Fortuna Verto

16-Twin Hearted

Both girls awoke the the coming of another dusk once again, making their shared way back to the academy for more research and discovery. On their arrival, they instead discovered a Jhez who had not yet discovered a share of sleep.

"Oh, by the divine, is it that early already?" "Wait, were you working all midday? You need sleep, go to bed already." "No, not yet. Listen, I stumbled upon my own discovery, Axln may agree that it's certainly worth investigating. Here, look at this picture, tell me if it looks familiar to you." "That.. what? How?" "This is a picture from the dawn of the instrumentation era, a copied replica of an artifact lost to that age, like the first founding instrument ever created. It was said to be the heart of knowledge, an instrument that was designed to defy death completely. Records say though that the use of such a heart had serious repercussions, that the person was never truly left alive, they became little more than a memory trapped in a shell. The same records say that the same instrument was then sent through the veil, tapping its capacity for knowledge to seal the veil from the other side. I was looking into it because of said assumptions for dealing with the veil.. when I realized it visually seemed familiar to another tale." "No kidding, the hell. That looks pretty much exactly like the thing I found in the frozen cave.. on my own planet." "If it is the same artifact, then it too had a connection to the veil, left exposed in that moment of discovery. That would then mean you both touched an artifact of the veil at the same instant.. and then everything began." Jhez looked really tired as he talked, visibly ready to fall on his face before Axln. Axln herself was also seeing the ties involved, a match in circumstance that tied everything together, leaving them thus bound. So, such really was an anomaly, it shouldn't have even existed on that side. It however got there somehow, and if they learned the details about that, they might discover some significant parts of it, possibly even enough to outright reverse it.

"Honestly, the good news doesn't even end there. Two different hearts of the veil, that gives us an immense lead on learning more about it, but both of them have a shared origin. The heart of knowledge was fabricated in a very special facility, the same place which later served as the colony vessel from Celese to reach Ruixse, itself housing the world seed that served as the world's heart. The one single structure contains immeasurable tools that historically handled both. There possibly might not be a more significant place for the both of you to visit in order to uncover more about the whole thing. That said, not all news is good. Typically, you would find no trouble reaching such a location, the academy had funded quite a few trips to the very place. Unfortunately though, the foundry is blocking access to such a public wonder again, denying all access at this point. I discovered it's not just those of the academy, absolutely no one is allowed to visit besides the wardens guarding it. Why though.. and why now?" "The foundry might know more than they are letting on. That idea doesn't make me feel comfortable, like they are intentionally snooping into our own problems. We have to find a way to get there... Wait! Where exactly is it on a map, can you show me?" Jhez brought Axln over to a map, but not a landscape map. Pointing at an orbital map of Ruixse, he pointed at a point a distance into space. Okay, clearly one isn't going to get there without help, but there might be another way.. a parallel path.

Searching her own memories, she tried to compare it to the Aestean orbit.. and recalled there was actually an orbital facility in that same location, one also open to the public very openly. However, this would take some accurate calculations, a precision shift in space had more than a few dangers. Axln rushed to get some writing materials, drafting up some notes on the subject based upon her own impressive memory and the accurate metrics presented to her. Of course, she couldn't read such measures, not naturally. Adjusting her circlet, she had everything translated for her and transcribed such numbers into her own writing. Everyone else looked at her work in confusion, obviously completely unable to read such nonsense at all. She had some metrics to work with, she would have to run them by her nanites for some quality checks, but she was certain at that point she had enough to make things work. She knew of only one problem that remained.