The Flower That Bloomed Nowhere

Inner Sanctum Underground | 1:59 PM | Third Day

Kam, though, was not convinced, scoffing lightly. "Anything can be abstracted into oblivion if one is determined, but to do so wantonly is to deny truth itself." She crossed her arms. "At the most critical moment, whatever resides in Lilith's head now denied that identity absolutely, and she likely will again." She glanced to the side. "We should keep a firm eye on the two of them."

Ran glared at her for a few moments, apparently having lost patience with continuing the conversation.

"Um," I said, taking advantage of the terminus of the exchange to speak to Linos. "I wanted to ask, sir... Where is Zeno, exactly? We heard you heard from him."

"Ah, right," Linos said, sounding a little relived we'd got off the tangent himself. "Zeno... Is present, despite how things might look. He's connected to the logic bridge here right now, but is in a bit of a physically limited state right now, so I believe he's decided to rest." He glanced to the side hesitantly. "You might want to attune to it anyway, though-- You'll need to in a minute."

I tapped my hand against the metal as Kam spoke, her tone coy. "Dear me, the professor is with us? But this is such a small room, and I don't seem him anywhere." She made a exaggerated show of looking around the room, flattening her hand and raising it to her brow as she peered about from her chair. "Wherever could he possibly be?"

"I, uh, believe Zeno expressed a desire to keep that information limited," Linos said.

"But ought we not to know where everyone is?" Kamrusepa asked rhetorically, obviously enjoying the moment. "Were we not discussing the need to keep abreast of everyone's movements?"

"Suffice it to say, Zeno is not in a position to cause anyone harm," Linos said. "I think it would be better to leave it at that. Theo and Ptolema were both... Witnesses to the moment, so I'm sure they'd be willing to offer assurances."

As mediocre a liar was Linos was, Theo was even worse. I'd seen him glance towards the pile of boxes multiple times just during the last 30 or so seconds.

"My, my," Kam said. "Wherever could he possibly be, since he made such a point of assuring us he hadn't stored his true body in any of his luggage. Under the floorboards, perhaps? In one of the storage closets?" She idly reached over to one of the boxes and tapped it with her scepter.

"Maybe cool it a little, Kam," I said.

She chuckled, looking back to Linos. "In seriousness, can he cast? If the situation takes a turn for the worst, will he be of any use?"

Linos sighed. "As it's been adjusted, his body is supposedly designed to illicit sensory deprivation. It's capable of a few things, but... It's an exertion." He gestured outwardly. "And of course, with the Power suppressed up here, there's effectively nothing he can do."

"I see," she said. "Being down to just yourself and her ladyship is hardly ideal. It really is a terrible pity what happened to Grandmaster Durvasa."

"Well, that's part of why I wanted you up here, actually," Linos explained.

"Why did you want us to attune to the logic bridge, exactly?" I asked.

"That's another part of it," he went on. "While you were gone, Theo, miss Hoa-Trinh and I were making some plans about how we might ensure our safety as we make for the exit of the sanctuary, as well as ensure that we aren't leaving anyone behind in the process. I'm sure you heard a bit about it already."

"You mean, using the golem to see what happened to Samium?" I asked, indicating the object still in Ran's arms.

He nodded. "That's right." He brought up a map of the sanctuary on the display of the logic bridge. "Though really, we're hoping to check three things in depth. Firstly, to establish the safest route to one of the exits with what we presently have at our disposal. Secondly, to verify if either Durvasa or our guest is still alive - I know it can only be one or the other and that the former is extremely long shot, but we never confirmed it absolutely. Anna apparently checked a sample of the remains we discovered earlier, and it was his, but... Well, it's not completely out of the question it was falsified somehow." He sighed a little, as if aware of the desperation in this idea. "Finally, to confirm absolutely that there is no other culprit present outside our group. If the sensor isn't picking up Zeno's current body, then we can't rule out that possibility."

"I thought the smaller golems ran on the Power like everything connected to the sanctuary core, though?" I said. "How would we use it above ground?"

"Ahah." He raised a finger. "To that point, we talked about it a little, and arrived at what seems like a viable, if somewhat unorthodox solution." He nodded to his son. "Theo?"

"Ah, er. Yes." He nodded in turn. "So, I was looking at another of the damaged golems in storage here - one that I believe Zeno discarded as unsuitable - and though the power supply is a little too complicated to replace with anything based on torsion or Biomancy, I think we might be able to replace the arcane lenses with one of the more sophisticated ones here in the security. I know a bit about repairing machinery, and, er, Ran told me she has some experience fixing cameras, so I don't think it'll be too complicated."

"I'm not sure how that fixes the issue at hand," Kam said, skeptically.

"One of the arcane lenses tucked away here is one which picks up light at a larger frequency than the normal ones we have spread about the sanctuary, so it should be able to pick up some amount of detail through the walls," Linos explained. "Between that, and a greater ability to focus the lens, we should be able to determine a great deal by just navigating the golem to the research tower first, then the walls of the abbey bioenclosure, and viewing the building through the windows." He smiled slightly. "We were a little indulgent with their size, which will pay off in this case."

"I didn't know you could repair cameras too, Ran," I said looking towards her.

Kam raised her hand to her mouth with a mischievous smile. "My, something about each other you don't know. And here I thought there was no limit to your closeness."

"I know a little bit," Ran answered me, ignoring Kam's goading. "At least, enough to adjust the glass for something like this so it won't go out of focus."

Arcane lenses were a hybrid system that used a mix of mundane camera technology - using a series of lenses to focus light onto a small point - and Divination arcana, allowing them to operate with extremely low eris requirements, since only a very small amount of information was technically being conveyed. You also had entirely arcane cameras that were literally just Divination artifices that recorded light, but these were traditionally 'arcane eyes', and were much more niche because of the eris expense. The only time they were really useful was when recording environments that would break ordinary glass on account of heat, cold or sheer pressure.

Kam transitioned from covering her mouth to holding a finger underneath her lip. "It's not a bad idea. Why do we need to be present, though?"

"Well, you don't need to be," he said. "I just want as many people here viewing the effort as possible to ensure confidence in the results, and for everyone to know what we're doing. And, um." He hesitated. "Another thing I thought to check was... Neferuaten's body, since only Su has seen it at present. I wanted her observing to check if anything seems to be amiss when we take a look."

I frowned. "What do you think would be amiss?"

"Nothing, just-- Well." He cleared his throat. "You never know. Don't want anything to leave anything to chance."

Strange.

"In any case," he said, glancing around. "I also wanted to compare the output of the golem to what the security center is showing us, which is why I wanted you to attune yourselves and keep an eye out. I know that this place has a separate system, and it wouldn't really be viable to falsify in a way we wouldn't have noticed back in the core, but..." He hesitated. "Well-- Again, another precaution."

"I see," Kam said, nodding. She looked to Ran and Theo. "How long do you expect all of this to set up?"

"I, er, should be able to get it affixed about ten minutes?" Theo offered.

"Focusing a lens isn't hard," Ran said. "It'll probably only take me five or so."

Kam nodded a few times. "I'm going to round that up to twenty. More than enough to see about explaining it to the others." She looked to Linos. "I'm told you also want to confiscate our pistols and rifles."

He nodded, picking up on her skepticism. "I thought it might be a good idea. The way I see it, the greatest danger an accomplice could still pose to us right now would be a-- Well, to put it bluntly, a suicide attack." He made a serious expression. "It takes time to cast the Power, and Anna would detect it on the lower floor. But it only takes a second to fire a refractor pistol. If I were them, I'd come up here, wait until everyone was preoccupied for a moment, and then just start shooting."

Kam considered this for a moment, and eventually nodded. "...you make a good case," she said. "Very well. But I want to make sure we search everyone properly, to ensure we're certain all the weapons have been collected. The worst case scenario would be one where we're all caught unarmed, while our enemy is still able to retaliate."

"We should probably lock the cabinets with rifles in here, too," Ran said. "I wouldn't do much good otherwise."

Linos nodded. "Good thought."

And so, things were set in motion. While Theo and Ran set to work adjusting the golem, Kam conscripted me into helping her with the task of confiscating everyone's weapons - apparently the only person she trusted to oversee such a venture was herself, though not to the point that she didn't suggest that the group at large would be 'foolish' not to have someone oversee her in turn on the off chance that she was the traitor. The process went more or less cleanly; Ezekiel was the only person to put up a fuss, and even then, it wasn't too severe by his standards.

I felt like I wasn't a very good witness, but it turned out not to matter. We had the exact figure of how many weapons were present from earlier, and Kam made sure we reached that value between our stockpile and the ones locked away in lockers. She ultimately stored the ones we'd brought with us in an overturned box in the center of the lower floor - not too hard to access in a pinch, but enough that you wouldn't be able to without being noticed well in advance. It seemed sensible, at least as far as I could reckon it.

All that was left to do after that was wait for the main event. I spent a couple more minutes taking a further look at the inscrutable book I'd just found, before giving up and returning to the other, if less inscrutable text I'd found earlier in the evening; the apparent Epic of Gilgamesh fanwork.

It honestly felt hard to believe I'd only been reading this out in the main hall a little over two hours ago. It felt like an entire day had passed.

Soon enough, it was time to begin. Ran sat in the underground where the Power was usable, while myself, Kam, Fang, Ptolema, Theo and Seth - who really should have still been in bed - had our hands joined in various manners to share in the incantation. Most of us were sitting on the stairs in an awkward assembly so that Linos could also be included, since someone needed to keep watch on the upper floor, and it would have been difficult to get him down the stairs without the Power.

Actually thinking about it, it was a little startling how little wheelchair accessibility the sanctuary had, considering he was one of the most important members of the Order. I guess they'd assumed it would never be an issue since he was an arcanist.

"Alright," Ran said. "Everyone see it?"

I did indeed see it, the image broadcast into my mind via her Sensory-Transmitting Arcana, a general purpose Divination technique generally used for interfacing with technology. At the moment, it was merely another image of the security center basement, situated a few feet away from Ptolema's sandals. They had a designer Scant on them. Probably a gift from her family.

"Looks good to me!" Fang stated cheerfully. Ptolema nodded along.

"Alright up here," Linos spoke from overhead.

"Pretty as a picture," Seth replied, sounding worn out.

Ran looked at him. "You really should be in bed."

"I'm fine," he said dismissively. "I'm just tired, and I want to do everything I can to make sure we all get out of this okay. It's not gonna matter how much I wear myself out in the next few hours before this is all over." He made a grim expression. "One way or the other."

Kam clicked her tongue.

"If you insist," Ran said. She glanced around. "Everyone else is sure they're opting out?"

"Yes," Anna simply stated.

"I'm not going to sit on a grubby floor holding someone's hand to see something seven people are already seeing," Ezekiel said.

Mehit and Lilith were still together on the first floor, while Ophelia was still lying down. What had taken place earlier might've really shaken her.

"Alright," Ran said. "Let's get started, then."

Slowly, she guided the golem down the hallway into the underground, first back towards the administrative core, then down the path we'd taken back towards the research tower. It passed by the strange bloodstains that had seemed to be all that remained of Durvasa from earlier. Soon, the entrance was in sight down the distant hallway.

While this was going on, I idly flipped through the pages of the book, trying to find something interesting. But it was just more of the same. A short story where Gilgamesh is indebted to a dining house and forced to serve food. A prolonged saga that seemed to be an adaption or play on Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta, where Gilgamesh tries to build a giant tower to impress the gods, only to end up pissing them off, mostly played as comedy. A very boring chapter where Enkidu had two women lusting after him - a seamstress and an innkeeper that he tries desperately to repel the advances of.

Why would anyone in their right mind write this?

The most interesting part of the book, I discovered as I eventually gave up and began skipping through tens of pages at a time, was what was absent from it, namely the most famous parts of the myth: The opening, where the gods send down Enkidu and he initially battles and befriends Gilgamesh, and its conclusion, where he dies and goes on the quest that I had become so intimately familiar with.

Which made sense, after a fashion. After all, you couldn't have a circular narrative if it had character's die or be introduced. It could only function as a closed loop. Nothing ever entering, nothing ever leaving.

...though, I suppose it fit, because that was what the world would be like if people really were immortal. Just endless, peaceful days, continuing until they eventually began to repeat...

That's cynical, part of me thought. Don't you think people would try to build on themselves, even with all the time in the world? To reach for a shining future, even so?

I blinked, wondering where this had come from. It was like Kamrusepa had invaded my brain for a moment.

"I realize it's a little foolish of me to be realizing this so late," Linos said, "but perhaps we could use this as a opportunity to try and contact Balthazar again and inform him of our plans. At this rate, we're going to end up leaving without him."

"That's a good thought," Kamrusepa stated. "Even setting that aside, I don't like him being about as an unknown quantity."

Ran was silent for a moment. "...I'm not sure he'll leave, no matter what we do," she eventually said. "He seemed to be in a pretty fucking weird state of mind when we spoke with him. But I guess it's worth a shot."

Saying he was in a 'weird state of mind' seemed like an understatement. If he really did believe time had been going in circles, then there'd probably be nothing in heaven or earth we could do to remove him from that room. Even putting aside the fact he probably believed himself more knowledgeable on how best to survive the situation than the rest of us, if I was trapped in weekend where everyone ended up getting murdered, I'd probably just end up lying flat on my back and staring at the ceiling after a few go-arounds. Knowing things wouldn't matter...

...huh.

I blinked, drawing an association between the structure of the book - and by extension the mural - for the first time.

If one thought about it, the idea did represent immortality in perhaps its truest sense. Under normal circumstances - in linear time - it was inevitable one would eventually cease to exist. On a macro-level, this was true even for the planes themselves. Though not all of them experienced entropy (or, indeed, time) in the same sense as we did, though were all angled towards instability and would eventually collapse in one regard or another. People died, stars died, universes died. That was the way of reality.

The only exception to that was in circumstances that transcended that eleventh dimension outright. The Timeless Realm existed and always would exist in one infinite moment, spewing out finite worlds with differing planar makeup as a consequence of its own, neverending instability.

Perpetual change that wrapped in upon itself, until it wasn't change at all. Was that what the Order had meant to convey with the imagery? Is that what they'd hoped to accomplish, in taming entropy...?

I rubbed my eyes. Why are you even bothering thinking about this?

The better question was if there was any basis in the 'loop' being real, even if he'd told us this was the last and it didn't even matter. Now that Fang had got so interested, it felt like a slightly less fantastical possibility, even though it was obviously insane and defied everything I knew about physics.

The golem proceeded further, entering into the sublevel of the tower. A golem seemed to be here, but took no notice of us, likely scripted to think of the other sanctuary golems as friendly whether they were strictly connected to the main system or not.

But them I spotted it again on the right. The massive, circular door which looked like it had been ripped open.

"Um," I said, looking up to Linos. "I've been meaning to ask, sir... Where does that metal doorway lead, exactly?"

"Oh," he said, frowning. "It doesn't really lead anywhere nowadays. It used to lead to a smaller research area - prior to the construction of the tower in its modern form - and to a physical exit from the sanctuary. There was a tunnel, a small subnautical craft..." His mind seemed to wander for a moment, but then he blinked, collecting himself. "But the former was demolished and sealed off decades ago, while the latter wasn't compliant with our new security standard, so the ship was dismantled."

"So it just goes to, what, the open ocean?" Seth asked.

"Well, right now it goes to nothing," Linos corrected him. "Since we're in the lockdown state."

Because we're not in conventional space. For once, something Linos was telling us seemed consistent.

However, there was obviously a more pressing question that really should have come up far sooner.

"Why has it been damaged?" Kam asked. "Is that recent?"

Right, I realized. I'm the only one who actually saw it intact.

"I saw it just yesterday, when I went to meet Zeno," I said, stirring the pot. "It didn't seem to be damaged then."

I could tell by Linos's expression that he didn't appreciate me adding this complication, regardless of whether he'd intended to be honest or not. "Yes, it's a bit peculiar, I'm afraid." He sighed. "According to Anna, she and the others discovered the damage when they arrived at the research tower earlier in the night."

"Incorrect," she stated, from across the room. "Durvasa was the only one of our number to arrive via the underground route. I had only heard of it from him until I saw it with my own eyes."

Linos looked strangely exasperated at this, but nodded. "As you say."

"W-Wait, uh, hold on," Ptolema said. "With the blood trail... And the big crack in the floor, and everything... Doesn't that make it really look like something tore through it from the other side? And then dragged Durvasa away?"

Linos bit his tongue. "That's obviously the impression the culprit... Well, Hamilcar, knowing what we do now... Intended to create, but it seemed fruitless to alarm anyone further at the time." He looked between our various faces. "Obviously, there wouldn't be any beasts, 'divine' or not, down there. Just a lot of cement, and a much thicker metal hatch at the terminus."

"I didn't detect any arcana there that could have been used to tear open the door," Ran stated.

"Odd," Linos said, with a wary look. "Is that true, Anna?"

"It is true," she spoke bluntly.

He pressed his lips together. "Then I suppose it would have to have been explosives. If it happened before our arrival, then the sound wouldn't have reached us... But then, wouldn't the system...? No-- It was never integrated into the new scripting." He sighed. "It is a peculiar, especially the fact that it was already apparently damaged before the scenario even begun. Perhaps Hamilcar had intended to kill everyone in the research tower one by one, prior to our arrival and the unification of our group."

Somehow, that didn't feel quite right.

"Can we take a look in there?" I asked.

"I don't see why not," Ran said, before Linos could tell her not to.

She piloted the golem towards the torn metal. As Linos had said, it led to a stone slope, winding downwards...

But not far in, it looked as though the ceiling had collapsed. The path was blocked by fallen stone, immovable.

"The door must not have been the only thing which was damaged," Linos said, his brow furrowed. "I suppose it's just as well..."

I frowned, not satisfied with this resolution.

Ran continued to navigate the golem along its route. The elevator in the research tower wouldn't descend without a human present, so she was forced to have it climb the glass on the exterior wall, which felt like it took a excruciatingly long amount of time, though it was probably only five or so minutes. Eventually, it made it to the floor on which Balthazar had been left behind.

I noticed Fang's attention had perked up significantly.

Ran adjusted to the lens to a different frequency, and indeed, some visibility could be achieved through the walls - though it was limited, really only offering blurry outlines. Nevertheless, Balthazar's silhouette was visible. He was still sitting in the same spot as earlier, intermittently gazing out the window and reading a magazine, his legs crossed.

The nature of the lens meant that I could see, so to speak, a little more of him than I might've liked. I tried not to focus on the image, while Ptolema let go of Seth's hand for a moment, making a 'wooh' sound under her breath.

"There he is," Ran said. She looked to Linos. "What should I do? It's not like we can knock."

He considered this for a moment. "Try... Butting it into the door a few times, perhaps?"

Ran shrugged, and did as he commanded, pushing the chasis of the thing into the frame repeatedly, producing a series of light thuds.

Balthazar didn't seem to react at all. His hand moved to flip over a page.

"It doesn't seem like he's noticing," Ran said.

Linos made an unhappy hum. "Or he's ignoring it. I suppose I expected a response like this." He rubbed his brow. "Just what's going through his head?"

"I don't get it," Seth said. "Why won't he leave? He seemed like a normal enough guy when we talked."

"Perhaps, having no camaraderie with either our class or the Order at large, he sees the situation as something of an every-man-for-himself scenario," Kamrusepa speculated incorrectly. "It's not entirely insensible. A tapping at ones door in a situation such as this could just as easily be forewarning of a culprit attack."

"I don't think that's it," Ran muttered. Only the two of us - and Fang - truly had context on his insane reasoning, and it probably wasn't worth trying to convey it to everyone else.

We moved on. The golem proceeded back towards the glass. There was no need to climb any higher - our viewpoint was already equal to the highest floor of he headquarters, which loomed in the distance alongside the Everblossom, shrouded in darkness.

Fortunately, it wasn't as shrouded in darkness to the lens as it would have been to human eyes. I could still clearly make out the shape of the headquarters and, more importantly, the windows.

"Alright," Linos said. "Let's see what can be made out."

"I think we'll be able to get a better view of the bell tower when we're on the other side," Ran suggested. "For now, we should focus on looking for Samium, and just getting an overall good view of the northern half of the building." She looked to Linos. "Any idea where he might be?"

My stomach tightened a bit.

He thought about this for a moment. "Our private room for him was on the second floor, at the north of the building-- Closest to us," he explained. "Try around there."

And so she did. We peered into a couple of private bedrooms, into the kitchen, into what looked like a luxury bathroom. Ran asked Linos where the room was specifically, but his directions were a little vague--

But before he could finish speaking, Ptolema, of all people, spoke up.

"Hey, um," she said. "I think I see something down below. Outside..."

Ran focused on that area, and sure enough, she was right.

The lens, in truth, was barely even needed. Lying face down in the bushes that surrounded the northern part of the structure was a partly-obscured human form. It was hard to make out in any detail, but it looked aged, with a visible beard. It was only half-dressed, its chest - and what looked like life support artifices - exposed to the open air, while its lower body wore only a simple, white skirt.

It had obviously fallen from great height. Not just because of the disruption of the foliage around it, but because its neck was clearly facing the wrong direction altogether.