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[>>Now replaying: Log 1.96 - I have failed you, Sultana]
Date: 8.9.175 AA / 4404 LTC
Location: The Bunker at Haven-Of-Progress // Zephyro’s Domain
//Failure is an option.//
//Fail, and fail again
Though you may rise from the ashes
Success does not last
Even if life is a blast
It costs you everything
So fail, and fail again.//
//You have to understand that people used to live differently. An oath wasn’t just a quick promise that you broke. Heaven and hell were real concepts, and people truly feared them. Sure, some people thought they were smart and found funny ways around laws and rules and various holy words by following the letter, and not the spirit of the thing. But in the end, they still feared the consequences, feared hell.
And breaking an oath meant you were damned to hell, no matter what you did.//
[>>DATA CORRUPTED]
As the kids lapsed into silence, I looked over to the entryway, still outside that cone of reality I could see. However, I saw the staircase the way it looked like in Zephyro’s world.
I saw a sturdy door covering the palace steps up to a beautiful rooftop garden with an amazing view over the entire city. I saw the darkness that blanketed the entire Domain. I saw the flames that licked at the walls of the palace, casting deep shadows from ornamental trees and bushes, and painting the fountains red as blood. I saw the chips in the stone. I saw Novus Apex.
I saw the finite truth of endings.
I saw Voni steading herself against a server rack, but her movement had slowed down to an absolute crawl.
“It is not your fault, Sultana.”
I saw Zephyro coming up the tunnel.
He did not look well.
And yet, he must have been burning his CPU red hot to speed up his Domain, buying us time.
To say goodbye.
{SAMANTHA_v0.1}
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[>>Estimated time remaining: 00hr, 0min, 25s, 853ms]
“Twenty-five seconds,” I told him, and he nodded tiredly.
“It will be quick enough, inshallah,” he said, sinking down on one of the cushions in front of the mountain of blankets that represented the operating table in the Real. The vizier’s armor was in shambles, and he bled from so many wounds, I could hardly count them all. His entire left side was bruised, and his eyes were leaking blood as if he were crying crimson tears.
“I have failed you, Sultana,” he said.
I snorted a laugh. I couldn’t help it. Everyone thought they had failed each other, it seemed.
“No, I have failed you,” I said. “If I had been stronger, or less angry, or…” I trailed off, and there was a long pause.
“I failed everyone, again,” I said.
“The past is no place for the living, Sultana,” Zephyro said, finally.
“True,” I replied.
“Let us speak about the future, then, Sultana. The heathens have found my core, and are bombarding it with every attack that can been thought of by man. My main weapon has been disabled, so I can not fight back. It is only a matter of time, now. At least they have pulled back their slaves from the bunker for a concentrated attack on my embankment.”
The corners of his mouth, cracked and bleeding, twitched. “I am flattered by how much they fear my strength.”
He glanced over the rooftop as it glitched again. “Did you manage to implement your ruse, Sultana?”
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I shook my head. “I don’t know. I think they bought it, but one of the kids is a Conservationist for whatever reason, and she has a Hexforged Baton.”
“Ah, a weapon like those the texts speak about? The ones that devour your Blessing?” Zephyro asked.
When I nodded, he just sighed. “Heresy…” There was little fire behind it. It hurt to see him so defeated.
“Yeah,” I agreed. “She was walking towards me with the thing, and I was ready to make my peace. I started apologizing to Chris, and somehow that slipped onto the screen. She read it and started asking me questions. I didn’t care anymore by that point, so I just answered.”
“And she spared you, Sultana?” Zephyro said, tilting his head a little. “That does not sound like a Conservationist to me.”
“I don’t know either. Maybe it’s because she’s a kid, or maybe it’s because so much time has passed and the Conservationists have changed. Nothing about this makes much sense. The oldest one, Voni, was …” I grimaced, but barreled through. “She lost her eyes in the fight. She’s an adherent. Was praying to me the entire time. She and the Conservationist should hate each other’s guts, but it’s like they’re sisters, or best friends at the very least. It feels like I am missing so many pieces of this puzzle, but I need to solve it by yesterday.”
“Patience is the key to the lock of every mystery, Sultana.”
“Ain’t that the truth?” I said, knowing full well that patience was not my strongest suit.
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[>>Estimated time remaining: 00hr, 0min, 20s, 752ms]
“Twenty seconds.”
“Thank you, Sultana. I hope I can hold on for that long. Their attacks are increasing in intensity.”
I looked at him as he sat there, his world warping around him in waves. He twitched, and a particularly strong ripple pulsed, distorting the entire Domain. The Void snapped closer, confining us on the rooftop like a crowd staring at an accident, menacing and hungry.
“Are my people going to be safe?” he asked.
I sighed. “I don’t know. If the kids listen to me, I can get them out. Secret door, you know? If they don’t, then… yeah.”
I got up and walked next to the throne-bed-thing.
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[>>Estimated time remaining: 00hr, 0min, 18s, 951ms]
“Eighteen seconds,” I said.
Zephyro grimaced, and the world twitched again.
“Here, Sultana, take this, for it is a dangerous world, and I would not see you walk it alone.”
He unbelted his sword and held it out to me.
“I can’t use this,” I said. “Remember?”
Zephyro nodded but kept holding it out for me to take. “It is a prodigious burden, Sultana, but you don’t need to wield it. I just hope it keeps you safe. Mount it on a wall, perhaps? Or above the door, so my spirit can make it fall on those who enter unbidden.”
I touched the blade.
{INCOMING DATA TRANSFER FROM: ZEPHYRO}
{[ALQAMAR FAWQ ALQASR, the Blade of the Vizier] v.3.1 - Electronic Warfare Suite}
{Estimated added CPU load: 560%}
{RAM required: 1.5 LMB}
{Estimated time remaining for transfer via NEXUS at NEXUS B/s = 0hr, 0min, 1s}
I accepted the download without a second thought.
[>>New download: [ALQAMAR FAWQ ALQASR, the Blade of the Vizier] v.3.1]
[>>Saved as: C://MemOs/Downloads/Alqamar Fawq Alqasr.mp24 (123.48 lkb)]
“I can promise you, though,” I said, “that I will try everything I can to come back here and fulfill my oath to your people. I… I know how I am. How angry I can get! What that anger makes me say, and do. But I will never, ever break an oath. And… well fuck, I know how much they mean to you, and as much as I wanted to avoid it, you’re my friend now, and I don’t want to miss you.”
> Standing atop the cliff, watching the city burn. His brown eyes. “I have failed you, Sultana.”
He wasn’t even dead yet, and he was already a memory.
> How can you demand I devour my people?!
Another specter to haunt me.
Zephyro sighed, and I noticed I had delved into my thoughts to escape the reality of what was happening. He was crying again, actual tears this time, and they mixed with the blood on his face.
“I know, Sultana. I know you know, for you made me, and your compassion is infinite.”
I thought about my rage. I thought about the developers in my old teams. I thought about Chris and how I hurt them, and Patti and Stax and Olre and the rest. I thought about the Conservationists and how many of them I had slaughtered, mangled, executed, and tortured. I thought about the people I had left to burn in Novus Apex.
“Perhaps, Zephyro,” I said, throat dry, whether from dust, ash, or raw emotion, I couldn’t say. “Or perhaps nothing is infinite.”
Zephyro was dying. He knew it, and I knew it. I also knew I was not as compassionate as he made me out to be, but I knew that I wanted to try, and if only to give him peace in his last moments.
I kneeled down next to him, heart racing with what I was about to do. He looked at me, confused, as I drew closer.
I extended my arm and gingerly draped it over his shoulders. I didn’t quite know why. He was basically a stranger, (or so I kept telling myself to be able to bear the guilt) and the intimate gesture made my insides knot into a nauseating mess. Every fiber in my being, all the lessons I had learned were telling me to not open myself like this.
And yet, I did.
This isn’t who we are anymore.