Lillene

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“I was a youth when the first cases of Siphon Sickness happened, but I still remember the terror. My father died at the hand of the first man who was driven mad. My mother was among those who found the cause in the bodies of the dead. We knew it was the Siphon; it was not too far a reach to realize too much was taken. We learned to take only what could be borne. Few were pushed beyond endurance once we knew what the limit was, but it meant the Eight went from a daily presence in our lives, teaching and guiding, to a rare honored visitation. That is why the Empire considers them gods.” Speaker Hulvex sounded bitter when he spoke of what his people had lost.

“No matter what the Empire calls them, they are our people and we are theirs. We remember that, and they do as well. I believe that is why Immiki acted as she did when we finally found out what else the siphon was doing to us.” Speaker Hulvex looked down and shook his head. “If you can somehow fix this the way you started, the way you did something before you even knew they were here … it will not restore us to what once was, before the War. You asked before what I want; I want your aid to recover the Eight in a way they will accept, without driving people insane or preventing them from growing in Tier.”

That was a heavy thing to ask. Serenity didn’t understand why he was being trusted with the responsibility; he sort of understood how Samvi found him, but that didn’t explain why Speaker Hulvex seemed to trust him. “Why me? I mean, why are you trusting an outsider with something so important to you? You don’t know me.”

“Do we have a choice?” Speaker Hulvex barked a laugh that was impressive in its complete lack of humor. “We need help. We haven’t been able to figure it out, and with no-one above Tier Three other than me, we will lose who we are soon enough. Already the only pilgrims we receive are from our neighbors; the many who once braved hardship to cross the seas are long gone; even those who, still braver, attempted the perilous trip across the Cavern no longer come. They will likely never return. We have another siphon, but there is no point in using it without the people to bear the cost; we are not enough and Immiki will not allow us to destroy ourselves.”

Speaker Hulvex held up a hand to stop Serenity when he started to try to answer the Speaker’s concerns with a question. “No, we must find a new way. Immiki will not help; she is content to die instead of stripping our future for her gain, no matter what we think of it. Even if she could devise a solution, she would not have the time to make it. She’s said as much, and that she refuses to burn the energy she has that could be used to protect us for her selfish gains. She won’t accept that we need her more than we need her power.”

Serenity wasn’t certain that was true in general, but he could believe that it was true for the Speaker. He seemed to think of the Eight, or at least the two he’d mentioned, as something closer to friends than to gods. The Speaker also seemed to be in a position of power. If he were using resources to restore his gods, whether he truly thought they were gods or not, it could likely be justified. 

“As for why you? Well, that is because of Samvi. When he found you, he said that you drew his attention and he had trouble looking away from you; he was worried about what that meant, but to me it sounded like hope, even before I saw that Samvi’s crystal was brighter than before, even with the time he spent talking to me. To know that you can brighten them more …” Speaker Hulvex shook his head. “If you know something or have any ideas, I will listen. I don’t think we can move them, however.”

“We can. If we have to, we’ll move them without the stone they’re set on. Still, did you listen to Samvi? He seemed to think it was possible.” Serenity looked down at the stone. It was a set of depressions in the stone with an octagonal pattern that ran between them. Now that he looked closer, the lines of the octagon were filled with something that looked a lot like glass. Whatever it was, it seemed to carry essence easily; Serenity wasn’t about to try injecting mana to see if that would work. He didn’t want to interfere with it by accident.

Outside the octagon, there was a thin circle that separated it from the rest of the stone. It wasn’t carrying essence, which wasn’t a surprise. The fact that it also wasn’t filled with anything was a little more surprising. “In fact, I think this might not just be a carved line. I think it might be a joint. If it is, it fits entirely too well; I don’t see how we can get anything out of there without breaking the stone. You don’t have any clues at all?”

Speaker Hulvex shook his head, but then he walked over to one of the walls and set his hand against an unremarkable piece of rock. The rock seemed to melt away to reveal shelves set into the stone. The shelves started about four feet up; below that was open. “Everything we have is here. You’re welcome to look at it.”

Serenity still found it hard to believe just how much trust Speaker Halvex placed in him, but he supposed it wasn’t really trust. It was desperation. Serenity knew the feeling; he’d done things in desperation that he wouldn’t have even considered otherwise. Some had good results and more than a few had bad results, but he hadn’t felt like he had the time to make a good decision at the time. Looking back, there was often more time than he felt like there was, but that didn’t change matters at the time.

He moved over to the open panel and checked what was inside. There wasn’t much; two items took up much of the space below the shelves. They had to be the siphons, because one was whole while the other was in several pieces, partially on top of it. There wasn’t enough room in the cubby for both siphons, at least not when they were intact..

The complete siphon was a large octagonal surface that was the flat side of what Serenity would have called a short, fat cone if it had a single curve instead of continuing the eight-sided theme. There were two openings in the cone; Serenity’s first thought was that they were damage from the broken siphon being tossed on top, but a closer look told him that if there was damage, it was only to a cover; the hole past the cover was clearly deliberately shaped and even seemed to have the sort of traces he’d expect for something that took a monster core.

At the point of the octagonal cone, a rod stuck out to one side and up, then turned and ran parallel to the face of the cone like some kind of handle. If Serenity had to guess, the rod would end roughly three and a half feet off the floor if the base was set face-down on the center of the octagon. He was fairly confident in that guess, especially since Aide’s projected measurement put it at three feet, five inches. One inch off on a measurement by eye was pretty good; he’d have accepted more than that.

The shelves held a number of things, mostly books. Serenity couldn’t tell what was in the books without opening them, because there was nothing on the spine. Someone who knew what they were looking at could probably narrow it down quickly, because the covers were dyed one of eight different colors. If he couldn’t come up with anything quickly, he’d ask Speaker Hulvex which color was Immiki’s. Since she was the creator of the legacy, she should know how to move it.

Really, the best things to do were either to ask her or to study the books. It would be a few hours before he was truly comfortable in how much essence he had, so he had that long to figure things out before he tried to call her out. A few hours’ delay wouldn’t hurt too much; it would probably mean they wouldn’t get much done at the nexus today, but the trip here had already used enough of the day that it wouldn’t make that much difference. 

There was only one shelf above the books. It was covered in a thick layer of dust, but Serenity could see the bumps of something under the thick layer of dust. He brushed at it and revealed a line of monster cores. They were all roughly the same size and it looked like the right size to fit in the holes in the siphon. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

“What doesn’t?” 

Serenity hadn’t even noticed that Speaker Hulvex wasn’t at the opening with him until the man spoke from across the room. The Speaker was at the far end of the cave, in a shadowy area Serenity hadn’t paid much attention to. It looked like there was another exit in that direction. When Serenity thought about it, that made sense; bringing the hundreds of pilgrims a day it sounded like they’d once had down through the back entrance Speaker Hulvex brought Serenity down would work but it seemed pretty unlikely. The other exit was probably how they entered. The shadows were deep enough that it was possible there was a second exit as well.

Serenity waited for the Speaker to return, then waved at the top shelf. “The monster cores. Everything here’s a bit dusty, but that looks like years of accumulation. Didn’t you use them?”

The Speaker shook his head. “Not since I’ve been Speaker. I think we did have to replace one about thirty years ago, but they’re only used for the levitation of the siphon, and it doesn’t have to be moved unless the Eight need to act. Simply appearing isn’t a problem, it’s only when they act as a group that the siphon got in the way. We usually left it in place. Those are the ones left from when the remnants were placed. There were so many that we’ve never seen the need to add more. I really should get in there and clean it more often. It probably hasn’t been cleaned since the last time one was replaced.”

“You’re the only one who cleans in here?” Serenity had assumed they’d have someone whose job that was, rather than the Speaker. He seemed to be the authority for the settlement and that meant he probably wouldn’t have too much time for things like that. He certainly wouldn’t have time if all the pilgrims that once came were also visiting.

Speaker Hulvex shrugged. “In here? Of course. I don’t open up the hidden storage area for just anyone.”

Oh. Well, that made sense.

Serenity moved on to the question he actually cared about. It seemed remarkably convenient that there was a tool that could levitate, an excess of monster cores, and a block of stone with an extremely tight fit that could have been moved into place more easily by levitation than by more mundane means, though Serenity knew several other spells that would work. “The siphons levitate? How does that work?”

Lillene

Does Siphon Sickness sound familiar? It’s not the same issue, but it’s related to one Serenity has heard of.