Ch 85. Tiny Investigation (Patreon)

Time passed quicker than I had anticipated, my days filled with organizing the chimera villagers, teaching them meditation, Basq language, human customs, rules and laws.

In the mornings I did basic excersizes with the Princesses, getting Grogtilda's body and my two besties into shape. Afterward, I switched to Juni's body and drilled my chimera hunters, organizing them into an effective strike unit based on my sword-fighting and crossbow-making experience at Renaissance fairs.

I was slowly sorting through all of chimera girls and boys, women and men giving them jobs which fit their personality best instead of the basic hunter/gatherer distinction which had previously bound them into very specific roles.

My chatty personality and experience as a sociologist allowed me to reorganize the tribe with greater and greater efficiency, plotting out a future for all of my citizens not just as individuals but as a society.

It fell to me to organize the tribe, to sort out what sort of role they would play in Lomb, to reduce the probability of future conflict between chimera and people down to nothing.

During the evenings I did various fun shows, exhibitions and performances. Instead of building a shop in the caverns as that would take too long, I opened little kiosk or market stalls in the center of Lomb with Anniya's permission built from driftwood and dragon bones.

There was plenty of stuff for chimera to sell. Each morning my companions and I went back to old Tokimorimïtul with a small group of hunters to clear the skulls filled with the tribe's abandoned possessions.

With each trip we brought tons of chimera-made decorations, furniture, clothing, weapons, armor to Lomb inside of Saccy. Plenty of it went back to their former owners, but there was a lot of excess stuff that we sold to Lomb villagers and tourists making a profit that was exceeding my wildest expectations.

Agatha stared at me, her mouth wide open as I deposited another purse of Obliss into my bank account.

"I cannot believe it," she said. "You're turning old, chimera-made, primitive-looking junk into piles of cash using a few rickety-looking wooden tables!"

"A chimera's old junk is a rich human's art piece," I stuck my tongue out at her. "You've seen nothing yet. Wait till we open our own boutique store in Diamondias."

"I'm surprised Mother hasn't made any moves against us," Agatha said.

"She's probably scared of me," I shrugged. "I'm pretty dangerous when threatened. Can explode arch-cendais at will."

The eldest Princess looked at me with an unamused expression.

"There's no need to panic," I said. "We have our own doomsday forecast network. Dawn, how's chances of doomsday in the next two weeks?"

"Everyone's alive," the girl on my dress replied. "No existential threat to Lomb."

"There you go," I stuck my tongue out at Agatha. "The local precog-girl declares clear skies for the Sunshine Archipelago! Now excuse me while I go pet some kittens."

Agatha sighed as I pranced out of the bank towards a group of cats warming themselves on the sunbeams of the last week of summer.

The large gathering of felines were very friendly and made room for me to sit on one of the warm, moss covered rocks. I took Saccy off my shoulders and sat down. A small ball of black fur emerged from the group, leaping onto my knees. I smiled at my pal.

Purple eyes squinted at me in delight as I began to pet the kitten.

"Is this going to take long?" Agatha asked as she stood in front of me, her arms crossed as watched me smothering the small kitten in attention.

"Yes," I said. "I'm doing research."

"Research?" My companion raised an eyebrow. "Petting a stray cat is research?"

"That's right," I nodded with a sagely look. "The best kind of wholesome, kitten-shaped research! Come over here and sit."

"Kitten research?" Agatha looked at me like I was mad.

"Trust me," I grinned. "Point your armacus at this lovely kitten and try to define it."

"You want me to define... a kitten?" The silver-haired princess raised an eyebrow.

I nodded.

"This seems like a job Emerald would be more interested in," she commented snidely.

"Emerald's identify skills are weak," I said. "She's working the stall, directing the chimera salesgirls. She needs the leadership experience and working sales is the best kind of experience for people-management! Now stop trying to weasel out of essential work and identify this damn kitten."

Agatha sighed. Her armacus unfurled. She shot an identify spell at the black ball of fuzz on my knees.

Her annoyed expression changed.

"What?" She blinked.

Another identify spell fired at the kitten. The purple-eyed ball yawned, curling harder into me.

"What in the freaking Astral?" Agatha looked up at me, confusion dancing in her eyes.

"Well?" I asked. "What does your spell tell you?"

"There's nothing there," she said with a frown. "Nothing at all. The window is coming back completely empty. This isn't possible!"

"That's what I thought," I said. "You see, other kittens have souls. They have magic. They leave imprints that resonate into the astral. This little guy does not."

"WHAT?! How the frig is that possible?!" Agatha barked, her face pale as she realized the implications. "Are you kidding me? Are you telling me that..."

Her extremely loud yelp caused the kittens nearest to us scatter.

"Calm yourself, my knight," I ordered, cuddling the kitten in my lap harder so it would not flee. "Stop yelling or you'll spook my precious."

Agatha's mouth snapped close. She looked at me, her body trembling ever so slightly.

"Just like my knife, this kitten cannot be defined. It's from Inaria," I said simply. "It's an idea, a concept impervious to all magic."

The Amadea Princess gulped.

"How can this be?" She asked, her voice distant, drowning in rising panic.

"I'm the wielder of Infinity. Things like my Endy are drawn to me," I said, tapping at the knife on my side. "The machine-built civilization of Eureka is all around us, most likely masquerading in mundane things like this little guy. If I had to gander a guess, I would say that this is just a little shard of Eureka's machinery of the stars, an idea of a kitten manifested into existence."

"Manifested by whom? Why?" Agatha asked.

"Collective unconsciousness of humanity?" I shrugged. "Machine life?"

"That really doesn't make me feel any safe," my friend muttered. "What are we going to do about... this thing?"

"I'm adopting this kitten," I said with a smile.

"How do you know it won't turn into a cloud of machines of death and eat your face while you sleep?" Agatha asked, looking terrified and exasperated in equal measure.

"I don't," I said. "Endy is also a shard of Eureka. She... hasn't turned into anything else. Hasn't acted against me. She's just a knife, a tool."

"Sure, but this kitten is clearly self aware on some level," Agatha said. "What if it..."

"We can speculate about what ifs all day," I said. "This is clearly a kitten. Yes, it could be something else entirely. It could be a dead god masquerading as a kitten. It could be an emissary of Sempiternity attempting to observe me through the pinhole of its purple eyes. Or it could be an idea of a kitten. Honestly, I don't have a clue. Either way I think it would be best if I kept it around. If it turns evil, I always have Endy near me to protect me. What would you have me do? Poke it out of existence right now?"

Agatha nodded.

"No," I said. "Look how cute it is. I already tried to poke something that I didn't entirely understand out of existence. It went VERY poorly for me. I died. It wasn't nice at all. I really, REALLY don't want to die again Aggie. You have no idea how much it freaking hurts to get your soul torn into shreds and to lose everything and everyone that you care about because of a stupid mistake."

I wasn't sure if it was me or the shard of Juneberry expressing this thought through my lips.

"Do whatever you want to," Agatha exhaled. "You don't listen to me anyway."

"I do listen to you," I said. "I listen to all of my friends. You all matter a lot to me and it would really suck to start over again in another world, in another Juni as a broken, nearly mindless ghost, a shard of my former self. Infinity has a price and I don't know if I'm willing to pay it over and over until I am made from a endless chain of ghosts, failures of myself haunting my broken soul."

[I think it would be nice if there was more of us in here,] Juneberry commented.

[I think that you're an idiot,] Junezia said. [Juni would run out of points to manifest us into existence and then there would be far too many ghosts in here eating away at us, causing further decay. That's a path to becoming an Astral Phantom. Eventually the chain would break under its own weight. Juni's soul isn't infinite - it's a delicate, complex spiritual construct that's already barely holding itself together. If we keep dying, it will inevitably get torn asunder under the combined weight of the infinite mirror shards moving through it. The fact is, things are so bad here that it might take just another death to sever the chain. I think I figured out how Eunice injected her magic into our soul without us noticing it - there are minute, inactive, astral-worm-like data constructs filling the cracks between Yulia and Juni's soul.]

I gulped.

"Hrm?" Agatha stared at me.

"Eunice didn't give a damn about my soul," I said. "The arch-cendai taught me a lot of wrong things because she wanted me broken. If my soul was torn up, I could be bound easier into absolute obedience. Your mother is the same way. Eunice broke Amadea, bound and turned her into an Astral Phantom. The same thing was happening to you."

"You're right about that," Agatha mulled. "Mother was never nice to me. I'm the daughter of a Baroness, engaged to the Crown Prince and yet I am utterly powerless to stop the damned scriveners from harassing me endlessly. Since she couldn't just put a Vow on me, she's done everything possible to break my spirit... but I persevered, endured, survived."

"From the first moment I saw you," I spoke. "I knew that you were lonely, needed a friend to help you break your chains. It was the reason why I told you that I'm from Earth."

"It's that obvious, huh?" Agatha stared at me.

"Yeah," I nodded. "Well, it probably wouldn't be as obvious to someone else, but I saw the Dominion roots all over your soul with my Still-walker sight. I saw that you, just like me were a prisoner, someone who really needed help."

"Thanks," she said. "While you do drive me mental, I... am less lonely now. I've slowly been tearing Mother's roots out of my soul one by one. My chain no longer strangles me if I try to loosen it. Mother cannot see if I am pulling apart the binding threads."

"I'm glad to hear that," I smiled at her.

I stared up at the blue sky covered in rolling clouds above the little, peaceful town of Lomb. As I pet the purring kitten on my lap, I realized that I really finally found my own, personal Sunshine Archipelago. I had a family that cared for me, I had friends that supported me. I had an entire chimera tribe of helpers. I didn't have just one workshop. I had a whole town being built, filled with workshops.

"I don't know who you are," I thought to the sky, picturing my unknown enemies and the potential, inhuman concepts that empowered them. "I don't know where you are hiding, but I'm going to find you and I will break the chains that bind you. I will make sure that my Sunshine Archipelago remains free. I will not stop at what I have already accomplished. I will take all of Illatius, all of the Basq people from your invisible claws and I will change the fortunes of everyone, every human and chimera out there. I am not afraid."