After a moment, Tremine lifted his hands. “I never said they did. None of us knows what happened or why. Let’s let them speak for themselves.”
Ruwen strode toward the city, his thoughts in chaos. Regardless of what Tremine said, he must have guessed what had happened. And if he was right, it meant High Priest Fusil and all the people who’d whispered about his parents were right.
It meant his parents were murderers and thieves.
Chapter 8
Ruwen played with the popper on his plate, his appetite smothered by thoughts of his parents and their possible misdeeds. Tremine had brought enough poppers for everyone, and the six of them were all eating lunch together. They all sat around a circular table just off the large room they’d initially found. Lir had assured Ruwen that the Guardians provided an adequate watch, so even Lylan had joined them.
Tomorrow you can ask your parents and get the truth, Rami said. There is little point in boiling yourself in a pot of hypotheticals right now.
I know. The next twenty-four hours are going to be difficult.
Only if you sit here doing nothing.
What do you have in mind?
I found some Class information.
I thought you’d already looked?
The symbols in the Specialization and Sub Class quests Bliz gave you were in a book in Lir’s library. I’m still indexing all of Lir’s books, but I recognized those symbols. Now that I know what to look for, I believe I have the symbols for all of Uru’s Sub Class and Specialization paths.
Ruwen sat up straight. Even the Warlord one?
Yes.
That is great news!
That’s not all. Another one of my queries finished.
Remind me what you’re running.
For you, I’m looking for information on Ancient Mother, Lalquinrial, how to get the Scarecrow Aspect off, Architect, essence patterns in your spells and abilities, and how to Sub Class and Specialize.
You found something on the build paths, what else did you find?
Ancient Mother.
Ancient Mother had been the term Uru used when she saw Sift holding Shelly. The tiny turtle had been with Sift since he’d freed her from the Plague Siren’s lair in the Spirit Realm.
They’re travelers, Rami said. Their control of dimensional space is superb, and they might be indestructible. The book I found talks about them eating stars.
What do you mean, stars? Like the sun?
I think so. The book reads like a poem, so it might just be flowery language. It says they swim through the darkness above and the oceans below.
Ruwen twisted his lip in thought. It must be poetic. Shelly is half the size of my thumb. Even if my suspicions are right and she fought that giant squid to give us time to portal out of the Spirit Realm, that is hardly big enough to eat a sun.
It gets stranger. Rami said.
Are you kidding?
The author was with the Ancient Mother as they traveled the Universe. Somehow, this tiny turtle who feeds on suns and changes size can transport people as well.
Like some sort of turtle ship?
I guess.
Okay, I’ll talk to Sift about it and see if he’s had any success in communicating with Shelly.
Rami continued. I brought this up now because we both agree you should keep busy until tomorrow, and if Shelly really can transport people, then we can fill a critical need.
Ruwen knew the biggest hurdle to reviving so many people was resources, specifically terium and carbon. The terium reminded him of his parents, and his thoughts spun again.
Focus, Ruwen. Rami said. The carbon math is simple. Over half the people needing revived here are kids. Uru must have synched everyone before the catastrophe. So we’ll assume each new body requires twenty-five pounds of carbon to be safe. That’s about half a cubic foot of coal or one gallon of oil.
We need seven hundred and fifty thousand gallons of oil?
Or three hundred seventy-five thousand cubic feet of coal.
That’s impossible to do.
For one person, yes. But we can’t revive everyone at once anyway. To start, we just need enough for the army.
Let me guess, Ruwen said. You know where to find some carbon.
Ruwen’s map pulsed yellow, and he opened it. A red dot appeared deep in the mountains to the west and a little north of New Eiru. It sat on the very edge of Uru’s Blessing.
Rami continued. This is the mine Lir used to provide supplemental carbon.
Ten thousand years ago.
That’s true. A lot might have changed.
I guess there’s only one way to know. Assuming Sift’s star turtle can get us there.
Ruwen spent a minute thinking through the next twenty-four hours and then focused on the conversation around him. Bliz had just finished a story about a gullible pirate and a talking fish. Sift, Hamma, and Lylan were still laughing, and all of them were wiping tears from their cheeks. Tremine smiled but kept glancing at Ruwen.
The popper in Ruwen’s hand had gone cold, but the taste still brought back a flood of memories. Times not that long ago when his life had been simple.
Hamma leaned toward Ruwen. “Finally done thinking?”
Ruwen smiled at her. “Yes, sorry.”
“Your friend tells the best stories.”
“I know. You’ll have to tell me this one later. I missed it.”
Hamma winked at him and turned back to the others.
Ruwen waited for a lull in the conversations before speaking. “We need help defending ourselves, and the aid we require is here,” Ruwen said and pointed at the ceiling. “But the temple lacks a critical resource that I plan to go get.”
“When?” Lylan asked.
“Right now,” Ruwen said.
Hamma pushed her chair from the table. “Just give me—”
Ruwen reached over and grabbed Hamma’s hand. “Wait. I need you here to watch the revival baths. No one else knows what to do.”
Hamma bit her lip and, after a moment, she nodded.
“I’ll take care of him,” Lylan said to Hamma.
Ruwen shook his head. “You just dinged twenty. Specializing is a considerable increase in power, and we will need you as powerful as possible in the days to come.”
“I don’t know how to Specialize,” Lylan said.
“I do, and
