Author: Lurina

056: Cut-Out Face - The Flower That Bloomed Nowhere | Royal Road

Guest Bioenclosure | 6:29 AM | Third Day

By the time we exited the building, there was no remaining sign of Lilith and Mehit, save for the fact that a lamp was missing from the lounge which they'd presumably absconded with. It was a bad sign, because in the total darkness in the direction of the main hall, one would think it would be easy to spot even a speck of light. They could have been at a bad angle, but...

Still, there was no point in dwelling on the matter when our own lives were still at risk. Protected by our barriers, we advanced out into the garden and, as planned, passed the colorful and carefully-arranged display of flowers to head back towards the women's entrance area - the 'Gynaikeian gateway', as it was dubiously referred to.

Ran spoke up not long after we left, glancing around. "I can't see the ocean."

"Yeah, I was gonna say," Seth said, his head turned upwards. "What's up with that?"

"Oh, I asked about it when we were walking over here from the other bioenclosure," I informed them. "Linos told me it was because of the barriers that go up as part of the lockdown process, I think...?"

"He didn't mention that when he was listing the four things a lockdown was capable of doing," she replied. "What were those again--"

"Anti-arcana fields, stopping the flow of non-essential eris to specific bioenslocures, sealing the doors, and blocking logic engine communication," I recounted.

"Thanks, Su, but I do have a working short term memory," she said flatly.

"Uh, sorry," I said. "Just trying to be helpful."

"I didn't believe it was relevant when giving the explanation," Linos said, inevitably overhearing us since we were all in a tight formation. "Since it doesn't affect anything actually within the sanctuary."

"Uh-huh," Ran said, pursing her lips.

"Seems like kinda an over-the-top thing to have," Ptolema said. "I mean, what's really gonna attack this place from the outside? Sea monsters?"

"A properly trained war-arcanist with an abundant supply of eris is more than capable of descending to this depth, Ptolema," Kamrusepa said matter-of-factly. "Or a submarine, for that matter."

"I guess," she replied, frowning. "Seems kinda like something that wouldn't happen, though."

Ran rolled her tongue around the inside of her cheek for a moment, then clicked it. "Hey, Su."

I looked back to her. "What is it...?

"When you woke up at the main building, could you see any of the lights from over here?"

I nodded. "Yeah. That was why Lilith wanted us to go in first place, since it meant there were probably people... Still around..."

Wow. I really did have too much on my mind. I was barely thinking at all.

"We can't see any water between the bioenclosures," Ran deducted, her tone non-confrontational in spite of its accusatory implication, "so if a hypothetical shield were to exist making us unable to see beyond them, it would have to cover them each individually. But the fact you were able to see the guest house is in direct contradiction of that premise."

Fang winced to themselves, and several of the others looked to Linos with questioning expressions. Even Theo gave him a careful glance downward as he pushed his chair.

"I, ah. Hm." Linos cleared his throat. "I.... It's possible I may have simplified the issue a little bit."

Kamrusepa clicked her tongue. "Now I feel rather silly for defending the notion."

Fang twisted their lip thoughtfully, their eyes wandering. "So, when you say 'simplified'..."

He means he lied, my inner skeptic translated. He lied about this, and he lied about where the sanctuary is and how getting here even works. This probably has to do with the same secret that Neferuaten was half-concealing about its true nature.

Or he could just be a liar who lies about everything, my sense of paranoia suggested in contrast. He could have lied about the every detail about how this place works. He could be leading us into a deathtrap right now.

"I wanted to-- I wanted to give Utsushikome an explanation that wouldn't be too overwhelming, since it was just after we'd found Neferuaten's... Body, and she was still in a state of shock," he explained. "How exactly this sanctuary works-- Well, it's a little too technical."

Would it even be worth it to confront him regarding what Neferuaten had told us about? Probably not. That would be technical, too, I expected.

"So why can't we see the water, then?" Seth asked.

"Well, that's what I'm saying, master Ikkuret-- It's a little technical," Linos repeated. "The simplest way to put it is that, when something like this happens... Or just between meetings, for that matter... The sanctuary moves."

Kamrusepa rose her eyebrows skeptically, apparently put-off by her misplaced faith in Linos's earnestness from a moment ago. "It moves."

"Well, it doesn't move," Linos helpfully 'clarified'. "It might be better to say it changes it's relationship with its environment. Like I said, it's all rather complicated."

"You're being pretty vague about it," Ran said. "You could try and give us a rough explanation, don't you think?"

"Well, I'm not a-- An Aetheromancer, miss Hoa-Trinh," Linos said, a little irritation creeping into his tone. "It's difficult for me to convey it properly especially when I'm attempting to keep a close lookout."

That was odd. It had sounded like he was going to say something different, but had cut himself off.

"This seems like something we're not gonna get anywhere picking at, right now," Fang said. "Why don't we put it on the shelf for a bit until we get to safer ground."

"Yeah, I'm not really following this..." Ptolema said.

No one exactly agreed to drop the subject after that, but because of the pace we were setting, it was easy for the momentum in the conversation to die off. But about 20 seconds later, I did hear Ran mutter something.

"...msday bunker..."

I blinked to her, not sure if I'd caught that properly. "Huh?"

She spoke softly this time, just to me. "You have enough of your brain intact to remember what I said yesterday? About my guess as to what this place really is?" She eyed me. "I'm feeling more and more confident."

I pushed my lips tightly together.

I had to admit, when thinking about everything we'd seen, it did seem to click to a degree that was pretty inarguable. Human beings don't require very much to survive at a base level - just air, water, food, a place to sleep, and a place to relieve oneself - but the labyrinthine path of evolution has instilled us with a variety of more complex needs that we must fulfill in order to live, to have an existence that won't drive us slowly out of our minds. We need to be in touch with nature and beautiful things. We need to have a range of mechanisms for entertainment. We need a variety of vehicles for self-actualization. And above all else... We need other human beings.

The sanctuary, Apsu, seemed designed not solely a defensible place to research life extension - or even higher principles that would lead to indirect life extension, as both my grandfather and Neferuaten had alluded to - but rather to fulfill those needs as greatly as possible in a closed space. It was comfortable to the point of excess; decadent to the point where how it was even sustainable was mysterious.

...in fact, now that I thought about it, even the name itself was a hint. 'Sanctuary'. It wasn't a word like 'fortress' or 'bastion' associated with inpregnability, nor one like 'refuge' or 'enclave', associated with merely staying alive in a state of retreat. Rather, it had similar connotations to something like 'haven'.

But a haven for what, exactly? Just the order, if it had come to the point that they'd have to seal themselves away from the world forever?

Don't be stupid, I scolded myself. It's obvious that it's something to do with what Neferuaten and Zeno both talked about. The discovery which could change the world...

I sighed to myself, removing my glasses for a moment to rub my eyes. I really needed to know more about what had happened during my missing few hours, especially about what had been underground. And by implication, if I really had seen the future, even though that was obviously insane and impossible.

...my gut twinged as I recalled the other part of the night I desperately needed to remember. I folded my arms, holding them close to my chest.

Don't worry, I thought. I'll get through this. I'll find out how to save you, and then get back safely...

I needed to believe that right now, if nothing else.

To my surprise and relief, we ended up not being ambushed, and soon arrived at the women's entry hall, which looked much the same as it had been when we saw it two days prior - well, absent Ophelia's vomit stain, which had been cleaned up at some point. The mural, which remained as unsettling as ever, towered over us. Dead ahead was the image of Gilgamesh diving into the ocean to retrieve the flower of eternal life. In the limited light of the lamps we were carrying, it looked more he like was simply falling - his head a split-second away from crashing into the rocks and splitting open.

...why had such a violent image come to mind upon seeing that? It was like I'd observed the first time. Something about the way it was painted spoke of contempt, though I wasn't sure what it was contempt at. Before, its design - sharp and simplistically evocative, with harshly contrasting colors, and the humans drawn without faces or distinct features - had merely seemed striking, but now... There was something disturbing about it. Something almost menacing.

"Huh, wow!" Fang said, smiling as we entered. "This is pretty cool!"

Hm, I thought. They must have been taken in through the other entrance, then...?

"It's... Something, alright," Seth said, glancing around. "Is this the mural you guys were talking about?"

"That is indeed the case," Kamrusepa said. "Though we don't have the time for the critical examination we undertook the first time, sadly."

"Yeah, I guess not," he said flatly. "Hell of a thing to lead with when it comes to your guests, though. I feel like I need to watch my back with it at all sides, like this."

"It is a little unsettling, seeing it like this..." Ophelia said, her eyes sad. "But still beautiful, in it's own way. It's a pity Bardiya can't be here to see it, too. He was always so fond of unusual art, and I'm sure he would have, well..."

She trailed off, her form retreating inwards, her eyes downcast. Ptolema put a hand on her shoulder soothingly.

"We don't have time to be sentimental about a drawing on a wall that looks like it was drawn by a teenager," Ezekiel said, sneering. He looked towards Linos. "Where's the passage you mentioned?"

"Against the northern wall," Linos said, gesturing for Theo to push his wheelchair. (The latter seemed to be actively avoiding looking at the mural after Ophelia's remark.) "It's hidden, but not particularly well, honestly. I'll find it and get it open."

"Do what you gotta do," Seth said. "Man, so this is supposed to be the Epic of Gilgamesh?"

"That's right," Ran said, with a nod.

"Where's the part where they kill the giant bull?" he asked, and dropped into sarcasm. "Might be useful info in there if we end up fighting those 'divine beasts'."

"You mean the Bull of Heaven," Ran said, now looking at it herself. "And that's from the previous tablet, leading into his insecurity and subsequent search for immortality. This just deals with the conclusion."

Seth snorted. "Guess a big fight scene would've been too much of a pain to paint for whatever lazy bastard did this."

With nothing else to do, I ended up looking at it more myself, thinking about Ran's strange myth about the circular books which could alter ones mind if you read them over and over. Not being constrained to a seat like I had been upon our arrival, I could see the whole thing in one fluid motion. Following the narrative over and over again - the man setting out, the man crossing the sea, the man failing the trial, the man retrieving the plant, the plant being stolen, the man returning and dying, another man setting out - it took on a hypnotic quality that made the idea of brainwashing feel almost realistic. I could feel my cerebral cortex going squishy.

But after a couple goes, my eyes suddenly stopped, drawn to something.

There was one entity depicted in the mural which did have a face after all, now that I was looking closer - the serpent. It was shown in only two sections, the second being it slithering away into the bushes with its face obscued, but in the first...

It was strangely detailed in a way that stuck out, like it had been added later by a different artist after the mural was already complete, and seemed to look directly outwards from the image, meeting the gaze of the beholder. It's face was unnervingly close to the point of perspective compared to its body, and you could see the scales on its face, the venom dripping from its mouth where it held the beautiful, multi-colored flower between its sharp fangs.

The eyes, though, were the most peculiar part. They weren't depicted like those of a snake at all. Instead, they looked... Human. Vivid brown irises surrounded by white, with dark, penetrating pupils. They were wide, striken with some strong emotion that could not be inferred with the absence of proper brow, but could only have been unspeakable anger or fear.

Seeing it, noticing it, sent a chill up my spine. Like I'd noticed something I wasn't supposed to. I stepped closer, for a better look--

"There," I heard LInos say behind me, along with a clicking noise and the sound of grinding stone. "Let's get moving."

"Finally," Ezekiel said. "Half-expected us to get shot at..."

I turned and saw the now-exposed passage, which unlike the room we were in, was lit. As a result, the light struck the mural, and the atmosphere of the room changed to a much less imposing one. I still wanted to get a better look, but everyone was already advancing into the tunnel, so I followed along.

The tunnel had obviously been a more recent addition then the chamber we were departing, as the walls were wrought of a far smoother and paler concrete, giving it the same atmosphere as the underground around the logic engine chamber. It was also very, very long - the outdoor atmosphere of the sanctuary disguised it, but the bioenclosures really were ridiculously large structures. The exit door was only visible as a tiny square well off into the distance.

There was one other door at the half way point, leading to the right, which presumably connected with the underground proper. ...though it's not as if I confirmed that, or anything, to be clear. For all I knew, it could've been a storage closet.

Things were pretty quiet as we moved along, so I realized - just in case things at the research tower weren't quite as idyllic as we hoped they would be - that this might be a good time for Kam and I to finally tell everyone else what we'd seen the previous day on the third floor. With everything that happened with Bardiya, it had been completely buried along with the plan to properly check everyone's scepters, but it still seemed like it could be pivotal context for us all going forward.

I cleared my throat. "Kam."

She didn't seem to hear me despite me standing right next to her, continuing her advance.

"Kam," I spoke more loudly. "This is, uh, a good time for us to talk about what happened, I think."

She turned to me, unpleasantly surprised. "Er-- Now? But we're in the middle of travelling."

"Linos said the tunnels are meant to be secure," I reminded her.

"Well, that's meant to be. You can never be too careful, Su."

I made a flat expression. "You'll say that no matter what we do, until eventually the other three decide we're just not going to do what we promised and say it anyway. Then we'll look even worse."

She furrowed her brow. "Now, that's an unfair characterization--"

"Uh, everyone," I said, speaking up. A few heads had already turned just from overhearing our conversation, but that summoned most of the rest. "Kamrusepa and I have something we need to talk about which happened last night, when Neferuaten was giving us a tour. It... Might be important to understanding what's happening now."

And so, I - with Kam joining reluctantly in after a few moments - launched into the same explanation we'd given Fang, Ran and Theo earlier, if slightly abbreviated. About my finding of the initial note, our discovery of the armory and the body, the note and what it had said, and our misguided decision to keep it hidden for a time.

Again, I somehow managed to conceal the fact I was missing a huge chunk of my memory over the course of it, though this was largely because Ptolema wouldn't stop interrupting with confused questions about the absurdity of the chain of events. She was a helpful person to have around, sometimes.

To my surprise, people weren't as angry as I expected. Though of course, Ezekiel was quick to make his feelings known.

"Great. Fucking great," he said. "So we had a chance to dodge this bullet, and you two girls flushed it down the lavatory because you didn't want to rock the boat. Why am I not surprised?" His tone cracked with bitter laughter, and he spat at the ground. "It's typical enough for Utsushikome to be a doormat, but even though your head is up your ass, I didn't think you were this much of a imbecile, Kamrusepa."

She ignored him, holding on to the vestige of her pride in spite of the circumstances.

"I am, I admit, a little frustrated that you chose to keep this from us," Linos said, his tone a little exasperated. "Especially after the conclave had ended. I can understand wanting to avoid the event being disrupted, but not reporting a body, even a suicide..." He shook his head. "Both of you should have known better."

"That's all you're going to say?" Ezekiel said, snarling. "They should have known better?"

"I'm a little pissed off for Bardiya's sake to know there might've been a way out of this, too, but it's not like throwing a fit about it at this point would accomplish shit," Seth said, his tone beleguered. "What's done is done. And they're not--" He hesitated, closing his eyes for a moment, before turning in the direction of Kamrusepa and I. "You guys clearly aren't pulling anything over us, since otherwise it'd be weird as hell to admit to all this now, of all times."

"T-Thanks, Seth," I said.

"I'm still a little pissed at you, Su," he said flatly. "I'm just saying the truth."

I frowned to myself uneasily, looking downward. I didn't know how to handle people being angry at me. ...Well, unless it was Ran, but that didn't count.

"If I seem relatively nonplussed, it's because I have a little more context on the situation that you might expect," Linos said tiredly. "As bizarre and beyond even my understanding as half of that story was, I doubt that telling it sooner would have done much to change the direction this night has taken."

"Why do you say that?" Ran asked, frowning inquisitively.

"Well, to start with, I should clarify that your assumption that the body you found belonged to Vijana of Yamune - the chef who you heard about from Yantho - was probably correct... Well, more or less, at least," he said. "We had actually been looking for her after the incident in the kitchen and pantry when the boy was knocked unconscious, and had discovered what appeared to be a suicide note at that point. We'd just been having difficulty locating the body."

Kamrusepa sighed. "Well, that makes me feel a little less foolish, I suppose."

"I don't get it," Ptolema said. "She was just a cook? Why would she do herself in for a reason that sounded so complicated, then? Wouldn't she have had nothing to do with the heavier stuff going on here to begin with?"

"We were wondering the same thing, back then," I said.

Hey, my logical instinct said. You're missing something really obvious right now, you know. Don't you remember the initials on the note?

Not now, I'm trying to pay attention to the conversation, I thought back at it.

Ugh, it said, as it was repressed by my preoccupation. You're useless at this.

"She wasn't... Exactly just a cook," Linos said. "One thing about secret organizations is-- Well, they tend to become rather family-oriented. People can't be expected to keep a massive secret from their loved ones over the very long term without, well, causing problems to those relationships... So the solution that many have taken over the years has been to, well, recruit them in some capacity. Get them involved."

Theo's gaze fell downward for a moment.

"So this lady was somebody's wife, or something," Seth inferred.

"Let's call that close enough," Linos said, with frustrating inspeficity. "Suffice it to say, she'd held a number of roles over the years she was with us, some of which were quite technical and bore a fair amount of responsibility... So it's not inexplicable that she'd, well, consider herself among the collectively responsible, regarding our work." He scratched the side of his cheek thoughtfully. "Her writing something like this, though, is another matter. It is her handwriting, but the letter she left for us was much more mundane and personal. I have no idea why she'd leave a screed like this on top of it."

"It could be a forgery, surely," Kamrusepa offered.

"Possibly," Linos replied, with a nod. "I'd need to take a closer look at it in contrast to some of her legitimate documents to be certain. It does all line up... Rather peculiarly, with the rhetoric we've been hearing from the people responsible for this nightmare, so it being planted for some reason isn't out of the question. Even if the reasons for such a thing would be completely beyond me." He sighed. "Then again, I suppose it isn't impossible she truly was involved with whatever is happening now."

Now that he had been confirmed to be obfuscating the truth on at least two counts, I was starting to wonder if it was even worth it to listen to Linos's explanations at all. Even extending him the maximum amount of charity, if his default response to not being able to say the truth was to make up something simpler...

"Hey, so: Question, now that this is all out in the open," Fang said. "The stuff where she's - well, maybe she's, maybe they're - talking about her and the order's sins, apologizing and begging people to stop... You have any idea what that's all about, old man?"

"I was, um... Also a little curious about that..." Ophelia spoke, hesitantly.

"Honestly, it could any number of things, even if the hyperbole is obviously a product of a disturbed mind," he said. "It's not as if the order has never done things people might consider unethical, even people within our own ranks... We've performed experimental treatments that have led to premature deaths, kept death at bay in manners which have been distressing for the patient... But when someone starts talking about the 'natural order', that's when you know that their perspective has become warped, regardless of why they're upset. I never would've imagined Vijana to be the type."

"When she's talking about the people who she's 'sinned against', with the idea they might've been somebody who found the thing..." Fang went on, "Any idea who that might've been?"

"None," he said. "I'm sorry. The lions' share of it really doesn't make any sense to me at all."

"Huh," they said, putting their hands behind their head. "Guess there's nothing for it, then."

"What I'm most confused about, though, is how you were led to find the body in the first place, Utsushikome," Linos went on, his tone becoming more severe. "You said you received this book about us from the man who oversees your class?"

"Um, that's right..." I said, hesitant. "His name is Nindar of Inadu."

Linos furrowed his brow. "Doesn't ring a bell... Well-- Regardless of whether he left the message or if it were someone else in the abbey at the time, whoever did must've known the location of the armory. There's nothing else hidden on the third floor it could be referring to."

"Uhh, sorry to interject," Ptolema said, raising her hand a little. "But why do you have an armory?"

Linos shifted uneasily. "To be clear, I'm mostly using the term just to match Kamrusepa and Utsushikome's understanding for the sake of clarity. It's not exactly an armory, per-se... It's more like a storage room for discarded objects. We have something closer to a proper armory under the security center, but since the change in the law, we haven't been bothering to restock or maintain firearms outside of a small reserve. So any that are out of date or slightly damaged end up there, along with some other objects that have been made redundant."

"They... Looked clean, when we saw them," I pointed out. "Some were even damp.

"Well, that's certainly not part of any regular duty for the servants, if so," Linos replied, raising an eyebrow. "Hardly anyone ever goes up there, or even to the connected passage. The only reason I can think for that is if someone wanted to hide fingerprints or other evidence - maybe we're being hoodwinked through this whole situation." He rubbed his eyes. "I'd suggest going up there and taking a better look, if it weren't for... Well, for everything else."

"If it's not important, then why was it hidden?" Kamrusepa inquired. "Even if the hiding seemed a little hasty."

"The room used to serve a different function," Linos said, sounding like he'd seen the question coming. "It's for executing ambushes on invaders. That's why there's the passage there that goes all the way down-- They come up, you go around..."

"Mm-- I see," she said, nodding. "That makes sense."

It totally doesn't make any sense, my sense of paranoia continued. There would be a million ways to do that better. How would you even hide the tunnel when it's completely out in the open? Everything that comes out of his mouth is deception.

I wondered if Linos had ever lied about things when we'd been kids, too. Maybe the cakes he used to bake for Akitum every year had been from a store. There was probably no end to his depravity.

We finally came to the opposite doorway. This one led to a short, vertical shaft in which the only means of mundane ascension was a ladder. Fortunately, the Power was working in this bioenclosure, too, so getting Linos up was easy, while the rest of us followed behind, eager not to be caught in a bottleneck. While you couldn't really make it out distinctly - the pale glow parts of it emitted wasn't vivid enough to cut through the extreme darkness to any significant degree - the Everblossom towered over us semi-clearly, but no one saw fit to have the appropriately extreme reaction to it, giving it at best an offhand and troubled glance. This suggested that whatever had happened during my blanked-out period must have involved it somehow.

It didn't look as though it were immersed in the water any longer, either, which raised further peculiar questions about the specifics of our situation. But I couldn't make out much of the trunk, let alone tell if it were still attached to the sea floor.

"Nearly there now," Linos said, once it became clear we weren't going to be ambushed. "Once we get inside, we'll head into the control office at the base of the tower. That'll tell us if there's anyone else inside. If not, we'll move right along and disable the lockdown."

"Is the control office the same as the administrative-thing?" Ptolema asked, looking confused.

Linos shook his head. "No, they're different. The control office just has some basic monitoring tools for the tower specifically - you don't even need anything special to access it."

"Right, right. So... What's the plan if we do manage to disable it...?" She went on. "I mean, we still won't be able to leave right away, right?"

"I thought I went over that earlier," Linos said, glancing to her. "We'll head back the way we came and holed up in the guest house, stay close to the gates." He glanced to the side. "...though, it would be good if we could find some way to notify Lilith and her mother, at least..."

"One step at a time!" Fang proclaimed optimistically.

"Mm," Linos said, with a contrastingly serious expression and tone. "One step at a time."

We snapped back into formation and headed to the tunnel leading into the tower-- Fortunately, the lockdown hadn't sealed the gateway, which had struck me as the biggest potential obstacle in this plan. It slid open, and we soon came to the glass doorway.

Our vision was flooded with the most light I'd seen thus far in an instant, the same pure white from all directions as I'd witnessed the previous day; things here were obviously still operating normally.

Before my vision could even adjust, I heard a voice coming from overhead.

"Ah," it said. "I expected you'd turn up here sooner or later."

We looked towards its origin, and a couple of floors upward, I could make out a figure whom I recognized from the robes. It was Amtu-Heddu-Anna, standing vigil by one of the doors, seemingly waiting for someone on the other side.

But something was off. The way she was standing was different from the last time we'd met, less stiff. And her voice was different somehow, too...

However, before I could process that, I was distracted by a different matter. At my last visit to this room, I'd observed that the floor seemed to be subtly transparent, and there was a sub-level present beneath it. That was now far more obvious, because off to the left, there was a large hole that had been shattered open, fragments of the reinforced crystal it had been wrought from strewn all around the area.

And leading into that hole... Was a vivid streak of blood.