Oddities of the Sewers

After Felicie, Theodore brought up another monstrosity that he had encountered during his trip: The pale, bloated creature he ran into while traversing the sewers.

"I have no idea such a thing was down there," Kalman commented. "There's a good chance that it was one of Gesborne's creations. He did have a penchant for messing with living creatures. This could be one of his failures that were dumped into the sewers."

Albatross, while listening in, had her eyebrow knitted tight. A long time ago, she was to be one of Gesborne's experiments too. Perhaps she too could have ended up like that. Salome as well.

Theodore spoke further, describing what he could remember of the creature but there were very few experts within the room and as such, discussion about the creature's true nature did not go very far.

Dropping the subject for the time, Theodore then went into his room and brought out a piece of broken brick, the very same one he used against the bloated creature the other night. Placing it atop the table, Theodore did not immediately address it. Instead, he spoke of the crevice he found in the supposed dead end, the same one he used to escape the creature.

Thinking back, Theodore found it to be less of a crevice and more of a gap between the walls. Rather than being a crack in the wall, the narrow space Theodore had squeezed himself through felt as if it was there from the start. Theodore remembered that the walls he was pressed between were relatively flat. Had it been just an impressively deep crack, the walls would have been jagged and uneven.

It was only after he mentioned the gap did he eventually brought everyone's attention back to the brick.

"What? What's wrong with the brick?" Kalman asked.

"It's one of the bricks from the tunnel, remember. The one that I used the Dandelion Mandragora to open up? I picked up this brick from the debris back then. Look at the part where it was broken from."

Theodore pointed to the broken part of the brick. Though Kalman did not understand what he was trying to point out initially, after staring at it for a moment longer, he began to see the abnormality.

"The edges are beginning to smooth over," Kalman answered.

"Indeed. It hasn't been that long since I picked it up and I've kept it safely tucked away ever since. It wasn't until two nights ago did I pull it out. Yet, somehow, the jagged edges were smoothing out, as if they had been weathered away over months. Something is odd with this brick and something is also very strange about the sewers built from bricks exactly like this one."

"The brick is odd, yes," said Kalman, nodding. "But what is so off about the sewers, other than its labyrinthine nature and the creature you ran into, that is?"

"There's the gap I found in the corner, the crevice I mean. It was as if someone had forgotten to connect the two walls when building the sewers. The wall did not seem to be made of different materials either, so it can't be that a new structure had been built over old ones. Why would anyone leave such a gap there? Even if it were meant to be some kind of secret passage, you'd think it would be better hidden."

Once more Theodore picked up the brick, his finger sliding across the surface of where the brick had broken off.

"I said that the once rough and jagged surface looked as if it had been weathered away, but I have another thought regarding this. I am thinking that perhaps this brick is healing itself."

Kalman raised an eyebrow at that statement.

"Healing!? The brick? That's absurd!"

While the two were making a big deal out of a single brick, Albatross was absentmindedly playing with the fluffy creature that was Peter by her side. Just about everything the mages do were strange and weird to her. A brick that could heal itself did not seem so ridiculous in her eyes.

"Think about it," urged Theodore. "If one is able to enchant a dead body to move, why not a brick to be able to heal? While I haven't entirely worked out the reasoning as to how it all works, I do not believe that it is impossible to do."

"Fine," conceded Kalman. "But even if that is the case, how does it relate to the gap you've found."

"Kalman, if you were building a wall, normally, you wouldn't leave a gap like that without rhyme or reason, right?"

"Not normally, no. Unless of course, whoever built it was following a blueprint and was too lazy or were too late to correct the mistake when they realized that it was built wrong."

'True enough, but let's put that aside for now. Looking at this brick that's apparently healing itself, my suspicion is that perhaps no one actually built the sewers."

Kalman furrowed his eyebrows, not understanding what sort of utter nonsense Theodore was on about. Even Albatross cast her gaze over out of curiosity, having heard some kind of bullshit out of Theodore's mouth.

"I am saying that perhaps the sewers in its entirety is a magic construct and that it had built itself, following instructions from a behavioral matrix. It's possible that the gap I found was caused by a glitch or miscalculation within the behavioral matrix. If that's true, if we can only locate this behavioral matrix, the path to the very bottom of the tower, could be opened to us."

The two others in the room stared silently at Theodore for a few moments, each appearing to be processing what was just said.

"Perhaps you should lie down," said Kalman. "Clearly, the fatigue from your journey is getting to you."

"Maybe you'll think clearer after a nap," said Albatross, supporting Kalman's suggestion.

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End of Chapter 100

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