmasked girl.

“I’d like some information,” Nemmy said when she turned to me.

“Yes?” I asked.

“What in the Astral is that?” The hand of the Keeper of Keys pointed at something behind me.

I turned around. There was a square, glowing doorway in a stone wall. I saw Undertown and the avatar of Infi standing there, smirking at me.

“What,” I blinked. “Oh. Whoopsie… I forgot to shut the gate.”

“You forgot to shut the gate? You MADE a gate into me?” Nemendias stared down at me with a frown.

“Guess we have a quick way to Undertown now,” I rubbed the back of my head. “Mind putting a door there? It’s kinda drafty.”

Nemendias face-palmed.

A heavy magisteel frame and a reinforced door manifested in front of the gateway, blocking the view of Undertown.

“Thanks,” I exhaled and tiredly slumped onto the couch.

“Explain!” Nemendias demanded. “How and why in the name of Illatius the First is there a gate here? How did you pierce all of my wards without me even noticing it?”

“After I call my friend,” I waved her off, selecting Voicecast on my armacus. “You don’t mind if I introduce you to another human, right?”

“Which human?” Nemmy asked exasperatedly. “You do know that the more humans know about me, the more dangerous life becomes for me?”

“Officer Lambert Cu Durer Archibal,” I said. “He’s someone I trust wholeheartedly. He’s really nice, don’t worry. He’ll let you have his job here too, since he’s still sorta the Inspector of Lomb. Oh and my maid Voltara! You can pretend to be her as well! I’ll bring my crew in here so that we can plan things together!”

Nemendias blinked at me, looking stumped.

. . .

In about thirty minutes, Lambert, Voltara, Agatha and Emerald had joined me in the office of the Keeper of Keys.

I had summarized my discovery of Nemendias, my mission to catch the ghost and my horrid misadventure in the future Undertown to everyone present.

Lambert looked completely stumped as well, when I finished my tale.

He looked at the Keeper.

“You’re telling me that this is the avatar of Nemendias?” He asked.

“Yep,” I nodded. “That’s her.”

Nemendias sighed and nodded.

Lambert walked around the copy of Nora, the rune on his glasses flickering and working overtime. Then he straightened out and offered Nemmy his hand.

“A pleasure to meet you,” he said with a smile. “Never in my life had I expected to talk to a magical manifestation of the most ancient Arcanarium. It will be a delight working with you… or perhaps… in you.”

Nemmy shook Lambert’s hand.

“I will allow you to pretend to be me while I am working outside of your halls,” Lambert added. “If you grant me the rank of your Inspector. It was a bit of a downgrade for me to apply to work here as a mere security officer, you see.”

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“The person in charge of my security is Lord Gibraltar Alcon Merk, the Chief Commissaire of Nemendias,” Nemmy said. “You would have to talk to him about it. The position of the Inspector of Nemendias has been eliminated two hundred and eighty one years ago.”

I frowned at her words.

“My, my, how wonderfully lawful you are,” Lambert commented. “Very well, I shall attempt to speak to Lord Gibraltar about it.”

“The same goes for your request,” Nemendias said, turning to me. “I cannot make up positions. You will have to speak to Lord Gibraltar about arranging a security-related job placement in my halls, Yulia.”

My heart started to thump. A vision of the dark void filled with blossoming blood of astral phantoms, the mountain of bodies and the ruins of Undertown flashed in my thoughts.

“No,” I said.

“No?” Nemmy raised an eyebrow.

“Something highly questionable is going on in Nemendias,” I said. “We need to be exceptionally ruthless and cautious. I cannot allow our operation to be exposed. I’ve learned my lesson with Gattaca. Nemmy, you WILL give Lambert the position of Inspector of Nemendias and me the position of a Free Agent without any paperwork or anyone else being involved other than the people I absolutely trust. I don’t give a damn how you can do it - figure it out. I’m legitimately exhausted after my time-hopping ordeal.”

Nemendias frowned at me.

Endy spun in my hand.

“We had an agreement, Nemmy. The ghost with the pocket watch for a position that will allow me to be a student and a teacher,” I said. “I refuse to involve another person in this, refuse to expose myself, refuse to sign a magical contract with some pompous Lord.”

“But,” the Nora-shaped avatar blinked. “That’s against…”

“No, Nemmy,” I said, stabbing Endy into a table and making the surface of the desk flicker ever so slightly. “I know where your plaque is. You and I had a deal! What the hell is this?!”

“Are you afraid of meeting Lord Gibraltar? I will protect you,” she muttered.

“A lot of good your protection did to me against Gattaca’s pocket watch!” I growled at her. “Someone in Illatius has the third artifact from Inaria. They’ve been using it to erase information on a global scale. They likely made everyone in Illatius forget who the five Heroes of humanity are. What if Lord Gibraltar is the one? What if he shakes my hand and erases me from your memory?”

The magical duplicate frowned.

“You haven’t seen the mountain of corpses in Undertown!” I hissed, taking a step towards her. “You haven’t seen what happens to you in just a few decades when the Necromag fleet turns you into a scorched hole and a pile of rubble! Don’t you get it, Nemmy? They’ve been using YOU to vanish people.”

“W-what?” Nemendias blinked.

“Does the name Numor Okosh mean anything to you? The wise, all-powerful, archmage advisor of Emperor Bolsh?” I turned to Lambert, to Nemendias and then to Agatha.

“There is no such advisor,” Agatha commented.

“Indeed. Numor Okosh does not exist,” Lambert said.

“What about Dovius Malosh?” I asked. “A female archmage?”

“Never heard of her,” the Inspector shook his head.

“Exactly,” I declared, turning back to Nemmy. “Gattaca used YOU as her anchor and sent people into the future from here. There were thousands upon thousands of bodies in that pile! How could so many people vanish here and nobody freaking noticed anything? Someone’s been inviting archmages to Nemendias. When they vanished, the other high-cendai possessing the information-erasing artifact made everyone forget that the disappeared mages ever existed to begin with, erasing their names from memory and records!”

The face of Nemendias turned pale.

“No,” she whispered.

“Yes,” I growled at her. “You’re implicated elbow-deep in this conspiracy, Nemmy. You, the Arcanarium that’s given people so much knowledge and hope was used for centuries to make the Basq Empire weak and feeble! You permitted these mages to come into your ward, failed to notice that they all vanished without a trace!”

“It… cannot be…” Nemmy said.

“Am I lying then? Is that it? What do your truth-hexagrams tell you?” I growled, pointing at the walls that were glowing green at my words.

“You’re being honest,” Nemmy uttered. “I… I honestly didn’t know about this, didn’t do anything… I was used…”

“Exactly!” I barked. “You didn’t do shit! You hid in that small, dusty room beneath your classrooms and didn’t tell anyone about the ghost haunting your halls! Now that we are here, it’s time for you to act! Lambert is a genuine Inspector, a local figure of authority. I want you two to work together to do whatever it takes to stop the dark cabal that’s leading Illatius to its catastrophic end!”

Lambert looked at Nemendias with a deep frown.

“I’m afraid that Yulia is quite right,” he said. “I’m going to get a full written confession out of Miss Gattaca, signed with the absolute truth hexagram. Hopefully, it will help us begin to unravel this diresome ball of yarn. I would prefer for us to cooperate - if I simply show this confession to the Illatius Constabulary, thousands of Scrutimancers will fill these halls digging for the truth about the vanished mages. I’m sure that you do not want this.”

Nemendias looked aghast at his words.

“We do not know who our enemies are,” I said. “But I will not allow the rot that’s been growing in you to continue to fester! You will answer to us, Nemmy and you WILL give us absolutely everything we require to solve this case. You will grant Inspector Lambert and me ALL of your resources. I’m done playing around! I’m done dying in the future! Either you aid us or I will freaking go into the den of Saint Innocentai and start snipping hexagrams off one by one until I break you enough for you to start helping us properly!”

“Fine,” the avatar of the Arcanarium bowed her head. There were tears glittering on the copied face of Nora. “You… two are right. I’m sorry. I... failed the Empire. I failed my children.”

I stepped to the magic-forged, distraught avatar and hugged her tightly.

“It’s going to be alright, Nemmy,” I said. “Please… work with us so we can undo all of the damage that the chimera cendai have done here.”

“Very well,” she whispered.

“How long do the duplicates you make last?” Lambert asked.

“Four hours at most,” Nemendias said. "I have to make a new one every four hours."

"A bit of an inconvenience," I mulled. "I suppose that bathroom breaks are a legitimate excuse for a reset."

"Volty, is it aight with you if Nemendias makes a copy of you whenever you're out with me?" I turned to the quiet maid.

"Of course," Voltara nodded. "Anything to aid our cause."

"See? So many people are willing to give you their place," I turned back to Nemmy. "Aren't you glad?"

"I am," Nemendias nodded. "It is unfortunately impossible for me to break the law. I swore to uphold it long ago."

"You're exactly like Dawn, then?" I mulled. "You're six thousand years old. Is there no forgotten, ancient law that will permit us to work directly with your ward, completely disregarding everyone else?"

"Hrmmm," Nemendias pondered. Then her eyes lit up. "The ancient law of city-state war-time takeover. The Right of Conquest. Used in 3082 by Lord Marshal Cornelius to take control of the Borlix Mines from the Numerux Barony."

"Oh?" I curiously leaned towards her. "I guess that Lomb will have to officially declare an invasion of Nemendias and make you sign the surrender papers."

Lambert started to laugh.

“Can you tell me more about these chimera cendai and their tools?” Nemendias inquired.

“Oh sure,” I nodded. “I can tell you everything that I know about chimera… and as for their tools, why don’t you ask one of the Builders of Andross? She might be able to explain things in greater detail.”

I waved my hand at the magisteel-reinforced door to Undertown.

“What?!” Lambert’s head snapped towards the door.