Andrew Rowe - Sufficiently Advanced Magic

The archive was a room of clinical whites and sterile grays. It was structured like a library, with dozens of rows of long shelves, but only a few of them contained books. Most of the shelves were stacked to near-overflow with boxes of file folders, and a few other shelves carried fist-sized memory crystals.

The room’s most unusual feature, however, was the shimmering blue-skinned woman hovering over a platform in the center. Aside from the blue skin, she looked mostly human. She had long brown hair and wore a tailored suit that was a shade darker than her skin.

The platform was marked with numerous runes, some more familiar than others. I thought it was a barrier at a first glance, but it took me a moment to realize it wasn’t to keep danger out.

It was to keep her inside.

She turned toward us as we entered, grinning cheerfully and waving. “Ooh, new visitors! Come in, come in!”

I turned to Jin, giving him a confused glance. He shrugged and we stepped in.

I waved at the trapped woman. “Uh, hello. I’m Corin.”

She blinked, her eyes turning pure white when she reopened them. After a few moments of staring, her pupils slowly reappeared. The effect was…disconcerting. “Corin Cadence. It’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m Researcher 437-C. How can I be of service today?”

I took a step closer, tilting my head to the side. “Are you trapped in there?”

She laughed — or at least, I thought she did. The sound was too high pitched to be human, somewhere in between a chuckle and some kind of exotic bird call. “No, no, silly. This…” She knelt and tapped the platform. “Provides me with mana. It’s powered by the crystals in the sides, so please don’t touch those!”

Jin stepped forward. “Is that Caelish technology? Are you some kind of automaton?”

She turned toward Jin, a confused expression on her face. “Oh, hello. I barely noticed you there! Uh, yes to your first question, no to the second. I’m what you would call a summoned monster… Although I don’t really like the second part. A little cruel, don’t you think?”

Jin gave a noncommittal grunt in reply.

“I agree,” I chimed in. “You’re intelligent, and you don’t seem particularly monstrous. Is there a term you’d prefer? Summoned person, perhaps?”

She raised a finger to her lips. “I hadn’t really thought about it. Maybe next time you visit, I’ll have an answer for you!”

I nodded. “In the meantime, I could use some help. I take it you oversee this facility?”

“Sure do! I know it backwards and forwards. Well, the center part, at least.” She grinned. “The rest, a little less, but still pretty well.”

I waved at the platform. “Is that because you can’t leave the middle?”

“I can, but only when I have an external power source. Usually, that means when my Summoner is here to provide me with mana. Some other forms of mana can keep me stable for a time, but it’s usually safest for me to stay here.”

I scratched my chin. “Just how long have you been here?”

“Oh, I’ve been working at this facility for about three years now. It’s quite nice!”

I blinked. I’d never heard of a summoned…person being summoned for anywhere near that long. Most summons only lasted for minutes to hours, as far as I could tell. “That’s very impressive. I’ve never heard of anyone like you. Can I ask where you’re from?”

She beamed, stretching her arms. “Weeeeell, that’s a bit of a long story. Researchers are core elements for the function of each of the Shifting Spires. Normally, we don’t come in contact with people… but someone was clever enough to find us, and made a pact with me! Or, original me, anyway.”

“I don’t suppose you could tell me where they found you, or who your Summoner is?”

She shook her head.

“Okay,” I continued. “What should we call you?”

“Oh, just Researcher is fine. That’s what everyone calls me. People keep offering to let me pick a name, but I don’t really see a point. Researcher describes my function accurately.”

I nodded. I could see the logic there. “Okay, Researcher. As it happens, we’re here to do some research.”

“Perfect!” She clasped her hands together. “How can I help you?”

“Well, I suppose we should start by looking for anything regarding Keras Selyrian.”

Her eyes flashed white again. “Keras Selyrian. Records and memory crystals are in row 14-F, third shelf, toward the center.” She waved to her right. “It’s over here, three shelfs down from where I’m standing.”

“Thanks.” I followed her directions, walking past row after row of boxes. Each box had a slat beneath it with a brief description of the contents. It looked like it’d been organized alphabetically by the first word. I found “Keras Seleryan” between “Keldyn Aendys” and “Kerran Vallir”.

I picked up the box eagerly. It was completely empty.

I went back to Researcher. “The box is empty. Do people usually take things out of here?”

Her eyes widened for a moment. “No one is supposed to remove anything from the archive without authorization. There wasn’t any given to take the files on Keras.”

Jin raised an eyebrow. “You’re sure of that?”

She turned toward him, blowing a hair out of the way of her mouth before speaking. “Uh, yes. If someone had given permission, they’d have to tell me about it. And I’m a Researcher. I have perfect recall of everything I’ve ever experienced.”

An eidetic memory? Or something even more advanced?

Hrm. That could be useful.

“Do you recall anyone else looking for his files, then?”

She nodded. “Yes, several people have. But not for several months now.”

Interesting. They could have been stolen a while ago, then. “Who was the last person you remember taking a look at information on Keras?”

She frowned. “I’m afraid I’m not authorized to answer that question.”

Of course not. That’d be far too easy.

I glanced at Jin. He shook his head.

Okay, it wasn’t Jin. Fair enough.

Besides, I returned the memory crystal he’d taken. That should be here even if Jin was the one that took everything else. That means someone took everything at some point after I returned the crystal.

I sighed. “Okay. We can check some other things, then.”

Researcher perked right back up. “Excellent! What else?”

“How about Vera Corrington?”

Researcher pointed to her right again. “Further down. Row 22-D. No memory crystals on her, but we do have a few files.”

I found her files without incident. Well, some files, anyway. I had no way of knowing if there had been others that might have been stolen at some point.

I handed half the stack to Jin and we walked back to Researcher. “Anywhere we can sit to look at these?”

“Toward the back of the room, left corner.”

We followed her instructions, found chairs, and sat.

The first thing I found was a copy of a Caelford Passport. In specific, a Diplomatic Passport indicating she was here in Valia on government business. I wondered why we had a copy of it here. Maybe this Divinatory served as a general information repository for the whole city?

That document didn’t have anything specific on why she was there, but there were several other type-written pages in the folder.

One of them was a copy of her documentation for entering the Serpent’s Tower. Glancing over that was much more enlightening.

Name: Vera Corrington

Age: 26

Ethnicity: Caelford

Attunements: Analyst