Nym chose as late a date as he could, not that he liked anywhere in the timeframe. There were multiple other ascendants in the core reality right now, moving against each other either indirectly or in open battle, and he really, really, really didn’t want to get dragged into that. As far as he could tell, the majority of the fighting had ended by the time he popped into the core reality, so with a little luck, he’d be in and out after completing his chore.
“Hello, Exarch,” Naera said when he entered the lab.
“Hi,” Nym said. “Just here to charge the batteries again.”
“Ah, thank you. They were starting to get low.”
“Just the seventh layer ones,” Nym added.
“Those are the only ones that are dangerously low.”
“Great. Lead on then?”
Naera escorted Nym through the lab, which looked exactly like he remembered it. “How’d our fox breeding program do?” he asked when they passed the data archive.
“Very well. We produced three hundred viable samples, which were released into the wilds at your specified coordinates. The program was put on pause due to significant recent drains. Would you like us to restart it after the batteries have been recharged?”
“No, that’s okay. I think it’s done what I need it to. If I change my mind, I’ll be back to let you know.”
“Very well.”
Nym already knew where to go, and he could get there ten times faster on his own, but he remembered the last time he’d gone in there, only to find a dozen research assistants waiting for him to come back out. One of them had even told on him to Baracia somehow. If possible, he wanted to avoid that, which no doubt meant that Naera would want to stay in the room just in case he needed anything.
“Has anyone else been through since the last time I was here?” Nym asked, curious to know who might have seen that the arcana batteries needed recharging, but not been willing to do it.
“No, Exarch.”
Nym probably should have corrected her on calling him that, but since he didn’t really have legitimate access, he was concerned that any updates or changes now might bar him from the lab. After he got the batteries charged and got back to Pyoka, he was more than willing to wash his hands of the place.
Until that happened, he wasn’t willing to risk getting kicked out. The golems might not be able to handle him directly, but if they removed his arcana print, there were plenty of automated defenses that he was not strong enough to beat. Besides, as long as there were no other ascendants there, it didn’t much matter if Naera called him ‘Exarch’ or not. He was scrambling the timeline anyway so no one would be able to tell who’d been there.
The more he learned, the less he was confident in that as a defense. The spell only worked in the primary timeline, which meant an ascendant of sufficient skill might be able to sort through various alternate timelines and, if not guarantee what had happened, watch enough other versions and make accurate assumptions. Nym hadn’t figured that one out until he’d started working on the god killer spell and realized the obvious weakness.
They reached the battery chamber and Nym went inside. He was not surprised to see Naera come in right behind him and take up a position right next to the door. “Please let me know if you need anything, Exarch.”
Nym closed his eyes tried not to sigh. “Of course. If you have any other duties to attend to, go ahead and take care of them.”
“I have nothing as pressing as this,” she said.
“Very well.”
Nym had charged his share of batteries, though admittedly very few that had been designed to hold arcana from the outer layers, and not ones that held that arcana in the core reality. Outer layer arcana functioned differently here, mostly in that it was used to permanently rewrite reality instead of to produce a temporary effect. The stronger the arcana, the more spectacular the new reality could be.
Eventually, of course, the arcana would run out and the effect would collapse as reality rushed in to reassert itself. There were ways around that, depending on the goal. Usually it was best to change something in a way that could have happened, such as conjuring up a building that could have existed, but didn’t. As long as the spell didn’t break in the middle of the process, reality didn’t need to correct much once the arcana fueling the change was spent.
Arcana batteries designed to hold outer layer arcana were specially reinforced to hold against that push of reality that kept trying to wipe them out, and in fact had to use some of their own charge to keep from disappearing out of existence. Since that conduit always had to remain open, at least enough for a trickle to empower the housing, it got tricky refilling them.
It was a bit like trying to pour water into a jug that had water pouring out at the same time, at least if he ignored other problems like gravity. Fortunately, Nym had watched Rizin fill all these up already, and he knew the trick. He had to stick a metaphorical finger in the spout to block the arcana coming out, then provide his own trickle to keep the arcana battery firmly anchored in reality, then channel a second stream of arcana through his finger plug into the battery.
It wasn’t complicated, but if he screwed it up, the battery would flash out of existence and then he’d have to build a new one. He could do that, but it would take time he didn’t want to spend, so he planned on being extremely careful. Before he did anything, he needed to open up a conduit to the seventh layer, which was slightly more difficult when his consciousness wasn’t mainly on the sixth layer at the moment.
He took a second to synchronize his existence across layers, then cracked the membrane to the Crushing Void, and started to absorb the arcana pressing down on his conduit bubble. Once he’d stabilized the connection, Nym took hold of the battery and began pouring arcana in. After half an hour, it was full and he let it take over maintaining its own existence again.
Glumly, he stared down the hallway. One down, a hundred to go. At the rate he was going, it was going to take him the full two days and then some to fill them all.
* * *
“Fourteen to go,” Nym said.
He was beyond tired. It wasn’t a physical exhaustion, or even really a mental one. It was just the pure drudgery of it. There was no thinking, no doing. It was just existing, holding still. He should take some sort of break, but he just wanted to get it over with, so he kept going.
He was about to connect to the next battery when Naera, who’d remained silent the entire time he was working, said, “Another ascendant is approaching the facility.”
Nym paused and looked over at the golem. She was still standing at the door, but now there was a second golem with her. “Do you know who it is?”
“I’m afraid not, Exarch. Whoever it is does not have a registered arcana print.”
“Anything you can tell me about them?”
It couldn’t be Niramyn, otherwise the lab would have welcomed him in. Going by that logic, he could safely remove a dozen or so ascendants, almost all of whom were part of Niramyn’s faction. That just left everyone loyal to Myzalik, Myzalik himself, or any of several dozen neutral ascendants. Whoever it was, it would be better for him if he didn’t have to meet them.
“They have not breached the magic sealing the entrance yet,” Naera said. “Though they have not really tried other than to cast one or two exploratory spells. I cannot guarantee the passive defenses will be enough to bar them entry.”
“So switch to the active defenses then.”
“Understood. Please relay the Exarch’s orders,” Naera told the other golem.
“Is this going to cause a problem with the recharge?” Nym asked.
“As of right now, no. The passive defenses draw from the eighth layer batteries. However, if those are drained to critical levels, the defenses will shift over to using the seventh layer batteries.”
“Okay, I’m going to keep working then. Let me know the instant this ascendant does anything, even if it’s just leaving.”
“Yes, Exarch.”
Nym got back to work, only now the otherwise dull task had an edge of nervous tension to it. It was possible that a random ascendant showing up had nothing to do with him, but one who didn’t have access to Lab Six didn’t have any reason to be there. It was too much of a stretch to say it was just a coincidence.
Even if the ascendant did nothing but sit at the front door, Nym would have to face them eventually. He couldn’t jump out of reality prime while inside the lab, couldn’t even teleport around. Maybe if he used the specimen teleportation platform to exit, he could dodge the ascendant that way.
Two hours later, a crash shook the building. Nym almost lost his concentration on the battery, but managed to keep it from vanishing. He severed his connection and glanced over at Naera, who looked worried.
“What was that?”
“I am not entirely certain, but I believe the containment space holding the lab has been breached.”
“What about the defenses?”
“I do not know, Exarch. Would you like to go to the data archive and coordinate the defense?”
Nym had no interest in doing that. He wanted to charge the last ten batteries and leave, but he suspected he wasn’t going to get what he wanted.
Failing that, it was probably best for him to at least keep up with what was going on. He obviously wasn’t going to get any more work done, and if he had to fight, he could use a breather first. It was too bad he hadn’t been able to spin off a copy to double his working speed, but seventh layer arcana was still just too new to him. He considered leaving one behind to keep working though, but if he did, he’d be devoting too many processes to the copy and leaving himself without the resources needed to pull in that arcana in case he needed it.
“Okay, fine. Let’s do that. We can at least see what’s going on.”
The halls were completely empty as they ghosted through them, Nym carrying both himself and Naera on rapid air currents to the data archive. “Where is everyone?” he asked.
“Defending the lab,” she said. “We all have our assigned stations.”
“Shouldn’t you be at yours then?”
“Assisting you is my highest priority.”
Nym would have rolled his eyes if the situation wasn’t so dire. Even now, with a literal invader to the lab, she was still trying to stick to him. It was no wonder something as simple as routine battery recharging hadn’t been able to shake her off.
“Get me to the data archive and show me what I need to know, then go do your job defending the lab.”
“I… I am not sure- Can I… Forgive me Exarch, but this order contradicts my directives. You can update my directives at the data archive if you wish to give me new ones.”
Sometimes the golems were unnecessarily difficult to deal with. Most times, actually.
The hallway split in two in front of him, like someone had slashed it in half cleanly. The part they were in shifted down, and the hallway on the other side of the split twisted up. Nym had just enough time to alter the air currents to throw Naira over the gap before he slid out into a landscape of swirling black and purple.
A man floated there in front of him, but not one he recognized. “So you’re him then?” the man asked. “Nym, is it? You have no idea how much of a pain you’ve been. I lost years of time because of you.”
Nym chose as late a date as he could, not that he liked anywhere in the timeframe. There were multiple other ascendants in the core reality right now, moving against each other either indirectly or in open battle, and he really, really, really didn’t want to get dragged into that. As far as he could tell, the majority of the fighting had ended by the time he popped into the core reality, so with a little luck, he’d be in and out after completing his chore.
“Hello, Exarch,” Naera said when he entered the lab.
“Hi,” Nym said. “Just here to charge the batteries again.”
“Ah, thank you. They were starting to get low.”
“Just the seventh layer ones,” Nym added.
“Those are the only ones that are dangerously low.”
“Great. Lead on then?”
Naera escorted Nym through the lab, which looked exactly like he remembered it. “How’d our fox breeding program do?” he asked when they passed the data archive.
“Very well. We produced three hundred viable samples, which were released into the wilds at your specified coordinates. The program was put on pause due to significant recent drains. Would you like us to restart it after the batteries have been recharged?”
“No, that’s okay. I think it’s done what I need it to. If I change my mind, I’ll be back to let you know.”
“Very well.”
Nym already knew where to go, and he could get there ten times faster on his own, but he remembered the last time he’d gone in there, only to find a dozen research assistants waiting for him to come back out. One of them had even told on him to Baracia somehow. If possible, he wanted to avoid that, which no doubt meant that Naera would want to stay in the room just in case he needed anything.
“Has anyone else been through since the last time I was here?” Nym asked, curious to know who might have seen that the arcana batteries needed recharging, but not been willing to do it.
“No, Exarch.”
Nym probably should have corrected her on calling him that, but since he didn’t really have legitimate access, he was concerned that any updates or changes now might bar him from the lab. After he got the batteries charged and got back to Pyoka, he was more than willing to wash his hands of the place.
Until that happened, he wasn’t willing to risk getting kicked out. The golems might not be able to handle him directly, but if they removed his arcana print, there were plenty of automated defenses that he was not strong enough to beat. Besides, as long as there were no other ascendants there, it didn’t much matter if Naera called him ‘Exarch’ or not. He was scrambling the timeline anyway so no one would be able to tell who’d been there.
The more he learned, the less he was confident in that as a defense. The spell only worked in the primary timeline, which meant an ascendant of sufficient skill might be able to sort through various alternate timelines and, if not guarantee what had happened, watch enough other versions and make accurate assumptions. Nym hadn’t figured that one out until he’d started working on the god killer spell and realized the obvious weakness.
They reached the battery chamber and Nym went inside. He was not surprised to see Naera come in right behind him and take up a position right next to the door. “Please let me know if you need anything, Exarch.”
Nym closed his eyes tried not to sigh. “Of course. If you have any other duties to attend to, go ahead and take care of them.”
“I have nothing as pressing as this,” she said.
“Very well.”
Nym had charged his share of batteries, though admittedly very few that had been designed to hold arcana from the outer layers, and not ones that held that arcana in the core reality. Outer layer arcana functioned differently here, mostly in that it was used to permanently rewrite reality instead of to produce a temporary effect. The stronger the arcana, the more spectacular the new reality could be.
Eventually, of course, the arcana would run out and the effect would collapse as reality rushed in to reassert itself. There were ways around that, depending on the goal. Usually it was best to change something in a way that could have happened, such as conjuring up a building that could have existed, but didn’t. As long as the spell didn’t break in the middle of the process, reality didn’t need to correct much once the arcana fueling the change was spent.
Arcana batteries designed to hold outer layer arcana were specially reinforced to hold against that push of reality that kept trying to wipe them out, and in fact had to use some of their own charge to keep from disappearing out of existence. Since that conduit always had to remain open, at least enough for a trickle to empower the housing, it got tricky refilling them.
It was a bit like trying to pour water into a jug that had water pouring out at the same time, at least if he ignored other problems like gravity. Fortunately, Nym had watched Rizin fill all these up already, and he knew the trick. He had to stick a metaphorical finger in the spout to block the arcana coming out, then provide his own trickle to keep the arcana battery firmly anchored in reality, then channel a second stream of arcana through his finger plug into the battery.
It wasn’t complicated, but if he screwed it up, the battery would flash out of existence and then he’d have to build a new one. He could do that, but it would take time he didn’t want to spend, so he planned on being extremely careful. Before he did anything, he needed to open up a conduit to the seventh layer, which was slightly more difficult when his consciousness wasn’t mainly on the sixth layer at the moment.
He took a second to synchronize his existence across layers, then cracked the membrane to the Crushing Void, and started to absorb the arcana pressing down on his conduit bubble. Once he’d stabilized the connection, Nym took hold of the battery and began pouring arcana in. After half an hour, it was full and he let it take over maintaining its own existence again.
Glumly, he stared down the hallway. One down, a hundred to go. At the rate he was going, it was going to take him the full two days and then some to fill them all.
* * *
“Fourteen to go,” Nym said.
He was beyond tired. It wasn’t a physical exhaustion, or even really a mental one. It was just the pure drudgery of it. There was no thinking, no doing. It was just existing, holding still. He should take some sort of break, but he just wanted to get it over with, so he kept going.
He was about to connect to the next battery when Naera, who’d remained silent the entire time he was working, said, “Another ascendant is approaching the facility.”
Nym paused and looked over at the golem. She was still standing at the door, but now there was a second golem with her. “Do you know who it is?”
“I’m afraid not, Exarch. Whoever it is does not have a registered arcana print.”
“Anything you can tell me about them?”
It couldn’t be Niramyn, otherwise the lab would have welcomed him in. Going by that logic, he could safely remove a dozen or so ascendants, almost all of whom were part of Niramyn’s faction. That just left everyone loyal to Myzalik, Myzalik himself, or any of several dozen neutral ascendants. Whoever it was, it would be better for him if he didn’t have to meet them.
“They have not breached the magic sealing the entrance yet,” Naera said. “Though they have not really tried other than to cast one or two exploratory spells. I cannot guarantee the passive defenses will be enough to bar them entry.”
“So switch to the active defenses then.”
“Understood. Please relay the Exarch’s orders,” Naera told the other golem.
“Is this going to cause a problem with the recharge?” Nym asked.
“As of right now, no. The passive defenses draw from the eighth layer batteries. However, if those are drained to critical levels, the defenses will shift over to using the seventh layer batteries.”
“Okay, I’m going to keep working then. Let me know the instant this ascendant does anything, even if it’s just leaving.”
“Yes, Exarch.”
Nym got back to work, only now the otherwise dull task had an edge of nervous tension to it. It was possible that a random ascendant showing up had nothing to do with him, but one who didn’t have access to Lab Six didn’t have any reason to be there. It was too much of a stretch to say it was just a coincidence.
Even if the ascendant did nothing but sit at the front door, Nym would have to face them eventually. He couldn’t jump out of reality prime while inside the lab, couldn’t even teleport around. Maybe if he used the specimen teleportation platform to exit, he could dodge the ascendant that way.
Two hours later, a crash shook the building. Nym almost lost his concentration on the battery, but managed to keep it from vanishing. He severed his connection and glanced over at Naera, who looked worried.
“What was that?”
“I am not entirely certain, but I believe the containment space holding the lab has been breached.”
“What about the defenses?”
“I do not know, Exarch. Would you like to go to the data archive and coordinate the defense?”
Nym had no interest in doing that. He wanted to charge the last ten batteries and leave, but he suspected he wasn’t going to get what he wanted.
Failing that, it was probably best for him to at least keep up with what was going on. He obviously wasn’t going to get any more work done, and if he had to fight, he could use a breather first. It was too bad he hadn’t been able to spin off a copy to double his working speed, but seventh layer arcana was still just too new to him. He considered leaving one behind to keep working though, but if he did, he’d be devoting too many processes to the copy and leaving himself without the resources needed to pull in that arcana in case he needed it.
“Okay, fine. Let’s do that. We can at least see what’s going on.”
The halls were completely empty as they ghosted through them, Nym carrying both himself and Naera on rapid air currents to the data archive. “Where is everyone?” he asked.
“Defending the lab,” she said. “We all have our assigned stations.”
“Shouldn’t you be at yours then?”
“Assisting you is my highest priority.”
Nym would have rolled his eyes if the situation wasn’t so dire. Even now, with a literal invader to the lab, she was still trying to stick to him. It was no wonder something as simple as routine battery recharging hadn’t been able to shake her off.
“Get me to the data archive and show me what I need to know, then go do your job defending the lab.”
“I… I am not sure- Can I… Forgive me Exarch, but this order contradicts my directives. You can update my directives at the data archive if you wish to give me new ones.”
Sometimes the golems were unnecessarily difficult to deal with. Most times, actually.
The hallway split in two in front of him, like someone had slashed it in half cleanly. The part they were in shifted down, and the hallway on the other side of the split twisted up. Nym had just enough time to alter the air currents to throw Naira over the gap before he slid out into a landscape of swirling black and purple.
A man floated there in front of him, but not one he recognized. “So you’re him then?” the man asked. “Nym, is it? You have no idea how much of a pain you’ve been. I lost years of time because of you.”
