Chapter 170

  Watching the vial, Dreadus was speechless. Reaz slapped her face after wavering with her hands way too long and realizing what was happening. Maul went to his knees and fell from his chair the moment he noticed Celeste's nonchalant action.

  “You had it all along?!”

  “Security,” Celeste said. “Worse plan. Home. Rescue?” She lacked the right words and said what she considered to be enough.

  She hid a bunch of vials with that liquid from Reaz and Dreadus from the start, and they posed as her clever and personal collection. There was no need to show them off as they weren't doing much on their own. It wasn't necessarily about hiding or smuggling. It was hers.

  They were nothing but last-ditch resources she carried when hunting or being away from her cave under dangerous circumstances. Like with that pool, the vial filled with that liquid was helpful. Their use was not, however.

  The Vials were classified as one of the common Walker resources with dozens of years of history. A special glass contained the brew, but what Celeste had was not it. Still, the glass came from her scavenging, so most of them were empty. Each was either finger-sized or thick for a gulp or two. so

  However, even a little of this silvery liquid in this Vial was worth a world for Maul, looking like a large unfathomable Sea and sun bringing his tired spirit a new light.

  Spiritually, that was. Not right away.

  Celeste kept offering it, knowing she had taken pretty much every Vial from her home before leaving, and neither Dreadus nor Reaz realized it.

  Celeste didn't have to say anything and wondered about their reaction. It was true they could have taken some part of that Sea for themselves, but didn't.

  “Don't want it?” she inquired, glaring at those three surprised faces.

  “You had it... all this time?” Dreadus repeated.

  She nodded, ditched Hound on the ground, and lifted her clothes to expose her belly. There was a strip of cloth with dozens of Vials secured by strips of grass. Some were cracked but leaked nothing, and all of them gave even more shocks to these people. Some didn't even have proper closure; just rocks or bones secured by more grass. For Sea to be like this, it was laughable yet weirdly suitable and raw.

  Reaz should be the one most shocked, considering she got Celeste her clothes.

  Celeste found nothing wrong with showing one of her treasures off and had no shame in any of her actions. Nobody talked next, so she secured it back to its place and hid her stash.

  “Wait! I want it! Please. Pretty please! I will do anything!” Maul begged on his knees before her.

  Celeste looked at him with fright, startle, and shock. It was just water. There was a whole pool of it somewhere, so why was this old man acting like a thirsty ghost?

  “Borrow it,” Dreadus said to Maul and stopped him from getting too far. Then, he glanced at Celeste. “Can you lend us one of them? Just one? It could be very helpful.”

  Celeste tossed him one without hesitation and pointed to the most interesting wall of the room.

  All those Emblems were there exactly like yesterday; some dead, most glistering in their appearances and restrained seen-through boxes.

  “Trade,” Celeste demanded, and Dreadus almost swore she smirked at some weird idea.

  Maul didn't get what she wanted and agreed without thinking.

  With part of the Sea in grasp, it might not be the Crystal Core, but it was more than enough because this was a fine and adequate by-product, and crystals were much harder to notice. It was doubtful Celeste had ever obtained one. Usually, that should be the case, so Dreadus asked about it and confirmed she hadn't gotten anything like that.

  Maul was still unsure what kind of Sea they uncovered, and this little Vial in his grasp might give him the answers he was aiming for. Cheering, he got up and cherished it like gold.

  “Hey,” Dreadus grasped his shoulder. “Don't forget why we are here, or... how this works, all right?”

  Celeste kept pointing to that wall.

  Maul blinked and calmed down. “Sure. Sure. Uh. Apologies. I had a terrific night, so this is a bit surprising even to me. I went through the tests numerous times and correlated ideas from the past and present within our archives and yesterday. Some things are very deep and Walkers are vast like anything in here, so...”

  “Get the hell to the point!” Reaz urged, almost shouting in inconvience.

  “Well, she is very strong, and some factors of Arcana are circulating inside of her, either moving, or waiting, or.... as if resonating under particular circumstances. I have never seen it before and these machines are not enough. It is a most likely scenario that explains the rest. Heart. Muscles. Rather weird flexibility and Emblem that is... well, not yet under my eyes, is it?”

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  “Really?” Dreadus turned to Celeste and wasn't sure what to feel. Arcana was, in truth, a various kind of energy. Some of them can get very pure and quite vicious, and even tiny or extremely vast.

  “Many children and most bizarre cases are deeply researched. We also have adult cases and Emblems, who are even more alarming. Darks are the worst. Mostly. This is not it, I know. The girl is a unique specimen. An unprecedented case of brutal survivor and someone who is bearing an Emblem and mind that carry the body of a god.”

  “God?” Reaz wondered out loud and didn't think this far.

  “You still latch on weird ideas. Darks too, right?” Dreadus sighed.

  “I bet it is a form of Rank 0 Physique! It's a one-of-a-kind unlock, I might add. Also, wanting to research Rank 7 and above Darks isn't wrong for any science! It has validity and actions to all kinds of research. Why can't I do it when the First can?”

  “Cuz it is an impossible ordeal that doesn't make sense to me. Also, shut up. I don't mess with this, so get back on track. Physique makes sense. Continue.”

  By this time, Reaz had calmed down and seized a chair to see this show.

  Celeste was still ignored, so she began her trade herself since they weren't stopping her. She observed the Emblems and picked the prettiest one of them all as if they were for a show.

  She chose a big spherical rock that looked like a starry sky. It was breathing and convulsing, albeit it had some small cracks as if many tiny Rifts were going through it. From another perspective, it was like a cat's eye as one large one was in the middle.

  Celeste was mesmerized by a see-through box with a handful of Emblem inside. Approaching the arguing pair, she didn't hide it, and Hound sniffed around her and glared at that container with doubts of interest and who knows what else.

  “Huh?” Maul paused, glaring at her and that box. “Don't touch my...” He started but stopped halfway there as he pointed at her with that Vial. “This... Oh. You can have... one. Just one!” he gave up and pointed to that sturdy chair from yesterday.

  “Are we starting?”

  “I have prepared some suitable tests and viable ideas that you, Dreadus, can and will help with. Hopefully, that is.”

  “What else have you discovered overnight? Provoke it.”

  Maul adjusted his sorry hair and secured that Vial in a safe place. Then he turned and gave Celeste more finds. “Emblems do possess certain privileges and ideas, closing on instincts, personalities, and some people call it an Ego.”

  “First Head?” Dreadus inquired.

  “I don't think he is wrong. After all, a whole lot of Walkers think about it even more. I suppose it is true, yet what is Ego if not a soul and Madness of this suffering world and survivor within it. What is an Emblem? Who is a Walker? What is it that truly lives and dies?”

  “He is still better than you, Second.”

  Maul laughed and didn't find him wrong. It was a matter of perspective, and there was a reason Dreadus found him instead of the First Head.

  He had his issues, whereas Maul was better with some additional merits.

  “Celeste possesses a quantitative leap akin to a genetic manipulation, or, in this case, Emblem does that sort of thing to her body passively. The Sea manipulates some of it as well, or it is more like an adaptation. One seizes it or guides it, or it is like a game of locks, keys, or a bunch of holes. I say that the Sea is half of everything, yet what does it do over an extensive period of exposure, let alone in additional settings? I don't expect it to be safe, but her vitals and body are absurd for her age, so what about the spiritual side of things? What is the relationship between a balanced body and Arcana? What is truly Madness and Corruption?” Maul said expertly and approached Celeste with unlike respect.

  She sat on a chair and patted Hound on her lap. She left her new treasure right beside her on the ground.

  “Can you describe how your heart, muscles, lungs, or mind work?”

  “Mind?” Reaz asked in a questionable tone and would never in a million years consider Celeste saying anything meaningful about it.

  “Oh, I forget her voice is lacking, unlike mine.”

  “I can... do this,” Celeste said begrudgingly and wondered what to say.

  The heart was still in her chest, and the lungs or muscles were the same thing, were they not? Frankly, Maul already touched upon those things yesterday, so Celeste was thinking about it a lot, but one idea was to get it as a doctor, and another was feeling and knowing these things.

  “I have heart. Lungs too.” Celeste said proudly.

  “No shit!” Maul said. “Wait, no. Alright. Let's get aside of that for now. When running, do you feel or do something that you don't normally do?”

  She shrugged. “Hunting is... tough. Dangerous place bad. Heavy. Big lands dangerous. Tall rocks leaps hard. Haunting sinister. ”

  Maul forgot where she grew up; it seemed that every question led to a terrible outcome that soon involved Australia. A bad topic indeed.

  Because of that, Dreadus pushed Maul aside and took his place.

  Crouching in front of her, he decided to give it some dumb takes because he was a Walker and Maul was not.

  “The idea is this, Celeste. You are a human, but not really. You are a Walker, yet are you a human? Yes, so what does it mean? I said it yesterday. We are warriors, and your body is your temple and protection. Tests are to see you from outside to inside, and we want to know you since you don't.”

  Celeste fidgeted on her chair and knew her body well. But how to tell it? What if it was something else? Something worse, perhaps? That could be it, but what was running or feeling pain or blood? Enduring was what she did the best, and her keen senses, stealth, stability, and flexibility were even better.

  So she got up and jumped, almost hitting the fifteen-foot-tall ceiling. The landing was less graceful; Dreadus caught her, shocked as he was almost too late. “Not so quickly. Are you some Kangar or what?”

  “...light.”

  “What?”

  “Me, light.”

  “Or everything is light for you,” Maul suggested. “You lived in a strange place and from what Dreadus told me, that Sea and water are dense and odd. Your condition is a big reason of your life and place of living. Maybe calling it natural passive mutation isn't that far from the truth, and... frankly, you are well beyond two-hundred pounds heavy, yet you look small like your age suggests, and that's not even everything. Arcana does what? What can you do?”

  “Two...hundred? Pound? What is that?” Celeste frowned and didn't know if it was too much or too little. But hearing him speak of her home, what was right or wrong was no longer around her. It was gone. Done for.

  She survived and lived and repeated what she promised. Death wasn't an option. She had to survive to survive some more, and if it was fine, fighting back was highly recommended and rewarded.

  “Simply put,” Dreadus said, “your body and our tests have physical, scientific, and odd connections between each other. I want to know you, and you should get to know yourself even more than before and me. For example...” Dreadus patted her and tossed Hound to protect that little sphere.

  She flinched when Maul started to give her multiple gadgets. There were some ties to her chest, temple, neck, and wrist, and a large metal bracelet thing went over her hands. Cables linked everything and went to a computer not so far away.

  Yesterday, he did something similar, so she didn't protest, yet a lot of things were going on this time.

  She was getting nervous, and her heart qunched.

  No voices. Good.