Chapter 493 – The World Tree’s Clues

Sophia wanted to go home. It had been entirely too long since she spent an evening with her parents listening to her father talk about the latest dungeon he’d coached or her mother’s latest business venture; Rissa was as excited about her startups as Serenity was about his dungeons. 

She hadn’t even seen her siblings, other than Leo, in years, much less played laser tag with them. Xavier almost always won, despite the fact that Jenna and Sophia were the two delvers of the kids; his physical conditioning might not be quite as good as theirs, but his aura senses were so much better that they never saw him coming. Leo was too little to compete when Sophia left, so she couldn’t really count those games; it was too hard to know if they set the handicap correctly.

She missed Uncle Blaze’s fireworks and medical stories and afternoons at the theater with Aunt Amaia. She even missed Uncle Raz’s weird hobby of collecting sunrises and sunsets; he could recreate hundreds of them at a moment’s notice and had even infected Aunt Aki’s openworld dungeon scenarios with them to the point that if you knew what you were looking for, you could identify the scenario by the sky when it started.

It wasn’t just her family, either. Sophia missed the noise and constant movement of her home city, not to mention the street food. Food of Arcatiz was good and varied, but food in New York City wasn’t just a single world’s food; over the last couple of decades, it had been added to from at least half a dozen other worlds. Beyond the variety, though, there were some things that just weren’t available here even if they were really common back home.

As silly as it sounded, Sophia sometimes just wanted some gummy bears. Gummy bears weren’t available on Arcatiz. There were similar candies, but they weren’t the same!

She also wanted to see what her parents thought about Dav. She was pretty confident they’d like him, but there was that little twinge of doubt that they wouldn’t. She’d never been one to dream about her perfect wedding and more than once had thought she’d either never find the right man or they’d just skip the ceremony altogether, but the thought of never finding out what her parents thought made her understand the people who wanted the whole thing a little better.

She was definitely not going to accept being unable to return home. It simply wasn’t an option.

That meant she needed to find Mimir’s workshop. It would be good if she found the Mage as well, but it was Mimir’s workshop that was vital. His workshop held what Issvako needed to figure out how to open a single-sided Gateway through the Origin, a Way that would lead to Dav’s homeworld.

Issvako thought it was impossible, but Issvako didn’t have the clues Sophia had.

Sophia dug two pieces of paper, a small box, and an ankh-shaped key out of her pack and set them on the floor near Issvako. “It seems unlikely, but I don’t think you’re the only person trying to get us to find Mimir’s workshop or temple or whatever it is. We’ve been finding things as we climbed the World Tree that all seem to point at it, and the only scenarios we’ve seen that weren’t in the Inchoate Mountains were the one in the Roots and the Meteor Pillars Event. The Meteor Pillars Event doesn’t seem to have anything to do with it, but the event in the Roots was a fable about freeing Arsalos, Suryos’s moon, from the shade of an eclipse.”

Dav nodded, but neither Issvako nor Revanos seemed to have any idea why that was relevant. Revanos frowned, while Issvako shook her head slightly.

“It’s in the message we found in the Forest in the Clouds Event, the image to follow when we reach the mountain’s peak. That’s the last thing we found, though, and I guess I should start at the beginning.” Sophia shifted the key towards Issvako and handed over the piece of paper that matched it. “In the Roots, we helped some rabbits and a moon rabbit goddess remove the darkness of an eclipse from the face of Arsalos. I already mentioned that. The first branch started in a desert; there were arroyos that flooded from a storm; we found our way into a foggy mountain.”

Sophia wasn’t sure how much else to mention. The water birds didn’t seem important and neither did the gryphons or the roc. Those were all on the first branch, weren’t they? “We explored a sort of a pyramid that was warm inside and found a log book that called it Warming Station Three and talked about when it was abandoned. It was some sort of pilgrimage route to see a place called Refuge to beseech Mimir for something. The key was there, but it didn’t say what the key was for. We kept going up the pass and eventually arrived at another pyramid; it seemed to be icy instead of warm but the key fit the door and let us out. The thing is, the door gave the key back; we didn’t have to give it up to finish the first branch.”

Sophia skipped Leo’s arrival and the talk with the Prelate of the Way; they weren’t part of the World Tree’s series of areas. “The second branch was a river through a forest. We saw some ghosts or echoes or something salvaging ruins swept down the river after the War of Two Mimirs. I assumed that the river was in the Inchoate Mountains too, but now that I think about it, there was no fog so it probably wasn’t. Either way, we found a ruined tower and a note that …”

Sophia frowned as she thought about the note. Had she grabbed it? She might have. If she had, it would be in her pack. 

A moment’s search revealed that she had, in fact, grabbed the note and stuck it in her pack without thinking about it. She set it where everyone could read it.

The False Ones and their birds have once again rejected the True Mimir, the One who led us in our flight from the Wave of Death. They still claim that the Mimir is their false deity who closes himself up in his Hall instead of walking among his people the way the true Mimir does.

I do not understand how you can stay with them, Ramona. Can’t you see that we have to fight?  We must tear the stolen projects out of their talons and give it to Mimir.

I don’t think we will move

“I see which side he was on, but I don’t think that helps you find Mimir’s workshop,” Issvako stated with clear dislike in her voice. 

Sophia was fairly certain it wasn’t aimed at her; it was probably aimed at the writer. Anyone who would describe Archons as “their birds” probably wasn’t going to be liked by Archons. “Yeah, well, it’s what we found. I don’t think it’s very helpful either. The third branch was the Meteor Pillars Event. I don’t think it was directly helpful either, but it’s where we got something to tell us what the key did other than let us out of that scenario on the first branch and maybe let us into a new scenario later. We still haven’t used it for that.”

She set the paper on top of the other note and waited while everyone read it.

Key to the Temple of Memory

This key is a true replica of an Entrance Key for the Temple of Memory in the Inchoate Mountains. It will only recognize those who have earned the right to hold it.

Using this key on an entrance to the World Tree will initiate a limited Event based on the Temple of Memory. 

“It mentions opening an Event, but that’s not the important part. That’s on the back.” Sophia flipped the note over and skimmed it again. It was only a single sentence, but it was a very important sentence. “It’s why I think the World Tree wants us to go and find Mimir’s workshop, at least if that’s the Temple of Memory. Which it probably is, since Mimir has something to do with memory.”

Only a keybearer can see through the mist that guards the Inchoate Mountains and find their way to the true Temple of Memory.

“That’s written in the language of magic,” Revanos said carefully. “The only person I’ve ever known who could read it was Lady M’Beja herself. Are you telling me that you can also read it?”

Sophia blinked. She’d mentioned that to him when they met in Revanos’s realm between the Broken Lands and Arcatiz, hadn’t she? She thought she had, but maybe she hadn’t. It was right before she was knocked out by the Lifeweb, after all, so maybe she just assumed he knew. Maybe she’d assumed he could read it too? It wasn’t like it was a difficult language. “It’s just Bridge, a language from back home. I assume it’s used here because Mimir came from the same universe we did and found it easy to work with even though it’s not really a great language for spellcasting. You have to use something really specific for that and what works best depends on what you want to do with it … and that’s really all I know about it; I’ve never been interested enough to make my own runescript.”

“It says that only someone with the key can see through the mists of the Inchoate Mountains and find the Temple of Memory,” Dav roughly translated the addition. 

Sophia knew he wasn’t actually reading it; unlike other languages, the Guide refused to translate Bridge, even though her knowledge transfer Ability. Dav’s memory was simply that good. “If you can’t read that, you won’t be able to read the note we found in the Forest in the Clouds, either. As far as I can tell, it’s unique; we found the note pinned to a tree by a knife that had that box hanging from it. It’s clearly manufactured, but everything else in the Event was unworked. I don’t know exactly how or why, but I think it’s pretty clear the World Tree put it there for us and then made sure we found it. It wasn’t well hidden.”

Sophia set the unfolded note down on top of the other two. It was entirely written in Bridge, so she didn’t wait for the others to read it; she simply read it out loud, translating as she went.

This note should never be seen.

Well, perhaps I should say that I hope this note is never seen, because that means it will never be needed. If my plans work out, it will be for the best. Mimir always said to prepare for both the best and the worst, however, so I have done so. This note will not be delivered unless something close to the worst has happened, something worse than the destruction that made me write this note. If it were anything less than that, I would tell you myself.

I don’t know who you are or why you are needed. There are far too many options and I am not that good at predicting the future, especially not the far future. 

I am no Mimir.

I wrote this note and left it with the sapling I planted at the foot of the Inchoate Mountains for the Archons and both sets of humans who followed the Mimirs, both true and false. 

I do not know why you are suitable for this mission, but it is an important one. The War of Two Mimirs, as it is called now … never ended. Both still live in a frozen bubble inside the Mimir’s Workshop. I barely escaped and put Mimir’s plan into action, incomplete though I am.

Your task is to reach the Workshop and free the Mimirs. By the time this note is revealed, surely the war will be over. Without his followers, the false Mimir will be vastly weakened and the true Mimir will be able to lay him to rest as he should have been long ago.

I do not know how Mimir writes these things and tells people what they need to know.

Very well, I will lay it out as best I can. Climb into the Inchoate Mountains from the Tree that Holds Worlds. You may follow any path so long as you begin your descent, search for the Eclipsed Moon. It is naught but an illusion, yet it is one that has hovered over Mimir’s Workshop since before he arrived on Arcatiz and built it, for Mimir and his people arrived on the very spot where the Archons did centuries earlier.

The illusion is called Lost Arsalos, for Arsalos once lit Suryos from its sky as the Archons lifted the Suras and the Suras made the Archons belong where they stood. The Archons wished to be welcome on Arcatiz, so they built a monument to those who once made them welcome on Suryos.

I do not understand it, but that is what I am told. It seems like I should pass on the memory even if I do not know why.

Once you find the workshop, use the key to open the door. The Tree that Holds Worlds will not give this note to anyone without the key, so you must have it. 

DO NOT ENTER the workshop.

The spell that created the stasis is written in the language of magic in an illusory bead that should have been delivered with this note. Do not come to the workshop until you are certain you can deal with the spell; if you fail, it will spread to you. While you can take shelter in the workshop should that happen, you will be lost to the world until someone else releases you.

You are not the first to have been given this mission. I hope that you will be the last.

“I think it was written by the Guide,” Sophia said bluntly, “But it was left there by the World Tree, the sapling of the Tree that Holds Worlds that the Guide planted at the foot of the Inchoate Mountains after the War of Two Mimirs. I’m betting that the Mage also got this note; maybe she was the first and maybe she wasn’t, but it would explain why she thought she could find the place. There can’t be many mountain ranges next to the World Tree. This might tell us why she didn’t come back, too; if she wasn’t prepared for the war somehow or didn’t quite manage to break the stasis, maybe she’s caught in it?”

“Or maybe she’s still trying,” Revanos muttered, clearly unwilling to believe that the Mage couldn’t break a spell when she set her mind to it. “Do you think you can do it, or help her when we get there?”

“I don’t know,” Sophia admitted. “I haven’t looked at it yet. I didn’t think I’d need to any time soon. It depends on how it’s built; a stasis that lasted more than sixteen hundred years … that’s got to be well made or it would have fallen apart by now.”

“Nearly two thousand years,” Issvako corrected Sophia. “If the extra years matter. I would not be surprised if the Guide had a hand in maintaining it; nothing else has lasted that long. Only the Guide and the World Tree.”

Sophia nodded. It didn’t make a difference, really; there were spells and enchanted items that lasted that long. Sometimes they were lucky but normally they were well made. 

“It might be failing now,” Sophia said hopefully. “Maybe that’s the reason the World Tree wants me to take the spell down? It looks like the Guide expected to be able to handle it without help but wasn’t sure. If it’s failing slowly, maybe that’s why it sent the Mage as well?”

“It’s more likely that it chose you both because you speak the language of magic,” Revanos said with a shake of his head. “It probably thinks that’s necessary to deal with the stasis spell. I will admit that you and M’Beja are the two I would pick if I had to choose someone to handle a spell, as well. M’Beja knows magic of all sorts and you are good at breaking it.”

As much as Sophia wanted to argue with that, she couldn’t. She did know how to bypass wards and break spellforms. It was all basic stuff, but it was basic stuff no one here seemed to know. “Thanks, I think.”