Chương 628: Limitless Path Chapter Six Hundred Forty-Seven

"Now, on to our next topic," Mortaine, who had been a little less impressed with the materials, though still quite interested, said.

"Our next topic?" Beth asked.

"I thought that was all our topics."

"I'm sure you've been curious what we're working on?" Mortaine asked with a small grin.

"I didn't think it was relevant for me to know," Beth replied, shrugging.

"I had thought that it was, frankly, outside of my pay grade."

"You are a pseudo-Exalted already," Laselle said sharply, removing all the materials from the room with a sweep of her hand before resuming her seat.

"You are part of a very privileged club, even though you are still only an Enlightened."

"I guess that's true," Beth said with a frown, glancing between them.

"How many Exalted do you think there are?" Mortaine asked her, tapping the armrest of his chair while a serious expression stole over his face.

"Like, in general? In the whole universe? I have no idea," Beth said, shaking her head.

"Not the whole universe, girl, just this galaxy," Laselle said sharply.

"Then, I still have no idea. A thousand?" Beth replied.

"We're a poor galaxy, girl; adjust your expectations," Laselle said, now shaking her head.

"She's right, you know, we're a poor galaxy in a poor area," Mortaine added.

"There are some galaxies near us that are in a much better position, but that would take us on a tangent from what Laselle is getting at. There are, as far as I know, sixteen Exalted in the Milky Way, including us. And by 'us,' I mean Laselle and I. If we're talking about pseudo-Exalted or people like you that have achieved your Ideal before hitting rebirth fifty and are just working to catch up your rebirths to your core powers, than there are maybe a dozen.

That dozen number is also doing a lot of guesswork on my part based on total population sizes, likelihood of discovering certain principles, and so on. You could be one of ten, or only five, in the whole galaxy."

"What he is implying, is that you are already a part of a very select group," Laselle said.

"You have clearly been working hard at leveling, and I don't foresee any difficulties for you in that regard, so I have no problem already considering you as one of us. Being in such a select group, you have both privileges and responsibilities that others do not, can not, have, simply based on your power and potential. It's not fair, to them or you, but that's just the way life is. Based on your work so far and what you've done here, we can bring you in on some of what's happening.

It's going to be important even in the near term, let alone the distant future, and even more so if you plan on going to the City of Mended Dreams."

"What does the City have to do with anything?" Beth asked, a bit confused at what she felt was a non sequitur.

"It has to do with power. Power in this galaxy and beyond," Laselle replied.

"Not the most helpful," Beth said, frowning at the elven beauty.

"Let me explain," Mortaine interrupted, tapping the arm of his chair for emphasis.

"If you plan on traveling to the City of Mended Dreams, let alone living and working there, there are a few things that you should know. The biggest factor I have to explain is what we were just talking about; the number of Exalted. I'm not sure if you're aware, but the City is a focus for powerful people, including people from outside of the galaxy?"

"Yeah, I've heard something about that," Beth said, nodding along.

"Let's circle back to our discussion of Exalted," Mortaine said.

"There are, maybe fifteen in this galaxy, twenty if we're going to be rather generous. There are also, as we just discussed, maybe a half dozen people like you, ones who are mostly considered Exalted even if you're not at the number of rebirths yet because you've done the hard part already. The problem with the City is that there are maybe forty Exalted there.

Even if every Exalted we, 'we' being the natives of the galaxy, had was there, which we're clearly not, that would mean we were at even numbers with foreign Exalted. But we're not there; you know it as well as we do. Laselle and I are here and other places, your mentor, Baelvyr, has his own business that he's about with his team, some of it related to what we're doing. The other Exalted that is very senior in the CRA is stationed at the City sometimes, but she also has other business to do."

"Your little lover, or maybe I should say intimidating lover, even for me, is also off on her own business," Laselle said.

"Selene, you mean?" Beth asked, just to clarify. She herself found Selene a little intimidating, but in a really hot way. Best not to mention that here.

"Yes, the greater demoness who surprised us all," Laselle replied with a huff.

"I won quite a bit of money, myself," Mortaine said with a detached air, though it was hard to miss that he was also gloating a bit.

"I knew I should have listened to you, on that at least," Laselle grumbled, staring into the distance for a moment. Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"I get the point, I'm pretty sure," Beth said, refocusing them.

"We have fifteen or so Exalted and most of them are running around doing things, meaning the vast bulk of Exalted in the City are from outside the galaxy."

"Right," Laselle nodded.

"Not that the local Exalted aren't already a den of snakes and villains, but they at least have connections and loyalties that are linked to this galaxy. An Exalted from outside the galaxy with their own agenda could do a lot of damage and there's not a whole lot we could do to stop them. Several of us could team up and kick them out; kill them, even, depending on how far we're willing to push it, but that's not a real solution."

"The better solution is to not get in their cross-hairs," Beth said, receiving a nod in return.

"That's why we're giving you some warnings," Mortaine explained.

"Entering the City is entering some rather dangerous territory, and you don't have much to fall back on. You could rely on the CRA, but I've found over the years that more gets people punished afterwards."

"Meaning I'll be dead and the other person will be in moderate trouble," Beth said, rolling her eyes.

"To put it bluntly? Yes, you'll be dead and they'll get a hard slap on the wrist," Mortaine said.

"The City is very dangerous for you, in particular, in that you're already considered on of us, regardless that you're still an Enlightened. Other Exalted will, for the most part, treat you as if you are one, and that can go very poorly. Not that you are one to act crazy, but you need to be rather circumspect in the City."

"The City is also a problem," Laselle said.

"It's too valuable, for a host of reasons, to ignore, but we're not really strong enough to fully control it. It's not a lawless zone, exactly, but it's very hard to protect, ironically enough, people at the highest level. If your team were just a team of very strong, promising Enlightened, nobody would bat an eye, and we'd wait to bring you in on some of this stuff until you were well through Ascended and it looked like some of you were starting to form your Ideals."

"Me being an exceptional talent changes that," Beth said, laughing a little in a self-deprecating manner.

"You laugh, but it's entirely true," Laselle said.

"You having an Ideal is a game changer, though not necessarily in a good way this time. We're trying to emphasize that it puts you in a much different league than anybody else. There's fifteen of us, six of you, and twenty to thirty of them. The only saving grace is that none of them are aligned with each other. Hell, they're from nine or ten different galaxies and don't even know each other, for the most part, and view everyone else as a rival.

The one place where we can get away with stuff is when we, the local Exalted, present a united front."

"And what about Zane and Fallon?" Beth asked.

"What about them?" Laselle asked, though it was clear from her expression that she wanted Beth to ask the full question.

"We can't rely on them to back us up?" Beth asked.

"That's a bit tricky," Mortaine interjected with an answer.

"They're both very busy, despite how it sometimes looks, and they also can't always run all over the place cleaning up our messes. They're really what you would call the option of last resort; they wouldn't let us get kicked out of the City's management or something like that, but they're not in charge and they have few obligations to interfere.

They may, ironically enough, take a larger hand in matters because of your positive relationship with them, but we don't typically count on them to do much of anything about the City."

"Understood," was all Beth said.

"Back to the topic," Laselle said, adjusting herself in her chair slightly before focusing on Beth.

"We were going to give you a bit of an outline on what we are working on before you darted off. We're not going to explain everything, but it's important that you know, especially if you plan on visiting or staying in the City of Mended Dreams, as there are ties both to it and to the Eternal Depths. If you're unaware, the City acts as a hub, a nexus for the exploration of the depths. Some might imagine a huge bazaar and trading pavilion when they think of the City, but that's not quite right.

The City really is a nexus for power-""And knowledge," Mortaine cut in.

"Part of what we're doing requires a vast amount of knowledge, but it promises far more. There are people in the City who know things that no one else in the galaxy know. People who know things that could change the universe, if we want to be just a bit dramatic about it."

"That's right," Laselle said, following along with Mortaine's thought.

"There are hidden dangers and hidden powers there, and not all of them because they have an Exalted sitting around in their basement just waiting to beat somebody up. Knowledge is, in fact, the entire point of this endeavor, and the main thing we're aiming at.

Primarily, we're trying to investigate a certain piece of technology that's hidden in the Depths, something that we believe was built millions of years ago and intentionally hidden there, something so powerful that Manumitted and Absolute Authorities would fear it."

"That's pretty crazy," Beth said.

"Let me further elucidate and shock you," Mortaine said with a deep chuckle.

"Our work is related to Baelvyr's, though only in a tangential way. We've had several arguments about this, and you can draw your own conclusions, but Laselle and I believe we are investigating the roots while Baelvyr and his team are investigating the branches."

"I don't know what that means," Beth said, shaking her head.

"What we believe," Laselle said, giving her a very direct look, "is that this lost technology from a bygone age is something that the giants and titans studied. If we're correct, it formed the basis for the technology they created or used that caused their entire civilization to disappear overnight, though what happened to them is still a mystery."

"A mystery that Baelvyr is trying to solve, and why you said you thought you were investigating the root," Beth said, eyes widening.

"Right. Learning as much as we can about the technology might or might lead to answers about the giants and titans, but what we learn, much of it we'll pass on to Baelvyr," Mortaine said.

"He and his team, and a few others that you may not have met yet, have some specific interests in the giants and titans. You also have a member of your team, if my memory serves, that would be very interested in that project. Though, overall, Laselle and I consider it to be tangential to our own work."

"Because you want to figure out the technology behind everything, the tech that they based their own works on that led to their disappearance," Beth said.

"Right, though there is a certain lesson to be learned there…" Mortaine said, trailing off.

"Yes, yes, a technology that made two civilizations disappear over night is not something to take lightly," Laselle said, rolling her eyes, clearly in the manner of someone suffering through the same argument yet again.

"I would say we know what we're doing, but we're literally exploring uncharted territory here, in more ways than one," Mortaine replied mildly.

"And we're taking proper precautions," Laselle snapped back.

"Proper precautions for something that ended two civilizations?" Beth cut in to ask.

"Ended is a strong word," Laselle replied a bit testily.

"Yes, it wasn't exactly some horrible exsanguination," Mortaine said.

"The titans and giants disappeared, very mysteriously, and all at once, except for some few of their descendants and a small handful of their number that were missed or skipped or left out for one reason or another. It is a rather strange mystery, but we do know enough to know they weren't annihilated, at least, not by any of the evidence that we can currently put together."

"Right," Laselle agreed.

"But teleporting your entire civilization into a different universe, say, an anti-matter universe, when you're made of 'regular' matter, would be pretty close to annihilation."

"Possibly, possibly, but we just don't know," Mortaine said with a shrug.

"And as interesting as that is, it's also not a reason for us to give up our pursuit. So the giants and titans figured out teleportation but they accidentally teleported themselves into the center of the sun? That doesn't teleportation, or the base technology or principles, are bad, just that a little caution is in order."

"Which is what we're working on," Laselle concluded.

"We can't go into all the details right now, but you should understand what the work you've help us with involves, and what the current stakes are. Not that we think many understand even that there is a lost technology down there that was what the titans and giants used in their work, but you should be informed so you don't stumble into some kind of, uh, 'situation' and not understand what is happening."

"Yes, yes," Mortaine said.

"We'll share more details with you later, but you have the basic premise now, both of what we're doing and what Baelvyr's doing. Not that that's all we're doing, but those two projects are important and are both directly tied to the City."

"Well, I mean, thanks for putting your trust in me," Beth said, giving them a nod.

"I take it that nobody else knows?"

"Well, we're not sure what Zane and Fallon know, precisely, but those two are often inscrutable," Laselle answered.

"If you meant the other Exalted, they know very little, maybe not even our goal, and we would prefer to keep it that way."

"Message received," said Beth, understanding what Laselle was saying quite keenly.