“The Eigendrakes are loose memories,” Charlotte reiterates. “They’ve gathered around some sort of focal point. Some strong spiritual nexus. They have nowhere else to go, unfortunately.”
She gestures at Leah. “My world’s version of you explained that the universe’s function is to transform real events into memories.”
The other girl nods. “Yeah. Coupling physical phenomena to the psychic field helps the universe reach a ground state.”
Charlotte, though she doesn’t really understand the 21st century science behind the concept, gets the idea. It’s gratifying, as she looks at the faces of her friends, to see she’s not alone in her confusion. She goes on.
“And souls are the lifeboats of memory. Those souls instinctively seek out a destination, like the Orphean Market. Or the afterlives they collectively create.”
Daph adds her insight here. “The gods are caretakers of those afterlives, but they’re also like, the terrain. Imagine staying at a hotel where the manager is also the hotel, if that makes any sense. And gods are a type of spiritual nexus, like Charlotte’s saying. So it’s possible that some of the Eigendrakes are, like, gods in the making.”
“Why are they attacking worlds, though?” asks Alycia-25. “Is it intentional, instinctive, or something else?”
“Perhaps they are like vampires,” ventures Vermillion. “To feed, we seek the trappings of life. Blood. Breath. It is not the plasma or the iron or any of the physicality. It is something else. Perhaps you could call it the authenticity of life.”
Charlotte nods. “They’re doing what memories always do. They’re trying to arrange themselves in the universal scheme. Wherever they were will no longer serve, so they want to move on to a new home. The most natural thing in the cosmos, literally.”
She nods in Daph’s direction. “I believe that’s why you felt so strongly they shouldn’t be attacked.”
“Well I feel strongly that we shouldn’t be attacked,” Alycia-25 says firmly. “If we can’t just destroy them, certainly there’s something else to be done.”
“There is,” Maury says. She fetches a laser rangefinder from her photography kit, and a compact with mirror from her makeup kit. Using the mirror, she reflects the laser pointer almost 90 degrees.
“Leah, I’m no scientist, but I am pretty good at listening. You’re saying these things are crossing our normal time dimension at right angles or something. Your Hula Hoop can be rotated to match that dimension, we just saw that. Going back to your car analogy, can you rig your system to, y’know, swing things at a right angle, put the car and the pedestrian going in the same direction?”
“What do you see as the value in that maneuver?” asks Alycia.
Leah picks up on the idea quickly. “No, no, that’s a fantastic idea,” she announces. “They’re destructive because they’re crossing the time-stream. Fix that and we’re halfway there. For the other half… Charlotte, if these memories want to go somewhere, does it matter where? Like, if they drift into a different world’s uh, afterlife or whatever, is that a problem?”
“Not to my knowledge,” admits Charlotte. “Less a problem than the destruction of that world, I daresay.”
Daph hmms. “So once we do this right-angle move, what’s next? Will they find their own way?”
“Unfortunately, probably not,” Charlotte says. “We will still need to engage the Eigendrakes. We must shatter the spiritual nexus which binds the memories. Break the link, and the memories separate, and seep into the underworld.”
Leah grins fiercely, flexing a bicep. “Yeah. Fighting’s still on the table.”
Charlotte shakes her head. “This is essentially a spiritual conflict. Those of us who can muster attacks on spirits may participate. Everyone else ought to stay busy keeping the battlefields clear.”
Alycia-25 and Charlotte-25 nod at each other. Astra, Resister, and Charlotte-65 and Charles-37 seem ready.
Charlotte herself glances down at Manny the Skull. “I may require your services in this battle too, my friend,” she says with a smile.
“I’ll make 'em fear the dread pirates of old,” the skull boasts. “Just ye watch, lass.”