Chapter 52

Zale sat in his temporary office, door closed, with his face just inches from the book he'd created. Maybe it was summoned, he thought. He couldn't be sure. Regardless, he took to reading it immediately after the experiment had been completed. The others had been instructed to go on standby or take a break. He let Shai know about the stellar success, then dove right into the contents.

The result was a story he'd read only once before, a fairytale he recognized. The book read more like it was written by a scientist than a story master. It was about a man who'd grown tired of his aimless life. As a young man, he left his home in search of a purpose. He met many others, all of whom had a goal, and they all joined together. They moved across the realms achieving goals one by one until he was the only one left who hadn't achieved his goal.

He realized, then, that his purpose in life had become to help those closest to him, the friends of other races he'd found along the way. He lived for millions of years after this, helping his friends, his children, his friends' children, as well as anyone else he could. He was revered by many, but his descendants were the ones who most respected him. They were the sentient beings with his likeness: Elves, Dwarves, Titans, Fairies, and others. These were the Altruis races, named after himself.

Zale's smile spread ear to ear, his heart thumping in time with his bouncing foot as he read the last lines of the story. These were the races that matched up. The ones they'd added to the list and the ones in the book were vastly different.

Dragons, as it turned out, were not part of the Altruis races.

Zale spent another few hours rereading parts of the book and making notes. He took what was a story of adventure and meaning and broke it into useable information. When he returned to the team, sans Rahja, who was apparently making important 'phone calls,' Zale set himself to resorting the cores and watching the market for anything new.

"Sir, I don't think there has ever been an occurrence of these. I…"

Kahmil stopped and gazed at the ground for a long moment, chewing on her thumbnail thoughtfully. "I suppose it is not impossible, all things considered," she mumbled, then her voice picked back up, "Regardless, after looking at the list, we feel like it is quite a bit far fetched to find cores of races we don't know exist."

Zale nodded. "Don't worry, I'm not asking you to find these exact cores," he explained, tapping his nail on the tablet's screen, "I want you to find the highest level cores that are as close to these races as possible. It doesn't have to be perfect, but just your best effort. I don't think that fairytale is true, but it makes a great point of grouping together the different races. I assume it has some moral behind it.

"But that's not important. Just get the team to put together what they can, and I'll look at it when it's finished. There's still time left today. When do you think it'll be complete?"

Kahmil thumbed through some numbers and replied, "Maybe a few hours, sir."

Zale nodded with a smile. "If you need me, I'll be in the breakroom. Try not to need me, though," he added with a drawn-out yawn.

The exhaustion of the last few weeks caught up, and he found it harder and harder to keep the spider's web of nightmare-inducing thoughts at bay. No sleep and a constant underground life for four days wore into him.

Now, taking a moment to look at himself in the mirror, Zale scrunched his face. His body was finally recovering after being free for more than a month, but the rings under his eyes were dark. His skin also looked rough, his normal skincare routine thrown out of the window. He dragged a hand along his face, pulling at the beard strands that darkened the bottom half of his face. "I need to shave," he sighed, shuffling over to the couch with his remaining energy.

Zale took a moment to dismiss Mert, sending her on her own break while he slept.

'Maybe I shouldn't sleep here too much,' he noted as Mert left the room, her hair tangled and sticking out in places and suit less pristinely pressed than normal.

'I guess living underground will do that to any sane person after a while, even without having to slave away,' he thought, knowing well that she'd spent the whole time with him.

The thought warmed an icy dark place in his mind enough to let his muscles relax with his body back up and face first in a pillow. Dangerously fast, the relaxation claimed him and dragged him down into a pit of uncertain dreaming.