Chapter 374 - Footnotes The paper boy crinkled as he produced a book from within his robes. Opening it up, he held the covers with both hands, revealing the pages to Yuzu. Intricate handwriting appeared spontaneously on the book. As you no doubt have already gathered, it is I, Argus Dayton, the Keeper. The words finished with a flourish, after which the paper boy stared straight up at Yuzu waiting for her response. “Yes, I know.” Yuzu said, rolling her eyes at the formality and pomp of his self introduction. More lines appeared. Before I go on, I must apologize for not visiting you in person. These messages are repying a memory so that I can communicate with you across the Altic Sea. Were you north of the sea, I would be able to communicate with you more directly— even if I were not there in person. However, the spatial rift1 that separates its two halves exists across all the pnes. A ‘1’ appeared in superscript next to the words ‘spatial rift’. Even as the words continued to flow across the book, at the bottom of the page a footnote appeared. 1 If you haven’t seen it for yourself, the size and extent of the rift is actually quite remarkable. From the physical pne, appears as a massive waterfall that extends west to east. One-hundred and fifty seven kilometres of sea falls thousands of meters2 into the void of space. From the ‘shore’ of the falls, looking across the rift, it appears like the world has ended and all that exists beyond are stars. Using Exalted methods, one can traverse the void2i, and on the opposite side of the rift the exact scene pys out. Yuzu’s eyes narrowed as a second footnote began filling up space below the first. The text was becoming progressively smaller as the words attempted to squeeze themselves into the boundaries of the page. 2 As spacetime itself has been warped, these are only approximations. Furthermore, to my knowledge no one has explored the depths of the void below the falls and survived3. The dangers of this area cannot be understated. 2a There have been a few notable attempts, though most have been made out of desperation rather than intention— “Oh, come on!” Yuzu groaned, seeing the footnotes continue within the footnotes. Worse yet, the first footnote had now bled onto the second page and was now listing a table of contents: I Spatial Rift AnomaliesI-I Physical PneI-II Spiritual PneI-III Astral PneI-IV Aetheric PneII History (Abridged)II-I Precursor to the Conflict (Summary)II-II The Council’s UltimatumII-III Tidings of War?1II-IV Sundering of the Altic Sea ?1 This section added at the behest of Pix— Yes, it’s important, but this is simply an abridged history, Pix, I can’t fit every little detail— yes, I know you’re a notable figure here— “Okay, that’s enough!” Yuzu groaned, reaching to pce her hand on the pages of the book. Why was there a table of contents in the footnotes? Furthermore, why were there footnotes in the footnote table of contents?? Yuzu forcefully turned the pages, flipping past dozens of historical records intermingled with interjections and anecdotes about this obscure part of the world that had no bearing on her current situation. It seemed that Argus’ tendency to go off on tangents hadn’t changed, or rather, somehow it had gotten worse. Thinking about it, turning into a literal Paper Prince was probably both the most fitting and the most unfortunate (for his companions) turn of events— “Okay now he even has me thinking in parentheses??” Yuzu groaned. Flipping through the book she finally reached a part of the book that wasn’t written in tiny italic footnote font. I haven’t forgotten my promise to you to find a way to reach the bottom of the White World— Also known as the River of Souls331. By all modern accounts this location is supposed to be pure myth, but delving into deeper history I have perhaps found a promising lead, which I am currently pursuing. 331 Also, more obscurely, the River of Absolution. No doubt a reference to the incredibly deadly ‘cleansing’ affect this part of the pne has on living entities. … The ellipses appeared on the page, followed by a long period of hesitation. Yuzu even thought that something in the paper doll might have gone wrong, but just as she was about to turn the page the writing continued. It seems I have inadvertently, accidentally filled this doll to capacity. I… apologize. The papercraft boy lowered his head as if ashamed, turning to the next page. In lieu of my presence, I have sent this astrobe to guide you to answers. I wish I had the space to describe its functionality, as. In short, infuse your spirituality into astrobe with the question of information you are not privy to, and it will guide you. The Spatius hand points to the location, the Tempus points to the time where the answer can be found. Trust your intuition. The current situation requires me to continue my investigation here, as such I cannot assist you directly. However, I have become aware of your altercation with the Clockwork God. You are in great danger. You must find a way to cross the sea, only then can Mid-sentence, having reaching the end of the page, the paper boy turned to the next page but found himself at the end of the book. He looked down at the book, dumbfounded for a moment, then up at Yuzu, a sheepish smile on his face. With a shrug, he closed the book and waved at Yuzu. In the next moment the energy that had been holding up the paper sculpture dissipated, and it quickly colpsed to the table shredding calmly into a thousand tiny pieces. Yuzu sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose in frustration. It seemed that without Yuzu around, there was no one to stop him from spiraling onto a tangent. Pix seemed to be present at the time he created the message, but she hadn’t interfered except where the content pertained to her. How… egotistical… Yuzu sighed. Though she was frustrated, Yuzu wasn’t surprised by the message’s self-destruct. She had already seen the end of the message through Fate Cycling, which was one of the reasons why she’d skipped to the end of the book. It really had been a test of her patience to read the entire history lesson that Argus had written out, but because she had done so she also knew with certainty that none of that content had any relevance to her current situation. As far as she could gather, Argus had sent the astrobe and this paper clone to help and warn her against danger that was coming her way. This danger had something to do with the Clockwork God, and it somehow involved in her crossing the Altic Sea. Of course, none of the historical information that Argus had written on the sea actually detailed how one was supposed to do so. And also, frustratingly, he had also not specified what the danger was. “Couldn’t he have just re-recorded the message?” Yuzu mumbled, brushing the paper flecks off the surface of the astrobe. “Surely that wouldn’t have been too hard.” Picking up the astrobe she pondered what to ask it. Argus’ brief instructions had simply said to infuse her spirituality into the device, after which it would tell her when and where the answer to her question could be found. While not as good as simply knowing the answer to her question, this ‘second order’ information seemed like it still could be extremely useful. Even better, this kind of knowledge was able to discover information that she would be unable to discover through Fate. Her eyes glittered with golden threads as she considered what to ask first. After some thought, she channeled her spirituality and asked, “Where is the medallion to Ying Zhen?” The hands of the watch responded to her question, spinning around the face to various positions. Sometimes they would linger on a specific pce, or they would oscilte between two locations, or just abruptly change direction several times. Yuzu had no idea how to interpret it at all. However, after several seconds both of the hands settled at the twelve o’clock position. Yuzu pondered this for a moment, waiting to see if the hands would move, but they remained at that location as if the device had turned ‘off’. Yuzu released her spirituality, and the hands slowly began to move at random again. Yuzu repeated the question, infusing her spirituality once more. Once again the astrobe went through the motions before settling on the twelve o’clock position. Interesting… Yuzu thought quietly. Over the next while Yuzu asked a dozen more questions. Doing so, she came to several conclusions. First, every answer seemed to come with a ‘thinking’ period where the hands would move in various motions. For simple questions this thinking period might take only a few seconds, more complex questions would take longer. Yuzu felt there must be valuable information provided by the motions of the hands during its thinking time, but had no idea how to interpret it. Second, when it came to false information, the astrobe seemed to be confused, its hands stuck on ‘thinking’. These were questions like “Where can I find my striped dress?” and “Where is the sandlion in this manor?”, knowing that no such things existed. Unfortunately, the same was true its answer for complex questions that should have an answer. Meaning she was unable to differentiate between complicated questions and unanswerable questions. Third, each time she used the astrobe, it took a tiny bit of spirituality to do so. Even though she couldn’t interpret the results, she felt that the more complex questions took more effort and energy from her. The amount wasn’t significant, so she wasn’t worried about it actually exhausting her, but it did seem like the astrobe’s functionality was directly powered by her spirituality. Fourth, she couldn’t use the astrobe with Fate Cycling. In the threads it appeared that the astrobe didn’t register her question and would just continue its ‘idle’ motion. Finally, and perhaps the only solid result that she was somewhat confident in, if the answer was ‘here’ and ‘now’, both hands would eventually end up pointing at the twelve o’clock position. Her very first question about the quartz medallion had given her this result, because the medallion was in her bag next to her. Of course, ‘here and now’ was perhaps one of the least useful answers. Yuzu sighed as she felt like either she was missing something important, or Argus had made a huge mistake by not sending her detailed instructions on how to use the astrobe. I might as well continue experimenting… Yuzu frowned, what should I ask next… Thinking about the message Argus had sent her, she asked, “Where can I learn how to use the astrobe?” The hands answered her questions with cryptic, unintelligible ‘thinking’ motions. “Where is Argus right now?” More unintelligible motions. Yuzu stared for a long time at the hands, trying to discern any patterns at all. At times she felt like maybe she thought it would linger on a certain star or a consteltion, or the hands would line up at a specific rune… But she really had no clue. With a sigh, she asked her next question. “What is the great danger Argus warned me about?” The astrobe started to think, its hands spinning around in various pces. Yuzu continued to stare at them, growing more and more frustrated as she couldn’t piece together any discernible patterns. She was just about to move on to the next try when the thick hand spun up to the top of the astrobe and stopped. “Here.” Yuzu’s eyes widened a little as she intuitively read the result. The elegant, thin hand oscilted between two consteltions on the lower left hand side of the face before it suddenly spun to a specific spot and stopped directly on top of the thick hand. “Now.”