Chương 21: Promise of Rage

Surprisingly, Enala was still in her room when Nolotl returned to the Information Tower. He didn't have the best of connections to the enchantress, but getting close to the door of her room he could tell she was sleeping instead of descending into insanity, so he left her sleeping. His legs protested from going up and down stairs this much after having exercised, but that didn't stop Nolotl from going to the printing press' workshop.

There were many enchanters, students, scholars, and whatnot already working with the machinery. The prototypes were so useful in mass producing standardized content that they were always printing status sheets, governmental papers, or student textbooks. As interested and fascinated as he was with the intricacies of engineering, he couldn't forget that he was bound to die at the end of the month if he didn't do anything.

Escape isn't even an option, the ambushers were tracking me for hours, and even if I left the academy with days of anticipation, they have diviners on their side capable of prophecy. I don't have the tools to hide from prophets. Alerting them will only complicate things. The only real alternative was surviving the ambush. That or dismantling it completely. Yeah, that's even less realistic. The Cahtuli biomancer isn't in this tower, and I'm rather biased to say he's in Cahtul right now. Could I go there…?

Maybe, but that would definitely throw the script in complete disarray. Not that I know how much I deviated already… Nolotl constantly tapped his forearm deep in thought before he gave up with a sigh and got down to business. Because Enala had been the one guiding him these days, he didn't know what to do besides working on individual components, but it wasn't like working was his current goal. Instead, he walked up to a group of people working with a different prototype.

"Greetings. What are you doing here?" He asked a group of people working on a curious-looking printing press.

"Designing," a young girl responded taciturnly. And when he said young, he meant young. She couldn't be more than fourteen.

"Design is normally done over blueprints, not the prototype," Nolotl crossed his arms.

"From what I'm seeing here you are designing a Light-based printing press?" The young girl sighed.

"If I answer, will you leave us alone?"

"No need to be aggressive, I just want to help."

"How can you help if you have just arrived the other day?"

"I know a thing or two about the printing press and Light," he said with a smile and extended a hand to her.

"Nolotl, pleased to meet you." The girl's head spasmed from side to side and her eyelids twitched for a second.

"L-like the Empyrean?"

"Like the Empyrean," his smile intensified, and it now showed his pearly whites. The young gnosiamancer blushed in shame.

"I'm sowwy…"

"Oh, no need to be apologetic," he chuckled with his usual people's mask.

"I'm just another student, no need to react like that. Come on, just show me what you are doing here." Whilst the girl initially behaved like an intimidated puppy, she soon opened to him and talked with the franticness of passion.

"So here we use a frame of light that we imprint into a sheet of paper, the problem is that it's really difficult to calibrate light to burn paper just in the right way, but if we achieve it we think it may be even better than the first models of printing press as ink is expensive, especially colored one, and we believe that we can give color to paper with certain natural properties of light, not even requiring usage of photomancy, which will make everything less prone to failure as the moving papers of the system will be mostly mechanical instead of magical, therefore freeing it of the frequent constraints of enchantment stacking."

"Right," Nolotl smacked his lips.

"For a girl half my size, you have triple my pulmonary capacity." The girl reddened at those words, but that color was most likely due to the lack of oxygen in her system.

"Your idea certainly has merits-""It's not my idea," she interjected.

"Oh, and who's is it?"

"Ehrm, I don't remember his name as he has never come here, and well…" She blushed again." Cognition Stimulation?" Nolotl guessed. The girl nodded shyly in response.

"I never understood why some people are shy about it. Cognition Stimulation is a good Boon, you shouldn't feel bad for picking it." Even if Perfect Recollection is the better one. He left the last part unsaid to not sound like he was pitying her; instead, he patted the girl's shoulder. A binary Boon that was good from the start and technically became better the older you were was hard to compete with, even with the boosts to computation of Cognition Stimulation.

"Now, you may not remember the man's name, but surely you have a clue?"

"Yes, yes," she nodded frantically.

"The twins told me the idea came from an important astromancer. The secretary of the tower master, if I'm not wrong. Which I tend to be…" She practically whispered the last part, so the diviner politely chose to ignore it. Mostly out of pity.

"Luminol, eh?" The Empyrean of Information puffed.

"Now the pieces are slowly clicking into place."

"What pieces?"

"I said that aloud?"

"Yup."

"It was a rhetoric question, girl."

"Oh…" She directed her gaze to the ground and flushed.

"So Luminol has never come down to the workshop even though the idea is his?" The young enchantress nodded.

"The ones who are directing the project are the Finil twins."

"Even though they aren't astromancers?" He raised a brow.

"As I've said, this printing press intends to work through light rather than Light. So there's no real need for an astromancer to manufacture it, maybe have as a counselor, but that's it."

"Yes, you did mention something of those sorts in your verbal barrage." Nolotl scratched his chin in thought.

"Does Luminol provide some sort of sponsorship?"

"I think so, yes," she nodded.

"Funding in the printing press is common, it's more about which prototypes receive more funding. But to my knowledge, our project is directly sponsored by the tower."

"Hmm…" Thoughts of possible corruption and embezzlement spawned in the Empyrean's mind, but he didn't voice them out loud. Mainly because he had no proof.

"I'm working here mostly as a way to satisfy my curiosity, but I would like to help if possible. I won't even ask for payment or credits."

"Well…" The girl wobbled her head.

"It's not my decision to make, but I'll ask the twins when they are back from classes."

"I'll patiently wait then," Nolotl answered with a smile worthy of the Empyrean of Chaos. Having nothing better to do whilst he waited, Nolotl went back to prototyping Enala's printing press. Maybe it was a diversion, but it wasn't a waste of time. It couldn't even be classified as one of his many side quests. You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Engaging with such mind-scrambling activities was beneficial for a gnosiamancer as it would boost his affinity with Information. If the time loop is real and not just a dud, leveling up will be my best tool. Maybe I can't get more mana, but being 3/4s of Information keeps my status between loops. The total celestial alignment grants a massive boost to Alignment, both its power and progress, so completing the Second Mind ritual is of vital importance too.

It didn't take long whilst he toyed with the prototype before his targets appeared. Moda and Armoda Finil were normal students, even though the profession of enchanting was to be expected from a gnosiamancer, they had no kernel of uniqueness to their name. And that was why they had died. Why he had been able to brutalize them even though there were four other mages threatening him. They were certainly better than the average person, but they didn't have that brutality and sagacity worthy of a mage.

Nolotl was tempted to say that the ambush would've been harder to fight if they weren't present to drag Luminol down with that awful and haphazard coterie. He didn't speak to them first. Not only because he was still a bit… sore that they tried to kill him—and apparently succeeded in every other timeline—but also because he knew they would try to talk to him first. The seeds had been planted, and now they would flourish.

Or a more gnosiamancer expression would be: the book out of place was the one that gathered the most attention. Nolotl had to give it to them, they didn't instantly seek him out the moment the girl talked to them, the twins waited until he took a break from his tinkering to come at him.

"Peni has told us that you would like to help with our project, Empyrean." One of the twins said. So that's her name, huh. Should've asked first. Instead of responding, Nolotl raised his finger and oscillated it between the twins.

"First things first, who is who? I know you are the Finil twins, but I can't say I'm able to place a name on each of you."

"I'm Armoda," the one with longer hair said.

"I'm Moda," the one with the shorter hair added. It must be noted that the differences in hair length were minimal, and that they were identical twins wearing identical clothes. They obviously did this to piss people off. For the love of the game. An actual important detail, however, was the color of their eyes. Both dotted a pair of indigo eyes, meaning that they weren't astromancers like Luminol, but instead their secondary Alignment was Arcane.

Mages that combined those two Alignments were usually called runamancers, even if they seldomly made use of the runes eponymous of their name. But these type of hybrid mages lived up to their reputation as they had proficiency with the schools of divination and enchantment, making them the de facto enchanters. Nolotl wasn't sure of their classification until now as the twins had been the first to perish in the ambush and he hadn't been able to look at their eyes with all of the chaos and adrenaline in his system.

If anything, their status as runamancers made more sense as to why he had been able to assault their minds with such ease. They were open to the Cognition yet their cognitive resistance wasn't as elevated as it should be due to their double-dipping. But most importantly, their status as practitioners of the Arcane could be a clue to the taximancer of the ambush.

Whilst that mage in specific hadn't been problematic, he could be equally as dangerous as the warrior or the assassin, his purple lightning bolts could instantly kill the twiceborn if they hit true.

"Nice to meet you then, Armoda and Moda," Nolotl said with faux friendliness as he looked at the respective twin when he spoke their names.

"As I've commented to Peni, I would love to help you with your project. As you may know, I am the Empyrean of Information, but I consider myself capable in Light as well without needing to be an astromancer."

"Well…" Armoda looked at his brother. The twins shared a look that made Nolotl think they were communicating through the Cognition, which was likely the case. Gnosiamancer family members had stronger bonds than random Information practitioners between each other, so with twins he could only expect that bond to be increased manyfold.

"We have decided that your help will be welcome, Empyrean." It was Moda who responded.

"But we must ask you that you not divulge any of our secrets."

"You have my word," Nolotl responded by performing a traditional Tezlan bow with one knee on the ground and a fist on the other.

"Though if my word is not valuable, I am more than disposed to agree to a geas." Truth be told, he didn't want to be bound by a geas. Those Arcane enchantments bound parties into a contract that had to be fulfilled, and whilst there was leeway, they were preternaturally bound to oblige it. To the extent that it may affect their thoughts. This was already bad enough, but taking into account the time loop, nothing confirmed him that the geas would disappear once the cycle restarted, and if it lingered…

then he couldn't even begin to put into words how bad that would be.

"No, there's no need for that!" Moda frantically shook his open palms in distress. Of course, the diviner was aware how spineless these twins were. The geas also bound them, after all. Not many people could agree to a completely and utterly equal trade, only the craziest or most sane of people could. That was why all judges and positions needing impartial people were taximancers even if they weren't mages. One only needed a single level in Arcane to apply geas, after all.

Arcane dictated people to obey, to be orderly. With a soft and honeyed chuckle, the prince of Tezlan stood up and looked at the twins.

"Then let us get started, shall we?" The twins lead Nolotl to their group and their printing press prototype. The group was somewhat big with the twins, Peni, and a couple of other students without counting him. The other two students didn't even factor in his mind as they were… dull. Gnosiamancy required a person to be mentally awake, to have critical thinking, to be unbiased enough to know you were biased, yet these two were but sheep.

Simple sleeping sheep at the farm that had thought that gnosiamancy was a good career choice. Nolotl didn't blame them for that, people had to survive and eat, but there was a big difference between surviving and living. Though it particularly enraged him that people so mentally asleep had gotten to an academy as prestigious as this one.

He wasn't even the best gnosiamancer student as Cillin still had an edge over him in the field with her higher levels, but that still wasn't an excuse to take one's studies seriously. After presenting to the two random students whose names were stored in some deep part of his mind so it could be recalled maybe once or twice through Perfect Recollection, the Empyrean directed himself to the young girl once again. Unlike those students, she showed promise.

Not only did she have great ideas and was capable of putting them into use, but she was already level 3 at the sweet age of 14. Considering he was on level 4 at the age of 19—even though he was on the brink of level 5—Peni's pace and intelligence was to be commended. Nolotl wholeheartedly believed she might have a chance to become the next Empyrean of Information once he graduated. Or perhaps even before that.

Such was his constant conundrum and curse as he let himself be guided by his interesting side quests instead of making an honest effort to progress on the field. And talking of which…

"Now that we are formally working together, some formal presentations are in order," he extended the hand to the young redhead.

"Nolotl Xocoyotzin, Empyrean of Information."

"Uhm… Peni Cilina, …enchantress?" She sheepishly accepted his hand. It was marvelous—some might say delectable—how submissive the girl had become from her initial aggressive start once she discovered the man she had talked to was one of the nine empyreans.

"Pleased to meet you, Peni. I'm sure this project will grant both of us many Insights." Once the presentations were over, Peni, the twins, and those dull students, guided him through the prototype and its design.

"I'm sure Peni has explained you something already about how the printing press works—though we prefer to say printer as it is shorter—as she tends to say that to everyone that comes by," the young enchantress blushed at Armoda's words.

"In a very summarized way, we use light threefold in our system," Moda continued.

"First, we make small imprints into the paper that make small crevices for the ink to pour into. Secondly, we use a Deep Ebony substitute-""Wait? Deep Ebony? How can you use Deep Ebony as… ink? Beyond also being very expensive." Nolotl interjected.

"We don't," the short-haired twin sighed in a controlled manner.

"I said substitute for something. Deep Ebony has especial properties when exposed to charged and/or concentrated light, changing its color. That's why we call it a substitute to this substance, but it's just a common vegetable compound we get from the Life Tower that recreates these exact properties. In the second step, we expose the substitute to specific times and temperatures of light so it gains a color.

On the final step, we heat the whole print so the inkified substitute remains in place and with the selected color. What are your thoughts, Empyrean?"

"Well, Peni told me there were less moving parts, but I honestly see more of them with your prototype."

"How so?" Armoda, the other twin, asked.

"For starters," Nolotl stood up and pointed at a light-emitting focus on the prototype.

"You are doing two printing processes here. First to create the crevices, then to pour the ink."

"I don't understand?" The long-haired twin said.

"We don't make a second scan. Do we?"

"Nope," his brother responded.

"Wait, then how can you place the colored substitute if you don't map every position to every color?"

"Uh…" Both twins groaned but then Armoda continued.

"We kinda are just working with black color." You have resisted Rage. Nolotl felt his blood almost boil as he heard those words. It took him three deep breaths to calm down and not murder the twins again. Interestingly it was his quetzal part which mostly demanded blood with the crow basically in a torpor.

"You are telling me," he pinched his nose, "that you have developed the first printing press capable of working with color without the need of other inks, and you are just using it for normal printing?"

"Yes?" Both twins responded again. You have resisted Rage. You have resisted Madness. You have resisted Rage. The terian's tattoos slightly shone as his animal forms threatened to come out in a promise of rage, the light properties of the quetzal demanding tribute. They were aching for the taste of blood. And he didn't blame them, for his gnosiamancer self was nearing its breaking point.

"Alright, alright…" The Empyrean of Information exhaled calmly and smiled.

"It would seem you need more help than I initially thought."