Chapter 102: Research

FieryKathy

Hilda ignores our attempt at staying quiet and addresses the professor. 

“Hello professor, me and my companions are trying to gather some knowledge on some sort of relic that apparently should be hidden somewhere on this continent.” 

“Hmm. A relic you say?” The professor scratches his chin. “Would this have something to do with the foreigners that landed on our shores recently?” 

My sister nods. “Yes, we are trying to get to it before they do.” 

“And why would we help you with that?” 

Ruva hands over the letter to the professor. “They helped our troops against the foreigners.”

“Hmmm.” 

Hilda takes up the conversation again. “It would be really bad for anyone involved if the theocracy got to it first, if it truly holds the power they think it has.”

The professor puts down the letter on the table and then takes us in for a bit before he speaks. “I have the feeling you aren’t telling me everything. Why did you get involved in the first place, are you some sort of treasure hunters?” 

I slowly raise my hand. 

“Yes, girl?” 

“It’s because of me…”

“How so?” 

“I’ll explain it Ami.” Hilda smiles at me. “You see, we are from a different continent and there we saved a village from disaster…” She tells the rest of the story while the professor listens with his full attention. 

“So this theocracy is here because they think you are looking for this relic as well.” 

“Hmm, they would’ve come here eventually, they just had to expedite their plans.” Hilda nods.

“I see, I see.” He starts walking to a different table that’s full with notebooks, searching through them. “Religious fanaticism never ends well.” He finally fishes out a book bound with blue leather and flips it open. “I will try to help you the best I can but I can’t promise much. Our research focus wasn’t set on the ancient ruins and it had been shelved in favor of studying old defensive structures.” 

“Thank you very much, professor.” Hilda says with a light bow.

“You might want to make yourself comfortable.” The professor points at a small lounge in the corner of the room. But please try to be somewhat quiet.”

While our group tries not to disturb the professor by doing what he asked, Ruva helps him to read through several manuscripts. Until approximately two hours later the professor calls us over. 

“We went through logs of old digs and ruins and found some clue to the possible whereabouts of this relic you are looking for. Several ruined temples had glyphs that all indicated the use of a powerful looking item to develop their nation. 

“And how does this tell us where to look?” Hilda asks. 

“Ruva came up with this idea.” The professor smiles and pushes up his glasses, giving the word to Ruva. 

“The temple orientation is what gave me the idea.” Ruva explains. “These logs mention that the temples are all oriented differently and that they make no sense when it comes to the position of the sun or the stars. However, they did not look at the big picture.” Ruva waves us over to a map she’d spread out over another table. “When you put the temples on this map with their orientation. The sides with the glyphs all point in the same general direction.” She points at the neatly drawn pencil marks. 

“So there’s supposed to be something in this eastern mountain region?” 

“Presumably, the lines don’t match up perfectly but I think it should definitely be there somewhere.” 

“Have there been any discovered ruins there?” Nikki asks. 

“No.” The professor shakes his head. “However, we also haven’t sent many expeditions there. While we Dwarger do like the mountains, the eastern mountains are remarkably difficult to pass through.”

“But with this estimation.” Ruva taps her finger on the map. “It should not be the hardest to find.”

“Hmm, we should probably get moving soon.” Hilda rubs her chin.

“Because of the theocracy?” Ruva asks. 

She nods. “Yes, we don’t know how much the theocracy knows about those relics and they did land closer to the ruins than where we are at now.” 

“So if we want to make sure we get there first we should probably head out now.” Élise nods as well. 

“If my bones weren’t too frail I’d join you.” The professor rolls up the map and hands it over to Hilda. “Here, we have a lot of copies so don’t worry about paying us back.” 

“I can join if you want to, I also have mountaineering experience.” Ruva enthusiastically raises her hand. 

“A guide with experience would be useful…” Lise looks at Hilda. 

“I don’t know… It could be pretty dangerous if we encounter the Osvik forces…”

“I can hold me own.” Ruva proudly taps her chest. “Besides, I can get you a discount for mountaineering equipment.” 

“This sounds a bit like a bribe, but sure.” Hilda laughs. “Just promise to stay close to the backline.”

“That’s where I do my fightin’ from anyway.” Ruva grins. 

“Okay then.” Hilda smiles. “So, where can we buy mountaineering equipment?” 

“Well,” The professor pushes his glasses up. “The university’s store of course.” 

“Wait, really?” Sam tilts her head in confusion. 

“You could buy them at the market too, but our prices will be better. Who do you think develops all this equipment in the first place?” Professor Rufflington smirks. 

“These Dwarger sure are scary businesspeople.” I whisper into my girlfriend’s ear. 

“Definitely.” Sam laughs.

Our two Dwarger universitarians show us their store which is only a couple of maze-like hallways back to where we came from. We buy the equipment Ruva shows us we’ll need. In the end we don’t lose too much money buying everything we need, although I’m pretty happy we can use our vehicle for a while longer because the equipment was getting a bit heavier to wear than what I usually carry around. Although my sister, Hilda and Sam don’t really look like they have a lot of issues carrying it.  

“Hey Ami.” Nikki talks to me, as we are the only two who look a bit burdened by our new stuff. “Can’t you turn into your angel-knight version to carry our stuff when we get to the mountains?” 

“I’ll think about it.” I giggle. 

We then all mount our walker and get ready to drive east. The professor comes outside to the vehicle to wave us off.

“Here, before I forget.” He hands a book to me as I’m sitting closest to the back. “This is a copy of a notebook about the ruins, it might contain useful hints, or it might not. I hope it’ll be useful.” 

“Thank you, Professor! Thank you for all your help!” 

“No problem! Be safe everyone!”

While the Professor was waving us goodbye, Hilda started the engine and started driving east again, back towards the capital. 

“If you take that road to the right, we will bypass the capital’s gates, it’ll be faster like that.” Ruva points towards a junction in the road ahead. 

Hilda follows Ruva’s instructions without a question asked. 

“With this vehicle we should arrive at the mountain range by the evening.”

“It’ll be a long drive then.” My sister leans back against the side of the walker. 

“We can stop for lunch, right?” Sam asks Ruva. 

“Yes, I already incorporated that in my calculations.” 

“Good, or Ami will starve to death.” My girlfriend bumps against me and then gives me a cheeky kiss on the cheek. 

“Hmpf.” I pout. “Hilda needs to eat too!”

“Yeah, please do keep your driver in mind.” Hilda looks back and smiles.

We drive on for a couple of hours before we finally stop for some food. The area we are in is only lightly forested. But it does give us a good line of sight, so we can see danger well ahead of time. 

While Ruva checks on the walker, Lise starts talking to Hilda. “Say, what are we going to do with our logging out problem?” 

“I was thinking about that too.” Hilda nods, her face looks very serious. 

“Logging out problem?” I ask. 

“This is the second day, right? We only have another day after this before we need to log off. If we don’t have the relic by then…” My sister explains.

Hilda continues “The chances that the empire will get to it first go up drastically.” 

“Oh fuck. I didn’t even think about that...” Sam comments. 

“So, what are we going to do about it?” Nikki asks as she distributes some rations to us. 

“If we go to bed as early as we get to the mountain range, and leave as soon as we have light we could save a lot of time. And if need-be, we can also ‘work through the night’ and stay here until we get a warning that we need to log off.”

“What if we don’t find a safe spot to fall asleep in?” 

“We still have the wards to keep us safe.” 

“But what about Ruva?”

Hilda looks over to our Dwarger companion who’s still checking on the walker. “Yeah… That’s why we should probably only do that as a last-ditch effort…” 

“Does everyone agree with that plan?” Lise looks around the group. Hilda nods of course since she proposed it. Nikki and Sam do so too and I join them in their agreement. “Alright, good. Let’s hope we won’t need it.”

“Let’s hope Murphy’s law doesn’t get involved...” I mumble. 

Sam takes me close for a hug and then kisses me. “It’ll be fine, babe. Don’t worry.” 

I let myself get carried away in her softness. “I believe you.” And I hug her back.     

FieryKathy