The smell of fried eggs had permeated the kitchen when a partially-traumatised Knight walked into the room. She sniffed at the air hopefully, and then started when she saw the little boy standing on a small stool at a kitchen stove that had to be from Earth.

“I’ve seen this before,” said Isabelle. “It looks like a replica of the centrepiece in Champion Octantis’ kitchen, the one I saw in a museum. Is it an imitation?”

“If it was, I wouldn’t be using it to fry some eggs now, would I?” replied Gaius. “The Cardinal Champions took a lot of things from their world and brought it over to Orb, like this kitchen stove you see right here. That said, I’m not sure how anyone could have made this without the prerequisite tools.”

She stared at the stove. “Tools?”

“Yeah, forging the metal and casting it to such a fine extent…either the metalworking industries boomed when the Cardinal Champions crossed over, or one of them had the ability to replicate things in their memory,” mused the little boy. His hand danced, and the scrambled eggs flew upwards and flipped over. “Now I’m a great cook, eh?”

Isabelle looked at the eggs flipping and turning, before taking some utensils that were nearby and headed for the table.

Gaius joined her a few minutes later, just as a wooden sculpture hopped onto the table. Isabelle glanced at the wooden sculpture, and did a double-take when it took a small bit of scrambled egg and ate it.

“Erm…”

Nexus glared at the confused Knight. “You have a problem, missy?”

“No…nothing.”

“See that it stays that way.” Nexus swallowed another bit of egg. Gaius didn’t know how or why the artificial intelligence was eating, seeing as it was just a finely carved block of wood that didn’t need to eat.

“Does eating actually do anything for you?” asked Gaius, his eyes on the stomach of the wooden sculpture. It was, as anyone would expect, made of wood and immutable. “Where does the food go anyway?”

The sculpture levelled a look of scorn at Gaius. “There is a myriad of ways to accomplish what might seem to be impossible. Obviously, I made this body an artefact, idiot. I can now taste and digest food, just so you know.”

Nexus’ words turned Gaius speechless for a good few seconds. With a visible effort, the boy turned his attention away from the wooden sculpture and on to Isabelle, who was looking at the animated sculpture with a pair of bulging eyeballs.

Gaius was of the opinion that such an expression definitely didn’t suit her aesthetics, but no one would want to hear that from a boy who was eleven years old…not that the little boy knew when his birthday was.

“Other than books, you’re also quite fascinated by artefacts, eh?” Gaius asked, addressing Isabelle. “You aren’t as ladylike as your exterior suggests.”

“Hey!” She glared at Gaius. “I’ll have you know that the pursuit of artefacts is very common amongst the aristocratic circles, especially with the ladies my age! What’s ladylike is decided by prevalence, not some little boy like you!”

“Alright, hold your horses, Isabelle.” Gaius scooped up some egg and ate it. It was heavenly — well, anything would be, given that the boy hadn’t eaten anything for nearly a day. “What other kinds of foodstuff does the Library have, Nexus? Eating eggs every day is going to dull my appetite.”

“Eggs, broccoli, fish, rice and the chickens that lay these eggs,” replied the wooden sculpture. “The ingredients storage is split and maintained by the spectres of the Library; a longer search on your part would have yielded more ingredients.”

Ignoring Isabelle’s violent coughs, Gaius said, “So I don’t need to interfere?”

“Yes, but make sure that you don’t take more than necessary. The Library can only feed three people properly.”

Gaius finished up the eggs, before leaning backwards and folding his arms. He waited for Isabelle’s coughing to die down, before rapping the table twice. “We’ll be discussing our next course of action. What we need to do at present is to find a way to get to the Intersection, and then to Orb from there.”

“Nexus, bring out a projection.”

“By your will, Master Gaius.”

The boy shook his head at the formal tone that the artificial intelligence had adopted, and then gestured at the hologram that just appeared. The teenage Knight looked at the image, clearly interested.

“This here, Isabelle,” said Gaius, “is a map of Heritage.”

“A radius of twenty kilometres from the Library of Ancients,” added on the wooden sculpture. “The red dots are passageways, and there are three within this range.”

“Why are you showing me this?” asked Isabelle. “Aren’t you scared that I’ll escape?”

“Escape?” Gaius smiled bitterly. “To where?”

“Home, naturally!” She looked at Gaius, and then shuddered visibly. “Do…you know something that I don’t?”

“Very much so.” Gaius got up, and the wooden sculpture hopped on his shoulder. “Follow me. I think you should see this before you entertain thoughts of returning home.”

The boy got up, and with Isabelle hot on his heels, led the way to the room that housed the Map of Stars. It didn’t take long before they arrived, and without any ado, the boy walked over to the grand table that was the Map of Stars.

“Open a viewing port to the Southern Capital and the other Southern cities, Nexus.”

Twelve windows opened, revealing cities whose streets were all simultaneously crowded with soldiers and people. The soldiers were garbed in black and silver, their arms holding on to a sword and a Straight shot. There weren’t that many soldiers, just enough to line every street that was full, but their presence alone was preventing the crowd from turning rowdy.

“This is a live broadcast, Isabelle.” Gaius zoomed in to an elevated platform, where tens of men and women were tied to a stake. Nexus replicated the action for the other cities, earning a satisfied nod from the little boy.

Isabelle’s eyes turned round. “But these are all members of the Southern Houses! What’s going on? Why are they all tied up, like…like they’re about to be executed?”

“Because that’s what’s going on, Miss Isabelle.” Gaius glanced at the screens, and then turned to the visibly distraught Knight. “A few hours ago, Nexus noticed that forces of an unknown affiliation had captured the rulers of the Southern Continent with armed forces as they fled, aided by two entities of Paragon-level strength. The East-West alliance withdrew shortly afterwards.”

Her face blanched.

“Similar actions occurred throughout the landmass, with the captives sent to a city that presumably used to be under them,” added on Nexus. “And they’re awaiting execution now.”

“It’s a coup, in other words.” Gaius rubbed his noise as someone tied to the stake was set on fire. “This is the third batch of people to be executed, I think.”

Isabelle’s breathing was frantic by the time the boy had finished speaking. “My family…”

“We cannot tell who’s who,” Nexus replied gravely. “But it’s very possible that they’re on death row, or already dead.”

She swayed on her feet, but Gaius caught her before she fainted for the third time in twenty-hours.

“That was a bit harsh, Master Gaius.”

Gaius looked at the screens, which were depicting death in its full glory, and turned away. “Better that than living for a fantasy.”