There was a sort of sense of foreboding, as she followed the shimmering golden line that led her towards the back of the grand glass conservatory; she couldn't exactly blame a quiet that was constant, because her Wonder was always quiet. Or at least, it had been the one time she'd come before. But there was something hanging in the air, a sense that things were just...wrong. Misaligned. Changed from how they should be.
Sonora hated it. And she was going to fix it.
The trail of golden light led her to a door--and when she pushed on it, it refused to give. Sonora frowned at it, and crossed her arms, staring it down as if that would force it to reveal its secrets and just...let her in. There didn't seem to be a lock, or any kind of indentation, or a puzzle, or---anything, to hint what she ought to do. Just a carving in the door of the familiar Idan orchid symbol, except--
Sonora frowned at it harder.
Except that there was a curved line drawn over it, almost as if the symbol was under a dome.
A dome like her magic made.
Sonora perked up, and called on her magic, summoning the dome that had forced Cryptomelane to play nicely and leave the poor civilian alone, and as soon as the orchid field bloomed aorund her, the symbol on the door lit up and it swung open.
"Oh that's smart," she said, to no one in particular. Maybe to her past self, or something.
The room within was...incredible. Walls and walls of jars, containing all sorts of specimens, each carefully labeled--most were seeds, but a few looked like germinated plants, carefully preserved in jars and shut away. The room was clearly worse for wear--there were radial cracks in the floor, like something had burst out from the center of the room, and it felt like a miracle that all the shelves of seeds were still safe.
And there, floating in the center of the room over a round worktable that had been split down the middle by whatever force had blasted through here, was the Code.
"Hi there," Sonora said, like she was greeting an old friend. And in some ways, wasn't she? "I guess now we get to...resonate, or what have you."
Whatever that meant. She'd figure it out. It couldn't be that hard, right? After all, the Code was already the cource of her power, and the source of the magic that made her Wonder a Wonder. So she just had to.....reach out for that, right? And become one with it? Or whatever else.
She perched herself on one half of the broken table, closed her eyes, and focused, and she felt herself connect with the magic in the air.
"I know what I want to do with this space," Sonora said. Not the present one--the old Sonora. She was younger, this time, not the wise older lady Sonora had first seen--barely twenty, perhaps. A baby Knight, having just taken her post.
"Oh? And that is?" The man with her asked, He was tall, and handsome, dark-skinned, with golden hair pulled into thick braids, and he also wore the regalia of Ida.
"A seed vault. Collect them from all over the universe. Make sure that we have plenty of as many species as possible. A place we can pull them from, if some other world has a disaster. Crops blighted? We get them something resistant tot he blight. Drought? Here are some drought-resistant, fast-growing crops." Anita exhaled. "I'm just...I'm tired of it, Balaram. Of watching people suffer and knowing that I have all these beautiful things preserved here, and none of them can help. Buit this could. This will."
"And how do you intend to do that?" Balarma asked, sounding more than a little bit skeptical. That was fair, Anita thought--her plan was ambitious, and it certainly wouldn't be easy. It wasn't what this place was designed for, either.
"I think I'd like to work with other Knights," she said. "Develop ways to preserve the seeds for a long time. Solicit donations form other worlds, that might be interested in preserving their ecological heritage and guaranteeing it can be accessed in the future. Trade favors for more samples. Pay for them direclty, if I must; it's not as if we're left to starve with no income, as Knights." She exhaled.
"And if the Council objects?" Balaram asked. His eyebrows were raised, and his phrasing suggested that this was a problem he very much anticipated that Anita would rush right past.
"If the Council objects," Anita said, firmly, "I will do it anyway and they can simply live with that." She generally tried to be polite and respectful of the world's governing body, of course, but she was a Knight. A servant of the Code. And this was so much bigger than whatever silly objections a bunch of pencil-pushing bureaucrats and politicians might have.
Balaram took in the room around them, eyes lighting on the Code piece, in the same place above the work table. He seemed to consider, for a long moment, before giving a serious nod. A smile had settled itself on his face, of the sort that indicated he was a man committed to whatever mischief might be presented before him.
"An ambitious plan," the man said, and he hummed. "Let me know what I can do to help."
Sonora jolted, suddenly, back into the present. She was still sitting on the table--but it was fixed, now, which meant she was seated eye-level with the Code, which was stronger and steadier now.
She reached out and tapped it, smiling a little smugly.
"Look at that. We fixed it, you and me."
[wc: 1005 words]
