The Flower That Bloomed Nowhere

Inner Sanctum First Floor | 10:38 AM | Third Day

I decided to take a look at the painting first, in a decision I justified to myself as based on the fact that talking to Linos would probably be both awkward and drawn-out, while this would only take a minute or two. (In reality, my mind was probably still weighing finding clues regarding what happened with Samium as equally or more important than avoiding being murdered, but somewhere between the murders and the leg robots, I'd lost some of my capacity for introspection.)

I headed to the stairs. Since the upper floor of the hall only lined the sides of the chamber (and crossed over in the center, which was my destination), I wouldn't be going out of sight, so it didn't seem vital to ask permission. Still, I ought to have expected Ran to speak up.

"Where are you going?" she asked with a frown, as I walked past everyone.

"Oh, um." I turned back to her, speaking up a bit rather than walking back over. "Anna said that the painting the mural is based on is just up there, so I was going to take a look."

"Ah," she said, with a note of relief. "Fuck it, then, I'll come with you."

"You sure?" I asked, my eyebrows raised. "I'm not really expecting much, to be honest..."

"I fussed enough about it earlier that I might as well see the damn thing." She stood up too, closing her book.

"Mind if I come along?" Kamrusepa asked, having overheard our exchange. "I've been a little curious since that conversation during the tour, and I've been meaning to check the entrances at the upper level regardless."

"Sure," I said, only slightly irritated that this would make it harder to discuss the context regarding the manuscript openly.

"I kinda wanna see it too," Fang spoke up. "Getting antsy just sitting around like this, y'know?"

I sighed softly.

Our party of four proceeded up the steps, passing by the copy of the Covenant of the Mourning Realms I'd examined the other day. While there was much less actual space, the shelves of books on the second level were even higher, reaching all the way up to the ceiling. A few stepladders were even scattered about to help in accessing them. I wondered if the order had a directory for where to find certain tomes like you'd see in a public or school library - I'd never seen a private one this big, but I had to assume so.

And to think that it was only a fraction of their texts. I never had learned where the private archive Neferuaten had alluded to was, assuming there was only one.

"So, Fang," Kamrusepa said idly. "You said back when we were entering the tunnels that you hadn't seen the mural prior to that point, correct?"

"Yep," they said, their eyes scanning the shelves we were passing. This seemed to be the history section; lots of lengthy subtitles on the spines like A Materialist Perspective On Women In The Society Of New Kingdoms-Era Asia, and so forth. "That's right."

"So, I assume you were led in through the boys entrance, when you arrived?"

"Hey, what makes you think I didn't figure out where this place was and teleport straight in? Don't underestimate my power." They snickered a little to themselves.

Kamrusepa laughed sardonically. "Very funny. So did they?"

"Yeah, though I didn't know that was what was going on at the time." They shrugged. "Guess the guy decided I had a dick. It can't be helped."

She nodded to herself idly. "It must've been terrible trying to go up the Aetherbridge on the day of the centennial. I can only imagine it was phenomenally crowded."

"Aetherbridge?" They looked confused, but then blinked, eyes widening. "Oh, shit, yeah! I did say that back during the conclave, didn't I?"

Kam narrowed her eyes sharply. "Are you implying you didn't?"

They laughed, scratching the back of their head, and shrugged. "Nah, that was just a line I got fed to say when I came out here. I don't even really know what happened - they just picked me up out by my apartment in Old Yru, blindfolded me and drove me somewhere, then cast some complicated Aetheromancy." Their eyes flicked upwards for a moment. "Or at least I think that's what they were doing? They did most of it through engravings, so."

Well, that was a surprise.

"Oh," Kamrusepa said, and pursed her lips, her eyes averting behind her mask as she seemed to come to some realization. "I see."

"Did they really make you guys go all the way up to the Empyrean Bastion?" Fang asked. "Kinda did seem weird, now that I think about it."

"Yeah," Ran said, looking thoughtful herself. "And The entrance they took us to was really high-effort. Hard to believe it was pointless."

They gave a look of surprise, then shook their head. "Man. That's crazy."

Thinking about it based on what we'd heard, there wasn't really anything wrong with Fang's account. In our very first conversation with Linos, he'd established that there were multiple entrances to the sanctuary, and that we'd only taken the one we had due to a combination of time and wanting to keep the easier-to-access ones a secret. At the time, his explanation for that had been that the relative position of the Mimikos and the Atelikos was ever-shifting, and it was only when things lined up correctly that the transportation process had happened...

However. Ran had illustrated yesterday that such an explanation made no sense, considering the boy's entrance was also supposed to have been on the Empyrean Bastion. And now that I'd heard how the sanctuary actually worked, it felt like it was even less coherent. After all, the Palaikos or Nekrokos or whatever you'd call it didn't have conventional three-dimensional space at all - the only tangible reality was what humans imposed upon it, which meant that transportation to any 'location' within it could happen from anywhere... Theoretically.

So was it the case that the order just had a bunch of entrances after all, albeit for a completely different reason? But if that were so, I didn't understand why they'd put us through the ordeal of going all the way up to the Empyrean Bastion. Was it just to dazzle us and stop us from really questioning what was going on, like Ran had suggested?

...but what would even be the point? It just didn't make sense.

Of course, there was also the possibility that Fang was just lying. Speaking of which, there was something I wanted to ask them.

"Fang," I said. "You said that someone 'fed you' that line? About how you got here."

They nodded. "Uh-huh."

"Was that person Neferuaten?" I narrowed my eyes slightly. "Were you working with her, when you first got here?"

"Oh, yeah, 100%," they said. "Figured that was kinda obvious, wasn't it?"

I blinked. I hadn't expected it to be that simple.

"Pardon?" Kam asked, an eyebrow raised. "You were working with her how, exactly?"

"Oh, it's nothing really sinister, or anything!" they said defensively, holding up their hands. "Y'see, after I got the package and decided to go to the conclave after all, I got a message from her over the logic sea saying that I shouldn't go along with the rest of you, and she'd set things up for me to arrive on the second day instead." They smiled to themselves. "Worked for me, since I had a pretty tight schedule."

"Then she was the one who went over Anna's head to let you in..." Ran muttered to herself, nodding. "Adds up well enough, I guess."

"And you just went along with it," Kam stated, her brow flat. "You didn't see anything peculiar about the situation."

"Hey, gimme a break, Kam. I'm not a total dumbass," Fang said, with what was, by their standards, a serious look in their eyes. "I can read the vibe of a situation. I knew I was probably being roped into some sorta cliquey infighting in the order."

"But you went along with it, anyway?" I asked.

"Yeah!" they said, with a firm nod. "I mean, why not? It seemed interesting."

"You did it because it seemed interesting," Kam echoed, her eyes narrowed.

"Weeellll, I mean, if you wanna put a point on it, they also offered me like, 600,000 luxury debt worth of property."

Ran's face puffed out in a manner where you could tell that, if she'd been drinking something, it would definitely have been spat all over the carpet.

"Six hundred thousand?!" Kamrusepa exclaimed, probably loud enough for the people downstairs to hear.

"Heheh, yeah, it seemed excessive to me, too," they said, scratching the back of their head. "Old people, right? They're nuts."

"I didn't know you were having problems with your finances, Fang," I said. I was realizing I had no concrete basis for it, but I'd always imagined them as having amassed a vast fortune completely casually. But then, it wasn't as though you could make a business of winning awards, and they were still very young. And thinking about it, I didn't know anything about their background.

"I mean, I'm not, really?" they said, with a shrug. "But still, there's things I want to do, and it's hard to turn your nose up at so much like it's no big deal. And it didn't seem like it was gonna do any harm-- I mean, I planned on trying to finish the artifice anyway, just because it was a fascinating project. Y'know?"

"I... suppose it's understandable..." Kam said, still sounding taken aback. "That is, I'd find it difficult decline such an opportunity myself."

I suspected that was an understatement.

"Phew," Fang said, "I was worried you guys were gonna go to town on me. I mean, being cavalier about the whole thing sure has bit me in the butt now, that's for sure!" They laughed sarcastically, crossing their arms. "I just hope what I did didn't have anything to do with what's going down now."

"I think everybody's fucked up at least a bit to have landed us in this situation," Ran said. "At least you got paid for it."

Honestly, I was relieved the explanation was something so uncomplicated--- Well, assuming it was the truth. I was about a million miles away from having what felt like a good read on Fang as a person.

I felt another positive emotion, too, but this one was uglier; a little burst of unjustified self-satisfaction. Other than being a huge coward, by far my most significant bad quality was envy. It was very specific, and I didn't feel it often; it wasn't like I envied people just for having lots of power, or wealth, or being loved or popular. In fact, it's difficult to even explain exactly what did trigger it.

It was, as best as I can put it, a combination of someone having both a certain relatability, but also being both simultaneously better than me in a manner that felt unattainable, and unwilling to ever lower themselves to my level under any circumstance. I hated feeling small and inconsequential, like a fleeting side character in someone else's story, more than anything. Of something spectacular being thrust in my face, only to be told it wasn't for me.

In spite of all that had happened and how little of it was really earned, one thing I'd managed to do over the past decade was become successful. There were lots of people who praised and maybe even envied me, and there weren't a lot of peers for me to look up to. Fang, though, was an exception. Something about the combination of their extreme success and attitude got to me a little. In that sense, some of what I said about Kam was probably projecting.

So, even though it was the most petty of victories imaginable, knowing I was financially better off made me feel a little good, though this was followed by some self-aware disgust.

We turned and walked along the platform overlooking the middle of the hall, and it was here that Anna's words started to make more sense to me. In the middle of the cross-section, there was an open spot where the central pillar of the orrery met the ceiling which one could pass through. Sure enough, once I ducked into the (instantly cramped, with the four of us) little enclave, I saw it.

On the 'wall' above us as we entered, significantly downsized, was the painting which had clearly been the basis for the mural. It was wrapped around the hollow of the pillar, creating a similar effect to its use in the transpositioning chamber, albeit less impressive. Rather than a glass frame (which, presumably, would have been too much of a pain to set up), the canvas was bare, the rough edges exposed to open air. It gave it a raw feeling

There wasn't anything notably different about it at first glance - my eyes went straight for the disturbing depiction of the serpent I'd noticed earlier, but that was there too, so it had to have been part of the reproduction.

Seeing it at this scale, the artistry of the piece was a lot more vivid. Much of what seemed abstracted at the earlier scale now seemed like the creator having been economic with detail - the humanoid figures, the landscapes, all of it came across as more defined.

The essence of the piece remained the same, though. Seeing it, I had the same intuition I'd experienced both times prior. That something about it was... Malicious, mean-spirited.

"Now that I'm up here," Kamrusepa said, "I'm not sure what exactly I was expecting."

Neither was I, honestly. Now that I was faced with it directly, it felt obvious that just seeing it wasn't going to convey any radical new hints about the manuscript.

"Sure is impressive, though!" Fang said. "Must've been a reeeaal pain in the ass to make. Probably had to do it on a flat surface first, and work real hard to disguise where the ends met when they made the loop."

"Honestly, I can't get a sense of how one would even begin to visualize something like this in abstract," Kam commented. "But then, I've never had much of a head for art. I suppose Lilith would probably have something to say about it, were she here..."

She seemed to realize as she finished the sentence that she'd invited a depressing note for the conversation, and we fell into silence for a few moments afterwards.

"Where would the signature even be, on a piece like this?" I asked, after a few moments had passed.

"You'd probably know best here," Ran said. "Weren't you thinking about going to art school, at some point?"

She'd intoned the word 'you' a little differently there, though other people wouldn't have noticed. "That was more of an... Aspirational life choice, I think," I said.

"I mean, it'd probably be in the bottom right corner, like normal?" Fang said. "Which I guess would be wherever the two sides linked, when they finished it up."

I frowned to myself, trying to look for some kind of subtle connective seam on the surface of the image, but couldn't find any - if it had been made that way, the creator had done a really good job of hiding it. However, deciding it would be best to examine the area where the story most obviously 'looped', where the protagonist returned to the city and died, I eventually found what I was looking for.

As Anna had said, the name was 'Uli'. It was written in very small, purple-colored print against the darkness of the depicted graveyard. I pointed this out to the others and passed along the context I'd just been given, and they reacted with muted interest.

"I was thinking a little bit ago," I said. "In the bell tower, there were a bunch of portraits of family members of the order. Nef..." I swallowed. "Neferuaten did some of them, but there was another artist she mentioned who used to work before her-- A man, I think." I bit my lip. "I wonder if it's the same person."

Ran looked at me with what I could tell was, even behind her mask, a discontented frown. It was the sort of expression a parent might give a child who wouldn't stop trying to stick their finger in problematic places.

Kam, on the other hand, looked merely puzzled. "I'm not sure this is really important under the present circumstances, Su."

Maybe it wasn't.

I toyed with the idea of trying to take down the painting to see if there was any secret message on the back, before realizing that this was insane. Kam said that she wanted to get on with checking the doors, and Ran and I decided to follow along as there was nothing left to see. However, as we stepped away from the sorta-chamber, I noticed that Fang didn't seem to have followed.

Looking back over my shoulder, I saw that they were still staring at the mural. But I thought I could see something different in their eyes. I'd never known them to be the type of person to get lost in their thoughts, but they seemed almost hypnotized, like they were staring right through it.

"...Fang?" I called out, furrowing my brow.

This seemed to snap them out of it, and they jerked in my direction. "Oh. Sorry," they said, still seeming a little disoriented. "Kinda... Off in my own world for a second, there."

They stepped out. Ran and Fang went back down the stairs, but I decided to accompany Kam on her checkup of our defenses. I wanted to ask her something.

"Out of curiosity... Why did you want to know how Fang got here, Kam?" I asked.

"Mm? Oh," she said, as she examined the barricade we'd set up a little earlier for any signs of disturbances. "I was angling for a means to verify how the men in our class arrived at the sanctuary. Bits and pieces of their accounts have started to feel strange and inconsistent to me since yesterday evening."

Ah, so it's like I thought. "I didn't think anyone other than me had noticed."

"This may be a revelation that will shock you, Su, but other people also have brains, and might even think about things."

I frowned. Like everyone else, she was getting more obviously high-strung as the day continued. "There's no need to be condescending. I just thought I might've been seeing things others had missed."

She made a dismissive gesture. "It wasn't difficult to discern that something seemed the matter with Theodoros in the lead-up to our presentations, nor the many other subtle dynamics that seem to be off-kilter among their group. The fact that we were split up to begin with was peculiar, and leaves a hole in the totality of our understanding of the situation... Not to mention Ezekiel's prolonged absence." She looked to me, her eyes narrowed. "Why? Have you seen something more specific?"

I could see no real reason to keep it from her, so I decided to zone in on the one thing which was most strange. "Yesterday, before we did our presentations, I ran into Seth at the abbey, and he talked to me about how he and Ezekiel got into a fight after he didn't help him with his presentation after owning him a debt."

"Hm. I thought something like that might be going on..." she bit her lip, her eyes sharp and thoughtful. "But I'm assuming the situation ended up being more complicated."

I nodded. "After the duel he had with Bardiya a little later, I saw Seth do something weird. He gave Ezekiel a thumbs up."

She looked to me, raising an eyebrow. "Curious." She stood up again, heading for the other door. "I can't imagine what that might've meant. The duel was rather straightforward. Perhaps trying to mask one incantation with another?" She clicked her tongue. "But everything they cast was so basic."

"I just can't think of what they'd be trying to hide," I said. "I mean... He told me a really comprehensive story about his family situation, and his feelings. If that was all just a lie..."

"It might not have been so," Kam said. "Perhaps what you witnessed was just him repaying his debt by some other means... Though it could also be connected to something far more serious."

I nodded. "After we get back downstairs, I'm going to try and talk to him and the others over there about it. Get some answers."

She turned her head again, looking at me with an expression of incredulity that came through even behind the mask. "Really, Su?"

I blinked. "What?"

"Honestly, it's hard to tell if you have no sense of subtlety, or if you're just too trusting for your own good," she said, still eyeing "Be rational. If someone's been behaving suspiciously in a situation like this, there are only two possibilities in play. Either what's going on with them is ultimately irrelevant to the murders, and therefore questioning them won't reveal anything useful... Or, in fact, it is relevant. Tell me: If it's the latter, just how likely do you think they are to tell the truth?"

I frowned. It was a very Kamrusepa-ish way of looking at things - very utilitarian and all or nothing, with no faith in others or perceived investigative value in learning peripheral context - but she did have a point. I was probably being too trusting, and approaching the mystery of what was happening as a puzzle I could slowly unravel rather than a bomb which could be about to explode.

"I know you used to be close to Theodoros, but keep in mind what happened with Bardiya, too," she added. "Seth and his father have closed ranks over the issue. That makes them both suspicious, and liable to be defensive. Even if they're not among the culprits, they're more likely to try and obfuscate things if they feel anything could draw more attention to him."

I clicked my tongue.

"What are you suggesting instead, then?" I asked, though I already knew what she'd say.

"Lie, obviously." she said plainly. "Or rather, misrepresent yourself. Try to talk around it and trip them up into revealing something. Even a half-wit can deny their guilt until their blue in the face if you push it head on, but I've seen certifiable geniuses spill their guts to decent journalists with a more delicate touch."

"I don't think I'm a very good liar," I lied.

"Then I'll come along and talk with them, as well," she said. "I've got a knack for getting the truth out of people."

I wasn't sure how I felt about that. Kamrusepa was definitely more socially competent than me, but she also let herself get out of hand pretty easily. And I wasn't sure if I wanted to come across as explicitly suspicious of anyone when the atmosphere was already so tense.

Plus, it wasn't as though she herself was completely above suspicion.

"...how about this," I said, after a moment. "I'll strike up a conversation - there's something else I want to ask Linos anyway - and then try and approach it indirectly... But if I don't get seem to be getting anywhere, you can cut in. I'll try to make some kind of opening for you." I hesitated, glancing to the side. "I feel like we'd just intimidate them more if we both approached at once, anyway."

"That just seems like the most awkward of both worlds," she said, frowning. "But suit yourself."

She finished her inspection, and we headed back downstairs. She took a lounge chair next to the sofa - close enough that she wouldn't be out of earshot of the group at the game table - while I stopped briefly to inform Ran that I was going to talk to them about 'some things', before stepping over. The group was still engrossed in their board game. I didn't recognize it, but it looked to be rather complicated as board games go.

"...okay, so I capture your castle, Ema, which means I get your 200 gold a month income, and all the cards you've built up on it," Seth seemed to be in the process of explaining, gesturing to a red colored game piece which looked like a rook.

"I don't think I've used any cards on it," Ptolema said.

"Yeah you did," he said. "You used the siege defense card two turns ago. Did you forget to put it in the pile?"

"Huh, did I do that...?" she said skeptically. "I don't remember."

"Back me up here," Seth said, looking to Linos and Theo.

"I, er. I don't think I was paying close enough attention, to be honest," Theo admitted.

"I thought it was the siege weapon card, but I do remember that happening, for certain," Linos said, holding a hand to his chin thoughtfully.

"Maybe we should just call this a bust," Ptolema said. "This seems complicated."

"You're just saying that cause you don't wanna lose a card. Just pick one and hand it ov..." he hesitated, looking up at me as I approached. "Oh ...hey, Su."

I smiled. As I'd fallen on the 'side' which didn't explicitly stick up for Theodoros's innocence earlier, the atmosphere was a little awkward; I hadn't liked it, but it wasn't the kind of situation you could expect to remain fully neutral. Ptolema looked at me with her usual uncomplicatedly friendly gaze and Seth and Linos with at least an unhappy sort of understanding, but Theo averted his eyes outright, not wanting to face me. At that, I felt an unpleasant feeling deep in my gut.

There was no arguing the facts painted a rather dire picture. He'd claimed that he saw something gripping Bardiya through the window... But now that we knew that nothing had approached the window at all, that was proven impossible. Instead, only three possibilities remained: he was lying, delusional, or Bardiya was killed by some kind of invisible supernatural being.

Occam's Razor dictated it was probably the first. But did I really believe that Theo could be the culprit...? Childhood memories aside, he was one of the meekest people I knew, and surprisingly easily overwhelmed for someone at our level of academic esteem. When I tried to picture him wrapped up in some conspiracy, like Anna had suggested... It just didn't fit. And that was without even trying to imagine a motive, which felt even more difficult.

Don't get sidetracked. This was about establishing more than Theodoros's guilt. First thing: Anna's passing-of-the-buck.

"Hi," I said. "Sorry to interrupt you guys... Are you in the middle of something important?"

"Nah, not really," Seth said, shaking his head. "This game's a foregone conclusion, honestly." He smirked weakly. "Just gotta finish whooping Ema's ass."

"Hey!" she protested. "Don't be a jerk. I can still win this!"

He chuckled, though even this was tempered by a kind of exhausted sadness which now permeated his every mannerism. He looked back up to face me. "So, what'd you need, Su?"

"I, uh, wanted to ask Linos something, if that's okay," I said.

"Go right ahead, Utsu," Linos said, with a tired smile. "Is this another question about the sanctuary?"

I hesitated, making an awkward expression.

He sighed a little, but gestured affirmatively at me regardless. "It's fine."

I nodded, thinking about how to approach the topic in a way that would make him least likely to deflect. "Well, I was talking to Anna about the functionality of this place while trying to figure out who could be responsible for all this, and we got to talking about some of the past projects of the order... She said the reason that it was called a 'sanctuary' was because it was originally for 'caring for' something. As in an animal or plant sanctuary."

"Ah," he said, clearing his throat as apprehension crossed his eyes. "It sounds like she might have said a little too much..."

"She didn't really make it sound like a big secret," I replied. "When I tried to ask for more details, she just told me that she wasn't involved in that project, and to ask you or Zeno about it."

He scratched the side of his neck, looking away. "Su, I understand feeling anxious being stuck in a situation like this where there are things you don't know... Really, I do. But honestly, I think it might be better if you just tried to relax." He said, his tone wary. "We should be out of here in a few hours, we're perfectly safe as long as we all stay here, so there's no need to--"

"I a-already know a lot," I said, trying to cut him off before he could finish turning me down. "She explained about where the sanctuary really is too, and before, Neferuaten told me why it was built here in the first place. About entropy having a mind."

"Entropy having a what, now?" Seth asked, eyes suddenly wide. Theo seemed a little alarmed, too. (Ptolema, who'd heard this before, just looked concerned.)

Linos put his head into his hands, letting out a low groan.

"A form of consciousness," I said, rephrasing. "The order built this place to study and experiment--"

"Su, please. I don't know what Neferuaten told you, but you're framing the situation melodramatically. There's... No need to get everyone worked up." He ran his hands down his face. "It really is starting to feel like I'm the only person here with a sense of discretion. Maybe I ought to just give it up at this point."

"Er... Melodramatic or not..." Theo chimed in, his voice quiet, "what is she saying, exactly? Is 'entropy' a code name for something?"

"Uh, no, it's literal," I said.

He frowned. "What?"

"Calling it a 'mind' is taking it much too far," Linos proclaimed, subtly raising his voice as he attempted to assert dominance over the conversation. "It would be better to say that it shows variations in behavior and interplanar structure that could be likened to a living being. Anything more is conjecture."

"Hey, I'm sorry-- You're saying it has 'variations in behavior'? As in, part of physics."

Linos bit his lip, glancing to the side. "Mm, well..."

I glanced over my shoulder. As I'd anticipated, since I'd brought this point up, Kamrusepa had started leaning sharply at the edge of her chair, her left ear bent in our direction. It was all but blatant to anyone paying attention she was doing her damnedest to not miss a single word of our conversation.

I sighed to myself.

Over the course of the next few minutes, Linos gave an abbreviated version of the explanation Neferuaten had conveyed by the glass wall of the bioenclosure a day ago. About the discovery of entropy's apparent sentience through the observations of the astronomer Saahdia ibnat Addad, and how this led to the sanctuary being constructed here, and eventually the massive facility underground.

"Why didn't you say anything about this sooner, Ema?" Seth said, his expression one of near-total bafflement.

"I dunno," she said, scratching her head. "I didn't get a lot of it. And it didn't really seem like a big deal."

"Not important?" He frowned. "This might be the most revolutionary discovery in physics since interplanar energy transmission. Short of discovering magic is real, it's kinda hard to think of a bigger deal."

"I mean, I wasn't sure if Su's teacher wanted us to go around talkin' about it, and it wasn't urgent, y'know?" She bit her lip. "I was kinda expecting it to get brought up anyway when we went to see that freaky thing underground, but it didn't happen."

"Gods," Seth said, rubbing his eyes. "I don't even know what to think about this."

"B-But as I said," Linos continued. "We really do have no definitive evidence of the sentience of entropy, even now. It's a closed box; what we interpreted as 'moods' could just as easily be it following preset movements that just happen to be beyond the scope of our comprehension."

"A philosophical zombie," I said, in reference to the thought experiment.

"Exactly," he said, pointing to me. "You must understand-- In the ancient world, humanity thought almost everything we now understand to be strictly physical phenomena had some kind of will or intent behind it, because their knowledge of the natural world's workings were so limited. They saw the sun and moon crossing the sky each day, with changes in their movements with the passing of the seasons, and thought they were living beings. And why not? To them, that must have seemed little different from migratory birds."

"Neferuaten seemed pretty confident about it," I replied, doubtful. "She said there had even been experiments done here which looked at entropy's actual structure in the Timeless Realm, and it showed some commonality with that of other living beings."

"Commonality, yes. But there are types of fungus that show grow in patterns reminiscent of the cerebral cortex superficially, and they're certainly not sentient. It's suggestive, not indicative." He crossed his arms. "Without meaning any disrespect for her, it sounds like she overstated the case. In fact, you've heard proof enough already of how inconclusive our research in that area was."

"How so?" I asked, lowering my brow.

"Remember Hamilcar's and Neferuaten's explanation in the elevator," he said, obviously ignorant that I very much couldn't remember. "Your grandfather's project, in the end, was only able to use our understanding of the inter-planar structure of entropy, and its atemporal nature, to gain information about the past and aid in Chronomancy... And even that didn't work until today, as you all witnessed. It's thoughts, or lack thereof, were a dead end in our research. Everything else-- Well, it came afterwards."

Afterwards.

Gunpowder. One failure leading to another possibility. The changing purposes of the sanctuary...

I frowned to myself. What he was saying made sense. But then, why would Neferuaten have told us about it at all, were that the case? She could have just as easily satisfied Ran's interrogation by telling us a bit of what Anna had explained just now. In fact, in retrospect, her evasiveness in that area seemed odd.

Nevertheless, assuming everything I had been told was roughly true, a timeline felt like it was starting to come together regarding the order's research in entropy. There were a lot of details that were uncertain or absent, but it probably went something along these lines:

1. In the early days of the organization, under Ubar of Kane, Saahdia creates the theory about the consciousness of entropy.

2. Much later, before becoming its headquarters, the Order follows up on this theory by taking control of the the Ironworkers observation facility in the 'Land of the Dead' which Anna described.

3. After their previous headquarters is destroyed, they decide to build their new one, the sanctuary, on top of the facility for the sake of my 'grandfather's project'. (Based on her comments, it sounded like most of the features intended to make it as comfortable as possible manifested around this point.)

4. However, investigating the sentience of entropy doesn't prove fruitful, so they scale down the project to what now existed beneath us.

5. But that doesn't work, either. So eventually it's abandoned, changing course to research on the human mind...

I closed my eyes. Often, establishing the facts was merely a matter of laying everything out you already knew in a way that cleanly flowed from one thing to another. If the sanctuary's fundamental design, right down to its name, was about 'caring' for something... Yet that project was ultimately abandoned or reworked... Then that was probably the transition point between three and four; when it's original purpose first shifted to a new one. Or, in other words...

"If that's the case," I said, "the original goal in investigating the mind of entropy, before it became a 'dead end', must've tied into the project Anna was telling me about. Right? The two are connected."

Linos hesitated as I pivoted the topic back around. His eyes wandered to his lap.

"When you use the word 'sanctuary' in this manner, you're usually talking about a place for animals. Non-human creatures," I said. "A bird sanctuary is the example Anna used. If it's a place for caring for people, it's more likely a word like 'shelter', or 'orphanage'."

"Mm," Linos admitted, nodding.

"What were you planning to take care of, here? To cultivate?" I held my hands together. "Please answer, sir. It'd be a load off my mind."

"If I do," he said, speaking slowly. "it'll just get everyone worked up. I really do think it would be better to just drop the subject."

"Worked up how?" Ptolema asked.

"It's--" He hesitated, looking to me. "Utsu, Anna told you this almost certainly has nothing to with what's happening now, didn't she? She must've."

"She... did," I said hesitantly, with a small nod. "But even so, it doesn't seem like anyone really understands what's happening at the moment. There's already been a lot of spanners thrown in the works from things you or the rest of the inner circle didn't expect. I feel like we deserve as much context on the situation as we can get."

"Try to consider the scope, here," he said. "Hearing it for the first time now, all of this probably feels tightly connected, but this is something we were pursuing literal centuries ago," he looked at me sternly. "I'm sure this place's history has a lot of mystique for you all, and that's where your mind is likely to go when something so terrifying as this is happening... But truly, I do think you're chasing shadows more than you're capable of realizing."

That's kinda condescending. "Even so," I said, trying to sound resolute. "If we can be this fixated on the past, the culprit could be with their motive, too. We need to know."

"That's the mind projection fallacy, Utsu," he said, rubbing his eyes.

"I gotta agree with Su about this," Seth interjected. "Honestly, it sounds like she knows a lot more than me about this place already-- I've been confused ever since we saw the sky." He looked to Linos. "No offense, old man, but we're putting a lot of trust in you and the rest of the council in terms of getting out of here. If there's something fundamental about this place we haven't been told, I wanna know."

"Me too," Theo said quietly.

Linos regarded his son with an over-the-top look of having been betrayed for a moment, then let out another heavy sigh, sitting back in his chair. His gaze turned towards the ceiling for a few moments.

"...alright, fine. I suppose there's no use in steadfastly withholding it, considering what you already know," he said. "But as I said, all this is going to do is make you get worried. It's the opposite of what will lead you to figuring anything the actual culprit, if that's your goal."

It seemed ironic - or maybe hypocritical? - for Linos to say this, in a way. In protecting Theo, he'd already come out against strictly logical reasoning in trying to infer the killer. Now he was rejecting this, too.

"To be truthful, I don't even really know where to begin." He leaned his head against the side of his hand, his eyes looking towards the far wall. "I suppose I should start by trying to give a little context. To clarify something, the project you've asked me to describe isn't wasn't why the sanctuary was built in and of itself-- Rather, there wasn't a specific goal at the advent at all. It started with the construction of a small research outpost we used to interface with the Ironworkers devices. Something to further our understanding of the... Intelligence, we believed ourselves to be observing, and debated on what to do about it." He hesitated. "I say 'our', but obviously this was before my time-- I'm just recounting the formal history."

I nodded. It sounded like he still might be trying to talk around the point, so I didn't want to interject and get things further off topic.

"It was... Only after the disaster at our old headquarters that an approach was decided upon. That led to the construction of the sanctuary as it exists now, a little over 300 years ago." He paused for a moment, closing his eyes. "Do you know much about extra-terrestrial life, Utsu?"

The sheer size of the jump between topics left me blinking for a few moments. "Um," I eventually said. "You mean, as in... Aliens?"

"Yes, exactly," he said, with a nod. "I'm sure you learned about this in school, but in the Imperial Era, mankind learned of many other species spread throughout the known universe." He grasped drink from a glass of water sitting on the table, and took a few gulps. "However, none of what they encountered was remotely akin to humanity, or especially to human civilization. Life based on exotic elements, superorganisms, extra-dimensional beings..."

"Uh, why are we talking about aliens?" Ptolema cut in, perplexed.

Linos exhaled. "Sorry, miss Rheeds. I'll get to the point." He turned to me. "What do you do when faced with a being you don't understand, Utsu?"

"You... Try to stay away from it?" I offered.

Linos let out an awkward laugh. "That would have probably been the sensible thing to do, honestly."

I frowned. "You try to communicate with it."

He nodded. "Exactly. And, well... Just imagine the possibilities, for a moment. There are so many cruelties fundamental to the world that we more or less accept as a given - governed by forces that just are, beyond even the capacity of iron to change at their root. But what if it were all just some strange misunderstanding?" He gestured outwardly. "If death was not a reaper, but a gardener unaware of what was beneath their feet? If energy or information, rather than continually trending towards dispersal and simplicity, could just as easily behave in a way that, well, suited us?"

"This is fucking crazy," Seth said, eyes wide.

"Y-Yeah," Ptolema said. "No kidding."

Linos chuckled, sounding a little embarrassed. "Well, let it never be said our organization has ever lacked ambition."

Somehow, I felt like the order couldn't have been aiming for something both so lofty and so childishly unspecific at the same time. Linos was probably simplifying the story.

"But how do you communicate with something so alien to you, you might as well be a... I don't know-- An ant trying to say hello to the tree its crawling on?" Linos continued. "At its most fundamental level, communication is based on a shared frame of reference. Early human cultures that developed language independently had no way of understanding one another directly, but because they all ate fruit, drunk water, caught diseases, died... Things evolved from there." His eyes wandered, becoming thoughtful. "No one knows how other people think; as individuals, we're all isolated from one another, trapped behind our own eyes. What makes it possible to talk to someone isn't commonality of thought - for all we know, the mind of entropy could work exactly the same as our own, but it wouldn't do us any good, because our experiences would still be completely alien. Rather, what matters is commonality of life."

It'd been a while since it'd happened, but I was surprised how philosophical Linos could get, when he had a mind for it.

Though it felt like he was overlooking something pretty significant in saying that nobody knew how other people thought. ...Well, it was true in the present tense, at least.

"In any event," he continued. "When we were reviewing the records, we found that the scholars of that period of the Imperial Era had some theories about how they might communicate with these beings they discovered, despite the vast gulf between how they experienced the universe. And though logistical challenges... And eventually the collapse... Smothered those ideas in the crib, there was one which caught our interest." He sat back in his chair a little. "Though it was also arguably applied at the end of the Great Interplanar War, in retrospect, our application of the concept was-- Well, patently absurd. We were still drunk on the high of the discovery at that point."

"What did you plan to do?" I asked, frowning.

"I suppose it's like the old saying goes," he said, a little hesitant. "If you want someone to understand you... Well, you just have to make them walk a mile in your shoes."