Endless rise above

[Nephrite]

"Well... that's partially why we're here." Moore says. "I've found the other parts - CRIMSON, BLUE, ORCHID. Is the Empty Knight here? Actually... was the Empty Knight known as 'Cynic'?" He asks.

[Anastasia]

Give me Sense motive here real quick, since I'll just weave it into the next post.

[Nephrite]

Take 10 for 88.

[Anastasia]

"No," Is the answer, "The Empty Knight is gone and I do not believe it will return."

[Nephrite]

Doesn't that run contrary to what he knows? Hm...

"Do you know what relationship this demiplane has to the wyrm that's here?" Moore asks. "The portal to this place only seems to open as long as it's alive, or... at least, semi-alive."

'Xandra, what do you feel about this?' Moore asks in her mind. 'It feels like this isn't adding up, at least on the surface, to me.'

[Anastasia]

'I don't feel intentional malice or obfuscation,' Is Xandra's reply, 'I foresee more ignorance than anything else.'

"I do not," It answers to you, dutifully.

Sylvie considers a time as well, silent in the back and forth until, "What do you want to do now?"

[Nephrite]

"That is a good question, isn't it?" Moore says. "Do you control this demiplane, or are you just part of it? If you'd like, we can take you back to the other 'systems' that we've found."

[Anastasia]

"I have nothing to do. I simply wait for no reason and no purpose," Is the answer. "Which other ones did you find?"

[Nephrite]

"CRIMSON, BLUE and ORCHID." Moore says. "We were actually looking for The Empty Knight too, in hopes of restoring them back to what they used to be. It seems we've stumbled onto something with where this place is, though. I wonder if there's something else here in this plane somewhere."

[Anastasia]

"There is a dragon within," Is the answer, "It sleeps in a mountain fortress ahead. The Empty Knight once talked to it and it leaves us alone."

[Nephrite]

"...Interesting." Moore says. "I think we may want to talk to this dragon, do you know where it is from here?"

[Anastasia]

"Go until you see a mountain. It's in there," Is the answer, "There's a small valley within it, go there and nowhere else."

[Nephrite]

"For now, please stay here." Moore says. "And consider if you'd like to come with us - I'd be happy to give you a home and a purpose." He says.

From here, Moore will start heading towards this mountain that supposedly has a valley inside it!

This entire situation is far more convoluted than I would've imagined.

[Anastasia]

I don't think the dragon's involved as much as a bystander nearby, but this entire thing is a mess at this point.

So run us through this, Moore. This new system or being is wrong about at least some of this?

[Nephrite]

Moore flies along and considers all of this, gesturing a bit to make some images as they go.

Okay, so here are the facts as we know them so far:

At some indeterminate point the past, The Empty Knight created beings like CRIMSON to help themselves alter themselves to be rid of some sort of special ability.

One of the places used for research was this demiplane, which has a portal that can only work when a great wyrm, felled in a war millenia ago, and partially resurrected, has some semblance of life to it. So we know that the portal to this plane was put here after the wyrm was partially resurrected, so that would rule out Cynic and The Empty Knight being the same person, but it feels like there's still some sort of connection there.

On top of all of this, the 'systems' that the Empty Knight created were created to utilize something called 'The Anathem,' which ... is some sort of... something? We still haven't discerned what that is, exactly, but it's some sort of magical system.

So, Cynic and The Empty Knight are likely related, but I don't believe them to be the same person, in hindsight... although it is possible that they were the same person and there's some sort of ...split nonsense going on.