A Witch's Scientific Repose

Patch: 3.0 · Chapter: Heroic Saga of Flame-Chase · Mission 09 of 10Previous: Kremnos, Cleanse Thy Rusted Blood (II) · Next: Hero, Bear Thy Coreflame

Official summary

With putting the entire space station out of commission as the price, Herta activates the Audience System Terminal, trying to communicate with Nous. After clearing out the error in the zones and uncovering the Memosnatcher, the audience process is interrupted by Welt and Sunday's intrusion into the space station. But the Express has a purpose for this journey...

Synopsis

This mission is a framed flashback. It is presented through the perspective of The Herta (the real Herta herself, not one of her puppets) and played using the Fate's Ensemble system, narrated by her sycophantic magical assistant, the Fourth Mirror. It steps entirely away from Amphoreus to show the events at Herta Space Station that precede the Astral Express's return trip to the planet, and it ends by revealing exactly why the Express came back.

The witch and her mirror

The Fourth Mirror opens with theatrical narration, hyping up "an utterly ■■■ adventure" and inviting the audience to relive a pivotal scene: the esteemed Madam Herta — Genius Society #83 — attempting to pose a question to the great Nous (which she nicknames "Droidhead"), hoping to steal a glimpse of the divinities' mysteries through THEM.

Herta interrupts the Mirror's grandstanding to point out that it is narrating to a hologram of Nous — not the real Aeon, who has shown "no reaction whatsoever" to her attempts at contact. She explains the enormous cost of what she is attempting: powering the Audience System required her to reconfigure the energy supply of the entire space station, switching it into Hibernate mode before rebooting everything. (Asked how much this costs, Herta admits she has no idea — finance is beneath a genius; the Mirror should ask Asta.) Herta identifies herself as Herta herself, the Emanator of Erudition.

The Audience System has malfunctioned. Herta declines the Mirror's suggestion to call in Stephen Lloyd for hands-on repairs (she refuses to expose that she spent a fortune only to break everything), and resolves to fix it herself. At the terminal, the Mirror notes the system looks just like the Simulated Universe — Herta confirms they "share the same fundamental logic." The system is divided into three zones — Energy Supply, Computing, and Communications — each operating independently and integrated via the Path of Erudition only when booted. All three zones are glitching.

Energy Supply Zone

The first zone is bitterly cold. Herta explains she converted the energy core that powers the entire station into an Imaginary state and stored it here; without the ultra-low temperature, "the space station would have long blasted off into the sky." Strange entities have appeared. Herta rules out corrupted data, reanimated "systemic rust," and — with hesitation — a "second ambush" by the Legion, before dismissing the question and clearing them out. (An optional Memory Bubble appears; Herta calls it unremarkable and notes there are more in the other zones. The Mirror finds them "creepy.")

Computing Zone

Here the terminal is infested with bugs Herta calls Computing Stings — creatures that evolved from their progenitor, the Propagation, and are attracted to computers of very high computing capability. Herta explains that meeting Droidhead requires "out-of-this-world computing capability," faster than a yottaFLOPS machine, just to be noticed by THEM. When the Mirror asks what these supercomputers are actually programmed to calculate, Herta deflects: all that matters is that they work and attract Droidhead's attention. The zone is cleared.

Communications Zone

The final zone is where a communication bridge forms between Droidhead and the station. Herta describes the mechanism: aggregating the Path Energy of Erudition, then firing a "bond" at the Aeon — "as good as tapping someone on the shoulder, who's sure to turn back to look at you." The danger is that a single glance from Droidhead could vaporize the entire space station if it is unprepared; hibernation is a protective measure to keep the station from operational overload and becoming a "scrap world."

Herta's own Herta puppets staff this zone. One — puppet #2757 — approaches her, and inspecting its parameters she finds something wrong: its "Replica Personality Module" and "Utterly Absurd Module" have been switched off, while the "Attack Anything Everything Module" is switched on. The puppet declares "Intruder. Detected." and attacks. In battle, Herta recognizes the true culprits: memetic remnants of the Remembrance (Memory Zone Memes) have corrupted and tampered with her puppets' settings. More puppets (#7631, #10136) are affected. She cannot factory-reset them remotely because an "Absolutely Not Module" locks out even her own permissions, so she resolves to physically destroy the defective puppets.

Pressing deeper, she finds puppet #0988, "the pride of my creations" — the first puppet she imbued with "a magical surprise." It transforms into a Swarm: True Sting and is defeated. Herta then reveals she has sensed a "little tagalong" hiding this whole time and summons her full ensemble of mirrors to trap it.

The Memosnatcher

The hidden intruder is a Memosnatcher — a "parasite of the Remembrance" from the Garden of Recollection. Cornered, it tries to flee into the Memory Zone, then begs for its life, offering to spill "the Garden's secrets and what they're after." Herta rebuffs it, reminding it who she is:

Herta: I am Herta, Genius Society #83, the one to unravel the mystery behind the imaginary leakage phenomenon, and keyholder of the Imaginary Implosion Pulse...

She reveals she has already deduced the whole scheme:

Herta: You crept in here to steal Nous' memories, didn't you? ... And messing with my precious Audience System is just a ruse to lure me here so I can lead you to THEM... What a shame. You're only a step away from completing the mission assigned to you...

The Memosnatcher never had a chance — the other mirrors had been watching it the entire time. As punishment, Herta seals it inside a mirror for "a hundredth of a lifetime" — clarifying, after a beat, that she means her lifetime. The Fourth Mirror happily devours/absorbs the thief, and Herta has it "put the little thief to sleep" to decide its fate later. With all three zones repaired, the Audience System reboots and Herta prepares to formally enter the Path Space to seek her audience.

The audience — and the intrusion

Inside the Path Space (which Herta notes is a "perfectly tangible and accessible space," not a Simulated-Universe figment), her mirrors relay voices "from beyond the sky." At first these seem to be the Voice of the Path counting in binary — but the numbers break down absurdly ("there shouldn't be a '2' in binary arithmetic!"), then devolve into ordinary conversation: "This door... isn't locked?"; "She fainted?"; a reference to rousing someone at the urging of "Mr. Yang." Herta realizes these are not the Voice of the Path at all but intruders in her lab.

The intruders make their move: Mr. Sunday applies the power of the Harmony (a Resonance) to try to wake Herta, but she dispels it instantly with her subconscious mind — "as expected of an Emanator." The Fourth Mirror urges her to ignore them and press on to finally meet Nous, since rebooting the Audience System is so ruinously expensive. But Herta chooses to abort:

Herta: But if I were to ignore those two intruders and continue onward... When Droidhead casts THEIR gaze upon the space station, the blast of energy generated in that instant is sure to burn them to a crisp. Experiments can always be repeated, but humans cannot be brought back to life.

She withdraws, vowing to return: "But mark my words, Droidhead: I will be back for you..."

Waking up: why the Express returned

Herta wakes to find Welt and Sunday standing over her. She furiously blames them for ruining her plan; Welt apologizes, explaining they found the space station in complete darkness, assumed disaster, ventured deeper to find the cause of the blackout, and stumbled upon Herta's actual self. (How did they get in? "The door wasn't locked.") Herta cools down, acknowledging she is "a person of reason," and recognizes Welt but not his companion. Sunday introduces himself as "just a passenger of the Express" — which Herta immediately sees through, naming him a Harmony Pathstrider.

Welt states their purpose plainly:

Welt: We're here because of Amphoreus, Madam Herta.

Herta is unsurprised but insists something is wrong: she has already told Himeko everything she knows, and nothing about Amphoreus adds up. Nous has cast THEIR gaze on countless worlds, all "etched in my mind" — so how could she possibly not know this one? Her Simulated Universe searches for "Amphoreus" return only irrelevant sports trivia (a joke about the "Divine Amphoreus" team swapping their crest for one in King Baviru's likeness next season). She suspects the "Garden folks" lied to the Express.

Welt explains why they had to make the return trip despite already having departed — they are "caught between a rock and a hard place." If Amphoreus is truly entwined with Aeons, Paths, and the Erudition, they need a genius's wisdom, "especially now that we've seen the planet for ourselves." He then delivers the two crises driving the whole chapter:

Welt: We've lost all contact with two indispensable companions since they entered Amphoreus. ... One of our other companions is suffering from a serious and inexplicable affliction.

The scene closes returning to the Trailblazer's POV, with a closing thematic line: "When you have a chance to make a choice, make one that you know you won't regret."

Key characters

• The Herta — the real Herta, Emanator of Erudition and Genius Society #83. Playable here via Fate's Ensemble. She repairs the Audience System, exposes and imprisons the Memosnatcher, and — crucially — chooses to abort her once-in-a-fortune audience with Nous rather than let the intruders be vaporized, prioritizing human life over her experiment.
• Fourth Mirror — Herta's magical assistant and narrator; fawning, comedic, and the framing voice for the flashback. Part of an ensemble of numbered mirrors that quietly surveil intruders.
• Memosnatcher — a parasite/agent of the Garden of Recollection sent to steal Nous' memories by using Herta as an unwitting guide to the Aeon. Caught, interrogated, and sealed in a mirror.
• Welt — establishes the stakes: the Express returned to seek Herta's help with Amphoreus; two companions have vanished into the planet and another is gravely, inexplicably ill.
• Sunday — a Harmony Pathstrider now traveling with the Express as a "passenger," who uses a Resonance to rouse Herta; instantly identified by her.
• Nous ("Droidhead") — the Aeon of Erudition, the target of Herta's audience; present only as a hologram/goal. Notably has no record of Amphoreus in Herta's knowledge.

Lore notes

• Audience System — Herta's apparatus for contacting the Aeon Nous, sharing "the same fundamental logic" as the Simulated Universe. Divided into three Path-of-Erudition zones (Energy Supply / Computing / Communications). Rebooting it requires putting the whole station into Hibernate mode at ruinous cost.
• The "bond" / audience mechanism — contact works by aggregating Erudition Path Energy and firing a "bond" at the Aeon to draw THEIR attention; but Nous's returning gaze releases enough energy to vaporize the station if unprepared. Hibernation is the safeguard.
• Imaginary energy core — the station's power core is stored in an Imaginary state at ultra-low temperature to keep it stable.
• Herta's titles/feats — Genius Society #83; Emanator of Erudition; unraveler of "the imaginary leakage phenomenon"; keyholder of the Imaginary Implosion Pulse.
• Computing Stings and Swarm/True Sting — pests attracted to high-capacity computers, said to have "evolved from their progenitor — the Propagation" (the Aeon of Propagation / the swarm), tying this scene to the Propagation faction.
• Remembrance memes — "Memory Zone Memes" (Heartbreaker, Allseer) are memetic remnants of the Remembrance; they infiltrated and corrupted Herta's puppets' behavior modules.
• Garden of Recollection / Memosnatcher — the Garden (Remembrance faction) dispatched a Memosnatcher to steal Nous' memories, planning to piggyback on Herta's audience to reach the Aeon. Confirms the Garden is actively targeting Erudition/Nous. [?] What exactly are "the Garden's secrets and what they're after" that the Memosnatcher offered to reveal but was cut off from — presumably relevant to the broader Remembrance arc.
• Herta puppet internals — puppets run toggleable "Modules" ("Replica Personality," "Utterly Absurd," "Attack Anything Everything," "Absolutely Not"); the last locks out even Herta's own reset permissions.
• Amphoreus is invisible to Erudition — Nous, who records every world THEY gaze upon, has no memory of Amphoreus, and it returns no meaningful Simulated Universe results. A major mystery: the planet appears to be hidden from or unknown to the Aeon of Erudition itself. [?] Why is Amphoreus absent from Nous's omniscient record? Foreshadows the planet's anomalous nature (time loops / Titans) explored across patch 3.x.
• The Express's stakes (chapter framing) — the return to Amphoreus is driven by: (1) two companions lost inside the planet with all contact severed — the Trailblazer and Dan Heng, whose Amphoreus journey is this chapter; and (2) March 7th suffering a serious, inexplicable affliction. [?] The nature of March 7th's affliction, seeded here and developed later in the patch.
• King Baviru — named only in a throwaway sports-trivia joke, but a nod to an Amphoreus Titan/figure surfacing even in irrelevant search noise.
• Trivia — the Chinese title 魔女的科学剩宴 puns 剩宴 ("leftover banquet") on 盛宴 ("grand banquet").

Sources

• A Witch's Scientific Repose — HSR Wiki

Hindsight (full arc)

• [?] resolved: Why Amphoreus is absent from Nous's omniscient record is answered in 3.4 For the Sun is Set to Die — it is a forsaken Emperor's Scepter / Celestial-Body Neuron, abandoned by Nous during the Scholars' Strife and reborn under Nanook's gaze.
• [?] resolved: What the Garden of Recollection / Memosnatcher were truly after — "Nous's memories" — sharpens in 3.6 to the Garden coveting "the memory of an Aeon's death," with slaughtered Memokeepers found at Amphoreus's threshold.
• [?] resolved: March 7th's inexplicable affliction is a Remembrance-Path memory hijack (3.2) and ultimately the result of her crossing into Amphoreus and surrendering her memories to birth Evernight (3.6).
• Foreshadowing: Herta aborting her once-in-a-fortune audience to save Welt and Sunday sets up her leading the entire outside-world investigation, culminating in her Self-Coronation and linking of Nous (3.7); Sunday's Harmony is later used to cage Zandar (3.5).