Chapter 52 Notes In the pantry

Chapter 52 Notes In the pantry

Rylan stepped into what used to be a pantry, shelves lined the walls of the small space and a table had been set in the middle with a chair on both sides leaving almost no room for circulation, notes and diagrams had been pinned to the walls like a makeshift wallpaper giving the space a vibe similar to an insane asylum. Rylan stared at the notes for a time, he couldn't make out most of it but it all related back to the core that was settled on a burner stand in front of Yennifer. She lifted her gaze to meet him, an acknowledgement of his presence before she turned back to the notes she was scribbling in.

“What do you want?” She asked softly, eager to get rid of the distraction that was his presence.

“Maerik said you might need some help.”

“And you think you'd be of use?”

“I do not, but he does.” Rylan replied as he entered the space and took an uncomfortable seat. She let out a soft exhale but said nothing else as she turned her focus back to what it was she was doing, Rylan didn't interfere, instead he turned his gaze to the core and almost instantly the call started, persistently beckoning on him to take hold of it, to ab—

“Isn't that going to be a problem?” The sound of her voice broke him out of the trance. He leaned back in his chair and wiped his eyes before a sigh escaped him.

“It is, but it's always going to be unless I build tolerance to it.”

“What if you can't?”

“What if I can.” Rylan argued.

She smiled and nodded, unable to argue with that way of thinking, she put down her pen and turned her focus to him. “This is just a level one core, it would only be reasonable to assume that the higher level cores would have stronger calls.”

“True.”

“I'm guessing you've already thought of that.”

“It is a natural conclusion.”

“I’m starting to see why the captain holds you in such high regard. By the way, take a look at this.” She turned her notebook then passed it to him, he looked it over, she'd drawn the core over and over again, in every drawing the vortex inside was moving differently.

“What is this?”

“It's reacting to the dormant Arkana, which is why its flow is constant. The Arkana around us is constantly moving and the Arkana inside the core is consistently reacting to it.”

“Have you figured out why?”

“I have a theory. Firstly, due to the movement of the Arkana inside the core, I thought it would be plausible to assume it's trying to break out of the core and re-enter into the environment, but the more I study it, the more I doubt that theory.”

“Why?”

“It is a force of nature, I genuinely think if that was what it was meant to do then there would be a way for it to release itself from the sphere. But that's still just a—”

“Theory.” Rylan completed then stood and walked to her side to stare at her other notes, the magnitude and complexity of her research baffled him, in only two days she'd been able to come up with all this, everything was thorough, they were logs for every hour she had spent just observing it then Rylan saw something that caught his eye.

“What's this?” He pointed at a sentence she had drawn a line over. She leaned down and read the sentence aloud.

“The flow of Arkana within the core may simply be due to the core trying to preserve its own existence.”

“Why did you overwrite that?”

“Because of the basic use of a core, Arkana circulation, cores not only store but also absorb and circulate, it would be unreasonable to assume it abandons one function in favor of the other.”

“Why?”

“Well, becau—” She searched for the words but could not think of the reason why she had scrapped that line of thought. “I don't know, it just didn't seem reasonable to me.”

“What if it's not just storing now but actively rejecting Arkana from the outside?”

“What do you mean?”

“The cores inside us like you said, absorb, store and circulate, but that is when there is a need to absorb and circulate. When there is a body making use of the core, there is a need for it to take in Arkana from the environment but that is probably a two way process, while it absorbs from the environment it's most likely releasing Arkana into our bodies also but since there is no longer a body to release the Arkana into, there is no longer a need to absorb.”

“So the core is acting strictly as a storage for Arkana still active within it. Although that still does not explain its reaction to the environment.”

“True.” Rylan said, stepping back and crashing into his chair, he turned his focus to the small window of the pantry and stared at the world beyond the cabin, the sky still had that eerie hue that made it hard to smile no matter how brightly the sun shined, his eyes drifted down, to the backyard, Peter was outside, laughing and playing around with Sandra and some of the other players. A smile curved his lips, he was glad to see the boy smiling without worry. He stood and walked to the window, watching with a smile as Sandra playfully chased him around, he ran towards a tap and she ran to the other end like she couldn't just reach over and grab him, he shifted one side and she reacted then he shifted again and she followed, just like that something clicked.

Rylan turned back to Yennifer and began to shuffle through the paper till he found the one he was looking for, he raised it up and showed it to her. Three different drawings of the sphere, she had drawn arrows alongside each to indicate dormant Arkana movement and in all those drawings the Arkana within the core had reacted in that exact direction. “What if it's rejecting Arkana from entering?”

“What?”

“What if it's done a complete overhaul of its own purpose and now instead of absorbing Arkana, it now rejects it.”

Yennifer stood and began to speak. “That would be a decent explanation for its reaction. Since there is no longer a body to circulate, it preserves and since the very act of absorption needs Arkana to be released, it stopped it entirely.” Her voice getting progressively louder with every word she said.

“Yes!” Rylan agreed excitedly.

“What's going on?” Maerik asked from the doorway, a smile on his face as he anticipated the reason for their excitement. Rylan walked to him.

“I think we've figured out how Jakob created that settlement but we're gonna need a lot more cores.”