Preface- a brief history of Xanropa
Xanropa- the utopia of the stars, is a pyramid planet that sits in the chasm of space. It was conceptualized by a group of humans called the Originators who abandoned their homeworld to pursue a better life. When the idea was only on paper and discussed in many councils, the Originators were facing the consequences of their humanity. War, greed, and an ever-failing environment led the way to begin planning the monumental move from their homeworld and eventually find and populate Xanropa.
Due to the various political conflicts of their homeworld, the Originators had to fight their way out of their former skies. Lives were lost during their take-off in an event they call the Final Rift. As the Originators took flight in their vessel, they were met with various attacks that were planned to dismantle the vessel and/or end the Originators. The Final Rift would later be practiced as a day of celebration and reflection; it was a day that they lost so much but would also acquire more than they ever dreamed of. The last image many of the Originators saw of their homeworld, as they left it behind, was sighted as an orb of ruin. The homeworld was veiled in a layer of glassy clouds- that flashed sporadically from the constant carnage of violence and disruptive weather patterns. All memories made there were devoured by the last horrific sight of their homeworld for it was cemented in Originator history as the Ceaseless End. It has never been documented whether or not the planet is still spinning to this day, or if it ever finally imploded on itself via the abuse it endured.
Eventually, the Originator’s vessel would land upon a crystalline meteorite that would become the eventual location of Xanropa. Construction of the pyramid took many years to complete, but the Originators were led by determination, a new sense of meaning, and an incredible amount of joy behind their project. The pyramid would be built around the meteorite- for after many tests, the crystalline meteorite proved to be a sustainable resource of power. Since the crystalline meteorite was now at the core of Xanropa, the former meteor would be deemed the crystalline core. As the physical construction of their new homeworld began, so did the construction of their new political system. After the events of the Final Rift, it was agreed upon what was not wanted from their new system and what was desired for so long from their previous system. Unlike their old homeworld, there would not be one singular leader. Instead, the pyramid would be split into five unified colonies (one for each vertice of the pyramid), with a leader from each colony making up a leading council. The council would oversee the prosperity and continuing practices of their collective utopia. If ever the public wanted new council leaders, they could acquire an election for each position.
Of the five council leaders, the leader of the first vertice, Vaine, is the most notable. However, his notoriety is not one of only good will or bad intentions. Vaine was regarded as one of- if not the founding member of the movement called the Unity Cause, and all of the Originators admired the work of Vaine. Without him, Xanropa may have never been. If any elections were conducted on behalf of the public, Vaine would always retain his position as council leader of the first vertice. Vaine was gifted with the ability of artifice and created many of the mechanisms and buildings that helped the new homeworld thrive. This ability was one of the reasons why the public never challenged Vaine’s position. Vaine was also a crafter of human sensibilities; he was always empathetic to the people of Xanropa and almost always catered to their needs- no matter which vertice they were from.
Although the pyramid structure of Xanropa was mostly comprised of metals, the Originators were able to cultivate an environment that mimicked their old homeworld. Oxygen was made available by synthetic vegetation. Human-made lakes were embossed into the faces of the planet that provided safe reservoirs of drinking water to all. The lakes also wrapped around the pyramid in an almost spiral-like pattern, all connected by streams that rolled across the faces. Each lake would be labeled by the three vertices that they each inhabited. They were labeled by starting from the first vertice, working toward the bottom left vertice, and then finishing the three-number sequence at the bottom right vertice (for example, the lake that was on the face of the second and fifth vertice is Lake 125). These lakes would be called the Wrapping Lakes of Xanropa. The buildings that now occupied Xanropa were clean and built with the intention of peaceful activity to move freely throughout them. Fragments of the crystalline core were used as various lighting and as power for the many mechanisms and buildings that were helping the innovations on the planet.
* * * * * * *
Years went by, and Xanropa’s conception had been brought to life. It was a feat that so often was claimed as impossible, but here the Xanropians were, to prove the sentiment of impossibility and their estranged homeworld wrong. For almost as long as it took for the utopia to be made a reality, many years went by in calculated and prescribed peace. As the inhabitants grew and flourished, Vaine’s paranoia of invasion festered. At the beginning of Vaine’s transition during the second generation of council leaders, he had created and dispersed a new piece of technology out to the citizens. They were pairs of visors that veiled the top half of one’s face with two monitors (one for each eye) that projected presentations recorded by Vaine and a crew comprised of other Xanropians to the public about the history of their planet. Programs varied from educational content to providing exclusive interviews with individuals who played critical roles within the Originators (this included Vaine being interviewed to the delight and no surprise of all). During one of his interviews, Vaine declared, “Our utopia is not something we should take for granted. Some day, Xanropa may fall and we need to be prepared for if and when dire events take place. Let us not have what happened on the Ceaseless End, happen on Xanropa” He also explained that the purpose of his visors was to “connect us all, and keep us all on the same page of our history and where we are going as a lovely planet.”
* * * * * * *
Three decades would go by, and casually, Vaine would direct programs for his visors that spread more curiosity-led fear to the Xanropians about the possibility of invasion and what they could do to prepare for such a scenario. As many Xanropians continued to enjoy the visors of Vaine, the then-elected third generation of council leaders (Hyanthra of the second vertice, Lyndria of the third vertice, Garal of the fourth vertice, and Charles of the fifth vertice) met to discuss the ever-distressing paranoia Vaine was harboring and perhaps unintentionally contaminating the viewers with slowly. Anonymous citizens would voice their concerns about Vaine and the duration of his leadership. He was the only leader of the generations of council leaders to remain in his position, which was quite something considering the Originators did not want any leader to remain in position for such a period of time. Plans were being made to convince Vaine to forfeit his position and to hopefully extinguish the fear that was being projected across the pyramid. Unfortunately, the plans of the four council members would never be seen, for an untimely tragedy had unfolded. The event has been archived as ‘Day of Illusion’ which happened while the Xanropians went about their supposed to be peaceful lives.
Deafening booms shook the face of the pyramid. Everyone knew not what to do in the middle of the uncertainty. Vaine’s visors did not broadcast anything concerning the frightening experience. Viewers were met with a ‘no signal’ wall through their visors as the booms continued. Eventually, it was uncovered that unforeseen violence broke out in the third and fourth vertices. Shock, confusion, and dread shadowed Xanropa as it was reported that Vaine had intervened with a crew of mechanisms and was gravely injured. Lyndria, Garal, and many citizens of their vertices were declared casualties of the horror. From what was archived on the tragedy, it has been said that the booms were explosions set off by mechanisms and other energy sources that alleged terrorists had orchestrated. Who and why this violence occurred had not been discovered. Surviving council leaders, along with emergency council appointees, met to discuss what action to take next. All typical peace of Xanropa hid behind locked doors and powered-down mechanisms for weeks as the council met to piece together what had happened. One major piece of information from behind the event was only known to Vaine, who now laid in the hands of fate as his medical mechanisms worked to keep him alive. If he survived his grave injuries, Xanropa would have answers behind the tragedy, the council believed. For the time being, the pyramid lay silent and still in the grand vacuum of space. The weeks that followed were so silent that the planet almost seemed to be nonexistent.
Eventually, after what felt like a lifetime, Vaine reemerged, and it was observed that he had survived his injuries but at the cost of being more mechanism than human. The only part of Vaine that seemed to be human was the bottom half of his face, which was not hidden behind his visor. His torso and limbs were now that of the mechanisms’ limbs, metallic and cold. The public was in more disbelief than they were on the Day of Illusion. Vaine had declared that an insurrection had been planned by the third and fourth vertice leaders Lyndria and Garal. The two former vertice leaders had been secretly building armies of mechanisms that had only the intention of taking over the planet and overthrowing the system that they had carried on from the Originators’ plan. Lyndria was elected as the third vertice leader for her brilliant archiving of the history of Xanropa- which Vaine believed she was trying to erase and rewrite. Garal, the leader of the fourth vertice, was at the time helping Vaine with creating mechanisms for defense against any type of threat. Vaine explained that Garal’s use of the arcane had worried him and feared that he was making warfare to conquer the planet. If fear had not already been perpetuated from the Vaine, it was ragingly gleaming from him and his words. Hyanthra and Charles met with Vaine to discuss plans for reviving the lost vertices, but Vaine had told them to leave any future planning to him. This is where the transition of Vaine had been detected by Hyanthra and Charles. In secrecy, they met with trusted appointees to prepare a plan if their feelings of mistrust toward Vaine were to become true. If Vaine was going to wipe out the political structure of Xanropa, they would construct a makeshift planet inside the pyramid. It would serve as a new haven for those who did not feel safe with Vaine. They would call themselves the New Originators.
With more questions than answers, the public continued to navigate their lives. Many still used their visors to stay informed on the events that were transpiring. For some reason, many individuals started to become sick or collapse while using the visors of Vaine. Some Xanropians found that some visors were emitting frequencies that led to the users’ ailments. After much concern and new information about the visors were made publicly known, Vaine was put into question. The last glimpse of Vaine that was known to the public was seen and heard at the beginning of his interrogation; he led the questioning off by apologizing for any inconvenience that his visors had brought Xanropa, and slowly, he maniacally revealed that he was connected to all of his visors. Thus, Vaine had become omnipotent through the vast amount of visors. Whatever the Xanropians saw, thought, or heard while using the visors would be transferred to him. After this blight had been made known, he continued to bring up the plan and the existence of the New Originators. With the reveal of the new faction, Vaine also released information that he had finished the construction of a mechanized army whose parts were made from a new material he called bloodsteel: a metal substance that was melted down from recycled metal scraps and the remains of deceased Xanropians. At the end of the interrogation, Vaine gave the public an ultimatum. Xanropa could stand with their new leader, Tyrant Vaine, or be forcefully sent to the New Originator’s inner planet. They would have a week to decide and make any preparations for their decision.
There was turmoil that was last felt on their ancient homeworld brewing on Xanropa. Many thought that the newly named Tyrant Vaine had no right to monitor them all as he had been doing and did not want to be governed by the very thing that had made them abandon their ancient homeworld. Within the week, many had decided to not only join the New Originators but also declare war against Tyrant Vaine. The former council leaders of the second and fifth vertices, Hyanthra and Charles, assumed the position of temporary leaders of the New Originators. Hyanthra had arcane abilities that granted her mighty agility and strength. Along with her power and wisdom, she had been sharing and teaching others from her Vertice how to harness their arcane abilities. Charles was very gifted in artifice- not well known to many, and constructed mechanisms that could not potentially be corrupted by Tyrant Vaine, for they were operated by special marionette controllers that highlighted their manual use. Just as Hyanthra had done, Charles also had been a well-regarded instructor and taught many Xanropians from his vertice how to build and operate his specialized mechanisms. Together, they gathered all Xanropians who wanted to join the New Originators and prepared for a scenario that they never expected to face on Xanropa.
As the countdown toward war was dwindling, users of Tyrant Vaine’s visors collapsed and woke up stating that they were in fact, Tyrant Vaine. The horrifying truth that Tyrant Vaine was technologically omnipotent had come to life. All the victims of the visor infiltration would declare themself as Tyrant Vaine and begin to audibly continue the countdown with the other harmonizing tyrants. It was unanimously decided that the countdown was marking the time the New Originators had to vacate Xanropa and move inwards to their encapsulated planet. After the amount of possessed visor users grew astronomically, many of the New Originators doubted their chances of war. Sightings of monstrous mechanisms had been sighted near the second and fifth vertices. Vaine’s mechanisms had armor that looked crustacean and bore mighty claws. Their heads were T-shaped and bore three eyes. Vaine would speak and his menace could be heard from all around the crawling mechanisms’ bodies through phantom speakers. Hyanthra and Charles decided that whoever wanted to retreat to the inner planet should do so while whoever wanted to stand against Tyrant Vaine, would do so and retreat when necessary. They would not give up on the Originators, who gave so much, for this presence of unforeseen evil to take it all away.
Charles and Hyanthra were dedicated and exceptional teachers, before and during the intensifying build-up toward their confrontation with Vaine. Charles had what could be called a school of citizens that could operate Charles's mechanisms as Hyanthra acquired an army of trained citizens who could harness their arcane abilities to perform aerial and ground maneuvers. Unfortunately, some members of the now-combined forces of the New Originators fell to Tyrant Vaine via their visor usage. Some of the New Originators were able to show feats of incredible endurance and remove their visors before succumbing to the omnipotent grip of the tyrant. The combined forces of Charles’s manual mechanisms and Hyanthra’s army may have been reduced, but their resolute remained in full tact.
Finally, when the countdown was under an hour, those who wished to evacuate to the inner planet did while those who wanted to defend and fight for Xanropa prepared for the dawning war. The New Originators set out toward the first vertice- they kept a good number of members close to the first and second vertices to help protect the entrance to the inner planet and the land of those vertices in general. When they arrived at Lake 125, they were met by a mechanized behemoth that now dammed the stream connecting Lake 132 to Lake 125. It had a long neck like a serpent and had many sharp fangs. Beside the behemoth crawled the daunting mechanisms and all of the possessed visor users that acted under Tyrant Vaine’s conscience. Hyanthra and Charles at first tried to resolve any pending violence with talk, but it was meaningless for Tyrant Vaine declared that the perfect utopia is not one comprised of a planet of individual humans but rather a group of humans that are all under the same control of one mind. Hyanthra and Charles were stricken with disgust and fear by this Xanropian nightmare of a man and former ally. Then the confrontation occurred as Tyrant Vaine’s mechanized monsters began to charge the New Originators.
As the forces of New Originators fought off the mechanisms of Tyrant Vaine, the possessed visor users began to charge into the clash, throwing in many distractions for the New Originators. Hyanthra and her army used their hammers and spears as they thundered down upon Tyrant Vaine’s mechanisms, sending chunks of metal through the sky. “PHFT! PHFT! PHFT!” Using their training, Hyanthra and her company of the second vertice rained down on Tyrant Vaine’s forces just as stars and other satellites leaped across the sky. In the blink of an eye, mechanized terrors fell apart in front of all who were a part of the conflict.
Charles could switch control between two great mechanisms, one that was a colossal shielded warrior and the other was a great mechanized owl (which sat behind the head of the colossus warrior). While Charles switched control between the machines, the other mechanism controllers from the fifth vertice controlled more shielded warriors and gliders that helped ward off Tyrant Vaine’s swarm. Before Charles and Hyanthra led their stand against Tyrant Vaine, it was agreed that the Xanropians, who were under the possession of Tyrant Vaine, were not to be killed under any circumstances. After all, the possessed Xanropians were their neighbors and loved ones. Charles had constructed makeshift kiosks that could retain the possessed individuals as members from the second and fifth vertices studied how to exorcize the tyrant from them. It was not as simple as removing the visors of Vaine, for if the visors were removed with force, the possessed seemed to either lose their vision, spiral into a coma, or die immediately after removal. The way that Tyrant Vaine operated his current visor interface during the conflict made removal seem impossible- without somehow permanently harming the user, thus, the research on the captured possessed Xanropians was absolutely necessary if the New Originators wanted to save their own people.
Unfortunately, no matter how prepared anyone could be, casualties began to be counted up. When it comes to wars, no one needs to be reminded of the carnage, the gore, and the trauma that seeds itself into the lives of those that willingly and especailly unwillingly participate. Perhaps the most wicked thing about war is when acknowledgment is made toward the violent events, lives are scarred and lost in a matter of time that seems so small. In a matter of under a day, the New Originators were able to vanquish the behemoth of Lake 125. Charles was able to use his colossus warrior mechanism to capture the beast by its throat as some of Hyanthra’s company fell upon it like a mighty meteor shower. This was about the time that Tyrant Vaine’s armies of mechanisms and possessed users were dwindling. While the reduction came as good news for Charles and Hyanthra, they also lost many from the second and fifth vertices. Even though the combined loss was not as significant as Tyrant Vaine’s loss, they were reminded that those who fell under possession of the visors of Vaine were their casualties. During much of the violence, Tyrant Vaine remained away from the battlefield as if he were playing a board game. Watching, controlling the possessed visor users, and preparing to walk into the conflict zone.
When the tyrant inevitably showed up on the battlefield, the top half of his body sat on top of an intimidating mechanism (similar to his crustacean-looking mechanisms that kept attacking) with large hands whose fingers could be scythes. As Tyrant Vaine addressed the citizens of the second and fifth vertices, he tried to tell everyone that this was the first step toward their imagined utopia. It was revealed that his new form, including all the components that his crawling mechanisms were comprised of, came from a mixture he developed and coined as ‘bloodsteel’ which was gathered from the remains of humans and mechanisms. The very threat that Charles and Hyanthra were fighting were the remains of their fellow Xanropians and recycled mechanisms. With this knowledge, the two vertice leaders threw all reasoning with the tyrant to the side and they declared that Tyrant Vaine’s war and his new role needed to come to an end. As it could be suspected, the tyrant rejected this notion and decided that he must continue to fight for his defined utopia. With his intentions decided, Tyrant Vaine and more waves of his mechanisms and possessed Xanropians charged toward the New Originators.
Tyrant Vaine swept away masses of humans with his monstrous claws and spear-tipped legs by torpedoing himself through defending Xanropians at a horrific speed. His attacks were as fast as Hyanthra and her warriors- who could not successfully cease him. Now, the sum of distractions worsened as Tyrant Vaine was not only fighting with the Xanropians but also releasing as many of the possessed visor users from Charles’s kiosks- rejoining the battle.
Charles and his company of the fifth vertice were also struggling to keep up their defenses against the number of Tyrant Vaine’s mechanisms. It was becoming more and more difficult not to harm the possessed visor users, and in the act of split-second thinking, the New Originators had to at least render the possessed incapacitated. Eventually, Charles saw an opportunity with his colossal shielded warrior. Using his marionette controllers, Charles switched channels with his mechanisms and immediately directed the colossal warrior toward Tyrant Vaine. As soon as the tyrant was at an appropriate distance, Charles maneuvered the mechanism to restrain Tyrant Vaine, pinning him down with the mechanism’s shielded arms. When the tackle took place, a wide vibration shook the surface. It took all of Charles’ strength to restrain him through his controllers. Tyrant Vaine was clawing and lacerating the colossus mechanism. Hyanthra stood ready to strike at the tyrant when the moment was right, all the while, she continued to fight and aid her company against other crawling terrors.
Charles and Hyanthra formed a good rhythm with each other and prepared to take down Tyrant Vaine. As soon as the vertice leaders thought it, the tyrant ravaged out of Charles’s colossus mechanism, managing to maim one of its arms while crawling his way out to continue his havoc. As Hyanthra prepared to launch into one of her shooting star patterns, Charles clicked his marionette controllers again, puppeteering the great owl now. Hyanthra ran and leaped into her shooting star pattern with her spear aimed at the mechanism housing the former leader of the first vertice. All that she wanted was to end this conflict and try to resurrect the Vaine of before. In the second that Hyanthra began her comet-like charge toward Tyrant Vaine, Charles had his mechanized owl soar across the surface toward Hyanthra and the tyrant- his hopes to have his owl hold the tyrant down. Then, a time-stopping flash occurred at the coordinates of Hyanthra and Tyrant Vaine’s point of impact. Charles was not sure if Hyanthra had been hurt, or worse, the first and only thing he saw was her spear skewering Tyrant Vaine where his mechanized heart would have been. His long, sharp legs lowered as a human would kneel. The left arm of the mechanized horror had been taken off with Hyanthra’s attack as well. Charles seized the opportunity to control his owl to take hold of the gravely injured tyrant in its talons.
As Charles and his owl had a grip on Tyrant Vaine, he noticed that Hyanthra was lying in her own blood. In an understanding reaction of grief and anger, he maneuvered the owl to rip the dying tyrant in half. Tyrant Vaine’s lower half was thrown toward one of his crawling mechanisms, as the other half remained in the owl’s talons. After the legs of the tyrant were thrown, almost all of the battlefield noticed the great mechanized owl now in the sky. In his continued anger, Charles yelled for all to hear that the war was over. If any standing mechanisms or possessed visor users of Tyrant Vaine valued their betrayal toward Xanropia, this was the moment that they retreated back to the first vertice in fear. After the war was declared over, Charles could not think of doing anything but have his owl mechanism fly far away and drop the remainder of Tyrant Vaine somewhere in the carnage of this war he could not finish. At the moment, he could not think about anything but the status of Hyanthra. Charles ran to Hyanthra, feeling as though he had failed her, where she was being taken care of by fellow Xanropians. Somehow, she had managed to survive the warped grapple between her and Tyrant Vaine but lost her right eye and was laid unconscious. It was deemed that Hyanthra would recover but needed to get to a medical center immediately. As the leader of the second vertice was taken to recover and rest, Charles and the remaining company of the New Originators stayed to search and rescue all of the Xanropians they could.
* * * * * * *
Days passed after the deadly conflict on the now battle-scarred Xanropa. Hyanthra would wake up and be caught up on everything that had transpired. During her recovery and through the many updates given, Hyanthra would decide to remain on the surface- wishing to return to the second vertice to restore and reclaim the land that may have been taken by Tyrant Vaine- who seemed to have not been officially declared deceased but rather missing. Charles would lovingly argue with Hyanthra about her decision, but it would be decided that Hyanthra and whoever wanted to join her on the surface, would return to the second vertice. The New Originators would not formally disband nor state that their union had expired, Charles would remain and continue to improve the inner planet of Xanropia all the while aiding Hyanthra however he and the inner planet citizens could from within the now eerie pyramid. Both of the vertice leaders and their companies would modify and fortify their current dwellings, making sure that they were protected and ready for any pending invasions again, however, they would continuously check themselves to make sure no one had any signs of the sickness that overtook the once respected vertice leader, Vaine. Since the tyrant’s defeat and alleged disappearance, some of his possessed Xanropians and mechanisms remained active and would wander the face of the pyramid- sometimes showing up near Hyanthra and Charles’ new homes. Whether he was alive or not, the fear that Tyrant Vaine may still be alive kept many of Xanropa awake. Solidifying the truth that they were still waiting for the mechanized tyrant to return…
Chapter One: Found
The beginning of all life stems from complete darkness until one day, from the said darkness, a life emerges and is given a name, a purpose, and a place. This all can be said to be the same origin of the mechanism known as Xan-I, who is now widely regarded as one of the most important beings in Xanropian history. Xan-I stood about ten feet tall with a magenta body and limbs, with yellow hands, feet, and mouth, and resembled a human being. Two major differences were its singular camera eye and its human-adjacent brain laid behind a heavy paned dome of glass. In Xan-I’s brain, nothing but darkness coated its existence. Until one day, Xan-I woke up in a veil of colors, and it knew that it was being rebooted- awakened.
As the colors washed over all of Xan-I’s senses, it began to see and observe its surroundings. Slowly, a hooded figure with glowing hands phased into its vision. From what Xan-I could make out, it looked like the figure was an older man with a beard and his hands were glowing like stars- the orange aura was so bright that you could see the skeletal build of his hands. The man’s mouth was moving and his hands were raised to prepare himself against any threat. Unfortunately, Xan-I was not programmed in lipreading and could not make out what the mysterious man was saying. As the internal colors started to phase out and reality phased back in, Xan-I was beginning to align itself with Xanropa in real time after being shut down for so long. As it came through, Xan-I heard the end of the man’s question. “… who do you operate for?! Answer, or I will defend myself!”
Finally, Xan-I was awake and all of its senses were operating at full capacity. No longer was the mechanism in its digital hibernation. Slowly, Xan-I raised its metal arms and made sure that its hands were in their open C position. As peacefully and calmly as a mechanism could, it responded, “Pardon me, sir, I am Xan-I; a mechanism operating for the good of Xanropa. I am afraid I could not hear your full question.”
Suddenly, the mysterious man raised his glowing hands with great vigor, this time they glowed brighter than when Xan-I was waking up. “Stay where you are, mechanism! You need to answer my questions now. When were you last activated? And who do you operate for? Answer, or I will defend myself!”
Fear could be detected through the eyes of the man, and Xan-I could feel that this person meant no harm but was deathly afraid of them. “CLINK! CLANK!” vibrations from Xan-I soared around the pair as the mechanism responded to the stranger. “Oh my! I promise, I am programmed to be a peaceful mechanism for Xanropa. In order to make you feel better, I have tentatively locked myself into this position so that I may post no threat to you. Please give me a moment to activate my activity logs.” A phantom humming began to roll and the man’s hands were no longer glowing. As Xan-I was accessing its activity logs, the man reached into his pocket and retrieved some sort of communication device. As he held it he spoke into it, “This is Conjurer speaking, I may have found a real gem. There is not enough time to explain, but it is a rare and operating surprise from the past. Will stay in touch as I investigate more. Standby, over.” Through the communication device’s speaker, a voice replied back, “Copy that, looking forward to seeing what you have found! Be safe.” As soon as Xan-I had detected a type of excitement in both Conjurer and the other voice, it had accessed its activity logs.
“According to my activity logs, I have not been online for almost forty years. I operate solely for the good of Xanropa- the utopia of the stars. My main operation is to carry and operate heavy equipment. Do you go by Conjurer? And why is that so? Who do you work for?” With the innocent questions asked after its responses, Conjurer smirked, and his eyes lit up with a sense of optimism. After a chuckle of relief and focus, it was his turn to answer Xan-I’s soon to be many questions. “Yes, my new friend, you may also call me Conjurer. I suppose they call me Conjurer due to the way I apply my arcane abilities. You may be familiar with how Lady Hyanthra and her company used their abilities?” Xan-I’s eye seemed to have gleamed like an igniting light bulb as it responded back, “Ah, yes! To generate amazing agility and strength. Hyanthra and company are Xanropa’s parade of comets.”
“How poetic of you, mechanism! Well, I harness my arcane abilities to both handle and operate technologies from a distance with my hands. Here let me demonstrate.” Conjurer’s hands lit up, and suddenly a drill was bathing in the same orange glow of his hands. Slowly, Conjurer used his abilities to levitate the tool and make it rotate around in the air.
“It has been laughed at, but I find that my abilities can be useful when they are needed.”
“Why of course! According to our archive, it seems that your abilities are similar to the fourth vertice leader, Garal. Also, your abilities mirror the actions of how Charles, the fifth vertice leader, operates his mechanisms! Incredible!”
Conjurer looked down when Xan-I had offered its findings and unintentional compliment. It seemed that Garal’s name may have had some sort of negative or traumatic weight on Conjurer (according to Xan-I’s current analysis of Conjurer and his mood). “Forgive me if Garal is someone that I should not speak of, or if my words have impacted you in any way, Conjurer.”
“Nonsense!” Conjurer put his human hands up and with a friendly gesture, waved any sort of negativity from what transpired in their conversation. “Garal is no more, unfortunately. I am not sure where in the timeline your archive access stops, but much has changed since you were powered off. In case you are not aware, your model has been long decommissioned- which is why I have displayed much excitement. Xan-I, you have been a piece to a puzzle that we- the New Originators, have been looking for for a while. I cannot believe the luck that I have had to have found you! It feels so bothersome that it took as long as it did to finally find you. Ah, that is the answer to your third question, I work for the New Originators.”
It took many ends of Xan-I’s circuitry not to ask Conjurer who the New Originators were since it could not detect any mention of them through its archives. Soon, the mechanism felt that it would uncover who or what the New Originators were. “It seems that I may be the lucky one, Conjurer, for now I have been found.” Xan-I peered around and took a moment to formualte and expand upon it’s response. “Perhaps I can once again serve a purpose after being asleep for all this time. Without wasting anymore time, where are we now, Conjurer?” With its questioning, Xan-I stepped carefully toward Conjurer with the intention of not scaring him as it turned from side to side, examining the room. As Xan-I stepped closer, it had stepped just far enough to realize it had been in a cylindrical housing terminal that was used to charge and run various diagnostic tests on mechanisms. The terminal was just large enough for a mechanism to stand in the middle of it. Outside of the terminal, Conjurer and Xan-I were standing inside a dark room whose only pale blue light source spawned from the housing terminal.
“Currently, we are in the basement of an abandoned mechanism laboratory in Spiral City. I came here on a scavenging run to see if I could acquire any goods for the people of the Inner Planet. The Inner Planet is currently where some of the New Originators live. As I roamed the halls of this building, I thought I recognized your model and terminal. As I may have mentioned earlier, you are the last of your mechanism model. Your model has not been seen since the days before Tyrant Vaine. Forgive me, for we will need to have a proper briefing later. We should return back to the Inner Planet before any harvesting patrols begin.”
When Xan-I heard Conjurer say the term ‘Inner Planet’, it could not locate nor find any information about any inner planet. What had happened in the darkness of Xan-I’s hibernation? Was Xanropa in some kind of peril? Why had Xan-I been abandoned for so long? Had all of Xanropa retreated inside of the tetrahedral planet? No, this was not the time to ask so many questions. Xan-I immediately stored all of these questions into a mental folder and set it’s priorty to following Conjurer back to the Inner Planet.
As the mechanism continued to existentially prepare, Conjurer had alerted the still mysterious voice of the Inner Planet that he and Xan-I were returning soon. When in thought, it always benefits one to walk around, but in the case of the recently rebooted Xan-I, it gathered many more questions than it would have liked to compute.
Usually, by the housing terminal was a table with neatly arranged tools to work on mechanisms that were being housed, but now lay on the floor with the tools and various papers scattered all about. One would not be able to even see the entire room properly since it was so dark. In the dim blue light, the two newly met companions headed through a large sliding door that was once used as a doorway for tall mechanisms. As the door slid back shut behind Conjurer and Xan-I, they found themselves standing in a large clearing- their backs against a wall that housed about a dozen or so more other mechanism rooms- from quick inspection the other rooms seemed to be exactly like the one the companions had left. The other doors however, seemed to have been either broken off of their tracks or completely removed. On the opposite side of the clearing was a towering cylinder, which was called a levelator. Levelators were similar to elevators but did not need a vessel to bring passengers to their destined levels, as the name may suggest, passengers levitated to their desired floor through the cylinder. Conjurer made his way to the levelator and turned to ask to Xan-I, “I would much rather take the stairs, but I am afraid you will not fit in the stairwell my friend. Do you think you can get this levelator activating for us?” He then tapped the exterior of the levelator with his hand.
“Ah, yes! I have not been in one of these for quite some time. Let me have a look at the circuit box.” Xan-I made its way around to the posterior side of the device to see if it could be operational. After a careful assessment and some programming, Xan-I was able to get the levelator to turn on. To their concern, the levelator did start up, but it seemed to not be running at full capacity. Small grunt-like sounds could be heard echoing from all the floors of the building. It appeared that they would be able to arrive on the main floor intact, but it was going to be a slightly bumpy lift to the main floor. Putting his hand on the mechanism’s shoulder, Conjurer patted his mechanized friend in confidence and appreciation. “Well, my friend, it was only a matter of your skill. Now, we must be off! Let’s levetate up and I shall lead us out of here and through Spiral City.” Conjurer hit a button on the anterior side of the device that pointed up. Even though the device was going up, back when this building would have been occupied by civilians, small but easy to see signs on the upper floors would alert other occupants of the building that passengers of the levelator were in motion and would indicate if the mechanism was taking passengers up or down the cylinder. Usually there were attendants on each floor that would work together to ensure convenient and safe travels inside the levelator for passengers and the laboratory occupants. Now the only occupants were our two companions and they did not need to think of the other floors or of any other possible passengers.
Quickly, they got into the center of the levelator. As soon as they passed through the main arch of the door, they slowly started to ascend upwards. As they shakily floated higher and higher, Xan-I observed how each floor had bold numbers and letters to signal passengers which floor they were passing by or arriving at in the cylinder. They passed by the various floors, “Mechanism Basement”, “Lower Level 5”, Lower Level 4”, and as they neared the third lower level, there came a clattering from one of the previous floors they had passed. Conjurer’s hands lit up, and he cautioned Xan-I, “I don’t know what that was or where that sound came from, but I don’t welcome it one bit! Stay near me, I will protect us both!”
From beneath them they saw a human figure sprawl into the levelator. Due to how quick and violently the figure ran into the cylinder, they were spinning aggressively in circles in the air while lashing their limbs about in a frenzied manner. Conjurer got a grip of the figure with his arcane powered hands, which were bright orange as his hands were when he first found Xan-I, and with his arcane hands Conjurer held the mad being in place while being a few floors above. Conjurer’s intentions were to wait until him and Xan-I got onto their floor and throw the figure higher into the levelator. Xan-I looked and studied the being that Conjurer was holding with his arcane ability. It was a frail-looking human whose skin was grayed- perhaps due to malnutrition or rot, and a pair of what seemed to be visors of Vaine were attached to their face. The human was shrieking and their teeth snapped upon themselves as they made horrific bites at the air. “Free history catch up for you Xan-I, this human is what we refer to as a possessed. They are innocent Xanropians who were taken over by a very cruel parasite- that parasite being known as Tyrant Vaine. We don’t know if the parasite is still alive, but we will discuss more about all of that later. For now, your takeaway is that as threatening as they may seem, we do not- under any circumstance, lethally harm them. If you see anyone wearing these visors, you need to take extreme care when in their presence. No matter how threatening or dangerous.”
During the surprise visit in the levelator, the now party of three arrived at the main level. For one to leave the levelator, one must simply swim toward the entrance of the desired floor and carefully step through the archway and onto the floor. Seeing that Conjurer had his hands full with the possessed, Xan-I gingerly grabbed Conjurer and slowly exited the levelator onto the main floor. As Xan-I brought Conjurer through the entrance of the levelator, Conjurer kept his hold of the possessed via his arcane ability and bashed them against the cylindrical wall of the levelator before hurling the possessed upwards, allowing the levelator to take the possessed far away toward the end of the shaft. The possessed was bewildered and perhaps now, even more mad than when it began hunting the two in the cylinder.
Softly, Conjurer directed his mechanism friend, “Now Xan-I - thank you firstly for your help, I am afraid that that possessed may have been a spy that hounded on my trail as I was looking around earlier. We must try to leave quietly and quickly. Be on the lookout for any other possible possessed, or any threats, and alert me immediately.” Xan-I nodded, abiding by Conjurer’s request of silence and focus. The two adventurers made their way through the main entrance of the abandoned laboratory. As they walked through the archway that separated them from Spiral City, they walked onto a street that sounded like it had not been occupied for quite a long time but remained visually stunning. Brilliant towers with spiraling windows reached up into the sky and seemed to take over the entirety of Xan-I’s eye. If one were not careful in Spiral City, one could easily get lost within the almost labrynth-like city. As the towers of the former city stretched across the pyramid’s face, there was a pyramid-shaped building at what appeared to be an end to Spiral City. That pyramid-shaped building, coincidentally, would be the direction Conjurer would lead the danger-scoping Xan-I toward.
“I know that now is not a good time for questions, but, how long has Sprial City been abandonded?” Xan-I asked Conjurer in a hushed digital voice.
“Do not worry, Xan-I, as many Xanropians as possible tried to live in the remains of the city but it has been empty for at least a decade now. The only remaining life in this city are either the possessed or any brave or wayward souls that dare to live here.” This reponse made the silent standing towers chill Xan-I’s circuitry. After the run-in with the possesed Xan-I had seen, the end of Spiral City felt more and more appealing to the mechanism.
As they drew closer to the beautifully constructed pyramid, the cog-shaped silhouette of an Originator’s ship could be seen haloing the pyramid. “Ah, the vertice! Does that look familiar to you, Xan-I?!” Conjurer’s softly spoken question was no question to Xan-I. Even after all the time that the mechanism had been offline, that pyramid-shaped building once stood as one of the Commonplaces for Xanropians. Each Vertice had one of these monumental pyramids that operated as a place for Xanropians to go to for socializing. The Commonplaces would be a place were Xanropians could get food, drink, entertainment, and most needs or wants of the people (such as games, clothes, goods that could be found at stores of the past).
The Commonplace of the second fifth vertice was now in front of them. Behind the Originator vessel, a spherical rainbow arched and lit it from behind. It was a fantastical result of the chaos that ensued from the fall of the third and fourth vertices so long ago. Lake 134’s barrier was impacted from the carnage that took place, and therefore the water fell around the rest of the pyramid and the lake grew considerably large. The Conjurer ceased all activity and stared into the vertice glow. “Even after all this time that rainbow brings back so many feelings. It gives me a grounding of peace in strange way, despite all of the horrors that took place.”
As Conjurer and Xan-I made their way toward the Commonplace, more and more noises started to sound off from around them- this was mostly due to a growing paranoia that veiled the two after leaving the abandoned laboratory.
“Alright, we are nearing our exit, Xan-I. Any sign of danger, friend?” After a brief assessment of Spiral City, Xan-I gave a nod and added, “It appears we are in the clear, but I will remain on guard. What are the harveting patrols you spoke of earlier?”
“Well, I will explain more about them later when we are back in the Inner Planet, but as long as we do not see them we don’t need to worry about them for now. It appears that our only threat that concerns us currently are the possessed that still seem to linger about.”
Subliminal shadows continued to dance and slither behind them as they walked up the stairway of the Commonplace. The stairs and the pyramid were a dazzling metallic yellow shade, one could say it looked more brass than copper, but the color of the Commonplace seemed to radiate a warmth of comfort to the people. The stairs were part of a large box structure that served as the starting point for the faces of the pyramid. At the top of the stairs was a large cylindrical gazebo that served as an entrance into the Commonplace.
As the two stood in the center of the gazebo, Conjurer turned around to face the fear that crawled behind them throughout Sprial City. Xan-I turned around and continued to scope each direction from them. It was unanimously decided that the two were making sure they were not being followed by anyone or anything.
“I think we are clear, but I still feel uneasy. How are your readings, my friend?”
“I understand why you feel uneasy, as I also keep hearing and sensing something lurking around us. However, it seems that my readings indicate that we remain free of any danger currently.”
“Alright, then I shall alert our friends that we are ready for our arrival.” Conjurer then reached for his communication device, “This is Conjurer, we are at the Stratos point. We are ready to descend when you are. It is kind of creepy out here. Over.”
“Copy that, Conjurer. Be prepared to descend in five minutes- it won’t be long, I promise! I shall have Stratos ready to lower you down.”As Xan-I was listening to the voice speak back to Conjurer, it noticed something from the corner of the stairs approaching them. It turned out to be another possesed now running up the stairs toward the two. Xan-I ran toward the possessed down the stairs. Conjurer noticed that his mechanism companion was now throwing itself into danger. “Xan-I! No, get away from the possessed!”
Xan-I put it’s two yellow C-shaped hands onto the possessed and contained their lashing arms. “It is okay, Conjurer! I am going to gently get rid of this danger!” Xan-I then lifted the possessed by their shoulder and knees and rolled the screaming being down the stairs. A thin vibration could be felt throughout the Commonplace and the stairwell and gazebo began to shake. “Xan-I! We are about to descend, you must hurry back!” With Conjurer’s warning, Xan-I began to sprint up the stairs, but noticed a small mob of the possessed were approaching from behind. Xan-I was conflicted weither to stay and fend off the threatening mob, or to return to Conjurer for the impending descent.
In a flash of a minute, Xan-I was engulfed in some sort of bubble. It wrapped around Xan-I like wind would any body. After Xan-I was in the bubble, it began to fly back toward Conjurer. The floor of the gazebo was revealing itself to be a platform as it soon began to sink lower beyond the visible floor. Xan-I had flown up to the base of the gazebo as it saw that Conjurer had created and operated the bubble with his arcane abilities. When Xan-I was only a foot above the platfrom, Conjurer’s hands stopped glowing and the mechanism gently slammed on the platform. After Xan-I had been returned the base, Conjurer’s hands lit up again and this time a larger bubble engulfed the mob of possessed.
“Now it is time for you all to flee! You are powerless with your dead self!” Then the conjurer took his glowing hands and with a quick and visually thunderous motion, hurled the bubble of possessed deep into the sky behind the towers of Spiral City. Soon the platform the two were standing on went so far down that the city and the Commonplace gazebo disappeared from view. Conjurer spoke into his commonication device again, “Attention! This is Conjurer, we were sighted by some of the possessed as we started our descent. Be advised, we need to stay on alert until Stratos can seal the opening again.”
“Copy that, Conjurer, we are monitoring the entrance. Let us know if anything happens up there before you are on the surface.”
It took awhile for the eyes of Conjurer and Xan-I to adjust to the abrupt darkness that they started to descend in. Below them, they saw the Inner Planet and the surface looked like a shimmering ocean. Off to the right of the platform, the two could make out a large face. “That is Stratos, Xan-I. Stratos is a colossus mechanism that controls the entrance/exit to the Inner Planet. This is the construction and design of Charles. You might be familiar with Charles, this is who we have been communicating with on my device.” From a far distance down below on the Inner Planet, a figure could be seen controlling Stratos, this happened to be Charles from so far away.
Charles was an important figure that Xan-I remembered from before he shut down. In fact, Xan-I was pretty positive that Charles had created itself as well. As Xan-I looked at Stratos, it felt as if though it was looking at it’s sibling. This was truly a special moment. Xan-I looked at Stratos’s face and followed the mechanisms shoulders, arms, and made the physical realization that Stratos was holding the platform they stood upon. What a marvelous mechanism! Stratos began to lower them down to the surface of the Inner Planet. A dampened shrieking was getting louder at the entrance- the hold in the gazebo platform was reverberating the sounds of the angered possessed.
Conjurer’s hands lit up and Xan-I readdressed its focus to the entrance. Into the communication device Conjurer spoke, “This is Conjurer, over. I think we are going to have some last minute surprises drop in on us.”
“Copy that, thanks for the warning, I can have one of my kiosks ready for new possessed Xanropians to enter. Can we try to wrangle them together or at least restrain them if they get on the platform!”
This confused Xan-I, if the possessed dropped down into the hole, wouldn’t they fall straight to the surface of the planet? Surely they would not survive the fall? Then as the universe often does, Xan-I’s questioning was about to be answered. Up above back at the entrance, a few of the possessed had began to drop down into the entrance. Stratos had the platform far from the entrance now, and surprisingly, the possessed that had fallen into the hole were floating in the void between Xanropa and the Inner Planet. It dawned on Xan-I that Charles’s ingenuinty had helped develop the platfrom to have a gravity field around it so that the platform would retain regular gravity only around the platform, and the rest of the void that surrounded the Inner Planet had no gravity.
Conjurer responded back to his device, “It looks like the mob is floating, they did not make it to the platform in time. Good news for us, but shall I ring them in? Over.”
“We better ring them in, just in case if Tyrant Vaine can still see.” With that, Conjurer covered the possessed in a large bubble and drew them closer down with the lowering platform as one would reel in a fish from a fishing pole.
Again for Xan-I, who was Tyrant Vaine? Surely, he could not be the same Vaine the first vertice leader. There was no reason why he would have become some of monster, was there? Slowly, the mechanism hoped for answers but refrained from asking many more questions.
As Stratos got the platform and delivered it to the surface, Conjurer continued to hold the possessed in the bubble as they walked off of Stratos’s platform. As they walked off of platform, they could see a man walking toward them. He was standing between two monitoring towers that had their cameras poined at Stratos’s hands, and the entrance during the period of the descent. After Xan-I and Conjurer left the platform, the man started to move his arms and at the same time, Stratos began to move the platform back to the hole. This was undoubtably Charles, for he was the only operator of Stratos. Conjurer continued to move the bubble of the fallen possessed- they were growing increasingly annoyed with being held captive in this bubble for so long. Luckily, there horrible shrieks were drowned inside of Conjurer’s bubble.
As Charles walked closer to Conjurer and Xan-I, he kept operating Stratos with his marionette controllers and shouted toward them, “Well Conjurer, is this the gem you spoke of? What kind of trouble did you bring back today, my friend?” Stratos was a real maintained mechanism, Charles had Stratos operating almost silently. It was truly a feat of articfice.
“Well, Charles, I think you may recognize this fine mechanism as soon as you see it up close.” Even from about twenty feet away, Xan-I could see that Charles squinted and studied it for a while. Understandably, Charles did not recognize Xan-I immediately because he was busy trying to reseal the entrance to the Inner Planet. Charles took his focus off of the mechanism and with Stratos, finished placing the platform back where it belonged. The small opening of Xanropian light was now extinquished once again. After lowering his arms and turning the marionette controllers off to Stratos, Charles walked toward Conjurer and Xan-I, his face turned from hesitation to curiosisty with a hint of delight as he finally looked upon Xan-I with proper focus.
“Conjuerer, I don’t know what to say, my word! Is that a Xan-I mechanism?!” Charles ran to Xan-I and began to touch the mechanism and look about it in the awe of a child. “This is a real gem, Conjurer. I cannot believe this!” Xan-I could tell that Charles was happy to see it, there was a look of nostalgia-traveling through Charles’s eyes. It had been so long since seeing this mechanism and so Charles finally spoke to Xan-I, “I am so sorry that we did not find you sooner. It is so wonderful to see you, my friend. Oh, how I look forward to looking you over!”
“Are you by chance my creator, Charles?” Charles then made eye contact with Xan-I and tightened his grip on Xan-I’s hand. “Yes, but you are not completely my own creation. You see, you were concepted and constructed by me and unfortunately Tyrant Vaine.” A cascading silence now stood around the group. Whenever Tyrant Vaine was brought up, many negative feelings emitted from his name. The group was brought back to reality when the manical screams from the air-idle possessed resonated. “Conjurer! I am so sorry, let me get the possessed kiosk ready for your bundle there.” With a click of a button on one of Charles’s bracelets, a room emerged from the floor and a one-way door slid open for Conjurer to place the possessed into. “Go ahead and put them in there Conjurer, I have a team waiting below ready to assess and hopefully guide them back from their hell.”
With a swift movement, Conjurer swooped the possessed into Charles’s kiosk, and as Conjurer turned his arcane ability off, he signaled Charles to lower the kiosk down to the team standing by beneath the surface. As the bubble disapated, the screams and cries of the possessed were amplified before the room submerged below for the team to aide. Under foot, the humming of the destabilizing pitch of Charles’s kiosk- designed to overwhelm the possessed in an effort to rescue the Xanropian within, tapped along the ground of the Inner Planet. Xan-I then broke the returning silence, “I think that I better get caught up with who Tyrant Vaine is, and what has happened since I have been shut down. Forgive me for mentioning the name, I understand it brings much negativity but I must learn what I have missed.”
Conjurer and Charles nodded in agreement and Charles said aloud, “I agree but first, we need to run an assessment on you, Xan-I. To make sure that you do not have a diagnostic of the other mechanisms that fell toward Tyrant Vaine’s control. It will not take too long, and you will not lose any of your programming. This is standard protocol for anyone or anything that enters the Inner Planet. As much as I welcome you, this must be done for our safety.” Xan-I nodded, “Yes, of course. Let’s get the assessment going so that we may soon begin my lessons on recent Xanropa history and to figure out what we need to do next for Xanropa.”
The three nodded together and the Charles motioned for them to follow him to a building that laid just a bit behind the monitoring towers. “We will go to my studio and begin the assessment. Conjurer, if you are tired or hungry, you can go do whatever you need to do, and I can alert you when Xan-I is ready to be caught up on everything.” Conjurer lowered his head and looked at his hands and then looked back to Charles, “Yes, maybe I will go get some rest but return for Xan-I’s lesson on Xanropa. I apologize for not bringing more back. I got caught up in the feeling of being watched by the possessed.”
Charles put his hands on Conjurer’s shoulders and with a reassuring grip he told Conjurer, “You may have not brought back what you would have liked to bring back, but you may have brought back something amazing! Beyond words, truly! You are right Conjurer, you have brought back a true gem. We will have many conversations on what to do next with Xan-I if all that we hope for is true.”
With that, Conjurer smiled and bowed to Charles. “Charles, you flatter me. Well, since you have lifted my spirits, I might as well go see Mele and continue the parade of glee! Actually, Charles and Xan-I, maybe we all should meet at Mele’s when your test and briefing is complete. Mele could also offer more to the history lesson for Xan-I I bet!” Charles gave two thumbs up indicating to Conjurer that this plan was indeed the plan for the party.
Conjurer looked at Xan-I and put his hand on the mechanism’s hand, “Good luck my friend, may your test give us the results we are all hoping for!” Conjurer then gave Charles a hug and said to him, “Charles, it is always lovely to see you, good luck as well! I know you got this!” Conjurer started on his way to Mele’s not before giving Charles a returning pair of thumbs up. After Conjurer and Charles grinned at eachother one last time, Charles clapped his hands and began walking. “Alright, Xan-I, follow me!” Xan-I follwed Charles into his studio. It was a well kept building with mechanism and mechanism parts against the walls, bookshelves, tables with tools, and tomes. It was the studio many artificers dreamed of. “Go ahead and have a seat over here”, Charles directed Xan-I to a large seat that was for mechanisms. Xan-I went and took its seat, and Charles soon showed up behind the mechanism where he stood behind a podium that was fashioned with a monitor and micorscope- specializing with looking at fine parts and pieces for artifice.
“Now, then, I am going to start the assessment. Do you mind if I open up your cranial dome?” Xan-I agreeably took a seat for Charles, and soon Charles began his assessment of the mechanism’s mind.
Chapter Two: From One Mind to Another
Before the examination on Xan-I’s cranial dome began, Xan-I asked Charles a question about the device that clung to the front of Charles’s shirt collar. The device was rectangular shaped, and had five small round vertices (one in the center, and one for each corner of the rectangle). “Charles, if I may ask right now, what is that device on your shirt collar?” Charles was so warm and inviting, even while in his studio, Xan-I felt as if though it was a meeting with an old friend as opposed to being a patient with a doctor looking into vulnerable spaces. “Ah, this thing?” Charles pointed at the device and continued, “This is my communication device, I can communicate with other communication devices, and I modified it so that I can switch between channels and use it for voice-controlled commands with some of my mechanisms.”Charles then pointed to one of the mechanisms that lay against the wall of the studio as an example, it was a four-wheeled arm with four fingers that made a t-shaped intersection- the hand was four to five times the size of Xan-I’s hands. As Charles set up his microscope cameras, he asked Xan-I, “Okay, Xan-I, is it okay if we pop open the cranial dome now? After we open it up, I’m going to place one of my cameras inside to take a thorough look throughout your mind.”
“Of course, Charles! Please, allow me to open the hatch.” With that, the dome that sat on top of Xan-I’s head popped up, and there was now room for a hand to reach under the dome base from the back of the mechanism and push the cranial dome forward and upward. As Charles pushed the cranial dome toward the front of Xan-I’s head, the inner-working lights of Xan-I’s brain blinked and twinkled like a starry night from an artificer’s dream. Charles was happy that Xan-I would not be able to see his excitement, for he felt the mechanism would find him to be immature for feeling such joy from looking into the depths of the mechanism’s cranial dome.
“So far, so good, Xan-I! I am going to start positioning and directing the camera inside your cranial dome. Please keep operating as usual, we can talk about things if you like, or we can be silent for a moment. Your choice.” Xan-I was conflicted to ask too many questions, but it felt that this was a good chance to get some helpful information.
“Charles, please tell me why you and Conjurer are so elated by finding me. Why am I a real gem? I am just a mechanism whose purpose is to serve Xanropa. Not to impede on your glee, but I could detect the motion of a grin as you opened up my cranial dome just now.”
“THAT. Everything that you just said to me Xan-I is why we are so happy to have you! You are going to make me mess up my scans from how excited I am to see you again! Give me one sec and I will explain our elation more.” With that, Charles finished putting the camera into Xan-I’s brain. The camera was a sphere the size of a hair width, that had a special camera that would zoom in on specific pieces of mechanisms’s inner workings. After a small sequence of beeps flourished, Charles exclaimed, “Alright! I got the camera synched and now, we can get back to where we were. Let me swing around to the larger monitor.” Charles walked around from behind Xan-I so that he could watch the larger monitor that stood in front of Xan-I.
“This monitor is in front of us so that we can both look at what is going on in your cranial dome. My hope is that nothing has been altered or changed. If you see anything, please tell me immediately. I will also alert you if I happen to see anything in your brain that may appear out of your history.” A light humming came from the camera as its lenses moved and rotated around its spherical body. It was a silent, recording, and wingless mechanized mosquito flying through Xan-I’s brain.
After the two watched the beginning of the camera scan inside Xan-I’s cranial dome, Charles returned to Xan-I’s questions, “Your programming was designed to be neutral and forever loyal to all Xanropians. You were designed to only operate under the directive of helping Xanropa. The other Xan-I models like you perished while they defended and helped fight back against Tyrant Vaine as he slowly took over all of the pyramid. We won’t get into that right now. Maybe we can go over that when we go to Mele’s later, but your design makes it so that you will never turn against Xanropa.” As Charles was telling Xan-I all of this, the monitor showed many lights and wires running down and around a bright sphere that sat in the middle of Xan-I’s cranial dome. Charles continued, “The reason why I have to assess any mechanisms that come down to the Inner Planet is because there is a small receptor piece that more recently constructed mechanisms had installed into their cranial domes that made them exceptionally more prone to be possessed by the frequencies of Tyrant Vaine. Even though we still don’t know if he is dead, innocent mechanisms and people continue to become possessed by the ghoul.”
Not knowing how to proceed with the conversation, Xan-I sat silently and watched the living lights blink and process information before its lens. Charles was also watching the scan with a calm and comforted look. So far, there was no sign of the aforementioned receptor piece. Charle’s camera rotated in the opposite direction that it had been going in and the second sweep around and through Xan-I’s brain began. “It’s so beautiful how we were able to make your brain so similar to ours. We could be more mechanism than you are, and you could be more human than we are. This correlation between us is something that I think many people would not care to understand, but I take great pride in saying that I helped create you. You mean more to the universe than you know.” Charles walked back over behind Xan-I and waited as the second camera scan began to finish. Charles continued speaking to Xan-I, “So, Xan-I, the scan so far looks fantastic. It is exactly the result that I was hoping for you. What do you want to ask me? As part of this exam, it is important that we hold a conversation for a bit so that I may take note of how you operate and handle certain scenarios.”
Taking a brief moment to consider what it could ask Charles, the mechanism did not want to immediately bring up any negativity surrounding Tyrant Vaine, so Xan-I asked Charles, “Can you please tell me more about that mechanism against the wall? The hand on wheels?” Charles looked over at the wheeled hand and then returned his stare to Xan-I.
“Oh, yes! That is what I refer to as an extractor. It is one of my mechanisms that is remote-controlled as opposed to being operated with the usual marionette controls. Its sole purpose is to push, pull, and hold things. It has come in handy for many situations. Oh, and it of course lives up to its name and, ‘extracts’.” Charles finished putting air quotations on the last word of his sentence and Xan-I continued with another question.
“Is that hand based on the design of my own hand? Why do I only have three fingers on each hand and this one has four?”
Charles responded, “Your hand design was actually very interesting because there are certain controls around Xanropa that were made for only our hand shape to control- your hands are keys- in a way. The extractor’s hand has four fingers because it is more of an industrial tool as opposed to you, a sentient mechanism.” Xan-I looked down at its hands and then stared back at the extractor. It was hard to believe for Xan-I that it was more than just a tool and that its hands could be used to activate certain things that only it could unlock. It took much longer than it should have for Xan-I to figure out that it was more special than it realized. As Xan-I looked at its hands again, it asked Charles, “This is going to sound selfish coming from a mechanism, but were there ever any updated or newer models of me produced?”
A shaking head motioned in Xan-I’s peripheral vision. Charles said, “No, we had considered making a different type of model, but chaos took reign over all plans in the department of planning anything. There were many plans put to waste when Xanropa began to fall.” Concerned about the grim direction the conversation could be taken in, Xan-I at the right moment, asked Charles, “Do you think I could assist you in making and/or finishing those models you mentioned, Charles?” The kind-hearted words of the mechanism made Charles visually relax and smile. “Oh, Xan-I, you worry about tension and negative feelings in conversations, don’t you?”
“Well, it is in my programming that one of my priorities is to ensure comfort to all Xanropians. So when I detect any possibility of a conversation heading in a negative direction, I am able to try and make light out of the conversation. Even though I know we are going to have to talk about Tyrant Vaine.” A small silence separated the two as Charles grabbed his camera from Xan-I’s cranial dome and packed it away. After a last look with his eyes upon Xan-I’s brain, Charles closed up Xan-I’s cranial dome.
“It is true, I am going to sit down with you and talk about Tyrant Vaine finally, Xan-I.” Charles went over to a nearby desk, put the camera away, grabbed the chair that partnered with the desk, and brought it over toward Xan-I. Charles softly sat down as he massaged his temples and prepared to embark back down a dark side of his life and the history of Xanropa- one that Charles and Xanropians did not ever venture back to much. After a sigh brought on by his nerves, Charles began, “It has been over a decade ago when the signs of Tyrant Vaine’s emergence first began.”
(Note from the author: if you have not yet read the preface, now would be a good time to go back and read its contents. Charles is about to retell most of the events through his perspective and I have written out a brief history of events that led up to Xan-I’s discovery to be helpful with the backstory of Xanropa.)
“I had been the fifth vertice leader for not that long, in the grand scale of things, when the Day of Illusion happened. I was in my previous studio when I felt these massive quakes underfoot. So I ran outside and heard much commotion from all around. When I looked in the sky, the massive rainbow that now fills the horizon, started to form and throughout the rainbow was debris from the third and fourth vertices. Horror filled my heart, and like every other Xanropian, I was crippled by fear and did not know what to do within the first minute of the catastrophe.”
Charles took a second to take a deep breath and recenter himself before continuing, “Since you have been offline for as long as you have, the Day of Illusion to keep it simple was the day that the third and fourth vertices were destroyed. It would take some time for it to be revealed that the former first vertice leader Vaine, had become corrupt by his paranoia, and he had reemerged from the Day of Illusion as Tyrant Vaine on his own terms. The tyrant had sent a fleet of his mechanisms with himself to start taking over Xanropa. To this day, I still feel like Hyanthra and I were lucky to be spared from his wrath. I really don’t know why we were not attacked as well.
“The possessed that you have encountered, Xan-I, are possessed by the visors of Vaine. During the fall of Xanropa, he was able to refabricate the minds of those who wore his visors. Tyrant Vaine found a way to achieve his true definition of utopia through the act of digital omnipresence. After all the time he kept getting reelected as the first vertice leader, Vaine decided that the only way to achieve utopia was to have all minds be controlled by one mind. From one mind to another, this is the very definition of suppression.”
Throughout its recently scanned mind, Xan-I felt chills of disbelief slither through its wires. Vaine had unbelievably transitioned into a nightmare from the Ceaseless End. Xan-I remained seated and in silence waiting to be fed more dreadful details from Charles.
“You know, when I was elected as the fifth vertice leader, I did not want the position.”
Quickly, Xan-I responded in shock, “Really?!”
“It is true. I never envy those who have such power. Trying to do all that you can for the good of all people, the pressure that that role inflicts upon you is immeasurable. When Tyrant Vaine emerged from the Day of Illusion, something really did change within me. The pressure subsided and like a mother watching over their children, I saw and knew my people were in danger and so all of my stresses of being the vertice leader did not matter anymore. Only the people mattered. It was at that moment that I realized the true calling of being a leader, even if I did not want to be one. A leader needs to do everything in their ability to keep people safe. Leaders are unofficial parents and the people that follow them are our children.” There was another pause and a long disheartened sigh from Charles.
“That is what makes what he has done that much more disturbing. You know, the tyrant was a good man. It is impossible to believe that underneath that horrid monster lays the original identity of a friend. I remember before I was the fifth vertice leader, he taught me much of what I know about artifice. Selfishly, I think that I have surpassed his abilities with my style and creativity but I cannot dismiss the great abilities of Tyrant Vaine.” Xan-I was sensing that even though Charles wanted to move on from Tyrant Vaine, he had a strange relationship with the former first vertice leader, Vaine. It is difficult to completely let go of someone you looked up to, but it is even more difficult to recognize the stranger who wears your friend’s face.
“After Tyrant Vaine revealed to us all who he was and what he stood for, I worked closely with Hyanthra and some brave Xanropians to get the Inner Planet created and begin our defense against the tyrant’s control of Xanropa. We did not have long to prepare, but we worked day and night to make sure the Inner Planet was set up to be habitable and create the gravity trap that you and Conjurer witnessed on Stratos’s platform. After all the planning and the community that formed from the New Originators, the battle we fought against the tyrant came. I almost killed Hyanthra.” Charles stumbled and slowed his words with the last sentence. His eyes grew wide and a slight sweat began to drip from his brow. Somewhere in his mind, Charles was reliving a nightmare and he had to find a way to continue retelling the events of almost losing Hyanthra. Xan-I reached its hands toward Charles in the most loving way that a mechanism could try and comfort Charles, “Charles, do you need help? I think you need to take a slight break and relax. May I make you some tea? Please tell me what I can do, I sense unparalleled distress within you.”
Charles remained looking down at his studio floor, trying to do everything in his might to return to reality, and eventually after some time his eyes looked and met Xan-I’s singular eye. Through teary eyes and a smile, Charles responded, “I’m sorry, I get caught up in remembering all who we lost and all we almost lost during that time. I still have not completely recovered. There are nights, hell, even daydreams that I have where I am sent back into the action and I constantly keep reevaluating what I could have done differently and if I could have saved anyone from death or their injuries.”
Xan-I closed its mechanized hand gently on Charles’s shoulder to give what empathetic grip of care a mechanism could give a human. The mechanism consulted Charles, “There is nothing that you could have done differently. Unfortunately, it is common for human minds to fantasize about a myriad of solutions to problems past. I don’t think you are to blame for anything that took place during the fateful period of Xanropa.”
“You’re right.”, Charles responded, looking down as if he were having a moment of encouragement with himself. “We are left with the present, and I suppose I will forever fight these feelings of guilt, but ultimately, I did all that I could have done. The Inner Planet has been nothing but beautiful; I will do anything in my power to ensure its people are safe and that we all may keep thriving here.” Xan-I released its most tender grasp of Charles’s shoulder and leaned back into its seat. Without trying to be rude, Xan-I asked, “Forgive my timing, Charles, but what happened with Hyanthra? And have you or anyone else of the Inner Planet considered returning to the surface of Xanropa?”
Charles looked up at Xan-I and with his fingers helping him talk, replied, “One; I will never be returning to the surface. It would take something short of a miracle to get me back on top of the pyramid. Two; Hyanthra survived her near-lethal injuries. Hyanthra and I actually fought against Tyrant Vaine. I held his corrupt body in the talons of my owl mechanism. I could have easily taken his life away from his mechanized shell, but I was haunted by my former friend, and I could not put an end to someone that I had looked up to and who gave me such inspiration. I sent his remains as far back as I could fly my owl mechanism toward the wastes of the first vertice. I never bothered to check if he was dead or not. My feelings were too concentrated on Hyanthra. She would eventually recover, but her feelings about the Inner Planet were not the same as mine.” Charles stood up from his chair and began to walk toward one of his bookcases in his studio and continued, “Hyanthra told me that, ‘we all have fought and given too much to Xanropa only to dwell inside of it.’, which I understand her sentiment but I had also tried to voice my reason of all our safety. As you and I both saw and dealt with today, we have no idea if Tyrant Vaine is still running around with his mechanisms and possessed users, or if their minds are all still under the omnipotent control of the dead tyrant.”
Charles reached up on the uppermost shelf of one of his bookcases and retrieved a pyramid that fit in his palms. He turned toward Xan-I and showed the mechanism the replica of Xanropa. Xan-I looked at the planet he once recognized and in its cranial dome, it felt a sensation of longing. A longing to return to the planet that it remembered so fondly. It was not possible for mechanisms to have such sincere feelings, but at that moment, Xan-I reached out to the replica as if it could dive back into time when it helped families move furniture, helped construct new buildings or larger mechanisms, a time when hope was easier to be sought as compared to now, where the mechanism was on a planet that lay inside of its former home planet.
Charles observed Xan-I reaching toward the pyramid model in his hands, “Would you like to hold it, Xan-I?”
“I would very much appreciate that, Charles.”
With a gentle nod, Charles brought the model of Xanropa over to Xan-I and carefully placed it in the mechanism’s lap. At first, Xan-I only stared at the model and did nothing more than that. After some time and what Charles could only classify as mechanism contemplation, Xan-I gingerly touched the sides of the model. While the mechanism continued to pick up the model and look over it, it spoke, “This is really beautiful, Charles. It makes me connect to the feeling you would call missing. No. It is not quite that word, but this model makes me feel so lost, in a world that I remember so fondly. Especially after everything you have told me, I feel that I was just here in your model yesterday, and now, everything that I remember and care about Xanropa lingers about nothing more than dust that coats this model from time to time. Did you make this model, Charles?”
Returning the gesture that his mechanized friend gave to him earlier, Charles put his hand on the shoulder of the seated Xan-I. Even though this organic being and mechanized being could not feel everything in the same way, Charles could tell that Xan-I was experiencing a similar type of shock that he felt during the tribulations of Xanropa’s fall.
They both looked at the model and eventually, Charles answered Xan-I’s question, “I did in fact, make this model. I was proud to have been able to preserve the pyramid that was and is inside our hearts. I am so glad and flattered that it gave you such a reaction.”
“I don’t know how I am going to get by, Charles, without Xanropa being the way it used to be. I don’t think I can be of any help to anyone. What if people were to become afraid of me?”
In a parental way, Charles raised his voice in a comforting but stern manner, “No one will be afraid of you! Do not think that way. I need you to stabilize your system and understand that you have just experienced what all of us in the New Originators have gone through. It is a lot to take in and very emotional to wander about for too long. I understand your sensations, Xan-I.”
Time had slipped away from the two, and Charles’s communicator device buzzed in his pocket. In response to the buzzing, Charles brought it out of his pants pocket and clicked on a button that spoke through the speaker, “Hey! Are you two still doing okay? Mele said you both should come on by when you are free.” It was Conjurer chiming in to see how Xan-I’s assessment had gone. Charles replied back into his device, “Hey Conjurer, Xan-I’s scan was successful! We have every reason to feel over the moon for your discovery. I think we could make a trip to Mele’s.” Through the speaker of Charles’s device, a female voice hollered back through the device, “You better! You need sustenance! I also got whatever our mechanism friend needs!”
Charles grinned, “Alright! Alright! We will conclude things here and then come on by. I think our new friend will like you, Mele.”
“Only if it behaves!” With that, the device blipped off. Xan-I handed Charles’s model of Xanropa back to Charles. “Well, it is time for you to meet Mele!’ Charles told Xan-I. Charles set the model of Xanropa back in its original place on the bookshelf and looked up at it. “I am glad we could share our feelings of missing Xanropa together Xan-I. I look forward to you meeting Mele and exploring around the Inner Planet a bit. Shall we head over to Mele’s?”
In a quick reaction for mechanisms, Xan-I stood from its chair and warned Charles, “We better head over there soon, that Mele sounded concerned about our prompt arrival!” This made Charles cackle. “Oh my, Xan-I, Mele is going to love you! You just wait!” The two began to leave Charles’s studio as they headed to the door and shut the lights off. The model of Xanropa not only sat in the darkness of Charles’s studio but it was now also laying, etched, inside the dark lens of Xan-I’s eye and mind.
* * * * * * *
Mele’s was not only home to the Xanropian known as Mele herself, but it was a makeshift commonplace constructed and hosted by the Mele as well. There, citizens of the Inner Planet could come and eat, drink, gather, and use the space just as Xanropians used to thrive in the pyramid iterations on the surface before. When one enters Mele’s, they are actually entering though the legendary aircraft, Skyfish II, that was piloted by Mele during the transition and creation of the New Originators. Then, Mele helped and assisted in transporting materials and citizens safely to the Inner Planet. Now, Mele is known as a mother to those who are in need of guidance, care, and entertainment. When entering the mouth of Skyfish II, occupants walk into a cozy bar setup with tables and chairs surrounding it.
Conjurer was seated at the bar with a glass of Mele’s lager. This was not only a place of comfort to so many people of the Inner Planet, but it was Conjurer’s favorite place. Perhaps his most favorite place of both Xanropa and the Inner Planet. There, Conjurer could sit and meditate about events gone by and yet to come. Across from Conjurer and behind the bar stood Mele, she was a woman who was about to be seventy years old with gorgeous grey hair that emitted wisdom and a presence of comfort. Mele, like Conjurer, had seen and take a part in the events of Tyrant Vaine’s takeover of Xanropa. Over time, she provided so many people with what essentials they needed, and still, she continued to do all that she could for everyone who sought her at her establishment. While Conjurer was thinking with his lager, Mele asked, “Conjurer, you have not told me how you are doing. Take your hood off! For my sanity, you are inside, I promise I don’t have any leaking pipes!”
Conjurer smiled and laughed at Mele’s reasonable request, he pulled his hood down revealing his whitened wavy hair and his face that looked like the embodiment of the word, tired.
“Look at you! Have you gotten any proper sleep?!” Mele finished scolding Conjurer like a mother and put her hands on his face, assessing his eyes and the bags under his eyes.
As the movements of Mele’s hands tickled Conjurer’s face, he finally fought through the motherly assessment and replied, “Oh Mele! I’m fine! I am just deep in thought about what has happened and what could happen now with Xan-I.” Mele released her proverbial son’s face and took a seat behind the bar, for now, Mele knew that they were going to have a conversation about Xan-I before it and Charles arrived at her place.
From across the seating area, a citizen jumped up and with a terrified demeanor exclaimed at Conjurer, “Am I crazy or do I keep hearing you and your friends talk about ‘Xan-I’, like the mechanism model?! What’s happening?!” With this scared expression, more of Mele’s patrons began to talk amongst each other and join in on the paranoid feeling surrounding the talks of a mechanism. It must be remembered that any mechanisms that were not created nor operated like Charles’s, were seen as demons that drove the Inner Planet inside of Xanropa’s pyramid.
“Now everyone, just quiet down!”, Mele pounded just loud enough on a nearby pan to get everyone’s attention. “Yes, we are talking about a mechanism, and NO, it is not going to come and destroy us all. Xan-I, our new mechanism friend, is coming over with Charles to join us for a late dinner.” With this revelation, some people got up from their seats and started to exit Mele’s in a panic. “Alright, alright!” Mele got up from behind her bar and now stood in the midst of the crowd that was making their way out of her place, “Would I ever do anything to harm you all? You know I love you all, I would never bring something that could harm you all into my home. Remember! You all are in my home. You may leave if you like, I understand our shared trauma, but I think we will have another lovely evening as usual here.”
After Mele’s reassurance, some of the patrons could not get their tacts in order, and their fears led them home while others sat back down as if nothing happened. Patrons slowly decided to get back to their card games, puzzles, and meals. After the miniature panic outburst had subsided, Mele made her way back to the still-seated Conjurer- who could have been confused for a stone sculpture, for he did not move at all during the commotion that had taken place. In Mele’s mind, she knew her lager had calmed Conjurer and put him in a much needed state of relaxment.
“Sorry, Conjurer, that was a fuss! Anyway, I want to hear about your feelings and what you saw up there.” Mele pointed up toward the surface of Xanropa. “Did you see any Surfacers, or harvest patrols?” Conjurer finished taking a sip of his lager and replied, “Nah. No Surfacers or harvest patrols. Just more of those possessed ghouls.” In the reflection of the golden beer, Conjurer sighed and broke his gaze upon himself in his lager. “You know Mele, I wish I knew if Tyrant Vaine was dead or alive. I think the day of really venturing out there on the surface is upon us, whether we want to or not. It is the only way to really put an end to this monster and maybe bring back the planet we once knew. That day may be soon now, I may head out on that quest much sooner than I thought.” Mele made contact with Conjurer’s soul as her stare pierced his soul. Upon Conjurer’s face was a smile that broke through the veil of the exhausted man who was drinking at Mele’s. Mele pointed at Conjurer and spoke, “You know that that could kill you! No one knows what exists- or what does not exist anymore, at the first vertice. Who knows what that monster has constructed since, you know? My vote may not matter, but I say nay to your idea.” Inside, Mele could sense pride and optimism around both Conjurer and his idea. So as any mother would say, she included, “However, I do believe in you. You know, I just hate the idea of anything happening to you, or damn it, if I say it at all, anything happening to the Inner Planet.”
Conjurer was still smiling, but it was fading as he sunk further into his chair and his body continued to tell him it was time for rest. “I know Mele, I know. I just want our planet back. One day, I hope we can no longer hide inside our home but be free on the surface again. It is funny, I could see myself becoming a Surfacer.” Mele gave a fake but gentle bop on top of Conjurer’s head. “Why would you want to live like one of those hooligans?! They are going to get themselves killed.”
Looking around at her patrons and the beautiful life-like screens of tropical trees dancing with the wind, Mele said, “Even in the darkest of times, I find my goal is to have everyone that enters here feel as happy as they can considering all the evil that has taken place above. We may have cast ourselves away within Xanropa, but Xanropa’s good intuition still runs through the hearts that occupy my place.”
With her compelling and sentimental truth, Conjurer lifted the last remaining swallows of this lager to Mele for a toast. Mele then poured herself a glass of lager, and as she tapped Conjurer’s glass with her glass, she said, “Sköl!” Conjurer returned a hearty and grateful “Sköl!” As Conjurer finished his lager and Mele started drinking her glass, they could hear a small commotion of people gasping and running from something thumping out in the streets. Down the street the voice of Charles echoed, “It is okay! This is Xan-I, and it comes in peace! It does not have the receptor piece that makes it possible for it to be possessed!” Charles kept repeating these sentences as he and Xan-I made their way up the stairs into Mele’s. The rest of the Patrons that remained in Mele’s after the first bout of panicked people left- at first, were too invested in their conversations, games, and meals, to care about Xan-I and Charles’s entrance into Mele’s. Charles was giving Xan-I a short tour of Mele’s and soon a terror would fill Mele’s as Xan-I exclaimed, “This place is beautiful! Look at the tropical vegetation on the walls! The space is wonderful for gathering!”
As soon as the remaining patrons heard the digital voice of Xan-I resonate in the air of Mele’s, their shock prodded them to shake, jump, and gasp at the sight of Xan-I. It did not take much time for Mele’s to empty out, leaving Mele, Conjurer, Charles, and Xan-I to be the remaining occupants of the space. As patrons quickly ran out of Mele’s some of them made comments to Mele, saying things such as: “I can’t believe you would let that monster in here!”, “What’s wrong with you?!”, and the melodramatic “Save yourself!!!”
Xan-I had raised its hands in the air to show that it came in peace as Mele’s cleared out. In a delayed and soft response, it said, “I promise I am here only to help you. I’m sorry for the fright.” Mele shook her head with a grin of surprise and let out a light laughter. “Well, looks like we are the only company here tonight fellas! Thanks for clearing me out, Xan-I!” Not understanding sarcasm, Xan-I lowered its arms in a defeated stance which caused Mele to direct the situation, “Hey now, I was being silly! It is good to meet you! I am Mele. Thanks for coming over!” She then walked around the bar and stood in front of Xan-I. Using her arms as a visual guide, she directed Xan-I around her establishment and said, “It is a custom of mine to always welcome new patrons, and for the last few years I have not had many new guests arrive. Xan-I I would like to welcome you to my abode. You are always free to come and go as you please. I just ask that you follow my one rule, which is that you treat everyone in here with respect and don’t start any monkey business.”
Xan-I gave a bow in gratitude to Mele’s welcome, then it replied, “Fortunately, I am programmed to do just that, Mele.”
Mele made raspberries in the air as she waved her hands at him, “Of course you are! You perfect hunk of metal!” She smiled at Xan-I and then looked at Charles and Conjurer, “Well boys, you definitely did find someone special didn’t you?” Charles and Conjurer both nodded and smiled back at Mele. Charles tapped Xan-I on the back and said, “You better believe it, Mele. This is an original Xan-I model with no added receptors or additional programming. I don’t know how we got so lucky! As Xan-I and I were holding conversation, I also noticed that it expresses emotion unlike other mechanisms I remember.”
Conjurer stared at and spoke to Charles, “So, my friend, what all did you tell Xan-I about its lost time in our history?”
Charles walked up to the bar to sit next to Conjurer. Since Xan-I could not fit in the seats at Mele’s, it stood next to Conjurer and Charles as Mele seated herself behind her bar. “Xan-I and I went over everything that happened after the Day of Illusion up until now, I didn’t give a seminar on the events but I gave as much information as I deemed necessary.” Mele chimed in and replied, “Did you tell Xan-I about Skyfish II?” She pointed her finger on the table and then waved her hands in a circle to indicate the vessel they were sitting in. “How about my big score that I have hanging over here?” Mele pointed her thumb toward a placard that had the head of one of Tyrant Vaine’s mechanisms. It looked like it had been cut clean off and then propped to look like a taxidermy trophy. Charles and Conjurer looked at each other knowing what direction Mele was going to take her conversation in. Charles answered Mele, “Well, Mele, you know the only person that can talk about Skyfish II and your big score is you. I would never take your spotlight away!” Conjurer laughed at Charles’s response and soon Charles started to laugh as well for they both knew if they told Mele’s story, she would tell it better no matter how hard they tried. Xan-I spoke, “Well, I would be very interested to know more about Skyfish II and your big score, Mele.”
“Thanks, dear. I am glad somebody around here has anticipation for my stories. I like you a lot!” She then gave a playful sneer and smile at Charles and Conjurer. It was a signal of thanks for letting her tell her stories and tell them the way she did. Before Mele started her stories, she brought out some tea and bowls of stew for Charles and Conjurer, and then she checked to see if Xan-I needed anything along the lines of charging himself or oil to lubricate any of his joints. After her hospitality duties were done, she started to tell Xan-I everything about Skyfish II.
“My home, this establishment is more than just a commonplace for the citizens of the Inner Planet, it is the vessel I named Skyfish II.” Xan-I used Mele’s slight pause to ask, “What happened to Skyfish I?” Mele shushed and gestured with her hands to quiet down and continued, “Hush now, Xan-I! I will get to that, let me work my story!” Charles and Conjurer snickered for they knew Mele did not like when folks interrupted her stories. “During the time the New Originators were founded, I decided to get to work on a ship that could help transport those who wanted to leave Xanropa and come with us. So, I thought that I would also have the ship be something other than just a ship. Make it fun, and also give it a bit of whimsicalness! In times of darkness, I have always believed that even a teaspoon of joy can make it easier to live through darkened times. Skyfish I was, and still is, above on the surface of Xanropa. The first version of Skyfish was more in the form of a narwhal. I attached a long horn on the head of the ship to skewer the mechanisms that the tyrant was sending out. It was a real work of art!
During the war that Tyrant Vaine birthed, I was taking out one of those monstrosities after another. I was not on the battlefield; I positioned myself near the Commonplace of the fifth vertice- the pyramid that you and Conjurer came down through so that I could defend Stratos’s platform and the innocent.”
Mele tightened her grip around the glass of her half-finished lager. “I always get a mixture of adrenaline and angst when I tell this story. God! I truly enjoyed taking out those monsters! If any of them laid a finger on anyone, I would have done unspeakable things to them! Anyway, there was a moment when I was a proud mother toward the folks who helped defend the platform to the Inner Planet. As I took out a small fleet of those demons, there were some of Charles’s mechanisms and Hyanthra’s warriors taking care of business. They were independent, and I saw my opportunity to fly toward the battlefield. Taking the chance, I began to head past Spiral City and toward Lake 125. From the sky, I saw the same colors that our ancestors talked about from the Ceaseless End. As I passed through and assessed where I could help out, it dawned on me that Tyrant Vaine brought the very thing we all left behind on to Xanropa, the Ceaseless End. Skyfish I and I took out some more of the monsters but then I saw the monster of all monsters near Lake 125.” Mele took a drink of lager to moisten her throat and continue talking comfortably. Conjurer looked over to Xan-I and before Mele continued said, “You are not ready for this, Xan-I.” “HUSH!” Mele spoke lovingly to Conjurer.
“In Lake 125, there was a being that we have documented as the Behemoth of Lake 125. It was a mechanism that the tyrant constructed- it was like a serpent that towered into the sky. It was nothing like anything I had ever seen. I saw it devour Xanropians, batter the face of the pyramid, and when I looked it in the eyes, I swear that I connected with the tyrant operating it. It was that moment that I knew that our former friend and first vertice leader had become a crazy madman and that we needed to do anything to stop him. Now, before I go into this part, I just want to say that I did indeed help vanquish the behemoth, however, some of Hyanthra’s people, and Charles actually, also helped finish the job. It was a group effort!” Charles nodded in agreement. “Charles had shown up and with his colossal mechanism, gave the beast a couple of blows before holding it by its throat. As Charles got the beast into that lock, I helped protect Charles and Hyanthra’s people as some of the other monsters kept crawling around and attacking. When Charles got the beast into the lock, I took the chance. I threw all power into the throttle, and with a calm and excited feeling, I harpooned the Behemoth of Lake 125 through the heart! I got that bastard!” Mele enthusiastically slammed her hand on the table to emulate Skyfish I piercing Tyrant Vaine’s mechanism. “Now, the only downside of my actions was that the behemoth was not happy, and I may had to abandon Skyfish I. That glorious ship got stuck in the chest of the monster. It was not quite dead yet, but that is when Hyanthra’s group of warriors came in and like shooting stars, fell upon the Behemoth of Lake 125, becoming nothing more than a story in our history. If you were wondering, I was fine when I abandoned the Skyfish I. As the beast fell from the finishing blows of Hyanthra’s folks, I used the opportunity to use the serpent body to slide down to the surface free of any injury. The only thing that hurt was abandoning my ship. Luckily, I was able to bring Skyfish II to the scene with my communicator device.
As I waited for Skyfish II to fly over to me, helped the injured and felt a horrible sense of dread. It got too quiet out there. Not for long, Skyfish II showed up and I started helping the injured onto the vessel. Of course, during this time the next wave of the crab-looking freaks charged at us. I was about to take off when I spotted a warrior crawling toward me and the ship. In the midst of chaos, it is easy to overlook things and I felt a horrible guilt as I saw that warrior on the ground. Skyfish II was about to take off but I shifted it to hover, so that it was off the ground but not going anywhere. I HAD to save that Xanropian.” Mele stood up from her seat and walked over to the placard that said Mele’s Big Score. “As I ran to the Xanropian, one of the tyrant’s mechanisms spotted our activity and was coming toward us. As I saw the mechanism charging at us, I screamed directions at the injured Xanropian, ‘Hey! Quickly, get on your knees! No time to explain!’ The Xanropian was now injured AND confused. Bless them, they got up on their knees and I used them as a step stool to jump off of. As my feet climbed up on the back of the injured warrior, I leapt off of their back,” Mele pulled out an axe from beneath the bar and lifted her axe above her head. “With one clean swipe, I screamed horrible things at the mechanism and I brought my axe and fury down upon the monster!” Mele then gently brought her axe down, making sure not to damage the table. “It was the cleanest cut I think I have ever made. I also was able to bring the injured back to Skyfish II and bring them along with the rest of the injured to the Inner Planet.”
Mele placed her axe back under the bar counter and returned to her seat and took another drink of her lager. She then brought out glasses for Charles, Conjurer, and Xan-I. After the glasses were set, Mele poured some lager for Conjurer and Charles while leaving Xan-I’s glass empty. “Alright, Xan-I, I know you cannot drink, but I am going to have you join us for an obligatory toast. We do this when we celebrate the present, past, or whenever! It is a part of my family, and I invite you to partake in this ritual.” Mele directed everyone to take their glass. As everyone held their glass, Mele raised her glass up into the air. With her free hand, Mele motioned the toast participants to raise their glasses too. As everyone held their glass in the air, Mele proceeded with the toast instructions, “Now, I am going to say, ‘Sköl!’, and then you, along with Conjurer and Charles, will reply back with, ‘Sköl!’, Does that make sense?” Xan-I nodded in agreement and awaited its first toast with its new friends. Mele raised her glass, “Alright everyone! To those we have lost, and to us finding our new friendship with Xan-I, Sköl!” Simultaneously, Conjurer, Charles, and Xan-I shouted back with a hearty, “Sköl!”
Xan-I felt a feeling of elevation, yet it was not floating. Something felt right about being there at Mele’s with Mele, Conjurer, and Charles. As if this was the place that Xan-I needed to be despite waking up in a time that it felt it did not belong. After the toast had subsided, Charles started to focus on eating his stew as Mele and Conjurer drank more of their lager. Xan-I decided that it was probably best to shut off for the night, so that it may process all that it learned and perhaps figure out what the next steps were for tomorrow. Xan-I set the toast glass on the bar counter and asked, “Excuse me, everyone, but where may I shut off for the night? I think it is best that I put myself to sleep so that I may process everything I have learned for tomorrow.” Mele quickly responded, “Why don’t you stay here with me? I got a charging terminal if you need one in the back. Based on some reactions from this evening, we would probably stir up some trouble if we had you wander back outside.” Conjurer and Charles nodded in agreement. Charles finished eating a bite of his stew and said, “That sounds like a good idea, we can meet back here in the morning and discuss our next course of action.” Mele looked at Charles as if he needed to finish a sentence. “Of course, we will do that after I prevent any commotion from those who are concerned.” With that reassurance, Mele smiled and then turned to Xan-I and said, “Alright, kid, follow me! Let’s get you settled in for your first night here on the Inner Planet.” Xan-I shook his head in affirmation and followed Mele into the back of her establishment.
Chapter Three: Mele’s Answers
Early the next morning, Xan-I rebooted and slowly grounded itself from the terminal that Mele kept in the back area of her place. It was a storage area with a variety of supplies that she used for herself and all of the patrons who stopped by. Xan-I wandered back up to the bar to see if Mele was awake yet, and little to no surprise, there she was behind the bar going through room to room tidying up and preparing for the day. As Mele was cleaning off some chairs, she heard the loud metallic foot thumps of Xan-I, “Good morning, my friend! I would offer you coffee but you don’t drink!” Xan-I walked up to Mele and said, “You are too kind, thank you for your hospitality again, Mele. I apologize for making so many patrons run off yesterday.” A towel from Mele’s hand waved sharply in the air as if Mele was a referee calling an illegal move in a game. “Nonsense! It may be easier said than done but don’t worry about yesterday. People down here have very mixed opinions about mechanisms. It is not you, it just so happens that the horrific events we have lived through involved mechanisms. Last night was a big misunderstanding. Some of them have never even seen your model before!”
This did help Xan-I feel less guilty about causing a stir among the people, but it still wanted to make up for the trouble it may have caused Mele. Mele walked behind the bar and poured herself a cup of coffee. Vapors danced from the urn as the velvety drink slipped into the cup like a waterfall. After setting the urn of coffee to the side, Mele brought her cup up to her nose and took a deep breath through her nose- smelling the intoxicating aroma of her beverage. Xan-I wished that it could also share in the feeling of comfort that it saw upon Mele’s face. “Oh my, I am so sorry that I can not share this with you, Xan-I. Coffee is a wonderful experience. Tell me, what is on your mind this morning, my friend?”
Xan-I stood to think about the order of questions it wanted to ask Mele, and then it began its list, “It’s okay, Mele! That coffee does look like a nice experience. Well, I did have a few questions, Mele. Now that I am here, are we going to go back up to Xanropa and fix it? Would anyone join me in the quest to reclaim our utopia from Tyrant Vaine? What should be our next steps? A part of me feels the need to just wander about the pyramid.”
While listening to Xan-I, Mele sipped her coffee during and after its questions. Allowing her beverage to marinade the mechanism’s questions within her mind, Mele took some time before answering Xan-I. “Oh my friend, I feel like you are determined to turn Xanropa back into the world you lost long ago, don’t you?” Xan-I nodded and its body language showed the tenacity of a mourner. Mele smiled sympathetically at Xan-I and looked into its eye with a gaze of compassion, “Of course, we want our planet back, but we don’t know half of the dangers that exist on the surface. If you went, you may not make it back operational. I know that I would not be of much help on the surface, who else would take care of everyone here if I were away? I am sure you asked Charles already, right?”
Xan-I looked down and said, “You are right, you are needed here. Charles is too. I wish that we all could just leave and revive the planet. It is infuriating that this passionate desire of mine does not have an easy solution.”
As the mechanism finished its sentence, its C-shaped hands balled up into the equivalent of fists. Mele could sense the urge of her mechanized friend. After all, it was stuck in a time that it did not belong in. “This is for you, what a nightmare is to us, Xan-I.” Setting her coffee down, she made her way around the bar to put her hand on Xan-I’s wrist. “If I knew we could go up and return to the planet we both remember safely, trust me, I would lead you up myself. About Tyrant Vaine- no one knows if any part of his mortal remains are alive, or if he is a revenant forever connected to his mechanized omnipotence. Therefore, there is no easy way of telling if we could overtake him and his forces.” Xan-I shook its head in agreement with Mele and then replied, “What if we could though? If no one has gone toward the first vertice, maybe the tyrant is only dead and our goal is more simple than we thought?!” Mele tapped on Xan-I’s wrist and said, “Oh, I know my dear. Unfortunately, we have sent some people up there before. They never came back, for they are lost to the surface above. During their last communication with us, it sounded like they were ambushed by either Surfacers, or the tyrant’s mechanisms.”
The term Surfacers came back up, and Xan-I wanted to revisit this with Mele, “Can you tell me more about Surfacers, Mele? I don’t want to distract you from your breakfast.”
Mele took another sip of her coffee and replied, “It is no trouble, Surfacers are people who have chosen to remain on the surface of Xanropa independently. They do not call themselves Xanropians nor New Originators; they are nomads who either try to protect the land that is not ruined and scavenge for survival. Not all of them are bad, I think that there is a misunderstanding about them, but because they want nothing to do with any faction, we don’t know their intentions.” Xan-I lit up and interrupted, “So, are you saying that they could become allies if they could be convinced?” Mele shrugged her shoulders, “I really don’t know. It could be possible I guess, but some Surfacers just want to keep their independence and will never be allies. No matter who their allies could be.”
Xan-I’s inquiries on Surfacers continued, “Do you know any Surfacers, Mele?” Thinking for a brief second, Mele hummed and wondered before answering, “You know, I can’t say that I do. I have only ever been told about them. Which is why I justifiably do not see them as bad people, nor good people. The Surfacers simply exist, just like us!”
“Thanks for your answers, Mele. I do appreciate it.” Having had its questions answered, Xan-I decided to let Mele finish her coffee in peace and stood by the bar to keep her company. As she took the last swallow of her coffee, she started to prepare herself some breakfast. As she cracked some eggs and warmed up some bread, Mele spoke to Xan-I, “Last night, I had a dream, would you like to hear about it?” Excitedly, Xan-I shook its head and walked closer over to Mele.
“Normally, I only tell people that I know will enjoy hearing about dreams because I take them seriously and think they hold many meanings.” Mele held up a spatula she was using to cook her eggs with and lovingly pointed it at Xan-I, “So consider yourself lucky that I tell you about this dream that I had!” Xan-I replied, “Of course, Mele! I have not heard about a dream since before I had been asleep for all those years. Please, tell me!” Mele smiled and continued to cook her breakfast as she told Xan-I about her dream, “Like some of my other dreams- the beginning is a little foggy, but eventually in my dream, you were all dressed up in human clothes. Shirt, pants, shoes, you even had human hands! The only thing that mechanized about you was your head! We were at a park that was cradled by tall trees and in the middle of the park was an archaic-shaped house- a rectangular cube with a triangular roof, the kind that younglings usually draw. We went into the house and you know what? You had a family! They all had your head, your spouse, and the children, they wore clothes, pants, shoes, and they had human hands like you! After we met each other, we sat down and we had a meal together and then we played games before I left your house. It had gotten dark outside- I figure now that it was turning to night outside. As I was walking in some direction or another, I was lost briefly in the pending darkness. Then, as the dream was ending, the only thing I remember about the conclusion was that a giant moth flew by and it was glowing like a moon. It was so beautiful. It reminded me of some of the moths I used to see on the surface before the tyrant’s time. As I woke, I felt nothing but happiness. It was a real neat dream!”
Xan-I stood in enchantment of Mele’s dream, it was always so charming and amazing how organic minds could produce and direct such experiences. Xan-I longed to have a dream like Mele’s, to briefly escape from its current time and then return with some refreshment. A transparent wave of smoke rose up from Mele’s pan as she finished frying her eggs and then she took her warm bread and spread out some jelly on it. After assembling her breakfast, she sat down at her bar and began to eat. Through a mouth full of a nourishing meal, she asked Xan-I, “Do you need anything, Xan-I? Just ask, and I can see what I can do for you.” Xan-I made a small bowing gesture and gratefully responded, “Oh, my! I am quite alright, Mele. Thank you though! Please enjoy your breakfast, I will take a look around your place, I did not get to see everything up close last night. Mele shook her head and continued eating as Xan-I walked to the other side of Skyfish II, to finish its viewing of Mele’s place. As Xan-I walked through the doorway that led into another seating area, it got a better glimpse of Mele’s big score. The head of Tyrant Vaine’s mechanisms frightened Xan-I more as it looked at it up close. Its three eyes no longer monitored its surroundings, but each eye seemed to peer into Xan-I’s eyes as if it were still hunting any oppressors of the tyrant. Xan-I could not believe the courage Mele had to defend the injured New Originators and take down this beast. Mele was not one to mess around with, Xan-I noted in its memory bank.
Along the walls of the extended seating area were more projections of tropical trees and leaves flowing through a breeze. It produced a relaxing atmosphere for patrons to occupy. As Xan-I finished looking around Mele’s and headed back to the bar, it noticed Mele talking to someone through the front door of her place. “Okay, well, can you let me know when it is out of your place? I really want to come in, but I cannot come in if that thing is going to be here- I thought it was only a rumor!” Mele politely chuckled and said back to the woman at the door, “Oh my dear, you have nothing to be afraid of with Xan-I! It is a good kid, you wouldn’t know until you met the mechanism!” With that said, Xan-I saw the silhouette of the woman turn away and walk back down the stairs of Mele’s. Xan-I continued to walk back to the front of the bar and Mele turned to say, “Well, you scared off another patron. It is okay! I think we should ring Conjurer and Charles and discuss what your next plans are.”
Nodding to Mele’s thought, Xan-I replied, “Yes. I believe I have overstayed my welcome, and I want to discuss visiting Hyanthra, wherever she may be.” Before connecting to Charles’s communication device, Mele asked, “Did you and Charles talk much about Hyanthra?” Xan-I automatically replied, “Based on how you asked me that question, he did tell me her reasoning for not joining the Inner Planet. Would you say that Hyanthra is a sensitive subject for Charles, Mele?” Mele emphasizingly nodded to Xan-I’s answers and said, “Believe me, kid- it is indeed sensitive, but also, Hyanthra has been known to not be too polite to strangers. Especially if they are mechanisms.” There was a stretched silence as Mele made her way back to her seat behind the bar. As she sat back down with her now empty plate of breakfast, she asked, “If you are going to suggest visiting Hyanthra, you best be escorted there with someone.” Mele then poured herself another cup of coffee, took a sniff of it, and then took a careful sip. Xan-I put one of its hands on its mouth speaker and said, “Well, Charles is out of the question, but I wonder if Conjurer would want to come with.” With an enthusiastic reply, Mele shouted, “Yes! He would love to! He was just talking about how he could be a Surfacer if he wanted to. Let’s get a hold of those two and see if we can have a meeting of the minds!” Soon after, Mele got in touch with both Conjurer and Charles to arrange a meeting later that morning.
* * * * * * *
Later that morning, a bumbling of various voices shook the foundation of Mele’s. A crowd was forming outside of Skyfish II, to seek answers about a rumored and sighted nomadic mechanism loitering around the Inner Planet. Some participants of the slow-growing mob were concerned and discussed that Mele was a ‘possible sleeper agent’ and a ‘possible threat’ for allowing Xan-I to occupy her space. Why had she condoned such a thing? As Xan-I remained standing by the bar, it worried that its presence was ruining Mele’s reputation. Returning from the back, Mele patted Xan-I on its back, “Don’t worry, Conjurer and Charles should be here soon, it will be okay.” Xan-I did not respond, it was becoming more and more concerned about the mass of people who were forming a barricade in front of this lovely woman’s establishment- an establishment that was inclusive and so inviting to everyone. From its catalog of feeling definitions, Xan-I was harboring what could be associated with guilt, partnered with worry. Thankfully for not much longer, Charles’s voice rang out through the mob outside, “Everyone! Listen here!” All other chatterings about the mechanism in Mele’s ceased, and all attention was on Charles- including Conjurer who was walking closely beside him. “I know that the presence of this Xan-I unit has brought you all much distress!” A couple of people interrupted with shouts of affirmation. “Alright! Alright! We get it! You all do not understand though, I ran my thorough examination inside its cranial dome, and it is indeed one of the original, untouched, mechanisms of before! Conjurer here was lucky enough to find it on the surface. This mechanism is a blessing in so many ways. We are meeting with it and Mele to figure out what our next steps are.”
The chattering echoed back alive after Charles’s announcement: “You all can start by sending it back to the surface!”, “Bash it to bits!”, “We are better off without that monstrosity!” These were just a few of the hurtful and arrogant sentiments the mob shouted out. As this was taking place, Xan-I looked over at Mele and sensed a great fire behind her eyes. Mele had had enough of these people she served and welcomed for so long, she rushed around from behind the bar, and at lightning speed, she slammed open her doors and addressed the mob.
“Now you all listen to me!” Mele’s thunderous voice sent a shockwave throughout the mob standing at the base of her stairs. “I said this last night, and I will say it again since some of you seem to take my sentimentality for granted. Who was there for you as we made our descent down to the Inner Planet? Who was there for you on the surface as Tyrant Vaine and his freaks threatened our lives? Who is always here for you to be safe and as happy as possible at her own expense? Have you all forgotten that I truly care about each of you? Why would I ever betray the relationship we have built together, and how could you ever think that low of me?!” The mob was silenced, just like children who were given an important lecture by their parents. There was visual resentment toward their comments on Mele now. In the moment, Mele retained the attention of everyone and continued on, “Now, if anyone calls Xan-I a monster, a thing, or anything negative, we are going to be in trouble. Xan-I is its name, and it may very well be able to help us take our planet back from the real monster that hides on the pyramid. Now, you all go away and let Charles, Conjurer, and I deal with the matter at hand! I will see you later, change your hearts!” Charles and Conjurer gently made their way through the scolded crowd- who were now slowly disbanding from the stairs to Mele’s acknowledging their behavior.
As Charles and Conjurer walked by Mele, they each gave her a warm hug as a token of their thanks and appreciation. Mele waved and smiled at everyone who was leaving before shutting and locking the doors for this important meeting. Charles and Conjurer walked into Mele’s and were both greeted by Xan-I waving at its friends, happy to see them again. “You sure caused quite a storm outside, Xan-I!” Exclaimed Conjurer, with a wide smile on his face. Charles and Mele both chuckled with tones of annoyance from the way everyone had acted earlier.
“I apologize again for the trouble I have brewed. I understand now why they are frightened of me, given everything that has happened. I know I am quite an anomaly for them.” Xan-I walked over to a table where it was unanimously decided the meeting would take place. This is no meeting to be had at the bar, for it was going to contain serious deliberations on what the company should do next.
As Charles took his seat, he asked, “So, does anyone have any ideas for what we should do next?” Charles looked at each member of the company to see if anyone had any pressing ideas. Only seconds went by before Mele said, “Xan-I, I think you should tell them what we were discussing briefly this morning.” Charles and Conjurer both immediately turned their eyes toward Xan-I. In the spotlight, Xan-I spoke, “I was talking to Mele about going to the surface and possibly visiting Hyanthra. I thought that maybe she would have additional wisdom to give us.” Xan-I noticed Charles light up hearing Hyanthra’s name, and it also noticed that Charles gave a slight frown, knowing that he was not interested in visiting her- something that did not surprise Xan-I. Conjurer nodded and sat in his seat, strategizing on how to expand upon Xan-I’s idea. Xan-I added, “I did not talk to Mele about this, but I think that this visit to Hyanthra would not only be good to get a read on her and her people, but we could also do a general assessment of the surface to see if anything has or is happening that we may not have been aware of from the Inner Planet.”
This made Conjurer shake his head in agreement, and he said, “I would be willing to go with you, Xan-I. I have not gone past Spiral City for ages, and this is something that should have been done long ago. Hyanthra will not be welcoming to you, but I am sure she will be more understanding after we explain our story to her.” Charles grimaced and replied, “Maybe. Hyanthra is not kind to mechanisms. She barely respects mine!” Mele cut in, “Even if she despises Xan-I, I agree with Conjurer, if Xan-I’s story is told, there is a good chance that she may be able to provide some insights on what could be done next. Hyanthra and the people of the second vertice do have the best vantage point right now, given that they have remained on the surface since we descended.” Taking a gentle sigh, Charles replied, “This is true. The worst-case scenario is that Hyanthra and her people will be presented with something special. If they see that Xan-I has the intention of rescuing the pyramid, they could be persuaded. However, I very well see her tossing everything to the wind and moving on. We must remember that she is physically and spiritually scarred from mechanisms. Especially from Tyrant Vaine.”
As Charles looked off into space to collect himself, Conjurer added to the conversation, “I will do whatever I can to convince her and make sure nothing happens to Xan-I. Our real goal now is to make Hyanthra aware of our new friend and our new mission. Would you say that’s correct, Xan-I?” The rest of the company’s stares reflected on the surface of Xan-I’s eye, and the mechanism answered, “Yes. I also have an idea for how we may be able to save our planet, but while we are on the surface, I need to see Lake 125.” The rest of the table sat up straight as their eyes widened. Mele chimed in, “Honey, do you remember anything I told you about our experience at Lake 125?” Conjurer also butted in with a curious tone, “What makes you want to see Lake 125, Xan-I?” Awaiting an answer, Conjurer put a hand through his beard and stared at Xan-I with wonder. Xan-I put one hand on the table and with its other hand, it pointed at Charles and said, “Yesterday, I got to look at a model of Xanropa that Charles made at his studio, and I have been thinking about it a lot since. Last night in my sleep cycle, I was studying the model again as if it were a human body and the first vertice were a cyst. If the first vertice is benign, if you will, we might be able to remove it from the pyramid. There would be no loss of life, no more destruction generated toward our planet, and we would be free of Tyrant Vaine, for good.”
The table sat in shock for a bit, they each were letting Xan-I’s idea flow through their consciousness. Xan-I looked at each of them but remained silent and stared at the table. It felt as if though it spoke too much and had just spoken a different language to them. To reassure the table, Xan-I said, “I know that my idea is just an idea, but I think we would be able to pull it off, but that is if I can confirm the status of the surface at Lake 125. There are some factors that would be needed for the plan to work properly.” Charles asked Xan-I, “What would those factors be for your hypothetical plan?” Following with curiosity, Mele and Conjurer looked toward Xan-I, who responded, “If the damage toward the surface were enough, we might be able to use the arcane abilities of Hyanthra and her warriors to slice through the pyramid. If there is no recent activity from Tyrant Vaine, we might be able to orchestrate the operation with no interference.” Conjurer asked, “Would we need to make some sort of seal between the slices of the pyramid?” Charles waited to see if Xan-I was going to answer, but after a few seconds he quickly took on Conjurer’s questions, “Not necessarily, we still have the debris and openings from the destruction of the third and fourth vertices. In fact, the damage to the pyramid’s surface is probably greater on the faces of Lake 132 and Lake 143. The surfaces by Lake 125, and 154 would be more dense, but it would not be impossible to still penetrate them.”
Mele asked Charles, “Could we not work on slicing the pyramid from the inside? That way we would not be interrupted by the tyrant.”
It seemed that table had been set on a proverbial fire of optimism, hope, and excitement from their ideas as possibilities of their freedom from Tyrant Vaine were sounding more possible.
After some more deliberation and questions among each other, the company settled on an agreed plan. Xan-I and Conjurer would first trek toward Lake 125 to see if there had been any recent activity from the tyrant before going to the second vertice to visit Hyanthra and her people. Meanwhile, Mele and Charles would recruit as many people from the Inner Planet as possible to aid them with separating the first vertice from inside the pyramid. This would not be an easy task, for they would have to rely on Xan-I and Conjurer’s coordinates, once they shared where the safest spot would be to dissect, they would send the position to Charles and Mele- who would then begin the interior separation. After they went through the plan a third time, Mele asked everyone at the table, “Okay then, are we sold on this idea? If anyone has anything else more to add, now is the time.” Charles, Conjurer, and Xan-I all then looked at each other and Mele with affirmation toward the plan they concocted, then Mele spoke, “Then that settles it, our plan shall be in motion starting tomorrow morning! All those who agree to this, say, ‘Aye’!” Simultaneously, Xan-I, Charles, and Conjurer each hollered and slammed their hands on the table with a sort of excitement, “Aye!”
Mele got up from the table and went to open her doors. Now that the company had had their important meeting, anybody that was not upset or scared of Mele’s and or Xan-I, could come inside. As Mele unlocked her doors, she was surprised to see a small group of people waiting to come in. They were, to Mele’s surprise, not angry nor threatening. The group of people all had their hands folded together and asked for forgiveness for the earlier events that took place with the mob. Mele was shocked and without hesitating said, “Oh, it’s fine! Get in here! You could have been here earlier!” As usual, it seemed, Mele welcomed the wary group with open arms.
As the group made their way into Mele’s they did not make a scene about Xan-I standing at the table with Charles and Conjurer. To make sure that the people knew they were safe, Charles waved and shouted, “Hey there! Welcome back!” This made the patrons smile, and the aura of the room felt as it should have in Mele’s cozy place. Conjurer and Charles stood up from their chairs and as Conjurer pushed his chair in he told Xan-I, “Hey, Xan-I, before we leave tomorrow, there is something that I think you would like to see. It is beautiful and actually has something to do with our plan. Can we meet at Charles’s studio tonight?” Xan-I raised its hands above its waist and said, “Why yes! I would love to, Conjurer!” Charles made a sound of suspicion and asked, “I wonder what you are going to show Xan-I, Conjurer?” Conjurer smirked and laughed to himself, “Well, maybe you should see it too then, my friend!” From the time that Conjurer invited Xan-I to Charles’s studio, Charles remembered something from the plan earlier that he wanted to say aloud. “Oh! Wait! Conjurer, Xan-I, if you two are going to be meeting by my studio, I have something to show you all in my studio. It is a prototype I have been building that may come as good use for your trek above tomorrow. I will explain more when I see you both tonight! I got to go run and make sure it is prepared for you both tomorrow. See you later!” Charles then lightly sprinted toward the front door, but before he left, he hugged and said goodbye to Mele. Charles thanked her for her help and then sprinted back to his studio to prepare his surprise for Charles and Xan-I that evening.
Following Charles’s move, as Conjurer stood up, he asked Xan-I, “Do you want to see a little more of the Inner Planet before our meeting tonight?” Xan-I walked over closer to Conjurer and said, “Yes! That would be quite nice!” Mele smiled at how caring Conjurer and Charles had been toward their new mechanized friend. “Well Mele, thanks so much. As always, you are such a delight. Don’t know where we would be without you!” Conjurer then gave Mele a hug, and as they let go of each other she said, “You two be careful! I will see you both bright and early tomorrow!” Conjurer and Xan-I then made their way through the entrance doors and down the stairs of Mele’s, going to sightsee the rest of the Inner Planet before their pending adventure up on Xanropa.
Conjurer and Xan-I walked down the street, in the opposite direction of Charles’s studio, passing by familiar buildings that mimicked the ones of Spiral City. These buildings seemed shorter and more friendly than the towering and eerie ones above. There were artificial trees next to almost every building, providing rich and nurturing oxygen and beautiful scenery. Unlike the illusion of Spiral City, the horizon and other shaped buildings were visible, making it feel more comfortable and casual. Conjurer pointed to a patch of turf with a few buildings standing in it and said, “See those buildings and this land? This is one of the farms of the Inner Planet. This farm provides various vegetation for all who live here. There are people constantly working all day and all night to make sure there is enough food at all times for the people.” Xan-I looked at each building and saw magnificent shaped plants, people pulling roots from the ground, and baskets of produce being collected for the Inner Planet. “Simply incredible! This looks just as good, if not better, than the farms on Xanropa!” Exclaimed Xan-I.
Parked in front of one of the buildings was a large vehicle that looked to have been modified to haul the plethora of baskets from the farm around the Inner Planet. Conjurer then directed Xan-I’s attention to the vehicle. “See that large vehicle there, Xan-I? That is an old vehicle of Tyrant Vaine’s harvesting patrols. We were able to deactivate it and transform it into something beautiful and productive for the Inner Planet. Normally, the back would not be opened up for loading supplies, they look exactly like this but the back of the vehicle is closed off. We want to watch out for these when we leave tomorrow, they are nothing but trouble.” Xan-I turned to Conjurer and asked, “What makes them so dangerous? Are they not just mechanisms that haul debris?” Conjurer lifted a finger into the air and replied, “They do just that, however, they are also predators. See that large shovel-like item on the front bumper of the vehicle? Normal harvesting patrols use that to consume any material into the back portion of the vehicle. Whatever it cannot swallow, there are usually some mechanisms that follow to keep its gluttonous act rampant. This one down here has had its esophagus sealed up so that we can use it to load more supplies onto it. The vehicles above do not stop for anything; their prime motive is to consume any and all materials that lay in front of it. So if we see one, we either need to steer clear of it, or do whatever it takes to deactivate it.” Finally learning more about the harvesting patrols from Conjurer, Xan-I knew that their mission was truly happening. Exciting and nervous electricity ran through its circuitry taking in all of this information.
Conjurer spoke through Xan-I’s moment of trance, “Sorry to bring more subjects up about our trek tomorrow, I just thought you should know.” Xan-I waved its arms to clear any negative energy between it and Conjurer, “No no! It is okay, this is very helpful. The more I know, the better for both of us, right?” Conjurer nodded in agreement and said, “Well, let’s continue the brief tour! We still have some time to kill!” The two then walked away from the farm and continued sightseeing the rest of the Inner Planet.
It takes about eight hours to walk around the entirety of the Inner Planet. Which was plenty of time for Conjurer and Xan-I to spend before meeting with Charles that evening. As the two walked by more homes and buildings, Xan-I asked Conjurer, “Conjurer, I have not had a chance to ask this yet; why do you go by Conjurer?” The two had walked outside another grouping of homes and were standing in front of a park that had a small pond waving in its center. Conjurer walked a few steps closer to a sculpture that looked like an hourglass and put his folded arms on top of it. Facing the pond, he answered Xan-I, “During the time of Tyrant Vaine’s emergence, I had had many troubles with my identity. Back then, I felt that I didn’t belong with any group of people- as I mentioned before, I was often ridiculed for my use of the arcane and seen only as a silly guy. So as I got older, I decided that I didn’t want to be associated with my real name that people would use to make jokes out of, so I disassociated with the society of Xanropa and went by ‘Conjurer’ so that I could escape myself and be happy with who I was.” The pond continued to wave and twinkle as Xan-I waited to say anything to Conjurer. Conjurer sighed and continued, “The day that Xanropa became ruined, I could not even begin to bare carrying my old identity with me. My former self died that day, and I don’t think I will ever be that person I once was.” Xan-I interrupted, “You can be whoever you wish to be, Conjurer. Your identity is your’s to solidify.” Conjurer turned from the pond and looked at Xan-I, “Thanks, that does mean a lot coming from you. My hope is that one day, I can feel at peace enough to actually give myself a name that feels fitting and just.” Xan-I stood in silent affirmation with Conjurer as they saw some larger birds begin to fly down and land upon the pond. As the birds descended into their spiral down to the pond, Conjurer said, “This is one of my favorite things to watch, birds landing on their flight in the most beautiful of places. Who would have thought they could find themselves in such a remarkable position?” Conjurer tapped the hourglass with his hand and motioned for Xan-I that they were continuing on their stroll around the Inner Planet. They walked beside hills, gave their respects as they walked by the tranquil cemetery, and enjoyed the rest of the scenery that the Inner Planet had to offer. Xan-I had noted that the Inner Planet felt more organic and alive than Xanropa. There was much more green, more organic-looking landscapes, and the inhabitants had done such a wonderful job with how they displayed the copious amounts of artificial trees (they were not just the same model of trees as above, there was a visual distinction among them). This planet felt alive inside the shell of a planet that had perished.
Daylight was beginning to transition as the two made their way around the planet. They were very close to Charles’s studio. In the sky, Xan-I noticed a large meteorite that hung in the sky like a chandelier, it shone and lit up the interior of the pyramid. It was so close but quite obviously far away from them. As Xan-I was staring at the shimmering entity in the late evening sky, it remembered something about Xanropa’s history. “Wait, is that crystalline meteorite of Xanropa?!” Conjurer looked at Xan-I, and as he put his fingers up to his lips, he whispered back, “Charles is going to show it to you in a while, and when he shows it to you, you need to pretend to be surprised as you are now!” Xan-I looked away from the meteorite and tried not to return its gaze to the gorgeous rock that floated above them.
Night had finished blanketing the Inner Planet as the two made it to Charles’s studio. As Conjurer and Xan-I entered the studio, Charles covered something that was sitting on his desk with his body. “Hello, my friends! Did you have a good rest of your day?” Conjurer looked at Charles with eager curiosity as Xan-I stood and waited to see what Charles wanted to show them. As hard as it was not to ask about what was behind Charles, Conjurer replied, “We did, we strolled around the planet doing some sightseeing.” Xan-I chimed in, “It was refreshing and informative to see all of the Inner Planet!” Charles smiled and said, “That is good to hear! As you said, it is important that you can now visualize the rest of the planet for future purposes.” Conjurer spoke up, “Okay, Charles, I need to know what you got there!” Charles put his hands up to Conjurer and Xan-I and motioned for them to quiet down, “Okay! Okay! Let’s get on with why I brought you both here tonight.” Charles then slowly moved to the right, revealing a shiny bird. It had a circular base with featherless wings and an ample neck that connected to a head that had minimal facial details. As Xan-I and Conjurer marveled at what Charles had finished making, Charles spoke, “This is a prototype mechanism that I will be using to, in a way, be with you all while remaining down here. I call it, Silver Swan, it does not have as much sentience as you Xan-I, but it is programmed to follow you both and will transmit video and audio back to me.” Conjurer interjected, “Can you communicate through it?” Charles smiled and raised a finger into the air, “I was just going to say, I can talk through it as if it were another communication device.” Conjurer smiled and nodded at Silver Swan, admiring this new companion that he and Xan-I would have on their adventure in the morning.
Xan-I turned and said to Charles, “This is incredible, Charles! It is such a beautiful and practical mechanism! This will be of great benefit!” Charles did a small bow of gratitude to Xan-I’s kind words and replied, “Well, it is thanks to you both and Mele, as we were talking about the plan to separate the first vertice from Xanropa, I was thinking that if we needed to know the coordinates of where to begin the cutting, it would be nice to also have visuals of the surface. That way, we below may be aware of what is going on up there to help us better prepare and operate this removal.” Xan-I and Conjurer stood and were both not surprised by how efficient and thoughtful Charles was about their plan. It was another affirmation that Charles was a legendary vertice leader of Xanropa.
“When you both prepare to leave tomorrow, I will have Silver Swan ready and activated for you first thing in the morning. Now that it is dark out, I thought I would show you something else, Xan-I. Conjurer is used to this next thing I am about to show you, but I am not sure if you have seen this before.” Conjurer immediately turned to Xan-I and gave it a glare that whispered back the directions of acting surprised again as they all made their way back outside. As they walked out of the studio and into the indigo black of night, the sky was now much more dramatic than when Conjurer and Xan-I arrived at Charles’s studio. The crystalline meteorite at this time in the night showed much more value throughout its surface and felt more like a moon than before. Xan-I did not need to pretend to be amazed; this experience was much more awe-inducing than when it and Conjurer first saw it. The little time that had passed made such a big difference in how the meteorite commanded the night sky. “That is the crystalline meteorite that Xanropa was founded upon. Isn’t it so beautiful?” Xan-I responded, “This goes beyond my programming. There are no words that can justify this sight.” The three continued looking at the meteorite, and Charles said while pointing at it, “Beyond the meteorite is the first vertice, can you believe that? That the source of Xanropa’s pain is behind this source of visual comfort?” This sent chills through Xan-I’s wires. Conjurer spoke, “It will be hard to not see the meteorite for a while, but when we get to the surface, we will have to stargaze. I always find that looking into the night sky is a source of problem solving, spiritual healing, and a magical experience. Charles exclaimed, “Me too!” Xan-I may not have understood how humans connect to their souls, but it did understand how the night sky made them feel comfortable and whimsical. The three stayed out for some time enjoying the sight before Charles invited them to sleep at his studio. Eventually, they each retired to the studio to rest before the beginning of their plan in the morning. Xan-I pulled up the image of the meteorite inside its lens, putting itself to sleep as it stared into the intoxicating beauty of the crystalline meteorite.
Chapter Four: Surfacers
In the early morning, Charles had prepared some tea for himself and Conjurer so that they may have calm minds. There was also a can of oil for Xan-I’s joints so that it may have smooth operation for the quest at hand. Since Charles was the first to wake up, he cleared and moved his desk to use it as a table for his studio guests. Conjurer woke up to the smell of spices steeping from the tea Charles was making and fried potatoes. “Good morning! I decided that I would make us some breakfast.” Stretching his arms toward the sky, Conjurer let out a muffled yawn and through the first smile of his day, said, “Thank you kindly, friend.” As Conjurer got up from his makeshift cot, he wandered to the bathroom to prepare himself for the day, Xan-I booted up from its sleep. “Good morning, Charles!” Charles turned and as he waved his utensil at Xan-I, he said back, “Good morning to you, Xan-I! I wish you could experience breakfast, but I did bring out some oil for you if you needed to loosen up for today.” Xan-I looked at Charles’s desk where he had positioned two tea cups for himself and Charles, there beside them was a can of oil of itself. It felt the warmth of kindness creep through its casing. “Thank you, Charles! I will take this opportunity to use it indeed!” Charles finished cooking up the potato dish, and set down plates and utensils for the meal.
Conjurer returned from the bathroom and took a seat at the desk next to the standing Xan-I that was applying oil to its joints. “Good morning, Xan-I. How are you feeling this morning?”
“Good morning, Conjurer! I am operating at full capacity, and now my joints will allow me to move efficiently, thanks to Charles.” Taking a swallow of Charles’s tea, Conjurer responded, “That’s good to hear. We will need any or all the efficiency we can handle!” Almost on cue, Conjurer and Charles laughed together. Xan-I was lost as to why they thought that was funny, but it did not want to ruin the fun that they were experiencing together. Charles walked over to the desk with the breakfast now ready to eat. As he put the large skillet on the desk he made an announcement, “Alright, I have one rule as we eat. We will not talk about the mission until after we have ingested a proper amount of food and feel as refreshed as possible. Do we all agree?” Immediately, Conjurer and his hunger replied, “Agreed!” He then dove into the meal of potatoes and vegetables that Charles had prepared. Xan-I nodded to Charles’s request, and the three spent the duration of breakfast in tranquility together.
As soon as they had finished breakfast, there was a knock on Charles’s studio door. Charles got up to find that Mele had come over to help see Xan-I and Conjurer off on their mission. “Mele! I am so sorry, I would have made more food if I had known you were coming!” Mele lovingly rolled her eyes, “Please, Charles, it is fine! Don’t worry about it! You can feed me next time!” Mele and Charles walked toward Xan-I and Conjurer, who both welcomed Mele. As they all met at the desk, Mele asked, “Okay, so, what is the plan? What are you all up to before these two ascend to the surface?” She had her thumb directing attention toward Conjurer and Xan-I as she smiled at them. Charles took the empty skillet and walked over to another desk where Silver Swan was docked. “I was just going to clean up and get Silver Swan turned on. This is going to be another companion for the two that will transmit video and audio to us as we prepare to start the removal of the first vertice.” Mele laughed in astonishment, “Wow! You never cease to amaze me with your work, master artificer!” Charles set the skillet aside and raised his eyebrows and Mele’s kind title she gave him. He approached Silver Swan and with a few taps on his bracelets he said, “Well, we will see if I am worthy of such a title Mele. Let’s make sure that it starts and operates properly first.”
Soft humming started to whirl from the bottom of the metallic bird. Slowly as the humming got louder, Silver Swan started to hover above the desk. “I guess I still got it!” Exclaimed Charles. Silver Swan then started to glide forward to Charles, casting a spectrum of rays around the studio. When the mechanism paused in front of him, he turned to Xan-I and Conjurer and directed them, “Okay, you two! I need you to stand right where I am standing for a couple of seconds.” With no questions, Conjurer and Xan-I walked over to Charles and swapped places with him. When Charles was standing on the side of them he tapped his bracelets a couple of times and soon Silver Swan began to register the two with a small blue ray of light sliding up and down Conjurer and Xan-I. “Alright, now, if you both would, go ahead and walk around the studio for a bit. This should complete that bonding operation!” Xan-I and Conjurer then began to walk around casually, and as soon as they started, Silver Swan turned itself toward their direction and glided alongside them. “Just amazing, Charles!” Shouted Mele. Conjurer started to clap to give Charles recognition for finishing this mechanism and giving them a new companion for their quest.
After getting Silver Swan bonded to Xan-I and Conjurer, the company got Conjurer packed up with a bag of essentials, and they made their way to Stratos. When they reached the zone of Stratos, Charles said to the company, “Let’s go over our mission again before I open the seal.” Mele, Conjurer, and Xan-I huddled in close together to go over the plan again. Mele started to go through the plan again, “Conjurer and Xan-I will return to the surface and first make their way to Lake 125, to assess any recent activities from the tyrant.” Xan-I continued with the second step of their plan, “After we document what has been going on near Lake 125, we will then make our way to the second vertice to meet with Hyanthra and the people of the second vertice.” Conjurer then expanded on the second step, “To avoid as much conflict as possible, I will try and handle as much of the talking between Hyanthra and us, seeing that she does not take kindly to mechanisms. As we are up there, Charles and Mele will start gathering people to prepare our removal operation from inside the pyramid.” Charles and Mele both shook their heads, and the company broke out of their huddle. It was now time for them to begin their mission. Charles took out his marionette controllers for Stratos, and vicariously through the colossal mechanism, he opened the seal and brought the platform down to the surface of the Inner Planet.
Both the monitoring towers and the company were focused on the opening, looking out for any possible threats that may seep down to the Inner Planet. As all eyes adjusted to the small hole of light emitting from the Xanropa, there had been no sign of awaiting danger since Xan-I and Conjurer last made their descent. After confirming that they were in the clear, Charles directed Conjurer and Xan-I, “Okay, I think we are ready to send you both up.” Mele walked over to both of them, gave them each a hug, and said, “You both be careful up there and keep us updated on what’s going on!” Conjurer held Mele’s hand and said, “I promise, we shall, Mele.”
Charles, having his hands busy operating Stratos, bowed his head at both of them and said, “This may be our time to save Xanropa, I don’t think fate could have brought together a better crew. We will see you both again soon, and we will then be the more wiser.” Xan-I,Conjurer, and Silver Swan then made their way up onto the platform in Stratos’s hands. Before Charles raised Stratos’s hands back to the opening in the pyramid, Xan-I shouted, “Thank you all for helping me rediscover my purpose and your hospitality!” As Xan-I and Conjurer waved goodbye to their friends, Charles maneuvered Stratos and had the colossus return the platform to the opening.
Slowly, the Inner Planet started to shrink, and soon, the planet was the size of a grapefruit from the perspective of Conjurer and Xan-I. As Stratos’s platform got closer to the surface of Xanropa, it got brighter and brighter until they were standing back in the familiar gazebo of the commonplace. “We are back.” Conjurer said in a hushed voice. Xan-I, without hesitating, went into a surveilling phase. Scanning every direction for any sort of threat, and for any sign of recent activities. Upon its inspection, Xan-I reported to Conjurer, “It does not seem to be any signs of any recent activity since we were here. Do you see anything though, out of the ordinary?” Conjurer took a moment to answer Xan-I, doing a bit more investigating of the gazebo and the streets of Spiral City himself. “I am nervous to say it, but I think we are in the clear. I have an idea though.” Conjurer then took a few steps toward the entrance of the gazebo and his hands began to emit a bright orange light. Putting his hands together, Conjurer created a large bubble and then told Xan-I, “Hop in, we are going to skip walking through Spiral City, I don’t know if I can fly us all the whole way to Lake 125, but we can at least skip this part of our adventure.” Xan-I and Silver Swan made their way into Conjurer’s bubble. It surprised Xan-I that the bubble did not burst when entering it. Conjurer then joined the other two, and soon he had them floating over the city. The sky was still lit up by the rainbow that hung around the base of the tetrahdedron.
From above Spiral City, it felt much less dangerous, for they were able to view the city and the straggling possessed users as sightseers instead of frightened Xanropians on the ground. Conjurer spoke as he piloted the bubble, “In the time Spiral City was civilized, it was actually a neat place to visit and be. Compared to the Inner Planet, it feels so much more like a tomb than a city with what Tyrant Vaine did to Xanropa. Hard to believe that people used to live here.” Xan-I took note of how the buildings were laid out from their aerial view. The buildings made a circumference around the fifth vertice, and not all of the building were the same height, there was a gradual decrease in height as they traveled closer to the beginning of Spiral City. At the beginning of the city was once a barricade and a gate that now lay in ruin after Tyrant Vaine’s attacks. They had made it through the city and Conjurer started to land the bubble by the mouth of the gate. Once they landed, Conjurer’s bubble drifted away into the wind as if it never existed. They turned around to take a look at the Spiral City one more time before walking in the direction of Lake 125, Charles’s voice cracked through Silver Swan, “Wow, you got out of the city in record time with that little flight of yours, Conjurer! Awesome. I hope this sounds okay and is not too loud. I will try to remain silent unless you all call for me or I see any danger before you all do.” Conjurer knelt down to make eye contact with Silver Swan and told Charles, “You sound good, we hear you loud and clear. Thanks, Charles!” Xan-I scanned the broken barricade and the gate some more, it had been severely crushed and bent in many places, but there was no debris left. During Xan-I’s assessment of the wreckage mystery, Conjurer asked, “Wondering where all the debris and little chunks went?” Quickly, Xan-I turned to Conjurer to hear more. “Well, that is why the tyrant’s harvesting patrols exist. They drive around taking any loose material they find to grind it down and make the blood steel that the tyrant’s mechanisms are made out of. If this barricade ever completely fell down, I guarantee that the harvesting patrol would remove it in a flash.
While staring at the gate of Spiral City, the three made their way past it and into the neighboring forest that surrounded Spiral City. The forest still had a fair amount of artificial trees, but some of them were damaged- either missing some pieces or broken down to only stumps. As they walked closer into the forest, it seemed like they were walking into a dark room that had small windows of a bluish-white. “Ah, it looks like it snowed on the other side of the forest.” Exclaimed Conjurer. Xan-I put a hand to its eye as if it could use its lens like a binocular and asked Conjurer, “How do you know that it snowed all the way from here?”
“It is hard to forget the color of something you love, Xan-I. That is the color of snow and potentially ice on the surface. It was one of my favorite things when I was younger and living up here.”
There was no recollection of ever experiencing snow for Xan-I, it was eager to see if it looked familiar to itself. Xan-I and Conjurer were walking with Silver Swan in between them as they walked deeper into the forest. All of the artificial trees were designed to look the same, with the exception of the tree shades, which had a slight variety of sizes and shapes. The tree shades were used to disperse oxygen that flowed through the branches of the trees. They moved like diaphragms, expanding and decreasing ever slowly. Even though they were not organic trees, they were made to feel as living as they could; the artificial trees that were damaged were quite strange. During their walk through the forest, it had grown dark enough that Silver Swan activated a light from its base, Xan-I also turned on its chest light as Conjurer lit his hands to help with the last segment of the forest.
Heavy breathing was coming from Conjurer, it alarmed Xan-I who then paused to ask, “Conjurer, are you alright? Do we need to take a break?” Conjurer took a few more steps ahead before stopping and taking a few breaths. “I am okay, I promise! I may have outdone myself slightly by flying us across the city. It was a little more heavy than I thought it would be. I feel like I just ran a marathon!” Charles’s voice shouted through Silver Swan, “Hey! You should rest for a minute. I am not saying you are old, I just think that we need to remember what you did with your bubble trick a bit ago. Besides, I take Silver Swan ahead to see what is going on.” An annoyed Conjurer sat down and said, “Okay, fine. I’m sorry, I am not grumpy with you guys, I am more just anxious about this mission and mad at myself for wearing myself out already.” Xan-I walked up to where Conjurer was and said as softly and reassuring as it could say, “No need to worry, the fact that we are even doing this at all is more than enough for us. You did just perform a great feat with what seemed like no hassle. You are amazing, Conjurer!” Looking down with a face of disgust toward himself, Conjurer remained silent. He did some breathing exercises and stood up. “Thank you. I apologize again, I promise I am okay. Let’s catch up with Silver Swan.” The two continued their walk to the blinding light at the end of the forest to find Silver Swan.
Approaching the end of the forest, it took a little time for Conjurer’s eyes and Xan-I’s lens to adjust to the brightness of the land that lay between the forest and Lake 125. At the border of the forest, the two could see Silver Swan hovering behind a stump, peering at what looked like an abyss of white light. Conjurer’s communicator device vibrated with the voice of Charles in this pocket, “Conjurer, Xan-I, do you copy?!” Charles was whispering but his voice harmonized with fear. Carefully and quietly, Conjurer and Xan-I stood behind some trees and Conjurer replied into his device, “Yes Charles, what’s wrong? What do you see?”
“I took Silver Swan out of the forest, and I think I spotted a harvesting patrol. I do not know which direction they are going in.” Under his breath, Conjurer let out, “Oh damn!” Xan-I remained silent and turned around behind the tree to see if its lens had adjusted to the bright reflecting light that bounced off the land. It turned out that Xan-I could now see much better, and its lens adjusted and focused on what was ahead. Spotting Silver Swan behind the stump, Xan-I looked beyond and spotted a familiar-looking vehicle with a much more menacing presence. There were a few of the crustacean-looking mechanisms of Tyrant Vaine following the vehicle- just as Conjurer spoke of them. The harvesting patrol was gliding across as chunks of ice flew into its mouth. The assisting mechanisms picked up any shape of debris and threw it into the vehicle's mouth. Xan-I almost forgot that it was looking at snow again after so long, and it got distracted as it peered into the bluish-white blanket across the land. “Hey, Xan-I!” Conjurer was whispering yet yelling at the same time. Xan-I looked back at Conjurer, who was four trees over. “How far away do you suppose they are from us?” Taking Conjurer’s question seriously, Xan-I began to run some equations in its head. “Based on where I am currently standing, they are about twenty feet, I can say with certainty.” Conjurer bit his finger and looked down for a moment. Every second was important, for if they got spotted, Conjurer was not sure if he would be able to rescue the party. Looking around, Charles noticed that a tree nearby Xan-I was coming apart from the trunk. Carefully, Conjurer talked back into his device to Charles, “Charles, do you think you would be able to move Silver Swan back to us?” “I don’t know; the light may reflect off the mechanism and attract their attention. Could be too risky.” Xan-I waved at Conjurer to get his attention. Without making too much noise, Conjurer thought out an idea as he wandered closer to Xan-I, staying behind the neighboring trees. “What is it, Xan-I?”
“Do you see that gold monolith over there? Could it be possible that they are heading toward that?” Calculating what Xan-I told Conjurer, he took a moment to observe the harvesting patrol and their current trajectory and speed. Having some insight into their activities, Conjurer started to nod, “I think you may be right, that is the only real distracting thing out here that could benefit them.” Over by the dredging monster of the harvesting patrol, the vehicle, and its attendants were heading toward the golden monolith that sat further away from Xan-I and Conjurer. Confirming they were in the clear of the monsters, Conjurer ran to Silver Swan and rotated it to show Charles the golden mystery over yonder.
“We are safe for now; it looks like they have a meal to attend. I have no idea what that is over there.” The three remained silent, still crouching and hiding behind the trees. Conjurer turned back and told Xan-I who was a tree behind him and Silver Swan, “See that tree?” He pointed out the tree that was almost separated from its trunk to Xan-I. “If we need to, we can separate that and use the shades as a blanket to cover them in and take them out if necessary.” Xan-I nodded and returned its attention to the patrol making their way closer to the golden statue.
“NOW BRYNE!” A voice echoed throughout the land. As soon as this cue was made, large tentacles burst through a pile of snow that was beneath the harvesting patrol vehicle. Each limb was a tangled collection of what looked like flesh-coated tentacles, and they had reached around the vehicle. In what looked like a deathly hug, the tentacles were able to pull the vehicle down in the snow as far as it could sink. Then, the golden statue moved, and it transformed into a silhouette of a humanoid as it leaped into the air. Something about its head did not feel right to Conjurer and Xan-I. In a quick transition, the golden humanoid crashed into two of the assisting harvesting patrol mechanisms- who did not have enough time to defend themselves from being pulverized by the impact. The golden humanoid had the same three-eyed head that typically belonged to the crustacean mechanisms of Tyrant Vaine. Could this be a new creation of Tyrant Vaine running some kind of a drill? The last remaining mechanism that accompanied the harvesting patrol vehicle charged at the golden humanoid as a different figure emerged from out of nowhere. This new figure had the same head as the Golden humanoid and the attacking mechanism of the tyrant, and with a staff in its hands, a bolt of noise blasted out and pushed the charging mechanism away from the golden humanoid. It looked almost as if some humans were taken and had their heads replaced with the monstrosities of Tyrant Vaine’s mechanisms. Xan-I was not fond of those monsters and the only one that it cared to look at was the one whose head was displayed back down at Mele’s.
The staff wielder ran toward the mechanism it had just cast away from the golden one when from the origin of the tentacles, a large mass cracked through the snow. It was about two times the size of the golden humanoid and the staff wielder. The large being looked like a large human brain with tangled limbs crawling from its base. Conjurer and Xan-I noticed that the being’s tentacles were quite flexible and it seemed that it could produce as many as it needed to serve its purpose. As the staff wielder delivered a final blow to the downed mechanism, the tentacle-baring being took one of its limbs and jammed it through the face of the harvesting patrol vehicle. After the impact, the vehicle howled in pain from the large being’s blow. Soon the vehicle sat silent in the snow that it had been dragged into. Charles’s voice screamed through Silver Swan, “What in the world is that?!” Conjurer and Xan-I were not sure what was happening. Conjurer spoke to Xan-I, “Something does not feel right about those two. But at the same time, something about them tells me we should approach them to find out more.” Xan-I replied, “Affirmative.” Digging in his pocket for his communication device, Conjurer spoke into it, “Charles, we are going to approach them for investigation.” Xan-I followed after Conjurer as they both ignored Charles’s series of concerned questions and remarks about them being out of their minds.
As Xan-I and Conjurer made their way over to the strangers, they saw the staff wielder walk back over to the golden humanoid, who was walking over the now vestigial harvesting patrol vehicle. Silver Swan followed reluctantly behind to document their encounter.
From afar, Conjurer could make out the sounds of words coming from the staff wielder. “I got a feeling these are some clever Surfacers.” Conjurer said to Xan-I. As the suspected Surfacers and the large being were pulling the vehicle out of the snow, Conjurer, Xan-I, and Silver Swan got just close enough to the vehicle to get their attention.
“Stop right there!” The staff wielder jumped away from the vehicle and got into a defensive position. Following suit, the golden humanoid came to the side of the vehicle and put its arms into an offensive position as the brain-like creature squashed along the snow, got down on four limbs, and expanded itself to appear as if it were a beast. “Who are you and what are you doing?” The staff wielder asked, pointing their staff toward the party. Conjurer raised his hands into the air to show that he, Xan-I, and Silver Swan were not of any harm to them, just curious adventurers who had witnessed a heist of some sort. Xan-I followed Conjurer’s lead and raised its hands into the air as well as it said aloud assertively, “You are not making any grunts, screams, or wailing noises. So there's no way you can be mechanisms nor possessed users of the tyrant!”
The staff wielder laughed, “You are right, my mechanized friend, we are not controlled by that monster. Do you want to know why we don’t sound like them besides not being them?” Conjurer and Xan-I remained silent, knowing from the tone in the staff wielder’s voice they were going to answer their own question. “Because evil is a language that no one can comprehend unless they are also evil. We do not speak like Tyrant Vaine. Therefore, we are not evil.” Conjurer was impressed with the philosophical speaking of the staff wielder and gave a nod and a smile to them. Xan-I responded to the stranger’s thought, “Although you all may not sound like the tyrant, it could still be possible to be a different kind of evil, correct?”
“In a world like ours, you are here either because you are leftover from an age gone by or your mind is one with he who devours. Any other form of evil could not compare to that of Tyrant Vaine.” The staff wielder put his staff aside, signaling to their companions that they, too, should stand down. “Would you all be more comfortable answering my questions if you could see my beautiful face?” Conjurer and Xan-I were taken aback by the moment of vanity, and Conjurer said, “Yes, actually, we are not too fond of those heads you wear!”
“Very well, but as soon as I grace you with my beauty, you better answer my questions!” With that, the staff wielder put their staff down and took hold of the mechanism head, and began to lift it off of their neck. As the head was sliding up and off of the staff wielder’s body, long dark-brown hair tossed and fell beneath the seemingly head-turned helmet. The staff wielder was not completely full of themself when they told Xan-I and Conjurer of their beauty. They wore glasses, that had cunning eyes looking through the lenses. Their face was both masculine yet had a feminine glow. Their long hair was being kept back neatly by a grey headband. From their red-painted lips, they spoke, “I am sorry if the helmets terrified you both, it is for our safety that we wear them while out and about. Tyrant Vaine and his monsters seem stupid enough that they think we are one of them by wearing these former heads of his mechanisms. Pretty rich if you ask me.” Setting the helmet down, the staff wielder then said, “Okay, now it is time for your end of our little deal. Who are you and what are you all doing?”
Xan-I stepped closer and introduced itself and company to the strangers. “This is Conjurer, Silver Swan, operated by our friend Charles, and I am Xan-I. We are here on a mission to see if there has been any recent activity at the first vertice.” The staff wielder and their company then relaxed their bodies and were no longer visibly threatened by these three adventurers. “Nice to meet you, Xan-I, Conjurer, and Charles- if you can hear me Charles, I am a big fan of your work!” Conjurer noticed that the staff wielder’s hands were covered in some sort of plating and curiosity escaped his mouth, “Do you mind if I ask about your hands? The armor you have around them looks incredible! Pardon my curiosity.” The staff wielder looked at their hands and then back at Conjurer with a face that displayed surprise and appreciation toward the recognition of their hands. “Well, I made these myself- thanks for the kind words. With these beauties, I also made this staff that makes me feel like a high-tech wizard. It projects soundwaves, but the vibrations from it did some damage to my real hands, so to help my hands, I designed these gloves. The gloves operate as armor and a key to my staff- so I am only allowed to operate it.”
“That is impressive!” Conjurer exclaimed, Xan-I nodded in agreement. Charles talked through Silver Swan, “May we ask who you all are now?” Raising their arms, the staff wielder laughed and exclaimed, “Yes! Of course!” Pointing a finger to themself, “I am the lovely Garalt, and I don’t like to say this but I am kind of the leader of this here troop. Also, I am the only one who speaks among us.” Garalt then pointed their finger to the golden humanoid, “This is Ana, she may not show you her face for a while, but she is one of the toughest people I have ever met, she also has a beautiful heart.” Ana crossed her arms and looked away with a small but muffled grunt, retaining her tough reputation. Walking over and pointing at the brain-like being, Garalt said, “Lastly, this is Bryne. She is an entity from the legendary planet, Sascia. She is the eldest of us three and by far the wisest.” Bryne then lovingly hit Garalt on the side of their arm with one of her tentacle arms. Conjurer and Xan-I had so many questions about Bryne.
“Wait, Sascia as in the planet that began all life? How old is she?!” Conjurer asked excitedly. Xan-I followed those questions with, “How do you communicate with Bryne?” Garalt could tell that they and their friends were in good company with Xan-I, Conjurer, and Silver Swan. “Maybe we should move somewhere that is not in the middle of this wasteland and continue our conversation, huh?” All six individuals agreed as they headed toward a nearby abandoned terminal bay where one of Charles's large mechanisms stood with various damages. Bryne followed behind, towing the harvesting patrol vehicle that the group successfully deactivated. She threaded some of her tentacles around the vehicle and dragged it as Ana helped push and steer from behind the vehicle.
“Look familiar, Charles?” Garalt asked. “Indeed. That was one of the many larger mechanisms I designed and helped create. I am surprised to see it has not been town down into scrap by the harvesting patrols!” Charles responded. Garalt chuckled and said immediately, “One reason we are going to this terminal bay is that they seem to be traumatized by this mechanism since the war. They won’t step twenty feet near here. As they got closer to the terminal bay, Xan-I and Conjurer noticed that there were a few makeshift buildings added onto the sides of it. By the edge of the terminal and behind a fenced-in section were some plants that were raising themselves into the sky. These plants were unlike any that were seen before up here. Conjurer asked in a stupified tone, “What are those dazzling plants?” Pointing toward the plants with their staff, Garalt answered, “Those are organic plants that have been grown by the beautiful Lo’ona, sometime later we can stop by and look at all of them.” Conjurer replied, “I would love that indeed. It is a shame we never started growing real plants in the times of before up here. I don’t believe I recognize some of them.” Garalt nodded, and Xan-I detected both resentment and annoyance at the mention of the before times’ from Garalt but the mechanism knew better to ask about these feelings since they had just met. Perhaps it would learn more about Garalt’s history sooner than later. Charles spoke through Silver Swan to add interest in speaking to Lo’ona. “I also would love to visit with Lo’ona to talk about her techniques and plants!”
When they all arrived at the feet of the towering mechanism, Bryne let go of the vehicle she had towed. Ana helped her push the vehicle next to the foot of the mechanism. Charles’s voice rang out from Silver Swan, “Are those stairs going up and into my mechanism?!” The group then followed the winding stairs that led from the right foot and up to the human equivalent stomach of the mechanism. Garalt flashed their teeth and took a deep breath as they broke the news to Charles, “So, never in my life did I think I would come into contact with you, Charles. Sorry about what I did with your creation. To be fair, though, it was no longer powering on, so in the meantime, we used the fear that it gave to the tyrant and his cronies to make a safe living zone for us.” Geralt, Ana, and Bryne led the party up the stairs, and Charles responded as Silver Swan slowly hovered up the stairs behind Xan-I and Conjurer, “Thanks for at least honoring the mechanism and not tearing it apart.”
As they all entered the entryway that led into the stomach of the mechanism, they were greeted by a warm room that contained chairs, tables, plants, and other people who were occupying the space. Garalt turned to the group and said, “Welcome, this is our humble abode. We are a safe zone for who you all may refer to as ‘Surfacers’, but as of now, you each are Surfacers too!” After their welcome, Garalt and the rest of the company sat down and they asked their new friends, “So how long have you all been walking up here on Xanropa? Does it feel strange to be up here again?” Conjurer answered, “We have been up and moving since this morning, maybe four or five hours now.” Xan-I’s head twisted in both amazement and confusion. Time seemed to have a trick of deception, the mechanism thought to itself.
“Wow! What a meeting of chance and fate! You all finding us all, and all. I am glad that our plan was in action while you found us, otherwise, you may have been with those freaks by yourselves.” Garalt said with their red lips accentuating concern for the Inner Planet trio. Conjurer pointed and nodded toward Bryne, “If it would be appropriate timing, would you tell us more about Bryne, please!” Xan-I sat down on a neighboring couch, anticipating a great tale about to unfold for it and the company. Looking at Bryne lovingly, Garalt sighed and started, “Well, before the time of Tyrant Vaine’s domination, a vessel that was made of hexagons and narrow triangles landed near Lake 143. My family at the time and I were lucky enough to be the first Xanropians to investigate and welcome our special friend. At the time I was a teenager, and Bryne was an adult.” Bryne produced a tentacle and waved it at Garalt. “Sorry, she was an older teenager, is what I meant to say. That is ‘very’ important to the story.” Bryne nodded and an inaudible laugh could be seen by Bryne’s bopping body. Garalt then smiled back toward the Bryne and Ana- who had taken her helmet off to reveal short black hair and an accompanying smirk on her face, “Before I was so rudely interrupted, Bryne and I became very close friends. The reason Ana and I can communicate with Bryne so well is because we formed a connection with her that her and her kind form back on Sascia. I don’t know how to explain it, but it is like we can hear and understand exactly what is Bryne is saying, but it is not in our tongue. It is not even words really, it is sort of like vibrations and various tactile feelings that allow us to understand what she is saying. Does that seem about right, Ana?” Ana’s short-lived smile faded and her stoic face set in as she nodded to agree with how Garalt described their communication with Bryne.
“It is amazing how I cannot recall Bryne’s arrival! Did Bryne come alone or with any more entities?” Asked a very captivated Xan-I. Garalt’s face turned solemn and they replied, “Bryne had loved ones that joined her in her landing. They were a very solid group of friends. Four of them in total. Cartru, Pien, and Quessa were their names. To keep it short, after all the lovely times we had together, it was during the Day of Illusion that we would be separated. Leaving Bryne and I together, that is until we met Ana- who we met while looking and finding supplies for our home here.” Xan-I and Conjurer could tell that Garalt and Bryne experienced terrors, and on the other side of Silver Swan, Charles’s heart ached for them and their losses. “So, like you, most likely, we helped fight back against the tyrant and his monsters but we did not join you in the Inner Planet nor did we decide to live with Hyanthra. We wanted to stay in the remains of Xanropa. After everything that we had lost, the last thing I wanted to do was leave the land that we fought to try and keep. It made; and still makes, no sense to me. Bryne and I felt the same way, and as we ventured around the marred pyramid, we scavenged materials and welcomed other survivors to join us here. Now, after a decade or so, here we are in our home.”
Conjurer looked Garalt, Bryne, and Ana, and bowed to them each to show his condolences. Xan-I also bowed to pay a moment of silence to their new friends. Through a moment of silence and reflection, Silver Swan glided over to Garalt and Charles spoke through the mechanism, “Have you all been on the face of the pyramid where Lake 143 is in a while? We are curious about the density of the land plating for a mission we are working on.” Garalt looked at the mechanism with an expression of pure confusion. Bryne and Ana looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders to indicate that they would not be of any help with this inquiry on land density.
Garalt put their fingers on their chin and thought about it for a while before answering as best as they could, “I am curious why that would be important, and what your mission is. I say this because it is not every day I drop what I am doing to assess the land density, you know? What are you all scheming?” Garalt leaned forward to make eye contact with Silver Swan, Xan-I, and Conjurer as best as they could. Charles began to explain their mission through the hovering Silver Swan, “We are going toward the first vertice to see if there has been any recent activity from Tyrant Vaine. Inside the pyramid, we are going to start slowly piercing through it to remove the first vertice from the planet so that we may begin anew.” Garalt broke eye contact with their guests and looked at Bryne and Ana who both were more stoic and pondering the removal plan. After shifting around in their seat, looking for sentences, and visually consulting to Bryen and Ana, Garalt finally spoke, “Bryne, Ana, and I think that this solution would be amazing. Seriously, if this plan could work, we could restore everything that has been lost. That would be, more than words could explain. However…” Conjurer and Xan-I made eye contact with Garalt, preparing to hear what they had to say about the plan. “… as you all saw this afternoon, the tyrant surely is still alive. Some damned way, for his monsters still terrorize the surface. If you are going to visit the first vertice, it is probably for the best that we come with, but you all must be warned. No one has ever come back from traveling past Lake 125. It may come as a surprise, but even we have not been past Lake 125. The very act of just looking past Lake 125 could either kill us or drive us into deeper madness than we are already in.”
Xan-I raised one of its hands and said, “If it would make everyone feel better, we could try to make it to the edge of Lake 125, and make an assessment from there. Whether our mission is possible or not, depends on us assessing how the surface looks near the lake.” Conjurer shook his head and bowed his head toward his friend to show that it had spoken well. A heavy sigh came from Garalt, who took their glasses off and wiped their eyes. “Good lord. It is a good thing you didn’t visit Hyanthra first, she would have probably punished you all for such a dangerous idea. Luckily for you, I am not using the word ‘stupid’ and associating it with your idea.” Garalt stood up and started walking toward a hallway. They turned around and spoke, “Well, if we are going to make our trip to the lake tomorrow, I better get you all settled in for the night. Follow me!” Conjurer, Xan-I, and Silver Swan followed Garalt’s waving hair to some spaces to rest that evening.
Toward the back of the towering mechanism from where the company was sitting, was a large area with blankets, pillows, and small desks for Surfacers to dwell. Conjurer almost instantaneously fell asleep, covering himself in some blankets after positioning a couple of pillows to suit him best. “I want to offer him food, but I understand that he is worn out from the traveling today.” Worried Garalt. Xan-I then said, “If you tell me where he can get some food later in the night, I can direct him so that you may go on and do what you need to do, Garalt.” Relieved, Garalt said, “Well, back in the main living quarters, there is a kitchenette not that far away from the couches we were sitting on earlier.” Xan-I made a note in its mind to relay to Conjurer if he woke up in the night. “Thank you for your hospitality, Garalt.” Garalt waved a hand, “Don’t thank me yet, in case things go terribly wrong, I don’t want that on my conscious.” Before Garalt left the room for Xan-I and Conjurer to rest it, they said, “Sweet dreams, friends.”
Chapter Five: The Devouring Horizon
Xan-I woke up to Conjurer gently patting on its cuboidal elbow. This surprised Xan-I, because it thought Conjurer would sleep extra to make up for the energy he exerted with their traveling yesterday. “Good morning, friend. I am going to wander back to that living area we were in and see if I can make something to eat.” While it was still rebooting, Xan-I said through a whirling voice, “Sounds good, I shall follow you there.” Silver Swan had not moved, and Charles had not spoken through the mechanism as Xan-I looked at it. Knowing that Charles was probably getting ready for the day and most likely working on stuff, Xan-I took Silver Swan and carried it with to the living area.
Entering the room that morning felt different than yesterday, for the other Surfacers had left to continue their own adventures across Xanropa, leaving Xan-I, Silver Swan, and Conjurer alone in the room that now felt much wider. “Sit wherever you like, Xan-I, we got first picks of seating, it looks like!” Conjurer said this while utilizing the kitchenette to make himself something to fuel their next adventure. Being a mechanism of habit, Xan-I sat on the couch it sat on yesterday. Knowing that that particular couch could handle its weight made Xan-I feel comfortable. After it made itself comfortable, Xan-I asked Conjurer, “Do you suppose my presence scared the Surfacers away?” Conjurer’s face pinched inward as he shook his head and said, “Not at all. Trust me, if they were threatened in any way, I don’t think we would be in here, alive today.” This observation from Conjurer made a lot of sense and, like the couch, made Xan-I feel comfortable being inside the Surfacer’s base.
Conjurer had finished eating and as he was washing up his dishes, Ana, Bryne, and Garalt wandered into the living space. “Good morning, friends!” Spoke Garalt. “It looks like it is snowing a bit, but it should not cause any issues with our trek to Lake 125. Whenever you all are ready, we are ready too.” Conjurer finished his dishes and went to his backpack to check on supplies. Garalt noticed and walked over to Conjurer, “Do you need anything else in there?” Conjurer still had some rations, his first aid kit, and water, but he seemed set with what he had. Charles’s voice chimed in through Silver Swan, that was gliding over to Garalt and Conjurer, “The only thing he needs is a reminder to not over-exert himself again!” This made Conjurer roll his eyes and shake his head, “Thanks, Garalt, but I think I am set. Charles is right, but I would appreciate more optimism toward myself!” Although Silver Swan’s wings did not move, Charles’s voice helped animate the mechanism in a defensive shrug, “Okay! Okay! I am just looking out for you with my best intentions!” Of course, Conjurer knew this and was as ever grateful for Charles and his concern.
Garalt, Ana, and Bryne started to leave the base, and soon, Xan-I, Conjurer, and Silver Swan followed behind to start making their way to Lake 125. During their spiral down the stairs, Xan-I and Conjurer noticed a woman with long black hair staring at them from in front of the fenced-in section that had all of the beautiful plants. “Good morning, Lo’ona!” Said Garalt. Lo’ona smirked and waved a hand at the company. “Good morning! Well, it looks like you are all off to wander the surface.” Garalt, who was leading the company down the stairs made it onto the surface of Xanropa and responded to Lo’ona, “We are. We are heading to Lake 125.” Lo’ona’s eyes got wide, and her lower jaw dropped in shock. When Xan-I stepped onto Xanropa, it saw speckles of snow gracefully falling onto the surface and gradually building up on top of the snow they saw the other day.
Lo’ona said, “Be careful with the snow and all. It should not freeze, but be safe as you all walk that way. Please come back in one piece.” Conjurer bowed and nodded his head as the rest of the company spurted and visually communicated their agreements to Lo’ona. “We shall come back in piece because I want to ask you about those gorgeous plants!” Lo’ona shook her head and arms as she jumped up and said, “Thank you! I would love to! We will talk about these plants and my plans with them.” Looking into Lo’ona’s eyes, Conjurer smiled and said, “Sounds fantastic! Look forward to it, Lo’ona.” Garalt tapped his staff on the ground, took a deep breath, and said, “Well, we better be off. We will return, hopefully alive and with the info that you all need for your mission.” After this announcement, Garalt began walking in the direction of Lake 125, with the rest of the company following under the sprinkling of snow.
During the start of their voyage to Lake 125, the company ran into a large piece of debris that they saw when they met for the first time. It was the head of a large mechanism starting to become covered by snow. This prompted a question from Xan-I, “The harvesting patrols are really afraid of the mechanisms, huh?” As they kept leading the company, Garalt said, “Yes, they will take parts that are helpful from them, but the faces are what scare them the most. The tyrant’s monsters are deadly afraid of these mechanisms’ faces. Whatever Charles did when designing them made them strike fear into the hearts to those evils creeps. Good job, Charles!” Silver Swan lit up with the laughter and voice of Charles, “Well, I appreciate it. I bet they often think about my colossal mechanisms tearing them apart and have understandable trauma when they come across the faces of my mechanisms.” Garalt stepped in again, “They are smart for staying away though, because many of us Surfacers use the remnants of mechanisms as our bases due to the safety that they bring by being such deterrents. Your mechanisms’ faces ward off evil, Charles!”
There were large indentions on the surface where damage had been done to the plating of the pyramid. Either they were made by the giant mechanisms or the battering of combat, these indentions were starting to become filled with snow and resembled shallow ponds. Hopefully, the land ahead was not as blanketed by snow, Xan-I thought. For it would bring much difficulty to assess the land if it all lay covered in snow. This mission depended on only the best of information about the land that they could gather. Xan-I would do anything to make sure they could get a good look at the land before leaving Lake 125, even if it meant removing as much snow as possible to reach the surface. The only troubling thought about the snow removal for Xan-I was calculating the current height of the snow was almost two feet. If it came down to removing the current snow, it was going to be heavy and would take some time to excavate to the surface. That was if the snowfall now did not add even more to the burdensome task.
Due to its ongoing computing on the snow situation, Xan-I asked Garalt as they trekked to the lake, “Garalt, how much longer do you think it will be to arrive at Lake 125?” The monotone worry in Xan-I’s voice made Garalt chuckle and turn around with a surprised face and said, “My friend, we are only a couple of hours in; we got about a couple more to go. What is the worry about?” Conjurer had an idea about why Xan-I was asking about the company’s estimated time of arrival, and so he chimed in, “I think Xan-I, as well as I, are concerned about the snow building up and making our task of looking at the land more difficult than we prepared for.” Xan-I replied, “Precisely!” Garalt stopped walking for a moment, bringing the company to a halt. They looked around at the glistening snowfall and moved their staff in the air, “We can not do anything about this other than work with it. We have a bit longer until we reach the lake, and who knows, maybe there is no snow there. We will see what happens, but for now, we should continue on our way!” Garalt turned back toward the direction the company was walking in, and the trek soon proceeded.
Time had been lost among the walking group. There had not been any conversing since Xan-I and Conjurer brought up their concern about the snow- which had stopped falling, and the land ahead of them was now only damp and no longer the crunchy beneath their feet. There was relief with all of the company, for now when they arrived at the lake, they could focus on documenting the condition of the land and do it quickly so that they all could keep their promise to Lo’ona true and return in one piece. It had been some time since Charles had said anything, and his voice called through Silver Swan, “Hello friends, it looks like you are almost there! I came back at a good time! Mele and I had a meeting and assembled a crew for the interior part of our mission. Is this a bad time to ask a question, Garalt?” Conjurer, Xan-I, and Garalt- the verbal of the group all exclaimed positive energy toward the news Charles had mentioned. The plan was rolling forward and now once they reported on the conditions of the surface of the pyramid, they could begin the removal of the first vertice.
“Thanks for that news, Charles! Of course, what is on your mind?” Garalt responded. “Do you think, based on your experience on the surface, it would possible to get through the tyrant’s horde if we had a vehicle that was disguised as one of his mechanisms?” As the company kept walking toward their destination, Garalt was humming and thinking about this question. “The only thing that would matter is that there needs to be one of the tyrant’s mechanism heads incorporated with the vessel. You see, Ana and I can bypass those idiots, because we are using the actual heads of Tyrant Vaine’s monsters. The other mechanisms detect us as no threats because inside the heads are the receptors that allow Tyrant Vaine’s omnipotence. We are Xanropians in the clothing of evil.”
A breeze rubbed against each member of the company, and a familiar scent alerted the company that they had arrived near Lake 125. The conversation Charles started ceased as they saw the edge of the lake. Charles spoke, “Oh wow. This is a sight I thought I would never see again.” Lake 125, including the connecting rivers to the other lakes, occupied the entire horizon. It was brighter than Spiral City, but as they all peered into the horizon, it got pitch black where space met the pyramid. The company could not stop looking at both the lake and the horizon. Something felt off about Lake 125. Through Silver Swan, Charles spoke again, “The last time I was here, there was debris and carnage all over. Now, it is empty. This terrifies me because it looks like harvesting patrols collected the remains of the serpent, and all of the other mechanisms and Xanropians that perished. Let’s get a read on the plating and get out of here immediately!” Unanimously, the company raced to get closer to the lake. Both Xan-I and a gliding Silver Swan were recording video of the surface and noting estimated depths of the surface as they moved to the lake. Conjurer summoned a large hand to press down on the surface to see if he was able to make an indention. As he pushed the fingertips into the plating, he noted that it did start to emboss, meaning that the plan to work from the inside of the pyramid was more than possible.
Garalt, Ana, and Bryne kept their eyes on the other three as they were doing their assessments. Garalt shouted, “We will be keeping our eyes on you all! Stay alert and be ready!”
Xan-I, Conjurer, and Silver Swan made it to the edge of Lake 125. There was no time for sightseeing, which was a shame because the lake had retained its beauty, and luckily, it had seemed not to be touched or marred by any hands. Kneeling by the edge of the lake, Xan-I took some more images and documented some estimated measurements as the dark void in the horizon caught its eye again. This time, as Xan-I zoomed in, it could see something that made its programming freeze. Conjurer and Silver Swan were finishing up their studies of the surface, and as they walked back to the rest of the company, they noticed Xan-I was not following. “Xan-I! We need to go. Come on!” Shouted Conjurer. Shouting back, Xan-I exclaimed, “There is something happening at the first vertice! We need to get the plan moving as soon as we are able to!” Turning around in surprise and fear, Conjurer and Silver Swan ran to Xan-I to make out what had terrified it so. As they all stood at the edge of Lake 125, large vibrations shook from underneath the party. Garalt, Ana, and Bryne, started running over to the three near the lake. Garalt shouted, “That’s our cue to leave, right?!” In just a matter of seconds, a familiar-looking nightmare had splashed out of the lake and opened its mouth in an attempt to eat Xan-I, Silver Swan, and Conjurer. Being able to move quickly, Xan-I and Conjurer leapt backwards, avoiding the bite of the serpent. Unfortunately, Silver Swan could not maneuver away quickly enough and was swallowed up by the eyeless serpent. What appeared to be scales on the back of the serpent at first were actually some of Tyrant Vaine’s mechanisms that soon detached and landed on the shore next to the company. “Universe, help us all!” Garalt yelled. Conjurer’s eyes lit up with familiar rage toward these wicked mechanisms, and from his glowing hands, he trapped two of the mechanisms into large bubbles as Xan-I charged at the remaining mechanisms. With the two captured mechanisms, Conjurer took his hands, and in a swift motion, he crossed his arms- collided the two into each other, causing rain of debris to pour down near the lake. Xan-I grabbed one of the other mechanisms by one of its hands. While twisting its body and leaping down to the ground, it slammed the vile monstrosity-breaking off various chunks of materials. Garalt’s staff glowed blue, and a soundwave pierced the other remaining mechanism of the tyrant. “Alright, fellas, it has been fun, but it is time to go!” Conjurer and Xan-I ran to Garalt, Ana, and Bryne, but before they could make it, Xan-I felt something sting into its left arm. The mechanism that it had just taken down had raised back up from the floor. With one of its remaining limbs, it stabbed into Xan-I’s arm. Bryne turned back and, with a couple of her limbs, wrapped around the beast as Ana ran over and delivered a guillotine-like punch to its head- sending it into the lake. Xan-I could not feel its left arm at the moment, but it and the rest of the company felt the second iteration of the serpent making its way back to the surface. Without having to speak, the company of five now ran back toward the Surfacers base.
During their retreat back to the Surfacer base, Charles had tried contacting the group multiple times, but the group focused on getting back to safety. After a few hours had passed, and the group had avoided any more interactions with the evils of Tyrant Vaine, Conjurer sat down in the snow they had crossed through earlier out of exhaustion and spoke back to Charles through his communicator device, “Charles, I am sorry, we have been running back to the Surfacer base for quite some time now. I am so sorry about Silver Swan. Charles, he is still working.” Immediately responding, Mele chimed through the device, “Thank goodness! You all had us worried sick!” Charles then spoke, “This is what we have been afraid of for so long. The worst part is, it seems that that smaller serpent beast was quite adjusted to Lake 125. What else has the tyrant been making at the first vertice? Why was the horizon so dark?” Xan-I walked up to Conjurer’s hand and spoke into his device, “I captured what I saw at the horizon, Charles.”
“What did you see, Xan-I?” Charles asked. Everyone fell into a deafening silence, waiting for Xan-I to speak. Taking a moment to deliberate on how it should explain what it saw, Xan-I finally spoke, “Firstly, I want to acknowledge that I documented what I saw so that we may look at it in detail and use it for strategizing. At the horizon, I saw a large hollow pyramid that was in the beginning phases of swallowing the pyramid. In the opening of the pyramid, there were many pipes piercing the surface, possibly for support and/or absorption of Xanropa. In the grand scheme of what I saw, I believe that Tyrant Vaine may be entombing Xanropa, finishing his job of complete control of the pyramid.”
No one spoke but stared into space as each member near and far thought about the terror that Xan-I witnessed. Behind its lens, Xan-I’s mind was pacing about what it saw. Replaying the image of the dark pyramid starting its devouring of Xanropa. Conjurer took a deep breath and stood up from the snow. Speaking into the device, “Xan-I was hurt, and we are growing weary; we should keep moving. We have much to do now. Charles, we will stay in touch. Over.” Not wanting to upset Conjurer, the company continued moving, with their focus only dedicated to reaching the Surfacer base. As they all made their way toward the base, Garalt asked Xan-I, “If you would like, Xan-I, I can fix your arm up if you are unable to use it right now.” Xan-I looked down at its arm that the monstrous mechanism of the tyrant had skewered. There was a small hole toward the center of Xan-I’s forearm. Even though it could not move its hand properly, Xan-I responded, not wanting sympathy, “Thank you, Garalt, I think I will be fine for a while. I will keep this arm until it does not work anymore.”
Hours went by and the company could now see the towering mechanism that was their base. Night had fallen and the group walked up the winding stairs knowing that they could now refresh themselves after the horrors they had experienced that day. As they each walked into the living space, they were greeted to Lo’ona who had prepared some food for the traveling company. Garalt raised their arms into the air and shouted, “Oh Lo’ona, you spoil us! Thank you for being in our life!” They dropped their staff and ran to the food Lo’ona had prepared. Soon, with thanks being given to Lo’ona by the various head bows and hugs, the company sat down and ate. It felt so good to sit and be inside where they were comfortable. Lo’ona had prepared salad, vegetables, and tea, all sourced from her garden. Based on the never-ending rattling of dishes, Lo’ona felt that she had accomplished making a delicious meal for her friends and their guests. Through her long black hair, her smile illuminated the moment.
For the first time speaking after a long while, Conjurer spoke with glassy eyes, “Thank you, Lo’ona, this truly turned our days around. We owe you so much for this lovely meal!” Everyone in the company nodded at Lo’ona, she then responded, “It is a tradition my family and I have done for many ages, we provide what comfort we may to those that have been through a day of experiences, which I had a feeling you all would stumble across something, even if it was the haunting memories of when Xanropa fell. Food and drink may not be able to heal all wounds, but they are a combination that ensures comfort at the very least. I only wish I could have fed our mechanism friend!” After Lo’ona’s response, Conjurer’s eye transformed from sincerity to curiosity. Thinking about how everyone else was eating, Conjurer asked, “That reminds me about something I wanted to ask you, Bryne. How do you eat? You don’t have a mouth, do you?” Garalt finished taking a drink of their tea and answered, “Well, Bryne does eat, but not like us. She uses her hands, if you will, and brings the food back into herself, allowing her body to intake the food. Giving her fuel, and her continued wit.” Bryne shook her head and then with a tentacle took some of her salad and just as Garalt had said, pulled the tentacle full of salad back into her body. “Amazing!” Conjurer said. Xan-I also said, “You are full of surprise, my friend!” The company continued to enjoy their evening, thanks to Lo’ona, late into the evening. Lo’ona could tell that the company had witnessed something traumatic and did everything she could to avoid talking about the subject, even though she was curious about what they had seen. It proved to be difficult for the company to turn in for the night. On that night especially, since the company would have to reconvene in the morning to relive that day's events at Lake 125.
In the morning, everything was a blur until the company met in the living space. All members of the past day’s events at Lake 125, could not focus on anything but addressing what was needed to be done. Meeting around a table, Conjurer, Ana, and Garalt shared a large urn of tea from Lo’ona’s garden. It had a sharp, sweet, and left a refreshing after-taste in each sip. “We probably should leave for Hyanthra’s, to report to her and her people, and get their assistance.” Garalt responded with concern and a hint of orneriness, “If she feels like it, that is.” Xan-I asked Garalt, “Besides my presence, why would Hyanthra deny our plea for help? Help for Xanropa of all things?” Garalt looked at Ana and Bryne before responding, “Well, since she is safe behind the confines of her tree kingdom, she has no reason to leave her paradise.” Conjurer sighed and added, “Well, the only thing we can do is try. Even if she says no, at least we can present her with what is going on. Perhaps she will be understanding. We cannot forget that Hyanthra and her people would be great assets to our mission. They are also a part of the reason we are doing this in the first place. For the goodwill of all Xanropa. We must not forget, but instill our findings into Hyanthra at the very least.” All around the table, the company lit up from the passionate words of Conjurer. He was their voice of reason. Garalt shook his head and said, “We can lead you to the labyrinth that leads into Hyanthra’s tree kingdom, but we are not allowed access into her territory, so after we drop you off, we will monitor any activity back here and let you know if anything transpires.” With a shocked expression, Conjurer asked, “Why are you restricted from her kingdom? Did you do something?” Garlat’s head shook from side to side, “No, no, we did not do anything bad you can say, but we were not on agreeable terms with Hyanthra.” Garalt got up from the table and walked toward the kitchenette to get some food. As they were collecting food, Garalt continued, “To keep it simple, we did have a respectable relationship, but I did not want to remain behind the labyrinth while other Xanropians were out here trying to resurrect normalcy. It felt like we had created a tier of power. After an argument, we left and denied our entry back into her kingdom.” Finished his cup of tea, Conjurer raised an eyebrow. Sensing confusion from Conjurer’s eyebrow, Xan-I asked, “Could you revoke your denial into her kingdom this time to accompany us?” Instantaneously, Garalt answered as Bryne and Ana shook their heads from left to right, “Nope. Not happening. Once you all arrive, I think you will better understand why we banned ourselves from ever going back into the kingdom. Don’t get me wrong, there are good people there that we love. We cannot bear the idea of going back and feeling superior to the rest of the planet as it faces turmoil. Now, especially!”
This made Conjurer nervous and Xan-I interested in what it was like to inhabit Hyanthra’s tree kingdom. They were going to find out soon enough. “Your wishes are respected; if you would be so kind as to lead us to the labyrinth, we would be so grateful.” Said Conjurer, looking at Garalt, who was sitting back down from their trip from the kitchenette. “You got it, we can lead you for sure. Maybe we will see Darsix. In fact, we will see Darsix. He is one of the watchers of the labyrinth and maybe the easiest Xanropian to get along with. You both will probably get along with him famously!”
The name Darsix did ring a far away bell in Conjurer’s mind, but he could not quite recall him yet. Xan-I only had records of his identity but had no data indicating they had ever met. The two were anxious to meet Darsix and see if they could reason with Hyanthra for her help. “So, what time do we want to head out?” Garalt asked the group. Xan-I immediately replied, “As soon as we are all ready and able to.” The group nodded in unison, confirming that their estimated time of departure would be when they each were ready, which would be after they all finished breakfast and packed any essentials they needed. Before leaving the table, Garalt asked Xan-I, “How is your arm today, my friend? Do you need my services?” Due to the past day’s events, Xan-I had not made any note of its damaged arm. It looked down at its left forearm and assessed its activity. Slowly, with a high-pitched scratching sound, Xan-I was able to move its hand a little bit. Thankfully, it could still move the rest of its arm as normal. “It appears that my hand motions take a bit longer to achieve, but I think the rest of my left arms operations are fine for the meantime. If my arm gets worse, I will be sure to let you know immediately. Thank you, Garalt.” Garalt put their red lips together and winked at Xan-I. All members then dispersed to get ready for the travel to Hyanthra’s tree kingdom.
Descending down the spiraling stairs from the stomach of the mechanism, Lo’ona had heard the company arriving and waited at the bottom of the steps. As each member made it to the surface of Xanropa, Lo’ona handed them each a plump and fleshy leaf. It had a beautiful blue-violet color with a magenta underbelly. Lo’ona pointed at the leaves and explained, “These are from a plant I grew- based on ancient plants that my family has grown and documented about. This plant was referred to as a type of succulent. Fortunately, this one is a kind that provides some nutrition. If you peel back the layer of skin, you will be able to drink the contents inside of the leaf. It should provide hydration and comfort. I wanted to give these to you before you left. Sorry, Xan-I, I do have some oil if you need some though!” Conjurer and Xan-I were wonderstruck by the organic beauty that Lo’ona had grown by herself. They were not used to real plants, unlike Garalt and their crew. Xan-I erupted with enthusiasm, “This is incredible! Do not worry about me, I appreciate the oil as a token of care. I am amazed by your ability to grow and propagate so many plants. This succulent I have never seen nor am able to identify in my archive! Do you have a name for them yet?” Lo’ona tilted her head and her hair moved like fabric, and she said, “Not yet. I want to make sure that its name fits the properties of this refreshing plant.” Garalt butted in, “I still think it would be fitting to name it after me and my beauty.” Lo’ona laughed, and then the company all thanked her for her generosity. Conjurer bowed and said, “I hope and wish we get to talk together soon about you and your practice. You are truly amazing. Stay well, Lo’ona!” She returned a smile and said, “As do I, Conjururer. You stay well, too! I have many more plants to show you and Xan-I!” After receiving their presents from Lo’ona, Garalt started to lead the company to the labyrinth. Before they got any further, Lo’ona shouted at the company, “Don’t forget about your leaves!”
Through the snow, the company treaded onward. Remembering that Silver Swan was not with them, Conjurer pulled out his communication device and said into it, “Charles, sorry if I am disturbing you from anything, just wanted to say that we are making our way to see Hyanthra. Our new friends are guiding us to her kingdom.” A sound rang back through Conjurer’s device that gave a visual of Charles putting his teeth together and letting out a breath of concern when the word kingdom was mentioned, then he said, “Alright, that sounds good. Keep me updated on what transpires with Hyanthra. If needed, I can talk to her. Only it would be necessary! Otherwise, the crew Mele and I got together are going to be working on a new flightcrafts to take us to the point of removal and to do the removing.” The company all looked back at Conjurer and his device, all feeling a surprising surge of excitement, mixed with concern. Xan-I then responded to Charles, “Please be careful! Based on what we experienced by Lake 125, who knows if there are more horrors lurking inside the pyramid now?” Conjurer nodded, visually agreeing with Xan-I. “You have my word, that the safety of us all is the top priorty. If we see anything, our first action will be to retreat. However, I speculate that Tyrant Vaine has no interest in anything other than devouring Xanropa. So, we should be okay, but Mele and I will not pursue any further if the first sign of danger is shown to us.” Charles once again made Xan-I’s programming gleam with an acknowledgement of what a good and focused leader Charles was. With the updates from both sides done, Conjurer told Charles, “Alright, my friend, we will talk soon. Good luck with the flightcraft! Keep us updated as well.” Conjurer slipped the device back into his pocket, and the company continued on their journey.
There came a moment in the trek to Hyanthra’s where the horizon grew pitch black, and the only source of light; besides the rainbow from the Day of Illusion, was a face-crossing bridge. According to Xan-I’s archives, it appeared that the company was about to cross between two faces of the pyramid. Near the bridge, the snow had disappeared, leaving an edge of thin snow on some exposed surface of Xanropa. Garalt walked onto the exposed surface and then turned to face the company. “My friends, we are at the face-crossing point of our journey! This bridge is one of the only things that has survived any defacing from the tyrant or Surfacers. I wanted to take a moment for us to marvel at the design and construction of this bridge and also pay homage to the fallen creators of it.” Almost everyone in the company had crossed this bridge at some point in time; the only one not to have was Xan-I- who was accessing any leftover information about it from its archive. It saw a very familiar face pop up on the list of individuals responsible for its construction. “Garalt! You were a part of this bridge’s construction?” Xan-I asked. Garalt kept looking at the bridge and said, “Yep, it was one of the biggest feats of artifice I have helped with in my life. I learned a lot and met some amazing people. I don’t know if many of them are with us still, for the tyrant took so much away from us.” With this information, the company all stared at the bridge and paid a moment of silence to the builders who were no longer around.
The face-crossing bridge was wide enough for large mechanisms and Xanropians to occupy together. The bridge started from one face of the pyramid and connected to the adjacent face. Each face of the pyramid had a face-crossing bridge, and this was the way that Xanropians would get around the planet back in the days of utopian civilization. From where the company was looking at the bridge, it arched and rounded into the sky. In its totality, it was created with practicality and beauty. As the bridge rounded from one face to another, there were lights that guided the occupants up and around. After some time passed, Garalt started to walk toward the bridge and the rest of the company followed. Each face-crossing bridge was a shade of emerald and once contrasted beautifully with the golden shade of Xanropa’s utopic surface.
Xan-I spoke, “What happens when you transition from one face of Xanropa to the other?” Garalt and the rest of the company looked at Xan-I. Conjurer and Garalt both smiled and Conjurer answered Xan-I, “Well, once you reach the pinnacle of the bridge, your body will automatically guide you to the gravity of the other face. It feels like you are flying for only a moment, but in that moment, it is quite the rush!” Garalt chimed in, “Brace yourself my mechanized friend, you are in for a new experience!” Bryne and Ana also nodded with enthusiasm as they walked up toward the pinnacle of the face-crossing bridge. Looking down at the bridge, it was constructed with what appeared to be a minimal amount of parts. It truly was a beautiful sight for Xan-I’s lens. A resonating exhale came from Garlat. As their breath whistled out from their mouth, they said, “Okay, this is the transition point; get ready.” Garlat sprinted and jumped into the air. Screaming in delight, Garalt landed with their feet on the bridge. Xan-I was confused because the bridge that was lying ahead looked flat and uneventful. The rest of the company followed Garalt and let out sounds of enjoyment. Xan-I was the last one to cross and it took a while for its feet to meet the point of transition.
All of a sudden, Xan-I knew it had reached the pinnacle of the face-crossing bridge. It felt weightless and now Xan-I understood what Conjurer meant when he mentioned that particular rush running through the body. While crossing the faces, Xan-I was convinced that gravity did not exist for a short moment of time. In the fraction of seconds, Xan-I clung on to this feeling of flight so that it may last for a tentative eternity. Soon, the elation ended, and Xan-I walked back to experience it again. The company behind Xan-I smiled and witnessed the mechanism having a moment of pure joy on the face-crossing bridge. Upon the second time of experiencing the momentary elevation, Xan-I’s circuitry felt overwhelmed with a sensation that could best be defined as an optimistic jubilation.
So much had taken place in the span of one day. There was a mixture of dread and of excitement that Xan-I felt about the company’s mission to remove the first vertice from Xanropa. Hopefully the first vertice would also be removed from the future of Xanropa as well. Xan-I’s mind was racing with the duality of hope and dread. It could be from crossing the faces two times in a row now, but it realized it had to go back and follow the company. This would be the last time Xan-I would cross the faces, only until Xan-I and Conjurer came back from visiting Hyanthra. With the new priority, Xan-I crossed the pinnacle of the bridge one last time and rejoined the company as they all finished crossing over the bridge.
On the other face of the pyramid, the first thing that could be seen was vacant sea, almost like a desert from tales told to Xanropians long ago. Oddly, this face of the planet seemed to get darker the closer it got to the horizon, yet was lit by the Day of Illusion rainbow- which shined brighter on this face in contrast to the ocean of clouds that it appeared to be. Far off in the distance, some buildings were lucky to remain standing. Along the surface, visual history indicated that many buildings were removed. Whether for the tyrant of Hyanthra’s kingdom, one could not be sure. Time seemed to stand still on this face. Over toward the direction of Lake 132, the company saw a valley of shadows from a parched and empty lake. Garalt spoke to the company, “If you had not noticed, this face of the planet is a little more scary. Not many Surfacers dwell over here unless it is to wander over to Hyanthra’s tree kingdom. Which will make sense as we make our way over there.” Conjurer’s eyes were wide as he was taking in what had become of this face of Xanropa. “I have not been on this face for a long time. It is strange and cruel how time seems to manipulate places and memories. There used to be so many homes and buildings over here.” Xan-I detected shock and sadness in Conjurer’s voice. Garalt walked over to Conjurer and put their hand on his upper back. “I know, there was much carnage done by Tyrant Vaine and his monsters. Hyanthra used a majority of the debris to help build up her tree kingdom.” During this moment between Garalt and Conjurer, Xan-I realized that Conjurer had not been to Hyanthra’s tree kingdom yet either. Hopefully, this tree kingdom would be a sight similar to the uplifting experience felt on the face-crossing bridge. Conjurer could use a sight of positivity to combat the macabre landscape of the face the company now occupied.
Chapter Six: Inside the Labyrinth
As the company continued making their way to Hyanthra’s tree kingdom, their minds had become numb to the carnage around them- the destruction became like stone thanks to the darkness that blanketed this side of the pyramid like a thick fog. Upon first viewing it, the landscape seemed to only be inhabited by dark greys and blues. Between the arches of the still-standing buildings, the rainbow ring still shined as majestically as it did when Conjurer and Xan-I witnessed it in Spiral City. The comfort of the sky did not help ease the imaginations of the company. Every shadow came off as a potential monster of Tyrant Vaine, and any sound was an immediate cause for the company’s defense to rise. To bring some peace to the company, Garalt made an announcement, “In case I have not mentioned this earlier, usually this face of the planet does not see much activity from the tyrant. This section is so scary because of how empty and silent it feels. However, we must keep on guard in the event that any of those ghouls show up for whatever reason.”
Garalt’s message did make Conjurer and Xan-I feel a bit more relaxed as the company kept making their down to see Hyanthra. Not wanting to ruin the quiet that was being shared among the crowd, Xan-I calmly asked Garalt, “If it is okay to ask right now, what did you do before Xanropa fell, Garalt?” Acknowledging the question, Garalt kept leading the group and put one of their hands on their chin, and said, “Hmm. It is a funny question. I was an artificer- if you could not tell by now, but I like to think that I was a voice for Xanropians as well. That is until the Xanropa we had became a thing of the past.”
“Would you say you are a leader to all Surfacers, Garalt?” The inquisitive Xan-I asked.
“Oh no, no! In my opinion, Surfacers operate on a more utopian level than Xanropa ever did. There are no hierarchies, and we only ever look out for each other with all Surfacers’ well-being in mind. Something that Xanropa was never able to achieve.”
As Garalt kept talking, the company noticed that the horizon they were walking toward was beginning to look brighter. It was another visual dream for Xan-I. From the distance the company was at, they could not make out anything but a familiar glowing gold color that was their light at the end of this darkened voyage. Xan-I asked another question that it thought was a good one to ask at the moment. “Garalt, if you don’t mind me asking. Do you think that Tyrant Vaine’s movement could have been prevented?” Surprise shot through the spines of Conjurer, Ana, and Bryne after Xan-I’s questions hummed through its mouth. Conjurer’s anxiety rose out of fear of upsetting their guide. Garalt stopped in their tracks and turned to meet Xan-I with a gaze of stoicism.
“Every night, I seem to have a reoccurring dream. In the dream, Xanropa did not mock my warnings; Xanropa did not wave me off as a mad individual; Xanropa did not fall into the hands of the tyrant.” Garalt paused and looked around at Xanropa’s remains before continuing, “Then, after the dream of us all living on ‘the utopia of the stars’, I wake up in this reality again. Met with the disappointment that my warnings, and the warnings of other like-minded Xanropians, were ignored only to be replaced with this broken world. So my answer is yes. Yes, I do believe that Tyrant Vaine could have been stopped, if previous vertice leaders gave a damn about their fellow Xanropians instead of only their truly mad constituent.”
After Garalt answered Xan-I, they began to walk and lead the company again. Xan-I was not sure what to say, for it did not want to rile up Garalt, but it found Garalt’s answer very important to Xanropa’s history. The horizon was getting closer to the company, and they could see the mouth of the large labyrinth. The walls grew taller as they reached back toward the towering tree that seemed to cover a large portion of the sky at the second vertice with its massive shades. Xan-I and Conjurer could not take their eyes off of Hyanthra’s tree kingdom- and soon, they would be inside of it. Garalt spoke, “You know what, since I have started to speak openly about everything that has happened, I might as well keep going. Ignore me if it is too much.” Xan-I thought it was so genuine of Garalt to be so considerate of their feelings and everyone else’s feelings. Xan-I understood how deep feelings could impact someone’s psyche. Conjurer waved his hand and said, “It is okay, Garalt, you may not feel this way, but I think you and I have a similar mindset on the matters at hand.” Garalt turned back to Conjurer and bowed in respect and thanks for allowing them to continue. Ana and Bryne were also of the same mindset, and they also took a moment to recognize Conjurer’s sincerity behind the company’s feelings.
Garalt continued, “Something that has never sat right with me was ‘the New Originators’. Now, don’t get me wrong, I absolutely agree with the idea of forming a new movement to combat the former movement that transformed into an evil tyrant. The thing that I don’t understand nor agree with, is that the New Originators divided up into three different factions. Up ahead shortly we have Hyanthra’s folks; below us, we have the Inner Planet folks; then there are us up here, the Surfacer folks. Somehow, Xanropians became more divided and separated than when our ancestors formed the planet to begin with! It is sad. It makes me mad that after everything that has happened, we all just split off and had nothing to do with each other. Now, especially since we found out that the undead tyrant is trying to devour the entire damn planet!”
Xan-I replied, “At least we got with Charles and are now going to speak to Hyanthra, correct?” Still walking, Garalt peered back with an annoyed face and answered Xan-I, “She is not even going to allow you to go in her kingdom.” Something about Hyanthra and her kingdom made Garalt stop again and this time, they were riled up. “That is another thing! Why does she have a damn kingdom? Xanropa never had any kind of leadership as such. I despise saying ‘Hyanthra’s tree kingdom’ because we should not have such things when the whole point of this planet was to share it with all Xanropians. At least Charles has a better grip on running the Inner Planet like Xanropa was supposed to, Hyanthra only cares for those that inhabit her kingdom now. I have had the displeasure of hearing how some Surfacers were denied into her tree and how some of her people left due to differences they had with her. I don’t know why Hyanthra is the way she is now. She was never so high and mighty on her tree pedestal. I bet she has never contacted Charles since they split ways long ago.”
Conjurer walked up to Garalt and said, “Trauma does so many different things to so many people. I am sorry to hear that some Surfacers were not treated kindly; that is unfortunate to hear. I would be lying if I said I was not nervous about meeting her. My only hope is that I am able to convince her to help us on our removal of the first vertice and the tyrant.” Garalt had seemed to be holding back many emotions. Their grip on their staff had tightened to the degree you could hear the vibrations of pent-up anger rattling. Finally, Garalt exploded, “Why did no one listen to us?! Why did they all keep letting him lead the first vertice?! Did no one else find his visors to be as dangerous as they were?!” Xan-I felt something drop in its abdomen region; it was as if a cord had been connected to a weight that fell to the bottom of its interior. Tears started to form in Garalt’s eyes, as they said, “It always seemed like those that had any leadership responsibilities only cared about getting that traitor into his position every, single, damn, election cycle. No one ever questioned the number of times he retained his position. The only thing anyone ever saw was one of the original members of the Originators. It makes me sick thining about how no one listened to me and our Xanropian siblings warn about him. We were ignored so that THIS could happen.” Garalt pointed their staff and their right hand toward the remains of the pyramid. Silence overtook the company.
They stood solemnly for a while until Conjurer broke the silence and said, “I know how you feel. Believe me, I do. I spoke to many people about how I, too, was skeptical about our election rules and the number of times Tyrant Vaine got reelected into his position as leader of the first vertice. So many people were honored to have one of the founders as vertice leader, that they paid no mind to other founders that were vertice leaders of only one or two cycles. I don’t think we can even count how many times he was the first vertice leader.”
Ana then tapped her golden armor with her finger. Garalt nodded and said, “I don’t think I have mentioned this, but Ana took a vow of silence when Tyrant Vaine made Xanropa fall. Ana’s vow is in dedication to all of those who were ignored and/or murdered due to the ignorance of Xanropa. Bryne and I have never heard her speak, only some noises. Ana lost her family to the visors of Tyrant Vaine. A big reason why I kicked myself out of Hyanthra’s tree kingdom was because Ana’s family became possessed while they were all going through the labyrinth seeking shelter from the nightmare that is the current Xanropa.”
Xan-I and Conjurer looked horrified at Ana, and both gave sympathetic gestures to her. There are never any good sentences to give to past traumas that have shaped a person in such a way. The only thing to do is to give any sign of acknowledgement that they are not alone in understanding how horrific their pasts have been.
Conjurer spoke, “This makes me very upset. I don’t want to ask about the details, but I may need to ask her about what happened that day.” Garalt’s eyebrows arched up, and they said, “Well, you may not like what you hear. Good luck with that.” Garalt sighed, looked down for a moment, and took a deep breath in. After holding it in, Garalt let out a long and meditative stream of air. “Okay, thank you all for letting me decompress. This venture always brings up bad memories. We are nearing the labyrinth, so I am going to keep any conversations about Hyanthra out of this company for the remainder of this trip. Is that okay?” The company then all nodded in agreement and they made their way to the mouth of the labyrinth. From where they were standing, something that looked like a figure appeared to be standing on top of the labyrinth. Xan-I had to make sure its lens was not malfunctioning. “Is that someone standing on top of the labyrinth?” Garalt made a light chuckle and nodded and they answered Xan-I, “Ah, that has to be Darsix.” Conjurer slipped in a question, “You mentioned Darsix before I believe. What do you make of him?” Garalt turned back slightly and said, “Oh, you will see how I feel about Darsix when we meet him at the opening.”
When the company got to the beginning of the labyrinth, they saw a large semicircle opening in the outer wall that led voyagers into the maze. Layers upon layers of walls with various windows and doorways stood through the opening of the labyrinth. Conjurer and Xan-I were perplexed by the complex nature of Hyanthra’s labyrinth. Conjurer faced Garalt, Ana, and Bryne, and then he asked them, “Any tips on how to get through here?” Briefly forgetting about the alleged Darsix, who had now made his way to the company, they all were surprised when a flash of light crashed down beside them and a warm voice answered, “Well, I guess you could let me guide you through, if you would like?”
Garalt’s face formed a smile, and they said ecstatically, “Darsix! We saw you from afar as we were making our way over. How are you?” Darsix stood up from the crouched position he was in from jumping down from the top of the labyrinth. After getting adjusted to the ground of Xanropa, Darsix responded, “I am doing well, as well as well can be. Have you decided to come back again? I see you brought some friends.” Darsix had then put his full attention on Xan-I. After Xan-I seemed to have made eye contact with Darsix with its lens, Darsix walked over without taking his eyes off of Xan-I. Fear rushed through Xan-I, for Darsix was wearing a pair of Tyrant Vaine’s visors- however, the visors had holes cut through them, revealing walnut-umber eyes that contrasted with a greying mane and beard.
“I’ll be. I have not seen one of you in a long while!” Darsix was visually captivated by the presence of Xan-I. Conjurer and Garalt both made their way over to Darsix. As they made their way over, Garalt said, “Yeah, these are some new friends of ours. Darsix, that is Xan-I. And this…” Garalt motioned their staff and left hand to Conjurer and introduced him to Darsix, “This here is Conjurer. They have come from the Inner Planet seeking a meeting with Hyanthra.” Darsix looked back at Conjurer and then while looking at both of them, he said, “Hi, you two. As you both have probably been able to deduce, I am Darsix.” Darsix then looked down at his feet, then pinched his left arm with his magenta gloved right hand. “This confirms that I am in reality at the moment.” Looking at Xan-I with his eyes, Darsix told Xan-I, “Well, you haven’t tried to kill me yet, and you seem to have a straight head. This is a fever dream, too unreal!” Conjurer then told Darsix, “I thought your name sounded familiar, but now being in your presence, I know that you are indeed the same warrior I fought alongside long ago!” Xan-I was eager to hear more about Darsix’s history and him and Conjurer ever had any history together. After Conjurer’s flattery, Darsix replied, “Well, yes, we did stand and fight together! If I am not mistaken, I believe you artistically harness your arcane abilities. Yes! With hands and bubbles!” Conjurer grinned and nodded to affirm Darsix’s question.
Bryne and Ana came into sight of Darsix, Ana waved her hands at Darsix and directed his attention to Bryne. “Yes, Bryne? Good to see you!” Bryne then produced a tentacle that pointed toward the tree kingdom and then pointed at Conjurer and Xan-I. Reading the visual message of Bryne loud and clear, Darsix responded, “Well, Conjurer will have no problem getting in to see Hyanthra. But Xan-I, there is no way it can come inside the tree kingdom.” Looking at Xan-I immediately, Darsix said, “No offense, it is not my ruling, but you have to understand how terrified Hyanthra is of all mechanisms.” Xan-I took a few steps closer to Darsix and asked, “Would she be willing to listen to me over Conjurer’s communicator device?” Conjurer’s mouth opened in astonishment; he had not thought about that. Darsix made a long humming sound and though about Xan-I’s question. “That could work; that may be the ONLY way she would have any contact with you. Otherwise, I do have another way we could get you inside, but it probably is too risky- even bringing up the idea is risky. We are going to forget about this desperate idea.” Bryne poked Darsix’s shoulder, playfully trying to make him reveal his desperate tactic. “It’s not going to work, darling! I’m sorry, but I think the use of the communicator device would be the best shot at having Xan-I communicate at all with Hyanthra. Luckily, you all have me as the watcher of the labyrinth; some of the other folks here would have probably tore off Xan-I’s head and limbs without asking any questions.” Xan-I jolted in fear from the prospect that the other occupants of Hyanthra’s tree kingdom could be so hostile and violent.
Conjurer chimed in, “Luckily, we had a conversation before arriving here that Hyanthra would not be kind to Xan-I.” Darsix then asked, “You know, I hate to ask in front of you Xan-I, but why did you all bring Xan-I knowing the risks it could be in here?” Before Conjurer could explain, Garalt said, “Xan-I has brought a possibility of bringing back the planet we once knew. The Xanropa of decades passed. It has helped develop an idea to remove the first vertice from the pyramid, leaving only the ruins of Xanropa that were not corrupt by Tyrant Vaine.” Darsix stared into Garalt’s eyes for a moment, as if he was conducting some sort of test with them.
Nodding and taking a step back, Darsix exclaimed, “I feel and see a real passion behind what you have told me. I must admit, it still sounds crazy, but there is a feeling that I have not felt in a long time just being in the presence of this ancient mechanism. So you are here to see if Hyanthra can be of any help?” Conjurer shook his head affirmatively and said, “We need to know as soon as we can; for time could be of the essence!” Xan-I butted in, “I have a recording that Hyanthra may want to see as well, that has to deal with what we are talking about.” Darsix stood and thought for a moment. “Let’s get Conjurer to the tree, Xan-I, you will stay out here with me. I think after Conjurer goes in for a bit, we may be able to transmit the recording you took and maybe even let you into the tree. How’s that sound?”
Xan-I and Conjurer looked at one another and gave each other signs of approval. Conjurer went over to Garalt and patted them on the back, “I really like this guy, I see what you meant about him, Garalt!” Darsix spun his head quickly at Garalt and joked with them, “Oh, so you have been talking about me, have you?” Garalt shrugged and said, “What can I say, Darsix? You are an awesome guy, I didn’t want to give away the surprise to our friends. So, I told them they would see once we finally made it over to you.” Xan-I then stepped closer and asked, “Garalt, Ana, Bryne. Pardon me, but what are you all going to do once Conjurer starts heading in?” Garlat responded while looking at Darsix, “Well, it depends. Do you have any parts of pieces for us, Darsix?” Darsix shook his head from side to side, giving a visual no to Garalt, and said, “Unfortunately, and fortunately, we have not seen much activity from the tyrant in quite some time. I am sorry for not having anything right now. You know I would save and give you whatever we got.” Garlat smirked and said, “Oh yes, I know Darsix. You are a good man.” Turning and looking at Conjurer and Xan-I, they said, “As you two stay here for this part of the mission, we all are going to head back to the Surfacer’s base. We may even take a peek toward the horizon again and let you know if we see any activity.”
Conjurer and Xan-I nodded, and Xan-I said, “Thank you, Garalt, Ana, and Bryne, for leading us here. We all know this place brings you many feelings, but we could not have come here without you.” Conjurer added, “We look forward to any updates; we will also let you know what happens.” Garalt put their hand palm-down toward Xan-I and Conjurer. Slowly, Ana, Bryne, Conjurer, and Xan-I put their hands palm-down as well in a circle. Darsix bowed his head out of respect to what could be equated to a goodbye ritual. Garalt spoke, “May this part of your journey give you answers, and may we soon meet again and continue this removal mission. Farewell, until our unity is needed again.” Garalt removed his hand from the circle, and slowly, the rest of the company removed their hands as well. Without saying anything, Garalt waved at Darsix- who returned with a friendly wave, and they made their way back to the Surfacer’s Base with Ana and Bryne, who both also waved in a calm and soothing motion. As the three Surfacers walked away, Conjurer spoke softly, “Farewell to you, our friends, may we meet again soon, our unity unbroken.”
Suddenly, Darsix’s body was replaced by a flash of light and a thundering sound. Using his arcane ability, Darsix launched himself back on top of the labyrinth. “Alright my friends, now that we are left to our own devices, Conjurer- I would let you walk up here with me, but protocol forces me to have you go through the maze. However, I will guide you. We can chat and get you to the tree in no time! Xan-I, I hate to ask this of you, but I think you will be able to do this and do it well, stay here until I come back.” Conjurer and Xan-I took their places- Conjurer walked into the entrance of the labyrinth as Xan-I stood right by the opening. “Xan-I, be safe out here!” Returning Conjurer’s kindness, Xan-I said, “You be safe in there, Conjurer!” In a motion that displayed a moment of shock, Conjurer quickly reached for his communication device and spoke into it, “Charles, this is Conjurer. Xan-I and I have made it to Hyanthra’s tree kingdom. Over.”
* * * * * * *
Back on the surface of the Inner Planet, Charles was forming pieces for one of the two flightcrafts he was constructing with Mele and their crew. As he was working, his communicator went off with Conjurer speaking through the device, “Charles, this is Conjurer. Xan-I and I have made it to Hyanthra’s tree kingdom. Over.” Charles stopped what he was doing and thought for a brief moment- how long had he been working on the flightcrafts for the mission? He suddenly realized that it had been quite some time since he checked in with Conjurer, Xan-I, and their new friends.
Charles promptly picked up his communication device and spoke back to Conjurer, “Excellent news, I have been very focused on these flightcrafts. Keep me updated and I shall also let you know if anything develops on my end. Over.” As soon as Charles responded to Conjurer, his stomach growled, and his eyelids felt as if they were going to slam shut at any moment. Charles felt like he was an apprentice again for he had spent an immeasurable amount of time and put in a great deal of passion behind these two flightcrafts. As any artificer or artist would feel with their creations, Charles felt that his creations could be better, but he also knew that time was an important factor. Ever since he and the company lost control of Silver Swan, Charles was growing more nervous about the removal mission. Reminding himself of the importance of these flightcrafts, he ceased the callings of hunger and sleep and returned to work on finishing up his creations.
Alarming Charles while he had his hands full, a familiar loving voice echoed through his studio, “How long have you been working?! Why have you not taken a break?! You’re working too much!” Mele had entered Charles's studio to check up on him. Time had created a great distance between their last meeting, and Mele; being the mother figure she was, had to check up on her friend. As soon as Mele walked closer to where Charles and his creations were, she gasped and exclaimed, “These are beautiful! Are these the flightcrafts, or are they sculptures, Charles?! They are amazing!” Charles released a wide smile that expressed gratitude and pride. “I was hoping to surprise you, Mele. It seems I have not been working hard enough, because I could not even surprise you.” Mele made an annoyed and concerned face, “Don’t say such silly things! Look at what you accomplished! This is something that would normally take days, even years maybe to complete! Now you seem to be finishing them up within two days! This is an extraordinary feat. You need to rest soon, though! For your sake and mine!” Charles sat down at his desk and stared at the flightcrafts.
One of the flightcrafts was large enough for about five people to board comfortably. Charles pointed to it and explained to Mele, “This flightcraft I am calling the Dual Lens. As we had discussed earlier, I wanted to focus on using glass lenses to capture the light from the crystalline meteorite and utilize its power to cut into the faces of the pyramid. There are two lenses, one that will catch the light from the meteorite, and the other will redirect the power and cast it in whichever direction is needed to cut through the surface.” The Dual Lens, as its name would suggest, had one large lens at the rear of the vessel and a smaller lens that Charles positioned in the middle of the craft. It was a beautiful ship that had a critical role in the removal mission. Mele asked Charles, “Alright, so if the Dual Lens is cutting through the pyramid faces, what is the purpose of this exquisite bird?” Charles nodded to show he understood the slight confusion of the bird-appearing flightcraft. He said, “Yes, so if the Dual Lens can cut through the faces by redirecting the power of the crystalline meteorite, why did I make this bird? I figured after the warning we received from our friends above, I thought it safe to not cut through the faces entirely with the Dual Lens, so I made this Hummingbird to help with the removal process.” The Hummingbird was slightly taller than both Mele and Charles. It did not have feet, and like Silver Swan, it was constructed with a minimal aesthetic. Light bounced and colors reflected off of the beautiful surface of the Hummingbird.
Charles continued, “Hummingbird’s wings can be tilted to help guide it where it needs to be. Besides its wings being able to rotate, the only other movement it has is the most important part of Hummingbird.” Picking up a marionette controller, Charles activated the Hummingbird, and soon a soft humming filled the studio. Charles moved the controller to show how the wings rotate. Mele was fascinated and impressed by the marvelous work Charles had done. After showcasing how Hummingbird would fly with its wings, Charles moved the marionette controller in a gentle knocking motion. As Charles knocked with the controller in his left hand, he turned and looked and Mele and said, “This is the most important part of Hummingbird’s operation. As the controller knocks with the marionette controller, the head of Hummingbird moves forward and backward- creating a drilling yet hammering sensation that will help us remove the first vertice from Xanropa.” Mele excitedly added, “AND, we can be far enough away from the faces that our chances of any potential dangers are lowered. This is genius Charles! Will we update the crew tomorrow?” Charles powered Hummingbird down, and his eyes became wide with excitement as he replied, “We could get everyone together now if we want? I want to make at least one more Dual Lens flightcraft, and maybe four more Hummingbirds. Not tonight though.” Mele went over to Charles and gave him an encompassing hug. “I will get everyone together tomorrow morning, please Charles, go eat and rest. You have done so much and we need you to be healthy!” Charles’s eyelids began to close slowly and his stomach was now growling so loud that Mele said, “I can feel your stomach begging you, go eat! Otherwise, I will feed you myself!” The motherly threat made Charles jump and raise his hands up to show that he was going to go eat immediately. “Alright, Mele! Thank you, I will go eat and then allow myself to fall asleep.”
As Charles gathered some food, Mele said, “If you build more of these, I am going to help you. The crew is going to pitch in and help. You cannot build five more flightcrafts alone. You will hurt yourself! If you have not already done so, working so much!” Charles smiled at Mele’s concern for him. He knew that his work ethic behind these two creations was not healthy and he agreed with Mele as he said, “I will definitely be asking for help on the next creations. I promise Mele. I got ahead of myself and honestly, as you know my artifice curse, I got excited to make our ideas a part of reality. My excitement could not stop me in the studio. It was not until just moments ago that I realized I temporarily excused myself from being a human. Time got away from me.” Mele smiled, and as she did she told Charles, “I understand, when you get passionate with a project, everything around you ceases to be. Leaving only you and your work. Obsession is the wildest thing we deal with sometimes.” Charles began to eat his food in front of Mele, to show her that was going to be responsible and actually eat some food. Mele nodded, walked over to Charles, and gave him a pat on his back. “Well kid, I am glad to see you eating. If you don’t need anything, I am going to go back and get some sleep before our meeting tomorrow. The crew is going to be so excited with this major update, Charles. Thank you, I don’t know what else there is to say!” Fighting the comfort of having his eyes almost shut, Charles looked back at Mele and said, “Thank you, for your motivation and thoughtfulness. This was exactly what I needed, Mele. Have a good evening.” Mele gave Charles a hug goodnight before leaving his studio.
After Mele left, Charles finished eating and washed up his dishes while fighting the urge to sleep. Soon, he could lay down and refresh his mind and body before continuing his work and meeting with the crew he and Mele had assembled. Sinking himself between his bed and blanket, his mind was racing while simultaneously begging for a break. Sleep would eventually come to Charles, but not until after he meditated on various thoughts:
‘How is Hyanthra doing? Could I have prevented her wounds from the tyrant? Could we have prevented Xanropa from falling? Since I was a vertice leader, surely everyone must put divided blame upon me, Hyanthra, Lyndria, and Garal? Will we ever have the Xanropa back that we once knew?’
There was one more question that took the majority of Charles’s time, and that was: ‘Is this plan going to work? Will we be able to finally remove the tyrant, once and for all?’
Charles tossed and turned as he fought with his inner questions and tried to find his way into sleep. It took some time, but finally, Charles was able to drift off into sleep. Thankfully, something else had occupied his mind before he slept. After asking himself those many difficult questions, he thought about the crew that would be helping with this mission and how they shared the same enthusiasm as Xan-I and Conjurer. Charles’s last thought before going to sleep was of Mele’s face and reaction to the flightcrafts he constructed. In this last thought, he felt proud and determined that his creations would be a contribution to making Tyrant Vaine a part of Xanropa’s history. The discovery of Xan-I was truly the ignition for change- so much had happened in the timeline since Conjurer returned from Spiral City. Luckily, these optimistic perspectives were what Charles fell asleep with as Conjurer and Xan-I were above, far away on Xanropa, about to meet with Hyanthra.
* * * * * * *
Conjurer had started making his way through the labyrinth with Darsix on top of the walls, guiding him through. On the top of the labyrinth were arched bridges that Hyanthra’s people could use to both bypass the labyrinth and guide any visitors (even though not many visitors came to Hyanthra’s tree kingdom during the last half of a decade). Xan-I did as it was asked by Darsix and waited by the opening of the maze, watching its friend slowly disappear into the labyrinth. Outside the opening, Xan-I appreciated the glow that was emitting from both Hyanthra’s tree kingdom and labyrinth. As Xan-I turned around, back to the ruins of this particular face of the pyramid, it was met by the eerie darkness that it and the company had just ventured through. Behind Xan-I’s lens was a thin layer of panic. Panic brought on by the attachment it had grown with Conjurer. Even Garalt, Ana, and Bryne despite not knowing them as long as it knew Conjurer. Waiting outside alone, did nothing but stir Xan-I’s concern for its friends.
As Xan-I began lightly pacing back and forth in front of the labyrinth’s opening, it debated on tracking down Garalt, Ana, and Bryne to ensure they got back safely through the sea of darkness that was this face of the pyramid. However, that would mean abandoning Conjurer, who had been the person to give purpose back to Xan-I. How could it leave Conjurer? These inquiries continued to formulate, bother, and worry Xan-I.
For what had seemed an eternity for Xan-I, Darsix had finished leading Conjurer to the tree and returned to see Xan-I walking to and fro as if the mechanism was in a state of distress. “What has you pacing like that, Xan-I?” Darsix asked with a gentle, caring, yet echoing voice. Xan-I stopped immediately in its tracks and looked up at Darsix and asked, “Darsix, do you think Garlat, Ana, and Bryne, are going to be alright on their venture back?” Darsix leaped from the top of the labyrinth and landed on the ground of Xanropa, walking over to Xan-I to meet the mechanism by the opening of the labyrinth. Standing in front of Xan-I, Darsix replied, “My friend, I did not realize that you had the code in you to worry. Worrying is easy to do, but it is also one of the worst things we can practice. I cannot tell you if they will make it back okay,” Xan-I shot its head back in the direction that the company had walked back. Darsix tapped Xan-I on the arm and continued, “I was not finished and did not mean to make you worry, sorry. I can tell you, however, that those three had come here and gone back there, more times than I can count. Based on what Conjurer told me about your adventure thus far, it seems that Tyrant Vaine’s cronies only like to appear on the face of Lake 125, and Spiral City. We rarely get much activity over here.”
Darsix then motioned Xan-I to the large hammer that he carried with him. “Since I have this piece of work, Xan-I, I want you to know that I am very capable of defending everyone here from whatever threats. Those monsters are no chance for me.” This did make Xan-I feel comfortable, but there was a pressing question that the mechanism needed to ask Darsix about. Even if Conjurer already asked, Xan-I had to know.
“I trust in your ability, but I need to ask Darsix, what happened on the day that Ana’s family became possessed? Also, why do you wear those broken visors of Vaine?”
Darsix did not break eye contact with Xan-I as he immediately replied, “What happened on that day was what you could classify as a massacre. It was the only time we had a major invasion from the tyrant. We were able to contain it and strike fear into the consciousness of Tyrant Vaine, but we also had to follow a protocol for helping people through the maze. Many Xanropians fled here to seek asylum from the invasion. We were so preoccupied with fighting back against the tyrant that we did not catch some stray mechanisms that crawled up the walls of the labyrinth. Unfortunately, Ana’s family got caught and became possessed by the tyrant. At that time, some Xanropians were still using the visors of Vaine to seek any sort of comfort or information- which looking back at it now was a huge delusion. Out of respect for the deceased members, I will not say anything else other than, that it did not take much to possess Ana’s family. I believe that she was the only one in her family who did not wear them on that day. As for me and why I wear these broken visors, I wear them as a threat to any form that is synched with the tyrant to let him know I am not afraid of him. I see through him, literally with the visors and metaphysically speaking on the account that I once participated in various groups that questioned this authority.”
Xan-I could sense that Darsix had many feelings surrounding what happened on the day that Ana’s family was lost, and it valued Darsix’s reasoning on wearing the visors with his eyes seeing through them. Xan-I bowed its head to thank Darsix for his honesty and sincere answer, “Thank you, Darsix. I can tell that that was not an easy question to ask, and I imagine it was a difficult question for you to answer. You have my utmost respect, and I value you for all that you have done.” Darsix bowed his head as a physical response to Xan-I, and said, “I appreciate it. I think about all the innocent lives that were lost on that day. It is hard not to think about them, especially when we had to follow a strict protocol with the maze. Could things have been done differently? I don’t know. It goes back to the action of worrying. The only thing we can do is try to move on and move on in a direction of growth. There is no use for us trying to fix things from the past or the future. We can only be in the present and try to be better.”
Darsix seemed to have been a leader of some sort, Xan-I thought. He was a wise and caring man. Behind those eyes, Xan-I knew that there was a genius that many Xanropians could benefit from having in their lives. This made Xan-I ask to clarify with Darsix, “Darsix, have you ever been a vertice leader? You speak as wise as a leader!” Darsix recoiled at the idea and playfully waved both his hands up denying what Xan-I asked. Returning to his stoic gentle voice, Darsix said, “I have not, and I don’t believe I would ever want to be a leader. I don’t believe in power structures and would never want to be a part of one.” Xan-I tilted its head in confusion. Darsix snapped his fingers and pointed at Xan-I, asking it, “Oh, are you under the impression that Hyanthra is the queen of all who inhabit the tree? She is in a way the leader of the tree, but she in no way is solely in charge of us all.” Xan-I looked at the tree that it had known as Hyanthra’s tree kingdom for so long now, and everything that it thought it knew was now replaced with more questions. “I can see you trying to calculate this information, ever since the New Originators divided underneath and on top of Xanropa, there was disinformation that went around citing that Hyanthra was the queen of her ‘tree kingdom’. Yes, she does act like a ruler in some ways, but she does not have the same delirium that led to the creation of Tyrant Vaine. She helps the community of the tree thrive and is aided by other members of the tree.”
Knowing that it had been over a decade since the New Originators divided up, this made a lot of sense to Xan-I. After so much time had passed, it would be easy for people to be confused by Hyanthra and the tree. Darsix looked down at his hammer and said, “You know, I don’t think people comprehend the great trauma that plagues Hyanthra. She is still full of wisdom and grace, but she has had many troubles ever since her encounter with Tyrant Vaine.”
Inside Xan-I’s cranial dome, a familiar feeling that Charles presented to the mechanism seemed to stir up from what Darsix said about Hyanthra. Darsix broke Xan-I’s thoughts and asked, “What is on your mind, my mechanized friend?” Xan-I was not sure if it wanted to ask the questions that it formulated, but it also had a feeling that Darsix would be open-minded and give some answers, so it asked Darsix, “It seems that a majority of Xanropians never wanted to have any power at all, yet there were still power structures created among them. Why did the vertice leader positions exist at all if they ended up defying the definition of Xanropa’s utopian ideals? Also, up until now, it has been my understanding that Hyanthra was the queen of the inhabitants of the tree. I know this now to be false thanks to you. I wish I understood why a majority of everyone else I have been around felt that Hyanthra was a queen.” Darsix laughed respectfully and replied, “You know, I haven’t a clue as to why Xanropa was advertised as a utopia. Utopias cannot exist. There is always going to be discourse with mortals; it is only a matter of how ugly the discourse gets. In regards to the gab of Hyanthra being the queen of the tree; it all boils down to the fact that both her and her people never leave the tree. We stay inside and stare into the void that now lives as the former surface of Xanropa.”
Xan-I but one of its hands on its mouth box, and its other hand on its hips. After some computing, it asked Darsix, “Do inhabitants of the tree have the same feeling about Charles? Do they think he is the king of the Inner Planet?” Darsix again laughed and answered, “Ah, you know what? To be truthful, I don’t think many of us feel that way at all. Charles is a good man, and if we could do anything with our past, I think more leaders throughout our history and the history the Ceaseless End could have used a few Charles to make things end an alternative way. I know that when all of us who inhabit the tree decided to stay on the surface and not go with Charles to the Inner Planet, we made some of our closet friends upset. We wanted to try and reclaim Xanropa, but we only parted ways and have not stepped further than the labyrinth. Hell, I think I am the only inhabitant of the tree that sees Xanropa. The others have not left the tree for a while. Some, I would argue have not left since we occupied the tree.” What Darsix said made Xan-I feel at ease about being at the tree, but also made it feel confused by all the talk that its friends had said about both Hyanthra and the tree.
“Do you think anyone would help us with our removal mission, Darsix?” Xan-I asked as it stared into Darsix’s eyes. It took a moment for Darsix to respond. He looked down at his hammer, and as he bowed his head in thought, he told Xan-I, “I am unsure if she would be willing to help or send anyone. It seems that the tree has become a planet of its own.” Xan-I quickly interrupted Darsix and said, “What if I could show her the recording I have of the devouring horizon that may be making its way to devour all of Xanropa? Would she reconsider then?!” Darsix stared back at Xan-I in the lens. He could sense great distress in Xan-I’s voice. Darsix said, “This devouring horizon you speak of seems to have really disturbed you. Conjurer and I talked a little bit, but he also seemed frazzled by the events you both went through. Do you mind showing me what you saw?”
Xan-I immediately walked over the outer wall of the labyrinth and a projection came out of its chest showing the horizon over Lake 125. The horizon, instead of looking blue and golden, showed a heavy dark mass that commanded the sky. The recording zoomed in on the devouring horizon, showing many teeth that seemed to mar and help with the devouring of the planet. Darsix stood with his mouth open in shock as he watched the dreadful recording that Xan-I was sharing with him. The recording would end, and Xan-I looked back at Darsix for a response. Slowly, Darsix spoke, “I-I-I don’t even, I don’t even know what there is to say. That is one of the most horrible things I have seen. Even worse than the day we fought Tyrant Vaine and his horde of freaks. Hyanthra needs to see this, NOW!” Darsix then made his way to the opening of the labyrinth. At first, Xan-I thought that Darsix was going to rush through the maze to go speak to Hyanthra, but this idea soon made no sense as Darsix turned back to Xan-I and as he motioned with his hammer, hollered as Xan-I, “Come on! You are coming with me! She is not going to like seeing you, but she NEEDS to see that recording. If what you showed me is happening in real-time, I think we only have a matter of time before Xanropa becomes food for the undead tyrant.” Without asking any questions, Xan-I sprinted to follow Darsix and the two began their journey through the maze.
As Xan-I followed Darsix through the winding halls with various doorways and windows, Darsix said, “I have to apologize to you and I will say the same to Conjurer, but I did not know such evil was stirring at the first vertice. I am so sorry for not doing this sooner. I hope that Conjurer is able to have a good conversation with Hyanthra.”
“Is Hyanthra easy to talk with, Darsix?” Xan-I asked. Climbing through a large window space, Darsix responded, “You know, I think Hyanthra is one of the sweetest people to talk to. However, due to her past, depending on where the conversation goes and what it is about, she can make a conversation feel difficult. It is easy to understand though, from a human perspective.” Nodding, Xan-I said, “From I have heard about Hyanthra, it seems like she is impossible to get along with, but from what you have said of her, she sounds like the noble and wise leader that I have documented in my archives!” Waiting for Xan-I to crawl through the same window space, Darsix said as Xan-I finished climbing over, “She can be very easy to get along with, BUT with your situation, since you are a mechanism, I need you to follow some important rules. The first one is, don’t speak unless she grants you permission. Until she says you may speak, I will speak on your behalf and defend your presence. The second rule is to not ask her about the past. She has issues with reliving events that have happened. Depending on the severity, Hyanthra may slip into a trance that lasts hours. So please, these two rules I beg of you to follow and follow one hundred percent. Can you do that, Xan-I?”
Xan-I nodded, and the two continued their way through the labyrinth. The only thing that rang out through Xan-I’s circuitry was worry about Conjurer being with Hyanthra currently. Hopefully all was going okay and that he was able to convey any and all feelings that had been on his mind. Surely, if Hyanthra saw the same thing that was seen at Lake 125, she would consider everything Conjurer had to say about the removal mission.
Chapter Seven: The Hauntology of Xanropa
When Darsix led Conjurer through the labyrinth toward the entrance of the tree, he was surprised that there were no other guards besides Darsix monitoring the maze. ‘Surely, there must be more people helping to protect and oversee the labyrinth to Hyanthra’s tree kingdom?’ Conjurer thought to himself. The labyrinth walls had damage from Tyrant Vaine’s mechanisms that attempted to crawl up the walls. Based on some stuttering scratch marks throughout the maze, Conjurer concluded that the mechanized beasts were unsuccessful at scaling the walls to invade the tree. Hyanthra and her people knew how to create a long and winding maze, after what felt like hours, Conjurer had finally been shown to the end of the maze by Darsix, who said, “Here we are, Conjurer. The tree entrance!”
Again, to Conjurer’s surprise, there was no one else besides Darsix on top of the labyrinth. Upon this observation, Conjurer could not contain his disbelief, he asked Darsix, “Are you the only one on guard out here? Does anyone else ever relieve you or join you on the labyrinth, Darsix?” At the sound of Conjurer’s question, Darsix made a similar face that Garalt had made when speaking about Hyanthra and the tree. After some visual contemplation, Darsix responded, “I basically live out here. Once in a while, I do go inside for food and rest. When I am inside, no one comes out here. Sometimes, I think that everyone that inhabits the tree thinks this labyrinth is impenetrable. Which is not entirely true.”
As Darsix was answering Conjurer, Conjurer looked upon the entrance of the tree. At the base of its trunk was a gazebo similar to the one that attached to the Commonplace. The body of the towering tree was shiny and had a gradient of convincing organic umbers. It was truly a marvelous creation, and a part of Conjurer was excited to see what the tree kingdom looked like on the inside. Darsix noticed Conjurer observing the entrance and said, “It is quite a wonder, isn’t it?” Conjurer shook his head in agreement and looked back at Darsix and said to him, “I think I understand why Garalt and his team do not want to come back here. Would you say that people that enter the tree kingdom often never leave?” Darsix lifted a finger and pointed to the sky as he replied, “First of all, as you go inside the tree, you must not refer to it as the tree kingdom. Hyanthra will get upset by that phrasing. Secondly, yes, inside the tree you find comfort, and there are so many resources. Due to the convenience of what is available inside, you could live the rest of your days inside if you wanted to. As I get older, some of the tree inhabitants continue to pester me into abandoning this position and living the rest of my days in comfort inside. They claim not to be trying to annoy me, but their convincing has not worked on me yet, and I hope it never does. Someone needs to know what is going on outside.”
Conjurer stood silent, not knowing what to say back to Darsix. Visually, Darsix could tell that Conjurer had found this information to be disturbing. In the back of his consciousness, Conjurer was thinking about the tragedy that Ana and her family faced and the argument that Garalt had had with Hyanthra. Did he dare ask Hyanthra about these events? Or would this tarnish any chances his company had of asking for help from her? He had to ask Darsix.
“Darsix, may I ask you something that may seem dumb to ask?” Conjurer inquired Darsix.
“No such thing, how else are we to learn if keep any questions to ourselves?” Darsix answered. Conjurer had grown to adore Darsix in the short amount of time he was around him for Darsix was a reasonable and wise man. Conjurer was positive that many people benefited and valued the legendary Xanropian that was Darsix. After the approval, Conjurer asked, “Do you think Hyanthra would elaborate to me about the events that took place with Garalt, Ana, and Bryne?” Darsix did not flinch or cringe like Conjurer has guessed would happen. Instead, Darsix calmly replied, “Absolutely! In fact, I think it would be good for you and her to talk about what happened. It is a painful subject, but I think it is good to bring up what happened so that it may never be forgotten about. Worst case scenario, you can blame me for asking her at all if she were to get upset.” Conjurer stared back at Darsix with scared, widened eyes. His expression made Darsix chuckle. “Conjurer, you are funnny. I think you mistake the person that Hyanthra is. Why don’t you go on inside and see if you can visit her?”
Conjurer shook his head but then put his head to the side as he looked at the entrance of the tree. It seemed to be an automatic door that slid as one stood in front of it, but Conjurer needed to have instructions on where to go to find Hyanthra. Before he could ask, Darsix chimed in with some simple instructions. “When you get inside, you are going to want to find the elevator system and take it to the uppermost floor. Once you get to the top floor, you will immediately arrive in Hyanthra’s quarters. She keeps it simple to find her so that life in the tree may continue to operate smoothly and with a consistent guide. Remember, you may have it set in your mind that she is a queen, and this is her kingdom, yada yada yada, but the truth is, she is still the same Hyanthra that we used to be familiar with and I think you will find her to be charming and easy to talk to.” Conjurer walked over and put his hand on Darsix’s shoulder and said, “Thank you so much for your accomadations, Darsix, you are a legend and it has been an honor to meet you. I look forward to seeing you soon as I leave the tree.” Darsix smiled at the end of Conjurer’s sentence, where he did not refer to the tree as Hyanthra’s kingdom. Darsix patted Conjurer on the shoulder and said to him before leaving, “Good luck in there, I better get back to Xan-I and make sure it is okay.” After mentioning Xan-I, Darsix made his way back to Xan-I. With Darsix’s departure, Conjurer stepped in front of the tree entrance, and once the door slip upward revealing the interior of the tree, he walked inside the tree. As soon as Conjurer was on the other side of the tree, the door slid back down and a couple of noises indicated to Conjurer that he was now locked inside the tree. As soon as he entered the tree, Conjurer noticed that he was immediately standing in what looked like a city square. People were out and about; running, picking produce from vendor stands, cooking, conversing with one another, the first thing Conjurer ran into inside the tree was society again. This was overwhelming to Conjurer, but he soon remembered the instructions that Darsix gave him. He looked for the elevator, and he almsot instantly noticed it toward the back of the city square. Hoping not to be pulled aside by anyone, Conjurer slowly walked into the crowd and blended in with the civilians that were bustling about.
Oddly enough, no one stopped Conjurer from interacting with him. He had found this weird but was grateful that he could get to the elevator and focus on the mission at hand without having to go through any type of encounters with the people of the tree. In the bottom of his stomach, Conjurer felt a knot that had been triggered by nerves. He did not know how to feel about Hyanthra, and he soon decided, to calm his nerves, to find out how Hyanthra was by simply speaking to her and making the assessment himself. As opposed to following the words of either Garalt or Darsix, Conjurer was in this moment whether he was excited about it or not. The elevator automatically opened to greet Conjurer’s presence. Unlike the levelator in Spiral City, these archaic elevators had a menu that occupants had to operate to get from one floor to the other. Fortunately for Conjurer, based on Darsix’s directions, he had to locate the option that brought him to the uppermost floor and then prepare to speak with Hyanthra. Conjurer found and selected the highest floor option, and the elevator door slid shut and Conjurer felt himself ascending to the top of the tree.
Tension built up inside of Conjurer. Many thoughts began to race as the elevator cab climbed to the Hyanthra’s floor: ’What if we cannot secure aid from Hyanthra and the people of the tree? Will they believe in everything I have to say? How are Charles and Mele doing with their part of the plan?’
There were no answers, only festering concerns that echoed in Conjurer’s mind. The elevator cab had made it to the top floor, and the door slid open for Conjurer to exit. As he stepped out of the elevator cab, the first sight Conjurer saw was of a large green-tinted circular window with a seated figure’s back facing him. The figure’s hair was a bright and illuminating white, similar to the celestial bodies that burned in the sky. All of a sudden, the golden chair began to rotate around to face Conjurer. As the seat moved, Conjurer noticed a cylindrical shaft holding a large spear was positioned adjacentally to the chair. In the chair, Conjurer saw a familiar face come into his view. Hyanthra’s chair had rotated fully around now so that her remaining eye could see Conjurer. Her other eye that she had lost, was covered by a gold-painted visor or Vaine. It looked as if she also participated in the reclamation of the visors like Darsix. She had aged since he saw her last, but Hyanthra retained the attention-holding presence she always had. Even though Conjurer was told that she was not a queen, she was a queen to him in his mind.
Before speaking, Hyanthra made a short but contained gasp. It seemed that she vaguely remembered Conjurer and could not believe that she was seeing him after so long. Shortly she said, “My goodness, what are you doing here, Conjurer? It is quite nice to see you after so long. May I get you a chair? Something to drink?” Internally, Conjurer was flattered that such a figure would remember him. As far as he could tell, she seemed in good spirits and the churning in his stomach lessened as he bowed and replied, “Hyanthra, you are looking lovely as ever. It is I, Conjurer, indeed! I would take a chair and water if you happen to have any to spare.”
Hyanthra instantly pushed a button from one of her armrests. As it rotated, a chair similar to Hyanthra’s arose from the floor for Conjurer to use. After Conjurer took his seat, Hyanthra went over to a table and retrieved a cup of water for Conjurer and herself. Slowly, Conjurer’s preconceived notions of Hyanthra started to disappear. Seated in front of him was a caring and stoic Xanropian of legend.
Breaking up his thoughts of amazement, Hyanthra asked, “What brings you to the tree, Conjurer?” Sipping his water, Conjurer took a moment to figure out how he wanted their conversation to proceed. However, he asked Hyanthra the first thing that came to his mind, “Are you alone on this floor? I am surprised there are no guards or other people here!” Hyanthra smirked at Conjurer’s concern and confusion. She responded, “I am, but if it makes you feel better, I am still quite gifted with my spear if danger should decide to present itself to me. I don’t need any guards.” Hyanthra’s confidence sent shivers down Conjurer’s spine. Surely, Tyrant Vaine would be afraid of this brave and concrete Xanropian; especially after their fight so long ago that left him scattered.
After a momentary pause, Hyanthra asked Conjurer, “Are you one of the Xanropians that assumes I am a queen and use fellow Xanropians as my pawns? Don’t pretend like you have not heard these vile things; rumors have a tendency to circulate with the wind.” Conjurer frowned, and as his eyebrows raised with concern, he said, “I have heard such things, but now that I am in the tree and have seen the healthy society, and you unguarded on your level, I know now that these rumors of you being a queen are false. Now, I ask you this question before I get down to my business being here: have you been outside of the tree in a while, Hyanthra?” Hyanthra’s remaining eye grew wide, and a veil of shock rolled down her face. Conjurer could tell that she was slightly unnerved by this question. Before Conjurer could offer any comfort, Hyanthra said, “No. I have not left the tree since its completion. There has been no need to leave when we have what we need in here.” Conjurer nodded and understood why she had not left. Taking another sip of his water, Conjurer decided that it was time to tell Hyanthra what he was doing visiting her. Especially since they had not seen each other after so long.
“Hyanthra, I am going to start telling you why I am here.” Hyanthra nodded and motioned for Conjurer to continue with his explanation. “A while back, while I was gathering supplies for the Inner Planet, I stumbled across an old Xan-I mechanism. Upon programming it and having Charles assess it further, the mechanism that we call Xan-I, does not remember anything before the Day of Illusion. It is completely untouched by Tyrant Vaine.”
Hyanthra interrupted, “I bet the mechanism was at least partially touched by the tyrant, in terms of its conception and if not its construction as well.” She physically recoiled at the mentioning of Tyrant Vaine. However, Conjurer had simultaneously noticed a particular warmth that filled Hyanthra’s eyes when he mentioned Charles. Agreeing with Hyanthra, Conjurer nodded and continued. “Well, Xan-I, Charles, Garalt, Ana, and Bryne, all stumbled across something horrific. My mechanism friend Xan-I has a recording of what we saw at Lake 125.” Hyanthra’s face became puzzled, and she asked, “What were you all doing near Lake 125 to begin with?” Conjurer put one of his index fingers in the air to signal that he was going to get to the point of Hyanthra’s question. “Well, Charles, Xan-I, Mele, and I, we came up with a solution to try to get Xanropa back for us all. It involved removing the first vertice and ridding ourselves of the evil growth that the tyrant has become. So, for the plan, we were assessing the land of the pyramid to see how thick it was and if our internal removal plan would work or not. While on our mission, we encountered a new type of mechanized serpent that rose up from the lake and attacked us. We have major reason to believe that the tyrant is not fully dead and still up to his evil ways. I have heard you do not care for mechanisms, and I completely understand, but my mechanism friend, Xan-I could-“ Hyanthra put a finger to her lips to motion for Conjurer to stop talking. “If you are going to ask if you can bring your friend in the tree, I am afraid I cannot allow it. No question about it. I am sorry, Conjurer. I am intrigued by how you found it and what part of the equation it fits in with your removal plan.
Kindly, Conjurer responded to Hyanthra, “Xan-I reawakened our desire to save our beloved Xanropa. I have not felt this compelled about doing anything until I found my new friend. I am sorry that you will not be able to meet Xan-I, it is a lovely and honorable mechanism but more importantly, a dear friend.”
Hyanthra sat a moment with all that Conjurer said. Absorbing the feelings that were brought up from Conjurer standing up for Xan-I, Hyanthra peered at Conjurerʻs display of devotion toward his mechanism friend. She felt a sense of great respect wash over the connection she formed with Conjurer. There was a moment of consideration of allowing Xan-I to enter the tree, but Hyanthra remained content on not allowing the mechanism into the tree. After some time elapsed, Hyanthra asked Conjurer, “Maybe we should form a small council before we proceed, would you like having more minds join our conversation, Conjurer?”
“That may not be a bad idea, the more minds the better with what may stem out of this conversation.” From the armrest of Hyanthraʻs chair, she clicked on a button and spoke aloud, “Quainna, Tynil, would you both please join me and our guest on my floor for a council? Thanks!” After directing the two inhabitants of the tree, Hyanthra looked back at Conjurer and said, “In a few moments, I will have two of the most-trusted tree inhabitants join us for conversation on the matter of removing the first vertice.” Conjurer nodded his head in acknowledgement of the council that was about to occur in the tree.
Moments went by when eventually, two light-cloaked individuals entered Hyanthraʻs floor from the elevator. One of the inhabitants, who was tall and bore brightly-lit hair similar to Hyanthraʻs hair, greeted Conjurer, “Hello! I am Quainna, it is nice to meet you!” Quainna extended her hand to Conjurer, and Conjurer gave his hand to Quainna. “It is nice to meet you, Quainna, I am Conjurer!” The other inhabitant, was shorter and hid their arms under their cloak. They looked at Conjurer and said, “I am Tyril, pleasure meeting you.” Tyril nodded to Conjurer, and Conjurer returned a greeting nod; it became clear that Tyril did not have arms. “It is also nice to meet you too, Tyril. I am anxious for coucil.” Quainna responded, “As are we.” Tyril shook his head in agreement to Quinnaʻs answer.
Chairs emerged from the floor thanks to Hyanthraʻs operations, and Quainna and Tyril took their seats. The newly formed council was in the shape of a diamond on Hyanthraʻs floor. “Now that we have briefly introduced ourselves, I would like to turn the council to Conjurer for him to go over the information that he has brought to me.” Hyanthra said as she gestured to Conjurer with her hand, as soon as her hand directed the council to Conjurer, he spoke, “Thank you, Hyanthra. What I am about to tell you, Quainna and Tyril, I have disclosed to Hyanthra. A while ago, I stumbled across an archaic Xan-I unit, who has helped myself, Charles, Mele, Garalt, Ana, and Bryne, to formulate a plan to remove the first vertice from Xanropa. Therefore, giving us all back the Xanropa that we lost a decade ago.”
Immediately, Quainna asked Conjurer, “How would removing the first vertice from the pyramid help Xanropa?”
“This was something I was going to address with Hyanthra before you both were summoned here for our council. My company and I have witnessed something horrific upon the horizon of Lake 125. My mechanism friend, Xan-I, saw a devouring horizon. It appears that the undead tyrant has made a large pyramid that is almost as black as space, that is slowly devouring Xanropa. Xan-I also happened to record what it saw, due to Hyanthraʻs feelings, we cannot show you what Xan-I saw unless he projected it or transferred it onto some device for viewing. Needless to say, none of this would have been possible to find out without Xan-I.”
Tyril asked Conjurer, “Are you absolutely sure that Xan-I is free from any manipulation from the tyrant?”
“After talking about the devouring horizon, I would have thought you all would be as concerned about that as my company and I were! However, to answer your question, Xan-I is completely clear of any manipulation brought on from the tyrant. Charles, the former leader of the fifth vertice, checked over my friend thoroughly. We would not have proceeded if there were any signs of manipulation from the tyrant. I swear that much on my life.”
Tyril nodded and explained his question, “I only ask about Xan-Iʻs loyalty, because this information that you have presented us seems quite dire and the last thing we would need is a mechanism that could not be trusted in such a position.”
Conjurer appreciated and valued Tyrilʻs concern about Xan-I, and he felt that this council was going to be beneficial. Hyanthra spoke up before Conjurer continued, “Conjurer, the news of the devouring horizon concerns me greatly. Can you elaborate on the horizon?”
“It was a towering pyramid on the horizon, its mouth had nothing but teeth that sank into Xanropa, draining the planet for its resources we gathered. The reason now that we want to remove the vertice has evolved from removing the remains of the tyrant, but now the resurrected intentions of Tyrant Vaine pose a serious threat, for us all.” The council ceased all activity and the four members sat in silence, picturing the horror that was seen on the horizon of Lake 125. Tyril looked down and scowled at the description that was given from Conjurer. Quainnaʻs face did not change, she kept thinking about what had been brought up so far. After some time, Quainna said, “Would removing the devouring horizon prevent it from being able to eat the rest of Xanropa? Would it not find a way to return and devour the rest of the planet?”
“Who is to know? At least if we remove the first vertice from Xanropa, the devouring horizon would run out of material to evolve.” Tyril affirmatively shook his head and said, “That is true. It seems important to cut off the food supply to the horizon would indeed help prevent it from growing.” Hyanthra also included, “Conjurer, how would our help aide you and your company?” Conjurer sat for a second before answering Hyanthra, putting his hands on his face and pondering the mission. “Charles and Meleʻs end of the mission involves tearing into the surface, and once they have cut into the surface of Xanropa enough, we need all the help we can get prying off the top portion of Xanropa.” Quainna pulled her hair back as she considered Conjurerʻs use of the tree inhabitants. Tyril moved in his seat to adjust his comfortability and cleared his throat. After a few moments of silence, Hyanthra cleared the silence, “The tree could provide shelter to anyone that is in need, but I donʻt know if we should risk anyone leaving to possibly endanger their lives.”
Conjurerʻs eyes widened in disbelief toward what Hyanthra was starting to say. What Tyril said next, solidified Conjurerʻs shock, “Yes, perhaps while you and your company are working on removing the first vertice, we could open our doors to anyone that is lost or in need.” Quainna added, “As much as we are willing to help, it is important that we retain and protect the safest place on Xanropa, surely you can understand, Conjurer?” Although Conjurerʻs eyes were widened in disbelief, his face turned a shade red and he excalimed to the council, “Pardon my attitude, but is everyone here unwilling to leave the comfort of the tree to face the reality that lies on Xanropa?!” Hyanthra, Quainna, and Tyril sat silent as Conjurer continued his questioning, “If you could see what Xan-I saw, you all would not give a damn how safe the tree is, because what is devouring the horizon right now will take this tree without difficulty.”
Conjurer stood up from his seat and walked to the green-tinted window that was behind Hyanthra. The rest of the council watched Conjurer as he made his way to the window. Once at the window, Conjurer spent a while looking out at the sea of darkness that was the surface of Xanropa. “You know, I just realized something, this is one of the only windows I have seen that actually shows what is going on outside. Why is this the only window in the tree?” Tyril got out of his seat and walked a few steps toward Conjurer and said, “Conjurer, the tree serves as a haven to those that have been lost since the fall of Xanropa. This window is indeed the only window that exposes Xanropa. It serves as a reminder of what we want from the tree.”
“Delusional! Absolutely delusional! This is coming from me, who calls himself Conjurer too!” Quainna chuckled nervously, and while she raised her arms into the air, she calmly said, “Conjurer, this may be hard to understand since you have not been a part of the tree as long as we have been- “ Conjurer interjected and said, “You are right, I donʻt understand. I donʻt understand how all of you, who once lived on the surface of Xanropa, can live in here and be almost completely unaware of what is happening outside. Garalt had told me their feelings about the tree, and I came in here with an open mind, but with how our council has proceeded, I can see that part of what Garalt told me is unfortunately true!”
Hyanthra finally moved from her stance of stone nad firmly responded, “Your feelings are clouding all reason. Garalt, Ana, and Bryne have been through much, and I am sure they shared what happened to them.” Rotating calmly but with suspense, Hyanthra face herself with Conjurer and stood to stand in front of him. As soon as she made eye contact with Conjurer, she told Conjurer, “I know what happened to Ana and her family was beyond tragic. Every day since the tragedy, I think about how we all could have done things differently. Garalt understandably has every reason to resent me for what happened, but you and Garalt are very similar. You both want to take on quests that are either impossible or also lethal. The only quests that fools decide to make, and based on the person I have been talking with so far this meeting, you are no fool, Conjurer!”
As light as the wind, Hyanthra walked around Conjurer and stood to look out the window looking out toward the sea of darkness. “Darsix probably warned you not to call me Queen Hyanthra, or ʻyour highnessʻ, etcetera. Well, I know what Surfacers and the Inner Planet Xanropians think of me, but you know what, Conjurer? Let me ask you this: If you once were a vertice leader, and many people looked toward you for guidance and safety, would you do everything that you could to provide those needs to the people? If after a war, that maimed you, would you be willing to face people in need and continue to do everything that you can to protect these innocent lives?” Turning away from the foggy Xanropa, Hyanthra faced Conjurer to ask him some more questions, “What if everything that you try to do is the very best that you can do, but it is never viewed as enough? Would you still be willing to give everything you have, even though all the time it feels like it is not good enough?” Conjurerʻs face dropped into a concerned frown as he stared into her eye.
In Hyanthraʻs remaining eye were tears that were being dammed by years of leadership. There was also a great fear and concern over what was transpiring on the surface of Xanropa. Over the plate that covered Hyanthraʻs missing eye, Conjurer saw the reflection of his face and accepted that he had let his emotions lead the conversation into the place that he wanted to avoid. Slowly, Conjurerʻs lips quivered and he responded while he cried, “You have done more than many people, Hyanthra. I am sorry for my outburst. I am frightened!” Quainna and Tyril looked at eachother with looks of horror and fear as they facially confirmed that this spontaneous council meeting was much more serious than they thought it would be. Hyanthra embraced Conjurer with her arms giving him a hug, and soon his arms wrapped around her as well and they both stood on Hyanthraʻs floor holding eachother for any kind of comfort and reassurance.
Not wanting to ruin a tender moment, Quainna and Tyril sat back down in their seats and hung their heads in respect. Conjurer let go of Hyanthra and sat back down in his seat. As Hyanthra followed and also sat back down, Tyril spoke up, “I lost both of my arms as Hyanthra lost her eye in that war. Although I lost some important tools, I held on to the fact that I was able to survive and help others thrive in the tree. Some of us may not be able to make it on the surface as it stands now. Please understand Conjurer, that we want to help, but there are so many innocent lives that no nothing of fighting anymore. Many have turned away from violence, and we do not know how many people would be willing to participate in this operation. Comfort and some kind of stability is somehting that we are able to provide though.”
Quainna followed behind Tyril, “Even though he does not have his arms, or Hyanthra may not have both eyes, they both have so much compassion and love that they give to so many here. There are some of Hyanthraʻs warriors that may be able to fight still, but honestly what you seek may not be what you get from the tree. Which is not a bad thing, we can still be of some help indeed.” Conjurerʻs red tear-soaked eyes glazed over Quainna and Tyril, with understanding and care, he said, “The fear of what is happening out there has made you all create a beautiful thing in here, but it has also taken everything away from you all. This is why I cry. I want us all to return to the Xanropa we once remembered. Even now, as the undead tyrant devours the horizon, we may not be able to rescue our planet, restore all of our precious memories. I am not ready to let go of something that holds a large part of my identity, and I donʻt want any of us to lose the individuals we have become becasue we are afraid to face this threat head on.”
Quainna and Tyril looked down and were now full of solemn sadness. Hyanthra remained as stone-faced and stoic as when Conjurer met her earlier. She replied to Conjurer, “What you and your company are doing, is very noble. Conjurer, you can never lose who you are. You carry who you are everywhere that you go. No matter where you are or what state our home is in, you will always be the mystical Conjurer. Nothing nor no one can every strip you of your identity. I hope that it is clear that we all sympathize with you and your passion for this mission you and your company have fabricated. Know that we will provide whatever comfort we have, but that may be the extent of our help.” Sniffiling, Conjurer nodded and said, “Well, it is sure better than nothing. Before I met Xan-I, I was not even hopeful of something like this. Now, all I can think about is getting our planet back and rebuilding our lives.”
Looking at Conjurer, Hyanthra asked gently, “I asked Quainna and Tyril to join us for this council Conjurer because both of these beautiful humans remind me of you. We each have had much taken away from us yet we persist and continue to do for others, whether it is out of the goodness of our being, or to just feel normal for one instance.” Looking up at Hyanthra as she finished her sentence, Quainna said aloud, “Because of the tree, I found a new family after I lost everyone I love. Earlier you spoke about how we did not know what was happening outside on the surface and you are absolutely correct. Did we, possibly, ignore reality for too long? Who knows. But I do know that all Xanropians deserve any type of retreat away from this world that has taken so much away from everyone.”
Conjurer stood and processed these sentimental feelings that Hyanthra, Quainna, and Tyril shared with him. There was still a worrisome feeling generating from the fact that it was very unlikely that anyone from the tree would be joining the company on their first vertice removal mission. If they could not grow the company with more Xanropians, it was at least refreshening knowing that the tree could serve as a home to those in need during this mission. Hyanthraʻs hall remained silent for quite some time as each member of the council decompressed and settled their emotional states.
Interrupting the silence, the elevator entrance opened and thundering footsteps reverborated Hyanthraʻs floor. Hyanthraʻs eye widened as her face exhibited a grave concern. An inhabitant of the tree was shouting, “That thing needs to leave, NOW!” Darsixʻs loving voice replied back crassly, “Unless you have seen what Xan-I showed me, you need to bark up a different tree, my friend!” The council looked back and saw Darsix, Xan-I, and an inhabitant approaching them. Quainna and Tyril swiftly exited their seats and stood as far away from Xan-I as possible. Conjurer smiled and said with nervous laughter, “Well, this was not supposed to happen. Darsix, I take it this is your doing?” Hyanthra added another question on the growing list of questions for Darsix, “Is anyone else on your post while you are in here, Darsix? You very well may be putting the tree in danger!” Darsix put his hammer on the floor and with his hands raised in surrender, said, “Alright, everyone calm down! The labyrinth is safe, there has been no activity, as there has not been since forever ago. Hyanthra, Quainna, Tyril, forgive me, but Xan-I here has something urgent to show you.”
Xan-I took a step forward and spoke briefly, “Greetings, second vertice leader Hyanthra, it is nice to meet you.” Slowly, Hyanthraʻs hand reached for her spear but Darsix grabbed his hammer and stood in front of Xan-I. “Donʻt do it, Hyanthra! Listen! You know I understand your trauma with mechanisms, but I would NEVER have brought Xan-I if I did not think it was important. This particular recording it has captured at Lake 125 is crucial information. Please, Hyanthra, let the mechanism show you what it what captured. You know me, you know that I donʻt play around with things that are so dire.” Taking a deep breath in, Hyanthra shut her eye and as she settled back into her body, she said, “After you play us what you have captured, mechanism, you are to be escorted back to the labyrinth by Darsix.” Xan-I put its hands together and performed an acknowledging bow to Hyanthra, showing that it understood and would obey Hyanthraʻs requests. “The mechanism has civility, I will say that much!” Hyanthra said.
Xan-I walked over the the wall that was adjacent to the elevator door and projected the vision that it had at Lake 125. A mist of light surrounded the wall and soon, the mechanized serpent filled the projection frame and everyone witnessed Silver Swan get swallowed by the beast. Gasps came from Tyril and Quainna, the other tree inhabitant could not stand the sight of the serpent and ran away into the elevator. Soon inside of Xan-Iʻs projection, the devouring horizon became clear to see. Hyanthra leaned closer from her chair to focus on what she was seeing. Every way that Conjurer had described it was true. The black pyramid that was eating Xanropa had to have been massive! No wonder Conjurer had come to the tree for aid, Hyanthra thought. “The Tyrant lives!”, Tyril shouted. Quainna covered her face with her hands and put her head on Tyrilʻs chest for comfort. Conjurer did not watch the projection, for what he and Xan-I witnessed were etched into their minds. After Xan-Iʻs vision ended, as promised, Xan-I waved its hands at Hyanthra and the council to signal that it was leaving. As Xan-I made its way to the elevator, Darsix said aloud, “Hyanthra, it may be time to bring something, or someone I should say, to light.” Hyanthraʻs eye widened in surprise and Conjurer could tell that she grew nervous about what Darsix had said. Darsix followed Xan-I, and the two were soon on the elevator and heading back down to the labyrinth.
“What was Darsix talking about, Hyanthra?” Tyril asked. Soon, a side of Hyanthra that many Xanropians had not seen became visible. Her breathing quickened, and it seemed that she could not focus her eye on anyone of the council. Quainna arose from her position to witness Hyanthra become extremely nervous and anxious. Conjurer got up from his seat and approached Hyanthra, putting his hands on her shoulders, he instructed her, “Itʻs okay, Hyanthra, letʻs take a deep breath and stay to stablize our breathing. We can talk about whatever Darsix mentioned later, but for now, letʻs ground ourselves.” Hyanthra ignored eye contact with Conjurer and remained looking down at the floor as she practiced some breathing exercises.
Quainna, gently yet firmly, said to Hyanthra, “After what Xan-I has shown us, it appears that time is of the essence. We need to know what or who Darsix was mentioning about and if it could help our current situation.” Tyril nodded as he stared at Hyanthra- whose face was now the definition of what it felt like to lose a secret. Her visible eyebrow arched in frustration, as she knew she now had to share the seriousness of this secret she kept between herself and Darsix.
“It is someone that Darsix is referring to.” Hyanthra said through a slow and bitter admission to the council. Having had a verbal response from Hyanthra, Quainna asked, gently, what was on each council membersʻ mind, “Who was Darsix talking about? What do we need to know, Hyanthra?”
Before answering Quainna, Hyanthraʻs eye twinkled with pride at how Quainna was handling this situation. Truly, Conjurer and Tyril were also not letting curiosity about Hyanthra and Darsixʻs secret cloud their judgment. However, she still needed to answer the question about whom Darsix was speaking of. “Darsix does not know her true identity. Among the council, Conjurer and I know of this individual very well.” Conjurerʻs eyes grew wide in the contemplation of who this person could be. Hyanthra continued, “About a year or so after the events of the Day of Illusion, I received an anonymous message from someone who claimed to be living in the Realm Between. This place is supposedly another dimension that cannot be traveled on this plane of reality, but only through the use of technology that she developed.”
Conjurer asked Hyanthra, “This person that we know, would this place and/or her technology be of any use to us? I-I cannot even think of who this could be. Who do we know that would be capable of interdimensional travel?” Instantly, Hyanthra responded, “Her technology was not meant for such use. It happened by accident; the original purpose of the technology was to cloak her home in a field of light that would prevent any damage from occurring. Well, during the Day of Illusion, as she and other users of her technology activated the veiling light fields, that is the moment they all traveled to the Realm Between.”
Tyril politely interrupted, “So this Realm Between, it has an occupying city then? There are others there besides this mysterious figure?” Conjurer looked around, as if he was experiencing arithmetic in the air of Hyanthraʻs room. Hyanthra answered Tyril while looking off into space, “Yes, the Realm Between is a city. They have been thriving since the fall of Xanropa. We have been talking about the possibility of our tree joining their city.” This reveal made Quainna and Tyril gasp and display shock. Conjurer looked at Hyanthra with his wandering mind, and as he began to laugh with tears of happiness, he asked, “So then, these people in the Realm Between survived the Day of Illusion? We did not lose them? Oh, the universe, Hyanthra! Who is this?! Who have you been in contact with?!” Conjurer approached Hyanthra and put his hands on her shoulders and said, “No one here is going to be mad about who you have been talking to, however, it would be a great benefit to talk to her and see about utilizing her mind to help us remove the first vertice! No one has to get hurt!”
Hyanthra looked at Conjurer with concern, “Are you thinking about using her technology to send the first vertice there?” Conjuer stepped back and with a look of disappointment, said, “Oh, never! That was not on my mind one bit. What was on my mind though, was having the Realm Between be a backup plan, in the event that we may get overtaken by the devouring horizon.” Quainna and Tyril both shook their heads in agreement and had nothing more to add to Conjurerʻs thought. A sigh that was distorted by a nervous energy released from Hyanthraʻs mouth, and she turned to Conjurer and asked, “May I give you the coordinates to her, Conjurer? It is of grave importance that her identity is not revealed quite yet.” The rest of the council, again, were surprised by what Hyanthra said. Carefully, Conjurer asked, “W-why must her identity remain secret? Can the whole council here, the three of us, not keep this a matter between us? From my understanding of Quainna and Tyril, they appear to be as close to being your confidants as much as I would, would you not agree?”
Both Quainna and Tyril gave Conjurer looks of gratitude and respect as he attempted to reel out the secret that plagued the council. Hyanthra was struggling internally, and the silence that filled the chamber made it more and more apparent as it drew out. Finally, Hyanthra got up and walked about the floor. She checked to make sure the elevator was not in use, and then she walked around the floor to confirm if there was anyone else around. After confirming that the council was alone, Hyanthra motioned for them to huddle up so that she could be as discreet with them as possible. Tyril, Quainna, and Conjurer all got together around Hyantra, and as soon as they were huddled together, Hyanthra said, “Alright, firstly, I am sorry for not releasing this information sooner. Given that we have the threat that is the devouring horizon, we donʻt have time for any dramatics.” The council noticed a tear fall down Hyanthraʻs cheek; whatever she was about to disclose to the council made her appear to have tremendous guilt. Hyanthra took a deep breathe, wiped her tear away, and continued, “I am going to get to it, the person I am talking about is Lyndria.” Conjurerʻs mouth fell open as Tyril and Quainna both jumped straight as if Hyanthraʻs words pushed them upright. Hyanthraʻs hands went up into the air directed at the group. Without speaking she motioned for them to settle down and allow her to continue to speak. The council was not prepared for such surprising information to be disclosed.
“Lyndria and many civilians of the third vertice accidentally traveled to the Realm Between. She had developed a technology that was meant for protective cloaking, but for some reason that Lyndria still does not know, it sent them to where they now live. The reason I had not said anything to anyone about Lyndria or the Realm Between is that, much like us, they have been busy forming a society with each other. Grieving what was lost, and acknowledging all that was now their new home. There was no way that we could have accomplished anything, for we both had many people to take care of. We have only now, in the last couple of years, have been communicating more seriously, and upon reading one of Lyndriaʻs messages, Darsix had discovered everything.” Conjurer interupted, “Did she send you video messages, or only written materials?”
“It has been a mixture of videos, audio recordings, and written texts.” The council did not know how to proceed with the huddle, but they were now owners of a very important and amazing secret.