+ATTENTION+
PRIORITY 1 ALERT INBOUND:
BEGINNING PROXY SYNC…
Good morning, Glaives,
Approximately six hours ago last night, one of our cells was exposed and burned. Details can be found within the mem-data bearing the task designation “Broken Glass”
Effective immediately, all contacted Glaive teams are to enter the Yuulden-Yang Sovereignty to find and extract missing Incubi assets.
Or terminate should the need arise.
As the Nether is down, we will be running locus-link configurations between each kill team.
Good hunting consangs
+//+
Incubi,
From sequences of memory glimpsed from the Registry, we have positive confirmation of essential interest entity “Kae Kusanade” sighted in the Xin Yunsha district from the establishment “Second Fortune.”
We are dead-dropping new proxy minds and have new bio-sculpts prepared. You are to enter the district and maintain your current cover until the Nether stabilizes. During this time, you are to scout and establish forward-scrying posts and procure any and all details relating to the essential interest entity.
Again, this is scrying detail. No assassinations. No obvious nullings.
Collect mem-data connected to the essential interest entity. Transfer data to your Convex. Burn your proxy. Extract.
Nothing more.
-Glaive Cross-Cell Priority Alerts
13-5
Breather
Kae wasn’t very good at suicide, but she managed it with enough encouragement.
She managed to miss her first shot by flinching away from her gun even before she pulled the trigger. Such evasion came with its own cost, for when she ducked aside, she still squeezed the trigger, and thus the flechette, once intended for her, made a pit stop through Chambers’ throat before skipping off from the stone outcropping forming the stairway entrance.
There was something amusing about how the man just toppled over with a gurgling spray. The effect was multiplied as all turned away from him, ignoring his choking gurgles while he slowly passed, choosing instead to assist the Agnos in achieving such an end as well.
Nervousness ruined her second try and Chambers’ sudden resurrection made her miss the third.
On the fourth she finally succeeded by tucking the gun under her chin instead, placing her thumbs against the trigger and trying to win a staredown against the pistol.
The end came quickly for her. A flashing pulse of the gun’s coils preceded a spread of erupting brain matter.
From there, it was a simple matter of seizing her with his Soulfire and grafting her into the thaumic heart of her new ontology.
“And that’s all it took, huh,” Cas breathed. His gaze swept down from Avo to Kae’s still form, her right eye hollow of the crystalline orb she used to channel her False Heaven. Her face was frozen in an open-eyed look of startlement, as if not expecting the instant of her demise despite serving as her own executioner.
“You got her?” Draus asked, sounding more than a little sour about the entire affair. She hadn’t been against Kae’s decision to become a Godclad, but there was something undeniably strange about curing the Agnos of her mental damage only to kill her right afterward.
There was a sublime, special madness to the act.
“She’s grafted,” Avo said. He shed the other Soul from his orbit with a gentle push of his animated radiance and waited. When Kae returned, she would possess all ontologics and thaums held by the previous user of the Aegis of Tides, sans the cycler that Avo took. “Took a cycler away from her. Want you to have it. Increase your survivability. More chances at resurrection.”
The Regular paused to consider what he just said. She cast a brief look at Chambers and Essus, the latter looking slightly more put together than he was earlier. There was still a dullness to his stare, but at least he seemed more aware of his surroundings, no longer drowning in his own thoughts.
“Yeah,” Draus said. “Probably the right call. Probably. How long’s Kae got before she comes back?”
“Not long,” Avo said, guessing more than knowing. “Probably has her cyclers working at–”
And before he could finish, the subject of their inquiry returned to reality through the Soul-made scar marring the tapestry of existence.
She ended up stumbling over her own corpse as she got back, arms spinning in circles as she fought for balance. Avo reached out but Draus caught her first, preventing the fall before it could transpire.
“Oh, thanks,” Kae said. She returned wearing the red polymer synthcoat she wore when they first met at the Second Fortune. He assumed there must’ve been some kind of sentimental significance to the outfit in this choice of aesthetic reversion.
What she did not keep, however, was the veil shielding the right side of her face. Studying her bared clan mark for the first time, its design captured his curiosity from the weight of its symbology alone. Two winged serpents writhed with their bodies knotted around one another, their fastened union resembling the vague shape of a scale as each of their heads curved low.
Avo didn’t personally know enough about Ori culture, but his Metamind filtered forth essential memories matching what he glimpsed through his cog-feed.
The twin serpents of the Clan Yinga symbolized the origins of their family–two feuding clans fused a union in desperate times, finding balance though still trying to escape. From there they came to be a minor power in the southmost islands in the great chain, applying their knowledge to matters related to trade.
Kae, for her part, seemed to have deviated toward a path of greater erudition. He wondered what her broader family thought of that, but then it occurred to him that she never mentioned her family or clan at all across all the time they spent together.
“You alright?” Draus asked.
“I’m fine,” Kae nodded and stepped forward. Then, she made the mistake of turning back to stare at her dead body. “I–uh…”
Her next words were usurped as a stream of flowing vomit.
Avo took a step back. Draus continued to support Kae as the Agnos whipped her head back around, mind screaming with existential dread as stomach-churning emotion tossed inside her being.
Now there was a lesser trauma worth holding onto – its workings were subtle enough that Avo might even be able to apply it toward more clandestine uses.
***
After Kae cleaned herself up while Avo scarfed down her corpse to “spare her more dread,” they all found their way back up the stairs to the dormitory level and scattered to separate corners for a moment of respite.
The Columners stayed beside the stairway to discuss forecasts related to Zein’s impending return and how they were going to manage in the meantime. Kae and Draus occupied a table Avo made for them from his blood, the former soothing her reeling mind on a hot cup of tea while the Regular scanned her detached bio-rig, augmented eyes pulsing with light. Across the room, Chambers chattered away in the cot next to Essus, ensuring that while both of them might’ve been laying in beds, neither would get to sleep.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
Avo himself welcomed a moment to himself. He had ghosts to resequence; memories to hide, dismantle, and assimilate; a yet-finished labyrinth to develop in his Metamind; and a dozen or so dormant loci filled with the Eaters, as Denton and Sunrise had referred to them.
Choosing a specific task from the multitude presented was easy. The potential of the Conflagration interested him the most, and so reached out and began running more in-depth diagnoses for their structures.
He considered maximizing his efficiency by connecting himself to more blood mass, but decided against it as a funnel of bees spiraled down to encase his shoulder. Attention split between the arriving bioform and a phantasmal instrument with near boundless potential, Avo found himself distracted by all the new opportunities surrounding him.
Sunrise was itself a link to Voidwatch. He still remembered the grafters from Voidwatch–had their contact information. There were still so many advantages left untapped around him, so many things to focus on, and so many paths to travel.
“Was it hard?” Sunrise asked. The hum of its voice held an obvious note of interest while the way each individual bee rattled in perfect synchronicity made Avo wonder just how interconnected the swarm itself ways. “Binding Kae Kusanade to the Liminal Frame.”
At the mention of her name, Kae turned and offered Avo a quick glance. Though weary from her ordeal and yearning to be alone, she still flashed a quick grin at him, the smile revelatory toward her character.
By contrast, the cognitive atmosphere exhumed from Essus’ surface thoughts was one of droning dullness and gray-tinged emptiness.
The psionic wounds inflicted upon the two were not equal in magnitude. One was sundered ego-deep by the tragedy that befell them, while the other was fractured but ultimately remained themselves.
“No,” Avo said. “It was too easy. Should’ve been harder.”
The swarm peeled off his shoulder to face him. He guided a few of his ghosts deeper along an Eater’s inner helix, trying to determine how he could separate the warring minds. “Why do you wish for more difficulty?”
With every sequence he traveled, his wards rattled beneath the constant encroach of pressure. Even ego-broken, the fires still emanated with hurt. But if he could resolve that, would he be able to adapt the personalities present to automate other processes? Train them to be the phantasmal equivalent of the Imitators were as one with the fires inside his Frame.
“Consequence,” Avo said, finally. “Think that’s what makes a good ‘Clad. Good Necro. Good snuffer.”
Sunrise drew in closer, wordlessly asking him to explain further.
“Mirrorhead ruled Mazza’s Junction. Did what he wanted. Was blind to the Incubi. Blind to me. Couldn’t save himself even with his Heaven. Such wasted power.” He let his words rest for a moment as withdrew his ghosts from one Eater and cast them into another. “Don’t want to become him. No consequence. No education. Delusion waits at the end.”
“You’re talking about feedback,” Sunrise said. “Something to indicate a proper reaction.”
Avo grunted in agreement. “Something like that.”
“Why don’t you just keep all the power for yourself? Why disseminate? Most born of your culture do.”
“Not my culture. Not really part of any culture. And I am.”
“You are?”
“Keeping the power for myself.” He directed his perception at Kae, and then Draus, and then Chambers and Essus too. “Perspective is…. Useful. Can harvest memories. Build phantasmics. Draw on others’ experiences. But can’t make the same choices as them. See the angles they see. More perspectives are… flavors. Colors. New ways of knowing. Ways of knowing life beyond being a ghoul. Beyond myself.”
“And those you kill and devour? Aren’t their experiences also varied and valid?” Sunrise queried. “You value choice and novelty, but you seem to be indifferent to the sanctity of life.”
That earned a small chuff of laughter from him. “No sanctity.”
“None?”
“No,” he reiterated. “Only Godclads and FATED are ensured from death. Should tell you something. Won’t tell you I care about the people I kill and eat. Good and bad. There’s no weight for me there. But there are also choices. Mistakes. Trying not to kill the choiceless and meek. Trying to hunt only others with teeth like mine.”
“What about the few hundred thousand you nulled?” Sunrise said. “Did they bear teeth?”
“Yes. Brittle teeth. Still teeth. Still proper meat. Watched the FATELESS die. Supported the killings with their imps. Fair prey. Not my fault they lived they way the did. Only my choice to hurt them.”
The swarm curved back, the bees folding around his head like a screen. “You look for reasons to hurt and kill people.”
“Yes.”
“How do you know you will not slip from your reasoning?”
“I don’t,” Avo said. “But Draus will probably try to kill me for good. Will notice then. Be a shame to eat her.”
The Regular’s murmur came through the veil of insects. “You’re gonna be regrettin’ them words when I skin you to make myself new leathers.” He snapped his teeth in her general direction and the bees flinched back.
“Have a question for you now,” Avo said, turning his focus back to the bioform before him. “What are you? You person? A mind piloting a swarm.”
“I am a fully uplifted citizen recognized by the rights of the Sol Sophancy Charter. I was incepted legally and consensually from the mind of a quartet and was originally engineered to live and aid in the ecological adaption of planetary bodies.”
“You were an engineer?” Avo asked. “Always been a swarm?”
“Always,” Sunrise said. “I could have chosen to be resheathed in another morphology, but I have never wanted for more than this form. It has proven useful for clandestine work, as my continued survival can attest.”
Avo disconnected from the loci and gave his full attention over to this conversation. “What’s life like in the void?”
From these few words followed a heavy silence. The swarm turned to each other as if each individual bug was consulting another. The thrumming of their wingbeats grew louder and Avo could feel the heat building from their bulk. But then, all at once, the swarm went silent and they all turned back to him. “Pleasant. Quiet. Fearful. Forlorn. Forlorn.”
“Fornlorn,” Avo said. “Why?”
“Our lives are good still, but we are shadows of shadows. We remember a time when civilizations piloted a fleet of stars, when war was but a passing dispute without any lasting fatalities, when all was provided and expression was unchained. Now, we live in comfort, but dull ourselves on pleasure against the fear.”
“What are you afraid of,” Avo asked.
“You,” Sunrise said. They shared a mutual sense of honesty between their natures. Something about that pleased Avo, while another part of his mind questioned if the bioform was just leading him on. “The gods. The Heavens. The Ruptures. Thaumaturgy. The eldritch. We fear all that brought us to this point. And we fear what has become of you.”
“Why don’t you use the gods? Use Necrotheurgy.”
The bioform’s collective shuffled with discomfort. “Do you know what the void looks like beyond this place? This placid planet?”
“Placid?” Avo said, narrowing his eyes. “Idheim?”
“Civilization is still supported. Reality still retains primary control. Placid is the right word.”
That put things into perspective.
“Everything outside is part of the Sunderwilds? Spreading Ruptures across the stars?”
“There aren’t so many stars anymore,” Sunrise said. “Not true stars anyway. And from them comes the wrong…”
Come to think of it, quite a gulf of time had passed since the Guilds announced a Godhunt. These had been quiet months–if there were outsider gods spotted, all Fallwalkers and Guilders of capability would be preparing to reap a new bounty of Soul.
In some ways, Voidwatch was the only reason Idheim hadn’t collapsed. In others, the terrestrial powers gleefully threw themselves forth into the jaws of certain oblivion to face foes the reality-bound voiders never could.
He considered broaching a new request with the bioform – to ask that it share the inhuman magic-born cognition infusing its thoughtstuff. The veil of pure technology was still hard to pierce, but he increasingly found himself interested in the fundamentals of things. If he was going to build new Heavens with Kae, learning more about the foundational sinews of reality could–
A string of mem-data flashed over his cog-feed. So deep in his own thoughts he almost missed it–and would have ignored it if not for the name.
AUTO-SEANCE CONNECTION: ABREL GREATLING ONLINE
“Avo?” Sunrise asked, drifting in. “Avo, are you well.”
“Yes,” Avo breathed, clicking his teeth together in slavering anticipation.
She had been spared death at the last minute back in Light’s End. Spared death, but not freed from his touch.
Perhaps her continued survival was for the best. He did need someone to test his new phantasmics on, and if there was a chance, she could be used to help him anticipate the Paladins themselves.
Yes. Yes, it was a good thing he didn’t get to torture, kill, and devour the Greatling.
Not when she offered another avenue of opportunity…