Chapter 11: Currents
Mizuki portals into her lab, already shrugging off her robes. Underneath, she is wearing a little black dress. "Let's get this set up before my dinner with Letty." She pulls her hair into a ponytail and slips on a white lab coat, "Why are they always white?" she asks herself as she fastens the button around her. "Maybe I should get some dye from Zina and make it red. Wouldn't see so many of the stains that way." She pats her pockets, the slaps the palm of her hand to her forehead, "Duh! Dummy." She goes over to her discarded robes and searches through the many pockets, "There you are, you sneaky little sample you." She looks at the vial of wet desert dirt, squinting at it, "Let's see what you are." She sets the vial down on the table and begins scripting her plan, her pen scratching across her notebook, talking to herself as she goes, "Calcination won't keep the salt..." she starts to mumble. "Dissolution then, Conjunction for salt, measure the distilled water..."
Shade caws from one of it's many perches around the lap. Without looking up, Muzuki reaches into a bowl of nuts and throws one in the air. The bird launches, snatches up the nut, and lands on a shelf at the opposite side of the room to eat. A few more scribbles and arrows and she sets her pen down and gets to work. "Time for your bath, little sample." She carefully pours her gentlest alkahest in with the sample and sets it in a holder before starting the burners. "Let's see what you show us."
Mizuki’s dissolution separates the sample cleanly—and reveals it was never just dirt. The alkahest draws out **true seawater salts**, still holding a **latent pressure signature** that briefly warps the meniscus in the flask. Fine black grains remain undissolved, resonating faintly with **void-aspected reagents** and growing heavier rather than lighter as moisture leaves them. When distilled, the recovered water chills instead of steaming and shows a tendency to **creep toward active aether sources**. Her conclusion is precise and unsettling: this material was **deposited by translation**, not exposure—the desert was briefly touched by something **impossibly deep**, then it let go.
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Devin was only slightly worried about entering the grand hall of the Ossuary once more. His years of... Well it wasn't employment now that he looked back on it. It wasn't exactly servitude. Voluntary captivity on accident? Whatever. At least he wouldn't be captured and chopped up and experimented on by the evil lalafell brothers since he could hide himself better. It was just his actual face that would get him caught, but he had that under all the control. And under all the cat mask Qaelemont had gotten him a few years ago. To hide even more, he wore a hat, and stuffed his tail down the leg of his pants. Walking was...a challenge, but he had to do it. For Letty.
"Just up here," Devin murmured to his friend as he guided her through the large repository of books. He paused and glanced around, making sure he wasn't recognized, then led Letty to a shelf in a corner. "What you want will either be here... Or on the other side of the wall in the storage closet." He tried to wiggle his ears, but the hat prevented them from moving too much.
Letty smiled behind her own mask. She had opted to wear a bunny mask and conceal her own ears under her giant witch hat in solidarity with her friend. Her robe drug on the ground slightly as they made their way through the Ossuary.
The Viera's eyes widened as they came upon the repository of books. "This could be a while to get through all of these." With that, she pulled the first one from the corner shelf Devin showed her to, then handed him the second. "I think it will be most efficient if we stick to searching each book in order and stacking them on the ground after we finish. We can put them back at the end, that way we don't waste any time possibly reading one the other already has."
With that, the two search through every last book that could even remotely be helpful or relevant to their current situation. It takes the pair well into the night, but luckily Letty didn't need sleep. She would continue reading while Devin took catnaps as needed. Occassionally, she'd set a book of interest to the side so they could compare notes later.
While she only needed her tea, she knew Devin would need snacks. Mizi had packed a bunch of cookies, sandwiches and her special tea to keep them going for at least 3 days. It was likely they would be there that long...
Scarlett and Devin uncover sealed Ossuary records describing **“dry drownings”**: bodies found far inland with seawater in their lungs, no wounds, and signs of sudden **crushing pressure during last rites**. Devin finds redacted logs linking disappearances to **water-marked texts, relics, or corpses**, noting bodies that briefly grew heavier after death. Together, they realize the Ossuary learned to **recognize the pattern** and **deliberately buried it**. These were not accidents or curses—the **dead were answered**, and the **truth was locked away** to prevent panic.
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The following is a series of entries from Zygana's research journal all dated within the last week:
I was able to find salt residue left on the shelves in Qaelemont's basement. Returning to the scene in Southern Thanalan allowed me to locate and secure saline samples from the caravan as well, however the bodies have been removed. Direct testing of transportive magic no longer possible.
Several unique compounds have been identified in addition to the expected marine saline. I'll need to locate a book of oceanographic surveys to see if these compounds can be used to isolate the source of the salt. If, for instance, some of the metallic compounds were found only in the waters of the Ruby Sea, we would have a good lead on where our being was trying to reach us from.
None of this makes sense in the slightest. All of the novel compounds I've isolated in addition to salt are ones that should not exist on this star, or are unstable and would require pressures that are simply impossible. The only lead I have is mention of a so-called hadal zone, a fabled region of waters so deep that it has never been visited, nor its existence proven. Estimates range from 4 to 7 malms of depth. Malms! Straight down! The conditions there, if they exist, would be lightless and cold enough that the ocean should be frozen solid. And yet it is liquid water that comes from the weeping of the walls. The idea that anything could exist in such a place is inconceivable. There must be something we're missing. I remain hopeful that we can locate this being, wherever it is, and broker a peaceful contact before more lives are lost. I can't help but feel it wants us to know something. Something I'm determined to find out.
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Out to a dance club in Mist, they meet just at the entrance to the housing zone.
Qaelemont Drauculoix: You beam with delight at Deryk O'hara.
Deryk O'hara: grins. "You planning on walking?"
Qaelemont Drauculoix: "Non."
Qaelemont Drauculoix: You smirk confidently at Deryk O'hara.
Deryk O'hara: chuckles. "You cheated."
Qaelemont Drauculoix: offers his arm to Deryk.
Deryk O'hara: takes it happily.
Qaelemont Drauculoix: "If you're not cheating, you're not trying hard enough."
Deryk O'hara: laughs. "Vrai."
Qaelemont Drauculoix: "I guess we have to get our feet wet to get in the door... Merde..."
Deryk O'hara: shakes his boots off.
Qaelemont Drauculoix: "We seem to be a study in contrasts again, mon petit."
Deryk O'hara: smiles a bit. "That's been how we usually are for a while now."
Qaelemont Drauculoix: You beam with delight at Deryk O'hara.
Qaelemont Drauculoix: "I've been prowling the depths of Gubal."
Deryk O'hara: thinks. "Now only if we can get you in club gear and me in a suit at the same time."
Deryk O'hara: arches. "Ah bon? Why?"
Qaelemont Drauculoix: You smirk confidently at Deryk O'hara.
Qaelemont Drauculoix: "Pourquoi ? À votre avis, pourquoi ?"
Qaelemont Drauculoix: "We've got saltwater leaking from the walls, books turning into puddles... et that mess in the desert..."
Deryk O'hara: "I suppose because it's a library. You can't seem to keep out of them."
Qaelemont Drauculoix: You smirk confidently at Deryk O'hara.
Qaelemont Drauculoix: "Touché."
Deryk O'hara: shrugs. "I get that.. I just don't know what -that- particular place would hold an answer. Did you find anything?"
Deryk O'hara: sighs a bit. "Spent the last two days in Ishgard to make sure my kids were safe.. Kept having nightmares.."
Deryk O'hara: "Oh, I did open Snack Cat the other day.. met someone who says he knows you."
Qaelemont Drauculoix: "Mais oui, I went seeking answers. I was studying the astromancy et astrology records to see if there were any unusual conjunctions or such happening."
Deryk O'hara: nods a bit. "I hope you found something.. this is just going to get worse.."
Qaelemont Drauculoix: "Désolé, mon petit. It was... Bordel de merde..." He sighs, shaking his head, though still keeping the rhythm of the dance.
Deryk O'hara: nods. "No need for you to be sorry, Master. It's not like this is your fault.”
Qaelemont Drauculoix: "It's not so much what I found, it's what I did *not* find," he grouses with a frown. "There are no celestial anomalies which would explain any of this." Shaking his head again he adds, "Mais... there were some marginal notes..."
Deryk O'hara: arches a brow. "Well.. you know.. as we usually say, the answers normally lie outside of the lines. Either between.. or in the margins."
Qaelemont Drauculoix: nods. "They were hidden, aussi. Layered beneath arcane sigils."
Deryk O'hara: furrows his brow, his thoughts searching for.. anything. "Et? What did you find?"
Qaelemont Drauculoix: "Et those beneath archivists' notations..." Another frown then he gives a small shake of his head and answers Deryk, "Negative parallax events. Records of when instruments registered pressure without motion et tides sans la lune."
Deryk O'hara: nods. "So.. as I suspected, there's something down there."
Qaelemont Drauculoix: "Oui... mais... 'down' *where?*" he asks with emphasis. "The scholars of Emporium speculated that it wasn't so much as... down... mais... *beyond.*"
Deryk O'hara: nods. "The oceans are too deep for most to explore. It wouldn't surprise me if something.. old.. is down there. Just waiting.. watching.."
Deryk O'hara: Would feel an odd hunger.. and a craving for burgers..
Deryk O'hara: "Speaking of hunger.." He sighs.
Qaelemont Drauculoix: gives Deryk an amused smile. "Merde... I almost felt my stomach growl, Deryk."
Deryk O'hara: blushes. "D'esole.."
Qaelemont Drauculoix: "Let's go get you sommat to eat."
Deryk O'hara: beams. "Ok!"
Qaelemont Drauculoix: You smile at Deryk O'hara.