Harbor Kōwan C11

Keitenaijin

The air is cold... So cold...

As each step is taken by an individual feels like it would shatter the floor...

This is Harbor Kōwan C11, the area in which all foreign, and domestic affairs are conducted in the Organization.

The biggest monument that all eyes can see is the AUGEN, a 500 meters tall black pyramid. The black pyramid has an inverted pyramid leading off of it that acts as a reservoir for the base's water and supplies needs. Towards the top of this pyramid is the AUGEN Commander's Office, which has a Tree of Life diagram as well as an image of atomic trails from inside a bubble chamber. There are 18 reinforced windows within the superstructure that allow the AUGEN to be bathed in natural light. The surrounding area has a number of train and car-train services that run into it, taking those onboard directly to other important sites within the Organization. The central shaft leading down into Terminal Dogma has a spiraling elevator that opens up onto hexagonal-shaped doors, while the other shafts located about the central shaft have automated pathways that run across their expanses at increments of 10 floors.

The Terminal Dogma is the deepest level of the AUGEN located 2008 meters below the sea level. The Terminal Dogma is also the busiest level, with tens of thousands of staff running across halls, rooms, and other levels.

Within the Terminal Dogma lies a room in the Northeast area, the Dogmatik, a room only accessible to those with the highest level of clearance and foreign guests.

The room is filled with black and red lighting, creating an eerie feeling for any who enters it for the first time. A roundtable is situated in the middle of the room.

Today, the upper half of the table is taken up by the Representative of The Shinkei Project, Minoru Saitō, and his entourage.

"When are they coming, Representative?" asked one of his goons.

"Be patient, Kabuto, they will be here any minute now, they are more efficient than the Dragonican trying to set up an actual uprising" Minoru jokingly said.

As soon as they composed themselves, the sounds of footsteps can be heard and a soldier entered the room. "Mr. Representative, they are here. Shall I let them in?"

Minoru gave a light nod before sipping his cup of tea and fixing his tie. "Alright boys, don't make a fool out of yourself and me, got it?"

Dokzentir

For only a short moment, in the reflection of the tea, amber-colored eye appeared. It tried to look around the room, closed itself, and vanished again. Moments later, a tall figure burst into the room, in extravagant clothing, carrying a rainbow umbrella, four large gold and rosy wings stretching out. Despite the room being only black with red light, the figure was as colorful as if under daylight sun, like they did not fit into the scene and were artificially inserted afterwards. The face was somewhat obscured by shadow, two sparkling and glowing amber eyes and a slim and wide smile.

"I would have made a more spectacular entry, but your residence is undelightfully boring. A severe lack of intractable objects or reflective surfaces. You need some fancy decoration here." They placed a heavy pot on the table, containing a large flowery growth. They then spread out their four insectoid arms together with their extravagant cloaks, their wings spread out, their antennae stretched. The guest now looked even larger than before. "Greetings, I am Faziir, Primrose Envoy of the Court of Indefinite Color, from the land of sparkle and rainbows and screams of wishful thinking. I heard you are a magical consortium yourself."

Keitenaijin

"Well, well, well... Are you an interesting one... I have seen elves, dragons, all kinds of sentient creatures... You might be the one that intrigues me the most..." Minoru said as he finished his tea.

"But you are right, my colleagues who are working here are a bit dull, it's a good thing you didn't meet my predecessor, he was as boring as a plank of wood. Having said that, Akira, do you mind going out and fetching some office plants? We have a guest here..." Minoru glared at one of his goons in the corner, shivering.

As he and the other officials collected themselves and returned to their chairs, one of them said "Thank you for coming here uh... Ma'am... I mean sir... I mean your excellency..."

"I will take it from here Kalifia... My apologies, he is a new recruit from one of our puppets, he doesn't have much knowledge about how we conduct diplomacy outside of his home country's feudalism... My name is Minoru Saitō, The Representative of The Shinkei Project, and yes, we do have some flares regarding magic..."

As he finished his sentence, Akira returned carrying two pots of flowers, "I found some nearby, sir..."

"動く！" Minoru aimed his index fingers toward one of the potted plants, on his finger is a metal covering, similar to a small thimble. A small thread, almost invisible to the naked eye struck the plants.

As the thread hit the plants, pieces of its branches started moving before the petals began reshaping into eyes.

"EEEEEEKKKKKKKK" Akira screamed, dropping the pot.

The "creature" then crawled itself onto the lap of Minoru, "That was "Biomechanik", a little magic we are developing. But alas, there are far more powerful spells that we have at our disposal..." Minoru said as he pulled out his knife and cut the "creature" in half. "That was not magic, for your information..."

Dokzentir

"Very fancy. We love ourselves some magical and biological meddling. Seems like you are well-versed in thaumaturgy. That reminds me, I always bring cake for everyone." They took off their hat and pulled out a large rainbow cake, all slices of a different color. From the top of their umbrella a blade removed itself, unfolding butterfly wings, and starting to cut the cake. "The Court has created the Starry Society, an organization wishing to connect all the magical nations around the world. A place where all wizardry can come together, developing and indulging and creating a wonderland of spectacle together. What color of cake does everyone want? Crimson? Navy? Pearl? Ruby? Lavender? Or some other preference?"

Keitenaijin

"I am not a fan of cake, per se..." Minoru politely refused the offer, "The rest of you can enjoy it if you want..."

The other officials began to talk over each other, requesting certain flavors, while others pushed their luck and chose the color that was given to them.

Minoru stood up and fetch the dirt of the deceased "creature", and put some inside a tin can.

As the others were enjoying the cakes, Minoru returned to his seat and fixed his attire. "Well, shall we get back to business? Several of my colleagues had expressed interest in this "Starry Society"... More specifically, the one from our Research Group. They spent days and nights, stuck in a lab or some random fields, shouting weird chants and pointing sticks and wands at dummies. Magic is something... Strange to us... All personnel here have to go through some sort of aptitude test to identify what we can and can't do... But, I digressed, we desired to be a part of the Society..."

Dokzentir

"How lovely. Then we wish to show you where we will be headquartered." Faziir pulled out a large piece of cloth, stretching it out. He then pulled it back to reveal a grand mirror standing behind it, with golden frame. The mirror image of the room looked off. It was not glowing red, but very dark. The lights came from what looked like fireflies without the fireflies. Little glowing things flickering in and out. Then, one of them crossed the mirror into the red-lit room before vanishing. "We will establish a more proper entry at a later point, but for now, this will have to do." Faziir stepped into the room beyond the mirror, his form slightly glowing and illuminating the surroundings. "You should bring along your most magical companions of authority, they will be spending a lot of time where we are going."

Keitenaijin

Minoru grabbed Akira into the corner and whispered, "Go get Mayumi. Tell her to drop everything and summon some from the Rose Platoon, we gonna need some help for this one."

Akira nodded repeatedly grabbing his phone and running out of the room.

Within a few minutes, Mayumi Nikkuni, the Head Researcher of the Shinkei Research Group, arrived with 15 Magic Maidens of the Rose Platoon.

"Akira briefed me on the situation, why didn't you summon me to the meeting beforehand?" Mayumi asked Minoru, grabbing his suit's collar.

"I did, you just didn't answer my call... No time to talk, just follow... The ambassador, they are over the mirror thingy..." Minoru calmly answered Mayumi's question.

Mayumi proceed to talk to one of the Magic Maidens, to which, she stepped through the mirror with the other 14. Mayumi and Minoru followed suit, entering into strange surroundings they never expected to experience.

Dokzentir

The room beyond the mirror looked very similar to the original on first glance. But the further away one went, the different the environment looked. Faziir led the troupe through the scenery like dreamy and surreal paintings. A convolution of stairs, a field of violet flowers, a railway down an endless hole. At one point they crossed a bridge between stars, walking for eons, which passed by like seconds.

Faziir shouted, his voice echoing. "I welcome you to the headquarters of the Starry Society, Port Étoile, located safely in the Astral Sea." They arrived at a castle of metal, wood, and stone, floating in an endless night sky. A collection of spires and glass spheres and clockwork among many other quirks permeated the station. The Port was constantly shifting, the geometry was off. Sometimes halls were looping back on themselves, regions could be larger or smaller than what viewing them from afar suggested, rooms connected adjacently that should be on opposite sides. A few other Switterlind were fluttering around, tinkering with sparks or gears or glitter.

"The place is still mostly under construction, as it always will be. You can search yourself chambers for your department here. We will help you build a gateway from your preferred location in your nation to your chambers in Port Étoile. I am sure your capabilities in magics of technological contraptions can be of great use in constructing and expanding this complex." In a distant spire, clockwork started spinning and sparking ever more intensely, before an explosion of radiance propelled the spire peak like a drill into the boundless Astral Sea.

Keitenaijin

"Well, ain't this place interesting..." Mayumi said as she took out a cigarette and used her magic, lighting her finger aflame, to smoke it.

One of the Magic Maidens whispered into Mayumi's ear before returning to her formation. Mayumi called out to Minoru, "Get over!"

They discussed secretly in the corner, speaking Nihongo so that it was somewhat intelligible for others surrounding them. They rattled back and forth before both composing themselves and turning to Faziir.

"How likely would it be that we bring our equipment here... And by equipment, I mean... Both human and massive mechanical ones... Of course, we would be helping with whatever is needed, it's just that we need something in return... That's all..." Mayumi asked.

Dokzentir

"Oh you can bring here whatever you want! You are even encouraged to! This will be a very unrestricted area here. If you want to do something, Port Étoile shall be a safe haven. You can pick your own location to setup. There is more than enough room, as the place can be expanded indefinitely through some magical tinkering." Faziir looked at the broken spire drifting away into the endless night sky that is the Astral Sea and gave a short bright laugh. "As you can see we are still trying to figure some things out for ourselves. We want you to participate in building up this location, bring your own expertise to the table. The Astral Sea has been chosen as the location for Port Étoile, because magic can flow more unhindered in this space. It is not influenced by earthly factors."