“It makes sense now why your name was so human-like, even down to the spelling. It just wasn’t all of it.”

“Oh, but that’s only because it’s a translation. It’s really [unintelligible].” she replied.

“What? Say that again,” I said, only really picking up a growl-like sound at the beginning and a pop at the end. Whatever was in the middle was unlike any sound I had ever heard. It was also much shorter than the translation was.

She tried again, this time sending it through Mindspeak instead, but it sounded exactly the same.

“If you’re trying to understand it, you needn’t bother. Your father drove me to near insanity over the span of a couple of days trying to understand it. The fact of the matter is that scyftan brains just aren't capable of understanding how my creators communicated, not many species are. It is sort of like a human trying to understand the noises that a dolphin makes."

“I guess translation will have to do then.”

“You’re just stalling. What are you worried about?”

“Nothing,” I replied. “Why ask my sisters to leave the room before activating it though? Surely he knows that I’ll fill them in later.”

“I guess you’ll just have to activate it and see, won’t you?”

Sighing, I leaned forward and pulsed my mana at it. Having been activated prior, it was still on but was just waiting for some input. The moment I was done, my father’s image re-coalesced and he grinned.

“I knew it would be you, my boy. After all, there wasn’t really any doubt,” he said. “Abi had never failed me, and I knew she wouldn’t when we came up with the plan to ensure you and your sisters would escape. Up until shortly before the attack commenced, Abi was tagging each and every ship in the system so she could upload a virus to each one simultaneously. That virus would lay dormant until a ship powered weapons, at which point it would mess with that ship’s targeting computers. The key to it all was that the virus would only activate when two particular ships were targeted; yours and the one your sisters were on. While the ships loyal to Kaldrus Dhir thought their shots were on target, they would have been off by several degrees.”

“So now you know how you escaped, you might be wondering why you were sent to Earth and why you spent so much time in stasis. Why not Veria where you would be protected? Why not somewhere closer? Well, the answer to that is that Earth was chosen for how far away it was and the technological level of its inhabitants. We knew that it would be a long journey, and the longer that journey took, the longer it would take you to be discovered.”

“As for why the level of technology possessed by the inhabitants of Earth mattered? That was to ensure that the Spectres would be able to remain hidden and build up in secret. The hope was that when the humans reached a certain level of technology, that they could be approached and recruited to help you when the time came to take the throne that rightfully belongs to you. There was a pretty big wrinkle in there though, which was the fact that no one knew exactly how long it would take for them to reach that point. Two hundred years? Five hundred? A thousand? Oh, there were some among the Spectres ranks that wanted to speed up their rate of development, but it was better to be patient.”

“You see, that is something that Kaldrus Dhir is not. Going back generations, the Dhir family was well known for being obnoxious and foolhardy, but Kaldrus took that to the next level. He could make lifelong enemies just by opening his mouth, and we knew without a doubt that his mouth would get him in trouble, eventually. What were those odds again, Abi? Six to one?”

“Three to one,” Abi replied from within the recording.

“Ah, that’s right. We figured the odds would be three to one that Dhir would start a war within the first two hundred years of his rule, which would only give you more room to breath. Knowing this allowed us to put some contingencies in place, but only Abi will know how effective they were. I won’t go into them now since I have limited time, so you’ll need to talk to Abi about that later.”

“Onto other things, which is how I can help you, even from beyond the grave. If you have the tablet handy, activate it by pressing the button on the top. Once it’s on, place your hand on the screen and pulse your mana into it. That will unlock everything, and then we can get to work.”

It booted up a lot faster than I expected, and before long there was a familiar outline of a hand. The moment I placed my hand there and pulsed a little bit of mana into it, there was a quiet chime and the screen changed. Most of the screen was empty, except for seven squares with scyftan text. I recognized the text as the scyftan numbers one through seven, and was about to tap on the first one when my father spoke up.

“Alright, that should have been enough time. You should see seven icons on the screen right now, numbered from one to seven. The first is the contact information for people who can help you. There is no guarantee all of them will be alive, depending on how long it has been, but those that are will be in the position to help you in some way or another. Not included in that is Ercan Warvyn, because Kor Gidres would have introduced you by this point. As soon as you can, I want you to try to get in touch with everyone on the list.”

“The second icon contains a bunch of information that may or may not help you. Again, depending on how long it has been, some of the information contained within might be out of date or it might just be irrelevant. Abi can help you sift through it, but you should probably bring Tesze Inolgeth, Utych Hios and Tich Igdaris in on it. They’ll be able to tell you how best to utilize it.”

“The next four are a little different in that the one marked ‘three’ is for you, while ‘four’ through ‘six’ are for your sisters. Go ahead and tap ‘three’ now,” he said before pausing momentarily so I could do so. Immediately, the seven icons were placed by two different ones. “While that table isn’t capable of projecting a hologram, you can transfer the first file to any device that can. If you’re wondering, it’s a message from your mother. I would prefer you hold off on that temporarily, however, as there are a few more things we need to get to. Go ahead and tap on the second icon.”

This time the screen didn’t change at all, and instead a small compartment in the tablet popped open, revealing two items. The first was clearly a key to something, while the second was a ring. Not just any ring, but a signet ring at that.

“While one is a key and the other is a ring that has been passed down from Kidravia to Kidravia, it, too, is a key. A key to a lock that is very, very far away from here and one that will likely be very difficult to access. You’ve probably already guessed what the key is for from what I’ve said, so make sure to have it on you when you eventually go. I cannot stress how important it is for you to recover Abi’s brothers and sisters, with the sooner the better. As for the other key, I’ll get back to that in a moment.”

“You don’t need to go ahead and look at it right now because it is quite lengthy, but the seventh icon contains all of the plans I had for the future. No one but your mother and Abi knew this, and it’s also why I asked your sisters to leave the room, but I’ve always had the feeling that something was coming, ever since I was a small boy.”

“I would wake up in a sweat, screaming about nightmares that were too vivid to not be real. I saw fleet after fleet be destroyed and an uncountable number of people tortured, among other things. I felt the frustration of searching entire galaxies for something, but not being able to find it, and the pure hatred for a species that now only exists in memory.”

“I believe, now, that whoever, or whomever I am linked to is searching for Abi’s brothers and sisters, or technology left behind by their creators. Whether that is to use them or destroy them, I do not know. You need to get to them first, and you need to keep them safe by any means necessary. Whoever they are, they are extremely powerful and they are coming. It’s not an if, but a when.”

“I would have gone back for them myself, but it would have been impossible to do so in any sort of numbers. Our ships were simply too slow, and we were never sure if our new shields would stand up against the aliens that forced us from our home galaxy. By now I would expect that that has changed. That last file also details what should be done when you’ve recovered the crystals. You should read it in its entirety and begin implementing as much of it as you can, just for a head start.”

“That’s it, I believe. Am I missing anything, Abi?”

“Just the other three keys.”

“Oh, right! The key in your hand isn’t a normal key. In fact, it isn’t a key to anything unless you’ve got the other three parts that make up the whole. You’ve got one part of the key, while the other three parts will be given to your sisters. Only when the four of you are together will you be able to access what the key unlocks. Abi can guide you, but unfortunately much must be done, and there isn’t a whole lot time. I love you, my son. Make me proud,” he finished.

A moment later the projector shut off and I sat there with the tablet in one hand, and the ring and key in the other. After setting down the tablet and sliding the ring onto my left pinky and having it automatically resize to fit, I turned my attention to the key. It was long and flat with nearly a dozen teeth, but there were easily that many missing as well. More interestingly, some of the teeth looked like they were cut in half vertically, making them seem very fragile.

“So what does this key open when you have the other four parts?” I asked Abi.

“Well, how about you join your sisters in the other room and you’ll all find out together?”

I opened the accordion door and saw all three of my sisters pop their heads up from what used to be our parents’ bed. Vixa was curled up beside them, but had no interest in doing anything other than sleep.

“So?” Leenah asked.

I filled them in on as much as I could, leaving out the part about the aliens that could be on their way, for the time being. After that, Abi walked me through transferring the corresponding files to the girls’ communicators, but not before they each got their part of the key. Passing the tablet to them, each took a turn pressing the button to reveal the same small compartment. Each time, a different part of the key appeared, and soon we had it put together.

Abi still wouldn’t tell us what it opened, but had us head downstairs and out the door. It was when I saw the door directly opposite the one we entered that I had an idea, but that proved to be false. It required all four of us placing our hands on it and channeling our mana into it simultaneously, just like the other one did, and then it began sliding open. However, what was on the other side of the door was very different.

“Is that a vault?” Lucia asked.

“Indeed,” Abi replied. “It took a large portion of the time your father had to free it from where it had been deep beneath the palace, but the moment it was, it was brought to me. Anything and everything your parents wanted to keep safe was placed within, and it’s been in my dimensional storage until somewhat recently. As you can see, it isn’t exactly small.”

She was right about that, even with about three meters of room to walk around it, it was still about thirty meters wide and ten meters tall, with a door more than big enough to drive something into it. Most surprising was the fact that aside from it’s absurd size, it looked very normal. Instead of a tumbler it had a spot for a key, but otherwise had a handwheel like older vaults did on Earth.

“So the lock might look normal, but it’s quite a bit different than what you’re used to. When you insert the key, you’ll only be able to push it halfway in. At that point, rotate it clockwise one hundred and eighty degrees, and then you’ll be able to push it in the rest of the way. A full counterclockwise turn later, and it will be unlocked. Give it a try,” Abi said.

I passed the key over to Leksi and she stepped forward to insert it into the lock. It proved to be a little stiff after being unused for so long, but after the first half turn, everything worked like it was new. There was an easily audible thud when she gave the key the final turn, and I helped her out by turning the handwheel.

Pulling the massive door open was easier than I ever would have expected, or it was just my attribute-enhanced strength that was making the difference. And the door was truly massive, not just in size, but also in how thick it was. When the door was as wide open as it could go, I saw that the door was easily a meter thick, with bolts that were a good thirty-five to forty centimeters in diameter, at a minimum. The walls were just as thick as the door, and I had a feeling that it wasn’t something that you could cut into.

“Wow!” Leenah exclaimed, seeing the contents first.

Abi hadn’t been wrong about our parents putting everything they wanted to keep safe inside of the vault. It seems that they had run out of room on the numerous shelves that ran from the floor to the ceiling and circled the entire room, so they put everything else wherever they could fit it. Still, it looked like whoever’s job it was would have been very good at Tetris, as there seemed to be very little wasted room.

“Uh, yeah… that’s a lot of stuff,” Lucia said. “How about we get started on that tomorrow?”

I wanted to disagree, but it was late when I woke my sisters up, and it had been a little over two hours since then. All of us had been up for well over eighteen hours as well, and taking everything out of the vault was not a quick and easy job. After locking up the vault and exiting the room it was contained in, my sisters went to bed while I went back to retrieve Vixa. Within minutes of entering our room, the two of us were out like a light.

We were up bright and early the next morning, but didn’t get to the vault until just after lunch. Instead, the girls went through the recordings that had been left for them, while I met with my mom, dad and Tich, filling them in on some of the things we had learned last night. It was somewhat interesting to see their faces, the shock very real when they learned the full story.

With their help, I tried contacting everyone on the list to establish an open line of communication. Fortunately, only four of the people on the list of thirty-one couldn’t be contacted right away, though of those four, only one had passed away. The other three were simply busy at the time, but contacted us in less than twenty four hours.

While it was basically just introducing ourselves, there was also a tentative meeting scheduled for sometime in the future. Not in person, but via the same pods that were installed both on Abi, and the base back on Earth. There were many different VR chat applications that were essentially Zoom taken to the next level, but Abi would be building her own version from the ground up, just for maximum security.

After that had been taken care of and I had eaten lunch, I passed along the miscellaneous information to the three of them and excused myself. While there was a lot of stuff to go through, I didn’t know any of the context to go with it, while they did. If I had stayed, I would have only slowed them down.

We were once again standing in front of the vault, though none of us looked as we did the night before. There was the potential for heavy lifting, so we all shifted into forms that would better help us, and greatly increase our efficiency. For me, that was my full seotross form, while my sisters shifted into the quite capable form of a baxkey. It seemed they had gone up against them as well in their dungeon excursion.

[Alright, let’s get the top row of stuff out and up against the walls, and then I’ll stay down here while you three keep bringing stuff to me. Sound good?]

[You don’t want to go through it?] Lucia asked.

[No, not until we can at least clear everything that isn’t on a shelf. When we’re able to access everything, then we’ll start going through and sorting everything.]

The girls nodded, and then all three of them climbed up with the grace of a cat until they could reach the first of many boxes. Using two of their hands to anchor themselves, they used the other two to grab a box and slowly bring it down. Since I had such a long reach while in my seotross form they didn’t have to come down very far, which made the process go a lot faster. Eventually it got to the point where they didn’t have to lower anything down to me at all. They just had to move it so it was within my reach, and then I moved it while someone brought another one over.

About an hour after we started, all of the crates that had been jammed into empty spaces had been removed, but the work had only just begun. The real work was opening up all the chests and crates to see what was in them, which was when we found that many of them were enchanted to make the inside bigger than the outside. Instead of only having a cubic meter of space, for example, a crate might have two or three times that.

At first we wondered how they had gone without a mana source for so long, but that was when we found a crate that was entirely full of mana crystals. Not just any mana crystals either, but high-quality ones that had already been cut, but were still the size of a grapefruit. In addition, the entirety of the inside of the vault had an enchantment carved into it that was apparently extremely complex, allowing it to draw in ambient mana over time.

It was only a trickle, but it was enough to buy nearly two hundred years of time, according to Abi’s calculations. Our parents planned ahead, however, and there were three crates filled to the top with what had been fully charged mana crystals. Together, they would have been able to supply enough mana to all the enchantments for just under three thousand years.

What was amazing was that the enchantments on the crates were top of the line back when the crates were first made, but knowledge had expanded massively since then. Nothing quite compared to Tamara’s small cubes that could contain gigantic areas inside, but what was available nowadays was a lot better.

We found all sorts of things as we were sorting through, and some of them really did make us think they grabbed as many things as they could. There were tapestries and busts, numerous musical instruments, and all sorts of things that we couldn’t make heads or tails of. For those, Abi helped us out so we could figure out where to put them.

There wasn’t a whole lot that was truly interesting in the crates that we had removed from the vault so we could move around, but that changed when we got to what was on the shelves. It was there that the things that our parents wanted to keep safe were stored. Things like family heirlooms, crowns, weapons and even complete armor sets were stored.

Unfortunately, all but one of those complete sets had become soul bound the moment they were put on, and now no one else could use them. In a sense that made them worthless, but it also made them priceless. There were seven soul bound sets in total. Two of them had belonged to our father and two to our grandfather, while the remaining three were divided between our mother, grandmother and great grandmother. As we looked at them, the four of us decided that we needed to find a good place to display them.

[Abi, why are all these sets soulbound except for this one?] Leenah asked.

[Because the person it was meant for wasn’t old enough to wear it,] Abi replied. [Your parents were working on having a set commissioned for the three of you as well, but they take a while to make and you know what happened.]

[Wait, someone made all these suits?]

[Not just one person, no, but they were made using only high quality materials that can only be found inside of dungeons. That's the metal to the thread and everything in between. I think Jonathan has some news for you, though.]

[Huh? Oh, right. I can’t believe I forgot about that. So you know the list of people our father wanted me to contact?]

[What about it?] Lucia asked.

[Well, one of the contacts was actually two people; Khyr and Irsia Etiaz.]

[Our grandparents.]

[What?! How did you know?!]

[The recording from our mother. You haven’t watched yours yet?]

[Not yet, as soon as I showered last night I went to sleep, and since I woke up I’ve been busy.]

[Ours turned out to be the same, but yours is probably different. It’s over three hours long so we only got through a portion of it, but one of the first things she talked about was her parents.]

[Did she get into why they decided to stay behind?] I asked, to which the three of them answered no. [Well, I talked to them for about twenty minutes this morning before I had to let them go so I could get to the next person on the list. Irsia said that our mother asked her to go with us, but she and her husband thought it would be better for them to stick around here, as much as that decision hurt them. In the long run it probably helped us, though.]

[What do you mean?] Leenah asked.

[Well, all seven of these sets of armor were handmade by the Etiaz family. They were well known even before our people came to this galaxy, and now they’re the premier armorers in the galaxy. Over time, they’ve been able to build a massive network, and if we need help dealing with Dhir, then they can call on hundreds of very high level adventurers to assist. If it comes down to a fight on the ground, then I’m not sure we’ll be able to win with the level discrepancy as wide as it is. Illia’s team helps a little bit to bridge the gap, but help from even a hundred or so adventurers could push us over the top.]

[Wouldn’t an inhibitor covering a large area just negate that discrepancy?] Lucia asked.

[For a time, but one can only cover a certain area, and they need to be protected. That can’t be done with a forcefield, either, because the energy that an inhibitor emits gets disrupted when it passes through the field. That means leaving a force behind to protect it, but they’re fragile things and can easily be destroyed.]

[They also tend to be high priority targets, and when one is activated, usually it doesn’t stay active for long,] Abi said.

[Oh,] Lucia replied. [So, what are you going to do with the set of armor?]

[I don’t know,] I answered as I looked through the pieces that made up the set. There were six pieces total, all with their own stats, but they certainly weren’t very impressive, not when you compared them to the stats that the other seven sets had. However, as I looked through the pieces of each set, I noticed that there was a percentage assigned to each one. The pieces in one of my father’s sets had percentages over 80, for example, while the percentages on mine were all 0. [What do the percentages mean?]

[Sets like that one accrue experience just like you do,] Abi replied. [When each piece reaches 100%, you can bring it to someone who makes armor and they can upgrade it further. Usually that sees a substantial increase in stats. More often than not, additional bonuses can be granted. It all depends on what materials go into the upgrades.]

[Different materials do different things?] Leksi asked.

[Yes, but it also takes someone skilled enough to work the material. People like your grandparents have been making handmade armor for so long that they know how different materials will interact with each other, and what bonuses they might provide. That’s a big part of why so many people come to them, even with newly discovered materials.]

[How long does it take for a piece to reach 100%?] I asked.

[There isn’t a good answer for that. Armor made using rarer materials will be harder to level up than armor made using more common materials, and to be honest, I don’t know what materials have gone into that set. I do know that it isn’t something you can knock out in a day or two, though. It takes time and effort, but that effort usually pays off in a big way.]

[I see. Maybe I’ll use them next time we hit up a dungeon. Anyways, our grandparents will be here tomorrow with your own sets.]

[What?!] all three of them exclaimed.

I nodded my head. [When they found out we were so close, they decided to come and see us.]

[Our own sets?] Leksi asked.

[They made my set, and they were working on yours in their understandably limited free time. They finished them all up at the same time, and apparently they’ve been sitting in storage for the better part of six hundred years now.]

[Oh,] they all said.

I put the set of armor in my dimensional storage, and then the four of us soon got back to it. A lot of the chests and crates were dedicated to holding all sorts of different equipment, with more than one full of nothing but rings and necklaces. Unbound rings and necklaces at that. We could probably spend hours upon hours just sitting there checking them all out, but we had work to do.

The girls started doing what they do best as well, which was marking down what was in each crate or chest, and then marking where it could be found inside the vault. It was only a rough draft at first and they would come back later to go in more detail, but it would be helpful in finding stuff quickly later on. Of course we didn’t want to just use the vault as some sort of storage container, so they were also deciding what would go back inside the vault, and what would be stored elsewhere.

“Umm, Jonathan? You’re going to want to see this,” Leksi said, having switched back to her scyftan form so she could better manipulate her tablet.