Kano entered the lab and spotted An and her assistants. They seemed too intent on whatever their machines were telling them to notice Kano. After taking the opportunity to observe An’s work for herself, Kano quickly decided it was useless and cleared her throat to alert An to her presence.

“Do you need something?” the necromancer asked, looking away from her screen.

“I need information.”

An’s lips twitched in amusement. “Regarding?”

“The citadel and its history.”

“You’ve lived in Shorinstown far longer than I have. What makes you think I could tell you anything you don’t already know?” She stood up and looked at Kano quizzically. “Besides, I’m rather busy at the moment.”

“I know, but…” Kano tried to think of something that a necromancer would care about enough to put off their work for. “Don’t you owe me at least this much if I’m supposed to be helping you? It’s not like I’m asking for a lot.” She doubted most necromancers would have cared about that line of reasoning, but it seemed like it might work on An.

With a longing glance back at the long lines of data on the monitor that seemed to so entrance her, An said, “Fine. I suppose I can spare you a little time. What exactly do you want to know?”

“Anything you know about Karen. Particularly why she built this place and what she was doing.”

“I’m afraid I only met Karen once, quite a long time ago, long before any of this.” She gestured to indicate the building around them. “And even then, it was only a brief meeting, so I can’t say much about her character. Nor do I know much about the history of the citadel. However, I do have some small knowledge of the workings of this place. Rather unavoidable, really. I wouldn’t be able to make much use of it otherwise.”

Kano gestured for her to go on. “So you know what she was trying to do?”

“Not exactly. She left behind no records that I could find. Therefore, all I can offer is based on what I assume are the intended purposes of the citadel’s various facilities. I think it’s safe to say that the citadel’s primary purpose was to manufacture biological creatures such as ghouls, though I’m sure that comes as no surprise to you.”

Kano nodded. That much was obvious.

“What is surprising, at least to me, is just how varied the equipment here is. There’s everything one could want, so long as you’re trying to do things in the same vein as she was. I have no idea how she managed to build this place. The resources alone are far beyond any other creation of the past century or so.”

“Uh-huh.” Kano hadn’t come here to listen to An sing Karen praises. “What else do you know about what she was trying to create? You must know more than just that she wanted to make ghouls.”

“Well, obviously she was trying to create beings similar to yourself. You must have seen the tanks, but I’ve yet to see any definitive evidence of what she was trying to accomplish.”

“The blob said Karen was trying to preserve her own life. Do you not believe that?”

An shrugged. “I never said that. It seems plausible, but I haven’t seen anything that proves it, either.”

Scratching her head, Kano thought back to her first meeting with An. “What about that energy you mentioned? You said there was a lot of it here or something?”

“That’s right. There’s a great quantity of necromantic energy housed within these walls. An amount which, to my knowledge, has never before been reached.”

“Well, where is it, then?” Kano hadn’t seen any big glowing balls of energy, or whatever it was supposed to look like.

“It’s everywhere within the citadel, all around us.”

“Huh.” Looking around, Kano couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary. “Are you sure?”

“Certain. But there’s no need to worry. It’s perfectly harmless in its dormant state. Without someone to direct it, you’d probably never even notice it was there.”

Kano narrowed her eyes. “Aren’t you directing it?”

“Not at this stage. I’m still trying to determine the source of this energy as well as the proper means of controlling it.”

“Really? I thought you were in a hurry.”

“I am eager to advance my work, but regardless of my impatience, I cannot take something of such magnitude lightly. Even if not for the dangers presented by using it without proper care and consideration, I would also risk wasting some portion of the energy.” An shook her head. “Or worse, wasting it completely. Such energies tend to be volatile, particularly in large quantities, I’m still trying to understand how Karen managed to bind them in this fashion.”

“Are you sure it was her?”

“No, but it seems a reasonable assumption to operate under. No sense making this more complex than it needs to be. And it’s not as if it matters who was responsible for what at this stage.”

Kano’s lip curled. It mattered to her. Not only did she feel partially responsible for what Karen had wrought, she also needed to know what the necromancer had been up to. If there had been someone else involved in all this, such as another necromancer, it made everything a lot more complicated. “Is there anything you are sure about?”

“Beyond what I already mentioned?” An replied placidly. “No, that’s about as much as I’ve been able to discern, but I’m hopeful that I’ll have it all figured out sooner or later. I’m getting close to understanding more of the mechanism built throughout the citadel which contains this energy. Everything else is secondary compared to that.”

She walked over to a small circle comprised of three discs suspended in the air, each was colored red, green, or blue. “This is where the energy is most concentrated, presumably to make it more accessible to whatever work is being done in the lab.”

Glancing over the circle, Kano looked for anything special about it, but as far as she could tell, it was just plain metal with nothing inside it. “Is there really energy in here?”

“Of course. Try putting your hand in. Even if you can’t see it, you may be able to feel something.”

“Seriously?” Kano was relatively content with the current state of her extremities, enough so that she didn’t want to stick them into unknown, and apparently very potent, forms of energy.

“I assure you nothing bad will happen.”

It felt a little foolish to take a necromancer at their word like that, but Kano didn’t want to back down, either. Reaching from the top, she gingerly probed the circle’s interior with her index finger. The air had a slight resistance to it, and her skin tingled. There was definitely something there. It was strange, but it also had little significance to Kano.

“That’s great and all, but can’t you tell me anything more useful?”

An cocked her head. “I’ve told you everything I’ve discovered in my work so far, at least without bogging you down with specifics.”

Well, that was just typical. Of course the necromancer only really cared about the stuff that impacted her own work. It had been a waste of time to even ask An. She clearly cared nothing of Kano’s concerns regarding Karen, and by extension the citadel.

Kano was about to give up and leave An to her work when the necromancer added, “I’m sorry if I haven’t been very helpful, but I do know something that may interest you.”

“And what’s that?” Kano rather doubted the necromancer had any idea what interested her, based on their conversation so far.

“There’s a door in Shorin’s room that is outside of the citadel’s control. It’s locked to a biometric scanner, one which I believe may be locked to Karen. If you were really intended to be a copy of her, then maybe it will open for you as well. I don’t know if you’ll find anything useful, assuming you can even get inside, but it seems worth a look, right?”

Kano rolled her eyes. “I guess. I’ll take a look.” She left An to get back to her work and went to the former tyrant’s room. The walls were bare, and whatever furniture had presumably been in here while he was still alive was all gone, probably at Himin’s hand. It really hadn’t taken long after Shorin’s death for her to take over the place. Whatever the ghoul’s flaws, she clearly wasn’t one to wait overly long on opportunities.

Whatever the reason, the large room’s emptiness made finding the door in question all the easier. It slid open with a mechanical hiss at Kano’s approach, and she looked into the small room beyond. A large metal console was built into the wall, covered in a variety of switches and lights.

Despite being labeled, the purpose of most of them was lost on her, but while skimming over the dense array, she noticed the name Armonin Research Center beneath a red flashing light. There were another two lights beside it, marked Zirit Research Center and Corintes Research Center, but the bulbs were both dim, so Kano disregarded them. Wherever those places were, they probably didn’t have anything to do with what she was after.

It was possible a necromancer might be able to make something of the controls before Kano, but she could see nothing of relevance. Turning away from the machine, Kano spotted a pile of dark ash in the corner.

She poked it with her foot and uncovered the geometric crystalline shape of a soul, or more precisely a soul’s vessel, lit by a pulsating light. The light alternated between different colors, not unlike those of Blob Kano, though this was less vibrant.

Once it was free of the ash, it became apparent that it was malformed or broken. The carefully sculpted geometric shape was rough and far from symmetrical. Did it still work? Based on the light, Kano thought it might, but the shape was unlike any other she’d seen. Could it have been a deliberate choice? She couldn’t imagine why, but she had no idea as to the significance of the vessel’s shape. For all she knew, it might just be an aesthetic choice, albeit a poor one.

Kano shook her head. Whatever it was, it didn’t help her, either. After hefting it, she was considering tossing it back into the corner when the lights went out. They came back a moment later, much dimmer. Annoyed at the interruption, Kano tucked the vessel into her pocket and went to find out what was going on.