“Do you think it could be that easy?”
Jim laughed, “You have no idea. We are some of the most gifted individuals in the history of the Tower, we are all century Immortals. In one hundred years, we did what most people in existence will never be able to do. The path ahead of you is hard, but it is not impossible for you. You’ve been chosen by the Book of Creation, and that means that you have a chance to rectify that. Work within the paths of the Tower, be it Book cultivation or transformation and the lady may forgive you on her own. The lady does not demand that all paths take the same as her own, but Kimbramancers are in opposition to the very nature of the world.”
“Feel-good moments aside, you have yet to answer the other question. How did you find out about the other keys? Who told you of them?” Laurence knelt down and looked Ayven in the eyes. He was unblinking as he stared at the man, simply waiting for a response to assuage his anger. He was no longer angry at Ayven himself, that fire had long since sputtered out, but the rage he felt towards Yveth was slowly becoming full blown wrath.
“The augers, sir! The-the-the-they knew everything! I mean not in so many words... they are never particularly clear, but they gave us a target, they gave us names. They even pointed us in the direction of this place when we were stumped. Lady Yveth found a book in an abandoned library that told the story of Yoth and how she made the Well and why she made it and how it worked. The book told us how to get to the first key and then the auger said that we were running out of time...” The longer that they allowed Ayven to speak, the quicker words began tumbling out of his mouth. His nerves transformed from fear into an absolute need to please his captors and so he became almost incapable of stopping his speech. “I’m not sure why but the auger didn’t seem like she was actually helping lady Yveth. The augers have always been a bit odd, but they have been a staple of the Avalonian community since its inception. The whole society has been filled with prophets and people gaining power from the future since we first started. It’s in our nature, but since I joined the quest with lady Yveth I got a different feeling from them, like they were just putting up with her existence to achieve their own goal. It’s odd, and I don’t feel like I really understand, but I would have thought that they would want to make Avalon as great as they could seeing as they are as much mired by the curse as we are.”
“But what if they aren’t?” Peter said, a sick smile spreading across his face as he cut off Ayven’s torrent of verbal diarrhea. “The fact of the matter is, augers and prophets exist outside the realms of the Books, but they are not rejected by Babel like Gi is. It goes back to the fundament of what Gi is, and what Babel herself allows. And at the end of the day, the biggest thing that slights her is fundamental damage to one of the processes that make up the world and keep it running.”
“But the Avalonian augers practice...”
“Do they? I’ve had a feeling that there is an ulterior player at work since this quest began. Why was I sent to Laurence in particular by an auger, and not the Hephaistian home at large? Was it because he had the first key or was it something else? Was someone forcing my hand? Was someone stopping me from tainting the newly reformed family of Creation with ideas of breaking the cycle of reincarnation, or perhaps they were collecting all the like-minded souls who were determined to break the foundation of the Tower and remove them all at once.”
“Well why even continue with following me if you have such fears? It’s not like we are forcing you, But I intend to finish this quest no matter what.”
“That, Laurence, is why I am here,” Peter replied, pointing at Laurence as he spoke. “If this foolhardy idea works then I would never forgive myself for missing out on the chance to truly revive Rose. She is mine, and only dies when I deem it is time, not at the whims of some thug who got the drop on us.” As Peter spoke he became colder and colder. By the end it was as if he could freeze the very air with his speech. The only thing that gave his words any essence was the naked unbridled hatred that he held for the man who took Rose from him.
Laurence looked on at his companion and wanted to disagree but found he could not. He was just as driven as Peter was, perhaps even moreso, as Cleo’s revival was the entire point of his ascension. It was what he dedicated his eternality to. He laughed. It started as a chuckle, a mirthless guffaw that held no small amount of pain behind it, but slowly it morphed into a full belly laugh that shook Laurence’s entire person. The laugh was bitter, but there was something that he found too amusing about his own state of being.
“Why are you laughing?”
“I’m sorry Peter,” Laurence replied, “There is just something infinitely amusing about us both.”
“What are you talking about,” Jim asked, “You aren’t... Oh I get it!”
“You would. There is a deep seated irony about our situation,” Laurence said, finally catching his breath. “In childhood our actions were both marked as done by the devourer. We both rose to prominence relatively quickly, and we both have dead wives that we are trying to bring back to dead lives. Our story is the same, but with a twist. You were born into your clan with knowledge of the Tower, I was not. You were considered a demon-child and branded as the devourer for our crimes. I was not. Our women both died before we were able to reach our primes, but you only have a body. I do not. And finally, the thing that cements our mirroring, you went from monster child to prominent figure in your family, while I went from the only living figure in my family to reclusive monster.
“Yet after all that is said and done. All the twists, reflections, and bumps in our lives we still want the same thing. We still want to bring the people we love back to life through any means necessary. And that is hilarious to me.”
“It certainly is curious,” Quentin said.
“It’s more than curious,” Peter replied, “It’s down right uncanny, and makes me more uncomfortable than I would like to admit. It also makes me think that the augers really were up to something. If only I knew what.”
“Well there’s no real point in worrying about it,” Jim said as he moved back to make sure that Fen and Ruko were not getting themselves into trouble. “You’re never going to decipher the plans of people who work in such an odd way. Why bother? We have our target and we know where all three keys to the Well are, so we may as well just make our way there.”
“You’re right Jim.” Laurence smiled, before glancing back to Ayven, “We drop him off at the Hephaistian plane entrance and he can make his own way to Yun’s mountain. After that we go to the fifth floor of the Tower. I do not intend to give her much time to lick her wounds and build a new army.”
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