Traveling Star, Wandering Chaos

Planning & New Discoveries

"So, that's pretty much what I came up with," I explained, taking out the journal from the shelf and handing it to Althea. She took it and looked it over. While she was doing that, I took it upon myself to add a few more things to my spreadsheet. Yes, I made a spreadsheet: don't question me.
   
During the hours, my sister was pretty much ratting us out to the enemy; I'd practically turned this place upside down looking for clues while organizing everything along the way. "So far, I've gathered that the person who wrote this journal had a major role in the creation of the Golem. The Golem was a machine that was supposedly going to end the war between the Annferd and Glorian Kingdoms. Unfortunately, for want of some suitable power source, they weren't able to get it to function properly. So they held a meeting to decide how to proceed from there, then a guy named Duke Maris convinced the King, your Dad, to summon the heroes, us, to power the Golem," I rattled on, hanging the spreadsheet to the wall. I took a few more sheets of paper from the stack on the table, then used my trusty pencil to scribble down a few more notes. While researching, I discovered a lot more things about this world. For example, why Annferd and Glorian didn't get along too well, and tidbits on how the Golem was created. It's quite impressive what you can do when your life depends on it. "Knowing my father, the person who wrote this is most likely dead; the thing I'm curious about is this gate he speaks of. What is it exactly?"

"It's a portal."

"Portal?"

"Yes, a type of creation that can teleport a thing or person from one place to another. The gate was one of the creations that person built. He left one to help us escape."

"I see, he must've been a great inventor. I wonder how many runes he had to gather to create such a thing," Althea mumbled, placing the journal on the table and fiddling around with the potions. I was about to hang up my new notes when I stopped. Runes? What were those? I turned to Althea in utter confusion, "I'm sorry, gather what?" I asked. Althea placed the potion back where it was and explained, "Runes, they're stones that are used to power technology."

"There's technology here?"

"Well, Annferd is quite old-fashioned and Runes are scarce where we are, so there aren't many devices that are powered by Runes here."

"Oh, okay, I get it, but uh, there's one tidbit that doesn't line up."

"And that is?"

"Well, there's no mention of Runes being used to build the gate or Golem."

"What?" Althea said, clearly confuddled by my words, "How is that possible? How did this person manage to create these inventions and make them work without Runes? It doesn't make sense."

"If I were you, I'd be confused as well, but unlike you, I've done research," I confidently explained.

"Enlighten me then," Althea replied. I grabbed a book from the shelf and opened it. I then explained that the inventor used Graphien, an ancient practice that relied on the power of symbols and of the mind to create something from nothing. However, this practice was soon forgotten in favor of Celestial Arts which, if practiced enough, was able to heal terminal illnesses. "It was quite an interesting read," I commented, closing the book and tossing it to Althea. She caught it and flipped through the pages with an astonished expression. Phuong came over and read with her. I continued to write notes down, hanging them on the wall with the spreadsheet, and repeat, "So you found all this out in just a few hours?"

"Yup."

"And here I thought, you just slept all day."

"You'd be surprised how much I get done in a few hours, unlike someone," I jeered. Phuong frowned, and rolled her eyes in annoyance, "I hate you."