Inner Sanctum Exterior | 3:33 PM | Third Day

"If perchance this thing does exist, it would have to be the creature that Sacnicte had spoken of seeing on the rooftop," Kamrusepa concluded. "Some pet project Hamilcar was keeping and somehow pulling the wool over the eyes of the rest of you." She glared at Linos.

"I-It's not impossible," he conceded.

"It would have to be a machine or something dependent on the Power if it really does exist..." Ophelia said, for once close to being in her actual element. "A-Assuming the image that I have in my head isn't completely mistaken. Biomancy can't create creatures with supernatural powers... Obviously, I mean."

Kam nodded, her brow furrowed.

"After that, things got kinda nuts," Fang continued. "It got close so fast it was dumb. Thing moved like a tram carriage. We ran to the stairs, but it came right after us. I think that was when our group split up." They jerked their thumb to the side. "Me, Annie and Ema ran for the stairs - I said something stupid about hiding up in the armory, maybe grabbing some of the grenades, so we went all the way up. That was where we were hiding out until like five minutes ago, when we figured we'd try to make a break for it. Then I heard voices coming from over here, and..."

"What happened to Ptolema?" Ran asked.

"Oh, right," Fang said. "Uh, on the way up the stairs, she shouted something about hearing Seth shouting out for her, and ran off. That was at the second floor-- Dunno what happened after that."

"What about the others?" Linos asked, with obvious concern in his tone. "Even if you ran in different directions, did you see where any of them went?"

"Uh, I think I saw Seth and Ezekiel run back towards the main hall, with Theo maybe trailing behind..." Fang said. "Couldn't tell you where they went after that, though. I think the thing might've been chasing them?"

Linos nodded, but his expression only looked more troubled. His face flushed, and his eyes wandered towards the door.

"Oh! And, uh." Fang cleared their throat. "I think Zeno might be dead? At the very least, that whole pile of boxes got completely shredded. The monster tore into it like a hungry kid into a pizza. I didn't see any blood or anything, but..."

"Are we absolutely sure that the professor was in the box?" Kam asked, her tone suspicious.

"Something was at least thumping from the inside of it after he 'died' down with you two," Ran said, inclining her head to Kam and I respectively. "And I saw him over the logic bridge after Linos pushed the box to it, though only for a moment. Said he found it hard to stay awake without a proper body."

Linos seemed to have a thousand yard stare on his face for a few moments, but sighed and nodded. "Yes, I can confirm Zeno's physical body was amongst the luggage. He's a tricky man, so I wouldn't put it past him having found a way to survive even if that did happen, but..." He shook. "I wouldn't be optimistic. A terrible shame to lose another great mind to all this."

"I'm sure the world will survive," Kam said, whose tune was so different since the death of the other council members that she might as well have switched from concert piano to cymbals.

My brain wasn't really processing all of this completely, but I was absorbing enough to draw some basic conclusions. Obviously, this had all happened before or when we'd just entered the building - we'd stood around for several minutes after successfully sending the signal to Sekhmet, and Fang's description made it sound like they'd left almost right away. Then we'd been distracted by the giant glowing figure, got shot at--

Oh.

"The shooter," I said, speaking up for the first time in a while. "They were on the tower-- The timing would line up for it being one of the others coming from downstairs."

Kamrusepa nodded gravely. "I was thinking the same thing, Su. It's very convenient for them that this all happened in precisely the right way to both derail the others leaving and create a distraction through which the accomplice might prevent our own escape." She looked to Fang. "Did anyone flee for the exits?"

"Not that I saw," Fang said. "I mean, it was kinda hard to keep track of everything, but I saw the thing move to block off the doorway in the conference room, and I don't think anybody chanced it. We tried the door opposite the pond on the way up here, but it was blocked off."

"Didn't you try your master keys?" Kam asked.

"No, I mean blocked off," Fang repeated. "Like, literally. Something was in the way on the other side."

"H-How would the culprit manage something like that...?" Ophelia asked. "We've all been together one way since we started this plan, and they wouldn't have had time to run all the way around..."

"We've only used the front door and the conference room door since all this shit started," Ran pointed out. "For all we know, they could have blocked it off during the night, and been planning this from the start."

Kam ran a hand over her face, her expression increasingly flustered. "This is all too bloody cute. One door blocked off, another cutoff by this beast, and yet the one nearest us remains conveniently accessible when we're driven into it. We've all been herded like rats into a maze." She tapped her foot anxiously. "Fang, did you see what happened to cause the gas leak? Was a pipe damaged by this creature?"

"Don't think so," they said. "I don't think I smelled any on the way up here at all. Only caught a whiff of it a minute ago."

"Then it's all got to be deliberate," Kam said, tightening her lips. "Damn, damn. Going downstairs now will be too much of a risk after all. They probably wanted to drive us all up to the top from the start, so that once we realize what's going on, the first floor will be so flooded with gas that the whole thing will go up in flames for sure with so much as a spark. They've got us trapped, and time is completely on their side."

Something that struck me as odd, even in my distracted state, was how much Kamrusepa seemed to be taking Fang at their word. She'd seemed on edge and extremely (though perhaps not unreasonably) paranoid for a while now, she didn't seem suspicious that this fantastical story was some kind of lie or trick at all.

Admittedly, it was hard to imagine Fang or Anna were the accomplice - amongst everyone, they were some of the least suspicious - but still, wasn't that sort of strange...?

"Well, I for one won't play their game," Kam continued. "This pseudo-tower is isolated architecturally from the rest of the building - even if it goes up in flames, the exterior will be safe for our descent for at least a short while. They must have not anticipated we'd beeline for it." She allowed herself a small smirk. "We'll go out the window after all. There should be enough sheets to tie into--"

"I've got some rope," Fang said, casually pulling an extremely long length of it from their bag.

Kam double-taked. "Why do you just have rope?"

"I picked it up while we were in the armory-slash-whatever. They had a bunch of other supplies, remember? Oh, and I also did get these grenades." They held up a handful of the spherical objects, which they seemed to have just dumped in their bag without much regard for safe placement. "And hey, now you know I'm not the culprit, because I could totally have just tossed one of these up the stairs and merced you guys."

"Really encouraging," Ran said flatly.

"I really don't understand why you would just get rope," Kam persisted. "Did you actually predict it this would go this way from the start?"

"No, I just got rope," Fang insisted, giving her a funny look. "Don't you ever play tabletop games?"

Kam furrowed her brow in confusion. "What?"

"Guess not," Fang said, slinging it onto the bed.

"So... Do you feel ready to talk about what you came here to discuss?" Samium asked me, his tone patient. "I don't want to rush you, but..."

I said something very quietly, to the point that I couldn't make it out over the recording.

"I'm sorry, did you say something...?" Samium asked.

I opened my mouth wider, the words only coming a few moments later. "I wanted to, um... To start with, I wanted to apologize to you, for what happened..."

"Oh." He took a heavy breath. "I see..."

"I didn't-- I mean... I didn't..."

"No," he said, and looked as though he was trying to shake his head, but didn't quite have the mobility in his neck to do so properly with all the equipment around his shoulders and neck. "It's alright. I... Appreciate the sentiment, but there's no need for that. It only happened because of my own foolishness, and you were very young, and... And more besides, It was not you."

I scrunched up my face. "No, I'm--"

"I know it may be hard to see it that way... With the feelings and recollections you have. But still, it was not you. You aren't--" he coughed painfully again. "--responsible for anything from before you became as you are, so... You haven't done anything to wrong me."

"You're wrong," I said, my tone quiet and with a subtle tremor.

"I understand how you feel," he said. "But it's the only way you can think about these things. Trust me, I have a..." He exhaled deeply. "A great deal of experience, with this sort of affair."

It was getting more and more painful to watch. I had to admit, I had neither expected, nor really wanted, Samium to take this tack. I'd expected him to be angry, both at me and himself. But he was just spouting the same ambiguous lines that I'd heard years ago at the end of assimilation therapy.

It was a horrible disappointment. An absolute denial of the catharsis I'd wanted in terms of finally having pass judgement on me with the authority to do so. In so many ways, this moment wasn't turning out at all like I'd imagined. Having to suppress my emotions since I was around the others. Being distracted by their dumb conversation, by this whole ridiculous scenario, when it should have been pure. And not even getting to be there myself, but having to consume the resolution to all these years of struggle second-hand, like leftover food from an icebox. It felt like the universe was having a joke at my expense.

But the conversation wasn't over, and regardless, I had to remind myself that none of this was important-- Not next to the actual reason I was there to see him. It's not about you feeling better. It's about her.

"You're wrong, it's..." I scrunched up my face, hunching over painfully. "Never mind. I'll just, uh, get to the point..."

He nodded, his expression compassionate, but with a certain ambiguity. He shifted a little in his bed as if trying to get comfortable, but could barely move.

"I know this is saying the obvious, but we... I shouldn't have done this. Twelve years ago, I-- I shouldn't have done it."

"Ahh. You... Have regrets?" he asked.

I could see that I was getting frustrated and a little flustered. "Y-Yes."

"I see..." He paused for a moment, closing his eyes. "Are you unhappy? Or do you mean..."

I turned to him sharply. "I mean that it shouldn't have happened!"

He leaned back a bit at me suddenly raising my voice, and coughed some more, this time more violently. One of the machines made a disapproving chime.

My face looked panicked all of a sudden. "I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to shout."

"It's alright," he said, holding up a hand as the coughing slowed down. "...it's alright."

I stared at him with a worried look for several moments, then turned away, facing my lap. I clenched my fist.

"I don't know how this will sound..." I said, my voice frail, "but the truth is, I've been looking for you for nearly nine years. Because I've been looking for a way to-- To undo this."

He frowned. "I'm not sure I understand."

"To fix things... To bring her back." I swallowed, holding my arms together tightly. "What I did to her, to Shi-- To Utsushikome... It was a terrible mistake. An unforgivable one."

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Samium looked at me in confusion.

"Wait, let's hold on for another moment," Linos said, interjecting.

"Don't worry, Linos," Fang said, pointing to themselves with their thumb. "I might not look it, but I'm pretty athletic. You can grab on my back and I'll get us down the rope, no problem."

"That's not what I was going to say," he said, frowning. "I understand your reasoning, but now that we know there are other survivors, we can't just leave them here. We've got to do something." Ophelia nodded along again.

"As we talked about," Kam said, "if you want to stay behind--"

"No, I have a better idea," Linos said, shaking his head. "Let me send out a general message over the logic bridge to let people know where we are and what we're doing, and then we can... I don't know, just give it just a few minutes-- Just as long as it will take us to tie the rope and get ready to descend. There's no way anyone still alive will miss it."

"That will give the culprit a means to respond," Kam replied critically.

"I know," Linos said, hesitant. "It's not ideal. But in the position we're in now, the worst they could do is either mount a direct assault or shoot us from the bell tower again, and they must know that if they did the latter, we could easily set fire to the lower floor and trap them there-- Or shoot back. There's only so much they can do." He hesitated. "And we could save lives. Save my son."

"Only so much they could do?" Kam glared at him. "Perhaps you weren't paying close attention a moment ago, mister Melanthos, but all skepticism aside, the culprit apparently has a literal monstrosity at their beck and call. If it is real, what's to stop it from charging right up the stairs and taking some nice bites out of our heads?"

Linos grunted, taking a breath, then looked towards Fang. "How loud would you say this creature was?"

"Pretty loud," Fang told him. "Like I said, it made a weird noise everywhere it went, and bumped into the walls a lot. I'm almost surprised you didn't hear it from outdoors."

"So we'd know it was coming," he said, frowning. "Miss Tuon, I implore you. Let me do this. Again, if push comes to shove you can leave me behind and scramble down if anything-- Or we can even tie the rope first, and you can go on ahead while I'm sending the message." He gazed at her firmly. "Please."

She pushed her lips together, clearly discontent. She glanced around. "What does everyone else think?"

"I-I think we should save everyone we can," Ophelia said, reiterating her opinion.

Ran was frowning. "I dunno," she said, after a moment. "I want to say we should save everyone, but every time I think I have a grip on what the hell is going on, something else fucks with the picture. Nothing feels even half-way certain. So to be honest, a big part of me just wants to cut and run."

"But?" Linos added hopefully.

"There's not much of a but," she clarified. "...but I guess I would feel pretty shitty leaving everyone else to die. Or, well, not even giving them a chance."

"Fang?" Kam inquired.

"Personally? I'm okay with it," they said. "I mean, even if we shoot for the exit, it's not like we're 100% in the clear. We're making a lot of assumptions about what the guy behind this will do and how we should bounce off of that, but they're just assumptions. They could have set up a bomb and gone ahead to ambush us later, for all we know." They scratched their head. "Whenever things get too complicated for me, I always try and go back to the basics, y'know? In this case, safety in numbers."

"Even if those numbers might include the very person planning to murder us," Kam replied flatly.

"I mean, if we get everyone in one place again, it's as good as checkmate," Fang said.

Kam sighed, closed her eyes for just a moment, then walked sharply towards the window, grabbing the rope from Fang's hands. "Fine. But I'm starting this right away. You better get on with it, mister Melanthos."

"Of course," Linos said, with a subtle sigh of relief. He began wheeling himself over to the logic bridge. To where I was sitting.

At this point, the other shoe dropped sharply.

If he attunes to it, he'll see what I'm doing. He'll see the recording. Right as we're about to talk about--

"Uh, w-wait," I said, holding up a hand.

Linos stopped, frowning in confusion. "What is it, Utsushikome?"

"I'm just--" I gulped, knowing I needed to say something to stop him, but not knowing what, and ultimately arriving at perhaps the worst possible choice. "Sorry, I'm just... I'm using the logic bridge for something. Can you give me a minute?"

"I tried everything..." I told Samium. "I went through assimilation therapy for almost four years, tried all the different official procedures--"

"Why? I thought you..." His face contorted, a pained grunt coming from the back of his throat. "And for four years? It's useless after three. Gods--" he coughed violently, his chest heaving up and down. "--after two, in most cases. And it's not even intended for..."

"I know, I know!" I gritted my teeth. "I could only make it work on a handful of her early memories, and it's still... I..." I shook my head. "But you're an Egomancer. One of the last real experts in the world. You can do things that Pneumenologists aren't even allowed to talk about, that everyone says are impossible. You did with me once already." I turned towards him, a note of desperation seeping into my tone. "I don't know how it even all works... I looked through old books and papers for years, but only found rudimentary stuff... But there must be something. Some way to, I don't know--"

Kam looked up from her work on the rope to regard me with an all but incredulous expression, like she couldn't quite believe what she was hearing. "Su, you realize that's incredibly suspicious?"

"I--- Um."

She's right, my self-awareness told me, belatedly. It is. You didn't even tell them you were using it. What reason would someone have for that in a situation like this, if they weren't working with the culprit, trying to warn them of their plans? Under a rational framework, I mean.

My mouth suddenly felt incredibly dry. My eyes darted around the room.

"I can explain," I said, not actually having any idea where I was going with this.

"Can you?" Kam asked skeptically.

"Su, we don't have time," Ran, the only one actually aware of the context, said firmly. "We're getting close to the deadline, and the gas--"

Linos was clearly intent on taking the most direct approach to resolving the situation, and at this moment in the conversation decided to raise his arm, reaching out for the logic bridge. It made sense - from his perspective, it was probably hard to imagine any non-suspicious reason for doing this that wouldn't be better resolved by him just seeing for himself. Linos had known me since I was a child. Even if I was doing something embarrassing, he'd probably think something to himself like 'oh, I'll just laugh it off afterwards'. And if it was something more serious, well... In a situation like this, it was a perfectly reasonable thing to do, is my point.

But you have to understand. I'd never spoken about this in full with anyone - not even Ran. And I'd only talked about it at all with maybe a dozen people; the staff at the acclimation clinic, Autonoe over mail, and... No, that was literally it. Now that I was thinking about it, I'd never willingly talked about it with someone I knew personally at all.

But in the conversation with Samium, it seemed as though I was about to say everything. The idea of someone who thought they knew me, who'd met me when I was just a child, knowing the truth--

I didn't understand at the time why it struck me so hard. Perhaps I ought to have realized something from the fact that stopping him felt more important than getting the answers I was seeking. But it only really came to me later, after everything was over.

My eyes going wider than a dinner place, I thrust my arm out, stopping Linos arm in its tracks. His eyes widened in shock. Frantically, my mind raced to interface with the logic bridge, and cut the transmission.

"U-Utsu...?" he said, shocked.

"I-I'm sorry!" I blurted out. "You can use it now! It was just something private!"

Kam looked shocked herself - she obviously hadn't been suspecting me before this point - but that shock quickly turned mixed with suspicion. "Su, were you leaking our plans to the culprit?"

"N-No!" I said, holding up a hand. "It didn't have anything to do with all this, I swear!"

"What else could you possibly be using a logic bridge for at a time like this?!" she demanded angrily. "Without even saying anything in advance!"

Linos just looked taken aback at first, but slowly, his expression began to harden as well. Ophelia just looked confused and, strangely, so did Fang.

Ran took a sharp breath, running a hand over her eyes. "She's telling the truth."

Kam looked to her sharply. "Ran, this is not the time to come blindly to her defense."

"But she is," Ran said tiredly.

"What are you even basing that on?" Kam demanded.

Fang sucked their lip in thoughtfully, then interjected. "We can sort this out pretty easily, I think."

They're going to suggest checking the logs. It was the obvious thing to do. Then they'd find the conversation with Samium and I, probably skim through the whole thing to clear it up-- Damn it. Damn it. Why didn't I just cut the thing as soon as they started going for it? As things are, I still don't know the answer, and now...

You shouldn't have cut it at all! A competing part of my mind screamed. If you don't learn this now, you might never!

Could I delete it through the system? No, even putting aside the suspicion that would cast on me, I probably wouldn't have the access. My eyes went to the echo maze. Maybe I could kick at it, break the--

Suddenly, there was a loud cry from out in the hall.

"HELP!!" it shouted. I recognized the voice instantly.

"Theo?!" Linos said, his face paling, his focus on me gone at once.

And then came another sound.

It wasn't like the one we heard earlier - the bovine-like groan - or anything even remotely similar. Instead, it sounded akin to waves crashing against a shore, a broken old-fashioned phonograph, and the chirping of a cricket.

And it was thunderous. And close.

𒊹

Seth

30 minutes earlier

Okay. So. Uh.

When that thing showed up, I was closest towards the back. I won't lie, I'm not exactly the greatest at thinking on my feet when it comes to a crisis situation - I'm the kinda guy who'd probably start thrashing around like an idiot if I ever got stuck in quicksand, you know? - so I didn't even bother reaching for my scepter or doing anything complicated. I just reached for my pistol and started firing like crazy. (I already had the pistol in my hands because of nerves, which was a small blessing; if it hadn't been there, I might've just tried to punch it.)

Not that it mattered; as far as I could tell, it didn't do shit. I think some of the others tried some incantations, but it was so dark and there was so much shouting it was hard to tell. Really, that whole 30 seconds underground between when it showed up and when we made it to the stairs felt like it was from a nightmare. I couldn't tell you anything that happened for sure. Maybe I hadn't even grabbed a gun, and was jamming my finger into the ball of a fucking pen.

Well, I guess I can say one thing happened for sure, which is that I ran like absolute hell. I didn't even know I could run that fast. It was like I'd forgotten the whole rest of the world existed, and there was nothing in reality but me and the thing behind me. It makes me feel like an asshole to say it, but Ema could have been getting her face chewed off two feet away from me and I'm not sure I would've even noticed.

I dropped my lamp at some point, but somehow made it to the stairs first. I think Fang was behind me, but I couldn't say for sure. Of course, when we got to the top, it was still pitch-black, and I could still hear that thing right behind us, sliding up the stairs like some kind of snake. So while I was standing there, gaping into the blackness like an idiot, the others shoved me out of the way and started running in every direction.

I followed the closest person who still had a source of light I could see, which turned out to be Ezekiel. He took off towards the exit first, but that thing­ ­- or at least I think it the thing, unless there were somehow two monsters - jumped out of nowhere and cut us off. People always talk about getting so scared you piss yourself, but I'd always thought of that as kinda a trope. Not anymore. It didn't happen to me, but like every muscle in my body was going weak at once.

Zeke took it worse than me, and actually fell on his ass. I grabbed the lantern and shouted something like, 'c'mon, we gotta go,' threw him to his feet, and ran straight down the middle of the conference room, headed towards the main hall.

That was the last time I saw that beast up close, or whatever the hell it was. It wasn't until I'd thrown open both sets of doors and made it to the orrery opposite the security center that I even looked back. Ezekiel had followed, and Theo too. I kept running, all the way until we made it through another set of doors on the far side.

I dunno why it was different from the other entrance to the main hall - if I tried to puzzle out everything bizarre about even just this one building, I'd probably lose my mind - but the doors were really heavy and seemed part-metal, for some reason, so I slammed them tight once the others were through. We'd ended up near the kitchen. All three of us were gasping for breath like our lungs were about to give out.

Naturally, Ezekiel - big-mouthed asshole that he is - was the first to speak up.

"What the fuck," he gasped, "was that?"

Ptolema

Okay, so, have you ever seen one of those giant, multi-person costumes at a parade? Where a whole bunch of people will stand in a line and drape a big dragon fixture over themselves, or somethin' like that?

Well, this thing wasn't really like that... But it's the closest thing I can think to compare it to. There were a lot of-- Well, a lotta limbs, and nothing felt like it quite fit together right. Like, I was scared after a second, but my very first thought was, 'hey, is this thing fake'?

Like, not to toot my own horn, but I've got a pretty good eye for seeing how stuff fits together. When I was a kid, I was always really good at jigsaw puzzles, and I guess I'm even better when it comes to stuff that's, you know, alive. It's probably part of why I'm pretty good at surgery; there's a kinda pattern to life that you can sorta tune your brain into, and just know what goes without even really having to think about it... And when something doesn't add up, it's obvious as heck.

I guess you could say it's like learning a language. You pick up all the little rules in isolation one by one until one day, it all just goes poof, and you go from knowing the rules to knowing the rules, you know? And then when you read something written by somebody who hasn't...

...uh, wait, what was I saying again? Oh, right, the monster.

You know how some people will make up fake animals by messing with pictures or logic bridge simulacra? Whenever I see one of those, it's like a little buzzer goes off in my head. 'No way, muscles like that can't support horns like those!' When I saw that thing, that buzzer was blaring. Everything was wrong. Face the neck shouldn't be able to support. Arms without the space for proper skeletal structure. Body shape that didn't match the gait. It looked like something made up by a kid.

It'll sound stupid, but for that reason, I didn't even really get scared, even while the others were totally freaking out. It was like something in the back of my head was saying, 'don't worry, this isn't really that serious'. Crazy, right?

...but that must've just been me being dumb. I mean, it couldn't have been fake. It made heat, and it cut Anna's arm open, and smashed all of the boxes we were ferrying around to pieces.

That was a real pity, by the way. I saw a lot of stuff that looked pretty valuable scatter all over the place - some really dense engraving sheets, some complicated looking machines, even some really old scrolls... There was some gorey stuff, too, I think, but it was kind of hard to tell if it was a human. It at least looked wet and smelled like blood, but so is half of the stuff Ophelia builds, so who knows.

But like, there's no such thing as real monsters like that, you know? At least outside of the Lower Planes. At least, that's what everyone keeps saying... So, it had to be some kind of trick, right? Even if I don't really know exactly how.

Well, I guess it doesn't really matter that much. I tried to blow it apart with a fireball - figured it could be a bad idea to try a direct incantation, since there were some human-looking parts and it might've had resistances - but it swallowed it up without reacting at all, or maybe it went right through its body, like it was a ghost. Either way, everyone seemed to be making a run for it, so I ran too.

I'm not sure where I was in the group... Theo was behind me and Anna and Fang were in front, though. When we got up the stairs, I shouted at Seth, but he seemed like he was totally out of it for some reason. Then the monster came up the stairs after us, which was weird too, because it didn't look like it had the kinda ligaments for that kinda thing.

Well, whatever. I followed Fang, and we kinda hid behind a pillar for a second while everything was chaotic. After that, it's hard to really tell exactly what happened... I saw at least Ezekiel running down towards the main hall, but we ended up going a different direction. To the right. Fang shouted that we should make a break for the exit opposite the pond - where I was sitting outside with Su and Ran yesterday - but when we made it there, it was blocked off. No matter how much we pushed it and kicked at it, it wouldn't budge.

At that point, there was a cry from the direction we'd came - the weird sound the monster, all clicky and hissy - and I saw Anna coming after us from down the hall, running like heck.

"The stairs!" she shouted. "Get to the stairs!"