Melody of Mana

The ancient king sighed after setting up a small privacy barrier.

"I talked with your friend there," he said, angling his head towards the room. "While he's not happy about it he's agreed to keep my presence here quiet, and I'd like to think he even understands."

"Good, and I'm guessing..."

"I'd like the same from you," Justin said.

"Very well, if you want to keep hiding here, I suppose there's no reason for me to oppose it," I said.

"Out of curiosity, are you and your friends after the gates?" He seemed genuinely interested in that, Ulanion hadn't known the details, but there was no harm in telling him now.

"Yeah, that and the ability to add new things to the core, like the sequences used in the gates."

He nodded a bit. "Look, that latter part I'm not giving you, at least not the ability to add anything you want. I'll be honest here, that's hazardous, extraordinarily so if you don't know what you're doing. I did a lot of testing, and some of the early iterations were... downright dangerous. Because of the limitations of magic I don't think you could do anything truly apocalyptic, but there's no reason to test my luck there, so no, and you probably know there are safeties to prevent unauthorized tampering."

"Listen, we came a long, long way and lost a lot of people trying to get the secret to making more of those gates. I know you can remove us in a number of ways of varying unpleasantness, but... we went through a lot of shit to turn around empty handed now."

He put up his hands in a placating gesture. "I know, I know, and I'm not heartless."

"You don't know, our expedition started with three teams like ours, not to mention that we even lost our team leader to one of those damn monsters that were sitting literally just over your head."

He winced, and I realized that he wasn't responsible for everything that had gone on. While he should have dealt with the wolves, he did save us. The loss of most of our people was also not his fault, that massive beast hadn't been his doing, or even near him. Then I thought about all the corpses right outside his front door and any feeling of regret at my words evaporated like mist in wind.

"Please let me finish. I don't intend to send you away with nothing, merely without the ability to cause mass destruction, or upend something which has helped more people over the years than any of my other inventions." At my stare he just continued. "I don't pretend to be a good man my dear, but the core, that is one thing I think I can be proud of. It's something that's helped society more than anything else I've done. So I can and will help you with making the gates, it's about time for more travel in this world anyway."

I was unsure how to feel about this, angry? Frustrated? I was happy that we were getting what we came for, but this guy was really starting to tick me off. There was so much good he could do if he just... but that's what he'd told Ulanion wasn't it? How he'd tried, how he'd worked to make the world a better place only to cause pain. I wasn't sure what all had happened, but from his self imposed exile, to his reluctance to let anyone mess with his 'magnum opus' it was clear something had.

"Thank you," I finally said.

"You're quite welcome. Now, take this," he held out a small stone, it fit comfortably in my hand and I could feel it humming slightly as I turned it over. I could feel it trying to connect to my core.

"What is it?" I asked, turning it over in my hands, the sensation was weird.

"Short and dirty? Think of it as a software patch. The core was designed to have some modular capabilities to allow for growth and this is one of them. It shouldn't take you a day or two, but after processing your way though you'll be able to access the commands needed for those gateways." He seemed to think for a second and produced another stone. "Actually, take two, your people might try to take one from you and I'd like you to have access to those. It'll also update the guide a bit with descriptions and the like to help you along. Bit of a warning, if you use one of your cores to teach others after that, they'll inherit that ability."

This brought up an old gripe I had with exactly the person before me. "That guide is a disaster by the way, why didn't you add any sort of organization to it?"

"You're not the first person to lodge that complaint, and I'll tell you what I told them. If you don't like it, make your own."

I scoffed, "Seriously? You can update it right? Are you telling me in five thousand years you haven't even bothered to put in a contents table, or an index!?"

"I hardly need it, and even if I did, I understand my organizational system," he explained dismissively.

"Please do enlighten the rest of us to your 'system' of organization." This was almost intolerable, this guy was really just fine with the absolute mess he'd put in.

"No, it would take too long." At my glare he frowned. "I can just keep those updates and send you lot on your way if you don't want them."

"Fine, fine, maybe I will make my own." Before he could actually do anything I took the stones, and hid one down my shirt.

The clothes in this world weren't exact analogues of those on Earth, but support garments were a needed item everywhere. So hiding it in my bodice was about as good as I could do for secret places in a pinch.

"Is there anything else you need right now?" He asked, clearly ready to go and do... whatever he did.

"Do you know if this gate connects to Ristolian's network?" I asked, nodding towards the room.

"I think so? I never had much use for them, it was a prototype back in my day, but I think he put a connector in there at some point. Nice guy, visited me periodically. One of the few with a sense of humor over the years." He had a bit of a sad smile on that subject.

"Like putting 'hello world' in the cores?" I asked.

"That was a wonderful joke, and has let more than just you know I existed," he defended himself.

"And the giant letters hanging in your palace?"

"Same answer."

"Fine, you may want to lock the gate down or something after we leave. If you don't I suspect you'll find yourself with a lot more visitors in short order." My country would definitely want an intercontinental portal if they could get it, but this was no place for that. If Emperor Durin tried to establish an outpost here he might well run into Justin, and that would be a right mess.

"Noted," he seemed to understand that well.

"What happened to Ristolian anyway?" I asked, curious as to my predecessor's fate.

"Got old. I suspect there are things you could do if you really wanted, and trained a priest properly. I'm not one though, nor do I know quite enough about biology to teach one what they'd need. The only one of us that came as a priest I know of was potent enough though." He scratched his chin.

"Wait, there was one of us who was a priest? Who? When?" I'd always thought the many priest orders were rather progressive, maybe there was something there.

"I think that particular individual would have wanted me to maintain some of their privacy, and they might still be kicking, so I think I shall."

"Why do I feel like I'm the weakest of all of us?" I complained.

"My dear, you're still young. Even then, based on your aura I think you'll be more than strong enough one day to change the world, if that's what you want. Personally I'm not sure that I'd recommend that course, at least not without immense care."

"I'll think on that. For now, though," I hid the update gem I was handing off to my companions in a sleeve, to make it look like I found it later. "I think I should return to my friends. If you ever find yourself over in human lands, look me up."

He chuckled, "I highly doubt I will, but I'll keep that in mind."

"Alright, now if you'll excuse me, I have to go and figure out how to lie to my friends... again."

"Best of luck with that, though you might want someone you can confide in. It helps." With that he waved me off.

As I came back into the room I moved over to where Dras was. He was currently parsing out some notes on one of the desks.

"Don't suppose you'll tell me what that was about?" He asked as he looked up.

"A bunch of things. Our friend there wants his privacy I think and some of it was ensuring I'd maintain that. Then we chatted a bit about other stuff."

"Well, feel free to jump in wherever you want, we've still got a lot to go through in here, and probably limited time before the folks who sent your friend show up." He knew I was hiding things from him again clearly, but at the same time didn't seem too bothered.

There were indeed plenty of notes around, and I picked a desk, slipping the update stone into the one beside it. If nobody else found it there I would later, but for now, we really did have a bit to be getting on with.