Broken Lands

Chapter 380 – The Empire’s Heart

“Fourth upgrade?” Sophia shook her head. “They can’t have been fourth upgrade. Each upgrade is significant, and we’re barely into the third. Sure, there are more of us than there were of them, but that still doesn’t make sense.

Ansuz chuckled. “Ysalix was only barely into the fourth upgrade, and with a fairly poor upgrade at that; his interest lay in reaching the fourth upgrade quickly, not well. Beyond that, however, you said it yourself; they were not the people they once were. They were only echoes.”

Sophia felt mixed emotions at Ansuz’s statement. She wasn’t certain if she should be proud of how they’d managed to deal with three fourth upgrade fighters, even if they were only echoes, or if she should be embarrassed about how difficult it was to handle three echoes with seven people. Admittedly, Taika couldn’t really fight, but defending their minds was useful. Similarly, Arak Shade hadn’t done that much … but what little he did was very useful, locking the swordsman in place for a moment so he couldn’t escape. 

Maybe they really hadn’t done that poorly, even though it took more of them than there were enemies. Sure, several of them took some hits, but no one was badly injured, much less dead. You needed a fairly notable advantage for that result; an even fight got people killed. The fact that the trio of ancient echoes fought like idiots or individual monsters helped a lot, but at the same time it was true that the mage achieved nothing of value and the shieldbearer only managed to delay things until they figured out his abilities. 

“You’re how she opened the door,” Arak stated out of the blue. “You opened it for her.”

“The door to the mansion?” Ansuz sounded confused. “It wasn’t locked. It hasn’t been locked for centuries.”

“No, the link-gate,” Arak corrected. “The one with the Broken Lord’s sigil on it. She walked up to it and it opened. It hasn’t opened for anyone, no matter what we’ve tried, but it opened for her like it was waiting for her.”

“I do not have control of the link-gates, but symbol gates open when you meet the conditions of the symbol,” Ansuz explained easily. “Presenting the Empire’s Heart should be more than enough for a symbol-gate that shows the Betrayer’s sigil.”

Sophia tensed at the mention of the Betrayer. Arak wasn’t exactly the most devout of the people at the Arena, not when he was actively avoiding becoming Hallowed by the Broken Lord, but he did still work at the Arena. That meant he probably believed in the Broken Lord as a savior, not as a betrayer.

That wasn’t what Arak reacted to at all. 

“The Empire’s Heart?” Arak frowned at the broken pillar of crystal, then turned his glare on Sophia. “Are you telling me you have the Tower’s Heart? Where did you find it? Have you already claimed it?”

“What are you…” Sophia stopped as his words clicked. The Tower’s Heart had a specific meaning. “The Tower lays broken. Claim its Heart to conquer these broken lands. That’s what you’re talking about, isn’t it? The words on the Registry’s wall.”

Dav stepped between Sophia and Arak. Despite his position, his words were aimed at Ansuz. “She didn’t have the Heart out when the link-gate opened. Does the link-gate react to things that are hidden away?”

Sophia blinked. That was right; not only was it safely put away, it was inside her pack. It was an expanded-space compartment, which would tend to interfere with any sort of detection or divination magic even before the other protections on the pack were taken into account. It wasn’t perfectly secure; nothing was, but more importantly she’d only chosen the basic protection package. More protection than that made it hard to get the space expansion, weight reduction, and indexing features she wanted. Better bags existed, but they were usually made to order and Sophia didn’t want to deal with that, not when she wasn’t carrying anything that secret anyway.

“It should not,” Ansuz admitted. “If it was not triggered by the Empire’s Heart, I do not know why the link-gate activated. I did not know for certain that Ysalix chose to change the symbol when he became Emperor. It is not a surprise, given all Emperors before him took the Sword and the Tower as their sigil and he broke the Tower.”

“And the sword,” Sophia muttered.

“The link-gate seems to have taken the place of the symbol-gate that once led into this Hub, the main Hub of Kestii City,” Ansuz added. “I was not permitted to touch the gate, and Ysalix may have added some others, as most Emperors did, but the first Emperor locked it to allow admittance to his advisors, City and Regional Lords, ambassadors, nobles of high enough rank for the Succession Challenge, and of course those who worked in the manor or accompanied those who were authorized. None of those should apply; all of the nobles are long dead, which means no lords or advisors, and becoming a Lord of the Empire requires more than simply reaching the third upgrade. Those who worked here are dead, and no one has used a Gate in over a millennium.”

Sophia felt herself sag under a phantom weight as she realized the flaw in Ansuz’s assumptions. “No one has used a Gate, but that doesn’t mean no one has come from outside the Broken Lands. That’s why I want to use a Gate, to see if I can return home!”

“Oh.” A world of surprise was hidden in Ansuz’s utterance. He seemed to recover quickly. “I suppose that must be it, then. You were recognized as someone from a world whose ambassador has not been seen in centuries, if ever, and were admitted.”

Sophia sighed. It only figured that she’d gotten incomplete instructions from Isaz, who really should have told them to present the Heart, and that it didn’t matter. Isaz would likely explain that she knew it didn’t matter, whether it was the truth or not.

It was entirely possible that it was the truth. Sophia hadn’t hidden the fact that she and Dav were from outside the Broken Lands from anyone. Even Arak probably knew that much. It didn’t seem at all unlikely that Isaz knew enough to know what that meant, whether or not Ansuz made the connection.

There were at least a dozen different questions Sophia could have asked, but at that moment she didn’t care. She wanted this mess over with, and she already knew that it didn’t matter what the answers were anyway. Ansuz was broken and she had the piece that would fix him; why wouldn’t she put it into place?

Tiwaz and Othala respected the ancient sapience. From what she’d gathered, Ansuz was the backbone of their collective and an ardent supporter of the ancient Kestii Empire. At the same time, he was the one who named the Broken Lord the Betrayer of the Empire for his actions in breaking the Tower of Kestii. 

The Empire of Kestii didn’t exist anymore, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t trust the machine that was once its greatest supporter. Even if Ansuz decided to reestablish the Empire, Ansuz’s Empire was one with contacts outside the Broken Lands. Sophia was certain he’d help her reopen the Gates, and that was all she needed.

Well, all she needed in order to get started. The only clue she’d found on where to go from there was still the interspace conduits, and they were built by an Archon. Ansuz ought to know where the Archon came from, which meant she had a good guess for a place to begin her investigation. They might or might not know how to cross universes, but either way it would be a good place to start.

Sophia headed through the opening in the glass to the damaged pillar, followed by Dav and Arak. The others stayed on the other side of the glass wall. There really wasn’t much room and they’d be able to see at least as well from there anyway.

Not that Sophia expected there to be much to see.

Sophia tossed her backpack onto the ground and pulled out the crystal Isaz called the Empire’s Heart. She took a moment to be certain which way it went into the pillar that held Isaz, then slid it into place. 

One thing was immediately obvious: it wasn’t made to be removed. There were several places where the crystal was chipped in order to break the Empire’s Heart out of the pillar.

The crystal sat there for a moment while light gathered around the edges. When the light cleared, it looked like a seam of clear crystalline rock had bubbled out of the pillar and pushed the Heart of the Empire into position.

“Thank you, Sophia.” Ansuz sounded pleased. “With that back in place, I can finally see … what happened to my city? Why is this Hub not connected to any of the annexes?”

The shock in Ansuz’s tone as he saw what happened during the long centuries after the Tower fell made Sophia wince. Maybe she should have told him about what she’d seen before she gave him the Heart back? “Kestii City seems to be scattered around the Maze. We found the Library of Monsters not too long ago; it was cut off from everything else and there were glitches in the information about it. Oh, and the Night Markets; I asked the Eidolon about what she knows. She called the city the City of Stars and said that she was a copy of some sort.”

“Don’t forget the other link-gates with symbols,” Dav added, his voice a calm rumble next to Sophia. “They seem to be the symbols of other Patrons, and it seems to make sense that they’d be part of the city since this was.”

“They were,” Ansuz answered. “I can see the path to fixing this, but it will require a great deal of work, and the first step is to appoint a new Emperor. There are several possible qualifications, and I can use your fight with the echoes to bypass some of the requirements. Returning the Empire’s Heart will count for more. I can’t bypass the nobility requirement, but I can appoint nobles, as you have completed a difficult task of vital importance to the Empire. You will have to…”

Ansuz paused for a moment. Its lights flashed faster, then seemed to brighten. “Sophia, why does the Guide list you as a royal?”

“Ah, it shouldn’t?” Sophia tried to search for a reason that made sense. “I’m not affiliated with the Kestii Empire at all.”

“Princess Sophia Dalmoti Rothmer of Earth, Lyka, and Tzintkra, Clan Et’Tart of Suratiz, royal scion of the Unified Realm, heir-potential to the Kestii Empire by right of conquest.” Each word fell with a weight of expectations Sophia didn’t want to meet. She shouldn’t ever have to, either; her father was literally immortal. The throne wouldn’t pass to any of his children unless he was certain abdicating was the right choice, and that meant they had to be ready for it. “As convenient as it is to be able to be able to name you Emperor before you reach the fourth upgrade under the emergency succession rules, I do need to know why.”

Sophia tried to hold her voice steady as she answered. “That’s true, the Unified Realm is my father’s empire, but that’s back home, in another universe. I don’t have any idea how the Guide would know about it. Why does it matter anyway? I mean, why does it make me eligible to be Emperor?”

Sophia never quite believed her father when he said he fell into ruling three planets and two moons. She was beginning to think that it wasn’t such an outlandish tale after all.