Wearing Power Armor to a Magic School

There I was, my gaze locked with a polite looking fox that continually cocked its head from one side to the other. Causing those two, large, fluffy ears to sway back and forth with each and every swing.

“I erm.” I looked to Thacea, expecting her to take the charge but given how her eyes shot back a you’re on your own now kind of expression, I knew it was my time to shine.

“I’ll be brief, I’m just looking for a concise, succinct explanation on two subjects. One: The Ritual of Duplicity, and Two: Nulls. With the latter more than likely having something to do with the former.” I spoke with as clear of an enunciation as I could through my vocoders.

The fox perked up at that, not at the two subjects I’d brought up in particular, but at something else.

“Speak, speak again!” It leaped up at me, its tail wagging furiously now as it jumped up and down on its hind legs, placing both of its forepaws against my armored knee; using it as a brace as it remained upright.

“Erm, I’m looking for a brief explanation on the ritual of duplicity and nulls?” I asked again, not fully understanding the fox’s over-eagerness here, but very much willing to go along with its sudden burst of over-excitability.

The ball of fluffy white and orange fur chuckled in absolute joy anytime I spoke, cackling wildly in jubilation, as it leaped up at me yet again. This time, it managed to just reach my neckline, as it now dangled precariously with both of its forepaws holding the lip of my chest-plate and both of its hind legs kicking at the air in a futile attempt to gain more purchase. Despite this, it still managed to get even closer, as it used the tip of its snout to sniff at my vocoder, before gently booping it once, then again, then several more times for good measure.

“Oh my, oh dear, oh my! Oh how novel! Oh how new! Oh what a breath of fresh air!” It kept giggling, cackling even as it kept booping the small speaker unit affixed to my vocoder in rapid succession.

“Oh my dear, I am so sorry, I never quite caught your name! Please! Your name! I must have your name!” It excitedly shuddered.

“Erm… I’m Emma Booker. Cadet Emma Booker.” I spoke with a clear air of uncertainty.

“Emma Booker, Cadet, cadet of what? Of where? Which realm? What civilization? What species? What peoples? What culture? Oh. Ah, a commoner too! How exciting!” The damn fluffball was on the verge of a seizure at that point as I decided to peel it away from my chestplate, holding it with two hands underneath its forelegs all the while it beamed back the biggest smile I’d ever seen. Its eyes were practically filled to the brim with a euphoric satisfaction I’d never even seen before on a human, let alone a fucking fox.

“Hey buddy, you gotta relax. Please? I don’t wanna be the reason why a librarian fox seized on library grounds y’know.” I managed out dryly as the fox closed its eyes and increased the breakneck pace of its tail wagging.

“Yes! The new one has given me a name! That shall be my new designation! I am Buddy! Your library assistant!” It yapped out in delight, at which point I noticed tens, no, hundreds of beady little fox-like eyes emerging from around us, all of which seemed to whimper in disappointment, before slinking back into the darkness as quickly as they’d appeared. “However, I am not the librarian! I only speak for them! I am, however, authorized to grant you access within reason! And given your…” It paused, as it used its black little nose to sniff my hands with great enthusiasm. “Uniqueness, I think a deal can be struck!”

“Whoa whoah whoah” I held the fox further away from me now.

“Listen pal, I’m not here to play info-brokerage, I’m here to find answers and-”

“Oh, my apologies for being so brash! Your mere presence here is payment enough for the information you seek! It will be an honor to serve you, Cadet Emma Booker! If you wish for more knowledge in the future we can discuss further exchanges. But for now, I wish to bring you to what you seek, come, come!” The fox somehow managed to wriggle its way out of my hands, landing on its four little feet, committing to a silly little dance before skittering forward urging for us to follow.

And follow we did, as we passed the main concourse and the continuously rotating aisles of books, towards a maze-like arrangement of shelves that took us deeper and deeper into a space that should not have been physically possible. At least, not with the dimensions of the tower we’d seen outside.

My poor EVI had all but given up on making sense of things at this point, the frazzled program was at this point reduced to yelling out error after error message on all matters relating to topography and telemetry, as we delved deeper into the library.

Seeing all of these otherworldly, completely ridiculous and enigmatic approaches to information organization immediately put me in mind of Thalmin’s opinionated stance towards the library.

It was clear now what Thalmin actually meant by how unfair the library was.

If it wasn’t for the fox’s willingness to guide us through this labyrinth, it’d be impossible for you to really gain your bearings, let alone find what it was you were looking for in the first place.

I guess you could technically navigate the library yourself, and that this technically meant that anyone could have access to the library. But that was a technicality that bordered on outright sadistic humor given the sheer scale and nonsensical approach to information organization.

We went from hallways of shelves that looked as if they belonged in some sort of dingy underwater shipwreck, drenched in water and moss, to ones that would’ve fit well in the NAU’s congressional library with its stark minimalism and homage to old world designs. Every single book on display was in varying states of repair and disrepair, though I imagine that a bit of magic was all you needed to actually access anything.

After a good 10 minutes of walking however, we finally reached it.

An unassuming wooden shelf with books stacked atop of one another, unorganized, and in complete disarray.

Next to it, was a desk clearly meant for reading, with a window allowing natural light through, or so I thought. As a quick glance at it from my enhanced optics revealed it wasn’t a window at all but simply some sort of an artificial light fixture that for all intents and purposes mimicked a paned window with blindingly bright daylight piercing through it.

“Ritual of duplicity!” The fox jumped up and down, placing a paw on a thick leather bound book which was flung unceremoniously to a desk just adjacent to the shelf. “Aaand nulls!” Another book was pulled out, flying straight to the desk as both books opened on their own volition, flipping through thousands of pages before landing exactly where the relevant information was held. “You requested for a brief, succinct, explanation, I have collated two pages for each!” The little thing yapped proudly, running in circles around me as I couldn’t help myself but to let out a sigh, before kneeling down to pat the thing on the head.

It clearly appreciated this as it stopped its breakneck hyperactive pace of excitable pacing, settling down into a pile of fox that purred, yapped, and yipped in my hands. I quickly shot a glance at Thacea, cocking my head to the books, signaling for her to start reading as I took the time to get better acquainted with the library assistant.

Yet as soon as Thacea settled herself at the desk, the fox shot up, its fur puffing up as it bore its fangs in an aggressive display of threatening growls.

A series of strategically placed, soothing touches was all that was needed for the thing to calm down however. As I made sure to push the suit’s haptic feedback to its max settings, whilst simultaneously bumping down any and all of the suit’s strength enhancements in order to facilitate the most optimal pressure settings to ensure a soft gentle petting session. “She’s with me.” I spoke softly, which seemed to be all that was required for the fox to finally stand down.

“Alright.” Thacea let out a tired sigh, her attention now squarely focused on the two books in front of her.

It took a few minutes, and in that time I administered more pats, scratches, and belly rubs than I could count. A brief glance towards Thalmin revealed a face that bordered on nervous jealousy as he maintained careful guard over the both of us throughout all of this. That was all the time that was needed however as the quick witted avinor soon got the gist of the topic at hand.

And the results weren't fantastic.

“Emma.” Thacea spoke, her voice was shaky, her cadence unsteady; sending a newfound wave of dread which overwhelmed me despite the presence of my newfound fur-buddy.

“What did you find out?” I asked.

“I… I’ll just be out with it. The ritual of duplicity, according to these passages, is a ritual specifically designed for books of binding, or books of souls. Its expressed purpose is that of the creation of a duplicant, a being that shares the soul of a victim of the soulbinding process. This duplicant will in effect embody the physical characteristics of the soulbound individual, but is otherwise incapable of independent thought and will operate under the orders of the individual or individuals behind the ritual. The quality of the duplicant, i.e. its likeness and capacity to integrate into society, is directly dependent on the quality of the soulbinding process. So a fully bound soul will result in a duplicant of exceptional likeness. A partially bound soul will result in a duplicant with obvious flaws or features which will hamper its likeness to the original. However… a soul that has not been bound whatsoever, will result in a null.” Thacea shifted in her seat, moving over to the other book. “A null, by every metric of the name, is the failed result of a ritual of duplicity, and is in essence a fully animated and self-aware mass of humanoid substrate. It knows nothing, desires nothing save for the completion of itself. All it knows is the name of the being it was destined to become, but had failed to become likened to. Its only goal, its obsession, is to become complete, and will stop at nothing to achieve a complete physical likeness of its namesake, and to become host to its namesake’s soul. In effect, becoming the name it had failed to be imbued with.”

All of the warmth, calm, and joy I’d nominally received from those few minutes with the fox had all but sublimated within the span of a scant few moments. My blood ran cold as my mind went through every possible scenario involving what was in effect one of those body double stories that had been something of a somewhat common trope in quite a few of those fantasy novels I’d read as a kid. The implications weren’t great, not even in those books meant for kids and adolescents. With most of the subtext dominated by vague imagery alluding to more grotesque and terrifying implications of what a failed body double actually looked like, allowing the mind to fill in the gaps of just what horrors awaited me. Beyond that, were the troubling aims of this thing, and what lengths it would go to in order to, as Thacea puts it: achieve a complete physical likeness of me.

Yet despite this, I pushed those thoughts aside as quickly as they’d manifested. Whilst this was a fantastical world with elements of tainted debauchery, that didn’t mean that I was the same ill-equipped protagonist that had populated the pages of the novels I’d read as a kid. I wasn’t some budding adventurer punching well above their weight limit. No. I was armed to the teeth, equipped with weapons, tools, and countless more measures designed to protect me and to facilitate this mission. I wasn’t some lone adventurer with nothing to their name, I was here on behalf of an entire space faring polity, united in a singular effort in exploring this great unknown.

I was an explorer, the first true pioneer in a century of stagnated space exploration.

What did I have to fear from some gangly collection of… whatever constituted a humanoid substrate here?

I wasn’t playing by their rules, I wasn’t abiding by their logic. I kept reminding myself.

Yet whilst the reminders of that mantra were literally attached to my very person, namely in the form of the armor, I couldn’t help but to feel that nagging sense of unease continuously churning within me.

Because while it was comforting to know I could handle this threat, the fact that it was still elusive somewhere out there was what was getting to me.

The fact that I wasn’t facing it head-on, and I didn’t know where it was at any given time, was beyond distressing.

The suit didn’t allow for much in the way of physical expression, let alone facial expressions to betray what I currently felt. Yet the fox seemed to just intuitively know that something was wrong as it pushed its little head against the backside of my palm, as if trying to pull me back from the annals of my own overactive imagination, as it dragged me back towards reality. Or, at the very least, it seemed to be trying to lift up my spirits by way of leveraging its cuteness.

I would be lying if I said it wasn’t working as I let out a sigh and continued scratching away.

Those little high-pitched mewlings were like music to my ears, but I didn’t let it overtake my current priorities, as I once more regarded Thacea with a strained tone of voice.

“I’m assuming you’ve never heard of any of this, then?” I inquired.

“No. This is information that I’ve never once come across, nor is it anything I’d even remotely heard about. Not in rumors, not in hushed conversations, nothing. This is information that would be closely guarded within the Academy’s internal repositories, or perhaps even known only within the closed circles of the Nexian upper echelon. Which is why…” The avian trailed off, her eyes clearly fixated on the fox which continued to squirm and shiver upon my lap as I remained sat there cross legged on the floor. “Which is why I don’t quite follow just how we were able to attain this knowledge so readily, so easily.” The princess attempted to vocalize her concerns in a manner that wouldn’t be read as an immediate and outright accusation.

“The information we have just received was given to us as freely as a box of jewels and mana-imbued pendants for a Nexian noble’s betrothal.” Thalmin interjected with a dulcet growl, all but confronting the issue head on as his words were well and truly aimed at the fox in question. “Just what is the deal being struck here, fox-”

The fox turned to face Thalmin with a sharp, high-pitched growl emerging from within its throat, as it regarded the wolf with as threatening of a face as it could muster. That is to say, not at all given its fuzzy and pettable demeanor. “You shall address me by my current title, outsider. I am Buddy, personal assistant to the new one, Cadet Emma Booker.”

Thalmin backed off, realizing this wasn’t a fight worth picking as it was clearly up to me now to pick things back up, as I’d somehow become the unwitting intermediary between our ragtag group and this enigmatic place.

“Shh, it’s alright buddy it’s alright, the big bad wolf didn’t mean it.” I cooed, which probably sounded incredibly weird through my vocoders and to any outside observer looking in. The library had more than likely never had a power armored behemoth sitting cross legged on the floor petting a grumpy fox I’d imagine…

The little bundle of fur once more melted into my hands, as I gave it a few more minutes before addressing it once more, this time in an attempt to get right to the bottom of things.

“You still with me, Buddy?” I asked softly, practically whispering into one of its ears as it perked up in my direction almost immediately.

“Yes Cadet Emma Booker!” It excitedly yapped out.

“Erm, just, Emma is fine. Anyways, I must ask. This ritual of duplicity… what purpose does it actually serve?” I inquired, eliciting a sharp look of confusion from Thalmin, but a knowing look of acknowledgement from the likes of Thacea.

“Could you clarify your inquiry, Emma?” The fox yipped out sharply.

“Well, the excerpt you provided, which mind you was very helpful!” I quickly complimented the fox, giving it a belly rub for good measure as it cackled softly in delight. “Had only mentioned that this duplicant will act more or less on the orders of its creators. Now, that would make sense for most who sign the book. But are there any other uses for duplicants? Any recorded instance where a duplicant would be used for something other than being puppeted?” I asked in no uncertain terms.

The fact of the matter was, I couldn’t see any reason why the faculty would attempt to create a duplicant of me in particular. The stated purposes up to this point had been clearly meant for infiltration, which wouldn’t have worked in my case given the fact that anything remotely mana-related would more than likely die on my side of the portal. So there had to be something else to it. There was clearly something more to it than just the creation of a body-double for mere puppetting.

“Hmm… oh! Yes! The esoteric uses for a duplicant! Yes yes yes, I remember now, I remember now! Hmm, very old, rarely used, but very very messy.” The fox noted, before moving to cover its small snout with both of its forepaws. “My apologies! As a library assistant I may not speak my own mind on objective truths! Please, allow me!”

And just like that another book from the shelves flew out, landing straight atop of the two books already open in front of Thacea, flicking open on its own volition to reveal a single page of text, with the other page strangely left blank.

It was at this point that Thacea once again got back to reading, as she made sure to relay her findings in short order.

“The ritual of duplicity is one that not merely has its uses in the puppetry of those that require intervention by the enlightened regime of the Nexus.” She read off the passage verbatim. “In instances of crisis, or in circumstances which demand it, such as the arrival of a wholly unknown newrealmer, it is customary to enact such a ritual in order to better understand the visceral nature of those who will in time become part of the realm.” Thacea paused, reading forward a bit as her eyes now grew wide in shock. “It… it is known that the Nexus must know everything about its subjects and fellows. For the purposes of healing, and for the purposes of the pursuit of knowledge, all new realmers must be studied. Everything from their physiological ability to sustain life, to their fundamental ability to channel mana must be scrutinized. The duplicant is an essential resource for understanding new species, and for the evaluation of their mana potential, their relation to taint, and how best to approach the process of systematic species alteration should it be required.” Thacea’s voice shook and hiked sharply at the end of that paragraph, she refused to add anything else other than a disgusted chirp which resonated throughout the room.

“What did you expect?” Thalmin broke through the silence. “This is what the Nexus is, this is what it does.” He blurted out, as if using the recently acquired knowledge to back up his more than justified qualms against the Nexus. “Ancestors above, I’m sorry about all of this Emma.” He turned to me with a look of genuine sympathy. “This is not how you fight your battles. This is beyond dishonorable. But let it be known that whatever this beast is, and whatever the Nexus throws at us, I shall be by your side.” The lupinor offered, beaming out a genuinely chivalrous smile that casted a much needed light of hope in an increasingly distressing situation.

I gave Thalmin an appreciative nod, as I shifted to tackle the immense task of bringing this investigation to its logical conclusion. “Right… let’s not get ahead of ourselves here. Let’s put the pieces together, starting with the ritual last night.” I quickly craned my head to face the avinor. “I think we’ve established by now that the ritual failed, as my suit completely resisted it, and thus this fucked up yearbook has no traces of my soul or whatever. This checks out with what we know with the failure of the ritual of duplicity, as when it’s done on a name that failed to bind, it’d result in a null. Do I have all of that right, or am I missing something here?”

“Those are my current assertions, yes.” Thacea nodded affirmatively.

“Alright, sorry, I just need to make sure we’re on the same page. This magic bullshit isn’t my fucking forte after all.” I shrugged. “Alright, so, that’s part one of the puzzle figured out. Part two, is why. I assume that the whole ritual isn’t meant to duplicate me for the sake of passing off the duplicant as me. Because… well, what would be the point? Send my duplicant back through the portal? The thing’s made up of magic, it’d die. Use that duplicant to be me in the Nexus? Well… what the fuck is the use of me, if I’m always in my armor anyways? So I know this is fucked up to assume but, we gotta assume that the damn thing’s meant to be opened up for research or whatever.” I attempted to play it off, but it still felt genuinely fucked up. It was one thing to read this sort of thing or to see it play out on a screen, it was another to actually be here, to be the one being the target of this sort of crap.

“That is where I assume we currently stand, yes.” Thacea once more nodded, albeit more warily this time around. “I believe your next line of questioning is regarding why the faculty has decided on venturing down this foolhardy path?”

“Yeah, I was about to get to that. Given how this crap is so easily summed up in an excerpt, I’d expect those at the top to be well aware of its limitations and what would result if it fucks up.” I uttered out, as I now turned towards the only other being here in this entire place that seemed to be offering more answers than questions. “You have any ideas, buddy?”

“I’m afraid I don’t quite follow your line of inquiry, Emma. Could you rephrase it for me?” The fox yapped back excitedly.

“I wanted to know if you had any opinions about why someone would perform a ritual of duplicity despite knowing full well that it would fail because-”

The whole room shook. Once, then twice, then again and again as books shifted and shook in their place; pushed precariously close to the edge, but refusing to fall. The chandelier that had been above our heads all this time started rattling, as did the window frame that was now thrown off-kilter, revealing itself to be more of a picture frame than the window it was purporting to be.

It was at the height of all of this that I realized something else was amiss. Granted, everything about the place was already stretching the very definition of the word, but this was different. Everything about this place had been eerily stagnant since our arrival. There were no other entities within the suit’s sensor range, there was hardly any movement, not even specks of dust larger than a few micrometers. Everything up to this point had been a carefully laid out and stable environment. Everything was in its place, everything had an orderly chaos to it. Nothing was left to chance.

So when the EVI detected a lone, aberrant object appearing out of thin air above us, it set off alarms that immediately caught my attention as I craned my head up just in time to catch sight of this anomaly.

It was a feather.

A single, mahogany brown feather, with speckled white and light brown spots scattered throughout.

This unexpected foreign object glided to the floor without anyone else noticing. No one except for the fox who all but stopped in his tracks.

I immediately turned to Thacea, pointing at the feather in question. “Is that yours, Thacea?”

Thacea turned to me, with the greatest look of incredulity and indignant shock I’d seen from her thus far. “I beg your pardon? Emma, there are certain rules you must know regarding the attribution of one’s fallen feathers to another.” She spoke, in a manner that barely hid her irritation, before the implications of another feather suddenly appearing in the room dawned on her.

None of us spoke. The tension in the room was established and broken in rapid succession as these loud, otherworldly gusts of wind buffeted the entire room. Each gust of wind was preceded by a walloping rustling, similar to the sound a giant tarp would make in hurricane-force winds.

Yet all of this ended as soon as it had started, as we heard the rustling of feathers from across the room, in an area blanketed by darkness. The few sources of light that did exist now casted a shadow of a creature of immense size and proportions, rounded, with a distinctly spherical shape sat atop of an ovoid body.

The room shook with each step it took, as I signaled for Thacea to stand behind me, while I reached for my sidearm just as the creature entered the light of the room proper. Thalmin, meanwhile, had already unsheathed his blade, readying it in front him.

What had been a shadow that had blanketed nearly the entire section of the room we were in, was now gone.

What stood in its place at the crossroads between the light and the dark was an owl.

A round, plump, boy that looked like someone had overinflated a football and stuck an oversized softball atop of it. Atop that head was a graduation cap that sat perfectly atop its round little head.

Its height was just short of a football’s, though the same couldn’t be said for its girth. With a single rustle of its spotted white and brown feathers, it began hopping towards us in a series of slow, purposeful hops.