90. Switcheroo (Patreon)

Lambert thrummed his fingers on his desk in the tower of Lomb when I was done retelling the story of my doomed life to my friends.

“So,” he said with a thoughtful look. “According to Infinity, we’re all bound on a track towards oblivion and steering away from it will be exceptionally difficult considering that we do not know the names of our enemies.”

“Yeah,” I nodded tiredly.

Lambert looked serious and determined, galvanized up by the incredible and horrific secrets of the future that I had revealed to him. I, on the other hand felt like curling up into a very small ball and crying. My entire soul ached from within. It wasn’t fully ruptured but there was definitely a lot of damage done to me thanks to the latest broken Infinite Mirror cosmic rewind or whatever.

“Baroness Georgia is a lot more ruthless than I had presumed,” Lambert readjusted his glasses. “No doubt that there’s more than a single explosive device planted by her upon your potential paths in Undertown.”

“Do you think that we can rescue Nandine?” I asked.

“We will,” he affirmed. “Defusing the bomb hidden in her dress is a must. Most likely the poor woman was mentally spell-bound into activating it when you came near enough to her.”

I nodded with a very sour look on my face. I wanted to go to Undertown, to help Nandine and Lic but I was also terrified of getting blown up, kidnapped and bound for a century again. I did not want to repeat the same horrid experience for the... third time.

I shuddered as I momentarily thought of the thing wearing the face of a smiling man with circular glasses.

“Antoine and I will go into Undertown, find your parents and defuse the bomb held by Nandine,” Lambert said, interrupting my dark thoughts. “You will provide us with a drawn map of how to find their favela.”

"Once we have retrieved one bomb, I might be able to track the others by their magical signature," Antoine nodded in agreement. "Don't worry Juni, we'll handle it."

“I can help,” I offered meekly, not really wanting go back to Undertown. “We can reach their house faster if I direct you...”

“No,” Lambert shook his head. “I am ordering you to stay put until Antoine can add magical shield into your armacus based on the bomb we retrieve. The success of our enterprise depends on you being alive. Without you, we will be taken down one by one and then Illatius will fall into ruin. You are the only wielder of a weapon that can stop the magic-proof, sentient concepts working against us.”

I exhaled sharply, leaning back on the chair with a wince. I had to trust in my friends to handle things. They were clearly a lot more experienced than I was at defusing magical grenades.

Agatha’s hand firmly grasped my shoulder.

“I’m sorry I didn’t find you,” she said. “I’m sorry I died in that timeline, failed to protect my friends, failed to defend Illatius, failed to become Empress. I won't fail now that I know what's at stake.”

“I… it’s alright,” I said. “Georgia… aka Joseph Grimshaw Engel got us by surprise. I did not expect my parents house in Undertown to turn into an awful death-trap set for me.”

“Baroness Georgia is a dangerous and a very resourceful enemy that we will have to deal with one way or another,” Agatha nodded.

“She crossed the line,” Emerald growled. “I say we build a bomb of our own and mail it to her!”

“I don’t think that it would be wise to resort to such highly illegal methods, Princess Amadea,” Anniya sighed. “There are wards against mail-bombs. The constabulary is on our side. If we can prove that Baroness Georgia planted bombs in Undertown, it gives us legal leverage over her. All magitek crystal devices carry a magical signature of its maker and Antoine is a pro at taking things apart and tracking down evidence based on magical resonance - he's helped us on numerous cases over the years."

“Oh,” Emerald sulked. “I didn’t think about that.”

She turned to me and wrapped her hands around me. “Sorry we didn’t find you. I’m not letting you go anywhere alone again.”

“Thanks Emmy,” I nodded at my friend. “I don’t want to go anywhere else either… but it seems that no matter where I am I will be endangering people next to me. The Georgia barony is wealthy because of the Energy farms. If I stay here in Lomb, what prevents Joseph from hiring countless armed mercenaries to attack our town or dropping bombs at us from the sky? The shield is still weak, yes?”

“I’m working on it,” Antoine said.

“We can relocate to Nemendias campus a few days ahead of schedule,” Agatha said. “The highborn Arcanarium has the best wards anywhere in Illatius. No mercenary, bomb or spell would be able to hurt you on campus. Nemendias protects her flock.”

“All in favor of sending our girls off to Nemendias right now?” Anniya asked.

I looked around the room. Everyone had their hands up.

“Guess it’s time for me to go to school,” I offered my friends a weak, exhausted smile.

. . .

“Didn’t you say that the Dean is an asset of Baroness Georgia?” I asked Agatha with a yawn as Galissi pierced the clouds, heading to Illatius.

“Yes,” Agatha nodded.

“Would she be able to hurt me in Nemendias?”

“No,” Agatha shook her head. “The ward will strike her down and bar her from the school if she even lays a finger upon you.”

“What if she poisons my drink or spills some oil on the stairwell for me to slip, fall down and break my neck?” I asked.

“Not possible,” Agatha said. “The Nemendias student safety ward is absolute. It has been reinforced, improved for millennia by the smartest mages of the Empire who wanted to protect their children from harm. The Dean might find ways to make your life very unpleasant by asking the teachers to give you extra work, mentally harass or call you out in every class, but she will not be able to hurt you physically or magically.”

“Things like Endy and this little guy are impervious to magic,” I pet the little, black kitten curled on my lap. “They might be able to bypass the ward of Nemendias. We don’t know what powers the six possess that they could use against me.”

“I will keep a sharp eye out for anything questionable, don't worry,” Lambert said. "I'll be connected to the Arcanarium's ward watch through my armacus. I can make sure that things that leave no magical signature won't get in either."

“This is a better path,” Dawn commented from beneath my armor. “The people of Lomb will be safe if you go to Nemendias.”

“Why didn’t your future-sight detect that blasted bomb?” I grumbled.

“I can only presume it was because Joseph’s device knocked Voltara out, but didn’t kill her or rip out her magic as was the case with you,” Dawn replied.

“Some precog you are,” I snapped.

“I’m aware that I am not perfect. I cannot see your future path and it bothers me immensely,” Dawn huffed. “I would love it if you could improve me or at least not be completely invisible to precognition."

“Always more work for poor little old me,” I groaned, leaning back and closing my eyes. “I’m going to have a nap, wake me up when we’re in Nemendias.”

. . .

I found myself sitting in the control room of Chernobyl. The place looked a lot more damaged, worn out. Many of the control panels were completely torn apart. Large, shimmering cracks extended out in all directions, flickering ominously.

“Well done,” Junezia commented, looking extra annoyed. “Just when I fix things a little, you manage to break everything.”

“It wasn’t my fault,” I shook my head.

The girl in the purple suit sent me a frown, shaking her head.

“Did we really lose two mirrors?” I asked her.

“Yes, but if Infi didn't tell us about it I would not have even noticed it,” Junezia nodded. “Look for yourself.”

I stared at the large data panel that described my stats.

I had twelve investiture points left and twenty six Infinite Mirrors. I had indeed lost a mirror, but its destruction wasn’t even listed as a broken shard unlike the others - the thread simply didn't exists. It had completely vanished from my soul as if it never existed to begin with.

Whatever the Terminator was, he was incredibly dangerous because he could go anywhere and erase information out of reality, sort of like Endy could destroy concepts.

“Is there another ghost here?” I asked.

“No ghost this time,” Junezia said. “A massive dump of over a century of memories crashed into your soul nearly tearing it asunder, but that Infinite Mirror isn’t broken. Something really odd happened to it, something that the System can’t even quantify properly. I think that whatever you turned into when you stepped out into the Dead Zone screwed up that mirror, made it undefinable. The mirror is broken but is also perfectly intact. It’s a paradox, has two values, both of which are true and false at the same time. I’m honestly failing to figure it out.”

“If it’s not exactly broken... could we maybe communicate through it?” I asked.

“Do you really want to talk to whatever monstrous abomination you’ve turned into?” Junezia raised an eyebrow.

“Maybe I’m a nice Dead Zone abomination,” I muttered. “I made a wish to be helpful and friendly.”

“I don’t think that the risk is worth it,” my Intelligence Officer shook her head. “Whatever the hell is behind that mirror could get in here if we bother it from our end. If the information that comes out of it is undefinable too, it could fracture our soul or scramble us and leave you a brain-dead vegetable."

“We should make an anti-Memetics division!” Juneberry commented. “You know, in case freaky, brain-eating bugs invade us through that spooky broken-not-broken Dead Zone mirror.”

“Noted,” Junezia said. “I can try to design some mental weapons for us.”

“We have Endy,” I suggested. “We could just stab anything that gets in here.”

“Ahw yuss,” Juneberry grinned as Endy manifested in her hand. “I am she who stabs things now!”

Junezia shook her head at Juneberry’s antics. I smiled. Their personality divergence was amusing. My own personality had changed too and not in a good way. I felt old, broken, twisted up from within by the century of suffering inflicted upon me by Joseph. I felt that I was terrified of being alone, terrified of making decisions or taking steps forward.

My finger started to draw a barrier hexagram onto the dust-covered couch beneath me.

“What are you doing?” Junezia asked.

“I’m planting Barries… I think,” I replied.

“You’re planting Barries… in your own soul where it literally says that you’re an Astral Phantom?” She raised an eyebrow. “You want Barrie to come in here, notice that sign and tear everything apart?”

“N-no,” I stopped my sketching. “I… I…”

I curled in on myself, shaking.

Juneberry shot a glare at Junezia and wrapped me in tight hug.

“Everything’s going to be okay,” she said.

“Will it?” I raised my tear-streaked eyes at her. I was crying, shaking uncontrollably. 

The immense weight of the future sat on my shoulders, placed there by Infi’s speech about my responsibility for Illatius. My failure to protect the city I fell in love with gnawed at me from within.

“It will,” Juneberry said. “We’ll figure out what to do. We’ll find a way forward through the gloom and darkness, find a path towards the impossible future.”

“What if Infi is just leading me on?” I asked, trembling. “What if she’s the one who summoned Terminator, forced me into the Dead Zone because she wanted me to become someone or something… for her?”

“It’s possible,” Junezia said. “She’s not exactly human. Who knows what her long-term plans are. She’s an entity that operates on ridiculously endless scale of non-linear time.”

I gulped, burying my head between my knees.

“Junziiiiiii,” Juneberry hissed. “You’re NOT making us feel better.”

“It’s not my job to make you feel better,” the Intelligence Officer shook her head. “I’m simply stating the truth.”

“Well, I trust my feelings,” Juneberry shook her short hair. The black, two-dimensional knife appeared in her hand once again. “Endy is a fraction, a minute reflection of Infinity and she’s not dominating us like Eureka’s Diamond Heart. Endy isn’t trying to shove thoughts into our head, she lets us do whatever we want with her, doesn’t try to manipulate or control us. This alone makes me feel like Infi isn’t evil.”

“Is Eureka evil?” Junezia raised an eyebrow.

“Obviously she is!” Juneberry waved her hands. “She wants to control everything!”

“Not necessarily,” the Intelligence-bound version of me shook her long, purple locks. “If the Terminator didn't go after us, we could have worn the Diamond Heart and investigated the future a lot more thoroughly. It was a bit of a waste of Immortality if you ask me.”

“No,” I shook my head. “I remember exactly what it was like. Eureka’s shard was slowly reorganizing, twisting my thoughts, turning me into something else entirely… something perfect and orderly and full of desks.”

“Desks?” Junezia blinked.

“Desks,” I nodded. “For boring accountants and tired clerks, for monitors, printers and paperweights. I don’t want to be a god-damned corporate office!”

“I see,” the Intelligence Officer rubbed her chin. “That doesn’t seem pure evil, it’s more like Eureka wants Law and Order and space for desks. I think I get her. Maybe we can convince Amadea to join us instead of trying to murder her.”

“Maybe,” I muttered with another shudder. “I think I… need a break from reality.”

“Do you?” Junezia asked.

I nodded, feeling that someone was shaking me. I ignored it, didn't want to wake up, didn't want to go anywhere or talk to anyone.

“I have been neglecting my mind, trying to do too many things,” I said. “I… want to stay here with Juneberry, relax, get control of my soul and fix these cracks. I’m terrified of making a wrong decision, of screwing up and dying again.”

“Oh?” Junezia tilted her head. “Do you want… me to take control?”

“Can you?” I asked.

“I think I can,” she stepped to me. “Take my hand.”

I wrapped my hand around hers and the world flickered.

. . .

I opened my eyes. Emerald was softly shaking me.

“Juni! We’re at Nemendias,” she spoke.

I examined my sense of self. A hundred years of pain and misery weren’t present at the forefront of my mind. They were in my soul, yes, but they were just information, data stacks, books that I didn’t have to open. 

I wasn’t the Juni who’s soul was shattered. I was a version of Juni that was Intelligence itself. I was logic, structure, organization and order. If I was given a chance to wear the Diamond Heart I would know exactly how to wield her effectively. It was a shame that I did not survive the German doctor’s bomb, did not get a chance to interact with Eureka's shard.

As I examined my surroundings and analytically considered the various possibilities presented to me my lips spread into a smirk. 

Baroness Amadea was still alive in this timeline. All I had to do was convince her to meet with me, to open her crystalline heart to me. I noticed a brass, magitek newspaper stand in the corner of the tower parking lot that Galissi Seven occupied. My...  well, Grogtilda's face was on the front page.

"LOWBORN HERO AT NEMENDIAS!" The tagline declared. "Read the story of Grogtilda Lic Misem and her harrowing tale of surviving the Folding Forest against all odds on page 2."

“Hey, you’re smiling again,” Emerald commented. “Are you feeling better?”

“Much better,” I turned to Emerald. “We have a big show to put on. Are you ready?”

“I am,” the Amadea princess nodded. “Just tell me what to do, boss!”

“Do I have a role too?” Agatha asked from the driver’s seat.

“Oh, absolutely,” I nodded. “I want you to call the Crown Prince and ask him to meet you in Nemendias. It’s about time I deal with the idiots in power.”

“What are you going to do?” The Knight-Princess looked at me curiously.

“I’m going to take over the Empire,” I replied to her with a serious face.