Witchers of Nifelheim - Part 4

Disgruntled purple wrote:"Let's forget about the fictional bedtime stories about hypothetical ponies." Twilight says with a notable frown. "We have a revelation to discuss." Her frown unfurls " Mind control... It is possible, but then we have to ask, how did Lucretia lose this battle? We know she's dead and that Kaznachey lives. The machine is also still active, so it hasn't run out of power mid-battle."

She stroke her chin. "That still leaves one question... HOW does he KNOW about it?"

"There're still a lot of unknowns about this whole scenario" Rogue says, "I get the feeling we're still only scratching the surface of what's really going on."

"Kaznachey could have established a spy network. He could have one now" Kaylee began: "Coax parasites to spy and deliver information to him, under threat of death or reward.

The old parasite could have learned about the Dark Machine, before or after it was used.
But I think we can definitely say it was used.

When humanity first set foot on Nifelheim, the land was lush and green. The parasites appeared later and began spreading across the globe. So we can assume the Machine was used against them. It likely killed most of them. But not all of them.

Kaznachey survived and the after effects of his war with Precursors, still linger in his mind. He is afraid. Afraid of Lucretia, of the Dark Machine."



Kaylee looked at the map: "Perhaps Lucretia didn't loose the war. But by the time it was over, the Precursor population wasn't large enough to sustain a civilization. Perhaps there were too few of them left, to restart their civilization on Nifelheim and the Precursors.. died..

And the Dark Machine was left behind."



Ursula grimaced: "We really haven't seen any evidence, to suggest the Dark Machine can assert mind control. Or if the parasites can even be mind controlled."


"Yeah.. I guess you're right" Kaylee nodded: "It just popped into my head there.." she looked up at everyone:
"So anyway... I think we gathered a lot of good info. Should we head out to our next assignment, or research something else while we're here?"

"I'd like to know more about memory orb creation. How it's done, what can be obtained, and if we could make some from our own easily," she taps the side of her nose with a finger and looks to Rouge with a partial smirk "Some of our pasts and where we grew up might help us. Perhaps there's information we can notice as adults that we missed as children"

Anastasia and Rose wrote:"I'd like to know more about memory orb creation. How it's done, what can be obtained, and if we could make some from our own easily," she taps the side of her nose with a finger and looks to Rouge with a partial smirk "Some of our pasts and where we grew up might help us. Perhaps there's information we can notice as adults that we missed as children"

"Well I can't speak for anyone else, but I for one don't think my childhood'll really be of much help in this scenario" Rogue replies, "Now, if we were staging a revolutionary coup, then maybe..."

"Really? You're telling proper and true memories from where you lived wouldn't help set straight all the..." she stops a moment, "All I'm saying is that memories from Earth and what its really like could save more lives than we could running around on our own. If you and company are examples of what the good of the Machine World has then dont you think we should just extract some memories and show them to the Kings?"

Anastasia and Rose wrote:"Really? You're telling proper and true memories from where you lived wouldn't help set straight all the..." she stops a moment, "All I'm saying is that memories from Earth and what its really like could save more lives than we could running around on our own. If you and company are examples of what the good of the Machine World has then dont you think we should just extract some memories and show them to the Kings?"

"But didn't Kaylee already fill some memory orbs back at the prison, and look at all the good that did?" Rogue points out.

Anastasia shruggeds "I dont know what you guys did, but why stop at just her? Based on what I've seen she's very mission focused so if I had to guess what she gave them was military based. But what I'm suggesting is more tame and from everyone. Show beyond war and death.

What part of your life, if you had to chose one, would you show Nifleheim to prove that Earth isnt all murderers and warmongers? Or if not prove, put that doubt in their minds. Make the migration a migration and not whatever it probably is going to end up as right now."

Anastasia and Rose wrote:Anastasia shruggeds "I dont know what you guys did, but why stop at just her? Based on what I've seen she's very mission focused so if I had to guess what she gave them was military based. But what I'm suggesting is more tame and from everyone. Show beyond war and death.

What part of your life, if you had to chose one, would you show Nifleheim to prove that Earth isnt all murderers and warmongers? Or if not prove, put that doubt in their minds. Make the migration a migration and not whatever it probably is going to end up as right now."

"It'll take more than a few odd memories to counter the narrative engrained in this culture for thousands of years, those kinds of beliefs don't just change overnight" Rogue explains,

"There'd be denial, there'd be accusations of forgery, like we were surround be actors or something. We can't expect to find a magic bullet that'll solve all our diplomatic problems, these wounds'll take time to heal."

Circi adds to the conversation, "Those wounds would take a long time to fix yes. However its very hard to hoxe a memory orb, you need to act not only in character but also in emotion. A near impossible task even for us sinners, our thoughts are gathered, emotions suppressed too an extent but even then memory orbs read our consiousness. When you have something to hide, memory orbs are the bane of your existence. If you wish to show these people the hard truth be ready for the fact that many wont accept it right away or at all." She leans back in her seat, "Though for those that know memory orbs hold nothing but truth you will be making a fairly large impact." She motions to the librarian, "Do you happen to have any empty memory orbs? Should our friends decide to share their knowledge with you." She looks to tim, "I feel this would be a huge breakthrough for scholors everywhere. Truth will spread like a wildfire. You will be letting everyone know whats on the other side, if your storys are true... EVERYONE will know what happened on that day... and everyone will know, the kings, everyone will know the struggle you took to get here."

She takes a deep inhale, "As it is... I request that you do this. I feel this will create a shockwave and though there are cons that we will indeed see in the future, i think the good that will come of it will outweigh the bad." She looks to rogue, "You are right, there will be those who will deny this truth, but those are the minority, some may take it to the extreme, however I think you need to make a name for yourselfs because with where you are now, when things get rough you aren't going to be very popular... why dont we show our intentions and pick up some followers."

Rain seems puzzled a moment, tapping her finger against the table, "Well thats a very big decision your asking there circi." She gives a nervous glance around, "I think we have to be careful of what we put out there, if we put anything out there at all. This would impact our relationships with not just the people of nifelhime but every faction of people we've met so far. We know we have things against us, the information we spread could spark a volitile reaction within certain communitys, we can never be sure how the public could react to this thing or that thing. Though from what we've experienced, people like Tim here who understand our storys and sympathize with our cause. He understands why we are here and has an idea on what the end result could mean for everyone... are we really ready to unleash that information?"

Kaylee sighed in sorrow and looked down: "...I'm.. of the same mind as Rogue.
Once a certain concept is established and represented in a people's culture, in the education system, in their collective conscious and subconscious mind, it becomes extremely difficult to change their mind. Especially if they grew up their whole lives, believing this concept..

Even if they see evidence to the contrary, most will be likely to dismiss it on principle, or on reflex. Very few will try to analyze the situation themselves and re-examine their own stance on the subject.
At least.. that was my experience, during my life"



Ursula looked up at Brodeur who was just quietly watching you. After a few moments of awkward silence, Ursula decided to answer and looked at Ana:

"From what I remember from the academy, the vessel for a memory takes several weeks to create. Because of this, they usually create a whole batch of them at the same time. Its a very narrow, specialized skill set. I believe it requires both the knowledge of magical arts and the crafting of jewelry, to create an empty Memory Orb.

The materials aren't too easy to come by. There are specialized mines where the material for the Memory Orbs is mined. Once the empty Memory Orb is created however, filling it with a memory is a relatively easy task.

It takes some practice, but I think I can teach you guys how to do it in a few minutes max.." she looked up at Brodeur again:

"...you don't happen to have any empty ones here? I heard the libraries usually keep a few on hand, in case something important needs to be recorded for posterity."




Brodeur released a nervous, strained smile: "Y-yes of course. Empty Memory Orbs.. I'll will fetch them at once.. eh... please wait here.." he nervously smiled again, slowly stepped off and began drifting toward one of the internal doors in the library.

Twilight looks outside, at what kind of day it would be. Hearing the conversation, she gently shook her head.

"On most issues, I would agree. There is, however, one large problem that will soon come."

She looks back to the group. "Anyone rembering the migration that's going to happen in the not too distant future? Where every human, normal or witcher, will leave Nifelheim to land on Earth? All filled with a rage and desire to slaughter us machine folk? If we don't do something, either machine or witcher will cease to be, with the other side having immense losses and anger."

"If the witchers win, then about 10000 people have a whole world to leisurely explore, but littered with technology that they know nothing about. How much will they be confused by even a single smartphone, with how delicate it is? What about repairs? I doubt everything will be in perfect shape after a rain of fifth level magic."

"On the other side, if the machine people win, it will be seen as an excuse to take more drastic and agressive measures the next time such a thing occurs. Whoever this chairman is, well, his additude will subconsiously leak into the mindset of the people and the council. Because, while he was an evil extremist, he was correct about those hostile invaders."

She sighs. "We have to convince the right people, the ones calling the shots about the battle. We have to convince the witchers to not attack us on sight. But, we also need to convince our world to not open fire at these strangers. We can't take it all away, but we need to try anything to diminish the willingness to cause war, no matter how understandable it may be."

Kaylee thought for a few moments and firmly nodded. The library around you was seemingly growing more quiet, a few of the other librarians were drifting deeper into the library, disappearing behind closed doors, seemingly preoccupied with their own tasks.

The day outside looked sunny and bright. Semyon finally stopped shouting about his stolen wears and the racked from the marker seemed quieter.

Ursula shifted her weight: "..when I was studying at the academy, the Witchers across Nifelheim received a universal directive.
Upon the Migrations completion, the Witchers are forbidden from firing the first shot. The standing order dictates, that we are not to start a war with the Machine World. If the Migration completes and they leave us alone, we are to leave them alone as well.

If they fire the first shot, we are ordered to respond with a full scale war, for our survival.


That said... this order was given to Witchers... a military that was taught discipline. This isn't the same for civilians however. Bitter about the past history, there might be an incident, where a Nifelheim civilian will decide to take the law into his own hands and unleash his own private attack on the Machine World. The same can happen in reverse.


Upon the Migrations completion, the entire Earth will turn into a powder keg. A single spark can lead to a world war that may not have an ending... you're right... you have to be right, we need to try everything, no matter how futile, to lower the tension"

Circi adds again, "I understand that revealing yourselfs will bring on unwanted attention. We should all know and understand that we'll get dirty looks." She looks to Twilight then to Kaylee, "See When the time comes for the migrations i catch a feeling that orders are going to go out for you're capture." She points to Rain, "That one right there just cant stop incriminating herself. When the time comes it probably wont be a suprise to see a memory orb with Rains.... "Confession" to Carvos."

She sighs, "But I understand if you dont want to do it."

Rain scrunches her face, "may I please fill an orb with my side of that story? That would be nice."

"Yeah.." Kaylee said, looking around: "As soon as Brodeur's back"

"He's taking his time" Ursula grimaced a bit, looking around. Brodeur had disappeared behind one of the internal doors in the library and hasn't come out yet. After a while, you noticed that you are alone in the library. The Keepers who were walking along the shelves earlier, had all walked off somewhere.

Kaylee sighed and placed her elbows on the table, leaning on them and resting her head in her palms, waiting for Brodeur to return.

Circi glares at the party, "You do understand we spoke of our plans and of your desent on nifelhime... you're all aware of this correct? I would have stopped you but Green Detective streight out said mechanica. I continued because our cover was already blown. I would recommend scouting our exit."

"..what?" Ursula asked, in slight confusion.

Kaylee suddenly jolted in her seat and looked around:
"...where the hell did the other Keepers go? This place is deserted." she frowned at the deserted shelves and the rooms contours, then suddenly jumped, knocking her chair on the floor:

"Shit.
We've grown too careless about what we say out loud. To Brodeur, a person who's job is watching memories of the invasions, hearing us talk about our origins is akin to witnessing Kaznachey stroll in here willy-nilly.

I don't think the Keepers just 'ran'. Back on Earth, separating hostages from assailants is standard procedure before a SWAT assault on the building." She looked out of the window:

"...listen... the birds outside have gone quiet. They're already surrounding the building.. if they haven't already"

"Except, this place wasn't protected by police." Twilight muttered softly. "It was protected by Zlobec, who are not exactly hoing to be so kind to us."

She pondered. "Let's see, what is our best way out..."

Rain sighs, "I tried my best to be subtle." She shrugs and slides out of her seat staying low. She pulls her brow from her shoulder and stalks to the side of the door they came in from, pressing her ear to it, "Goddamnit Radiance you over zealous fuckboy. We could really use your senses." She curses under her breath.

Circi raises herself high, keeping her image above the windows and out of sight. She carrys herself on her spiderlegs, leaning pivoting herself around the room, trying to get a good idea of what the layout of the current floor.

Anastasia winces a bit "I wasn't very subtle either," she wispers apologetically. Taking a low stance she creeps to a nearby window. Using the hand mirror in her possession she angles it allowing her to get a view of what's outside.

Kaylee Brown wrote:"..what?" Ursula asked, in slight confusion.

Kaylee suddenly jolted in her seat and looked around:
"...where the hell did the other Keepers go? This place is deserted." she frowned at the deserted shelves and the rooms contours, then suddenly jumped, knocking her chair on the floor:

"Shit.
We've grown too careless about what we say out loud. To Brodeur, a person who's job is watching memories of the invasions, hearing us talk about our origins is akin to witnessing Kaznachey stroll in here willy-nilly.

I don't think the Keepers just 'ran'. Back on Earth, separating hostages from assailants is standard procedure before a SWAT assault on the building." She looked out of the window:

"...listen... the birds outside have gone quiet. They're already surrounding the building.. if they haven't already"

"First things first, we have to confirm the situation, check the doors and windows for activity" Rogue suggests.

You seem to be standing in a rather large room, 10 meters wide and 30 meters long. The reading area you're currently in, was filled with several empty tables and chairs, and located close to the door you used to come in. The far end of the room was filled with rows upon rows of shelves, filled with dimly glowing Memory Orbs.

Scanning the floor for potential exits and ways of entry, you spotted a total of 6 rectangular windows, on each side of the wall, and 6 more, smaller, round windows, close to the ceiling.
There were 2 doors, close to the reading area that both led to a small reception hall and then the buildings main entrance that you used to come in earlier.


As Rain presses her ear to the door, the reception hall beyond seems quiet, but there's definitely some muffled stomping, coming from outside of the building.


Looking again toward the far end of the room you're currently in, beyond the shelves of Memory Orbs, you spot 3 different doors there. Brodeur and the other Keepers had vanished behind those doors earlier and haven't come out.


Trying to peek through the windows, you notice that the immediate perimeter of the library was vacated. There's a giant crowd of villagers gathering in the market, in front of the library. They all seemed really alarmed and listening to someone you couldn't see.

In addition, you definitely noticed at least 4 Witchers moving towards the libraries front door and fading from your angle of sight. It looks like they haven't surrounded the library yet and only aggregating at the entrance. But one by one, more Witchers are coming out of the crowd and moving toward the library, first toward the front door, then its immediate corners.

It seems only the entrance side is covered and they're just now trying to surround the building, starting from the entrance.



Kaylee pointed toward the 3 doors on the other side of the room and wanted to whisper something, before she was cut off by a piercing shriek from the market:

"-MACHINE FOLK! MACHINE FOLK ARE INVADING!!! EVERYBODY RUN!!!!"
"-QUIET!!!" someone barked in response, but the entire village had already erupted into a massive cacophony of panicked yells and a stampede of footsteps, running away from the library. Through the massive racket outside, you thought you heard a flare explode over the village.


"M-More machine folk?!" Ursula called in alarmed confusion.

"..I think they mean us" Kaylee cringed, looking around.


"-Someone call back the kings! They couldn't have gone far!!!" you heard a yell from outside the library.

Kaylee Brown wrote:Trying to peek through the windows, you notice that the immediate perimeter of the library was vacated. There's a giant crowd of villagers gathering in the market, in front of the library. They all seemed really alarmed and listening to someone you couldn't see.

In addition, you definitely noticed at least 4 Witchers moving towards the libraries front door and fading from your angle of sight. It looks like they haven't surrounded the library yet and only aggregating at the entrance. But one by one, more Witchers are coming out of the crowd and moving toward the library, first toward the front door, then its immediate corners.

It seems only the entrance side is covered and they're just now trying to surround the building, starting from the entrance.



Kaylee pointed toward the 3 doors on the other side of the room and wanted to whisper something, before she was cut off by a piercing shriek from the market:

"-MACHINE FOLK! MACHINE FOLK ARE INVADING!!! EVERYBODY RUN!!!!"
"-QUIET!!!" someone barked in response, but the entire village had already erupted into a massive cacophony of panicked yells and a stampede of footsteps, running away from the library. Through the massive racket outside, you thought you heard a flare explode over the village.


"M-More machine folk?!" Ursula called in alarmed confusion.

"..I think they mean us" Kaylee cringed, looking around.


"-Someone call back the kings! They couldn't have gone far!!!" you heard a yell from outside the library.

"Okay, here's the plan. They haven't surrounded the building yet, so we exit out the back and blend in with the other Witchers, pretending we've just arrived to cover that section of the building perimeter" Rogue suggests,

"Hopefully the Keepers will've been caught up in that chaos outside, so they shouldn't be able to rat us out. We look and sound like Witchers, so if questioned, we just laugh at the idea that Machinefolk could become Witchers, as what Witcher in their right mind would teach them anything?" He looks at Ursula, "No offence."

Ursula nodded and gave you a thumbs up: "Okay, lead the way, I've got your back"

"Things are getting a little too exciting again" Tim said, nervously adjusting his hair.

Kaylee visibly deliberated with herself, if she should summon her blade, but decided against it, seemingly to avoid attention from outside.

Kaylee Brown wrote:Ursula nodded and gave you a thumbs up: "Okay, lead the way, I've got your back"

"Things are getting a little too exciting again" Tim said, nervously adjusting his hair.

"When're they ever not?" Rogue sighs, before scooting over to one of the rear doors to the building. He presses his back to the wall next to it, and carefully pushes the door slightly ajar, so he can peer through to check the coast's clear.