Chapter 25- Sharing Information

Citadel Second Floor- Maintenance Control room, Date unknown ( Noon)

Nath’aniel-

Solar energy ebbed and flowed in the room around him. So Nath'aniel kept his void energy at the ready in case the other man tried to attack him again. While the mage did not want to bring shame to his family, his continued living was more important than a smudge on his reputation.

"I would like to bargain with you, information for information." Exodus said while he read the readings on the Citadel's power display.

The offer surprised Nath'aniel, enough to pause in his tinkering. The others seemed to give information freely, not realizing the true value of knowledge, and yet the man who tried to attack him seemed to truly understand what value they had.

Nath'aniel turned his head just enough to spot the other man in the corner of his eye. He saw that the other man had formed a large round barrier of hardened light, while flat it was well-detailed. It wouldn't be hard to compare it to an Asgardian shield.

“Oh, and on what topics would we be exchanging on?” The mage inquired.

Exodus willed his shield away, restoring the solar levels in the room, as he answered. “I seek information on the creature behind your sarcophagus, and I would share what I know of the history of your people's rival, the Atlantian Empire. At least I assume you know something of the demon."

Nath’aniel turned around to face the other man, before nodding and agreeing on the topics. “I am curious what became of them, and I am, familiar with the Devil Inheritor.” The mage crossed his arms atop his chest and tilted his head before continuing. “But how am I expected to trust this exchange, after what you have just done?”

Exodus looked down at his feet for a moment. Then he raised his head and locked his eyes on mine. "I am sorry for that. I know it's not a good excuse, but to me, there are only humans and mutants. The longer I've lived the harder it is to tell them apart, as more and more of them are getting abilities. And all humans I have ever entreated with have betrayed me in the end. So I assumed you would do the same."

Nath’aniel is not surprised by that statement. The Tribesmen of the Land tend to only care about others when they need them. Then again, both Erik and Elizabeth are also Tribesmen of the land, and they seem honest people.

"In addition to the information I would also give you a boon, a favor, so long as it does not interfere with my Lord's plans or designs." Exodus' words and his additional offerings caused the mage's ponderings to pause.

“Your Lord?” Nath’aniel asked. Surprised that the man used a term he was familiar with.

"A lord is…" Exodus begins to explain a concept that the mage already understood.

Nath'aniel waved his hand stalling the other man, at once he stopped talking the Mage explained. "I fully understand your social caste system. Many of the worlds in the Ten Realms Alliance use a similar system. But not all, just like we Magi did not."

Exodus sat in silence for a moment, almost like he wanted to ask more about that, but instead stated. "I know he does not like the added pressure of the title, but I have served Magneto loyally for the better part of six years now. And he has done right by me and the Brotherhood." The soldier continued to sit in silence and kept his eyes on the Mage's, and after some time Exodus asked. "Do we have a deal?"

Nath'aniel thought for another second. After all, under the terms of his offer of the sanctuary, he could always ask for this information at a later date. But at the same time the sooner he learned things the sooner he could plan for the future. Additionally how the man before acted reminded him of many of the outcasts and exiles that his family had taken in over the years, and many of them had proved to be loyal staff to his people.

“I agree to your terms, but what shall you do with the man should you find him?” Nath’aniel wondered aloud. He noticed the flickers as two clumps of solar light moved about the room, Nath’aniel knew that the other man was behind them, but was unsure of what purpose they served.

"I would kill him." Exodus said with a growl. "Not only did that beast kill just men I admired and trusted, but he forced me into that golden tomb. And effectively stole my life from me."

“The Devil Inheritor is very old. He was already over a thousand years old by the time I was born and his true age is unknown to me.” Nath’aniel began to explain what he knew about the man Exodus sought.

“How?” Exodus wondered.

“He is, if not the first, he is among the first dozen to have their X gene go active.” The Mage answered.

“He is a Mutant?” the soldier seemed surprised by that fact.

For once Nath'aniel didn't grimace at the word, as it was actually fitting for that creature. Instead, he just nodded in agreement.

Exodus looked away at that and rubbed his chin before muttering. "Why would he attack his own kind?"

"He does not have a kind." Nath'aniel answered the musing, before adding. "He sees himself as a Warlord. To him the war is never over, he would see the world his or its destruction. And everyone is one of two things, his to command or a thing that needs to be dead."

"Why would anyone allow such a monster to exist?” Exodus asked seemingly rhetorically as his gaze drifted as he spoke. Nath'aniel could say that he was needed during the Great Rebellion against the Sky Tribe but went beyond the selected topic. After a moment of contemplating this information, Exodus asked. "Is that all you know?"

Nath’aniel willed astral energy into his hand and he wrote the Standing-Supports spell. Conjuring a simple block to sit on, before answering. “No I know more, but let’s call that a taste. So far I have given but not received. After all the Citadel told me that the rest of you believe that Atlantis is made up.”

Exodus nodded in agreement. "And had I been born in this era I would probably agree with them. Some of the people that live in this world, that do not believe that the war Magneto fought through happened either. Their easy soft lives make them unable to see the world for what it is."

The soldier sighed and pressed his hands together, and the solar energy dropped dramatically. Making Nath'aniel reach out for his void energies in preparation to defend himself, but the attack never came. Instead, an image appeared. It was as if he was looking down at the world from the stars. However the image only showed part of the world, it was the Northern realm and parts of the Central and Western realms. The shapes were wrong though, some areas were further apart to the mage's eyes and others had drifted further apart allowing the lakes to become seas. But more importantly, the islands between the Northern Realm and the Western Realms were missing.

Nath'aniel watched the image but did not speak. He waited for the other man to have his say.

"There are tales, told in the ancient world. And held mostly by nations of Europe, but there are a couple of African nations that agree. That there used to be a mighty naval power, which should be here." Exodus pointed at the edge of the map, where only water currently was shown and was west of the Northern and Central realms. "And all of them that hold on to that account agree that in one night as if their gods abandoned them, this power was swallowed whole by seas. And this power was known to antiquity as Atlantis."

‘A master or grand master level spell could do that, but who would be so ruthless and wasteful, to use such a spell.' Nath’aniel mussed internally.

"That is why, everyone believes that Atlantis is made up because there are few obvious signs that it was ever there." Exodus continued. "But there are still signs in the world that they did exist. The Atlantic Ocean still holds its name. There are still stories that tell of their people. Even your Citadel tells us their weapons roam the lands surrounding us."

Nath’aniel suddenly snapped and stood up asking the ceiling. “Citadel, what does he mean by this? What weapons?”

“Descendants of their bioweapons are present in the Preserve both, before and after my Observational Sensors went offline. They were left behind by the Empire’s fleet, and have built small tribal communities in the Preserve.”

“What bioweapons?” Nath’aniel demanded.

“The true origin of the creatures labeled [Imperial: Bioweapons] is unknown, but [Subject: Lord] theorized that they were possibly gifts to the Empire from the Olympians. [Subject: Lord] worried if you heard about them you would have rushed off to aid in the war. And with your condition, that decision would have only brought harm, to [Subject: Son]."

Nath'aniel tightened his hands into fists, as he was bothered again by his father's overprotective nature. 'We were losing and father knew It.’ he thought, before taking a breath. ‘Of course, had I joined, we all would be gone. And the Great Truth would be forgotten, for forever. I guess despite father’s deception, his paranoia pays off again.’

Exodus leaped to his feet, startling the mage. Then all light orbs in the room dimmed considerably and for a longer period than should have happened. This event brought Nath'aniel out of his worry over another betrayal and instead focused on the mutual problem. While the lights fought to stay on, the soldier asked. "What was this? What's happening?"

The mage tapped and triggered the Norn-runes on the central read-out station. Nath'aniel read the data fed in front of him, but the information was conflicting. So he switched to another console and triggered its systems. The back wall shifted and moved, as it went from showing him the wiring and sensor locations of the tower, to instead giving him new information, on the Citadel's power generated and its usage. Nath'aniel glared for a second at the Legacy Protocol, which counted for over half of the Citadel's consumption. Then he took a step back and reread everything. The wall was telling him that the main generator was still putting out sufficient power for the settings he had put in place, but somehow the Citadel was only getting half of the production.

“Someone say something!” Exodus demanded, almost like a child, as his voice crackled in the effort. Nath’aniel could see that the other man was also trying to maintain the light in the room, with his powers. However just as he tried to help, the Citadel would divert more power elsewhere. Till she didn’t and everything returned to the way it was before.

“Insufficient power for all active systems at this time… power corrected and restored.”

Nath’aniel nodded to the Citadel’s statement, as he didn’t want to add an additional worry on the other man’s plate. ‘Wait? Isn’t that what my father did to me? Should I tell him, or shouldn’t I?’ lost in his own musing. The tribesman and the Citadel talked for a time.

“…but how, you can’t tell me that you don’t have enough power. Look at this place! You have empty rooms in case a new trade or profession pops up! Your telling me you didn’t plan for a power shortage?” the tail end of Exodus’ rant is very valid to the mage. But there is information that the soldier doesn’t have.

And so Nath'aniel walks over to the central read-out station, where he resets the display. Causing the model of the Citadel to melt into a dome of fairy brass, as he punched in the correct commands the dome shifted and reformed. It took some time for the model to not show their territory but the whole of the Preserve. While the lack of detail was blatant to Nath'aniel, even Exodus should be able to tell that the terrain is blurry or out of focus. This was because he had ordered the Citadel to use their external sensors to calculate the date and she still hadn't finished. Which wasn’t that shocking, given if I ordered her to and she poured all her effort into that task, it would have taken the better part of a day. And he had tied her hands to only use a portion of her calculations on the problem.

The outer edges of the map showed either icy mountains or water, but the inside of the Preserve was very diverse. The north-western corner was all jungle and overgrown mountains, this was where the Citadel was located. In the center of the map were bogs and swamps, with the occasional high rises plateaus. But around it was a variety of plains, deserts, and lowland valleys with more jungle or forests. There was even an oversized lake with a series of islands in the center of it.

"We are here," Nath'aniel said, before pointing at the top of the Citadel sticking outside of the jungle. He waited till Exodus nodded. This signaled that he understood roughly where they were. The mage's hand drifted almost to the center of the map, just before the outermost edge of the bogs and swamps. "The Citadel used to be here."

There was a pause where the other man took in and processed what the mage had told them. Even the Citadel, because her whole world was dependent on facts that her sensors gave her, even she hadn't thought to compare the regional map to the one she had on file.

“How does a tower move?” Exodus quietly asks.

"It doesn't. The earth under and around it does." Nath'aniel answers honestly. He expected the question to be rhetorical. But ask an obvious question, and get an obvious answer. The mage turned his eyes away from the map and back towards the power readings on the back wall. The drain was blatantly gone, but did explain where or what it was, but more than that, he needed to know would it come back?

"My Lord tried to explain the concept to me, and I understand natural things drift and shift, but that takes lifetimes." Exodus was clearly attempting to warp his head around yet another sign that Nath'aniel hadn't been asleep for a mere nine hundred years.

“Hundreds of lifetimes, at the very least.” The mage corrected.

Exodus stared across from the map at Nath'aniel. The other man clearly wanted more of an answer than he had given. So the mage sighed before explaining. "Yes, the plates of the world shift and drift. But the three plates of the Preserve do not move in location, they simply spin towards each other. So long as you do not build on the edges of two of the plates, your structure is very safe. But while the earth moves, the water does not." Nath'aniel triggered the second console again, causing the back wall to show a slice of the tower, various numbers on each floor.

Nath'aniel pointed to the wall as he continued his explanation. "I doubt you can read Magi, but see how each floor has two characters. Well, the basement should only have one, as it should be fifteen units cooler than the rest of the tower. It is as I've feared, but the mighty underground river that was there isn't anymore. The water and air flow cooled that level considerably. Now it's only six units cooler, as the river has shifted elsewhere underground."

“How do we fix it?” Exodus asked, Nath’aniel noted that his voice rang with a sound of hope.

The mage sighed. He not want to crush the ember out completely. So he answers honestly. “For now we don’t.” He tapped a few Norn-runes on the central station again. Causing a podium in the floor to rise. It lay between the back wall and the central table. “Better to find a temporary fix today, and fix the problem permanently later.”