Chapter 5141: Paint Me Gold! II

Noah listened calmly.

His mind moved quickly behind the calm. The Magna Sorora’s influence stretched across Vakochev’s Scales of Existence. Across the framework that contained Bounded and Gilded and every classification within them. But Vakochev’s Scales were not the only Scales anymore!

He’d built his own. THE Infinite Scales of Existence. He existed within his own framework now, with his own measurements and his own ascensions, and the Magna Sorora’s reach across Vakochev’s frameworks did not necessarily translate into reach across his own. They were on one set of scales. He was on entirely other ones.

"Okay."

His voice came back into the conversation.

"So. For you to not be executed, and then me soon after...I just need to not be a Bounded Lifeform. As far as their classification is concerned. So long as I am a grand Custos, and my apparent identity is a Gilded Lifeform, you can present me without too much shame. Yes?"

He tilted his head slightly.

"So let us paint me in your fake colors of gold. How feasible is that?"

...!

He asked the question seriously.

Ubergulden Adelheid became silent and looked at him calmly, as if she were giving him a second to change his crazy words. As if the proposal were so absurd that he might want to retract it before she had to dignify it with a response.

He simply stared back at her steadily.

She was thoughtful for a moment. Her gaze held his without changing. Her gold eyes shifted slightly as she actually began considering the proposal rather than dismissing it, and after a few seconds she pondered out loud.

"One could not simply play the role of a Gilded One."

Her voice held the careful pace of someone working through a problem in real time.

"The power could not be replicated. Gilded engineering is foundational. It is woven into the substrate of our existence from the moment of our conception, and the signatures of that engineering are not something any external imitation could produce. A Bounded attempting to play Gilded would be discovered within nanoseconds by anyone with even a passing familiarity with our weavings. The Magna Sorora would detect the falsification within an instant. The proposal, as you have phrased it, is impossible by every standard I have ever known."

She paused.

"But you have Infinity in a way nobody else has."

Her gold eyes sharpened slightly as she worked through it.

"Infinity is the one variable that breaks every standard. The Gilded are accustomed to encountering beings whose power can be measured against established parameters, and within those parameters, the gap between Bounded and Gilded is unbridgeable. Infinity does not respect those parameters. Infinity does not measure within them. The signature of Infinity in your existence is something the Magna Sorora would not be able to slot into either category, because Infinity is foreign to the engineering of both. They would have to accept that whatever you are exists outside their usual taxonomy."

She tilted her head, considering further.

"The only issues are that you are weak, and your Ego is basal. And you do not act or look in any way like a Gilded One. The first issue limits how far the Infinity-based explanation can stretch. The second and third issues mean that even with the Infinity foundation accepted, your behavior and presentation would constantly contradict the role you are trying to play. Gilded Ones carry themselves in particular ways. You hold none of these. You are, in every visible respect, something other than what we are."

Noah blinked.

"What power would one need to play the part of a Gilded One? To meet the basic expectations of the role?"

Adelheid drew her thoughts together.

"Most adult Gilded Ones operate at THE Third Scale of Vakochev’s framework. THE Paleozoic Scale. The weaker ones, or the slower ones who have not yet completed their natural ascension, sit in THE Transitional Cambrian stage. Cambrian is the bridge between THE Proterozoic Scale, THE Second Scale where Primordial Architects mostly reside, and THE Paleozoic Scale, where Gilded Ones properly belong. A Gilded One in the Transitional Cambrian stage is still considered young or developing by our standards, but they are recognized as genuine members of our people. They have crossed enough of the threshold to be addressed as adults in formal contexts, even if they have not yet completed the final crossing into Paleozoic."

Noah’s eyes shone brightly.

He noted the new terminology of Vakochev’s Scales the way he noted everything new. He slotted it into his mental map of the broader framework. THE Cambrian. The bridge between Second and Third!

He nodded.

"Okay. Then I simply have to be at this Transitional Cambrian stage. I’ll paint myself gold. We’ll go from there."

He smiled slightly.

"As for the question of power. I have no doubt about my own power. Scaling myself to be at the peak of Scale 2 will not be an issue in the next day or two. I’m already most of the way there, and the remaining distance is something I can close while I’m doing several other things at the same time. Power is the part I’m least worried about."

BOOM!

He said such grand words.

Ubergulden Adelheid was silent again for a moment.

She had stopped treating his proposal as absurd. She had started treating it as something that might actually need to be planned around!

"THE Magna Sorora are thorough."

Her tone became practical.

"I won’t be able to simply bring someone forward and have them raise their hands and say alright, that’s cool, welcome to the family, let us know if you need anything. They will check. They will demand history. They will demand to know which house produced you, where you were raised, what regions of the Observable you have moved through. They will check the answers against records that span vast portions of our recorded history. Any gap in the answers will become a thread they pull, and they will pull threads patiently until the whole story unravels."

Her hands moved as she spoke, sketching out implications in the air.

"You will need to be up here. Moving within THE Braneworld Observable Existence, the other side of the coin of the Observable Existence where Gilded Ones reside. You cannot simply appear from beneath and claim the position. You will need a presence in our domain. You will need to have been seen in our spaces. For this to even have a chance of success, we would need to create an identity for you up here, and that identity will need depth, and the depth will need to hold up under the kind of scrutiny that even Gilded Ones rarely survive intact."

...!

THE Braneworld Observable Existence.

Now this was a unique term he wanted defined right away.

"Tell me more about this Braneworld Observable Existence."

Adelheid gathered herself for the explanation.

"The Observable Existence you currently occupy is not the entirety of the Observable."

"What you experience as Observable, the realms and territories and structures you and other Bounded move through, is one face of a broader formation. There is another face. THE Braneworld Observable Existence sits adjacent to yours. Imagine, if it helps, that your Observable is a sheet of fabric stretched across an immense frame. Then imagine that very close to that sheet, separated by a distance that is both very small and impossible to traverse without authority, sits another sheet stretched across the same frame. The two sheets are parallel. They share the broader structure of the frame. They influence each other through that shared structure. But they do not touch, and beings on one sheet cannot pass to the other without specific capacities that allow them to bridge the gap."

She let one hand drift sideways through the Infiniforce, demonstrating the parallel.

"That is a simplification. The reality is more layered, more textured. The Braneworld and the Observable you know are both real. Both are populated. Both have histories that trace back to THE First Cause. Sometimes a Braneworld forms naturally, as a consequence of the conditions during THE First Cause when a single Observable formation accidentally folds into two adjacent expressions of itself. Sometimes Gilded Ones induce a Braneworld during the early formation of an Observable, deliberately, for purposes that serve our interests. Either way, once a Braneworld exists, it sits as the upper face of the broader Observable, and the lower face is what is known to most beings."

Her gaze returned to him.

"Gilded Ones reside on the upper face. We were placed there during THE First Cause, when the Superbius and the other founding houses were configured. We move through the Braneworld the way Bounded move through their Observable. Our structures, or Citadels, our gathering places, our archives, all of them are on the upper face. We descend to the lower face when we need, but we do not live there. The lower face is where the Bounded are. The upper face is ours."

She let the words rest.

"And to enter THE Braneworld Observable Existence from below, you need the authority of a Gilded One. Power at THE Paleozoic Scale, Vakochev’s Third Scale, allows for forceful entry. Anything less than that cannot bridge the gap on its own. There are exceptions. There are mechanisms. A Gilded One can carry a guest across, with effort. A Custos can be brought up by their bound Royal, with significant effort. A few rituals exist that permit temporary crossings under highly specific conditions. But the general rule is straightforward. The upper face is closed to those without the proper authority, and the proper authority is, by design, almost exclusively held by Gilded Ones."

She looked at him with the quiet expectation of someone who knew the next question already.

"If you want to walk among us as a Custos, you will need to walk in the Braneworld. The Braneworld is where my standing exists, where my house operates, where the Magna Sorora hold their courts, and where any plausible identity for you would need to be established."

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