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Chapter 198: Workings of the Machine
🕑 Added 2025-02-17 12:03:19 +0000 UTCTheora let out a yawn. A few hours had passed since her revelation — since she’d noticed a divergence in realities. She felt a little dramatic for phrasing it that way, but what could she do? That was, all things considered, likely what happened. Unfortunately she couldn’t independently verify her assessment, at least not easily. That meant the only way forward was to figure out what really happened.
Theora had experienced a warping of Reality before, back when the Devil of Truth had attempted to weave his own to run off to. Thus, perhaps Theora was in some way biased to arrive at this explanation. But even then — ultimately there was little harm in making the assumption and pursuing what it meant; and even if Theora turned out to be wrong, the detective was already working her side of the case and could seemingly be trusted to at least put in due diligence.
The room was still cold, of course, as was most of the train, except the Lavish itself. Theora had wrapped herself in a blanket while getting lost in thoughts. The same scrutiny placed time and time again on the same points, arriving at the same conclusion. A tangled web had spun in her head, a fog from the heavy accusation in her mind that someone had changed reality in a way that created the appearance of a murder. What could possibly be the point?
Theora sighed the moment a knock came from the door, and she let out a pouty, “Come in.”
It was Bell. She looked sleepy, her bell crumpled like she’d just woken from a nap. “Morning,” she said. “Want to go on a walk with me? My room is too cramped. Wait, where is Dema?”
“She ran off with Montaparte,” Theora replied, already missing Dema a bit. Then the rest of Bell’s words parsed. “A walk…? Isn’t the whole train cramped?”
“Yeah… that’s why I asked Ulber if we can go outside.” Bell gestured to the windows. “She said it’s dangerous, but… not impossible? If I can completely seal us off from the outside.”
“Ah.” Theora got up from her bed and stretched. Go outside… she hadn’t actually considered the option. That might help with her thoughts. The train had stopped, after all, and it did look pretty. Perhaps they could pace along the tracks for a bit.
What kind of place was the ‘outside’, actually? Probably miasma, the connecting tissue between realities. But… it hadn’t looked like this when she was last in it. Going to the Lavish would have been the safer option. But…
“Wait,” Theora started suddenly, finally tearing her gaze off the window and back to Bell. “Have you heard? About Fentanyle.”
“Fentanyle?”
Theora gave a nod. “It appears that tonight while we were asleep, Fentanyle was killed by some presumably malicious actor.”
Bell had been just about to leave the room when hesitated, blinked, then stared at Theora. “What?”
“There’s a body in the Lavish. I verified it myself. They are currently preparing the funeral, I believe.”
Bell shook her head and frowned, finally giving way for them to leave. “That makes no sense.”
“Right?” Theora agreed. “It really doesn’t.”
“You’re telling me you woke up from me having a bad dream, but not from someone being killed off?” Bell let out a scoff. “Are they sure the body is real?”
That question, spoken so innocently and with such certainty, was a balm on Theora’s self-doubt. She totally would have noticed. “That’s why I think reality may have split apart overnight.”
Bell blinked again, this time opening her mouth in perplexion. She took a moment, then asked, “You what?”
Theora raked her fingers through her hair. “I know. It’s difficult to come to terms with.” She pushed past Bell in the corridor and made her way to the lounge.
Bell was silent for what felt like minutes. It was probably less, because arriving at the lounge and then taking the ladder there down to the small reception area didn’t actually take that long. Theora made sure to seal the lock before they’d start opening the exit to the outside.
The whole time, Bell was chewing on her lower lip, her tendrils absently probing whatever they could grab a hold of in passing. She seemed to be having some kind of moment. But eventually, the tendrils fell into a braid, her eyes turned to Theora, focused, and she cleared her throat.
“Let me form a bubble before we leave,” she said, and got to work within seconds. She betrayed her own words by not just forming one, but three different protective layers, which soon happily bounced around them. “This has oxygen for three hours. Should be plenty for a short walk.”
“And you’re sure this is fine…?” Theora peeked out through a porthole in the exit door. It looked serene, calm. No wind was disturbing the endless lake, the cloud hung still in the sky. Theora would of course be fine there, but… “I don’t want you to get hurt.”
“Nah, it’s fine,” Bell answered, gently pushing Theora to the side to get access to the door. “This is probably the best chance I’ll get to become accustomed to miasma. You’re collecting the Fragments of Time from other realities, and I don’t want to become a liability.”
“You’re not a liability.”
“I don’t plan to be,” Bell agreed, and pushed the door open. And with that, they left the train.
Bell was keeping them isolated from both the cold and outside sound. Theora could only hear the shuffling of her own clothes as she moved, and the squelching of Bell’s wet skin. The barriers didn’t shield off the light though, so it was intensely bright. The bubble kept their feet from touching the shallow water as it rolled forward with their steps; Theora was a little unhappy because she’d been somewhat excited at the idea of getting a footbath in the miasma.
After the first few steps, Bell cleared her throat. “So what you are saying is that you sensed a divergence of worlds?”
Theora frowned. She stopped, scratching her head again. Had Bell waited for them to get out of earshot before bringing up the topic again? Either way — “I didn’t really sense anything. It’s just, the alternative doesn’t really check out.” She shrugged, a little lost. “I mean, I didn’t wake up from Rita falling into a coma, but she seems to be stable for now, so it’s not the same.”
“Maybe you can show me the body later. But for now, can you describe to me what it looked like?”
Theora agreed, and they leisurely paced ahead toward the locomotive as Theora explained things.
Eventually Bell said, “I don’t really understand what you are saying, about the ‘You would have noticed’ thing. I mean — I agree. You would have noticed. But still, I’m thinking perhaps this has less to do with your self-esteem and more to do with who you are.” She mumbled a few unintelligible words, before continuing. “I mean, if you say reality split, it’s probably a given that it did. Regardless of how you came to the conclusion, I don’t think you could possibly make that up.”
Theora’s voice caught a little. Somehow, she’d expected more pushback. “But I don’t think we were duplicated. I think I’d be aware if there was a second me.”
“Hm… I see.”
“What makes this a little bit more convoluted,” Theora added, “is that I did ask Dr. Alp and the detective to perform tests on whether or not there was something weird going on, and they said there wasn’t. So reality must have split in a very… profound way. In a way that cannot be detected, not even by magic.”
Bell shrugged. “That would be the whole point of making it a new reality, yes. That’s not surprising.”
“But…” Theora took a deep breath. “But I detected it.” She looked up to the window that was next to the entry to the Lavish. Seeing the train from the outside like this felt awkward — she’d only been on it for a day, and yet being away from it felt wrong somehow. “I find it weird that I would be the only one. They ran so many tests.”
“Of course you would detect something like this even when others have trouble with it,” Bell deadpanned. “By glancing into different realities, you can reveal the hidden fates of any ‘would’ and ‘never-will-be’ implied within the fabric of the world.”
Theora’s mouth hung open for a moment, then she tilted her head. “Why does that sentence sound so familiar?”
“Because it’s your Class description, you dork. You’re a [Stargazer].”
Ah. That made sense. “But I’ve barely even used my Class. Just had my head in the clouds for a moment.”
“It’s more about who of all people would manage to unlock such a Class. It’s because you keep having your head in the clouds that you would notice. Whoever decided to tamper with the world probably had no clue what you could do… ah. That’s useful information, isn’t it?”
Right, definitely. It was totally useful. “Because…”
“Well, the staffers know your Class, because you had to disclose it before entering the train. So anyone who saw your sheet would probably think better of it than doing something you would be almost guaranteed to notice.”
Theora blinked. Ah, damn. “I’m, uhm…” Her heart started beating in her chest. Was she in trouble?
“What is it?” Bell raised an eyebrow at her.
“I’m not sure it’s on my sheet.”
“… How?”
“I may have forgotten to declare it.”
“… How?”
“Well…” Theora floundered, shrugged and let her arms hang limp at her sides. “My stat sheet is completely glitched out and broken!” She was mildly panicking. “It wasn’t so easy to transfer. I just wrote down the most important things.”
“You didn’t think your Class was important?”
Theora clicked her tongue. “It keeps teasing me. I forgot to think of it as an ability. I thought it was a…”
Bell too stopped walking, and was just giving Theora a nonplussed look now. “You thought your Class is holding you back?”
“Well, it keeps teasing me.”
Bell pulled a singular tendril out of her thick braid and pointed it at Theora accusingly. “Raquina told us, like, fifteen times that we need to disclose everything. I can’t believe you forgot. She says it’s important so the train can enable our existences, so—” She shook her head slightly, sighing, letting the tendril drop. It slowly weaved itself back into the braid. “Right, I don’t think you’re dependent on the train to keep existing. Do you feel weird at all?”
Theora tried to remember what it was like to live in ‘Reality’, and… “Sort of. Definitely less light than in our home world. It feels a bit oppressive.”
“I think the train is trying to kill you.”
Theora lay her hand against the outside wall of the locomotive, not actually touching it because the bubble was in the way. “I’m not sure. Maybe? Perhaps it’s struggling more than I am.”
Bell sighed and shrugged. “Well, at least this tells us another very important piece of information.”
Of course it did. Naturally. “Which is…”
“That passengers can keep secrets from the train,” Bell said, half in thought. “Or… well, it tells us that they can keep secrets from the train if they are sturdy enough. Dema managed to survive in a reality her body wasn’t made for for about… thirty years, right? That’s quite a long time, but she’s Dema after all. But let’s just say, someone who is defensively oriented might be able to survive the high Verisimilitude for a few weeks or months. Right? Which would mean…”
“That the sheets cannot be trusted to disclose all abilities,” Theora murmured, happy to finally be able to follow along. “At least for strong passengers.”
Bell hummed in agreement. “We definitely need access to those sheets somehow.”
“Wait, what?” Theora tilted her head. “Didn’t we just establish that they are unreliable?”
“That’s exactly why,” Bell said, nodding. “If another passenger on the train can warp reality like you—”
“Like me?”
“[im//possibility], yeah,” Bell continued impatiently. “Basically, either they disclosed the ability, which would give us a lead to work on, or we can maybe figure out discrepancies between their behaviour and how they act, which would also give us a lead. It all starts with those sheets… I wonder how well they are being guarded.”
Theora turned Bell’s words over in her head, trying to follow along; Bell’s mind was amazingly fast-paced. Theora fidgeted with her dress while looking at the sky, tempted to ask her smaller self for help, but decided she would try herself. Eventually, she turned the thoughts in her mind so much, she stumbled. “Wait,” she said. “I found a problem.”
“Ah?”
Theora bit her lip. If Dema’s strength was any indication, then… “Nobody,” she said. “Everyone here is a little weak, compared to Dema. Fentanyle might have been able to, though, she seemed tough.”
“Been able to what?”
“Withstand the Verisimilitude defenses. Dema could have been inaccurate on the sheet, and me. Fentanyle, perhaps. But probably nobody else. Whatever is on their sheets likely reflects reality.”
“Huh… really? Wait, is Dema that strong?”
Theora hummed. “She tends to be underestimated because she hides her aura.”
“Wait, what? But she’s a literal beacon? I thought she was really open about how powerful she is.”
“She pretends to be.” Dema said it was helping her with her ‘evil schemes’, though Theora suspected she just liked showing off.
Bell’s tendrils twitched. “Wait, then— wait. I’ll ignore how this makes no sense, but that means, between Dema and Fentanyle…”
“Hm…” Who would win? Theora stared into the sky for a while. Dema could withstand a lot of damage, and she was agile, and she could use blood… Sure, she could be clumsy, but at the same time she was fairly athletic, because she liked to move around a lot.
“Hello?”
“Ah, sorry.” Theora cleared her throat, reddening slightly. “Got carried away imagining Dema fight. But it’s difficult to say who would win, based on presence alone,” she admitted. “I’d need to look at Fentanyle’s sheet, and even then…”
“Hold on… so what you’re saying is… the outcome isn’t clear…? Didn’t you say you wanted to spar with Fentanyle? Why spar with her if Dema might already win…?”
Theora swallowed a dry throat. She looked to the side in embarrassment. Her blush deepened.
“Theora?”
“It’s because Fentanyle is taller than me…”
Bell shook her head in exasperation. “… You are utterly hopeless.”
Theora still couldn’t quite bring herself to look Bell in the eye, but when her gaze fell upon the locomotive, her brain fortunately provided her with the perfect opportunity to change the topic. “Maybe someone used the train.”
“Used the train?”
“I mean… we’re outside right now, in the miasma. Right? But from what I remember when I was in it, it didn’t look like this. Maybe the train is constructing the outside too? If it can create a world like this” — She gestured around — “and amend itself to suit the passengers, then perhaps it can amend the inside too.”
Bell blinked. She looked very unconvinced. “Look, I know your ideas of what is possible are warped because of your life’s experiences, but still… There’s a world of difference between connecting reality, as opposed to creating it.” She clicked her tongue, trying to remember something. “Actually, have you ever heard of the question at the heart of [Divination]?”
Theora frowned. “I haven’t.”
Bell bit her tongue. “Well, sadly I can’t really explain this very well because I only took a cursory look into the topic when I was picking my Mage Class. None would know, we need to send them a letter. But either way — even taking something from one reality and placing it into another can be considered ‘doable’. But you can’t just create. That doesn’t work. At least not without tremendous amounts of resources.”
“But the Devil of Truth tried to create a new reality to flee into.”
Bell sighed. “Right, that one-of-a-kind ancient demon who you fought inside his own domain. You do realise that the opponents you have faced throughout the ages don’t compare to what you would randomly find on an interdimensional train, right?”
“How do you even know all of this?” Theora grumbled. “Knowing so much about my past makes it far too easy for you to criticise me.”
“I’m not criticising you, I’m giving context,” Bell claimed. “And the reason why I know is beside the point.”
Theora still considered Bell’s prior words, and somewhat had to agree. Had the Devil of Truth and Fentanyle fought inside his domain, he would have won. It was just because Theora was a little larger than average that she could defeat him.
“So…” Theora gave the locomotive and the six carriages behind it another look-over. “You’re saying that just because the train can amend itself to its passengers, that doesn’t mean it can create a new world?”
“Even if it could, which — it’s possible, I guess — but even then, the train is just a tool. Someone would have needed to wield it. And there are much better avenues to pursue for now — we haven’t even looked at the sheets yet and you are already making wild guesses we have no basis for… Plus, we’re inside miasma right now. What if there are unique magical phenomena out here? I don’t know, perhaps the train got hit by a reality-altering ray or something.”
“Who is making wild guesses again?”
Bell looked away shyly. “I’m saying we need to investigate first before coming to conclusions.”
“So… we have to figure out how this train actually works,” Theora supplied. “And then, if it can rewrite reality, we need to figure out who did it. And if it can’t, we need to determine what else could have done it.”
Bell nodded. “That sounds about right.”
