It wouldn’t be until the next dusk when Axln and Lyun would be visiting the academy, even if it would be very early that dusk. The two had thus returned to the workshop to rest, to awaken early in the dusk, to face whatever opportunity awaits them.

Axln had no problems getting up early, that was normal for her. It was still a bit weird calling such a dusk hour as early, but she was gradually adjusting. Lyun on the other hand had been at risk of sleeping in, thus remaining slightly groggy at that point. She might have slept well enough, sure, but waking up was supposed to be a bit more of a process than this. Axln meanwhile had practically literally dragged Lyun from her rest, thrown fresh clothes at her, and.. yeah, not even breakfast. They had just instantly gone out in little more than a couple of moments later. Lyun at least understood what was going on, this was Axln being eager to not fail at the grace of an opportunity. Lyun herself knew the value of success, so she didn’t overly fight against the whole idea. Her biggest concern was being properly prepared.

“So, it says here that the academy has a cafeteria that would be open at almost any time. Since we’ve left early, if we remain early enough on arrival, I would like to at least get something to eat.” “But.. do we have time for…” “Axln, don’t just rush us ahead, please. We both have to be ready for this chance, or we’re just going to screw it up. Eat a bit, recharge, we should be good to go. Remember, I’m an elf, I kinda need to recharge more than you do. We’re doing this for my opportunity, so please trust me to know what I will need to be ready for it.” “If we’re early enough, I guess that makes sense. You just never let me know how far away this place is. Actually, do we need to get some of those heavy suits again?” “No, but we’re both going to be faced with the unfortunate fact of having to take major transit. The easiest way there would have been by rift, but unfortunately I really couldn’t afford it. Instead, we’ll be taking a phasecraft there, which is still a very expensive solution, but the only thing that would be fast enough.” Lyun could see Axln was starting to get uncomfortable, prime time transit was going to leave them both in very uncomfortable circumstances. Rift would have been almost instant, the gateway having teleported them to their destination without any time in transit. The phasecraft though was much more traditional, with the exception of it being an underground solution that propelled them through the ground. Because the elements were much weaker right now, phasecrafts could move through stone a lot easier than normal, making the service not only cost slightly less than normal, but would actually be faster than phasing through more intense elements. That did make the service very popular right now though, a fact which would work against them in turn. Unless she was willing to either break the bank on a rift ticket or give up on this opportunity, there really weren't any other options.

The two of them set off for the transit center with that, located fairly close to the mall. On arrival, Lyun found her fears to be only a fraction of their reality. This place was packed, yes, but that was quite an understatement for the situation. Specifically, the place was flooded, leaving hardly enough room to breath when standing between others waiting to board. For some reason, the wardens were everywhere too. Lyun was getting worried that something significant had happened. The crowds weren’t doing much for her calm either, this whole situation was tense, but Lyun was mostly worried about herself making a mistake. The last time she had been in a big crowd, she had made a chain of mistakes that in the end had taken lives. Axln caught Lyun tugging up her white glove, clearly uneasy. Axln herself wasn’t sure how to lend support in this situation, herself still unsure how this whole process worked. Blending into the slow moving crowd, the two of them made their way underground just as a transport phased through the distant wall, an inspiring sight for Axln to behold. The underground corridor was huge, more than just a subway system, it was more like a flight hanger that happened to be completely underground. They made their way to one of the walls, where they found some kind of automated dispenser. Lyun knew what she was doing, interacting with the wall-mounted instrument to obtain two small shards, delicately shaped prismatic tetrahedrons. Axln was shocked, considering a rock like this on the other side would have been really expensive, but here it was more like a carved metal chip, almost a coin of another shape.

After being given one of the pair for herself, Axln followed Lyun towards one of the strange transports. The thing wasn’t completely unfamiliar, looking generally similar to the sort of bus they had taken earlier, just clearly a lot more established and longer. As they approached, they found someone just outside having a very visibly heated argument with another person. Lyun was able to identify this as an argument between a human driver and warden. Not wanting to be noticed, she tried to slip in, offering her chip to an instrument in the front as proof of admission. Axln followed along, but kept to the front of the thing, generally curious as to what significant event might be going on. She was all too certain that, if there was something major going on, it would be vital for them to know about it. It was a survival lesson her lifetime as a conduit had taught her well, to always be aware when something big was going down.

“You’re being ridiculous, there is no way we could…” “This is way above you, the foundry is making the call here. All funding for services related to the academy are being halted effectively immediately.” “Even transit services? That’s ridiculous, it’s…” “.. already been done. There is no use complaining about it.” “There is though, I have some customers here who have paid, there has been no notification. We can’t run a business without notice like that. Look, if you want to post up signs now, we can stop services afterwards, but this trip is going. Technically, the foundry already paid for it too. If I were you, I would just let me get going and start on that signage, so that you don’t also miss the next trip too.” The driver slipped back into the vehicle, leaving the warden outside stammering wordlessly before storming off, presumably to look into some signage. Axln rushed off to take her seat with Lyun, alarmed at what had transpired. Before they could talk about it at all, the transport started moving. Getting seated safely, the whole thing started humming loudly, making for an even worse environment for discussion. Quickly, the hum faded to a subtle stillness, like they were in a sound vacuum. Axln could tell, phasing through solid stone clearly had a few complications when it came to certain things like audible sounds. Lyun meanwhile was already taking a quick nap, leaving Axln stuck in a bored surreal state with an undertone of worry. Clearly, they wouldn’t have cause to worry about it until they arrived, and maybe it would be better to just keep Lyun relaxed while Axln shouldered the problem herself.

Lyun stirred awake a while later as the loud hum returned, signalling their arrival about seven moments later. She found Axln already getting up, ready to go. The two of them left the phasecraft, finding their destination far more quiet in comparison to their departure. Lyun found this to be quite the relief, it was even going to keep them quite ahead of schedule. She had never been here before, but found the signage to be rather helpful. She knew she would be the only one capable of making use of such signs, so took the lead in guiding them around. Her first goal was still to find a place to eat, following signs for the food market. There, activity started to pick up again, the place packed with teachers and students making their way through from their dorms in preparation for another day. Thankfully, the general public appeared to have a lot on their minds too, she was given quite a lot of space to work with. She opted for a simple and nutritious salad to start the day, a bowl filled with quite the pot of compliments to go with the soft snowleaf bed it was mixed into. Axln opted for the same, still completely unable to identify anything in her bowl, though a few of the meats at least looked familiar. Having white lettuce was enough to prove that the whole thing was strange, but having grown used to such novelty she could at least appreciate the tender texture of such lettuce in her mouth. It was a calm respite in her mouth that did not extend to her surroundings.

“I hear the prices of such things are going to go up a bit today. Something about shipments being halted.. what is going on with the foundry all of a sudden?” “No idea, but the teachers seem to be all stressed about it. Hells, I hope that doesn’t mean we’re in for some rough lessons today. I was really hoping to make a comeback, my class scores are really lacking right now.” “I got word that my first class after lunch got cancelled, something about the academy administration running a course inspection. Are they doing that for everything?” “I have one of those too, but mine is just before lunch. I was told that everything we were going to do in that class is now an assignment due tomorrow. This is horrible.” Two students grumbled over the mess of a day before them as they cleaned the food they were eating and made their way to class. Axln had no problem hearing such a close conversation, and could tell Lyun had been paying attention as well. While Axln had been listening in the context of the phasecraft conversation from earlier, Lyun was taking the news from the context of their original presentation at the mall. She had been wondering why the academy might be interested in someone like her, doing stuff without the foundry. However, if the place was having a few minor disputes with the foundry, that might explain an interest in other arrangements.

With her confidence boosted in the knowledge that she had an edge in the matter she could certainly make use of, Lyun set off to find the meeting place she was scheduled to arrive at. She was told it was a place called the Academy's Archives, but she never actually expected the building to be so huge on arrival. The circular infrastructure was even possibly second only to the administration building, being large enough to be its own small town within a single building. The hard part then was not finding the archives, but finding where in the archives she needed to go. Lyun herself started to quickly get lost in the sprawl, reading signs aloud just to wrap her memory around it. Axln started catching onto the patterns, the building designed similar to a spider web, the markers almost a numerical x,y,z axis on a circular 3d grid. The heading words “Hyzlqyin, Aevlqyin, Xvilqyin” were completely unfamiliar to her, but she could tell they basically corresponded to “radius, height, angle” in that order. They were also numbered with “1,1,1” being the farthest outside at the lowest level of some still undecided cardinal angle going counter clockwise. They had then entered at “1, 50, 225” and were currently at “10, 50, 208”. They needed to reach “148, 92, 357”.. which would then be 138 rooms deeper, 42 floors higher, and 151 rooms counter clockwise. Fortunately, there were several air lifts that seemed to handle how to go up, so Axln took the lead in guiding them first to the correct floor, then to the right depth, and finally to the desired meeting room. They arrived just in time to see several people leaving the same room, going somewhere else. Still inside were some familiar faces from the mall along with an assortment of new faces. One of the humans, a new person, met them at the door.

“My colleagues told me you’ve arrived. I trust you’re just a little early, and haven’t been kept waiting long. Sorry, we’ve found the morning to be rather busy, with the administration holding so many sudden investigations. I may have lost track of where in the dusk we’ve reached.” “Oh, it’s quite alright, we were delayed a bit trying to find the place, not expecting it to be so huge.” “Remarkable, isn’t it? Also a lot more organized than places typically are, we’re the only building to have such a divisive distribution for rooms in perfect lines. Administration hates it, but they just can’t appreciate an organized system.” The human stepped aside for his guests, Lyun taking the lead once again going inside as she went over her thoughts of her presentation. Axln however found it interesting that a grid system was considered so unique, she herself had grown very used to living on a grid on the other side. Her grid though was much more square, but this really had a slight taste of home for her. The two of them took the offered seats for them, their door host rushing to take his own after a moment of distraction. There were seven hosts present at the time, quite the little assembly.

“So, yes, welcome. That would be the arm I had heard so much about too, then?” “Oh, yes.. Axln here had a bit of an injury, this then becomes a bit of a replacement arm with several added benefits.” “Fascinating, most people would have used a healing instrument for most injuries, so I suspect your arm was actually outright destroyed beyond measures that could be restored. No one has ever even attempted such an integration before, either resorting to going with just the single arm for their life, maybe at most coordinating with instruments that could levitate objects for them. This sort of profound artificial adaptation is closer in kin to an Ersatz arm, but even those are based upon natural function.” “Oh, yeah, uh, it was sort of based upon Ersatz stuff, I guess.” “It’s remarkable how you managed to fuse such an artificial instrument so perfectly to an organic structure. What sort of technique could have possibly achieved that?” “Oh, that, it’s.. well…” The human was clearly fascinated and getting carried away, Lyun having completely fallen off script as a result, getting really flustered. It didn’t help that this was a question she still remained not completely clear about either. This in turn was making Axln feel a bit worried, which in turn was compulsion to help in answers only she could give.

“I guess you could call it a bit of molecular fusion. Healing stuff helped on the principle, simply requiring an awareness of similarity in design to transfuse a reactionary principle between unrelated materials. Making use of ersatz components for a bit of the finer elements proved a considerable compatibility in structural design. The whole thing remains a bit of a rushed prototype, something which could possibly be easily improved upon, too.” “Absolutely remarkable. Axln, was it? Ah, right, I may have forgotten that too. My name is Jhez. Molecular fusion, was it? That sounds like something straight out of the Terr-... Actually, could you do me the favour of saying your own name please?” “Ah-.. se-…” “Fascinating, a perfect replica of the recorded accents in the Terran Mythos, you even use some of their strange sounds. Such an arm even seems related to the mythos.. but is almost an improvement of the armored designs into something both far more realistic and much more advanced.” Axln paused at Jhez’s thoughts, seeing that she had clearly fallen for a ploy here as he continued.

“Our historical records on the subject are profound, after all, sustaining records carried from Celese since the original creation of the mythos. We’ve managed to keep the original atlas collection designed by the Crystal Blossoms over a thousand years ago, documentation that describes the founding of the Instrumentation Era. We even have journal logs from the original ersatz that document the founding of the Elemental Era. Both of those speak volumes of the veil, influence from beyond. In speculation, if such a place existed, it would be reachable, traversable. But never has there ever been established claims that someone might have been there before. We have records of knowledge from the Mythos, and tales of the source that took inspiration from its essence, but that had always been from people versed in the world they lived in. Did you know that you have a nervous habit of bringing your hand to adjust something to the side of your eyes, when there is nothing there? It is like you aren’t completely adjusted to being yourself, and keep having to remind yourself about it. Exploring our circumstances might be a bit easier if you were a bit more honest about such matters.” Jhez was clearly an intellectual genius. Axln was developing a cold sweat worried about how bad stuff was going to get, but it didn’t seem like Jhez was meaning anything critical about it. The guy honestly just seemed helplessly curious, and knew that the real juice of the matter lay within the facts he wasn’t getting.

“If you want to start being honest, then I should ask about your motivations. We’ve heard some nasty tales about the foundry recently, and I’m worried about what is not being spoken upon there.” “Oh, right! Yeah! Aren’t you guys interested in stuff the foundry isn't controlling? That should…” “Lyun, that’s not the only thing going on here. The foundry had suddenly cut off the entire academy effectively earlier this dawn. The people that just left were from your administration, clearly related somehow considering how we’ve heard students discussing how there have been a lot of changes suddenly just today within the place. This all relates to your curiosity, doesn’t it?” Axln crossed her arms in this contest of the minds as Lyun struggled to figure out how to recover the situation at all. Jhez sighed, relaxing in his chair, taking admission to Axln’s own deduction skills. This was going to make things more complicated, but it only made the opportunity so much more interesting to him.

“The foundry has put blame on the academy for sheltering a couple of criminals that broke into the Obsidian Halls a while ago to steal an artifact from there. The administration is thus investigating the entire academy to determine anyone who might possibly be responsible, with our own office one that was checked very early on. Something about having a keen intent on researching into the unknown proved very convincing for possibly having an unknown way to shift the void. However, finding absolutely nothing showing anything sufficiently related, they promptly just left. I’m really tired of sitting under the shadow of the foundry, where their troubles start shifting blame without any evidence, absolutely unreasonably, just to trouble others. They act as if they control everything.. they don’t. After all, they have never made an arm like your own.. and if my own theories are correct.. they don’t control anything where you come from either.” Jhez sat back in his chair, his irritation growing near the end of his speech. Clearly, the guy wasn’t especially fond of the foundry’s monopoly over.. everything. Axln however sighed, not missing the closing claim that was made. No, certainly the foundry had a limit to its control, a limit that failed to pierce the barrier. Even so, she had to be careful, both her and Lyun were certainly aware exactly who the foundry had put the hunt out for, they could not afford to stumble here. However, this was also a profound opportunity, Jhez’s visible hunger for the mythos alone would totally be enough to sign him up for cooperation in some of their original ventures, and even his peers were at full attention.

Axln was certain the two of them could make this work, forging them a support that allowed them access to even more fantastic developments. As long as the two of them wouldn’t let spill their involvement in the Obsidian Halls, everything was going to work out remarkably well.