It has been a month since Vegis has been basically stuck at home. Vegis was no longer allowed to move as much as he liked. He can only freely travel through his property which was in the process of being turned into a lab and the Elder’s facility since it was nearby. The workers were forced to try their best to not damage the environment too much since that could accidentally release the Corruption. Drake’s hunch seemed to be right about the Elder already having some knowledge of what was happening here since they had some preparation to placate Mitra and Boreal. While Vegis was in a very strict quarantine for a week, Mitra and Boreal were given access to information and goods originating from the Maoin system. The goods were apparently very traditional things that most of the young generations do not partake in. Something about these gifts had a natural pull on them, as though this was the answer to some unfed urges that they didn’t know could be fulfilled. The goods satisfied them both but Boreal took special interest in the information, or to be exact, the things that the information was stored on.
Things in the Maoin system like information about their past is hard to find since they used physical media to store it. As a consequence, this makes it easier to destroy, but a specific advantage the Magi had that others didn’t was that they could store in things that could outlive them. What was brought to Boreal was a piece of a truly ancient group of fungi. It was originally cultivated towards the end of the existence of the Forest blooded and therefore holds some information from that time. It was continued to be cultivated throughout the eras as a very important and sacred being that was used to keep all of their records. As long as a piece of it was still alive, it would slowly regain all of the information inside of it.
The piece that was brought before Boreal came from the oldest part of the mushroom and was incredibly dense. The only thing that stopped the mushroom from imploding from its mass was the extraordinary amount of mana that saturated it. Upon laying their eyes on it, Boreal was attached to the mushroom. It was not allowed to leave their sight even when bathing or sleeping. This didn’t harm it and in fact the constant attention Boreal gave it allowed it to grow and become stronger. Mitra was given some toys, hygiene products for large lizards, and an orange and yellow mirror. When unactivated, it would just be a normal mirror that was a bit fancy. But when it touched sunlight, it would unleash a soft warm glow that felt like a nice hug. And when it was activated, it would unleash the unfiltered presence of Huitzlios which could lock people into place even if they are airborne.
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The first time Mitra activated it, it caused a massive stir since the only one who knew about this ability was the Elder. Vegis could feel the mirror from his position at the house when Mitra accidentally used it. It was as though a hundred thousand needles were twisting while stabbing him. When he looked in Mitra’s direction, it was as though he was looking at the sun and his skin around his eyes began to burn and flake as it also grew back. The mirror slowly drew blood from Mitra and tinted the reflective surface red. When the mirror finally turned off, Mitra had control over the mirror and could manipulate it from afar.
When Vegis was released from quarantine, Boreal and Mitra were there and Vegis gave them the tightest hug he could muster. They told him about the gifts they got Vegis could only joke about why he didn’t get one. Vegis was sent a list of rules he must now follow or be punished and while he knows he won’t be killed, that didn’t mean they couldn’t do other things that make him regret breaking a rule. The weeks came and went with little change in what Vegis was doing. Vegis wander around the property, come back to the house, do testing on the Corruption, get tested on, eat, sleep, wake up, and clean himself before walking around. This made time pass by very fast and made Vegis very bored. Vegis wasn’t allowed access to the net unless it was the weekend and Mitra and Boreal were kept at the Elder’s place. Several times, Vegis would accidentally enter a space he wasn’t allowed to and pain would shoot from his eye into the rest of his body. During this time, more information of the Corruption would slowly be disseminated to the public. The only thing that was being told before then was that the space turbulence, as some people began to call the anomalies, grabbed a chunk of the hive and changed something about it.
The only thing that was different was the animals they were starting to bring over to the new facility that didn’t seem like any of the animals nearby. Vegis managed to convince one of the guards to ask around and was told they were from sanctuary. Vegis remembered that several tears opened above there and just guessed they were brought here since they were different from the ones in the southern labs. He started to ponder if this system will become a research system instead of a commerce hub like originally planned. Vegis would occasionally be visited by Mitra and Boreal but couldn’t stay long with them since they weren’t allowed outside for too long. The area Vegis was allowed to wander began to expand as the forest grew at an accelerated rate and the facility's property lines were stretched. The forest slowly began to be filled with wild life as animals were released from Vegis’s arm occasionally and unneeded sanctuary animals were just tossed out. As more arm creatures slowly populated the area, he noticed that he had a vague control over them. It was a fainter connection than the clones, like comparing a firefly to a flashlight.
