Free Web NovelChapter 738: Path II
In The Cornwall Observable Existence, in a domain known as Bangor.
Achilles did not know where Taylor of The Light had ended up. Sir William had sent them both into the same trial, but the obsidian stone had apparently sorted them to different places afterward, and he had not sensed her since. He set the matter aside.
She struck him as the kind of being who landed on her feet regardless of where she was dropped, and besides, Morrigaur kept him too busy to dwell on it.
The crow showed him Bangor.
It took him through the districts with the proprietary enthusiasm of something that had lived in a place long enough to have opinions about every part of it, gliding ahead of him through the elevated walkways while he kept pace below.
They passed markets where Attendants traded resources he did not recognize, training grounds where beings practiced capabilities that bent the existence around them, quiet groves between the towers where lifeforms sat in contemplation that pressed against the surrounding space with the weight of their power even at rest.
Everywhere they went, the minimum was THE Third Scale.
He had grown used to thinking of Third Scale beings as rare and significant. Here they were the baseline, the ordinary residents of an ordinary district, and the recalibration that required said more about where he had arrived than anything Morrigaur narrated along the way.
Eventually, after Achilles mentioned that he would rather take on exploration or information-gathering work than attach himself to a Sword of Existence directly, Morrigaur brought him to a stop before a massive tower.
"This is where you want to be, then."
The crow settled onto a perch beside the entrance, its crimson eyes bright with the pleasure of someone about to show off something they considered impressive.
"Attendants who do not want a Sword to follow come here. The tower holds the missions, all of them, every task the structure needs handled across the Observable Existences it watches. Information that needs gathering, places that need investigating, disappearances that need explaining. You walk in, you find something that suits you, you take it. Simple as that."
It led him inside. fɾeeweɓnѳveɭ.com
They passed lifeforms in every direction as they entered, and Achilles felt the now-familiar weight of Third Scale power radiating from each of them. Some glanced at him as he passed, a few lingering on the freshness of his Attendant’s mark, most returning to their own concerns without comment. Beings here had seen new Attendants before. One more arriving meant nothing.
Morrigaur brought him into a great hall.
It was full of activity, entities talking to one another in clusters or seated at long tables where conversations he could not follow moved between them in languages and resonances that his perception caught only fragments of. Rows of tall shelves lined the walls, heavy with books and grimoires whose spines carried titles in scripts that shifted when he looked at them directly.
But the most striking thing in the hall sat at the far end.
A massive obsidian wall, flashing with faint light that pulsed across its surface in slow waves. Every now and then a being approached it, placed a hand against it, stood there a moment, and then withdrew with the focused expression of someone who had just received something worth thinking about.
"That," Morrigaur said, following his gaze, "is THE Wall."
Its voice carried the particular relish of someone about to share a mystery they enjoyed being unable to solve.
"Nobody truly knows who places the missions embedded in it. Some say powerful Source Lifeforms post them. Some say the Swords of Existence put forward the work they need supported. Some swear the missions come from THE Primordial Source itself, that the wall is just a surface the Source writes on when it wants something done." The crow ruffled its feathers.
"Who knows. I have been here longer than most and I could not tell you. What I can tell you is that the missions are real, the rewards are real, and the danger is real. Go ahead and check it out. See if there is anything worth your time, if you would rather avoid following a Sword around like a faithful hound."
...!
Achilles walked toward the wall.
He passed beings of the Third Scale on his way, some watching him and most not, and came to stand before the flashing obsidian surface. He put his hand against it.
Information bloomed in his mind, boundless waves of it pouring through the contact, more than he could process at once and organizing itself as it arrived into something he could navigate. Missions, sorted and ranked, each one carrying a difficulty and a description and the faint sense of what completing it would require.
|Available Missions: sorted by Scale of difficulty.|
He filtered to those rated at THE Third Scale of Existence, where his current standing placed him, and let the relevant ones rise to the surface of his awareness.
|Mission: The Vanished Sentinel.|
|An information-gathering task in an Observable Existence where Infinite Lifeforms and Source Lifeforms both maintain a presence. A Source Lifeform stationed there has disappeared without trace. Determine what happened to it and report. Caution advised: the convergence of two powerful lifeform categories in one Observable Existence makes the environment volatile.|
|Mission: The Undefined Crossing.|
|A cluster of four connected Observable Existences has begun producing odd and unknown phenomena within the undefined gaps that join them. Pass through these gaps, document what is occurring, and identify the source if one can be found. Caution advised: undefined space does not behave predictably and standard navigation may fail.|
|Mission: The Dying Shores.|
|An exploration and investigation task on the outer fringes of THE Source Lands, covering regions including THE Radiant Beaches, Rocky Haven, and THE Strand of Broken Scales. Common Source Lifeforms have been dying in larger numbers than natural processes account for. Investigate the cause and report findings.|
...!
His eyes brightened and sharpened on the last one.
THE Source Lands.
The mission offered access to a place that very few beings were permitted to set foot in. From the memories he had taken from the Gilded Ones he had devoured, THE Source Lands were a place that even Gilded Ones wanted access to more than almost anything else in existence, a region tied directly to THE Primordial Source itself!
A mission on its outer fringes would put him there.
It would give him a sanctioned reason to walk in a place his Assimilation Cause had only just begun developing the foundation to approach, the seam in that absolute boundary still fresh from the Pure Primordial Essence he had consumed in the maze.
He would choose this mission!
