Chapter 104: Vera, The Legend

Subject: Metis Location: Vera's Domain

Vera, Metis's legendary kin with a mythos all her own, had appeared out of nowhere. Metis was still trying to figure out what was happening.

Her companion looked down at the battlefield, sizing it up. Metis imagined that everything was a variable in Vera's grand scheme. That was how she'd had heard Vera did things. Most owed their intellect and skill to assistance from sourcetech tools. Vera used those, yes, but they were secondary.

The creatures down below had mistook Metis for their fictitious god of mercy. Though they had falsely fashioned Vera into their deity responsible for protection and order, it was not so far from the truth. Metis, like them, was staring at the closest thing to a real god.

What did Vera want with this scene?

Vera lunged at Metis and grabbed her with a similarly-gauntleted fist. The next moment, they were both in an empty void, far from the battlefield. The rapid shift in setting caught her by surprise, and she fumbled for a reference point.

"W-Where are we?"

Her question was ignored.

"You've revealed yourself. If I understand your orders correctly, you were to observe your targets and nothing else, correct?"

Vera had her there.

"Yes. Those were my orders."

Without a word or gesture, Vera adjusted the conditions in her isolated environment, the space they now both occupied. This was facilitated by sourcetech, and few understood how to manipulate it so keenly without a template. And, apparently, Vera didn't use templates.

"I'm ensuring no one can enter. This conversation remains between us, yes?"

After a moment of hesitance, Metis nodded meekly.

"You were assigned to the Observation Division as a Watcher, and Caim was one of your targets?"

Again, Metis nodded.

"Why did you intervene as you did? Can't you imagine what the punishment might have been had been discovered? This is no trivial matter. In fact, you could have been discovered by any number of Watchers. You could be exiled for this."

Something didn't add up.

"Forgive me for saying this, but why were you there?"

Vera stepped closer, studying Metis for a moment. Metis admired the aesthetics of Vera's vessel. Metis occupied a general-issue utility series model, assigned to her when she started her post all that time ago.

"I was in the Formation Division, as a Procurement Administrator. I don't mind the question. You're spot on. My job ended the moment I sent off my last subject. You are right to point out that I have also broken the rules."

"I would never imply that--" Metis started, realizing the accusation she'd thrown. "Someone like you shouldn't be forced to--"

"Not you too..." Vera grumbled. "You're idolizing the wrong person. Faction commandments and faction orders matter, even if we don't always want to follow them," Vera countered. "Even if we don't always understand them," she whispered. "She doesn't ask much of us, and we're fortunate for that."

"So..."

Vera was acting strangely. Dimensional bubbles owned by those few who had them were never this barren. They were customized to an obsessive extent using layers of templates. Noticing Metis's eyes wandering, Vera addressed this concern.

"When I was scouting my subjects, I followed the last one for a long time before abandoning that venture. I ultimately decided to put his closest friend into the experiment instead after certain... complications," Vera explained, with a hint of bitterness in her posture.

She continued.

"I spent a lot of time on that planet, studying the dominant species there. I mostly use this place for storage, conversation, and contemplation, anyway, so it didn't make sense to decorate it. Besides... it somehow doesn't live up to how real everything feels down there."

It was common to reference strandscape solar systems in this way, as if they were below one's feet. In truth, Vera's domain was most likely located somewhere along the strand between her subject's home system and the location for the experiment.

Metis didn't know what Vera meant about things feeling "real", nor did she understand why it took so long to find a subject, but she did realize something.

"Caim was your subject... wasn't he."

Vera nodded, somewhat begrudgingly.

"I'm so sorry," she felt compelled to say.

Vera might not suffer the same delusional attachment as Metis, but it was still a shame to see a subject die. And Caim would most certainly die. If not today, then tomorrow. It was how they all ended up.

"Why is that? Oh, you think he's... Don't worry, you'll be free to continue making updates on the two of them when I bring you back. Now, I'll need the exact strandscape coordinates of your base."

The two of them? Was Gire not dead?

Vera would return Metis to her post? That was such a substantial investment of precious resources.

"You'd do that for me?!"

It was not only a drain on resources that could otherwise be spent elsewhere, it was an extraordinary time investment. Metis wasn't important enough, she didn't deserve this.

"I would."

She gave up the coordinates. While Vera was busy locating their destination, she mumbled something. It sounded like a "least I could do".

Suddenly, Vera froze. Metis felt a chill. With primarily-fleshy creatures, emotions were wild and visible. With Metis and her kin, it was not so, but they could still sense emotion in the vira profiles of their peers. Vera's profile was a frenzy.

With a wave of her hand, Vera cast a projection of data screens along the circumference of a wide circle around them both.

"He steals growth at a somewhat rapid pace, and I didn't intend for him to grow like this, but I can use it to our benefit."

This was data from Caim! How did Vera have this?! Then again, how did she know where to find Caim in the first place, or that he was in danger? That was supposed to be restricted information, yes?

She came for Caim down there... not me, Metis thought feeling somewhat sad.

For some reason, she'd wanted to believe she'd been intentionally rescued by Vera, The Legend.

"I'm adjusting the trajectory of his power to allow him to develop the ability to seek out the targets on that list of yours, Metis. My tool is easily motivated, but anything coming from me will be met with distrust. I could tell him to kill your targets, and he'll disobey me by trying to learn why I want them dead. Even if they were petty criminals, he'd probably try and save them, take them in."

How does she know these things?

"Instead, I could reward him if he meets the people on your list. He is fatally compassionate, and he'll be motivated to make them his allies if they are kind to him. In this way, he will at least give some of them a chance. I stunted the sourcetech implanted in him because I was curious what impact it would have on his development, or how it would influence his objectives, but accelerating the growth of more survival-oriented or utility abilities should be fine."

Vera continued to mumble something about imagining that her other subjects were probably causing chaos all over the planet.

Metis was taken aback.

"Forgive me but... Just what do you gain from this?"

Vera paused before one of the sourcetech displays, it's shifting lights casting a beautiful white patterning on her violet skin. She frowned.

"What do I gain? I don't know. Maybe I'm curious what will happen? Is this not to your liking?"

"No... it's... I'm happy you're willing to go this far for me, Vera. I'm not worthy."

Vera shook her head disapprovingly.

"It is my belief that we are all worthless in the grand scheme of things."

"Even you?" Metis asked, hesitantly.

"Especially me." Vera answered without a moment's hesitation.

Vera tightened the muscles in her arms, staring downcast, with sullen eyes. If Metis didn't know any better, she'd have mistaken it for disgust, for self-loathing. Her faction sister was hard to read. Another way of putting it was Metis was profoundly inexperienced.

Vera spent the next moments making remote adjustments to this subject of hers. Metis still couldn't believe Gire was still alive. His vira signature had been failing, yes? Had Vera also made him one of her subjects? What he unkillable?

There were an infinite number of other workarounds Vera could have included. Sourcetech illusions or mimic constructs, for example. The ability to feign death might be adaptive for creatures that died like it was their job.

"How did you know I would want the targets on my list to survive?" Metis finally asked.

"Don't tell anyone about this, remember?" Vera reminded, sidestepping her question. "Also, don't give any indication that anything is different. I don't know how keenly they're watching us. More accurately, I don't know how closely they're watching you."

Metis agreed to keep this between them. It was in both their interests. Vera knew that, so she left it at that.

"Vera, can I ask you a blunt question?"

"I can promise I'll consider answering, at the very least," Vera replied.

"You were there to save Caim, right? Do you... want him to be alive?"

She needed to know if this idol of hers was also suffering these feelings. Metis didn't want Vera to share in her failing, but at the same time, maybe she did.

"He is useful to me alive. He provides me with valuable data."

Metis wasn't going to ask what that meant. If Vera didn't offer the information right away, it was probably not for her to know.

"That's not what I meant. Do you maybe care more than that? Do you sometimes forget that he isn't one of us? Do you find yourself expecting to meet him someday? Well, you've already met your subjects, but do you expect to see them when the experiment is over?"

Vera's vira profile indicated she was disturbed by the thought.

"No. It can't be that," she said in a low voice, mumbling slightly.