Mi-Yung recalled that incident, the camp's name, and even rough topics because it wasn't that long ago. She also remembered a bunch of other problems and looked at William strangely.
She was aware of most camps in existence, as it touched upon her work in the Assembly and major portions of Outside work for the Federation.
Her trying to look for William never stopped, even with bad missions, timings, or efforts caused by her job. She also wasn't sure where and how to look for someone she had never met. It was like looking for a needle in a large, moving river that was basically the whole continent.
Eventually, she still recognized where to look, but only after many hints and stories connected, and a huge part of it was William's mental growth, miss Anderson's persuasion, and many threads that Mi-Yung never tossed aside like some people.
It wasn't as if betrayal was good or evil. What happened ten years ago left small or deep chasms in multiple people and organizations. They recovered over the years, while the Assembly did so with vigor and hard-pressing grip.
There were a lot of rumors as well, with very few people aware that William was even born. To this day, Mi-Yung never found out all those people, or much of anyone, for that matter. They were careful, obnoxious, or worse, and she was weak back then.
The true issues of William's parents turned for the worse. The sole reasons she identified his path were incidents ticking down into society. Nothing else. She even feared Viktor would never have told her about William. Or that woman.
He never did, nor did she meet him ever again after... what?. She wasn't even sure about their last meeting. Frankly, karma was overrated, and Mi-Yung thought Viktor barely recognized her as some sort of student. Parenthood and blood were another thing altogether.
Be it from the past, present, or plans to build new ones, camps were objects of the future. Not past. Destruction and deaths were fine since they can be rebuilt and people could get there too, so what was just a one or a couple of setbacks?
"It wasn't that bad." William shrugged his shoulders and glanced around the room. It was bright, big, and wide. There must be report cards for the majority of Darks in existence, or so he thought.
"I guess you are tougher than you look. Anyway, similar to the room you have seen with Kaufman, this one is great for beginners. Most Rank 4 Darks and below are fairly simple and open. Outsiders know about them very well, but there is an enormous variety of them, including problems and variants. Lands. Dungeon's relations. This room exists for them."
"What's the difference between most and all Darks? You say as if you don't know everything out there at that rank. I find it weird."
"It is not. We don't know all the variants, and it is vast, like a wall with small or big windows. Some could have spikes, others hide poisons, or be like open flames of armor and flesh. Or they are nothing, truly. High Rank Darks are not presentable with common sense. Laws? Nature? They are mad, and a glimpse is fine as long as one isn't mad himself, or fears it for their lives. Knowing their depths is like meeting them head-on. I don't recommend imagining it."
"So... this is?"
"An archive, as you've probably guessed. Each cabinet has something to offer. That includes separate variants or mixed results. They could get quite large or very small. They are to the point, unless you want specific notes. They may be somewhere else or marked by other places. Divisions have them too because every military and organization keeps their fighting methods or knowledge close and personal. Many squads also have their unique combat methods, otherwise seen as impossible anywhere else. You might call them their food, while here we cook. Or was it backwards? Anyway, it goes by Ranks. Some shelves describe their whole evolution and corruption line from Rank 1 to Rank 7. Each is opened individually or in packs." Mi-Yung described this room with a not-so-surprising monologue.
William already guessed it, desired this knowledge, and hoped it would make him forget his worries or those argumentative people. Mi-Yung should do the same.
"Every cabinet has limiting locks for cards and access. Clearance levels come with a price and pride, as every Walker has their own clearance level. It is a system that came from the Assembly, rather than this place, so bear that in mind in the future. Of course... if we forget your card. Tier 1 clearance is up to Rank 4 Darks. Tier 2 goes for Rank 5. Tier 3 for 6, and so on. It also opens more stuff than these books. Trust me."
"Even Rank 8?" William asked a terrible question full of excitement that Mi-Yung found funny, yet improper. By now, her eyes were calm and her body relaxed a little, but after she heard him mention those things, she frowned.
There shouldn't be any Kaufman willing to walk to this room. If there were, it wouldn't be cheap. It would be disastrous.
Mi-Yung didn't lose her touch, nor her words. Her warning didn't matter all that much, either. Clearance was a number, reputation, and work. Young Walkers didn't need to think a lot about them unless they required it. Starting slowly was better than watching the abyss. Alas, she also picked up his ideas and moved her hands.
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
She punished his face with both palms. "Perhaps you should feel a bit apprehensive about my words, boy. About Darks. About the notes of the dark. What is this excitement about?"
"I am sorry," he mumbled. Getting free, he rubbed his cheeks while Mi-Yung got back to her topic.
Right then, the room got three new visitors. Ellie more or less pulled Celeste ahead and walked by her side with an arm over her shoulder. Hound was worried and silent.
Mi-Yung continued as they arrived. "Darks, as monsters, came from the unknowns, yet are hardly exotic to be fair. They came from within us, in the Dawn, below, and touched on corruption. In 2014, the world changed. There is one way to look at it. Over there." Mi-Yung motioned with her arm to one particular stand, which held letters, pictures, and scrolls that either closed or opened. They were small, latched onto a corner and a couple of pillars, so William hadn't noticed them.
They had no restriction besides the opening itself.
William approached Mi-Yung's suggestion with curiosity. There were old photos of quite a cursed origin. One was an unimaginably deep and wide crack in space that was both bright and dark, and many other shocking sights were no different. It reminded him of rooms below, while... this thing? It was a real photo. Like... detailed and stuff.
Like strokes to enormous paintings, there were depictions of the first strikes of Dark Fog. They looked like big pillars, spikes, or ships reaching down or upward from the ground or space cracks. This was no illustration.
They were photos from 2014 and looked much better than any artistic paintings. A few of those dark storms even protruded from waters, reaching into the sky and spreading like shadows, and all so familiar dread.
William wasn't sure if that was comparable to what he had seen before, or if it was the Corruption or not. The biggest photo was a jungle and the greatest darkness. That one was definitely Amazon, where the widest strike at the Dawn spread.
"Um... What is this really about?" William asked, as he wasn't entirely sure what he was looking at. Ellie mentioned it before, and many things on the lower floors included stories and legends about it as well, but not everything was there. Why? He didn't get it, or didn't read enough materials to consider a century-old history.
Outside, these things didn't matter all that much.
William was trying to soften Mi-Yung's mind and let her talk about it from her perspective. She sort of needed it and anticipated it.
"It is the source of the Dawn. Apocalypse. To say the least, it was a knock on the abyss until it talked back. 2014 never recovered. For decades, I mean." Mi-Yung expressed a similar remark in the same position as him, although a long time ago.
"Darks came from this? I thought that crack in the sky was everything. What is it? They came from the earth as well?"
"Up or down, not everything was safe and sound, and that truth still remains. There is even a story about miles-long shipwrecks full of crazy things and Darks reaching from nowhere to somewhere. It was below some Amazon lake in South America, so take these photos for that. You can guess the rest, or not question it too much. I suggest the former."
"I don't... know about that. The apocalypse started, sure, so this is the cause. Some ship, pillars, a crack in the sky. What does it do? What can WE do?"
"Yeah. Makes no sense. Like Darks. Like Emblems. Like a voice in our hearts and minds, speaking to us like guides, devils, and angels. It is still very much a mystery what occurred that day. Inside us are mysteries out of people's eyes. More are around us, still waiting. It happened more than 110 years ago, yet we are still around."
For many reasons, these revelations hardly touched or shocked William. He was more surprised that he wasn't fearful or upset. It felt like a mild fact because it was from so long ago that he doubted these photos were even real. He wondered if Ellie knew about this, but it was hard to be sure from her face.
"Are there any news about these photos?" he asked, and noticed Ellie and Celeste standing behind him. Mi-Yung didn't seem to mind either of them.
"Little pieces. It is said that droughts uncovered something terrible, and some idiotic people touched what they shouldn't. A rumor, however, isn't a fact. What came of it is our reality, so you better think of it like a shadow. To be honest, not many want to think about this. Even among the Walkers of my generation, this history is weird since there are no solutions in these photos."
"So... why is this not restricted? What the hell!?" William exclaimed in shock as he found this rather repulsive and unreasonable.
Then, he realized this floor was for Walkers alone, so he calmed down, realizing there were reasons why this place operated and worked with Walkers and knowledge alike.
Such photos were absolutely clean and mindful for these people, but regular people would find them outright unreal. Most of them might not even believe they were real. Such dread, death, and destruction, shown by a few pictures, were hard to imagine.
The Dawn has already happened. Nowadays, very few even remember any of that because they lived in the middle of the apocalypse. Or a completely different realm and era since it was about survival, rather than getting ahead of time. That point was about Darks. Those tried to get ahead...
"It is just a part of everything. If you want more, many archives are full of data, photos, stories, and much more. You ask for it, however. Or win it."
"I would say the same thing to him," Ellie added, shifting Mi-Yung's attention.
"I forgot you are even here. You are too quiet."
"I thought you had eyes behind your back." Ellie forcefully smiled, still grasping Celeste's shoulder.
Mi-Yung didn't, and turned aside and downplayed these photos and scrolls.
"The world is a big place. People had extensive partnerships. Little yet endless monstrosities came over and crushed us to dust, yet people are idiots. They fought, but how could they do it? They lost because they were preoccupied with their own shitty human behaviors, and humanity crawled from there too, but we are no phoenixes. Walkers are!" Mi-Yung reasoned, slamming the photos with her palm.
"Knowing it is good for our motivations. We should be aware of shadows and what lurks behind us. Why? It never left. Some of those photos and stories have truths inside of them, and we ought to realize them. We have to. I bet there must be keys out of this hell."
"I thought it would be... more hopeful." William inquired.
"What sort of thing do you think the Federation is? It is a place of living on a thin line between lives and imminent destruction. Darks aren't kind to anyone..." She paused afterward, turning and watching Hound silently judging her back. Celeste was doing the same.
