"Connected to the Unknown?"
"Yes."
Riley did not imdiately grab the plaque in front of him, and instead just slightly backed away as he looked at the tablet. And then, a few breaths later and without even saying another word, a clone erged from the gray floor; grabbing the item even when his silhouette wasn't yet complete.
"It's fine, you can touch it however you like," Tedi said, "We wrapped it in a protective mbrane so as to not contaminate it, or us."
"..." Riley then stared at the clone to see if sothing was going to happen to it—but nothing. Riley still did not touch it, however, and just let his clone continue examining whatever the thing was.
There seed to be sothing written on the plaque. But for Riley, they just looked like the scratches of a chicken's feet. If there was anything weird about it that Riley could imdiately discern, it was that it weighed like a feather.
"How did you co up with a conclusion that this is connected to Nothing, Tedi?" And finally, after what seed like minutes, Riley opened his mouth.
"The—"
[The passage written on it is a language from an ancient and dead civilization.]
"He was asking , Zai," the gray and humanoid-sized Tedi imdiately turned her head toward the red fairy-like Ahor Zai floating in the room.
[I am a more credible source of information,] Ahor Zai shrugged as it started circling around the tablet,
['Bathing in the life of the Universe, we sought the aning of death at its end. The price we had to pay for death is life. But when paynt was made, all that reflected from our eyes was a somber, and desolate emptiness. Lazuran, Act 3.]
"A desolate emptiness," Riley tilted his head to the side as he too, started circling around his clone, "And you think this refers to Nothing, Tedi?"
"It could very well be," Tedi nodded her head, before placing her palms together and then pulling them apart. And as she did so, a holographic screen appeared in front of her,
"Watch this."
"..."
A silver in a world of nothing but darkness—that is what a Norinlad literally looked like in the expanse of space. The Norinlad was standing on top of what seed to be a large silver crucifix. And judging by the blurry and streaking lights moving past it, he was moving at a speed close to hyperspeed.
"That's one of our explorers venturing out into the Unknown," Tedi explained.
"What is that he is riding on, Tedi?" Riley pointed at the crucifix beneath the norinlad's silver feet.
"That is our main mode of transportation, Riley," Tedi slightly squinted her eyes from Riley's random question, "You could consider it our ship."
"Is it possible for to have one?" Riley also squinted as he looked mini Tedi straight in her eyes, "I want to add it to my silverware collection."
"That is not cutlery, Riley." A loud, vibrating sigh ca from outside the library at the sa ti the mini Tedi did the sa, "And no, I can not give you one. A Cosmic Cross is given to us the mont we are born—it is a part of us and only we can use it."
"Then am I able to see yours, Tedi?"
"I—Look, this is the part you should watch," Tedi did not answer the question as she just pointed at the floating hologram in front of her, "Focus on this."
And as the norinlad explorer continued to move in hyperspeed. Soon, however, a sudden black dot flashed from all the streaks of light that surrounded him.
"..." Riley squinted his eyes as soon as he saw that. And if he, soone who was just watching from a feed noticed it, the norinlad on the site couldn't have missed it—and he didn't.
The norinlad stopped imdiately; the streaks around him now turned into glimrs of stars far away. He then started turning around and flying to where the mysterious dot appeared—but it was no longer there.
Instead, however, the norinlad detected so sort of anomaly that should not be in that part of the expanse, it was the plaque.
"Hm…" And with the recording done and the hologram screen disappearing, Riley could really only let out a small hum as he turned his focus back on the plaque,
"...And what is your main basis that this might be related to Nothing, Tedi?"
"Because it appeared exactly, exactly at the sa ti I saw the entity that looked like you inside the Shade Prison," Tedi answered Riley's question without any hesitation, "At the dot, Riley."
"That… is interesting."
"It is, very," Tedi nodded several tis, "And you ntioned eting Nothing every ti you die, Riley. The passage ntioned sothing about death—making the probability that this is related to Nothing more than the probability that it is not. This can not be just so kind of grand coincidence."
"It might," Riley shrugged, "My existence is a grand coincidence, Tedi. What are the chances of soone like , a being that resurrects each ti I die was born from a schizophrenic mother that is friends with 1 of the only 2 themarian outside of Theran? And then the said mother killed as a baby because she turned insane, granting her abilities that could level an entire planet."
"Those… are so specific events, Riley Ross," Tedi batted her eyes a couple of tis as she heard Riley's words. But after a few seconds, she shook her head and sighed,
"Still, the probability of this plaque not being related to Nothing is very low—we need to assu that it is. Also, we have already done prior research on this plaque before showing it to you, Riley Ross… and we found sothing that is impossible."
Tedi then grabbed the plaque from Riley's clone, before handing it over to Ahor Zai's avatar, who struggled to grab it with its short arms.
"Zai, describe the civilization that used the language written on this plaque."
[Okay,] Ahor Zai nodded as it closed its eyes.
[The language used in this phrase is called P'lapi,] a clicking sound snapped in the air as Ahor Zai pronounced the language,
[The language was primarily spoken by the P'lopi, a technologically advanced civilization that existed during the ti of the gods. Although most of my mories regarding them have been erased, I believe they were one of the civilizations that chose to leave the Common Council after the War.]
"The Ti of the Gods, Riley," Tedi grabbed the plaque back, lifting it up and placing it next to her face, "That is possibly hundreds of millions of years ago, or even a billion. No material in the Universe that we know of could exist for that amount of ti and not experience change—but this thing…
…it feels new, like it is unaffected by ti."
"How would you know that, Tedi?"
"Because I can feel it, Riley," Tedi then placed the plaque in front of her, before resting her forehead on it, "It talks to . I can't quite hear what it is trying to say, but it is talking to . It's not just a word carved on stone…
…it's a device."
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