Wearing Power Armor to a Magic School (112/?) WiP 1

Hey everyone! Here is the Work in Progress for Chapter 112 I hope you guys enjoy! :D

Dragon’s Heart Tower, Level 23, Residence 30, Thacea and Emma’s Room. Local Time: 2300

Thalmin

Not since childhood had I gazed out at the night sky to consider what could actually lay beyond the tapestry.

Such a notion had already been addressed, both by the Nexus and by age-old Havenbrockian beliefs, the latter holding much more weight than the outsider-enforced dogma of a multi-realm spanning empire.

Though it was by their very reach and power that most amongst the ‘enlightened’ Havenbrockian elite defer objective truths to Nexian conventional wisdom. Relegating Havenbrockian beliefs to just that — beliefs. 

It was acceptable to still believe in the light of the ancestors. It was even fashionable within the immediate royal circle for those who wished to pay lip service to our family’s traditional inclinations. 

However, it was more accepted that both concepts were distinct yet mutually inclusive, that the stars could be tears in the tapestry, and that there was a sort of miasmic immaterium that lurked beyond the wispy dark. 

The ancestors could very well still exist within that sea of light, their memories preserved as the various star-signs and sky-lights, hovering high and prominently over us.

I was warned that my experiences in the Nexus would come to overrule this tentative balance of beliefs however.

I was cautioned against looking too deep into the infinite dark ‘perfection’ of the Nexian tapestry.

It was thus, after the dispelling of the clouds, that I was faced with that very uncomfortable sight.

A sight which shook me to my core, but not enough to cause a crisis of faith.

Strangely, it was Emma of all people who seemed to be most bothered by this sight; as if her very grip on reality had been stripped from her the moment the clouds parted.

I was… genuinely worried at certain points, concerned that her ‘newrealmer’ status was finally catching up to her.

This worry, thankfully, proved to be null and void.

As the earthrelamer promptly went about her own antics, revealing that her anxieties stemmed not from a crisis of belief, but instead… a crisis of curiosity.

She defied any and all newrealmer expectations, deftly avoiding the pitfalls that would entrance and entrap those from lesser realms.

If anything, she pursued a narrative not only unexpected — but entirely blasphemous.

It was… as exciting as it was disturbing to see.

Yet right as we were on the cusp of the divulgence of her understanding, Ilunor once more decided to rear up his ugly head.

The frustrating blue thing blocking a clear trajectory towards the truth the earthrealmer so firmly believed in.

The indoctrinated golem all but reverting back to his old ways, if it wasn’t for certain tells that gave me hope from this momentary lapse in judgement — his acquiescement to the existence of Emma’s drones.

This admission would’ve been otherwise impossible from the Ilunor I met on orientation day.

Such an admission, as much as it was a momentary crutch, was hope that he would not be a stubborn fool for the sake of being stubborn.

The man was not an Auris Ping, by any stretch of the imagination.

Moreover, his doubts and skepticisms were by all measures… reasonable.

Emma was, after all, an enigma.

And the ‘truths’ she spoke of sometimes brought even me to the brink of disbelief.

However, it was her constant ability to prove the impossible that weighted my trust in her just beyond the watershed of disbelief. 

Her principled nature and her frankly Havenbrockian stubbornness to the truths she believed in  played a huge part in this.

The other part, was played by the objectively-more-vital litany of evidence to support her often outrageous claims.

And it was this latter aspect that she continued to deliver without question.

Yet it was the Vunerian’s insistence that once more brought me to that tipping point.

The point in which my worries for earthrealm’s capabilities were very much brought to the forefront.

I had little doubt that she would be able to show up the blue thing, of course.

But that faith was difficult to maintain especially as the Vunerian came to reinforce the inherent… advantages the Nexus had at their disposal.

This was because as much as the previous ‘presentation’ had demonstrated earthrealm’s capabilities to build and thrive, to match even the grandeur of the crownlands, the question of their ability to match the crownlands’ aerial capabilities was put into question.

And it wasn’t merely the capabilities of reaching the skies which I was worried about, for that topic was addressed through the strange aerial constructs seen populating her realm’s skies.

It was moreso a question of whether or not these aerial constructs — owing to their manaless dispositions — would be able to match the Nexus’ unparalleled mastery over the skies.

It was the Nexus, after all, that held exclusive dominance and superiority in this theatre of war. 

Never has there been a single other realm in existence outside of the Nexus that had come close to challenging this primacy. 

And while it was rare for the Nexus to deploy said vessels in acts of war, given battle and planar mages alike rarely needed such conventional forces, it was still an aspect of war that could never be understated.

For it added a dimensionality of war that superseded the four cardinal directions of the land, bringing with it a fifth confounding dimension of verticality that almost every other realm lacked an equivalent to, let alone significant counters to match it.

It was thus, in the pitch darkness of this manaless sight-seer, that the truth behind Emma’s claims would be revealed.

I knew not what awaited me, especially given the scarcity of Aethran knowledge Havenbrock held both prior and following the Nexian reformations.

But this ignorance served only to fuel the flames of excitement welling within me, as my mind attempted to wrap itself around this most novel of concepts — manaless flight.

Or more accurately, manaless flight on a truly epic scale. 

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Dragon’s Heart Tower, Level 23, Residence 30, Thacea and Emma’s Room. Local Time: 2300

Thacea

“You really must stop bookending your statements with such bizarre and flighty proclamations, earthrealmer.” The Vunerian began with a dismissive slight, just as our surroundings started to shift. The darkness of the tarp quickly turned into a blinding light courtesy of the spinning obelisks, entrapping us within a world of featureless white.

Following which, a new world was summoned piecemeal. 

As block by geometric block, through mannaless means as impressive as it was enigmatic — was this impossible world conjured up once more. 

In a surprising parallel to the Vunerian’s sight-seer, we found ourselves standing in the midst of a sea of grassy sand-dunes, poised atop of a hill overlooking what seemed to be two modestly dressed humans, both of whom held nothing in their hands but a few stray pieces of paper and two leather-bound notebooks.

“That’s because it’s true, Ilunor.” Emma began, gesturing towards what was ostensibly an unimpressive sight amidst an equally unimpressive setting. 

“We both seem to possess the same knowledge of worldly principles, of rules and axioms which govern the way things work.” She continued, as our point of reference soon moved closer towards the two humans, allowing us a glimpse inside of their furious notetaking.