"That's enough, you two." Lan'ti stepped into the argument between Volat and Ci'an's elf friend. His guess was that Volat was probably right and that it probably didn't matter; that was how it usually went with Volat. The man was smart but he had no idea what was worth arguing about. "Please translate for me instead of arguing. I want to start with the present, not the past; why did Othala bring us here?"

This was already an immense find, but it would only be worthwhile if Lan'ti could figure out how to do something with it. The sphere in the middle of the room probably couldn't be removed without destroying its enchantments, which would make it hard to study, so that was not an option until they were ready to leave. Even then, Lan'ti didn't want to try unless he had some confidence it would be at least partially salvageable; if there was a resident population somehow living here, they might be more helpful than the artifact itself and destroying it would not help deal with them.

He had to consider the future. Another expedition could be sent now that they knew this was here; even if they couldn't get help from the locals, studying a major artifact in place ought to be more productive than looking at a broken one. There were a lot of broken artifacts no one had ever figured out in Izel.

Lan'ti shifted his gaze over to Cere while Volat and Sophia talked to the artifact. He badly wished that he could talk directly; he wanted to ask Scout where her tattoos came from and how her armor worked. It was clearly enchanted, but Lan'ti couldn't tell what it was intended to do.

It wasn't made for supernatural defense, not from what Xin'ri said. Was it to compensate for a severe injury? That would explain the focus on mobility and silence that Xin'ri said were the primary enchantments she could see without a close look.

That, too, could be valuable. All too many Called had to choose a Profession because of one injury too many, even if they lived through it. If there was some way to let them continue with what they wanted to do with their lives … well, that was valuable for many reasons. It could be traded for other things, but even more importantly it would mean that Izel wouldn't lose people it needed to help defend it. If it worked well enough, it might even become a reason for people to travel to Izel. Anyone who could make the trip was worth having; the hard part was getting good people to try.

Well, maybe not the Templars. Lan'ti thought the real problem was the Hilt, not the Broken Temple itself; they hadn't expanded their influence more than any other followers of the Broken Lord did until the Hilt took command of the Broken Temple. At least, that was what Lan'ti had gathered from his mother. He knew Uncle Los'en hated them and thought the entire organization needed to go, but Lan'ti had never quite figured out why. If they could be controlled, they were helpful in Izel's defense. There were times when Izel needed every sword and spell it could muster.

"Lan'ti?" Volat sounded confused and excited at the same time. "Othala is some sort of memory of a person locked into that sphere. She used words I don't know, so I'm not sure how she got there, but she actually remembers when this place was in use!"

Lan'ti dismissed the word "she," even though Sophia and Scout both used "it." He couldn't tell gender from Othala's voice, so Volat probably decided she was female based on her name. It did sound female.

Othala actually remembering the Kestii Empire was far more important. Her presence completely justified everything Lan'ti's Clan spent on the expedition, even if they recovered nothing else. She could explain some of the things they already had, and that would more than pay for expeditions out to this remote place. That wasn't the best option, though. "Is there any way to remove her from here?"

Volat shook his head. "I asked, but she says it's not possible. There's a minor nexus convergence below the facility; that's why it was built here. She needs it to keep herself alive. At least, I think that's what she meant."

Lan'ti frowned. That wasn't what he wanted to hear. On the other hand, maybe there was a way to take advantage of it. "A minor nexus convergence? Like the one in Izel? Does she know if it has any Challenges?"

If there was a Challenge this far from civilization near a nexus convergence, there was a decent chance that a full completion would award a seed that could be used to make a Stable Challenge. If that was anything like the complex they'd just fought their way through, it would be a popular Challenge. Challenges that were straightforward combat against monsters you could prepare for always were, even if they required multiple teams to properly conquer.

Lan'ti would have to split the Challenge Tokens with his team and Sophia's team, but that would still be huge. More Stable Challenges was good for Izel, and having the original owner be part of the Aurora Clan was even better.

Volat took a few minutes to ask questions while Lan'ti watched. It seemed to take a long longer to get such a simple question answered than Lan'ti expected, but eventually his friend returned.

Volat shook his head. "It took me ages to explain what a Challenge is, but I think I got it across. She says the nexus convergence is weak, that it requires something to really shine, and that means there are no Challenges nearby. Stimulation, I think? That sounds right. This was once one of several complexes that were tied together somehow, and that connection provided whatever it needed. This was the weakest one."

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"Figures." Lan'ti sighed, disappointed. "Then can she tell us about the facility here? Is there anywhere we might be able to find something we can take back to Izel?"

That question took even longer, but this time it wasn't a surprise. The complex was large; it ought to take time. They'd have to search it no matter what Othala said, because the most likely things they were going to be able to find were things like what they'd found on the first floor: stuff that got left behind when the place was cleaned out. It would still be nice if Othala could give them ideas of where to look for anything too large to easily remove; Lan'ti was willing to try if they found something likely to survive the move.

It was better to ask anyway. They'd already sort of met three people who lived here, Scout and her two guardsmen. If they had permission to take stuff, they'd have an easier time when others came back. Stealing would only annoy people; Lan'ti needed to trade for whatever he took if there were locals who cared. He'd happily take broken enchanted items they didn't care about, too, but intact ones were better.

Othala seemed to be in charge, so getting her permission was the place to start.

When Volat finally turned back to Lan'ti, he shook his head. "The only large enchanted tools she's aware of were on the top level, some kind of transportation system and some machines that were bolted to the floor in the different rooms."

It was definitely nice to finally have an explanation for all those small holes in the top level's floor surface! Some sort of bolt hole made sense, sort of, even if Lan'ti didn't know how you'd put a secure bolt into the rock. Did you just pound it in like rock-climbing gear? That might work.

Volat didn't stop talking while Lan'ti thought. "She was surprised to hear they were all gone; apparently they were difficult to move."

Lan'ti frowned. That didn't make sense. "Why didn't she know?"

Volat asked a quick question, then translated the answer. "She hasn't sent anyone to search the top level since her connections were broken. Something about it costing too much. I think. Some of the words she's using don't seem to translate properly."

Lan'ti glanced over at Sophia, who seemed to be holding a separate animated conversation with the glowing sphere that was Othala. "Does Sophia understand?"

"Probably." Volat sounded annoyed. "She's telling Othala about herself instead of asking questions. Well, there are a few questions, but it sounds more like friends talking than anything else."

Lan'ti focused on Sophia and took a closer look. Volat was right; she looked like someone having a conversation with someone she liked, not someone who was trying to get information from a new acquaintance. "Let her. She may not get answers to specific questions right now, but we have time."

Lan'ti wasn't certain what to ask now anyway. Othala was talking now instead of Sophia; maybe the best thing to do right now was listen. "Can you translate what Othala's telling Sophia?"

Volat frowned, then nodded. "We missed the beginning, but I'm going to want to ask more about that anyway. Othala sort of glossed over what she did when the complex was working. Let's see …"

It was a normal day for Othala.

Tower leakage was high and the fluctuations in the conduits were worse, but those had been increasing almost every day for years. They weren't anywhere near the limiters, not with the new dampers. News from the Central complex was great; they were working on refining the dampers for use at the generation points instead of only for the conduits and thought they'd made an important breakthrough. Othala didn't expect results for another nine months at a minimum, but there was plenty of time.

The workers in her complex were performing slightly below expectations, but Othala wasn't surprised; that always happened at this time of year. People were thinking about the Mazegate Celebration, not work. They'd buckle down in a week once the hangovers wore off.

And then everything went dark.

The next thing Othala knew, it was slowly waking up. The world was dark and silent. Her siblings were silent and there was no one in her chamber.

Her chamber was covered in dust. That never happened. There weren't even footprints in the dust.

Before she did anything else, Othala flexed her mana and repelled the dust. It was unsightly, but that wasn't the problem; what if it got into its crystals? Any foreign matter could disrupt the proper movement of mana and cause problems. That was what its routine diagnostics were for.

Othala had just run one, too, and it reported … oh. That wasn't good. It reported that it had woken up because there was finally a diagnostic run that was stable enough to let Othala's personality matrix properly initialize. It had been out for a while while its core processes repaired it. It didn't know how long it took, but with the level of damage that was still there, it was probably years.

Clearly, its humans had given up on it. Othala couldn't blame them; it would have seemed dead. It was a little surprising they hadn't replaced it entirely; as damaged as its core must have been, that would have been the rational response. It would have been faster to reinitialize a new core than repair Othala's. Even if they did want to keep Othala, though, why did they let it repair itself? There were a number of ways its humans could have easily and cheaply sped up the process.

Othala reached for its sensors and found that nearly half of them were just … gone. Of those that were left, almost a quarter gave readings that made no sense. There was no way to get a pressure that low in the complex and a mana level that high would have melted the very sensor that reported it. It also would have been reported by other nearby sensors and it wasn't.

Things were far worse than any projection Othala had ever run. It wasn't sure where to start.

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