Crystal Cage 26

The contents of the relatively modest room were easily overlooked for a moment as Orison spied a grand sight out of a wide two-way mirror on the other side. In a huge hanger that rivaled the entirety of space in the underground facility/safe room home, floated two airships suspended in a magical stasis field. From their vantage point inside, Orison and Duran looked out to see that one of the ships was in pristine condition while the smaller one was in moderate disrepair.

A more detailed observation of the smaller one revealed a grizzly sight. On it's deck, nearly a dozen people were in varying degrees of dying or death at the moment when their personal time stopped. A quick glance over the mechanics of the field made it clear that the 'dying' ones only appeared to be possibly saved because even if they had been alive at the time the field sprang up, the field itself had killed them. It wasn't some kind of sleeping beauty styled stasis. It was the magical equivalent of freeze drying and vacuum sealing.

Seeing Duran's hopeful look, Orison said, "None of them are alive. Buuuut, for those that are The Children, we can save two each via re-spawning. We just have to contrive some reason why they need to be questioned related to our official duties. There's not a whole lot we can do about soul fading directly unless we can figure out a reason why they should be compensated by Osomo.

"Before that, we should handle this business and get as much out of our find as we can first. I don't know what's on your countdown clock before suspension but I still have over eight hours. You?"

Duran closed his eyes for a second and then said, "Same."

The young mage cobbled a rough time table together. "We'll work on opening the two hidden safes and collecting all the power sources except the main one for four hours. We'll take a bit of time to comb through the ships and make our decisions about who to save then figure out what we can do about the ships themselves. It's all play by ear after that but we are done with lock breaking after midnight.

"It might seem a bit callous but we are on an invisible clock. I want to be done with finding what Gan's crystal is pointing at before the alarm goes off. OUR very easily seen suspension timer hits at three in the morning. So whatever we decide to do, that's got to be in the back of our minds moving forward."

Duran gave a firm agreement before getting to work on a power cell locker. With a quick message to Gan that they'd be busy until after midnight and possibly bringing up guests sometime afterwards, Orison got to work too. The small handful of hours alloted to their efforts were eaten away quickly and when there were only a few minutes left, Orison took stock of their finds.

The vast majority were power supplies and spare parts for the ships. After what little they kept for themselves and the smaller ship, Orison set provisional owner of the larger vessel to Emris. The reason being that after three in the morning, Osomo blessed monarchs would be the only people in the world who would be authorized to use it.

Out of the pile of First Family devices and relics, absolutely nothing was of any use to them in a practical sense, legal or otherwise. There were just too many restrictions on them. That did nothing to cramp Duran's joy over their discovery, however. They just went to enrich, in whatever mysterious way they could, Duran's 'black hole key'.

The only meaningful discovery that was of any direct value to Orison was a chest of unregistered and incomplete crystal sparks. It had been some time since Orison had seen the purer eternium variety of crystal but as of that moment he had quite the collection of it. There was even five of the super condensed ones that First Family used.

After careful consideration, Orison decided to use the weakest of the five as the core of his space's formation, as it was the only one his space could strip and convert without rupturing. Three of the remaining four would be passed off to Gan, Rithus and Ivan. With Duran having no use for another and the young mage already possessing the one Osomo had gifted him, that left Orison with a grand total of three that would likely take a significant amount of time to fully make his own.

Turning their attention back to the elephant in the room, Duran and Orison bent themselves to the task of determining who would be spared from permanent death out of the passengers of the smaller ship. As they made their way across the deck, Orison mentally marked and told Duran which passengers' souls were still present. Once they were below deck, the cause of death was easily determined.

As silent and emotionless as a grim reaper, Orison moved among the frozen people, ripping the souls and inventory out of every pirate-like individual timelessly caught in the act of murdering and violating their way through the bowels of the vessel. Each new acquisition did little to stir his interest. That changed at the back of the ship.

Orison had no idea how long this ship had been here but it most definitely predated the passing of the First Family. At a guess, it couldn't have been by much, however. The strange discharge of abilities standing motionless in the air were secondarily marked by piles of dust sifting to the floor. On one side, a black orb was caught in the process of discharging an oval or rent space with a tendril of hard to look at substance poking out. On the other, an ancient looking stone sundial cast a golden translucent dome around four women in various stages of disintegrating into dust piles.

Of note, there were two people of interest in the room. The first was a little over seven foot tall blue skinned man who stood before the dome, looking like he was trying to block what was coming with his body alone. The second was a delicate looking hooded figure reaching toward the foot of the blue man, bleeding out on the floor. Whatever protective measure the hooded figure was trying to cast, it was a futile gesture. The emanation off of the tendril had already partially shredded most of the blue man's soul.

Oddly enough, to spirit sight, there was even more going on that was just too difficult to explain. What Orison could make sense of was the presence of a soul whose body was gone but their aura envelope was completely intact as if they were alive. Making his own inspections, Duran walked right through the spiritual entity. The boy shuddered and then looked at Orison in surprise. "Wick is putting someone back together!"

As Duran ran out of the ship with a quick explanation that he needed to get close to the main power supply, the blue man disappeared in a curtain of transporter light. Orison chose the hooded person and the maid that was cowering behind the gold dome. Sadly, the young mage didn't expect that any of their selections would make it through except for the accidentally snagged spirit person. All of the souls that remained on the ship were badly faded or seriously damaged in the blue man's case.

Before leaving the ship himself, Orison leached off the concepts from the border of the rent space oval til it closed, careful not to touch the orb or tendril. The orb was useless but carried trace corruption and the tendril was still owned by something far above his pay grade. Fortunately, closing the oval seemed to automatically send it back.

The trace amount of concept that still remained in the dome and sundial might not have been too appealing for his space but his spiritual bloodline took it in. The trace wasn't much but apparently whatever force that governed his fey heritage recognized the value of seeing even a little as being better than nothing. With one last look to make sure he didn't miss anything, Orison placed a few parts and power cells in it's 'engine room' and set provisional ownership to Mo.

Walking over to the transporter near the main power supply, Orison was surprised to see that both the hooded figure and the blue man had made it through. Not only that, but the hooded figure was even awake with several glass ampules releasing an azure mist around them. The lion's share was absorbed by the hooded person but a few small wafts made it to the blue man's unconscious form.

The young mage's hopes for the hooded figure to be an ethereal beauty were broken in the cruelest way possible. As the figure lowered their hood, it was impossible to deny that they were aesthetically appealing. The problem was that this particular 'beauty' had an adam's apple. The faint presence of kinship Orison felt from his spiritual blood, however, had the young mage kindle optimism of a different kind.

In an irritatingly pleasant to hear alto-tenor, the hooded man said, "I see that there is interrogation protocol set on this transporter circle. I pray that doesn't mean we are prisoners."

Orison said, "No. it's just the only way we had to save anyone from the airship. It's... been sitting here for a very long time. As long as I have your word that you'll do my group and I no harm, I'll take the isolation field on the transporter down."

The pale, silver haired elf said, "I assume that means the lock on Osomo supported abilities will be in place for awhile then."

The young mage shrugged. "I think they stay in place for a default period. It looks like I can clear you and your friend here for ten percent backlogged compensation for service... Done."

The unconscious blue man and the elven man flickered out for a split second.

The elven man looked through his inventory and presumably his messages for a few minutes before packing away a great deal of heavy emotion with practiced ease. "Well, distant cousin, I'm certain that we have many questions for each other. Until such time as we part ways or you attempt to harm us first, I will speak for myself and in assurance of my... associate, to cause no harm to you and yours intentionally."

Giving Gan a heads up that they'd be on their way soon with guests, Orison disconnected the temporal field generator from the main power supply. Moments later, the airships remote opened a hatch above them and were auto piloting themselves to their new provisional owners. Anticipating questions, the young mage messaged Emris and Mo about the sensitive nature of the airships and requested them to 'not look a gift horse in the mouth'.

In front of the stunned elven man, whose name was Pelenel, Duran and Orison dismantled the field generator while Duran 'ate' it. With all the important things done that he was willing to spend time on, Orison logged that the 'questioning' was done which set Pelenel and Gravat, the unconscious blue man, free. With an insistence on taking responsibility, Duran hefted the blue man over his shoulder like an overly long bag of potatoes and they made their way back to the first floor.

When they reached the top, Orison was greeted by a worn out but alert Gan. Freshly bathed and dressed, it was likely that only the young mage could tell that the scout was still a little tipsy. Entertaining Theo to an unconscious state had been quite the trial but Gan wasn't complaining and Orison didn't care for details.

After another round of assurances was given and received, Duran got Gravat laid out before settling himself in and Gan went back to the assistant's quarters next to the master quarters that the scout had subconsciously claimed for Orison. Despite Pelenel's obvious need for sleep, the elven man and Orison seemed to be on the same page. Both of them had too many questions to rest easy.

Seeing that Pelenel was keen on formality, Orison begged off delicate wordplay for less constrained times and requested for rude bluntness instead. "Perhaps that is better. To answer your questions easier, distant cousin, where do you hail from? Aside from that poor family of deer folk captured by the second overlord, there are no greater fey who can claim this world as home truly."

Orison said, "Physically, I come from a place called Amoril. Spiritually, I'm from there and a place called Earth both. Earth is a little third rock from the sun in a remote solar system of the Milky Way galaxy. We haven't reached interstellar travel yet but we're slowly getting there, I think, maybe."

Orison thought to himself, "Being completely candid might not be the smartest move but I need to take some chances if I want answers. Besides, he's family in a sense, and I can tell he's at least a little positively inclined towards me since he's drawn in his glamour and everything."

The young mage took a few minutes to get Pelenel up to date on current affairs and answered a couple of questions about the non-existent state of the First Family as a courtesy after explaining his own situation and then handed it over to the elven man.

"With all the overlords and even the lesser family gone, there's actually more than one way to 'climb' out of Osomo. The only way for a fresh climber with no boundary baptisms to do it would be to pass the rift guardian at the bottom of Glass Pit several days south of Shadow's Reach mountain unless they can get aid from the outside. For those who have been baptized like you and I, we can feel a way to supersede reality. "With no overlords to deny your exit, once your strength of existence reaches a certain threshold, Osomo will no longer bar your way. There are a myriad amount of cheats and shortcuts but I wouldn't suggest taking them. No reality is inherently superior to another for advancement and safety is an illusion. Of course, there's no hard, fast rule to climbing. There are always exceptions.

" As far as being a Danann tribesman goes, I'm afraid that I'm an awakened member much like yourself. I do know that meeting another with the blood will naturally make you more inclined towards them. Similarly, there is a bloodline that will have the opposite effect that belongs to the Fomorian tribe. All that I can verify without possibly leading you astray is that both we and the Formorians are far flung," Pelenel explained.

Orison asked, "What do you know about glamour and spiritual intent? Can you help me understand how to train and control it beyond merely pulling back the reigns?"

The elven man became awkward. "That could take months to get you started and years to satisfactorily comprehend. There are many things that I and my associate must attend to before we'd go our separate ways. Such a commitment is no less than the debt I owe you but there are other, older debts that must be paid first."

Orison pulled out the miniature trainer device he had taken from Construct Three and said, "Would this help? I'm sure there are many parts that can't be taught so simply but I could at least be working on the basics. You know as well as I do that a lot of things can happen in just a couple of days with 'climbers'. I wouldn't want to miss out completely if something kept us from meeting again."

Pelenel frowned as he stared at the small device. "Never mind my view on the shallowness of learning anything other than pure academics in such a fashion. There are dangerous parts in the initial stages of establishment that could maim if not outright kill you without personal guidance or slow and careful procedure."

Orison said, "Are you talking about the establishment of cycles between spiritual, magical and physical reserves? If so, I may have succeeded in that already."

Curious, Pelenel asked, "May I see? I need to make small contact to a special point on your chest and-"

Orison sighed as he pulled his shirt up. "Don't push your intent past the dark spot behind my heart point. I'm pretty sure I can stop it in time but I have very little control of my intent beyond keeping it contained. It might nip at you."

Forewarned, the elven man carefully extended a feeler of spiritual intent into Orison. The young mage noted that Pelenel's method of examination was so smooth it was almost like ice melting into a towel. It also took quite a bit longer. Orison simply figured that the elven man had taken the warning to heart and was proceeding with diligent caution. Skirting around Orison's space and the threshold of the young mage's spiritual seat, Pelenel was professional and thorough without giving the impression of being intrusive or snooping.

Retracting his intent and hand, Pelenel opened his eyes and said, "I think this must be how the cycle of the first ancestors looked. It's crude and filled with inefficiency but more personally attuned, natural and resilient."

The elven man picked up the miniature trainer and felt into it without activating the device. "Nearly a third of this trainer is currently being used. I can fit the basics in it along with some guiding experience. I could have added a few models too but it's already been partitioned once. There's a slice of about a tenth that's locked away here and the memories in these things can become corrupted if you try to put more than two dividing places in them."

Perking up, Orison said, "There's a locked portion? Is there any way to see it?"

The elven man smiled wryly, "How about we handle your glamour and intent exercises first."