The assistant golem regarded Nym steadily. It wasn’t one he’d ever spoken with before, but Naera was busy setting everything up to his specifications from the other day. At first, he thought that would be a good thing, since this golem wouldn’t know he’d asked all those questions about how the lab’s defensive array of spells worked.
As it turned out, the golem did know. All of them knew, because they all shared information through some sort of central hub in the data archive. Worse, unlike his personal assistant, this one was considerably more suspicious of him. The golems shared knowledge, but had individual personalities. Naera was somewhat naïve and trusting, which was an odd character trait for the personal assistant to someone like Exarch Niramyn, but it had worked in Nym’s favor the last few times he’d entered the lab.
Whoever this golem worked for, they wanted someone who would question absolutely everything anyone did. Nym spent an idle moment wondering if that included the ascendant who’d made the golem, and, if so, how that hadn’t driven them insane. He’d only spent three minutes with the assistant and was already considering how best to turn him into a pile of half-melted slag.
“Look, I don’t see what’s so hard about this. I want to review the lab’s specimen transportation platform and then check on the arcana batteries. Is there some part of this you don’t understand?”
“Why do you want to do this?” the golem asked.
“Does it matter? Do I answer to you?”
“No, sir, but the lab protocols…”
“I don’t care about your protocols. You don’t make the decisions around here. I do. If it makes you feel better, you can add a permit to the systems under my name that says, ‘I can do what I want.’”
“Yes… Exarch. If you’ll follow me.”
The golem made no attempt to hide his displeasure at being overruled, or at the fact that protocol wasn’t being followed. Nym gave silent thanks once again that Niramyn hadn’t bothered to come back to the lab and update anything. There was no way he would have been able to bluff his way through the lab if his former self had made even the slightest effort to prevent it.
They came to a room tucked far, far into the back of the lab. It had a triple-wide hallway leading up to double doors made of some sort of metal and completely covered with rune sequences. Nym was surprised to find that he understood most of them, enough so that he knew they were designed both to contain whatever was inside and to prevent the teleportation locks on the rest of the lab from functioning inside the room.
Once he got inside, he found a similar set of runes on the far wall, and it didn’t take much examination for him to revise his opinion of their function. The ones on the door were actually to set a boundary on how far the teleportation lock was suppressed. The wall runes did the actual suppression.
The room was otherwise empty except for a thirty-foot wide circle inscribed in the center of the floor. It was perfectly round, and its perimeter was composed of a long-form rune sequence with eight gaps spaced equally along its length. Nym had never seen one like it, but he’d read enough to know its purpose. The gaps weren’t actually empty, but instead linked to other layers of reality. If he were to visit the fifth layer version of lab six, he’d find at least one of those gaps filled in, more likely parts of every gap.
It created a maze-like effect that intruders would have to navigate, jumping between layers to work their way through one step at a time. Of course, there would be a single spot somewhere in there that could be opened when someone inside the lab with the appropriate key needed to use the room. When not in use, that opening would be sealed back closed and the labyrinth defense would leave would-be intruders trapped in a continuous loop of layer hopping as they tried to navigate a maze with no exit.
They would, at least, if they didn’t have the backdoor key Nym had given to Rizin. He made a bit of a show of examining the rune sequences, which were legitimately interesting, so it wasn’t that much of an act. “Ah, this part right here,” he said, pointing to a section that functioned to automatically redirect any summoning done with the circle to the center. “What did we use to calibrate this?”
The assistant golem peered over at the section Nym was pointing to. “I believe that was completed by the Chief of Research using a temporal arc array based on the locked position of the Fourth Cataclysm in relation to the End Time’s floating variable.”
“Ah, that makes sense.”
It didn’t, not really. The only part he understood was that the point where the timeline terminated was referred to as the End Time and its exact temporal position was constantly in flux as fresh alterations were introduced, timelines splintered, were reconciled, and merged back together. He was just hoping his question wasn’t so stupid that the assistant would be even more on his guard.
[Look less baffled,] Rizin said in his head. [Also, I’m here now. The defenses are formidable, but not enough to stop me.]
[I’d hope not. I gave you the key to the door.]
[It wasn’t really as easy as you seem to think.]
“Exarch? Will there be anything else here?”
“No, thank you. I just need to charge the arcana batteries for my new experiment and I’ll be done.”
They left together, Nym following along behind the golem and Rizin presumably trailing both of them invisibly. He didn’t look around to try to spot the fox, didn’t even use any magic to do it. Rizin was both too good for any spell Nym had at his disposal to work, and it would just draw unnecessary attention to the fact that there was something worth looking for.
When they reached the arcana storage room, Nym held the door open and looked around. It was an interesting set up, just a long hallway with dozens and dozens of thick pillars lining the walls. They were some sort of glass framed in what looked like brass with intricate lines connected to the tops and bottoms in some bizarre pattern he’d never seen before.
Each pillar was connected to the one before and after it, and the two closest to the door had their own connection that flowed across the wall above the door. At the far end of the hall was another door, presumably leading to even more batteries. Then again, that wouldn’t be a very convenient set up.
“Is this all of the batteries?” he asked
“No, just the one hundred seventh layer block. The eighth layer is in the next room over. The ninth and twelfth layer batteries are stored in a separate location. Would you like to head there now?”
“Not yet,” Nym said. “These need to be charged up first. Thank you for your help. That will be all.”
“I… you would like me to leave now?” the golem said.
“Yes. I don’t need an audience for this. It’s just necessary, if boring, work. You may return to whatever you were working on.”
“I see. Then, if you need further assistance, please don’t hesitate to ask any of the assistants.”
“Thanks, I will if I need help.”
Then Nym turned away from the assistant, hoping the golem would take the hint and just leave already. Only once the door closed behind him did he let out the breath he’d been holding and look around for Rizin. [You made it in alright?]
[Of course I did. Don’t insult me.]
[Sorry. So what do you think? Can we get these topped off quickly?]
[Define ‘quickly.’ This might take a few days just for this room, depending how drained they are.]
Nym glanced around again at the pillars. [Ah. That’s… bad? I thought it’d be quicker.]
[Hopefully it won’t be that long. We’ll see. The ones at the front at least are mostly full. Just stay by the door and keep anyone from coming in.]
Nym settled in place and waited. There wasn’t anything he could do to speed things up but keep Rizin from being interrupted. If everything went well, it would be a long and boring process. Hopefully that would be the case, because if things went sideways, he wasn’t sure how he was going to get back out of the lab.
But he was sure it would all be fine.
* * *
Things were not fine.
That stupid assistant golem had come back three times already, Rizin was barely half way done, and now Naera was here and refusing to leave. Nym stood in the door, blocking her from walking into the battery chamber, but it looked like she was about ready to physically shove him out of the way.
“Naera, please, just go back to work. I’m fine. I promise. I don’t need you to do anything for me but finish setting up the new experiment so it can start as soon as the batteries are recharged.”
“Exarch, I couldn’t leave you unattended while you’re here. I’ve delegated the work to a few other golems.”
“I really don’t need the company right now,” Nym said. “I’ve got a lot on my mind, and I don’t want the distractions while I work.”
“It won’t be a problem, Exarch, really. I will wait by the door. You won’t even know I’m there unless you need me for something.”
Nym pinched the bridge of his nose in one hand, took a deep breath, and said, “Thank you. That is not necessary. Please return to your work preparing the experiment. I want it to start as soon as possible. That will be all, Naera.”
Then he closed the door in her face, groaned, and took a few steps into the room. “She didn’t leave,” he muttered. He hadn’t checked, but he knew he was right.
[She did not, no.]
[How many hours do you need to finish this room?]
[Six or seven.]
There was no way he was keeping the golems out of the battery room for that long. [I only see two options. You keep charging the batteries without me and we hope nobody notices, or we don’t charge them all the way. If we have to keep stopping to get rid of nosy assistants every twenty minutes, we’ll never get this done.]
[Barricade the door,] the fox suggested.
Nym had considered that, but he was worried using mortal magic might tip them off. When he’d first visited under his truthful identity, that hadn’t been an issue. Now he was pretending to be Niramyn, and Niramyn had the ability to work on arcana batteries of the seventh and eighth layer. Using mortal magic would be suspicious, and a few of the assistants were already looking at him too closely.
[I have some concerns about getting into an actual spell duel with these guys. I know they’re only golems, but they’re golems made by ascendants, and I’m not really that confident that I can win. They can use arcana from these batteries, right? So that means they’re equivalent to at least a ninth circle ascendant?]
Rizin snorted out a laugh. [Caution is fine, but temper it with wisdom. The golems here do not cast any spells. They are not able to. They merely administer to the devices and artifacts entrusted to them.]
[But how would they do that if they can’t use arcana to activate the devices?] Nym asked. [Are you saying that all of the equipment here could be used by literally anybody with a finger to push a button?]
[Provided they knew which buttons to push, yes. Everything would function until the batteries ran dry.]
Nym would have said that was impossible. He’d never heard of any magic item that could be activated by someone without at least the ability to handle arcana, even if they didn’t actively supply it themselves. Even with all the things he’d studied after Niramyn had returned, nothing had hinted at that being a possibility.
He still had a lot to learn about being an ascendant.
“So just a barrier across the door then. I can do that.”
The assistant golem regarded Nym steadily. It wasn’t one he’d ever spoken with before, but Naera was busy setting everything up to his specifications from the other day. At first, he thought that would be a good thing, since this golem wouldn’t know he’d asked all those questions about how the lab’s defensive array of spells worked.
As it turned out, the golem did know. All of them knew, because they all shared information through some sort of central hub in the data archive. Worse, unlike his personal assistant, this one was considerably more suspicious of him. The golems shared knowledge, but had individual personalities. Naera was somewhat naïve and trusting, which was an odd character trait for the personal assistant to someone like Exarch Niramyn, but it had worked in Nym’s favor the last few times he’d entered the lab.
Whoever this golem worked for, they wanted someone who would question absolutely everything anyone did. Nym spent an idle moment wondering if that included the ascendant who’d made the golem, and, if so, how that hadn’t driven them insane. He’d only spent three minutes with the assistant and was already considering how best to turn him into a pile of half-melted slag.
“Look, I don’t see what’s so hard about this. I want to review the lab’s specimen transportation platform and then check on the arcana batteries. Is there some part of this you don’t understand?”
“Why do you want to do this?” the golem asked.
“Does it matter? Do I answer to you?”
“No, sir, but the lab protocols…”
“I don’t care about your protocols. You don’t make the decisions around here. I do. If it makes you feel better, you can add a permit to the systems under my name that says, ‘I can do what I want.’”
“Yes… Exarch. If you’ll follow me.”
The golem made no attempt to hide his displeasure at being overruled, or at the fact that protocol wasn’t being followed. Nym gave silent thanks once again that Niramyn hadn’t bothered to come back to the lab and update anything. There was no way he would have been able to bluff his way through the lab if his former self had made even the slightest effort to prevent it.
They came to a room tucked far, far into the back of the lab. It had a triple-wide hallway leading up to double doors made of some sort of metal and completely covered with rune sequences. Nym was surprised to find that he understood most of them, enough so that he knew they were designed both to contain whatever was inside and to prevent the teleportation locks on the rest of the lab from functioning inside the room.
Once he got inside, he found a similar set of runes on the far wall, and it didn’t take much examination for him to revise his opinion of their function. The ones on the door were actually to set a boundary on how far the teleportation lock was suppressed. The wall runes did the actual suppression.
The room was otherwise empty except for a thirty-foot wide circle inscribed in the center of the floor. It was perfectly round, and its perimeter was composed of a long-form rune sequence with eight gaps spaced equally along its length. Nym had never seen one like it, but he’d read enough to know its purpose. The gaps weren’t actually empty, but instead linked to other layers of reality. If he were to visit the fifth layer version of lab six, he’d find at least one of those gaps filled in, more likely parts of every gap.
It created a maze-like effect that intruders would have to navigate, jumping between layers to work their way through one step at a time. Of course, there would be a single spot somewhere in there that could be opened when someone inside the lab with the appropriate key needed to use the room. When not in use, that opening would be sealed back closed and the labyrinth defense would leave would-be intruders trapped in a continuous loop of layer hopping as they tried to navigate a maze with no exit.
They would, at least, if they didn’t have the backdoor key Nym had given to Rizin. He made a bit of a show of examining the rune sequences, which were legitimately interesting, so it wasn’t that much of an act. “Ah, this part right here,” he said, pointing to a section that functioned to automatically redirect any summoning done with the circle to the center. “What did we use to calibrate this?”
The assistant golem peered over at the section Nym was pointing to. “I believe that was completed by the Chief of Research using a temporal arc array based on the locked position of the Fourth Cataclysm in relation to the End Time’s floating variable.”
“Ah, that makes sense.”
It didn’t, not really. The only part he understood was that the point where the timeline terminated was referred to as the End Time and its exact temporal position was constantly in flux as fresh alterations were introduced, timelines splintered, were reconciled, and merged back together. He was just hoping his question wasn’t so stupid that the assistant would be even more on his guard.
[Look less baffled,] Rizin said in his head. [Also, I’m here now. The defenses are formidable, but not enough to stop me.]
[I’d hope not. I gave you the key to the door.]
[It wasn’t really as easy as you seem to think.]
“Exarch? Will there be anything else here?”
“No, thank you. I just need to charge the arcana batteries for my new experiment and I’ll be done.”
They left together, Nym following along behind the golem and Rizin presumably trailing both of them invisibly. He didn’t look around to try to spot the fox, didn’t even use any magic to do it. Rizin was both too good for any spell Nym had at his disposal to work, and it would just draw unnecessary attention to the fact that there was something worth looking for.
When they reached the arcana storage room, Nym held the door open and looked around. It was an interesting set up, just a long hallway with dozens and dozens of thick pillars lining the walls. They were some sort of glass framed in what looked like brass with intricate lines connected to the tops and bottoms in some bizarre pattern he’d never seen before.
Each pillar was connected to the one before and after it, and the two closest to the door had their own connection that flowed across the wall above the door. At the far end of the hall was another door, presumably leading to even more batteries. Then again, that wouldn’t be a very convenient set up.
“Is this all of the batteries?” he asked
“No, just the one hundred seventh layer block. The eighth layer is in the next room over. The ninth and twelfth layer batteries are stored in a separate location. Would you like to head there now?”
“Not yet,” Nym said. “These need to be charged up first. Thank you for your help. That will be all.”
“I… you would like me to leave now?” the golem said.
“Yes. I don’t need an audience for this. It’s just necessary, if boring, work. You may return to whatever you were working on.”
“I see. Then, if you need further assistance, please don’t hesitate to ask any of the assistants.”
“Thanks, I will if I need help.”
Then Nym turned away from the assistant, hoping the golem would take the hint and just leave already. Only once the door closed behind him did he let out the breath he’d been holding and look around for Rizin. [You made it in alright?]
[Of course I did. Don’t insult me.]
[Sorry. So what do you think? Can we get these topped off quickly?]
[Define ‘quickly.’ This might take a few days just for this room, depending how drained they are.]
Nym glanced around again at the pillars. [Ah. That’s… bad? I thought it’d be quicker.]
[Hopefully it won’t be that long. We’ll see. The ones at the front at least are mostly full. Just stay by the door and keep anyone from coming in.]
Nym settled in place and waited. There wasn’t anything he could do to speed things up but keep Rizin from being interrupted. If everything went well, it would be a long and boring process. Hopefully that would be the case, because if things went sideways, he wasn’t sure how he was going to get back out of the lab.
But he was sure it would all be fine.
* * *
Things were not fine.
That stupid assistant golem had come back three times already, Rizin was barely half way done, and now Naera was here and refusing to leave. Nym stood in the door, blocking her from walking into the battery chamber, but it looked like she was about ready to physically shove him out of the way.
“Naera, please, just go back to work. I’m fine. I promise. I don’t need you to do anything for me but finish setting up the new experiment so it can start as soon as the batteries are recharged.”
“Exarch, I couldn’t leave you unattended while you’re here. I’ve delegated the work to a few other golems.”
“I really don’t need the company right now,” Nym said. “I’ve got a lot on my mind, and I don’t want the distractions while I work.”
“It won’t be a problem, Exarch, really. I will wait by the door. You won’t even know I’m there unless you need me for something.”
Nym pinched the bridge of his nose in one hand, took a deep breath, and said, “Thank you. That is not necessary. Please return to your work preparing the experiment. I want it to start as soon as possible. That will be all, Naera.”
Then he closed the door in her face, groaned, and took a few steps into the room. “She didn’t leave,” he muttered. He hadn’t checked, but he knew he was right.
[She did not, no.]
[How many hours do you need to finish this room?]
[Six or seven.]
There was no way he was keeping the golems out of the battery room for that long. [I only see two options. You keep charging the batteries without me and we hope nobody notices, or we don’t charge them all the way. If we have to keep stopping to get rid of nosy assistants every twenty minutes, we’ll never get this done.]
[Barricade the door,] the fox suggested.
Nym had considered that, but he was worried using mortal magic might tip them off. When he’d first visited under his truthful identity, that hadn’t been an issue. Now he was pretending to be Niramyn, and Niramyn had the ability to work on arcana batteries of the seventh and eighth layer. Using mortal magic would be suspicious, and a few of the assistants were already looking at him too closely.
[I have some concerns about getting into an actual spell duel with these guys. I know they’re only golems, but they’re golems made by ascendants, and I’m not really that confident that I can win. They can use arcana from these batteries, right? So that means they’re equivalent to at least a ninth circle ascendant?]
Rizin snorted out a laugh. [Caution is fine, but temper it with wisdom. The golems here do not cast any spells. They are not able to. They merely administer to the devices and artifacts entrusted to them.]
[But how would they do that if they can’t use arcana to activate the devices?] Nym asked. [Are you saying that all of the equipment here could be used by literally anybody with a finger to push a button?]
[Provided they knew which buttons to push, yes. Everything would function until the batteries ran dry.]
Nym would have said that was impossible. He’d never heard of any magic item that could be activated by someone without at least the ability to handle arcana, even if they didn’t actively supply it themselves. Even with all the things he’d studied after Niramyn had returned, nothing had hinted at that being a possibility.
He still had a lot to learn about being an ascendant.
“So just a barrier across the door then. I can do that.”
