Look at that Nether traffic. Those Silver fucks are up to something…
-Highflame Monitoring Station
15-4
Group Meeting
“So let me get this straight,” Cas began. “You crossed over into Abrel’s mind, subsumed it, restructured her consciousness, took a template of her consciousness that you now have as an advisor, and let her resurrect with an altered consciousness. Then ambushed and ate the Incubi trying to jack into her, used them as a stepping stone to eat the Glaive that was their tactical-level Mirror, wore his body to take a fucking walk inside one of Ori-Thaum’s most secure facilities, adapted your structure to an Incog, encountered another instance of Zein, fought her, survived, got the node, and then decided to kill a few thousand people and a cadre of Fallwalkers participating in a block war on a whim?”
Avo thought the summary unneeded as he already bade Chambers deliver an abridged accounting on his behalf–sans any recollections of Reva or White-Rab. Considering how the Columner’s voice was spiking with each passing word with building incredulity, there got the sense that what was being strained was not understanding but belief.
“Yes,” Avo said, looking down at the staggered little man.
Mouth agog, Cas threw up his hands and the glint of his transplanted arms pierced the veil of his holocoat. He shot a glance at Draus as if seeking support for his disbelief. “You were gone for less than a day.”
“I know,” Avo said. “Should have been more efficient. Will work on that next time.”
As Cas narrowed his eyes trying to discern whether the post-ghoul was mocking him, a chorus of templates sniggered in the depths of Avo’s consciousness.
[You should be more apologetic next time,] Lip said. Past her rage, there was an impishness that typically found itself enchained. In life, the demands of culture and career forced her into taking on a facade of exaggerated rage. Here though, she knew herself to be dead and done, and thus free to have fun. [He’s one of those self-important fuckers. I can see it in his brow–you can always tell by the brow. You see that curved wrinkle running up into his forehead? He’s a frowner. He’s used to thinking about things his way and then gaping at people when things go to shit. Shit, ghoul, fucking with him will be a de-light.]
It would be. But Avo had more pressing matters to attend.
The light of the dormitory shone dimly on a few faces. They let Essus remain with Sunrise and Denton a level below for the sake of keeping his therapeutic sessions uninterrupted. Part of Avo desired to rewire the man’s damages using his fire, but his ethicality told him to stay his hand and let the moment be.
He could approach Essus with his offer of a new purpose later in private.
For now, there were several others he needed to gauge.
“Chambers said you have mem-data from an Ori-Thaum administrative node,” Kae breathed. The stood next to Draus now with her face exposed and clan mark showing. She had taken to updating her attire while he was gone. No more did aesthetic cling to her form–now she was shrouded beneath a holocoat much the same as Cas. In her voice he could hear a rageful yearning still, unsated from their conversation with D’Rongo and all that had been revealed.
It was a rage he could tap into.
“Took it for find those who hurt you. The lead Glaive. The Necros that survived. Know the survivors behind your destruction. D’Rongo breathes for now. Still useful. Will cause too much chaos. But the Glaive… the Incubi. I can have them. I can give you revenge.”
The way her gaze burrowed into his offered no softness. Exhaustion tinged the edge of her eyes and lethargy stained the ebb and flow of her thoughtstuff. “More killing. That’s all we get in the end, isn’t it? Just more killing.”
The hoarseness in her voice sounded akin to Essus’ when he had his final moments with Mirrorhead.
She was getting no thrill from this, no satisfaction.
[Don’t approach her like you’re talking with one of us,] Corner said, looking Kae up and down. [This one’s all kinds of raw. She doesn’t want this kind of life and the life don’t want her none either. You need to stop pitching this moment over like it’s something to be happy about.]
Concurrence came from Abrel. [Yeah. Listen, I know plenty of Agnosi and a whole damn lot of them are unreasonably romantic. You gotta understand that this revenge and bloodshed only lights for a certain breed, and Kae Kusanade? She’s not one of them. She’s an actual person with dreams and wants, and a life that was lost. This revenge thing? I think she still wants it, but it isn’t going to give her peace, it’s just going to balance the scales in her heart.]
Avo approached the Agnos and with each step, his talons clicked against the ground. She flinched as he wrapped his Echoheads around himself, and in periphery, Avo saw Draus shift ever so slightly in case he did anything unwise.
When he lowered himself to greet Kae at her height, the Regular went back to leaning against the wall next to beds.
“It can still mean something,” Avo said, keeping enough distance for her to remain in a space of comfort. Already, though, he could feel the moisture in the air twisting around her subtly, its nigh-imperceptible pressure needling around his neck. Already, she was using her Heaven with remarkable quietude. Freed from her oaths as an Agnos, he wondered if she was already the most refined Godclad among them all from tertiary experience alone. “All that you suffered–all the injustice poured into your life. Not your fault. But New Vultun doesn’t care. I do. I do. Let me help you. Let me make things right–”
[Stop saying you,] Benhata snapped into being along with the other templates. The sharpness of the Glaive’s tone tore Avo from his words and alerted him to how he sounded from an outside perspective. He was imposing his own ego upon the Agnos, but her pain was inward facing, and she quivered as the world laid its weight down upon her. [The point isn’t to tell her that her work can improve lives, but to have her perform an act that concretely and visibly raises the quality of life for others. Her hands, her will, her eyes. Same with Essus. Stop choking them with how overwhelming you are and let them serve a purpose!]
And so, heeding the advice, Avo shifted his personality and pivoted. A rasping sigh escaped his serried fangs and he lowered his head. “I can’t do it. Not without you. You were behind the Frame. You were behind everything. No one understands it. And no one cares about fixing it as deeply as you.”
“They just wanted to make a weapon. To keep fighting their stupid fucking war.”
“What you want matters more now. They don’t have you anymore. It’s up to us to make things matter. It’s up to you if you want to make things change.”
Her lip quivered and she looked away from him, unable to bear the sight of his burning mind any longer. He stepped back and returned to the center of the room again, sparing her his presence.
“I need to go home,” Kae muttered, her eyes jumping from place to place, darting from corners to objects. “I have mem-data stored there about my research. Theories on the canons behind the rash. I was close to figuring them out too–so close!” Her voice rose an octave as the shadows of her past seized her, and the darkness behind her gaze parted to reveal passing inspiration. Then, like a curtain mist lifting to the caress of a breeze, it vanished. “Okay. Okay. Let’s start with the killing. It’s the most simple thing we can do. Work our way up from there.”
“You sure you’re game for that?” Draus asked.
Kae spun on her and snarled. “They do not get to kill someone I love, debase my work, twist my research for their own ends and live happily and comfortably and safely! Not anymore! No!” The eruption of her anger was an unimpressive thing. Part of it had to do with her diminutive size compared to everyone else in the room, but more was in the squeak of her pitch and the crack in her voice.
Stolen story; please report.
Kae Kusanade was clearly not used to being angry, nor did she spend long in the mirror trying to find out how to make herself seem more intimidating. She was a waif among monsters, and even with her control over water, to judge her by physicality left little to be feared.
Regaining control of herself, she awkwardly winced and shame overtook her. “Sorry. That wasn’t meant for you.”
Draus gave her a snow nod and shot Avo a look. +Yeah. I don’t think she’s got this.+
+Maybe not,+ Avo said. +She should still be a part of it. Glaive knows much about the inner structure of the Guild. Will be a useful inclusion for me. Better if she can get partial close, Not wasted if she can’t.+
Draus scoffed mentally. +Always a conveniently selfish angle with you.+
+Things just work out sometimes.+
+Sure they do.+
“I’ll be ready,” Kae said, trying more to kindle her own viciousness than convince the others. She rested her sight on Avo again and steeled herself properly this time. “Whatever you plan, I want to know. I want to be a part of this from the start to the end. And if I say no…”
“Means no,” Avo said. “I will respect that.” A beat followed. “My father is dead. I am not him. Will never become him. Won’t use you that way.”
“That way,” Kae deadpanned.
“Worth more to me for thaumaturgic purposes. Show me how to make Heavens; design new canons.”
That made her close her eyes and resist the urge to smile. “Avo… I’m afraid you’re getting more and more Guilder with all the recent minds you’ve been consuming because that… was a very Guilder response.”
Her words unbalanced him. Disconcertingly, he turned his perception inward and found Abrel and a few hundred others facing him with wide-deadpanned grins plastered upon their faces.
[Don’t look at us,] Benhata muttered. [We’re not the ones who ate you.]
[You are what you kill or something like that,] Abrel added.
He needed to pay more attention to the pathways of his consciousness.
“The run on the Glaive will be priority task in the near term,” Avo said. “But I want more than that. Had an… epiphany when I was stopping the block war.”
Draus grunted a laugh. “This’ll be funny.”
He directed one of his Echoheads to chitter at her in annoyance while he continued on. “Realized a problem with this city. It’s lying. About what it is. About what it wants to be. Highflame says they bless the worthy. But I’ve tasted their Godclads. I’ve taken ontologics from Fallwalkers. Few of my prey have been worthy. Few were worth killing. I think we can change this.”
The frown faded from Cas’ expression and he straightened his posture.
“The economy of New Vultun,” Avo rasped. “It offends me most of all. Pointless death. Wrong deaths. FATELESS are wasted to feed useless Godclads playing at war.”
“Yes,” Cas said, his mind shimmering with interest.
“But I don’t think this is the way it needs to be anymore. Can change things. Alter things. Take Heavens from the wretched. Give them to those of worth.”
“Yes!” Cas said, face now aglow with excitement.
Draus shot him a disbelieving look.
The Columner withstood her judgment with ease. “What. The ghoul’s talking a lot of sense now. This place, this city, this world? It’s all busted. All the power is at the top, but the only fuel for their growth is on the bottom. This is a death economy, but it’s also a stupid one. The old power doesn’t die, and newly Ensouled have to grow somehow, so the deaths spike and Godclads struggle and it’s the people who are ground down. The people who pay double, triple, quadruple tax. Avo says he wants to change some of this? I say yes. Fuck. Yes.”
This came as a surprise to Avo as well. In his brief time with Cas, the main remained mostly a mystery, but more and more there was a sense of bitter humanism to him, like he genuinely cared about the small people a way Avo couldn’t fathom.
“Redistribution,” Avo said. “Of power. Of Souls and Heavens and other benefits. From the Tiers to the Warrens. You support this?”
“Support?” Cas chuckled. “Consang, I faciliate it. I got cells everywhere operating–” He caught hismelf before he could actually give anything away. “Anyway. I’m picking up what you’re putting down, and I’ll do you one better–I can ensure what you want to do takes off. But what you need is a bottom-up organization that works in tandem with you. If you’re just moving about and empowering people, we’ll be exposed within days or weeks at best. We gotta muddy the waters and start–”
“--A cult,” Avo finished, grinning broadly.
“Godsdammit, Cas,” Draus said. “I thought Thousandhand recruited sensible at least. Didn’t expect you to go along encouraging him.”
Offense sparked across Cas’ face and he turned to face the Regular. “Guard-Captain, we don’t know each other, so let’s not play pretense. What he–” Cas thrust a finger at Avo. “–is thinking about? My father’s done it. I’ve done it. And if this war lasts another thousand years, my children’s children’s children will be doing it to see the Carpenter returned.”
Understanding dawned in both Draus’ mind and Abrel. [Carpenter… oh, great. Your new friend is a fucking faither, rotlick.] The words rose into his awareness tinged with digust.
“Enclaver,” Draus said, looking him up and down. “And a faithful at that. Yeah. You fit the bill.”
“And yet, here I am,” Cas said. “Not snuffed, nulled, or captured. And yeah, I worship. You got a problem with it?”
“I do,” Kae said, interjecting softly. “I don’t… know you very well, but you understand how this affects your Frame, right? How it distorts your miracles from control?”
“Well enough,” Cas said with a wink.
“The gods were broken for a reason,” Kae followed. “If you’re seeking to–”
“I don’t want a god in our Souls. What we have instead us aren’t true gods, they’re demiurges. Archons. Pretenderss to the heavenly throne. God is absolute. God is existence and life and love and death unending. You can’t make a Heaven for that, and I don’t want to. I’m a totalist, Agnos. I’m not looking to change the universe. Just want it to return to the way it was.”
“Great. The freaks got their own factions as well,” Draus muttered.
Brushing the arguments aside, Avo suddenly found his interest in the Columner rising. “You said you have cells of your own?”
“I got a network of different cults, a fanbase for the Tiers, and plenty of experience running this game. What you need, I can provide. Just find a need and I’ll show you what to do.”
Useful. Very useful. It would be essential to burn him some time.
Head whipping from face to face, Chambers leaned over and whispered to Avo. “Hey, consang, I’m gonna need you to burn all that just got said into me because–I’m not gonna lie–I totally started watching a vicarity when you started talking.”
Avo grunted a resigned answer and Chambers patted him happily.
The former enforcer was promptly decapitated by a lashing Echohead.
[Oh, wow, dick move, Avo! I was trying to be nice,] template-Chambers grumbled.
As Kae starred in open horror at the sudden murder and the toppling body, Draus yawned and Cas gave the weltering stump spewing blood a brief glance before moving on.
“I have ideas I want to try,” Avo said, ignoring Chambers’ postmortem twitching. “Benefits for us all. Want to hit the Crucibles first. Break up snuff rings. Gorge myself on Syndicates and snuffers for thaums. Assault them as practice and to gather deaths and ghosts.”
Draus unfolded her arms and cocked her head in contemplation. “Alright. I can get down with this.”
“See,” Cas said. “We all got our kinks.”
Draus squinted at him.
“Before that, have something else I want to do,” Avo said. “Want to wait for Essus and the others to finish. Need the cadre to decide.”
“On?” Draus asked.
“Who gets the new Ontologics I claimed.”