Ugh, that was stupid. Lanting was Lanting, the Code or whatever other force chose Knights had chosen him, and all of that was done and dusted. He was here. He needed to be here.
And stretched out before him was a beautiful, shimmering trail, just like the Code had promise.d It reminded him a little of a quest guideline in a video game--something to make sure you were on the right path.
He followed it forward, heart racing the entire time. Truly, he had so little idea of what to expect--yeah, sure, he'd had plenty of time to look around his Wonder, but he still didn't feel like he really Got It. There hadn't been any more flashes of memory, not like the one that had first greeted him, those awful cold words--words that had felt like they were coming from his own mouth--and that awful cracking sound that he still didn't understand the origin of. But maybe that would change, if he visited more.
The glittering trail led him back into the private quarters that he was still fairly certain must have belonged to the last Lanting Knight, and then turned towards the room that he'd identified as a sort of office/workroom, as opposed to the studio-like space across the hall from it. And then, when he got inside, the trail vanished into the wall behind the desk where he'd found his signet ring.
Lanting frowned, tilting his head to the side. Had he come at this from the wrong angle, somehow? Did he actually need to be outside?
No, that didn't make sense. This wasn't a video game calculating the shortest path and doing something weird with it. This was an ancient magical entity that was designed to help him be a better Knight. So there had to be some kind fo secret--something that he needed to do, to find whatever he was looking for. And it made sense, didn't it? The Code was supposed to be somewhere protected. Where was more protected than "hidden in the Knight's private quarters?"
He rapped on the wall, and there was a hollow sound.
"Oh, hell yes," Lanting said, out loud, to no one in particular. A secret door hidden in the wall--that made total sense. Now he just had to figure out whatever puzzle he needed to enter it. Because that was how it worked, right? There was always a puzzle for these things. He just had to figure it out.
He moved to the sides of the desk, running his hands over the walls and the molding, for anything that felt like a button or something similar. Nothing was apparent, so he checked the surface of the desk, the drawers, all of it--still, no solutions. He was pretty sure the desk might have a false bottom in one of its drawers, but that didn't feel relevant at the moment.
He took a breath, and tucked himself under the desk, and there it was. It was so obvious when he thought about it--of course this special signet ring that belonged to the Knight and the Knight only would be the key. On the wall, hidden under the desk, was a carved circle of dark wood, with an indentation that Lanting's signet ring slotted into perfectly. There was a ripple of purple light out from the contact point, and then the desk--and the wall--moved, splitting in half down the middle and sliding apart to reveal a hallway curling into the darkness.
The glittering trail laid itself out before him.
Lanting felt a jolt of electric excitement, and darted forward. This--this was it. he was going to find his Wonder's piece of the Code, and help it, and get a good grade in Knighthood which was extremely normal to want and totally possible to achieve--
The hallway turned into stairs, heading down, and then at the bottom was a room--and in it, it looked like something had exploded or a tornado had ripped through or some other metaphor for it being a messy disaster. The stone floor was cracked and pieces were scattered, the walls looked almost scorched, and at the epicenter of the damage was a pedestal.
On top of that pedestal was a glowing orb.
The Code.
It swirled erratically, size pulsing between tiny and compressed and more expanded and wispy. And it did, indeed, look distinctly unwell.
"Hi," Lanting said, and he felt stupid as soon as he said it, but--well, the Code had communicated on the Moon, so it clearly had some sapience, and Lanting would feel weird not treating it like a person. "I know I'm not the best Knight jsut yet, but I....really want to help you. So...um....yeah."
He wasn't really a meditation person, but he knew how it worked in theory, and that made sense as a way to reach out and connect with the Code like he was supposed to.
So he sat down, and closed his eyes, and sort of...reached out with his mind.
And he found it.
Zhiheng crossed his arms, eyes moving over the courtyard in front of him. He could see how it could be ordered, could be made lovely, but it had clearly been left to be neglected. The whole place had, this....Lanting that was apparently his new Wonder.
A hand rested on his shoulder. The figure seemed slightly out of view, to the Lanting of the present--someone unidentifiable but important. A mentor, at least.
"You are being given a second chance, Zhiheng Ji. A chance to become someone better than you were before. To atone for your previous misdeeds."
Zhiheng would have rolled his eyes, were it not for the person next to him. Instead, he simply privately seethed. "Previous misdeeds," as if anyone who knew the full story could have blamed him for any of the things he'd done--
"This place, Lanting, has long been a place of great knowledge. Somewhere for scholars and healers and artists from all across the cosmos to meet and debate, to learn from each other, to exchange. But its last Knight cared little for it, preferring to gad about the universe, and it is not what it once was. It will be your task toy restore it to its proper glory."
The mentor leaned in close.
"Do not disappoint me, Lanting of Ida. I would hate to find I had made the wrong choice."
Lanting jolted out of the memory with a sensation of something cold crawling up his spine. Whoever that had been--Zhiheng, his past self? Lanting supposed? Had very, very much not wanted to disappoint them. They must have meant a lot to him, Lanting supposed, and--
And he understood now. And moreover, the Code looked healed, steady and shining, and the area around it was no longer damaged.
He'd done it.
"Thank you," Lanting said, "for showing me that. For showing me him. And, um. I'll be back, I promise!"
There was no response, but that was fine. Lanting was eager to get back to Earth, to see if Dunnottar too had managed to connect with his piece of the Code.
[wc: 1344 words]
