Vescrutia: Legacy

High in the Mek Mountain Range bordering a lake of the same same, the Forgsten Mines drill into the peaks of each mountain and weave a network through each peak that houses a number of the tribes who share the namesake of the mountains and the lake themselves. The Forgsten Tribes have existed here for eons, protectedd by their elevation above sea level, above the clouds and within the protection of the mountains natural majesty. The Forgsten Range makes a spiral in the Mek Mountains, spurred on from below by eons of volcanic activity that has allowed the range to collect the freshwater to provide for the one tribe who calls this range their home.

The volcanic activity, elevation, pressure, and fresh water source has allowed a very special mineral to be produced here and nowhere else in the world, Sheeraz, a lightweight, crystal clear mineral that the Forgstens pay their respects to for its abundance and utility. Sheeraz has been sought after by tons of tribes on Edo, waging war in the lower ranges for control over just safe passage into the mountains where they are met with fierce opposition by the elements and the Forgstens themselves, where most anyone who could brave the treacherous climate and make their way past the clouds into the Forgstens territory, their extensive underground network and generations of residence away from the warmongering masses give them a guerilla control over all the region above the clouds. Only the lucky, the crafty, the powerful, the blessed are granted the opportunity to enter the realm above the clouds, and enter the mines. Even fewer are allowed to leave unscathed.

The Forgstens take meticulous care to protect the sanctity of their deposits of Sheeraz. With the abilities granted by their Anthem, they’ve been able to process the material for a number of applications,, as its light weight and ease of use give it additional properties after heat is applied to it for specific lengths of time and pressures. The Forgsten Anthem, Heatforged, affords them by birth the tools to make the ore into their weapons and machinery. In the days of yore, the tribe used their hands and bodies only to hew the stone of the mountains to create their underground homes with an artisanal touch, finger carved patterns adorning the stone slabs and walls that support the weight of the hollowed out mountain within. Rivers of magma that flow through are irrigated with a natural charm, passing through the walls to heat their homes, provide light in the darkness, and give them hot water to bathe in. Now, they leverage their wealth of Sheeraz and traditional processing methods to craft tools and traps to keep intruders from delving too far into the mines if they’re lucky enough to survive the climb into the mountains.

The unfiltered sun above the Mek Mountains painted the fluffy clouds from beneath the lowest entrance a pure, rolling white. A low, mechanical rumble filled the sea of clouds, rippling through them like waves through water, sending tufts of vapor spilling into the open hatch in the side of the mountain. A person stepped from within, copper skinned with pale purple hair pulled back into curly ponytails adorning either side of her head. Teal eyes hidden behind round glasses stared down into the white expanse as flashing lights rose from the deep and the Arceneaux Emblem emerged from the clouds atop a relatively small aircraft, large enough to fit two people, the pilot and their co-pilot. The craft had no propellers, moving through the air like a ghost. With its hull above the clouds, the rumbling stopped and the craft turned sideways to strafe the mountain opening.

“Final stop, Forgsten Mines. End of the line, all passengers must disembark. Welcome home, Mrs. Arceneaux.” the Teal eyed woman said, offering an extended hand to the disembarking woman emerging from the pilot seat of the Arceneaux aircraft emblazoned with the signature sigil across the side.

“Oh, so formal. And you got dressed for me?” The pilot asked coyly, catching the hand of her attendant and stepping off the craft and into the the threshold leading into the mines. Gwendolyn donned a different outfit this time, far varied from the elegant tech wear designed by Arc Tek R&D, a more traditional gown draped her shoulders with golden bangles gently resting around her wrists. Gwen looked the teal eyed woman up and down, a motherly examination to make sure everything was in the same place she remembered after their last meeting. She even moved a lock of hair out of the woman’s face, pulling it from between the lens of her glasses and her face, tucking it into the otherwise tamed buns on her head. ”That’s better.”

“Is it?”

“How could it not be?” Gwen asked, taking both hands of the woman in front of her, holding them in hers close to her heart, pulling them both close enough to breathe. “I missed you dear. And I hate showing up empty handed, but I… I needed to lay my eyes on you.”

“What are you tal—“

“Your father ran into some trouble in the lab and we needed to evacuate a sector of the city. While he’s dealing with that, I’m making the rounds to make sure my dear, darling family is well.” Gwen looked her dear, darling daughter in her eyes over the darkened shades she was wearing inexplicably in the underground realms hewn out by the Forgstens. They locked eyes silently for a few moments, the teal ones behind the shades scouring Gwen’s deep rust colored pair for some clarity before Gwen huffed and sighed, dropping one and leading the spectacled woman deeper into the mine by her hand. “Where’s your grandfather?”

“Uhhhh,” the daughter said while being pulled through the gently lit corridor. “I think Grandpa was getting a workout in before you arrived. He said, and I quote, ‘Don’t let your mom know I’m down here.’”

“Skye, you’d even tell on your dear old grandpa?”

“He brought it on himself,” Skye said, holding her mom’s hand a bit more firmly and walking beside her, instead of being led along like a child. “Are you sure we shouldn’t be at home?” Skye felt something different recently, like an impending feeling that ran through her whole body, one that up until that moment she failed to completely assuage since they began. Since that feeling first wracked her body, she had seen these remnants of a shadowy-red material she didn’t recognize around certain familiar places in the underground complex, places that she knew herself were well kept and dusted often. Skye always worried first and calmed down later, so a million and one ideas swirled in her mind without the tools to do the research to calm her thoughts. Skye stayed quiet while she waited for her mother to give her more clarity.

“Your father will be fine… But, your sister…”

”Terra?! Was she down there with Nero?!”

”Come on, let’s go see your Grandfather. I’m not going to explain myself twice.

Skye and Gwen held hands the entire time they traveled, like two near and dear companions, they escorted one another through the magma lit hallways. The corridors light pulsed like a heartbeat, their dim glow waning in tune with the muffled booms thumping from deep within the mountain. As they walked further , twisting and turning through intersections, gently greeting the stone skinned people they passed and pressing further. So many of the Forgsten looked elated to see Gwen again, surprised that she’d step away from her frosted seat aside her dear beloved husband to pay her homeland a cordial visit. As they walked, Gwen was greeted with wide eyes and excited bows, welcoming her back home for however long she wished to stay. Like a well trained celebrity, Gwen waved to her greeters, brought their bows back to full stand and left them with well wishes for all her extended family.

“Everyone here misses you so much,” Skye said, as they took a turn and exited the main corridors to a spiral staircase. Though they entered on some midway floor, they traveled down, deeper into the mountain’s core. The temperature from the upper corridors maintained a normal heat, about room temperature compared to the surface on Edo, but the stairwell grew warmer and warmer as they traveled downward.

“And I missed you, dear,” Gwen said, getting a firmer, but still gentle grip on Skye’s hand. Being from the mines herself, Gwendolyn felt no real change in the climate, her marbled skin glistening as they traveled deeper. Skye, trying to keep her composure, took more labored breaths as they got deeper, focusing deeply on the flow of air in and out of her lungs. Gwen gave Skye a knowing glance, even behind the glasses she could see a fatigue growing in her dear, beloved daughter’s eyes. Skye took her free hand, adjusted her glasses and maintained the descent with her mother until the pair reached the floor where the stairwell ended.

The corridor they then entered sent the same reverberations that accompanied their descent coursing through their bodies.

It was a long chamber lined with pillars and Sheeraz of greenish-silver intertwined with the magma channels. Each pillar stretched far into the ceiling that was invisible from the ground floor, the ornate pillars wide enough have a ring of 10 people hug its perimeter and still have space between their fingers. Gwen led Skye through the chamber, their footsteps matching the blasts coming from the other side of the chamber, a crimson light beckoning them forth. The chamber was so large, it took them twice as long to cross it as it did to descend into the chamber from above, feeling like miles long hike in desert heat.

The pair weathered it together, hand in hand, until they reached the end of the chamber, basking in the crimson light of the radial mandala.

Gwen finally let go of Skye’s hand, stepping toward the semi circle inscription arcing above them illuminated by magma. The light flowed through the channels in the stone, but it took on a more spectral character, trading in the orange glow for a more intense, commanding crimson near its center, right in front of Gwen. It pulsed, like standing in front of the heart of the mountain pushing precious lifeblood through every other corridor and canal lining the rock formation. The muffled bumps were louder, more smothering, stifling in this particular corridor, squeezing the air with every thump, surging with a short burst of heat with every bump. Though Gwen paid it no mind, Skye’s breathing grew a bit more labored in front of the massive threshold, a gate hiding a formidable secret within.

With as much poise as she ever held, Gwendolyn pulled her hair back and took a deep breath, letting wisps of steam seep from the sides of her ruby lips. She took both of her hands and pressed her palms together, stretching her fingers out like Sunday’s and pressed her open hands into the crimson light. Her marble skin screeched in the heat, searing fire blazing up her forearms and all over her elegant dress. Her attire was as composed as she was, her bangles shone just as brightly, er sleek dress barely moved an inch and shrugged off the intense flame like water. Gwen turned both her hands clockwise and the channels of magma and Sheeraz receded from her, spiraling outward to the edges of the mandala’s thread hold and each concentric ring of the door cycled into the ground below them revealing a chamber within decorated with Sheeraz formations growing naturally from the rock formations lining the massive chamber, coiling around and up the walls like waves crashing on the shores of the outer layer of the chamber. The heat increased by magnitudes even though inside, the chamber appeared darker than anywhere else in the underground city.

Inside the chamber, the beats pressed on, sending scorching waves of heat flying into the pillared corridor. Gwen reached back for Skye’s hand without turning to her at all. Skye grabbed her mother’s hand, even though she had to squint to make it into the beating chamber where her grandfather waited.

“Looks like one of your off-mount siblings might be my favorite bastard grandchild now,” Gwendolyn’s father said in between pulses of heat and pressure. He stood eight feet tall, adorned in crimson red veins, his skin and body tempered and cragged like raw coal steeped in lava. Augustus Forgsten stood before them, took a deep breath, and beat his chest once with both fists. He then pulsed bright white, sending another scorching wave of pressure through the mountain. He exhaled, the color faded from him, and another pulse of searing heat razed past his daughter and granddaughter.

Skye stood strong in the face of her imposing grandfather, taking deep breaths herself, controlled drags of this immensely hot air. Her mother kept her relaxed composure as she guided them both to the center of the massive chamber to take an audience with the Forgsten Patriarch.

“It’s good to see you too, father,” Gwen said, her marble skin glowing even more brightly as she and her dear, beloved daughter got closer to the epicenter of heat they felt miles above from then Gwen first alighted her vehicle.

“Don’t ‘good to see ya’ me when I know you’re just going to annoy me with your incessant insistence on my indulgence of your prattling while I have far more interesting things to do with my time.” Augustus did another breathing cycle, razing his daughter and grandchild with his intense aura. Gwen and Skye stood strong in the face of his sweltering aura, but Skye’s chest was moving with more intention, controlling the flow of the intense heat through her body. Her copper tone skin singed in the face of Augustus’ training that he knew his daughter would want to interrupt, but she wasn’t the favorite bastard for no reason. She withstood the waves without wincing hand in hand with her mother to enjoy an audience with Augustus.

“Your body can only take so much damage, you’re not immortal,” Gwen said before Augustus spat back at her almost immediately.

“Not yet! Spoken like a quitter. I guess being married to that Arceneaux boy made you soft.”

“Stop acting like you don’t like him, he’s a perfect gentleman.”

“HAH! If he were perfect, he’d be down here with you two and we could catch up. Instead, it’s just you and my favorite bastard again. Now stop holding her hand, she’s more than capable of standing on her own. She does quite well when you’re away.”

Gwendolyn’s eyes shot daggers at her father and she huffed once, her father’s assessment of her dearly beloved husband might have struck a nerve. Augustus chucked to himself before he relaxed his stone clad body and sat down with his legs crossed in front of his daughter and granddaughter. “So what brings you back home this time? I’m sure you’re too busy for this to be a wellness check. I’m feeling amazing and the bastard is doing pretty well conducting the mining operations. She shows more promise than some of your cousins’ children and it irks me to no end. That’s why you’re my favorite,” he said speaking straight to Skye, winking at her with a glowing eye that put itself out for a moment behind the marble visage of his with no discernible features that could emote, just a stone mask and moving jaw speaking to the ladies almost three quarters his size. “And let her damned hand go!”

Gwen and Skye approached their sitting mountain patriarch still hand in hand. Gwendolyn adjusted her dress and took a cross legged seat directly across from Augustus while Skye remained standing, focusing deeply on her breathing. “We’ve lost one of our children recently.”

“Oh boo hoo, you two used to run through those bastards constantly. You left my favorite with me, so what?” Augustus asked pointedly. The glowing orbs in his stony eye sockets sharpened to slivers. “What else?”

“Well,” Gwendolyn started. “You remember Terra, correct?”

“That’s the twin? Her brother is in stasis within Shangri La, no?” Augustus asked. He couldn’t keep up with all of the children that his daughter and son-in-law collected for themselves.

“Yes, that’s the pair. Terra unfortunately had an incident at the Strait of Aeon where we posted a security measures after our research found a massive concentration of Naten beneath the island directly at Vescrutia’s polar south.”

“A ‘massive concentration’ you say?” Augustus asked, crunching his fingers in the air. “I couldn’t imagine what she was doing there if you already had security measures in place. Did the little bastard get crafty enough to be put down by friendly fire?” Augustus asked, a mocking sneer slipping from his lips with a wisp of smoke.


“No,” Gwendolyn continued. “Our security was breached by an… acquaintance of ours and his companion.”

“Acquaintance? And this, these acquaintances made it through the Arc Tek security you both pride yourselves on?”

“They did. Zero Venkage is a resourceful man who has worked with Alphonse before, but they’ve… Grown apart.”

“I’m sure, at this point.”

“And his acquaintance had access to some potent Arbiters that effectively neutralized our automated defenses. In addition to the mechanical fixtures, they dispelled a barrier found in a grimoire from the Second Turn in moments. By the time we realized they’d gotten through, Terra was already deployed to intercept.”

Augustus’s nostrils flared with bright tufts of fire, marking his frustration with the Arceneaux Family’s decision making. “You sent that girl to her doom. What was she truly expected to do once they made child’s play of your security? Is the corporation’s resources so meager that’s you sent a child to their death?”

The Forgsten patriarch himself fathered a number of children, all of whom had their place in the tribe’s culture and the mine’s operations. Most of them maintained an artisan status in special layers of the underground complex with access to large amounts of Sheeraz, protecting it from the intrepid fools who would dare to access it without the tribe’s permission. Augustus often and openly found it an affront to their marriage since Gwendolyn was of child bearing age and neither she nor Alphonse seemed to take any interest in conceiving child themselves. He and Gwendolyn spoke often about her possibly bearing a child herself, but Alphonse, once married, kept the Arceneaux Corporation the focus of his endeavors.

Augustus Forgsten regarded himself as a man of character and distinction, and carried himself as the patriarch as such, holding the cultivation of his tribe and his bloodline matter of significant regard. Gwendolyn was the only one of his children to refrain from giving him a grandchild naturally, offering bastard after bastard to him as if they were somehow able to truly carry on the Forgsten bloodline.

“You should have married his father, he and I saw eye to eye.”

“We didn’t send her to her death! Alphonse was monitoring the situation and—“

“And what?! All the technological prowess from the in the world and you let a bastard child fall on a sword for your own sick little game. And then you come here to tell me of another failure of yours? Hmph. Typical.” Augustus felt nothing for his daughter’s loss, even less for that of Alphonse. The patriarch had certain expectations of the Arceneaux family, now headed by the man who sends his wife to deliver terrible news to her family by herself. Exhausted of her excuses, Augustus stood to his feet slowly and the chamber swelled with another pulse of heat as he towered over his sitting daughter, staring up at him with a stone cold grimace that could pierce stone. “You’ve told me nothing I need to hear other than another experiment has gone awry. Serves you both right, making a hodgepodge of a family, playing pretend with your hostages while sending clankers and now children to fail for you.”

Skye, listening to their conversation go from pedestrian to problematic in a split second, tarted to sweat. She had lived in the Forgsten Mines for two decades and adapted to the heat well, but this swelling fell on her like a blanket. She only met Terra shortly before, but took note of her dedication to making sure her brother was taken care of. It was an honor that she felt Augustus would understand given his dedication for the family, but there may have been some nuances to his and her mother’s relationship she just couldn’t understand. She might have wanted to step in, but understood this conversation between Forgstens had no place for her input.

Augustus crossed his arms and stared directly down his nose at his frustrated daughter. “Don’t look at me like that, darling. You’re the picture of composure, a monolith of pragmatism and diplomacy, don’t tell me that hearing the truth from your dear father is too tough a pill for you to swallow.”

Gwendolyn’s calm composure cracked, and without thinking, she started cracking her knuckles. Alphonse’s fiery eyes widened, recognizing her gestures from her childhood when her brothers would gang up on her, forcing her to abandon her penchant for conversation and deal with them directly. “There she is,” Augustus said, almost chuckling looking down on her. “Maybe if you brought that Gwen to the bottom of the world, you’d still have both bastards in the set.”

Augustus, satisfied with the conversation, stepped over Gwen and headed to exit the chamber. He didn’t enjoy speaking to his children in this way but he felt Gwendolyn and Alphonse both needed a bit of a reality check when it came to family building. They both took on the leadership duties in the Arceneaux Corporation, but neither truly understood what it meant to be a family. If they did, Terra would be alive, Alphonse would be with his wife, and they wouldn’t have left Skye to manage Gwen’s Sheeraz vein. He could have spoken that out loud, but felt he could impart a more lasting concept on her by letting her cone to those conclusions on her own.

“Don’t worry, honey. Let me talk to him,” Alphonse’s voice said coming from the golden bangle around Gwendolyn’s wrist as she cycled through each of her knuckles over and over. She still kept herself seated and composed, but gritted her teeth as her fathers booming footsteps grew further away behind her.

“Fine, dear,” Gwen said, standing up and turning to her father’s back and holding her bangled arm towards the retreating patriarch.

“Don’t tell me the prodigal son has been listening this whole time and only now wants to speak up! Your father rolls in his grave, boy.” Augustus said, hearing the whispers between Alphonse and Gwendolyn, igniting a disgust in his warm belly that belched fire from his mouth as he looked over his shoulder from the threshold of the chamber.

“It’s good to see you as well, Augustus. You’re looking as explosive as ever.” Alphonse said as the bangle produced a hologram of him standing in a lab coat and complicated magnifying glasses affixed to his face. They rested on his forehead, leaving his face to show clearly, but his normally unblemished face looked tired, ragged, he had bags under his eyes like he’d been up for multiple days, but his posture seemed as upright and sprightly as ever. He wore a confident smile as well, one that Skye responded to with a smile of her own, happy to see her dear, beloved father in the simulated flesh.

“Save your breath, you’re speaking out of your ass and into mine. I don’t converse with holograms,” Augustus said exiting the chamber. “I need to see you in person, Alphonse. Our families depend upon it. Until then, just take what you need and go.” Augustus exited the chamber and turned around completely to speak to Skye directly, pointing a compressed digit at her with a single set of orders. “Help your mother with whatever materials they need and escort her back to her ship. All she gets is raw materials, understood?”

“Ah, um, yes, Augustus,” Skye said, shooting her eyes between her mother and the image of her father next to her. It had been quite some time since she saw them together, Skye’s position in the Forgsten Mines made her a steward of her mother’s birthright vein of Sheeraz and kept her occupied running the mine itself when she wasn’t busy learning family history from Augustus himself. She and her grandfather grew close, but he often reminded her of the sea of progeny between them, no matter how well she lived up to his expectations. A silence filled the air as Skye had nothing else to say to comply with Augustus’s orders, Gwendolyn and Alphonse let the conversation die, and Augustus turned away from the trio without another word.

Only he did have a final word for them as the circular door in the chamber began to close behind him.

“Good girl, that’s why you’re the favorite. Keep this up and I may adopt you myself. Muhahaha…” Augustus let his laughter fill the massive chamber before he departed the trio for good, leaving them alone in the soft light of Sheeraz and magma.

Skye quietly led her mother and father through the warmly lit corridors of the Forgsten Mines. She walked ahead of her mother, just a few paces behind her with the quiet voice of her her father coming through the communicator on Gwendolyn's wrist. She tried to ignore how awkward she felt walking alone, half listening to Al and Gwen's conversation, focusing more on her unease hearing her grandfather's assessment of the Arceneaux Corporation's priorities. He spoke as if her parents treated her and her siblings like they were expendable. Though she was stationed here for most of her life, she felt very well taken care of, had access to amazing libraries and tools that cultivated her knowledge, and everyone was so friendly.

The Forgsten Tribe treated her well, even if Augustus took every moment to remind her that she wasn't born into the family. Skye's friends adored her because she was different from them, her soft skin and agreeable nature found her adopted by the mine itself as an honorary family member. It made her job, tending to her mother's birthright vein of Sheeraz, that much easier with the support of her extended family. Her mother showered her with praise whenever she returned home and tended to whatever she needed while there, but the in person interactions were always short, measured, and scheduled.

This was the first time Skye felt a shift in the dynamic between them, now that Augustus shared his opinion on how Gwendolyn and Alphonse treated their family and the corporation. Whether he was wrong or right, he definitely made a point. Skye felt it in the way he silenced her dear, beloved parents.

"It's fine. You know your father better than anyone," Alphonse said through the communicator.

Gwendolyn didn't respond, letting the footsteps between her and Skye fill the amber corridors coiling around them.

"Skye," Alphonse said a little louder, prompting Gwen to raise her hand in front of her to project a holographic image of his haggard face just over her shoulder. She turned to meet the image of his eyes, unable to ignore the gentle beckoning of her name. "I know your grandfather can be a bit of a hard ass. But you know we have your best interest at heart."

Skye, taking note of her father's exhausted look and distant eyes, like he was looking through her, into a different world, just kept quiet. It wasn't like her mother needed help finding her own chambers, but their conversation with Augustus left a pit in the middle of her stomach.

Alphonse hadn't denied a word Augustus said about them or the corporation and their treatment of her siblings. Terra, whether Skye could fathom it completely or not, was indeed just another casualty in the workings of the Arceneaux Corporation.

Skye might have been living in the Forgsten Mines for twenty years, left there by her mother and father the last time she saw the two of them present on the mountain at the same time. Non native, her father and mother left her with a number of tools and devices to help her acclimate to the high altitude and temperature that made up much of the mines' climate. Her grandfather destroyed most of the Arc Tek gear when Al and Gwen departed, helping her adapt to her new home more naturally.

He introduced her to a style of breathing that the Forgsten Tribe knew almost instinctively, and she caught on quickly. He also subjected her to a number of sweltering challenges to make sure that in the heart of the mines, the hearth of the mine structure, making her massively resilient in a short amount of time. He introduced her to Sheeraz and its unique properties and how the Forgstens processed the material for export. Augustus trained her in its importance to the Arceneaux Corporation and to other entities that would attempt to summit the mountain and take it from them. He trained her in the defense of the mine and of herself from outside invaders, and still found time to make sure she had ease of contact with her mother, father, and other family regularly, knowing the importance of family to a young, impressionable mind.

He repeatedly reminded her of the power of community in her training, and urged her to reach out to her other siblings often. Though he was a stern grandfather and tolerated no weakness or faltering from her, even in youth, he still nurtured a caring quality that he often mentioned that her parents lacked in a genuine capacity.

And he hated that about them, especially about his daughter. Skye became his favorite bastard because she grew into a competent, resilient individual in spite of her differences from the Forgsten Tribe and the challenges brought to her young life.

Staring into her father's distant, simulated eyes, she recounted the times that her mother visited her in person in the Mines.

Sometimes it was years between visits, though they stayed in contact between calls she made to Terra and her other siblings. She could count them on one hand.

She saw her father's face even less.

The man in the hologram might as well have been a stranger.