[X] Keep going as you are.
--[X] Investigate the lone presence.
Breaking off your pursuit of the Adeskan girl, you and Sochie instead head further into the forest. Homing in on the lone presence, the two of you find yourselves standing outside of a tunnel hidden underneath the roots of a tree. It is clearly manmade, and definitively Adeskan, though the roof has collapsed in places.
Sochie spots light at the end of the tunnel as you are making your way through the rubble. The lone presence is close, so you peek out from behind cover into the room where it is lying in wait.
Within the innermost chamber, amidst several torches and braziers, there sits a man.
From what you can see he is easily Corin's size, perhaps even larger, but his reclining position and the cloak he wears makes it hard to be certain. His Pressure is about as dense as Dianna, Corin and Arisa's, but not quite as much as the Lieutenant's.
Said Pressure also indicates that he suspects the presence of someone else, so you decide to step forward. Sochie follows your lead, and as such the two of you stand together before him.
He doesn't say anything, and his Pressure indicates that he has no desire to, so you place it upon yourself to start the conversation. "Who are you?"
"I am the king of Adeska, Quoatl." He answers with little emotion. His Pressure, on the other hand, is calmly flowing with worry, weariness, and resignation.
You and Sochie exchange glances and burst of Pressure before she speaks, not just because he is telling the truth, but also because both of you can sense the girl coming towards you. "If you're the king, then what are you doing here?"
King Quoatl's expression does not change. "I am awaiting my death."
You blink. "For what reason?"
He sighs deeply. "Since the night of the summer solstice, the people of Adeska have suffered from a shared dream every few weeks. A dream of two white devils with the wings of butterflies. We were powerless to stand against them."
Summer solstice…that would mean that they have been having this shared dream since the White Doll tore itself from the ground during the initial Dianna Counter invasion. And the two 'white devils with butterfly wings'…the White Doll bears the moniker despite being light green, and assuming it and its sister unit look alike…
Could it be a Memory Relationship? A collective memory of the Turn Units and their final battle above Adeska, awoken along with the White Doll? You will have to ask Vestige.
"Get away from him!"
Oh right, her.
"Your Majesty, that white-haired man is none other than the messenger of one of the White Devils, here to take the Branch of Ades!" She declares, her finger pointed straight at you.
"What!?" And the king believes her. Great.
She tries to shoot you with an arrow, but a quick application of precognition, clairvoyance and telekinesis stops it cold. The rasp of steel behind you convinces you to make a snap decision and telekinetically yank her long dagger out of its sheath, bringing it to you.
King Quoatl remains seated when you turn around, but his sword has been drawn partway as he observes you with narrowed eyes and deep suspicion. You charge. He is the enemy leader and you cannot wait to crush him like an insect-
"Mayalito, don't interfere!" The king of Adeska meets you with a rising counterattack, stopping you from thinking too hard as you snap out of the red, visceral haze that started to descend upon your senses. After a quick series of blows you and the king disengage from each other, taking a moment to size each other up before you rush in again.
The dagger is bigger than the knives you used in basic training, and King Quoatl has the advantage in experience and range, but you are stronger and faster than him. An ugly part of you sings when his Pressure radiates shock at your slight frame overpowering his, but you force it down in time to keep yourself from shoving your borrowed dagger into one of the eye holes in his mask.
The hesitation costs you, for it gives him the opening he needs to strike at your exposed side, but you recover by telekinetically slamming him backwards into a wall. Not hard enough to do more than stun him for a moment, but that is all you need to bring your blade to bear with the point tickling the underside of his chin.
"Please listen." You plead. "We need your help."
King Quoatl's eyes lock onto yours. "My help?"
You nod. "Me and the people with me need to go to space, and that reason we must reach Manupitch."
It takes some cajoling, as well as a promise to 'control the White Devil to protect the Ades World Tree', but eventually he agrees to have his retainer, the girl you and Sochie were pursuing, lead you to Manupitch. Apparently, her name is Mayalito.
*
The plan is to meet up with the king and Mayalito in a few hours, whereupon they will take you through a secret waterway. Your powers tell you that they are being honest with you, so it is just a matter of reporting back to Lord Guin. He is less than enthused about the plan, he seems to have wanted to use the recently restored beam cannons on the Borjarnaught to simply blast his way through the mountains, but he gives you his permission as long as you take some extra people with you. Said people being Joseph, Sid, and one of Gavane's men. You think his name is Ames.
You do not have that many preparations to make yourself, so you need to occupy yourself somehow…
[] Go ask Vestige about the dream King Quoatl told you about, and maybe your unwelcome impulses too.
[] Joseph seems troubled, maybe he could use someone to talk to.
[] Sochie is worried about something.
[] Lord Guin is staring at the mountains surrounding Manupitch, deep in thought.
[X] Go ask Vestige about the dream King Quoatl told you about, and maybe your unwelcome impulses too.
Vestige mulls on what you tell them about King Quoatl's dream.
I think it is just a Memory Relationship. Gidae and I did pass through the area at some point during our battle, completely wrecked the space elevator too.
Space elevator? "I thought there was supposed to be a mass driver here?"
Both, actually. It was a mixed ground-to-orbit complex, courtesy of the Andes Company, a megacorporation whose main thing was mass drivers, orbital elevators, and orbital infrastructure in general.
Wait…
Andes Company…AndesCo…Adeska…
I swear these people become stupider with every cycle I encounter them in.
You are not touching that one, so you instead ask about that unwelcome need to rend the king of Adeska limb from limb that overtook you. Vestige finds your explanation lacking, so you let the Psychoframe Ghost scan your memory of the event.
Oh, that. Do not worry about it. Going through some Bloodrage is perfectly normal, though seeing how old you are it should be easy for you to shake it off.
"Bloodrage? That doesn't sound good."
Vestige shrugs.
It is an effect of a hormone released with First Human adrenaline. The body starts production during puberty, and during that time the kid in question is particularly susceptible. After puberty it just serves to keep you focused and motivated to fight, but I suppose your body's lack of exposure to it has made it affect you harder than it should. Had you been younger I would have considered adding some hormone blockers to your nanotherapy, but we do not have to worry about that.
"Really?"
Really. At most you might find yourself a little more eager for casual violence than before.
"That's good, but…" You say, thinking of the odd ways of the First Humans. "Why haven't you mentioned this before?"
Eh…In my defense, Kreis' puberty was more than a million years ago. And you are postpubescent, so I must have subconsciously thought that it was not going to be an issue. Had I though it would be I would have given you those hormone blockers I mentioned to keep you combat effective.
And before you even ask, going into a Bloodrage impairs your spatial awareness and connection with the group Chorus, so in Kreis' time it was usual to bar position in the military to those younger than sixteen.
The history lesson is interesting, but it is time to go, and you doubt that you can fit the White Doll into the secret waterway.
*
Fitting King Quoatl, Mayalito, Joseph, Sid, Ames, Sochie, and finally yourself into the tiny boat they provide is something of ordeal, but you make do.
"These tunnels look like some kind of natural canal." Says Sid as you enter the waterways proper, your path lit only by a small lantern hanging from the boat's bow.
"Correct. These waterways were made by the roots of the World Tree." Rumbles the king. If Vestige is right, then these tunnels were probably intended for trains, but you feel no need to correct him.
"I suppose a world tree would have roots this big." Muses Joseph, who is somewhat focused on Mayalito. You would be worried, but you have sensed a second presence in his room on the Borjarnaught, so you're not, just a little curious.
Before long you reach a dead end, which Mayalito quickly reveals to be a water elevator. As you ascend to the higher tunnels Quoatl shares the legends of the Adeskan people with you. "The world was formed thanks to the World Tree which connected the worlds of the land and the sky. We of Adeska lived with the goddess of the Earth at the tree's base, but everything changed on that night in which the sky burned red."
He points to an elaborate carving near the ceiling. Illuminated by the moonlight, you see a portrayal of people and giants at the base of a great tree, above which there is two winged giants fighting each other.
"With the World Tree at the center, two White Devils did battle against each other. The giants of the Sky and the giants of the Land met to defeat them, but met their doom at the hands of those terrible monsters. The Earth became covered in filth and disease as the Devils spread their poison across the sky. To protect the Earth, our ancestors cut down the World Tree, severing the bridge between Earth and Sky in order to banish the Devils. At that point, a single branch bounced and leapt up into the Sky."
The occupants of the boat are listening with varying degrees of interest, but personally you are trying to decipher what actually happened from what the Adeskan legend tells you. King Quoatl appears to notice none of this, for he continues unabated.
"The Earth and the Goddess were revived, and we Adeskans dedicated ourselves to prevent another disaster from befalling the Ades Branch, which now resides in the Sky, and to ensure that it will not summon another horror to the Earth. However, the legend states that the White Devils will one day eventually return to take away the Ades Branch."
By the time the King has finished his story the boat has reached the top and been navigated to a stone pier. Mayalito secures it to the pier with her hook-on-a-stick, but the approach of some hostile and noisy presences has the king order her to take you down the 'rapids'. After a bumpy and somewhat uncomfortable ride that knocks Sochie down into the bottom of the boat, you find yourself in a calm area.
Where a whole lot of Adeskan soldiers are lying in wait for you.
"Hold fire!" You order as you stand up, creating a telekinetic barrier to stop the arrows the Adeskans shoot at you. Even on foot you are strong enough to stop a shot from a mobile suit weapon with your barrier, a handful of arrows from the front is nothing.
"Magic-!" Gasps a pale Ames, his gloved hand tightening on his drawn gun.
King Quoatl keeps his cool and has Mayalito stake the boat down a side tunnel while you telekinetically knock over the braziers lighting the room, showering the Adeskans in hot coals.
The panic caused by 'magic' and small stinging burns is enough of a distraction that you make your escape without issue. After the boat has made a lot of turns through a canal system that is only mapped out in Quoatl's head, you eventually disembark on another stone pier and leave the tunnels entirely.
"There are a lot of people up ahead." You warn the king as you sneak through an otherwise abandoned section of the city.
"Then we have no choice." He answers and rushes out of cover before you can stop him.
You might not technically be in all that much danger, but that is still a lot of Adeskans.
King Quoatl takes a moment to survey the soldiers before he looks to a man dressed in blue. "Has our power struggle come to this, Taruka?!"
'Taruka' doesn't answer, prompting Quoatl to continue. "What, have you forgotten how to talk?"
"Drop your weapons if you want to live." Snaps the blue clad man, Adeskan soldiers closing in with a wave of his hand. Apparently he hasn't forgotten.
"Taruka," Says Quoatl, his tone even as he ignores the swords and spears leveled at him. "I brought these people here so that-"
"A king who fled has no right to speak here." Taruka interrupts as he sits down upon a stone slab. He is about to say more when the boy who was with Mayalito when she was observing the White Doll rushes in to point straight at you.
"Taruka! That man is a messenger of the White Devil!"
Oh goodie, you muse as Mayalito chews the boy out for his 'betrayal'. Taruka is dismissive of both, however. "Quoatl, we who guard the Ades Branch cannot allow one of the White Devils to enter this city!"
Quoatl tries to get a word in. "Even after that dream we shared-"
But Taruka wants none of it. "Take them away!"
You and Sochie look to each other. How do you proceed…
On some level it stings your pride to let Taruka's men take your weapons and lead you away as if they have the upper hand, but you push down the part of you that want to break them like toothpicks and keep walking. Taruka leads the procession down into another set of tunnels that span deep into the mountain until he reaches an area with cells.
His men proceed to herd you into one of them, but he stops them when it is your turn. "Wait."
You meet his gaze, idly wondering what he wants. Is it about Quoatl? The dream? Or perhaps the White Doll?
"My men tell me that you can use powerful magic to stop arrows and control fire." His voice is even, but his Pressure is skeptical.
"But you do not believe them." You finish for him, causing his eyes to widen momentarily before his calm mask snaps back into place.
The soldiers level their spears at you, but you are unconcerned. None of them are planning to attack without Taruka's order, and if they did you are more than capable of handling them.
Taruka's eyes narrow, but instead of speaking further he simply has his men shove you into the cell.
Sochie catches you as best she can with her hands tied behind her back before you have a chance to fall, steadying you as the Adeskans lock the door behind you.
"Taruka."
King Quoatl's voice stops the younger man in his tracks.
"The White Devil has come, but our legend ends at this point. Even if the sky burns red, there is a way for the end of the world to be averted. The young man bound to the White Devil has assured me of such."
You suppose the things you have said could be construed in such a fashion, but Quoatl's words fail to make an impact in Taruka and he stalks off. With little else to do, you and Sochie sit against a wall together, taking in the free entertainment that is Joseph bickering with Mayalito. Their 'debate' jumps from all kinds of subjects such as persecution within the different Adeskan tribes and the Adeskan treatment of unwanted children, and now it has become rather personal:
"If Quoatl is such a great king," Demands Joseph as if the man he is talking about is not right beside him. "Then why have the people of Adeska turned against him?"
"Adeskan troubles are for Adeska alone." Mayalito not quite snaps in response. The two of them seem about to argue further, but dozen or so Adeskan soldiers interrupt them. Quoatl is the first to be dragged out of the cell, but the rest of you are not far behind.
You are taken to a plaza before a great pyramid, atop which Taruka stands.
The soldiers take the King and throw him to the ground before the pyramid steps before they cut away his bonds and place a sword before him. One of Taruka's henchmen stands beside Quoatl, denouncing him at the top of his lungs and beseeching Taruka to kill him and become king.
"King Quoatl." Taruka shouts from the pyramid's zenith. "If you refuse to face me in this duel, I will behead these outsiders one by one and throw their bodies into the waterway!"
As if on que one of the soldiers grab you and lead you forward to where a mustachioed headsman awaits. They try to throw you to the ground, but a quick application of telekinesis softens your landing considerably. The display makes some of the soldiers closest to you shy away in fear, but the headsman is only slightly moved. You can only assume he is calling upon his experience and habits to steady himself.
Whatever the case, you have had quite enough of this.