It had taken meeting other members of the galactic community, such as it existed, for humanity to truly realise how gifted your race was where the Secrets were concerned. To wield the Fifth and Sixth before even the first Tribute Cycle returned hadn't been without precedent, but it had still been a shock. Unravelling the truth of the Third Secret in so few years had been another, though the reaction to that was probably only just beginning to propagate across your allies.
You'd not thought much of it at the time, given the help of the Luminary in providing a functional Emitter to support Arcadia's research efforts. Now, though, you wondered why. The Fifth and Sixth's discovery had been built upon decades of steady process in their relevant fields, spurred on by the examples of Practice. But the Third…there'd been no great investment of time, nor effort, into that field. Not since long abandoned experiments of the mid-21st century.
There'd been the example of an Emitter, true, but part of the process of discovering the Third Secret had been taking that knowledge and going all the way back to first principles. A process that, from the records later transferred by your now-allies, should have taken most of a century, at minimum. Against that record, Mary had led Arcadia's teams to success in less than ten years. And there, in her, was the singular point of unity in each situation.
And that made you wonder. Your oldest friend had long since grown into the title Daughter of Secrets, the epithet now hers by right. But it had come from her parentage. Her mother and father unlocked the First Secret together, offering humanity the stars and dooming your people to the Week of Sorrows in the same moment. Mary had inherited the fullness of both their genius, but the title remained. And in a world of Practice, where every human could subtly influence the fabric of reality, could that mean something?
Could the very title that had hounded her in her early years have helped create or shape the ascendant genius whose work had more to do with humanity's continued existence than almost anything in post-Sorrows history? It was possible, at least theoretically, but proving its existence was proving challenging. And that was only half the question. Assuming you were right, there'd been a shift since arriving here at the Consolat Origin, from the undeniably swift to something so obvious that it just couldn't be ignored.
"Look," you sighed, rapping your knuckles on the table. The blow rang louder than you'd intended, but it cut the steady hum of competing voices entirely.
You'd commandeered the Magi's conference room for this meeting, despite it being a little big for the affair, and the colourful sprawl that the chamber looked down on was just as beautiful as it'd been a few weeks ago. It was just that none of the four of you present had focus to spare for it right now. Diagrams and formulae were scattered across the air between you, interlinking in some places, fiercely separate in others. And not one of them had given you the answer you were looking for, even after hours of work.
"We can circle this issue as many times as we want to," you went on, cutting through the temporary silence your action had won. "But the fact remains that actually testing what we think is going on here is going to require significant preparation to be safe. We worked that out yesterday."
"I, for one, can already hear the objections to doing any sort of deliberate, complex Practice within this star system, let alone this planet," Mir said. There was a faint strain on his sharp features, a tightness around the eyes that you'd done your best to soothe on the journey to this planet. Faded from that height for now, thankfully, but still potent. "I don't need my Focus to know the sort of argument that's going to cause. And you all know I'm right."
"None of us are gainsaying that," Vega replied, laying a gentle hand on your comrade's shoulder. For all their similar age, the pale-haired Harmonial seemed far older in the moment. "And the possibility of going outsystem for this is worthy of consideration. The problem-"
"Is that we don't know how much time we really have, I know," Mir sighed. From almost anyone else, the words would have been snapped, maybe even harsh. THe worst you got from him was simple resignation to the difficulties of the task at hand. "Four days each way to the Stellar Exclusion Zone, and then whatever time we need to do this."
"Which just brings us back to the question of what you want to do," Mary pointed out, the words more than a little challenging. "I can follow most of what's been suggested here, but…I'm me." Those words had a different feeling to them today, and you weren't sure how much your friend liked that. Something you filed away for now, though, in recognition of the broader issue.
"Oh. Oh goodness," you breathed, shaking your head. "You're right." The 'of course' went without saying, this time.
Mary smiled faintly, her green eyes flickering with gentle amusement. She'd heard the words left unspoken. "So what are you three wanting to do to confirm this hypothesis, Mandy?" She asked. "I assume it will need me, as well."
"That's correct." It took several moments for you to properly arrange your own thoughts, something that only sharpened Mary's point. "Though please understand that I'm…heavily simplifying here."
Your friend's quick nod was all you needed to continue.
"One of the clearest points we can agree on here is that, whatever is going on here, it's incredibly subtle. Enough that if you are the heart of it, Mary, none of us ever noticed. Not during the Metaconcert event, or any time after. Our understanding of the web of Practice between humanity is still quite limited, but something that we've always wondered is how much it's doing without conscious notice."
"So we needed a way to effectively screen out any interference, and make the experimental space as calm as possible." You snapped the fingers of one hand to point at the singular man in the room. "Which is where Mir's Focus becomes critical."
"It's possible that Vega could smooth things out with her Focus," Mir added, shifting a little stiffly under your attention. "But if we're trying to examine this web, Amanda could use the help. And I certainly can't support her there."
"Why not bring Elil in on this, then?" Mary asked. The lines around her eyes crinkled in focus, and a touch of confusion. "He's not busy this cycle, is he?"
"He's not, no," you replied. "But we've been trying to keep Insight Focused away from study of the Practice-links between humanity ever since we realised they were there. Overload avoidance."
Mary winced. "Ah." She didn't need any more explanation than that. Trying to apply the abilities of Insight-Focused to the Secrets had never once ended well for humanity. Practice hadn't been seen as the same, and recent discoveries had shown how true that was, but close enough that no one had wanted to risk it.
The man's Focus could be impossibly valuable in the coming days, and you wouldn't risk him on this. Not when you already had a good idea of what to do. If it didn't work, then maybe you'd have to ask your friend to try something dangerous. You hoped it wouldn't come to that.
Brushing those thoughts aside for now, you went on. "Once Mir calms the space around us, and around you, Mary, Vega and myself will link our senses." Something that was only possible thanks to the seemingly inviolate Harmonic link that bound your Heartcircle together. "The aim is for a half-trance, bringing our mental impressions close enough to the web to properly examine it, but without the risk of any larger energy discharge.
"After that?" You grimaced. "We want to try and examine your presence within humanity's web, kinda like an input/output test. See where it connects, how it does so, and the way in which your soul integrates any energies. It's a poor explanation, as it's so much more than that, but it's all I've got."
Your dark-haired friend's expression softened, her green eyes gentle. "I'm going to guess that any of our scanners won't be detailed enough for this."
You shook your head. "I really doubt it. I've seen their output. It's nothing compared to what I've seen myself, and if you really are some sort of…invisible nexus, I guess? We need that level of analysis. That said, point every single sensor you've got at this anyway. We could be wrong."
"And it could also catch anything the two of you miss," Mary nodded, before glancing at Vega. "Has Mandy gotten it about right?" She asked, grinning. The expression transformed her, brilliant humour stripping away all the tension and fatigue, at least for a moment. Meanwhile you sputtered, your indignant reply mauled to death by laughter.
"Essentially," Vega said smoothly, her own lips quivering. "She missed our risk estimate, but you'd know how she is with those."
"Everyone's a critic." You rolled your eyes, flicking a hand at the air between you to clear the projections. Two different outlines replaced them. "But it leads to the decision we need to make."
"Put simply, there are two options," you explained. "We can prepare the ground here as best we can, something that will take several days at least." In the air, the outlines formed into an image of stars, and an image of the world you were standing on. "Or we can do this on the Adamant, outsystem. Which will take eight days, minimum."
"And the relative risk?" Mary asked.
"There's a valid concern that the nature of this star system might interface with what we want to do in an unexpected fashion." Vega said, leaning forward to rest her elbows on the table. "The problem is that it's impossible to say how that could happen, if it even does. I'm confident that I can handle that sort of harmonisation, but it's something we need to think about."
"And if something…louder happens," you added, humour fleeing from your face. "The Midnight Dreaming has a truly excellent sensor package. The Shiplords will detect any large-scale energy burst that we can't contain."
"Then why are we even considering doing this here?" Mary asked. Or at least began to, the words cutting off in a sound of frustrated realisation. "...it's because of how much faster things have become, now that we're here. Isn't it? You think that if we examine me here, where the effects of what might or might not exist around or within me are so much stronger, it'll be easier to find."
"Yes." There was no point in you denying it. The time pressure had only been part of the issue, and it had come up as a result of this one. "Whatever has allowed our people to do what they've done, it's strengthened here. Now, it's possible that we're entirely wrong about your part in things. But even then, you were still at the head of every discovery of a Secret since the Sorrows. If anyone has been touched by this in a way we can find, it's you."
"And outsystem?"
"Safer, at least in terms of detection if anything goes wrong," you said. Mary twirled two fingers sharply, a hurry-up gesture if you'd ever seen one. "But we're concerned that it'll be harder to pinpoint anything out there."
"Ultimately we feel this should be your choice, Mary," Vega added softly. "It's your soul we're going to be examining here. Where we do it, that should be up to you."
"Even if it risks you missing something?" your friend asked, glancing between the three of you.
"Doing it here could risk far more, if we can't control any rogue outbursts," Mir reminded her. "I don't think that'll happen, but that's no guarantee."
Mary blew out a breath, strands of dark hair dancing for a moment as she shook it. "You really know how to give me a hard one, Mandy." There wasn't any accusation in her voice, thankfully. But you winced, all the same.
"I know," you sighed. "I'm sorry."
"It's okay," she told you a moment later. Pushing herself back from the table, she came to her feet in a single, smooth motion. "You've made plenty of hard decisions. I can handle this one. Though, if you'd be okay helping me a little?"
"Of course," you nodded, already halfway to your feet. She shot you a grateful smile.
"Thanks."
You are presented with two options to investigate what you believe to be going on here. Both will involve Practice, as the mundane tools of humanity are still lacking in this field. Other options might exist, and you're free to suggest them, but these are the ones that are there right now.
[] The risk is worth it. Prepare a space on the Consolat Origin itself to the best of your shared ability, and attempt to unravel the truth here. Just hope you don't get anything wrong, because if you do, there'll be no going back.
[] Too much is still at stake. Go outsystem aboard the Adamant for this investigation. It'll be safer, but it'll also take you away from the source of your accelerated workflow. And cost days of precious time away from the Consolat homeworld. (Will noticeably extend the length of the turn)
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