"So these all just popped up? And there's no magic in the paper? And it's not some kind of lost language either?" Yanna wondered, and Ryan quickly shook his head.
"Not as far as we can tell. And well, if my uncle says something is non-magical, then it's non-magical. As for the language, there are some linguists in the family that this was brought to, and they said it wasn't anything. Just randomly scribbled shapes and lines."
"What if they were wrong?" the minotaur added.
Ryan, Modak, and Silvia looked at each other, and then back at Yanna. Silvia quickly pointed out, "When Ryan says 'Linguist' he means the class. They have skills that lets them figure out if something is a language or not. And if multiple awakened linguists say something isn't a language, it's not a language."
Yanna and Fae both stared at Ryan, "You have multiple awakened linguists in the family?"
"Well, they're employees of a branch family."
"... branch family?"
"Yes, we're an incredibly old family with a fittingly old-fashioned family structure," Ryan admitted. "But that's not the point right now. For now, just look at the paper. It might not be a language, but I feel like it's some kind of... puzzle. Maybe it's going to help us open the new note."
Modak sat down, really leaning into his seat for a moment. "And you're totally positive that Morgana is right?"
"I think so?" Ryan responded. He had no reason to doubt her.
"But isn't that weird? How would these notes come from the Administrator themself?"
"Doesn't it make a lot of sense? Behind the door, we have the Administrator's trial. So the notes that come from the place with the Administrator's trial would logically also be written by the administrator or someone that works for them, right?"
Though Modak wanted to refute that logic, he instead just let out a long sigh, "Are you sure that's the reason behind why Morgana thinks this?"
The orc looked over at the witch spirit floating over Ryan's shoulder, looking down at the notes at the table with everyone. She quickly faced Modak, and immediately smiled, shaking her head. He clicked his tongue a bit, "See? That wasn't the reason she thought that at all!"
"Huh? Then what makes you think that?" Ryan wondered, and Morgana slowly stepped down onto the table.
She tapped the Horn of Shapeless Water that Ryan still always kept with him to further attune to it, and pulled out a bit of water. Using this water, Morgana formed a fairly complex structure. Lines and spheres and cubes and almost random-seeming shapes all over the place. And then, she looked at Modak, as if waiting for him to get it.
And of course, he did.
"That's a three-dimensional magic circle."
Immediately, Morgana nodded happily, glad that the orc understood.
Though, now the others needed an explanation, "Three dimensional? Like, a layered magic circle?" Ryan looked around, trying to see the ice structure from different angles, but Modak immediately shook his head.
"No, not like that. A layered magic circle is just a number of different two-dimensional magic circles layered on top of each other. A three-dimensional magic circle manipulates and defines the structure of mana in the same way as a two-dimensional one, just using far more complex logic. They used to be a thing more often, but now we have a much better understanding of how these things work. Three dimensional magic circles are inefficient and can't usually do anything special enough to justify their use," Modak explained, narrowing his eyes slightly as he looked at the ice 'sculpture'. It was shifting slightly, changing. Some parts were shrinking or disappearing fully, while new parts seemed to appear, "What are you..?"
Morgana, a smile still solidly planted on her lips, just continued manipulating the structure happily, until Modak got it. And once that slight twinge of an idea was there, Morgana made almost all of it disappear, leaving just a single horizontal like of the structure behind. Like someone had taken a one-centimetre slice of it. And with that, it was fairly clear what was going on.
"... It's a four-dimensional magic circle?"
Morgana nodded immediately and gleefully, quickly pushing the water she used for the structure back into the horn.
The others all stared at him as if he were crazy, "Four dimensional? But it's all on paper." Fae picked up one of the notes and held it up to the light, trying to see if she could figure out what Modak meant.
"So... I think what Morgana is trying to say is that all of this is a two-dimensional slice of a three-dimensional slice of a four-dimensional structure. Or maybe that structure is still just a slice of an even higher-dimensional structure," the orc said, trying to think. He stood up and grabbed a piece of paper and a pencil.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
"Basically... Let's imagine we were two-dimensional beings, right? We live on paper, and then someone..." Modak quickly pushed the tip of the pencil through the paper, "... just pokes a pencil through it like this. From our point of view, they can't see the entire pencil, just-"
Before Modak could finish speaking, Violette jumped out of her domain. She used her thin rapier to slice through the pencil, making the front of it drop down, just leaving that 'slice' visible to everyone else. Violette appeared very pleased with herself for helping out with the explanation! She looked up at the orc for a moment and smiled.
"... right. Thanks." Modak stared down at one of his favourite pencils and sighed a bit before continuing. "This is all we see. We can't see the third dimension, just this slice and nothing else. Extrapolate that to higher dimensions, and we get that ice sculpture from just now. Morgana was simulating what it would look like to us if four-dimensional object moved along that fourth dimension through our world."
"... And so... what?" Silvia asked, looking at the paper again as well. "What does that mean?"
"It just means, simply enough, that Morgana is probably right." Modak let out a long sigh and looked at the paper. "But it also means that we won't be getting a clue out of this"
"Wait, why not?"
"Because it's not a message in the traditional sense," Ryan said. He finally understood what was going on, and what Modak had also already figured out, "There've been theories that the Administrator is a being from a higher dimension. I mean, even the gods didn't quite understand what the administrator was, according to everything that the clerics that got oracles from them have said at least. And basically, in line with that theory is the idea that the system is just a large-scale spell that uses things beyond our comprehension. If this is something that came from the administrator, it might have been trying to notify us in some way. Like, a system notification."
"So..." Yanna also caught up, "These notes are a vertical slice of a vertical slice of the magic that makes up the system?"
Everyone slowly looked at Morgana, to make sure that they really understood it correctly. And the spirit nodded.
Ryan sighed, piling the notes up together, "That basically means that we do not, in fact, have anything to go off of."
He was about to put them aside, but Morgana quickly took them from him. It seemed, now that she had also figured out what these were, she wasn't going to just give up the opportunity to learn anything at all about how the system works.
Ryan figured he would just let her do that for now. Instead, he sat back down and grabbed the letter that Modak had found downstairs. It felt pretty thick, like there were quite a few notes in there. And it even felt like there was a small object inside of the envelope as well.
"And you said you didn't manage to open it?"
"It wouldn't budge no matter what I did," Modak pointed out, and Silvia nodded.
"Same, I also tried it out again during the explanation."
Ryan held the note forward, "Violette, you mind giving this a go?"
The fencer spirit looked up at Ryan, nodding immediately. She slashed down at the paper in a swift motion, but instead of cutting through the paper, her rapier was stopped.
"Alright, so, this one is definitely magical. Morgana, I'm guessing it's some kind of arcane lock like with the shed?"
The witch spirit looked away from the notes and at the envelope, nodding her head hesitantly.
"Got it. It's the similar concept, but executed very differently?"
Morgana immediately replied with a more straightforward nod now, and Ryan looked back at the envelope himself.
Fae looked at him surprised, "You got that all from a nod?"
"Hm? Oh, yeah, vague concepts are really easy for me to just... know. But that higher-dimensional stuff not so much," Ryan explained, and looked over at Modak.
"Listen, I have an idea of what might be going on, considering that woman is involved. Do you think it's fine if I use my mana?"
Modak hesitated, but slowly nodded, "If it's just a little, it should be fine. Just don't strain yourself."
"No, I just need a little," Ryan responded, and immediately started pouring a bit of his mana into the envelope. And almost immediately, the wax seal on it disintegrated.
"Huh? But I just did that as well, why didn't it work for me?"
Ryan stared at the envelope, feeling the pit in his stomach grow even deeper, "I think it's got something to do with... fate? I still don't know her name, but that woman, she's a spirit, or at least something close. She also belongs to the domain of fate. So why would she be interested in the door, doing nothing but open it if it's not related to that?"
"And what, it's your fate to open the letter?" Yanna laughed a bit, and Ryan shook his head. His face was going a bit pale.
"No, I... I haven't really told you two yet, and I asked Silvia and Modak to stay quiet about this too, but... I don't have a fate," he explained as he looked at Fae and Yanna.
They looked at each other, and then back at Ryan. Fae frowned lightly, "What do you mean?"
"For whatever reason — actually, I know that reason pretty well I think — I am outside of fate. I was never... supposed to be born. And because of that, I inadvertently mess with others' fates. And I think that's why you, Silvia, were the one that created the door."
"Huh?" she let out, not quite sure what Ryan was getting at.
Ryan scratched his neck. He felt guilty for dragging Silvia into something this big, "You weren't supposed to awaken. But by being around me, your fate was twisted, and that fact changed. And somehow, due to proximity to the skull, I imagine, you were, well... influenced to create the door. And I think your altered and tangled fate is the reason for that."
"Hold on, hold on," Fae started, "Are you saying that you're messing up the future just by existing?"
"... I'm saying that I am the messed up future. My father did something he shouldn't have, and I think that's what messed up fate. And then, well, I was born, though I shouldn't have been. And everything else is just a consequence of my being alive," Ryan explained, "I didn't know, either, until just a few months ago. I'm sorry."
Not sure what she was supposed to say to that, Fae just took a step away, clearly wanting to think about this right now. Silvia walked over to her, smiling at Ryan as she did to also calm him down a bit, "Don't worry, I've known this for a while now, too. I made the choice to stick around, so this is on me as well. Doesn't feel great to know that I was used as a tool by the Administrator, but still. That's not on you. But so, you think that this note was meant for someone without fate?"
"Or rather, the administrator knew that there was someone without fate, and if they have the ability to manipulate fate to some degree if they controlled Silvia, it was easier to just make this trigger for someone 'without fate'. Rather, it was the only way to target Ryan directly," Modak suggested, and Ryan nodded in agreement.
"Right," he looked back at the envelope, and slowly opened it up. Yanna and Modak were huddled around him, and Morgana also curiously came to take a look.
It was a stack of papers, as Ryan had thought. The small object inside was a metal ring with some kind of insignia on it. The text on the papers was written in plain Riverian, and the front read:
Formal Invitation to Ryan Aglecard to the [Administrator's Trials]