After the Meeting

Upon hearing apprentice Joshua's report, Taran El and Ted Riel looked at each other almost simultaneously. Before the latter could speak, Taran turned to the apprentice first. "The second cabinet door from the left on the window-side metal cabinet in the next room—the box with the blue paper tape. Run!"

"Ah... okay!!" Joshua hurriedly answered, then spun around and sprinted out of the room—followed by a series of sounds of him crashing into things in the hallway and rummaging through boxes in the next room. Before Ted Riel could start worrying that the careless young man intended to tear the building apart, he came rushing back with a sealed archive box in his hands.

Ted Riel took out the record from the archive box, compared it with the paper tape Joshua had just brought in, then walked over to Taran El's hospital bed and handed both records to him for inspection.

Taran El's gaze fell upon the old and new strips of paper tape. He identified every peak and trough upon them, his expression gradually darkening.

"Is it the same signal?" Truth Keeper asked from nearby.

"Discounting distortions caused by interference and possible errors from the instruments themselves... it should indeed be the same signal." Taran El's expression was grave.

"...This is the 'light signal' previously recorded by Lady Lucretia aboard the Brilliant Star," Ted Riel said thoughtfully, staring at the record that had been sealed in the paper tape box. "During Sun Extinction, it was information cyclically released from within the 'luminous body,' but we have yet to decipher its meaning..."

He abruptly raised his head and looked out the window at the sky.

The sun was slowly approaching the rooftops in the distance. The magnificent twin Rune Rings gleamed in the sky, and the splendid corona still radiated