The inside of the inn was surprisingly full. But the mood was more relaxed rather than boisterous. The guests that sat at the communal eating area murmured to one another in a laid-back manner. They came in all shapes in sizes and some had augments like Trey did. Jonit wondered if the augments were functional upgrades or a replacement for injuries sustained. There were also a few of what appeared to be automatons hanging about. A group of four Tower Knights sat in a corner and regarded the machines with suspicion. Their armor glowed pale in contrast to the orange light of the tavern lamps.
Leyna gently floated the lantern down from above her head and passed it to Sarith.
Sarith pointed to a table near the Tower Knights. “That’s where Paern and the kids are at.”
Leyna looked. “Ah I see them now.”
Paern was sitting at a round table with two girls that looked about his age. One was blonde and taller with a more serious look in her brown eyes, the other had short light brown hair and striking turquoise eyes with a rather relaxed playful expression. Paern was talking animatedly with a bespectacled woman with tired looking eyes sitting across from him. Leyna and Jonit moved closer while Sarith went off to manage the other staff. Another boy sitting at the table, a bit older than the other kids, noticed them.
“Hello Miss Leyna.”
“Hiya Trand, what have you kids been up to today?”
“Oh nothing much just been catching Paern up on some stuff. There’ve been more Tower Knights around these days. Dad’s had to send a few of the townguard in to break up fights.” He shook his head causing his straw colored hair to fall over his eyes. “It’s been a whole hassle cuz the White Tower doesn’t like their knights locked up.”
“I’m surprised we haven’t heard anything from the capitol about this. Prismasia should at the very least stop letting the Golden Order into Horizon territory.”
“Yeah that’s what my dad says too, but they've been trying to keep things ‘civil’ since the last major ‘border engagement’. That’s what the grown-ups keep calling them, but weren’t they battles?” He inquired while brushing his messy hair out of his eyes. “Oh speaking of Prismasia, we met a really cool inventor from there.” He motioned at the lady wearing glasses talking to Paern. “This is Lizzie.”
At the mention of her name, the woman looked at them, “Oh hello there.” She had a rather wide-eyed frazzled look.
Paern looked over and said rather excitedly, “Hey mum, this lady’s trying to build a brain!”
“Oh really? A brain huh?” Leyna replied as they walked over. She tousled his hair as they sat down across from the scholar
“Well not so much a brain, but I guess yes a brain more or less. It’s a lot more intricate than that yknow.” As Lizzie talked around in circles she fidgeted with her glasses and pushed her messy bronze colored hair out of her face. She had dark circles under her amber colored eyes. “I’m studying the brains of various organisms to try to construct a programmable one out of machinery and magic.”
A few pieces suddenly clicked into place causing Jonit to blurt out, “Wait a minute you were at the stand earlier today.”
“Hmm? Who are you? Why yes I was at many stands today.” Lizzie looked at him quizzically, “My research requires many things. But also, yes, who are you?”
Leyna lit up and exclaimed, “Oh yes you bought four live cavern mites earlier didn’t you? I was wondering what those were for.”
“I’ve heard some Ironcast from Horizon Central can control beetles using magic, I was hoping to study some of these simpler creatures to see if I can manipulate their brains in a similar fashion.” Lizzie explained. “If this can be achieved, I can map it out using mana. I’ve already succeeded in forming a few blueprints from simpler insects. Also you still haven’t told me who you are yet.”
“I’m Leyna, the cavern mite stand owner.”
“Yes I know that, but what about him? His armor looks quite interesting.”
Jonit looked thoughtful, “So you’re trying to create an AI? At least that’s what it’s called where I’m from, an ‘artificial intelligence’. We’ve utilized different variants of them for a while now ever since the Age of Slumber.”
“What. The. Heck.” Lizzie looked at him wide eyed (even more than usual). “What do you know about artificial brains? How many do you have? How did you make them? What country are you from?”
“He’s a Journeyman.” piped up Paern, “We found him on the way here.”
Lizzie looked him up and down, “Aha! Yes, Journeyman! Never seen anyone dressed like you before, of course you’re a Journeyman, I should’ve guessed!”
Jonit became keenly aware they were drawing a few curious gazes from those around him. Especially from the Tower Knights at the corner table next to them.
“Well you know how us Journeymen are, always… journeying.”
“So anyways.” She ruffled through her things for a notebook and pen. “About your artificial intelligence…”
“It’s not quite all there yet, but we made a lot of advancements in machine learning before –and some during– the Age of Slumber.”
“Age of Slumber?” Leyna asked.
“Well pretty much everyone went to sleep.” Jonit answered with a shrug. “But anyways the idea with AI was we programmed machines to learn by themselves. We give them an endpoint and then tell them to figure out how to get there through trial and error. Because machines can do trial and error a huge amount of times in a short period of time before succeeding, we actually have no real idea what they went through or why their code is what they end up with.”
Lizzie stared at him, “What’s ‘programming’ and ‘code’?”
“Uhhm it’s a way to talk to our machines like for example–”
“Oh you mean spellweaving” Lizzie muttered while taking notes. “So you would need a machine that could weave its own spells, but how do you do that when machines don’t make magic? I guess you could give it magic to… but wait you would need…”
“So you have a spell that could make other spells.” Leyna surmised.
“Yes obviously.” said Lizzie, “but what, you just stand there all day supplying the machine with magic? Who has enough magic for all of that? But theoretically possible.”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
Jonit wasn’t sure he should quite reveal that he (and his entire homeworld) didn’t have magic or know anything about magic yet. Until he could figure out the extent of what “magic” was and what it could be used for, it would be a good idea to keep his abilities or lack of abilities a secret.
“Well our technology doesn’t quite need magic to function. We reached a certain point where we could … erm… spellweave using another type of machine based system called computers.”
He noticed out of the corner of his eye as he said this, the knights began muttering amongst one another and glancing toward them with serious expressions.
“I’m having a hard time figuring out how that’s possible,” said Lizzie.
“Well I can show you a simpler AI if you want.” Jonit tapped on his arm. The 3D model of the princess appeared.
“Oh! Wait, that was an AI?” Leyna asked.
“Well the moving picture itself is not, but its ability to scan in a picture and adapt it to the model is.”
One of the knights, a woman with very short pale blonde hair, had walked over to their table.
“That’s a pretty intriguing picture you have there.” She said, giving him a tight smile. Her steely blue eyes stared dangerously into his.
“Well it can do more, if you want to help demonstrate?” Jonit replied, pretending not to notice her threatening tone.
Another knight began to stand, “Cardella—”
She flashed him a look and he sat back down. She looked back at Jonit. “I would like nothing more.” Her voice was crisp and filled with confident authority.
He smiled back, “If you would, please turn in a circle…”
She paused, then spun in a neat perfect circle before coming back to the exact position she started in, her golden cloak fluttered in a clean arc. Her silvery armor made barely a whisper of sound.
Jonit pressed a few buttons and the Princess appeared again wearing the same odd pale armor with golden symbols.
“Back in the day, you would need to rearrange the dimensions of the image you wanted to use and sort of paint the image you wanted directly onto the model, but the AI figures it out on its own including movement physics.” The Princess shifted into various stances. She pulled out her sword and swung it a few times, her golden cloak billowing behind her.
“Intriguing…” The female knight said. “But that’s not my sword.”
“Well I didn’t get a good look at it, so I substituted my own.”
“Well perhaps I’ll show you mine sometime in the future.” She gestured to the other three knights with her left hand, her sharp gaze still focused on Jonit. They began packing their things and getting up. One of them left a handful of Pieces on the table and another one of them handed her her shield. Then, without a word she turned and walked toward the entrance. The others followed, filing past them and out of the inn.
“Whew, that was a little scary.” Leyna said, giving him a nervous smile.
Paern asked “I wonder why they were so interested in AI, knights usually hate that sort of stuff.”
Lizzie muttered vehemently, “Those knights need to butt out of other people’s business.” She looked around to make sure the Tower Knights were really gone. “They don’t like tech, that's fine, just leave me alone.”
Sarith came over, “Everything alright here? Thank the heavens, for a moment I thought there was going to be a brawl in here.” The innkeeper gave Jonit a stern look. “If you want to pick a fight, do it outside.”
Jonit gave her a mollifying grin, “I wasn’t trying to start anything, I just wanted to see what sort of people they were. That’s all.”
“Well they’re the type of people that cause trouble in a nation such as this one so you watch out around them.”
“Yes ma’am.” Jonit gave her a nod. Allen Tsai
“Now do you folks want something to eat?”
Sarith took his and Leyna’s orders (he just got whatever Leyna ordered). Paern wanted some more sweet milk soup. Lizzie was content with just continuing to munch on bread while scribbling in her notebook. Sarith went off to the kitchens to give the cook their orders. The two girls, Lottie and Sammie, who had been silent up until now began talking to Trand about the Tower Knights. Trand’s father was in charge of the town’s docks and had quite a bit of sway in the political scene of this small town.
Horizon Inova and the White Tower had apparently gotten into a bit of a military conflict a short while ago which the White Tower had won. While Horizon did not have to give up much territory, they had to give in to some of the White Tower’s demands including payment in money, goods and open access to movement of their knights.
It was at this point that Jonit looked down into his hand which he had kept hidden since the interaction with the knights. There was a scrap of paper that said simply “meet me outside”. He assumed Cardella, if that was what the knight’s name was, had passed it to him using a magic of some sort before leaving.
“Is there a toilet someplace around here?”
Leyna pointed him toward a hallway leading to the back. Jonit thanked her and moved towards it. As he walked down the long corridor, he noticed that it had a very rustic feel with its glossy wooden walls. But there were hints of technology with the electric power lamps and what appeared to be a central ventilation system from the various openings tucked into the corners. Perhaps it was easier to remodel when there was magic available. There were 4 bathrooms at the end, two on each side, each with their own toilet. He peeked in and there appeared to be a porcelain hole in the ground with a flushing mechanism. He shrugged and went in. His armor could retract where necessary and he relieved himself. He wasn’t quite sure how one would move their bowels in this scenario, perhaps squat, but he didn’t need to do that at the moment. Afterwards, he used the communal hand washing area at the end of the hallway that looked like someone cut a fountain in half and stuck it to the wall. It sprayed water in four gentle arcs at the step of a pedal. He wasn’t sure if this was how they usually were or if this one was just a more decorative piece.
Jonit wandered in the direction heading back to the supper area but this time turned down another hallway. His armor had more or less scanned the building while he walked down the length of it. It had identified a possible side entrance he could slip out for a secret rendezvous with the Tower Knights. He opened a door and found himself in some kind of stable. It was dark but ahead he could see a doorway leading out. He turned on a few lights on his chest so he wouldn’t trip over anything. There were tools of all sorts hanging from the walls along with rope and harnesses. Some of the tools appeared very foreign with strange symbols carved upon them. He moved past what looked like a large rusted machine with bladed arms partially folded away. He stepped out into what looked like a field of glowing grass. No wait, not grass, a ruffled fungus of some sort. He could see the large silhouettes of beetles slowly moving through these fields.
“You lost, Journeyman?” came a raspy voice.
He turned around and was met by a piercing blue light.
“Oh hello Trey” Jonit could just barely make out the man’s dark silhouette by the fence. “Just wanted to sneak outside for a bit. I was drawing quite a bit of attention inside there.”
“Oh I bet, people are always mighty curious about Journeymen such as yourself.”
“Can’t say I’m not curious about this world of yours myself.” Jonit watched cautiously as a large beetle shuffled closer. It was a more dull green than Yan but with red iridescent flecks to complement its color. “Do these beetles ever get aggressive?”
“Well they can get a bit mean sometimes, but theys pretty slow, you can just kind of walk away.” Trey said, “But don’t let an angry one sneak up on you though, they may walk slow but them horns move fast.”
“Can’t they fly or something?”
“Oh no, theys much too big for that. Perhaps a long time ago, but not now. Those wings are just for show. Them males use ’em to show off to the females they wanna have a go at.”
“And do they lay eggs or…”
“Yup, they like to lay in the caves though, they scrounge up a heap o’ fungus and wrap their eggs in it. Then they find a nook in the walls and tuck ‘em right in.” Trey scanned the fields with the light of his glowing blue eye. “Whelp, I gotta head on in, I’m starved.”
He pushed off the fence he was leaning on with his mechanical right arm and sidled over to the stables trailing puffs of blue smoke. “Try not to break anything too expensive out here.”
He paused for a second before going in. “And give me a holler if you need any help.”
The White Knight looked over the fence and paused for a moment to take in the scenery. This vantage point allowed him a view of the town and coastline. The sky intrigued him still. Between the blue hexagons he could see dots of light, and he wondered if they were stars or something else. After pondering for a moment, he finally turned to face the four silvery knights that had silently appeared from the fields.