| Generated by Google Flow text-to-video AI software, powered by Veo 3.1 |
Hrockas gave Mandica and her team unprecedented access to data and controls
for the simulation. Unfortunately, it turned out to be rather useless in
finding her hideout in the dome. If the Custodians who ran the sim couldn’t
find Morgana with that information, what hope did four puny humans have? But
it wasn’t entirely unhelpful. They decided to think more like her, or more
to the point, like her character. If Morgana were a real person, how would
she think? How would she act? The core question is why hasn’t she done
anything since her attack at the jewelry store? Before Mandica showed up,
her power in this city was surpassed only by her mystique. She claimed to
live in a distant land, only coming to Ravensgate when business brought her
here. Malika says it reminds her of some guy named Ra’s Al Ghul, but Mandica
doesn’t know who that is. Their initial assumption was that Vanore wasn’t
spending all of her time in Underbelly, but how was she exiting the dome
without being traced? According to the logs, Vanore’s regular body is still
in substrate storage. If she’s leaving, she’s not returning to it.
Incidentally, they did check Vanore’s storage chamber, though Hrockas was
not happy about it. He told them that there was a breach a number of years
ago that he doesn’t want repeated. Substrate storage is extremely delicate.
People rely on those back-ups to survive, so there are mountains and
mountains of laws designed to protect bodies from being tampered with. While
Castlebourne doesn’t have to follow stellar neighborhood laws, in this
situation, they absolutely do, because mind-transference is their bread and
butter, and because it’s the right thing to do. But if Vanore isn’t in
Underbelly, and she isn’t in her regular body, then she must be somewhere
else on the planet. But she could not have beamed her mind to an entirely
different body, because the logs would show that too.
“I got it!” Mandica is in her pajamas. They all are. It’s late, but this
puzzle keeps them up just about every night.
“You know where she is?” Jaidia questions. “How?”
“I don’t know the how,” Mandica replies, even though that’s not
really the question. “I only know the where. It was
so obvious, I’m kicking myself for not realizing it before. God, I’m
so stupid. She told us where she lived from the very beginning!”
“Well, stop teasing us like she apparently did, and tell us!” Reagan urges.
“Loegria.”
“Loegria?” Malika echoes.
“It’s the King Arthur dome,” Mandica explains. “There is a Morgana
there; there has to be. Just like there’s a Merlin, and a Lancelot, and even
Sir Dagonet. When I first heard of her, I assumed they were distinct
interpretations of the character. I mean, there are already plenty of
different versions of Morgan Le Fay in lore. The one from the TV series
Merlin is not the same as the one from Le Morte D’Arthur. But
what if it’s not like that here? What if she’s just counting on us to assume
that? She could be splitting her time between Ravensgate and Camelot. She’s
a shapeshifter, so if she’s somehow found a way to sneak back and forth
through the backrooms, or whatever, Hrockas and the Custodians would never
know. They wouldn’t realize it’s the same consciousness either.”
Malika and Reagan exchange a glance. “Mandy, you can’t go to Loegria.
Hrockas warned you against that. We could go, but we would have to go
back to our regular bodies first, even Reagan. That’s why we were hoping she
hadn’t left this dome.”
“Yeah, I’ve been thinking about that,” Mandica begins, “since we started
postulating that she wasn’t always in the dome. Hrockas is not a god. He
obviously needs us, or he would use whatever resources he has at his
disposal to deal with meta-business. Do you remember how weird it was when
he came here? Why did we meet him in some penthouse? Why didn’t he
just walk into our headquarters? For that matter, why did he conscript us
for this job at all? I’m sure he’s busy, but I’m sure he can delegate the
work to someone else in the executive administrative authority. I don’t
actually care why he chose us, as long as he honors that moving forward. If
he wants us to be the ones to catch Morgana, we will, and we’ll do it by
whatever means necessary.”
“I couldn’t agree more,” comes a voice from behind the couch. They jump up
to find Hrockas’ personal bodyguard, Azad Petit. It’s impossible. Unless
there are built-in trapdoors all over the place, one of them should have
seen him come in. He’s just standing there as if the solid wall was briefly
a doorway. It doesn’t make any sense.
“How did you get in here?” Reagan questions, aiming his maser gun. He didn’t
come back here as a superhero, but he’s not completely helpless either.
“That’s classified.” When Azad senses that they’re too intrigued, he goes
on, “you can either know how I did it, or you can get an exemption to leave
the dome with those bodies. We will have stipulations, but we need this
problem taken care of. Quietly.”
“Are we allowed to ask how you happened to show up while we were talking
about your boss, or are we to believe it was just a coincidence?” Jaidia
questions.
“Your buddy was looking at my contact card,” Azad explains. “I get an alert
when that happens.
They look at Reagan. “I was only preparing to reach out to him,” he defends.
“Now you don’t have to,” Azad reiterates. “I’m here, and I’m here to tell
you that you can go to Loegria, but you can’t be in costume, and you can’t
take those wings.” He jerks his head towards their wings, which are charging
on their docks. “If you get there and run into resistance, we don’t want you
to die, but you can’t be flying around as superheroes. It does not belong in
that world. Again, we want to get this done without anyone noticing. If
Vanore has replaced that simulation’s Morgana NPC, that is a huge breach,
and letting others know that it’s possible will only make things worse.”
“Wow. How much of our conversation did you hear?” Jaidia kind of complains.
“Obviously enough. Will you do it? Will you help us plug the leak?”
“What do we get if we do?” Malika asks him.
“He doesn’t have to give us anything,” Mandica contends, looking over at her
briefly, and then back at Azad. “Our goals are aligned. We’ll take care of
it. We’re not asking for payment, but if we do this, we become your heroes,
right? That will count for something, right? You will consider us friends in
the future...right?”
Azad scoffs, but isn’t mad. “Yes, and friends take care of each other.”
After he leaves, The team decides to get one more night of rest, but before
that, they visit Elysia’s tailor to make them new clothes. They will need to
blend in with the Arthurian realm. They don’t take the wings that Azad
indicated, and they don’t take their superhero outfits. They’re not entirely
unarmed, however. They do have wings, but they’re an upgrade from even
Daedalus’ originals. Thanks to Reagan’s mechanical engineering skills, and
Jaidia’s background in biology, their wings are now always with them, and
hidden.
