nycdaug CHAPTER 10: In which Atlantis is found, and Selqui joins the group.
CHAPTER 10: In which Atlantis is found, and Selqui joins the group.
AMBROSIAHaving no idea where this fourth scroll was, we decided to head toward Aquamundo. The only entrance we knew of was through the cave near Galaxia, so we headed in that general direction. We looked at the vellum paper. It had a slight gold tone to it, and like each of the song sheets, when Aqorm read from it, she seemed to get stronger. According to legend, while the song sheets had potent magic of their own, the Song Book would lead to an ultimate weapon. Honestly, I just went along with this quest to buy time, but it turned out to be really important for Aqorm getting stronger.
Riding on Bahamut, we got to Galaxia, and landed right in front of the cave. It was once again rather dark, but in addition to our Lantern, Yazim Jianne had a quick spell of Brighten and Azrael had the Illuminate spell ready.
YAZIM JIANNE
My Brighten spell works differently than Illuminate, since it cannot create light, only reinforce existing sources. Sorcery is viewed as a forbidden art because it draws from the user rather than God, and their magic is based on their mental and physical endurance. In some ways, it bypasses the spiritual limits God has set up for himself.
But there are some things we also cannot do because we use rules and limits of science. For instance, “matter cannot be created or destroyed” means that while we can rework energy and matter in tremendous ways, even creating a single photon of light becomes a difficult proposition. When making light, the old scientists wound up with unnecessary by-products. For instance, so-called light bulbs were mostly devices to heat a wire until it glowed. Or they needed radiation.
The cave twisted and turned, as we fended off spiders, bats, and small rodents. It is difficult to believe that this group used to have trouble fighting such beings, but earlier on their quest, this was actually a hindrance to them. At last we came to the large cavern lake that led to Aquamundo. Aside from using a submarine (which was usually regarded as an act of war if traveling directly into the town), this was the most effective means of entry. The others donned heavy swimming armor. I had my Sea Ring, which formed a bubble allowing me to breathe and to withstand underwater pressure. The Sea Ring was the wedding ring my wife had given me, and it was crafted to be durable, so I wore it always. While the others stumbled around in their bulky outfits, Michael, Lilith, Aqorm, and I walked casually through these waters.
We made it to Aquamundo. The map on the back had reacted to the seawater, however, and an inscription read, «Seek out the island of Atlantis.» But everyone knew Atlantis no longer existed! The others in the group told me otherwise. They mentioned seeing a path to it earlier. We headed that way, but noticed it was still closed. “Let's ask the ruler of Aquamundo,” suggested Aqorm.
The land of Aquamundo had a wild natural beauty that was difficult to describe with valleys filled with water, squid swimming overhead, kelp and anemone swished about like natural plants, coral formed along the rocks, and plankton floating around the seawater. The world around us would have been alien to most of the group, but Sarai and I had spent much of our re
Yazim Jianne made a suggestion, “Perhaps it would be better if we made a time portal?” I wasn't thrilled about this idea. The risks of time travel were rather steep, since time could ripple and cause parallel dimensions. We might wind up going to the wrong present since it was now the future.
It was unlikely that you could even travel to the same timeline as yourself. Suppose I made a stone go back five seconds in the past. Now what you'd think would happen is that Stone A (the one you sent) would become Stone B (the one that popped in five seconds ago) and there would be two stones. But that's not actually what would happen. If I went back to warn myself of a disaster, before I even visited myself, the part of me that was native to the timeline would receive the memories of the visit, while the visitor got sent back home. I could occupy the same timeline as yourself, but only disguised or significantly different in age, otherwise when I got within the five senses of the original my memories would merge and I as a visitor would get displaced to my present. Of course, if I made it to the wrong timeline, I'd get displaced to parallel timeline on arrival. Since all wrong timelines would do this, this technically meant that the closer I was to the present, the more accurate my visit became to my main timeline. It also meant it was impossible to see two stones, or in fact less than one for more than a few seconds, because after the gap for sending the stone, it would get bumped back to its present. People would still know that it went back in time, they just wouldn't be able to explain why there weren't two stones if one returned to the past. This is a blessing, because I could imagine someone like Aqorm sending back the wrong stone, and creating a paradox. Thankfully, we were going to the distant past, and didn't have to worry about any of this. But we did have to worry about temporal inaccuracy.
He saw the concern in my eyes, and said, “Relax, I can make a Temporal Anchor.” I was no less concerned, for this meant we had to split the party. If anything dangerous happened, we would die in another time. And if anything happened to him, we would be trapped in the wrong time. I saw the look on Aqorm's face, though, and couldn't say no. “Oh, all right,” I sighed.
The sorcerer called out, “時間錨 ” and a magical circle formed under his feet. He would need to stay in that spot until we returned, so he would need to be guarded and cared for. We needed to split up the group. “I'm going,” I said, “who is staying and who is going with me?” Ambrosia and Nevras stayed behind. They had no desire to explore some strange time. Lilith also stayed. She had lived through this period, and did not want to see it yet again. Michael went with me, as did Aqorm, and those two girls.
The anchor formed a clear point, just outside of Galaxia where we could return to our own timeline. I was careful to tell the others not to interfere with any events, but I forgot about the bystander effect. You know, where if someone sees someone in trouble, but there are plenty of people around, they won't help? Well, back then, the ancestor of the current mayor was about to fall from a house and the guy who was going him saw all of us, and concluded that we would help even though we weren't to do anything. We gathered the Song Book at the base of a volcano and returned, only to find out the region of Galaxia had become covered with lawless bandits because the mayor's family hadn't set up any kind of formal state here. Eventually, we did manage to save the mayor and his future generations, but it took a few tries. Now Aqorm had her Song Book, and that's the important thing.