Descending the mountain, Laurence returned to himself and began looking around for people. The ornamental gateway was open and incredibly sparsely manned. In fact there was only a single person sleeping on a chair by the entrance. Their head was covered by a wide brimmed hat to keep the sun off and a simple cloak covered the rest of their skin. As Laurence approached, he could not help but admire the person’s persistence and devotion to sleep.
The group began to move past the sleeping figure, but as Laurence took his first step past them he heard a snort.
“Hold it!” The cloaked figure yawned in a gravelly voice. “I don't recognise any of you and only one of you has the aura of life about you. State your name and business”.
“My name is Laurence Absolution and I am here to find my father”. Laurence halted and turned to the figure. “I don't want to keep you from sleep, but I have to ask as is our first time here; could you point me in the direction of the home of Angus Absolution?”
The hat tipped back and revealed a grizzled figure who looked like he was in his fifties. His browbeaten skin, sunken eyes and greying hair only added to his demeanour of lethargy. “Well I'll be. You're not from a recent batch of children... In fact you're not from any batch we've sent out in cycles. What did you say your name was? Laurence? You must be a child from one of the colonies...”
Laurence, Fen, Jim and Peter all stood still as they watched chatter to himself about who Laurence could possibly be. They would occasionally share glances when the old man talked himself into a circle and started his odd mutterings again.
“You don't exist,” he said after several minutes. “There's no record of anyone by your name, mana signature, or perceived lineage anywhere within the Absolution library of persons. So to put it simply, you aren't a person”.
“What?” Jim and Peter both exclaimed.
“I certainly am... but you aren't, are you?”
“Ha! You have a good eye. I am in fact a sentient census of the Absolution clan. All golden children and people above the age of eight are expected to fill out a form and submit it into the halls of my person so they may be catalogued and entered into the index of the family”.
“Well, you're right, I never did fill out one of those forms, but I was seven when I entered the Tower”.
“According to the regulations, your father and mother should have filled out the forms for you then. However your name and mana signature does not appear as one of the lost children, or as the child of any figures under the Immortal rank”.
“But my father is an Ascendant Immortal...”
“Ah...” The census stopped. His eyes flickered slightly and then he smiled. “That makes more sense now. I don't usually check above Immortal because of the bound fertility issue making it a moot point, but there is a form here that matches your name and lineage. Your mana signature is absent, but that's fine. I can rectify that now”.
Laurence smiled and the group let out a collective sigh of relief. “Can you point me in the direction of my father now?”
“Of course,” The census replied. Pulling a pen and paper seemingly from nowhere, the man proceeded to write down the directions upon the paper.
“Thank you,” Laurence said.
“No problem, and your entourage size is fine. Three... no four... alive? And two dead? It's certainly odd, but its still under capacity. Just keep the peace and make your way towards your father's. I'm sure he misses you greatly”.
“I will,” Laurence replied before he began making his way through the gate.
“Don't be a stranger now!” the census cried, before returning to his sleeplike state.
The group continued through the town, following the census’ directions. They spent most of their morning doing so, which gave Laurence and Fen a lot of time to study and appreciate the artistic designs of the ancient Hephaistians.
Peter, on the other hand, had moved closer to Jim and asked him in a conspiratorial whisper, “So what is actually the reason for that child?”
“What, Fen?” Jim asked.
“Yes, Fen. Laurence said he was a result of an experiment to produce False Immortals, but I don't buy it. It just doesn't fit with Laurence's reason for doing anything”.
“Oh? What do you think that reason is then?”
“Reviving Cleo of course. Which is why I can't see why he would make the child, especially one as fractured as that boy. Nothing about Fen makes me think that he could be useful in bringing Cleo or Rose back. You must have some idea?”
“Of course I do. I am the one who showed Law the Book of Order, and I was there the day she died. Of course I know”. Jim went silent as they walked. “So back when Law and I were looking for ways to bring Cleo back we spent months, I think even years coming up with possible ways of doing so. The ideas ranged from a corpse simulacrum that was supposed to take the place of the dead, to a poultice that could regrow her damaged flesh and even her mana reservoir. He didn't want her to become a ghoul or a revenant, partly because neither of those would truly be Cleo. The same could be said for clones and doppelgangers. Eventually we decided to study these ideas one by one anyway, and see if through experimenting with them we could think up new ways that might succeed”.
“That still doesn't explain the boy”.
“I'm getting there! So, one of the ideas that we came up with was splitting a person's mind and forcing a second personality into their body. In theory both personalities would always be awake, they would both be able to learn, but only one would realise the other existed. The idea was that we could make a person grow into a Heaven ranked individual and then the secondary personality would devour the primary and you would have Cleo back in a body that was hers indisputably and she would be able to grow with it, become Immortal and continue her path”.
“Did it work? I mean that's not a true revival, but it's pretty close”.
“Would we be here if it did?” Jim smirked. “In fact it was an unmitigated disaster. We had two babies, both with potential. The primary we called Ruko, and the control, which was obviously Fen. Ruko had a personality of her own and the personality of a Heaven ranker, while Fen simply had his mind split. Things seemed to be going well, the process of imprinting the mind went perfectly, and the entire venture seemed promising. Then we realised that the heaven ranked personality was building mana pathways. These paths were eclectic and inherently destructive, to the point where the child's body would die if they ever tried to practice any form of mana control.
“We looked at the secondary mind, and had discovered that it had become completely deranged, and was destroying the body so it could return to oblivion. Law was unwilling to let the innocent personality die for nothing, so he decided to continue the experiment in a different form. We reunited Fen's mind, and implanted Ruko into his body as his... inner twin. Without the girl having a mana reservoir the process was seamless and the two children became what you see before you”.
“So the original body?”
“Imploded once Ruko was separated and the secondary personality gained control. But then we had two incredibly gifted souls in one body, so we decided to train them. In short order Ruko learned the Book of Order and Fen learned the Book of Creation, which created a sort of false False Immortal. As such, as far as we know... that boy, those children, are unique across the entire Tower”.
Their discussion ground to a halt as they stopped outside a simple house. It was spacious and similarly designed to all the ones surrounding it, but Laurence could tell there was something else there. There was something homely about the building, an aura that he recognised and made him feel safe. He could tell without a doubt that this place was his home, despite it being the first time he had ever even set eyes on it.
He slowly made his way up to the door before pausing and taking a deep breath. He knocked on the door and waited as Jim, Fen and Peter all stood nervously behind their companion. There was silence for a moment before the group heard a rustle and a woman opened the door. Her mouse brown hair was platted and sat over her shoulder as her tired but energetic eyes looked over the group at her front door. Her apron hung loosely over her front and her hands were covered in a slight layer of white flour.
“Hello, can I help you?” she asked the group that stood before her.
In response Laurence just smiled before finally managing to say “Hello mum... I'm home”.
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