The air vibrated with unspoken secrets as Gunter levitated a massive tome from the bookshelf. He wiped the dust and cobwebs from the surface of the book, then placed it on a bookstand. The tome flipped open with a flick of his wrist while he reached for his walking cane.
"What you got there, old man?" Sarah asked as she approached him.
"Ancient records from previous PRIME cycles," Gunter replied as he drank a glass of water. "Transcribed by sages and previous grand mages over the centuries."
"This text isn't in any language I am familiar with," Alice said as she walked over and gazed down at the ancient parchment paper.
Gunter replied as he flipped a page, explaining, "That's because civilizations long ago wrote it in dead languages. Only the Divine City of Xinhua and this academy existed when the first pages of this tome were written."
Gunter rubbed his beard as he read the faded text. "Eyes are not what they used to be," he grumbled, then cast an incantation which made the text glow mulberry. "Let's see, what page was it?"
"How long have you been Grand Mage, old man?" Elijah asked as he lit a cigarette.
"About fifty years... I stopped counting decades ago," he replied, then looked up at Elijah. "Could you kindly put that out, please? Don't want you accidentally setting one of my tomes on fire by accident."
Rachel's eyes narrowed as she and Elijah flicked their cigarettes out the window.
"Thank you," Gunter said, then flipped a page.
"What are you looking for?" Rachel asked, eyes fixating on the symbols that she couldn't decipher.
"Information on the ENGINE and the one-hundred-year cycle to find a PRIME," Gunter explained. "If my memory is correct, this tome covers the purpose of the pilgrimage and the origins of the ENGINE itself."
"You mean the ENGINE wasn't always in the sky?" Elijah asked.
Rachel glanced back at Emily, who was still leaning on the wall with arms crossed.
"Correct, some sages believe the ENGINE isn't even from our universe and has run pilgrimages from beyond our world," Gunter replied.
"Different universes, you say?" Rachel said, her mulberry eyes lingering on mathematical equations.
Gunter nodded. "Yes, it's highly debated in clerical and scientific circles. Personally, I find the metaphysics of it all pointless."
"Why do you say that?" Elijah asked.
"Isn't that the Fibonacci?" Rachel asked as Gunter turned the page.
Gunter raised an eyebrow at Rachel. "Yes, wait a minute … why do your eyes share the same color as the ENGINE?"
"I had an accident," Rachel replied as she gazed at the Fibonacci sequence. She bit her lip and then glanced back at Emily. "What do you think, Em?"
"About what?" Emily replied.
"You weren't even listening, were you?"
Emily shrugged.
"Everything alright?" Rachel asked as she walked over to her.
Emily sighed, then rubbed her hands through her hair. "What do you think?"
Rachel blinked, then leaned next to Emily. "Em, I've been thinking about what you mean by forbidden knowledge. I don't know if you're aware of this... but I've been somewhere that wasn't here — before Corwood, before any of this," she explained. "It happened at the smokehouse in Tyrial."
"In the bathroom?" Emily asked as she scratched her neck.
Rachel nodded. "Yes, the bathroom sent me somewhere. There was no ENGINE in the sky, no chosen, and the people treated me as an outsider. It was Corwood, yet not our Corwood."
Emily's gaze turned trance-like as she stared straight ahead.
"I was wondering if it's better to stop keeping what we know from everyone and just show them."
Emily shook her head. "That's a horrible idea."
"But why?"
"You saw how shocked they were when they saw me lose my shit in Corwood. You saw how they acted when you told them we both can fuck with time," Emily replied, then glanced at Elijah. "Imagine what would happen if you just dropped the multiverse bomb?"
"I get that, but they've already seen some wild shit. I literally portal them through random doors."
"It's not about them. It's about everyone else. They will tell someone, their friends will tell someone... Sarah would tell everyone on live television."
"So? It might rattle people, but think about the possibilities. We can help civilization solve one of the greatest mysteries. This is way bigger than a couple of people being uncomfortable about our universe actually being a multiverse."
"Hey, kid, come look at this," Elijah insisted as he gestured at Emily.
Emily forced a smile. "I'll pass."
Elijah shook his head and then walked over. "Let's make a deal."
Emily crossed her arms. "Let me guess, waffles?"
Elijah nodded. "All I ask is that you look at that tome."
"You can't just keep manipulating me with my favorite food."
"You never say no," Rachel chuckled. "Plus, you might learn something."
Emily sighed, then rolled her eyes. "Fine, I will look at the stupid book."
"What was all that about?" Elijah whispered to Rachel as he watched Emily walk over toward Gunter.
"Girl talk," Rachel replied with a thin-lipped smile.
Elijah rolled his eyes. "Don't bullshit me."
Rachel sighed, then ran her hands through her hair. "Don't tell anyone just yet, but I know for a fact there is something beyond our universe. Emily knows as well."
"I had been suspecting that for some time now."
"Just keep your mouth shut for now, okay?"
"Is it really all that serious, or is Emily making a bigger deal than what it really is?"
Rachel rubbed her neck, then inhaled, "Probably both."
Emily stood next to Gunter, gazing down at the glowing text transcribed in the tome. Her eyes glanced at the sketches of the ENGINE and the mathematical symbols. She bit her lower lip and crossed her arms as the images and words burrowed into her mind.
"You can read the ancient one's language?" Gunter asked as he observed the recognition in Emily's emerald eyes.
Emily nodded as she flipped the page. Her eyebrows narrowed as she read the text.
"How is she fluent in dead languages if she wasn't alive when people spoke them?" Alice asked as she observed Emily.
"If she is what the prophecy foretold, then all things are possible," Gunter replied.
"Was the text never translated into modern languages?" Alice asked.
Gunter nodded, then levitated another book from his grand bookcase. "Some yes... though translations are poetic and misinterpreted. Modern languages lack the letters and symbols to transcribe what the original text truly says.
"Lovely, so the entire book is utter nonsense?" Sarah asked, then shook her head. "All those sages are basically handing out a book of guesses."
"Crude, but correct," Gunter replied as he watched Alice skim the pages of the book. "Everyone who could speak the ancient tongue died ages ago. I cannot even properly read the original documents word-for-word."
Emily's eyes narrowed with each flip of the page. Her nostrils flared as she slammed the book closed. She sighed, then rubbed her hands over her face while grumbling to herself. The muscles in her body tightened as she looked up at the ceiling. Mulberry light glowed in her eyes as she froze time. Everyone stood like mannequins in a window, except for Rachel.
"What are you doing, Em?" Rachel asked as her gaze fixated on Gunter's frozen body.
Emily rubbed her hands through her hair as her face turned sour. "I needed to talk to you in private. This is the best way to do it," Emily explained as she walked towards her.
"About what?" Rachel asked as Emily leaned on the wall next to her.
Emily sighed, then crossed her arms. "I want you to become PRIME."
Rachel's mulberry eyes dilated. "What... why!?"
Emily plucked at her fingernails as she looked at the ground. "Because you already know stuff the others don't. I would ask sourpuss, but I know he wouldn't do it."
"But what about our promise?"
"That was when I had amnesia. When I thought I was just some orphan."
"I woke you up...is that what you are saying?"
Emily nodded. "I don't want to be what I am."
"So don't; the ENGINE just won't have its PRIME. You can just not do the job."
Emily shook her head. "Wish it were that simple. The ENGINE needs a PRIME, and I need to go into hiding."
"I don't understand. Why do you want to hide? Why not be what you are?"
"Because it fucking sucks, Rache. Being mortal is a lot more interesting than being a god."
"So if I were to become PRIME, would the cycles end?"
"No, you will serve for one hundred years."
Rachel's eyes narrowed. "The ENGINE isn't looking for a PRIME....it wants you specifically."
Emily shrugged. "Basically."
Rachel ran her hands through her hair. She then looked around the room with wide eyes. "You're the first PRIME!?"
"Unfortunately."
"So the cycles will continue, people will die, the ENGINE will keep searching until you sit your ass back on the throne?"
Emily avoided Rachel's gaze as she stared down at the ground.
"I won't do it," Rachel declared. "I love you, Em, but this is selfish. You are causing so much damage by trying to pretend you are something you are not."
Emily forced a thin-lipped smile as a tear trickled down her face. "I just want to be like y'all. Do you know how unbearably lonely it is!?"
"That's your reasoning because you are lonely? Em, all you have to do is visit, or I don't know, have us visit you wherever the fuck your cosmic throne is."
"No... I can't just do that, Rache. I can't just teleport my friends for breakfast. I can't just be myself without breaking everything," she replied, then took a deep breath. "That's the part your stupid tomes don't cover. You romanticize being PRIME, fucking make a damn religion out of it, and none of y'all got a clue how isolating the job is!"
Rachel sighed. "Look, how about you just tell everyone?"
Emily's nostrils flared as her eyes glowed mulberry. "You don't fucking understand!" She cried as she unfroze time. "But you will! ł ₩łⱠⱠ ₥₳₭Ɇ ɎØɄ ₣Ʉ₵₭ł₦₲ Ʉ₦ĐɆⱤ₴₮₳₦Đ!"
Sarah blinked, then her eyes dilated as she felt the stiffness in her muscles. "Did one of you fuck with time again!?"
"Emily, I get it, but there's got to be another way?" Rachel insisted, then looked up at Elijah with worried eyes.
"There is no other way!" Emily grumbled as she wiped the tears from her eyes. "₱Ⱡ₳Ɏ ₮ł₥Ɇ ł₴ ØVɆⱤ," she growled as she lit Gunter's ancient tome on fire.
"What are you doing!?" Gunter yelled as he tried to put out the flames with magic.
Emily did not reply as she kicked down the door and walked outside.
"What the fuck happened!?" Elijah asked as he put a cigarette to his lips.
"She asked me to be PRIME, and I declined," Rachel replied.
Elijah lit the cigarette and then sighed. "Well, fuck."
"Looks like she is having another tantrum," Sarah said as a flaming bookcase fell next to her.
"Shut the fuck up, Sarah," Rachel grumbled as she gestured for everyone to follow her.
The ground shook as if there were an earthquake. Debris and Statues collapsed on bridges as Rachel and the others rushed to catch up with Emily. Mages held back fallen rubble as students ran to safety. Wildlife retreated deeper into the forest as boulders tumbled down the mountain ridge.
Rachel gazed up at the ENGINE as Emily hovered in the sky next to it. "Emily, what are you doing!?"
"Making you fucking understand!" Emily yelled as she floated in front of the ENGINE.
"By attacking the ENGINE?" Rachel asked.
Emily looked down at everyone, then laughed. "You think this is the ENGINE?"
"Have you gone mad!?" Gunter asked with wide eyes as he created a dome to protect everyone from the falling debris. "Someone talk some damn sense into her before she gets herself killed."
"I am afraid you are reading the situation incorrectly," Alice said as she gazed up at Emily.
Gunter's eyes widened. "What are you implying, Emily? Is that not the ENGINE?"
"Of course not, you've been worshiping just one of its eyes!" Emily cackled.
"How do you know that!?" Gunter asked.
"Because I made the fucking ENGINE!" Emily replied.
The world groaned as mulberry flames shot from Emily's eyes. The ENGINE gears creaked as it shrank in size. Clouds dissipated around the machinery, revealing the now panicking birds that were perched on its countless gears. Rachel stared up in awe as she watched Emily shrink what she once thought was God to the size of a piece of candy. Emily grabbed the ENGINE, then looked down at everyone.
"You thought this was God? You thought it made the rules. You thought what you saw was all there was to the ENGINE. You were mistaken," Emily said, then swallowed the ENGINE while staring at Rachel.