Liyuzhe stepped through the gate that had been formed for her, finding Fhyernx already present with his own instruments in hand. It was still early in the morning, but there was suddenly so much work to be done.

“Really, this is a rather abrupt start to a morning, I was already busy with the records I’d gathered for myself. Your claims even seem impossible, you sure you didn’t confuse everything with one of your stories?” “Actually, I already verified that. It seems she left the security system going the whole time, so we’ve got plenty of records to work with. According to surveillance, there was no record at all of an intruder, for most of the period there, until this point when her own coat was found draped over someone else, who had then rushed over to the containment unit and had taken it down. Once the whole thing was down, the individual carried the captive out. We lost records along some of the corridors, the halls being poorly lit at first, but we found the room where the coat had been discarded. After that, we’ve got records of the conflict that had ensued once Ieqyisa confronted Riyxia, right up to her safe departure using one of the windcrafts in the hangar. And yes, it was even the one you had picked for her to take when she left.” Liyuzhe was still finding accounts of events difficult to believe, turning to the video records Fhyernx offered as proof of such claims.

“After calling you both, I even discovered something else. It seems there is a book missing from my collection, something that had been taken, either by her or by her hidden companion.” “A companion who even video records claim had just vanished. The cameras show the armor having been undisturbed the entire time. Eventually we managed to get stuff cleaned up, with the armor still left there, but there was no one found inside. Cameras even show the armor moving around before then. Honestly, even seeing proof of everything, nothing makes sense.” Ieqyisa’s concern was starting to become shared by Fhyernx, who simply couldn’t figure out what he was looking at even with all the evidence before him, and he was usually good with such in depth instrumentation. Liyuzhe however wouldn’t let herself lose her head, Khyzae had taught them better than that. Watching the recordings, she discovered something unusual right away.

“Wait, the moment our unknown visitor takes down the containment cell, they take the coat off. You can see it discarded at this point, but at no point do you even see the person under the coat. You can even see here that there is a book inside the coat, possibly the one in question. After the containment cell is shut down, the person puts back on the coat to pick Riyxia up. Later, we find they discard the coat yet again, leaving it suspect that they were hiding in the armor. However, look at this footage, the large hall that the battle was fought in always had good lighting, but there was never anyone entering after the scene involving the coat. Hells, this is like one of those Terran Mythos Ghost Stories you keep talking about, Ieqyisa. Might there be a gift that lets someone move like that? Wait, if that’s even an idea, what stops Riyxia from herself being the ghost? That’s like complicated telepathy.” “Telepathy while you’re fast asleep?” “Hold on, this clip, you can see her injuries after she was attacked. Can we zoom in on this?” “Oh, yeah, sure, give me a sec.” “This.. this looks nothing like a person’s regular injury, this isn’t how people are injured. Did the beast leave something strange like this by its injuries? No, that one wouldn’t be capable of it. Where are the results of tests for the period she was in containment?” Liyuzhe took the record from Fhyernx, looking over the data for herself, in all of its zeroes. Ieqyisa had suspected that the results had to be fabricated, which might have even in part been true, but the whole results could even be perfectly accurate.

“Wait, you said a book was missing. When I met with her friends earlier, they had seemed suspiciously well informed. What sort of records did she feel compelled to take for herself in the intensity of all this activity?” “Oh, uh.. Give me a bit, I’ll see if I can remember what used to be there. Oh yeah, it was that weird book called ‘Astral Flame, the Void of Worlds’, if I remember right.” “Flame? Your brother was talking about something like that earlier, something about ‘the fluctuation of the veil and the threat of the flame’. Wait, Void of Worlds, would the veil have then been the Celesi Veil? Hells, we take the girl in to get more information from her, and in the end she left with exactly the information she would have wanted.” “I swear, every moment I keep seeing more and more of Khyzae in her. Her coming because she wanted, doing as she wanted, leaving because she wanted.. it would not surprise me right now.” “..and here I thought I got the better end of the deal from her friends.” Liyuzhe was starting to feel as manipulated as Ieqyisa was at this point. Ieqyisa did find it interesting that her brother had gotten involved, but with concerns about Khyzae’s influence, somehow that was starting to seem unavoidable.

“So what exactly is the Astral Flame anyway?” “Oh, supposedly it's a destructive void beyond the world’s veil, acting as a sort of wellpool of essences, a place beyond life and death. There is a going theory that the Terran Mythos even references it as something else, something called Dark Matter, along with gates called Black Holes.” “Beyond the world, why does that sound so much like Khyzae. Wait, why does this Astral Flame sound like a power source? Did they actually learn to harness the Astral Flame? Is that what had caused all of this? Their untold power would have some kind of explanation. Even here in this recording, it looks like Ieqyisa’s barrier failed. Fhyernx did say that the barrier would not hold up against the flame readings I had recovered earlier. Fhyernx, you also said that you had suspected a dramatic change in the girls over the one year term of their illness, something they were covering up. Khyzae’s notes kept claiming we were missing something important, something her successor seemed much more keenly aware of, but it doesn’t help that we have no idea what sort of research Khyzae was up to that sparked such a pretense of illness. She said we have the information, if we knew where to look as well.” Liyuzhe’s comment made Ieqyisa tense up for a moment, realizing that Khyzae might have caught her once again somehow.

“Actually, we do have that information. I’m sorry, it’s been something I’ve been researching on my own time.” Ieqyisa returned with the notes that had been scattered on her bed, presenting them to Liyuzhe with a hint of shame at having been caught with them. Liyuzhe nodded her understanding, catching that Khyzae must have predicted this as well. A quick review of the notes even showed that so much was just coming together almost as if Khyzae was manipulating things in their favour. A portal between worlds, a matter of location. Her letter left for both parties had spoken that that location was also considered, having some of what was needed, but not everything. Missing the forest for the trees, another place with the same wood. The village! The portal she was making would only work in that one location? Why? Wait, the others were watching the flame and the veil, like the danger found there was semblent to the very world itself. To escape a cage, you find where it's weakest, no wonder Khyzae had gone along with such a trip. So the village had the weakest border, a path to the stars. The stars, or the flame? Even in all her passion for finding a new resource, she had still paid attention to Khyzae’s ambitions. These notes made clear that she should have found a ton of rock, instead of a destructive flame void. However, Khyzae’s notes had projected that the current circumstance would have only occurred if she had made a mistake. Khyzae was also missing, but there was this suspicious successor left behind, and a strange accident left untold.

“Okay, we have two things now to commit immediate research on. The mountain of flame and death, as it had been called earlier, I need some actual in depth details on. I’ve committed a lot of research on that, including a compilation of notes from Riyxia’s friends, so we should be able to put that together as we travel to our other destination. We need to visit that village, and uncover the secrets of what had happened a year ago. Ieqyisa, you had taken a great opportunity to scour one observatory already, this other one should be far easier to find notes at.” “Oh hells, does that mean we have to talk to her parents again? Their parents are pretty creepy, you know that. Even the village thinks they're pretty creepy, and they haven’t even seen her father’s creepy doll collection.” “Dolls? Oh right, he was the one who made life-like dolls, things supposed to handle gift automation by artificially replicating the same process. It was actually always an interesting idea, honestly, something I had thought about myself. Our current beast project was actually inspired by it, honestly, at Khyzae’s recommendation. It’s been for the best, as I’ve heard that such lifeless dolls would have had no chance at achieving anything without an essence of their own.” Liyuzhe laughed at the memory, leaving Fhyernx to wonder at the connection. He personally felt tending beasts was a lot more sensible than dreaming about creepy dolls. Liyuzhe at least knew such dolls were much higher in quality than even Fhyernx was accounting for, they were designed to be fully capable of simulating all reaches of realism, emulating a real person in physical design so well, it was actually impressive. The insides though were slightly different, but that’s not something the average person would have noticed unless they were cut open or otherwise injured.

Liyuzhe paused mid thought, shocked and stunned. Cut open or injured, exactly like Riyxia had been. She turned back to the recording of Riyxia being injured, pausing at the scene revealing the injury. Then she flipped back quickly to records of her physical diagnosis. Vital signs, but not a person. Normal weight, no authentic nutrition. A normal pulse, but almost zero of what makes a person a person in close observation. Looks like Khyzae, has the same blood as Khyzae, a perfect match for Khyzae’s living signature. Liyuzhe wouldn’t put past Khyzae’s father the idea of him making a doll that looked exactly like his daughter, replicating her blood, even her living signature. Of course, that wouldn’t work without an essence, but wasn’t this whole Astral Flame thing about the wellpool of essences? And all this while, the same girl who looked and sounded exactly like Khyzae was adamant that she wasn’t actually Khyzae. Of course, if she was something designed to be so much like Khyzae, that might only be rational. But that in turn left an ever obvious question, what happened to Khyzae then? The moment someone would have been up and about taking her own image, she would have been all over them, manipulating their every action. She probably was, considering the meeting that had just occurred, but Khyzae had never been the one to step out from a big project, she would have been there the whole time had she been able. That implied one thing, that something had happened to Khyzae, something so serious that it had kept her from being directly involved, leaving her to only shape things from the shadows.

None of these past observations alarmed Liyuzhe as much as realizing that her dear friend might have perished in a serious accident, leaving behind a successor to carry on Khyzae’s vision. No, no, no, it couldn’t be. She had pledged to be at her close friend’s side, so even this theory hurt a lot. However, in all accounts, she had already failed her friend, leaving her to attempt her own gate to the stars alone. If Khyzae had instead discovered an otherworldly power, it was almost a parting gift that had been left behind for Liyuzhe, a matter that only brought her even more shame. For Khyzae to have lost her life in her dream, only to have died bringing Liyuzhe her dream instead. It was all too obvious, Liyuzhe should have been there to help, even if she had also died in the process. She was certain the other two would agree with this concept too, something she would only bring up once her theory was proven correct or not. However, for this to have been left behind, now she had no choice but to accept this gift and to make the most of it. If it had killed Khyzae to discover, Liyuzhe had to build upon the discovery to salvage even a fragment of the cost. If it had killed Khyzae, the ultimately prepared genius that she is, Liyuzhe would have to be careful. Khyzae prepared for everything, possibly even her own death, so to have been caught off guard and to have made a fatal mistake would have required something significant.

“While we’re there, I need you both to start off with locating any hint as to what might have happened to Khyzae. Discount that Riyxia we saw earlier, I have my suspicions as to what all of that might really be about. I’ll be confronting her parents about everything directly, I’ll use my gift to get the information from them if I have to. Just a serious warning, do not mess with her stuff in the village. This village contains a major secret we’re only barely tapping into, and I fully expect such a secret could overwhelm us if we just approach it casually. I think it's especially important to not make use of these notes Ieqyisa recovered until we’ve got more information from Khyzae, or at least her own parents. We need to keep things discreet too, we’ve fallen behind in information, so we don’t want to raise any alarms. As I recall, Khyzae’s observatory is a fair distance away from the village, so it might be prudent to gain some visibility of the hill it’s supposed to be sitting on and set up a gate hidden by it. We can get a lot of coverage from the trees, even possibly the clouds, but we need to make sure we’re not spotted in the sky either. Fhyernx is an especially familiar face there, so you will need to remain out of sight the entire time. Just busy yourself with your instruments, collect all the data you can about anything related. As we travel, we need to prepare anything we can for this Astral Flame. Fhyernx, I hope you can take some of our records and begin production of related instruments to help with this process, especially anything useful for our arrival. Ieqyisa, I need you to dig up any other records you might have regarding the Astral Flame, any notes you might find. Try to make use of any online information while we’re still in range, then depend on what else you have available once we’re too far away.” Liyuzhe headed off to begin her own planning and preparations, fully aware how busy today had suddenly gotten.

“For having said the morning had started rather abruptly, she’s become rather eager to make things progress with plenty more abruptness. Is she even considering that I hadn’t even gotten an opportunity to actually sleep last night?” “We all know you weren’t going to get any sleep anyway. I know cell connections get pretty bad pretty quick, so you’re going to want to jump on that. It also sounds like your work in the observatory is going to be pretty simple at first, so you’re probably free to take a nap at that point if it’s really required. Look on the bright side, it would be Khyzae’s accommodations, you’ll probably find her touch rather.. nostalgic.” “Your sarcasm is seething, we both know Khyzae had never taken much time for comfort, not even for herself. Did you know her previous observatory was filled with lethal traps designed to end my life if I blinked? If I was worried about falling asleep randomly, I couldn’t think of a better place to go to keep me awake than another of her observatories.” “Ah, so then there won’t be a problem, right? You won’t need to worry about sleep, even the very atmosphere will just keep you going.” “I hope you know that I hate you sometimes.” Ieqyisa’s grim glare though sleep-deprived eyes was not something Fhyernx had missed, but he laughed regardless. If only Khyzae was there too, their little group of four would be whole once again.

It was one thing both of them looked forward to, discovering a chance to include Khyzae in their numbers once again. However, both of them were subtly worried at Liyuzhe’s sudden concern involving Khyzae. They both knew Liyuzhe suspected something and weren't willing to share such concerns. Khyzae had never been satisfied with theories, after all, always expecting absolutes. This was why all three of them had turned to recorded evidence of the night before, rather than settle on speculations of what had happened. Just like that, the speculations provoked from the night needed absolutes too, Liyuzhe would settle for nothing less than answers. It was a level of preparation Khyzae had instilled in all of them, something they continued even in her absence.

In all of Khyzae’s preparation, the only message she had failed to pass on was her final warning moments before her death. She might have instilled a feeling of caution for Liyuzhe successfully, a warning that would be passed on to the other two, but the rest of her message yet remained unspoken, Khyzae’s other failure in her final moments.