Crystalise: The Exaltation System: ASCENDANT F.R. Brooks (the snowy day read aloud .TXT) 📖

193 [+4]DEF - 232 → 234 [+2]AGI - 176 → 179 [+3]LUK - 118 → 121 [+3]EXALT ADJUSTMENTS: JAMES STERLING || LV.81 → LV. 82|| EXP: 985321 || statsATK - 228 → 229 [+1]DEF - 173 → 174 [+1]AGI - 226 → 229 [+3]LUK - 239 → 240 [+1]

* * *

LCR—Lucidium Conversion Reserve. SAI—Sentisuit Armor Integrity.

LCR is the measure of how much lucidium remains within an exalt’s sentisuit. When exalts conjure their elements, they are converting the stored lucidium within the suit through their suit’s alchemical conversion system. This naturally depletes the amount of stored LCR. Some suits have modifications that allow for regeneration—“regen”—of LCR in small increments over time by drawing trace amounts of atmospheric lucidium from the exalt’s surroundings.

SAI is the measure of a sentisuit’s durability. The more damage a sentisuit takes, the lower this estimated percentage drops. At zero percent, a sentisuit is rendered highly vulnerable to extreme elements such as fire, electricity, or impalements & structural damages from elements like metal.

“You know, basically your LCR’s like your MP and your SAI is like your HP!”

“I don’t remember programming you to have role-playing game knowledge,” Liam replied.

“I get bored and wander around social networks sometimes during your longer fights.”

“You’re on social… wait, you’re doing all this in the middle of battles?”

“Relax, I can multitask.”

“Nym…”

“What? Do you want a friend request?”

12 | Mirrors

With another orb in hand, Liam and James made their way back to the evigilari statue.

“What do you think these symbols are for, anyway?” James asked.

“Not sure. She chose them for a reason, though. All I know is that in alchemy, these symbols represent the three primes.” Liam placed the new orb into the second indentation and then pointed to the carved symbols in the statue’s marble base.

“Quicksilver represents the mind. Salt represents the body. Sulfur represents the soul,” Liam explained.

“Remember why you’re here,” said the first message.

A symbol of the quicksilver to an alchemist… but a symbol of mutable modality to an astrologer. Mutable… represents adaptability. Mental faculty.

“Remember why they want you,” the second message had said.

The symbol for salt. Salt to represent the body.

Exalts are just bodies to Chrysid.

Liam looked to the symbol for sulfur above an empty indentation.

Sulfur, soul. Cardinal modality… impulse, action, and beginning.

What are you trying to say?

James seemed not to care much for over-analyzing those symbols. He had already left Liam behind again. The third and final hall lay ahead, as dark as it was unwelcoming. No soothing aquarium, no pleasant art gallery. Only darkness until their visors adjusted to the ambient lighting.

“Shit…!” James jerked away from the shadow beside him.

A breath caught in Liam’s chest before he realized that this corridor’s walls were mirrors.

“It’s just your reflection,” Liam said.

“Right. I just… wasn’t expecting that.”

As they walked in silence, they reached a door not unlike the previous two. Liam noticed freshly painted lettering scrawled across a nearby mirror. Another message from the Chevalier.

Remember your reflection.

Another vast chamber waited beyond the third door. Mirrors plated every wall and gave the room a blinding bloom of light. Liam squinted at the hazy halos and harsh glow while adjusting his visor.

“So… what next, Chevalier?” James called, walking out into the center of the room. “You want us to pretty-up or something?”

“I’m picking up an enemy presence—an obscuran mob—the coordinate data’s not cooperating, though,” Nym said.

“Maps still scrambled?”

“Somewhat. I’m able to generate maps of the immediate area, but that doesn’t help much when the mob’s appearing in several places at once.”

“What?” James turned back to Liam. “How many are there?”

“That’s the thing,” Nym replied, “I’m detecting only one aetheric resonance pattern. There’s only one other life form in this room that’s not in our party. But… it’s in multiple places at once. I’m telling you, it’s an obscuran mob. Location spoofing isn’t out of their natural ability.”

“Great.” James regarded their reflections in the mirror panes with annoyance.

James conjured an ice lance and gave it an impatient twirl as he walked alongside his reflection.

“So, I’m willing to bet… one of these guys.”

Liam flinched as James smashed a mirror. The sound echoed through the chamber, and James eyed their surroundings with amusement on his face. “No? Alright. Next!”

Another smash followed. Nothing changed in their surroundings.

“Nym, are you tracking any changes?”

“He’s definitely on to something. The reflections are showing up on my scans as potential threats—but there’s still only one detectable entity and it’s not taking damage yet.”

James smashed a third mirror. “Just break ‘em all! We’ll flush it out, eventually!”

Liam approached a mirror and searched the face of his reflection for anything out of the ordinary. All around them, their reflections masked one impostor. Any one of the figures looking back at them could be the obscuran mob, replicating their human form down to the armor. He smashed through two mirrors before he stopped at the third.

A crack bolted across the surface, pooled with rippling liquid chrome.

This again…?

Across the smooth surface of the glass, a single drop of the metallic fluid streaked down. Liam wondered if there were any other cracks like this on James’s side of the chamber.

If there were, he doubted James would notice. James whistled a cheerful tune as he smashed two more mirrors across the chamber. He seemed to not notice any minor details.

A bead of liquid chrome floated upward like a bubble rising toward the ocean’s surface. It dissolved not far above Liam’s head.

What the hell is this?

What looks like quicksilver but floats as if it’s lighter than air?

When Liam turned his gaze back on the cracked mirror, he froze. His reflection stared straight back at him, unblinking, with his shoulders shifted ever so slightly another way. Out of sync.

Is this it? The obscuran mob?

Liam stilled as he waited for the replica in the mirror to move. Liam hadn’t noticed certain small details in his reflection before. A slightly weathered look to his reflection’s face. Tired, cloudy eyes.