While the two fight in and of themselves hadn’t lasted more than a few minutes, the challenge of keeping up with Attal had netted Henry some benefits. Out-pacing the Ring of Prescience and dodging those nasty bolts as well as coordinating his Octominds ended up with Henry gaining a couple of Aspect levels, which he stole a glance at while the two of them flew back toward the city.
Thaumaturgy of the Many-Faced Trickster (B): Level 5 → Level 6
Dancing Shadows of the Trickster (B): Level 4 → Level 5
It wasn’t anything crazy and most likely, the exercises and practice of the last few days had contributed to this gain. But a win was a win. And while that Lightning Discharge had scored some decent damage, Henry hadn’t needed to push himself too much to land it. He just burned a little more conceptual essence that what he would have liked, but that was a good price to pay, all things considered.
“So what brings you all to the Emerald Isles? The fact that Velistraine is in my office makes it clear enough that you all need something.”
Henry considered the question for a second. Now that the A-rank was in a better mood, the impression Henry was getting out of him changed a little. He was still imposing and somewhat intimidating, but the question seemed to be coming more out of curiosity than annoyance at being disturbed. Still, the man, so far, had proved to be reasonable so as far as Henry was concerned, Attal could be one of the allies they’d want to have around once all the orbs were collected.
So why not give out some answers?
With a flex of will, Henry summoned one of the metallic orbs and carefully held it in front of him. “We’re looking for these. And I believe one of them is with you.”
Attal didn’t slow his flight, but there was no mistaking the recognition that flashed in his gaze. A smile tugged on his lips as he turned his gaze back toward the fast approaching coast and after a couple of quiet seconds, he chuckled and shook his head. “I’m going to kill Velistraine.”
Henry gave the man a sidelong glance and as he sent the orb back in his Maw, he couldn’t help but blink. That… hadn’t been the response he had expected. “What do you mean?”
“You’ll see. We’re almost there,” the man simply said. “You can have it. After we talk.”
That sounded a little ominous, but it wasn’t a “no” either. Henry could work with that.
A few minutes later, the two landed atop what Henry was pretty sure was the largest building in the isle. It was a whole block wide, and at least ten-story high with a particularly robust-looking construction. It wasn’t cement—at least, not the kind he was familiar with—but it was just as solid, if not more so. Without any delay, Attal headed straight to the stairwell room, and Henry cautiously followed, but not before he mentally put his finger on his connection to the closest clone he had around, which happened to only be a few blocks away, at the Inn with Maurice and the others.
Henry wasn’t that worried. And Velistraine was supposed to be in this building. But that was no reason to completely drop his guard around a stranger, even if the man hadn’t given Henry any reason to doubt his intentions so far. Plus, having activated the ring they’d gotten from collecting four orbs, he could see that the fifth one was right below them.
Attal was speaking in his ear, saying something about his office, and when Henry finally entered, the A-rank looked up at him. “We’ll meet her below,” he said. The A-rank was standing on a platform with a pedestal at its center, arms held behind his back as he calmly waited. When Henry made it to the platform, Attal tapped one of the gems atop of the pedestal, and as the platform quietly descended into the bowels of the building, he turned toward Henry again, his gaze sharp.
“You still didn’t tell me how you came to be. If you don’t mind, of course. We ruled out blood magic, and I’m guessing it wasn’t a true polymorph either. Was it a soul-linked evolution of a kraken and you got caught? Or is it something about your class that allowed the transfer?”
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Henry looked away from the complicated mess of tiny spell-nexuses of the elevator controls and blinked at the man. “Magic turtle. Died chasing it, woke up in a baby kraken. That’s basically it,” he quickly resumed with a shrug.
Attal continued to stare, as if expecting him to say something else but when Henry didn’t, he let out a soft chuckle, but it quickly dissipated as the man sunk deeply in his own thoughts. Attal’s gaze drifted past him, head lightly cocked to the side. “Interesting,” he mumbled after a couple of seconds, then his eyes locked back on Henry’s. “Plenty of colors on the shell, I’m guessing?”
To that Henry nodded, not surprised at this point that the man knew of the turtle’s species, and Attal nodded slowly. “They’re hard to find. I tried to find a live specimen to study its shell and how it uses it but for turtles… they’re exceptionally slippery.”
Henry gave the man a questioning look as the platform began slowing. “Did you find shells?”
Attal nodded. “Yeah. I found a couple. One was pretty damaged and it seemed like something… fed on it? It was all drained and discolored, so I couldn’t really make sense of the shell's nature. It wasn’t responsive to much. But the second?”
The platform came to a stop, and a wide, well-lit corridor stretched in front of them. Attal gestured with his head, and Henry followed while the man continued on.
“There had been something in it. A soul, I believe. When I had brought it in the lab and began running my experiment, a fist-sized blob of light came out of it and tried to invade my body. Or at least, it felt like it. But by then, unfortunately for the poor sap that had been trapped in the shell, I was already A-rank. So it couldn’t find a perch. If I had been asleep, I might have not even noticed the attempts and when it failed, it shuddered a few times, then faded away. I tried to keep it around with mana. Tried even to trap it with a stasis enchantment, but nothing worked. It just… faded away into nothing.”
Henry swallowed as their steps echoed in the hall. He hadn’t known that was a possibility. That the transfer could fail. If that had happened, his story would have ended right after him falling off the boat. “I guess I got lucky,” he muttered after a moment as they came to a stop in front of a large, steel gate. Attal tapped a small pedestal to its right and with a hiss, the rune-engraved, metallic door began lifting. “The octopus I took over had been pretty weak.”
The doorway opened up in a wide space that could only be described as a warehouse/workshop hybrid. Two rows of workbenches stretched from one end of the space to the other, only interrupted by an office-desk and a chair at the center, and around the edges, countless drawers, displays, and storage shelves lined the wall. Books, glowing bottles, contraptions of all sorts as well as monster cores and Aspect shards filled the space.
“You definitely did get lucky,” Attal said as he walked past him. The man had already taken off his cape and was heading to the desk. “Reincarnation. Otherworlders. I’ve read about them but even before the Cataclysm, such phenomenons were exceedingly rare. Even the Rainbow Turtles were practically the stuff of legend. But finding two of them, then you finding yourself in a kraken’s body thanks to one… What’s causing the uptick? Is there a pattern I’m not seeing?” Attal muttered as he slowed down. He seemed to be about to put his cape on his chair, but his hand hung limply ahead of him as he stared in the distance, slowly looking around for an answer he couldn’t see.
But Henry had parts of that answer. Part of the picture. And just like Attal, he needed to know more. After a few quiet seconds, Henry nodded to himself, and his voice echoed in the hall.
“They’re calling for help,” he said, and the man’s head slowly turned toward him, and the thoughtful expression slowly morphed into an intense, wide-eyed stare as Henry relayed what he knew. “They get to this world, and then they get stuck. They can’t leave. There’s… something—or somethings—preventing them from leaving, which results in them calling for help, and more of them get in here to help and get stuck. That’s what we managed to uncover, at least.”
Attal stared at him for a few more seconds, and then as if finally unfrozen, his movements began accelerating as he looked around before darting toward one of the workstations. Henry followed the man with his gaze and right then and there, the door from the other side of the workshop opened up, and out came a young woman in uniform. Trailing after her was a narrow-eyed, pissed off Velistraine.
“Attal!” she shouted, but the man didn’t even seem to hear her. Instead, he rifled through a pile of notebooks for a few moments, enough for Velistraine to reach them and the woman who brought her to leave. The captain gave Henry a puzzled look. “I’ll explain in a bit,” he simply whispered to her. Finally, Attal found a simple looking, leather-bound notebook that he brandished as he turned to face both Henry and Velistraine who just gave the A-rank a tight-lipped glare.
Attal had a nearly manic, almost feral smile on his lips as he slowly approached. “The orbs. The Cage. The turtles. They’re all linked,” he stared at them for a second, then he whirled back toward the platform they came out of. “Come with me. You need to see something!”
Henry and Velistraine shared a look, shrugged, then followed after him. He was curious what the man had figured out.
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