Societal Solipsism - Chapter 9: Finders

Secret Garden

79 Zephyr, 1330 AE

Two asura emerged into the empty grotto. Behind them, a golem carried a large crate of shards glowing with the telltale lavender colour that gave them away as having originated from the Pockmark Crystal. The taller of the two — not that there was much room for variation within the compact asura — led the way deeper into the garden. "Really, I can't believe there was ever any academic discourse surrounding the nature of the Searing Crystals. Kralkatorrik's rise and the subsequent alteration of the landscape should have made it perfectly clear that the phenomena were connected."

"Didn't you debate the merits of not simply jumping to that conclusion right up until it was proven?" The shorter of the two sounded tired, only just shy of being resigned enough not to ask.

"Yes, well," the first blustered, "that was merely an academic exercise. Really, we all knew where science would lead, any conversation to the contrary was merely a formality. My hand was forced by the opposition who weren't yet on board. It was a form of subversion."

Thanks to the size of asuran eyes, Hisoka and Liberius could see the shorter asura roll hers dramatically even from their stealthed position amidst some of the more distant ruins. On the flat ground, the trio moved faster than in the uneven cave, aiming straight for the opposite side of the grotto. Liberius moved forwards from the hiding spot, shimmering in the air due to his imperfect stealth. Hisoka made to grab Liberius' paw, but only succeeded in slapping the charr's obfuscated side. He hissed, and Liberius shook his head blurrily before moving quietly again.

Liberius was careful to avoid moist ground, to keep from leaving pawprints in the soft dirt. Still, the sound of his paws seemed magnified to Hisoka, who sat back with gritted teeth. He couldn't make out the conversation the asura were having, but Liberius' acute ears were more than capable.

"Pretty soon we'll have to obtain a better cover story. If Ruulit really wants the whole thing, then just saying that we're researchers won't be enough. Surely the Priory will make a fuss, complaining about academic availability. Not to mention the attention that would draw to our 'little project'." It was the taller speaking again. He reached back, took a data crystal from the golem, and tapped it to the stone arch.

It was a testament to the regularity of their trips that neither asura missed a beat as the garden beyond the archway disappeared. More accurately, it was replaced with a view of a short ramp followed by a geometric platform surrounding a beam of light that stretched upwards until Liberius' view of it was cut off by the upper bounds of the Ascalonian arch. The shorter asura nodded along as she ushered the golem through the portal. "He's not particularly prone to hyperbole, I think he fully intends on taking it all. Might stage some sort of explosion at the site and have us make off with the shards. If I were him, I'd look at the one over in Ashford and do the same, frame it as some last lingering effect of the Searing. Charr defeating charr, blah blah blah."

Hisoka felt Liberius grab his hand and pull him forwards. When he resisted, the charr tugged again. "Come on! They're out of earshot, and we don't know how long that portal's going to stay open!" Hisoka relented enough to place the archway and the umbral blue facility within his view. He took a deep breath; he had come this far, and he would follow Liberius until this trail ended. They had to be near the end of the road now, Liberius' overzealous searching couldn't go much further than this. Whatever was in the facility, this mission would end. Having convinced himself, Hisoka followed Liberius' tug as the charr ran for the portal.

The shift in air was palpable. The air outside was lush and verdant, strangely untainted by the nearby Dragonbrand. It felt familiar one moment and strange the next, constantly darting between being alien and known. Meanwhile, the air on the other side of the portal was heavily filtered and artificial. It somehow felt thicker and seemed clearer than air, as if it were someone's idea of what the perfect air would be: lung-filling, rich, and mind-enhancing.

Liberius shook his head. The two asura they had followed were navigating the central platform and making for one of the many ramps leading down from it. Liberius crouched against one of the short walls edging the platform and pulled Hisoka down beside him. Poorly-disguised as they were, the glowing blue lights seemed to slow and waver as they passed through their stealthed bodies, but anyone not paying close attention would be able to dismiss them as simply some trick of the light. When the sounds of conversation had faded, Liberius whispered, "Excited?"

Hisoka reminded himself that whatever they had been searching for was in this facility and was likely far less interesting than Liberius was expecting it to be. "Yes."

Ramps interrupted the low wall in each cardinal direction: three down, one up. Liberius picked one of the two they hadn't seen anyone use seemingly at random. Hisoka had enough experience following him that he was able to imagine the loping gait of the charr's movements, surprisingly fast despite how low to the ground he remained. He was thankful for the slight shimmer in the air ahead of him, as it allowed him to keep track of his silent partner. They descended lower and lower into the central shaft, presumably tunnelling deep within the earth beneath the garden. Walkways connected to the outer walls and to levels of the other ramps, creating a complicated nexus of connections throughout the facility. Hisoka wasn't sure what Liberius was listening for, just that the charr would occasionally slow down outside of a doorway and tilt his head to the side for several seconds before continuing onward.

Eventually it became clear that even Liberius wasn't entirely sure what clue he was waiting for. He began skipping rooms entirely, just aiming for the bottom of the shaft. Several times, the duo had to backtrack onto another walkway in order to avoid groups of Inquest wandering up from the lower levels. Just as Hisoka was bracing himself for whatever security measures inevitably waited on the bottom floor, Liberius ducked towards an innocuous-looking doorway on the penultimate level. When they were both somewhat-safely inside, and far enough from the doorway that their conversation wouldn't echo out into the shaft, Liberius explained. "This place seems to be patterned off of the Crucible of Eternity, that base the Order of Whispers assaulted a few years ago. It's almost an exact replica, like a backup facility or something. I guess they learned their lesson after Thaumanova."

Hisoka nodded nervously, urging Liberius to get to the point. "Anyway, the Crucible kept their records on the second-last floor. Many Inquest bases put them right at the bottom, but the Crucible was a little different. Its bottom floor was Kudu's personal research chamber, so records went one floor above." Liberius pointed inwards towards the room. It was dark like much of the facility, and fairly small. A large data terminal dominated the space, no readouts displayed above its console. There was a nearly-complete silence, free from the whirring and ambient hums of the other floors. Hisoka got the impression that it wasn't accessed very often.

"All we need to do is..." Liberius made to step towards the console, but Hisoka grabbed his arm.

"Won't it just need an access code? We'll be right back where we started."

Liberius shook his head. "Maybe, maybe not. Those asura got in earlier by touching a crystal to the arch." The charr reached into his backpack and pulled out the crystal he had swiped from one of the golems back on Dawnside Quay. "Same group of Inquest, so I'm willing to bet that this'll work." Liberius dispelled the stealth hanging over the two of them so they could see one another in the dim space, and Hisoka could see just how pleased he appeared to be with himself.

Hisoka didn't want to shatter the charr's good mood, but the centre of an Inquest base was hardly the time for sparing someone's feelings. "Wasn't that just shipping information, though? What makes you think it's going to let you in?"

Liberius shrugged. "It's our only lead. Worst case scenario, it gives us nothing right? But since it was linked to this group, it might at least let us into the console. They seem to work like keycards." With a flourish of his wrist, he tapped the crystal to the console and it came to life. Complicated geometric designs formed on the screen and created structures, before disappearing into the background of the readouts. The top of the screen read Security Level: 1. "Perfect..." Liberius whispered to himself as he opened the internal scanner. His claws tapped the lettered readout with precision, excitedly entering the words he had been following: 'draconeural interfacing'.

A document filled the screen, and Liberius swept Hisoka up in a hug that was all-but bone-crushing. Hisoka hugged back reservedly, still aware of the facility of Inquest above and around them. "It's all here!" Liberius hissed excitedly as he put Hisoka down, and set to absorbing the document in its entirety.

The Elder Dragons have consistently displayed an aptitude for non-verbal communication with their minions. According to verifiable rumours the behaviour varies between the individual controlling entity, with Mordremoth being the most overt due to its command of the Mind spectrum.

These forms of interpersonal communication could prove invaluable for controlling individuals (constructed and organic) at a distance and in large groups. Such coordination is sub-optimally performed via speech, and so an alternative would be greatly beneficial to nearly any endeavour.

Liberius scrolled down the page until he found something more immediately relevant.

Advances have been made, and limited networking has been made possible, though test subjects have quickly become influenced by the dragon whose energies were harnessed. Such test subjects have proven to be little different than standard minions, and as such are of little use to the project. However, magics unaffiliated with any particular dragon have produced different results. In one case, subject was able to influence the shape of a magical wavelength before the connection broke. Subject was outfitted with a specially-tuned headset and told to 'relax' (heart rate was slowed via sedative without subject's knowledge). Subsequent attempts were met with further successes, until subject was capable of forming tangible magical constructs upon concerted effort.

Reading the passages, Hisoka couldn't help but feel vindicated. The Inquest had managed to use a new piece of research to create magical constructs: that was hardly beyond their current field of expertise. As for corrupting people via exposure to draconic magics, they had been doing that for years. Liberius seemed excited though, glad to have at least found something to sink his teeth into at the end of the rabbit hole. Not content to stop there, Liberius skimmed the rest of the document.

Director Ruulit has led initiatives to better harness this connection, using Kudu's permutations on Snaff's initial research into mechano-neural interfaces. Methods of utilizing the Altar of Glaust, or similar powers, to 'decorrupt' the threads of incoming draconic magic are the next priority for general researchers, while Ruulit leads a smaller group in the Drascir Project.

Liberius touched the last few words, and the readout changed. His brow had furrowed as soon as he read the word 'Drascir'.

Drascir, former Ascalonian capital and home to an ancient academy. The Tombs of Drascir, much like their counterpart in the Crystal Desert, were one of the locations the human sorcerer Lord Odran chose when creating his portals to the Mists. The portal remained sealed within the tombs until at least 1070AE, whereupon records became harder to come by due to tumult within the region. As of 1072, the inter-academy portal to Nolani was still active, implying that the deeper magic sustaining Odran's portals would still have been functioning. Since then, Kralkatorrik's dragonrise and subsequent Branding of the city may have disrupted the portal itself.

When the time to open the portal is right, Director Ruulit will mobilize his contacts within the Homebound and the Flame Legion. In particular, Tribune Livius Reignmaker should be contacted with regards to matters pertaining to the Flame Legion. Superiors will not be held accountable for failure to abide by the procedures designed to prevent worker-incineration.

Liberius' tail straightened and his back curved. His breath came hot and heavy as he struggled to keep himself from losing it in an enemy base. When he spoke, his voice was hard and resolute. "We're going to Drascir."

Liberius moved the readout into the lower section of the screen, transmitting it to his stolen data crystal. He stood up to his full height and marched towards the exit of the room, hastily reapplying his mediocre stealth to the two of them before entering the shaft.

He didn't stop to notice that Hisoka wasn't following him, and only paused when the human cleared his throat. "Liberius," he started, "I think we should stop."

The room's silence returned. Liberius turned around, dismissed the stealth, and studied Hisoka's face. "Why." It was less a question than a statement, sitting in the air heavily.

Hisoka exhaled the breath he had been holding. "We've dug far enough, whatever's at the end of this isn't going to be satisfying. We've trekked across Tyria and back, waded through Orr, and snuck into the depths of an Inquest base. Eventually you just have to...let it go."

"...let it go?" Liberius gritted his teeth. "Just like that, just that easily?" He didn't make a move towards Hisoka, instead opting to dig his claws into the tiles beneath his paws. "You don't even know what that means to me!"

"What...the hopeless lead you've been following means?" Hisoka didn't take kindly to Liberius raising his voice, and he was tired from being dragged across the continent.

"No! Who Livius is to me! Why I have no warband!"

It clicked for Hisoka. It should have struck him as odd that Liberius never mentioned them. "You never said—"

"You never asked! I've tried asking you about your life, but you shut me down every time."

"I brought you to meet my m—"

"Your mother? Yeah, and you lied about what we are. Just because you never got to bury your father doesn't mean you have to bury your head in the sand!"

Liberius was fuming. He had rubbed his paws behind his ears and mussed up his hair, giving him a wild and frenzied appearance. Hisoka wasn't sure what to say; that his father might still be alive, that Liberius had no right to say that, that he didn't understand what that felt like. In the end though, he said nothing.

The blare of alarms would have drowned him out anyway.