Session 68 - It's The Principia Of The Thing, Yves

Previously, Across The Horizon...
The Edge Of The World continues to reveal secrets long forgotten to our brave adventurers, with the latest being an ancient library, lost in time, empty and abandoned but for one remaining librarian - a talking book with incredibly sharp teeth and sharp senses both, and an overwhelming love of helping people find the right book.
Principia welcomed our adventurers to the Great Library of Alexander, and then set about finding them the books they needed, using the Timesight Orb Yves carries to rearrange the multiple rooms connected to the library, shifting time back to the library's peak to be able to do this.
While somewhere above them, the crew of the Seventh Dawn must be trying to find their way through the Edge of the World, trying to discover what secrets lie beneath, we join our brave adventurers as they continue to do the same...
**
Orrey has taken up position near the door, sitting on a piece of rubble that looks like all the other pieces, utterly enraptured by the book that apparently stars him.
Aurin and Azdar Chid are near him, neither man looking to add their own searches to the Great Library, at least not yet.
"Well, you've certainly got him bang to rights," Linnet addresses Principia in an approving tone, smiling at Orrey. "I love to see my friends happy."
Yves is making little encouraging motions from Linnet towards the book, or possibly vice versa.
"...this next one is a little personal, Principia. Um." The sylph leans a bit closer to the book in patron-librarian confidence.
The book scootches forward.
"I, um, well, you can probably tell I'm a sylph, right? My whole family are wind sylphs, and I never thought much about my connection to the wind until just a few weeks ago, when...it was severed. Very abruptly. As part of a battle with some magitek-enhanced weird stuff. I was wondering if you had anything on sylphs losing their elemental powers, and even more importantly, on getting them back." By the end of her request, Linnet's eyes are firmly glued to her shoes and her voice is barely above a mumble.
The pulse from the orb runs through the library, and Principia scrambles off to find the answers Linnet seeks.
"...could you all please start talking about something else so we're not sitting here in totally embarrassed silence for the next however many minutes," Linnet more or less orders the group, still not looking at anyone.
"What happened to you?" It is Aurin who asks the question, the first question he has asked the entire trip.
Yves spins around, back turned to Linnet and the book, and immediately says to the group at large, "So, how should we ask after the stars? I'm thinking we should ask about that. With the whole situation. We should discuss that! Loudly! At length!"
Azdar Chid looks interested at Yves's loud and lengthy discussion topic.
"Okay, well, not exactly something else, but at least it's not silence. Very fair question, Aurin. Yves, it's okay." Linnet finally looks up and gives Bast's friend a shaky smile. "We broke into a factory doing all sorts of magical weird shit experiments, one of them came after us, and it didn't quite kill me, but when I hauled myself off the floor, I could no longer lift myself off the floor. It's funny, you don't really think about things like gravity until you realize how long you've spent not thinking about them.
"I used to float everywhere." Linnet reaches onto her back and wrangles something underneath her shirt; after a second, her thin wings come unfurled. It's the first time Azdar and Aurin have seen them; everyone else might not have noticed that she's been binding them. "I used to fly."
Yves looks slightly relieved that he doesn't need to actually carry a conversation like this. But does pull out a notebook to discuss some falling stars, masks, free/confine factions, squishy trees, and other related topics with Azdar Chid. In... some sort of order?
Aurin walks over closer to listen to Linnet, while Chid takes up discussion with Yves, very interested in masks, stars, and squishy trees, because it's very difficult to hear about squishy trees and not want to hear more about them.
"I guess it's helped, in some ways? Forcing me to keep my eyes on the ground has made me ground my thoughts a little, too. But if there's a way to get the wind back, I'd trade most of who I am for it."
"I'm very sorry to hear that," Aurin says, sounding more like the Aurin Linnet met right before the time loop hit back in Mechon. "You take something for granted, and then some sort of trauma severs that... I'm sorry."
"Not you all. Let me make that very clear; if it's a tradeoff between any of you and my elemental powers, I will stay with my feet on the ground forever. But if it takes sacrificing part of me..." She glances at Aurin in a sort of painfully shy connection. "That goes without saying."
Principia returns just as Yves is getting to the good part, and before Aurin can ask any more questions. There are two books balanced on top of Principia's cover.
Linnet jumps a bit, and you can see her wings tense. She doesn't look like she was actually expecting Principia to find anything.
The first book is Crystal Exelementalism, and the second is The Fourth Vein.
The Timesight Orb dims slightly, and any further searches will require another charge.
"Please, let me." Linnet places her hand on the orb and delivers a puff of glowing, butter-scented energy. "Least I could do." She accepts the two books from their keeper, bobs a short bow of thanks, and retires to lean against a column within orb range.
Yves steps up, cracking knuckles unnecessarily, ready to deposit some more mana. And lets his hands fall awkwardly again when Linnet takes point there. "So, uh," he says to the book, "if I ask you about what we /should/ do in some situation... Presumably you could find us informed opinions, if it's in the library, right? It's not exactly about fact so much as...trying to get more facts to figure out the right course."
Orrey wordlessly hands Linnet up a journal so she can take notes. He would be taking notes himself, but he's too busy just reading.
"There are Alexandrite Scholars' opinions on any number of topics stored within these hallowed halls," Principia says.
"Okay! Great!" Yves flips a journal open for taking notes once the opinions are delivered. "If the stars are falling, and there are two different factions with very strong opinions on how to deal with their presence here, between binding and, uh, otherwise, what's the ethical course of action for dealing with them, and why?"
Bast rolls his eyes. "Yves, we want specific answers here, not philosophy. You all get this sorted, I'm going to go check on the other party. Speaking of which-" He trails off, giving Linnet a meaningful look before heading back up the passage they came from.
"Philosophy has to be informed by facts," Yves protests. "Any decent philosopher will have specific backing for their reasoning! ...right? I think that's how philosophy works. I mean, I only took the philosophy of science class because it was required, and I didn't finish it, but that was the impression I got from the syllabus."
Principia seems to lose focus, as normal, as the orb pulses out a search. The multiple rooms start to rearrange, and then stop. "There are too many results to return," Principia says. "Narrow your search parameters, please."
"...well I mean I guess that's good news," Yves says, and turns to Bast. "Right, so what specific aspect do we most want the info on, here?"
"...why they become masks and whether they're happy there?" Linnet suggests with an awkward shrug.
Bast, having left the room as the search started, does not reply.
"Is that narrow enough?" Yves asks the book.
Another pulse echoes the first, carrying the rest of the first search's power. "Yes," Principia responds, and then is gone to find the answers.
"Um, speaking of happy...Yves, Bast wants me to try to recruit Principia. I sort of feel like you should?"
"I don't know if it likes me that way," Yves says wistfully, "but I can try."
"I can help with the buttering-up parts, but honestly, you're the one with the biggest connection to all our big scary force connections so far. I wouldn't even know where to begin." Linnet is still hugging her books - she hasn't even opened them - and looks a little stunned.
Principia returns, carrying a stack of notes as bookmarks. As they offer them to Yves, the question of "why aren't there ever teeth marks on these?" comes to mind.
Yves accepts the notes, and says, "Could I ask you a question? Not one of the searches, but personal opinion, Principia, if it's not too, uh, forward."
Principia flips through their pages. "Certainly."
"We were wondering..." Yves looks sidelong to Linnet, then tries to square his shoulders and get right into this. "We were wondering, when we're done asking questions, if you'd be interested in traveling with us for a time. This amazing place must be... nearly everything, to you. But we're dealing with these vast forces that predate all of us, and trying to figure out what's best for them but also everyone else, and it's just... it seems like you have so much more of a, uh, connection to them? Especially since we're trying to help with Alexander and that... the whole.." He is resorting to ambiguous hand gestures at this point. "...with the armored people who, uh, I mean, it was a bit unclear, but it seems like the memory or separation issue between them and Alexander could cause some really... disastrous... results."
Principia... considers Yves.
Linnet slings an arm around Yves' shoulders and grins at him.
"I mean, I don't even know how to get into some of the spheres on our ship yet, which isn't surprising given it predates all of us, but maybe not you? I don't think it predates you! And I don't know how to... how to make it do what we might need, especially ethically, double especially with that engine, but I do want to save the world from disaster, but also help all these amazing people like the Guardian Forces--is it okay to call them people? They are people, aren't they? Even if they're not like us in a lot of ways, they're people--when sometimes I don't even know if they know what they want, and, uh..." Yves trails off. "It would just be. Very nice. To have your help. And I thought maybe, because of some overlapping, uh, goals, I hope, maybe you'd want to."
Principia flutters their pages, flipping them like there's a little motion comic drawn on the corner of the pages. "Well, I... I've never considered traveling, to be quite honest, this has been my task for all of known time, but with no one ever coming down here, I could close the library down for at least a time, I suppose... I would... yes, yes I believe I would like to travel with you."
"Everyone deserves the occasional sabbatical," Yves says, "and, and we'd be honored to have you along."
From her vantage point leaning on a ruined balustrade, Isa's eyes narrow slightly at some subtle detail that's pricked her attention.
"Now then," Principia rustles, "will there be any more searches today?"
"I think we did have one more question, we just have to figure out how to phrase it." Linnet stops hugging Yves for a second so they can think.
"Oh! Yes, I think we had just one or two more. Ideally more narrow from the start than my previous one," Yves says, clutching his notes and trying to remember what he was thinking of before he asked out the book.
Yves is trying to take notes on things and think at the same time. It looks as if his brain might be about to fritz with the multitasking.
"...right, okay. In that case, Yves, you're on point, I need to speed-read." Linnet glances around for a table, doesn't find one, settles for a relatively empty hunk of floor and cracks open The Fourth Vein. (There is a quick muttered prayer to Mechon to slow the hell down.)
Linnet's book is about how to seal aspects of a crystal, not unlike Green Study Vol. 1 from the very beginning of her weird adventures dunking on ol' whatshisname on the train and then meeting up with everyone here. What is more interesting is that here it's expressly laid out how one does that -- with the use of the Crystal Exarch's power, or failing that, a sufficiently-practiced Astrologian, and how one seals the entire crystal for a person. Not just an aspect of it, but the entire thing.
...Linnet delves further into the book for information on how to unseal a crystal.
Unsealing a crystal takes the Exarch's skill. If any other method existed, it has since been Forgotten.
That's the only misplaced capital letter in the book so far.
"...right!" Yves says, folding the notes he was given carefully into his satchel. "We need to ask about Logos."
"The Children of Alexander?" Principia asks.
Yves nods. "It seems like there's imminent potential for them to cause problems to the world on account of something... missing, from either them or Alexander? Or them not being with Alexander? It was unclear, but we'd like to avoid that, so if there's anything about them raining horrific destruction on all of existence and how to keep that from happening, especially in a way that's good for them..."
Linnet whispers a series of violent weather-based curses and gently shuts The Fourth Vein, laying it carefully on a hunk of stone beside her and opening up Crystal Exelementalism instead.
Principia runs a search, and flutters about as it scans. The rooms move, shifting around on all sides, and then Principia is off to explore.
"It's such an amazing book," Yves murmurs dreamily, while Principia is away.
"Um, do we know anything about a Crystal Exarch?" Linnet asks the room, rather than the librarian.
Linnet's new book is a set of research notes from a G. Tia who seems very ill at ease about their research material, especially once she clues into the fact that it's a study of what must be sylphs, and it seems like sylphs weren't treated as fully alive and sentient during this time, perhaps? The author disagrees with the consensus that they are not, which makes holding onto the book a little easier to handle.
Racist and stupid history is still history, and she hasn't found anything more helpful in a modern library, so Linnet grits her teeth and soldiers on.
"...Exarch to the... Great Crystal?" Yves hypothesizes. "Or maybe the Great Crystal was an Exarch. Now I'm not sure what an exarch is. Former leader? Leader out of something? Ugh, I was never good at etymology."
"Please tell me there's something in here about how we're connected to the elements, not just this hokey outdated primitive bullshit..."
A passage jumps out.
“There is no denying it - the elementally-aspected crystals carry their force of personality and their sense of self. Those aspected to wind are flighty and often adrift, while those aspected to earth are slow to change yet steadfast in their conviction. As time passes, these stronger traits level out within the expected parameters, and we are left to wonder if the element grants the type or the type grants the element… but regardless, one thing is, if you can pardon the expression, crystal clear.
“Removing the element removes them.
“The element is their soul. If the element leaves their crystal… they die.
“They die, and I am yet at a loss on how to prevent it.”
"Fuck." Linnet commits a major breach of library etiquette and swears loudly enough to echo. Then she glances up in embarrassment, attempts to hide behind her hair, and continues reading.
Nine chapters later, skimming page by page, as the others wait for Principia's return, there is more.
"There is a method. The same that was used before, but on a worldwide scale, whereas this is smaller and altogether more personal.
"Seal the crystal.
"Not a part of it, not a crack of it, but the whole of it. Seal the soul inside, place the soul in crystal stasis, so nothing can change or grow, nothing can decline or decay. That keeps them from dying.
"One could argue that it also keeps them from living, an argument I would hear for I have made it myself. But what could I do? Stand by and do nothing?
"If we are to trust in those who would save Ducorde by sealing the Crystal, perhaps one day I can be forgiven for trying the same.
"Until there is another way."
Linnet finishes taking notes on this passage, sets down her pen, and rests her elbow on the desk and her forehead in her hand. To the library at large, she proclaims in a flat voice, "I dream of the day when I will learn to stop asking questions to which I will regret knowing the answers." She continues flipping through, dispirited, not assuming G. Tia will have found that other way in the course of this book.
Principia returns, next set of notes flat and prepared.
Yves looks to Linnet, then back to the notes. "Thank you," he tells the book, as he accepts them. "Is there power for one more query, or was that the last of that charge?"
"You have zero remaining inquiries," Principia replies. "Please insert more to continue."
Isa hops down to the floor, walking over to Yves and holding a hand out for the sphere.
Yves beams at Isa, who clearly appreciates this totally amazing book and wants it to be happy. And/or wants to support the research session. Either way, it's great. "Just pop it right in there."
Bast reenters the room, walking up to the pedestal before quietly speaking up: "They have ropes, and they're almost here. Time to wrap this up."
"--oh," Yves says, and turns back to Principia. "If you are indeed coming with us, now's the moment, it would appear." That statement ends on a sort of hopeful upnote.
"Alternately, we could pick you up on the way back, if we're going further down into the temple," Linnet points out.
As Isa hands the newly-charged sphere back to Yves, she leans in close. "Make it fast, I guess. And," she says, in a whisper for his ears alone, "don't mention the ship again. Chid noticed, and not in a way I like."
"Someone tell me if we're heading out of here and back, or just out," Yves says, with an anxious look toward Isa, and then back toward the door they came in from.
"Bast, that's gonna be up to you. I think a few of us are a little too deep in thought to be strategical right now." Linnet is still gleaning the old book for any last useful tidbits.
"How about we don't leave Principia alone to deal with the people hunting Guardian Forces." Bast frowns, turning to Principia. "I don't suppose there's some way to...conceal this room?"
"...oh. OH," Yves says. "Yes, we definitely shouldn't risk anyone causing harm to Principia!"
"I mean, we didn't know there was anyone in here until they spoke up," Linnet says.
"This is a library," Principia huffs at this new disrespectful visitor. "We do not refuse visitors who come seeking enlightenment!"
"I'm not trying to leave anyone anywhere, just suggesting the least disruptive course of action for Principia...unless the Rising Stars know you're here. And I'm afraid they don't come seeking enlightment, they come seeking prisoners. Guardian Force prisoners. They keep them in display cases behind glass."
Yves looks thoroughly appalled at the thoughts now skulking through his imagination.
"Right." Linnet stands up and shoves Orrey's notebook into her pack. "Is there a place we should leave books to be reshelved later? And I assume you'd prefer to travel under your own power, but we can also offer you the option of concealment in someone's pack, if you'd prefer a less, uh, potentially confrontational option. I'm not saying that's preferable, just trying to cover all of our bases."
Isa peeks out into the entryway. "I can probably keep them busy long enough for one more question, or we can move. But we don't want to be in the room at the same time they are, one way or another."
"Oh boy. We need to get off this rock and I need to write a long, long letter to Peri."
"I'd rather not risk any harm to Principia," Yves says. "...though of course it's your choice where you'd like to go, and how, given the information available," he adds anxiously to the book.
"I do not mind accompanying either the librarian or you, my inquisitive friend," Principia says to Yves. "Now, before I disconnect from the console, are there any further searches?"
"Oh, hell under sails. Let's get out of here and resume thinking at some point when we're not also trying to dodge a vastly more powerful enemy, okay?" Linnet says.
"No, I think we're going for the better part of valor," Yves says, offering satchel space to Principia.
"Fair enough," Isa says. "Forward or back?"
Principia slots into Yves's satchel.
Bast nods, scattering the rocks he put together before Principia made an appearance. "Back is going to take us right into them, by now. Forward's at least unclear. Be nice if we could get them and whatever's down there to fight, but I don't think our luck stretches that far."
"Don't suppose you have any special gifts to leave behind for them?" Isa inquires, placid.
Linnet chivvies Orrey into flight mode and stashes his book. "Time to go write more of your story, Oracle."
Yves is about to object that 'special gifts' could harm the library, recalls that the library is a ruin and research is done by time travel to recover items from before they were destroyed, and ends up too confused to object or encourage such a thing.
"Could rig up something, but probably won't delay them much. Cassiat's come along, I figure that limits what we want to use here." Bast glances at Orrey.
"Seem to remember her saying that fighting her was the right way to go," Isa points out helpfully.
"Yes, but ideally not while she's got a whole crew with her. Captain, you take the lead. Isa, you take the rear and be ready to stab anyone who gets too close. Yves, protect Principia and try not to trip on anything. Orrey and I will...also try not to trip on anything. Move it, folks."
Yves may still be caught in the throes of complicated and confused thoughts about the nature of time magic, but he doesn't need to be told that part twice.
This gets a smile from Isa. "Yes, ma'am," she says briskly, and draws her spear to guard the rear of the line.
Bast pulls some twine and one of his poison smoke grenades from his pockets and arranges a tripline across the entrance to the library, not trying very hard to conceal it. "Might make them interested enough to keep searching here. Watch your feet on the way out." He steps over the twine by way of demonstration, and heads to the stairs.
With the trap left behind, Bast leads the way further down the stairs, Isa bringing up the rear. There are clearly voices behind them -- not alarmed, not pursuing, and not trying to be particularly quiet. Orrey listens for anything familiar, Linnet pushing him forward. Yves cradles his satchel carefully.
The field from the Timesight Orb keeps the stairs pristine as they descend, any structural problems vanishing as the seven of them follow the path.
The stairs eventually level out, far, far below the surface. The walls spread out around them as they walk into a chasm, waterfalls pouring on both sides.
The Timesight Orb has been steadily increasing in its radius as they travel, its strength and power growing the further down they travel. There is room for them all to walk comfortably, even with Isa's careful protection and Linnet's occasional stumbles.
Down this deep, it is nearly fifty feet across.
And as they enter this massive chamber, the reason why becomes clear.
There is something here.
A breastplate two hundred feet high.
Shoulders that disappear into the darkness.
Black and gold etchings of wings across the front of this titanic armor.
The dim eyes of a full-face helmet looking down at the travelers here at the bottom of the Edge of the World.
Inside Yves's satchel, they can hear the tome's reverence.
"Alexander."
They stand before the Holy Avenger, this Divine Knight, this massive resting force here...
...and then they see the rest of it.
The black and red pulse that winds around the waist.
The bubbling corruption steaming underneath the armor.
The stain of decay behind the left eye.
And then the other two eyes that appear on the golden mask on a coiling, bubbling red flame that extends around the left shoulder of Alexander, that comes to bring its full attention on the adventurers, that opens the third eye on its dragonlike visage to bathe the room in its sickly light, a mouth of broken teeth carved into its lower half.
The Parasite.
End session.