I appreciate the silence as we speed through the scenery. Both Ahkelios and Tarin can see that I'm not in the mood to talk, and while they seem like they want to ask what's on my mind, they've both chosen to give space for now. I appreciate it I'm not sure I'm ready to confront the whirlwind of thoughts that are still running through my mind.
Naru ntioned that the Hotspot we encountered was from the fifty-seventh Trial. That implies that Ahkelios was the fifty-seventh looper, and I can probably check by going through the Anomaly logs, assuming he left any. There are other possibilities fifty-seventh might an the fifty-seventh out of Earth's three thousand Trialgoers but that seems like a stretch, especially with how clear it is that Ahkelios is related to the Hotspot. He's got mories of it, after all.
So I've always known that there have been many, many Trials on Hestia. I just didn't consider that there had been over three hundred. The number is chilling to , because that number represents more than three hundred planets more than three hundred civilizations that have been approached by the Integrators.
It also represents more than three hundred attempts to beat this Trial.
I'm not being told everything. The Trial has to be sothing more than just willpower, if that many people have failed.
My ruminations aside, it's not much longer before one of the Great Cities appears over the horizon. Apparently, we've already covered most of the distance at the speed we've been going. I still don't expect the sheer scale of it, though; what begins as a dull, matte-gray line quickly rises over the trees, and eventually towers taller than so of the skyscrapers I've seen on Earth.
Tarin and I slow down, mostly so we aren't approaching the wall at full speed. I doubt the guards will react well to two Firmant-enhanced individuals rocketing like bullets towards their walls. Good thing, too, because as soon as we stop, we're approached by one of the guards.
He isn't wearing a voidsuit, to my relief; I don't have to worry that I'm interacting with soone that's being physically controlled through Void, let alone the reaction that the Inspiration would have to that. Instead, he's wearing a set of heavy plate armor that's shimring with a dense layer of Firmant I can feel the complexity of the anchoring through my Firmant sense.
And yet it's distinctly different from how the crows do it. There's no anchoring point to tie the Firmant into the object. Instead, it feels like the Firmant has been shaped and weaved in such a way that its shape conforms to the armor. On top of that, I can sense other layers and types of Firmant coursing through the woven network.
Now that I think about it, Virin only ever helped with the enchantnt stage of imbuent. There are still the anchoring and magnification stages. I'll have to talk to him again when I get the chance I need every advantage I can get.
"Ahem," the guard says, and I realize I've been staring at his armor for a while. Tarin snickers at , and I roll my eyes. "State the purpose of your visit?"
Tarin answers for , thankfully. I'm not quite ready to talk to anyone yet. "We here to tour!" he says, puffing his chest out proudly. "We hear great things about the Great Cities, see? We want see for ourselves. So we here."
"Right." The guard doesn't look like he believes Tarin. He folds his arms across his chest, scanning Tarin closely, and then turning his gaze to .
And then his eyes land on Ahkelios, and I tense.
"What is that?" the guard asks.
Before I can co up with a response, Ahkelios speaks. "I'm not a 'what', I'm a 'who'!" he declares indignantly. He crosses his own arms, mimicking the guard's own stance, except his stature makes him look patently ridiculous compared to the guard. I start to ready myself to use my skills; Quicken Mind, to ready myself for anything the guard does...
...but Premonition isn't activating. There isn't danger here?
"Hah!" The guard bursts into guffawing laughter, his entire attitude suddenly changing. "I see. You're entertainers! From one of our vassal states, I assu? I know one's populated with a lot of you crows, although I have no idea what either of you little friends here are. Picked up a stray, did you?"
Despite myself, I relax. Being called a stray isn't great, but it's better than any of the myriad of other reactions this guy could have had. It does strike as strange that he doesn't imdiately recognize as a Trialgoer it's a possibility I forgot to consider, and one that I'm regretting now, except Tarin doesn't seem at all concerned about it.
Tarin and Mari both recognized almost imdiately that I was a Trialgoer. What's different here?
Maybe the population on Hestia is a lot more diverse than I'd initially assud. I've already seen crows and morphlings, after all, and I have no idea what species this guard is; most of his features are hidden behind his armor. He's humanoid, but that's about all I can identify even the helt has an obscuring layer of shadowy Firmant that hides everything except his eyes.
They're strange eyes, though. Chromatic. Not a morphling or a crow, then, unless there's sothing I don't know about either of those species.
"Not stray!" Tarin says, to my surprise. "He friend. He help , understand? What word... Ah! Apprentice!"
Well, I'm glad Tarin's standing up for , at least.
"I train him!"
Mostly glad.
"City has training facilities, yes?"
Maybe not that glad.
"Of course, of course," the guard says, not questioning anything Tarin is saying at all. It's a wonder this city hasn't been invaded yet.
But maybe that's what this is. They aren't paranoid about attackers because they have no reason to be; that armor the guard is wearing is already stuffed with more Firmant than I could hope to generate on my own, and if every one of their guards has sothing like that, then they don't have much to fear from the outside. I'm not exactly familiar with Hestian geography or most of the landmarks on this continent, so it's possible they've just had a long, extended peaceti.
If they're not scared, though, why the massive wall?
I rember what Rotar's told about the Great Cities that they're a loose coalition of cities clustered around the center of the continent. Presumably, this is one of them. I probably should've asked Tarin for a little more information about the specific city we were headed to first.
Then we get to the Gates, and everything makes a lot more sense.
The wall isn't surrounding a city like I'd assud. This is a massive wall that encircles a giant section of land, within which the Cities reside. I wonder for a mont what the point of the wall is, and then I rember what Tarin told about the number of monsters seeded on Hestia because of the Trial. Maybe they built it to defend themselves, and since this is still early in the cycle and the first loop they haven't had to actually fight anything yet.
I think about the chiras I had to fight.
Yet. Even with their armor, if enough of those decide to try to break through the walls, I'm not sure they can fight them all off. That, and I doubt the chiras are the only monsters roaming Hestia. I'm surprised we didn't run into anything on the way here, but at the speeds we were going, I'm guessing we blew past the majority of the monsters that would otherwise have chased us down.
The gate itself is a transparent barrier of Firmant. It's dense and thick, too, stronger than almost anything I've encountered short of the blast in the Fracture. Part of wonders how it's being maintained, but considering the entire wall seems to be charged and imbued with Firmant, part of suspects that this is just a project that they've been working on for a long, long ti.
In stark contrast with the Firmant-enhanced gate and the sheer scale of the wall, however, is the outpost of guards that stand around just outside the gate. They have a scattered set of tents and wooden furniture that looks like it's been sitting out in the open for years and barely maintained. It doesn't stop the five other guards from lounging about in those seats, each clad in an identical set of armor and a glimring rod tied to their hips.
Huh. The guard leading us has that rod conspicuously absent.
Strange.
"Alright," the guard says. "We just need you guys to register with us. One sample of Firmant for tracking, and you can be on your way to wherever you're headed."
A sample of Firmant? I don't like the idea of being tracked.
"Andos," another guard calls. She I think she's a she, anyway gets up from her seat and strides over, then folds her arms across her chest. She's a little taller than the others, and now that I look more closely, her armor is different in subtle ways. There's a symbol etched into the chestplate that's only visible when the sun catches on it just right. "Did you clear them for entry?"
"Almost done, Qura!" the guard that's apparently nad Andos replies cheerfully. "They're just entertainers. A crow and his... whatever that is. His apprentice. What are you, anyway?"
"Human," I say dryly. It's not like they'll be able to get anything from the word; it's foreign to them.
"Human!" Andos says cheerfully. "A crow and his human."
"Please don't refer to like I'm a belonging."
I don't really care either way, in truth. I'm busy trying to think of a way to avoid this I don't really want to give away a piece of my Firmant for them to use, especially with the Interface so tied up with . Rotar's already told that the Cities are interested in exploiting the Interface specifically; if they know that I'm the Trialgoer, I'm going to be a target. How do I avoid this?
"How do you take a Firmant sample?" I ask, partly to distract them and partly to buy myself ti. Andos walks over to a nearby crate and pulls it open, neatly ripping off the lid and a chunk of the crate with it. I wince at the sound of the wood cracking and splintering.
"With this!" Andos says. He spins around and flourishes a small crystal at . "All you have to do is imbue it with a piece of your Firmant. Simple! Give it a try."
That actually is pretty simple, but that doesn't an I want to do it.
Firmant Manipulation cos in handy here, along with just the lightest touch of Void; the Inspiration feels sleepy, for lack of a better word, but it doesn't mind lending its power to draw a little bit more Firmant out of the air and into my arm. Then, as I take the crystal from Andos, I flood it with that ambient, passive Firmant.
The crystal turns green and I can almost swear it makes a ding.
"There you go!" Andos retrieves the crystal from , digs around in the crate for a fresh one, and then hands it to Tarin. I try to weave another piece of ambient Firmant frantically, but before I can do anything, Tarin takes it and floods it with his traditional black Firmant. It crackles with electricity.
I wince. Hopefully that won't co back and bite us.
"Wooh, that's a lot," Andos says, whistling. He takes Tarin's crystal back, then walks off with both our crystals, grabbing a strange-looking... I an, it looks like a gun, except it has prongs instead of a barrel. "Nas?"
"Tarin," Tarin says.
"Ethan," I say. I wonder why he's not trying to get a sample of Ahkelios' Firmant. Does he assu he's just my pet?
...Probably.
Andos clicks the trigger of the gun, sending so Firmant into it at the sa ti; the prongs fill with energy, and a second later, both crystals are imprinted with our nas.
I can't help but feel like this was almost too easy. Qura's staring at , and I get the strange sense that she's frowning, but she doesn't say anything further.
"Well," Andos says. He hands us both a small dallion stamped with an image of... what looks like so type of bird. "Here are your passes to the Cities. They'll let you pass through the gate. Let know where you're going to have a show soti! I'd love to co watch."
"We send ssage back to guards!" Tarin says, dragging along with a wing. "Must see cities first. Then decide."
"Sounds good!" Andos says cheerfully, and a fraction of a second later the sound of his voice is swallowed by the barrier of Firmant that envelops us. Ahkelios actually flickers within the density of it, though he isn't forced to stay outside like I'd worried might happen.
And then we're through. The walls stretch behind us, protecting us from the monsters outside.
Or, you know. Protecting them from us. More fun to think about it that way.
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