by Andrew Rowe
“I don’t suppose you could tell me where they found you, or who your Summoner is?”
She shook her head.
“Okay,” I continued. “What should we call you?”
“Oh, just Researcher is fine. That’s what everyone calls me. People keep offering to let me pick a name, but I don’t really see a point. Researcher describes my function accurately.”
I nodded. I could see the logic there. “Okay, Researcher. As it happens, we’re here to do some research.”
“Perfect!” She clasped her hands together. “How can I help you?”
“Well, I suppose we should start by looking for anything regarding Keras Selyrian.”
Her eyes flashed white again. “Keras Selyrian. Records and memory crystals are in row 14-F, third shelf, toward the center.” She waved to her right. “It’s over here, three shelfs down from where I’m standing.”
“Thanks.” I followed her directions, walking past row after row of boxes. Each box had a slat beneath it with a brief description of the contents. It looked like it’d been organized alphabetically by the first word. I found “Keras Seleryan” between “Keldyn Aendys” and “Kerran Vallir”.
I picked up the box eagerly. It was completely empty.
I went back to Researcher. “The box is empty. Do people usually take things out of here?”
Her eyes widened for a moment. “No one is supposed to remove anything from the archive without authorization. There wasn’t any given to take the files on Keras.”
Jin raised an eyebrow. “You’re sure of that?”
She turned toward him, blowing a hair out of the way of her mouth before speaking. “Uh, yes. If someone had given permission, they’d have to tell me about it. And I’m a Researcher. I have perfect recall of everything I’ve ever experienced.”
An eidetic memory? Or something even more advanced?
Hrm. That could be useful.
“Do you recall anyone else looking for his files, then?”
She nodded. “Yes, several people have. But not for several months now.”
Interesting. They could have been stolen a while ago, then. “Who was the last person you remember taking a look at information on Keras?”
She frowned. “I’m afraid I’m not authorized to answer that question.”
Of course not. That’d be far too easy.
I glanced at Jin. He shook his head.
Okay, it wasn’t Jin. Fair enough.
Besides, I returned the memory crystal he’d taken. That should be here even if Jin was the one that took everything else. That means someone took everything at some point after I returned the crystal.
I sighed. “Okay. We can check some other things, then.”
Researcher perked right back up. “Excellent! What else?”
“How about Vera Corrington?”
Researcher pointed to her right again. “Further down. Row 22-D. No memory crystals on her, but we do have a few files.”
I found her files without incident. Well, some files, anyway. I had no way of knowing if there had been others that might have been stolen at some point.
I handed half the stack to Jin and we walked back to Researcher. “Anywhere we can sit to look at these?”
“Toward the back of the room, left corner.”
We followed her instructions, found chairs, and sat.
The first thing I found was a copy of a Caelford Passport. In specific, a Diplomatic Passport indicating she was here in Valia on government business. I wondered why we had a copy of it here. Maybe this Divinatory served as a general information repository for the whole city?
That document didn’t have anything specific on why she was there, but there were several other type-written pages in the folder.
One of them was a copy of her documentation for entering the Serpent’s Tower. Glancing over that was much more enlightening.
Name: Vera Corrington
Age: 26
Ethnicity: Caelford
Attunements: Analyst
Reason for Entering Tower: Accompanying multi-national climber force for confidential research: Code Q-STN.
There was a bit more info on there, but nothing nearly as interesting as her reason for going in there. I’d have to see if I could find out more about that research project.
I showed Jin that page. He just said, “Interesting,” and went back to his own reading.
I dug a little further, finding a list of the people who had accompanied her into the tower. Lawrence Gold, Rochelle Gold, Carter Bishop, Echion Valden, and one name that I actually recognized: Elora Theas.
That’s the Summoner that was feuding with Derek, and also the same Theas that was in the Council of Lords with my mother. Could she be the one who’s preventing Vera from being arrested? If she’s a council member, she’d probably have sufficient influence.
House Theas was an old family. They were one of the founding families of the city, much like House Hartian. I didn’t know how far their influence extended, but either she or one of her relatives was definitely a council member.
I pointed her out to Jin. He seemed more interested this time. “If House Theas is involved with whatever this research was, you’re going to be in for some trouble.”
I rubbed my temples. “More than I’m already in?”
“You’d be surprised. Still, we should dig into this more. I haven’t found anything of interest in this pile. I’ll go see if I can find anything on Elora Theas or that code name.”
I nodded, continuing to read more about Vera. I found references to her coming into the city with her brother — Aloras — so I’d been right on that regard.
More references to that secret project, but nothing concrete on what it was about, or if she had any sort of sponsors.
Jin sat back down a few minutes later with a new stack of papers. “Researcher informed me that we’re not authorized to know about that secret project, so she couldn’t help. She did point me at the files on Elora Theas, though.”
We dug through those. Elora Theas was a Lorian Heights graduate and long-time climber. There were records of dozens of visits she’d made to the Serpent Spire, as well as at records of her leaving the country to visit other spires. That meant she might have foreign attunements in addition to local ones.
Derek had accompanied her in many of the tower visits with earlier dates. Those seemed to have stopped... right before the time Elora had entered the tower with Vera.
Now that was interesting.
I’d known they had some sort of falling out. Could it have been directly connected to whatever this secret project was?
I’d have to tell Professor Orden about this; it seemed like a potentially significant lead.
I did have one final thing to look into before we left, though.
I returned the files that I’d been reading through to their proper places and walked back to Researcher. “Can you direct me to any files on Tristan Cadence?”
She grinned. “Of course! They’d be in Row 20-A.”
I withdrew the single file with a shaking hand.
Name: Tristan Cadence
Age: 17
Ethnicity: Valia
Attunements: None
Reason for Entering Tower: Judgment
And I read further.
Date of Entrance: 4-13-55
Date of Exit: Not Applicable
Status: Presumed Deceased
It hurt to see the words, even though they didn’t differ in any way from what I’d expected.
There were other pages in the file — old records from his schools, a record of his pre-Judgment practice test...which had been a rousing success.
He’d been brilliant, from everything I could see. Physically fit, amazing grades in all of his classes.
How had he failed?
There were no hints here. No signs of any conspiracy. No records pointing at secret projects or hidden agendas.
Just another ordinary seventeen year old, lost to the tower.
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I set the files back in the box and walked back to Jin. “Let’s go.”
He set his own papers down. “I did find something else, actually.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Oh?”
“One of the records on Elora referenced her leaving an item at this facility for research. Could be connected to this secret project.”
I grinned. “Nice find. What is it?”
“Files called it the Jaden Box. Let’s go ask Researcher about it.”
We put Jin’s files back and moved back to the center of the room.
Researcher was floating in a cross-legged sitting position, and rotated toward us as we approached. “Oh, hello again! I trust you found everything you needed?”
Jin nodded. “For the most part, although I did find an unusual reference. What can you tell us about the Jaden Box?”
Researcher’s eyes did the creepy white thing again. “Jaden Box. Attributed to Wrynn Jaden, sorceress of the Pre-Attunement Period. Artifact demonstrates remarkable storage and summoning capabilities beyond the scale of all other known items. Deposited here by Elora Theas on 6-12-51. Research in progress.”
Jin nodded. “Is the box connected to this secret research project Q-STN?”
Researcher shook her head. “Unrelated. The box is simply a powerful item. It is not classified as secret.”
“What does it do, exactly?” Jin continued.
“The box is capable of storing items that appear to be too large to fit inside an extra-planar space. In addition, when an object is placed inside and a specific command word is used, it is capable of performing a summoning spell that will attempt to summon the person connected to the object.”
My eyes widened. “What are the restrictions on that?”
Researcher turned to me. “No known distance limitations. This summoning effect appears to be capable of bypassing most, if not all, anti-teleportation limitations. Lead Researcher Orden has placed an additional external seal on the box to prevent reckless tests, such as attempting to summon visages, which she deemed to have potentially catastrophic consequences.”
No distance limitations.
Could I summon Tristan with it?
I’d need an item strongly connected to him. I had a few things in my room that had belonged to him, but I wouldn’t want to risk the chance they’d fail. I was confident I could find something at home, though. Maybe even a brush that still had some of his hair?
It sounded so...easy. So much easier than trying to climb to the top of the tower.
Would it work if he was dead?
I’d need to find out more about this.
Researcher had mentioned Lead Researcher Orden, meaning Professor Orden was studying it.
I’d seen the box before. It had been in her drawer, and I’d marked down the few runes I could remember.
I scratched my chin. “Is the Jaden Box in this facility right now?”
Researcher nodded. “Yes, although access to the item is restricted to members of Lead Researcher Orden’s team.”
I raised the key that Orden gave me. “As it happens, we work for Professor Orden.”
Not strictly a lie, but I felt a little bad for the deception.
Jin gave me a raised eyebrow, but Researcher just beamed at me. “Of course! It’s in a box labeled Lyras Orden on row 15-C. Be advised to follow all of the instructions with the attached documentation. Also, the box is inside a safe. The safe code is 13-9-63.”
Sorry, Professor Orden. You were the one who encouraged me to break in here and take what I needed.
I found the box, Jin following close behind me. “Are you certain this is wise?”
I glanced back at him. “No, but this could give us a considerable amount of safety if things go badly. For example, if we step into the tower and we can’t find Katashi, maybe we could find something connected to him and use this to summon him.”
Jin nodded. “I see the logic, but we should save that for a last resort. It is clear that using the box on a visage could have dangerous consequences.”
“Orden should have a better idea of how safe it would be. We can ask her if things get desperate enough that the box seems necessary. For the moment, we’ll be discrete.”
He put a hand over his forehead. “That’s part of the problem. You don’t think she’s going to notice you took it?”
I shrugged. “I’ve got so much magic stuff at this point that I doubt she’ll notice the aura on it standing out. I’ll only take it out in emergencies. If she does figure out that I took it, I’ll just refer back to her earlier desire for Whisper candidates to show initiative.”
Jin sighed. “Fine. But we’re putting it back when we’re done.”
That was just vague enough that I could agree to it. “Sure.”
We found a safe inside the box, along with research notes, just as Researcher had indicated. I skimmed through the notes first.
Jaden Box
Object Classification: Artifact, Miscellaneous
Attunement Level: Unknown; exhibits properties that exceed Emerald capabilities
Description: The Jaden Box is believed to be a creation of the legendary sorceress Wrynn Jaden. It demonstrates forms of Pre-Attunement Period sorcery that cannot be easily duplicated in the modern period. To date, we have discovered three of the box’s functions.
First, if the word “Store” is spoken aloud while in physical contact with the box, and followed by another word or short phrase that describes the object, any object placed inside the box within the next ten second period will be transported to an extra-planar space.
When the box is open and the command, “Retrieve” is given, followed by a phrase corresponding to an item that has been stored, the stored item will be teleported out of the extra-planar space and appear directly above the box. Fortunately, large objects will be shunted out of the way if there are people in the space above the box; this has saved more than one researcher from being inadvertently killed by teleportation fragmentation.
There are some restrictions on what can be stored; see research document ENX-4.
The third function of the box is the most dangerous and thus additional limitations have been placed on the box through the creation of an outer shell (see shell diagram). When an item is placed inside the box and is not stored in the extra-planar space, the command “Summon” can be used, followed by the name of an individual with a strong connection to the item. For example, a vial of Professor Lyras Orden’s blood was successfully used to summon her from the base of the Serpent Spire to the research laboratory.
Early studies indicate that the connection utilized by the box to summon an individual appears to be a mana signature. This means that any object that stores some of the mana of an individual, such as magical items created by the individual, should potentially be usable as a summoning focus.
Studies on this object have been restricted for two reasons. One, the unclear limitations have been a cause for concern that a researcher could inadvertently summon a powerful entity that may take issue with being summoned (e.g. one of the visages).
The second reason is that the summoning spell consumes a vast amount of air and transference mana; in specific, we approximate that the discharge is roughly twenty thousand mana of each type.
While the box does recharge its mana over time, it does so at a rate consistent with standard Sunstone-level items, regaining approximately one hundred mana per day. Thus, the summoning effect can only be used roughly once every two hundred days.
I wasn’t able to analyze everything about the box, but I was able to sense the mana within it. There was a lot. Thousands at least. I tried checking it with my mana watch, but it didn’t register anything. The watch wasn’t designed to interact with other items, and even if it was, this was a strange enough object that it might not have worked either way.
More importantly, I was able to detect that the box wasn’t currently recharging. That meant it already had a full charge of mana and could be used at an
y time.
I scanned over the rest of the research. The diagrams of the runes were fascinating — I’d want to learn more about them later — but for now, I didn’t have time. I was supposed to be meeting Professor Orden outside shortly.
The limitations on the box meant that I wasn’t going to be able to pick up just any old thing that Tristan had owned and throw it in there to summon him. I was already thinking of options, though. If hair from a brush didn’t work, maybe one of my parents had kept some of his baby teeth?
I’d find something. This was the best lead I’d ever found.
I wanted desperately to drop everything and pursue it immediately, but first, I had people to save. Tristan wouldn’t forgive me if I ran home and summoned him if it meant risking other lives — possibly thousands of lives — in the process.
The safe combination worked. I pocketed the Jaden Box.
It was time to go meet with Professor Orden.
***
Professor Orden was waiting outside when Jin and I left the Divinatory. She was a little early, which wasn’t a huge surprise. Her company, on the other hand, was unexpected.
Derek Hartigan stood to her right side, a heavy backpack resting at his feet.
I glanced to him, then back to Orden. “What’s this?”
Derek grinned, reaching down with a hand to heft his pack over a shoulder. “Looks like you’re going to get one more chance to see me shine.”
I waved my hands in frantic dismissal. “No, no. Not happening. Where’s Teft?”
Orden rolled her eyes. “Not coming. He sends his regards, but the vice chancellor forbade him from coming with us. Apparently, he’s dealing with internal mana burns from the last time he went with you.”
I winced, remembering Teft blocking the shockwave from the Hero’s End.
That single attack had forced him to overuse his mana enough to cause internal burns? That’s...absurd. Just how powerful is that monster?
I sighed. “Fine. I hope he recovers soon. But shouldn’t we be bringing another professor along?”
Derek grimaced. “Hey, I get that you’re angry about that whole Survival Match bit—”