Originally, Morena had intended to look through the city some more; however, she was much more interested in investigating her recent purchase than looking around, and she couldn't quite do that in the city.
So, after a brief statement to the driver, they made their way through the city and back home with no stops along the way.
The carriage rolled through the gates of the Ravenscroft estate and came to a gentle stop. Morena stepped down without a word and moved quickly through the halls, ignoring the servants' glances and greetings. She didn't slow until she reached her bedroom, slipping inside and locking the door behind her.
Silence.
The room was empty and untouched, the same way she had left it when she left. Before she did anything, she made sure to draw the curtains—just enough to keep the room dim and peering eyes out.
Making her way over to a table in the corner, she took out the bundle of cloth and set it down, slowly unwrapping it.
The stone. The pendant. The half-ruined book.
Taking a seat, she observed the three items before her, hands poised above them like a surgeon over instruments.
"AI. Full breakdown. Prioritize safety. If there's a chance of detonation or backlash, I want warnings before it happens."
She decided to get a general overview of the items using the AI before she dived into deeper research. After all, she didn't know what they were or what the unknown energy detected earlier could be.
It may prove dangerous.
[Command acknowledged. Beginning comprehensive analysis.]
She waited, still as glass, and kept her hand touching the items so the AI could work better. The faint hum of mental feedback threaded behind her eyes as the AI pushed through layer after layer.
[Object 1: Cracked Stone][Composition: Silicate base with embedded crystalline veins][Primary Finding: Sealed elemental energy detected. Alignment: Ice][Seal Integrity: 23%][Risk Profile: Moderate. Potential for uncontrolled release if physically stressed or exposed to heat sources.][Projected Behavior: Slow leakage over time.]
Morena's gaze sharpened as she went over the information.
'Ice elemental energy?'
Morena was surprised to see the type of elemental energy stored in the stone; ice wasn't a common type to be found in just anyone. Not to mention, the prospect of being able to store elemental energy in a mundane stone was already outside of Morena's expectations.
She had never come across such information before—that is not to say she didn't believe it couldn't be done.
After learning that the stone was unlikely to explode by simply touching it, she picked it up to observe more closely, when an idea came to her.
"Is it possible for the elemental energy within to be used—extracted, perhaps?"
[Conditional. However, with current information, there is no way to extract safely.]
That was reasonable; she had only just gotten her hands on the stone, and she had barely spent time investigating it. Besides, it was merely a spur-of-the-moment thought; she had no intention to waste such a valuable item on merely extracting the energy within it.
For now, she placed the stone aside safely and shifted to the pendant, lifting it into her palm. It was faintly cool—not with ice's bite, but with the absence of warmth.
[Object 2: Teardrop Pendant][Material: Unknown composite, iron setting][Energy Signature: Unknown type; resonance similar to elemental energy][Primary Finding: Various micro engravings in the form of unknown symbols. Unknown energy source radiating from within due to leakage.][Risk Profile: Elevated. Prolonged contact may worsen physical and mental conditioning.]
She brushed the chain slightly before placing it down safely, planning to avoid unnecessary exposure to it until she found a way around the risks that the AI had picked up on.
"Is there any way to figure out what the unknown energy type is?"
[Impossible with the current database.]
The limit in the AI's database was starting to show; however, there was nothing she could do about that. For now, she would keep expanding it with whatever information she came across, as well as self-done experiments. However, it would take time.
This new energy source did interest her. Whether it was something she could use to her advantage had yet to be seen, but she was excited to research it more.
Perhaps it was in her nature that when she came across the unknown, she felt the desire to dive into it as deep as she could.
"Is it possible to decode or figure out what the micro engravings could be? Are they words, or perhaps depictions?"
[Multiple engravings are repeated, linking it closer to being some form of written language or expression over depictions. However, without further information, it cannot be decoded.]
"Isolate the engravings and display them to me within my field of vision."
Mere seconds after her command, the AI had completed her task, isolating the images of the engravings and enhancing them to be viewable with the naked eye; displaying them before her in the form of screens.
These screens weren't really in front of her; instead, it was the AI intercepting various parts of her brain's functions and causing her to 'see' the screens as reality.
However, they worked as intended, allowing her to observe the markings clearly.
They were odd. They looked more like strokes of various lines—some overlapping and some not, some thick while some thin. If it wasn't for the clear pattern and similarity between them, one might assume they were mere scratches.
As she was observing the markings, she suddenly felt her mind ache, and her body staggered without her being able to stop it.
[Mental distress detected. Display terminated to prevent further harm.]
The AI acted instantly to cut off the display, which relieved the ache she was feeling. Yet it wasn't without side effects.
Looking around, she noticed her eyesight was slightly blurred. It wasn't in the sense that she couldn't see clearly—no, she could see perfectly 'fine'—however, everything she saw melded together like melting colors.
The world itself felt as if it were an oil painting, and she could see that oil painting perfectly clear.
Her natural reaction was to panic; the worry that she had damaged her eyes jolted to her mind naturally, clenching onto the armrest to calm her nerves.
But she didn't panic—couldn't.
"Detect injuries to my eyes, find core issue."
[No injuries detected to eyes.]
No injuries?
How could her eyes not be injured yet show the way they were showing now? Could it have been something done to her brain itself?
[No injuries detected to brain.]
Okay, so it wasn't an injury to her brain or her eyes—at least she could rule that out—but it still didn't explain her vision.
"Are there any abnormalities at all within my body?"
[Negative. No abnormalities detected.]
Morena took a deep breath as the AI replied, biting her lip slightly as she rubbed her eye.
As she was about to probe further with questions to find the source of her problem, she noticed that the blurriness was fading, and her vision was slowly reverting to normal.
'Temporary. Thankfully.'
With a breath of relief, she was thankful that her eyes weren't permanently damaged, and with new information, she marked the pendant as dangerous until she could learn more.
She was hesitant to keep going with the items after such an incident, but she wouldn't stop her research midway. She wasn't the type to be fearful of the unknown—she ran towards it.
So, next, she moved onto the book.