Chương 44: I’m not treating him like a baby

Fabrisse didn't know for how long they'd walked, just that it was long enough to discover Liene and Celline possessed an almost supernatural ability to sustain a conversation indefinitely. The subject matter changed every few minutes. One moment they were discussing a dispute between two Crystal Wing professors regarding the proper classification of luminescent quartz.

The next, they were exchanging increasingly dubious rumors about a Fourth Flame student who had allegedly managed to set fire to a laboratory designed specifically to prevent things from catching fire.

"Did you hear about the duel?"

"No."

"What about the exploding greenhouse?"

"Also no."

"The cheese incident?"

"I don't know what that is." Apparently this had not been the correct answer because both girls immediately launched into a detailed explanation that involved dairy products, disciplinary hearings, and a goat. Fabrisse understood less than half of it. The important thing was that they seemed to be enjoying themselves. He eventually stopped trying to follow the conversation and focused on the cave instead.

The trio eventually reached a three-way junction branching deeper into the colony, each lined with the same crystal-studded walls and silk supports.

"Well this is inconvenient," Celline said. Liene pointed up.

"Easy. We just follow the moths." The three of them waited. No moth passed by. Liene smiled.

"Any moment now." Any moment later, her smile morphed into a frown.

"Huh," she said.

"They're taking their sweet time today."

"Are we just going to stand here until a moth arrives?" Celline asked.

"I guess not… But what are we supposed to do instead? Let's just take the path on the right." Liene peered in.

"It looks shiny."

"Wait." Celline tilted her head up, and Fabrisse followed. The crystal growths nearest the floor were old. The interesting formations were much higher, where the walls disappeared into a tangled network of silk bridges and crystal supports overhead. She squinted.

"I could probably figure it out. Ah, wait. Can't use detection magic. Can't use magic. These crystals are thirty feet up at the very least. If I use long-range magic, it'll disturb the moths." Liene squinted as well.

"You've studied this stuff for years. Can you tell which path is younger with your eyes?" Celline stared at her.

"Linny, if three people are standing next to each other, can you accurately determine which one is four years older by looking at them?"

"... Maybe?"

"No."

"Oh, okay." Celline continued studying the formations.

"If one tunnel was fifty years old and another was five hundred, probably. But these all look reasonably active. Eye test says they're annoyingly similar." While the two continued discussing the problem, Fabrisse looked down at the stone beneath his feet. Celline's crystals were overhead. His stones weren't. Low-level magic below chest level wouldn't disturb the local ecology, would it? This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

He stepped toward the left-hand tunnel and crouched beside an old-looking stone embedded in the floor. He placed a hand against the rock and whispered, "Stay. See. Speak. Show." [Skill Activated: Strata Recall (Rank II)] The rock cooled beneath his fingertips. Nothing continued happening. Fabrisse frowned. The stone appeared old enough to have witnessed years of colony activity, yet it carried no meaningful imprint whatsoever.

Either almost nothing traveled through this tunnel, or the moths had somehow spent decades being extraordinarily boring.

"Mmmm." Fabrisse jumped. Liene was suddenly crouching beside him. He hadn't even heard her approach.

"Fabri," she whispered.

"What are you doing?"

"Nothing." She glanced at the hand pressed against the stone.

"That's magic."

"It's very small magic. Low-level. I can't do high-level magic anyway." Fabrisse looked around. The junction remained empty.

"I don't think anything noticed." Liene turned to Celline.

"Do you think so?"

"They would've bounced around in circles if they had," Celline said.

"That's reassuring." Liene turned back to Fabrisse.

"So what have you been doing?" Fabrisse explained Strata Recall as briefly as possible. The emotional impressions. The stone. The complete lack of anything useful from the left-hand tunnel. When he finished, Liene nodded several times.

"That sounds very reasonable. Great job, Fabri." She grinned.

"Just that next time tell us before you cast a spell, okay?"

"Okay."

"Aww," came Celline's voice. Both of them turned.

"You treat him like a baby," Celline said.

"Would you like to be featured in the next issue of the Gazette? I was thinking Student Life or Parenting Advice." Liene winced.

"I do not. And I'm not treating him like a baby." Did she? As far as he could tell, Liene spoke to everyone that way. Liene pointed toward the remaining tunnels.

"Well? Keep going."

"Keep going?"

"You've already helped a lot." She smiled.

"If you're up for it, we could keep going." That seemed difficult to argue against. Fabrisse moved toward the stone beside the middle passage and placed a hand against it. This time, he saw fragments of vision: Dozens of Embermoths drifting through the tunnel. The smaller ones clustered together within shallow alcoves carved into the walls. Larger moths arrived carrying crystal dust and pale fragments of mineral-rich stone. Others deposited tiny droplets of emberwax before departing again. Fabrisse opened his eyes.

"That one definitely gets used."

"What did you see?" Liene asked. He described the vision as best he could. Celline commented afterwards, "That sounds like a nursery."

"A nursery?"

"Yeah. Embermoth larvae require stable temperatures and mineral-rich environments while developing." Liene looked horrified.

"Oh."

"Yes," Celline agreed.

"Which means we're absolutely not taking crystals from there."

"Right." Fabrisse moved on to the final tunnel. This memory felt different. Large-bodied Embermoths crawled through the passage carrying swollen amber sacs beneath their abdomens. Warm resin dripped onto stone platforms arranged along the walls. More moths arrived. More resin was deposited. Others arrived carrying glittering fragments, then left empty, then returned carrying more. The impression lingered before fading. When Fabrisse opened his eyes, both girls were already watching him.

"Well?" Liene asked.

"I think they're storing emberwax in there."

"That's good," Celline grinned.

"Where they store emberwax, they build." She pointed down the tunnel.

"And where they build, they need fresh crystal growth."

"Can you tell which memory is more recent?" Liene asked. Fabrisse shook his head.

"I think you'd need something around Rank V before you could reliably separate events by age." Celline sighed.

"Shame. But this is already useful! Much better than Liene's 'let's take the shiny path' approach."

"My approach happens to arrive at the exact same conclusion, mind you." Liene placed a hand on her hip.

"There's definitely a correlation between shininess and emberwax storage."

"Should we go?" Fabrisse asked.

"Yes," both girls answered immediately. Then they resumed standing there. Fabrisse waited a few seconds longer.

"Right," Celline said.

"Now we're going." The three of them finally started walking.