Fortuna Verto

15-Responsible Discoveries

The carefully crafted account of the trials both girls have endured took them almost up to the middle of dusk, with most of the details focusing on the trials on the other side. Axln was certain that this presentation of the most desired details would compel a strongly convincing argument to gain the support the two girls desired.

"Oh my.. so you two are actually the thieves then." "Wait, what?" "I mean, certainly nothing about it sounds like you two expected anything to go wrong, it just did.. a lot. Your story also didn't account for what Lyun was doing around the start of your tale, like you were intentionally getting rid of it, but certainly passing through the veil would be a perfect way to escape the void. You did mention a short stay in a transit terminal.. which is also where rumors have spawned of two individuals having vanished into a puff of void. Certainly, both cases would be related, even the foundry's case had accounted for that." "But we..." "Yes, you never accounted for things to go awry. The foundry are just fools, fools who believe they can covit an artifact of the world that more belongs to the world itself than any of society. That artifact is called the world's seed, the original stone fragment taken from Celese that was responsible for revitalizing our entire world. With such an act, the fragment itself is little more than a husk, having fed itself to the world. However, the energies of the fragment are of the source beyond worlds, it has become not just a fragment of a world but a fragment of the source. This gives it a connection to the veil of worlds, very possibly something you had somehow tapped into." Jhez had pulled out an information instrument and was scouring it for information as he spoke, while Axln found it intriguing how the entire thing reminded her of an off-tech of her holo.. more like an old-fashioned laptop that was founded on new principles. She was still mostly concerned about how much trouble they were going to get into.. but somehow no one seemed to mind being in the presence of thieves like themselves. They weren't really thieves anyway, after all, more like a genius study so far.

"So, what's hiding under the white gloves anyway? Can I see? ... Ah, nice, a touch of the void. It's remarkable how the immediate contact with the void doesn't instantly negate all of your own elements and thus kills you, but I expect that's negotiated with your connection to the veil. It does mean though that if you lost such a connection without restoring your arm first, you would probably perish. You said that the other world's version also drains things, but follows how such a drain would apply to that world. Actually, I can also see some of your inspiration for the arm now too, your other arm already has a point of contact which currently distinguishes between two very different states of existence. But it's marvelous how you managed to redesign the integration of elements to such a purpose, that's a profound ability. Undeniably, this is the sort of thing that creates history, something none of us could afford to simply dismiss. Now, on your side, I know you're just trying to make ends meet and bring your inspirations to life, but it's clear you're lost in how to deal with the circumstances brought upon you. Dealing with all of this measure of two worlds would be a mess, especially when you are both trapped to the same world, let alone the threat presented by the void. It is for these things that I would like to offer our help, and I see everyone agrees. Don't worry, the wardens and the foundry will not catch you here so easily, you have only just arrived after all. It might even be possible to extract the fragment, return it to the vault, and thus bring the foundry out of the problem. There really isn't any rational alternative either, so we'll just find a way to make you feel more comfortable here." Jhez was having the full support of his colleagues here, him being a sort of leader to them being a bit of an impact. His arguments were most of such an impact, absolutely undeniable to them.

"Oh, thank you. I was beginning to wonder what we would be forced to do next, considering we have no way back home right now." "Axln, we could just take another phasecraft back." "No we can't. I already said, the foundry had closed off the borders, the phasecraft we took was the last before the closure. Our driver had been talking about it, you missed such. We no longer have a way back home." Axln sighed as Lyun just stared blankly, the truth of that matter finally hitting home. Fortunately, their new hosts were very accommodating, with the academy providing them hospitality in consideration for both the recommendations of their archive friends as well as the fact that the foundry was not providing room for rational alternatives. The two of them were provided with personal accommodations not far from the archives. Axln was happy that it wasn't cardinally far from their side of the archives, but she wasn't used to the idea of having independent dormitory-style rooms disconnected from the cluster, all scattered underground. The only sign she was part of a cluster was that there was a uniform way underground for her assigned cluster leading to each individual unit. It really was a quite unique experience.