Chapter 44: Lost in Pathfinder
The map sailed through the air as they left the principal’s office and Arthur caught it without looking, which was either good reflexes or a coincidence so consistent it had become indistinguishable from good reflexes.
"Don’t get lost," Steven said.
"How lost could a person possibly get?" Arthur said.
Mithra said nothing, which Arthur would understand the significance of approximately ten minutes later.
Arthur turned the map upside down.
Turned it back.
Turned it forty-five degrees.
"I refuse to believe," he said, "that this is one Academy."
The courtyard they were standing in had three exits, none of which matched any of the three paths on the section of map he was currently holding. He had turned right from the last landmark, which the map suggested should have put him on the central corridor, and had instead arrived somewhere that appeared to be a produce market for very large fruits.
Mithra was leaning against a wall with the patience of someone who had not been lost at any point during the last ten minutes.
"It’s six districts," she said. "Arranged adjacently and given one name."
"That’s deceptive."
"That’s architecture."
Arthur looked at the map again and then at the produce and then at the map again. "Where are we?"
"The Transit Quarter. Not technically a district. Connects three of them." She pointed. "The dormitory is northeast from here."
Arthur began walking northeast. Then something above the roofline caught his eye and he stopped.
"What’s over there?" he said.
Mithra had already looked away from the direction he was pointing. She was watching his face instead.
"Not the dormitory," she said.
"Can we look?"
"No."
"I didn’t say where."
"You were looking at the bridge between the towers. Where it leads is not the dormitory. No."
Arthur blinked. "How did you know I was looking at the bridge?"
"Because you stopped walking," Mithra said, "and your face made the face it makes when you’re about to do something that isn’t what we were supposed to be doing." She started walking. "The dormitory is this way."
Arthur followed.
Then stopped again.
"The bridge though."
Mithra sighed.
♢♢♢♢
They did not go directly to the dormitory.
This was not entirely Arthur’s fault. The route that Mithra had chosen to avoid interesting things failed because interesting things were distributed throughout Pathfinder Academy with what appeared to be complete indifference to convenient navigation.
The Crystal Riders appeared first as shadows moving at speed overhead, and Arthur looked up before he had decided to and watched as a crystalline wolf and its rider descended from the upper level of one of the towers in a controlled arc, landed beside a waiting professor with the smooth ease of something that did this regularly, accepted a package, and launched back into the sky before the professor had finished turning away.
Mithra had already looked at Arthur rather than the wolf. She was waiting for the specific expression.
"They’re beautiful," Arthur said.
She had been right about the expression.
"Transportation partners," she said. "The Academy uses them for inter-district delivery and emergency response."
Arthur watched another one cross the space between two towers, its crystal flanks catching the light.
"Mom would love one," he said.
Mithra looked at him.
"She’s alone in that house," Arthur said, not to anyone specifically. "The roof leaks when it rains hard and she fixes it herself. Something like that could watch the house. Keep her company." He smiled at the wolf as it disappeared. "Maybe scare off anyone who tried to be a problem."
Mithra looked at him for a moment longer than the response required.
"Maybe one day," she said.
"Yeah," Arthur said. "Maybe one day."
Mithra pointed down the street. "Dormitory."
Arthur nodded immediately. "Right."
The two of them walked.
Five seconds later—
"...Arthur."
"Hm?"
"You walked toward the Crystal Riders again."
Arthur looked down and saw he was no longer on the road leading toward the dormitories.
"...I was."
"You lasted exactly twelve seconds."
"I was still thinking."
"You were wandering."
"I can do both."
Mithra sighed. "I know."
...
The Iron Hall announced itself before it appeared.
Heat arrived first, the specific warmth of working metal being worked at scale, and then the sound came second, which was not the sound Arthur had been expecting. The forge buildings breathed fire from vents along their upper stories. Massive furnaces were visible through open walls. Walking constructs, animated anvils and hammers, moved between stations carrying pieces of work in progress.
Arthur had stopped walking entirely.
Every hammer strike produced a note. Not the clang of metal meeting metal but a sustained tone, different for each instrument, and the strikes overlapped and resolved into something that was closer to music than noise. The molten rivers flowing beneath the crystal walkways provided the continuous undertone that the hammers built above.
Weapons were being made here that sang while they were being forged.
One blade suddenly rang with a clear, beautiful note.
Every nearby blacksmith paused.
Several smiled.
An old craftsman gave the young smith a firm pat on the shoulder. "No cracks."
The apprentice laughed in relief. Then everyone calmly returned to work. As though moments like that happen every day.
Nearby, two students carried glowing ingots while talking. "...Did you see the lightning?"
"I heard an entire convoy fell out of the sky."
"They say nobody died."
"Apparently one first-year organized the evacuation."
"...Lucky."
They continued walking without slowing down. The blacksmiths didn’t even join the conversation.
An apprentice finally looked toward one of the damaged walls. "Master... Do you really not care about the lightning or the shockwave–"
The old craftsman never looked up. "Hammer."
"...Yes, Master."
The apprentice immediately resumed forging.
Arthur blinked. "...They’re really focused."
Mithra smiled. "The Ironhall doesn’t care what happens outside until the task is done. The academy could be invaded and they wouldn’t care."
Arthur blinks before laughing as he continues watching them for a long time. "I wonder," he said.
Mithra, who had been watching his face again, said. "Probably not."
Arthur looked at her. "I didn’t say anything yet."
"You were looking at the forge with the expression that means you’re about to ask whether something that exists at the level of legendary Academy craftsmanship can be repurposed for domestic maintenance."
A pause.
"Could they make something that repairs houses?" Arthur said.
Mithra pressed her lips together in the specific way she did when she was right about something and was being considerate about it. "Not typically what the Iron Hall is used for."
"But could they?"
"In theory, a sufficiently advanced adaptive construct could maintain structural materials, yes."
Arthur looked back at the hammer constructs working in the building across the walkway, the notes they produced building into something that sounded almost celebratory.
"The roof has been leaking since I was eleven," he said.
Mithra didn’t answer immediately.
She looked back toward the endless rows of forges.
Toward the craftsmen shaping things that most people would call impossible.
Then she looked at Arthur.
"...We’ll come back."
Arthur blinked.
"Hm?"
"When we find a way to recreate it..." Mithra grinned at him. "We’ll gather all the material and come back to make it."
Arthur looked at the Iron Hall again.A slow smile spread across his face. "...It’s a promise. But let’s not tell mom this."
"Is it because she doesn’t like receiving help?"
"Yeah, she rather I use it to help myself and not her."
"A difficult mom indeed."
"Tell me about it."
Only then did they continue walking.
...
Arthur saw glimpses of the Beast Courtyard.
Ancient trees.
Students beneath them, sitting quietly beside their beasts. A girl with her forehead resting against a silver wolf, golden light moving between them like a slow tide.
Two people sparring across the courtyard in a dance of absolute coordination: a swordsman and his hawk, the hawk’s banking turn arriving at the exact instant the sword completed its arc, neither directing the other, both moving as parts of the same motion.
Arthur watched until they were nearly past the entrance. "What’s the point of this place?"
"It’s to help a beast and a partner have time to increase the bond between each other."
His eyes lit up and he asked. "What’s the furthest that goes?" he said.
"What do you mean?"
He glanced toward Melo on Mithra’s shoulder. "So far, I can tell how Vedas feel and sometimes he even knows my intent sometimes... I’m curious what the bond between a beast and a tamer would be at the top..."
Mithra looked at him.
"I want to see what you and Melo become." He smiles. "Then I want to see if Vedas and I can catch up."
Mithra was quiet for a moment.
Melo’s tail, which had been resting, swayed once.
"You’re impossible," Mithra said.
Arthur grinned.
"I’ll take that as a yes."
Mithra rolled her eyes.
"You always do."
"I’ve found life is more enjoyable that way."
Melo let out an exaggerated huff.
"Hmph."
Her tail, however, continued swaying happily.
Mithra caught it immediately.
"...Traitor."
Melo looked away.
Arthur laughed.
Then the three of them continued walking.
♢♢♢♢
The Expedition District opened without warning.
One moment they were in a corridor, and then the corridor became a plaza, and the plaza was enormous and active in the way active things were active when they had a purpose: dozens of wyverns on landing platforms at various stages of departure or arrival, students moving with the speed of people who had something specific to carry somewhere specific, large magical maps updating their information in real time.
Three display boards cycled through information as Arthur read them.
[EXPEDITION RETURNED: VERIDIAN OUTER REACHES.]
[NEW SECRET REALM DISCOVERED: COORDINATES UNDER REVIEW.]
[REQUESTING VOLUNTEERS: THIRD TIER RUINS SURVEY.]
One of the nearby display boards suddenly changed.
MISSION APPROVED.
Arthur came to a stop. He didn’t stop because of the wyverns or map but because of the people around.
A group of students climbed down from one of the arriving wyverns, covered from head to toe in dirt and dust. Further away, another team dragged the skeleton of an enormous beast across the stone, laughing so hard they nearly dropped it.
A professor shook his head. "I told you not to bring the entire skeleton."
"We tried leaving half of it behind."
"The other half started chasing us."
Several nearby students burst into laughter.
A group of students erupted into cheers.
Another team nearby groaned dramatically. "Again?"
"They beat us by two minutes!"
"You stopped for lunch!"
"It was a strategic lunch!"
One of them shakes her head and says. "Did you guys see those falling carriages?"
"Yes! It was amazing, I never-"
Someone cuts in. "Tell me at dinner, we are already late for departure."
Arthur couldn’t help smiling. They weren’t celebrating because they had won. They were celebrating because they had returned. Every group looked different.
Different beasts.
Different equipment.
Different stories.
Yet every one of them had the same expression. The excitement of people who had seen something nobody else had.
Arthur watched quietly. "...They’re bringing home stories."
Mithra looked at him. "Hm?"
"When I was little..." Arthur kept watching the returning expeditions. "...Mom always loved hearing stories." His smile softened. "If I came back from one of those...I’d have enough stories to tell her for the rest of the week."
For a moment...
Mithra simply looked at him and then she smiled. "...You really were made for this Academy."
Only then did Arthur notice the giant world map.
His eyes immediately searched it.
Ruins of Evolution.
Nothing.
Then—
[RESTRICTED: STUDENT COUNCIL AUTHORIZATION REQUIRED.]
A section of the map remained hidden beneath shimmering light.
Arthur stared at it and then smiled. "I’ll get there," he said.
Mithra was standing slightly behind him. She was looking at his face, not the board. "Yes," she said. "We will."
Mithra turned toward the eastern path.
Arthur didn’t move.
She walked three more steps before realizing she was alone. "...Arthur."
No answer.
She turned around.
Arthur was standing in front of the expedition board again.
Reading it.
"...Arthur."
Without looking away, he raised a finger. "One second."
"You said that three minutes ago."
"I’m investigating."
"You’re staring."
"...Investigating while staring."
Mithra pinched the bridge of her nose. "Please don’t get lost again."
Arthur finally looked away from the board."...No promises."
...
The noise of the Academy fell away gradually as they moved toward the eastern edge of the campus, replaced by something quieter: the sound of wind through very old trees, crystal lights drifting at the level of the upper branches, the specific stillness of a place that had been designed for attention.
Arthur stopped.
The tower was enormous.
Not built in the way buildings were built, with deliberate stacking of planned components, but grown, the kind of structure that had developed over time around an original core until the core was less a building and more of an idea that the building had organized itself around.
Ancient vines wrapped crystal walls that glowed at a frequency that made the air around them faintly visible. Books moved between balconies at the upper levels without visible hands carrying them. Thousands of small lights circled the whole structure in slow orbits.
Arthur lowered the map.
For several long seconds... He forgot to breathe as he saw books drifting silently between impossible shelves. Ancient crystal lights floated like stars. The entire tower felt less like a building...
...and more like a place where history itself had decided to live.
"..."
Arthur whispered so quietly that Mithra almost didn’t hear him. "...It’s beautiful."
Mithra smiled. "I thought you’d like this one."
Only then did Arthur finally grin. "...Can we live here?"
The enormous doors of the Evolution Archive opened before Mithra could answer.
Athena stepped through them.
Athy sat on her shoulder with the bearing of something that had expected this outcome and found it satisfying. Athena adjusted her glasses.
"I calculated a ninety-four percent probability that you would reach the Archive before reaching the dormitory," she said. "I’ve been here for twenty minutes."
Arthur looked at her. "You were waiting?"
"I was researching," Athena said, with precise distinction. "Waiting is the incorrect characterization." She stepped aside and held the door. "The remaining six percent was the possibility that you would stop for an unreasonable amount of time in one of the other districts." She looked at Mithra. "What district was it?"
"Iron Hall," Mithra said.
Athena nodded. "I expected the Iron Hall."
Arthur looked through the open doors.
Towering crystal shelves stretched upward further than made architectural sense. Every shelf held objects that pulsed with their own light: preserved memories of evolutions, records of species that no longer existed, documentation of transformations that had been witnessed once and not again. Thousands of lights moved slowly through the interior the way fish moved through water.
Arthur’s eyes followed the drifting lights.
Most glowed softly.
Blue.
Gold.
Silver.
Then—
One crystal drifted past and unlike all the others...
It was cracked. Dark lines spread across its surface like frozen lightning. It floated alone as if it was being isolated from every other crystal.
Arthur frowned. "..."
For just a moment, he felt as though it had moved toward him. Then it slipped silently behind one of the towering shelves.
Arthur blinked. "...Did you see—"
"Welcome to the Evolution Archive," Athena said.
Arthur looked back.
The crystal was nowhere to be seen.
"Hm? Something wrong?"
"No... Let’s go." Arthur walked in.
The doors closed quietly behind them.
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