Morda

Leon gestured to a map projected on the wall behind him, still speaking to researchers from when he started earlier. "This, as you can see, is a map of the Laria Jungle from 2,000 years ago."

He took a small tool which, when he pressed it to the big screen on the wall behind him, created marks as if he were using a small red brush. He drew a circle in the middle of the jungle, then a series of lines around it. Leon stepped back and let the researchers study this as he said, "The circle in the middle is where we suspected the ruins of this civilization, which we called Morda based on the references we found in other ancient civilizations, to exist. It was the best theory we had, but since we never discovered it on our expeditions, it was just that — a theory. These lines are the different routes we took and the areas we explored when we were searching the jungle."

He drew another circle in a different part of the map. "This here marks the locations of the ruins of the Kaital people. They weren't the ruins we were looking for, but we found them in our search, and decided to assign people to the task of studying it."

The image on the screen changed again, depicting a map that was similar, yet very different. The red lines were gone. "You all are more familiar with this map than the previous one, of course, since this is the Laria Jungle of the present. The borders shrunk by half a kilometer on all edges of the territory, and its surroundings are now completely full of thriving modern human civilization."

The screen changed once more, and the two maps were now shown at the same time. People could see the old and new borders of the jungle on top of each other, along with the marks Leon made earlier. A few of the areas explored in the past were now in areas where the jungle of the present no longer reached. Leon drew a line between the deepest area they explored in the jungle and the circle that marked the suspected location of Morda. "As you can see, we didn't get very close to our suspected location. We hired the most experienced, trustworthy guide of the Laria Jungle at the time, yet even he had never dared to go this deep inside due to the dangers. At some point, our team reached a part of the jungle's territory ruled by the Vetari snakes, and we dared not go any further. It would have been impossible for such a large expedition to go through their territory with no deaths, delays, or injuries, so we turned back."

The room was silent, a stark change from chatter earlier. A minute passed, leaving Leon to wonder if he should just continue, but someone asked a question from the back of the room, having to yell to be heard. "With all due respect, why were you so sure that Morda would be found in the depths of the Laria Jungle? Surely there could be other locations for it."

Leon nodded, having expected this question to come at some point. "Considering we never found their ruins on our expeditions, and I didn't have the time to study them when I stumbled on them, we had none of their records, ruins, or artifacts to examine. All of the knowledge we have on Morda comes from what other ancient civilizations, that existed in similar or surrounding eras, had to say about them. We gathered everything that mentioned Morda, even if only once, or referred to it even if not by name, and through studying these, we could assume that Morda lay on a crossroads between several different ancient territories around the borders of the jungle as it was 2,000 years ago, though only a shadow of the Laria Jungle as we know it existed when these various ancient peoples thrived."

Someone else spoke up and said, "If the Laria Jungle was so dangerous even 2,000 years ago, how did you find the ruins on accident? Surely, it must have been extremely difficult to find something hidden so deep in the jungle on accident."

Leon cursed himself internally. His web of lies just kept expanding. "I happened to find a safe path between the territory of the Vetari snakes and the Sherta birds. It may have been an old trade route from before the jungle grew as it did."

This time, Leon had a question for the room. "I'm not familiar with the technology of this era. Do you have any tools, devices, or methods of discovering Morda that we didn't have 2,000 years ago?"

The chatters and murmurs started again. Someone towards the front spoke up. When Leon glanced towards the voice, he found it belonged to the woman that led him here. "We have devices that can scan the entirety of the forest for traces of magic, minerals, or other various things. We can do it from this tower, in fact."

Leon smiled, his first genuine smile in a long time. "That's amazing. Why don't we head there now, then? Time is ticking, after all."

With that, the meeting was over. Leon knew if they wanted to know more, they would call him again to give a talk in a similar manner to what he'd just done. For now, though, he followed the dark-haired woman out of the room and through the corridors of the tower, going down a few floors, through several more corridors, and finally, into an enormous room that seemed to take up two floors.

The wall across from him was less of a wall and more of a collage of screens. They were all lit up, showing many different graphs, charts, lengths of text, and more. Beneath them was a long series of tables, with many people working on smaller screens that seemed to show similar things as the ones on the wall. Directly in the middle of all of these desks was an enormous one, empty of people, its screens on but blank. The woman approached this table, and did something on the screens for a few minutes. Leon watched, still fascinated by this era's technology.

After another few minutes, the screens on the wall changed. They now all showed the same image, an enormous image of the modern era's Laria Jungle, with its shrunken borders. Then, some data appeared on the empty space around it, the text and numbers rapidly changing. The woman looked at him then and said, "This will take a while. The scanning process has begun, but its looking for every bit of information it can find on the Laria Jungle, so it may take a few hours. Would you like to visit the cafeteria or recreational rooms in the meantime?"

Leon thought for a few seconds and said, "Yes, could you lead me to the cafeteria? I am rather hungry."

The woman smiled politely and nodded. "Of course, Mr. Regaard. Follow me. I will come to your rooms when the results will be available."

Leon thanked her and followed her as he was led to the cafeteria, where he marveled at more future technology as he received his food and ate it alone at one of the many tables. The woman had left already by then. Leon looked around, seeing other a few other people scattered at different tables. Some of them were glancing at him, others were openly staring. He was used to people staring at him, but not in this way. Before he came here, whenever people stared at him, it was with awe and expectation. They expected him to have the answer to any of his questions, and were awed by his achievements, status, and knowledge. These stares, however, were of a more curious nature.

Leon assumed they'd heard that he'd been brought here, and wanted to catch a glimpse of him.

He ignored them, and continued eating his food. When he was done, he made his way back to his rooms, asking someone for help navigating the maze of halls along the way, and opened the door to his new home. Well, "home" didn't seem like the right word for it. He had left his home behind, 2,000 years in the past.

Nevertheless, and approached his bed and collapsed onto it, a wave of exhaustion hitting him. His window was still open. He looked through it, surprised to see it was night already. He'd been at that meeting for a long time, it seemed. His eyes began to close as his thoughts wound down, until darkness engulfed him in its embrace.

Leon woke up to sunlight shining on his face. He blinked his eyes a few times, groggy from sleep, and then shot up with a start after remembering the woman's promise from last night. Had she not woken him up when the results came, or were they yet to arrive? Leon didn't know, but a part of him was grateful for the full night's rest. He stumbled out of bed and approached the wall next to it, tapping it and waiting as the hidden door slid open and revealed a bathroom.

He did his business and took a shower, still not used to bathing from water that fell from the ceiling. It was a strange way of washing oneself, Leon thought. When he finished and got dressed, he sat at his desk and found that he could order food to his room, so he did just that. Five minutes later, a small, rectangular section of the wall next to his desk popped out, revealing a tray of food on a metal slab. Leon marveled at the fast delivery system. He didn't even need to go to the cafeteria — he could just order food from here. He grabbed his food, and the wall slid back into place. As he ate, he looked out of his window. Watching the Rahdals fly by every now and then, looking at the other towers around him and wondering what their depths contained.

After he was done eating, he tapped the part of the wall that delivered his food and put the tray back, assuming that was what he was supposed to do upon finishing food delivered in such a way. He was correct, for the wall accepted his empty tray and slid closed again.

Leon went back to browsing the library of knowledge stored in the screen on his desk, reading more details about the world he was in. Half an hour after he started, the front door slid open. Leon turned around and saw the woman from yesterday standing in the entryway, and he assumed this was about the promised results. When he saw the woman's face, however, he couldn't help but worry. Leon tried to ask if anything was wrong, but she didn't say anything. She led him to the screen-filled room from yesterday and when they arrived, Leon stared at her, waiting for an answer.

She faced him, expression grim. "I don't know how to say this, Sir Regaard. The results were completely unexpected."

She didn't continue, but Leon wasn't feeling very patient. "And? What are they?"

She turned to face the large screen on the wall in front of them, which had the same huge image of the Laria Jungle map. "There were no results, Sir Regaard. The process ended up taking much longer than we thought because we repeated it, to make sure there weren't any mistakes. But they were the same. We found nothing, nothing at all."

Leon wasn't sure if he understood correctly. "What do you mean, you found nothing?"

"I mean exactly that. If these results are accurate, then apart from the Kaital ruins in the location you mentioned, which were already recorded in our databases, there shouldn't be any remnants of any civilization in the suspected location of Morda. Our devices found nothing — no traces of any minerals, nor any magic, which would be impossible if this truly were the location of the magic weapon you described. Is it possible your calculations for Morda's true location were wrong? How could you have found Morda if there isn't anything there?"

Leon didn't hear her last few sentences. His ears were ringing with her words. He thought he'd gotten the chance to find the ruins of Morda with the help of this incredible future technology, but now he heard them tell him that the years of work he'd done were in vain, because no amount of searching, in any depth of the jungle, would have yielded results.

Nothing he'd ever done to try and stop the catastrophe meant anything. Were any of his theories correct? Was the cause of the catastrophe not the magic weapon he suspected, but something entirely different? Were any of the things he thought he knew about Morda true in any way?

All of a sudden, Leon's knowledge and expertise, which he trusted and put faith in for so long, meant nothing. The few tendrils of hope he'd allowed into his heart now withered and died, and Leon felt emptiness in their wake, vaster and colder than even on the day he thought he would die from his own failure. Because now the future was depending on him, and he had failed them, too.