This was a safe enough space once it was established that they were no longer being shadow snatched by her again. That this bright place with a breath stealing look down over London's vast horizon could only be rivalled by riding the London Eye. Helping each other off the floor. Hard check of themselves, in what equipment they have and the minor bruising from being tossed so violently. Undertakers and humans learning each others senses and shared bond mental worlds.
The group is consistent of humans with temporary pairing to undertakers. They are geared like waste land walkers, light weight portal breathing backpacks. Plate shells or tight nit chain guard on vulnerable areas. Scuffed like they tasted fighting plenty enough times to had earth growing on the knees. Undertakers should be in funeral wear as tradition but this seems to be in the fashion of gear they died in. All but Curiosity. He in the high visibility yellow bio hazard plastic, a crystal 'pit boy' arm brace and current fashioned with black straps of living materials. Straps adjust itself softly in not restricting his movement or harming him. There a little drip of cloth that looks almost suspecting a tail, it sways not to any breeze or moves life cloth does. Everyone else was making sure they had all they items and was checking injuries that could react with the undertaker bond. There was several who hid it well until now. Tight wraps along arms, defensive scuffs.
Curiosity is always eyeing dangers, always looking at the situation as a whole. Taking in who is the most injured. The ones with less weaponry. The pairs in better condition then others. He slides about his surroundings in the same measurements. Eyeing exits, the strength of the structure and where exactly did they end up. He steps to the visitor plaque on the wall between two elevator doors. He touched and shuffled the differing versions of the same plaque. He shivers of one version being rusted with claw mark through.
'The Shard in London, standing 310 meters (1,016 ft) tall in Southwark, is Western Europe's tallest building and a landmark pyramidal skyscraper designed by Renzo Piano. Completed in 2012, this "vertical city" features offices, restaurants, the 5-star Shangri-La Hotel, apartments, and the View from The Shard observation deck.' Which in hindsight, is another hidden mage society village inside an architectural ecosystem. This was a safe place to gain more bullets, prayer slips and other welcomed supplies. Have some proper medical care look into the wounded.
"Well be damned." A stranger smoking beside the view window, the purple blue smoke wafting and dissolving into grains of gemstone grit. The once bed sheet ghost is a lot better clothing then his days at ocean view university. His better armed and plenty experienced to know she was there. Plenty of experience to not be fazed by abyss monsters among the blind.
"My cigar buddy." She softly, carefully peels and forms. Stood as a twig body monster. She pulls her own flesh to remove a silver case form folds of shadow. She steps up the left of the guy, lights up her own black paper rolled version. Her smoke was a hypnotic hues of rainbow. The clouds of colours clash and spark occasionally. Yet still dissolves into gemstone dust across the floor. Passing only the calm before trade of vague gestures then words from lips.
"Lady mystic shadow duchess. You spread vast in the abyss circles. Why are you here? Don't you have better tomes to be looking after?" She guesses this guy followed in same ways she does. That he escapes horrors of tome changes and name transfers. Had to at some point been a victim of the Clothus and was pulled back to this ocean world for the curse this universe is.
Survived between the unknown abyss and the known universes. She figures now that he, like others have used a part of her soul to exist instead of being erased. A Revenant of lost matrix languages that refuses to be forgotten. Plenty of the being whom treat her like a monarch are the same type. Erased beings trying to get humanity or existence. Wanting their purpose to be meaningful. A goal unchanged as long as you have a soul. Only the soulless are empty and unambiguous. Lacking the need for love or legacy.
"We are going to cross the black." Curiosity demands in striding between her and the smoker. Both her and the merchant made the same look as before, as there wasnt exactly a good explanation of where or what he actually seems to want.
"He asked to borrow my nightmare and cross them into darkness. I had several hard thoughts for what he means." She added, "I don't think he understands or that he doesn't know what he means. And if he does know what he means, his doing a terrible job of getting the point across."
"Well, crossing the otherside isn't meaning the afterlife anymore. Especially from an undertaker." The merchant nods gentle of her assessment, "You tried the damned corridor?"
"We left the wax works through one of those." She puffed frankly, "They don't seem satisfied."
"You tried the secret service tunnels?" She scratched her mask chin in considering this. The escape tunnels underneath the major big historical buildings. There's hidden accesses from Buckingham palace and West minister. Used in extreme emergencies for Royals and diplomatic personnel. It was suggested more likely because of how the damned and hidden use these unlit pathings for the darkness realms. Realms for the nocturnal predators and dreamland. But light isnt how undertaker vision works. These places would have already been mapped and used by monarchies of shady businesses.
"The torn space." Curiosity using a new angle, "The black." Only then the merchant knew. He stares deeply into Curiosity eyes in checking if the man was sane.
"The project that throw the world into several wars in a row." Crushing the half smoked cigarette, hissing his hand with hot. She figured out the deal now.
"That means his going to Unlondon like me. I was already preparing." She turned away with enjoying her rainbow choal black cigarette without bothering to waste having a reaction. She had been traveling london in all the fractured time zones for that travel. She pumped to a mock human shape by now, the longer each puff took the more air fills limbs.
"You aren't seriously going to feed yourselves into a black hole and hope to not cause reversed damage. You might even cause it to devour the planet. There will be nothing here." The man shakes uncontrollably in fear or rage of the idea. The stupidity of assuming that led to undertakers feeding themselves into a black hole. Curiosity got the ghost off him harshly and looked that more confused.
"Maybe he was spat out from it and is trying to go back. Be like trying to leave hell the wrong way." She voiced in a manner of dismay. The merchant grumbles long winded gruff of how dumb other souls can be. Turns himself to looking out of the Shard. Watching the moves of London like ants in a colony. Resigning the merchant in knowing it has became part of the abyss and has never belonged in a time or place. Just a bystanders, while collaspe happens to others. Watching healthy souls being torn from their timespace fabric. Can't influence the crazy soul from the damages this may influence the ocean layers.
She has a dazed prolonged mental talk to herself over this debate. I for one believe in science. Oil and water doesn't mix unless you introduce a compound that is both hyrdophobic and hydro-attractive.At the moment, the tar layer is accessible and collectable. If we were to have them mix in suspended dynamic, it wouldn't be so easy to steal nor would we have light blocked. Restore energy wavelengths. The tomes will be able to leave this ocean universe as their own systems.
"Thank the gods you are all in one piece!" A god follower for earthly mother worship. Hung are torso totem from her necklace and bracelets. A very mother hen personality as she is making sure everyone is well and asking way to many health questions. This lady can see Curiosity, made a few asks but knew he wasn't a human. The lady seems to glance towards Leana and then completely ignored her. Or maybe isnt strongly gifted to notice Leana's presence.
Offering instead a blessing on all those she sees among and helps them to the private apartments of the Shard. Rich folks studio flat living with open plan feng shui. Everyone is being given rations of basics food, drinks and injection of the current working antibiotic. The humans sort themselves while the undertakers sit back and have their own meeting. Leana follows Curiosity around, clings her shadow to anchor his. If he moves she is shadow pulled to follow. She finds a new window to stare out of during the meeting.
"Exchange tokens?" She heard from the wall, a thing peeling the corner of darkness into liminal space, office corridor addition. It also explains why the chimes of time zoning doesn't work inside the Shard but does outside of it. That the whole mage hidden village energizes the access to such sub spacing. She makes her gestures of greetings, checked that none looked at her or cared, and continued a merchant deal with the backrooms screech. All that more unfazed as sacks of building materials are being swapped. It takes construction repair materials and she takes lost dropped objects. She was in the mid lift of a massive long ladder when she had to pause. The screech took over pulling it from her and folds back hidden.
"What is it?" The earthly lady asked the undertakers, "Is it dangerous?"
"Miss Trixie is uniquely a tormented soul from the darker sides of the abyss. She is only dangerous to things of broken souls." That was the agreed answer they all choose. The earthy follower lifted a plate of cookies. Leana considers the offering. Her left hand, she takes one and gave it a smell. She crumbles it to a smaller chunk, and eats facing away from them. Dropping it through her mouth.
"Well, at least Miss Trixie isn't mannerless." The follower concludes, "Any luck in finding your original homelands?"
Plenty shook of dismay. Leana softly with gingery reach takes a second and third cookie. She gave a cookie to the returning screech and softly slowly. The trade continues. The screech ate the cookie in one go and enjoys it. The humans are back to the sides of their partners and they go through making mage village exchanges. Things they picked up on the journey to here. The lass offering up jar foods and other travel useful items. The screech leaves well after they were done. She had time to figure her own gear parts and the body she is now.
Indeed nightmare shape, visible to undertakers but because she is a sort of high ranking nightmare. She sometimes partly visible to the humans and the god follower isn't able to really make sense of the clouded mess that seems a presence. Staring deeply but not seeing a shape per say.
"The nightmare monarch is the only one who isn't waged a war or made political propaganda. The only one staying functional regardless of territory or spies. It runs completely off set then a traditional structure." So they were weighing political allies and crossed the most infamous one, "Even the hell court monarchies and heavenly orders made their sides. The families of living humans have made there stands." The airing flustered annoyance.
"Curiosity?" He was staring blankly and with unbreakable eyes over Trixie. In sort of maybe dawning a realization, did he work out she was the nightmare monarch or that he remembered something for a past life? He was sat stiffly, locking eyes at her everything. Sizing or planning. Distant and yet very methodically checking.
"Nightmare don't eat materials of the waking world." He mutters to himself.
"They do if they are of both worlds." She wags left hand playfully, "Someone else's darkest inner world can come from the innocent and unlikely sources." She crossed her arms a little with posturing pout, "It is why I dislike angels, they have that learning to be souls. They are more terrifying then demons sometimes." She straighten up with putting a professional posture back, "Everyone of soul is able to dream. Even undertakers." She smirks in winning a little fear from some folks, "You undertakers didn't know you could, huh. You're just to active thinking all the time. The waking worlds are real of textures, taste and new things. The dream worlds are copies, memories and mimics. Sometimes the dream world are made up. Abstract. You have very set restrictions while existing inside the waking world." She studies the pairs, "You aren't able to reach a place that isn't a destination you physical reach. This is what you lot get wrong always."
This takes a while and soon the humans figured this out. That it required to be unconscious to access the kingdom in the darkness. That it will to be near death and being in REM sleep is a dangerous fine line. Curiosity slowly traces away from her to his old notepads. He skips past a lot of recent records. A significant amount, he slows tracing something of a warning.
She looked at how the hour chimes again, but confirmed that this zone is separated from London's rules. She wafted her right hand, bringing up the sigil network glitching screen. She have a quick scan into the properties that are of kingdoms ruling rights. She removed a tome duty records of her current nickname workers and the subjects of subspecies. She has an addon insert of nightmare, demon lords and those that own her favors. All tracking, none are worth ticketing. She folds the records back into herself. And pulled herself materials into a more sensible assumption. She brought her more clay body aspects, shattered doll look in her classic brides patchwork. Lacing made of unknown weave that dances in the ambiance, indicating her emotions. She holds her face showing cautious and pondering. She also made sure her aura didn't trip any magical or Clothus network. She does not want the fan fare and panic. She came at Curiosity invite, secret and quietly. She does however give a soft alert for exchanges and potential collection gathering materials. Plenty of her god eater, slayer and mythical are not money exchange types.
"No you!" Hissed a rough voice. She soft smiles in knowing them, knowing an old time favorite. She wags a brow knowing this guy was here to avoid the kitten and her loki. A scavenger of wasteland if not in his skinny black cat form. And fits in this public domain as a registered poucher. His account ID shows this as his race name.
"Ragnar Lovebrooke. One of my favourites." She purrs and strides to stand over the nervous wreck. Instead of forcing Ragnar into a cat form, she instead pats his shoulder. Neat up his armour kit. Had patched a hole in his hem by his tail trench coat. He stands very still, debating that this was better treatment then being forced into a sleek cat shape. He did just sort of let's her dolt over him, as if she was his mother. At some point accepted eating chunk bits of food, as if being given treats for being a behaved pet. He has gotten used to being in this strange relationship that isn't exactly pet and owner, very platonic family sort of binding. Almost a child but sort of accepted young adult. Ragnar gets his act together when she gives him personal space back. He does his normal scowl deeply at folks and sizing the energy of souls. He does this to taste if one was marked to be hunted by a soulless one or broken soul. She smirks proud, he gave his huff of no finds.
"Is there a reason you didn't use the creepy entry?" He asked.
"My husband brought me here. He is a sneaky man on a mission like always. I didn't want to ruin any spy opportunity if his trying to keep low profile." She honestly spoke, "He under Omens wings here, and I can't help but worry." Ragnar flickered a little slip of fear and shook back to his public mask, "I haven't actually any activity to be here but with him. He said he wanted me and my powers. I shurg and stuck around." Ragnar deep stares towards Curiosity. Measuring a while. A long tension of what seems like brooding into murderous intent. Eased when Ragnar recalls a bit of something. He looks back to her.
"Omens is on the watching list, is he not?" Ragnar smiles in hoping some sort of game or agenda of his own.
"As is many other personifications." She nods gentle, "I promise you, it isn't as entertaining as you assume." She sighed, "None of them are abyss tainted, looking fallen enough or have any soul crushing issue that would require my soul craft."
"Not Omen in need of your honours." Ragnar looks confused.
"If he wanted my help, he would have pestered me already. He is one the very few that has me on speed dial. I suspect I am a last resort responding type. Inviting the tome of broken souls comes with ambient issues and wavering of reality laws. Needless to say, my being here on business isnt a good outcome to hope for." She clasps arms around herself, "I am not here on business. More like faluse holiday or pretending."
Ragnar tilts thinking about this overall situation she has assumed. He traced her head to teo a few times.
"You going to Unlondon."
"Indeed." Ragnar scales her another try and leaves the room. He barely closed the door before he seems to have a breakdown behind it. In full throttle panic ran and mad rantings being spoken in broken dialect. She snorts in that being his normal to her.
"Pardon the question." An undertaker poses hand up, she does a welcomed to it gesture, "I have a lot of questions but the most present one is this assumption of Curiosity being your husband. Where does that come from?"
"You should ask him what the his problem is. Some lifetimes he murders me. Sometimes we're undertaker pairs. I have had to hunt him down and save his sorry soul from many things. I worry about what Omens sends him into next really. The tug of war with fate and destiny is always getting his soul into some very difficult situations. I had worried about sanity, many a time."
"We aren't an anything at the moment." Curiosity protesting.
"Yes, you head keeps reminding you of how it is here and now." She softly nods, "But how many people knows your deepest desires and the exact chapter your soul is printed in the tomes?" He flinched like that cut him deeply, "Worry not. You are in the same position as others. I may love your font and all your twirls. But I respect you with great content like a favorite art style. Not damaging or interference of your souls pathing."
"You are some sort of undertaker monarch that is neutralize grounds?" She wafted on checking through the sigil prompts and tabs. She back checked her workforce and its dividing. She closed that page and nods agreeing that she is a stable slate of neutralize laws.
"I thought the only neutralize kingdom which is the crown less gods eater crest. A landless order that has no hierarchy between itself. A cursed fallen order that is a punishment to be banished to." She took in that long winded sense.
"Not crown less, not landless. Misunderstood. Awaking Nightmare. It is both a punishment and a releif to be folded into the crest order. Everyone is marked with good reasons." She smiles, "Not all that are of my crest are undertakers by race. Many of my..." she takes pause to choose words carefully, "freinds and subjects are not soul beings as you registered in your tomes. Needless to say, my kingdom are of the broken ones I keep as a tome keeper. I have no regard for the turth towards what that soul is acknowledged as. I simply watch the broken ones to protect them from their own flaws. I am this way regardless of what tome I am area inside of at present time."
She studies the way magic works around this mage tower, the Shard itself glass work seems to cone and bend the magic as an insulation that blocked the time chime zone shuffling. She also sees this an active holy grounds, the at some time this was a grounds of worship. The Temple maybe gone but the god and the divine spirit keeping is still here. She suspects a roman temple or some other minor church was here before the Shard was raised from the ground. The divine is another layer blocking time. She starting to grasp why the mages would have attached here like bees to flowers. Bees brings a host of other ecological types of beings. Especially since they are living humans, so it brings dreams, creatures of fortunes and the damned of unfinished things. If super charged enough, a god avatar will be somewhere here in active work.
"Trixie." Curiosity taking back her full attention. She puts away the burnt end into a separate box. He grappled her arm and they are on the move through the Shard and its layers. No elevators for no partners. Human attached can body ride a elevator but not Curiosity. She doesn't mind the exercise down and up stairs. Reaching into the private hotel sectors to meet with mages at key spots. Briefly. He would then go to the top floors at the viewing platform to speak with humans there. Once all was finally done with the process of altering paperwork and pleasing requests of command. They meet all on the ground floor, loosing human tevers and gearing up to leaving this tower.
She was a little confused on why they skipped some key floors with the access to trades across realms. Just as for previous mage towers, particularly numbered floors have realm crossings and merchants exchanges. She has managed during the tour to slip her own business. She managed several times to lone walk the gate accesses for exchanges. She however is tethered to Curiosity by a divine cursing, omens has seems to granted a tracking ward. It stopped her functioning if she to far away from him. She still manages, despite that.
"Ready?" Plenty of the undertakers nod afraid but certain of the thing they are about to do. Curiosity takes a crystal part from his wrist device. Upon impact on the floor is a void black rectangular shape. Undertakers have no hesitation or doubts. They just jump. The rectangular shape wavers the longer its stays open. Curiosity grappled her to himself and dove both of them down as the last pair through.
She confused but the fling of gravity change. She held so tightly that she isn't going to be moving anywhere. Their exit snapped out of shape and it is just the sense of floating in a turbulent aircraft. There is only black, no void black. This realm is alive. She has her guesses that this could be related to the Omens on sand sea beach with the neon strobe light lined eye. She has also seen plenty of god eaters be so unimaginable large, feeling like a tick or ant is typical.
"Gate." They help each pull to a white rectangular opening. Arms pulled to melt through that surface. Curiosity being pulled by the whole team through.
"Identified registration confirmation. Team dive 94 welcome back. System detected. Verification. Account access. Administrator negative system, Lady Marionette. Checking. Checking. Verified." She eye rolls in how this bright place is a crystal tower, a computer network for network ai hive minds. This is one of several crystal grown structures where databases for infrastructure is processed. These always company a habitat humanity created as shelter. These bubble habitats aren't just on the broken remains of earth but also built to be colonial stays on other planets. There is one one earth's moon as example. This Shard is a time anchor for this London Bubble.
"System warning: mutant cellular decompression present. Visitor is subclass as mock human. Advise caution within sight of Lady Marionette." Leana nods at that being a reasonable and valid warning for locals to heed.
"System pause merchant codes. I am here on invite by Curiosity. Not on business or importunacy. I will mark change as things happen." She voiced to the local system, it acknowledging with a blip tone. Her pane for sigil which is visible to her due to her right eye frosting in the same crystal lenses the machines around here - updates. Crashed data. Reboot and then left on system safe mode. Then the Nocturm system crashed, it rebooted and the took over lacing its interface. It enforced itself to share screen space and became a solid panel of way to many tab options and sub tiles for several diverse task abilities. She leaves it to whatever current settings are, chooses a no interference.
"I heard that right?" On the team hissed and takes a crystal pane from his belt, waved it scanning her. It shows all the prompts for monster creature detection and advise of what not to assume. Curiosity sighed knowing she wasn't a normal being. He hand pats the crystal down away from her. He shook not to pry. They looked at each other and just follow his lead.
"Eliza, We need to access the underground which this local area has locked down. They refuse to let us through. I couldn't even get your own undertakers to get us through." She blank stares vacant for a while in calibration of what she needs to assume. She seems in her own mental crash and rebooting. She scans him several times. Did a pane check of what this place was locking and back at him.
"The underground of this tower... Do you know exactly what is there? You know why it is sealed. Why this one flourishing city of London is full of only dead humans and machine reboots?" There clearly is a history that she hasn't any need to revise. That there was something very horrid about the Unlondon access in this bubble colony settlement. A very good reasons for her to seal locked.
"We need to recover the remains of the gods from there." He claims. She takes a breath in, removed her entire mask plate that mocked her face. She powdered the clay part in dust. She then crossed her front. She is let dropped to sit on the floor. He sighed and lowered to what should be her eye level, stuides her deeply.
"That is a first." A visitor steps from a cut seam of time with a tome open. He makes double, triple and then a fourth check. The visitor steps plenty back from them, and stares waiting.
"Ugh, who are you?" Among the team asked.
"Well, let's just say I watch souls who are important across multiple universe corridors. That some souls are so unique and tracking that you can tell the status of a tome by the fact they are in it." The fella cleared his voice a little, "She was doing this duty long before I existed. There was a bit of assuming she was meant to be retired. She isn't in the business of tome tracking." He closed his tome and opens it a few times, "Ugh..." the guy closed the tome and sighed. He takes a while to mustered some hope.
"What is locked access here that has her in this state?"
Someone pieces together. The tome visitor throw a knife on the floor in marking something. Swallow hard in having to get his nerve back.
"This is a married couple thing, for sure. He doesn't know." Muttered to themselves in shaking and finally opens the tome for the localized versions. The materials start to drip. Burn on contact and fizz a cloud of hypnotic cloud. He attempts a few checks. Forced the tome to close and reverse the process. Back to his access blank entry.
"Souls are mysterious things of not materials." She began to softly speak, "Souls are not meant be a physical materialistic manifestation. If they do, it is of their will and their abilities."
"Clothus are the only documented beings in any universe to convert aura into materials." The visitor voices in exactly mirroring a previous conversation she spoke before.
"Aura is the cast off of soul energy." An undertaker leading in with grasping the point.
"Clothus are also law breakers, with being known soul damage causes to many. We came to this place knowing souls that been converted are locked here." Another furthers and this made the visitor throw a second knife at his feet. Striking his patience before the job his came for to do, ends. The visitor is forced to check the records of who he came to track, sliding over Curiosity and looking at her. Looking back at the book in shivers.
"Clothus soul enslave folks and have graphed soul materials into things that don't need it. They forced souls into a materials, torn what they needed and discarded the involuntary souls." She said nodding at herself.
"The crystal tower is sort of a by-product to sooth these discarded ones, give them as best possible peace." The visitor voices, "You want to take that away?"
"I have a task to do, I will repent my sins." Curiosity spoke honestly and this changed nothing, "Not only was I returning lost. I was to the best of my abilities going to do what is to be done."
She stands up with that. She takes the tome off the visitor. She pays the visitor some from of coins, gave replacements knives. She sent them away, sewing the cut of time space closed. Holding the tome. Achieving this by have multiple limbs of Clothus skins active at the same time. She lost her human shape as she settles with not getting in the way of this team. She sent an alert protocols to the tower and adapted instructions for the locals still claiming this bubble London as home. She guides the way into the basement... past locked and weld sealing doors. Curiosity and his team walks right behind her. Doing the task of making it passage isle obstacles are in the way. Using their time warping as undertakers to force access.
They are past known levels of the underground london, for naturally toasted by geothermal activities.
This is plenty past the Unlondon she was meant to go to.