Chapter 194: 194
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Once his three companions had picked everything of value to them, Orison threw the rest of the things too dangerous or steeped in dark deeds into the devouring swirl of his space. There was a garden and cupboard of goodies that made the bulk of the young mage's actual gains. And even though Roy hadn't had much of a supernatural gain from the trip, it had been an invaluable lift to something Orison thought of as equally important.
"Are you disappointed?' he asked the equipment specialist.
Roy smiled widely. "Are you kidding? My great-great granny was nearly an S-class supernatural threat! I feel friggin stoked!"
The young mage said, "I think it slipped her mind or whatever she actually used to think. She actually did leave something very useful to you. It's possible that she didn't tell you because she was afraid it would hurt you but I'm a lightweight curse breaker, so..."
He lead Roy to the center of the ritual room and said, "Sit right hear, try not to give too much thought on how this works and repeat after me. Ancestor, give me your blessing. Share with this humble descendant, the depth of your wisdom and open the doors of your gifts hidden within my blood and bones..."
Under Orison's watchful eye, the remains of his ancestors buried underneath the floor of the ritual room enriched Roy's physical and spiritual talents. Steeped in the dark essence of the Mire for decades, they were something of a conduit themselves. That didn't mean there weren't dangers.
The swampy plane had remnant will, possibly other smaller will shards, and didn't take kindly to the theft. But the young mage would hit clumps of dark backlash and grudge with Remove Curse, when it had grown strong enough to unleash itself at Roy's unprotected soul. Soon, Babs and Birgir rushed in to tell him that a slew of undead nastiness and other dark creatures were marching their way to the island.
Orison slapped Roy on the back, knocking him out of trance, and said, "Communion with the ancestors is over. Get in the Reese Rover and go to the other location. Don't try to go through until you see a flash and the appearance of another scenery in the planar wall. Don't forget to detach the drone with the tracker signal."
As the specialist trotted to the craft, he muttered. "Crazy... First he tells me how the walls don't have anything good on the other side of them and then tells me about a spot where the planar wall has something good on the other side of it."
In the distance, while dodging around a few of the first creatures to break through the island's protection, Roy replied, "Are you TRYING to make my brain explode or something!?"
As he lead the grandfather and granddaughter duo towards the storage shed by the garden, he thought, "Step into my shoes."
Once in the shed, he barred the doors behind him. After a bit of fumbling, he found the trap door that led into the ground and barred that as well after they were through.
Walking through a wide tunnel made of fitted stone and mortar that was oddly in good repair and dry, Orison said, "Up ahead, there will be three branches."
While he took a second to make sure he had their attention, Babs said, "Left, middle, left and don't really look at anything. Mrs Brown already told us just in case the sharing she did with me undone her. Undid her? Made her disappear."
With nothing to add about the tunnels, the young mage said as they walked, "What kind of things did she share?"
Babs sighed, "Most of it was woman stuff. There were some things that she had figured out that weren't all dark and messing with dead stuff. Do you want to know about any of that?"
Orison nodded and said, "If there's anything that you think is useful, then sure."
With a playful smile, she said, "What do I get?"
Giving her a saintly smile in return, he replied, "A ride out of the swamp. Grandpa Booger even gets to ride for free."
At one point, the area felt heavy. A combination of extra pressure, both spiritual and physical, pressed against them and Babs eventually had to be carried by her grandpa who was a lot stronger than he looked.
"We can't stay here for long but pick up as many of those dark chunks out of that black sludge, under the walkway, as you can in a couple of minutes. Makes sure not to touch it with your bare hands. I know it's an obvious but it's important enough to remind," Orison said, joining in himself.
A few minutes later, after they were walking again and the pressure let back up, Babs asked, "What are those things?"
"Chunks of compressed inert essence. If we had taken another route, we would have personally felt how it was done. We would have also been exposed to the liquid and particle versions which would have been pretty much deadly long before the pressure got us," the young mage said.
Babs replied, "But we were told that it was almost impossible to compress spent mystical energies from its ethereal gas state outside of a lab."
When Orison looked at her oddly, she smiled and said, "Did you forget that I'm prepping for Core Accelerator?"
The young mage rolled his eyes as Birgir ruffled her hair and proudly said, "That's my little egg head."
Even though she shot her grandfather an annoyed look, she secretly smiled when she looked away.
Eventually they came out the other side onto a large mound overlooking a slightly dry and cracked surface of a mud flat. Instead of murky dimness, there was a sunny and cloudless sky overhead. After surveying the baking layer of crust that seemed to stretch out in most directions, Orison walked to the edge of the side that extended out to wetness in the near distance.
"Take this ball and put it up to the back of your neck, Grandpa Booger. I'm going to need your help with something in a minute and you'll need a suit that'll protect you from direct contact with your surroundings," the young mage said.
Having earned some of the old man's trust, Birgir didn't flinch at following his directions. After testing out the features of the suit as he received a crash course, he followed the young mage out onto the mudflat as Babs was told to stay put for her safety.
Pouting, Babs said, "You could give me a suit too! Then I could help."
Suppressing a chuckle, Orison replied, "You want a suit that kind of looks like a carbon coated model of a skinned person? I figured I'd make you something nicer once I had the time. They bond to you. So, you can't just take it off later for another. At least, not without some serious pain. Are you sure you can't sit tight for a little bit instead?"
Crossing her arms, she squinted her eyes at him. "How nice are we talking?"
"Favorite color with enchantments, nice," Orison said as he started walking out, eyes pointed at the ground.
Once they were suited up and Orison started slowing down, picking their movements more carefully, Birgir asked, "What are we doing exactly?"
Orison said, "Looking for signs of people under there without going for a dangerous mud bath."
"What would be the point?" Birgir said.
In a grim voice, the young mage responded, "It takes a long time to die under there."
With a decent idea of what he was looking for, it still took about fifteen minutes before he found the mud flow pattern he was looking for with his spirit sight.
"No matter what you see. I need you to keep your cool, Gandpa Booger. You're going to see some unpleasant things but we have to push back responding to that til later,"
Somberly the old man responded, "I hear you."
After giving some instructions, Orison carefully lowered Birgir past a thin piece of crust to reveal watery mud. Clipping a rope into place, he had the older man sink as low as the mud would let him and start fishing around until a body was felt. From there it was a multi-step process of retrieval until the young mage had to call time on it.
They stopped finding people that still had uncrystallized exposed parts anyway. That was pretty much the extreme possible limit of potential survivability. A rule harshly proven once they got back to the mound. Out of the six potential survivors, only two were savable but Orison secretly used a feather on one that was almost completely covered.
The old man, who had been trying really hard NOT to look at that particular body, gaped in awe as crystal reversed back to flesh and a young man was revealed. It was Lars, Babs' father and son of Birgir. The old man shot Orison a heartfelt look of gratitude and secret knowing before rushing in to check on the young man.
"I don't understand. Over twelve years and he only looks younger. Are there any problems? Does he need medical attention?" Birgir spat in rapid succession.
Orison shook his head and said, "He'll rest off the remaining deathless state in a day or two and wake up in a starved state. The others won't have as easy of a time but they won't be our problem in a minute."
Observing her sleeping father in a state of wary curiosity, Babs said, "How did they get like that to begin with?"
The young mage said, "That mud flat is a large, unbroken stretch of super charged healing mud that the death marches are sent out to find. The cores typically found in most of them are the crystallized pieces of living things that have completed the transition. Don't ask me how they get to all the different places in the swamp. I have no idea.
"What I do know, is that every once in awhile, something forms called a 'devil's cauldron'. Divers can find very large chunks of healing mud cores in them. Several years ago, a team was sent to investigate a particularly large one that reversed it's push while the investigation was ongoing. You probably know more about that story than I do, Grandpa Booger. Tell her about it while I do my thing."
Sensing that the hover craft was nearing the planar wall that separated them just far enough away that they weren't in danger on either side, Orison went to work as quickly as possible. Dashing along the same ridge supported crust he was on earlier while having levitation lighten him, the young mage made as far a distance out as he could get within a few minutes. Using his relatively weak telekinetic spell he scrawled a note about survivors and the possibility of more buried in the mud.
Laying down a vellum with a complicated model on it, the young mage let loose a torrent of magic and a liberal flow of spirit essence along the lines of connection. From the model on the vellum, he followed it to the opened and stabilized rip and through to his own transport circle in the training bunker. With one last push that left him feeling lightheaded, he finally managed to connect with the massive formation under the lake house through the control circle in his basement.
With a monumental pull to align all the connections and tap the power he had stored inside the lake house formation, Orison set the three mile property to exchange equal mass with his current location. Taxing his mental capabilities as well, he excluded bringing along unwanted visitors and lingering guests from the previous emergency evacuation to his house. He also made sure that when the exchange occurred, his group plus Lars would remain while the rest went with the chunk of mudflat.
The cost was monumental in more ways that one. The several motes worth of condensed eternium stored in the formation were burned up. Orison's aura was weakened significantly and nearly every free scrap of spirit and magic essence stored in his body were exhausted in one fell swoop. Were it not for the tied formation inside the hovercraft Roy was in, that would pull it over with the lake house property, the equipment specialist would have died, crashing into the planar wall.
As Orison lost consciousness, he thought of the small bit of villainy he had pulled. Since Roy believed in Orison, he bravely flew towards the planar wall after seeing the strong flash on the other side linked to the appearance of the lake house property. To any observer, it would very much appear as if Roy had flew 'through' the wall but he had been phased over just as the property had, with a poof of displaced air exchanged in his place.
Two other flying craft HAD been observing. Upon seeing the 'smoke and mirrors' illusion, one plowed right into the planar wall. Their death was mercifully quick. The remaining observer was in need of a change of underwear as they were only a half second away from doing the same.
Nearly an hour later, being fed the restoratives Roy had on him, Orison scrambled back to his feet woozily. Pulling a couple of better ones out, he downed them in succession. Staggering outside, Orison could tell that the edges of the lake house property's greenery was starting to show signs of going into the undying state. The far edges of the much smaller lake's boundaries were taking on a dirty stain of clay rich mud.
Orison sighed and muttered, "Could have went better. Could have went a hell of a lot worse."
Bellowing out behind him into the house, he said, "Every able body pair of hands, use whatever is ON hand to start banking up the other side of the lake. Turner, I know you're an earth mover. We need that water to stay clean. Filter through is unavoidable and soil seepage is a good thing but lets keep the chunks and the larger part of the mud out."
Grabbing Roy, he had the specialist fly him out to near the center of the wettest part of the flat after collecting up all the inert essence crystals his team had gathered. Throwing the whole collection down, the black rocks ate through the crust and began sinking down into the muddy water. A patch of clear water remained in their trail which Orison quickly followed.
Relying on spirit sight to guide him, the young mage swam towards the main source of the healing mud's 'life' property. After reaching a certain depth, he was surprised to find himself fall into an empty space. Hitting his suit with presto, he looked around.
A sight he had never expected to see out of the many scenarios he'd prepared for. Close to the center of the 'bubble' A bored looking Daniel stared listlessly at his pitcher conduit while the fused marble looking hourglass that the man had once called the Temporal Centrifuge, spun lazily above him. Noticing Orison's presence and recognizing the over robe, he he made an equally lazy motioning gesture for the young mage to join him.
"Long time, no see, Danny," Orison said with a smile, deciding to take the coincidence as a happy accident until proven otherwise.
Danny chuckled and said, "Not for me. We met maybe a couple of days ago but I've long grown numb to the ridiculousness of low dimensional nonsense... So, does this version of you know who your original parents are and all of that? Or are you a version that's clueless why overpowered assassins are trying to take your life after, well, playing with you?"
A little numb himself, the young mage replied, "The second. Was there a version where I had figured out why I can't hit the next step?"
Daniel nodded, ironic amusement on his face. "It's tied to the first version. Have a seat and I'll fill you in. Are you a version with drinks and snacks?"
Orison pulled out a bottle of the more abundant special boozes and some minor augmented munchies.
The pleasantly bland man helped himself as he explained. "I'm not completely uninvolved since my master is wrapped up in this to a small degree. You see, before she switched out her base comprehensions for a less dead end path than a taboo field rejected by greater reality, her conduit was a device that manipulated placement of consciousness in time.
"She had to sever her connection with it, among other hard sacrifices... Since I've already told the long version a couple of times, I hope you don't mind the short one... Conduit gains a form, enjoys some life as a 'person' and accidentally finds out the hard way that a certain girl in a certain reality is capable of giving him a child. Since she was the only one out of thousands of lovers he had, he becomes interested and then obsessed over her AND his child.
"Due to a mistake I'm not clear on, he accidentally or purposefully closes the loop. Essentially, from that point forward, they live their lives together in a perpetual recycle. The problem is, it's down here and things from the mid dimensions aren't affected. Things start popping up to disturb their happy cycle, turning it into a bad one.
Please report us if you find any errors so we can fix it asap!
Once his three companions had picked everything of value to them, Orison threw the rest of the things too dangerous or steeped in dark deeds into the devouring swirl of his space. There was a garden and cupboard of goodies that made the bulk of the young mage's actual gains. And even though Roy hadn't had much of a supernatural gain from the trip, it had been an invaluable lift to something Orison thought of as equally important.
"Are you disappointed?' he asked the equipment specialist.
Roy smiled widely. "Are you kidding? My great-great granny was nearly an S-class supernatural threat! I feel friggin stoked!"
The young mage said, "I think it slipped her mind or whatever she actually used to think. She actually did leave something very useful to you. It's possible that she didn't tell you because she was afraid it would hurt you but I'm a lightweight curse breaker, so..."
He lead Roy to the center of the ritual room and said, "Sit right hear, try not to give too much thought on how this works and repeat after me. Ancestor, give me your blessing. Share with this humble descendant, the depth of your wisdom and open the doors of your gifts hidden within my blood and bones..."
Under Orison's watchful eye, the remains of his ancestors buried underneath the floor of the ritual room enriched Roy's physical and spiritual talents. Steeped in the dark essence of the Mire for decades, they were something of a conduit themselves. That didn't mean there weren't dangers.
The swampy plane had remnant will, possibly other smaller will shards, and didn't take kindly to the theft. But the young mage would hit clumps of dark backlash and grudge with Remove Curse, when it had grown strong enough to unleash itself at Roy's unprotected soul. Soon, Babs and Birgir rushed in to tell him that a slew of undead nastiness and other dark creatures were marching their way to the island.
Orison slapped Roy on the back, knocking him out of trance, and said, "Communion with the ancestors is over. Get in the Reese Rover and go to the other location. Don't try to go through until you see a flash and the appearance of another scenery in the planar wall. Don't forget to detach the drone with the tracker signal."
As the specialist trotted to the craft, he muttered. "Crazy... First he tells me how the walls don't have anything good on the other side of them and then tells me about a spot where the planar wall has something good on the other side of it."
In the distance, while dodging around a few of the first creatures to break through the island's protection, Roy replied, "Are you TRYING to make my brain explode or something!?"
As he lead the grandfather and granddaughter duo towards the storage shed by the garden, he thought, "Step into my shoes."
Once in the shed, he barred the doors behind him. After a bit of fumbling, he found the trap door that led into the ground and barred that as well after they were through.
Walking through a wide tunnel made of fitted stone and mortar that was oddly in good repair and dry, Orison said, "Up ahead, there will be three branches."
While he took a second to make sure he had their attention, Babs said, "Left, middle, left and don't really look at anything. Mrs Brown already told us just in case the sharing she did with me undone her. Undid her? Made her disappear."
With nothing to add about the tunnels, the young mage said as they walked, "What kind of things did she share?"
Babs sighed, "Most of it was woman stuff. There were some things that she had figured out that weren't all dark and messing with dead stuff. Do you want to know about any of that?"
Orison nodded and said, "If there's anything that you think is useful, then sure."
With a playful smile, she said, "What do I get?"
Giving her a saintly smile in return, he replied, "A ride out of the swamp. Grandpa Booger even gets to ride for free."
At one point, the area felt heavy. A combination of extra pressure, both spiritual and physical, pressed against them and Babs eventually had to be carried by her grandpa who was a lot stronger than he looked.
"We can't stay here for long but pick up as many of those dark chunks out of that black sludge, under the walkway, as you can in a couple of minutes. Makes sure not to touch it with your bare hands. I know it's an obvious but it's important enough to remind," Orison said, joining in himself.
A few minutes later, after they were walking again and the pressure let back up, Babs asked, "What are those things?"
"Chunks of compressed inert essence. If we had taken another route, we would have personally felt how it was done. We would have also been exposed to the liquid and particle versions which would have been pretty much deadly long before the pressure got us," the young mage said.
Babs replied, "But we were told that it was almost impossible to compress spent mystical energies from its ethereal gas state outside of a lab."
When Orison looked at her oddly, she smiled and said, "Did you forget that I'm prepping for Core Accelerator?"
The young mage rolled his eyes as Birgir ruffled her hair and proudly said, "That's my little egg head."
Even though she shot her grandfather an annoyed look, she secretly smiled when she looked away.
Eventually they came out the other side onto a large mound overlooking a slightly dry and cracked surface of a mud flat. Instead of murky dimness, there was a sunny and cloudless sky overhead. After surveying the baking layer of crust that seemed to stretch out in most directions, Orison walked to the edge of the side that extended out to wetness in the near distance.
"Take this ball and put it up to the back of your neck, Grandpa Booger. I'm going to need your help with something in a minute and you'll need a suit that'll protect you from direct contact with your surroundings," the young mage said.
Having earned some of the old man's trust, Birgir didn't flinch at following his directions. After testing out the features of the suit as he received a crash course, he followed the young mage out onto the mudflat as Babs was told to stay put for her safety.
Pouting, Babs said, "You could give me a suit too! Then I could help."
Suppressing a chuckle, Orison replied, "You want a suit that kind of looks like a carbon coated model of a skinned person? I figured I'd make you something nicer once I had the time. They bond to you. So, you can't just take it off later for another. At least, not without some serious pain. Are you sure you can't sit tight for a little bit instead?"
Crossing her arms, she squinted her eyes at him. "How nice are we talking?"
"Favorite color with enchantments, nice," Orison said as he started walking out, eyes pointed at the ground.
Once they were suited up and Orison started slowing down, picking their movements more carefully, Birgir asked, "What are we doing exactly?"
Orison said, "Looking for signs of people under there without going for a dangerous mud bath."
"What would be the point?" Birgir said.
In a grim voice, the young mage responded, "It takes a long time to die under there."
With a decent idea of what he was looking for, it still took about fifteen minutes before he found the mud flow pattern he was looking for with his spirit sight.
"No matter what you see. I need you to keep your cool, Gandpa Booger. You're going to see some unpleasant things but we have to push back responding to that til later,"
Somberly the old man responded, "I hear you."
After giving some instructions, Orison carefully lowered Birgir past a thin piece of crust to reveal watery mud. Clipping a rope into place, he had the older man sink as low as the mud would let him and start fishing around until a body was felt. From there it was a multi-step process of retrieval until the young mage had to call time on it.
They stopped finding people that still had uncrystallized exposed parts anyway. That was pretty much the extreme possible limit of potential survivability. A rule harshly proven once they got back to the mound. Out of the six potential survivors, only two were savable but Orison secretly used a feather on one that was almost completely covered.
The old man, who had been trying really hard NOT to look at that particular body, gaped in awe as crystal reversed back to flesh and a young man was revealed. It was Lars, Babs' father and son of Birgir. The old man shot Orison a heartfelt look of gratitude and secret knowing before rushing in to check on the young man.
"I don't understand. Over twelve years and he only looks younger. Are there any problems? Does he need medical attention?" Birgir spat in rapid succession.
Orison shook his head and said, "He'll rest off the remaining deathless state in a day or two and wake up in a starved state. The others won't have as easy of a time but they won't be our problem in a minute."
Observing her sleeping father in a state of wary curiosity, Babs said, "How did they get like that to begin with?"
The young mage said, "That mud flat is a large, unbroken stretch of super charged healing mud that the death marches are sent out to find. The cores typically found in most of them are the crystallized pieces of living things that have completed the transition. Don't ask me how they get to all the different places in the swamp. I have no idea.
"What I do know, is that every once in awhile, something forms called a 'devil's cauldron'. Divers can find very large chunks of healing mud cores in them. Several years ago, a team was sent to investigate a particularly large one that reversed it's push while the investigation was ongoing. You probably know more about that story than I do, Grandpa Booger. Tell her about it while I do my thing."
Sensing that the hover craft was nearing the planar wall that separated them just far enough away that they weren't in danger on either side, Orison went to work as quickly as possible. Dashing along the same ridge supported crust he was on earlier while having levitation lighten him, the young mage made as far a distance out as he could get within a few minutes. Using his relatively weak telekinetic spell he scrawled a note about survivors and the possibility of more buried in the mud.
Laying down a vellum with a complicated model on it, the young mage let loose a torrent of magic and a liberal flow of spirit essence along the lines of connection. From the model on the vellum, he followed it to the opened and stabilized rip and through to his own transport circle in the training bunker. With one last push that left him feeling lightheaded, he finally managed to connect with the massive formation under the lake house through the control circle in his basement.
With a monumental pull to align all the connections and tap the power he had stored inside the lake house formation, Orison set the three mile property to exchange equal mass with his current location. Taxing his mental capabilities as well, he excluded bringing along unwanted visitors and lingering guests from the previous emergency evacuation to his house. He also made sure that when the exchange occurred, his group plus Lars would remain while the rest went with the chunk of mudflat.
The cost was monumental in more ways that one. The several motes worth of condensed eternium stored in the formation were burned up. Orison's aura was weakened significantly and nearly every free scrap of spirit and magic essence stored in his body were exhausted in one fell swoop. Were it not for the tied formation inside the hovercraft Roy was in, that would pull it over with the lake house property, the equipment specialist would have died, crashing into the planar wall.
As Orison lost consciousness, he thought of the small bit of villainy he had pulled. Since Roy believed in Orison, he bravely flew towards the planar wall after seeing the strong flash on the other side linked to the appearance of the lake house property. To any observer, it would very much appear as if Roy had flew 'through' the wall but he had been phased over just as the property had, with a poof of displaced air exchanged in his place.
Two other flying craft HAD been observing. Upon seeing the 'smoke and mirrors' illusion, one plowed right into the planar wall. Their death was mercifully quick. The remaining observer was in need of a change of underwear as they were only a half second away from doing the same.
Nearly an hour later, being fed the restoratives Roy had on him, Orison scrambled back to his feet woozily. Pulling a couple of better ones out, he downed them in succession. Staggering outside, Orison could tell that the edges of the lake house property's greenery was starting to show signs of going into the undying state. The far edges of the much smaller lake's boundaries were taking on a dirty stain of clay rich mud.
Orison sighed and muttered, "Could have went better. Could have went a hell of a lot worse."
Bellowing out behind him into the house, he said, "Every able body pair of hands, use whatever is ON hand to start banking up the other side of the lake. Turner, I know you're an earth mover. We need that water to stay clean. Filter through is unavoidable and soil seepage is a good thing but lets keep the chunks and the larger part of the mud out."
Grabbing Roy, he had the specialist fly him out to near the center of the wettest part of the flat after collecting up all the inert essence crystals his team had gathered. Throwing the whole collection down, the black rocks ate through the crust and began sinking down into the muddy water. A patch of clear water remained in their trail which Orison quickly followed.
Relying on spirit sight to guide him, the young mage swam towards the main source of the healing mud's 'life' property. After reaching a certain depth, he was surprised to find himself fall into an empty space. Hitting his suit with presto, he looked around.
A sight he had never expected to see out of the many scenarios he'd prepared for. Close to the center of the 'bubble' A bored looking Daniel stared listlessly at his pitcher conduit while the fused marble looking hourglass that the man had once called the Temporal Centrifuge, spun lazily above him. Noticing Orison's presence and recognizing the over robe, he he made an equally lazy motioning gesture for the young mage to join him.
"Long time, no see, Danny," Orison said with a smile, deciding to take the coincidence as a happy accident until proven otherwise.
Danny chuckled and said, "Not for me. We met maybe a couple of days ago but I've long grown numb to the ridiculousness of low dimensional nonsense... So, does this version of you know who your original parents are and all of that? Or are you a version that's clueless why overpowered assassins are trying to take your life after, well, playing with you?"
A little numb himself, the young mage replied, "The second. Was there a version where I had figured out why I can't hit the next step?"
Daniel nodded, ironic amusement on his face. "It's tied to the first version. Have a seat and I'll fill you in. Are you a version with drinks and snacks?"
Orison pulled out a bottle of the more abundant special boozes and some minor augmented munchies.
The pleasantly bland man helped himself as he explained. "I'm not completely uninvolved since my master is wrapped up in this to a small degree. You see, before she switched out her base comprehensions for a less dead end path than a taboo field rejected by greater reality, her conduit was a device that manipulated placement of consciousness in time.
"She had to sever her connection with it, among other hard sacrifices... Since I've already told the long version a couple of times, I hope you don't mind the short one... Conduit gains a form, enjoys some life as a 'person' and accidentally finds out the hard way that a certain girl in a certain reality is capable of giving him a child. Since she was the only one out of thousands of lovers he had, he becomes interested and then obsessed over her AND his child.
"Due to a mistake I'm not clear on, he accidentally or purposefully closes the loop. Essentially, from that point forward, they live their lives together in a perpetual recycle. The problem is, it's down here and things from the mid dimensions aren't affected. Things start popping up to disturb their happy cycle, turning it into a bad one.
Once his three companions had picked everything of value to them, Orison threw the rest of the things too dangerous or steeped in dark deeds into the devouring swirl of his space. There was a garden and cupboard of goodies that made the bulk of the young mage's actual gains. And even though Roy hadn't had much of a supernatural gain from the trip, it had been an invaluable lift to something Orison thought of as equally important. "Are you disappointed?' he asked the equipment specialist. Roy smiled widely. "Are you kidding? My great-great granny was nearly an S-class supernatural threat! I feel friggin stoked!" The young mage said, "I think it slipped her mind or whatever she actually used to think. She actually did leave something very useful to you. It's possible that she didn't tell you because she was afraid it would hurt you but I'm a lightweight curse breaker, so..." He lead Roy to the center of the ritual room and said, "Sit right hear, try not to give too much thought on how this works and repeat after me. Ancestor, give me your blessing. Share with this humble descendant, the depth of your wisdom and open the doors of your gifts hidden within my blood and bones..." Under Orison's watchful eye, the remains of his ancestors buried underneath the floor of the ritual room enriched Roy's physical and spiritual talents. Steeped in the dark essence of the Mire for decades, they were something of a conduit themselves. That didn't mean there weren't dangers. The swampy plane had remnant will, possibly other smaller will shards, and didn't take kindly to the theft. But the young mage would hit clumps of dark backlash and grudge with Remove Curse, when it had grown strong enough to unleash itself at Roy's unprotected soul. Soon, Babs and Birgir rushed in to tell him that a slew of undead nastiness and other dark creatures were marching their way to the island. Orison slapped Roy on the back, knocking him out of trance, and said, "Communion with the ancestors is over. Get in the Reese Rover and go to the other location. Don't try to go through until you see a flash and the appearance of another scenery in the planar wall. Don't forget to detach the drone with the tracker signal." As the specialist trotted to the craft, he muttered. "Crazy... First he tells me how the walls don't have anything good on the other side of them and then tells me about a spot where the planar wall has something good on the other side of it." In the distance, while dodging around a few of the first creatures to break through the island's protection, Roy replied, "Are you TRYING to make my brain explode or something!?" As he lead the grandfather and granddaughter duo towards the storage shed by the garden, he thought, "Step into my shoes." Once in the shed, he barred the doors behind him. After a bit of fumbling, he found the trap door that led into the ground and barred that as well after they were through. Walking through a wide tunnel made of fitted stone and mortar that was oddly in good repair and dry, Orison said, "Up ahead, there will be three branches." While he took a second to make sure he had their attention, Babs said, "Left, middle, left and don't really look at anything. Mrs Brown already told us just in case the sharing she did with me undone her. Undid her? Made her disappear." With nothing to add about the tunnels, the young mage said as they walked, "What kind of things did she share?" Babs sighed, "Most of it was woman stuff. There were some things that she had figured out that weren't all dark and messing with dead stuff. Do you want to know about any of that?" Orison nodded and said, "If there's anything that you think is useful, then sure." With a playful smile, she said, "What do I get?" Giving her a saintly smile in return, he replied, "A ride out of the swamp. Grandpa Booger even gets to ride for free." At one point, the area felt heavy. A combination of extra pressure, both spiritual and physical, pressed against them and Babs eventually had to be carried by her grandpa who was a lot stronger than he looked. "We can't stay here for long but pick up as many of those dark chunks out of that black sludge, under the walkway, as you can in a couple of minutes. Makes sure not to touch it with your bare hands. I know it's an obvious but it's important enough to remind," Orison said, joining in himself. A few minutes later, after they were walking again and the pressure let back up, Babs asked, "What are those things?" "Chunks of compressed inert essence. If we had taken another route, we would have personally felt how it was done. We would have also been exposed to the liquid and particle versions which would have been pretty much deadly long before the pressure got us," the young mage said. Babs replied, "But we were told that it was almost impossible to compress spent mystical energies from its ethereal gas state outside of a lab." When Orison looked at her oddly, she smiled and said, "Did you forget that I'm prepping for Core Accelerator?" The young mage rolled his eyes as Birgir ruffled her hair and proudly said, "That's my little egg head." Even though she shot her grandfather an annoyed look, she secretly smiled when she looked away. Eventually they came out the other side onto a large mound overlooking a slightly dry and cracked surface of a mud flat. Instead of murky dimness, there was a sunny and cloudless sky overhead. After surveying the baking layer of crust that seemed to stretch out in most directions, Orison walked to the edge of the side that extended out to wetness in the near distance. "Take this ball and put it up to the back of your neck, Grandpa Booger. I'm going to need your help with something in a minute and you'll need a suit that'll protect you from direct contact with your surroundings," the young mage said. Having earned some of the old man's trust, Birgir didn't flinch at following his directions. After testing out the features of the suit as he received a crash course, he followed the young mage out onto the mudflat as Babs was told to stay put for her safety. Pouting, Babs said, "You could give me a suit too! Then I could help." Suppressing a chuckle, Orison replied, "You want a suit that kind of looks like a carbon coated model of a skinned person? I figured I'd make you something nicer once I had the time. They bond to you. So, you can't just take it off later for another. At least, not without some serious pain. Are you sure you can't sit tight for a little bit instead?" Crossing her arms, she squinted her eyes at him. "How nice are we talking?" "Favorite color with enchantments, nice," Orison said as he started walking out, eyes pointed at the ground. Once they were suited up and Orison started slowing down, picking their movements more carefully, Birgir asked, "What are we doing exactly?" Orison said, "Looking for signs of people under there without going for a dangerous mud bath." "What would be the point?" Birgir said. In a grim voice, the young mage responded, "It takes a long time to die under there." With a decent idea of what he was looking for, it still took about fifteen minutes before he found the mud flow pattern he was looking for with his spirit sight. "No matter what you see. I need you to keep your cool, Gandpa Booger. You're going to see some unpleasant things but we have to push back responding to that til later," Somberly the old man responded, "I hear you." After giving some instructions, Orison carefully lowered Birgir past a thin piece of crust to reveal watery mud. Clipping a rope into place, he had the older man sink as low as the mud would let him and start fishing around until a body was felt. From there it was a multi-step process of retrieval until the young mage had to call time on it. They stopped finding people that still had uncrystallized exposed parts anyway. That was pretty much the extreme possible limit of potential survivability. A rule harshly proven once they got back to the mound. Out of the six potential survivors, only two were savable but Orison secretly used a feather on one that was almost completely covered. The old man, who had been trying really hard NOT to look at that particular body, gaped in awe as crystal reversed back to flesh and a young man was revealed. It was Lars, Babs' father and son of Birgir. The old man shot Orison a heartfelt look of gratitude and secret knowing before rushing in to check on the young man. "I don't understand. Over twelve years and he only looks younger. Are there any problems? Does he need medical attention?" Birgir spat in rapid succession. Orison shook his head and said, "He'll rest off the remaining deathless state in a day or two and wake up in a starved state. The others won't have as easy of a time but they won't be our problem in a minute." Observing her sleeping father in a state of wary curiosity, Babs said, "How did they get like that to begin with?" The young mage said, "That mud flat is a large, unbroken stretch of super charged healing mud that the death marches are sent out to find. The cores typically found in most of them are the crystallized pieces of living things that have completed the transition. Don't ask me how they get to all the different places in the swamp. I have no idea. "What I do know, is that every once in awhile, something forms called a 'devil's cauldron'. Divers can find very large chunks of healing mud cores in them. Several years ago, a team was sent to investigate a particularly large one that reversed it's push while the investigation was ongoing. You probably know more about that story than I do, Grandpa Booger. Tell her about it while I do my thing." Sensing that the hover craft was nearing the planar wall that separated them just far enough away that they weren't in danger on either side, Orison went to work as quickly as possible. Dashing along the same ridge supported crust he was on earlier while having levitation lighten him, the young mage made as far a distance out as he could get within a few minutes. Using his relatively weak telekinetic spell he scrawled a note about survivors and the possibility of more buried in the mud. Laying down a vellum with a complicated model on it, the young mage let loose a torrent of magic and a liberal flow of spirit essence along the lines of connection. From the model on the vellum, he followed it to the opened and stabilized rip and through to his own transport circle in the training bunker. With one last push that left him feeling lightheaded, he finally managed to connect with the massive formation under the lake house through the control circle in his basement. With a monumental pull to align all the connections and tap the power he had stored inside the lake house formation, Orison set the three mile property to exchange equal mass with his current location. Taxing his mental capabilities as well, he excluded bringing along unwanted visitors and lingering guests from the previous emergency evacuation to his house. He also made sure that when the exchange occurred, his group plus Lars would remain while the rest went with the chunk of mudflat. The cost was monumental in more ways that one. The several motes worth of condensed eternium stored in the formation were burned up. Orison's aura was weakened significantly and nearly every free scrap of spirit and magic essence stored in his body were exhausted in one fell swoop. Were it not for the tied formation inside the hovercraft Roy was in, that would pull it over with the lake house property, the equipment specialist would have died, crashing into the planar wall. As Orison lost consciousness, he thought of the small bit of villainy he had pulled. Since Roy believed in Orison, he bravely flew towards the planar wall after seeing the strong flash on the other side linked to the appearance of the lake house property. To any observer, it would very much appear as if Roy had flew 'through' the wall but he had been phased over just as the property had, with a poof of displaced air exchanged in his place. Two other flying craft HAD been observing. Upon seeing the 'smoke and mirrors' illusion, one plowed right into the planar wall. Their death was mercifully quick. The remaining observer was in need of a change of underwear as they were only a half second away from doing the same. Nearly an hour later, being fed the restoratives Roy had on him, Orison scrambled back to his feet woozily. Pulling a couple of better ones out, he downed them in succession. Staggering outside, Orison could tell that the edges of the lake house property's greenery was starting to show signs of going into the undying state. The far edges of the much smaller lake's boundaries were taking on a dirty stain of clay rich mud. Orison sighed and muttered, "Could have went better. Could have went a hell of a lot worse." Bellowing out behind him into the house, he said, "Every able body pair of hands, use whatever is ON hand to start banking up the other side of the lake. Turner, I know you're an earth mover. We need that water to stay clean. Filter through is unavoidable and soil seepage is a good thing but lets keep the chunks and the larger part of the mud out." Grabbing Roy, he had the specialist fly him out to near the center of the wettest part of the flat after collecting up all the inert essence crystals his team had gathered. Throwing the whole collection down, the black rocks ate through the crust and began sinking down into the muddy water. A patch of clear water remained in their trail which Orison quickly followed. Relying on spirit sight to guide him, the young mage swam towards the main source of the healing mud's 'life' property. After reaching a certain depth, he was surprised to find himself fall into an empty space. Hitting his suit with presto, he looked around. A sight he had never expected to see out of the many scenarios he'd prepared for. Close to the center of the 'bubble' A bored looking Daniel stared listlessly at his pitcher conduit while the fused marble looking hourglass that the man had once called the Temporal Centrifuge, spun lazily above him. Noticing Orison's presence and recognizing the over robe, he he made an equally lazy motioning gesture for the young mage to join him. "Long time, no see, Danny," Orison said with a smile, deciding to take the coincidence as a happy accident until proven otherwise. Danny chuckled and said, "Not for me. We met maybe a couple of days ago but I've long grown numb to the ridiculousness of low dimensional nonsense... So, does this version of you know who your original parents are and all of that? Or are you a version that's clueless why overpowered assassins are trying to take your life after, well, playing with you?" A little numb himself, the young mage replied, "The second. Was there a version where I had figured out why I can't hit the next step?" Daniel nodded, ironic amusement on his face. "It's tied to the first version. Have a seat and I'll fill you in. Are you a version with drinks and snacks?" Orison pulled out a bottle of the more abundant special boozes and some minor augmented munchies. The pleasantly bland man helped himself as he explained. "I'm not completely uninvolved since my master is wrapped up in this to a small degree. You see, before she switched out her base comprehensions for a less dead end path than a taboo field rejected by greater reality, her conduit was a device that manipulated placement of consciousness in time. "She had to sever her connection with it, among other hard sacrifices... Since I've already told the long version a couple of times, I hope you don't mind the short one... Conduit gains a form, enjoys some life as a 'person' and accidentally finds out the hard way that a certain girl in a certain reality is capable of giving him a child. Since she was the only one out of thousands of lovers he had, he becomes interested and then obsessed over her AND his child. "Due to a mistake I'm not clear on, he accidentally or purposefully closes the loop. Essentially, from that point forward, they live their lives together in a perpetual recycle. The problem is, it's down here and things from the mid dimensions aren't affected. Things start popping up to disturb their happy cycle, turning it into a bad one.
