Edge Cases

The ruins of Elyra were spread out across kilometers, along broken rocks that floated on separate islands. Vex saw cracks in the ground beneath led to a pure nothingness; Derivan identified that nothingness as the Void, and so they collectively chose to avoid falling.

Not that they weren't going to do that already.

Now that they knew these were the ruins of Elyra, Vex had a better idea of where they needed to go.

"There's a vault near the center of Elyra," he said. "No one's been able to open it — it's not just locked and reinforced, it's system-locked. We can't use any skills on it, because any skills we try to use the system automatically disables, and the box itself is reinforced to indestructibility by the system."

"But this is a world without a system," Misa said, her eyes gleaming.

"Yeah." Vex didn't look as excited as he might have about the potential discovery. "I'm just worried. This is... All this stuff is old. We have two hundred years of history. These ruins... I've checked with my spells. They're over a thousand years old."

"We know the world is older than we think," Misa said with a shrug. "What makes this new?"

"Elyra is meticulous," Vex insisted. "We record everything. We record our records! If we lose our records, we should at least have a record of losing them. But we don't. It's like Elyra's only existed for two hundred years. I figured we were probably founded a little bit before that, and then maybe we lost some of the early documentation, or it got eaten by the Void. But this would be almost twelve hundred years of lost history. That's... so much more than I thought."

"I'm worried too," Sev said. He frowned, running his fingers over the wall and staring at the dust that came off onto his fingers. "I've spoken to Tempus, and he agrees. This place is old. He's not sure why. All he has access to are fragments of history, and none of the fragments he has has Elyra in it."

"Is it that Elyra is older than we thought?" Derivan mused. "Or is it possible that there was a different kingdom here, once upon a time, and it was merely repurposed?"

"I wish I knew the answer to that," Vex sighed. He glanced out across the ruins. "It's hard to identify exactly where the center is, but if we find a few more recognizable landmarks, I can figure it out. Hopefully the vault is what we're actually supposed to find."

"Hopefully the vault's here at all," Sev muttered, and Vex let out a small grumble that sounded like reluctant agreement. Misa laughed at both of them, throwing her arms around their shoulders in a move that was horrendously awkward, considering how different in height all three of them were.

"It'll be fine!" she said. "When have we ever lost, eh?"

Derivan chuckled softly. "Glad you're back, Misa."

Even with an idea of what they were 'supposed' to find, it took them a while to find it. Vex had a tough time recognizing Elyran landmarks when most of them had evidently changed drastically in the thousand years since this version of Elyra had started to crumble — a few notable landmarks remained the same, but even then they were dilapidated enough that they were hard to spot from a distance.

Eventually, Vex frowned. "I think I'm getting a sense of what structures remained the same," he said. "The noble houses all seem... I mean, they're the most intact out of everything. They haven't been built over or knocked down."

"Is that a surprise?" Derivan asked, and Vex shrugged uncomfortably.

"I guess I was hoping that Elyra used to be different," he said quietly. "Maybe we used to be something better, and with the advent of the system, something changed. I could believe that. The system makes it so much easier to compare yourself to others — we have levels, stats, metrics. You have a supposedly objective arbitrator of the quality of a person. I can see how that might cause people to start viewing one another as lesser."

"The system's probably been around longer than two hundred years," Misa pointed out. "Maybe you were different once. Besides, just because the buildings are here doesn't mean they were used for nobility, right? Could've been places of learning. Or used to house ancient artifacts." She grinned, clearly trying to cheer Vex up.

"Maybe," Vex said. He managed a small smile back at Misa, and then cast his gaze around.

They stood in the remnants of a tower, though half of it had crumbled and was scattered into moss-covered rocks on the ground. Some of the stone faded in and out, like it wasn't sure whether it was stone or fog. "I think this one is House Wisfield's tower. I can tell where the center of the kingdom is from here."

"You are okay?" Derivan prompted, and Vex gave his boyfriend a soft smile.

"I am," Vex said. He hesitated, pulling open the system for a second, just in case there were any new messages; he'd sent a message to Helix not long ago, just to check in and make sure everything was going well with the evacuation. "Just have a lot on my mind."

"Any word from your parents?" Sev asked, and Vex shook his head.

"Nothing from them, either," he said, checking briefly. "Helix said he spoke to them, but they're both being pretty stubborn about the whole thing. They're holding the rest of my siblings hostage..."

Vex clenched his fists, then slowly relaxed.

"Hostage?" Misa asked, an undercurrent of anger in her tone. Vex gave her a weak smile.

"Not as bad as what you're thinking. I phrased that a bit... they're basically grounded, all of them. Except Helix, because they can't get a hold of them. But that's bad, because they need to evacuate. I think Helix is planning a rescue operation."

"I hope they're all on your side now," Sev said. "I know you've been talking to them."

"It's hard getting through to them." Vex frowned at the system for a moment. "But I think... I think most of them understand where I'm coming from. None of them are bad people. They just think the system in Elyra works, because they don't see how it affects everyone else."

"Not much of a choice, now," Misa noted.

"Not at all," Vex said softly. "With the protests some of the civilians are putting up... It's hard not to see what's going on. Maybe that's why they got grounded, but that's not enough to hide it from them. So I think they're starting to see."

"What about Riss?" Derivan asked.

"He doesn't understand any of what's happening," Vex said with a chuckle. "He's barely five. The one thing we all agree on is that we want to protect him from all this. We just don't agree on how to do it. My parents are still convinced that the evacuation order is a rebel trick."

Misa snorted. "Hell of a trick that puts their own people at risk," she said, making it clear exactly what she thought of the whole thing.

"Yeah, I... we need to hurry." Vex glanced over his system messages again, and his scales seemed to pale just a bit. It wasn't a message from Helix, but the Elyran branch of the Adventurer's Guild. "Healing spells have started failing in Elyra, too. That's... not good."

"Not at all." Sev frowned. "You're relying on those to keep people alive without enough food, right?"

"It's barely enough, but yes," Vex said. "The evacuation's under way, but it's hard to convince the population when most of the nobles are trying to assure everyone that everything's okay."

"Let's not waste time," Misa said gently. "We can talk about this all we want on the way, but we need to get going. Lead the way, Vex."

Vex nodded nervously. He took one last look at the ruins they stood in, and then glanced around at the two other landmarks they had found. He mapped it against what he knew about Elyra in his head.

"This way," Vex said.

They moved quickly. Faster than had been possible for them before the Roads, even, because Sev had created a connection with Isila, the goddess of Travel; every step they took was magnified tenfold, and it took them almost no time at all to find the vault Vex spoke of.

It was, technically speaking, located above the Elyran dungeon — the other major structure at the center of the kingdom. Now that they were here, Vex could see the tunnels extending below the rock into where the dungeon would be.

Here, however, the tunnels led nowhere. There was a dark void where the tunnels ended, no doubt leading straight into the Void.

"I wonder why these tunnels are here," Sev said, frowning at one of them. It was built directly into one of the still-standing walls, and led almost straight down. He peered down the shaft cautiously, then took a step back.

"They lead to the dungeon," Vex said.

"But there's no dungeon here, right?" Sev pointed out. "This is an alternate history. There was never a system here, so there shouldn't be a reason for a dungeon to exist."

Vex hesitated. "...Good point," he said eventually. "Maybe there was something down there they were mining. The more important thing is the Vault, though. I was worried it wouldn't be here, but..."

The room was there, right in front of them. Unlike all the other ruins in this space, it was largely intact — if everything hadn't been so spaced out among floating rocks and empty space, it would no doubt have been visible from a distance. But the obscuring fog had kept it largely out of sight until now.

It was strange, really, to see massive metal doors standing perfectly intact in the middle of a ruin. Vex approached the door hesitantly, pressing a claw to it — half-expecting the system to respond with a message instantly, as it always had — but nothing happened.

"I'm not actually sure how we're going to open this thing," Vex admitted after a moment. "I don't want to just blast it out of the way—"

Misa snorted. "Leave it to me," she said, grinning. Vex blinked.

Misa did a few dramatic stretches, then reached for the edge of the door — and Vex's jaw slowly dropped open as her fingers dug into the metal, giving her leverage to pull.

Slowly, the massive doors slid open, metal screeching and creaking as Misa opened a gap just wide enough for everyone to walk through.

Then she took a step back and smirked, dusting her hands off.

"Holy shit," Sev said. "How many points have you been putting into Strength?"

"A lot." Misa lifted an arm, flexing playfully, and Sev just shook his head in amazement.

"There's that problem solved, I guess," he said.

They walked through, and the doors slammed shut behind them.