Sai gave a distant nod as she turned back to the railing, awkwardly laying her datapad against it. There was enough room for it to sit without falling, and it would take some sudden, extreme wind to knock it off, and even then she’d have the chance to grab it and regret her action. No gusts came as she slowly navigated the device, the map of the city revealing itself without context. That same, impossible shape and design, one that meant less the higher you went, and from the skyline perspective of the map, nothing in it appealed to her. She zoomed in, scrolling through streets and sectors, unsure of what she was looking for. Most of it looked largely the same, patches of green alien flora disturbing the otherwise uniform look of the city.
Then she saw flashes of red.
She frowned, looking at the image closer. Her eyes didn’t deceive her, a local tree or bush of some kind, it was difficult to tell from the straight-up angle of the map, but there most certainly was a handful of native plants here, in the middle of the city, at some inconsequential section that lingered right on the edge of a major river. There were fewer plants than she initially thought, but the color red was far more prevalent in this sector than her brief glances anywhere else, and she got the impression that a lot of what she was looking at was half-hidden under overpasses and outcroppings.
“This place, here. The… Rlung Rta Cultural Center Square.” The words flowed strangely, they didn’t feel like they fit within the concepts of what they had been taught. Still, not one to be dissuaded, she hastily had them board the vessel they had arrived on, eagerly watching as it left the highrise building, towards the destination she had chosen at near-random. As she watched the building vanish into the distance, becoming one of many unoriginal shapes, fading into obscurity, as it ought to.
She felt that rise of rebellion once more, she could practically feel how daggers glared at her in secret as she ruined the first meeting already, and though such issues were likely accounted for and planned for, she had a hard time believing that anybody would have been able to plan for such a twist. To be so disgusted by the political leaders that the
elves instead turned to those on the streets to find common ground.
Go on, you little snake Amisra, coil around your own kind with your spats of venom and choking of breath. Keep them busy, allow us to find the real corner for our people, allow us to find the true heart of these humans, not the corrupted ego.
Let us find the real way to pierce at that villain, in the people she manipulates.
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The city shifted like the passing images of the impossible tesseract that lingered in the depths of her mind. Shifting with perception, it flowed like a wave of passing and inconceivable images and angles, too quick for anything to be gained other than a headache, snapshots of distant scenes from distant lives that passed and were forgotten in the same instance they were found. Crawling crowds of people went by, going about their lives, thinking in their own terms in their own perspectives, many likely not even realizing how small they seemed from the vessel flowing overhead. Like a great bird, it flew by, conservatively passing taller buildings with wide berths, turning safely as it began to lower to a clear landing pad, softly resting upon it as a raptor returned to its nest.
Though it was unclear how much use it got, the landing pad was set up to walk directly into a large street, one that saw primarily foot traffic, the actual roads a stone's throw towards the wall of tenements and apartments, and even then it hardly seemed a busy one, with more cars parked along the side of it than traveling by, with those that did going slowly to parse through the foot traffic that seemed to care little for the fast-paced method of travel.
Stepping out onto the wide and shallow steps, it began to make more sense that this landing pad was more for official appearances of somebody who would arrive for important meetings and events, or even for medical extractions of some kind. Though the steps downward were diagonal to the otherwise very square design of the block, they gave a very good impression of what the
Rlung Rta Cultural Center Square really was.
To the right of the landing pad was the Cultural Center itself, though it seemed much more a temple than anything else. The tall, ornate building reached high into the sky, with windows showing tall, infrequent floors rather than a traditional reasonable design, and the very bottom floor being concave, the building's second floor, a good thirty feet off the ground, overhanging the square. Though, the details of the building and its odd flooring design seemed unimportant compared to the massive statue built into the outer wall of the first floor.
The statue was of a six-armed being, an androgynous figure made of polished bronze that sat with legs crossed, hidden under ample robes that hung off the figure's body, meant for someone with much more fat on their flesh. The face of the statue was in a content expression, one free from strife but also from great joy. The hair was tied back into a bun, or some form of Ushnisha, leaving the forehead of the androgynous figure taut, with a strange yet simple series of dots having been carved inward just above the simple eyebrows, which lingered over closed eyes.
The most inward set of arms clasped together in the center of the chest, elbows resting diligently downwards, gentle hands meeting one another roughly a distance of the figure's own fist length from its sternum, its hands covered in strange markings that seemed to meld together. Stern focus upon the hands might recognize the formation of stars, linked together by common astrological lines that formed a bias of some common linking that escaped the knowledge of a passing observer.
The middle set of arms reached higher, above the figures head to a thin set of angled pillars, like spears, that were supported from the corner of the base of the statue to pierce into the second floor of the building, as if those thin rods could hold the entire weight of the building and its many floors. Though one could confuse them for spears, no edge or point was visible on them, instead marked by many single colored flags that shifted in the wind, scarcely affected due to their short length, attached to a length of rope that extended along the poles in a way that allowed them to be pulled inward and removed if needed.
The final set of arms, grown from what had to be the back of the figure, reached upward, straining even higher than the other two, thin and gangly arms straining, bent at the elbow and clasping together, fingers interlocked desperately with fervent grip to one another. It seemed out of place compared to the other two sets and alone was set apart in the lofty darkness near the dark wall behind it, which seemed oddly barren compared to the surrounding tapestries and flags that hung bravely for them to see.
The building had entrances on its left and right, of which a steady flow of people walked in and out. While many looked identical to those they had grown used to seeing in the city, there was more variance here, a tinge of some
other culture they had not noticed before, along with humans that looked different than the ones they had encountered. Clothing seemed different, with many people wearing simplistic robes, though many wore strange and ornate designs that fit on them well, identical in construction to the clothes they had grown used to seeing, but clearly put together in a different manner.
In the center of the square was a handful of selectively grown trees from the forests the Aos Si had come from. The trees were young, but they grew well, red grass sprouting around their roots in their square, much-too-large gardens that planned for their maximum size that they would not reach for another two hundred years. Various items were neatly laid out around the trees, though it was difficult to tell them from a distance. Isles of stalls and various open-air businesses lingered, a crowd of shifting people making it difficult to tell them apart.
Soft music played from the stringed instrument of a nearby woman who sat on the steps of the great statue lingered through the air, paired with the smell of cooked
foods and sizzling meals. Sai stood, slowly taking in the sight, trying to make sense of… Any of it.
”Professor.” She finally spoke, turning to him, having been the first one to the steps.
”What… Is this?”
