“You've spoken about these rings, but what about the chance the auger gave us? What was it?”
Laurence was silent for a moment before he swept up all the materials within the workspace and walked out of the room. Looking around the gallery he stopped at two of the paintings on the walls and took them down before he finally approached the giant shard of crystal in the middle of the room.
“I spent some of my night researching when I discovered the hint, but what is true and what is false when it comes to the story of Yoth is hard to work out.
“Supposedly, Yoth was a young woman when her lover died tragically. Not from any combat or accident, but from a wasting disease. She was just an Earth ranker at that point, but she became obsessed with finding a way to join her love once more. She wasn't suicidal, but instead she was... broken? This is where it all becomes a bit unclear. The Book of Creation has a biography of all the patriarchs and matriarchs of the Hephaistia clan since its inception, but Yoth... everything about her has been tampered with”.
“So why is Yoth important?”
“Ah, sorry... Her Manifestation was a new Manifestation, one that had never been made before, Yoth’s Well. The use was originally kind of unclear; in the Book the description is something about bathing in the well to become as eternal as the tower, but that's been tampered with as well. According to the letter I found that gave me the clue of Yoth’s well, I was told that the description was doctored and rather than its recorded ability it is a true wishing well”.
“A wishing well? Like those things that the superstitious mortals have?”
“Yeah,” Laurence said. “But the wishes come true. There might be more to it than that, but it was implied that the very nature of the tower could be rewritten by the Well. This has to include the cycle of life and death right?”
“It feels like there’s something you’re not telling me,” Peter said.
Laurence smirked. “Well... There is the issue that the entire of the cult of Avalon is hunting for the well as well. It’s apparently the aim of their existence or something”.
“So they will be protecting it?”
“No... I don’t think they know where it is, or perhaps they do but can’t get in”.
“They can’t get in?” Peter frowned.
After a few minutes of staring at the crystal, Laurence touched one of its flat sides and watched as it shrank until it was around an inch long. From his storage space he pulled out a thin metal pendant with a wire casing that fit the crystal perfectly. He placed the pendant round his neck and then began his route into the building with the paintings under arm.
“No, they can’t,” he continued. “There are three keys that the Hephaistians used to seal up the well, and I think I know the first one is”.
“Oh?” Peter said, following behind Laurence as he walked briskly towards Fen’s room.
“Yeah, I’m going to have to go home for the first time since I was a child”. Laurence grimaced as he thought about his parents, whom he had not seen in far too long. He occasionally wondered if they even knew he was still alive, but his focus was not on those who he could see again.
“So where is that? The Absolution homeplane?”
Laurence shook his head. “I never actually lived there. My father was one of the guardians of the gateways into the tower from a minor plane”
“You weren’t from the homeplane?” Peter frowned. “How did you become a Golden Child then? Did you not go through the ceremony of acceptance? Did you not get given your Book by the leaders of the clan?”
“Strictly speaking, I guess I’m not one. I practice Creation anyway, and that Book is something that the Absolution clan has never had any control over. Honestly I’ve never really thought about the origin of my Book, but I know it’s not from my father’s clan”.
“So where does your Book even come from?”
“The only place it really could come from. This Book is from the Hephaistia clan, as am I... I think”.
“You think?” Peter barked out a laugh. “You don’t exactly sound sure”.
“I’m not. There’s no proof of it, but I have a single letter that tells me my birth mother was from the Hephaistia clan. The issue is if I don’t believe it then I have no reason to believe the information about the Well either. It has me in a bind. Either I don’t believe the information about my origin and miss a chance to bring Cleo back or believe the letter and have the potential to be lied about my birth”.
“So what are you going to do?”
Laurence sighed. “I’m going to stick to the chance. It’s easy for me to find out anyway, because my father will know about the truth of my origin. And if the truth about my origin is as it says in the letter then the chance for Cleo’s revival is that much closer. If it’s not then I can just go back to my mountain and continue working. Either way Cleo will be revived, but it will either take a few years if we’re lucky or a few cycles if I’m persistent”.
“Alright, so what next? Where is the plane we’re going to?”
“You’re coming with me then?” Laurence smirked. Peter had changed greatly since they were a child. The drastic contrast between the odd child and the man who stood beside him was shocking.
“Of course. I may be a monster of a man, a soul-eater they called me back then, but I’m going to find a way to fix Rose”.
“It was the devourer. Remember the mythos of that was partially my creation as well”.
Peter laughed again, before sighing. “I made a lot of mistakes back then, but Rose taught me the error of my ways. She made me better after she realised that her family sold her over to my clan”.
Laurence stopped as he put his hand on the Door to the room Fen worked and slept in. “Wait, what? Her family sold her?”
“Oh yeah, the clans of Chaos are notorious for trading away their less successful Golden Children if it benefits them, and Rose was their bargaining chip to keep me locked up until I reached Heaven rank. I guess what they wanted worked, because I calmed down with Rose’s help. She guided me to being a better person, which is why I need her fixed”.
“That’s... horrible. No wonder Cleo didn’t want to go back to her clan once she got out. I would hate to have my life forfeited because the clan I lived in simply said so”.
“It’s the curse of the clans of Chaos. Because there are four clans to the Book they have to deal with overpopulation on a scale that none of the other clans have to. In some ways, you’re the luckiest of all of us. With the freedom given by not having a clan breathing down your neck you’ve not had to worry about interference on your path”.
“Yeah, but I have also had literally no guidance. I don’t intend to let Fen go through any of the same troubles I have had, which is why he is coming with us to expand his horizons”. Knocking on the door as he opened it he spoke up. “Fen, are you busy?”
“No, master. I’ve just been working on a sculpture. It’s only a third done right now, the muskwood is hard to work with”. The boy put down the wood block with something slowly being formed from the top, as well as a simple knife and turned to face the two men.
“We’re going to be traveling from today, so you’re going to have to join us on the journey. Don’t worry, we will be back home eventually, but there is something that I must do in order to be a much better master to you. Our first trip is to visit the place where I grew up as a young child”.
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