Johannes walked through the empty halls of the Asura towards the quarters the Liese twins were using, his arms carrying the few books he had been using to research the Belkan style of magic. Over the past six months, he had been able to find his personal magic aptitude, which happened to render Midchildan magic nearly useless to him. No one on the ship practiced Belkan, so all he could do was study the bits of theory he could acquire.
He approached the door, shifted the books to free a hand, and knocked on the door. After waiting a minute, he knocked again, with no response.
“Those two are normally up at this time, they're probably off talking with Gil.” Johannes turned and made his way to the larger quarters the Naval Advisor had, thankful for the lack of people from it nearing 'nighttime' according to the ship's timetable, but stopped at the door to faintly hear a heated argument through the door. He looked both ways down the hall before pressing his ear to the door.
“You're talking about damning a child!” The voice of Aria was clearly furious, which was in itself a shock, as the maddest Johannes had ever seen her was something akin to a saddened mother.
“We've been over this, we don't have any other options. This is the safest course of action we have. The Arc-en-ciel simply knocks it out for a while, and we can't find out where the reincarnation core is when it's sleeping.” Graham sounded deeply saddened, as if he had accepted to commit a lesser evil to prevent a greater one from happening.
“No more burying friends. No creating another Chrono.” The sounds of sniffling made Johannes wonder who the third voice was for a moment, until he realized it was Lotte.
Curiosity piqued, Johannes stood up straight and knocked on the door, and the door was opened shortly after by Graham, who looked like hell. “How can I help you at this hour, Hans?”
“I just wanted to return the books I borrowed off Aria, and couldn't help but overhear your . . . conversation. Is there a way I could help?”
Graham frowned, but motioned for Johannes to enter the room before closing the door behind him and casting a spell to acoustically seal it. Graham turned to Johannes and bluntly asked, “How much did you hear?”
“Just about something being resistant to the most powerful weapon the TSAB has, and a reincarnation core. Enough to research more on my own if needed,” Johannes replied, his standard neutral face hiding any emotion he may have had.
Graham sighed. “I might as well explain it then, no point in you wrecking my work. Sit.” He motioned to his office, the front room of his quarters. Two couches framed a low table, one couch contained the Liese twins, Lotte curled up and Aria leaning forward with her hands on her knees. Graham took a seat on the other couch and Johannes sat cross-legged on the floor at the end of the table after placing his books on the table. The twins simply nodded to Johannes, minds working on whatever problem they had been discussing.
Graham turned to Johannes with a stern look on his face. “This needs to be made clear. None of this will be repeated outside this room. If what we are discussing were to reach the Admiral's ears, my being cross at you would be the least of your worries. Understood?”
“Crystal, sir.”
Graham relaxed a bit and started his explanation. “We were discussing ideas on how to destroy a certain relic, a tome. It bonds to a mage and grows in strength by draining other mages' Linker Cores, but over time consumes the owner, turning them into a monster. The TSAB is then forced to destroy this being with the only weapon we have that can hurt it's completed form, a warship's Arc-en-ciel. The problem being that this relic has a core, one part of it being able to recreate the relic nearly anywhere when it's destroyed.”
Johannes asked, “What about destroying it before it consumes the bonded mage?”
Lotte sat up and replied, shaking her head, “Wouldn't work. If the physical tome itself is damaged, it'll simply reform elsewhere. The owner is protected by four Ancient Belkan knights, who are powerful enough to stand toe-to-toe with some of the Bureau's best mages, and have, literally, hundreds of years of experience. They seem to exist only to follow and protect their master.”
Johannes sighed and shook his head. “Blind loyalty, what a waste.”
Head tilted somewhat to the side, Aria asked, “What do you mean?”
“Do I see a point in being loyal to a person or an ideal? Yes, several points in fact. However, by following someone you are bound to help them, which includes pointing out if they are heading down a wrong path. These so-called knights are not doing this. Blindness due to loyalty is stupidity of the highest order. But I digress.” Johannes waved his hand, dismissing the idea, before turning to face Graham. “You mentioned something about this relic sleeping just before I joined in.”
“Yes, after reforming the tome is dormant for a while, normally until it comes into the possession of a mage. We've discovered that it can be accessed like a Device, but the core's defense program goes on a rampage if it's accessed. When we tried this, the tome quickly took over the ship, accessed the ship's Arc-en-ciel, and aimed it at our fleet. I was forced to destroy that warship, killing a good friend in the process.” Graham reached up and rubbed one of his eyes as he finished.
Johannes nodded. “The incident that cost Admiral Harlaown her husband and 'Chro-suke', as Lotte calls him, his father.” He had heard about the incident after asking some of the crew about the ship-wide vigil a month ago. “What about waiting for the tome to finish turning the bonded mage into a monster, ripping out the core, and blasting just that with the Arc-en-ciel?” Johannes sweatdropped at the shocked looks the three gave him. “What? It's a valid question.”
Lotte was the first to recover. “You're suggesting ripping the core out of a being that can withstand a direct hit from an Arc-en-ciel, which would involve cutting through the outer defenses deep enough to find the core in a gigantic mass of mana, locking on to it, and teleporting it out, without getting killed by the defense program?”
Johannes grinned slightly. “When you word it like that, I sound insane. Forget I said anything. Anyway, what was the plan that you were discussing earlier?”
Graham called up a couple displays, and motioned at them as he explained his plan. “Let the tome absorb the bonded mage, then just before its final transformation, freeze it with powerful ice magic, and use a warship's faster-than-light engine to throw the block of ice into a pocket dimension. Aria had a problem with who I picked as the mage.”
“Because she's seven years old!”
Johannes took a closer look at the description of the chosen mage. “Let me try and figure out why you picked this young girl. She doesn't know she's a mage, being Terran, so it's unlikely she'll be able to access any of the tome by herself. Old enough to think on her own, but young enough to still trust most people. An orphan so you don't destroy a family.” He closed his eyes in thought for a moment. “I'm not any more of a fan of the idea of damning a child than the next person, but I do realize that this is the best course of action you have to break this cycle.”
Aria sighed and muttered, “I know that, but I still don't like it.”
“Good, it means I raised you well. Stuff like this should never sit well with someone, but there are times that things like this must be done,” Graham replied before standing up and hugging his familiars.
Johannes stood and bowed to the group. “If you'll excuse me, I need to get to sleep so I don't pass out when I do physical training with Lotte tomorrow.” He smiled and exited Graham's office, and made his way to his own room.
It was a single room he was given as Graham's helper on the Asura, containing a bed, a closet for his few clothes, a desk with a single chair for work, and a small bathroom off to one side. He dug through his travel bag and pulled out a flask before sitting on the bed and turning it over in his hands for a few minutes. One side was engraved with 'Evil happens when good men do nothing', while the other sported the engraving of an ornate crucifix, the flask having been a birthday gift from one of his uncles.
Johannes unscrewed the cap, held the flask up, muttered “To the monster I've become, quietly being party to the planning of a child's murder,” and took a drink. He spent his night nursing his small drink and stewing over his thoughts.