Vael. That word kept appearing, but what was it, and what were they referring to?
Elena had begun reviewing the data Kenji had sent her.
There was so much information that we barely knew where to begin.
Kenji kept displaying more and more pages, and the same word continued to appear.
"I searched for every reference related to Vael," he said. "It appears far too many times, but using the translation system is useless. It can't find an equivalent word."
"Then let's not look for a translation," Elena replied. "If we focus on where and how they used it, maybe we can figure out what it really was."
Elena and Sophie began filtering the information.
They started by looking at the areas where it was mentioned. Measurements, diagrams, and other structures that none of us fully understood.
Elena selected the references that appeared most frequently.
VAEL FLOW.
VAEL CONCENTRATION.
FLOW PRESSURE.
INTERPLANAR TRANSFER.
Sophie was studying one of the diagrams when she spoke.
"It looks like it was something they could interact with and measure."
"I'll modify the search parameters."
A new series of data appeared.
PLANE OF ORIGIN.
VAEL CONCENTRATION.
ENVIRONMENTAL VARIATIONS.
NATURAL CYCLE...
Elena stopped.
"There it is. I found it," Elena said.
Eleonor moved a little closer.
"Yes, you're right."
"What?" I asked, confused.
"This record. Look. The translator managed to produce a much more coherent interpretation."
"And what does it say?" I asked them.
"Hundreds of similar measurements. Temperature, pressure, oscillation, and other variables we haven't identified. Vael constantly appears alongside them."
I looked at the projection again.
"Then it was something they were studying, or something they were trying to control. And it doesn't seem like it was something like an animal."
Suddenly, Elena's expression changed to complete surprise. Her breathing quickened.
"What's wrong?" Sophie asked her.
"Look at this."
She opened a massive projection that covered almost an entire wall.
The image of a tall, dark-skinned man appeared.
DAY ZERO. YEAR UNKNOWN.
RECORD ZERO ZERO ZERO ZERO ONE.
"We finally made it out of the dimensional breach. We don't know where we are or how much time has passed since we were forced to escape. We've arrived in a plane completely different from our own, but almost all of us made it through unharmed."
We all fell silent.
We couldn't understand what we had just heard.
I kept listening to what he was saying.
"The breach is supposed to close completely, but it seems something is trying to prevent it. That means they're looking for us, and sooner or later, they'll find our location."
The man paused briefly before continuing.
"There's something else. Because the breach hasn't closed, the Vael from our plane is leaking into this one. If we can't stop it, a current will form, and we don't know how it might affect the creatures of this place."
Elena stopped the playback.
No one said anything.
Then Eleonor spoke, almost shouting.
"What was all of that? What exactly did we just see?"
Sophie looked at Kenji.
"You're one of the smartest men in the world. What do you think?"
Kenji sighed.
"I'll give you my opinion as an analyst. What we just saw is a record documenting what a large group of people experienced. It clearly shows that they weren't from this place, which they refer to as a plane, and it also makes it very clear that they were being pursued."
Kenji looked back at the projection.
"And what they call Vael is something that originated in the place they escaped from and leaked into our world, or our plane, as they call it."
"This is insane," Irina said. "We have even more questions now. I thought investigating all of this would help us understand everything related to the Kartnod, and now we have all of this madness."
Elena continued going through the data.
"This is where they began studying what happened afterward."
The projection changed.
A three-dimensional structure appeared that I recognized immediately.
It was the planet.
It had none of the current political borders or any familiar names. It only displayed its internal structure.
From one point on the surface, a concentration extended downward into the planet's interior.
"They look like streams of water," I said.
"They aren't streams of water," Eleonor replied.
Elena advanced the sequence.
The concentration continued spreading.
It didn't follow a uniform direction. It divided, disappeared in some places, and became concentrated again in others.
Irina pointed at several areas.
"It's following something."
Elena kept watching.
"That's what I thought."
She changed several parameters, and new layers of information appeared.
Haruki moved closer.
"Volcanic activity."
Elena nodded.
"These records seem to indicate that, whatever this Vael is, it mixed with our planet's environment and established a flow by merging with the volcanic veins."
Kenji confirmed from China.
"The later data shows that they began recording how Vael was spreading through the planet's interior."
Sophie watched the branching patterns.
"How far did it reach?"
"I don't know yet."
Elena continued the sequence.
The Vael kept spreading.
The branches began covering increasingly larger regions of the planet.
Then Irina stood up.
"Wait."
Elena stopped the projection.
"What is it?"
"Leave that image there."
Irina activated another holographic projection.
I recognized the map immediately.
The ley lines.
Irina placed both projections over each other.
For several seconds, I didn't understand what she was looking for.
Until I saw the first matches.
Sophie noticed them too.
"That can't be."
The ancient Vael routes followed almost the same paths as the present-day ley lines. And that particular image showed the greatest concentration of mana on Earth, right in the Amazon.
Elena began adjusting the scale and comparing different regions.
China.
Japan.
Europe.
America.
The matches continued.
They weren't identical. Some routes had changed, while others had spread much farther, but the overall pattern was still there.
Kenji remained silent as he received the information.
"I'm going to compare it with our records," he said.
For a moment, all we could hear was Elena, Sophie, and Irina interacting with one another.
I kept staring at the two overlapping projections.
Ley lines had been present in practically everything connected to the families.
Bases.
Seals.
They are the primary source of magical power.
Even many of our systems depended on them.
I had always assumed they were simply part of the world.
Kenji appeared again with several results.
"They match."
Elena looked at him.
"To what extent?"
"Enough to rule out coincidence."
Haruki watched the holographic planet.
"Then the ley lines..."
Elena slowly nodded.
"I still want to verify something."
She returned to the recovered data and performed another search using the parameters we had just identified.
This time, the system returned a much larger amount of information.
A sequence appeared before us.
VAEL FLOW.
GEOTHERMAL INTERACTION.
SUBTERRANEAN ACCUMULATION.
EXPANSION OF CURRENTS.
PROGRESSIVE STABILIZATION.
Elena stared at the words.
Irina was the one who spoke.
"They're the ley lines."
No one answered immediately.
Not because we didn't understand.
It was precisely because we were beginning to understand.
Sophie looked at the overlapping projections.
"Then they didn't always exist."
"The volcanic structures did," Elena replied. "These energy currents didn't."
Haruki crossed his arms.
"Vael entered through the breach, spread through the planet's interior, and eventually followed the volcanic veins."
"For a very long time," Kenji added. "Until it formed a network around the planet."
I looked at the ley lines again.
"And mana?"
Elena looked at Sophie.
She reviewed several measurements again.
Then she overlaid the current magical concentration values onto the Vael records.
The patterns began to match.
Sophie was the first to say it.
"They're the same."
Elena confirmed it.
"I can't say for certain that they're exactly the same thing, but if we look at this image..."
She pointed to the measurements.
"Everything indicates that what we know as mana is directly related to this Vael."
Eleonor looked at the map.
"Then... did the source of magic come from another plane? Another dimension?"
No one answered.
I looked at that word again.
VAEL.
We had gone to China looking for answers about the Kartnod.
We found the truth about their creation.
But now we were discovering something much older.
The ley lines had not originated with our world.
Mana didn't seem to belong to it originally either.
Everything began with that breach.
A breach someone had opened between two planes.
And as I watched the data before us, a question began circling through my mind.
If Vael had reached our world through that opening...
What else had crossed through with it?
And then there was the question that, for some reason, all of us had been overlooking.
Why were they running away?
And from whom?