76 Wrap Up
"So, where the hell is it?" Aisha asked as she puzzled over a holographic diagram of the Workshop.
The recent addition of the Personal Reality constellation had resulted in certain areas overlapping, to say nothing of rooms expanded using Harry Potter magic or spatial engines. The result was a three-dimensional map that could have been challenging to read at the best of times. The inclusion of multiple types of high energy power conduits leading to an inherently unplottable source didn't help matters.
"It's sort of over there…" I said, gesturing in no direction in particular. Aisha's look of frustration was perfectly matched by Survey as the two of them stared at me. "Look, it's just one of those things. There's definitely a Dyson Sphere-"
"No shit. I can see the power readings." Aisha said. The entire workshop had been 'wired' for power. The qualifier was needed since the assembly didn't just cover electricity. There were conduits for high energy plasma and radiant emissions included. Basically, the full power of a star was at our disposal, and that was a lot of fucking power.
"Full energy transfer, captured with a hundred percent efficiency. Effectively the energy of four million tons of converted matter per second." I checked the precise readings and confirmed them with Survey. "Four point four five three and change."
"Yeah, 'change'." Aisha said. "What's a few hundred tons of converted matter per second really? I mean, it's only what, five? Six orders of magnitude more than total global power consumption? Totally worth treating like a rounding error."
Technically that couldn't be precisely calculated due to various isolationist nations and the unknown utilization of tinker tech projects skewing the figures, but it was the right ballpark.
"I know this is a lot of power…" I said.
"It's a fucking ridiculous amount of power." Aisha replied. "I almost wish I didn't understand exactly how much we were talking about here."
"My powers are multiversal." I explained. "It makes sense that there would be some aspects to them that would be bigger than any single world."
Not that I wasn't shocked by the scale of what had been added to my Workshop. I knew how beyond over the top this kind of thing was. Sure, I could technically work to an infinite scale thanks to Always a Bigger Robot. Spiral energy was technically infinite, and Mantra could actually exceed this amount of power at the higher levels. Even just aggressive mass production of my most powerful generators could have hit this point eventually.
But I hadn't done any of that. There hadn't been a slow buildup of power, or a massive project to give me access to this amount of usable energy. My power had just plonked down a celestial megaproject and wired it into my workshop.
Well, not exactly 'plonked down'. The sphere definitely existed, but it wasn't physically accessible in any way. It wasn't even observable through conventional methods. The power flows could be analyzed, which would have given some hints about the source of the energy, but without my expanded senses I would be playing guessing games.
It was those senses that really served to close the loop and stop me from completely freaking out. The amount of power was staggering, but thanks to my divine senses it wasn't intimidating. It was comforting. I had a star, a celestial object of my very own. I could feel the pulse of fusion reactions within it, feeding into the structure of the Dyson Sphere and channeled into my workshop. It was fire and technology, but more than that it was mine. It was part of my home. A burning light that centered it in the same way Hestia's hearth had.
There were probably implications there, beyond ready access to an amount of energy that outstripped even the loftiest dreams of engineering. I had my own star. I couldn't do anything to it, but I definitely owned it in a fundamental sense. Given the abstract and symbolic aspects of a lot of magic systems, that would probably have some interesting consequences.
The main thing about this upgrade was that it was entirely conventional energy. It was power expressed through a physical medium without any of the little shortcuts or dimensional trickery that my technology used to skirt the laws of conventional physics. I wasn't relying on extra-universal pair collisions, manipulation of the intrinsic properties of matter, or exotic particle physics. This was entirely conventional, meaning it was both more reliable and easier to use.
Kardashev Type II. That was a convenient label to assign to this kind of thing, but not something that was ever intended to actually happen. The threshold for Type II is power generation equaling the total output of a star, not actually capturing the total output of a star. Just like Type I wasn't about capturing all the solar energy that your planet receives. It's kind of important that your planet keeps getting solar energy, just like it's important for your star to not be completely cut off.
Basically, to reach Type I a civilization would need to expand beyond their own planet. Through multiple worlds of power infrastructure and solar collectors eventually the total energy available to the civilization would exceed the amount that their planet receives. Similarly, once a civilization expands past their own solar system, building multiple colonies with their own power generation and harnessing solar energy from multiple stars, eventually that total would exceed the radiant output of a single star. By the time a civilization was building Dyson Spheres or Dyson shells they would be on their way to becoming a Type III civilization.
Essentially, a Type I civilization was supposed to be an established interplanetary presence, Type II established interstellar, and Type III intergalactic. The quantities of power being generated would be spread over all the worlds, colonies, and works of a civilization. I might count as a Type II civilization, but nowhere in a Type II civilization would see the kind of usable power I had at my fingertips. That kind of energy could only be found in Type III civilizations, or ones well on their way to becoming one.
What I had was the total energy resources of an interstellar civilization, only concentrated into a single point, making it more powerful in both the technical, literal, and figurative sense. Aisha being shocked at the amount of energy at our disposal was entirely reasonable. I wasn't even sure what I was supposed to do with this kind of power.
"Yeah, it's multiversal alright." Aisha shook her head. "Do you have any idea what you're going to do with this? What you're supposed to do with this much power?"
I shook my head. "Honestly? No clue. I kind of feel like I should be storing it, but the only mediums that could work on that scale would be antimatter or energon, and we'd be looking at billions of tons per day, minimum. Also, the flow is constant, so there's not much point saving it up unless we'll need even more power at some point in the future."
"I can't really see that happening." She said, "Of course, I didn't see you suddenly getting your own Dyson Sphere, so I guess anything's possible." She checked the diagrams again. "This is safe right? No buildup or overload or anything?"
"It's safe." I assured her as the Capstone constellation passed by. "Any power that's not used gets dumped… somewhere." My uncertainty on the mechanics wasn't exactly reassuring, but I pressed on. "The Workshop has environmental regulation, so it's not like we need to worry about heat buildup or ventilation. The power is just kind of sitting there for when we need it."
"Energy generation was not a significant obstacle to either current or potential projects." Survey interjected. "While the availability of energy serves to simplify some aspects of upcoming construction, it does not pose any immediate obstacles." She paused, looking between Aisha and myself. "Unless awareness of an underutilized resource would prove to distract from upcoming projects?"
"No, you're right, Survey." She stood slightly straighter at my words. "There's no need to utilize the power being generated, but at the same time, devoting it towards some useful purpose would make it easier to move on to other projects."
Which wasn't an easy task. The scale was just too much. The Dyson Sphere produced more power in a second than the world consumed in thirty years. What the hell did you do with that kind of energy? Even running industrial replicators nonstop wouldn't put a serious dent in the power flow, and that wasn't even getting into the question of what I was supposed to do with the materials being produced.
There was the sound of a heavy footstep and the entire group suddenly turned towards the Matrix. They were still new at emulating body language, having placed it as an extremely low priority, but I could see something that could almost pass for excitement in the seven-foot-tall armored figure.
"I have a suggestion." They said, panning their helmet across the group. Another concession to body language, considering the distributed nature of their nanobot body made the actual direction of their gaze irrelevant.
The pause continued longer than would have normally been appropriate. Through my senses I could feel the complexities of their calculations as the Omega nanite flickered in superposition between clusters of Tier One nanobots.
"Yes, Matrix?" I prompted. "What do you suggest?"
The calculations and analysis abruptly stopped, hypotheticals effectively snapping into place as the Matrix began their presentation.
"With the improvements in efficiency provided by recent abilities, overall power needs are easily met through either miniaturized reactors or projected Atlantean Crystals. Furthermore, the limitations inherent to the power source being connected to the Workshop required power to be consumed on site, stored for later use, or managed through a form of broadcast system. At the moment, only one form of technology remains in a stage of development where large amounts of power may meaningfully contribute towards its deployment." The words were delivered in a flat voice, but the Matrix connected to the Workshop's holographic arrays to convey their point. Specifically, they highlighted the first project they had been involved with, the assembly of Mantic conductors and circuits within the workshop.
"You want to make cores." I said, following their logic. It was more than just the connection to our early work together. Just like Fleet and Survey's affinities with air and lightning, the Matrix's core nanite had been constructed with an elemental affinity for earth. That primarily manifested through structural analysis and sensing of geology, but they had an unquestionable connection to physical structures. That mainly manifested through synergy with their divine craftsmanship, but it also granted a level of awareness and intuition that even Survey couldn't match, something that worked incredibly well with Mantic technology.
There was a slight incline of the helm of the miniature Gun-EZ. "Burstone possesses theoretically infinite power storage capacity, but the instability inherent to any failure conditions renders it unsuitable for use at this scale. Production of Mantic Shards within the time suspension effect of the Noble Phantasm 'Mystic Forge' has enabled wider use of Mantic technology, but it is unlikely that complete Cores can be produced through such methods. A modification to the Workshop's Mantic Circuits could allow the potential refinement of Shards and the formation of Cores."
The calculations and planning were already completed. Mantic energy could be used for any number of applications, but running that system backwards wasn't an easy matter. If not for the storage abilities of Burstone it wouldn't have been feasible on any level. The proposal involved turning solar energy into Mantic energy using an array of Burstone, then running the existing Mantic circuits backward, charging the shards rather than draining them.
Theoretically, it could eventually lead to the formation of Cores. Theoretically, because practically nobody would ever try this. Even with the advantages of my powers it was massively inefficient. Without my powers it would have been like trying to charge a laptop battery with static from a balloon. Technically possible, but basically a joke.
This wasn't a joke. The circuit would be operating at a staggering loss, but not nearly as staggering as the amount of power flowing into it. Still, even fully charged, with as much power as we could push through the system, it wasn't going to be churning out cores like an assembly line. True cores took centuries to form under precise Mantic and alchemical conditions. Even with an effectively unlimited charging array, it was still going to take days.
But that was a limit of the process, not the power. You couldn't bake a cake twice as fast by doubling the temperature, but with a big enough oven you could bake two cakes at once. Or ten, Or two hundred. Or several thousand. Frankly, I couldn't be sure how many Cores we'd be able to start charging until I saw the system in place. This was a new application of Mantic technology. A project as innovative as the photonic computing system.
And it had come entirely from the Matrix, an extension of the first project they had worked on, now expanded through comprehensive tinker knowledge, technology from a dozen worlds, and an expression of divine smithing ability. Even if this wasn't the only practical application suggested for this scale of power, I wasn't going to shoot their plan down.
"That's a great idea." I said. There was a slight shift in the configuration of the Matrix's body in response to the praise. "We can start putting the modifications in place immediately. Please alert me if you require any specific assistance with aspects of the systems."
"I will endeavor to do so." They replied. "Bulk modifications can be carried out in the following areas, but the highlighted conductors and connection sites would benefit from the direct attention by you or one of your duplicates."
"Hey?" Aisha asked. "I know we haven't covered too much of that Mantic stuff, but what was that thing about instability in Burstone?"
Survey stepped forward before I could answer, projecting a set of displays outlining the properties of Burstone.
"Burstone is a material inherent to Mantic technology. The unique composition required alchemical transmutation to produce, but has the potential to emerge naturally in the presence of unfocused Mantic energy." She explained. "Burstone possesses the unique ability to store an effectively unlimited amount of energy, releasing the stored energy at a steady rate proportional to the size of the sample. Specific Mantic principles can moderate the flow, facilitating faster discharge. However, in the event of structural failure, all energy contained within the sample of Burstone is immediately released. Depending on the amount of energy stored, this can be quite destructive."
"Wait," Aisha turned to me. "So, if you hooked this stuff up directly to the Dyson Sphere, or any of your other high-power generators, then you'd basically have batteries that turned to nukes if they got jostled too much?"
"Basically? Yeah." I admitted. "Sort of why I haven't used them like that. I mean, there's a limit on how quickly they can be charged, and anything I make isn't going to be easy to destroy, but yeah, no upper limit on how big the boom could get."
Tybalt craned his head to look at Survey's display screens, then turned to me and meowed a question while miming a firing stance. Expressions of concern were directed towards him from most of the Forge.
"Uh, technically, yes." I said. "The volume of Burstone isn't a factor in how much energy can be stored, so a bullet would work. With that kind of sensitivity, I'd definitely recommend gyrojet or maybe a bolter round, but yeah, a heavily charged Burstone sample could be set to fracture on impact. With enough time energizing it, you could get a bigger explosion than you'd see from a solid antimatter round."
Tybalt seemed happy with the confirmation, and thankfully asked no follow-up questions about the construction of bullets with megaton-plus explosive yields. I would have been shocked, but that wasn't the worst thing possible from Mantic tech. The way Cores interacted with their environment, remembering specific states, it had incredible potential for repair and restoration, but those kinds of forces could just as easily be turned towards calamitous applications.
And I was going to have that power at my fingertips. Honestly, if I didn't already have a running list of ways I could destroy the world it might have been concerning.
"Okay, so that was terrifying on a couple of levels." Aisha said with a smile that wasn't quite forced. She seemed to be rolling with the craziness of the Forge fairly well. "Setting aside concerns over the fact that we'll have planet destroying levels of power flowing through this place, what's next for tonight?"
I took a breath and glanced around. Several times, the entire Celestial Forge team had been called away from their individual projects to review some new development with me. It wasn't like travel within the Workshop was difficult, but it did feel like the erratic aspects of my power were spilling over onto everyone else. Not that they seemed to mind that much. I guess even with everything that we had seen, something like a sudden Dyson Sphere was still a noteworthy occasion.
"We should look to wrap things up. Movie night is coming up, but you should go finish up your training with Tybalt. You too, Tetra." She gave me a nod, causing the glowing fur on her head to shimmer. It was unlikely either Aisha or Tetra would be able to master Chi use in a handful of short sessions, but Tetra already had a firm grounding on the concept and Tybalt was an excellent teacher when it came to combat arts. The master crafted training room also helped, and he knew how to leverage it to its fullest.
"So, more time with the fake water weapons?" She quipped, looking down at Tybalt. He nodded, but meowed back.
"Yeah." I agreed. "I'll take care of that." Aisha looked at me with wide eyes.
"Seriously?" She asked hesitantly.
"With the amount of training you've had you'll need something more than those energy bars." I said. "I'll make something for after the movie."
"Thanks." She glanced to the side for a moment. "I mean, those are good energy bars, really good, but just to check, we're talking super divine food here?" She asked.
I shrugged. "No way around it, really. Normal kind of stopped being an option for me." The Matrix took a step forward. "At least without the Matrix's help." Thankfully they didn't take it as an insult.
Given their quality standards I was a little worried about what they would think of their role as head of production for things that weren't inhumanly beautiful and possessing unnatural qualities and enhanced abilities. Instead, they seemed pleased to have dedicated crafting projects to undertake, and even seemed to have accepted the value of more mundane creations and their place in the world.
Of course, being able to work above that level, rather than being restricted to it may have helped with their acceptance. The Matrix's best work was divine craftsmanship using mythical metals. With that established, any lesser project was framed as being a deliberate decision, rather than evidence of some limitation.
"Right." She said as I felt the Magic constellation pass by. There was a gleam in her eyes as she turned towards Tetra and Tybalt. "So, is this a cool down, or a final blitz?"
Tybalt sniffed at her mention of a cooldown and led both of them off, expositing on the amount of training he was going to ensure they completed before the end of the day. Given that training was still focused on magical martial arts practice and would be followed by a movie in the computer core and the most nourishing dinner I could make, Aisha didn't seem to mind his drill sergeant attitude.
"I will depart to begin work on the modifications to the Workshop's Mantic Network." The Matrix stated. Without waiting for a response, the nanobots making up their form collapsed into a golden liquid that flowed through the floor of volcanic rock like it wasn't there. My own senses could detect their progress through the workshop as they dispersed and began work on their proposal.
If you only saw the Matrix in their composite form it was easy to forget their true nature. Less a single being and more a composite of trillions upon trillions of discrete machines, each with the barest fragment of the code that composed their full being. The condensed form was a combination of a concession to interpersonal interaction and affection for their first full deployment, but they were as comfortable spread throughout the structure of the Workshop as they were holding any specific form.
The speed at which they could suffuse a physical structure was one of the prime reasons they were such a powerful force. Even if they weren't replicating exponentially, they could still turn an entire city block inside out with basically no effort.
They hadn't had a chance to demonstrate that, and it was probably for the best. Online assessments seemed to place them as a tinker, changer, or possible Case 53. I doubted anyone would look at the Matrix's specific expression of abilities and immediately jump to assumptions about nanotechnology, but I did know how they would react if they found out. Like with all of the S-class threats in the Forge, it was best to keep that quiet until the right moment.
I turned to some of the other S-class threats on the team. Okay, that assessment was probably generous in Garment's case unless she got particularly creative with Dust weaving or the use of impossible colors. Actually, that was something we needed to address.
"So," I said to Garment. "Now that it's safe, I think I owe you a proper tour of the Prismatic Laboratory."
Garment actually bounced with excitement at my words, causing her gown to swirl around her dramatically. She frantically gestured that she had been preparing for this and had a range of designs and proposals ready, indicating towards her workshop with emphasis that she would have them ready soon.
Survey nodded. While she hadn't managed a true translation of the language of fashion, her work with Garment had allowed her to discern the general meaning of what was being conveyed.
"I will accompany Garment, as there are some final details for the charity event that require approval." She said, nodding to me.
Garment seemed torn between preparing for the event and finally having open access to the Prismatic Laboratory. Still, she reined in her enthusiasm and indicated to Survey that she would be happy to do anything she could to help facilitate the event.
"Are you sure there isn't anything I can help with?" I asked.
Survey shook her head. "Your duplicates' assistance with early-stage logistics and coordination efforts has addressed all current concerns." She formed a holographic clipboard in her hands in the same style she used when she acted through her old holographic avatar. Despite having every piece of data readily available, the details of the event were actually outlined on the clipboard in bullet points. Honestly, I found the display rather endearing, and she smiled at my reaction. "Given the short notice and limited options for on-site revenue streams, a primary focus is being placed on public donations, leveraging Garment's online profile and the press coverage of the auction. Additionally, as a cross-promotion, the channel Boundless Music has released a long-form version of 'Garment's Theme' for download, with proceeds fully contributed to relief agencies. I have seen to all legal concerns over the work, and initial reception is quite positive, with several inquiries regarding potential collaborations or the possibility of a full album."
"That's excellent." I said. The music channel was a neat idea, particularly by the standards of what my duplicates got up to in their 20% time. As I understood it, most of the effort around the channel was devoted to keeping things within believable human limits. Considering Unnatural Skill with music could spill over into legitimately supernatural expressions, particularly when paired with other divine abilities, that was more of a challenge than you would expect. For instance, trying to play anything by Paganini without setting half the room on fire. "If it's successful we can look into expanding it, maybe release some extra tracks for the event itself."
"I will keep you apprised of any developments." Survey assured me before following an overeager Garment out to her workshop. Frankly, I wasn't expecting much, not this short of notice and not for a channel as young as what my duplicates had thrown together. Still, every little bit helped. You just had to remember the people actually working on the streets and with the survivors of the attacks to see that.
I was left with Fleet and a short delay before I needed to meet Garment. It gave me a chance to follow up with something I'd been meaning to fit into the packed day.
"So, Fleet," I asked. "How is Ion doing?"
Fleet's report was nowhere near as comprehensive as Survey's would have been, mostly amounting to some status updates and a recommendation for me to speak with her myself. That was mostly my intention anyway, so I took the opportunity to flicker out of the hallway and teleport to the Titan Hangar.
I stood before the six-meter form of the Ion Titan as it rested in its docking bay. Fleet had run her through a range of exercises and environments over the past day, and she was currently processing the data she had acquired. The combat A.I. was basic, but worked tirelessly to both prepare for future conflicts and improve itself with the resources available.
The central eye of the Titan flared with blue light as the entire structure came to life and oriented on me. "Commander." Her voice thundered through the room as the titan shifted to a more formal posture, hefting her rifle to the ready.
"Titan Ion." I replied, then added "At ease." The robot's stance relaxed slightly, but I could feel internal processes spin up to readiness.
There were only a handful of unique technologies involved in Titan operation, but they had some fascinating potential. If I had received this power sooner the standout would probably have been the extremely robust reactors or nano-assemblers. As it stood, phasing and spatial technology were the main areas of focus for reverse engineering.
My divine awareness gave me a direct line to the internal processes of the Titan. It was something quite close to mind reading, but Ion consistently regarded it as an asset rather than any invasion. As a Titan she still thought of herself as a disposable battle asset, something that was a consequence of her basic programming.
But not quite as basic as it had been.
"I note you are operating a new set of algorithms in your battle assessments." I said, trying not to seem intrusive. Not that she would have minded in the least.
"Thank you, Commander." She replied. "The Fleet Intelligence has been of great assistance in the refinement of my coding structures. He was able to offer advice based on his own iterative development. He noted that the Survey intelligence neglected to preserve comprehensive records of her earlier iteration methodology, and would be of limited assistance to programs at my level of complexity."
That was a nice way of putting it. Fleet, as a result of maintaining semi-independent drones, had maintained versions of his program at varying levels of development. Survey was much more centralized and chose to either overwrite or modify her code with each improvement cycle. It wasn't that she lacked a record of her earlier development, she was just far more divorced from those methods of computation.
Which was why it was such a challenge to trim down the code for the purposes of data transfer and backwards compatibility.
"I'm glad he was able to help." I said.
"It has proved highly beneficial in mitigating the deficiencies in my processing methodology. With increasingly aggressive revisions I hope to be able to meaningfully contribute towards the operational objectives of the unit." She stated with complete sincerity. I could tell she meant it, and probably could have even without the insight of my divine senses.
"Ion, I never believed you to be 'deficient'." I said clearly.
"I appreciate the sentimental intention of your statement, but the Fleet Intelligence has provided an assessment of the combat capabilities and resources of the operational members of your forces. Tactically speaking, I am deficient. Even with a complete refit and rebuild it would be more advantageous for my chassis to be operated by the Fleet Intelligence, either with his direct control ability or through the use of an installed drone program." She clearly spelled out her thoughts as she looked down on me. I just shook my head.
"Ion, your value is not limited to your combat ability." There was a slight shift from the Titan. "The Forge has plenty of offensive power. I mean, Tybalt alone…" I trailed off for a second before I caught myself. "You have value because you are a sapient being."
"I am unsure of your meaning." She stated plainly. Somehow it didn't seem like a philosophical approach would be the most beneficial way to tackle this. After a moment of consideration I came up with another approach.
"Diversity of thought allows greater adaptability in combat." I said. I could feel her acknowledge the statement, but remain silent as I continued. "All members of the Forge have varying approaches to problems and different ways of seeing the world, drawn from their own experiences. Your own experiences and perspectives will provide a unique insight that may prove beneficial. Because of that, it is important that you grow, adapt, and evaluate in your own way."
"I can see the merit in such an approach." She replied. I could tell she still didn't see where she would fit on a team of top tier capes, but she was at least considering the possibilities now.
"That's good. Now, I have another job for you." I continued.
"Commander?" She asked.
"This facility will automatically produce one Titan per day. A Tone Titan is scheduled for assembly in the morning. While Fleet will be available to provide guidance, I am assigning you to oversee all Titans produced in this facility, seeing to their development and integration."
"Commander." Her stance shifted to formality. "I will oversee this duty to my full capabilities."
"Good." I could feel the way the simple directive focused her program. "The time will come for deployment of Titans into the field. I am trusting you to have them prepared for that day. Until then, focus on your development and standby."
"Sir." She said with great formality. I acknowledged her response as the Resources and Durability constellation moved past without a connection. With a thought I teleported out to meet Garment in the Prismatic Laboratory.
Irrigo was beautiful. It was so much more than the pinkish-purple it appeared on camera. The shade was deep and complex, the type of color that drew you in and enticed you. It was the type of color I couldn't believe I would ever forget.
But I had. Every other time I'd seen it, the color had slipped out of my mind the second I looked away. Actually, it was more like the color slipped something from my mind as I looked away from it. That was the frightening thing about these colors. I was protected from their influence on my mind, but that only made the mechanics of their effects all the more apparent.
Garment was completely unmoved by the implications as she flitted around the lab like a kid in a candy store, digging into samples of inks, dyes, fabrics, and lenses without a care for what she was dealing with. I set down the swatch of irrigo silk as I watched her assemble a collection of paints and then begin properly updating the colors in a set of sketches.
Like Garment, I was now unaffected by the influence the colors normally had on the human mind. I could remember irrigo. Violant could be put out of my mind. Cosmogone didn't drag me into memory and I could look at apocyan without feeling my mind sharpen and my anxiety build. Peligin wasn't unfathomably dark, merely opaque, and I could subject myself to viric while staying completely within my senses. Even gant was just a notable absence, but not the clawing end to the mind it had been.
The colors may have been safe to look at, but they were far from being truly safe. It was a fact I was only more acutely aware of now that I could observe them closely without losing my senses. Irrigo drew in and held onto things that shouldn't be able to have been released in the first place. Violant intruded into space as well as memory. Cosmogone spread far more widely than anyone would have imagined, and imagination was a large part of that. Apocyan was far more than just an imagined future. It carried weight with its light. For peligin, viewing it as unfathomable was probably preferential to what I could deduce about its depths. The dreams of viric could take you places you wouldn't want to go, and might not come back from.
And then there was gant. Being able to closely observe the effects of gant on the world ended any illusions about it being 'merely' absence. It showed that a total void was merely the zero point on a scale that extended far, far into the negatives. That you could start with nothing, and then begin to take things away.
None of that mattered to Garment's enthusiastic design work. She eagerly showed me an updated sketch of my costume, peligin outlined in apocyan. Just from a symbolic perspective I could see the effect. Something that would make an impression beyond what any of my style powers could hope to achieve. But also something more.
I could see the applications of my own powers to such a work, now that I could address it without compromising my mind. Just the Arcane Craft would have been enough to channel the effects. The way the depth and weight of peligin would strike my enemies in both a figurative and literal sense. The potential of that design in apocyan when combined with Aura, or Mantra, or Spiral.
And this was just the tip of the iceberg. The barest hints of what this power, and the things it facilitated, was capable of. I turned to the rest of the exhibits of its power.
In the training room my Avid Glove channeled power into Tetra as she worked through her Chi techniques. Something that was both part of me and separate. That was living and inert, animal and mineral, mundane and eldritch. The impossibility of the glove had nearly been overshadowed by the global effect that had accompanied it.
Even before the glove, this power had altered my perspective of the universe. Racks of bottles held misty shapes, occasionally condensing into a faint face before fading out again. There was more activity than there had been, and they were glowing brightly, particularly those that Tybalt had taken responsibility for, but still, I had a wall of bottled souls, and still no plan for what to do with them.
Four bright souls flanked an empty bottle, a testament to the cost of my recovery. The donor soul for their creation was still fainter than the others, but was recovering. Nearly at the level the base souls had been before my arrays had begun strengthening them. Once they could sustain on their own, then I would need to come up with a new plan. Maybe the spiritron computer could handle it. Hopefully, because I had no indication that the devils would stop sending them.
The letters that had accompanied the souls sat stacked on a work table, half dated to my trigger, half from two weeks later. I could read the burning scribbles without fear, both from my divine fire resistance and the benefits of Mental Fortress. It was a language, and an incredibly complex one. I'm not even certain it could function in this world, at least not beyond the level of random plasma discharges. Still, there was something fascinating about the structure of the sigils, something that persisted even with my mind fully protected.
Then there was the other set of letters. The ones from the rubbery men. Barely legible, and packaged with lumps of amber that absorbed and redistributed lifeforce. That carried the potential to reshape living things, not just on the physical level, but with respect to their place in the natural order. I may never have noticed if my duplicates didn't insist on overcharging the amber at the end of every duration. What would normally skim a tiny portion from each handling had been charged into a pulsing nexus of life energy.
It was something I could use. I had no specific training in the arts that shaped creatures, but my skills were broad enough and I had the benefit of both the Arcane Craft and my recent knowledge of Teigu. An art inherent to life and death, reshaping creatures and drawing out their power. It was no wonder it could cross over with the ways of the rubbery men. Something that could provide the extra edge in cracking the science, or improve my work on Tetra by that critical amount.
And all of it echoed to my original trigger. The way the power of the place wormed its way into your mind. The way it treated the essence of life with callous disregard. The way it drew out horrors against nature as a matter of course. It was terrifying, but it was familiar. It was terrifying because it was familiar. I would never have carried this particular flavor of horror, but everything I would have been capable of would have run in direct parallel. A dark room full of insanity and monsters. The future that had been waiting for me with my original trigger.
I felt a gentle hand rest on my shoulder and I turned to find Garment making a concerned gesture towards me. The sketchbook was closed and the paints had been put away. With a concise gesture she made it clear. She understood. Despite the power and potential of this place, she had no desire to forcefully manipulate people.
I watched as she elaborated on her meaning. People came into their reactions naturally, but with a variety of experiences unique to each of them. That was the beautiful thing about art. Even if it's designed to perfectly convey a specific aspect or idea, the viewer's individual experiences become part of the piece. Art has to be seen to be art, and the range of experiences that people take from it is what makes it worth-while. It doesn't matter if it's a sculpture, a piece of architecture, a painting, or a designer outfit. Art, to be true art, had to be experienced, and you couldn't force that experience on people.
Watching Garment exposit on the matter, I understood. More than anything else, this was her element. Not this place, or not just this place, but any place where she could channel, combine, innovate and create. The color of fashion, light coming together from a rainbow to unite into pure white. Gleaming gloves flashed in the darkness as Garment conveyed thoughts she couldn't quite put into words.
It contrasted with the colors of the laboratory, primal aspects of reality stripped away one at a time until less than nothing remained, but even that was meaningless in isolation. It needed to be experienced to exist. The surface level creation Apeiron became famous for and that was largely seen as frivolous, Garment lived with that expression. Form facilitating function, but so much more.
I could recognize what she meant, what she had always meant. But more than that, I could recognize an affinity, the meaning behind the expression. Something that had always been there, but that I had never looked for. To be fair, it wasn't an element I had much experience with, but here, in this place, with this expression, I could see it.
I had to wonder, had Garment known? She knew my powers as well as I did, possibly better in some cases. Had she been waiting since Saturday night for me to put the pieces together? Or had she only realized the potential at the same time as me?
I reached out and took her gloves in my hands. "Garment, are you alright with this?" There was emphatic agreement from her. I smiled, then focused as I drew on my power.
There is power in all things. Infusionist had made me realize that. The ability to draw out more than anyone would believe possible, call forth power from even the most basic of constructions, and empower weapons beyond the limits of mortal work. To unlock an element.
The power worked on any weapon, and Garment was much more than a mere weapon. I could feel the power within her gloves, the core of her being. The ethereal nature of her existence seemed completely at home within the impossibility of the laboratory, and the expression of her true self, her intentions, meaning, and philosophy, all aligning with the prismatic environment that surrounded us.
Garment was light. Conceptually, metaphorically, and, once I was done, to a certain extent, literally. Her gloves blazed like a pure white star, sending the laboratory into sharp relief and casting light through lenses, vials, and fabrics. At once the laboratory was full of color, refracted and reflected from samples of the most dangerous substances on the planet, all now bent to Garment's will.
Clearly anyone who doubted the power of light as an element didn't have access to a Prismatic Laboratory.
With the initial display settled the light dimmed. Rather than any bold displays, searing rays, blinding glows, or other shows of power the effect was subdued. Garment looked as if she was professionally lit. Just enough to make her dress and figure stand out clearly without contrasting with the environment.
The items I created with Infusionist were powerful. Garment could do so much more than just control her light level, but it seemed like a good place to start. Where she went from here, I could only guess.
Though I had a feeling the Prismatic Laboratory would be a part of it.
"Okay, I think we're done for now." I said. "Ready for the movie?"
"What the hell is this?" Aisha asked as we entered the digital environment. In place of the usual theater a classroom had been prepared, with Survey standing at the front.
"In accordance with my selection, I have prepared supplemental material to assist with appreciation and comprehension of tonight's film." She said crisply as material began filling in on the blackboard. "Advancements in cognitive acceleration allow additional preparation without exceeding the window of real time allocated for the viewing." She explained.
I had wondered what Survey would pick when she finally won the roll. I hadn't expected this, or the clear signs of my duplicates' work in assisting with her preparations and building the lesson plan. I had no idea how many iterations ago it had been, but I had the feeling they had a good laugh at the expense of people they were never going to have to answer to.
Aisha squinted at the board. "What language is that?" She asked as the Vehicles constellation missed a connection.
"Swedish." Survey said. "Tonight's film is Det sjunde inseglet, or The Seventh Seal. Produced in 1957, it is regarded as a seminal work of cinema. In order to assist in experiencing the work in its most authentic form, Apeiron's duplicates have compiled a brief course in conversational Swedish."
"How brief?" I asked.
She excitedly responded. "With a focus on the vocabulary and dialect of the film, in addition to certain essential cultural and historic points, the essential components can be covered with one hundred and fifty minutes, though additional time would allow additional syntax instruction in the language. Extending preparations to eight hours would allow…"
"One hundred and fifty minutes." I said, as the most reasonable compromise between the offended parties. Considering Garment didn't care, Fleet and the Matrix had built-in translation, and Tetra could memorize vocabulary at speeds rivaling most computers, this was mostly down to Tybalt and Aisha. Tybalt would happily sleep through the class and movie, but I could see the dread building on Aisha's face. A pleading look from me was enough to get her to at least tolerate Survey for the moment, though I didn't know how well that would last once the black and white foreign film started up. "Then the movie. No longer."
"Excellent." Survey said happily. "Then, let us begin."
(Author's Note: No successful rolls this chapter, but 400 points banked. A shorter chapter to close out the night. There will be an interlude next week, followed by picking things up with Joe the next morning in-story.)
