I was just a flattened image of me, two-dimensions, few lines to have my face recognizable. Cassandra, beside me, was the same. We weren't really wearing clothes, our paper-like bodies were just colored black, with a poor image of the Human logo in the middle of our chest.

We were at the presence of a dancing light, very similar to a will-o-wisp. It was in the center of the corridor but the corridor was just drawn, like in an animated movie, bricks barely made of perpendicular, thick lines.

"You're very far from any good server so we can't give you more that this" said the light.

"I know" At least, the virtual reality chamber was from Coriolanus, suited for humans. I could slightly feel the foam armchair wrapping my body, while the mask pressed my skull to literally squeeze my consciousness in the virtual world.

"Our situation is a bit difficult, we know" I answered "but we need to do these researches, it's important"

The light started to float side to side. " Prefect Hiraku has the authority to assign me to your task. I'm doctor Zenus from the Imperial Archive, if your research is about Teculpa history all the data you need is here"

"All the data?" asked Cassandra "So knowledge in here is shared between all the factions of Teculpa?"

The light vibrated a little, wounded in his pride. "We have nothing to share with all the other... -factions-. They usually come out with wrong informations and incorrect interpretations of facts. But here you have all the data blessed by the True Emperor, the only kind worth to be known"

As an open-minded intellectual, Cassandra probably easily found out that doctor Zenus's logic was flawed, but she stayed silent, with no need of intervention from me.

I took the lead "I need to look into your heraldic recordings, while professor Opender here needs samples from your literature for a cross-check with some text we have with us"

The light danced on the drawn wall a while until two doors opened in it. Then he indicated the first one to me, and the second one to Cassandra. "From this two accesses you should reach all the material you need. Please don't abuse of your browsing possibilities because the connection is still weak"

Fortunately, that wasn't the first time Cassandra worked in a virtual library. Considering her work and the fact that that was the first time she left the academic world, she probably spent more time in places like that than with an EVO suit. After few indications from doctor Zenus she took her door and disappeared.

I went in the one assigned to me and suddendly many indexes pop up out of nothing in front of my eyes. First problem: A LOT of family were born and destroyed in Teculpa history and it's impossibile to have a good way to navigate all their insignia. The indexes represented some sort of labyrinth with years, colors, names and planets and I had very few clues about how to move.

Second problem: if the insignia I needed wasn't "blessed by the True Emperor" probably it wasn't there, like the librarian said. That could also be an advantage, because if the Teculpa-Tau were doing similar researches they couldn't access True Emperor's material like I couldn't access what was under their responsibility.

A fierce headache stroke my head while I was just looking at the first pages of an heraldic registry. Too many colors, too many names, a difficult way to understand why Teculpa historians considered one more important than another. I was starting to think that a research like that was a move bolder than declaring war to the Sot'Quan with just the Queen Charlotte.

Cassandra saved me. "I have a theory, diplomat" she told me, through a communication channel. "Something about the age the Teculpa Origin where in this part of the galaxy"

"Good! It could be precious! Most of this is a matter of..." I should conclude the phrase with "Time" but that was exactly what the Heereen thought about that situation and I found saying that a bit creepy.

"I think that they come from the moment that started all, diplomat"

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about the Great Schism"