Session 319: Investigating Spiritual Origins
Location: Hapian Castle
Having taken the past month to start reading up on some of the Hapian books on the Ancients, the Royals team has come together to discuss a few of the findings...such as the striking similarities between some of the Spirits of Geyze and the Gods of Earth like Ama and Aska. When Alita raises some interesting information that the Spirits change, Erevis decides that they should talk with a Spirit directly...they end up speaking with both Aska and Neekito.
After a bit it’s decided to head out to the location of an Ancient Spirit Research site, when they arrive they find that the sketches are very out of date; instead of grasslands they find a frozen hillside. With Gnome having been dragged along by Jaime, they find that the site is buried beneath the ice; and with Gnome and Jaime pacting they quickly reveal a tunnel leading down. They find a residential area where Alita, Celia and Erevis start cataloging items; Selena meanwhile leads the rest of the team down a set of stairs to another area.
Here they find more books and a couple of Ancient machines, one of them seeming to give off a Spirit-like energy that Sylph says feels familiar. Collecting several of the books to review since at least one of them theorizes about the Spirits origins; when Erevis arrives to translate it some of the passages: “Our dreams show us another world. A world of angry gods, full of passion and strife. We believe that one of these beings has come to us, and dreams of these gods, especially the Sun God.” and “We write down our dreams of these gods and will shape our version of them. To protect us from what is to come. They will be our xxxxx xxxxx spirits.”
Within the book they also find a drawing of several unique objects, one of them being Imogen’s mask. Deciding to take the damaged machine that feels of Spirit Energy with them, they return to the castle; though Erevis has concerns that there may be more than just a connection between the Spirits and Gods, there may even be one between the Progenitors and Dark Ones to the Ancients.
Session 320: Sickness of the Spirit
Location: Geyze, The Alliance Grounds
While Shion holds a daily meeting, she informs them about various criminal factions that have on the planet - from Earth criminals as well as Cartel criminals, but with limited to do satelite coverage they cannot locate them. She also informs them that some Kumen spirits have become unwell lately and Riki has asked for the Alliance to look into it. The team looks into it, as does Sasha, exercising her right as one of the Alliance 9 leaders - the other 7 being the Geyze Kingdom leader as well as Riki as the 8th and Sasha the 9th. Taking a shuttle, the team flies up to Kumen the old fashioned way in case they need to carry anything they might need to treat the spirits.
Location: Kumen, Riki's New Presidental Tower
The New Tower, built near the ruins of the old one, stands at the center of the Kumen Capital, which the team heads for while observing how much the city has changed in five years. Much of the upper floor has been opened up in areas to shine light down to the middle and bottom levels, leaving gaps in the top floor and removing much of the space it once had, but still the bottom level has been all but been emptied out. Only some workers remain down there to keep the upper levels running not, making sure the power to the upper level runs and the other systems still work. The middle level has been emptied by over 60% at least, moving up to the top in some ways, leaving the businesses empty now, and so many of the citizens in those two levels have moved out into the villages and citities of Kumen. Even many of the corporations have closed down and been bought out by Macross or moved out to the countryside.
As they arrive at the New Tower, they see Jan, Ruhi, Junior, and finally Riki, who now wears a kimono and talks properly - most of the time. While a teleporter is in their home that leads straight to the school so that Ruhi can play with kids of her own age, it is clear that Ruhi and Junior are also alone a lot of times with their parents, as both immediately jump on the newcomers in their own ways. Riki explains why she brought the team here and talks about how Kumen Spirits differ from Geyze ones and the mass production of them, and how after Tora made the original ones and got them to work - mainly Camdee, half-spirit, half computer in a way, a test spirit in many ways, Mireille, Yulindhe, and Aimée - as well as her unknown sibling that hasn't been awakened yet by Chelsea - the people of Kumen began to use the blueprints to make more spirits, mainly the corporations.
However, the spirits are now growing sick and some are even dying and while Tora is coming to investigate, it will take a few days for her to arrive, so she is hoping the team can begin to investigate the cause. There was around 100 spirits on Kumen at one point, but that number is dropping daily. They use Wolfe's personal shuttle, complete with fuzzy dice, and while Riki volunteers to fly, claiming she has been given three lessons, Bix ends up flying them to the outer villages where there is some sick spirits to check out, where they barely arrive after a hard landing.
Location: Kumen, Outer Villages
The village they arrive in - while medieval looking has a PAX teleporter to reach a city - and is 30 miles away from modern Earth like city. One thing the team notes is for such a small village, three spirits are working to help modernize it, and it is just one village, which makes some of them raise eyebrows and Jennifer feels out with her Spirit Channeling; she feels a massive amount of spirit energy in the air and planet, making her feel super charged. Bix calls Salamander to ask some questions while the others are led by Riki to check on the sick spirits, seeing some of them breaking apart and fading away. Bix upon finishing the summoning jerks at the amount of energy and unstable amount it generates and when Salamander forms, she does not feel sick or anything, but she does feel uneasy about the area if anything.
Salamander gives some theories, warning they might be wrong beforehand, but tells the team that Saska and Shade had strict rules on Geyze that there was suppose to be one spirit per element. So no 5 fire spirits, no five wind spirits, or so on. She notes that she would think kids might would break the rule but it seems that since they are halflings or a new race technically, it is fine. And her splitting herself to answer calls is not the same thing, since it is just her, though she does note if like an excessive amount of herself appeared in an area it might cause trouble. When asked what happens to her clone, she admits it has happened before - that it's not pleasant and she feels the death of her clone. As for the Kumen spirits, she tells them she doesn't think their clones, as they all look different; she also adds if they keep adding more and more new spirits, she does not think it is a good thing. Riki adds that the person to ask would probably be Ymir, as Macross took over a lot of such opertions from other Corporations.
Location: Macross HQ
Arriving at the Macross Headquarters, they see Macross has taken over a lot of the spirit care: creation, health care, and many other aspects of spirits. As they head up they discuss they haven't seen Ymir in ages, as well as the others in the original Asarar group in the past 5 years. As they meet Ymir, they can tell she has gotten harder the past few years, but she talks and listens to their concerns. After some back and forth, Jennifer gives Ymir the idea she needs with a chicken reference and Ymir decides to change her scope, wondering if maybe the spirits needed more time in the spirit egg and are being woke up too earlier. And another aspect might be these spirits are not getting enough love/attention from their masters like Yulindhe/Mireille/Aimée did. As they go to look into their various leads, Shion decides she will ask Erevis for help since she has some summoni on her team and they will all get back together to confer in a few days.
Location: Hapian Castle, Royals Floor
Having spent the last few days studying the Ancient tomes that were recovered, Erevis is surprised when Celes arrives carrying more books from the Hapien Archives. While some speculate that when dealing with 12,000 year old books it may be better to use technology to scan the text to prevent any damage, others seem ready to dive in and read. As Erevis sets about to call some family in to help scan the books the majority of the others head to Kumen to meet with Riki and Tora to discuss the ailing Spirits there.
In the Presidential Tower Tora describes how they found the remnants of the old Kumen spirits and analyzed them, noting slight abnormalities between identical element remains. She goes on to inform the groups about how after repeated failures, they arrived at the conclusion that new Spirits needed to incubate for approximately 3 years before being hatched by someone in great need and capable of giving the spirit love. Considering this the groups head down to where the Kumen Spirits have been gathered and note that only a couple of the native Summoners have come with. Thinking that a Geyze Spirit may be able to assist, Brooke is called; she immediately informs them not to summon any more spirits.
Warning that adding more Spirits is dangerous and could lead to disastrous events, it is realized that there are simply too many Spirits on Kumen and that even when they fade away, their energy is still present and harming the remaining Spirits. Akin to pipes bursting from too much water built up it's agreed that both Kumen and Geyze Summoners will be brought to work with the remaining Spirits to relieve some of the magical energy.
It isn't long before they arrive at the Magi Tower on Geyze, Delgi greeting them warmly and agreeing to assist in their search for ancient devices that may help them remove some of the Spirit Energy on Kumen. Searching through some of the devices and texts it's decided that they should speak with one of the elder Geyze Spirits and Aska is called. Informing them that there are simply too many Spirits on Kumen, Aska suggests that they either have the Kumen Spirits link with others into a single collective Spirit or contact the Summoni and see if they're aware of any techniques for draining the energy away. Before Aska can leave with an Ancient Book, she's stopped; several members of the group commenting that there must be something very enlightening in the book that Aska wanted to keep hidden.
Session 322: Spirit Heal Thyself
Location: Hapian Castle, Royals Floor
Erevis translates the book they the book they managed to get for Xanatos so he can learn more about the machine, jotting down notes in Basic - so far the entire translating project being done by hand. With many of the Earth team wondering why they don't use computers or their datapads to speed it up - a concept a bit foreign to the Geyze team since before this the planet had a machine draining field - she notes there is something about the machine that seems familiar to her, but the antics of the other team temporarily drowns her musing out. Jaime hugging Gnome and Sylph - making Sylph tease them and claim Jaime wants her as a wife, making Ellie jealous - Alita setting a Rosetta Stone that gets Xan's attention, a ragged Isis and Lenneth who are scanning the pages with their datapad store store all the pages to be uploaded lately, and a cute pocket sized Ama. While Xan is distracted, Erevis shows the passages that tie Ama to Aska, wondering what other spirits are tied to Gods, while Xan uses the Rosetta Stone to look at the machine, despite Selena's warning that it is rather obtuse, getting the basic jist that it maybe heals them, maybe it creates them, much like Tora did, or birthing them.
Getting a message from Riki, it seems Vyvy has gone up to Kumen to help the Kumen Spirits by teaching them the Summoni to love their spirits better since the Summoni there just use them as tools, to work with Ellie's students. And the other news is it seems Kalam has given them permission to go to the Summoni Stronghold to look over their relics to see if they can find anything that might help them. Erevis then folliows it up with the bad news: While Aska gave them two possible ways to help the spirits - draining the excess spirit energy on Kumen or having the original spirits link, referring to Mireille, Yulindhe, and Aimée, it seems for some reason Yulindhe is breaking down now. It seems they may need to wait for the crew to get back, since they will need the parents to link with the spirits in the circle, so for now they decide to look into the relics, and just in time as Sylph asks Erevis if she had sex with Ama (who is still in small form) how she had so many kids.
Location: Summoni Capital
Arriving at the capital, they find changes have been made here as well, as PAX heating shields have been set up to keep the snow/freezing cold out of the monastery/stone castle type building they arrive at, complete with dragon pens outside and guard posts/living quarters. They meet up with Sasha and Kumen, who lead them into the stone stronghold, through the hallways to the ancient vault/library, into the restricted section, where they make the spirits stay outside, though Ama is allowed inside - however some of the relics do react to her, mainly the light ones. They see a gauntlet that looks much like the one in the picture with the mask, outfit, boots, and two gauntlets that go with the mask with Imogen's outfit, one of many. Kalam leads them to three things that can affect spirits, a candle, strange bong like tube, and a ball, which she explains can drain excess spirit energy, with some even able to drain and keep it for one self, such as the the tube, or the ball that collects the spirit energy to use for later. When Xan asks for all three, Kalam notes to Sasha she is putting it on her if something happens to them, which makes Xan finally snap at people acting like they are going to blow up the planet, where Kalam chides him back that they are dangerous one of a kind items and she does not know him quite well enough yet. With that, all of them go their own ways.
Date: 6.19.5997
Location: Kumen
Over the next three days, the team has been busy using the three items to drain the excess spirit energy with the results of Kumen being more stable all over and if they decide to bring more Spirits in from elsewhere they will not add to the Spirit Energy or make the new Spirit feel jumpy. Riki explains to Sasha and the others that she had someone count how many spirit elements there are and apparently they have six elements on Kumen with seven spirits per element, making around 45 spirits on Kumen. However, the breakdown is slowing down now, either due to the excess of spirit energy being resolved, or the number of spirits being less now. Xanatos brings up the machine, with Erevis and Id bringing up Aska's wariness of the machine, however Riki explains that they worry that the number might go as low as 30 before it stops. Ymir arrives with Mireille and Saorise/Yulindhe combined, laying them down on the bed, with Mireille explaining that her mothers will be arriving soon. While Riki is distracted by the news that Ruhi plans to marry Bix, who has gotten closer to the kids after announcing their future connection even though the kids do not remember it, Ymir authorizes the use of the machine for Xanatos to do some tests to see if it will help. Id announces his desire to come along to observe the machine, much to Xanatos' and Erevis' concerns, knowing that Chad will likely be viewing it through Id, but they allow it.
Date: 6.20.5997
Location: Hapian Castle, Royals Floor
With the machine finished by Chelsea and Xanatos, Gnome and Sylph eye it warily, with a pad and part of it designed that it almost looks like it might suck someone up; Erevis points out her concern from a few days go how the machine looks a bit like Progenitor in design in some ways, however varies in others with it's spirit-tech. Now that it is finished, and they are studying the machine, a few of the team begin to look a bit concerned about having a spirit use it, even though they have brought an ill spirit, and looking over it Chelsea announces she doesn't think it will heal a spirit at all, and she isn't sure what it will do to them, perhaps not even leave anything, and Simon agrees, thinking it might take a spirit by force if they are near it.
They decide to take the spirit off to see a waterfall for the final days, while Id basically volunteers to be a test subject and Erevis, in a strangely mean streak lets him do it. TKing Id onto the pad, Erevis pulls the lever and it turns on, and since he is not a spirit, it breaks him up piece by piece absorbing him until nothing of Id is left, and the reading reads that is done and has created something. It finishes making a cube that Sylph touches and it breaks apart, with something emerging that knocks Sylph onto her butt for a second. Xanatos is up for dismantling it immeditely, but they decide to hold off doing so until Erevis can go through all the pages on the book and see if she can understand it better, figuring the Ancients must have hd some reason for making the mchine.
Date: 6.21.5997
Location: Alliance/Academy
While showing Ama and Xanatos the Academy that Isis used to work at, Erevis takes them around while Isis sits near by, scanning the Ancient books with her datapad. Giving the tour of where Isis spent so many years of her life, Erevis points out things when Erica and Yuki arrive with Mireille, having finished their assignment in Session 318. Gathering everyone, as well as Cypher, Chelsea and
Aimée, they decide to try to do the second part - the circle healing with the healthy original spirits to see if it will work with the excess energy being down, despite not having Yulindhe. After they all gather, they use the teleporter to go up to Kumen.
Location: Riki's Tower
Once at the Tower, the team gathers the spirit items to draw some of the excess spirit energy, while Mireille, Aimée, Erica, Yuki, and Chelsea do a spirit link, connecting it with some of the sick spirits, and complete a healing link. After it is done, Id notes to Xanatos he look forward to seeing the path Xanatos is taking and where he goes next, while Aimée chases Bix and Mireille with her hammer, going hyper and noting she is stronger than the rest of them. Ruhi meanwhile continues to talk about Bix and Erevis and Ama kiss, moving off with her family.
Session 323: Bloodlines and Spirits
Location: Location: Hapian Castle, Royals Floor
A meeting has been called, in attendance are the Royals team as well as several leaders of the kingdoms, Jules, Qui, Celes and Shinobu. After having spent over a week going through some of the newly uncovered books, as well as some of the Hapian books that are slowly being copied to digital format to prevent them from being damaged. While there is some discussion and questioning about the translations, the books paint a dark history about a conflict between Ancients. The first topics are on the Ancient Device and the spirit energy that was felt from it, a possible war between two groups of Ancients that included the use of Spirits and even Imogen's mask are discussed; then they arrive at the main discussion point, the Ancient's lineages on Geyze.
From one of the Hapian Books it’s revealed that the founder of the Hapian Dynasty had six companions, each of them sharing links with the Ancients themselves and that to survive they went to different lands. Shinobu reveals a book from the Daemon archives that confirms this and even suggests that the seven had bonds with specific Spirits that could have a blood linkage to current families within the kingdoms. Jules admits that within the Legion there are no books similar to the ones held in Hapian or Daemon kingdoms but he admits that the Legion is far younger then either. With some of the current Spirits being younger than others, it's feared that some of the blood bonds may have died out completely. As talks start going to confirming the birthmarks and even finding out about where the old families may have disappeared to.
They decide to head off and check the Daemon archives for more information and also speak with Salamander about any Legion blood pact that she might be able to identify from a previous Fire Spirit. Shinobu takes Alita, Ceilia, Yuki, Xanatos, Erica and Sasha with her to the Daemon Kingdom; there they're notified by a mortified guard that Ilias's body was stolen from the Tomb of the Eternal. With Alita trying to calm Shinobu, they send word to Erevis before heading towards the library in hopes of finding some of the other kingdoms lineages.
In the Legionnaire Republic, many are startled by the amount of Suisen technology that has been adopted; and even more so when Jules alerts them to the impending arrival of the Empress for a meeting. With a race against time before them, Mykel and Jaime both call out to Salamander to summon her.
Session 324: Looking Into Lost Bloodlines
Location: Amazon Capital
As the team arrives, they find the original part of the Amazon's Capital pretty much the same as it did 5 years ago, except maybe more water canals and ways running along the streets, keeping it cleaner; Qui explains the changes that have occurred, and how the Amazons have embraced the PAX and Earth technology, only unlike the Legionaires, they have done it more conservatively. A new Capital has been built up essentially beside the old, with a modern, simplistic look, with a touch of Greek look in others, though what makes it stand out is the water ways along the main paved streets just like the old Capital. The Old Capital retains it's old ways, though it does have sections where the Amazons wear robes, much like the New Capital - where they are all clothed - up to the center of the old Capital, where they go back to the topless look, since the Old Capital is the original Amazon Capital, with Undine's Temple and everything.
Sitting in Qui's building, upgraded from her original tent, she brings out a leather bound book that has Ancient writings, stating the team can have it since she has never learned Ancient herself. Discussing birthmarks, Selena notes her own, having been thinking about it, where there is a slight bleamish that looks like a light, located on her ankle. She notes it became more prominent when she fused with Aska the first time. When asked, Qui notes she is unable to do such a thing, not being a Summoni, though she has learned attacks that can work jointly with Undine/Brooke. While stripping a bit to look for a birthmark, and Gwen trying to cover her body from the team - and getting looks from everyone but Ellie, who understood his trying to protect her privacy - they find a bit of a bleamish on her hip that looks like a drop. While Sylph is focused on the wind, the team gathers the books, deciding to take them back to the Royals Headquarters, while Jennifer asks to meet with Brooke to make a pact.
Location: Legion Capital
Jules explains that the Empress, after meeting him, will meet with Shion to discuss issues, making Erevis eye the sky uneasily, making Ama kiss her to relax her and Drasek all gung-hu to attack her, making Erevis stay his hand for now. Salamander, appearing by now, sizes up Drasek and the two have quick banter and size each other up a bit until they laugh it off and move on. When asked about Ancients and Spirits, Salamander says the Ancients were before her time so she can't help then, then tries to get Ama to become her sprite, finding her fascinating. When asked what drew Salamander to the Legionires long ago and helped make them what they were, she confesses she can't remember after so long, but assumes one of them did something heroic. Salamander lists off that each spirit is drawn to something - Sylph playfullness and being young at heart, Gnome those who care about the Earth, Brooke healing arts and the water, while Salamander likes those who are heroic and are not cowards.
When asked about any fire spirits before her, Salamander explains she knows that Gnomey took a long time to be born, due to something that happened to in the past. And when Mykel asks a question, she admits, answering Mykel and Drasek, she doesn't know anything that the previous fire spirit would know, since it doesn't work that way. Brooke retaining any some of her memories was unusual since it wasn't a true rebirth from Undine to Brooke. Salamander suggests they talk to Shade, because she believes some war took place and a few spirits died, and out of Shade and Aska, Shade is the more talkative of the two. As the Empress' shuttle lands, and Jules goes off, finding the entire thing pointless, Erevis asks why did Salamander lead the people here of places, Salamander answers because of the volcano, naturally.
Location: Daemon Realm
Going through the dusty books, Shinobu sets down some Ancient texts that are related to their cause and begins to read them outloud to the group. Noting that her ancestor sent out people to follow the other six heroes, the people was able to get rough maps drawn of the locations that they settled at - at least to begin with. The first was the Hapian Castle, which lends weight to the fact the person sent succeeded in their map and getting it back. The other was a map of the Amazons which were 100 miles off of the current day capital, so Shinobu surmises they must have moved it later and Alita notes there might be caches of information at the older location. The werebeast hero's location was more iffy and has a ? mark between the walled off village and middle of the lake in the Naturalist Kingdom. Another hero set up a walled off city in the lava plains in the Legion area. A sister and brother hero went into the Spiritalist Kingdom and vanished somewhere in the middle of the two mountain ranges. And the final hero vanished out of sight in the Great Forest of the Ent Kingdom; Xanatos used his Datapad to scan all of the maps.
While Alita incorrectly wonders if the last fell into the village of the Ents, Shinobu notes that Gnome hadn't been born yet, being the youngest Spirit. Sasha muses the brother and sister likely led to the Magi and Summoni that are around today. Shinobu notes that there is an entry about the birthmarks, saying that they are shaped like the spirits who gave it to them. 7 marks. 4 of the main elements: Earth, Wind, Fire, Water. And 3 of the higher elements: Light, Dark, Void. After the guard tells Shinobu what he and Ceilia learned about her sister's body, she rises to leave, telling the team they can scan the books with their datapads. Giving Ceilia a high ranking medal for her services, Shinobu leaves the team to look into, leaving the team to wonder if they should stay and keep scanning. When Riki sends a message asking to see them in the Royals Floor, a few of them do stay, while the rest go to see what is going on.
Location: Hapian Castle, Royals Floor
Erevis plays dress up with barbie outfits on Ama while the three teams regather to hear what Riki has to say to them. While Selena wonders if the original heroes were related, Riki enter to tell them that on Kumen they discovered something that she came to with them first, but can only give them a day's head up before she has to Shion with it, since she runs the Alliance. Shion is currently talking to the Empress about the outlaws from Earth and other worlds like the Cartel using the time difference between Kumen and Geyze to plot, plan, and build, then return to their universe proper to enact it. Hoping that the Empress will let them learn who uses the teleporters to the two worlds, as well as give better satelite coverage. The other thing, Riki has found Ancient tech on Kumen like she was asked to look into, however it has been unearthed by people already. The people claimed to be Macross, but Ymir claimed to be clueless when asked. The limited satelite pictures show what look to be Cartel shuttles getting the Ancient machines that look a lot like the one Xanatos made, only different. One of the engineers, wearing a Macross outfit, has a glove that goes to the Imogen set, glows, transmuting something as they work.
Erevis sends Drasek to watch the talks with the Empress, while the others go to stop a second machine from being retrieved, forming a team.
Location: Hapian Castle, Royals Floor
Preparing to leave from the Royals Hall, the team double checks on their roles with each other, Celes stating she will be leaving with Sasha to go back to the Alliance to meet with the Empress about improving the security of Geyze and Kumen from the Outlaws problem. Yuki and Erica decide to go with Erevis' team to see if they can learn more about the Cartel's plots with the spirits before returning to their own team, so that they can help them. A few of the team note that Drasek has already left and hope that he can control himself around the Empress, worried he might start something that will affect the Suisen Empire before Erevis can take it back over. Once they are prepared, Riki teleports the team from Geyze to an outer outpost city on Kumen to an area that has not been complete terraformed yet, stating that this area will likely become their version of the Great Forest. Coming along is Sylph and Gnome, who seems a bit hesitant to do battle, likely having her copies/clones deal with such things, but agrees to aid the team. The wasteland is enough to surprise many of them and Riki points out the location they are supposedly digging up the Ancient machine, though she stays behind, since she has the Alliance meeting to attend. The team begins to trek toward the sand valley indicated by Riki.
Location: Academy/Alliance
As the Empress arrives, many are tense are her arrival, such as Athena who seems ready to brawl with her before Drasek can even do it. Shion greets her and leads her to meet with the other leaders inside while Chelsea and Cypher are whispering amongst themselves about how tense the atmosphere feels with the Empress' arrival. Shion explains to the Empress her desire for access to the teleporter information to learn who uses them, as well as some PAX satelites to help keep coverage of Geyze and Kumen so they can keep track of the two planets easier. And she wants them despite them being only level 1 without raising their level higher. The Empress notes that if she allows it, that other races might cry foul, so Sasha and others argue the pros and cons for it, the Empress agrees to allow them the exemption, due to Yggdrasil and other reasons.
After the meeting, she asks about Rada and learns he is not there anymore and is instead on a ship called the Aquarius, thanking them for the information. Invited by Shion and Sasha to go on a tour, she gives Drasek something and to talk later before following them. Despite Sammael's warning she will bait him, he opens it and sees it is Ao's necklace that she was given by Leyeah long ago. Enraged, Drasek smashes a hyperspace fist through a table and follows after the Empress.
Location: Kumen - The Wastelands
Walking through the sands for an hour, many of the team are miserable and tired already, with Selena who was running ahead enegetically to begin with now barely moving ahead. After a moment the team finds themselves unable to move as everyone, including the spirits, are trapped in quicksand, which quickly traps them and begins to pull them under. As Xanatos looks for a place to throw a rope, they see nothing to anchor onto as they begin to go down. Ellie asks Gnome to make something to help so she makes boulders to drop into the quicksand, since the Spirits cannot warp out and be called back without reappearing in the same spot. Ceilia enlarges the rope from Xan and Talia, using her magic, and throws it onto the boulders with her magic for the team; by now Gnome, being the shortest at 4'8, is almost completely under the quicksand.
One by one the team uses the rope to get out and Talia bemoans tha her tail is ruined with the quicksand having made it sticky, while Sylph and Gnome flash with spirit powers and clean themselves. Hearing noises from a cave nearby, the team goes to investigate it and they find a strange woman investigating large magic crystals inside. Everyone using magic and the Spirits begin to feel magic from the crystals and as the Spirits begin to enter, the begin to act odd, both in different ways, with Gnome coveting the crystals and Sylph acting overly affectionate with Ellie. Imogen, who has been keeping to herself for the most part, finds her mask moving about on it's own as they enter the cave, taking the face of Erevis. As SPoC talks to the woman, surprising her, and Talia paws and claims her as a minion, they meet Lana Azarra, a Techno Mage from Mars. While the others talk, Erevis activates Xanatos' shuttle to come to the location and be ready to be called on notice.
Leaving a few of the team behind to talk to Lana and learn more about her, the rest of the team heads further in. They find the Ancient Machine being worked on by Cartel Agents in Macross engineer uniforms; it looks a lot like the other Ancient Machine that Xanatos found but this one looks a little different. They seem to be running generators to 3 spotlights to work in the dark in the cavern, due to how far they are inside, and there are 15 of them, out numbering the team, however they are only engineers thankfully. Xanatos and SpoC move to disable the two generators, since the Spirits are useless right now, timing their two prong attack to disable it by turning the generators off. While they do that, the engineers manage to power the Ancient Machine back on, but the lights going off surprise them, so they turn on the lights on their helmets.
As Xanatos fires stun shots at a few of the engineers, others go to try to turn the Ancient Machine on now that it is powered up, but Xanatos manages to stun shot him as well. At that moment, Erevis and Xanatos are attacked by spirit like attacks, with Erevis thrown clear across the room and Xanatos burned, as well as Jaime is trapped in rock. With only three engineers left after most of the team takes them down and Alita does a group heal, they still haven't seen their attackers. Suddenly, Xanatos finds him face to face with a woman that looks a lot like Sylph, though she looks older and bustier, and sends him flying with wind across the room, ordering him to back off. Sylph warps with Ellie nearby to see the new Wind Spirit, shocked at there being another one. At that moment, before SpoC can stop the Wind Spirit, an Earth Spirit appears and hits Spoc with a rock attack, taking her down, though this Earth Spirit has shorter hair than Gnome.
While Alita tries to drain the energy from the two new spirits, a fire spirit appears and attacks her with fire power, focusing on her shield, while the Wind and Earth Spirit move to try to activate the Ancient Machine, talking about waking their sister by putting a trapped spirit that the Cartel brought inside it. Putting her inside, they are about to do it when Xanatos uses his eye beam to damage the machine, much to the anger of the three spirits, and Gnome, who seems to be snapping out of the strange spell of this place and the new spirits, declares that likely these are the previous spirits that "died" long ago. As Alita burns the wires of the ancient machine, making it even more inoperable for the three spirits, they become enraged. While Jaime tries to talk the three corrupted spirits down, they state that while the Ancient Machines down on Geyze are prisons, the Ancient Machines on Kumen were able to awaken/imprint their sister onto the spirit they had trapped, the data still being there. But now they damaged it. Two of the spirits take the machine and vanish with it, while Erevis and Xanatos chide Jaime to stop trying to talk to the corrupted Spirits at this time, and to wait until they know more.
The Earth Spirit remains behind, eyeing Gnome and notes she is the one they replaced her with since she died, not noticing one of the Cartel people are putting on a Mask like Imogen and a gauntlet, sneaking up on her. She tells her that Shade or Aska will use her up, or people like Jaime will do, and once Gnome is dead, Aska will just make a new one to keep the balance. The Earth Spirit then begins to bring the place down, making it shake when the Cartel agent jumps her and begins to drain some of her energy into the gauntlet, making the Earth Spirit scream in pain, and the Cartel agent looks a bit like a spirit for a second. Xanatos pauses then stuns him, letting the Earth spirit escape, but only after she gives him a look. The team frees the sprites and gets the Cartel people onto the shuttle, and move to escape.
Meanwhile, Talia and Ceilia talk to Lana, with Lana noting they don't seem so bad and Talia trying to get a date from Lana. Ceilia and Lana over the fact they both use magic, and the fact Talia is a familiar - a witch's familiar after all - and Ceilia tells her about the Academy and Geyze. Asking to get a ride to Geyze, since she doens't like Earth and Mars that much, and she is into researching and can do old languages, they are interrupted when the place begins to shake and fall apart. They move to the cave's entrance and Lana is shocked to learn her wife is her sister and she is married to the Daemon Empress, but all they can do is wait for their ride, and hope it comes out, though Talia assures them it will come.
Back inside, Selena notes that at least the Ancient Machine seems pretty busted and it doesn't look like they will free their "sister" anytime soon. Xanatos flies them through a series of collapsing cave tunnels, with it collapsing behind them rapidly, until they escape out the top of the cave moments before it collapses behind them. SpoC notes that fixing the Ancient Machine is pretty hard and wonders how the Cartel learned it so fast and Selena wonders how they got so many uniforms without Ymir noticing. The team learns to pick up Ceilia, Lana, and Talia, while Xanatos talks to Jaime.
Location: Alliance
Drasek approaches The Empress with his fist already pure hyperspace and demands to talk now, so she agrees to do so and they move off to the grotto. Shion mumbles to Sasha that if he messes up the deal, she will have him banned from the area. Demanding to know if Ao is dead, the Empress says of course not and that she will need the necklace back to give to her upon her return. She also adds that she is with her daughter while she heals and that the Empress is fond of Syiean. She also lets him know that Ao attacked her on the PAX and she took Ao's power as well and if Drasek wants to throw himself at her too she will take his power as well. Asking to see Ao, the Empress agrees and thanks them all for having her, but Athena promises to the team as she leaves that she will find a way to defeat her. Not knowing that Drasek and the Empress will have a long talk, as well as Rada. To be posted in next Royals Chapter.
Location: Hapian Castle, Royals
Floor
Selena sees the prisoners to the Hapian prison for the team while Erevis puts the relics they retrieved in the new Relics Room. Selena notices Lana waiting and asks if she can help her, when Liana notices she needs a bath. Selena hands Lana a forum to join the team, while it looks like Talia wants to become a familiar for Lana - or date her. Meanwhile Erevis and Xanatos plan to talk to Jaime since she seems to be going all depressed on them. Just another day at the Royals Floor.
Location: Unknown
The three corrupted spirits put down the damaged Ancient Machine and talk to a fourth spirit that is with them: an Ice Spirit. They discuss that they need to find someone to help them repair the machine but wonder if they can trust the woman who has been helping them so far, but see no other choice. And that they might need to help serving others for the time being until they get their brethern back.
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Meanwhile, Thena has begun to search for Ben after Warren has put the idea in her head to do what her heart tells her to do. Stopping at the PAX first she is immediately stopped by the Empress who finally allows her to enter the PAX. Speaking with Ao and Leyeah while she is there she learns she they are now in the service of the Empress after Ao challenged the Empress, which suits them lately since it allows Ao to be close to her daughter and the Empress has helped stablize Ao's life. Sy and the Empress get Thena the permission she needs to go to Yggdrasil from the PAX but she also needs it from Shion, so she is redirected there and meets with her.
While meeting with Shion, Thena gets a temporary pass for a month, six months there, and goes off to meet with her parents. Catching Thena up on what Jaime has been up to as well as other events, Athena, Jennifer and Sammael spend time with Thena, since Thena has always been Athena's baby girl. After the visit, Thena heads to Yggdrasil where she finds tree has communities on certain branches to taking advantage of all the space, the people there being properly vetted and there as guards also. There she meets a strange purple haired familiar that seems unlike the others due to her inability to use true magik and is more of a physical familiar, stating she is part of a New Generation of Familiars being born, but she helps Thena out. Named Rio, she leads her to where a village who knows where she wants to go; the village people, soon convinced of Thena being sent by Shion lead her to the chamber of Yggdrasil with a control device. With no real clues there, since it is locked down, it seems the hunt is ended when child Fate shows up and informs her that Cheryl locked the device with her minute reality power and that Cheryl never returns to unlock it. Giving Thena the general location Cheryl went - the Cartel lands, and never returned.
Thena then recruits Rio since she seems to have no master and is a bit of an outlier here, and moves to go back to her ship, with the child Fate oddly following her, noting Thena is a focal point in history. As Rio and Thena make a familiar pact, with Fate observing, Thena leaves after informing Shion and heas to Jarivan. There she meets with Jarivan, noting that the place was recommended to her by Lorelei, and asks if she knows anything about Cheryl. Vesper notes she will do some inquerying for her and look into it. She spends the time while that happens teasing Fate, being led around by one of Vesper's maids named Leena, and other things. She also learns the secret of the Fates, the adult Fate and young Fate through observation. She also warns Dusk, Vesper's God inside her, that Gartareh will claim power from her and kill both her and Vesper.
After some time, she is given more directions and one of them is a Cartel world and she heads there. This mini story continues in Phase 5: Cartel Houses.