(Rose)
A few days have passed since we went inside the underground tunnel of this place.
I stayed in this complex to rest and look around. I couldn't find much beside mushrooms to eat, but at least I had shelters.
My left arm has lost a third of its flesh, but the new skin covers it. It will regrow over time. My left eye however may never recover.
B - I'll try repairing it but it will take time and it's difficult. If only you hadn't scratched it in panic.
R - What was that thing anyway?
B - Just a monster...
R - And this place?
B - A scientific research centre of some sort. Nothing related to us.
R - I know... My left eye hurts.
B - Stay brave my dear. You'll recover over time. Just stay here for a few more days please. I can heal you better as we stay calmly here.
R - Okay... You're not going to scold me? I was rash again.
B - Oh but I know you will never ever learn Rose.
I smile at it and thank her.
~
Over my days of recovery, I understood more of this place as I wandered through its buildings.
First it wasn't the Alps in the distance I think.
And this complex was a place of scientific cooperation and research. As for the hole and tunnels, I found some books and pictures here and there. It's a circle underground to research about light and hadrons. I don't know what hadrons are, yet, but they don't look like magic.
I've found a wall with particles names on it.
I know of electron and photon. Less about neutron and proton.
I've never heard of the dozen other particles.
Just as Mendeleev's table has many more atoms than I remember seeing in my time, I can understand that centuries of scientific progress I've skipped have brought many more discoveries.
This place was a laboratory to study the Earth and reality, not what lies beyond as I first feared.
The well was just a surface access to the round tunnels of studies.
I've found a helicopter in a hangar. Too bad it's rusted through and crumbling apart. It's still an impressive machine to look at. A machine able to fly and float in air, without wings nor balloon.
I also found a few trucks and cars, though in better shape, not working either.
I found a medical bay. Almost empty but a few products remained. It helped.
Laboratories mostly fill the buildings now long abandoned. Computers, offices. All about construction, mechanic, engineering and physics in the broader sense.
A small city devoted to the study of physics and the structure of reality.
Too bad they're all gone. They would have had much work to do nowadays. Who can tell what the world became nowadays? Beside them I mean...
I'm looking at a world map with Blume by my side.
I'm not quite where I thought I would be. Italy still is far away.
I'm not quite what I thought I would be... My ideal still is far away.
I chuckle and cough. My eye hurts me and I make a face.
B - Hot blooded Roses burn their petals, hm?
R - Oh... You... I just thought about it. This makes me look just like Licht, doesn't it?
B - You still think about her... I guess you do. You know she's as dangerous as the monsters.
R - Hm... You really don't like her. Well, she's far away anyway.
B - I just am afraid of what is more potent than me. That and I don't quite trust her knowing what she originates from.
R - It doesn't really matter now. Just consider her as a bad dream. What lies ahead is more important now.
I stand up. This world map made of tiles has marks of my so little travels now.
The world is still so wide.
Who cares about an odd spark like Licht? We'll meet many others.
R - Meanwhile, I saw a solution for our travel toward Italy around here. Look. There's a tunnel. We may be able to skip climbing the mountains. Not that we wouldn't be able to do it with your powers, but we're not really equipped for going in high altitude.
B - About that. Given what happened below, I may have overestimated my powers.
R - Should we try to measure their extent while we rest here?
B - Hm... Why not. How?
R - Let's think about it.
How to evaluate magical power obeying rules of science? She could heat something as much as possible... Though I would risk burning. Something about strength... Weight moving, weight lifting... Oh... Weight removal perhaps?
How much weight can she make float weightless and for how long? I'm curious.
Furthermore after the difficult time we had the other day, it would be good to know more.
We try with various items in the different places.
A car... She can lift it. It looks surreal to see a car flying in the middle of a warehouse. It floats high above me.
She even drops it and catches it again before it hits the ground right next to me.
I do feel my blood pulsing when she does those things, but it's a slight side effect.
We try a train locomotive. It creaks but it doesn't float. It's too heavy for her.
We find a military tank in another hangar. A large armoured vehicle with mounted canon on the turret.
It doesn't really look lighter than a train locomotive, but apparently it is.
She manages to lift it slightly, but she's really giving it all. She's trembling inside of me and I'm sweating in her stead.
I step toward the floating tank as I want to try pushing it to float across the place. Blume stops me.
The tank was only a few dozens of centimetres above ground when she dropped it suddenly, and it still created a shock as strong as if something had exploded. The vehicle sank a little, crushing the ground below it. I fell on my bottom under the shock it did.
R - How heavy was that?
B - About... Fifty tons I guess? That was my limit. I can't lift more than that, nor more than a few seconds such a weight.
R - That still was truly impressive you know... How making me fly can be so difficult with so much energy to spare?
B - It is difficult to me, and could be dangerous to us both. I prefer keeping my strength available in case of emergency rather than letting it all out and being less able when something comes up. That and gravity really is hard to manipulate.
I stand up, my legs trembling a little. She has such power and yet remains scared of using it?
R - What are you so afraid might happen if you used too much your power?
B - It would catch the attention of those like me that are much higher in the food chain... There are a few things in the world that are... far beyond me and everything else. And many more simply stronger than us. I'm afraid they would end up wanting to eat us if we remain too visible. And I want to live longer with you;
R - This seem easy... I can hear your fear somewhat, but are you sure they would all eat us if they knew about us?
B - Probably not of course, but there'll always be a few hostile ones.
She recalls her fight against Ogre. The burst of fire suddenly scorching the land. An explosion that was only an introduction to what could lie out there. She feared war against powers we could never be able to handle. Not showing off her powers was the best chance to remain underestimated, and left in peace in her opinion.
This is a little sad but she may be right. Other demons worse than one another probably remain after what we've done.
R - ... What is the worst monster you can detect in the world?
B - There are two surges I detect that are like stars when I'm just but a moon. I can't see them from here but I can guess their existence from the halos they left around the globe. One north and one south. I don't think they're sentient like me but they're far beyond me.
R - Blume, I remember you telling me that beings-like-you have emotional inertia. That you turn easily obsessive because you have no body to regulate your thoughts.
B - I'm less that way but it still remains true yes. Why?
R - Don't you think your fear of the others stronger than you is evolving that way? We used your powers a lot these years, and your fear yet grows. Are you really sure you're considering everything without a bias grown from that inertia?
B - ...
Did I just win a rhetorical game against Blume? Not quite.
She remembers Ogre clawing her face off. Ripping her away from me.
The fiery explosion.
Blume has been traumatised truly. Now I can see it.
We've won, but she returned with a trauma and a growing anxiety, about having to fight to the death for our lives...
I hold her closer. I'm sorry. She won, but remains dead scared of being, of us being, killed one day. No matter how strong she can currently be. That power she has is much stronger than before I can tell, and still she remains afraid.
R - You were traumatised Blume. Us getting killed one after another didn't do you any good that's for sure. Now, you've grown stronger I can tell. I know you certainly weren't able to lift such a weight when we met. If you keep growing in power, shouldn't you also in confidence rather than fear?
B - It's not that easy... As for my growth... It's like for a plant, everything we went through is like fertiliser to me. The simple fact of travelling feeds me. Every experience helps me grow. I haven't thought about how far I should go before stopping to feed myself.
R - Should you?
B - Think about it? Yes.
R - Well, let's think about it then. How much power would you want? How much would you need to feel safe? Or to live happily?
What power do we need to live? Enough not to live in constant fear, but reasonable fear may lose its correlation to power at times of trauma.
Enough not to die of starvation or cold, but reasonable needs don't require much.
Enough power to kill those whom thought they shall be as gods?
In this age, it may be useful at times.
But do we really need to become as strong as them?
B - Power is like light inside the darkness. The more we have, the more we'll be seen and attract various stings. If we become more powerful than the Dragon, and used that strength, we would always be with something on our trail.
R - So we need either a balance between risks and benefits, or to hide like the dragon, or you as you do currently?
B - If I became that powerful, I probably wouldn't be able to hide it as we are moving. Not that well.
R - Do you think we should harvest the power of other things?
B - No... I wouldn't do that, I would feel bad about it.
R - Being able to lift fifty tons for a few seconds is already an unbelievable strength to me. You could send us flying into space! How much more would we truly need anyway, if we were to encounter another monster?
B - Probably not much.
R - Wait... Is there something you're not telling me?
B - I'm a flower, Rose. I absorbed all I could from everything we encountered.
R - Are you saying you ate the one from the other day?
B - Probably some of its lingering energy yes.
I'm tired and confused now.
R - It's like I'll never know how you truly function...
B - The fact that I'm not built on physical matter makes everything unreliable, I'm sorry. Even my growth isn't a permanent thing, it was just a picture. I could lose some of my potential power after too much use.
R - Alright, that's enough! Once and for all, explain to me clearly how life, energy, power and such, work for you. I'm tired of going from a surprise to the next every day.
How do I live, how do we live and function.
Explain that to me clearly...
So we'll have better chances to know what to choose regarding power and things like that.
Let's have things cleared out.
Then we'll cross the Alps,
In the middle of Winter.
~