Essentia Animus

48-Restless Conjecture

Liyuzhe stepped through the gate that had been formed for her, finding Fhyernx already present with his own instruments in hand. It was still early in the morning, but there was suddenly so much work to be done.

"Really, this is a rather abrupt start to a morning, I was already busy with the records I'd gathered for myself. Your claims even seem impossible, you sure you didn't confuse everything with one of your stories?" "Actually, I already verified that. It seems she left the security system going the whole time, so we've got plenty of records to work with. According to surveillance, there was no record at all of an intruder, for most of the period there, until this point when her own coat was found draped over someone else, who had then rushed over to the containment unit and had taken it down. Once the whole thing was down, the individual carried the captive out. We lost records along some of the corridors, the halls being poorly lit at first, but we found the room where the coat had been discarded. After that, we've got records of the conflict that had ensued once Ieqyisa confronted Riyxia, right up to her safe departure using one of the windcrafts in the hangar. And yes, it was even the one you had picked for her to take when she left." Liyuzhe was still finding accounts of events difficult to believe, turning to the video records Fhyernx offered as proof of such claims.

"After calling you both, I even discovered something else. It seems there is a book missing from my collection, something that had been taken, either by her or by her hidden companion." "A companion who even video records claim had just vanished. The cameras show the armor having been undisturbed the entire time. Eventually we managed to get stuff cleaned up, with the armor still left there, but there was no one found inside. Cameras even show the armor moving around before then. Honestly, even seeing proof of everything, nothing makes sense." Ieqyisa's concern was starting to become shared by Fhyernx, who simply couldn't figure out what he was looking at even with all the evidence before him, and he was usually good with such in depth instrumentation. Liyuzhe however wouldn't let herself lose her head, Khyzae had taught them better than that. Watching the recordings, she discovered something unusual right away.

"Wait, the moment our unknown visitor takes down the containment cell, they take the coat off. You can see it discarded at this point, but at no point do you even see the person under the coat. You can even see here that there is a book inside the coat, possibly the one in question. After the containment cell is shut down, the person puts back on the coat to pick Riyxia up. Later, we find they discard the coat yet again, leaving it suspect that they were hiding in the armor. However, look at this footage, the large hall that the battle was fought in always had good lighting, but there was never anyone entering after the scene involving the coat. Hells, this is like one of those Terran Mythos Ghost Stories you keep talking about, Ieqyisa. Might there be a gift that lets someone move like that? Wait, if that's even an idea, what stops Riyxia from herself being the ghost? That's like complicated telepathy." "Telepathy while you're fast asleep?" "Hold on, this clip, you can see her injuries after she was attacked. Can we zoom in on this?" "Oh, yeah, sure, give me a sec." "This.. this looks nothing like a person's regular injury, this isn't how people are injured. Did the beast leave something strange like this by its injuries? No, that one wouldn't be capable of it. Where are the results of tests for the period she was in containment?" Liyuzhe took the record from Fhyernx, looking over the data for herself, in all of its zeroes. Ieqyisa had suspected that the results had to be fabricated, which might have even in part been true, but the whole results could even be perfectly accurate.

"Wait, you said a book was missing. When I met with her friends earlier, they had seemed suspiciously well informed. What sort of records did she feel compelled to take for herself in the intensity of all this activity?" "Oh, uh.. Give me a bit, I'll see if I can remember what used to be there. Oh yeah, it was that weird book called 'Astral Flame, the Void of Worlds', if I remember right." "Flame? Your brother was talking about something like that earlier, something about 'the fluctuation of the veil and the threat of the flame'. Wait, Void of Worlds, would the veil have then been the Celesi Veil? Hells, we take the girl in to get more information from her, and in the end she left with exactly the information she would have wanted." "I swear, every moment I keep seeing more and more of Khyzae in her. Her coming because she wanted, doing as she wanted, leaving because she wanted.. it would not surprise me right now." "..and here I thought I got the better end of the deal from her friends." Liyuzhe was starting to feel as manipulated as Ieqyisa was at this point. Ieqyisa did find it interesting that her brother had gotten involved, but with concerns about Khyzae's influence, somehow that was starting to seem unavoidable.