Chapter VI13.IX.2022
On the hundred and twelfth floor, Tayne was immediately greeted by a sleuth of direction signs on the ceiling, with one to the department amidst them. Tayne had already recovered from her fall and, upon noticing the sign, proceeded to go down the hallway rapidly, slapping the glazed floor tile with her sandals. Though Lana was able to keep up with relative ease.
"So, you're a dreamwalker?" – Lana tried a less sensitive topic.
"I'm a what?"
"You travel the Metacosmos in your dreams! Do they name that otherwise in your area?"
"Yeah, probably, haven't heard that word before. Oh, and no. My sister's a dreamwalker though," - Tayne pondered on picking the following words, even slowing down for a bit. - "We were in there awake, in our own bodies. Got there through a wormhole. Wasn't a dream, unfortunately..."
Tayne was retroactively surprised she never even considered the irreality of the whole situation she went through. Now, of course, such a doubt can be safely discarded, but before? On the other hand, her mind never presented her nightmares so sophisticated, preferring chaotic soups of independent scenes with no transitions.
"Err, wait," – Lana got confused, – "were you in the Metacosmos or in a realm in the Metacosmos? One can't really be in raw Metacosmos in their physical form..."
Tayne also got confused, and frankly, she was already so done rethinking the situation she went through. "Does it matter?! Can we talk about something else, please? I'll probably lay all that out in the department anyway."
And well... the department's massive wooden doors were right ahead, so no other topic had time to emerge. Tayne quickened her pace, reaching the door first. She pushed and pulled it around and even tried twisting the round gilded handle - but the door did not budge. For a second she thought in horror that the department had closed for the night, but nope, she just had to push harder, which Lana helped her with.
"Were you here before?" - Tayne asked.
"Only once, for..." – Lana chuckled, – "sky knows, a stupidest of reasons. Ey, gals!" – she called loudly, – "anybody there?"
Tayne blushed, embarassed for such familiarity, but silently proceeded inside after Lana.
Reception of the Research Department's head office on Vatravishna Yadi turned out to be a yet another round room the size of a respectable small hut; it had half a dozen narrow corridors sprouting from it in all directions, and the walls between them were covered in windows to the stark darkness of the outside night (probably fake ones, Tayne reasoned out upon failing to rationalize yet another ridiculous floor plan). It had an arched ceiling decorated with one ornate, overly fancy chandelier with hundrends of white lamps engulfing the room in light; one so huge Tayne could've sat on it without it noticing the additional weight. The floor was tiled with marble pentagons and lozenges in a strict geometric ornament, and at the center of it, right under the chandelier, a ring-shaped reception desk towered like an altar.
And that desk had no one behind it. In fact, the whole room, that was probably buzzing with archons during the day, was completely empty. No wonder, though, considering it's past three in the night and the city wakes up... when?
"Hey, Lana, when do work hours start on this planet? How do you even live with a day so long?"
"Well, my sleep schedules are all jumbled up cause y'know, vacation, but normal archons wake up at nine or something... classes start at ten. We sleep twice a day, for six-eight hours in the midday and for twelve-fourteen at night."
"Fourteen hours of sleep!.." – exclaimed Tayne.
"Yup, we're blessed."
"No, you don't get it! I don't have all these hours to waste, i need to talk to someone now! There is no way nobody's here, there should be a guard, or a keykeeper, or..."
"Or you can just call the hotline for emergencies," – suggested Lana, – "hey, i'm more than sure someone here is already running towards your loud voice."
"This is more than an emergency, this is war!" – exclaimed Tayne. – "No emergency hotline will get a person guarded by witches out of the metacosmic abyss!"
"What is happening? Can I help?"
This was no guard or keykeeper, but a hologram, that silently appeared at the altar - of a four-meter tall Archon in a mask, enlightened in warm peachy colour. Tayne instantly recognised it: it had the appearance of Wiktori, one of the five hierophants - high-tier artificial sentients serving to the Departments. Of course, that was not Wiktori itself, bound to its citadel, but an avatar of it, a highly specialized and simplified version able to work anywhere in the Cosmos.
Tayne never met it before, but everyone knew about Wiktori - and Wiktori knew everything. Being the hierophant of knowledge, it memorized the entire seventy-millenia long cultural inheritance of the civilization, serving as a database and a guide to it. Presence of a being with even a bit of such omniscience serving as a, for stars' sake, receptionist was the last thing that broke Tayne completely.
"Yes, i need the damned help, all of it!" – she walked up to the altar in fury, it seemed like she'd climb it and shake the hologram by the shoulders if she was even a bit more angry. - "My sister's abducted by damned alien witches, my mother's probably dead, and i'm stuck here on this forgotten planet lightyears from home unable to inform anyone because everyone DAMN SLEEPS!"
"Not everyone," - calmly objected the avatar, - "there are fifteen department members at the workplace. I can call for someone. You have a Metacosmos-related problem, have I heard correctly?"
"«Problem» is an understatement, but yep!"
"I can connect you with professor Aleeyen, they're the only one here who researches that topic unfortunately. Anything else I can help you with?"
"Yeah, tell someone that Yasimir..." – Tayne racked her brain, - "chute, i don't know their surnames! Yasimir from the research department in the Lua system, in the Lynx sector died! They worked on the dark path or something like that!"
The avatar hanged in silence for a good half a minute. Either they were talking to professor Aleeyen or contacting the citadel for information.
"It's Yasimir Raygor Ydafil," - the avatar finally figured it out. - "Are you sure they died?"
"I saw that with my own eyes," – her sight got blurry when she recalled their incineration, and she almost collapsed on the floor. Yeah, that will probably haunt her in nightmares for years to come.
"I'll inform the Lua system immediately. What were the circumstances of their death?"
Tayne sighed. Why, just why is the logic of the artificials so roundabout? Well, at least she can explain everything now.
And so she did. From how she woke up, and up to her submersion into the metacosmic void. With Lana looking more and more shocked after each word she heard - and the avatar listening calmly and recording her long, detailed story. Even if it was able to have any emotions, which doesn't really happen in basic avatars, Tayne wouldn't have seen them behind the mask.
Then the avatar hanged for half a minute more, sending the recording across the Cosmarium and confirming in went through. As well as requesting more additional info.
"The department in the Lynx sector already knows about recent metacosmic disturbances linked to the destruction of the Lynx S-148 realm, which you were in. Hovewer, the information you provided is able to accellerate the investigation a lot," - finally said the avatar. - "A representative I spoke with wants to convey you gratitude."
"Will they return my sister?" - Tayne wanted nothing to do with gratitude, she needed someone to guarantee her results.
"I am lacking information about specifications of that «Emperor's Wrath». But, extrapolating on data provided by you, it has an indistinguishably low chance of escaping a trained team of metacosmonauts."
"What about Naia?"
"Since they used the scroll you are carrying on you for travel, a key to their recovery should be stored in its memory. Though its restorability on the spot with casual procedures is dubious due to how Naia deenergized the scroll. Details of this process are unknown to me."
"Can you fix the scroll and restore them?..."
"That is outside of my scope of allowed actions. I can only access, process and share information, but manipulating physical objects is not what I am programmed to do."
"And who can?..."
"I recommend you the service center located at this town at Old Geese street, 3. Entrance from the backyard. It opens at nine. The master who works there is an old colleague of mine."
"And... and... and what about Yasimir?!"
"My condolences. Yasimir Raygor Ydafil rejected digital immortality at prior time. Their last scanning was done two months ago, but we are only allowed to summon them in case of major emergency situations or when proper physical resurrection will be developped."
"May their soul live peacefully with the stars..." – whispered Tayne.
Living with a practically immortal hologram parent since early childhood, Tayne firmly believed mortality to be a concept of eons past, even for extremely rare situations of death by external causes. She had her scannings regularily as part of medical checkups, and even though she knew theoretically that one can outright reject immortality, she never understood why exactly someone would do that. Sure, some tactile sensations aren't transferred, but are they really so priceless to not live without them? She never really got around to asking Naia that... and she noted to do so when opportunity comes.
"Do you have any more questions?" – asked Wiktori, - "or maybe you?" – it turned to Lana.
"I don't have any," - said Lana, and Tayne only whispered "Thanks" and bowed Wiktori with respect, desperately trying not to crack with emotions on the spot.
The avatar disappeared instantly, dissolving into the air. Tayne waited a couple of seconds and then collapsed on the ground... or at least tried to. Lana, appearing last second, caught her near the floor. Again.
"You alright?"
"Obviously not." - Tayne rolled over face down, to the cold marble tile.
"It's okay to let it all out."
"Lana, sorry..."
"You don't need to be sorry," - assured Lana.
"I do! I brought you into all this, distracted you from down there and... and... you don't need to be here! It's all my problem and I can deal with it. Alone."
"But you don't have to," - Lana lightly touched her on the shoulder. - "Tayne, I want to help."
"Why?!" - Tayne cried out. - "Are you Wiktori who helps everyone it sees? What's so special about me?!"
"I... don't have anything else to do really," – Lana answered. – "Most of my friends left for vacation, so why not spend time with someone new and be useful for once? Besides, you have experience with the Metacosmos, i rarely meet someone who's interested in it."
On these words Tayne started sobbing. Experience, huh... Metacosmos rejected her time after time, not letting to do anything. Her dreams were either nightmares or pure, unrefined nothing. If she had any skill in orienting there, she wouldn't have slipped out of it and fallen upon Vatravishna Yadi. And instead would've been able to regroup and fight like Naia did.
"Sounds weird, but even when i just first saw you down in the Nexus i thought there's something special about you. Like... something put an exclamation mark over you and said «hey, go check her out!»... you did that first, though," – Tayne blushed remembering this, - "but well, I'm here and I don't regret it. Tayne, I feel your situation and I want to be helpful. It's all fine with me."
Tayne looked at Lana, crawled closer and buried her face in Lana's laps.
She hated her inner weakness. Hated how Caithe was, on top of everything else, more stable and supportive since the beginning of time, making her the one to be supported. But succumbing to this weakness was the only thing she had enough willpower left to do. Such an unbelievable luck there's someone near her she can surrender to.
"I'm just exhausted," – she whispered.
"We can go to a softer and warmer place to have you get some rest. There's enough time till morning for you to sleep."
"On these bags in the underground? No, thank you."
"You think this marble floor is better?"
Tayne smiled lightly.
"Actually, we can do even better," – remembered Lana. – "There are rooms called «personal purpose space» at floor sixty-nine, beds included. A student can book one to rest or study or whatever else. I can get one for us if possible, i think they accept bringing in strangers. You wanna?"
Tayne smiled again.
"Go forward."
"I can't, you're lying on me!"