After a reasonably short trip, the two arrived at their transit destination. The seventeenth stop along the line, there was little to distinguish this one from any other, but not all stops on a journey were ever so obvious.

Axln was suddenly surprised by Lyun getting up without warning, though in all accounts this was still generally how public transit worked, there was always a stop that was your’s. Having been silent the entire trip, it was not as if Axln would have known in advance where they were going, she actually still had no idea what Lyun’s plan was. They were going to go visit someone, that was about everything Axln knew at this point. She really didn’t like not knowing the plan, but she couldn’t tell how much Lyun had worked out in this plan of her’s, and it wasn’t as if Axln had enough information to contribute anything yet either. Following along, Axln was right behind her as they left the vehicle the same way they had arrived. From there it was a quick walk to another building, Axln noticing that a vast scrawl was almost burned into the surface of several.. signs. That’s what this was, it was clearly words trying to stand out and promote where they were going, so the place was obviously some kind of business. The place seemed rather small for a business, sort of in a low density district too. Lyun however walked right inside, pausing only to make sure Axln was still behind her.

“Good day Lyun, welcome once again. How can I help you today?” “Hello doctor. It’s sort of a long tale, but I was hoping you might spend a moment to take a look at our arms, and.. maybe help us work a few things out.” “Lyun… You know I only work with Ersatz, not actual people. Human elemental composition is far too complicated for someone in my field, far too.. alive.” “That’s why you’re perfect, look at this.” “Oh my, what happened to you?” “Like I said, it’s quite the story.” The elven doctor inspected Lyun’s right arm with absolute surprise, starting to catch on that there really might be quite a lot more to this situation than first apparent. She guided Lyun and Axln into her office and brought them to a secluded room to go over the details. While Lyun repeated the usual story of their strife, Axln looked around at her surroundings patiently. She could see how this would be the office of a woman of science, the place was scattered with several unknown devices everywhere. Axln didn’t even know what an Ersatz was, but it was sounding like this doctor was being compared to some kind of medical science. Notably though, Lyun seemed to believe this to be someone helpful with the state of their marked arms. Actually, that might be a marvellous place to begin, getting more insight into her frozen arm might be really helpful right now. She turned down to her frozen arm, realizing that in all consideration.. it didn’t quite seem what she would call frozen right now. It was still pure white, that wasn’t changed, but it was almost more a white glass or stone than actually frosted. She still didn’t want to touch it, such an arm having been rather intimidating for her ever since she was so marked, but it was perplexing that there were slight changes. While thus distracted, she didn’t notice herself being approached by someone new.

“Good day ma’am, sorry to interrupt you. The doctor would like you to lie down over here so that we can run a few checks.” “Oh, uh, sure, fine.” The woman appeared to be some kind of assistant or something, though there was something subtly unusual about such a woman to Axln. When she spoke, it was as if there wasn’t even a trace of emotion in her voice, something about the woman seeming to be highly artificial. Dismissing such inconsiderate ideas, Axln turned to the open air the woman was indicating her towards. Instinctually, she started to form a sliver of complaints about the irrational request, was she to lie upon the floor? Instead, she looked around and found some strange devices placed upon the ground, the things appearing to be venting air. She turned around to find Lyun, seeing her a short distance away resting over such a similar device, floating in the air. A person’s body density is supposed to be too high for it to be capable of resting on pure air, gasses are lighter than solids. This was blatantly standing in defiance of a few very significant laws of science. Intrigued, Axln tested her knowledge of science against this scenario, resting carefully against the cushion of air, and finding herself floating softly a distance above, the gentle wind feeling comfortable on her back. It was at that moment where she resolved that the idea that her known laws of reality may no longer apply.. that might be a bit more than just a theory now. Everything else might have had an answer, but you can’t question matter density, this was about as simple as you could get.

“Alright, I’ll look into things here, you go help things with our other patient. So, Axln, it seems like you’ve been through quite a lot coming here.” “Hello.. doctor.” “If it’s more comfortable, feel free to call me Ezhyrae. … or is that too much for you? Lyun wasn’t joking, you do have quite the accent to your speech going on. Either way, let me look into that arm of your’s with a couple of instruments, I’ve got a few tests I would like to run. I apologize in advance, I’m not used to working on patients like you, humans and elves both actually. My typical patients tend to be of those who themselves aren’t quite so.. alive, like my assistant over there.” Ezhyrae carefully tried to set a strange.. instrument.. upon Axln’s arm as Axln put things together in her mind. Not alive, so.. they were artificial? That floated somewhere between fantasy ideas sorted between golem, homunculi, and possibly even the undead.. while also feeling like some kind of android. After all, the first three didn’t look anything close to so authentic in any renderings she had been aware of, but concepts such as androids.. especially with the lack of emotions, actually.. that was feeling a lot more accurate. Having devoted herself to artificial life, her nanites, it was an idea that quite had her intrigued.

“My, now this is interesting. Absolutely zero.. your arm is completely devoid of all elements, absolutely void.” “Absolute zero, huh? So, not frozen?” “Of course not, there aren't even traces of frost elements in your arm, it’s like there is nothing there at all.” “Elements, so that’s a normal thing?” “Of course, everything is formed by elements. Light and dark, sky and stone, fire and frost, water and wood. When all is in balance, there is life, and when none is left, it is void. That’s the base principle of the elements.” Now this.. this lesson of Ezhyrae.. this sounded to Axln like a kind of science. Certainly, it wasn’t her science, this was a different science, a different set of laws. In her own reality, her nanites had established her arm as being a very different version of absolute zero, a state in which all atomic energy was gone. Very similar then was to hear that this is what it would look like if all elements were stripped from it. Both explanations felt like a very chemistry styled answer, but distinct to both sets of laws. The difference in appearance would then be in how this zero-state resolves based upon each set of laws. Different, and yet similar, both a solid white.

“So doctor, any idea what might have caused this? Your Ersatz background has you heavily invested into the elements, so surely you have some ideas?” “Lyun, you make it sound like this is even remotely normal. In all accounts, with something like this, I can’t even tell how you are alive. Like I had said, when the elements are in balance, there is life, and when there is none, it is void. This arm is completely of the void, completely incompatible with life, I have no idea how you both are even still alive. I worry that, whatever it is, it may be killing you gradually. … wait, you said that right around when you were marked, you also found the both of you travelling to each other’s worlds, as if the world around you was itself subtly shifting? There is a legend about that by the way, a very old one, a part of the Terran Mythos. The legend tells that there was a passage from Celese to Earth through what was known as the Celesi Veil, the fabric of all existence.” “But, this is Ruixse, we’re not even in the same star cluster as Celese right now.” “No, we aren’t, but who is to say that the veil is a thing only special to Celese, that it couldn’t reach beyond. You even said that the other side was not a world called Earth, Ruixse’s veil then finding its way to this other world.” Lyun was starting to follow Ezhyrae’s line of thought, it did look quite plausible at least. Lyun then became quite lost in her own thoughts and worries in such considerations.

“It is like you’ve touched the veil, even passed through it directly. That alone shouldn’t have been possible, the temporal realm of the veil standing beyond anything elemental. Touching it alone should have unmade you, leaving nothing behind but wisps of fragments that faded soon after.” “That’s.. that’s what happened to her, didn’t it? Fiona.. even Isha.. or however you say her name.. drained of everything before fading away into a mist of nothing.” “That could possibly still happen to you both too, if either of you aren’t careful. This is some really dangerous stuff, but quite honestly the problem isn’t just involving you both. When you read about the veil, there are two significant repercussions about it every single time. First, tampering with the veil has the danger of potentially causing a tear, an act which would cause massive destruction to potentially everything. It was said that if the Celese Veil was torn, Celese would be unmade. In that line of thought, such a tear here could unmake all of Ruixse. Whatever had caused this could then potentially endanger everyone. On the other hand, there have been two known times where the veil had been impacted, a tear prevented in each case. The first one was at the dawn of the instrumentation era, the second was the dawn of the elemental era. I do not think such timing was simply coincidence, each time the veil is influenced, everything changes dramatically. It does mean that, while this could threaten all of our existence, it could also be the dawn of a new era.” Ezhyrae was making this whole thing to be quite a big thing, but Axln believed something important was still missing in all of this. All of this veil stuff was of this reality, not her own. Actually, was it?

“Your Terran Mythos, earth’s fairy tales, legends between worlds. The people of earth though are infinitely ignorant, it is entirely possible they may have simply ignored the facts behind the fiction. Aestus has thus nothing like this veil you speak of, but that might not mean it doesn’t exist, it or something like it. You say that the veil unmakes people, and I got to personally see Fiona fade away. This mirror reflects both ways, something that I might really need to look into if I get another turn to be home. Touching the veil.. I suspect then that the anomaly we found was then of the veil.. or whatever it is like on my side. Most importantly though.. such a thing vanished, leaving no signs of such a passage remaining. With our latest passage through such a veil, I suspect that we’ve become such a mark ourselves, our arm having been linked directly.” “That might be true, and if so, I would highly recommend securing that arm of your’s. If your arm is linked to the veil, then that creates the possibility of opening the link and letting another contact the veil too.. something which others may not be as protected from as you yourself have been. You should start considering your arm there as dangerously ashen, to maybe even start using protective gear around it at all times. There is a store right next door that sells clothing like that, we can even get you something right away.” Axln took that as a sign that the checkup was over, that Ezhyrae was moving to the prescription phase of this visit. Certainly though, this was an idea she would have to keep in mind, her frozen arm may actually be just as dangerous as her ashen one. Lyun was following along too, with even their current nurse joining in as well. Inside this store, Axln quickly found herself with a thin long protective glove, supposedly some kind of insulator. Wearing such on both arms however was proving a bit stifling, like her normal arm couldn’t get enough circulation. Wearing only one glove would look a touch bit unusual, but there really didn’t seem to be any way to win in this case. She made sure to at least pack away the spare glove, it might have some uses on occasion. Lyun looked to be of like mind on the subject as well.

“While we’re here, actually, could we pick up some clothes for Axln. I sort of owe her a favour in that one, and this looks like a great opportunity.” “Lyun, you and your favours. I know it was a lot to ask for those rushed components earlier, but this is a bit much too.” “Relax, I at least have the Qeld to cover the purchases, you’re just here as a friend helping with your opinions in this case. I mean, you get a lot of practice, considering all the dolls you need to dress up.” “Fine, whatever. How tall is she anyway?” “I don’t know, I’m about 7 and 9 Uyn, she’s .. less.” “That’s a lot of help. Assistant, can we get a measurement here?” Lyun shrugged, letting Ezhyrae get into her expertise. The Ersatz was right behind Axln, obviously handling the measuring somehow. “7 and 5 Uyn.” Ezhyrae’s assistant backed away as Axln found herself dragged into matters of local fashion before she could follow what had happened.

Lyun stepped out of the store, giving the others room to work, just the same as Axln had done for her before. She was hiding a smile at the trouble she had caused, inspiring Ezhyrae into such motivation. Yhzia was also 7 and 5 Uyn, it would have been her best guess. Even so, she was really thankful for all the efforts Ezhyrae had been putting into this. Clearly, her plan to find help in her world that was similar to what was found in Sophie at the other world was panning out really well. She pulled out the elemental chart that Ezhyrae had slipped to her earlier, an overview of Axln’s condition. Interestingly, it was looking like Axln might have an affinity with the stone element. It wasn’t surprising though, it was almost a family thing apparently. Yhzia herself also had quite an affinity for stone, specifically in metals, possibly a fuel for her interest in Mythos metals. Axln’s stone affinity might be more specific to its own specialty too, but Lyun had no way to figure out what that might be. She herself was more in tune with the frost element, though it wasn’t as if she had applied that very much. The most she had ever done with such was to try and do a reverse element reaction to empower the flame of her instruments. Each element had an inverse, the two elements viced against each other in conflict, removing such conflict made it easier to manipulate the other element. However, she might need to practice something a touch more mundane, and actually impress Axln with the gift itself.

The gift was not something that had been used much anywhere in recent history, elemental instrumentation having fully proven itself superior in all ways. The gift itself runs from the blood of it’s user, draining the stamina of the user to achieve some sort of trained result. Each person could train in their own area of expertise, certainly, but instrumentation could do everything. The principle at least was the founding concept behind how instrumentation works though, an impression of a person’s will to design an intended result. Originally, this meant that humans could use their superior stamina to longer usage of the gift, and elves could use their improved sense of focus to achieve more detailed results, but even instruments there took the best of both options beyond the capacity of either. However, instruments weren’t perfect, sometimes certain situations asked for a little bit from a person present, drops of the gift, you could say. Such was why it would be useful to make sure Axln was aware of what would be her own gift. Lyun pulled out her cell, the only instrument she actually was carrying at the time, considering it in example and wondering if maybe she should have left Yhzia’s cell with Axln, so at least someone was using it. While staring at the thing though, she found she had missed a call, one that had probably come in while she was on the table, the cell off so as to not cause any elemental interference. She quickly rushed so as to return the call.

“Hey, Zxyd, sorry for missing your call.” “Lyun, there you are. Sorry I don’t have much time left, I’ve got work to get back to soon.” “The wardens are riding you dry, seriously. Okay, so what can I help you with?” “Trying to dig up some useful information on instruments that might help with one of our investigations, actually. Do you know of a way to do rift generation in a void?” “You can’t do rift generation in a void. The rift still requires an active element, you simply can’t make it from void, and the void would itself block the active element.” “Yeah, that’s what I keep finding too, but it doesn’t explain what happened last dusk. Look, you didn’t hear this from me, but there was a break in at the Obsidian Hall, the wardens have been investigating ever since. Seems some ancient relic might have been stolen in the process, though no one is willing to talk about those details. The thieves broke in, stole the relic, and were confronted by our wardens, trapped in a dead end in a chamber filled with the void. Despite all odds, they just.. vanished, like they had teleported somehow. We don’t even have anything to go by, the two simply wearing ashen gear that covered every last detail about them. This is the most hopeless investigation I’ve ever suffered, and I’m not finding anything to build hope from anywhere.” “Oh my, that does sound.. complicated. Sorry I can’t be of any help to you. Anyway, I really should be going, I’ve got a lot of stuff to still look into for myself this dawn, I wouldn’t want to cause any problems. You take care though.” “You too, best of luck.” Lyun disconnected the call from her warden friend, shaking despite her best efforts as she returned inside. The wardens were holding an investigation to find her, this was a disaster. She felt really lucky though, they had absolutely nothing to go by, it was actually at this point impossible for her to get caught. There was no proof she was there, and there was no trail left behind, not unless you could track her between worlds.

“Lyun, perfect timing. Come look at my latest masterpiece? Quite honestly, it's far easier to figure this out with someone who has their own opinions, I have got to tell you that. I would have figured her into the same vested tights look as your own, the dirty browns clearly picked because things would only get even dirtier, but my word this woman has finesse. Long sleevelets for her upper arms with a double layered cropped top blending into shorts with long leglets. It’s fragmented in layers but somehow seems so full bodied, a work of art.” “Axln is just in touch with her wild side, she’s friends with a fashion expert. I figured the experience would do you some good, you’re welcome by the way.” “Quite. Anyhow, I really should get back to my work. Axln has shown to be quite intrigued by a few things though, so you’re welcome to relax in the spare room. I’ll be hard at work at the study, but feel free to drop by if something comes up.” “Perfect, that works for us. I hope you wouldn’t mind me making use of a few instruments in your storehouse though, matters of research, rest assured, and I will ensure nothing is broken. Anyway, how much Qeld do I owe for the outfit?” “Oh, that? Don’t worry, I took care of it already, matters of research, rest assured. I’m sure if you break anything, you’ll be certain to either repair or replace it, so go ahead.” Ezhyrae and Lyun were almost competing for who could outplay the other at this point. Axln wanted nothing to do with it, leaving the two elves to their thing, following the nurse back who helpfully showed her to the designated room. Already, Axln was finding working with these Ersatz to be rather comfortable, like working with her nanites. The room she was left too was empty for the most part, with only an assortment of round containers sitting around, one of which she used as a seat to wait on. She still did not have to wait long.

“So, this worked out really well. Now for the next phase of my great plan.” “Great, I was wondering when I could see a bit more of this element stuff at work. What are we going to look at first?” “Hey, now don’t ruin my fun. I didn’t even have time to rehearse yet. This isn’t going to be easy.” Lyun then took a deep breath, Axln just watching in confusion. Lyun placed a small round instrument on another nearby container, the device hissing softly, Axln feeling the humidity of the room going up. Lyun then posed standing up, her right hand hovering in front of her, focusing on the faint mist forming. In the air above her hand, a sheet of ice began to form and collect, a design that looked sort of familiar. Axln peered even closer, seeing that this demonstration looked so much like a holo panel, the details on the screen even shifting around at random. Axln poked the thing, which didn’t respond, obviously a fake then. Lyun could figure out that idea, but she was still in control. Shifting the design slightly, she made the whole thing look like a low quality screen showing what Axln looked like from Lyun’s perspective. Lyun moved at random, the image moving to emulate slowly in the process. Axln considered that the absolutely crappy responsiveness and frame rate actually established that this was not a video, the whole thing was being rerendered manually in real time. She was even more impressed when she learned the details behind what was actually at play here. Lyun was using an instrument to generate the water for her to focus upon, but she was herself weaving ice out of it, no instrument required for that at all. Not only that, but supposedly Axln could do something like that too, possibly. The gift was in her blood too, actually waiting to be used, Axln just wasn’t aware of it.

Axln continued listening to Lyun’s demonstration and lesson, the fundamentals behind elemental instrumentation and the gift being presented to her. Such was only a beginning but both of them were exploring how the laws of each other’s world actually worked.