Edge Cases

80 - Book 2: Chapter 17: Theorycrafting

"There was a lot there to digest," Vex said with a slight frown. He'd been thinking about what the other version of Noram had told them throughout the journey here, and he was churning with ideas. He just hadn't put them all together yet.

"The names are one thing, but I think what stood out to me is when he said all of that started. He didn't give us an exact timeframe... but a few hundred years is about as long as we know the System existed." Vex narrowed his eyes. "That's about as far as Elyra's historical knowledge extends, too. Anything further back is... vague."

"Infolocked," Sev supplied, and Vex nodded.

"Probably," he agreed. "But it all lines up too well. Which means there's gotta be something we can figure out about what's happening based on what's different about our two histories."

"If we assume that there's a relationship at all between their world and ours," Misa said. "We don't know that for sure. The coincidence might be a dungeonfuck; maybe it can only create history as far back as the system exists."

"A... what?" Vex stared at her. Misa shrugged.

"I figured we need a term for when dungeons do the thing," she said. "Planeshifters have mindfuck, right? Dungeonfuck. Same thing."

"I do not feel like that is the same thing," Derivan commented.

"Well, I'm using it." Misa grinned, seemingly satisfied with herself. Sev chuckled a bit.

"The bonus rooms all seem to hide clues, though," the cleric said after a moment. "The way Onyx talked about it, and the [Look Up] skill... We don't even know what red means, in the context of the system. But it looks like Onyx and maybe some other gods manipulated that dungeon into forming, somehow."

"If they did, then some warning would've been nice," Misa said, crossing her arms and leaning back in her chair. "But that might explain the red. System can't figure out what it is because it's not within the scope of the system."

"Or it's been purged from the system," Sev said. "Though if that was it then the anchor would be red, too, so... yeah, maybe it's that. Red is outside the system."

"We do not know much about the Administrators yet," Derivan commented. "Nor of the foe that struck at the orb and almost killed the delve team, back in the dungeon. But perhaps red is an artifact of administrator access, or what happens when someone that is not an Administrator attempts to modify the system."

"Multiple groups trying to modify the system would explain all the errors," Sev grumbled.

"I'm worried about where that arrow-fucker went," Misa said with a scowl. "But we've had no news on that so far. Nothing from Elyra or Anderstahl."

"We're going to have to wait for news on him anyway. He didn't leave a trace," Vex said, shaking his head slightly. He tried not to let his nervousness show something about that man unnerved him, for all that he hadn't met him directly. "Let's assume the two places are related. T. he people in Fendal were behaving strangely, and that's probably related to the bonus room, but we're missing a connection somewhere."

"The people I met while interviewing felt... one-note?" Sev frowned a little bit. "They kept me held up in their conversations, but they didn't share any... personal history, exactly. I don't know."

"It was convenient for Gensen to have the key ready for us," Derivan commented. "And the mana was behaving strangely there, too."

"There's a connection between the mana and how people are behaving," Vex muttered to himself. "We know that the Roads 'translate' people when they go through it, so we know it's a possibility that some people went through the Roads and ended up being... what, ghosts in the mana?"

"That was how it was described," Derivan said. "Though it seems vague."

"It doesn't mean much because we don't know what mana-ghosts can do," Vex said, shaking his head.

"Let's put that aside for now," Sev said. "What do we know?"

"We know that the histories of the two worlds diverged around the time the system came into the picture," Misa said. "Or, well, we don't know that for sure, but that's what we're assuming for now. If we take that at face value, then the mana is acting to solve some problem, the same way the system is presumably here to solve some problem for us."

"Which is a good start," Sev nodded. "We can assume that the mana and the system are both acting to solve whatever problem resulted in the stars going missing."

"Right," Vex said. "Which is... a little terrifying. But okay, both worlds has survived for a few hundred years, everything probably isn't going to collapse in the next few months."

"But we do know that the system is decaying," Derivan pointed out. "The system is more unstable today than it was before. And Misa's reality anchor is decaying, too; that means that the other reality anchors are probably decaying, even if the dungeons they are in are stabilizing them in some way."

Misa sat up straight. "Do you think that's what dungeons are doing?" she asked. "Stabilizing the anchors?"

"I assumed the anchors were the ones stabilizing and influencing the dungeon," Sev said with a frown. "But if you're right, and the dungeons are the ones stabilizing the anchors..."

"I only just considered it," Derivan said. "But it appears to fit with what we know. Dungeon breaks occur if the dungeons are not delved frequently enough; reality anchors decay over time."

"That flips things around," Vex said with a slight frown. "If the dungeons are supporting the anchors, and not the other way around, then the anchors must have another function. It... I wanna say it feels like magic did something similar here? But it's almost the inverse... there's a connection I'm missing." The wizard began muttering to himself, his brows furrowing in concentration.

"If dungeons require people to delve them to maintain whatever they are doing," Derivan said. "What does the mana require here, to open up new Roads?"

"Slivers," Vex said, snapping his fingers. "I mean, this is all just speculation. But these mana slivers seem to occupy the same space as mana crystals do in the system. We have crystals being stolen from Fendal, and slivers disappearing here..."

He picked up a sliver, examining it critically. "It doesn't really look like a mana crystal, though."

"Different methods to solve the same problem, I guess?" Sev said.

"Except it doesn't quite solve the problem," Vex said. "And neither does the system."

"And we still don't know exactly what the problem is," Misa commented. She thought about this for a moment, folding her arms onto the table. Then she shook her head. "Fuck. I need a drink if we're going to have this conversation. I feel like I'm getting hungover already, and if I'm going to have a headache I might as well feel good about it."

"You could probably get one downstairs," Sev said.

"Anyone else want one?" Misa asked, raising a brow at the rest of the group. Most of them didn't really drink. Vex shook his head, and Sev shrugged before he indicated that he'd take one glass of whatever they had available; Misa shrugged and popped down the stairs.

"You do not want a drink?" Derivan asked, glancing at Vex. Vex made a face.

"No. Alcohol tastes like shit," he said, sticking his tongue out somewhat petulantly. Derivan's gaze focused briefly on his tongue, and Vex drew it back into his mouth, embarrassed.

"You licked me, you know," Derivan said. "The last time you were drunk."

"I did what?" Vex practically squeaked out the words Sev, sitting opposite the both of them, snorted out a laugh. Derivan nodded seriously.

"You licked me," the armor said. "And then you accused me of being the one to do it, because my armor happened to be where your tongue was."

"Oh by the gods." Vex buried his face in his hands.

"Are you saying you want Vex to get drunk again?" Sev asked, barely holding back the mirth in his voice.

"I am never getting drunk again," Vex said, his voice muffled by his hands. "I swear off alcohol. Forever."

"I would not want him to get drunk if he did not want to," Derivan said seriously. "But it was a good memory, to see you relaxed. I cherish it."

Sev chuckled, and grinned at his friend. "You hear that, Vex?"

"What I'm hearing is that I need to develop a [Sink Into Floor] spell," Vex grumbled.

The three of them lapsed into a comfortable silence for a little while, though Vex felt the many unspoken words still floating about the room. He remembered the little promise he'd made to himself to talk to Derivan...

Sev was watching the both of them, too, a small smile on his face. Vex wondered if the cleric would mind if he went to him for advice. Probably not? Maybe he would do that first; talk to Sev and see what he thought, and then go to Derivan and just... tell him.

That might work.

Really, he just needed a way to deal with all his nerves.

Misa swung the door open a second later, carrying of all things a fucking barrel on a shoulder, and two empty tankards. "I got the good stuff!" she said, and then she blinked at Sev. "Why are you smiling like that?"

"It's just those two again," Sev said, gesturing at Vex and Derivan. Derivan tilted his head curiously, and Misa groaned.

"I just went down to get some beer," she said. "You're telling me I fuckin' missed it?"

"You didn't miss anything," Sev said, to Vex's relief though that relief was immediately cut short when he continued, "Derivan was just telling us about how Vex licked him when he was drunk."

"You what?" Misa rounded on Vex, looking delighted. "You didn't tell us about this."

"I didn't remember," Vex complained. "And Derivan only told me about it just now."

"I cherish the memory," Derivan repeated, looking rather pleased with himself, and Misa snorted a laugh before slumping back into her seat.

"I leave for five minutes," she said with a grin and a shake of her head.

Vex, from his position with his face buried in his hands and his snout pressing against the table, let out a muffled "Let's please change the topic back to what we were talking about before."

Sev and Misa exchanged glances.

"We only know an overview of their history here," Misa said, getting right to business, though she filled her tankard from the barrel as she spoke. Sev did the same, but he only filled it halfway, and made a bit of a face as he drank. "I don't think that's enough to make any assumptions about what the mana did or is doing for them. I think we can make a reasonably educated guess that the mana and the system are both working to solve A Problem. We just don't know what that problem is."

"We know a little bit about it," Vex said. "We know whatever it is is probably linked to the stars disappearing and getting conceptually erased on top of that."

"It is worrying," Derivan said. "If there are other things being erased..."

"There are," Sev said. "The gods, for example."

"We need to know how much time we have," Misa said with a sigh.

"Let's start with what's happening here," Sev said. "How do we think the bonus room is affecting Fendal? The obvious conclusion is that there are some pranksters that were mistranslated by the Roads that are using the opportunity to steal mana crystals."

"Doesn't fit," Sev said, shaking his head. "It doesn't explain the slivers going missing here. Or the way Gensen and the villagers were acting."

"The way the villagers act remind me of the stories I heard of other adventurers going into 'bonus rooms' that were essentially historical reenactments," Vex said thoughtfully. He glanced at Misa. "It's the reason what you did with your family hasn't been done before. I think I mentioned it then. When 'people' are generated by a bonus room, they don't act... complete? They feel like they're following scripts."

"Noram did not feel like he was following a script," Derivan said.

"He didn't," Vex agreed. "That's not a complete theory either. And everyone here has felt pretty real, from Anyati-the-shopkeeper to Noram-the-otter..."

"Which is worrying," Misa said. "Because if we take that at face value, then everyone here is real, and the bonus room is Fendal."

Vex froze. Sev stopped drinking mid-sip, and put his tankard down slowly. Derivan stared.

"Oh," Misa said, realizing what she'd just said, and then she narrowed her eyes slightly. "But that's not... oh shit."

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