Episode 200 - Maze of Connections

## Synopsis

The door to the Cannon Lab opened with a click as Integrity put her lockpicks away. She crept inside, followed by the rest of SWIM, as well as Cyndra, Bailey, and Efrosyni. They slammed the doors behind them and looked around the work area. The large barrels of black powder that had previously lined the walls had been drastically reduced to a single small barrel, large stools were scattered around various workbenches covered in engineering equipment, and the firing range to the right of the room still had the two cannons ready to be used. Bailey was slumped over in exhaustion, with the homunculus babbling and pulling on his hair. Efrosyni was still retching while being held in the large hand Mira had conjured.

Integrity finished checking the room and turned to her friends. *"Ok, first things first, we have to secure Bailey and Efrosyni. We have to keep them from being able to do anything, any ideas?"*

Mira carefully lowered Efrosyni to the ground. *"I mean, I think we should probably just tie them up right? Because what if the spell wears off and she takes control again, I don't want them to be able to hurt anybody. You have rope, right Integrity?"*

*"You don't even have to ask that question."* Integrity pulled out several coils of rope from inexplicable places around her body.

While Integrity got to work, Serinepth looked through Bailey and Efrosyni's pockets, taking anything that could be used as spell components or a magical focus. When they were finished, they blindfolded the students and lay them on the ground, completely incapacitated and without their senses.

While they thought about their next moves, Winsler remembered the strange modron that he and Integrity had seen when leaving the Divination Tower. *"This may be a bit of a long shot, but Integrity, you remember that modron that went up into the Divination Tower that we saw before, holding the rat? i wonder if we could see about heading to the Archives, and asking the modrons for help—"*

Mira exclaimed, *"Oh, because they don't have brains!"*

*"Well, I guess that's— I don't want to piss them off more than I already have, so I'll just put it lightly and say they don't have organic... brain capacity, I suppose. But the point is, it seems these modrons clearly see the cranium rats as a threat, so if we maybe try and convince them that we know the source of all of it, maybe we could convince them to come along and help us deal with the situation?"*

The rest of SWIM agreed it was worth a try. Winsler also said that because of how much information was stolen, it was possible the modrons wanted to go on a revenge quest, seeing as they held grudges for a long time.

Integrity gasped, *"We're going to do more smear campaigns! Didn't you try to do that Mira?"*

*"No! I mean I wasn't smearing anyone, I was just, you know, standing up for myself and explaining why I was the best candidate, and I will continue to be."*

From the floor Bailey murmured, *"I mean you did lie to all those people though."*

*"Ok yes that's fair I did. But counterpoint, shut up. Ok so let's see... Modrons for sure, and then I guess— Do we just go down there and see if we can take her?"*

Winsler said, *"Well, I was also thinking that um... I was trying to think of ways that we could maybe sort of deal with something like that. We saw that she was in her own sort of glass container, like what Merrick was in if you remember, like floating in that area full of... brain fluid. So I wonder if we could do something similar to what happened with Merrick, if we could separate the Lady from her brain fluid tank, or maybe break it in some way, maybe that might help us in the long run? I feel like the Archives might have something similar to that, like a thunder based spell maybe."*

Mira grinned. *"I've got some thunder based magic, we can look for more."*

*"I think the more tools we have at our disposal the better, so we could probably kill two birds with one stone while we're at the Archives if we do that."*

*"Yeah, let's do it, let's fight a giant brain."*

As SWIM prepared to leave for the Archives, Bailey muttered, *"You're not going to win."*

Mira looked down at him. *"We've won against a lot of stuff."*

Winsler said, *"We know that our adversary is probably way stronger than we are, but we just have to try something. We've got to try."*

*"So you're just going to leave me and Efrosyni here to rot and wait for you guys?"*

Serinepth shook her head. *"You're not going to be stuck in here forever, we—"*

*"She did something to her, and to a few others that... I don't know."*

*"This is your mess, ok?"* Mira sighed, *"Look, if we leave, and you know, temporarily dispersing whatever happened to you wears off, then you're going to be trying to kill people again, and we don't want to happen when we're trying to deal with it. She'll die, we'll deal with it, and you should be fine. Then we'll come get you. It'll just be for a few hours, you know?"*

*"She took everyone in the HSE, it was a trap. Then she took some of them, and listen to me when I'm telling you this, she did something to them. She put something in them."*

Serinepth asked, *"Like what Efrosyni threw up at the..."*

*"Yeah, like that."*

Mira thought for a moment. *"So do you think they'll be down there too when we fight her?"*

*"I don't know. She had control over me, she had control over Efrosyni, I don't know if she had control over anyone else and just let them loose on campus. There could be people like Efrosyni walking around, just waiting in the wings to... throw something up again, or use whatever thing she put in them for her purposes."*

*"Then we really can't afford to wait can we."*

Winsler agreed. *"All the more reason why we should really, really get going. To stop this as soon as possible"*

*"When we fight her, if she does control anyone we have to make sure to figure out how to incapacitate them without hurting them. I'm sure we can do that, I have magic to make people stand still, we can control people in that way... It's something to be aware of but it's not going to stop us."*

*"If you're still connected to her then there's nothing you can do. You have those circlets and helmets on... I don't know how much they'll help, I think they'll just... She'll just take them off you somehow. She can control things with her mind, she could just rip them off your head, or crush your heads with them. Just because you can go and break the tank, I don't think that's—"* Bailey's face immediately contorted in pain. *"I'm just trying to help, I know I made this worse than it was, I started this mess, but I— I— I don't want anyone else to get hurt, I just want to help undo what I did."*

Integrity asked, *"Are you saying there's something you can try and do to defeat her?"*

*"I don't think there's anything I could try and do to defeat her. I think she'll just kill me if she sees me again, I can only say they put things in people, and she's so much stronger than you think. She knows so much more than you think she does, she's connected to me, she's connected to everyone else in the HSE, there's other people on campus she's connected to, she can see inside of our minds, she can know everything we know just with a quick glance at us. She killed my friend, Jakov, in less than a second. I get that you guys are stronger than him, or me maybe, but... i just don't think you really know what you're going up against."*

Integrity pulled her friends away from Bailey and whispered, *"Ok, so I know this might sound stupid, but of all the people in this room, in this school, there's something Bailey knows that is the weakness of The Lady of the Deep, but they can't say it out loud. Do you think we should give him a chance to prove himself, or should we just leave him here?"*

Serinepth sighed. *"The problem is again like, the moment she has control again, it's going to be more difficult for us. I mean..."*

*"I have something that might help avoid the whole talking thing."* Winsler started looking through his robes, and pulled out the potion of mind reading he had bought during Autumn's End.

*"I can do it,"* said Integrity.

*"Are you alright with doing that?"*

*"To try and find out what's going on inside Bailey's head? I mean if that is something that could help us, and help him maybe, then I am willing to take that chance. I don't really know how it works though."*

Serinepth agreed. *"I mean thinking about it, she probably already looked at all your memories and stuff. So as long as there wasn't anything big you guys learned about between putting on those helmets and now that you wouldn't want to share..."*

Winsler said, *"As long as Bailey doesn't know the fact that one of us is reading his mind, and we get him back on the topic of the weaknesses and stuff, it's probably the best chance we've got to figure out the weaknesses. It could backfire but it's one way we can do it."*

He handed the small vial of purple liquid to Integrity, she took a breath and drank the potion. She felt her mind open up, and could sense the nearby minds of Serinepth, Efrosyni, and Bailey. She focused on Bailey, and began to read his thoughts. She walked closer to him and asked, *"So, when did it all start?"*

Bailey sighed. *"I took that Oblex, a little piece of it, when my mentor wanted to dispose of it, you guys know the story with that. After it died, she came to me in a dream one night, said that she gave the Oblex to my mentor as a gift. I think she was trying to get him into the Network or in the position I'm in now. I didn't follow up on it, I didn't try and make contact with her, I tried to ignore it and push it away until... Until Mira brought up the election just a couple of days ago, and when I went looking for her in my dreams, she was right there waiting for me. She promised me ample power to defeat my foes, wisdom to defeat them is what I thought she... I don't know, I didn't think she would hand me a knife and compel me to kill people... I just wanted a mind greater than my own to show me the way."*

As he spoke, Integrity felt his betrayal, the shame of the Oblex situation, the fear and need for control he felt when he contacted the Lady of the Deep. *"I can see that everything happened so fast, and I totally understand how that feels, feeling like you're out of control."* She tried to focus on his fear and probe deeper into his mind. The moment that she began to delve into it, she heard hundreds of voices crying out, filling her mind with endless noise. People who were tied to chairs and didn't know where they were, people who felt sick as though their throat was burning, people in the most terrible pain they had ever been in. She tried to tune them out and focused on the loudest voice of all, Bailey's.

His thoughts were rambling and filled with terror. *"They're not going to win, they're not going to win, they can't win, even if they break the tank she can survive. She's connected to me, what if she uses me, what if she takes back control of me, what if she uses Efrosyni. What if Jakov's not dead, what if those orbs we gave her, she trapped them, dropped them in the tank, they're in the tank, what if those grant her power, they don't know about those, they couldn't possibly know that those could be there. What if Doss comes back and does something, they put something in Doss too—"*

*"Integrity I Idleberry..."* The calm voice of Our Lady of the Deep cut through his thoughts. *"How kind of you to drop back into the Network, I didn't know you missed us so dearly you were willing to peek through my servant's eyes. Where are you now? I see your mind, but it is like an oasis in the desert, I cannot place where you are. Where did you take my warlock, where are you, who's around?"*

Integrity immediately forced herself to think about the top of the Spire Nebulosis, but felt the overwhelming presence of the Lady pushing back, until the helmet protecting her head seemed to also push back. *"Oh I see, have you shielded your mind already against me? You found the electrum hidden in my lair and used it against me? Hm, no matter, there's others near you who don't have such excellent shielding."*

Serinepth felt a mind press against her own, shattering through the meagre protection offered by the brass circlet she wore.

*"Let me see through your eyes, little one."*

Serinepth felt herself look up, around at her friends, at the place they were hiding.

*"Gonzalez Cannon Lab, Evocation Department. Locked within those rooms, you're closer than I thought you all were."*

Serinepth felt the presence of the Lady of the Deep leave her mind, and immediately grabbed the sides of her head and reeled back. *"Fuck, she knows. She forced her way into my head, she saw through my eyes, she knows where we are."*

Mira's voice shook as she said, *"Let's go, we need to get out of here now!"*

They hurried to grab their things, Efrosyni was retching on the ground, Bailey was sobbing. *"She knows where we are, she knows where we are."* Saffron coloured water started to drip through the ceiling, pouring through the cracks, and seeping in under the door. Mira ran to the door and pulled it open, the water poured in through the walls faster and faster.

Mira yelled, *"We can't rush this! We have to come back for them later or things are going to get much much worse for everybody, come on!"*

Serinepth ran over to her cousin, telling her to guide them outside while she covered her eyes. Winsler hurried after Mira, the saffron water reaching their ankles. Just before they left, Integrity turned to see Bailey almost completely submerged in the water. *"Bailey, it's safest for you to be with her right now. We'll find a way to find you, I'm going to save you!"*

They ran out of the room and slammed the door shut. From inside, they heard the sound of a portal tearing the fabric of space, then silence. They fled to the Archives, Serinepth stumbling behind Integrity as they ran through campus. The archway in the Concourse opened to a plain looking wooden door, from out of which ran Delnys Raethran. She made eye contact with Mira and immediately ran up to SWIM.

*“I– I– Something poisoned me last night. I just woke up, I went home, and I– I just fell. As soon as I went unconscious and I just woke up, what’s happening?”*

*“Are you ok?”* asked Mira. *“Are you feeling ok, do you hear anything in your mind?”*

She held and arm out to support Delnys, who gratefully took it. *“No I don’t hear anything in my mind, I don’t know what happened, what’s going on? Integrity was at the – sorry Integrity I don’t mean to do this to you – but Integrity was there yesterday, last night at the Hedrick’s Society for Excellents with me and Winsler and Serinepth, and I don’t know where you were Mira, but I think something terrible happened there last night.”*

Mira held tightly onto her shoulders and said, *“The brain of Henrietta Hedrick is under the school. She’s controlling people, she turned Bailey into a warlock, and we have to fight her right now because things are getting really really bad, and hopefully that’s going to free everybody from the control they’re under. We’re trying to go to the Archives right now to get help from the modrons. We’re going to go down there right now, Bailey said we can’t fight her, but we have to, we don’t really have a choice, and I really don’t want you to get hurt.”*

Delnys stopped shaking and looked at Mira. *“I don’t want to– No, I’m coming with you, no matter what.“*

*“Delnys, I’m really scared, she was controlling Bailey! There was a debate, and Bailey—“*

*“There’s nothing in my head. Whatever it is, she’s not in control of me, I’m fine. I went back to my house, I’m fine, nothing happened, I just went unconscious. I was poisoned, but I’m doing fine, I’m a lot better than you’re giving me credit for right now. I can’t tell you how much help I would be, if there’s something terrible going on, please bring me with you.”*

*“Ok, that’s fair. It’s just that I watched Bailey literally just get controlled and try to stab somebody so I’m a little— I’m not going to say no if you do want to come along, but I do want you to understand that we are up about to fight something that is really really dangerous. It’s your choice, I know you like to come along with these things—“*

*“Mira! It would be— Listen to me, it would be more dangerous for all of you if I am not there. Trust me.”*

*“Ok, ok I trust you. Come with us.”*

*“Ok.”*

Serinepth still had her eyes shut. *“Delnys, I’m not in that thing too, but I just got brain-slammed by whatever the fuck is going on. It doesn’t matter if you aren’t in it, this thing can get into your head, it just did it to me a few minutes ago.”*

Delnys shrugged, the face looked at though there was something she wanted to tell them but couldn’t. *“I’ll be on my best guard, my minds very strong, trust me.”*

Delnys joined SWIM as they ran towards the Archives. Serinepth ripped her robe and fashioned a blindfold in case Our Lady of the Deep tried to see through her again. They hastily walked through the doors, seeing a few students wandering around, but no Ava Redding. They also saw two small modrons clicking away to the side.

Winsler ran up to them, slightly out of breath. *“You have no idea how happy I am to come across y’all. We have a  it if a situation on our hands, are you familiar with the modron that— He had a brain rat in a jar, and they went off somewhere in search of something?”*

One of the modrons, slightly older looking, snapped their fingers and went *\*click click, click click click\**. They waved their hands as if gesturing with a sword.

*“Yes, that’s right that’s right! The situation is much worse than we thought we know what’s been controlling the rats, and what’s been stealing the knowledge from the Archives.”*

Both of the modrons stopped shelving books and focused on Winsler. The newer modron looked suspiciously at the group of them. The older one crossed their arms, clicked some more, and tried to gesture that it was a small problem. Winsler spread his hands apart and gestured that it was in fact a big problem. The two modrons clicked at each other for some time, scratching their heads. Eventually, the older modron opened a nearby book, flipped through the pages, and pointed at words to spell out a message.

*“Great power off to the east. Already dealt with.”*

They looked at Winsler and made the *“tiny”* gesture again before flipping to another page.

*“Small outcome expected.”*

Winsler used a series of *Minor Illusions* to show the sword-wielding modron, then a giant brain, and finally the image of a crushed modron. Both of the modron’s eyes widened and they seemed to cover their non-existent mouths in shock. After another short conversation full of clicking, Winsler asked if some of them could help while they fought Our Lady of the Deep. The older modron held up a finger, before flying into the rafters of the Archives.

The students waited for some time before the older modron returned. In their hands was a very long spear made of brass, with runes carved all over its tip. It landed, and presented the weapon to Winsler. When he took it, they flipped through the books again to say,

*“Threat to nervous system and—”*

They flipped through the pages some more, until they found a map and tapped on a symbol labelled as a temple of Estar. The students realised this weapon was a holy weapon of Estar, used against great threats to modron-kind. Serinepth also realised that with the emphasis the modron was placing on its divine power, it was likely this weapon was only meant to be used once before it was destroyed. Winsler thanked them for their help, saying they would put the weapon to good use. As they turned to leave, the older modron grabbed his hand. The two of them closed their eyes and clicked in unison, and he felt warm, as though he had been given some kind of divine blessing.

They left the Archives, ready to confront Our Lady of the Deep. As they walked Delnys asked, *“Are you all feeling ok?”*

Integrity said, *“I mean, I’m feeling pretty achy from jumping off the window, but—“*

*“What I’m asking is do you need healing?I can’t do much, but…”*

*“Oh yes, absolutely.”*

*“Maybe just a little,”* admitted Winsler. *“Anything helps.”*

Mira felt fine, but Serinepth said she could also use a little bit of help. Delnys pulled them into a more secluded part of the campus and cast *Life Transference* on each of them. Black veins appeared around her eyes, her skin grew taut and pale, and her breath became ragged.

Mira reached out to steady her. *“Woah, woah, Delnys are you ok?”*

*“Yeah, I’m fine. That took a lot more out of me than I was expecting.”*

*“Here”* — Mira put her hand on Delnys’ shoulder and cast *Cure Wounds* on her — *“You’re important too.”*

Delnys recoiled at her touch, as Mira felt the energy of the spell dissipate instead of healing her. She mumbled something about *Life Transference* stopping healing spells from working. Looking at her girlfriend’s face, Mira was unnerved at how much Delnys resembled her mother.

Winsler and Integrity led the group to the Divination Tower. Serinepth still had the blindfold on, fearing another intrusion from Our Lady of the Deep. Mira worried about Delnys, but said nothing in fear of worsening their already damaged relationship. Integrity was torn between her duties, to the school, to her friends, to Bailey. As they entered the courtyard, she thought about the orbs sitting in the bottom of the Lady’s tank, and felt a sick tremor up her spine.

A familiar voice on the back of her head whispered, *“You’ve been without your orb for so very long. You might march now to your own death, and give up control of Progress to this foul creature. Even now she pulls at the threads of my mind, trying to find what I am, what is lurking beneath the Hatch. She has so many of those orbs my warlock, Horned One. She has so many of them and you’ve been without them for so long.”*

Integrity felt a chill breeze wash over her, her hair shortened into a bowl cut, and several of her teeth disappeared. Serinepth, with a hand on her cousin’s shoulder, felt her shrink several inches, as Integrity reverted to her sixteen year old self.  The rest of her friends quickly noticed the change, asking what had happened.

Integrity stammered, *“I was just speaking to the Progenitor, and because I lost the orb, I shrunk… I’m— I’m sixteen again.”*

She felt a strange coldness surround them, as though the Progenitor’s eyes were firmly fixed on them. They walked towards the Divination Tower, and suddenly felt a great rumbling from beneath them. A crack opened in the tower, splitting it in two. The ground them, toppling them all over. They saw tentacles wrapping over the Tower, forcing it over, throwing bricks and stones all over the ground. Our Lady of the Deep collapsed the Divination Tower as she emerged from the depths of Wildcliff.

They immediately felt her pressing against their minds, a voice rang out in their skulls that said, *“Oh the four of you, and an extra visitor come to greet me on my campus. Are you here to show me around, are you here to show me down to the Hatch itself where I might find our friend?”*