Once they reached the bottom the foreman used a spell to wipe the old sync rune away and prepared a new surface for Chronos to work with.
Chronos cast [Sever] over his finger and began writing. He didn't find it very hard, but they had to rewrite it once when the lines crossed in the wrong way.
Once he was finished with the syncing rune arrangement, he wrote the runes for the three layers on the bottom while the rune for transferring the power up and out of the tower was on the top and all of the other circles had blocking runes written in them.
"That should do it. All that's left is to test it now." Chronos said.
The foreman looked uncomfortable as he hesitated to activate the rune.
"What's wrong?" Chronos asked.
"Well, if this doesn't work, we'll have to replace every rune in the tower. Maybe rebuild the tower itself and that's a ridiculous amount of work to redo." He complained.
Chronos didn't understand why that was so concerning for him. "But it'll only take you a few days to rebuild it right. So, what's the problem?"
"Haah, you really don't get it. If we have to rebuild one tower, then we'll have to rebuild all of them. Not only the ones around the keep but also the ones on the walls. Imagining all of that work and planning being redone is enough to give me a stomachache."
That was worrisome. Rebuilding one tower was annoying. Rebuilding all of them meant they would have to rip out the foundation and start over.
"Then it's best if we find out what's wrong now. I'd rather not build everything only to find out it all needs to be replaced." Chronos said.
"Good point. Alright let's get this started." Taking a deep breath the foreman put his hand on the rune and began syncing it with the power room.
A few minutes later a glow appeared at the base of the tower and slowly rose up the central pillar. As each rune activated without problems they eagerly waited for the final rune at the top to light up.
60%...70%...80%
It had gone past the point of failure from previous tries, and everything was going well.
90%...100%
With a gentle thrum the world around them subtly shifted in a way that Chronos recognized as layers coming closer together.
"Yes, it worked. I'm glad there were no problems." The foreman said.
"Agreed." Chronos commented.
"Yeah!" A happy childlike voice came from behind them.
...!?
Spinning around they saw a small figure floating behind them. It looked like a chibi head wearing a white robe with golden trim and its body was made from mist.
It was happily smiling at them as a gentle glow that matched the towers came from its body.
"What is this?" The foreman asked.
"I was hoping you could tell me. Has it ever appeared at other castles?" Chronos responded.
"Not any I've been to." The foreman said as he prepared to attack it.
Chronos held the foreman's hand motioning for him not to attack.
"If neither of us know what it is then we should ask the old man."
The little child was flying around the central pillar admiring the runes on it with sparkling eyes. Reaching out, Chronos caught it.
"Hey!" It said in annoyance at having its fun interrupted.
"Little one, would it be alright for you to come with us? We need to visit a kind grandfather that knows a great deal about runes?" He gently asked.
The foreman snorted. Old Tobias could be described as many things, but a kind grandfather was not one of them.
The child seemed interested in runes so maybe it would follow him if he talked about them.
"Really?"
It cocked its head to the side as it considered the offer.
"Hm, okay!"
Walking out of the tower the two of them walked towards the path underground while the child followed them.
It kept running around looking at the men working on site. It was particularly interested in those using magic and followed them for a short distance before going back to Chronos.
Many of the knights stopped to stare at the strange little creature as it floated around the work site. It was clear that none of them had seen such a creature before either but since it was with a foreman they didn't say anything.
Reaching the power core rooms hallway Chronos spoke with the guards.
"Can you please call Old Tobias out here? We've had something of an incident that we need to talk to him about."
Nodding a guard started walking down the hallway. The small child tried to follow him, but Chronos grabbed the back of its robe.
"Hey!" It glared at him for stopping it from following the man towards the interesting thing it could sense.
"We aren't allowed in there without permission. If we go down there, we'll get in trouble." Chronos said.
"Aww." It sullenly looked downwards.
Old Tobias came rushing out when he heard about what they had brought him.
"It is real." He said while staring at the small child.
The small child looked at him then rushed towards his left eye only stopping when it was an inch from his face. It stared at his eye in wonder.
"Wow!" It whispered in awe.
"Do you know what this is, old man?" Chronos asked.
Old Tobias took a moment to organize his thoughts before responding.
"It's my first time seeing one, I've only heard about it before today. First tell me when exactly it appeared." He said as he gently brought it down from his face.
"It appeared after we synchronized the tower with the power core room. We don't know how long it was there before then. I don't think it's a threat, but we thought we should ask you about it anyway." Chronos said.
"Really? Then it really is one of them! This is great but how did it appear and why is it visible to everyone? There's so much I want to know." Old Tobias muttered.
Chronos and the foreman glanced at each other, becoming exasperated with the old man's mutterings.
Sighing Chronos spoke up, "Old man, can you tell us what's going on already. What is this thing?"
"Hey!" It puffed up its cheeks, annoyed at being called a thing.
"Right, of course you wouldn't know. You know about artifacts, right?" He was still lost in his thoughts and just spouting whatever came to mind but eventually he would tell them about it so they both patiently nodded.
"There are stories about the greatest artifacts having fairies or souls that speak with their owner. And this was confirmed by our king when he inherited his position, but in our nation, there is only one artifact that is known to have a fairy. However, the one who first created a crucible castle theorized that the castles could also give birth to a fairy if enough time passed."
He swallowed before continuing.
"It's the first time I've seen one but I'm certain that this is a castle fairy." He said while reverently holding the spirit up.
Finally realizing that they were talking about it the fairy tried to puff up its chest with a look of pride. But that only made it look more adorable as its robe gently moved.
"I've occasionally heard about castle commanders or others hearing the voice of the castle warning them during emergencies or surprise attacks, but this is the first time I've heard of one manifesting in the real world." Old Tobias was looking at the fairy like he wanted to dissect it.
Chronos stared at him for a moment before saying, "You're not allowed to harm it."
"I wouldn't harm it! It's way too valuable to lose like that. I just want to see what it can do and figure out why it can manifest here." He replied.
"I think it can manifest because the castle is connected to the thought sub-layer. My senses are telling me it's not real even though I can see it and I feel power gathering in one spot. Also, when we were making our way down here it seemed to be limited in how far it could travel." Chronos said.
"So, it isn't real?" Asked the foreman.
"Sort of. It's not a part of the real world but it does exist in the thought layer and possibly other layers. The only reason it can manifest is because the castle is connected to another layer." Chronos explained.
"Which would also limit how far it can travel to the castle's power room and the connected towers as well as the space between them." The foreman muttered.
"It also has limited intelligence. Though that makes sense since it was just born. We'll need to teach it and have the future commander take care of it properly. It would be terrible if an enemy were to sneak in and capture it. They might even be able to control the castle through it." Old Tobias thoughtfully said.
"We'll need to let Magnus know and assign a guard to follow it around. Someone that's good with kids would be best. I'll go talk to him." The foreman said.