As Related by Prince Wynne Rafferty, Master of Games
I’ve never done anything quite like this before, but it’s fun. I can see why Stephen is into racing.
« Molly is on the mountain, » says Marius. « She’ll be here in a few hours. »
« We’ll be there in plenty of time, » says Owen. « This thing is quite speedy in turbo mode. »
« It really does seem like overkill, » says Patrick. « What can she do? She’s probably armed, but even a plasma cannon would have a hard time piercing this armor. »
« Energy levels? » asks Lugh.
« Stable, » says Owen. « Despite being cut off from the grid, we’ve got more than enough power from Yggdrasil. »
« I don’t understand, » says Patrick. « This is an imaginary robot flying around a mental construct. Why would it matter? »
« Mind needs energy, » says Owen. « 20% of the calories burned by a human body support the brain. »
« The grove has to maintain the pleroma, » says Lugh. « The functioning of the mecha just reflects our general mental state. »
« What the hell! » yells Thomas.
« What happened? »
« There was some kind of explosion, » says Marius. « I’m trying to get some information from the projector. »
« The mecha’s scanners are reading an explosion on the mountain followed by a massive avalanche, » says Owen. « It looks like Molly detonated it. »
« The penguin says that the walkways from the base of the mountain have been wiped out, » says Marius. « Maybe she was trying to keep the others from helping us out? She probably doesn’t know we have air capability now. »
« I’m not sure, » says Manan. « I have a bad feeling about this. »
« We’ll be there soon, » says Owen. « Not to worry. »
Suddenly the sky darkens. The terrain beneath us seems to fade, and for a second, we are flying through pitch darkness. No, not darkness, emptiness. A void.
The world comes back, but it’s twilight. « Uh, guys? » says Marius. « I’m looking at the map, and the eastern side of the continent has vanished. »
How does that even happen?
« We’re in power-saver mode, » says Owen.
Apparently, Cüinn has been monitoring the situation. « An interesting theory, » he remarks. « To conserve energy, the pleroma has shut down any space which is currently not occupied by emanations. We could probably save more power by converging on a central location. Unfortunately, we’re out of communication with the sailors. »
« That’s not what I meant, » says Owen. « I meant that the mecha is in power-saver mode. I can’t turn on the turbo. We’re flying at half the speed that we were. »
« We’re not going to stop Molly from reaching her objective at this rate, » says Ari.
« Don’t count us out yet, » I admonish him. « We could still get lucky. »