Jinyi at length reached a room. This was, as Mother informed him through vague and conceptual thought, The Testing Room.
None of the Hive had seen Emuh's room, and so she'd had to sort of... guess. As such, there were concessions to utility, and a number of differences Mother simply wasn't aware of. The room did not, for example, shift and alter itself upon Jinyi's arrival: that was Emuh's magic alone. Instead, it had been prepared in advance specifically to cater to Jinyi's capabilities. Likewise, the sheer
concentration of pure Ordered power here was intense, to the point it'd have been smothering to a creature of any other form of radiation. Even a being of Chaos would have found it stifling.
Lastly, the owl itself. She'd... created one. It was capable of Ordered magic, and Ordered only. It was not truly sapient, or didn't seem to be; it had an aloof, empty expression, the sort that one might imagine an angelic being of some sort to have: something Other, something
not quite right. It was also rather... boring. It was as though Mother went to very basic "holy"-esque design in some attempt to appear morally superior here; the end result of many of her personal touches on various Drones was often contrived rather than unique, with a multitude of eyes, white-feathered wings, and so on. It was doubly obvious here: the owl was simply... white, with a golden metallic sheen to many of its feathers, and golden metallic claws and tiny two-tined antlers. The eyes glowed yellow-gold, with brighter pupils, and that was... it.
Still, she'd managed. And all for Jinyi.
"Go in, Jinyi," for if Dontacael had addressed him by name then so would she, at times--
"and pass this test."
The test, to be administered by The Administrator (no name had been given, and its mind--if any--was conspicuously absent from the Hive), would begin now.
Jinyi faced a long, brightly lit room. Its floor existed far below, in what would be a deadly fall, but a narrow bridge, arched to its highest point at the room's center, crossed it. The bridge and the stone of the entire room was brilliant, snowy white, sparkling crystalline the way snow would when lit by midday sun. White candles were fitted into dozens of alcoves along the walls at just above the bridge's height, and the gap between wall and bridge was some ten feet.
The end of the bridge ended in a strange tableau: a scene with what appeared to be a snarling Valkhound in hues of black and purple, poised to strike a Cleaner. The Valkhound... didn't seem to be real; it was a sculpture or creation of some kind, unmoving, unbreathing. The Cleaner, theatrically stuck in a cowering pose,
was real, and alive.
The Administrator took wing, flying over the bridge. In the angelic, false owl's wake, the bridge crumbled and fell away, leaving Jinyi no way to cross to the scene ahead. And the owl landed before the Cleaner, struck out with golden talons, and tore part of its carapace away. It then turned back to Jinyi, leaving the Cleaner spilling glassy webbing like blood, choking, its pain and distress suddenly flooding the Hive's link.
And Jinyi
was Hive. Others were allowed to watch, to suggest, to comment; the strength of one was the strength of many, after all. Perhaps some might have suggestions.
And perhaps Jinyi could find a way to the far end of the room and save the Cleaner before it died.
"You may begin," Mother informed him primly.
"Be sure to stop that beast's attack."