The Architect had been watching the outside of the piece of Kurg he was trapped in, eager to escape the nightmarish ordeal he’d endured for too long. The view was an unchanging vista of an empty storage room, with foot-marks in the dust, where it had been disturbed.
He watched and listened, hearing words in the language of the Nicole, though spoken too softly for meaning to carry. As he waited, a fleshy, five-fingered hand reached up and just over the edge of the shelf, but it was clear the owner of the hand couldn’t quite reach the pile of enchanted metal.
There was a short discussion in the alien language and an Ulkun stepped into full view. The architect didn’t recognize the husk, but he knew the life stone in its belly. It was the murderous Forbidden One! Had the Nicole been foolish enough to trust him?
The criminal used a three-thumbed hand to reach into the shelf, with which it began gathering the fragments of Kurg, scraping them out of the shelf and into a sack held by the Nicole. After a moment’s work, the sack was closed and all was dark, though the conversation continued.
Filled with a mixture of paranoia and eagerness for freedom, the Architect commented, “I hope the Nicole is only using the Forbidden One, or all will soon be lost.”
“I wish you would be more trusting.” Irkith grumbled back, “Maybe he really has saved everyone. You should wait and see.”
“It doesn’t matter if he brought them back! It doesn’t make him any less of a mass-murderer!” The Architect quivered with anger.
“But-” Irkith protested.
Still enraged, the Architect shouted, “Be helpful or be silent!”
“Very well, but I urge you to avoid hasty action you might later regret.” Irkith shook his head and fell silent, staring at the Architect, as if sulking.
Eventually, the sack was opened and the pieces of Kurg were spread out on the grass of a field, so that no two pieces were in contact. Since there were hundreds of them, that required a considerable area and a large investment of time.
With hundreds of identical objects to choose from, Nicole asked, “Ogomid, is there any way to tell them apart from the outside?”
“None that I know,” the Ulkun shook his head, “but if you truly are a part of the city, you might be able to ask them.”
With a sigh of frustration, Nicole switched off the nullifier. The spell in her head immediately began tugging at her thoughts in a very uncomfortable fashion, having grown beyond the level of a mild itch to instead feel something like the mental equivalent to a rash. She hated using it, because that only made things worse.
She focused her mind and began looking at each piece of the city, while sub-vocalizing a conversation with the spell, asking about each piece, in turn, as she examined them. After five minutes, she got an affirmative to her simple question, in the form of a pleased feeling, much like a dog seeking approval. She wondered what was inside, aside from the Architect and the ant called ear-tick.
As if in response, the voice of Kurg answered, inside her head, Workshop.
That surprised her, because it answered plainly, when she’d been expecting, “I am Kurg.”
Suddenly and without warning, the entire layout of the structure contained within was implanted in her mind!
All of that was a really bad sign, indicating the spell was getting smarter as a result of slowly consuming her psyche.
She picked up the segment she believed contained the Architect and took a short walk away from the other pieces. When she felt she was far enough away, she pulled at the edges of the Kurg piece while focusing her mind to relay the information that had broken the seal of the first piece.
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The Architect looked up at the face of the Nicole and paid very close attention to the mental pathways of Kurg, curious to see how the fleshling would try to open the city. While he watched, information poured through Kurg as the new segment in the fleshling’s head became active.
After a lengthy dialog with the city, Nicole picked up the correct piece and began working to break the seal. While the Architect expected some form of authentication attempt, there was none. Instead, the newest segment simply informed the workshop segment that it wasn’t sealed. There was a moment of confusion in the local segment, because no authentication attempt was on record allowing the city to unseal, but since a segment had provided proof it wasn’t sealed and the seal had been a full-scale, city-wide command, the local segment had no choice but to accept the seal had been lifted!
The Architect laughed, because he knew the newest segment living inside the head of the Nicole was freshly-made and had never been sealed! In short, the fleshling had stumbled upon a flaw in the logic of the city’s mental pathways!
Nicole set the local segment down as it began unfolding and the Architect quickly repeated what they had done, passing along proof that the seal had been lifted to all other segments.
Everyone was forced to step back even further than expected as the city segment unfolded into a large structure composed of multiple hive-like buildings joined by connecting hallways. When it was fully open, it was the size of a football field! Many folded pieces of the city clung to the exterior, almost like fridge magnets.
Feeling a rush of excitement, Nicole switched the nullifier back on and entered the closest entrance of the building.
Inside, she found an empty hive the size of the one in her pocket, but without interior doors and no hearth in the center. She noted the lighting fixtures were in the same places, though they were of a different, more industrial design, which gave greater light. Additionally, there was no upper floor and most of the open spaces were filled with empty shelves, reminding her of a supply warehouse. The opposite side led into a long hallway.
As Nicole walked down the hall with the others in tow, Kazic asked, “What do ye make of this place?”
Nicole explained, “The city said it’s a workshop. If we’re lucky, it’s the Architect’s workshop.”
“It’s empty, though. Ogomid, is it supposed to be empty?”
The Ulkun shrugged, “I don’t remember. I will ask my people.” After a long moment, he responded, “This warehouse is designed to hold only the supplies needed for a large project, such as mass-production of similar items. Between projects, it is left mostly empty, as it was when I closed the city.”
Nicole reached another hive, which had two archways leading to more hallways. She took one of them, knowing it was the most direct path to the center. The path opened up to another hive with only one exit and that eventually led to another with five other exits, a large junction of three hallways. Once more following the map in her mind, Nicole selected one of them and entered.
Behind her, Lyra asked, “Do you know where you’re going?”
“Oddly, yes.” Nicole looked back at them, seeing looks of concern, so she explained, “The city showed me.”
Their looks of concern only grew more sharp as a result of her words.
Nicole turned back and continued down the hall until it opened up into another hive, which she knew was the ‘Furnace Room’ and center of the workshop. The room was dominated by a large, oven-like structure that was clearly designed for metalworking and unlike all of the other seven-hex hives, this one was one big room, with no dividers or supports. Currently, the furnace was unlit, but she sensed that with a mere desire, it would light.
The Architect, in the familiar form of an orichalcum ant, stepped around the furnace and looked at Nicole.
He bowed his head and spoke to her, “Gratitude. We are free.”
He glanced at Ogomid and then back at Nicole, as though questioning seeing them together.
She asked, “Can you help me now, please?”
“Have done all can do.” The ant looked at the floor, as though deeply uncomfortable.
“But you promised!” Nicole was angry!
“Have done all can do: can do nothing.”
“You used me? I would have freed you either way, but you lied to me and used me anyway?” Nicole was crying, “What’s wrong with you?”
Pop! - The workshop vanished from view and all of them fell a few inches downward, until they were standing in the grass. Nicole recognized the space-twisting effects of a teleportation spell, though she’d never seen one operate on such a large scale or with such precision, managing to leave them behind.
However, where she might once have been curious or even in awe of the powerful magic used, instead she turned to Lyra and began to sob, because she’d pinned her hopes for a cure on the Architect. She felt betrayed and angry, but more than anything else, she was frustrated and worried about the future. Kazic took Nicole’s hand, giving it a friendly squeeze to remind her she wasn’t alone, while her birth mother tried to comfort her.
