By the time Jeanne finally returned to the Rim Billiton encampment, several days had already slipped away. Though this was objectively an incredibly rapid pace for crossing such a vast frontier, she remained distinctly unsatisfied with the speed.
Perhaps she had simply grown far too accustomed to the sweeping velocity of a flying dragon. Transitioning from a journey that should have taken less than a single day into several long, jarring days of rumbling across unpaved roads was enough to make anyone crave a faster method. Regrettably, taking to the skies would have invited an immense amount of trouble.
Thanks to Fafnir's explosive debut, a whole faction of lookouts across the Rim Billiton wastes had practically abandoned their standard duties to become makeshift astrologers, spending every waking hour staring up into the firmament in hopes of catching another glimpse of a legendary flying creature.
If Jeanne had chosen to ride Fafnir or another grand dragon under those conditions, she would have almost certainly triggered an absolute logistical disaster. Beyond that, she was also feeling purely lazy; she harbored zero desire to sit atop a scaled beast, enduring the biting, freezing winds of the upper atmosphere for an entire day.
Over the course of their journey, Warfarin's relentless campaign to win over the young dragon had actually yielded remarkably solid results. At the very least, Fafnir's initial hostility toward the eccentric woman had softened considerably, to the point where she was now perfectly willing to accept the various treats handed her way.
Furthermore, the vampire physician had managed to keep her erratic impulses entirely in check throughout the transit. She was well aware of how dangerously thin the ice was beneath her feet, recognizing that even with allies nearby, this was a time to maintain absolute discretion.
Jeanne let out a long sigh of relief, profoundly grateful that she wouldn't have to awaken one morning to discover she needed to arrange a sudden funeral for the reckless medic. That would have been an entirely grim spectacle to navigate.
The moment they crossed the perimeter of the encampment, Jeanne noticed a dramatic transformation sweeping through the base. The exact site where Fafnir had broken free from her shell had been converted into a massive, hyper-active excavation zone. The sheer volume of labor and noise echoing from the pit was even more intense than the operations surrounding the landship itself!
The spectacle instantly piqued her interest. Beyond a few fragmented shards of raw Originium, what could possibly be buried down there to warrant such a staggering mobilization of resources? Had her grand dream of adopting a second ancient dragon actually drifted within the realm of reality?
"Welcome back. We have been waiting for your return for an incredibly long time."
They hadn't even finished dusting off their traveling gear before the Doctor came rushing out to greet them, her frantic movements making it abundantly clear that she had been counting the hours until their arrival.
It was glaringly obvious that her explosive enthusiasm was entirely unrelated to Warfarin's presence. There was only one logical deduction: she had been burning with impatience for Jeanne's personal arrival!
The Doctor was in such a desperate rush that she didn't even allocate a single moment to exchange standard pleasantries with Warfarin or the other field agents who had been away for weeks. Reaching out, she firmly grasped Jeanne's hand and immediately began pulling her away from the transport.
Seeing the sheer urgency of the situation, Jeanne quickly scooped up Fafnir with her free hand and allowed herself to be hurried along. Still, she couldn't begin to comprehend what could have possibly thrown the brilliant strategist into such a frantic state.
As Jeanne was dragged along, the abandoned vampire physician and the surrounding vanguard agents simply watched them go, completely unbothered by the abrupt departure. They merely shrugged their shoulders and calmly returned to their respective duties. After all, The Doctor never really interacted much with them. At most, they were just acquaintances.
En route to their destination, Jeanne's eyes drifted back toward the roaring construction site, where workers were aggressively tunneling into the earth. They seemed to be pursuing a highly specific prize deep within the bedrock.
Unable to contain her curiosity, she pressed the Doctor for details. She genuinely wanted to know what had possessed these people to dig with a frenzy that easily eclipsed the monumental effort of unearthing Rhodes Island.
"That specific location... we actually stumbled upon something of absolute, historic significance," the Doctor explained, her stride never wavering. "Furthermore, this discovery is inextricably linked to your own mysterious capabilities. Let's get inside first, and I'll lay out the details."
Without pausing, the Doctor guided Jeanne straight into her personal administrative office, quickly finding an open space where her guest could settle down for a proper dialogue.
The chamber was in such a state of absolute, chaotic disarray that Jeanne genuinely struggled to find a place to step. The sheer volume of loose paperwork and charts scattered across the floor made her hesitate, terrified that her next stride would accidentally crush a vital military document.
Does this woman ever dedicate a single moment to organizing her workspace? Jeanne could only thank her stars that she didn't suffer from a severe compulsive neatness trait; otherwise, she would have spent her entire rest cycle cleaning this room instead of talking.
"Oh, why are you standing at the threshold? Come on in!" the Doctor urged, noticing Jeanne's visible hesitation. "Don't worry about the clutter on the floor; those are just non-essential drafts and outdated reports. My office might look like a war zone, but I assure you it isn't actually dirty or unhygienic."
Once Jeanne finally found a clear path to a chair, she settled in and pulled Fafnir onto her lap. The Doctor took a long moment to forcefully rein in her scattered thoughts, massage her aching temples, and steady her hyper-active mind before she began to speak in a measured, deliberate cadence.
"This revelation concerns you directly, and we are desperately eager to gain your personal perspective on the matter. To put it bluntly... when you initiated the ritual sequence to summon Fafnir, what precise modifications did you enact upon that massive cluster of Originium?"
The moment the question hung in the air, Jeanne felt the Doctor's gaze flare with an absolute, searing intensity. Under that unyielding stare, she felt less like a colleague and more like an invaluable, glittering block of pure gold.
Before Jeanne could articulate an answer, the Doctor reached onto her desk and presented a delicate, perfectly transparent shard. It closely resembled a fragment of shattered glass, but Jeanne knew the Coordinator wouldn't hold onto a common piece of waste with such reverent care.
"What did I do? I simply utilized the raw energy within that black mineral to bring this child into the world," Jeanne replied, her confusion deepening at the bizarre line of questioning. Why was her colleague acting so incredibly mysterious today? Had the grueling workload driven her to forget her standard medication? "Why do you ask? Did my summoning ritual trigger some sort of catastrophic structural defect within the local geological strata?"
"No, quite the contrary! It hasn't caused a single negative consequence. Instead, it has granted us a discovery so staggering it defied our collective comprehension!" The Doctor thrust the glass-like fragment closer to Jeanne's eyes. "Look at this shard. In all our years of geological surveying, our instruments have never once cataloged an Originium specimen of this nature!"
Jeanne squinted at the brilliant, clear object. If the Doctor hadn't explicitly stated that the substance was derived from Originium, she would have confidently bet her life that it was a random piece of industrial glass salvaged from a workshop floor.
"Are you absolutely certain this is an exotic mineral variation, and not just some random glass debris you scraped off the road?" Jeanne asked, her skepticism remaining absolute. The Doctor's face was completely obscured by her hood, making it impossible to read her underlying thoughts.
"It's magnificent, isn't it?" the Doctor's voice carried a distinct edge of scientific wonder. "Strictly speaking, it can no longer be classified as standard Originium. This is the structural husk left behind when the internal energy matrix of the mineral is entirely, flawlessly depleted down to zero. In the entire history of modern science, this is the absolute first time anyone has ever successfully recovered a preserved remnant of an exhausted crystal!"
Listening to the grand explanation, Jeanne leaned forward to inspect the glass-like anomaly with greater care, yet her mind failed to register why this discovery was supposed to be a monumental turning point.
After all, her understanding of the black mineral remained basic at best. Witnessing a transparent variant was certainly a novel experience that tickled her curiosity, but she lacked the framework to see the bigger picture.
The Doctor, however, recognized the world-altering weight of the object. According to every established scientific model on Terra, whenever an Originium crystal completely exhausted its internal energetic reserves, the physical structure would invariably lose cohesion and dissolve entirely into dust.
"So... what you're saying is that this glass shard is a remnant of the exact same crystal cluster that birthed Fafnir? But even if that's true, what practical value does an empty shell possess?"
Jeanne had correctly deduced the physical origin of the artifact, but she was still entirely blind to its strategic utility.
"You... actually, never mind. Trying to explain the advanced theoretical mechanics to you is a futile exercise. You lack the foundational education to comprehend the sheer magnitude of what this implies."
The Doctor stared at Jeanne's beautifully blank expression, completely at a loss for words. If she were to publish the data compiled from this single shard to the greater scientific community, it would unleash a catastrophic shockwave through every major research institute on Terra.
"We have already executed a series of rigorous biological trials using this material," the Doctor explained, shifting into the simplest, most concise language possible so her guest could follow along. "The data confirms that once the internal energy matrix is entirely drained, the mineral permanently loses its capacity to induce Oripathy in living tissue. To put it in layman's terms: this specific Originium is completely 'dead.'"
Jeanne listened intently, her head nodding in a slow, rhythmic fashion as she tried to process the information. She flashed a polite, highly impressed expression to be supportive, but the Doctor could tell the core concepts were still flying clean over her head.
"Sigh... let me reframe it for you," the Doctor murmured, experiencing a sudden wave of mental exhaustion. She realized that trying to teach high-level crystalline physics to a medieval Saint was infinitely more draining than enduring a six-hour strategic council meeting with Kal'tsit. "This is our absolute first time witnessing Originium in a non-lethal, dormant state. It provides definitive, empirical proof that the mineral's ability to infect humanity is strictly dependent on the volatile energy bound within it."
Jeanne's eyes widened slightly in genuine surprise upon hearing the conclusion, but her features quickly settled back into a placid, untroubled calm. She had completely made peace with her own limitations; academic theories and high-level scientific research simply possessed zero compatibility with her soul.
Even with this historic revelation laid bare before her, she had absolutely zero inkling of how to weaponize or utilize the data.
Whatever, Jeanne thought with a mental shrug. So my formal education is practically non-existent. I'll just accept it!