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ATM Rewrite: B3 — 38. The Foundation Breaks
🕑 Added 2025-08-16 21:39:16 +0000 UTCPoV:
1. Jarlath Moore (Sora's Dad!)
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The conference room deep within the Moon Base felt more like a containment cell than a meeting space. No windows, walls lined with dampening fields that made Jarlath’s skin crawl, and only one exit that Raven controlled.
He glanced at the fifty-year scotch between them; it might as well have been water for all the comfort it provided.
“You evacuated the entire base for this chat, aye?” Jarlath asked, his Irish accent thickening with suspicion as he studied the man across from him.
Raven’s golden eyes held a dangerous look. Not in the sense of a fight. He was used to that sort of atmosphere. No, this was the sort of danger that came in a business room, when a company brought him in because they felt like they’d dug a hole too deep to get out of…
Someone who’d discovered they were living in a house of cards. Now deciding whether to blow it down or shore it up.
“Mr. Moore, your suspicion is understandable. A rather high opinion of yourself. I admire that. But no. Not for you, Mr. Moore. I evacuated the base because what we’re discussing could unravel minds less…singular than ours,” the SCC executive member whispered.
“And perhaps I also have a rather suspicious mind,” Raven added with a smirk, swirling his drink. “Tell me, Mr. Moore, has Oberon visited you recently?”
“Forgive me, man, but that’s quite the introductory topic. When I reached out, I expected the run-around or a low-tier HR rep who asks about mi daughter. Instead, I get an empty moon base, fancy booze, and a discussion with an executive about fae royalty.”
Raven smirked, sipping at his drink a moment before saying, “Please, indulge me. We can get into the topic of your daughter soon enough.”
“Hmm.” Jarlath leaned back, hands resting in his pocket as he searched the man’s face—this wasn’t a man you could easily read. “Alright. The High King doesn’t make social calls to business consultants.”
“And neither do world governing organizations, yet here we are.”
Raven stood, moving to activate a holographic display—these people truly could change the world if they weren’t too concerned about shoring up their own power.
“Let’s cut past the BS a man in my position would typically take… High King Oberon was here three hours ago. Quite illuminating, our conversation. He knows all the answers I’ve been searching for, yet he speaks in riddles and half-truths… Sounds like your wife, yes?”
Jarlath’s mouth pinched at the comment. Not precisely a jab but a statement of fact. Mia was hiding a lot, not only from him, but from herself after taking on a mortal form. Yet, the SCC wouldn’t know those details. Not without getting information from someone of equal standing, which was…highly unlikely, given that this section of Existence was his wife’s territory.
So, either he was fishing for information, or there was someone else working in the background operating on Mia’s level. The Herald’s warning about his wife came to mind.
Jarlath leaned back, reaching for the scotch and pouring a glass in the following silence before sitting back to drum his fingers against the crystal.
“…From what I understand about fae, that shouldn’t be surprising. A lad like me has zero interactions with anythin’ outside my circle. I only know the fae royalty because they sponsor mi kids in Avalon. If it’s secrets he’s hidin’, then clearly you think they have somethin’ to do with mi daughter.”
“It is true, fae are like that,” Raven conceded, playing with the hologram as he slid through files, “but why come to me? It’s because he was looking for answers, not hiding them…or he may be trying to lead me somewhere.”
“And is it wise to follow the songs of a fae, even if their ruler?”
“Mmm. Good point. But…Oberon isn’t their ruler, only their current stand-in,” the man whispered, stopping on an image captured of the dark-haired king. “He’s not hiding knowledge—he’s managing it—controlling its release like a valve on a pressure tank.”
“There are only two topics I can think of: my family and The Darkness. Which is it?”
“Why not both?” the executive chuckled, sliding a picture of Sora inside the moon base to the side for him to look at. “The Darkness. About Avalon. About why your daughter is at the center of events that should be impossible… Everything is unraveling.”
Raven pulled up multiple data streams, his fingers dancing through holographic interfaces.
“I’ve spent years studying containment patterns, dimensional anomalies, reality manipulations. It’s my specialty—recognizing when someone’s rewritten the rules. It is why I am most involved with your daughter. She is a reality creator, not a warper. There is a difference.”
He paused, bright eyes sliding to him. “And Mr. Moore, it wasn’t until I started to see the contrast as a point of reference that all my theories and models fell apart. What happens when your foundation turns out to be fiction?”
“Then the entire structure collapses…”
“Excellent deduction. Mr. Moore, we are swimming in lies so fundamental that even those who built their lives around foundational truths are blind.”
Leaning back, Jarlath took a sip of his scotch, breathing in the rich fruit, spice, and oak, letting the long, lingering finish coat his throat.
He nodded, processing the complex implications the man was laying out.
“…You’re saying my life, Sora’s, Wendy’s…everyone’s lives are a complete lie—a dream? What…created by my wife for our daughter? I’m trying to piece together where you’re leading here, bud, and it’s gettin’ murky.”
Raven’s smile held no warmth. “I suppose I have been a tad abstract. And no, I am not accusing your wife of anything of the sort. In fact, I believe she is the only reason everything has not collapsed already. Very well. Plainly then…”
He slid over three holographic profiles, the images blank, the same name over each one with another in parentheses: The Morrigan.
“What your daughter’s discovery has shown me is that your family is not the only Founder-level beings in our little section of the multiverse—no, multiverses are tiny. In whatever word we wish to use, it matters not, but the reality is the same. I am sure you know of more like individuals than I…”
Raven slid over several more images to join the three fae: Aiden, Kari, Eric, Nilly, Jin, and Eyia.
What wasn’t shown was his supposed big sister, Rose, himself, Stephanie, her baby, or Ylva.
“What I can tell you, Mr. Moore, is that Avalon closing its doors to the Foundation three centuries ago—or so history shows—wasn’t them shutting us out. It was a quarantine measure. They were preventing cross-contamination.”
“The Darkness. Aye. I’m followin’. The Morrigan was the one who fell to The Darkness, and one of those three created the defenses around Avalon, or so Sora told me the story goes.”
“Ah, well, that is where it gets interesting.” Raven pulled up a timeline, data points flickering like dying stars. “You know Sela—the Unseelie your daughter befriended and purified with the help of Titania?”
“Aye.”
“According to every local record, every local memory, every piece of local evidence, she’s been lurking in Florida’s swamps for centuries…but the Foundation has no such record of her. All of that information here was discovered over the last few months. A local legend. A cautionary tale.”
“A big blunder for your org.”
“Indeed…” Raven’s mouth tightened. “More than that…almost an impossibility for such a timeframe of invisibility. You see, when you strip away the magical manipulation, the edited memories, the reality overlays—I’ve discovered quite the corollary…hiccup.”
He paused, tapping a few times on the table and causing timelines to overlap and change. “When I line things up, she only appeared three years ago… Exactly when Kari’s family—your daughter’s bully arrived. And that isn’t the only correlation in our former collapsing framework. But perhaps the most intriguing part…Sela herself believes she’s lived on Earth for centuries.”
The glass in Jarlath’s hand creaked under sudden pressure at the mention of the three years of hell he’d been gaslighted into supporting until Mary exposed it.
“Right. Stop.” Jarlath set down his glass with deliberate control. “I’ve had enough dancin’ around the topic. You’re tellin’ me someone rewrote reality to plant Sela exactly when Kari arrived, and she doesn’t even know it happened. Cut to the bloody chase, Raven. What’s the real threat here, and what does it want with mi daughter? Obviously, you want mi help or else I wouldn’t be here..”
Raven nodded with the smallest of smiles. “To the point. The Darkness isn’t the infection—it’s quarantine. Something called a memetic entity is trying to break into our reality that I suspect the Moon Wizard and The Morrigan were experimenting with before your wife placed Sora in this bubble.”
He tapped a few more times, overlapping all of the timelines now, right over Sora.
“You might think it impossible, but a little over three years ago, the entire multiverse was vastly different than it is today, with the one exception—the foundation stone—Miami…where so many unique entities were present. And not immediately after Kari arrived, no…about a week after, to be exact.”
Jaw working around, Jarlath looked back at the private conversations and evasive answers his wife had given him over the past few weeks. Mia was a terrible liar, which was a sore spot for her, considering vulpes reputation—she just never needed to develop the skills due to her power.
“Hmm. Say I believe you… What is a memetic entity? The only word I connect to that is the funny images mi daughter sends me from time to time.”
Raven’s teeth gleamed. “Oh, that is excellent. It gives you a point of reference. In practice. It is somewhat similar. The more people who know about it, think about it, acknowledge it exists, the more real it becomes. The Darkness is a bandage to keep it contained… Now, whether Oberon and Titania are the ones who created it is beside the point.”
“And what point would that be?” Jarlath growled, taking his glass and downing it to feel the mild heat and fruit coat his throat. “As I understand it, The Darkness is snatching teachers. If it isn’t that then…”
“Then the containment is breaking,” Raven finished with a grimace. “Indeed.”
“And Sora?”
“Her impossible existence—your wife, a vulpes Founder who shouldn’t be able to have children having a child—could create paradoxes this entity can’t process,” he shrugged.
“Honestly, that is something suspect, but I believe I have a more reasonable answer due to Titania’s actions.”
Jarlath’s memory of a certain Unseelie and her part in helping them unravel the Jenny plot came back.
“Sela.”
“Sela,” Raven repeated. “I’m glad you’re following. Titania used Sora’s power to do the impossible…revert an Unseelie, which is half taken by the memetic entity, half shrouded by The Darkness and protected. Sora can kill the memetic force, not just keep it sealed.”
He directed another window, showing an image of Daisy, the part succubus that Sora saved, and then a rather clear satellite image of Wendy, tail showing and all.
“I expected you’d spy on us, but to show it to mi face,” Jarlath growled, vision narrowing.
“Not my doing, but my superior,” he sighed, showing a dozen more. “It is no surprise he wanted more study. However, if this isn’t another one of Sora’s illusions, and by your reaction, it is not… Somehow, Sora brought Wendy into her family tree. Yes, a leap, but one I wanted to confirm, because it matters.”
Jarlath didn’t have to say anything to confirm it; as he said, he already had. The damnable man outplayed him on that move.
“And why would it matter if she did?”
“To put it simply,” the dark-haired man mumbled, “it means Sora is able to take an imaginary personage, and elevate them to the state of a Founder.”
One word in there twisted his heart and gut. “Imaginary? What are you talking about?!” he shouted, shooting out of his chair. “Wendy has been mi daughter’s best friend since she was five.”
Raven took a calm slip of his glass before nodding toward the timeline he’d just shown him. “…I thought it would be obvious now, Mr. Moore. When this dream took effect, it wasn’t to save the multiverse. It was to fill in the gaps and blanket over what was already taken by the memetic entity… Nearly every person in the multiverse is but a dream, conjured up to keep the broader omniverse and whatever is beyond safe.”
Jarlith wanted to shout, think of something, a counter…yet, his mind was utterly blank.
“That… No. That can’t happen. Mi memories of Sora as a little girl—Wendy… Didn’t you say everything centers around Miami? Yeah, that means mi little girl kept things stable there!”
The man across from him tilted his head, almost looking thoughtful. “That is one of the theories. Not the most likely one, but still a theory. No, the more likely solution is that Wendy’s image was perpetuated by the dream of your daughter…and then, during whatever ritual you performed… Her soul was returned. Taken back from the memetic entity, which required one particular person’s extensive knowledge.”
Jarlath’s eyes defocused as he leaned against the table, looking over at one profile. His wife’s smiling face looking back at him.
“Then…Sora merged the two, is what you’re saying. She saved Wendy, and gave her back the life with her she’d been stolen from…”
“While erasing the trauma of whatever came from within that void,” Raven whispered. “Again, a theory, but the most likely one that you would need to confirm with your wife. As for your daughter…”
He moved a photo of her toward him. “There is real danger. Danger your wife no doubt sees. In fact, my grasp of the situation is likely a part of that, as well. I am several realms below your wife, to say the least,” he chortled.
“No, she’s either going to be our salvation…or the key that unlocks the door for it to finish the job. And we already know it can take 3rd-Generation Founders, such as The Morrigan. And it gets worse.”
Jarlath rubbed between his eyes. One thing nagged at him in all of this—his big sister.
Wendy got way more Null-Void, or my half of the genes, than Sora did. At least, she unlocked that side first… Could that have been a reason? This memetic entity had her soul, which means…did Rose intervene to snatch it?
Could she?
He tilted his head, feeling a headache coming on.
Rose is sealed and trapped by crazy, powerful beings that even The Herald doesn’t want to cross or deal with. This is insane. But if everything is unraveling, then Mia knows about it. She set things in motion to try and counter it…but not telling me about Wendy?
Does it even matter? She’s back. She’s a part of our family…
Wait…
Jarlath’s eyes went wide, Raven letting him stew in silence.
If everything is a dream for the past three years, then…Jane may have turned out totally different. That could crush Wendy and Sora, especially if Sora had anything to do with it from her perspective of Jane…
Jane might not have been the horrific, drunk, abusive mother we all thought she was. Shit… Put it behind you, Jar. Dammit, you can’t think about that. Whatever the case, Wendy is my daughter now. They both need me.
“How worse,” he grumbled, looking back up at Raven with refocused eyes.
Raven’s expression darkened. “My superior has started working with the entity. I’m certain of it now. Your wife has already moved pieces to counter it, I’m sure. It could have been in response to Sora and the potential she brings. Both sides need Sora to make a choice she doesn’t even know she has to make…
“Whatever the choice, whatever the cause, purpose, or intent…this dream is ending.”
The door opened without warning.
Jarlath whirled around, spotting a woman who made every alarm in Jarlath’s mind scream danger despite her almost delicate appearance:
Small, with wings at her back. Pale, gray skin with patches that seemed to absorb light rather than reflect it, eyes that shifted between violet and void-black, and a presence that felt like standing at the edge of a cliff in a nightmare. He’d felt this feeling before…Sela.
But this wasn’t her.
It was another Unseelie.
“Gentlemen,” she said, her voice carrying harmonics that shouldn’t exist in human speech. “I see we’re finally having the conversation that should have happened years ago. I’m so very grateful to finally have a chat with you face to face instead of behind seals and blindfolds, Raven. Your voice matches your roguish appearance. How delightfully heart throbbing. I might have Stockholm syndrome.”
“Charming as always, Ms. Black. Mr. Moore,” Raven said formally, though Jarlath caught the tension in his shoulders, “allow me to introduce one of the Foundation’s most jealously guarded secrets…the Black Queen. A former ruler of a fae court that no longer exists in anyone’s memory but her own.”
“Former ruler of nowhere, according to current Avalon history,” she corrected, moving to pour herself a drink from their bottle without invitation, her wings fluttering with mild agitation. “Imprisoned for the crime of existing, known only to the Administrator and half of the EC Council. I might as well be erased again, wouldn’t you agree?”
She tipped a glass toward him before drinking it as if it were water.
“Mmm. Fruity but hardly comparable to stonefire honeydew… Another thing that is extinct. Isn’t it fascinating how easily memories can be edited? How reality can be rewritten so thoroughly that even those who lived through events forget them? I cherish those I was able to retain.”
Jarlath kept his distance. “You’re Unseelie?”
“Half correct,” she stated with an educational tone. “Can you not see my eyes and more the color of my—oh, never mind. It doesn’t matter. Half of something that shouldn’t exist, is something that shouldn’t exist. Yes. Call me what you will,” she huffed, rolling her eyes.
“Which also makes me uniquely qualified to recognize other impossibilities.” She raised her second glass in a mock toast. “Like your daughter’s birth, which happened to get me caught, and just after I got done talking to a rather handsome young man with the prettiest…”
The glass suddenly slipped from her hand, shattering on the floor as her gaze widened as if she’d seen a ghost. “Raven… That profile. That was him!”
Jarlath followed her trembling finger to a rainbow-eyed, grinning young man.
“Aiden?”
“Yes, it was just after I spoke to him that the Foundation swooped in, and my powers failed me at that exact moment due to the realm divergency desynchronization with the magical fields.”
Jarlath’s mouth became a line. “…One of his powers is subconscious causality manipulation. If that’s the case, you probably were saved, knowing his personality.”
“Huh… Fascinating. That changes how I view…everything.”
“It does,” Raven mumbled, rubbing his chin and staring at the grinning firebird. “You claimed to have smuggled Sela out of Avalon. The Administrator told us that lead fell flat and you were chalked up to be a liar, an unreliable source…but it was true.”
The executive pointed at Aiden’s profile. “If your mission was to smuggle Sela to Miami three years ago, then you were likely meant to die to end all links back to the memetic entity and the previous reality… That would have ruined something relating to Aiden, so he intervened, and you were kept isolated until now, when I released you. Causality is in our favor.”
The Black Queen’s laugh was like breaking bells. “Careful, Raven, causality is a fickle mistress. But how charming. I must thank him…for my three years of solitary confinement. My memories have…fractures in that isolation. Places where different versions overlap. In one, I helped Sela escape. In another, she never existed until three years ago when I met her. In a third, I am her, wearing a different face.”
Jarlath slowly took his seat, reflecting on everything he’d heard. Naturally, he’d need to take all of this back to Mia and confirm it all. At this point, she would likely give in and tell him. There was more he needed to know, and, apparently, this woman had the answers.
“Okay. So let’s cut to the chase. What do we need to do?”
“It is not that simple, Mr. Moore. That’s rather the point as to why Raven freed me.” She turned those unsettling eyes on him. “The truth of the matter is that I have a memory of Titania and Oberon speaking with Sela after the fall of The Morrigan into the Codex Obscura—the name we have given the memetic force.
“According to Titania, without a force more powerful than an original 2nd-Generation Founder, we’ll all become part of it. A void-like filing cabinet that’s, for all intents and purposes, has gained sentience and decided to organize all of reality into neat little entries. Trapped forever, perfectly preserved, never changing…while the cabinet forever morphs and distorts with its absorbed information.”
A whistle came from Raven. “Sounds more Eldritch than anything else.”
“Partly, I can agree to that. Yet, like me, it dips its foot in both pools.”
Jarlath’s jaw tightened. “You’re saying we need someone more powerful than my wife? Mia can’t overpower it?”
The Black Queen twisted her finger, causing the scotch to snake out of the shaft and spiral into her glass as she swirled it around. “I am only repeating what I was told. Who isn’t to say that very memory was implanted by the Codex Obscura or Titania herself? I am utterly ravaged and without reliance. I can only speak as to what I know, and what I know may not be what I know but what dreams weave into motion.”
“If that’s the case,” Jarlath muttered, mind reeling, “the only beings who could stand against it would be the Herald of Sakura, who maintains strict non-interference, and Nilly, who would probably devour the multiverse with it…”
He refrained from talking about Stephanie, who, as of now, had lost her powers after giving birth and was going through a semi-identity crisis.
Then, there was him… He could handle it easily if he returned to whatever state he was inside Nihility. Or, Rose could simply devour it if she found a way to break free of her prison and follow them back, but…he had a feeling that would be a thousand times worse than whatever this memetic entity was.
The other option would be any of Eyia’s people, the Primordials, but this was Founder territory. So that would be an absolute no.
The Three Pillars, the fae, dragon, and firebird 1st-Generation Founders.
That was a no, and the very reason Mia likely put Sora and him in this kind of space. This Codex Obscura probably helped to hide them from the rest of the 1st Generation.
Then again, Jin was here, a 2nd-generation dragon Founder who, according to Sora, was extremely volatile. With her extensive knowledge, granted by her mother, she could have a solution. No, if she did, Mia would have talked to her about it.
There was Inari…but that was impossible. Mia would rather involve Stephanie, Nilly, Jin, hell, one of the Three Pillars themselves, over her eldest sister.
Herald… You’re supposed to keep Sora hidden. Damn of a good job you’ve been doing… No wonder Mia is freaking out. The problem isn’t the Codex Obscura…it’s The Darkness that is hiding us from everything outside of Mia’s territory that the Codex is destroying.
“We need to delete the—”
“Do not say its name,” the Black Queen hissed.
“But you—”
“Yes, I am a part of it! Of course, I can say it, fool. Trust me. We do not need it gaining more power. Words are louder than thoughts, but thoughts are loud, also… So keep them silent, too!”
Jarlath’s frown deepened as Raven snickered. His mind was probably immune to it due to what he truly was under this mortal shell, but it was better to be safe than sorry.
“Ahem. Okay, then we need to delete it and maintain The Darkness’ shield. The dream, right?”
“Not exactly,” Raven sighed, tapping his glass. “We need to do more than protect the dream… We need your daughter to bring it into reality, which she seems capable of doing.”
Ice cold water dumped over Jarlath’s brain as he connected all the dots they’d been laying.
Could Mia do it?
No. Not as far as he knew.
Could Sora do it?
Yes. Possibly, if she had enough power to channel and figured out something her mother and aunt hadn’t even learned how to do.
Did Raven and the Black Queen understand what that meant?
No. No, they did not.
Ever since the end of the Founder-Primordial War, that ultimate ability—the highest form—of vulpes Founder magic had been banned by the 1st Generation collective, among other highest-tier magic that could create Existence itself.
“…Sora can’t do that.”
Silence ensued, confusion crossing the Unseelie and executive’s faces.
After several seconds, Raven cleared his throat. “…Titania has all but confirmed she has at least the potential after helping to guide her magic in restoring Sela. Diane has all but confirmed it herself.”
“Mmm.” The Black Queen’s fingernails tapped the table, brow furrowing. “Not exactly a one-to-one, but heavily implied that it leans in that realm of possibilities. I read the report you showed me that Diane gave, and correlation is not causation, but it does raise eyebrows. Are you sure, Mr. Moore?”
Swallowing, he nodded without hesitation, spotting movement in the corner of his eye—a beautiful blonde woman, an unfurled paper fan obscuring half her face as she slowly shook her head—The Herald, reality skewed around her frame.
He blinked.
She was gone.
Great, you could actually help and give us a direction if you are going to tell us what not to do… I guess if that magic is used, it doesn’t matter what barriers or veils there are… The Three Pillars will know.
“No. Not what you’re asking. It would be mutually assured destruction—100% guaranteed.”
The Black Queen’s laugh fractured the air around them. “Well, that’s rather inconvenient. Here I thought we had a solution. If we are still off in our plots, it still raises the question…why Titania chose to pull Sela out of exile, return her soul, and start breaking her memory seals.”
“Indeed, it does. Oberon and the Moon Wizard are on a different path than the High Queen. A different solution. What are we missing? There has to be another way,” Raven insisted, pulling up new displays. “If Sora can’t use creation magic, then why is she the core of it all?”
The lights flickered—not from power failure, but from something fundamental breaking down.
“How long do we have before the barriers collapse completely? Because, maybe we do have it wrong.” Jarlath asked.
“Hours, maybe less. Avalon is in flux, and your daughter seems to be tied into a colossal dream meltdown. Diane confirmed that Kari and Eric just engaged one another to settle their feud.” Raven’s displays showed cascading failures across every Foundation facility. “The Administrator is accelerating the timeline on our side… He is releasing the seals on the moon. The issue is, he’s practically on the level of Oberon and Titania. How can we stop him?”
An explosion of silver light erupted from the Moon Wizard’s tower. The base shook, systems screaming to life.
“Arsarius,” the Black Queen breathed, watching reality crack around them. “The old fool’s finally waking up. I see Oberon wasn’t bluffing. He entered the tower. What did you mean we weren’t looking at it in the right light?”
Through the fractures, Jarlath glimpsed other places—chaos at Avalon, his hotel where Noelia stood at the window with Mia by her side, watching Sora take the stage of the arena, Wendy cheering her on in the stands.
“ Aye, I need to get back to mi family.” He rose to his feet and stared at the two women he was now in charge of taking care of, watching their daughter enter some kind of battle tournament. “What if mi daughter isn’t the center, but the fuse. Sela is the center. Sora’s power was only used to make the cracks for her to realize it.”
Raven tapped a few times on the hologram.
“I’ll prepare a way back to your home… The Administrator must be stopped. Ms. Black, will you accompany me to the Moon Wizard’s tower? He may be the only one who can intervene, or at least buy us time.”
The queen gave him a royal curtsy and snickered. “A date it is, little birdie. You can hide those feathers, but I see the truth beneath the disguise. Lead the way…”
Jarlath left the way he’d come, not lingering for whatever trouble the pair were going to get into. Mia had a plan. She always did. Yes, she was terrified. And rightly so…because she didn’t even give herself the whole plan, which meant she’d get cold feet and back out when the twilight hour arrived.
Mia, Noelia, we’re going to Avalon—Rose?
He paused in the hallway as black thorns began creeping out of nowhere and everywhere, emerging from the very air itself to create an inviting thicket of vines and barbs.
…I guess you want to talk again. Okay. It’s not like talking with you takes any time since you’re outside of it. This better be about Sora and Wendy.
He walked into the Null-Void.
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