The Last Dainv

Chapter 277

Fairmont Royal York in downtown Toronto was the main location of Neutral Grounds for Canada. Although every building around was on the more futuristic side with full glass walls, the hotel was a living testament to old architecture that Gale only saw in history books. They called it Art Deco back then. People nowadays just call it old world vintage.

Gale followed Esther, Erin, and Rachel through the revolving doors into the lobby. It was just like how it was when he first entered with Lily: fancy. Dim lighting that gave off a moody atmosphere, chandeliers that looked like they cost more than his apartment. He was completely out of place.

Approaching the elevator bank, six elevators lined the walls, all of them brass panelled. Esther took the 3 steps up and pressed the front rightmost elevator's down button.

Ding.

The door opened immediately, and all four of them filtered inside. Gale tried to avoid touching the expensive looking wood panels. If he touched them and they broke, he might have to pay for it.

As the doors closed, Esther pushed her ether into the left glass panel of the elevator. After a second, the elevator descended, and the numbers ticked down until B20.

"By the way, we're going with you because we want to," Rachel broke the silence. "Not because you asked us to."

Esther turned her head slightly with a smile. "Of course. It's because you two wanted to."

"The younger woman of fire's statement serves no purpose," Erin said. "Her point is illogical."

"I'm just saying it so you don't misunderstand," Rachel said.

"There is nothing to misunderstand. Credentials provide access to rifts. The young lamb and I require credentials. Therefore, the testing must be completed. Your presence or absence is irrelevant to this logical chain."

Rachel muttered something under her breath so inaudible that Presence Between still barely caught it.

'Stupid Erin, stupid grandma, stupid stupid.'

The elevator dinged once more and the doors slid open. Exiting the elevator, the familiar lobby revealed itself just as he remembered it when he came here with Lily.

Pillars made of black shiny rocks stood from floor to ceiling. The walls were covered in brown polished stone that caught the light and threw it back in warm reflections. Looking up, the ceiling had a massive black rock embedded in its centre, dark and imposing. On the right side, shiny rocks had been placed artistically to form the shapes of angels holding guns. On the left side, demons with goat heads clutched swords in their clawed hands.

Gale noted to himself about the shiny rocks and polished rocks. He needed to learn some terminology. Did Rachel call them something else? Kyle and Clyde would probably know what they were since they looked expensive.

Moving through the lobby, Esther led the way while Erin continued fake-walking. The people that moved about the lobby gave them space, but their eyes lingered on Erin's moving feet that were floating.

"You don't need to float-walk when in this space," Rachel sighed.

"Your customs are illogical. At places, I have to appear as though I am walking. At other places, I am allowed to move about freely. Choose which one and be consistent, young woman of fire. I shall continue as I am doing," Erin said, continuing to fake walk.

Rachel shook her head as she rubbed her temple.

Near the centre of the lobby, a set of plush sofas formed a waiting area. Two familiar figures sat there as they compared something on their phones.

Lily noticed them first, wearing black tactical gear that fit her form. Jeanne also wore tactical gear, but it was more loose-fitting.

"Lily, Jeanne," Rachel called out as they approached the sofas.

"Rachel! Gale! What a coincidence." Lily, Jeanne also, stood up with a soft smile. "And good evening, Lady Ann, and floating bluey."

"Good evening," Esther said.

"The name is Erin Weber. However, the alias 'floating bluey' has no harm," Erin said.

Jeanne looked at Lily, eyes curiously asking what she just heard. Turning to Gale, she said, "Well, well, well, the nightmare demon hero returns to the fold. And good evening to you too, Lady Ann."

Esther stepped forward, eyes turning to Jeanne. "Good work on cleaning up stray cats."

Jeanne's expression shifted, something between a smile and a frown that couldn't be hidden. "Happy to clean up more of them for ya. Any more out and about?"

"Unfortunately, they're all cooped up in the Northwest. I'll let you know if action is needed from your side."

Jeanne saluted. "Happy to give a discount on cleaning up the dirty ones too."

"Noted," Esther said.

Lily spoke up. "So what brings you all here?"

"Testing grounds," Rachel said. "Erin and Gale need credentials for rift entries."

"Oh, right," Lily said, then grinned. "Speaking of which, Jeanne and I are about to head over to Vaughan right now. There's a house on White Spruce Crescent with a reported ghost haunting. Class 0 rift needing some cleanup."

The word 'ghost' made Gale flinch. Slowly, he scooted closer to Rachel, half tactically hiding himself away from Lily's grinning gaze. Definitely not because he was scared of ghosts or anything. There was no reason to when the light of the city's fire burns away any ghosts it encounters.

Lily laughed. "How was your meeting with Nyx, by the way?"

"How do you know about that?"

"It's all over DotAura," Jeanne said flatly.

"What's DotAura?"

Rachel sighed. "It's Instagram and Twitter except for Aurians."

"Why not just use those?"

"Aurians tried. And some conspiracy nutjobs started to find out back in the '30s," Rachel said.

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Jacob isn't going to like this news that Aurians have their own set of networks. Now his plan of whether 'real or fake' might make some more conspiracy theorists chase them. That was the last thing Gale wanted to happen.

"Then did Nyx post something?" Gale asked.

"Look for yourself," Lily said, showing him her phone. A picture of Nyx taking a selfie with 4 people in the background eating snacks, cookies, and drinking soda. Gale was one of them.

"It's ok, Gale," Rachel squeezed his arm. "It was my fault I let you fight Mikael. That kind of put you on the radar even more. Now people are curious about the 'wild boy' who one shot this year's Northern Star contender."

"What's that?" Gale asked.

Jeanne laughed. "Gale's asking an awful lot of nostalgic questions. The woes of not going to Sterling."

Rachel chuckled. "It's just a tournament."

"Anyways, we won't keep you." Lily turned back to Esther and Erin, who had been waiting this whole time. "I'd love to talk more about it, but we need to head over to our mission now. Official Path contract, unfortunately. Time sensitive."

"Of course," Esther said. "Good luck with the clean up."

"Thanks." Lily grabbed her bag from the sofa and slung it over her shoulder. "Gale, good luck with your testing. Erin too."

"Thanks," he said.

"Luck does not determine a test," Erin said.

"Sure," Lily said as both she and Jeanne walked forward to the elevators. The sound of their guns clinking inside their overcoats could be heard as they moved.

"Let's continue," Esther said, resuming her walk towards the front concierge. Erin continued her fake walking beside Rachel and Gale.

Approaching the long counter made of the same polished brown stone as the wall, behind it sat a woman in business attire. She wore glasses, hair tied to a ponytail, typing rapidly while her eyes darted at the monitor.

She looked up once, then back to her monitor. "Lady Ann. Please proceed forward to the right hallway."

The woman's eyes didn't even glance at the rest of them. Her typing grew faster as they nodded and followed Esther to the right hallway.

Gale leaned toward Rachel and whispered in her ear. "How does she know where we're going? We didn't even say anything."

"Because grandma's stupid," Rachel said.

Esther chuckled softly.

Rachel grumbled something under her breath that Presence Between caught again. 'Stupid grandma.' She repeated that about 8 times before she stopped.

Moving through the hallway, they passed door after door. Tens of them as they walked nonstop for at least 5 minutes. Gale was counting the seconds as there was nothing else to do. No one was talking apart from the infrequent grumbles that came with a flash of temperature increase.

Upon reaching the end of the hallway, they met a set of stone double doors that were about half a metre thick. It might as well have been just large carved boulders that blocked their way.

Beside it, on the wood, was the familiar glass panel.

Esther placed her palm on the glass. Ether pulsed between the glass and her hand.

Suddenly, stone ground against stone. A low rumble shook the whole vicinity as the double doors slowly parted, revealing the room beyond.

Entering the room, Gale took in the sight of a brightly lit standard room, except this one was much larger, more like a gym. At the centre was a circular stone arena. By the wall on the left side of the room was a long machine that had multiple compartments, all connected to a single monitor by a thick cable.

And then there was the boulder beside it, the height of an adult human and the width of a standard door frame. It was black, but in a way that felt like it was eating the light, as if staring into a void. Multiple white cables were connected to the rock, all feeding into the monitor as well.

At the other end of the room, another set of stone double doors ground open. A bald chinese man walked through, wearing casual blue jeans and a loose shirt that didn't match the formality of what was seen in the lobby. From his signature alone, Gale was confident he was at least Mid-Resonant.

"Mr. Yang," Esther said. "My apologies for us being early."

"Not at all." Mr. Yang smiled with his eyes. "Always a pleasure to see you in person rather than in emails. And hello to the young Lady Ann as well."

Rachel gave a polite nod.

Mr. Yang's eyes moved to Erin, then to Gale. He studied them for a moment before speaking. "I'm guessing these are the two that need testing?"

"Yes," Esther said.

"Excellent." Mr. Yang tapped something on his tablet. "We'll start with the support type first." He gestured toward Erin. "Since she's registered as support and at least Harmonic based on her signature, although faint, she doesn't need to undergo standard testing, but she'd have to do a field test. Will that be alright?"

"Sure," Esther said.

"Excellent. Then we can proceed with support type evaluations."

He walked toward the machine connected to the black boulder, gesturing for them to follow.

"Three tests," Mr. Yang continued. "First, Etheric Control. This measures how accurately she can replicate a fractal pattern. Second, Etheric Density. She'll fill a one-by-one metre cube with ether, and the machine will measure the output. Third, Aptitude. She simply touches the boulder, and it tells us her exact stage, not just her faint signature that we feel, and also her affinities."

They gathered around the machine. Up close, Gale could see the compartment Mr. Yang mentioned. A glass cube, perfectly measured, sat within the machine's framework. The monitor beside it displayed various readings and numbers that meant nothing to him. All of it looked like it came out of a sci-fi book, and the void-black rock would have been a macguffin the characters would be chasing.

"The machine has a compartment that will measure the accuracy of any fractal created inside," Mr. Yang explained. "She will attempt to copy the fractal shown on the monitor. However, she cannot use any elements. Pure ether only."

He pressed a few buttons on the tablet, then a red button on the machine itself.

The monitor turned on. A fractal appeared on screen. It was complex, geometric, with layers of interlocking shapes that spiralled inward. He didn't even know what a fractal was other than hearing about it in math class.

Erin approached the compartment without hesitation.

She raised her hand. Ether gathered at her fingertips, visible as a faint blue glow. Within the glass cube, the fractal began to form.

Lines of pure ether formed an exact carbon copy of what Gale saw on the monitor. However, Presence Between caught minute deviations from what was shown on the screen. But she probably knew what she was doing.

In less than ten seconds, the fractal completed itself in the compartment.

Mr. Yang pressed the red button again. Staring at the readings for a long moment, he looked up at Rein with a smile.

"Interesting," he said. "Your fractal actually has a higher resolution than what the equipment can calculate. Did you... calculate the shape yourself?"

"It is a given," Erin said flatly. "I cannot simply copy the fractal shown on the screen. The screen itself has a low resolution. To achieve true accuracy, I needed to calculate the mathematical shape myself. Is that not a given?"

Mr. Yang cleared his throat. He typed something on his tablet for several seconds before speaking again.

"Right. Well." He pointed toward the glass cube compartment. "Next is Etheric Density. The compartment is exactly one cubic metre. Fill it with as much ether as you can. The machine will score you from Bronze to Platinum."

Erin moved to the compartment, then placed her palm flat against the glass.

Gale felt it immediately. The rush of essence from her spine, travelling through her body, seeping through her hand and into the cube. It was like standing next to a waterfall of pure essence. The air around them grew heavy with pressure.

The machine started beeping rapidly.

"Stop!" Mr. Yang shouted quickly.

The essence flow from Erin's spine stopped immediately. "For what reason did you stop me? The machine has not yet given me a score as you have said."

Mr. Yang stared at her, sweat beading at his temples as he faked a smile. "It's enough. The machine cannot measure you."

"The equipment in this facility seems to be inadequate. The implementation of your measurement device for ambient etheric concentration seems to also be primitive," Erin said.

Mr. Yang looked at Esther, who only shrugged.

"It's... calibrated for average joes..." Mr. Yang typed on his tablet. "Moving on. Next is the Aptitude test. You simply need to touch the boulder over there." He pointed at the black rock. "It will tell us your exact stage and any additional affinities."

The group moved over to the black rock. From afar, it looked smooth due to absorbing the light. But after taking a closer look, it had a lot more jagged edges. There was one part of the rock that was smoothed out.

Mr. Yang pointed to that spot. "Place your hand on this spot. It'll immediately connect to your ether and identify your aptitude and stage. Please proceed."

Young lamb. Remember what Lady Vianne has told you. Watch and learn. Erin spoke into his mind.

And suddenly, Gale noticed her faint broken signature change itself. Although she usually had a broken Arcane level signature due to her damaged Core, her signature became that of a Late-Mystic, which was the exact same strength as Witch Nyx.

Placing her hand on the rock, it glowed a cold blue that created frost around the area. Parts of the black rock displayed fractals of snowflakes forming. For a couple more seconds, she held her hand there until the rock completely turned into a deep blue ice.

Mr. Yang's mouth gaped as he stared at his tablet.