The Way of the Blue [Lantern OC]

[AverusBlack]

"Well, looks like they're holding back." Emil is standing on the wall with Mina and I holding a pair of binoculars, looking out as the sun rises. "What did that guy do to them, anyways?"

"Don't ask." I can't help but sound weary. It's been a very long night for Elise and I and she's already in bed. I didn't like the idea of leaving Mina, Vara and Nemesis to have free run of the place while both of us were unready so I sent her off to sleep while I kept an eye on them, but they seem to be behaving so far. "I don't really want to think about it."

"Hmmm. Like that, is it?"

"Nem hasn't got a lot of charms, but what he does in his own niche he does really well." Mina nods. "You think the pretty boy is right?"

"Why do you keep calling Aetius that?"

"Because he's pretty, obviously. Have you seen his markings? I wouldn't mind finding out how far they go."

Emil is chuckling quietly. "You'd fit in back home. Lots of us are like that, no subtly." He puts the binoculars down and sits on the wall, sighing quietly. "I hope he's right. If they decide to pull back and give us a break, I won't complain."

"I don't get it, Mina." I shake my head while saying it. "How did none of you ever come across these before?"

"You mean the glow artifacts?" I nod at her. "I dunno. It's an interesting question. Nemesis and Vara haven't spent a lot of time on this particular world, they focused on the one you call Psyche. I really like that name, by the way." She nods. "Kinda ominous. When the orange ring came to my city, it got trampled in the showdown between him and Vara. Vara being who she is, she didn't really stick around to help or anything and being who we are, she wasn't inclined to try. Vara killed whatever the first orange guy called himself and we fought both of them at the same time."

"Your people have weapons that could give lightsmiths trouble?" Emil sounds surprised.

"Pretty amazing what you can do when you mix magic and technology, you know. As demonstrated." She makes a gesture at the army outside the walls. "You think they have siege engines or anything?"

"I fucking hope not." Emil grunts. "If we're lucky, they'll try to starve us out. But I don't think we'll be that lucky."

"No?"

"No. If it was me..." He looks thoughtful. "I bet they're sitting around right now wondering what to do about us. If they really are pax humana then they're imperialistic and empires don't like resistance. They need to grow, to expand, to always have a campaign on the horizon or an enemy at the gates. They won't just up and walk away from this, they'll feel a need to win here, win absolutely, so nobody will ever question whether they can be fought."

"Overwhelming force, you think?" I tilt my head at him a little.

"No, that's the problem, they tried that and it didn't work. They pulled out their esoteric weapons and that didn't work either. Instead they lost outright and now we own them. They're in a worse position than when they started."

I rub the bridge of my nose. "Okay, well, what then?"

"They're going to sit outside these walls and wait, but only for now. If they're not leaving it's because they think they can still come out ahead in this. I suspect they're calling for reinforcements or something like that. Probably sending word to this black king that Aetius mentioned."

"Heh. Bit cliche, isn't it? That name."

"Yeah. How much you wanna bet he's got an artifact, too?"

"Ooh, I hope so." Mina rubs her hands together, overacting the greedy merchant. "Frankly, they're fascinating. I'm not much of a scientist or anything but Nem's totally losing his shit over it."

"I should probably go make sure those two aren't causing any trouble. You two behave, yeah?"

"Yep."

"Only if I get to borrow Emil later." Mina grins saucily and I transition across town to the castle.

Appearing in the bottom part of the castle I find Nemesis and Vara in the lab I helped them set up, a workspace for while he's here. I can always convert it later. In the meantime he's fabricated several devices I don't recognize at all. "Nemesis, what is all this crap?"

"A year ago I found the partial remains of a spacecraft. Just a medical shuttle but it had some really interesting sensor technology I was able to adapt." He's using a construct HUD to display the data coming from the scanners rather than trying to fabricate a computer terminal. Maybe he just doesn't have any good processor examples or something?

"That's what this is, sensors? Ah, hello Vara."

"Ainsley." She glowers at me from just to my left and slightly behind me, sitting in a chair tilted against the wall. "What the hell do you people do for fun around here? I'm fucking bored. If I have to listen to this fuckhead prattle on any more about how cool he thinks this hammer is, I'm going to explode."

"Literally or figuratively?"

"Yes."

"Well, I don't really have a good answer for you, because most of us are a little... preoccupied." I nod. "What do you usually do for fun?"

"I fight things. Not much of a lack for that on Psyche."

"Some of the genkits who didn't get to see any fighting are getting restless, maybe some wrestling or sparring would help?"

She hmms at that idea, nods and then gets up and storms out of the room, prompting Nemesis to glance at her as she goes. "Thank you. She was beginning to get snappy with me. This hammer." He points at it. "It's not the same kind of technology as the rings."

I can't help but blink in surprise. "It's not?"

"No. I think it was built by some kind of precursor race. Carbon dating is useless in this place because there's no good baseline but the materials are completely different. This is like we collected an example of a computerized music player when both of us constantly work with supercomputers. They're kind of the same, they're in the same sort of territory, but it's vastly inferior to what we get out of the rings. If I had to guess, I'd say they were created by people on the same general path. Maybe the same species at a different point in time. When you reach a certain level of advanced technology, your stuff starts to look really different than your old stuff."

"So what does that mean for us in the short term, you think?" I pick the hammer up and -

I fucking hate all of you. Every time you ever looked down on me, stole from me, took from me. Every injustice and unfairness and I will lay you all to waste for it.

- immediately drop it again, shaking myself out. "Buh."

"Yes, it's rather overwhelming, isn't it?" He nods. "I got hit with the same thing when I picked it up. My ring doesn't like that hammer. Vara seems to like it but it's her color, after all. A shame Aetius can't remove that armor."

"Why? It tried to mind control him."

"It also utilizes the green light. If blue and green can synchronize in the way I've seen you do, then are you telling me you couldn't make use of a suit of armor that gives you that kind of versatility? Ainsley my dear boy, you really must think of the big picture. With these artifacts, we could perhaps make additional tools to augment the rings, or empower our agents with them the way these Red Swords tried to." He looks thoughtful. "It's a shame they're so bent on world domination, really. I could use minions with that kind of innovative attitude."

"...Right. Anything we can make practical use of in the short term?"

"No, not really. Not unless you don't mind just slaughtering them all, that's still an option."

"No. No, it isn't."

 

[AverusBlack]

When I get to the area where we've stashed the liberated mages, shamans and elementalists the impression I get is a strange mix of misery and relief. Passing into the checkpoint where our guards are keeping an eye on them I can see people straighten up as my ring uplifts them by proximity and eases their suffering a little, insofar as it goes in their own heads. Instead of dwelling on what they've been through, I can see the blue light exposure lifting their spirits.

I'm getting respectful, appraising looks as I approach Kuri, who's been down here tending to them. There's a few Skal in the group and she's got them wrangled and helping her, so when I approach she breaks off to come over and talk to me, waving. "Hi, Ainsley. I've been waiting for you to come down here."

"You have?"

"Yeah. There's a couple people here who really want to talk to you. How are things going on the walls?"

"Quiet, for now. They seem to just be waiting. Any problems down here?"

"A couple, but they sort of took care of it for it and it didn't last long. A few loyalists got scooped up with the group, people who genuinely tried to buy into the Red Swords crap. Once these guys started coming around we had to separate them from the group to keep the rest from killing them, but not before they got hurt a bit. They're off in the guardhouse right now."

"Good. If they're not seriously hurt I'm not sure I'll bother healing them up, might do them some good to ruminate on how they got to that point. I'll see about it when I talk to them later. Who wants to talk to me?"

"This way." She turns and bobs along ahead of me, tail bouncing as she walks. The whole area is essentially a large animal pen, hastily erected and not particularly stable, but the group have all sort of migrated towards the fencing and left the middle clear for others to walk back and forth. Making our way through the crowd isn't very difficult at all.

She leads me over to a couple of humans, one of them missing an arm at the elbow. Both of them are old, early sixties perhaps. Sitting on a large crate, wearing basic homespun clothes, they're dressed like peasants or travelers but something about the poise with which they're sitting suggests an underlying dignity and self-assurance that isn't usually present in common townsfolk. It might just be due to them being magic users, though.

"Hello. Kuri said you wanted to speak with me?"

The old woman nods to Kuri, patting her shoulder with her one hand. "Thank you, Kurishalia." She turns her attention to me as Kuri takes off to go wrangle the other Skal, who seem to be waiting for direction from her. "We wished to speak with you about that ring of yours. Would you be kind enough to demonstrate one of your constructions for us?"

I generate an image of Elise the first day I met her, grinning and bobbing all over the place. I've seen a lot more of her serious side since then but that first impression is always something that's stuck with me and it shines through any time she feels at ease or safe. "What about them?"

"It is the same." The old man nods, speaking quietly as the woman pipes up to explain. "We were archmages, once. We've encountered this before but in a different form, yours is... far more sophisticated."

"Do either of you have names?"

The old man chuckles. "Another life. I'm Lekken."

"I am Mariposa."

I blink. "I recognize that word, it means butterfly." They look at me in surprise, then each other. "Sorry, I'm sidetracking you."

"Yes, we... hm." Lekken taps his chin. "We saw the orange one with you, they have a ring like yours?" I nod. "We've been discussing it. The wards that they use to bind their slaves are sympathetic in nature, bound to the control crystals the overseers carry. Mari noticed you targeted the control crystal first." I nod again. "We want to corrupt them instead."

"I'm sorry, what?"

"Each control crystal is linked to the wards on the overseers which is linked to a control crystal held by their overseers, on and on up the chain of command. The links are sympathetic and each control crystal is grown in the same place, from the same sample, like clones or duplicates."

"How do you know so much about them?"

Mari chuckles ruefully. "We designed them. They were for keeping animals, originally. Keeping herd animals is easy as a shepherd if you can just compel them to obey you." She looks sad. "Not our life's work, not by a long shot, but our laboratories are gone, our houses gone, our books gone. All our notes and studies. The crystals are our sole remaining creation, now."

I look down at the floor and nod. "How did you mean you wanted to corrupt them, exactly?"

"We were made to study some of the light artifacts to learn their secrets. One of them was the original collar of binding which we used to forge the first slave version of the control crystal. If your ring user can do as much as you can, its possible she can manipulate the touch of orange on the spells somehow, mess with them. It might allow you to undermine the entire control scheme, even. It depends on how well she can use it."

"We want to see it destroyed." Lekken nods. "But to subvert the whole system, you need the master crystal, the first one. That is held by the Black King himself. Otherwise, you would be forced to hunt down his generals and subvert them individually. If you can find the general leading this army you can probably cause enough chaos to stop the attack here entirely, but..."

I sigh. "But I'll be releasing hundreds of thousands of people into the countryside after a bloody slaughter when they turn on their masters."

"Yes."

"You ever feel like there are no good choices?"

They both nod slowly. "Welcome to the world, boy."

 

[AverusBlack]

"The blood weapon." Mariposa is standing with Lekken, Vara, Elise, Nemesis, Mina and I out on the open veranda of my residences. "How did you change its shape? With your ring?"

Vara has remade the red hammer into a rather large axe, holding it head-down against the floor with one hand on the handle of it. She hasn't let go of it since Nemesis finished poking around at it. "It fucking knows better than to defy me is how."

That particular answer seems to take Mariposa by surprise, causing her to blink a couple times. "...Alright. Well, it's a demonstration of something important. The artifacts are not bound to their shapes, but to roles. The axe is always a type of weapon, Aetius's armor is always some kind of defense and offense mix and the collar is always some kind of compulsion. They tend to take themes. The weapon is always a melee weapon, the armor is always some kind of armor, the collar is always some kind of jewelry."

"The collar itself is bound to the person who has ownership of it. That can only be passed willingly or if the owner is dead, in which case it will imprint the first person to touch it as the new owner. We first became aware of the collar when it was presented to us but as we understand it, it has been used to... realign problematic people in the past. In short, it marks a victim, rewiring their desires to what the user wants."

I can see Mina tilt her head slightly to the side, looking thoughtful. "I maaaay have some knowledge of how that works. Maybe."

"You can mind control people?" Elise looks rather displeased about that.

"Well, it's not as fun when I do that. Feels like cheating. Making people want me the old fashioned way is far more fun." She beams at that, clicking her hips side to side once. "But in all seriousness, if I did that the other orange light users would come for me. I could get away with it outside of home but if I don't practice, what's the point? Besides, I have most of what I want anyways."

"Aaah, but if you're familiar with it, you could undo it?"

"Oh, probably. I think..." She frowns. "The cessation of wanting? I'm not sure what to want to make it happen, if I should want direct control, to cleanse them, to not want it at all... I've never tried doing it myself. The only people I've ever branded were ones we were going to kill anyways, so they were free target practice for trying new things out. That's how I got my first construct slaves."

Mariposa frowns and Lekken straightens up. "What are construct slaves?" They're looking at Mina with a measure of glowering distaste at the mention of slavery.

"Somebody subsumed by the orange light until it consumes them inside and out and binds them forever to me." She's trying to sweep the floor with her tail, I think. Rather chipper considering the subject. "It's a bit distasteful, you get to know everything about them. I don't do that now unless I need to."

Elise is giving her the kind of look that industrial grade lasers are made of so I speak up before that ignites. "Can we please get back on track?"

Lekken nods. "Yes. When we created the control crystals, we adapted the sygaldry to use the orange light sigil as a binding to tie the collar sympathetically to the master control crystal. Subverting either the crystal or the collar itself would allow you to undo the whole schema entirely."

"Or take it for myself."

I look over at Mina. "No, you can't have a huge slave army."

"Aww, but Ainsleeeeeyyyyy it'd be so coooool. I could have handmaidens and a palanquin and hot boys to do funny poses everytime I walk into a room."

"No."

"Pretty please with panties on top?"

"No."

"Darn." She pouts dramatically for a few seconds, then writes it off. "So where's the collar and the master key thing whatever?"

"Ah. Now that's where things get interesting." She nods. "Both are kept by the Black King. The collar and the Demons Mask are what lets him control so much through indirect means. The collar allows him to mind control those who don't submit and it's impossible to stand against somebody you cannot look at. The mask induces mind-numbing terror in any who look directly at it."

"So we have to kill a guy we can't look at, who mind controls people. How bad can that be?"

Lekken clears his throat. "That depends on the quality of your bowel control."

Mina is giving him a sideways, wary look while Elise snickers and Nemesis smiles in a way I don't really like. "Why, fear you say?" He spreads his hands, chuckling. "My time to shine."

"Heh, that'll be a fuckin' first." Vara slings the axe across her left shoulder casually, despite its size.

"Oh, you know how I am, Vara. I do love a good dramatic flair and besting a terrible king with his own power does sound like something I'd do for funsies."

"I know. I remember the Deathsingers."

"Bit out of tune these days. So, this sounds like a job for Mina and I. Or will it be all of us, hm?"

"All of us." Elise speaks up and nods. "Ainsley as support, you and Mina as offense. Vara..." She takes one look at Vara, who's glowering at her and silently daring Elise to try and give her orders. "...Eh, you'll figure out your new toy, probably."

That makes Vara hmph and look at Elise with only slightly less irritation. I raise a finger. "Aren't we all forgetting something? We have no idea where this black king actually is."

"You don't need to." Lekken chuckles. "He'll come to you. Don't you realize what you've done? By rescuing us, you've cored his best magic users. If he doesn't get us back somehow, he can't make new crystals. We're the only ones who know how."

"And we plan to keep it that way, thank you very much." Mariposa nods.

"Then the only thing we can do for now is wait?" Mina makes a face. "I hate waiting. I'm going to go steal Emil and kill some time."

Elise rolls her eyes as Mina slinks out of the room and I sigh. "At least we won't have to wait long."

"Well, I hope not. The suspense is killing me."

"We're not that lucky."

 

[AverusBlack]

When the light shines on Durjak in the morning, it burns the fog away. The lack of pollution in the air from any source save campfire smoke leaves it crisp and smelling like the greenery surrounding the area with a tinge of wood, which stretches east and west along the foot of the mountain, above and below the ridge Durjak rests on. It's early and I'm up on the walls, watching. Just taking it all in. The deep breath before the plunge, as an old gray man once said.

Along the slope downwards into the valley and beyond it is the Red Sword Army, arrayed out before the walls in formation, but not battle formation. I can see out at the back of their army a caravan. Their people are parting like a school of fish around a predator but the caravan doesn't appear to be in a hurry, which suits me just fine. The longer they take, the longer we get to rest. The smoke from campfires uncounted is blowing away from town but enough of it is swirling back to us to smell it anyways. With the wind traveling east it's no bother to the town like it was overnight but it does obscure the sights a little.

As I watch, the caravan sends forward heralds or... something like that. They're yelling, probably something like 'get out of the way!'.

"Make way for your masters!". They appear to be carrying whips as well.

Mm. Delightful. Destroying these people as an institution is going to create a huge number of problems in the long run, I can see it already.

Carrion birds, mostly crows, are circling above the army as the caravan slowly inches its way closer. Soon enough the others make their way up to the wall, joining me one by one. Mina is the first to arrive, hugging me from behind and resting her chin on my shoulder as she does it.

"They don't seem to be in much of a hurry, do they?"

"No, they don't. Good morning, Mina. Why are you wrapped around me?"

"You're warm and you smell good and I'm going to have a very long day. Don't worry, I won't desecrate you." She actually kisses just below my ear, rumbling quietly. I can hear it with her so close to me. "Not yet. Just bracing myself for the day."

"Better not let Elise catch you bracing yourself." I can't help but let the amusement leak into my voice as I say it. There's no denying having a beautiful woman pressed against me is really nice, but priorities. Priorities.

"Mmhm. That pesky willpower of yours. Does your girlfriend know she's rubbing off on you?"

"Bit of a mutual contamination, I suppose."

"Ooh, corrupting her?"

"No, but I'm working on him. It's ongoing." Elise is walking up behind us, glancing at Mina and... not getting angry? I think the confusion on my face is visible but neither of them is saying anything about it and this doesn't seem like a good time to ask what's going on there. "Is that them?"

"That's them." I nod. Mina is tracing little circles on my chest and somehow I can feel it through the light armor I'm wearing. Cheater. "You think it's the man himself down there?"

"Sure, why not? These people are bronze-to-iron age with a bit of everything else thrown in. We've got pikemen who are a threat to us. It's insane. They should be getting slaughtered wholesale at every turn and we're really hurting them but nowhere near the level of asskicking they ought to be taking."

"Ooh, are those the sweet sounds of anxiety I hear?" Nemesis and Vara have come to a stop just above us. Vara isn't saying anything, just staring out at the Red Swords in a way that reminds me of a komodo dragon staring at a goat tied to a post.

"No, just a sort of indignified bewilderment. This planet is bullshit."

"Oh my dear, I know it. It's not even just this planet. So far as I can tell, the whole solar system is like this. Buckle up, buttercup, you're in for a riiiide~." He chuckles quietly. "Or maybe they are. You weren't too bad with that ring when you first got it, I'm fascinated to see what you can make it do now."

Elise closes her eyes and sighs quietly, then opens them again. "Do you want to wait for them or get down there and get this over with?"

I glance up at Nemesis, who's managing to look smugly self-satisfied with his arms folded across his chest, hovering with his feet relaxed like a Dragonball Z character. He's flaring his environmental shield to have a sort of flame effect intentionally, which only adds to the mental image. Then something occurs to me.

Theatre. I've seen Elise do it, leverage psychology against people. I'm watching Nemesis do it right now and he doesn't even realize it, making himself stand out in a way that might suggest to anyone who doesn't know us that he's special, somehow. He's using the same color as their leader, maybe that's it, but he's obviously acting.

The illusion of strength where you're weak, the illusion of weakness at your strengths, acting to portray yourself as being more powerful than you really are... a cultivated sense of omnipotence to make people more afraid of him, but it works. If fear is all these people ever know, maybe it's time to take a page out of the book of my rivals.

I step out of Mina's arms and off the edge of the building to drop, letting myself land more heavily than I would otherwise and produce a loud thump. A moment later the others follow suit, Mina and Nemesis gliding down lightly instead. Vara hits the ground and charges forward, stopping just short of their line and visibly panting in an effort to stop herself from tearing them apart. As I follow up behind her I raise a hand, letting nonsense construct markings light up the chakra lines of my body, blue sigils glowing at their points in front of my body.

"Peace, Vara." I'm hoping she's used to working with Nemesis enough to play along.

"Slaughtering them with their own weapon, Ainsley. They're right here." She huffs, actually bellowing red flames for a moment.

"Peace, Vara."

She glances at me and I nod. She nods back slowly and the soldiers she was sort of looming in front of visibly relax, only for Nemesis to suddenly be in front of them, four times his own size as he manifests a massive... creature... thing contruct. Bits of insect molded to reptile and mammal by skin grafts of screaming faces with torn leather wings and a mouth surrounding Nemesis, the soldiers scrambling back to get away from us now as we pass around his construct and walk towards their lines, which are quickly trying to shrink back from us. Their masters don't like that though, screaming from the back as the whip behind them and the enemies in front of them form a hammer and anvil and soon the formations of foot soldiers around us just want to get away as the construct Nemesis is using to surround himself half slides, half pulls itself forward while making noises that... I'm not even sure how to describe.

Where the fuck does he come up with this stuff? The fucking guy is on my side and I still don't like being anywhere near it. No wonder Vara roasts him all the time.

"Ainsley?" Elise is speaking quietly while I'm pointedly not stopping Nemesis from terrorizing the cavemen. "This is a change of pace for you."

"Does your world have a Sun Tzu, Elise?"

I see her smile faintly in the corner of my vision. "Yes. Yes, it does. Okay. We'll see where you're going with this."

 

[AverusBlack]

Although we've been strolling casually and making small talk for almost ten minutes, they've stopped trying to get anywhere near us and have broken off. Nemesis seemed a bit sad his antics weren't having the same effect but he was pretty well pleased with himself. The foot soldiers and archers have pulled back now, a flow of people moving south around the caravan which is flipping the fuck out that their people are actually retreating away from the town, away from us. I don't think most of them even know why, they just see people panicking to move and panic along with them, figuring they'll find out why they're freaking out after not being dead. Sound advice in a planet where... well...

This place and all. So I can't blame them too much.

The heralds of the caravan are now ahead of us, arrayed out in front of it as their overseers struggle to regain order. We've completely ruined whatever grand, flashy entrance they had planned. They know it, we know it and the only reason we're not laughing about it now is that we got it out of our system on the way in here. Right now we all look the way we want to look, the impression we want to give. My constructs only reinforce my presentation as a kind of monk-slash-priest, Nemesis playing the terrifying general, Vara the berserker, Elise being the soldier, Mina being... Well, I mean, she's a cat girl in BDSM gear with construct soldiers marching behind her. I'm not sure what to call that.

I'm sure she'd tell me if I asked though.

We stop about fifty meters out, just out of comfortable conversation range. Then we wait.

It takes about five minutes. They're a bit stubborn about it at first, figuring we'll close the gap or are waiting for something, perhaps. Then they finally get it and approach us instead. The one in front doesn't look too happy about it, a grizzled old man.

"You dare come befo-"

Construct weapons are suddenly pointed at him from all sides around me as the blue glow around me intensifies. I open my hands to him. "Come now, I'm sure we can all have a civil conversation if we try. That bullish nonsense hasn't worked for you up until now and it's not going to work now, so why don't we skip all that and have a chat, shall we?"

The lead herald is looking at us, weighing us. He turns away, taking his mount and heading back towards the caravan, saying nothing more and leaving dust behind. I nod knowingly, glancing at the others as they diffuse their constructs. "Thank you. Just play along with me for now."

"Mmhm." Mina almost purrs it, making herself a construct couch and lounging on it in a way that can only be called 'showing off'. Soon enough others begin to approach us, these ones looking more courtly. Robes, fancy grooming, jewelry. Talking heads. Their negotiators, probably.

I lift my hand and spread my fingers, making a show of fabricating a conference table and chairs, enough for us all. I don't tell anybody to sit and none of them do, Nemesis preferring to hover ominously instead. Their people sit down when I do, despite the others not following along with me and leaving their seats empty.

"Hiya boys." I smile winsomely, tapping the table with my fingertips. "Not having such a great week, hm?"

The first one to speak is a young man in gray robes with red trim, pulling his seat up to the table with as much dignity as he can get from molded stone which turns out to be far heavier than he expected. After the second try he gives it up as a bad job and settles for sitting forward a little. Alas for his back. "No." He says it pointedly. "We are the upper council, the civilian government to the Black King and administrators to his territories."

I lean back in my chair, taking a deep breath. "What, we don't warrant a conversation with the old boy himself?"

"Logistics makes that difficult."

"Doesn't have to be." I smile again. "Tell us where he is and we can go meet up with him, have a talk."

The young man isn't smiling back. "I think not. Suffice to say he is safe but currently indisposed to show up to a meeting he did not know about, plan or endorse. A king does not just walk to the front lines and have a casual chat with his enemies, you fool."

I mimic surprise, looking at Elise. She shrugs eloquently and looks at Nemesis, who snorts. "You mean you panicked about us destroying you and he's afraid to show up here and deal with us."

"I mean what I said. What are you?"

"Snips and snails and puppy dogs tails, little girl."

"I am not a girl."

"Haha, yes you aaaare." Nemesis is smiling.

"No, I'm not." Their speaker is getting a little pissy about it and Nemesis lands on the table, walking across it towards him. The boy pales a little but stays in place as Nem pats him on the head, leaning in a bit.

"Yes. You. Are." Then he gets back up and walks across the table towards us.

I make a point of not making a big thing of it, drumming on the table with my fingertips. "...You sure I can't just talk to your manager? This sort of seems like the kind of thing where you take it right to the top for me, or take it in the bottom from him." I gesture at Nemesis, who wiggles his fingers in a little dainty wave and smiles.

The boy gets up and walks away from the table as one of the others opens his mouth, only for construct clamps to appear on them.

"Yes. You. Are. Go find us your adult, you're all useless." Nemesis yanks them out of their chairs with the construct tendrils, leaving them scrambling to their feet to collect themselves and crawl back to their masters. Nemesis just sighs beside us.

"It's so hard to find good help these days, don't you think?"

 

[AverusBlack]

For Abeba, life was a wonder. She'd been released from the exowomb almost two full years before on this day. Her mentality and personality was on par for a human child four times her age and she looked far older as well. A human might mistake her for a five or six year old. She was sharper than that though and learning all the time, taking information in like a bussard collector. She flat out just did not forget things, a newer genetic innovation which was incorporated into the latest batch of clone variants. It helped her to learn quickly and the highly developed empathy, group cohesion and social opportunities lent itself to refining her maturity to temper her accelerated growth.

The group home provided so many opportunities it was almost mind-boggling. She'd accompanied masters and journeymen on many different parts of the cities maintenance runs already, learning to tinker with and recognize lots of the various systems. She liked machines. Her best friend Isala was into woodworking in much the same way and sometimes spent time down in the artisans courtyard, talking to the sculptors and carpenters at work and experimenting with them watching over her. Such as it was with all of the children. When they expressed interest in things they were never told no, you're too young. Instead, those with experience were sent to spent time with them. Not a lot of time, a day out of the week perhaps, but time to start honing those interests while young, at the knee of a master who may one day grow into a mentor.

Her time in the education program took less than one might assume. That came with the perfect recall, she always aced the tests, every time. Always getting it right, always knowing the right thing to say, it developed in her a kind of adolescent arrogance. Time spent with the masters was valuable, both because it was their time and because it could be the vital moment when one learns a crucial skill or hears the right bit of advice. But some days she convinced herself she knew better, which is how she found herself wandering the city instead of being down on the maintenance route she was supposed to be visiting today. She'd been there before and had decided it wasn't going to be anything new, so why bother?

Instead she found herself wandering through the entertainment district, losing herself in the crowd. The district itself, a massive mile long shaft in the rock going downwards with hanging platforms strung at various levels, was impossible to really walk through. With no single path to pass through and being forced to double back in places, she mostly just wandered aimlessly through the vast forest of restaurant stalls and small personal sellers, people socializing or eating together. A group doing tai chi, another running circles around the edges of the district as a track run. So easy to just wander forever and drink it all in, so much data input.

Walking to the edge of the platform she looked out to the holowalls around the edges of the district, projecting clear skies and rolling clouds. Birdsong being played over the sound of the crowd. Minor things to help them forget they were forever under a mountain, cut off from the sky. She sat down, watching the images, letting her mind wander.

"...'re sure though?" The voice was faint and she didn't really listen at first, despite hearing it. Not her conversation and she had her own thoughts to dwell on.

"I'm sure. We have to tell the elder council."

"What do you think they'll do? Something of this magnitude...!"

"Quiet! We're still out in public, don't forget." That caught her attention and her ears swiveled to listen better.

"Right, right." ... "We have to convince them somehow. Have to find some way to make them see reason."

"You say that like our leaders have a history of leading us awry or something."

"I know, I know. I'm worried that they'll be reluctant to use the gate again."

"We know the last group made it through. Hell, we've done crazier things to survive as a species."

"I just don't want... thing again..." The voices were moving away from her now.

Hmm. She was pretty sure she wasn't supposed to hear any of that. Wondering what that was about a gateway she waited a few minutes, then got up and started back towards the hanging bridges leading to the edges of the districts walls where she could find a car to bring her back to the residences.

She was pretty sure the two voices were Liara. Only a Liara would walk around talking about stuff like that out in the open. The scientific branch of the genkit government had a reputation for living in their own heads and losing sight of practical concerns and applications to their ideas. Popular fiction sometimes portrayed some well-meaning Liara to try something radical and accidentally blow a hole in the universe or something. Only it sounds like those two actually did something like that.

As she hopped into the transport car an older woman followed her in. That happened sometimes when two people were headed to the same general area. The woman in front of her was also a canid but she didn't pay the lady much mind until she began to speak.

"You know, sometimes when we're alone by ourselves, we hear things we were meant to not hear." She glances at the woman, who was looking out the window and pointedly not at her. "Sometimes important things. A well meaning person might say something to somebody about it and cause a problem without intending to. Sometimes big problems, you know?"

"No."

"Yeah." She said it wistfully. "That's okay, you're still pretty young. A clever girl could find herself benefiting from things, if she knows how to spell discretion." The woman smiled as the car came to a slow, halting and opening. Once it did she got up, stepping out of the car and leaving Abeba there.

Huh.

So that's what adult stuff is like.

 

[AverusBlack]

"Haha, Ainsley, you scoundrel!"

Wait. I know that voice. The others look a bit confused as I get up from the table and turn around to the old woman pushing her way through their lines. The soldiers are looking at her like she's crazy, the archers are just getting out of the way and she's being followed by a very tired looking young girl. It's Saan, the old Tovari woman.

"Saan? What the hell are you-?"

"Gran, stop! Are you crazy?!"

"Oh relax girl, I know this boy." She's shuffling towards us, moving at a hobbles pace as her granddaughter races to catch up with her. Apparently Saan got a head start. "His friends are scary but he's a good lad."

I rise up off the ground as Elise gets up behind me. Mina looks mildly interested but Nem and Vara are all focused on menacing the troops who keep trying to stop Saan-and-her-girl. When I land besides Saan I generate a construct wheelchair for her.

"How'd you even get here? Why are you here? How'd you even get to the front like this?" I can't help but sound incredulous. As Saan parks herself in the construct her granddaughter catches up to us, clearly winded and looking a bit wild.

The girl is a young teenager. 13 or 14, perhaps. A canid like Saan, her ears flop when she leans on her knees, completely winded after the wild run to catch up to her grandmother. She looks up at me, then the others, apparently judging that nobody is going to attack her and grandma for the moment and taking it to try and catch her breath.

Saan pats her on the shoulder. "You see? He's a sweetheart, nothing to fear, dear. Ainsley, this is my granddaughter, Chloe." I wave awkwardly at the girl as she nods back to me, still winded. "Chloe, this is Ainsley the Blue."

Elise wanders up behind me and Saan smiles at her. "You're the biggest Skal I've ever seen, aren't you pretty?"

"You're Ainsley? She made you sound really young."

"I suspect that from Saan's perspective, everybody is young."

"Hm? I'm not Skal. Different race. I'm a Genkit, my name is Elise."

"A gen-kit? That's a funny name for a species. Haha, you've been terrorizing this lot!"

"Yeah? Must be cathartic to see the shoe on the other foot."

"That's... sort of true. She ran off and left a note! A note! Who runs into a battle at 72 and leaves a note about it?!"

"Your grandmother, apparently. Bravo for going after her though. That was very brave of you."

"No, I... aaggghhh." Poor kid looks so frustrated. "I love her but sometimes she just does things. That's how we ended up getting caught by these guys. Just going for a wander for a few days, she says."

I nod sympathetically. "If it makes you feel any better, I like your grandmother enough that you won't be going back to the Red Swords if you don't want to."

"No, I grabbed the few things we got to keep. They looted the rest."

"I'll see about that later, if I can."

"I have no idea what cathartic means, but it's been wonderful watching them panic. These people are huge jerks! They even burnt my yurt. It was a really nice one, too!"

Elise is nodding sympathetically and moving behind her to push the wheelchair construct. Chloe and I follow along behind them as we chat. "Well, we don't have any yurts, but I'm sure Ainsley will cook something up for you."

"It wouldn't be the first time, hahaha!"

"Thank you. That's really kind." She sounds worn down. Taking a look at her I can kind of see why. She looks like she's been sleeping in those clothes for weeks and I'm pretty sure neither has had the chance to bath for awhile.

Ring, clean them both and replace their clothes. These people are friends and nobody will be anything less than resplendant while they stand with us.

Chloe gasps when the blue glow envelops her, the ring fabricating Durjak-style clothes for her. A copy of a loose tunic and pants that one of the tailors made for me, refitted to her size. Once clean her and Saan's hair both kind of explode. Curly, poofy hair is apparently a thing for their family. Saan makes a quietly 'whoo!' noise and looks herself over as Elise starts to explain what happened.

"How are you standing up to this army so hard?" The girl is patting herself down, looking at the material. "Are you all just minor gods or something?"

I shake my head at her. "No. Just way, way over equipped for this mission. I don't really care about fighting them, Mina - that's the orange one - is here because she likes me, I think. Nemesis, the yellow one and Vara, the red one just like fighting and have their own reasons. Elise and her people are the best friends I have here." I smile a little when Elise's ears swivel around to point at me.

"They are such huge jerks. They treat everyone like crap. I don't get how they even got so big."

"Sometimes all it takes is bad conditions and a strong leader. They had help too."

"Is she from the east?" Chloe is kind of side-eyeing Mina who's side-eyeing her back.

"Yes."

"You can't trust them." The reply is immediate, almost before I finish speaking. "She's dangerous."

"I know." I put a hand on the girls shoulder. "Trust in me. I want this situation to end with as little suffering as I can. The others, not so much... but for now, they're following my lead."

When we reach the table the others wander back as Saan plunks herself down in one of the stone chairs. "Thank you Ainsley. Now." She clasps her hands together, smiling. "The moment I realized you were here and fighting these fools I shuffled my way out here. You know why?"

"Because you liked my company, dry wit and the amazing cooking?"

"Well, yes, but actually, no." She snorts. "I'm an old woman, Ainsley. They only kept me around because I know a little medicine. I shuffled my arse out here because I have information for you." She turns towards Nemesis, regarding him steadily. "You know, I heard about you. I wondered what you looked like, but I can't say I'm very impressed."

"Alas. Scathing." Nemesis looks a little bored, honestly.

"Hm. Well, I've heard of another one like you. A purple ring user like you."

I clear my throat, sitting up a little and regarding Saan. "And um, where would this person be?"

She sighs heavily. "The Black Kings daughter, Piani."

"Ah."

...

"Fuck."

 

[AverusBlack]

When they finally come, they come as a column of men and women. Slaves, naked and unkempt, driven forward before a palanquin carried by yet more slaves. When it stops they abase themselves and turn into human steps before the palanquin.

I don't think I'm going to have as much problem killing some of these people than I thought I was going to.

I think I get it now, a bit of what Vara feels at full power all the time. Seeing what they're doing to these people makes me want to tear them down. Elise is giving me concerned looks as my environmental shield sputters in and out though, so I make a mental effort to try and change how I'm thinking about this. Hope, not rage.

Hope, not rage.

These people are suffering and they're not going to suffer anymore. The reason they won't suffer anymore is because of us. We're going to stop this, tear down their works and rebuild them into something better, something good. Because there can be no other end to this while I'm still alive.

I'm Hope. Vara can handle the righteous vengeance, I'm the anticipation to it.

My environmental shield kicks back in and begins to glow brightly, reinforced by my train of thought. Then the man himself steps into view.

The Black King is fucking huge. Ring, who is this guy? How is he so large?

Genetic analysis suggests a contribution of at least nine distinct ethnic groups to varying degrees. It also suggests he ought to be smaller. This person has made some kind of modification to themselves to increase their size. Their strength is nearly twice that of a baseline human individual but all other susceptibilities appear to be in play.

Good. But just killing him outright, here and now, doesn't guarantee success. He may not have the control crystal on him. Can you detect it?

It is buried in his chest.

Of course it is. The man himself is standing at perhaps 8', towering head and shoulders above everybody else. I wince as the people he steps on visibly sag under the weight of his mass and the armor he's wearing. It's some kind of plate variant, all stylized and spiny, like he was trying to emulate Sauron or something. No helmet though, just a mask. When I look at it, the ring does something funny to my vision, I can't really focus on his face. If he has a terror-gaze, that's probably the ring just helping me without me asking though.

Terror is as hollow as hope and merely a dark reflection.

I blink at that, looking down at my hand for a split second. I haven't been talking to the ring as much as I did near the beginning. Maybe I should reconsider that.

Following the Black King out of the palaquin iis a young woman bound in chains, followed by a figure who is probably some sort of priest, but has gone to the trouble of shrouding their face in darkness under the hood of their robe so there's no way to tell if they're male or female or what, but the staff and ring they're holding look pretty fucking familiar. Not purple like Saan said, but indigo. Why isn't she wearing it though?

The woman - presumably Piani - is made to kneel before the Black King, just behind him, where he stops. The priest stops just behind her and the guards holding her in place won't look at anything but their own feet.

"You do not quake before me. You, do you share also in the dark power of terror?"

He points at Nemesis who looks amused, if anything. "I've mastered it. This is it? This is all you are? A fake strongman in a fancy mask? I confess myself disappointed, honestly."

"You may yet learn of your folly. Yet you've resisted my army well, well enough to impress me. I will offer this only once. Those of you who come forward and join me will ride in the upper echelons of my power and establish yourselves as answerable only to me. I am building a state which will outlast the centuries and you stand against me, thinking yourselves heroes! States aren't built on hand holding and hopes." He looks at me specifically. "They are built on blood and death to feed the growth of the new. Join me and shape the new world."

I can't help but chuckle. "Do you honestly think-"

"What's the cut?"

All of us slowly turn and look at Mina, but she's not looking at us. She's looking at the Black King.

"You would stand at my side, commanding any in the empire. Hold a duchy or country if you wish, I care not. Play with your subjects how you will, all I require is order, trade and security. Whether or not you can cement your hold and rule it well is your failure or success."

"You'd just give us anything we wanted, hm?"

"Mina, I'm warning you -"

"What, are you going to try and fight me again? Remember how that went last time? I have friends now. And minions."

She transitions directly in front of the Black King, who looks down at her directly. She looks back, pulling the same trick I am perhaps, because the stare doesn't seem to trouble her very much.

"MINA!" Nemesis steps forward ahead of me. "You will die for this! I will make sure it goes by centimeters!"

She sighs, turning and almost draping herself on the arm of the Black King, smiling in a predatory sort of way. "Oh, Nemmy. You never were very smart. Where am I standing?"

"At my side, as is your place."

"Yep. Right next to you."

Then she subspaces his mask, revealing a ruined face which begins to scream as she starts to assimilate him.

 

[AverusBlack]

"Stop her, we can't just hand this army to the orange light users!" Nemesis is taking his own advice, donning construct armor and smashing into the ensuring chaos. So much is happening at once it's difficult to keep track even with the ring helping me because I'm scrambling to create shields and barricades and cover for us to fight around instead of the horribly open ground we're on, surrounded on all sides.

The scream coming from... I'm not sure what this guys name even is but it's having some kind of effect without the mask. The yellow glow looks like it's coming from inside his skull and the soldiers around us are either panicking and going mad trying to stampede away or losing their minds and attacking everything around them, friend and foe alike. The priest holding the ring and staff drops them and grabs their own head as do the guards, the woman in chains writhing on the ground next to the fallen artifacts and priest. Vara and Nemesis are trying to attack Mina but the fear aura is making it difficult to focus.

Fear is a dark reflection.

Hope drowns it out, doesn't it?

What do I hope for here?

I bring my hands together, blue light intensifying around me as my environmental shield begins to brighten. We're here to stop a genocidal, xenophobic army from ethnically cleaning the entire continent, possibly the world. We're here to pull these people out of the mud and help them build something good here. To establish the foundation of a state where personal freedom can be balanced against responsibility and honor. Because these things aren't just words, they're not just things we made up, they're ideas that transcend individuals and generations. Fear, greed and hate have no power in a place where all uplift each other.

As the blue glow builds up and my constructs glow brighter, both Mina and the Black King visibly stagger. So does Nemesis and Vara but Elise keeps going like a force of nature, smashing into Mina and both of them hitting the woman in chains in a wild tackle. The woman is scrambling to get away from them in a blind panic -

What?

- instead of going for the ring and staff. While Elise and Mina struggle my first instinct is to get that ring! Tearing across the field towards them the Black King is beginning to get to his feet just in time for me to hit him with the most intense hope for absolute erasure I can possibly manage because there is no scenario whatsoever where somebody like this is a net benefit to the universe. The second my hand contacts him a ripple of blue light leaves only ash and I don't stop at all, hitting the ground and grabbing the box and staff, then flying upwards into the air.

"YOU IDIOT FUCKING FERRET, I HAD IT UNDER CONTROL!"

"YOU'RE NOT GOING TO ENSLAVE THIS ARMY IN PLACE OF THEM!"

"I WASN'T TRYING TO!"

Fuck. With the Black King dead and the fear aura he was producing gone, the panicking army around us is still panicking. I've lost track of the woman -

She appears to have had her head caved in by a shield.

- so... oh. Fuck. Was she the guys daughter?

No genetic relation found.

That doesn't make any sense, but I don't have time to mull this over right now. The staff in my hand is glowing intensely, shimmering both indigo and blue, shifting between them in response to my use of the blue light. I don't know anything about the use of indigo rings.

This is probably a really bad idea.

Fuck it.

I toss the box aside and pull the ring out of it at the same time, fitting it on the finger of my opposite hand and suddenly I realize how blind I've been. What the hell have I been doing? I've been acting like a thug, like Nemesis, to deal with this crisis. I've been bullying these people just to make a point and look where it's gotten us, fighting with each other and the army in question slaughtering itself. No, no more, this is unacceptable.

The sheer repulsion at what's happening around me burns at the head of the staff and I can hear somebody screaming as it builds and builds, overwhelming, bleeding off as waves of indigo like flowing outwards from me.

Stop! Stop! STOP FIGHTING!

I think the person screaming is me.

It's working though. They're stopping, confused, staggering. I can see the injured and the weak and the ones who are just breaking from the sheer stress of everything going on and I remember what we're here for. I always knew, but part of that knowledge had fallen asleep, coaxed out by fear of the loss of the people I knew, valuing them over the lives of those outside the walls of Durjak. I was wrong to do that, I can see that now.

The blue light begins to restore the wounded as I pass over the crowd in circles outward from where we began, trying to stop as much of it as I can manage. In my wake, the violence doesn't... stop. People instead begin to realize that the control scheme is broken and rise up against the ones controlling them.

But they don't kill them. Not if they can help it. There won't be any more deaths today if I can influence that.

By the time I get back to where we began most of the soldiers have thrown their weapons down. The ones who haven't aren't bearing them, just holding them. Elise and Mina are standing well apart from each other with Saan in the middle. I think she's been scolding them from the look on Mina's face but as I approach I can see the light begin to effect them too, the aggression dialing down.

"Oho, Ainsley! Look at you, I can't just call you blue anymore, can I?"

I have just enough time to exhale hard through my nose in place of a chuckle before I drop to the ground unconscious.

 

[AverusBlack]

I don't know where I am.

Somehow the lack of physical senses isn't bothering me. I know it should, people aren't meant to be completely without sensory stimulus. But like a dream it isn't bothering me despite the fact I'm experiencing a kind of self-awareness, like a lucid dream. What the hell?

We need to have a conversation, I think.

What? Who are you?

You. Not-you. I'm the indigo ring and also part of you. When you put me on, a personality simulacrum was created based on data from your subconscious.

The voice feels familiar but I can't place it.

Oh, don't worry about it too much. When you put me on, something happened to you. Something that didn't happen to the other girl who wore me.

Well, don't keep me in suspense, here. What was it?

Connecting to the indigo light immediately changed part of your psychological profile. Your personality and entire method of thinking shifted slightly and a connection to the indigo light which was weakened before suddenly became stronger. Your capacity for compassion was restored.

I don't feel like I ever lost it. Why else would I want to help people otherwise?

Your connection to the blue light requires you to have a following, to inspire hope. Without this you are limited to your own hopes but with others, you only become stronger. The ethical values of the people you encountered combined with your own utilitarian predisposition set you to using hope to help and inspire people and while the end result of 'help people' is the same to the outward observer as somebody acting with compassion, compassion isn't what you were feeling or thinking about as you did it. You didn't have the capacity. You were all hope.

So... what, I'm a sociopath?

Something like that. Not really. Your connection to the other colors is dimmed. It will continue to influence your way of thinking until you restore them. Additionally, memories which were previously denied to you have been restored as your arcane construct is partially mended by re-supplementation of the indigo light.

What the hell is an arcane construct?

The part of you which interacts with the metaphysical.

My soul?

If you like. You never were that religious.

So is this is just some kind of personality interview?

No. The restoration of the indigo light to your 'soul' has partially disrupted it. You are currently comatose while it mends itself.

Is that why I collapsed?

No. You suffered a stroke. The blue ring mended you immediately.

Oh. Thanks, blue ring.

You are welcome.

If I'm weak in the green light, how do I boost Elise like I do?

Good question. I'm not an actual thinking being and don't have the data to give you that answer. Let me know if you find out.

I suppose that depends on whether I keep wearing you. Will I lose the capacity for compassion again if I take you off?

Probably not. You may want to consider trying the other colors on though. Your connection to the red light is mildly stronger than the others but you could probably still benefit from a full restoration in some regard.

Angers a pretty shitty emotion, though.

You need it to be whole.

I suppose. What happened to your previous user?

Piani was a true sociopath. When she discovered me, she took me for her own, using guile to disarm my first bearer. She had not chosen a name. It was only after putting me on that she realized her mistake, her sudden capacity to feel guilt overwhelmed her. She attempted to stop her father, who disarmed her. The person who had been behind the Black King was my original bearer.

Goddammit. I don't follow for two seconds and somebody really important dies. Fuck!

Even as you think it, you don't feel the anger.

I know I don't, but... okay, this isn't helpful. So, what now?

That depends on you, doesn't it?

What do you mean?

You have effectively toppled a government, then became incapacitated for an unknown period of time.

Oh. Right. Shit.

Just so. You're going to have a bit of a mess to clean up when you wake up. You won't quite be the same person you were, either. How will the others react to you now? What has happened while you were out?

Why are you asking me? I don't know any more information than you do.

It was a rhetorical question, dear. Here's another for you. How okay are you with mind control?

What?

You effectively decided to mind control the panicking army when you externalized your own newly made connection to the indigo light through my staff. Granted, 'control' in this case simply meant stopping everybody from wanting to harm or do anything else in the short term but you still essentially mind controlled 824,920 people all at once. That effect never stops, all you did was amplify it. As long as you carry the staff, that sort of peace will follow in your wake.

I'm not sure if that sounds so bad.

That depends on how much you value personal agency, I suppose. It would be important to the genkits that they be free of external influence. You know this from interacting with them.

Yeah but it's basically a "calm the hell down and chill" field.

Whether it's good or bad isn't for me to determine, I'm only making you aware of the contradiction between your stated belief that removing personal agency is bad and the apparent approval of something which effects personal agency.

I can tell spending time with you is going to be a hoot. How much longer until I wake up?

I don't know any more than you do. Go fish, I guess?

 

[AverusBlack]

"No."

"What the hell do you mean, no?"

"There are not a lot of different interpretations to the word. I checked." Lifting the carved wooden cup to my mouth I take a sip of tea, answering in my own good time. Despite how much larger Elise is than me, or the fact I don't wear a ring, there isn't any formal hierarchy here and she needs to learn that simply being stubborn isn't enough to sway me when I make a decision. I've seen enough of her mind to know some of that is the ring she wears and the single-mindedness that it demands but either way, I have no intention of being swayed unless I decide to.

"He's in a coma! Kuri, we need him. The longer he's out -"

"The longer you have to learn to make command decisions without him." I nod firmly. Elise also has some tea but I think she's forgotten it so I pointedly take another sip of my own before speaking again. "Elise, he is one person. With Mina, Nemesis and Vara gone home you don't have to contend with anybodies command authority, not really. Emil handles the genkits just fine. Zack, Ren and Mason have Durjak handled."

"We still have thousands of humans outside the walls! Humans who will need food, fuel, sanitation -"

"Things you are fully capable of providing yourself. We always knew that it was possible he could be removed from action." I sigh, my tail twitching in mild irritation as I do it. She should know herself better than this. "He's not in distress, I've tried to touch his mind. It's like he's having a dream, but I can't reach his dreams. He's somewhere in between and it feels like he's waiting for... something." I can't help but frown. "If I thought he was in real danger I might agree with you about pushing further but I don't think he is."

Elise leans forward, resting her face in her hands. "Kuri, it's too much. It's a million people and I'm just one person, it's too much. What do I do?"

"You're... oh." I heh softly. "Okay. You're experiencing what a herd animal experiences when they turn and find they are surrounded on all sides by too much input, or what a predator might experience hunting a herd animal all with an elaborate coat pattern which scatter. It all blurs together and they freeze up, not knowing where to begin, where to strike first."

She blinks. "That... is a pretty accurate summary of how I feel right now, yes."

"Lay the whole thing out for me then. Give it structure by explaining it and the answer might present itself. ...Also, your tea is getting cold."

"Oh!" She sits up and takes a deep breath, exhaling. "I'm sorry. I'm neglecting your hospitality." She makes an effort to take a sip, then blinks in surprise, apparently finding it agreeable.

"No, I don't think so. If this were between Skal, then perhaps, but you're not Skal and your culture doesn't put the same emphasis on ritual ours does. Something which I'm thankful for so..." I make a downward waving motion, smiling softly.

She nods, then sips again, taking a moment to think. I've seen humans talking like this and when this happens one of them inevitably feels a pressure to fill the gap in conversation with something but that doesn't seem to be a problem for the genkits. They don't mind taking a moment to think before they speak, the way Skal shaman do sometimes. I wonder if it's a cultural thing?

"Right now, we have all of the overseers in... custody." Walled prison camps, but I'm not inclined to quibble about it. "The ones who were being controlled are easy to spot out, they're tattooed. They also really like making the former Red Sword commanders eat it, so..." She shrugs. "At least we don't have to worry about them being hidden away by collaborators, those ones hang too. They really hated being controlled. About two thirds of their fighting force was like that, conscripts. That still leaves something in the neighborhood of around 160,000 purists in their ranks and of course they're all mixed up with the conscripts, who don't give them up because they've been fighting in small units together and the damned unit cohesion is mostly keeping them from giving up the purists. You know, 'oh they're not that bad' and all that. They're happy to hand us the real assholes and all but there are people in there who signed up for this and are getting away with it and I really fucking hate that."

"I think I'm lacking some context here. We didn't really have time to stop for a history lesson but this has been bothering me since this whole thing started. What is your definition of a purist, what is a purist and why do all of you hate them so much?"

Elise looks down at her tea. "How much do you know about our history?"

"Not much. Just bits I've caught from some of the dreams of you and Ren and a few others. Most of that is about your home though."

"You know we're genetically engineered?"

"Yes. Ren tried to explain what that is to me, once."

"We started out being created by a fundamentalist animal rights group. The real left-wing crazies, not the made-up crazies that people like to paint moderate politics as. Somehow they got funding from some rogue state nobody liked, the actual details of all that is a bit unclear because of what came after. It got out to the world media, big international stink over it, couple countries declared war over it when they refused to stop the project and antagonized over their 'future super soldiers'." She makes fingerquotes. "Because if we're not human we don't have rights, right? Well, the animal fundies didn't really like that, which is how the majority of us managed to flee before the bombs started dropping on the bio-domes where we were developed. Most of the records of the project were there so we had to start from half-baked backups and hacked information to get some of our genetic history back."

"None of this explains the purist thing."

"The ones dropping the bombs were the Purists. Humans who believe that we're subhuman, inferior, abominations, etc." She makes a hand-wavey motion. "The ones who want to wipe us out for not being enough like them. It took a ten year guerilla war to win our right to even exist and even to this day they are a pain in our ass in international politics."

"And these humans of the Red Swords, they are the same?"

"Well, no... not exactly. Same general belief, different reasons. They all seem to think humans should be in charge of everything and we're too stupid to manage ourselves, which doesn't make a lot of sense considering how it worked out for them but humans aren't rational."

I sigh a little. "I know."

She nods slowly. "So."

"So."

"I'd hoped Ainsley would wake up and... well..."

"Hand you an easy solution to this?"

"Mmmmmaybe?"

"You won't get it. But... It seems to me that if their fighters are grouped up like that, maybe splitting them up across the countryside into little groups? It'd be work to keep an eye on them but you could make the ranking officer the town man and offer any of the refugees who want to go with them the chance. It's not all fighters, is it?"

"No. A lot of the people here are filler, honestly. Merchants, families of fighters, entourages, entertainers, hangers-on."

"Offer them chances to found communities and help give them the tools to make lives for themselves. You don't have to hand them all of the fish, Elise. Only fishing rods and directions to the nearest river."

She takes a deep breath and smiles a little, then knocks her tea back. "Thank you, Kuri."

"We'll weather this storm too."

 

[AverusBlack]

We travel to the west to trade in grassy plains
We travel to the east, ruled by rough terrain
We travel to the south to fish the open sea
We travel to the north, where mountain replace trees

In all the dangers faced and all the treasures traced
We travel all the wilds looking outwards in the night
In all the warm inns hearth and roads merrily raced
We travel place to place to bask in lawful light

The song was slow and melodic, easy to learn, easy to follow. Assuming you know some of the language, anyways. But even if you don't, it's easy enough to pick up after a few repeats. The caravan had been traveling for weeks, ever since news reached Tovalon of the great battle and the hundreds of new, small communities springing up in the west. A traders dream, enough travelers had begun heading in the same direction that they had sort of meshed together in Skal, where everybody had been bottlenecked by the few guides willing to take them across the terrain. Some of the traders had even set up on the other side to cater to other travelers. Soon enough such camps were on both ends of Skal, marking the beginning and end of the route through the mysterious and dangerous countryside.

Nobody liked hanging around in Skal except other Skal.

Yelin liked the song. She missed her little brother, but their mother had insisted that one of them should stay. The risk of losing one of her children and husband in the long journey west was bad enough. Her relationship with her father wasn't bad, exactly. It was a little distant, though. The man was a monolithic figure of authority and seriousness in her mind. She had only seen him belly laugh a handful of times in her life, instead carrying a serious, pragmatic grimness that didn't lend itself to heartfelt moments. She knew he cared in his own way, he just wasn't the kind of person who know how to really express it.

It wasn't so bad though, she had a few friends in the caravan. She wasn't the only juvenile in the group. There were some children too and somewhere along the way they had sort of drifted together and formed a small group within the group, the older kids keeping an eye on the younger ones as they traveled near the center of the group with the adults on the outside.

"When are we gonna stop? I'm hungryyyyy."

"When the group stops, Shi. With enough people nobody really decides this sort of thing, it just happens."

"Don't you have any food?"

"Only some spiced bread. It's okay though, you can have it." Sitting up from her spot in the wagon she grabbed her pack, digging through it and taking out the leaf-wrapped bread to hand it to the girl, then laying back against the sacks of grain she'd been resting on.

"How long do you think the caravan will stay together?"

Yelin looked over at Shi. A tovari child, she was dressed in colorful clothes, a tunic and pants with a sash across her body of many colors. The straw hat she customarily wore was laid across her knees while she nibbled at the bread.

"I don't know. I think the group will split up soon, now that we're in the west. There's too many places to go, too many new communities that need trade. I don't think all of us are here to trade, either."

Shi tilted her head. "Whatcha mean?"

"Too many people carrying too many personal things. Some of us are here to immigrate, they want to stay."

"What, in one place?" Shi made a face. "Forever? That sounds so boring."

"The eastern Tovari do it."

"Yeah but they're all crazy, they don't count."

That made Yelin smile a little. "Doesn't mean they can't be right about some things. I've been pushing my father to go to Durjak directly instead of staying in towns to trade."

"Really? Why?"

"I have a friend there, sort of."

Shi's eyes widened. "Really?" She quickly took another bite of the bread, gesturing at Yelin to go on.

Yelin shrugged at her. "I got to meet the blue lightsmith his first day out. It wasn't for long, but he was the reason we didn't all starve for a couple weeks after we visited the shrine. I got him to do that, me and Uter found him."

Shi was staring at her, bread forgotten for a moment. "No way, you're making that up."

"I am not!" Yelin sat up, frowning at the girl. "I did!"

Shi just shrugged and went back to eating the bread.

"I did." Huffing, Yelin pulled herself up and moved to hop out of the wagon.

"Hey, where you going?"

"Just going to walk a bit, I've been sitting too long."

Dropping out of the wagon she did an about-face, following it and slowly veering to the side, then weaving her way through the various mounts, wagons, carriages and trailers until she slowly closed in on where her father was riding, a short distance behind the wagon she'd been in. Once he spotted her he leaned over to offer a hand, pulling her up onto the back of the jorka that he was riding. Holding his waist she got settled in behind him.

"You don't usually return this early. Is something bothering you?"

"Shi annoyed me, so I decided to come back. I gave her my spiced bread, too."

"Aah, and so the reasons become all too clear. There is some in the right-hand saddlepack. What did she do?"

"I told her about meeting Ainsley. She didn't believe me."

"My daughter, were you not mine, I'm not sure I would believe you either. For me, your word is good enough. For others, doubt for those they do not know will always plague them."

"Still sucks."

"I know."

"Will we go to Durjak?"

He nodded slowly. "Yes. We will. Others might doubt, but I believe you. If you say we have a unique contact there, we will go. It's not so different from any other place. Perhaps better, since it's becoming the center of civilization out here."

Yelin fished the spiced bread out of the saddle pack. "Hey, this is a full loaf. I'm gonna split it."

"No, take the whole thing when you go back to Shi and give her half. Take a skin of water as well. I know she annoyed you, but we all must help each other in these rough places."

"Yes, father." Climbing down, she unhooked the skin from the saddle of the jorka and started to walk ahead, smiling a bit.

She was looking forward to meeting Ainsley again.

 

[AverusBlack]

I think I hate this chair.

I don't really blame the genkits, they're making do with what they have and it was meant as a vehicle seat, repurposed to this. But with the mild incline I'm sitting back on and the way my feet are flat against the floor is putting pressure on my lower back because of this fucking armor. It's been most of an hour and my ass hurts.

Yeah, I definitely hate this chair.

"How long is this process going to take?"

"Probably at least another hour. It would be easier if we weren't rebuilding things we don't have but without the computers, tools and an actual nanoforge there's only so many options."

"Why is this taking so long?"

Aisha sighs. The first thing I did was ask her name because honestly, she's the prettiest cat I've ever seen in my life. I'm fairly sure she has zero interest in a foreigner who can't even take off his own shirt but damn if it isn't fun to look at her and I think I like her personality too. She hasn't fucked around at all at the job or treated me like an outsider like some of them do. I don't think they even mean it, I'm just... too different, too distinctly not them for some of them. They're still polite, but not kinsmen polite.

"Moooostly because I'm an airhead and configured the computer wrong."

"I'm sorry? I don't understand what you mean."

She smiles a little, at herself I think, but it's a very nice smile all the same. "I messed up part of the software we're using for this. The computers are thinking machines, right? I accidentally told it to mis-step in the logic process, like... I told it two plus two equals five instead of four, by accident. Not, y'know, literally..." She makes a dismissive gesture at the device. "Programming's a bitch and I missed an error. Not my fault I have to improvise this stuff, this would go way better if I had a month of time and an actual quantum computer dedicated to software analysis. All I got is my eyes and brain, I feel like somebody making an orbital insertion without any sensors."

I blink slowly, only able to follow some of that, but... I think I get the general impression of it. She doesn't have what she needs to make the things she needs and the stuff she's improvising to fit the role isn't as good as what they would have at their disposal at home. "...Oh."

"Sorry. I know you don't really follow our slang, it's just -"

"Nah, I get it." I take a deep breath and exhale slowly. "You grew up in a place so different that it'll take some time for me to understand you. That isn't exactly your fault, you know."

"No, but I can't help feeling bad about it when I say stuff and I can see you stop and try to process it so you can filter out what I'm trying to say through the things you're not getting."

That actually makes me laugh. "Ah, dammit. You people are too fucking smart for your own good."

"Double-edged sword, handsome. We can think faster than almost any human, but when you're that sharp, your stupidity just gets magnified tenfold. You really fuck up when you fuck up."

"I can imagine. What was that even like growing up?"

"Well, I didn't have parents, just the inner clan -"

"What? You didn't have parents?"

She adjusts something, then taps the keyboard and stops, letting it work while she talks. "Nope. I'm a clone variant. Uhhhhh, a clone is like, a copy of a person. You know how I made code to tell the computer what to do? When you get down really small, it turns out your body has a code to tell it how to be. Manipulation of that code is how we were made as a species. We learned it inside and out during and after the first war."

"You've mentioned that before, having to fight to survive. What does that have to do with 'cloning'?"

"Population. Numbers. After the war, there were fewer than 40,000 of us and we were scattered around. Getting all of us together risked making us all vulnerable, so that was out. When work began on Zero we used a lot of human contractors and automated technology." She gestures at the computer, then folds her arms under her bust which I'm definitely not staring at eyes up.

"So the cloning was to reproduce?"

"Partially. I mean, we can do that the old fashioned way too. But with the 15 year time lag between generations we were worried about getting picked off before the first generation could really begin, so we turned to cloning. By mixing parts of various DNA samples - that's your body code - from different people we were able to create clones who were close but genetically diverse from the original. New people, essentially. Make a clone of each of those three or four times and in twenty years your population growth is five times what it was naturally. But you need to raise those kids and without parents, the solution we used was small community homes where a couple families would be vetted and move in together, then adopt a bunch of clones and be subsidized by our government to help raise them."

"So how'd you stop people taking advantage?"

"Oh they weren't left to their own devices or anything. You still needed education, health care, training. The clan home always had a small staff of people who'd rotate to teach us. We learn the basics of how to fight growing up, how to think, how to care for ourselves and each other. By the time we're young adults we're actually better trained than the natural families, who don't have all that."

"Huh. That sounds... very different from the tiny village I grew up in."

"Oh? What was yours like?" She walks over to sit down next to me, casually leaning on the armor and invading my personal space in a way she hasn't done before. Not that I'm complaining. Not by a long shot.

"My parents were farmers." I can't help but chuckle ruefully. "Not fighters. We farmed animals, kept a range around the village to hunt. It was our game that sat on dinner tables, our husbandry which kept the game in the woods. Until..."

She nods. "Yeah. There's always an 'until'. Well, if you ever wanna learn how to fight, I can teach you." She manages to sound chipper about it.

"Oh?" I can't keep the amusement out of my voice. "Think I need a few lessons after seeing me in action?"

"Nah. But I wouldn't mind seeing how you wrestle once we get this off you. And maybe everything else." She taps my chestplate, then gets up to go check the computer.

Oh.

Well then.

Maybe being in this chair isn't so bad after all.

 

[AverusBlack]

A knock on the door startles me awake, ears swiveling to the noise and staying pointed in that direction as I turn my head. I can feel my tail puff up from it and I hate when that happens, announcing to the whole world I got spooked like a little girl. Ugh.

"Elise?"

"Mhm?" My hangups aren't Chloe's fault. "I was dozing off, you got me, a little."

"Oh. Sorry about that." She's holding a tray of food, walking into the room and setting it down on the little table next to Ainsley's bed. "Um, don't you have a place to -?"

"Yeah, of course." I run my hand across the top of my head, massaging just behind my own ears for a moment to relax a little."I'd just rather be here for when he wakes up, is all."

She nods slowly, then gestures at the tray. "Well... Kuri said you haven't been to the kitchens and to bring you that. She also said to hit you with something for not eating but I don't really want to."

I smile a little, picking up some of the roasted vegetables she brought, then create a construct seat for her. "C'mon, take a moment before you go back downstairs. I haven't really talked to anyone today."

She drops into the seat, visibly sagging a little and sticking her tongue out in a gawds I'm done sort of look. "I'm not sure if you can seperate Kuri and my grandmother anymore. They've fused into one being with two bodies, like some sort of dark home making godling."

I can't help but giggle at that. "They working you to the bone down there?"

"I love my grandmother and I've always helped her out with things, so I just sort of... ended up there. There's lots of people to help her now but since I'm always there..."

"Then you've suddenly become the point girl and Kuri picked up on that and started too?"

"Yes. That, exactly. It wasn't so bad when it was just us, but now..." She gestures around. "Look at this place. It's a real city, with... real roads and more city being built with actual schools and little shops and -"

"Yes, I get what you mean. Durjak kinda blew up, huh?"

"Yeah, it kinda did. We just flat out do not have these things in Tovalon. Being a nomad is great in its own way, but being able to live in a real structure with easy access to clean water? Not having to shit in improvised outhouses? Fresh food without roaming everywhere? These are things I could live with."

I hm softly. "Well, tell me what you want to do, then."

I can see her stop to think about it, frowning. "There's so many people from so many different places now I keep noticing that like... everyone is on a completely different point of view or level of knowledge, I guess? I keep having to stop and explain things to people. Stuff everyone in Tovalon knows."

"You didn't answer me though."

"I think..." She taps her chin, mulling it over. "I think we need a place where we can send newcomers to the city. There's too many of us now for everyone to just do their own thing. And somebody has been holed up in here along with him every moment she can spare." She gives me a pointed look.

I almost feel bad about it.

"So you want to... run it? Found it? Build it?"

She throws her hands up a little in exasperation. "I don't know, I'm just a teenager!"

"It's okay. I'm not trying to pressure you, just figure out what you're going to do when I tell Saan and Kuri you'll be leaving the kitchens."

She glances at me, blinking. "Really?" I nod to her. "If... well, if you'll help me, I could do.... hm." She tilts her head, thinking about it. "You know, I don't know anything about running anything."

"Yep. Would be helpful if you were to get a couple genkits to help teach you how to run interviews to find employees, huh?"

"Yeeeees, probably. How am I gonna pay for all this?"

"I'll make sure you have what you need at the beginning. We can fund it with a minor tax on sales in the city and expand it."

"Expand it how?"

"We'll have immigrants. You know about all the trade deals Zack, Mason and Ren are setting up? We build housing, we'll get people wanting to live in it. Which means we'll need a census on the people in the city and a place to give newcomers directions. I'll find somebody to set it up initially and then you can apprentice with the person who will lead the project until you're ready to help take over."

"Really?!" She jumps up out of the construct chair and slams into me in a giant hug, making a quiet eeeeeee noise. I let the construct chair dissipate as I hug her back and laugh a little.

"Yes, really. You're right, we do need to standardize some things before we get too big." I can't help but sigh. "And you're probably right about me taking too long in here, too. How bad are things, really?"

"Not terrible. Not great." She stands up, almost reluctant to stop hugging me. Poor kid. "But they will be if you don't get out there and start giving some direction soon, because with Ainsley out of the pi-"

"Hnbghnngh?"

I turn to look at the bed and realize his eyes are open. There's visible confusion on his face as he tries to sit up and both Chloe and I move to push him back down to the bed.

"Don't try to get up, not yet. Chloe?"

"I'm on it!" She darts out of the room to go find the medics.

I move the chair over and lean in a little, speaking quietly. "Hey. You won."

He drops his head back on the pillow and closes his eyes. "No. I didn't."

 

[AverusBlack]

As the others make their way out of the room, I stay where I am, waiting for them to go. It didn't take long to get Ainsley up to speed and I didn't have much to say, since my people are usually pretty well behaved. It only took one look at his face to realize this wasn't the time to be giving casualty reports so I mostly focused on the positives, the mechs we can salvage and the people we've managed to organize and rescue, the after-action where we rolled their supply lines up.

I left out the deaths, equipment lost and the people we didn't rescue in time. The lack of certain supplies. Elise can help me handle that stuff.

I glance at her and she gives me a questioning look, so I shake my head and point silently at Ainsley while pinning my ears against my head. No, I need to talk to him.

She nods once, then slips out of the room and closes the door behind her, the last to go.

When Ainsley turns around he looks at me. "So, Emil."

"So, Ainsley."

"You didn't say much. Saving it all for when everyone is out of the room?"

"I'm not about to lambast you if that's what you're worried about." I can't help but pace slowly and it's a big room, so as I speak I'm meandering back and forth, moving and talking. "Elise knows something is up. Kuri knows. I don't think the others do. I can see it every time you look at us, something in your eyes has change. Something behind your eyes has changed. What happened to you?"

He stays silent for a moment, then heh's softly. "Turns out you're being worried in the wrong direction."

"I don't follow."

"You're concerned that the good man you knew has been hurt or messed up, right?"

"I'm... concerned. End, stop there. No specific reason."

"I was more broken before. When I put on the other ring it gave me... perspective." He takes a deep breath, exhaling slowly.

I stop moving and look at him directly. "Ainsley, I like you. Elise likes you. I want to make that clear, before I tell you to cut the bullshit, stop being vague and explain to me what is going on."

"I don't feel things properly. It's there but... distant. Out of reach. I was 95% hope all the time before. Putting on the second ring made my connection to compassion stronger, restored it. Now I'm two emotions instead of one." He shakes his head. "I know I should be asking Elise to try her ring on and fix my connection to the green light too, but I'm more worried it'll put me out of action again and everyone was worried about me already. If I tried to tell them it might happen again and I need to do it, they'd just argue with me. So I decided to shut up about it until I do what I should have done and take responsibility for fixing this mess."

"Are you telling me that you're a kind of... semi-sociopath?"

"Yes."

"And that the only two emotions you can easily access are hope and compassion."

"Yes."

"And you're in charge."

"Yes. This is what I was worried about before." He groans, crossing the room to drop into one of his chairs. "By making me more important than I am, things have just... I've become a linchpin. Before it was annoying and worrisome because I'm just an idiot with a cool ring but now I'm gutted that all I was thinking of was myself when in reality, the reason I shouldn't be in charge is because I'm crazy."

I stop moving and look at him for several seconds. "You're stupid."

"I beg your pardon?"

"Stupid. You. Big, colossal idiot."

"No, no. I got that part. I want an explanation for why you're saying it."

"Elise can handle the important stuff. The stuff here. I mean, you're right, you shouldn't be here dealing with this, but not because of the reasons you think. How many ring bearers are their original bearers?"

"I dunno. Me, uhh... I think Nemesis? I'm not sure about Vera."

"She's not, I asked. The first red light user got into a fight with orange and died, she picked up the ring and finished it. It wasn't her. Red rings don't do body modification."

He frowns. "The woman who was chained up behind the black king was this rings original user. I tried to track her during the fight but it was too late by then, by focusing on recovering the ring first I let her die." He winces as he says it, like the thought pains him. "I... think I see the point. Not many people who got their rings lived long enough to do anything useful with them."

"Yes. Elise is competent and with my help, Durjak will be well. We've already begun organizing the remnants of the RSA -"

"What?"

"The Red Sword Army. We've been sorting them out, sending people home, matching would-be settlers to guides, finding spots to take them. Elise has been moving people around the region and helping them set up settlements on and off, while not here with you. She can do that full time for a bit now."

"Where are you going with this, Emil?"

"I want you to focus on the central batteries and all that stuff related to it. It's more important than this, here. Only you and Nemesis are meant to be here and he cannot be trusted. He is your opposite in every way. That means it's up to you to deal with this, before he tries to and we all suffer for it."

"Everything I know about this comes from them, you realize."

"Yes. Change that. They got this information before, you can too. Why are you even here, Ainsley? You need to go out there and find that last lightsmith before Nemesis does. You need to find out what's going to happen if that artifact fails and you need to focus on fixing yourself. Do I make myself clear?"

He's giving me a wry smile. "Jawohl."

"I know what that means, smart ass."

 

[AverusBlack]

I think I have everything I need here.

I've loaded the subspace pockets of both rings with as much stuff as I can think of that might come in helpful. The traders in the city were happy for the business, as were the local artisans. I like clothes and while the rings could just fabricate anything I need, this way I can help them while getting a wardrobe and supplies that are more original than just whatever I come up with.

Don't sell yourself short.

I'm exactly as tall as I want to be, thank you. Holding the indigo staff in one hand, I float up from the balcony of my home. I don't really need to say goodbyes; I can always come back here essentially any time I want to. Since I plan to be back regularly, this is more like a prolonged business trip.

Take me where I belong.

Silently, a hole opens in the air next to me, edged with indigo light. I can feel the pull of it through the staff in my hand, not a physical sensation but something in my soul, like an ache in a phantom limb. When I pass through it closes behind me and I find myself in a tundra.

Where am I?

The northern polar ice cap of Terra.

The location appears in my mind relative to the rest of the planet. What am I doing all the way up here? Indigo ring, what's the deal here?

The answer isn't a verbal response in my head like I expected, but a sort of tug in my minds eye to the north-west. I turn my head instinctively, then rise up out of the snow and begin moving in that direction. Give me a topographical map of this area and find me something interesting.

I lower back down as the geography of the area appears in my head. There's nobody alive out here, which is puzzling because I figured the ring would bring me out here to help somebody. I don't know why I'm here and the only interesting thing is a long fissure in the ice. I feel like I'm being shoehorned, a little.

Guess it's time to go explorin'.

Lowering myself down into the fissure is a little harrowing. The rings brought me out here for a good reason and the walls of ice are not going to collapse on me. Even if they did, it wouldn't be enough to stop me. I can always get out. I'm good. No danger here.

Nnnnope.

The bottom of the fissure is jagged and broken but I wasn't expecting a nice, flat ground to trod on anyways. Holding the staff up above my head, I let the glow illuminate the area around me. I can... just about make out something in the ice, a sort of shadow.

I look at the indigo ring on my left hand, then glance at the wall. Putting my hand flat against it I pause a moment to consider. I could probably get through here pretty easily with the blue ring, you only have to hope it'll happen and the ring works for you. But how would I focus my compassion for this?

Oh, you'll think of something.

Mmhmm. Compassion is... the drive to help others. A utility function to kindness, with the kindness itself being the goal, not necessarily the act in of itself. What you're doing doesn't matter so much as how the effort you're making can benefit the most people at once. The urge to protect, to guard. Like... paladins.

Paladins can be pretty crazy though.

So why do I want to get through this wall? Not for the sake of exploring, really. I asked to be taken to where I was needed, which apparently is here. If my role is to be a savior - and the color of these rings leaves few other possibilities - then I need to get through here so I can finish this and get back to helping others.

The ice in my path is just a diversion from my primary purpose. Remove the obstacles.

As indigo light strobes out from both my ring and the staff, the ice is scoured away, flaking and breaking. Rings, what're we doing with this ice?

Purifying it and storing it. It's fresh water, after all.

Ah, good. Good.

There's a void behind the wall of ice, a tunnel winding downwards. Blue ring, lets get a map of this, please.

Unable to comply.

That makes me stop. Why?

Unable to determine. Mostly likely probability is interference this ring cannot detect, such as magic.

Okay. Indigo ring?

Sorry, hon. I got nothing. It's like the ice eats my scans.

Damnit. Okay, guess I'm going in blind. But not vulnerable. Construct armor forms around me, partially made in both colors. Hope and indigo really seem to jive well together. I was pretty sure when I captured the ring that I wouldn't keep it but now... I think... I need to keep it. Not only does it help give me perspective I lacked before, something about it's AI has attuned itself to me. It's mental voice is hauntingly familiar but I don't know whose personality its emulating and every time I ask I get nowhere.

The walls of the tunnel are relatively smooth, like they were cut out with heat. Perfectly round, it's wide enough that I don't think I could touch the walls even if I stretched my arms out in the middle. Hovering my way down through it isn't difficult but I can't help but wonder what the hell would even make a tunnel like this, then ward it. Especially here, out in the middle of nowhere.

I really hope I don't have to fight some kind of boss guardian thing at the end of this.

 

[AverusBlack]

As I descend deeper into the tunnels the light is beginning to fade. It's not long until it runs out and the glow from the indigo staff is all that I have to light my way. The walls of the tunnel are starting to become uneven, widening and jagged in places, parts of the wall out of sight in the relatively weak glow of the staff.

Blue ring, can you do anything to help me see?

Confirmed.

Overlaid across my vision I see a pulse in blue ripple outward from me, tracing out the floor and walls. The tunnel is widening around me but continuing to slope downward slightly, the floor broken in spots. It would be a nightmare to navigate in the dark but since I'm hovering and slowly flying forward to make sure I don't run into something I'm able to skip the trouble of trying to climb over it altogether.

There's an emotional resonance ahead. It feels indigo.

Alright, thank you. Indigo ring, does your personality have a name?

No, not in particular. This personality wasn't a living person. It's based on the projected model a part of your mind created. A personality you thought might fit something else.

What would that be?

The strongest emotional link you had rooted in compassion was for several cats.

What? You're the personality of my cat?

No. I'm an amalgamation personality based on over a dozen impressions of the personalities of animals you once knew.

Why aren't you a family member or something?

The strongest compassion you had was for cats, not people.

...

Oh.

I'm not sure what to think about that. That's... kind of weird but on the other hand, after the last month and a half, my definition of 'weird' has picked the goalposts up and flung them across the horizon, then told me to let it know when I find them.

Alert! There is a spatial distortion as the tunnel continues ahead.

I land on one of the shelves of ice stuck out from the floor, trying to 'see' with the pulses the ring is generating. The ring was right, it's kind of weird, like space is twisted and knotted on itself. Folds in the floor and walls link to each other in ways that shouldn't make sense, the pulses traveling through them and creating strange readings the blue ring is having trouble making sense of in a way to let me see it.

What the actual fuck? Scan.

Unable to comply. Scans remain unable to penetrate the ice walls.

Can you plot a course through this and overlay it across my vision as a path to follow?

The ring answers as a blue thread appears in my vision, shifting around like mist. Plot course and follow. Map the tunnels and create some kind of trail to help us establish a baseline.

On it.

Alright. Something is breaking space-time here. Wait. Scan for temporal distortion.

Discrepancy found. Unable to determine the strength of the distortion.

Well, shit.

As the ring pilots me through an arch in the ice, the tunnel opens up and the rings pulses fall away from me. I stop and turn to look behind me for the mouth of the tunnel.

It's not there.

I fly backwards, following the trail the ring traced out for me. Nothing. It's not there.

What.

I'm just floating in a black void space, the mouth of the tunnel having apparently up and decided to go on fucking vacation or something. I turn around slowly, but it's uniform everywhere I look. Holding the staff behind myself so the light is out of my field of vision, I can see... exactly nothing. I'm not sure what to do.

Then the light comes on and I find myself standing in a building, a modern building, blinking hard in the sudden brightness. I turn where I'm standing, slowly taking it all in. It's the foyer or lobby of an animal shelter and I'm standing in front of the counter. I don't see anybody around, but I can hear the animals.

When I pass across the lobby I don't hear any footfalls. I trail my hand across the glass wall sealing off the first room with cages and my hand passes through it, rippling at the place where it intersects with the glass in a somewhat unnerving way. The sensation is only intensified by the fact that it doesn't feel like anything at all and I feel like it really ought to.

I walk through the glass into the room full of cages and the noise which was muffled before hits me. Meowing on all sides. A woman passes into my field of vision outside of the room, passing through a hallway into the lobby and glancing into the room towards me but not reacting to my presence at all. She looks back and forth at the animals curiously, then shrugs and heads behind the counter.

When I turn to face the cages there's several dozen cats all meowing at me. All of them are meowing at me in particular. It's obvious they can see me somehow, all of them are focused on me. I hold my hands up and I can't help but laugh a little wanly.

"Okay, okay. I get it, you can see me. I don't really understand what's going on either."

One by one the cats actually stop meowing, still focused on me but calming down. Rings, can we make sense of them?

Animal translation on.

Ookay. I point at one of the cages. "Can you understand me now?"

"I'm really hungry!"

"Let me out, I wanna play!"

"C'mooon open the cage, open it open it open it ope-"

"Why am I here? This place is so small! Where's my human?"

"-n it open it open it open it -"

No, stop. Focus on that last one, show me.

The ring is marking two cats, gray tabbies. One is rather large and the other is a bit fat. The ring seems to believe the large one is the others son. I kneel down in front of the cages and unlatch them as the two cats turn to face me.

The large cat sniffs at me, strolling out of the cage. Then he headbutts me.

"I know you!"

"You do?"

"You smell like the big one."

"I don't know who you mean."

"The big one who took care of us when our human vanished. The fat lady didn't want us anymore. She wanted to send us away."

"I'm so sorry." I'm already petting them, laying the staff across my legs to free my hands up to do it. Then I realize I'm petting them. "I don't know how I can touch you without touching the walls. I think I'm meant to find you. Will you come with me?"

As I stand up, the chubby one leans into my leg. The staff in my hands is glowing furiously and I have no trouble at all extending my environmental shield and flight aura to them.

As we start to walk, the building around us melts away into darkness, smooth snowy floor lit in front of us as we continue into whatever is ahead.

 

[AverusBlack]

High above the fields at the foot of the mountains where Durjak lies, a woman cruises the sky with blue wings.

Folding them behind her she dives, freefalling towards the ground like a stone and then opening them at the last moment to swoop towards the ground, coming level before hitting the treeline and skimming above it at a wild speed, turning her downward momentum horizontal and riding it.

The clothing she's wearing is erratic and piecemeal, various bits of different things she's found, scavenged, bartered or stolen. Some of it are colors that don't mix well but have been faded out by travel, time and usage. Her hair is long but close to her scalp in elaborate cornrows shaped into a pattern, something she sometimes spends far more time on than she might admit to others. Her eyes are a bright blue, clashing with her deep, rich complexion. She often gets reactions when people see her eyes. Sometimes good, sometimes bad.

No one has ever told her that sometimes, a sigil can be seen in them.

As she swerves to the side to avoid a particularly large tree she reflects a little on the source of her wings, the pauldrons strapped to her shoulders. Despite the fact they're held there by simple leather belts she's never felt that her weight hung against them. Rather, when she opens the wings, her weight ceases to matter at all. She used to fear heights, but now the sky is freedom and she fears it no more.

As she clears the treeline she swoops in, lazily circling the city to get a good look at it. She's getting a far stronger reaction than usual when people spot her and it gives her pause, unsure if it's a good or bad thing. Sometimes it's a bad thing, if the town is really superstitious and wary of strangers. This place apparently welcomes travelers, but...

Then there's suddenly a green woman - animal? - in front of her and she swerves hard to avoid flying into her, losing control for a moment and dropping in the air, then doing a flip and arresting herself to flap the wings and hover in place, pointing up at the green woman.

"Hey, why'd you fly right in front of me? I almost ran into you!"

She holds her hands up in mock surrender. "Sorry! I thought you were somebody else, at first." The girl blinks when the green woman creates a platform underneath her, allowing her to land, the wings folding and vanishing away. "My name is Elise and I'm a genkit. This is Durjak. Who are you?"

"I am Fela. I heard that there was a great battle here between people using light as tools and weapons, so..."

Elise nods slowly, moving to land on the platform with her. "So you wanted to meet them yourself. Do you know what happened here?"

"Not precisely, no. A large battle of some sort."

"Tell you what. I really, really want to know about those wings of yours, so why don't we trade information?"

Fela nods and sits down on the platform cross legged. "Yes, that sounds good. How are you creating this platfoooooOOOOORM?"

The platform is lowering rapidly towards the ground and she kicks off of it in a mild panic, wings unfurling to catch her in the air as Elise drops down a little further, then looks up and slows the platform. "Sorry! I just wanted to do this on the ground, where I don't have to concentrate." Letting the construct platform dissipate, she matches speed with Fela as they lower to the ground.

"Ah. Which building?"

"The one with the red bricks there, you see it?"

"Yes, I see." Folding her wings she drops, then circles above the building, moving to fly down above the street and land amidst the small space the townsfolk clear for her as she comes down. A moment later, Elise lands next to her, gesturing for Fela to follow.

Inside the tavern she holds the door open for Fela and crosses the room halfway to one of the tables, sitting down. Fela tilts her head as she meanders in to join the woman.

"You're glowing green."

"Yep." She holds up her hand, showing the ring. "Let me guess, you have something that lets you make the wings?"

Sitting down, Fela nods. "Yes, the coverings at my shoulders, here. How did you know?"

"Not the first time we've seen artifacts that mimic the rings. I have a friend with a blue ring who uses a power like yours. We have another person here named Aetius who has an artifact like your shoulder plates, that lets him use green light in a limited way. We saw a weapon that uses red."

Fela nods slowly, looking thoughtful. "I got these from a trader. He claimed he got them from some temple out in the jungle someplace. Gods only know where he meant, it could be anywhere. I didn't really... buy them. He hired me to escort his caravan when we got caught in a storm. Absolutely insisted we try to save some of the cargo and fair enough, he died failing to do it while I didn't." She shrugged. "After, I found some of it and happened to come across the big shiny case he'd been bragging about. Took me about half a day to break it open. I'd hoped it had some kind of food, but instead I got a ticket out of there."

Elise nods along, tapping the table as she listens. "Right now, my friend isn't here. He's off on a... unrelated mission. If you're willing to let us study your shoulder plates, you're welcome to stay and talk to him about them when he gets back. How far did you travel to get here?"

"A very long way. I didn't fly directly here, but had to bounce around to various places to either make money or fulfill obligations. I take giving my word very seriously."

"You're a traveler?"

"More of an adventurer."

Elise lights up. "Brilliant! How would you like a job?"

 

[AverusBlack]

I look upon my work and know that it is good.

Below me the entire region burns. The cities burn, the farms burn, the people burn. As I watch, a flame elemental fifteen feet tall, shaped like a minotaur, marches through the ruins of what was once a city, leaving molten slag in its wake. My armies have long since retreated. The sky itself is red, the fires so widespread that the smoke has turned it to blood.

As I hear a cracking I turn my head, watching the ruins of a skyscraper lose its integrity as the elemental passes by. It begins to lean, then slowly falls, toppling over and breaking apart when it hits the ground. I can see the shockwave ripple outward, destroying other things in its wake.

Ash falls around me like snow, but it doesn't touch me. The environmental shield makes sure of that.

Flying forward, I pass out of flaming desolation into another kind of desolation. As I race across the sky the smoke doesn't clear, it's too widespread for that. I can see it from orbit. But the flames in this area get left behind and I pass over what's been left in their wake. The burnt ground, the bare land, skeletons of trees and creatures and people. The weak and the frail, the old and the injured.

When I land among the encampment the sentries know better than to question my presence or try to stop me. Not since I started torturing the worst of the prisoners. There's a certain schadenfreude to breaking somebody who relished causing pain themselves, a poetic justice. Really, that's what I'm all about these days.

I don't head for the senior staff. I don't really feel like talking to them, just sort of basking for the moment. As I pass by they try to look busy, useful. Doing their best to make sure my attention doesn't fall on them.

Punishing the wicked really does give no rest. Of all the darkness I've found on this hell world, nothing is worse than victimizing the weak. The weak have their uses, after all. In large numbers. You can't have a civilization without a population and certainly nothing that makes it here is anything like an empire builder. I've lost count of the number of demons I've destroyed. The abominations, the things that spirits become when left alone in deep space for too long. Nightmares escaped from the Dream, the worst of the wicked. I could have stayed on one of the other worlds, but this place feels more like home than they do.

Carving out a territory, building it up and destroying anything capable of challenging me has been pretty fun, but I think it's time that I prioritize things a little.

Letting Ainsley run himself in circles and then stepping in to save his little pets was an annoying distraction, but so long as he's doing that he's not bothering with me. The deaths from this region will fuel things nicely. Few sources of magic are stronger than souls and we've reaped enough now that we're almost ready for the final push.

I wonder what it'll look like? Feel like? It's not every day you shatter reality, after all.

Standing with my arms folded behind my back I watch the troops around us lining up into formation, preparing to move out. It would have been nice to have proper vehicles, but enchanted ones will have to do. The limitations on them mean I can't just load them all into a few and move them all at once but several hundred small transports is a lot better than several thousand people having to walk around place to place. When they spot my glow they hurry up just a little. My reputation precedes me. Pleasing.

Turning away from them I transition and appear in the middle of the command tent.

"My lord."

"How close are we?"

"Perhaps nine tenths of the way. A few thousand more deaths. But -"

"Go on. Explain."

"The mages, my lord. Channeling that many souls at once has, um... burnt them out, slightly."

"How slightly?"

"I believe we're still mopping two of them off the floor. The others have been chained to the wall until they stop screaming."

"Only two this time? Good. That's progress."

"Indeed, my lord." As I pass across the room to sit down in what isn't a throne, but a definite seat of authority, Highlord circles the room, pacing. I asked what his name was, once. He told me it wasn't his anymore. Fucking Sanrome.

"Well, we'll give them a little time before the final push, then. Tell me, given the choice, who would you visit to harvest?"

"With the destruction of the entire City of Tears, the demon lords will no doubt want blood. They will ride for us now. It may be better to simply kill them now, before they're in a position to do that."

"Demon souls are lousy for magic, why would we do that?"

"Ah, that's true. Their mortal servants, on the other hand... Many Sanrome have been seduced by them. It would be fitting to end the campaign with the extermination of traitors, don't you think?"

"Trying to permanently kill the demon lords is pointless. I suppose taking their toys away would at least delay them for a bit. We're going to have to babysit this region and make sure they never rise to power again, aren't we?"

"For a time."

"Mmm. Yes. For a time."

But not a long one.

 

[AverusBlack]

"Explore!"

"No!" As we pass through the uneven breaks in the ice, crevices spread out too small for me to fit inside, but wide enough for them. "Danger! Stay with us!"

I heh softly when Holly - the mother - bats her son in the side of the head with a paw. He's so much larger than her, but clearly doesn't see himself that way. Bowing his head he trots after us, passing by the cracks he wanted to look inside. When we pass through a narrow opening forming a zig-zag, there's light up ahead, but the passage narrows and I'm forced to turn sideways and sidestep my way through.

Ducking sideways under a narrow space I grab the ledge above, finding a handhold and swinging my lower body through, followed quickly by the two cats. Jay is shaking his paws out. "Hate snow."

"I... don't think it'll be a problem for long." The ice wall ahead of us is broken by another wall of metal, partially obscuring an opening too small for me to pass through. "Blue ring, scan this for me. What are we looking at?"

A three dimensional, partially transparent construct map is generated in the air in front of me. Both of the cats startle at the same time, jumping backwards. "It's okay. I can make things. No danger."

"No danger?"

"Not from me. I like you."

Jay hesitates for a moment, then trots back over to me and leans into my leg. "Good."

The map shows the tunnel we passed through since meeting the cats, but the rest behind it cuts off. In front of us it shows a hollowed out space filled with rooms and large sections of technology, dead space in the structure where large systems are installed. The opening in front of and below the surface we're standing on appears to be something like an entrance, maybe a personnel bay or the access point through the ice.

Whatever it is, it's huge.

The ring begins to remove the ice, flickers of blue light shimmering over its surface like light refracting through water as the surface lowers down and flakes away, vanishing in blue flickers as the ring stores and purifies the water. The three of us slide down, using my flight aura to stabilize us. Not that they really need it.

As we head into the corridors the ice doesn't seem to have penetrated in very far. They're relatively wide, wide enough for three people to walk abreast, so Jay and Holly are spreading out a little to sniff around as I take my time meandering down the corridor.

"I wonder what this place is supposed to be?"

"Old smell funny smell. Dust and ice."

I look down at Holly. "Old, huh?"

"Weird human place. Don't trust."

"No, I don't either. Let's be cautious as we look around."

"Good human. Holly keep you."

That makes me chuckle. I don't think it's for the same reasons, really. That spatial distortion we encountered before has me wary about where or when we are. Rings, got anything for me?

A power source lies approximately three hundred and twenty meters behind us. However, all system feeds appear to lead to the front of the ship, nearly two hundred meters ahead. No signs of life so far. The air is at least 30 years old.

This structure was clearly built with purpose and focus. The remaining power implies there may be something still here.

Yes, I hope so as well. As we come to a join in the corridor between a parallel corridor and the one ahead, I run a quick scan for anything like a nearby computer terminal. Several quickly dot up, but none of them appear functional. Vexing.

Doorways in the corridor appear sealed and I'm not inclined to go poking inside them just yet. Not if I can find out everything from the control room ahead. The two cats have taken to following closely behind me and I don't think they like this place anymore than I do.

As we come up to the end of the corridor it leads out into a wider space which seems to be some kind of mechanical bay. An entire factory line laying dormant. Blue ring?

Scan complete. Six partially constructed humanoids of robotic origin. One of the models is nearly complete. They appear to be in various stages, with this last one stopped just before the final steps.

Interesting. Their computer systems?

Quantum based. It may be possible to extrapolate the designs and create new computer systems based on them.

That's what I like to hear. I'm sure the genkits will be pleased by it too. Jay hops up on one of the belts, knocking a hand off onto the floor. "What's this?"

It hits the deck with a loud clang and both him and Holly startle again, Jay falling to the ground and Holly springing upwards. All three of us look around warily, prepared for something to jump out at us at the disturbance. When nothing presents itself, Holly and I glare at Jay.

"Humans have a story about a character named Pippin who did that once. It didn't end well. Let's not, okay?"

"Jay sorry. Pickups?"

I tilt my head a moment, trying to work out what he means. Then I get it and lean down, picking him up and letting him lean into my shoulder with my hand under his feet while Holly walks with us.

"Funny door." Holly sniffs at what I think might be the control room entrance, which appears to be an iris door. She quickly loses interest, hovering back to Jay to lick him in the head for... cat reasons, I dunno. As I approach the door I run my finger along one of the seams, tapping the head of the indigo staff against it thoughtfully. What's stopping me from opening this door?

This section does not have power routed to it.

Ah. Well, go on, do the thing, then.

Thing in progress.

Can I make up a personality for that ring too?

I bow my head and smile as the ring works on the door, providing a local power supply and then forcing the mechanics of it open. The door opens with a hard, repeated clanking as the iris unwinds, sounding a little grindy as the door finishes and stops in its fully open position.

Let's see what we're dealing with, here.

 

[AverusBlack]

This... isn't the bridge.

When we passed through the door we stepped into a field. Turning I look behind myself and I can... sort of... make out the door but it's edges are burning in a way that hurts to look at and the effect is static. Even as I watch it shrinks and fades out, leaving more empty field behind us.

"Door broken?" Holly is looking too, using my flight borrowed flight aura to hover at my shoulder while I hold Jay.

"Not me!" I rub under Jay's chin and begin walking. "No, not you. I don't really understand what's going on either."

The weather is fairly warm but the sky is overcast above us, scattering the light. Stretching out in front of us, wild wheat and barley and grass ripples in the wind as it passes around us, leaving waves in the grass that flicker like mirages at the edge of my vision. The air itself smells green and heavy in the way that the air kind of does just before or after a storm. Probably before, judging from the way the clouds look.

"Rain smell wet smell. Don't like wet. No wet?"

"Not if I can help it, no." As we round the tree's, the first signs of civilization appear. A house in the distance.

Wait.

I know that farm house.

I stop up short, causing both of the cats to look at me in mild alarm as my body language suddenly changes. Leaning down I put Jay down carefully. "I think I might have been here before, but... I don't know what this is, so stay close."

"Stay close." I pick it up from Jay as I begin walking again but don't really hear it. Ring, scan everything. Is this real?

"This is real, yes. There was an anomaly as we passed through the doorway but when I scanned the event horizon, the scans returned errors."

"What that?" Jay is looking up at me.

"My ring talks sometimes."

"That's weird."

"You're a talking cat."

"You're a glowing human."

... "...Point taken. Is there anybody inside the house?"

"No. It appears to be locked and secured for the long term. Judging from the dust inside, it has been several weeks since anybody was here."

I frown. Well, obviously I'm going to go in and look around, then. But what the hell?

Well, since nobody is here, might as well get on with it. All three of us rise off the ground and fly forward. Holly just sort of hovers next to me but Jay keeps doing a dogpaddle mid-air like he thinks he's swimming and doesn't stop doing it until we land on the grass again, just outside the house.

"You good, dude?"

"Air swim fun!" He's already sniffing around the edges of the house though, investigating.

"Don't go too far, stay with us." Ring, open this house to me.

Blue filaments snake their way into the lock of the heavy shutter covering the door, accompanied by another click behind it as the ring unlocks the door itself. Leaning down I lift the shutter up, then open the door and walk in, both of the cats following me. This house is old. The wood looks old as hell and the structure has obviously been repaired before. Passing through a hallway lined with firewood we come out into a small anteroom with coat hangers and a pair of spare boots with an open door into what appears to be a kitchen on the right, joined with a dining room and a massive table capable of sitting at least ten people. On the other side of the room across from us is a short hallway with stairs leading up to the left and what seems to be a living room on the far side of the house. The door we just exited shares a wall with another door and as I pass through it I find myself stepping down into a large den with a wood fire oven, of all things. This house really is old.

As I approach the stove I rise up from the ground, reaching up to touch a tapestry hanging on the wall behind it. Burlap but stained with what might be paint, shapes painted across it. Symbols and stamps of images. A cows skull, corn, a bowl and pestle, abstract designs.

Something about it feels achingly familiar. A wave of grief, of all things, suddenly hits me as I pull the tapestry from the wall, rolling it up.

As I do there's a whuff sound from around the corner of the wall, light flickering. Both of the cats run to me and as I pass by them, I see the flames. They're spreading quickly, wildly. Subspacing the tapestry I generate a construct ram and smash the window out, pulling the two cats to me and passing through it backwards as the flames crawl towards us. But no, not today.

As we reach the outside of the house I find the weather has changed completely. So has the season, for that matter. No longer summer, snow covers the ground around us and on the other side of the house, two men have their backs to us, coughing as they stumble out of the houses front door, where the living room was.

Then a third man comes bursting out of the back door and I have just enough time to catch a glimpse of his face before I blink and it's gone.

All of it. The field, the house, everything. We're standing on the other side of the iris door, metal surrounding us again, wall panels torn open and a hundred conduits rerouted across the bridge to what would be the captains chair on a human ship. I turn around, looking behind us, then forward again. Ring, do we still have the tapestry?

Confirmed.

"Me confused." Holly says what I'm thinking, sitting down next to me and Jay.

"Yeah. So am I."

What the fuck is going on here?

 

[AverusBlack]

The bridge stretches out before us, a rectangular room with a lowered floor around a slightly raised platform for the commanding officer. The edges of everything look slightly curved with no hard corners anywhere, broken by lines for what are clearly shaped panels which can be removed for maintenance. The control panels themselves appear to be dark, the controls missing due to no power input. Or maybe they're just waiting for someone to come interact with them.

The front of the bridge is defined by a heavily armored and reinforced wall lined by many screens, all of them dead. A couple are showing static or broken colored lines where the screen still has power but is obviously damaged by some kind of impact. Probably debris, judging from all the crap scattered around the floor. Everything looks like it's been beaten to hell, one of the walls slightly buckled inward, held by the reinforcements. The ceiling is slightly buckled too. Probably all the ice.

Both the cats spread out to warily explore the room. Many, many cables have been connected to various panels around the room which have been pulled off to reveal the guts of the hundred of control lines underneath the floor. Somebody jury-rigged everything to the central command chair and as I follow the cats inside, I start to get a picture in my head. There's no bodies here despite all the damage, so either there wasn't much of a crew or somebody cleaned things up. My guess is the latter, judging from all the modifications this place has seen. Somebody spent a lot of time doing this.

The obvious culprit is the corpse still sitting in the command chair. It's still in its suit, or armor, or... I'm not sure if there's a distinction, here. It's obviously an environmental suit but it's also reinforced in places. Space combat suit or something? Not sure. The front visor is transparent and the skull doesn't look human. Blue ring, scan and identify.

Species unlisted. However, the DNA remaining in the skeletal structure bears a resemblance to genkit gene structuring and contains several shared traits with them. Unidentified genetic traits make up about 0.02% of the genome. Specimen also has human genetic markers native to Homo neanderthalensis populations, but not Homo sapiens.

More and more questions. "So kids, what do you think?"

"Metal smells. No soft."

"Heh. Yeah, a bit bare, isn't it?"

"See how good you look after being buried alive, dying and being stuck here for two decades."

I straighten up a little as the voice comes out of nowhere. Ring?

Audio output is being generated by a speaker in the ceiling.

So it's the ship. "Hello there."

"No. No, I am not doing the line, no matter how robotic I sound."

"I'm sorry, what?"

"Nevermind. Who are you and where the hell did you come from?"

"My name is Ainsley. I'm a lightsmith."

"You're a wh-? No, nevermind. It doesn't matter. Listen very carefully, Ainsley. You listening?"

"Yeah?"

"Holly listen."

"Y-? Oh. You have talking animals?"

"You get used to it way faster than you might think."

"Oh-kay then. You three are the first living beings to set foot on this ship in 23 years. I'm the guy in the chair. Was the guy in the chair, I guess. All this you see around you? That was me jury-rigging the ship to interact with my neural interface so I could download my brain into the ships computer core without degradation in the data transfer. If none of that means anything to you, I died and became the ship."

"No, no. I'm comfortable with technology. Okay then. You got a name?"

"Yes, but I haven't thought about it in a long time and now that you're asking I find I'm having some trouble correlating who I was with who I am. It doesn't fit anymore. I'll come up with something later. If I give you instructions, will you help me?"

"Help you do what?"

"Escape. If you're comfortable with technology, it might be possible for you to take the computer core and rig it to something so I can be in a system that isn't trapped in a glacier with no hope of ever getting out."

I actually begin to chuckle at that, smiling and tilting my head down.

"What's so funny?"

"You know what? I'll let it be a mild surprise. First, do you have the full schematics of how this ship ought to be?"

"Yes. Of course. Why?"

"Mind if I have a look?"

"No, I'll reroute some power to the bridge so you can access the main computer. Just leave the partition alone, that's me. Mess with it and I'll lock you out immediately, understand?"

"Don't worry, I'm not trying to hurt you." I hold my hands up in mock surrender. "Really."

Several consoles light up on the far side of the bridge, so I rise up and float over to them while the cats continue to look around. Holly takes a sniff of the spacesuit and recoils a little, shuffling away from it. "Bad smell."

"It's okay, Holly. It won't hurt you. Does imply the environmental suit is leaking, though."

"It wasn't in good shape to begin with. I got banged up a bit on the way in."

Ring? Plunder the computers, but touch nothing of the partition containing whoever-this-is.

Gotcha, boss. Plundering in progress.

The designs for the ship, its computers and all the hundreds of small systems begin to unfold in my mind, making me wince and shake my head.

"No, no, don't make me learn it, just store the information."

"Okay, cutting off data flow. Sorry."

Owww. I rub my temple with my fingertips, letting the staff float in place, fixed in position next to me. I glance at it and resolve to work out how to make it hide like the blue battery, but not right now.

"Unnamed computer voice, here's the deal. I have two supertools. There's a very good chance I can fix you up and free you from the ice while doing it by transmuting the ice into materials to replace and repair you. But what then, hm?" I spread my hands in the assumption it can see me. "You get to have your cake and eat it too. What's your next step after that?"

"I assume you're going to want something."

"Yes and no. I know you mean in the obligation for the favor sort of sense, but that's not what I mean. You're a full blown spaceship. I can think of... a thousand ways you could be helpful to us. You get a crew, we get a ship that can tell us to fuck off if we're being stupid."

"You want to indenture me?"

"No, I want to hire you. Ring, transfer everything we know about Terra to the ships database. Don't scorch their brain doing it, please. They need to be able to make an informed choice, here."

"Electronic brain massage coming up. Here you go."

An indigo packet flicks not from my ring, but from the staff over to the console. There's silence for several seconds while I wait for the ship to process it.

"Is this some kind of joke?"

"Nope. Serious as your situation. This place is insane."

"You understand I'm going to want to verify this."

"Yep."

"And that I want a body back."

"...Uh, okay, but I'm not sure how to do that. It's not like we have a body factory, buddy."

"It doesn't need to be organic. I'm not picky, I just want to be humanoid again. Judging from these files on yourself I'm sure you can come up with something, with sufficient motivation."

"Hm. Alright. No promises but I'll do my best to look into it. Deal?"

"Deal. Provided you can get me out of here, that is."

"Heh heh heh." I rub my hands together, the blue ring taking over my environmental shield completely and dimming out the indigo. "My time to shine."

 

[AverusBlack]

"Alert! Spatial anomalies expanding!" / "Warning! The anomalies are growing!"

I'm focusing on the hope I'll bring to Durjak when I fly back in a huge ship. Of the hope I'm bringing to this ship-mind by freeing them. Security, transport, friendship. Build the temple.

As blue light spreads out from me and begins to repair things the rings are freaking out about the distortions increasing -

Violet sunlight flickers in god rays across purple grass-like plants in a meadow of waist-high camouflage that conceals the feet of the trees lining the borders of the fields with a deep burgandy sky hanging above, framing a dark orange moon that fills the sky even in the daylight.

- while the constructs flicker, interrupted by the breaks as the distortions unfold and writhe like magnetic field lines throughout the ship -

The tunnel is dark and the air isn't very good, smelling of dust and grime and sitting heavy on the chest. The brake dust is so thick on the walls it forms a black layer that paints anything that touches it for even a second. The wooden coverboard over the electrified rail along the right side of the subway tunnel provides a minor comfort in the knowledge that if a train comes, there is a chance to step over it to the ledge against the wall and prevent a gruesome death. It's the mortal risk that makes the subway tunnel so alluring.

- passing over me with a dreamlike quality that's disorienting in how smooth it is. As the rings work to identify the boundaries of the distortions -

The towers rise impossibly high into the sky, forming a citadel-spire that supports the orbital arcology hanging above the planet, millions of points of light from the artificial rings of the planet that block the stars but glitter in their own right.

- and works to try and force the issue by brute forcing physics back to the way it should be. It's eating up a lot of power -

Flashes of places. A molten world with a red sky. Jungle with massive, foot-long insects. Towering husks of dead cities wreathed in plants as the world works to return the hives of man to the dirt.

- but that's what I have two rings for.

Charge at 10% designated warning threshold. Recharge immediately.

A life snuffed out, trapped in isolation with no hope of rescue, trapped in the computer of a ship with no body. You're goddamned right I want to help.

I hold the indigo staff up, the ring on my hand shimmering.

"You can't take the sky from me!"

The ice above the ship shatters as indigo light spreads through the ship, powering it directly, juicing the engines. The head of the staff is glowing blindingly and both the cats are hiding behind the command chair, out of my line of sight. We all feel it as a jerk in the floor when the ship begins to rise -

The ship sheds ice, the rings augmenting my senses as the intense heat of the molten world cracks the ice, the thermal differential snapping it like a glass in a microwave.

- and the ice slides off the hull effortlessly, leaving it slick with meltwater. At the same time, several sensors wink out as they're cooked instantly and the cooling system for the main reactor has a minor frenzy for a few seconds. Then we're above the ground, finally.

"Ship, can you show me the site below?"

"Parts of my sensor grid are missing or destroyed. I'm not certain what happened."

"Neither am I. Ring, show me."

The scene below appears as a construct as the ship's power systems begin to take over for the augmentation the indigo light was providing. With the excess weight of the ice off the ship, staying in the air isn't such a chore for the newly repaired reactionless drives. The crater we broke apart in the ice is writhing, twisting in a way that doesn't look right at all. I can see the ice breaking apart as it folds inwards, the construct struggling to create an image mirroring what's happening before the entire thing fritzes like a CRT monitor that got thumped with one hand, the entire scene changing.

Where the crater and immediate area stood is a hellscape, the crater replaced with a chunk of the molten world we briefly passed through as the rings struggled to correct the distortions long enough for us to get into the air. Already the ice around it is reacting, melting and agitating the lava which has replaced the ground there, billowing steam quickly hiding the sight from prying eyes, but not the ring.

"I don't understand. What happened just now?"

"The rings detected some kind of anomalies strewn throughout you as we were making our way in. There was some weirdness. It's how the cats joined me. We're still not sure what's going on, but if I had to guess... I think a piece of another world just got dropped in here."

"How would you know that?"

"Not the first time I've heard of this happening. Just the first time I've seen and experienced it. I got the impression it's starting to happen more and more, but that was wild." I shake my head. "One more thing I need to look into."

"So. Now what?"

"Now... we plot a course for home." I frown. "Then I need to plan my next move. First things first though." Ring, provide co-ordinates please.

Will do.

A flicker of indigo light from my hand to the computer and the ship begins to turn towards Durjak's direction. I turn and look at the body in the command chair.

"Have you decided on a name?"

"Yes. Call me Lucca."

"Alright. What do you want done with the body?"

"Bury it, if you would. Preferably someplace alive, like a garden. Someplace I can visit when I have a body again."

"I'll do my best to make sure that happens."

"I believe you."

 

[AverusBlack]

Fela sweeps down towards Durjak's walls at the spot where the genkits spiders tanks were concentrated. Blue wings folding to arrest her momentum she brakes hard, then curves the wings slightly to transition into a glide down to the ground, then landing with her hands out at her sides with a gust of wind as she touches the ground and the wings vanish.

"There's another one about four kilometers south-south-west. I can't tell what it's going to be, I can just see the distortion as I pass overhead."

"What does it look like?"

"I'm... not sure how to describe it. Like the light is bending in ways it shouldn't. Like a mirror turned to liquid, distorting the reflection as it..." Fela makes a gesture, struggling for the words.

"Aetius?" Elise turns to look at the tiger over her shoulder where he's sitting on one of the spider tanks. "Take a beacon and go with Fela? Once you two mark it out we can put a scout on it to make sure we get no more surprises." Behind her, Aetius nods, running off the side of the tank and taking to the air before he can hit the ground. A moment later, Fela sweeps the ground in a gust, following.

"Fuck." Hanging her head and turning to look away from the maps, trying to concentrate, Elise has little to stare at. Not enough height here, to start with. The breach in the wall needed to be covered, repaired, but the imps or whatever those things were had taken them by surprise. The loss of one of the spider tanks had been pretty hard but the resulting explosion was worse and she found she struggled to build things with the ring unless she really concentrated.

Concentration is something she's been struggling with.

Taking to the air, she follows the two other fliers, deciding to see for herself what one of these things looked like. When the mass distortions began near the dawn nobody knew what was going on. She still lacks answers and that really bothers her.

She wished Ainsley were back so she didn't have to be in charge anymore.

A flash on the horizon and she speeds up, forming construct armor and having the ring give her targeting data. Some kind of drones are firing at Fela and Aetius and that isn't acceptable.

Transition.

She appears between Fela and some of the ground fire, forming a large construct tower shield between them and focusing on it as hard as she can. Fela swoops down and backwards, retreating as Aetius whips around the side of the shield, coming down on one of the drones and stabbing it with a spear. Kicking it into another drone, the two of them explode as the drones split their attack between him and Elise.

The moment the drones stop focusing her so hard she goes on the offense, chain guns appearing at her forearms as a construct mech forms around her. She begins unloading on the drones as Aetius retreats to draw them into her killing zone, throwing green spears as he flies backwards, impaling some drones, missing others.

"Other side of the ridge! There's some kind of... it's like a patch of machinery! I'm not sure these are even weapons!"

"They feel pretty fucking weapon-y right about now!"

Swooping down, Fela lands inside a furrow in the ground behind them, using it as a makeshift foxhole for cover. "I know but it looks like a mine! It's like somebody dropped a giant strip mine over there, I think these are miners."

"What makes you so sure? Shit!" The drones split, forming a pincer to avoid her single line of attack and Elise is forced to drop the construct mech. Instead she forms a green burning sword, fist tightening on it. Destruction, annihilation. If willpower is the assertion of my individuality, what's the opposite of that?

She misses Fela telling her she saw them collecting ore. Her focus is narrowing as Aetius kites the drones in circles, moving just out of reach while she's distracted. She saw once, in a movie, a man slash a sword and kill a fleet of ships.

In her hand, the sword pulses.

Be unmade.

She raises the gladius, pointing it ahead of her as Aetius draws back, passing behind her with the swarm rising in a wave. Then she moves it to the right, viciously slashing it to her left.

When she does, a paper thin line of destruction follows, unmaking the electron bonds between atoms. A single slash and a flash of green light and 36 drones are bisected, several of them going critical and exploding, causing secondary explosions in their wake.

She can see the others rising up behind them and for a moment, uncertainty gnaws at the back of her mind.

"Get back to town! The two of us can't deal with this alone a-"

The sun goes out.

Looking up, her initial thought is changed to oh shit as a massive ship looms above them, the air around it misting as though the ships hull were freezing or it was made of a fog machine. Parts of the hull look blistered though, making her wonder what the hell happened to it that it looked both half-frozen and cooked at the same time. Then the ground shudders as the ship opens fire and for half a second, Elise is convinced she's about to die.

Then she realizes what the ship is shooting at and her heart sings.

In front of her the swarm is torn apart by burning plasma and some kind of gravity weapon that seems to randomly pick drones and fling them around wildly, smashing them into other drones before switching targets. She can only watch in mild awe as the mining drones are quite literally torn apart in front of her eyes.

A head appears above her ring, Ainsley giving a look. "Hey, what are you waiting for? We've cleared the way and we'll cover you while you shut down that mining factory. We'll keep them busy while you concentrate on breaking into their computers."

Elise nods and begins to move, reforming the burning sword.

Maybe they'll get through this after all.

 

[AverusBlack]

When we lower down from the sky into the Tovari camp, there is music playing of a style I've never heard before. Or at least, I don't recall hearing it. It's not coming from a single place either; rather, various people in the camp are playing instruments in harmony together while still slightly spread out, giving the music a slightly ethereal quality as it changes every time I turn my head. The yurts and temporary placements are spread out across the rolling hillside, framed by a half-circle of trees that stretches from horizon to horizon to warm the feet of the mountain ridges that border Tovalon and Skal apart. As the weather has warmed in the last two months since my arrival, the summer has been kind, here. The meadow grass itself is nearly a foot tall, providing a soft bed under each yurt which doesn't have the benefit of the unfolding wooden platforms that some of them use to avoid the mud.

As the land slopes down away from the trees, the trees themselves thin out with a few determined stragglers dotting the hill all the way down to a large creek which follows the slope of the land, then veers sideways for a couple hundred meters before wiggling it's way further downward. It's this fold in the creek that is attracting the Tovari of the camp who are streaming back and forth in pairs or single to collect water for washing, purification and drinking, cooking, to make tea. A little further down river I can see almost a dozen of them naked in the water, laughing and talking as they wash themselves and their clothes. Business as usual.

I raise my hand to one of the water-collectors while Elise deposits Kuri and Emil next to me, then heads back into the sky to recon the area. She's been restless since I got back, almost eager to disappear for periods of time. I haven't wanted to press her on it, see if she comes around first. I don't know how genkit psychology and human psychology differ and for all I know she's just letting it all out in private or going off to see somebody. Some people handle stress in unpredictable ways.

"Greetings, travelers!" The Tovari in question is a young girl with hair I can only describe as a mane. It's like somebody shocked her with an electrical charge designed to make her hair curly. It's everywhere. I can't even see her ears because of it, though she has a tail that puts me in mind of a raccoon, or perhaps a red panda. A very deep orange-brown aaaand now she's giving me a look because I've been staring.

"Uh, sorry. I've never seen a Tovari like you before. I'm Ainsley the Blue, this is Kurishalia - did I say that right?" A nod from Kuri.

"I'm General Emil of House Tychorus."

The girl blinks. "Oh. Yes, I've heard of you. I thought you'd be taller." She tilts her head at me. "You're human, aren't you?"

I nod. "Yep."

"Poor boy. Humans really got the short end of the stick here." She makes a gesture with her hands, moving her fingers in some kind of warding sign or superstition.

It is a blessing for luck. She is wishing you well.

Ah. "Could you lead us to where Saxali is? I understand that Noah is out and about but I really need to speak to somebody in charge."

"Sure, buuuuut I have one condition."

Emil smiles, looking amused. "What's that?"

"I wanna come with you!"

I nod at that, forming a small construct platform for us to step on. Kuri hops up lightly, then curls her tail under her own butt and sits on it. Cheater.

"Sure, if Saxali doesn't mind you sitting in. What's your name?"

"Tiala! Um, no, that's not what I meant though." She climbs up on the platform, looking a little unsure at first, then hopping up and down in place a couple times once she's on. Damn, that's distracting. Tovari don't believe in bras, apparently.

I clear my throat when Emil pats me on the back, trying to hide his amusement as he does it. "Ah, what did you mean, then?"

"I want to come with you. As in, away from the camp. I don't have a lotta stuff, I can just pack up and go. Take maybe an hour to get it all ready."

"If you're so eager to leave, why not go before now?" Emil tilts his head at her.

"Nothing really interesting to draw me. You wander around awhile, everything starts kinda looking the same. I wanna see something new, but traveling alone is pretty dangerous. Especially now."

I nod. "Especially now. Have the disturbances been bad in Tovalon?"

"Kinda. Yes and no. The elements really take exception to anything industrial and we've had two towns like that show up. One of them didn't have any weapons and only wanted to play nice when we showed up but the other tried to fight us off, fight everyone off. They started a fire... It didn't end well for them." She sounds sad about it.

Kuri hugs her from behind and she smiles faintly, clearly glad for the contact. "Nothing endangering this camp?"

"No, not yet." We're getting pointed at and calls are going out as we pass overhead, but I'm not going particularly fast either. Tiala has probably never flown before and first-timers don't seem to take well to it.

"You're lucky, then. Or maybe just better at keeping the peace in your territory, I'm not sure."

"Saxali will know more than I do." She pffts. "I'm just a herders daughter, nobody tells me anything cool."

"You'd have noticed this." Emil rumbles, sounding grim. "The patches destroy everything around them. They build up, the air gets... wavy." He moves his hand side to side. "The light moves oddly. If you see that? Run. Run fast, don't stop until you can't run anymore. Don't grab your things, just get out."

"It's really that bad?"

"We had a huge automated factory show up near our town and nearly overrun it just trying to 'salvage' our stuff. They didn't seem to mind that we were still using it. In another spot, part of a molten world got dropped in. It's changed weather patterns across that whole region, which only adds to what's going on. Lucky something like that hasn't happened to us, actually." He grimaces.

"While you're packing your things up, spread the word for us. About the distortions, how little time there is to escape. One of them dropped a ninety-eight foot deep patch of ocean nearly a thousand square feet wide in a slash across a chunk of desert and washed out part of a whole ecosystem. Things are really a mess right now and we're trying, but we can only be in so many places at once."

Tiala is looking distinctly unsettled, but nods. "Okay. I will."

"You still sure you want to come with us?"

"Yes."

Emil chuckles. "Heh, I like this kid." He ruffles Tiala's hair, making her knock his hand away with a smile. "You got balls, kid."

"That's a weird name for my boobs, but... thanks?"

 

[AverusBlack]

Saxali's tent is smaller than the one she shared with Noah but I get the sense it's not a diminution of her status in any way. The whole thing sits on a wooden platform that smells of pine and wood varnish, clearly fresh and in good condition. Perhaps made specifically for this trip, even. Rugs cover the floor and where the wall coverings would usually enclose the space, she has unfolded the walls of the tent with a simple hinge mechanism that locks in place, providing shelter from the elements but letting the air flow freely through the tent during the warm summer days. Fresh plants in small grow beds surround the tent and sit on almost every surface, examples of plants I've never seen before but have clearly been collected from far and wide. It seems the kitty queen has a green thumb.

The lady herself is sitting cross legged on a large, soft-looking cushion-slash-seat large enough for her to sprawl out on if she wanted to. Several smaller versions of it are scattered around the tent, brought out for the visit so we'd have a place to sit.

"Ainsley, Kurishalia, welcome." I nod deferentially to Saxali as Kuri breaks out into a big dumb grin next to me.

"You remembered the whole thing! No one ever does that." She looks so pleased about that for some reason.

It gets a smile out of Saxali too. "Elise, did you lose your ring?"

That takes Emil aback a moment, making him blink. "Ah... I'm not Elise." The moment he speaks Saxali winces at her own error, his voice clearly different. "I'm General Emil. I'm actually her father."

"I'm very sorry. I only met her the one occasion and she left quite an impression."

Emil chuckles quietly. "Yeah, she does that."

"Please, sit with me. I was about to take my midday meal and I'd be pleased for the company if you'd join me. I dislike eating alone." She gestures at the seat, tilting her head at Tiala behind us. "Yes?"

I nod, moving to sit down with Emil at my right and Kuri at my left. "Ah, she's with us. Saxali, meet Tiala. She was kind enough to give us directions here and will be visiting Durjak after for a bit."

Saxali bows her head slightly as Tiala bows lower and tries not to look nervous. Saxali moves over to her and puts a hand on her shoulder. "It's okay, I don't bite. Anybody good enough for Ainsley and his clan are welcome here as equals. Sit with us."

That seems to get through to Tiala, whose tail visibly begins to un-puff itself as she moves to sit down. When she thinks we're not looking she tries to smooth it down with her hands, pulling it around the side of her hip and fussing with it nervously.

A pair of Tovari with horns - gazelles, perhaps? Puts me in mind of them - and curled ears enter from the open sides, both of them wearing rich blue robes with silver trim. Each is carrying trays, setting them on the rugs in front of us. Each carries a variety of finger-food, small sandwiches and meat buns, breaded bird meat, vegetable wraps and something that reminds me a little bit of eggrolls. The two make their way back out quickly as Saxali thanks them quietly, then turns her attention to us.

"Usually it's customary to make small talk for awhile, inquire about family or friends, perhaps trade some ideas." Reaching forward, she picks up one of he rolls, holding it a moment. "However, given what's going on, I think it might be a good idea to break custom and get right down to things."

Emil tilts his head. "I mean no disrespect to you or your hospitality when I ask this, but if that's the case, why sit and take our time eating as we talk? Though admittedly this all looks and smells very good." The bird meat has his attention. Target locked, commence feeding protocol.

Saxali takes a moment to swallow her food, putting her hand in front of her mouth and then lowering it to speak. "Well, I'm hungry, of course. But mainly it's because I remember Ainsley eating almost automatically, despite the looks Kuri was giving him."

That gets me a nudge from my left, but Kuri is still smiling at Saxali and apparently pretending she didn't do that.

Emil nods. "Ah. Yes, that makes sense. I suppose even during insanity one has to stop and eat once in awhile."

"Just so." She gestures at Tiala who is just sort of staring at all the food. "Yes, it's okay. You can have at it."

Tiala nods and nicks several different things, chowing down on them hard. Kuri is kind of eyeballing her now but she doesn't seem to notice, too busy enjoying the rich food. Though the fact her tail is wagging is kind of cute.

"I assume Noah is out trying to handle things?"

"You would assume correctly, yes. My husband is many things, stubborn chief among them. He rather insisted on making a personal appearance to some of the places that have been effected."

"How bad is it here?"

"The elements work to protect us. They've spent enough time entrenched here that they kind of seep into their chosen places, anchor them. We've noticed that areas rich in... I'm not sure what to call it. Spiritual energy? Pressure? Magic?" She makes a dismissive gesture. "I think you take my meaning. These places are harder to break the way your region is breaking. I have no idea how the eastern tovalon is handling it but they're welcome to keep handling it."

"Mostly we wanted to make sure the worst of the fires here weren't about to overwhelm you." Kuri's leaning on her own tail like a cushion, taking her time picking things out and then making them disappear with preternatural speed and enthusiasm. "We'll check on Skal next. That might take some time so we came here first."

"Also, this." Emil digs out the tiny communicator he brought with him. "Radio only works so far and we don't have satellites, but we do have these. They use something called quantum entanglement to duplicate the vibrations used to make noises. Short version, you press this, talk into it, the one we have imitates speech. It won't sound like us, the noise it makes sounds a little metallic, but it's understandable and it works at stupidly long ranges."

Saxali takes it from him, turning it over in her hands. "This will be highly useful. To call for aid?"

I nod. "Or just to talk, or call our attention to something. Elise is out doing a patrol around the region right now to look for anything new popping up while we're sitting here talking, by the way."

"Then I'll have to make sure that my people prepare a meal for you to bring to her. It's the least I can do."

"I'm sure she'll appreciate that. Skal requires... that you brace yourself first."

 

[AverusBlack]

In the beginning, I thought that I'd never really get used to the ring. I've come to the point of using it for lots of things, even mundane things. The blue ring could let me expand my human limitations in a way that let me do things like stay awake for days and days. Since I tend to work alone or with Elise - who has as few limitations as I do, though her focus could use some work sometimes - I sometimes forget things like eating, sleeping, resting between periods of physical exertion. The ring could always just reset me if I hoped hard enough for it, so maxing myself out to accomplish the goal I'd set for myself wasn't too much of a problem in the little downtime I got.

Which is how I ended up forgetting that while Elise and I can go all day, all night and all day again... Emil, Kuri and Tiala still need to sleep. A reminder that Kuri pointedly gave me by hitting me with her tail and asking when we were going to nap. I'm loathe to sit in one place for the entire night when there's people I could be inspiring and helping but after getting double-teamed by the Kuri/Emil debate firing squad, I finally agreed to 'stop for five fucking minutes and stay in one place for six'. Emil has a way with words.

While those three sleep in the camp we set up, Elise and I are up on a large boulder overlooking the camp a short travel from where the swamps of Tovalon that border into Skal begin. None of us wanted to deal with the bugs. So, so many bugs.

In front of me, Elise is focusing on creating a green sigil construct in front of herself about the size of a dinner plate. It slowly rotates in place, probably just so the motion makes it easier for her to focus on it.

"You can feel it when I make constructs?"

I run my hand along the indigo staff in my lap, fingertips brushing it. The texture is like polished stone or perhaps metal, it's difficult to tell. Indigo tron lines go up and down the main body of the staff, which is about three inches thick and evenly cylindrical with embellishment at the handle with a texture that reminds me of a bike handle. The head of it burns with indigo light, the indigo sigil shaped out of the stone-metal into a disc about two inches thick at the middle. It's partially transparent, like tinted glass, the indigo light inside glittering and shimmering through it brightly while still somehow giving the impression that its raw power is muted or shielded somehow. The indigo inside it burns in the shape of its sigil, reinforcing the shaping of the head of the staff to give the sigil an intense back-glow with a shimmer when you look at it straight-on.

I nod. "Almost like when we align the green and blue rings. When we do that, your focus bleeds through the connection and both of us are strengthened. You've felt the way my hope bolsters your constructs, yeah?"

"Of course."

"For me, it almost feels like I could make a green construct, but when I've tried it, it didn't work. The touch of green helps me focus my hope. Now it feels... When you make a green construct, how do you focus your will?"

"I'm asserting myself through it. Self-actualization towards whatever goal I've set for myself. I am my resolve, I just... kind of demand the universe make my constructs because my constructs are an extension of myself."

Closing my eyes, I try to focus. Willpower, willpower...

Wait, am I being stupid?

If green is the color of stubbornness... Ah. I think I get it now. That feeling when you just decide to do it yourself.

The head of the indigo staff flickers, the color of the light inside changing as I tap into the green light through it. Elise sits up a little straighter as I create a sigil mirror to her own, staring at it. Maintain. Maintain. Maintain. This is taking a lot of my concentration. After about ten seconds my brain drifts and the construct collapses.

Elise dismisses her own sigil, waving it away. "I felt that."

"Did you? That was really hard to make. How do you focus like that?"

"I don't think I'm struggling with it as much as you seem to and honestly? I'm not sure I'm that great at it." She rubs her chin thoughtfully. "Maybe it's more difficult for you because of how you did it? How did you do that, anyways?"

"When you use your ring I can feel an... echo, I guess? Of it. Through the indigo staff. It doesn't happen when I have the staff in subspace though."

"Do you think the staff is like one of those glow weapons we encountered?"

I open my mouth, then close it again, thinking. Could it be? "Maybe? It behaves like the blue battery does, kind of. It's not the same, the blue one doesn't give me the sense of a bottomless well to draw from the way the indigo staff does. With the blue ring I have to worry about power requirements, but with the staff I feel like I'm channeling the light directly through myself to the ring as I use it. Like the difference between a battery and having a plug in the wall, kind of."

"Can I?" She gestures at the indigo staff and I nod, letting Elise pick it up. The moment she does, the green in her eyes changes to indigo and she gasps. "Powers above, Ainsley. You never told me it would be beautiful."

I blink at that. "I don't understand."

"I..." She's staring into the head of the staff, trailing off. Staring. I can see the moment she starts to weep. "I was so wrong." She almost shoves the staff back at me, turning her head away to hide her face, clearly shook up.

"Are you alright?"

"How do you stand that?" I can hear the strain in her voice. "All I could feel was... was... this overwhelming empathy, like I was losing part of myself. Crushing guilt for..." She shakes her head again. "Regrets."

"I don't know. I just... am, I guess. I don't think it effects me like it does you."

She sniffles a little, then turns back to face me. "Don't you ever second guess yourself?"

I shrug, putting the staff back in my lap. "No. But... I don't think I'm quite right, either. I really struggle to focus on emotions that aren't compassion or hope."

Elise pauses for a moment, then slips the ring off her finger, holding it out to me. "Put it on."

"Elise, no -"

"Shut up." She puts it in my hand, then closes my fingers over it, holding my hand between both of hers. "You're not keeping it. I just want to test something."

I open my mouth, then close it and bow my head a little. Opening my hand, I slip the green ring on the middle finger of my right hand, next to the blue -

Connection damaged. Attempting to compensate.

Alert! Green light is altering your mental network!

Warning! The green ring is changing how you think!

I look down at my hands and blink slowly. I can feel... something... yes. Like recapturing the feeling of a memory and having a moment of déjà vu, I can feel my ability to focus slide back into place as the ring acts as a focusing lense to the green light.

"Willpower." The construct sigil I create flicks into place easily, the mental image staying in my minds eye with so much less effort. I maintain it for a few seconds, then shut the construct down and pull the ring off. As soon as I do it flicks back to Elise, who holds up a hand and calls it to herself.

She slips her ring back on, flexing her hand. "Try now." She creates another construct, this time of a cartoon character I don't recognize.

"Okay." Recapture the feeling... "Get out here."

When the construct version of Holly appears I can't help but smile.

Elise nods. "Just like I thought. You try a ring on, you get a feel for it."

"No, Elise." She looks at me quizzically. "No, this is much, much more than that."

I can fix myself.

It's possible.

I just...

I just have to somehow convince the others to let me put their rings on. Or take it from them by force in order to fix myself.

I'm not sure how bad I feel about the second one when I could be whole again.

 

[AverusBlack]

Skal.

The clearing we've landed in is less of an open field and more of a slightly less dense mass of the trees. "Are you sure this is the place, Kuri?"

"Yes." She nods firmly. "It is."

The trees around us are gnarled and twisted, as though they fought each other to grow. Some of them appear to be several massive vines braided together to form a trunk with branches that spread vines and creepers hanging above on almost every surface, adding to the density of the foliage as they make their own leaves to compete for their space in the light. The humidity would be oppressive if not for Elise and I providing environmental protection to all of us, a precaution Kuri recommended lest we 'accidentally touch anything we shouldn't'.

Apparently some of the flora around here gets really excitable about catching anything that doesn't move fast enough to get out of the way. Carnivorous trees. What a delight.

That's to say nothing of the predatory and non-predatory insect species and their defense and offenses, some of them as territorial as angry wasps. Others that are less dangerous but operate in colonies of millions in hives buried in the roots of trees capable of being spread out over distances that can be measured in kilometers. Parts of Skal are wholly unexplored simply because none of the Skal who live there would plausibly survive the effort to go have a look.

Then there's the parasites, which the Skal themselves regularly struggle with and part of why their shamans are so damned important. It's the shamans and their rituals and magic that keep the Skal from being literally eaten alive and capable of forming any kind of society. Tropical diseases, parasites, predation, food security, metal, decent wood (because of course only some of the trees here can be used for building, we're on nightmare mode, after all).

When I asked if Kuri had ever heard of Australia, she told me she hasn't tried a lot of genkit food.

Needless to say we're a bit reliant on Kuri to not wander blindly into some kind of death trap. Or worse. The environmental shields will definitely be staying on.

The trees we're facing have been grown and shaped into the mouth of a green tunnel which leads downwards to stone steps, more of the creeper vines lining its walls and rimming the entrance with green leaves and bright blue-and-white flowers. Following Kuri we head inside, ducking a little to fit into the tunnel due to it clearly being made for Skal with no consideration for us tall people. Starting to get Gandalf-hanging-out-with-Bilbo vibes here.

When we emerge into a large, carved anteroom almost tall enough for us to stand upright, there are several Skal who are clearly some kind of mustelids. If I had to guess, I'd say badger or wolverine. They jump to their feet the moment they see us and grab weapons at right about the same time they really get a look at Kuri and realize what she is. The weapons don't get put down but are pointed away, several of them glowering at us and not looking at Kuri at all as one of them rumbles at her.

"Shaman, why do you bring outsiders to our den? It's their kind who are making war with the forest, their kind hunting us. We'd have an explanation. Your standing protects you, but you bring enemies to our home."

Kuri shakes her head. "Different kind of outsiders. Are you like the wolf clans in the plains, hm?" That makes the badgers blink. "Or my own people, south at the coast? Or the Diving Eyes clan, who openly trade with ships?" She shrugs. "It's the same with outsiders. Lots of different kinds."

The badgerine or... I need to ask what these peoples names for themselves are. He seems a little taken aback by that, looking displeased. "You haven't answered me. Why?"

"They're here to help stop the things that are changing parts of the land."

"Are you telling me they're responsible for...?!"

"No." She frowns. "You're being foolish." That makes the badgerine hang his head. "They have the power to do something about it and want to. They don't even want anything in return except good relations. You will show the proper respect."

"Yes, shaman." He even sounds humbled. Damn. Stepping back and away from Kuri, what I think is one of their women touches the badgerine on the shoulder, stepping around and in front of him to take his place.

"Our apologies, shaman. The days have been long and bloody. It strains us in ways we're not accustomed to."

Kuri nods. "I know. This is Ainsley, Elise and Emil." She points to us each in turn. "Their names are short but they're surprisingly powerful and cunning. Each of them could defeat every single one of you in single combat, or simply all at the same time to make a point." She gestures at herself. "I'm glad they're on our side. Now, tell us where the worst of it is."

"Allasfere is gone."

"What do you mean, gone?" I can't help but pipe up, tilting my head.

There's some murmuring among them when I pipe up in their own language and the girl speaking to us glances around uneasily. "It is no longer there. One of the... things... tore out part of the mountain and replaced it with some kind of yellow cloud, it's said. Allasfere itself was drowned in the cloud as it spread out. Some escaped, but the forest..."

Kuri nods. "The forest."

"We learned this from a group of outsiders who escaped the city before the second disaster struck it. They had been in a sealed chamber when the cloud blew through. It smelled like rotten eggs." She makes a face. "Its stink spread across everything for almost a full day. When they escaped the city, they left by the travelers routes and could still see the face of it when some kind of crystal grew up and out of the face of the city, shattering it. Then it died."

"Died?"

"That's how they described it. It glowed bright green until it stopped growing and then just... died."

We look at each other for a moment, then back at the badgerine. "The others?"

"A part of the forest where the cheetahs clan grounds lay is now a wasteland. Bare, dead earth made of red sand. Their people who were spread across the plains are gathering to the south-west almost two days travel on foot, screaming for the blood of whoever did this."

Kuri sighs. "Their shaman?"

"Gone."

"Well that's a problem."

I touch Kuri's shoulder, leaning forward a little to look her in the eye. "Why is that?"

"The cheetahs are hunter nomads who raid. Usually not much of a problem if you're aware of them being a threat and are on the lookout for them. They attack in small numbers, sometimes pairs but usually alone. A large number of them suddenly deciding to band together means a huge mass of meat eaters looking for food. How do you think that's going to go, Ainsley?"

I stop for a moment, thinking about it.

... "Well. That's a problem."

Elise nods. "Let's go do something about it."

 

[AverusBlack]

Mimi Liara is pretty certain she's going to die. She's also pretty certain that she'll do it being useful so that nobody can write on her epitaph something like, 'went out like a little bitch'. It's a little difficult to see in the red light the emergency lights are providing but she's doing the best she can.

"Fuck, fuck. Fuckfuckfuckfuck."

The others are already out. When things started going sideways they gave the evacuation order but she knew that if they did that then the damn gateway would overload and none of them knew what would happen then. They were playing with technology so far beyond them it was almost unspeakable and she'd been making noise for months about how goddamned stupid it was to be running any of this inside the city, nevermind the question of whether they should be doing it at all.

But no, Tychorus had to have their way. It had to be protected by the city because the city is obviously the best protected place for this kind of deep research. They made a lot of noise about logistics and security and blah blah blah. Then when it started going wrong, they give the order to bolt.

If she survives this, she's resolved to find some way to hurt them for this. Hurt them bad.

Holding the minitool in her mouth, she uses both hands to leverage a panel, pulling hard and falling over backwards when it finally pops off. She loses the tool and has to take a few seconds to try and find it, fixing her glasses as she does it. The large ears her mouse heritage provides lets her hear as the capacitors build up. She doesn't have time for this.

Finally getting the tool she whips around to the panel, grabbing the stripped wiring she's yanked out of one of the control room consoles upstairs. She frantically begins wrapping it around the cables she's exposed, struggling to maintain the finger dexterity to do it while wearing insulated gloves.

"Fuck, fuck. Fucking fuck, come on you fucker."

Finally satisfied she's managed it, she picks up the foaming tool and begins spraying it over the wires. The conductive foam sparks wildly as the current begins running through it, only giving her a couple seconds of spray time before she yelps and scrambles backwards from the exposed panel, which is beginning to crackle and buzz ominously. Scrambling to her feet she bolts for the control room as the gateway begins to get weird.

A massive, two story tall icosahedron set into a stone base, the gateway faintly resembles a jungle gym or a cage. The inside of it is shimmering, the light distorting in strange ways as the middle somehow glows black. She isn't sure how that could even be a thing but somehow, it's doing it.

Pull the resistors, open everything. Everything. Fuck it.

The capacitors, already loaded above their SOP cutoff, suddenly find they have a place to dump their charge. The gateways distortion narrows inside it, almost becoming focused.

Maybe whatever is happening in the middle just isn't something her brain can interpret? Like magenta not being a color?

"Please, please work."

If the massive power input doesn't somehow stabilize the gate, the capacitors will probably explode. Which would be bad, sure, except the site uses radiological materials and it would turn the whole area into a dirty bomb and then they'd lose everything and the city might even be at risk.

"C'moooooon." She thumps the panel in front of her with a fist, biting her lip.

Tychorus wanted this gate so fucking badly, they're going to get it one way or another. They set this ball rolling downhill and then ran away from it as far as she's concerned. Nobody better complain about her flicking it sideways, dammit.

The distortion in the gateway begins to grow.

"Oh shit."

Oscillating, touching the bounds of the cage now.

"Shitshitshitshitshitno!"

Screaming incoherently she kicks the control panel as hard as she can, causing it to spark and making her flinch at the same moment the distortion breaks the bounds of the gateway -

There's a sensation of pulling and falling at the same time lasting half a second and then, nothing.

She falls to the floor and vomits immediately, coughing as the gateway itself sparks violently, several of the bars shattering. Then it, too, dies.

After a minute of coughing, spitting unpleasantness she pulls herself to her feet, then shakily takes off her lab coat, hanging it over the chair. Removing her soiled shirt takes longer than it might otherwise due to her hands shaking. When she puts the coat back on she ties it up to keep it closed using the tie she was wearing.

To her left, a blue light on the console begins to blink and a soft ping accompanies it. She turns to look at it, staring. It's the communications console, somebody trying to reach the control room.

Ping. Ping. Ping. Ping.

After four or five seconds she reaches over and picks up the headset, bringing it to her ear. "C-Control."

"Mimi?"

"Yes."

"We thought you left another way."

"No. I didn't."

"What happened?"

She takes a deep, slow breath. "I tore the insulation off the spare power cables, plugged them into the capacitor, then tied the stripped end to the gateways main power relay. Then I shut down all the insulators and resistors at once and fed everything into the gate."

"...You... Mimi, what have you done?"

"You tell me, Myles. What have I done?"

"There was some kind of planar shift event, like the one that took the two teams through before. It looks like it encompassed the whole city and most of the mountain. Some of the infrastructure we built to vent pressure from the heart of Mount Erebus is just gone."

That makes her hitch a breath. Those systems are what kept the molten heart of Mt. Erebus stable. The city drew geothermal power from the magma chamber, which would keep it stable for a time, but without the excess pressure systems the moment the pressure exceeded the power draw, the city would be flooded with lava from the bottom up. Those vents were the first thing ever done to the mountain. They were essential. Nobody had ever planned for them to just stop existing.

"H-how long?"

"A week, maybe. Two, if we start consuming as much power as we can. The draw isn't that great. It never was, we never needed that much."

She closes her eyes. "The humans?"

"Nothing."

"What?"

"Nothing. All their comm traffic has vanished. The internet can't be accessed and when we checked, it's because the cable lines have been cut. The only signal we're getting at all is a signal beacon from the other side of the planet, which, by the way, we can't track because all our satellites are fucking missing."

"You didn't stabilize the gate, Mimi. You pulled the entire city through to the other side."

 

[AverusBlack]

High up on hill overlooking the plains, we're sitting at the edge of the trees, watching the crowd of cheetahs below. The ring estimates there's about 2000 of them -

2143 'cheetah' variants detected.

- and while that might not sound like much, it's a lot of bitey mouths down there. They're spread out across the plain in little clusters to share campfires, but spaced apart to sort of be away from each other. The perils of solitary species having to band together is that they don't like having neighbors. Whatever is keeping them here is powerful enough to overcome that natural reluctance.

To my left Emil is humming a little tune as he assembles what might be generously played down as a sniper rifle. In actuality, it fires a laser pulse at something like 10 Petawatts for 1/3 of a second. Enough to vaporize pretty much anything it touches and burn through it. I assume the fist-sized canister Emil is loading into it is some kind of ammunition, or maybe it's a one-time-use generator or something if it uses that much power. Ring?

Cartridge is a microscopic antimatter storage unit designed to generate enough power for a single pulse. Unit immediately burns out during this process, requiring multiple cartridges to use the weapon more than a single time.

Ah. "I hope you're not going to just try shooting them, Emil?"

"Nope. Just being ready." He finishes loading the cartidge, then sets the weapon on a bipod and lays prone against the top of the hill. "I know you're going to want to go have a chat with them, you always do. Every single time." He sighs a little. "When it inevitably turns into a fight, I'll cover you from here. I'm no good up close."

Elise nods. "Kuri?"

"Mhm?"

"Can you stay with my father and be his spotter? That just means keeping an eye on your surroundings while he's focused on his job, for this."

Kuri nods to her. "I'll try to conceal us as best I can. This is Skal, I have more options here than I do in other places."

Elise turns to me. "How do you want this to go?"

I sigh, looking at the crowd. "If they're looking to just overtake someone elses home... obviously that isn't acceptable. Resettlement, maybe?"

"And if they say no and try to fight us anyways? Where do we stop kicking their asses?"

"We don't." I shake my head. "Knock them around, stun them, defeat them, but we don't break them and I don't think killing them would get us the result we want."

"What about that trick you told me you used to find us the first time?"

I blink. "What?"

"When we first met, the guards you talked to, you told them you were looking for people and found us. When I asked about it later, you told me you were searching for hopes. Can you do that again?"

For a second I just stand there feeling stupid. I'd forgotten about that.

Then I turn and look at the group.

The shaman is lost. We may yet find another. Our home is lost. We may yet find another. May the gods accept us back for whatever we've done to deserve this.

Hm. Closing my eyes, I look again.

Care for our mates and children. Preserve the species. All else is lost, but we still have each other.

I sigh, my eyes dimming. "They're desperate. They don't feel like they have anywhere to go. This is a... last ditch attempt to preserve themselves because they don't know what else to do." I reach up with my hand, rubbing the bridge of my nose.

"Okay. If we can resettle them, keep them fed, what then?"

"Guess we go find out. Kuri, we're -" I turn around, but Kuri and Emil are gone.

Go. We're safe.

I rise up into the air as Elise starts looking concerned. "They're still there, just hidden. C'mon."

The two of us rise up into the sky, moving high above and then coming down on the other side of the group opposite the ridge. Rather than doing it stealthily we both put on a show, glowing brightly and stopping just above the ground in the middle of their camp, hovering.

"We're here to -"

"AAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!"

One of the younger warrior-looking types charges Elise. She simply manifests a construct hand and slaps him away, sending him flying a dozen feet backwards while the crowd just kind of watch, then slowly turn to look at us again.

"- talk to you about what to do next. Unless anybody else has an objection?"

There's a collective shaking of heads from all around us.

"Good show. So, who wants to be the lucky winner who gets to represent you in talking to us?"

None of them seem to know who to decide on. The noise level goes up as they begin arguing among themselves on who is more worthy to speak for the group and Elise sighs.

"That won't work, I don't think. All of you, listen up!"

Her voice echoes as the ring amplifies the sound to spread it further, so they can all hear.

"We know you feel lost. That you don't know where to go or even how to you're going to continue your way of life. Your place in Skal has been broken and now you are adrift. But this isn't the end!"

"Across the mountains is a vast region that can be settled. The distortions plague it too but they're everywhere and our time spent here is just a small part of our efforts to stop it! You don't have to fight for a place in Skal when we can resettle you in a new land, a new home!"

"YOU DARE?!"