Jwyexzn continued to wait for an answer to his plea as Sryine and Vwyx reflected upon the words with a subtle feeling of urgency. Riyxia on the other hand had no memories of the night in question, leaving her even more ignorant of the situation.

Riyxia in fact was totally willing to dismiss the entirety of his statement as more nonsensical babble, much like his normal. However, when her friends started to seem alarmed by the presence of certain keywords, it became obvious that maybe something was different this time. Sryine dove through the notes available to her, looking up every detail available on the Astral Flame. That it was a destructive force from beyond the world, but a flame that should not burn when denied its source for very long. That it was most likely uncovered using a complex portal that gave it access to this world, and that such a portal would give it access to unleash destruction. That the unnatural flame could itself be recognized by its demonic purple hue, and the colorless white ash it left behind. Sryine staggered where she stood, the nightmarish memories flooding back to her once again. Of the portal they had set up in an attempt to reach the stars, of the nightmarish purple flame that reached through it instead, consuming the observatory in an insatiable hunger, leaving behind a colorless white ash. Of their final instructions, to run far enough that the flame could no longer reach them. And certainly, once denied the source of such a flame, the destruction could no longer spread.

Everything, all of it, it all added up far too well to just be coincidence. Vwyx was obvious to this herself, simply looking at Sryine's expression. She turned back to the instrument, itself designed to detect the Astral Flame, even in small traces. It was capable of finding three very similar traces nearby, three familiar traces nearby, all about as intense as the other. This would imply that Riyxia’s spectral form was that of an aspect of her own trace, walking around almost invisibly as something that was related to the flame that had consumed her predecessor. That was nightmarish in its own right, but equally so was that the same trace was inside herself as well, that destructive force was not gone, but was still following her even a year later. End of the world, she wasn’t even certain that was an exaggeration, not with the ferocity of such a flame. Even at best, to have that flame inside her all this time, just how much of a threat did that present to at least herself, if not those around her. Was there any chance it could just suddenly kick back to life to suddenly consume her again, ending her life otherwise without warning?

Riyxia was keenly aware of how much terror had started to consume the thoughts of everyone else in the room. There were things her friends knew, things they might not even fully understand, but things she herself were too ignorant of. It was this ignorance that was making the whole situation suddenly very difficult to manage. Meanwhile, with Jwyexzn present, how could she trade information? In her fear of letting knowledge spread, ignorance was consuming them. Jwyexzn himself was a fine example of how being left without the facts had spun up a delusion growing out of control. The student present had facts that her friends seem keenly interested in, but her own insistence at keeping the guy at distance was making it a challenge to organize any of the facts. Hyusziq was still out there, absolutely ignorant as to what was going on, still hanging around trying to help out without even having a speck of clarity in exactly what he’s working with. Ayzherie.. Ayzherie had even gone to help them, with little understanding of the situation, and still completely willing to lend a hand. Ayzherie.. was probably right. Ignorance was turning against them, this was far too much for them to handle alone.

“Okay, this isn’t going to work. All of this hiding and secrecy is just making things worse, not better. It’s time for a new plan. Vwyx, Sryine, please put all of the guy’s stuff back in his bag, snooping through his stuff like this isn’t the way we should be doing this. All of you need to calm down too, even Jwyexzn.” Riyxia picked up the bag once it was fully packed and left without hesitation, simply walking out plainly. This startled Vwyx and Sryine right out of their thoughts, suddenly concerned. “Calm? I mean, that might be easy to say for a few destroyers of worlds, but some of us kinda worry about staying alive, you know? To have the world consumed in flames…” “Jwyexzn, if you got burned by such a fire, would that suddenly make you evil?” “What? No, that’s now how it works, it’s…” “So stop thinking that those who suffer are out to further such suffering to others, some of us are just trying to do our best to get by, alright, to stay alive ourselves. You have no idea what kind of suffering we’ve been through, and I certainly hope you never have to experience it for yourself. So, please, just stop.” Jwyexzn did freeze, witnessing Sryine break down into tears. Suddenly, rather than being as all powerful as they had usually been, the girls simply seemed incredibly alone and vulnerable. Such an impression took him completely off-guard, leaving him uncertain how he should proceed.

“While I agree completely, I think you’re both missing something here. Riyxia just walked out of here, and I’m kinda worried what she’s planning on doing so suddenly on her own, this new plan she’s come up with. Jwyexzn, you shouldn’t even be here, that’s probably another problem to worry about. Sryine, can we set some invisibility and follow Riyxia, see what she’s up to, maybe even bring this guy out of here while we’re at it?” Vwyx was still on the page of being concerned about what Riyxia was up to. She did still share an empathy for Sryine’s statement, but worries involving Riyxia seemed much more.. immediate and critical. Sryine rejoined her concerns, wiping her eyes before setting up some invisibility. Jwyexzn went along with the flow, still uncertain what else he should be doing right now. The three of them caught up to find Riyxia confronting the previous student directly.

“.. so it’s pretty obvious you know a few things that might be able to help us out. If you’re so interested on the matter, plainly you have reason to help us too.” “Fur- further study, yes. B-but I’ll have you know that I refuse to be part of your agenda to…” Riyxia and the student were already in negotiation, the student left stuttering his own replies. Jwyexzn looked over the familiar scene and sighed soundlessly, the illusion removing all sound from his voice. Slipping back into the shadows, he crossed the room in an instant and came out from the shadows beyond the reach of Sryine’s illusions.

“Okay, kid, enough is enough. Stop thinking that those who suffer are out to further such suffering to others. How much about this stuff are you really certain about, enough that you can cast blame for something to people you’ve only just met, without even giving them a proper chance? Is there really no chance you’ve confused the perpetrators for the victims?” “I.. well, there are a lot of things that are difficult to account for, but… Actually, would affecting a local person account for that discrepancy, allowing for distance to be ignored? But for that to occur, that would imply someone could actually survive. There would also be a matter of symbiosis, at least parasitism, something which would require at least a measure of mutuality. But what kind of aspect could allow that, where… Oh, by the divine, could it be that? The astral semblance beyond the veil shouldn’t be too incompatible, it wouldn’t be impossible, it might even make sense.” Jwyexzn had no idea how to interject further upon the student, the flow of conversation passing beyond his own understanding. Sryine smiled wryly from within her own illusion, familiar with the quote Jwyexzn had used. Her statement had caused him to start questioning the same things in himself, making it easy to vocalize such questions and apply them directly.

“No, actually I don’t think you’re making much sense at all. Then again, no one here really understands what is going on, that just makes this situation inevitable. Sryine, Vwyx, please stop hiding and come over here, even Jwyexzn has joined in on this. Actually, to the hells with it all, let’s just bring everyone together here. I’ll be right back.” Riyxia set off back down the hall towards her room again, leaving everyone else further confused. Sryine and Vwyx had just stepped out from concealment, only to find Riyxia wandering off again. Riyxia could see it on everyone’s faces, the confusion was making things worse, ignorance was turning against them. Even leaving her friends as she had confronted the student had perpetuated more confusion, not having left people informed, and her own sudden decision just then might have much of the same problems. The student had a lot to say, and little to understand, not the way things currently remained. Something had to change first.

“Riyxia, welcome back. Is there anything I could help you with?” “Sorry to bother you, but I might need your help with a few different things. It seems I’m going to have the need of a conference room, or somewhere to hold a meeting with a handful of people. Ideally, I’m hoping for a place as confidential as possible, something I hope is available around here. I suspect you’re going to want to be present for such a meeting, but you might want to wear something that better demonstrates your authority around here. Beyond you, there aren’t many others who will be present, we will be fine if there is room for seven. Any chance you could make that work?” “Ah, the council room might be perfect for something like that. Please, wait with your friends, I will be out shortly to make sure everything is arranged.” Ayzherie smiled as Riyxia nodded and left. It had in fact dawned on the tactician that someone as talented as Riyxia would not be someone she could influence directly, only someone she could leave an invitation for and wait for it to be accepted. It had been far too plain that the girl was desperate to have someone else to confide in. She wasn’t lying about what she would do with that trust either. As an experienced leader, she saw vast potential in Riyxia’s leadership ability, reminding herself of the same struggles she had herself endured in her own inexperience. Beyond that, there was just something about the girl that compelled her into wanting to lend a hand, possibly another factor attributed to the girl’s own leadership potential.

Riyxia returned quickly after in silence, trying to figure out how she should best proceed. Everyone else still had no idea what was going on, leaving the room again in a continued silent confusion. Not long after, Ayzherie showed up again, back in uniform, and started to lead the way down the halls. Riyxia started after her, motioning for everyone else to follow. When the student stayed there in extended confusion, she returned and grabbed his hand, leading him towards their destination. On arrival, however, they found the room already occupied. Of course, Ayzherie couldn’t use a cell, there was no way she could make arrangements other than in person. She was even plainly aware she might have raised a commotion here, if she hadn’t been so aware of Ayzherie’s circumstances, a fine example of the difference between ignorance and knowledge. She waited patiently for Ayzherie to consider any alternative, then followed along once Ayzherie set off again. This time, their expedition took them out of the shelter and a distance towards the mountains, then into another passage. Their destination appeared more designed for storage than meetings, but was far away enough from everything that it could work. Ayzherie even left a sign on the door, to inform anyone that the space was currently off limits. Once everything was in order, they found seats as boxes and tried to get comfortable.

“Thank you, everyone. I’m sorry, this is really rather difficult for me, but it seems that something must be done. There has been a lot of growing unrest from uncertainty, as people put together fragments and are left with… Well, what I’m trying to say is that I’m getting tired of keeping secrets like this. The three of us travelled to this city to learn more, not to persist with ignorance. We came here from a village a long drive away, and have been trying to fit in. That we’ve done such even so well is something I can’t actually explain. Vwyx here came looking to learn more about instrumentation, having only lived a life of crafting with her family, and suddenly she became almost a kind of expert in the field. Sryine had always loved books, an escape from the politics of her family, even though she’s suddenly started doing very well with serious subjects like it ever since we got here. Myself.. oh by the divine, where do I even begin?” Riyxia started off the entire discussion by exposing their true origins and true purpose. As she continued to disclose such details, the flood of things that needed to be explained started to overwhelm her.

“Wait, village? So like, the boonies beyond civilization you could call it. Seriously capable craftsmanship.. wouldn’t that make you three the same three girls that… Oh wow, all this time, wow. I don’t suppose any of you would be familiar with the name Liyuzhe?” Jwyexzn pulled out the business card he had been carrying all this time. “I was told that this might be a reminder of all the things you’ve left behind, that a childhood friend misses you. I’m not sure which of you, but I get the feeling that I'm not making a mistake this time. I mean, a lot of things still don’t make sense, Riyxia’s personal condition probably worst of all, but now all this stuff about Astral Flame just really makes everything complicated.” Jwyexzn considered the magnitude of the situation, that this was the detail he had been sent to sniff out, to uncover. Funny that no one had asked him to disclose any information, besides Ayzherie of course.. who was actually already present. Even dipping his foot into the details, it was becoming clear that he still might need to really consider how usable this information actually was. He was becoming more and more compelled to lend a hand rather than sell them out, after how invested he had already become.

“If Riyxia is so certain about this, then maybe I should be the one to explain about the flame. There was an.. accident about a year ago. Vwyx and I were helping out a friend one night, a girl who dreamed of the stars. She had this portal, a thing designed to connect with the moon, a first step towards the stars. Things didn’t work out that way, though. When we opened the portal, there was this ominous purple flame waiting for us, burning through all the defenses we had set up. She told us to run, to save ourselves, and stayed behind to hold it back as long as she could. She wasn’t able to hold it back for very long, the flames took her, and came racing for us. We took some serious burns as a result, injuries that took a year to heal. Riyxia.. she too…” Sryine tried her best to explain, tears flooding as she recounted that night, cutting her off. Vwyx gave her a hug, trying to lend a measure of comfort, she herself vividly able to recount the same details.

“Wait, that would have been the Astral Flame, there is no question about it. So your friend accidentally opened a portal to the Astral Flame. Wait, that would have required the portal to interfere with the world veil.. unless something has already happened to it. The wrong boundary of the world, not to the stars but to places beyond. Places like Earth, from the Terran Mythos, a passage guarded by the world’s veil. The Astral Flame had to have escaped in some moment of weakness. Even so, everything the Astral Flame touches is to be consumed, at least anything living, the flame can’t do anything to things such as stone, or even the dead. It is a wellpool of essence, the fuel that sustains life, and the fire that burns it out. You said it had burned you, but if that was the case, how are you still alive? The flame would have devoured your essence, burned it clean away.” The student was really perplexed by this revelation, and the implications it had. He took a moment to consider his own observations before continuing.

“Even now, you each carry traces of the flame, which shouldn’t have even been possible, but clearly it substantiates your claims. The flame should have burned away at your essence, consumed that which makes you alive, but it hasn’t. The fire that burns away life is also the fuel that sustains it, there is essence within the Astral Flame, but such essence comes from beyond the veil, the essence of the deceased from other worlds. What if the traces of the flame within you wasn’t just the flame, but actually the embers of a lost essence, fused with your own. Wait, that would still consume a person’s essence, the flame would have acted first. Wait, what if it had, and the original essence was lost, only to then be replaced. It might not have been lost either, just left a hollow shard, maybe even only a smaller portion of its original, and the rest would have been supplemented by the second essence. But that wouldn’t have had perfect results either, of course that would have required substantial time for the new essence to adjust to its circumstances before it could accomplish anything. Even then, this would involve substantial changes in behaviour and such in the individual, they would have beheld new ambitions and new insights, even a shift in personality as the two segments found a new whole. Actually, none of this seems to properly account for.. Riyxia at all. You make it sound like she wasn’t even there, and yet she also has the same traces.” The student had pulled out his notes, scouring over them in thought as he pieced everything together.

Riyxia’s eyes grew wider as he continued, essences fused, the old possibly lost. According to him, this would require the person involved to change, so that a person with certain ambitions and talents would suddenly develop a second set of ambitions and talents, even a change in behaviour. She looked towards her friends, evaluating how things had been. She had no memories of them before the flame, but had seen their ambitions grow and change beyond their original bounds. Meanwhile, both of them had developed sudden talents for things they shouldn’t have ever aspired to in their lives in the village, with shifts that had flustered her in how much they didn’t make any sense. This however made a lot more sense. What was troubling was the implications that came with it. First off, it probably implied that she too was dealing with the same circumstances, but having no memories of her predecessor made it difficult for her to sort out what was introduced to her from her predecessor, and what came instead from the flame. More alarming than that, the simple reflection of the impact on the original essence, how it was most likely the new essence that was the one running the scene now, only pulling little things from the older essence to build it’s complete identity. She had thought she was the only one born from the death of another, but it was starting to look like both Sryine and Vwyx might actually be living those same circumstances, and even her own life was from a chain of death. Well, it might not be so certain, there was the chance of at least a partial survival of the original essence, but it seemed as if it was still the new essence which had taken over, either as symbiote or as parasite, depending on if the original essence had suffered a form of death of its own. Even in the best case, not even the other girls remained the people they thought they still were, let alone herself.

“I wasn’t there, not exactly, and yet I was. I hear the girl who was helping them had a rather serious death, thrown from the flames out through a window, falling from a deadly height to crash into the ground a fair distance away. Her father though is very ambitious himself, something she probably picked up from him. He’s been researching the creation of autonomy in instrumentation, using artificial bodies to try and replicate living conditions in an instrument. Such success would progress towards making instruments that could run perpetually, without having a person there to fuel it with their gift, control it with their focus, it would just operate all on its own. However, it seems that even his best efforts were missing something, a key to making the whole thing work. Even his best emulation had no essence of it’s own, but the conditions of his daughter’s death, most likely due to her condition from the Astral Flame, what remained of her essence as a result was ideal. It was an essence after death, something that could be placed inside one of his greatest versions, one he had even made based completely on the body and even blood of his daughter. He even ensured such a creation had thoughts to relate to, stuff that would complete her sense of identity, though she still lacked much of the memories from her predecessor.. my predecessor.” Riyxia sighed, her exposure as not really being an elf suddenly completed. Technically, even Jwyexzn had started to figure out a few things on his own, it really had to happen eventually.

This was some of her greatest secrets exposed, but such might in fact be for the best. This would open avenues for them to learn more things they should know about the city and the Astral Flame, far better than remaining in ignorance.