Kano frowned. “I don’t understand. Are you saying your name is Kano?”

Urick was about to shout something when Kano ordered him not to speak. Whatever was happening, it was too important for him to interrupt with his nonsense.

“It is…” Their voice was stiff and halting. “Or was…” The figure stopped and stared silently ahead, and Kano got the impression it was thinking. “I don’t know anymore…”

Their confusion was certainly something they had in common. “Okay, let’s start with something simple. How did you end up in here?” She rapped her knuckles against the creature’s glass enclosure.

“I was born here.” Their speech was growing more confident and intelligent, sounding more like Kano.

“You were born in this stupid place? Do you know what this building around us is?”

The figure tilted their head to the side in confusion. “The Karen Novak Research Center?”

“No, it’s—” Kano paused. What had they just said? “Wait, who?”

“Karen Novak,” the fleshy puppet said, their voice now eerily similar to Kano’s own. “She’s the one who created us. Her and the human we were modelled after.”

“What are you talking about?” Kano asked, shaking her head. “I’m not modelled after anyone.” Much as she’d like to deny it, it was hard to say it with much conviction when confronted with a near replica of herself. One who apparently had the same name.

Actually, for all that they looked and sounded like her, were they actually alike? This thing didn’t seem to think the way she did. It could be that they were just mimicking her. It would be strange, but so were most of the things necromancers made.

“If we really are modelled after the same person, then why don’t we think alike?” Kano wasn’t nearly as slow as this reflection of hers seemed to be. Particularly not now, when her mind seemed sharper than ever.

Slithering back and forth, the figure behind the glass took its time thinking it over before replying. “I’m not sure. Maybe because of different experiences? I don’t remember anything from outside this room. What about you? Have you been outside?”

“Of course I have,” Kano said, growing tired of talking to this ignorant creature. Were they really supposed to be a copy of her? “Look, I don’t really have time for this. I only came here to find some people who were taken here. Well, probably taken here. Do you know anything about that? Or where they might be?”

“No.”

Kano sighed. “You’re completely useless. Why is there even an entrance to this place? I thought it would be somewhere important.”

The multicolored version of herself continued to move back and forth, Kano wasn’t sure what it was trying to express, but it was making her uncomfortable. Being face-to-face with this thing was like staring into a horribly twisted mirror.

“I wouldn’t say I’m important exactly,” they said, “but my creation is the main reason why this building was built in the first place. The same goes for you, of course.”

Kano still didn’t believe she’d been created by this Karen person, whoever they were, but she didn’t know enough about her origins to dispute what they were saying, either.

“Someone built all this just to make you? Why?” It seemed like a colossal waste of effort.

“I wasn’t there before it was built, obviously, so I can’t give you the full story, just what I was told. Karen was dying, so she created me, and you, to carry on her legacy.”

That didn’t seem to have gone very well for them, unless they wanted a legacy of death and… living in a tank or whatever else the cloistered being before her got up to.

“Who was this Karen, anyway? A human or something?”

“A human? No, she was a necromancer.”

“Oh.” Kano wasn’t sure why she’d assumed it was a human. A necromancer made far more sense. Meeting Bornon and Rovon must have thrown her off more than she realized. Of course she’d be linked to necromancers; their influence seemed inescapable. At least this Karen had one redeeming feature: She was dead. Assuming what the other Kano was saying was true. “Can you actually prove any of this? Or am I supposed to take your word for it all?”

“Do you think I’m lying?” They sounded hurt.

“I’m not sure what to think.” Hearing her own voice express such an alien emotion was only deepening her discomfort.

“Well, I don’t think there’s any proof of it here, other than my existence. But there must be some elsewhere in this facility.”

“Yeah? Like where?”

“I don’t know. I’ve never left this tank.”

“And why is that, exactly? Are you stuck in here or something?” Surely they could have broken the glass at any time if they wanted to escape. But then why would they stay confined like this? If they were anything like Kano, they’d have found it insufferable.

Drooping, the other her lost some of their cohesion. Their body became softer and less defined. “More or less, I can’t survive outside the tank. At least not for long.” Shaking their head, their body began to return to normal. “I can’t claim to understand how it works, but within this sealed environment, the process that sustains me is able to continue functioning.”

“And this process does what, exactly?” Even if they didn’t understand how it worked, they must at least know what it did.

“I believe it was supposed to create new souls. Though that doesn’t quite seem to have worked. I can actually create new life, in a manner of speaking. But, well…” They spread their arms to indicate the rest of their shiny, colorful form. “Whatever I create ends up as part of me. We tried separating it, but once removed, the newly created organism withers and dies quite quickly. Probably why they abandoned me here, with just enough capacity for me to remain alive but unconscious.” The solid matter that made up their bottom half bent, and they “sat” down.

“Unconscious? But you’re the one who got me to flip the switches and wake you up.”

“I did?” They blinked. “I don’t remember that. Are you sure?”

“Of course I’m sure. It’s not like there’s anyone else here I could mistake you for.”

“True, I just don’t know why that would be. The last thing I remember was… a very long time ago, I think. I was trying to help Karen get the system I was a part of working, but…” They chuckled ruefully. “I’m afraid I really wasn’t much use.”

Them not being useful was something Kano was completely willing to believe. “So Karen was the one in charge of this whole place, right? Do you have any idea where she might be or what she might be doing?”

“Nope. I imagine she’s probably dead by this point, though. She never liked to talk about her health, but it was obvious she was on her last legs.” Still seated, they lowered their head. “Thinking that I’ll never see her again makes me a little sad.”

“What a waste of time. Why would you bother being sad about some necromancer?”

The other Kano stood up and approached the glass. “Well, for a start, she was one of the last hopes of the world. And she was also my creator. I can’t say we had the most pleasant relationship, but…” They shrugged. “Maybe it’s silly, but I felt indebted to her for creating me. I still do.”

Kano didn’t follow their logic at all, but their words did make her think of something. “How do you feel about me, then? Are you willing to help find the people I’m looking for?”

“Honestly, I’m not sure what to think of you. Theoretically we’re the same in some ways, but you’re right that we seem very different. But sure, I’ll provide what little assistance I can.”

Kano nodded. Good, she was finally making some kind of progress. “I know you’ve never left your tank, but you must know at least a little about this place. Besides that,” she said, pointing back at the mechanism that had brought them here, “is there any other way out of this room? What is that thing, anyway? The machine that brought us here.”

“It’s an elevator.”

“What’s that?”

After a brief explanation of how the elevator functioned, the blob moved on. “There’s only one other exit that I know of. Do you see that sensor on the wall over there?”

Kano walked over to where the sensor was built into the otherwise blank wall. “This? What about it?” As she approached, the light blinked, and an opening appeared.

“I think beyond there is Karen’s personal lab and her accommodations. At least those she was using when she was still alive. Anyway, you’ll come see me again soon, right?”

Kano was already walking away, Urick following, when she paused to say, without conviction, “Sure.”